Category Archives: Fairtrade Gold

Conflict Gold to Peace Gold – part 2

Posted on February 19, 2013 | 1 Comment

We live in a crazy world and gold fever only adds to the madness. The stories we hear of conflict gold from the DR Congo are true, however they are only one half of the story. The other half of the story is the one I am here to explore with Peace Direct partners Centre for Resolution of Conflicts (CRC), whose coordinator is Henri Ladyi. The central conundrum that CRC have identified and want to tackle is, ‘can responsible and well-organised small-scale mining by ex-combatants lead to genuine peaceful and sustainable transformation? I have witnessed elements of this idea in my work in securing traceable gold from Colombia from the Green Gold project in my capacity as Founder of CRED Jewellery. The benefits of which are plain to see now that the certified Fairtrade Gold programme has five certified mining groups in the system. Cred Jewellery alone has paid over $100,000 in FT premiums to their Fairtrade gold partners Sotrami in Peru, since its launch in Feb 2011. To date Sotrami have invested this money in to education in their community as well as the establishing of a food store that supplies at wholesale prices to the wider community. This is the impact that can be made when you get artisanal mining traceable and certified.

The small towns of Iga Barrieré and Kobu is where I start my discovery. The road that takes us there snakes north of Bunia, past the new Chinese Gold mining concession and eventually to the highly controversial Anglo Gold Ashanti mine near Mongbwalu. But I am not here to investigate the predictably secretive and un-transparent member of The World Gold Council and Responsible Jewellery Council. I am here to review and understand the very activity of peace building in the war torn DRC. CRC have identified that a key to reducing or deflating the conflict is finding employment for the ex-combatants that inhabit every town and village across the eastern DRC. I admire their boldness as they have chosen to take a pro-active stance towards the issue of conflict minerals. I confess as a veteran campaigner in the jewellery profession for more ethical and fair trade practices, I have arrived with a certain level of unspoken scepticism, but with an open mind.

It is hard to describe to someone who has never stood in the artisanal gold fields of Africa what the experience is like. To say it is chaotic is to understate the reality of its cousin horror. It is like stepping into a circle of hell that Dante forgot to write about. Small-scale mining is the second biggest employer on the planet, with a global workforce and dependency in excess of 100 million. They like Dante’s omission are forgotten. The forgotten millions who for the politics of daily bread pound their bodies in the scorching heat in search of the madness that is gold.

Korean Dave's Gold processing machine lying on its side in The Nizi River

Korean Dave’s Gold processing machine lying on its side in The Nizi River

In Iga Barrieré, on one level everyone is a millionaire and the vast riches of the gold deposits are a living testimony to the resource curse. One story I heard and verified is that in a one-month period the local miners worked with a Korean called ‘Mr Dave’. And they produced 40 kilos of gold using Dave’s mechanised processing unit. Dave of course disappeared back to Korea with the 40 kilo’s without paying, leaving behind a group of defrauded miners and his processing machine. The affected miners showed me the site of Dave’s processing machine, now lying on its side in the middle of the fast flowing Nizi river. A small vignette of how opportunities dissipate through the locals’ finger tips like water through a sieve.

The first thing you notice about any small-scale mine site is a constant white noise of mechanised humming of the water pumps and generators. It is a universal sound associated with ASM, but it is soon drowned out by the endless chatter of the trivial pursuits of the countless workers, as they dig and haul pans of soil up though the chain gangs to the top of slopes where the content is panned and washed of its muddy content, leaving only fine sands and alluvial gold particles. All this is backbreaking, dirty, noisy, insecure and dangerous work carried out on the promise of payment plus a daily meal till the gold is delivered. It is mind-boggling how the sheer muscle of humanity, driven on by the primeval urge to survive can move tonnes of earth every hour and in doing so carve vast ravines out hillsides, re-direct river courses, and sculpt entirely new landscapes as they pursue the gold veins wherever they may lead. But to truly understand the ASM sector you need to look beneath the obvious of environmental mismanagement, systemic mercury usage and the child labour issues and understand the hidden driver of money and survival.

