No Stone Unturned

BlackBook travels to Surat to explore the step by step journey of a Forevermark-approved diamond—and what the grading giant has planned for its india expansion

- Nisha Shroff

I slipped on sanitised shoe covers and a pristine white lab coat—one without pockets, for added security. A quick body scan later, I was ready to enter. I wasn’t at the threshold of a top secret medical facility though—I had made the trek to Surat to visit the International Institute of Diamond Grading and Research (IIDGR).

Spread across two floors in the Gujarati town’s posh International Business Centre, the facility, managed by De Beers, IIDGR has the capacity to inscribe half a million diamonds every year. Here, 25% of the world’s polished diamonds go through final cuts and finishes. The 27,000-sq-ft facility is owned by De Beers, one of the world’s largest diamond companies, the parent brand for Forevermark. I was here to explore the journey of a diamond, from mine to wrist.

Forevermark Diamond Institutes, based in Surat, Maidenhead (UK) and Antwerp (Belgium), use proprietary grading equipment developed by De Beers Research and Development Group. The purpose is to operate an accurate and reliable grading service for Forevermark diamonds, and to select and inscribe the diamonds with a unique serial number—an inscription that is around 1/5000th the thickness of a human hair.