Invisible engravings, ethical diamonds: the technology that tracks stones from mine to market

euronews (in English)

International laws prohibit the trade of diamonds from countries in conflict, but for now, it is impossible to be certain of the origin of the precious stones. A Polish laboratory has found the solution.

Transcript

00:00Could your Valentine's Day diamond come from a country in conflict like Russia?

00:07Not legally, and now a European project based in Poland

00:11is using cutting-edge nanotechnology to ensure this doesn't happen.

00:16Now the people ask me, it is 100% not Russian stone.

00:22Yes, 100% not Russian stone, because we have the rule in Europe.

00:31Barbara's diamond business, based in the Polish city of Poznań, is rooted in trust.

00:37She only buys the precious stones from trusted dealers in Belgium, France or Italy,

00:42but even their certificates can't guarantee their origin 100%.

00:47Here is where the new technologies, developed by NONORES,

00:50a laboratory based in Wrocław, are a game-changer.

01:00If a company has, say, 20, 30 or 50 stones from a well-known company,

01:06it would have information about the owner,

01:10that it is a company of, say, Cartier or Henry Winston.

01:14There are initials that say this stone belongs to this company.

01:20Then this stone is no longer for sale.

01:23Several technologies are being developed by the project with a double aim.

01:28They can identify diamonds by changing their light properties

01:31or by adding holograms and tracing the diamonds.

01:39Diamond ID is a technology,

01:42probably the only technology in the world at this point,

01:46which can make the micro-security, micro-patterns under the surface of diamonds.

01:51The project, which cost NONORES over 2.2 million euros,

01:56is worth 1.75 million from the European Cohesion Policy.

02:00It has been tested on surfaces of 500x500 micrometres.

02:05A micrometre is one millionth of a metre.

02:08But why do we need this technology?

02:11What is the current situation?

02:14And what is so innovative in this project?

02:18Right now, diamonds are only marked when they are polished.

02:22This is marking done on the girdle of the stone,

02:25but there is no mark done at the very beginning.

02:28And this is an important thing to have the unbreakable chain of events

02:32so that you will be able to trace the diamond from the very beginning,

02:36not only at the last point.

02:39Diamond ID is coupled with another technology, a so-called digital twin.

02:44This means a digital copy of the marking in the diamond

02:47will be stored in a database, which is what you'll find in a couple of years

02:50once the technology is patented and put on the market

02:53on your Valentine's Day conflict-free diamond ring.

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