Small-scale mining next to the Nizi River.

Small-scale mining next to the Nizi River.

During my journey I talked to lots of miners in the towns I visited, on the mine sites I frequented and to the traders I encountered. They all told the same basic story best illustrated by this one miner I spoke to in Kobu. He borrows money from a local trader which will allow him t open up a small pit which requires he employs a group of local diggers, maybe as many as forty a pit. These diggers will move the soil until they hit the gold bearing rock or start to wash the gold from the river sands. If he is digging rock he will also be loaned some mercury that he will use to amalgam the gold from the rock dust. Mercury and gold particles really do like each other. Once he has extracted his gold, he will have to pay back the trader in gold plus the interest he owes which can be as much as between 30 to 50%. He is then obliged by the terms of the original loan to then sell the remaining gold to the same trader at discounted rates on the international fix. This price is determined by weight and purity of gold sold.

The gold traders table in the local gold market

The gold traders table in the local gold market

The trader will determine purity through a process called ‘acid burning’ where the gold is heated and melted to liquid and burned with acid to remove any material that is not gold. After selling the remaining gold he then pays the Government Mining group Kilomoto 30% of his income as they have licensed him to work on their concession in the first place. He then pays his workers for their sweat and muscle. Throughout the time that he opens the pit to the time he finally closes the deal on the gold sale, he has to manage a myriad of different quasi-official interests that are taken in any new mine site. He makes payments to; the Police, the Congolese Security service, soldiers, local government office, local chiefs, the environmental office as well as the hydro carbon tax (he actually offsets his carbon omissions) and anyone else who may have the power to stop him from mining, if he and his partners are left with as much as $3000 between them from a $50,000 transaction for 1 kilo of gold he will feel himself fortunate. When you ask him why he does it he simply replies, ‘It is all I know how to do, and I earn just enough per month to feed my family’.

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Posted in Conflict Gold, Fairtrade Gold, Gold, Small-Scale Mining

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Open letter to Alliance for Responsible Mining and Fairtrade Labeling Organisation. Signed by 140 International jewellers

Posted on September 28, 2012 | 1 Comment

Below is the open letter sent to Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and Fairtrade Labeling Organisation (FLO) regarding the possibility of ‘mass balancing’ (mixing) or dilution of Fairtrade Gold in the product composition section of the fairtrade Standard tat is currently under review. This letter represents the views of Fairtrade and Fairmined license holders, RJC members and jewellers from over seven countries who want to see a fairtrade Gold product that is both traceable from source and socially empowering for small-scale mining communities. It is a clear message to ARM and FLO that we do not want to see mass-balancing or dilution labeled as Fairtrade.

Fair Jewellery Action and Ethical Metalsmiths wants to thank ARM and FLO for listening to the views of our supporters and also to our network of supporters for taking the time to care about this. Its an important issue. Letter, signatures and comments are below. To date we have 140 signatures.

You can review the proposal on pages 86 to 88 via this link.

An Open Letter to The Alliance For Responsible Mining and Fairtrade Labeling Organisation

Dear Alliance For Responsible Mining and Fairtrade Labeling Organisation,

As jewelers and other members of civil society, we strongly oppose one aspect of the current proposed standards, which changes the product composition component to allow mass balancing or dilution to take place. These proposed changes to the standard are described in Section 6, put forth July 2012, in the Fairtrade and Fairmined Standard for Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Document.

The proposed standard to mix Fairtrade and Fairmined gold with other gold will severely damage the FT&FM gold brand and create confusion in the marketplace.  It will also undermine the confidence in the product.   We are also concerned with how the mass balancing might negatively impact the FT&FM brand as it develops not only with gold, but with other mined products emerging into the market.  As jewelers, who deal with customers every day of the week, we understand the market better than anyone else.  At this juncture, we urge in the strongest possible terms that Fairtrade gold be kept pure.

