How to avoid buying Blood Diamonds

Blood diamonds or conflict diamonds are typically mined in some of the African countries. These diamonds get their name from the fact that they are mined by impoverished people that are treated as slaves and forced to mine these diamonds.

These diamonds are mined shedding the blood of these poor people. And the money generated through the sale of these diamonds is used in terrorist activities and to rebel against democratically chosen governments.

If you want to know more about blood diamond you should watch the Leonardo DiCaprio starrer movie titled Blood Diamond. When you are looking to buy a diamond ring you should ensure you don’t buy a blood diamond.

Identifying a blood diamond

When you go to a jeweler and look up the diamonds they have, you will never be able to identify a blood diamond. However, the seller will be aware of the fact that they are selling conflict or non-conflict diamonds. To ensure that you don’t end up buying a blood diamond, you must ask the jeweler for the Kimberly Process certificate.

If needed, also ask them about their diamond procurement process. They may not be willing to divulge everything but you tell them that you only want to ensure you don’t buy a blood diamond.

The Kimberly Process

To stop the inflow of blood diamonds into the market, various governments, civil societies and industries came up with the Kimberly Process. The Kimberly Process states that any seller of diamonds must give it in writing that they diamond they sold is a non-conflict diamond. So, when you are planning to buy a diamond ring, you should always ask the seller to issue you the Kimberly Process warranty.

To know more about the Kimberly Process you can go ahead and research it online. There are various websites that talk extensively about this process. When you are armored with the right information, you may not be able to identify a blood diamond but you will be surely armored with the right questions to ask the seller.

What if the seller doesn’t issue the Kimberly Process certificate?

There are times when the seller will tell you that they cannot issue you the Kimberly Process warranty. What do you in such cases? As a responsible world citizen, you should walk out of the store and if possible, report the seller to the right authorities. You surely don’t want to gift someone a diamond ring that has been built over the blood of some innocent, poor man or woman.

There are diamond stores online that state on their website that they only sell non-conflict diamonds. If you are looking for a diamond rings these are the stores you should buy your diamond from. Someone somewhere in Africa will thank you.