By contrast, the pearls sometimes labeled as “Chinese akoyas”, “baby akoyas”, or “freshwater akoyas (AK)” are freshwater ...

Figure 1. The color zoning of amethyst from Boudi often displays a characteristic hourglass shape. Photo by Abdelghani El Harfi and Salahaddine Mouaddib. For 25 years, the Moroccan locality of Boudi ...

A new diamond imitation, synthetic moissanite (silicon carbide), is now being produced by C3 Inc. in near-colorless form for jewelry purposes. With refractive indices of 2.648 and 2.691, a dispersion ...

Consumers now, more than ever, have a heightened awareness of sustainably and ethically sourced products. The GIA Diamond Origin Report uses scientific evaluation to provide confirmation of a ...

Figure 1. Top left: Rubies are mined in a mango orchard in Channapatna, India. Top right: This 15 kg rough ruby is from Subramaniam, in the Indian state of Karnataka. Photos by Pooja Shirole. Bottom ...

If you're attending AGTA in person, take the quiz corresponding to the day you're visiting. Each daily quiz is based on the specific minerals displayed at the GIA booth that day, giving attendees a ...

Descending into Peshawar for the first time, a foreign tourist might be surprised to learn that amid the clutter of buildings in this historical city lies an important gem trading center. This market ...

Carbon is one of the most important elements on our planet, which led the Geological Society of London to name 2019 the Year of Carbon. Diamonds are a main host for carbon in the deep earth and also ...

Gem-quality synthetic or laboratory-grown diamonds are more available in today’s jewelry marketplace than ever before, causing both interest and concern about lab-grown diamonds and whether ...

Carved single-crystal diamond rings are rare, with few examples to reference (see Spring 2020 Lab Notes, pp. 132–133). But with advancing technology in the laboratory-grown diamond industry, the ...

Most consumers in today’s marketplace choose round brilliant-cut diamonds fashioned to meet modern concepts of beauty. These sparkling gems represent the collective talents of generations of skilled ...

The Karowe Diamond Mine in Botswana, owned and operated by Lucara Diamond Corp., has gained international recognition for producing large, high-quality type IaB or coexistence of IaB with IIa diamonds ...