We urge ARM and FLO to direct more efforts toward supporting jewelers and strengthening a consumer campaign to build on the great success in the existing market.  The certified FT&FM Sotrami miners in Peru received £75,000 ($120,00 USD) of premium from gold purchases by jewelers in 2011 alone.  Our greatest continued success will only be achieved if we all work united, in a concerted effort to support FT&FM small scale miners to bring pure, traceable Fairtrade and Fairmined gold to a vibrant market.

1 Name: Harriet Kelsall
Company: Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design Ltd.
Country: United Kingdom

2 Name: Alice Rochester
Company: Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design
Country: United Kingdom

3 Name: Alan Frampton
Company: Cred Jewellery
Country: United Kingdom

4 Name: Victoria Woollen-Danner
Company: VWD Jewelry
Country: United States

5 Name: Ian Doyle
Company: Associate, Lifeworth Consulting (artisanal mining expert)
Country: France, DRC

6 Name: Susan Crow
Company: Susan Crow inc./DBA East Fourth Street Jewelry
Country: United States

7 Name: Elaine Nazzaro
Company: Artisan Industries Inc.
Country: United States

8 Name Gary Roberts
Company: Rubyfair.com Ltd
Country: United Kingdom and Tanzania

9 Name: Gina D’Onofrio
Company: Jewelry Appraisal Services
Country: United States

10 Name: Jeffrey Herman, Founder & Executive Director
Company / Org: Society of American Silversmiths
Country: United States

11 Name: Nanna Gronborg
Company: Nanna Gronborg
Country: Germany

12 Name: Karen Feder
Company: Moonlight Beadery
Country: United States

13 Name: Andrea Bonelli
Company: Andrea Bonelli Jewelry
Country: United States

14 Name: Tracy Munn
Company: Animated Metals
Country: United States

15 Name: Anna Moltke-Huitfeldt
Company: Anna Moltke-Huitfeldt
Country: Denmark

16 Name: Robin Halpin
Company: Rx Rox Jewelry
Country: United States
I strongly support 100% fair trade / fair mined gold. Transparency is needed to allow customers to choose sourced gold they can wear with integrity and pride instead of wondering about the mines used to create the gold.  It is time the small artisanal mines with safe practices become viable alternatives to open pit mining.

17 Name: Kate Bauman Mess
Company: Kate Mess Jewelry
Country: United States

18 Name: Josh Humbert
Company: Kamoka Pearl
Country: United States

19 Name: Andrea Antonucci
Company: Andrea Antonucci – Adelstenar
Country: Sweden

20 Name: Christine Lawrence
Company: Caratess
Country: United Kingdom

21 Name: Kari Rinn
Company / Organization: Haywood Community College
Country: United States

22 Name: Jan Webber
Company: Jan Webber Contemporary Jewelry
Country: United States

23 Name: Bobi Wilson
Company: Star Rabbit Productions
Country: United States

24 Name: Ana M. Lopez
Company: Independent Jewelry Artist
Country: United States

25 Name: Tim McCreight
Company: Brynmorgen Press (publisher of how-to- jewelry books)
Country: United States

26 Name: Anna Bario
Company: Bario-Neal
Country: United States

27 Name: Magdalena Goudie
Company: Private Citizen
Country: United States

28 Name: Helen Chantler
Company: Reflective Images Inc.
Country: United States

29 Name: Amanda M. Thon
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States

30 Name: Jörg Eggimann
Company: Jorg Eggimann Goldschmiedmeister
Country: Switzerland

31 Name: Erin S. Daily
Company: Brooklyn Metal Works
Country: United States

32 Name: Bryan Park
Company/ Org: Benedictine College
Country: United States

33 Name: Martha WD Bushnell, Ph.D.
Company: Private Citizen
Country: United States

34 Name: Renee Zettle-Sterling – Associate Professor of Art and Design
Company / Org: Grand Valley State University
Country: United States

