Demand to export ashes of Vietnamese people to make diamonds
The Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department is at a loss as to how to handle a request from a business for guidance on customs procedures for exporting cremated ashes of the deceased and importing artificial diamonds made from the cremated ashes of the deceased.
Many man-made diamonds are actually just synthetic stones that have been "inflated" in price. Illustrative photo.
The company providing this service is a foreign direct investment enterprise. In the document sent to the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, the enterprise mentioned “the intention to trade in synthetic diamonds synthesized from the cremated ashes of the deceased”.
According to the process proposed by this company, the company will receive cremated ashes from customers who request them, then send the ashes to the parent company in Switzerland to synthesize them into artificial diamonds. The diamond made from cremated ashes will carry the company's brand, then be transported to Vietnam.
Faced with a strange request, without any specific regulations to regulate it, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department had to report to the General Department of Customs "to know, give specific instructions and guidance".
According to some sources, the synthesis of artificial diamonds from the cremated ashes of the deceased has been implemented by the parent company of this enterprise in Switzerland since 2004.
The scientific basis is described as both ashes and diamonds are forms of carbon. Diamonds are formed from minerals containing carbon under very high temperatures and pressures. Therefore, people can make diamonds by putting natural carbon into an environment of extremely high pressure and temperature.
The human body is 20% carbon. The carbon ash collected from cremation is cleaned and sent to the laboratory for purification. Under the pressure of 80,000 atmospheres and the temperature of 3,000 degrees Celsius, the carbon ash sticks together and creates graphite. This substance is put into a press to be pressed into rough diamonds. Finally, they are polished and shaped according to the family's request. The color of the synthetic diamonds synthesized from the cremated ashes of the deceased depends on the chemicals in the deceased's body.
The cost of synthesizing these artificial diamonds has not been publicly disclosed, but according to sources, the starting price is 5,000 Euros.
According to some unverified documents, the chairman of this strange service business used to be an IT expert. He found an opportunity in the synthetic diamond business after meeting a Russian chemist who explained how to make diamonds from carbon in the laboratory. The first market he aimed at was Japan, where cremation is quite common due to lack of land.
However, many experts believe that the cost of artificial diamonds is very high, because creating a natural-like environment to produce artificial diamonds is extremely costly and more expensive than natural diamonds, so the world jewelry market rarely uses artificial diamonds.
The artificial diamonds that are widely advertised on the market are, in fact, mostly synthetic stones, usually Zirconia (CZ stone) or Moissanite, processed by human hands to achieve the same sparkle, clarity, hardness and beauty as real diamonds or artificial diamonds, but far less durable. The price of Zirconia is about 1,000 - 2,000 times lower than the same type of diamond and the price of Mossant is 15 - 20 times lower than natural diamonds, but is often falsely advertised as artificial diamonds to "inflate" the price.
According to PLVN-PH
