WhatsApp
Email
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
The African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) has approved restrictions for lab-grown descriptors and weights as a means of protecting the integrity of natural diamonds.
The group, along with delegations from African diamond-producing nations and state representatives, met at a high-level meeting in Sierra Leone.
“The council…adopted a common position to protect the integrity of the natural-diamond industry amid growing competition from synthetic alternatives,” the ADPA said Monday. “The position of governments representing around 70% of global rough-diamond production calls for the exclusive use of the internationally recognized 4Cs grading system and weight measurement in carats only for natural diamonds, while synthetic stones should be measured in grams [or] kilograms and explicitly identified as ‘synthetic’ as the sole worldwide descriptor in international trade and marketing.”
The move by ADPA builds on other similar guidelines instituted to help differentiate natural from lab-grown, and to denote the value of mined diamonds in comparison with their synthetic counterparts. In 2024, France determined that only the term “synthetic” may be used for man-made stones, and doubled down a few months later when a politician requested the goods be allowed to be called lab-grown diamonds. Meanwhile, last year, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) migrated its lab-grown terminology away from that of natural on its certificates, using the terms “premium” or “standard” instead of the 4Cs.
Image: Polished diamonds. (Shutterstock)