35 Name: Michèle Ratté
Company: Michèle Ratté Textiles
Country: United States

36 Name: Kirsten Bak
Company: BAKS
Country: Denmark

37 Name: David Crump
Company: Vipa Designs Ltd
Country: United Kingdom

38 Name: April Doubleday
Company: April Doubleday
Country: United Kingdom

39 Name: Marilene Morency
Company: Joailliere/Silversmith
Country: Canada

40 Name: Todd Pownell
Company: TAP studio INC.
Country: United States

41 Name: Jennifer Trask
Company: Jennifer Trask Jewelry
Country: United States

42 Name: Dianne McFarlane
Company: Schmuck Akademie
Country: Germany

43 Name: Jean Mandeberg
Company: Jean Mandeberg, Metalsmith
Country: United States

44 Name: Lynn White
Company: Lynn White Jewelry
Country: United States

45 Name: Elizabeth H. Porter
Company: Hand Crafted by Betsy Porter
Country: United States

46 Name: Demos Takoulas
Company: Vukani-Ubuntu Community Development Projects
Country: South Africa

47 Name:Thomas Becker
Company:Thomas Becker–Atelier Fuer Schmuck
Country: Germany

48 Name: Ursula Bettmer
Company: bettmer-gold
Country: Germany

49 Name: Judith Lotter
Company: Schmuck-Atelier
Country: Germany

50 Name: Agnes Lauer
Company: Kristall-Die Magie des Schoenen
Country: Germany

51 Name: Dagmar Fleck
Company: Laurins Garten
Country: Germany

52 Name: Herbert Scholpp
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: Germany

53 Name: Martina Eiselein
Company: Eiselein – Design
Country: Germany

54 Name: Carlo Verda
Company: Alex May studio
Country: United Kingdom

55 Name: Rahel Dotzel
Company: Dotzel Unilatschmuck
Country: Germany

56 Name: Jennifer Gilbert
Company: Jenny GIlbert Jewellery
Country: United Kingdom

57 Name: Kathrin Zara Stein
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: Switzerland

58 Name: Sass Brown
Company: Eco Fashion
Country: United Kingdom

59 Name: Max Gilgenmann
Company: Consultant
Country: Germany

60 Name: Birgitte Rasmussen
Company: Svinninge Motionscenter
Country: Denmark

61 Name: Allan Scharff
Company: Allan Scharff
Country: Denmark

62 Name: Amanda Li Hope
Company: Amanda Li Hope
Country: United Kingdom

63 Name: M’lou Brubaker
Company: M’lou Brubaker, Jeweler
Country: United States

64 Name: Niels Bjørn-Andersen
Company: Copenhagen Business School
Country: Denmark

65 Name: Camilla Frank
Company: CF 1701 (Private Citizen)
Country: Denmark

66 Name: Jane Kearns
Company: The Crystal’d Lily
Country: United Kingdom

67 Name: Stephanie Petro
Company: Hearts.com
Country: United States

68 Name: Linda Darty
Company / Organization: East Carolina University
Country: United States

69 Name: Helle Ørskov
Company: Missing Ink
Country: Denmark

70 Name: Ulrich Neuhaus
Company: schmuck und skulptur
Country: Germany

71 Name: Birgitte de Neergaard
Company: deNeergaardTheillEriksen
Country: Denmark

72 Name: Nadine Kieft
Company: Nadine Kieft Edelsmeden
Country: Netherlands

73 Name: Tanya Bowd
Company: Candescent
Company: United Kingdom

74 Name: Beth Gerstein
Company: Brilliant Earth
Country: United States

75 Name: Brandon Cata
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States

76 Name: Cheryl Arviso
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States

77 Name: Lori Hesuse
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States

78 Name: Elyse Demaray
Company: Demaray Designs Jewelry
Country: United States
Please do not jeopardize the integrity of FT & FM gold by mixing it with other gold. This is very important to our trade and our own ability to maintain the quality of gold we want to offer our customers.

