Diamonds symbolize so much. As the stone most commonly used for wedding rings, the diamond is a powerful token of love, purity, and prosperity. And its value relies heavily on its image of being clean, the most perfect thing that nature provides us. So the current controversy over conflict diamonds (also called blood diamonds) puts a lot at stake.
Conflict diamonds are not just a public-relations problem. About one in every ten gem diamonds, it has been estimated, is smuggled from four African nations—Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola—that feed money to a large black market. Some of the profits go to criminal gangs, some to brutal ruling regimes, some to outright terrorists. And the stones are mined under oppressive conditions for the smallest of wages, using methods that damage the countryside.
Conflict Diamonds: The Human Side
Part of the problem is human and part is geological.
The human part is the diamond market, an ancient secretive business where dealers trade stones back and forth, combine lots from different sources, and sell them across many borders during their trip to the jeweler. American law demands certification only from the last country to export the stone. It has never been very important to know where a stone comes from—once cut and polished, a perfect diamond sheds its history. And no one in the business is interested in changing things any more than they have to.
Conflict Diamonds: The Geological Side
Geologically, gem diamonds lend themselves to anonymity. They are as anonymous as cash. Diamonds are extremely pure minerals, built of a tight matrix of carbon atoms and nothing else. Stray atoms of nitrogen, boron, or hydrogen—a few parts per billion—are the most significant impurities. These can barely be measured accurately with (expensive) current techniques.
Uncut gem-quality stones differ only subtly around the world:
- Siberian diamonds tend to be sharp-edged and clear.
- Some Australian stones are pink.
- South African and Indian gems include yellow and blue stones.
- East African diamonds are etched.
- West African and Canadian stones are fibrous.
Experts can tell where uncut stones originate, but only if they have a batch of a hundred or so to inspect. Judging origins is largely a matter of statistics. And pinpointing one mine, or even one country, is rarely simple.
Moreover, a large fraction of contraband diamonds are mined from riverbeds in placer (sedimentary) deposits, not hard rock. Because diamond is extremely hard, grains can travel very far from their origins. The diamond placers of southwest Africa, for instance, include stones from forbidden Angola as well as legitimate Namibia.
A Working System
In truth, only human-based systems have any hope of keeping diamonds conflict-free: unbreakable codes, certified containers and rigorous chains of custody. Along those lines, the world's diamond dealers are proceeding with the Kimberley Process, which was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council in January 2003 as part of the UN's conflict diamond program. Follow developments in the Kimberley Process at diamonds.net.
