Vietnam is a land of great diversity and beauty. From the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City to the beauty of Hạ Long Bay and Hoi An (both UNESCO World Heritage Sites), there are innumerable places ...

Figure 1. The GIA 7 Pearl Value Factors system classifies pearls according to size, shape, color, luster, surface, nacre, and matching. Composite photo by GIA staff. Prized by many cultures throughout ...

Miners collect spinels from gravel at the end of a long day at Man Sin. Photo by Vincent Pardieu, © GIA. In the spring of 2001, I was studying gemology in Yangon ...

Since its introduction in the early 1950s, GIA’s D-to-Z scale has been used to color grade the overwhelming majority of colorless to light yellow gem-quality polished diamonds on which laboratory ...

The Karowe Diamond Mine in Botswana, owned and operated by Lucara Diamond Corp., has gained international recognition for producing large, high-quality type IaB or coexistence of IaB with IIa diamonds ...

Gem-quality synthetic or laboratory-grown diamonds are more available in today’s jewelry marketplace than ever before, causing both interest and concern about lab-grown diamonds and whether ...

Sri Lanka’s gemstone and jewelry industry blends traditional practices and experience with the needs of the modern global market. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA. To visit Sri Lanka is to experience one of ...

Diamonds are the most amazing of gems. Just as amazing, however, is how natural diamonds reach Earth’s surface. Diamonds are formed 150 to 700 km deep in Earth, and are then carried upward in a rare ...

Two specimens of faceted crystalized carbon - both are crystal clear and give off a kaleidoscope of spectral colors in direct light. They appear to be identical. One, however, is a billion or more ...

Diamonds are known for their hardness – their ability to resist scratches and abrasions. But diamonds are not impervious to damage, since their hardness is uneven along different crystal directions.

This raspberry-and mint-colored tourmaline—nicknamed the “Steamboat”—is one of the world’s finest and most valuable mineral specimens. Photo by Duncan Pay ...

This handful of crystals is just a small portion of the production we saw during our short visit to the Cruzeiro mine. These multicolored crystals range from rubellite to green, with black ...