Jonathan Kendall, President of De Beers' International Institute of Diamond Grading & Research, says that the Automated Melee Screening instrument is being dispatched to Sightholders across the globe. The first installation and training sessions successfully took place at the end of June with Tasaki and Rosy Blue in Japan.

"The focus has now shifted to installing the AMS in Sightholder facilities across key diamond trading hubs such as Antwerp, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv," De Beers said in a statement. "This is a phased roll out with IIDGR technicians working in parallel in different locations to ensure timely yet comprehensive installation and training."

The AMS instrument screens near-colorless and colorless round brilliant diamonds from 0.20 carats down to 0.01 carat to determine whether they are natural or not. The AMS instrument does not screen for treated natural diamonds. The instrument is fully automated and will take up to 500 carats at a time. Larger parcels may be split across multiple machines.

The instrument can be run unattended overnight. The throughput of each instrument is approximately 360 stones per hour. Each instrument is controlled by a compact computer which is supplied with the machine.