This is an interesting watch. It covers views from both sides. Some interesting things I came across was, IGI’s CEO (Printer) said that Lab grown diamond technology might get advanced enough that it could become undetectable, Printer also said that mixing of Lab-grown and Natural diamonds are common and is very difficult to curb it, Martin Rapport said that they would all go out of business if people stop buying diamond engagement rings, It showed how in denial are the Natural diamond advocates, It also talked about how aluminium was perceived as a precious metal due to its rarity in the past and same would happen to diamonds when the cost of production falls.
Hi all. I come from a diamond background. Currently into export and trading of Natural and LGDs (Lab grown diamonds).
After going through this thread, few points I’d like to put forth.
IGI is leader in Lab growns, and in natural most countries in Asia accept IGI happily. (Difference between GIA certified stones and IGI is almost 20%, sometimes more too.
GIA is stricter, IGI is lenient.
Focusing only on Lab Grown, Prices have been following steeply due to:
*Tariff uncertainty
Excess (Practically Infinite) supply.
No unity of manufacturers.
Manufacturing and Labor costs same, if not more.
Coming to IGI certification,
IGI has taken a huge market of LGDs, however it is not sustainable mainly due to:
LGDs are mainly made in 3-4 colors (D-G), whereas natural stones come from D-Z scale.
Clarity of LGDs are lowest till VS2, compared to I3 in Naturals.
Clarity scale is - IF, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, SI2, SI3, I1, I2, I3.
Fluorescence is None for 90% LGDs. Naturals have 5 types of Fluorescence: None, Faint, Medium, Strong, Very Strong.
Cut in LGDs is Excellent or Very good. For Natural even there are couple more taken into account.
In essence, now that certifying a LGD is curtailed to 4-5 parameters instead of 12-13, there will be changes coming to the way LGDs are certified. In my opinion, what GIA has done
is a good and sensible step for Lab growns. As awareness grows, I see IGI not enjoying the current margins.
I think you are probably getting confused between parameters and the values of those parameters. The parameters are the same - Color, Clarity, Cut. The values of LGD is in the top most range as they are manufactured in a controlled environment. Color is mostly D to F, Clarity is mostly VVS or VS, Cut is generally ideal or at worst excellent. Fluorescence is almost always none. Symmetry/Polish is always excellent.
So in all parameters, LGDs score very high. In fact, CVD diamonds are Type II a (which represents highest quality). Only 2% of naturally minded diamond are of Type II a.
The step from GIA seems to be influenced by ND industry and lobbying. The attempt is to show LGDs as inferior to ND. LGDs are now making a meaningful impact on ND and this step from GIA just validates that.
Precisely my point. An expert can differentiate and give you his opinion if the basket consists of 10 different things. But if the basket contains just 3-4 things, would you still need an expert to find the difference between them?
Lab growns don’t need differentiation from one another because there are very few differences between them!
And hence the need vanishes for same extensive certification as NDs.
Solution is a simple certification which costs less.
For lay people, they still need to be sure they’re not getting the worse pieces or being sold moissanite in the name LGD, right? Logically then, certification should be needed (of any reputed agency)
As far as pricing is concerned, it is not linked to number of parameters graded. If GIA is able to price same as IGI and give same turn around time, then pricing will be affected. Or else if LGD prices fall further, and market forces IGI to discount more. But it should not be affected by the volume of work per certificate. It has never been linked in my understanding.
I’m not saying there won’t be certification..
The certificates will be easier, not so comprehensive.
Right now, they are precise, D/E/F colors are specified for example.
As of now, colors are given separate grades but are put into similar shade groups to make things easier.
D-F, G-I, J-M, etc.
The point I’m trying to make, colors below G don’t exist in LGDs. If there is only one group of colors, the only certification/grading you need is if it’s a good color or a bad color. How good or how bad color is not the case anymore.
Therein lies the loss for IGI.
Grading for a wider range gave them the ability to charge for their specialized service.
But to grade whether a stone is of good grade or bad, that’s not something that needs such high levels of specialization and costs.
It’s a far thought, but this is where the market will eventually head to.
GIA used to produce Censored reports or reports that had less information for lab-grown diamonds. This has reportedly hampered their resale value. GIA changed its reporting due to change in FTC guideline. It is doing it yet again.
This is an old article dated 2019 when they first changed from censored lab grown diamond report. The author argues that GIA is part of diamond cartel and used to produce censored reports to continue getting big chunk of their revenue from mined diamonds.
GIA still holds less than 5% of lab grown diamond market and has board members like ex-ceo of De Beers’.
IGI would have stronger hold of the market if the censored reports hamper the resale value again. We must wait and watch if the new reporting does good for GIA or IGI.
