International Gemological Institute (IGI) is a

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

, colored stone and

jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry ( U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a w ...

certification organization. IGI is headquartered in Antwerp and has offices in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

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Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

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Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

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New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

, Surat,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Thrissur Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...

, Ahmedabad,

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, and

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. Established in 1975, IGI is the largest independent gemological laboratory worldwide. It also runs Schools of Gemology in several locations around the globe.

Operations

IGI has a staff of over 650 gemologists, appraisers and professional office personnel. The International Gemological Institute "has been at the forefront of

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

since its commencement in 1975". This characteristic can be seen in the actions that the IGI has taken recently towards creating an Online Data Retrieval program and its Registration and Recovery Service. The IGI is also perfecting methods to reliably distinguish between synthetic and natural diamonds. IGI provides its services to the public through diamond dealers, and jewelry manufactures. IGI provides independent grading reports, colored stone reports, identification and appraisal reports, diamond authentication and attestations of origin, and laser inscription services. They also offers diamond and colored stone courses through IGI's Schools of Gemology. The IGI school was the first to offer the practical Rough Diamond course. Graduates from the IGI school of Gemology are awarded an IGI Diploma. The Toronto location will be closing.

Market position

IGI is the largest laboratory for certification of diamonds and fine jewelry. IGI has the only international certification lab controlled by one central governing body that adheres to one internationally accepted system for diamond grading. IGI is

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...

(ISO) 9001: 2000 certified in four countries, including the United States, Canada, India and the United Arab Emirates. Recently, IGI became the first gem lab to collaborate with the Tanzanite Foundation to help distribute jewelry certificates using the Tanzanite Quality Scale, developed by the Tanzanite Foundation in collaboration with IGI. An estimated 11 percent of all diamonds purchased by India's consumers come from IGI vendors in

Expansion

* In March 2007, IGI collaborated with the Tanzanite Foundation to produce a globally acceptable grading scale, called the Tanzanite Quality Scale (TQS), for the popular gem called

Tanzanite Tanzanite is the blue and violet variety of the mineral zoisite (a calcium aluminium hydroxyl sorosilicate), caused by small amounts of vanadium. Tanzanite belongs to the epidote mineral group. Tanzanite is only found in Simanjiro District of Ma ...

, which was discovered in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

in the 1960s and is rapidly becoming a globally recognized gem. * In April 2010, IGI marked the opening of their laboratory in Surat, India. This is IGI's fifth diamond grading laboratory in India.

References

External links

* {{authority control Gemological laboratories Research institutes in Belgium Organisations based in Antwerp Organizations established in 1975

Operations

Market position

Expansion

References

Further reading

External links