The International Diamond Council has launched its new website that seeks to serve as an informative platform for diamond nomenclature and terminology. The site can be accessed at http://www.internationaldiamondcouncil.org.

Harry Levy, the incumbent IDC chairman said that the launch of the new site comes at a timely moment. “Only a few months ago, the IDC celebrated the publication of a new standard of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for diamond nomenclature:  ISO 18323 Jewellery -- Consumer confidence in the diamond industry. This international standard helps consumers understand the differences between natural and synthetic diamonds, informs them about the various treatments of diamonds, as well as about simulants of diamonds, that can be other synthetic stones, artificial stones, glass, composite stones, or other gemstones than can be misrepresented as natural diamonds.”

The site will be a tool to help the industry achieve one of its major aims – boost consumer confidence in natural diamonds.

The International Diamond Council traces its origins to the 18th World Diamond Congress of World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA), which was held in Amsterdam in May 1975. There, a joint committee that was later named the International Diamond Council, was appointed with a mandate to establish industry-wide unity in the grading of polished diamonds. It has since become the diamond industry and trade's authoritative body to define diamond nomenclature.

Levy, who is also the president of the London Diamond Bourse and of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, said that "without the contributions, expertise and experience accumulated during the past decades by current and former IDC officers and colleagues from CIBJO's Diamond Commission, this milestone would not have come about!"

"Currently, the IDC Rules are, together with CIBJO's Diamond Book, the authoritative nomenclature for polished diamonds," Levy continued. "The IDC Rules are part and parcel of the regulations that the members of the 29 bourses affiliated to the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) and the 16 associations that belong to the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) are all required to follow!" he concluded.