79 Name: Noel Aronov
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States
Let’s have accountability.

80 Name: Anthony Romero
Company: Private Citizen
Country: United States

81 Name: Anastasia Azure
Company: Azure Designs
Country: United States

82 Name: Fritz Casuse
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States

83 Name: Carol Windsor
Company: Carol Windsor Design
Country: United States

84 Name: Susie Ganch
Company/ Organization: Virginia Commonwealth University
Country: United States
To whom it may concern,
As a jeweler, I want to know where my materials come from in order to make informed choices about the gold I use to make my work. Maintaining 100% traceability back to certified Fairtrade Fairmined sites is the ONLY way to make choices that reflect my values and those of my customers. By creating a “mass balanced” product, and gold that contains only 50% material from certified mines, or offering gold that has “at least” 10% certified fine gold content, ARM and FLO are diluting our goals to create a truly transparent chain of custody while supporting small mining communities. I am joining with others to urge ARM and FLO to reconsider the standards put forth thus far that offer a mixed product.

Sincerely,

Susie Ganch
Director Radical Jewelry Makeover
Associate Professor/Head of Metal Program
Department of Craft/Material Studies
School of the Arts
Virginia Commonwealth University

85 Name: Colleen Baran
Company: Colleen Baran Jewellery
Country: CA

86 Name: Abby Mattison
Company: A silver Girl
Country: United States

87 Name: L. Eugene Nelson
Company: L. Eugene Nelson
Country: United States

88 Name: Wendy Walsh
Company: W Walsh Design
Country: United States

89 Name: Fran Grinels
Company: Grinels Design
Country: United States

90 Name: Dan Morris
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States

91 Rachelle Thiewes
Company: Rachelle Thiewes
Country: United States

92 Name: Kara Aubin
Company: kara | daniel Jewelry
Country: United States

93 Name: Daniel Juzwiak
Company: kara | daniel Jewelry
Country: United States

94 Name: Charlene Modena
Company / Organization: Academy of Art University, San Francisco
Country: United States

95 Name: Jim Bove
Company / Organization: California University of Pennsylvania
Country: United States

96 Name: Naomi Maslon
Company: Naomi Maslon Jewelry
Country: United States

97 Name: Catherine Sutherland
Company: Catherine Sutherland Art And Design
Country: CA

98 Name: Rick & Beth Elkin
Company: Elkin Studio Jewelers
Country: United States

99 Name: Kathleen Browne
Company: Kent State University – Educator and independent artist
Country: United States

100 Name: Shamsa Diwani
Company / Organization: Tanzania Women Miners Association and Gemstyles Company
Country: Tanzania

101: Name: Hattie Rickards
Company: Hattie Rickards Jewellery
Country: United Kingdom

102: Name: Sarabeth Carnat
Company: Sarabeth Carnat
Country: Canada
True accountability is the only real standard. Dilution or balancing minimizes accountability. Workers in our industry have the right to the safest possible methods of extraction. Let us not “pretend” to be accountable. Smoke & mirrors are just that.

