Diamonds are valued in jewelry and in society. There are also blood diamonds that are in the mix of regular diamonds.
These diamonds are obtained through heartache and pain.
Blood Diamonds are a type of diamond that is mined in a war zone. Blood diamonds are created when murder, rape, slavery, and more to obtain these diamonds. These diamonds are objects that seem to have benefits for the people buying them, but at the cost of others getting them.
Blood diamonds have a great value but go through a terrible process to get to the mass populations.
What are Blood Diamonds?
Diamonds are made up of crystallized carbon particles that have been under a high amount of pressure.
Blood diamonds are created the same way but are obtained differently. Blood diamonds are also called “Conflict Diamonds.”
This name is produced from areas that are controlled by forces that are opposed to internationally recognized governments.
The opposing forces sell these diamonds and use the profit for their own military uses.
Blood diamonds are often produced through the forced labor of men, women, and children.
Having the forced labor of people creates a promise of insurance from a war.
When they are not obtained through mining, they are stolen in shipments or in seized mining operations.
When these events take place there are results of the loss of life, bloodshed, and abusing basic human rights.
These rights go from rape to using child soldiers.
The diamonds are sadly obtained through violations of human rights.
These human rights come down to slavery, rape, bloodshed, and torture.
These are done in the name of diamonds for financing. The financing was done for terrorism acts and war attacks that were happening.
The violation of rights was not really known and was brought to light in the 2000s, where the issue was being addressed.
Once these diamonds are obtained by the rebel or opposing force they are exported and sold to countries illegally.
Being sold creates the revenue for the forces to create their own wars and terrorist attacks.
There were civil wars that have happened between the countries that were producing the diamonds.
Today many of the diamond-fueled wars have come to an end, but there is still a blood diamonds issue that is occurring.
Where do Blood Diamonds Come from?
Blood diamonds come from the countries Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Guinea, and Guinea Bissau that produce diamonds during the 20th-21st-century civil wars.
These countries are located Along the coast of West Africa and Southern Africa.
In these third-world countries, these diamonds were used to help fund terrorism and war efforts.
From 1990-2000 civil wars were happening between these countries over the diamonds.
Since the Kimberley Process has been put in place many of these countries follow the process to sell the diamonds to mainstream countries.
How to know if your diamond is a Blood Diamond?
Finding out if your diamond is a blood diamond can be difficult because blood diamonds don’t have any different physical appearances than regular diamonds do.
The color of the diamond is the same as a regular white diamond, but blood diamonds can have a fine gold and white blemish color to possibly identify them.
They come from the bloodshed of the laborers.
There is a way to help identify if it is a blood diamond or not. This is from the Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme that was put in place.
The Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme is a process that was put in place in 2003 to prevent “conflict diamonds” from entering the mainstream rough diamond market.
To see if the diamond is a blood diamond or not ask the store for the Kimberley Process Certificate that they should be accompanying.
This process is a start to stop the abuse that is happening to obtain these types of diamonds.
Do Blood Diamonds still exist?
Unfortunately, they do still exist in the world today.
Governments around the world have started to address the issue and are finding solutions to fix it.
An example of this is the Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme. That is the start, but there is still a long way to go to get rid of it completely.
Blood diamonds are not just from war efforts and terrorism, but the violation of human rights on the workers.
The laborers still go through with the abuse and equivalent of slavery to get these diamonds in the trading system.
This is due to the fact that the Kimberley Process is based on more war efforts than on human rights.
The process is preventing most blood diamonds from entering the system, but do not take into account the people that had to work to get them.
How much do Blood Diamonds Cost?
The cost of Blood diamonds is unknown or difficult to track. This is because these diamonds are usually sold on the black market.
Those that are sold can be at a price of 1% to 10% of the initial cost of the diamond.
This is due to the Kimberley Process Certificate and the Gemological Institute of America.
The Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme is an international scheme that was created to regulate trades in rough diamonds.
This process was established in 2003 to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements.
The process is there to help prevent or make it more difficult for the diamond trade to happen in places that human rights are being abused.
This act is based on the rebel groups that were using diamonds and not directly on the human rights treatment.
The Gemological Institute of America or GIA is a nonprofit Institute that is dedicated to the research and education of gems and jewelry art.
This institute was founded in 1931. The organization’s mission is to protect the buyers and sellers of gemstones by maintaining a certain set of standards.
GIA was the first institute responsible for modern diamond grading reports.
This report has been able to help identify the diamonds in cut, clarity, and color.
