Synthetic diamonds and the Kimberley Process: fighting the last war

The author contends that synthetic diamonds pose a greater threat to the mined diamond industry than 'blood diamonds', particularly for stones under 0.5 carats which make up 80-90% of the market. While the Kimberley Process (KP) has historically focused narrowly on conflict diamonds, the author suggests that expanding its scope to include human rights and the traceability of both rough and polished diamonds is essential. Without such a system to guarantee authenticity and ethics, the author warns that mined diamonds may lose their status as a store of value, mirroring the price collapse seen in the industrial diamond market.

• Synthetic diamonds now represent a more significant threat to the mined diamond industry than conflict diamonds, specifically targeting the smaller stone market where 80-90% of mined diamonds are less than half a carat.
• China has become the world's largest producer of diamonds, with the US Geological Survey estimating production between 6-10 billion carats, primarily for industrial use, vastly exceeding the 2012 mined diamond production of approximately 128 million carats.
• The Kimberley Process (KP) has been hindered by a consensus-based decision model, which has prevented the expansion of its mandate to cover human rights abuses, such as child labour in India and abuses in Zimbabwe's Marange fields.
• Current government-issued Kimberley certificates are viewed as lacking credibility by some participants and NGOs because they lack a traceability system for rough and polished diamonds throughout the value chain.

APA

Grynberg (2014). Synthetic diamonds and the Kimberley Process: fighting the last war. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/research/synthetic-diamonds-and-the-kimberly-process-fighting-the-last-war/

Chicago

Grynberg. Synthetic diamonds and the Kimberley Process: fighting the last war. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2014. https://saiia.org.za/research/synthetic-diamonds-and-the-kimberly-process-fighting-the-last-war/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Grynberg |title=Synthetic diamonds and the Kimberley Process: fighting the last war |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=12 August 2014 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/synthetic-diamonds-and-the-kimberly-process-fighting-the-last-war/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{grynberg2014synthetic, author = {Grynberg}, title = {{Synthetic diamonds and the Kimberley Process: fighting the last war}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2014}, month = aug, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/synthetic-diamonds-and-the-kimberly-process-fighting-the-last-war/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }