New York City-based Analytical Gemology and Jewelry laboratory says it has developed a way to batch-test melee diamonds and identify them as natural, treated, or synthetic.

The service is available for colorless and fancy colored loose diamonds ranging from 0.005 ct. to 0.14 ct.

Lab CEO Dusan Simic says that synthetic diamond melee remains a serious problem for the industry, with created diamonds often mixed with naturals.

Simic’s system is based on internationally accepted diamond identification methods such as Raman spectroscopy, absorbance measurement in the UV-VIS-NIR range, and FTIR and photoluminescence.

Simic says the system, which he is making available as a paid service, can identify up to 300 diamonds per hour, though fancy colored diamonds take a little longer.

JCK