Andrea Markey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 05/05) - The certification exam for diamond polishers in the NWT is generally offered twice per year by the department of education, culture and employment.

Each person taking the exam is given five rough diamonds they must cut and polish in two eight-hour sittings.

Each diamond starts at a score of 100 per cent, with marks taken off for each mistake detected under 10 times magnification.

If in doubt, score keepers go to 20 times magnification for verification.

"If a diamond is 100 per cent symmetrically perfect, yet the facets are not perfectly polished, we deduct two per cent for each facet that is not properly polished," said Mike Botha, certification officer and Aurora College instructor.

"The criteria is very, very strict - probably the highest criteria in the world," he said.

Polishing criteria was developed in collaboration with industry experts from around the world, including those in Yellowknife, he said.