The Kimberley Process

The Kimberley Process

What is the kimberley process? The fifth C in addition to Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat is Conflict Free. A conflict diamond is a diamond that originates from a conflict-affected area and that often finances wars, both civil wars and other nasty events.

Conflict diamonds, or blood diamonds as they are also called, are mainly associated with African countries such as Angola, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Congo. They are all examples of countries where conflict diamonds have been part of the financing support for groups and conflicts where people have suffered greatly.

The Kimberley Process was started shortly after the turn of the millennium (May 2000) to prevent blood diamonds from being released onto the market and to reach unsuspecting consumers. The leading states where the diamonds are mined came together to jointly stop the trade in conflict diamonds, that is, the trade in diamonds that finance wars in an often brutal way. Just over half a year later, the countries and the diamond industry agreed on a way to control the flow from raw diamond to finished diamond to us consumers.

Today, there are 54 members in the Kimberley Process, which indirectly means that 81 countries are represented. Overall, this means that an estimated 99.8% of all rough diamonds go through the Kimberley process.

We at ACEDIAMONDS guarantee that all our diamonds are completely conflict-free and we only trade with suppliers who acquire their diamonds from legitimate sources that we know are in no way at risk of trading with parties where conflict zones are allowed to share the flows. We support conflict-free trade and support all peace-making activities in the affected countries.