Lab Finds Man-Made Sapphires Posing as Diamonds

RAPAPORT… Gemological Science International (GSI) has identified undisclosed lab-grown white sapphire melee set in pendants that had been submitted as natural-diamond jewelry.



The pendants, which GSI’s New
York lab had received for a routine screening, contained near-colorless synthetic sapphires, placed next to natural white diamonds.


“While the industry has taken considerable steps to address
this issue, the problem still persists,” GSI president and co-founder Debbie
Azar said Monday. “What makes this finding unusual and very atypical was the
use of melee-sized synthetic white sapphires.”


Many cases in which labs identify stones that are not what they had been submitted as involve undisclosed lab-grown
diamonds in place of natural. However, there have been cases involving other materials. Last year, the Gemological Institute of America spotted a 9.71-carat synthetic moissanite stone, which was submitted to its lab
as a natural rough diamond. In 2017, two large, near-colorless rough stones
sent to HRD Antwerp as natural diamonds turned out to be topaz.


Image: A GSI lab. (Gemological Science International)