103: Name: Rebecca Crawford
Company: Spacefruit
Country: United Kingdom

104 Name: Molly Perrin
Company: Molly Perrin
Country: United Kingdom

105 Name: Peta Bush
Company: Medical Jewellery
Country: United Kingdom

106 Name: Viola Bergmann
Company: G, Bergmann Werkstatt 999/- fein GmbH
Country: Germany

107 Name: Jo Taylor
Company: Tootsievalentine® Ethical Contemporary Jewellery
Country: United Kingdom

108 Name: Jan Spille
Company: Jan Spille – Schmuck*Atleier
Country: Germany

109 Name: Caz Guiney
Company: Northcity4
Country: Australia

110 Name: Kim Cridler
Company: Bennie/Cridler Studio
Country: United States

111 Name: Jorge Arrieta
Company: Niccolo Bella, LLC
Country: United States

112 Name: Jamie Cassavoy
Company: Cassavoy & Co.
Country: United States

113 Name: Michael Pollak
Company: Hyde Park Jewelers
Country: United States

114 Name: Linnie McLarty
Company: Linnie McLarty Jewellery
Country: United Kingdom

115 Name: Claire Malet
Company: Independent Metalsmith
Country: United Kingdom

116 Name: Sheena Thomas, Melanie Parks, Marta Jones-Couch
Company: Elements, Ltd.
Country: United States

117 Name: Kris Nations
Company: Kris Nations Jewelry
Country: United States

118 Name: Jessica Magella Worthington
Company: Independent metal artist
Country: United States

119 Name: Matthew Moerman
Company: Baxter Moerman Jewelry
Country: United States

120 Name: Stefanie Knörnschild
Company: Goldschmiede Knörnschild
Country: Germany

121 Name: Molly Dingledine
Company: Molly Dingledine Jewelry
Country: United States

122 Name: Edward H Lay
Company / Org: Head Instructor, Metals Studio, Richmond Art Center
Country: United States

123 Name: Martin Taber
Company: Taber Studios
Country: United States

124 Name: Lindsay Minihan
Company: Metalwerx Inc.
Country: United States
As we are committed to the best education for metalsmithing students at our nonprofit school, we wholeheartedly support ethical practices of bringing fairtraded and fairmined gold to the market.

125 Name: Jennifer Cross Gans
Company/ Org: Independent writer, metalsmith
Country: United States
Complete accountability is particularly important for jewelers who work in gold and their publics.

126 Name: Ana Aguilar
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States

127 Name: Marianne Hunter
Company: Marianne Hunter – Studio art-jeweler/ enamelist
Country: United States

128 Name: Woodrow W. Carpenter
Company: Thompson Enamel, Inc.
Country: United States

129 Name: Christine Dhein
Company: Independent Jeweler
Country: United States

130 Name: Samantha Rose
Company: September Rose Ethical Jewellery
Country: United Kingdom

131 Name: Ebke Bühring
Company: Independent Goldsmith
Country: Germany

132 Name: Jennifer Trude
Company: Trudesign Metalsmithing
Country: United States

133 Name: Eric Finley
Company: The Sovereign Corporation (non-jeweler)
Country: United States

134 Name: Rebecca Klemm
Company: Private citizen with gold jewelry
Country: United States

135 Name: Rachel Lunn
Company: Rachel Helen Designs
Country: United Kingdom

136 Name: Samantha Salmons
Company: Sam Salmons Designs Ltd
Country: United Kingdom

137 Name: Belinda Norrington
Company: Wild Acre Designs
Country: United Kingdom

138: Name:  Sally Rycroft
Company: Good as Gold Ltd
Country: United Kingdom

139 Name: Tania Kowalski
Company: ORIA JEWELLERY LTD
Country: United Kingdom

140 Name: Stephen Jones
Company: Kaanaanmaa
Country: United Kingdom

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Posted in Ethical Jewellery, Fair Trade Jewellery, Fairtrade, Fairtrade Fairmined Gold, Fairtrade Gold, Fairtrade Jewellery, Fairtrade Jewelry, Gold, Small-Scale Mining

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Greg Valerio muses on Gold and Diamonds at International Jewellery London 2012

Posted on September 22, 2012 | 2 Comments

As jewellers we don’t want to be caught wearing fur coats with knickers.

Regarding current trends in the gold industry, there is a general move towards traceability in the supply chain. This has been precipitated by the Dodd Frank bill passed in the USA requiring certain raw materials including gold, to be fully declared conflict free through a traceability declaration on the materials origin of denomination. This has created the establishment of the OECD due diligence’s on conflict minerals. Following this, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), World Gold Council (WGC), and Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) have all in recent months issued protocols to their members on how to comply with the OECD due diligence’s for conflict free supply chains.

What is interesting about this is that these protocols all cover the same type of companies. RJC, WGC and LBMA companies are all big corporations and many of them hold membership with more than one of the above bodies such as Metalor, Rio Tinto, Anglo Gold Ashanti for example. All these groups in real terms employ very few people on the ground and the way the OECD has constructed the due diligence framework it has been shaped to protect the financial integrity of the big companies, not the welfare of the communities on the ground. This it would appear is a reflection of the consultation process that was held. Without a corporate CSR budget or supporters money via campaigning NGO’s, being heard by the law makers was virtually impossible. It appears that the OECD principle outcome will be the protecting of the vested interest of corporate companies.

