International laws prohibit the trade of diamonds from countries in conflict, but for now, it is impossible to be certain of the origin of the precious stones. A Polish laboratory has found the solution.
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00:00Could your Valentine's Day diamond come from a country in conflict like Russia?
00:07Not legally, and now a European project based in Poland
00:11is using cutting-edge nanotechnology to ensure this doesn't happen.
00:16Now the people ask me, it is 100% not Russian stone.
00:22Yes, 100% not Russian stone, because we have the rule in Europe.
00:31Barbara's diamond business, based in the Polish city of Poznań, is rooted in trust.
00:37She only buys the precious stones from trusted dealers in Belgium, France or Italy,
00:42but even their certificates can't guarantee their origin 100%.
00:47Here is where the new technologies, developed by NONORES,
00:50a laboratory based in Wrocław, are a game-changer.
01:00If a company has, say, 20, 30 or 50 stones from a well-known company,
01:06it would have information about the owner,
01:10that it is a company of, say, Cartier or Henry Winston.
01:14There are initials that say this stone belongs to this company.
01:20Then this stone is no longer for sale.
01:23Several technologies are being developed by the project with a double aim.
01:28They can identify diamonds by changing their light properties
01:31or by adding holograms and tracing the diamonds.
01:39Diamond ID is a technology,
01:42probably the only technology in the world at this point,
01:46which can make the micro-security, micro-patterns under the surface of diamonds.
01:51The project, which cost NONORES over 2.2 million euros,
01:56is worth 1.75 million from the European Cohesion Policy.
02:00It has been tested on surfaces of 500x500 micrometres.
02:05A micrometre is one millionth of a metre.
02:08But why do we need this technology?
02:11What is the current situation?
02:14And what is so innovative in this project?
02:18Right now, diamonds are only marked when they are polished.
02:22This is marking done on the girdle of the stone,
02:25but there is no mark done at the very beginning.
02:28And this is an important thing to have the unbreakable chain of events
02:32so that you will be able to trace the diamond from the very beginning,
02:36not only at the last point.
02:39Diamond ID is coupled with another technology, a so-called digital twin.
02:44This means a digital copy of the marking in the diamond
02:47will be stored in a database, which is what you'll find in a couple of years
02:50once the technology is patented and put on the market
02:53on your Valentine's Day conflict-free diamond ring.