Clarification of View on Synthetic Diamonds

The following is a letter from Thierry Silber, the CEO and founder of Diamaz International and Madestones. Following his Guest Memo that was published last month, he wishes to issue a clarification.

Dear colleagues of the diamond industry, the article I wrote and which was published by Idex (How to Kill Four Birds With One Stone) has been criticized by some esteemed members of our diamond community.

The article in question was written as a reaction to an earlier article by Cecilia Gardner that discussed synthetic diamonds and consumer confidence published by Idex.

Firstly, I would like to say that it was NOT my intention to criticize the Indian diamond community. I am aware that some of my words were poorly chosen and demeaning and for that, I am genuinely sorry.

With regards to the mixing of natural and synthetic diamonds, I was trying to say that if a problem with a mixed parcel occurs then it is every bourse member’s duty to report it and lodge a formal complaint. I am sorry if my wording was considered as reflecting badly but that was certainly NOT my intention.

Concerning the issue of pricing, I believe that natural diamond prices will always be higher than laboratory grown prices due to the factors of origin and rarity. I only brought attention to the idea of mixing very small diamonds to point out that labour is the main factor affecting overall cost.

I wanted to start a debate to justify all the extra costs of detecting smaller synthetic diamonds and point out the extra expenses resulting from a delay in capital turnover. I understand that this is not a popular point for discussion or consideration for the natural diamond industry and that this point could be misinterpreted as implying that all natural and synthetic diamonds should be mixed and sold at the same price. Again, that was NOT my intent in writing this article.

Everyone is entitled to present differing points of view for discussion purposes. My regret is that I brought up certain points in a manner that could be subject to misinterpretation and for that I am truly sorry. The last thing that I wanted to do was to degrade the reputation of the diamond industry.