Diamond giant De Beers Group has announced it will provide data on country of origin for all De Beers-sourced rough diamonds, including those from Botswana, above 1.25 carats that are newly registered on the Tracr platform. This will enable diamond jewellery consumers to know exactly where their diamonds come from.
De Beers launched Tracr in 2022 to provide tamper-proof source assurance at scale, enabling sightholders to provide an immutable record of a diamond’s origin, and empowering jewellery retailers to have confidence in the origin of the diamonds they purchase.
The Tracr™ platform combines distributed ledger technology with advanced data security and privacy, ensuring that participants control the use of and access to their own data. Each participant on Tracr™ has their own distributed version of the platform, meaning that their data can only be shared with their permission, and only they choose who can access their information.
In its first iteration, Tracr provided ‘DTC’ origin for all registered diamonds sourced from De Beers Group, confirming that the diamond originated from one of the Group’s operations in either Botswana, Canada, Namibia or South Africa. This approach reflected De Beers Group’s aggregation process (blending together like-for-like types of diamonds regardless of which of the four countries they were produced in).
With the new proprietary scanning technology in diamond-producing countries and the application of advanced algorithmic matching enabled by artificial intelligence, Tracr is now able to ‘digitally disaggregate’ diamonds to confirm their specific country of origin.
According to De Beers, from the start of 2025, the tracking will be extended to rough diamonds above 1 carat in size (equivalent to approximately 0.5 carats and above in polished form), aligning with the size threshold for new diamond import requirements for G7 countries.
“For the first time in history, we have the technology to provide our customers with the provenance of their diamonds at scale. We know that our clients care deeply about sustainability and want to understand the good their diamonds have done. Our ambition is to offer them the story of every De Beers-sourced diamond, tracing its journey and positive impact from its origin to its crafting,” said Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group.