On March 1, 1999, General Electric Company (GE) and Lazare Kaplan International (LKI) rocked the jewelry industry when the newly formed LKI subsidiary Pegasus Overseas Limited (POL) announced that it would market diamonds processed by GE to improve their color, brilliance, and brightness. The impact of such a claim was particularly disturbing to firms holding millions of dollars of diamond inventory. Even more troubling was the assertion that GE’s process was permanent, irreversible, and unidentifiable. For years we at GIA had heard rumors of such a "whitening" process—and had even investigated such claims. But we had not yet seen definitive proof of such a treatment.

Soon after the POL announcement, GIA began a series of meetings and discussions with GE and LKI officials, which yielded a temporary, but somewhat settling result: LKI would inscribe all such diamonds with "GE POL" on their girdles and submit them to GIA for Diamond Grading Reports. The Comments section of each report would include the following: "’GE POL’ is present on the girdle. Pegasus Overseas Limited (POL) states that this diamond has been processed to improve its appearance by General Electric Company (GE)." When removal of the inscriptions on some stones was detected last summer, GE and LKI sought a safer, more disclosure-friendly way to bring their diamonds to market, later determining to sell the goods directly to select retailers, rather than on the open market in Antwerp.

But why am I rehashing something that our astute Gems & Gemology readers already know? This issue contains a rather technical article on diamond spectroscopy that may, at first glance, go unnoticed. Yet it is of the highest importance: De Beers researchers have identified a combination of spectral features that is rarely seen in untreated type IIa diamonds—and that may prove characteristic of HPHT-treated type IIa’s.

De Beers’s breakthrough, part of their massive Gem Defensive Program, appears at this early stage to be pivotal. Last year, many people were in a state of panic over the possibility that the new GE process could not be detected. Truth be told, we at GIA had many sleepless nights, too. But we publicly stated then—as we have always believed—that the level of technology used to create new synthetics and treatments would eventually also yield evidence for their identification. De Beers has produced quantifiable results that, only one year after the introduction of GE POL diamonds, represent an important step toward establishing detection criteria.

This is not, however, the end of the story. It is a solid beginning to a global effort to solve a potentially devastating problem. GIA has had close cooperation with De Beers on this issue for many months, looking at both gemological and spectral features. De Beers is also working with other research laboratories in a collaborative effort to develop the instrumentation needed to produce these high-sensitivity spectra for routine use in diamond identification and grading. They are testing more stones, both HPHT-treated and natural color, to determine if the criteria will hold for all type IIa diamonds processed in this fashion.

This is also the beginning of a new paradigm in gemology. Of course, there will continue to be more and "better" synthetics and treatments. But we are confident that, with the right resources, detection methodology will keep pace with these sophisticated materials and processes.

We applaud De Beers for their achievement and, especially, for their support of all research laboratories and of the diamond and jewelry trade at large. As research continues and further breakthroughs are made in refining identification criteria and developing instrumentation, these efforts will undoubtedly play an important role in ensuring the integrity of the diamond industry to both the trade and the consuming public.

William E. Boyajian, President
Gemological Institute of America