Artisanal diamond miners, such as this one in Brazil, are the main cause of conflict diamonds entering the supply chain, according to the WDC.
A scientific solution for identifying and eradicating "blood diamonds" from the global supply chain could exist within a matter of years, the afr.com portal says, as the industry is put under increasing pressure by provenance-focused consumers.
In what the president of the World Diamond Council (WDC) envisages as a fall-back to the Kimberley Process, the technology could change the way rough diamonds are traced to their origins.
The Kimberley Process (KP) was set up under a United Nations resolution in 2000 as a system to try and stem the trade of conflict diamonds, which it defines as stones that are sold to finance a rebel movement seeking to overthrow a legitimate government.
Andrey Polyakov, WDC president and a vice-president of Russian diamond behemoth Alrosa, said while about 99.8 per cent of the world's rough diamonds were certified by the Kimberley Process' certification scheme, it was small artisanal miners, mostly in Africa, that presented the final challenge.
