I would guess that the premier conflict diamond reference guide for the average individual in the US today is the film Blood Diamond. I say this with zero exaggeration, snobbery, or ill-will toward the film. In my experience selling diamonds, many have brought up this film as a way of broaching the subject of diamond tracking.

The movie is a fictionalized story set within a seemingly accurate depiction of how diamonds were mined and sold to finance civil war in Sierra Leone and Liberia in the late 1990′s.

Jewelry retailers tend to despise this movie. The reason for their hatred is that the movie came out just before Christmas of 2006 and is believed to have weakened sales during the holiest of retail holidays. To be fair, the movie does not make it clear that it is portraying past, not current, events; or that much has been done since the nineties to track diamonds and prohibit conflict stones from entering the market.

The Kimberley Process was developed in 2000 by South African diamond-producing states as a method of tracking shipments of rough diamonds using tamper-resistant packaging along with forgery-resistant documentation denoting country-of-origin (i.e. where the diamonds were mined), total carat weight, value in USD, shipper and recipient identities, and other specifics. The 75 member countries may only do business with other participants of the Process. These countries are responsible for upholding the Process of their own accord and if they fail to do so, they are subject to expulsion. Though not 100% foolproof, the Kimberley Process has diminished the percentage of hot stones on the market down to less than one percent (KP’s figure).

Once a diamond is cut, it is similarly tracked with what’s called a System of Warranties. The question the World Diamond Council suggests we ask sellers is, Do your diamond suppliers participate in the System of Warranties?

As an added measure of buyer security, in 2003 the US passed the Clean Diamond Trade Act in which Kimberely Process guidelines are enforced by US Customs and ICE.

It’s probably true that I could write here about jewelry for pure self enjoyment. I surely spend enough time reading about jewelry, looking at jewelry, and staring off into space thinking about jewelry. If nothing else this would be a neat way to organize my thoughts and maintain a chronology of them that I could look back on if ever I loose my way in life, become amnesiac, or simply sentimentally want to revisit the early days when I was getting my start in the industry.

Nicer would be the notion, that maybe others have similar interests in jewelry, or more likely have questions about their own jewelry and future jewelry purchases.

Answer me this: Do you think about where your jewelry comes from? Would you be interested in knowing?