International gem lab for Sri Lanka

Chairman, National Gem and Jewellery Authority Hasitha Tillekeratne has taken steps to meet a long-felt need of Sri Lanka’s gem and jewellery industry. It is the establishment of a fully-equipped laboratory to examine gem stones in accordance with international standards.

Western countries such as the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Asia’s Thailand already have such modern laboratories with the latest equipment.

The lack of such a lab was a major setback for Sri Lanka all these years. Although the NGJA presently does a thorough examination of gem stones before certifying them for export, most foreign buyers of gems expect certification of international standards.

For sometime the establishment of such a lab was in the minds of Sri Lanka’s gem and jewellery traders who even established a ‘Laboratory Development Fund’ for this purpose. Based on a decision made in the year 2000, 0.25 percent of the value of the gems exported from Sri Lanka from 2001 was credited to the account of the above fund maintained by the NGJA.

Today the fund has reached nearly Rs.100 million. This will become the initial capital investment in establishing the new gem testing laboratory. It will be formed jointly by the State and the private sector and registered as a company under the name Lanka Gemological Laboratory Private Limited. The Secretary of the Ministry under which the NGJA functions, the NGJA Chairman and the NGJA Director-General and Chairman of the Gem and Jewellery Research and Training Institute have been officially appointed to the company’s board of management. NGJA Chairman Hasitha Tillekeratne was unanimously elected Chairman of Lanka Gemological Laboratory Private Limited at its first board meeting.

Addressing the meeting he said that the main equipment and expertise required for differentiating natural gems from heat-treated stones as well as identifying and certifying rare gem stones will be readily available after the establishment of the new laboratory. He requested the cooperation of all Sri Lankan gem traders to ensure that this lab continues to meet international standards.

The Chairman observed that the establishment of the international laboratory would help to save foreign exchange often spent by some local gem exporters in getting rare precious stones and heat-treated gems examined at Thailand’s laboratories.