Sierra Leone Diamonds?

To learn a bit more about diamonds from Sierra Leone, please watch the film "Blood Diamond." It is a truly outstanding movie that explains a lot of the conflict and forced labor that was used to find them. Right now, Sierra Leone is not at war, so the diamonds from Sierra Leone can be exported and sold as "conflict free" but there are still conflict areas that export diamonds, so the best way to make sure you are buying a conflict free stone is to ask for certification that the stone is conflict free or to purchase a manufactured gemstone from someplace like Canada that has worker safety regulations that make sure there is not any worker abuse in the manufacture of the stone.

i take it you just watched that leonardo dicaprio movie "Blood Diamond"

Largest producers of Diamonds are Australia, South Africa, Canada and Russia. Sierra Leone produces just a small fraction of the worlds' diamonds. About three quarters of all diamonds produced are polished in India followed by Israel and Belgium. The biggest markets for diamond jewellary are the US, Japan and Europe. It is true that about 10 years back armed conflicts in Southern Africa (Angola, Congo etc) and West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia etc) was partly funded by diamond production. But that was not the cause of the conflict. I would hold greedy warlords funded and propped up by foreign powers to suit their own agenda more responsible for the conflics. However most of these conflicts are now over so there is no such thing as 'blood diamonds'. Sierra Leone Diamonds are no different than any others. In fact it is impossible to reliably identify the source of a diamond by studying it. In such a commoditised market, where products can not be differentiated, large corporations are trying to build a brand for their product and most of such classifications are marketing gimmicks andanother effort by larger corporations to create a wall of non-tariff barriers to slow down growth in poor African countries. This process has created a mushrooming of middlemen that use their influence to prepare certificates of origin for diamonds, use these to buy cheap from poor African mine workers who have limited knowledge of beureucratic paperwork, and sell at exhorbitant prices in western markets.