Sundance Diamonds, a high-pressure, high-temperature processing operation in Utah, has announced a breakthrough in processing regular brown type I diamonds into fancy colors.

According to Jim Littman, director of business development, “All higher-clarity brown and cape diamonds can now be improved to a variety of fancy intense colors, including yellow, yellow-orange, orangey-brown, yellow-green, and green.” Littman says customers can request specific colors.

“The HPHT process on diamonds is comparable to the heating process of a ruby or a sapphire, which are almost always heated to improve their color,” Littman says.

Over the last year, Sundance has presented seminars at diamond bourses, trade associations, and gem labs in Israel; Antwerp, Belgium; London; New York; Singapore; Hong Kong; and South Africa.

To ensure transparency, Sundance requires every customer to sign a legal contract affirming that it will disclose, all the way down the pipeline, that the diamonds have been processed with HPHT.

Sundance Diamonds is a division of US Synthetic, which manufactures polycrystalline diamonds for use in oil and gas drilling. Sundance has been in the HPHT gem-quality diamond business only since 2003 and reports a 500 percent increase in business over the past year.

For information, call (760) 419-9292 or (801) 235-9141 or visit www.sundancediamonds.com.