Communities in central Africa bear the real brunt of any violence that may emerge. These communities should be the real beneficiaries of the mineral wealth in their land. Instead due to their poverty they are exploited by big companies, who promise much by way of up front CSR promises and local employment, yet in case after case do not deliver. If they are not being exploited by corporate mining companies then they are subject to militia, violence and the resource curse. The real reputational risk we face as jewellers from conflict material is not being addressed by OECD as those that are vulnerable to exploitation are only going to be unduly penalised by OECD, which will lead to more smuggling and illegal activity than before. People need to eat, regardless of what the UN says. As a Congolese miner friend of mine once said in regards to the Dodd Frank legislation, ‘We can die by the bullet or die by the starvation’.

It would now appear that platinum can be added to the list of controversial metals with the growing violence surrounding the Anglo American owned Lonmin mine in South Africa.

Regarding diamonds, the landscape is as bias to the rich and powerful as in gold, with the added complexity of the existing legal framework called The Kimberley Process. Diamonds are a human rights issue and are deeply political. The current disconnect between the politics, human rights issues and the consumer idea that diamonds are a pure product is perhaps one of the most disingenuous elements in the entire jewellery suppl chain. As I alluded too in an earlier blog post, The Kimberley Process (KPCS) is an inter governmental customs procedure to monitor the flow of rough diamonds from one country to another. It was not set up to be a certification mark on diamonds that could be used with customers. However, it is sold by the industry  as a consumer assurance system to bolster confidence in the diamond value chain. The crisis precipitated by the KPCS allowing exports of diamonds from Marange has highlighted the deep faulty lines emerging on the diamond supply chain. Fault lines around its definitions to include human rights in its core considerations when determining if a diamond is a blood diamond. Also the deep levels of mistrust between the countries represented in the KPCS. Western countries want human rights in, China, India, and the African Diamond Producers do not.  It would seem that from the following quote from Gillian Milovanovic the current Chair of the KPCS that human rights will not make it into the definitions

Progress on human rights/human security, financial transparency and development related matters should be part of “best practices” and other positive efforts to foster concrete results through mutual assistance amoug KP participants and observers but would not form bases for certification.

(taken from a letter to KPCS dated 7th August 2012)

And worse still she throws the responsibility of the diamond supply onto the retail jeweller.

If consumers want to know more about the diamonds they purchase – for example, whether the diamonds were associated with violence or human rights abuses, or have been used to fund corruption or suppression of democracy – they need to ask tough questions of retailers.

(taken from discussion between KP Chair and Greg Valerio 16 August 2012)

Because there is no traceability in the diamond supply chain, from mine to retail these words should cause the backbone of the industry to shudder. The KPCS is not going to reform and not going to protect us from dodgy stones entering the supply chain. A classic illustration of this is as follows. Stones are mined by embargoed Zimbabwe companies in Marange, they are shipped to China as conflict free, they are cut and polished and set into jewellery, with untraceable precious metals, and then end up on the high street in the UK and USA as precious aspirational products. Moral people uncorrupted by the politics will see this as a joke. Why should jewellers trust the KPCS and the people who govern such a ridiculous system.

In conclusion we await the outcomes of the November plenary meeting of the KPCS to see what will happen in the industry. if as we currently expect it fails to deliver a reform agenda (please be assured if it does I will eat humble pie and offer my genuine congratulations) we may well end up with a two tier KPCS, one for the Chinese and Indians and another with higher standards of due diligence for the western consumer nations.

What is clear though is we need pressure from consumers to move the industry to greater levels of public accountability over blood diamonds.

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Posted in Blood Diamonds, Conflict Gold, Diamonds, Fair Jewellery Action, Fairtrade, Fairtrade Gold, Gold, Kimberley Process, Small-Scale Mining

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