A team from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has visited the Jinan Zhongwu New Materials Co. Ltd factory in Shandong, China, which grows diamonds in a laboratory, according to an article by GIA’s executive vice president and chief laboratory and research officer Thomas Moses and GIA’s director of research and development Wuyi Wang.
The GIA team obtained 50 crystals from the company which were examined using the instrumentation and techniques applied to all diamonds submitted to GIA for grading; all exhibited the typical characteristics of HPHT growth and were identified as synthetic. These were basically colorless, with only a few metallic inclusions observed. These crystals showed typical cuboctahedral morphology and ranged from about 0.5 to 1.2 carats each. Absorption spectra in the infrared region showed they were type IIa diamond, but trace absorption from boron was detected.
According to the manufacturer, large quantities of gem-quality colorless and blue diamonds are produced in this factory, in sizes up to 3.5 carats each. While the total production volume remains unclear, it is undoubtedly significant, and capacity is likely to expand in the near future. This strongly suggests that even more large HPHT synthetic diamonds will be introduced into the jewelry industry, explains the GIA.
