Good News: In 2020, Sustainable Jewellery Is Finally Top Of The Agenda

A single stone is likely to pass through many hands and many countries, from miner to cutter to polisher to an entire network of dealers before it lands in the hands of the jeweller Chan's discovery of Prisca was made possible thanks to Moyo Gems, a project that provides female artisanal miners with vocational training and a fair mine-to-market price for their stones, allowing them to build safer, more viable businesses and improve living standards for themselves and their communities "If we can continue to push for better, safer processes where people are paid fairly, and we stop poisoning the environment with things like the mercury used in gold mining, then it can have an enormous impact" Moyo is a collaboration between the Tanzania Women Miners Association, the gem traders Anza Gems in the US and Nineteen48 in the UK, the traceability company Everledger, and the international development organisation Pact, which offers on-the-ground support.

Thanks to regular market days and education for the miners about the value of their gemstones, they are able to receive 95 per cent of the export price rather than the usual tiny fraction; the local broker, who would normally buy the stone in the first of what could be five or six transactions prior to export, takes five per cent In diamonds, De Beers is developing Tracr, a blockchain technology that traces stones from mine to market, as well as supporting ethical small-scale mining with its GemFair project in Sierra Leone Sabina Belli, Pomellato's chief executive, hopes efforts such as its Denim collection, which features lapis lazuli from an artisanal mine in Chile, are stepping stones to effecting meaningful and permanent change. Source