The scales and standards help identify the characteristics of diamonds in the trading system.
The price of a diamond is based on the carat of the diamond.
To find the carat of a diamond can be done with the weight of the material being used.
It can be assumed to be similar to that of diamond prices per carat.
For a diamond, it is $1,500 for a 0.5-carat diamond and $21,000 for a two-carat diamond.
| 1 kg of diamonds | 5000 carats |
| 100 gm of diamonds | 500 carats |
| 10 gm of diamonds | 50 carats |
| 1 gm of diamonds | 5 carats |
| 0.2 gm of diamonds | 1 carat |
Diamonds are the most expensive jewel found on the planet.
This is due to the strength and rarity that is in the qualities of a diamond extend the price.
The weight of the diamonds helps determine the carat of the diamonds during shipment or transportation.
As stated above, carats are an important part of determining the price of a diamond.
The most expensive black diamonds that are known start at 8 million dollars.
| The Moussaieff Red Diamond | Up to $8 million |
| The Heart of Eternity | $16 million |
| The Perfect Pink | $23.2 million |
| The Wittelsbach Diamond | $23.4 million |
| The Winston Blue | $23.8 million |
| The Pink Star | $71.2 million |
| The Centenary Diamond | $100 million |
| The Hope Diamond | $200-$500 million |
| The Cullinan | up to $2 billion |
| The Koh-i-Noor | Unknown |
Shown in the table above are the top ten most expensive diamonds in the world that are known to this day.
With the price of a diamond being so expensive, there is still revenue coming off of the blood diamond trades.
This can be from experts not knowing if the diamond is a conflict diamond or how the initial cost of the diamond really is.
What Stores Sell Blood Diamonds?
There have been many steps to ensure that blood diamonds do not find their way into the diamond trading system.
Many stores since the address in 2003, have tried to implement steps to make sure that the diamonds that come in are not blood diamonds.
Stores like Tiffany & Co. and Kays Jewelers, have taken steps to make sure that the diamonds that are brought into the store have a warranty on them.
There are still some places that accept these kinds of diamonds but there are systems set-up to prevent these trades.
The GIA, Gemological Institute of America, system is one of them.
This system does not accept diamonds that have not been cut yet or without a warranty, but once the diamond is cut they are accepting of it.
This makes it very difficult to know whether or not you are receiving a conflict diamond.
Although there are still ways to go in making sure that the blood diamond issue is solved, there is progress being made.
Many stores before the Kimberley Process was put in place did not know where the diamonds came from.
These stores were oblivious to the violation of human rights that were being done to gain these diamonds.
On top of that, they did not ensure that the human rights of the laborers were being properly taken care of in the mining process.
How to Avoid Blood Diamonds?
Finding ways to avoid blood diamonds is difficult if you don’t know where to look and what to ask for.
Blood diamonds were not addressed to the public and have had no solutions until the 2000s.
Over the past two decades, there have been movements to help human rights and control the blood diamond trade.
New Diamonds
Newer diamonds have a less likely chance of being blood diamonds for the reason of the newer processes in place.
The diamonds that are found after 2000 have to go through a process to get a certificate in the Kimberley Process and a warranty for others to buy.
Many countries are ensuring to great lengths that blood diamonds are not being sold.
The Kimberley Process has been effective in preventing 99.8% of blood diamond trades around the world.
Diamonds that are antiques and vintage have a greater chance of being blood diamonds.
Vintage and antique diamonds have no way of knowing whether or not they are blood diamonds, no matter what the jeweler says.
There is no documentation on the diamond trades before the 2000s.
Even though the sale of purchasing a blood diamond is no longer helping terrorism or war benefits, there is a dark history on how they got it there.
If you want to keep the jeweler conflict-free, get vintage-inspired jewelry or a loose diamond placed in a vintage set.
Ask a Jeweler
There is no harm in asking a retailer or store representative about the diamonds they sell.
Many stores have written policies that describe the commitment to selling conflict-free diamonds.
If a store can not provide one of these, they are likely to sell conflict diamonds.
The retailer of the store should have answers to questions about the diamond you are looking at.
This includes the area that they were mined in.
For further information that can be needed, ask to see the diamonds process certification.
Looking further into the diamond background, stores will try to provide as much information as they can about the diamond.
One way is to talk about warranties. In speaking with the retailer about the diamond’s warranties they would most likely provide a warranty that guarantees that the diamond you are buying is conflict-free.
It is one of the easiest ways to make sure that the diamonds you are buying are not unethical diamonds.
