Section 04 of 08
Carbon in a cubic lattice, assessed since 1953 by the GIA's four-grade system, and the subject of the most documented mine closures and legal disputes in the gem trade.
Carbon, cubic, Mohs 10 — graded since 1953 and certified since 2003.
Traces the development of the GIA's cut-colour-clarity-carat system from Robert Shipley's earlier grading work to the 1953 standardisation, covering what each grade measures and why the system was adopted industry-wide rather than remaining a single laboratory's convention.
Documents the 2003 Kimberley Process Certification Scheme — its scope (rough diamonds only, conflict-financing definition), its membership structure and the documented criticisms of its coverage gap.
Documents the Rio Tinto Argyle mine in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia — its 1983 opening, its role as the source of more than 90 percent of the world's pink diamonds (per Rio Tinto figures), and its November 2020 closure after the underground ore body was exhausted.
Explains the two laboratory production methods — HPHT and CVD — and the spectroscopic and inclusion-pattern markers that gemmological laboratories use to distinguish lab-grown from natural diamonds.
Documents Auguste Verneuil's flame-fusion process — aluminium oxide powder, hydrogen-oxygen flame, boule formation — and its 1902 publication, covering how synthetic corundum entered the watch-bearing and gem trade and how modern laboratories identify Verneuil material by curved growth striations.
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