I see your point and it may be a valid one. The price of LGD differs between color D and F. Also between VVS1 clarity and VS2 clarity. Standard certifications makes it easier to compare. I do not think there is a need to create a new method. IGI certification cost is reasonable and is absorbed very well in the price. They might reduce it over a period of time as volumes increase.
Also because LGD and ND diamonds are indistinguishable (both are diamonds in true sense in terms of chemical composition and properties), the certification should be same.
I see IGI to have a winning position. The only risk is if LGDs start getting sold without certification (which could happen when cost of certification is high as compared to the cost of stone itself. If LGD prices fall to a very low level and cost of certification remains the same, some sellers/customers may just skip the certification or make it optional)
Coming from a end customer perspective, a LGD buyer in a jewellery shop, prefers and puts more confidence on the LGD when the Certification method, parameters etc are all same as NDs. So it serves well for the vested interest of GIA to differentiate ND & LGD certification method. Where as it serves well for IGIL interests to certify LGDs the same way as they do NDs, as their share is more in LGDs.
Given this situation, I don’t think IGIL will make any difference in certificates, as it will be shooting in its own foot even though the parameters are lesser etc etc.
What benefit IGIL gets by changing the certification method. Why will it change the status quo.?
What benefit a LGD manufacturer or trader gets by asking for a differentiated certificate (Even in case that certificate comes cheaper than the present certificate) because an LGD seller doesn’t want to show them as inferior to any ND.
Isn’t it?
Excellent article. Thank you for sharing. This article and the current stand GIA took on certification method, shows how biased GIA is towards NDs which are its major source of revenue and How GIA though on paper a Non profit organization which is supposed to work for the public interest, is working for a set of people’s interest.
Yeah, Natural diamonds industry is controlled by a strong cartel. GIA seemed to have strategically gained control of natural diamond certification through the cartel. I don’t have a screaming evidence but GIA natural diamonds go for higher price because of its perceived quality in the industry. IGI has bad rep in natural diamond certification. I speculate that GIA and the cartel has played a major role in it.
Rapaport had made a independent study to see if there are disparities between quality of certification between the players. It found that GIA and IGI provide the highest quality but IGI certified diamonds trade for lower value due to its bad rep. The article noted, " It appears that some labs – such as IGI, which ranks second in the Laboratory Quality Index but fifth in the price ranking – are being punished in their pricing and that their diamonds are selling for less than what their grading standard deserves."
This reddit post by Ada diamonds’ also confirms that the quality is same. This article noted, “IGI gets a bad reputation because the natural market has only used them to grade the dregs for years. None of the best producers of natural diamonds are sending their D VVS goods to IGI. So garbage in, garbage out when it comes to mined diamonds”
GCAL is not a predominant grading agency.
If you compare just the IGI vs GIA certs, you will see a difference in most of them.
Conveniently, they have taken only D-G goods (What you’ll get in LGDs)
This is what I have been trying to say all along. The range in LGDs is quite small for us to differentiate between D-G.
As life moves to simpler things, there is no meaning for IGI to provide extensive certification for LGDs. Don’t compare this with ND because the case is entirely different!
For ex: A “K” color SI1 IGI cert stone would be L/M and SI2 in GIA.
As you go to the lower levels of grading, the gap widens. However this ceases to exist for LGDs because who would grow weak quality stones?!
For us traders and manufacturers, we know how useful and gimmick this certification is. We don’t bear the cost of this, the end consumer does. It is just a matter of time till they understand that comparing ND vs LGD is not right. ND has its own market as a luxury. LGD will take up middle and lower categories which eventually will realise they don’t need to pay for the same extensive certification for what they buy.
This is offered as an optional supplementary report to 4C report with parameters or as standalone report if someone only wants to know the light performance.
“IGI is pleased to announce the debut of the new Light Performance Dossier, a streamlined version of the IGI Light Performance Report, expanding the reach of its groundbreaking diamond light performance system. This innovative dossier, available for qualifying round brilliant diamonds graded by IGI or elsewhere, extends the lab’s science-backed, repeatable system to any diamond with exceptional performance. This service is intended to benefit both the industry and consumer buyers by providing a wide-ranging, consistent standard for assessing and clearly communicating the most popular beauty components of a diamond’s performance.”
Not much effect to IGI because of the tariff, however a new(old) problem has come up again.
Some Manufacturers have begun stopping certifying stones till 1.5ct. Reason? Its adding unnecessary cost and time to them. For anything below 100$, it isn’t making sense to certify and sell it. Non certs together sell much faster locally.
Prices in larger stones have corrected approx 5-10%, discouraging producers to make the biggies. Rather make 3 smaller stones and get rid of them quickly.
Labs is QSR play now, faster its out the better.
