They hope new technologies can solve an old problem.
Mining companies have long struggled with the challenge of not shattering their biggest diamond finds, as Bloomberg explains, and now they’re looking to new technology to reduce breakage. The article explains how London-based Gem Diamonds recovered a dozen diamonds larger than 100 carats last year, but still broke off chunks of all its biggest gems. Now the company is considering whether to introduce new scanning technology in hopes of minimizing the risk of breakage.
“We’ve made important inroads, but we certainly haven’t solved the problem because we’re still using the same basic technology,” Clifford Elphick, CEO of Gem Diamonds, told the financial news outlet. “What will solve this is a massive technical breakthrough. That is the holy grail for us.”
Read more at Bloomberg