Gold and Diamonds: The Social and Environmental Impacts of Mining for the Diamond Ring

Recommendations

Independent Certification and Monitoring

It would be effective for the jewellery manufacturing industry to create a third party monitoring group consisting of industry, government and public stakeholders, which would evaluate the environmental sustainability of mines and producers. This independent group would have the authority to grant certifications, impose fines and create regulations.

Certification should be based upon stakeholder and industry constructed criteria. The fines charged must be significant enough to act as deterrents to non-compliance. Collected fines can be used to develop environmentally sustainable technologies.

Self-regulation methods are a solution to the high costs associated with enforcement by governments, and they benefit the industry as they will promote innovations and clean processing and mining practices. If jewellers were to purchase only from certified suppliers, they would influence the mining industry towards compliance with certification guidelines.

Enforcement

The voluntary and non-regulatory nature of international enforcement initiatives impedes their effectiveness, especially considering the associated costs. Without any consequences to face for ignoring enforcement, mining companies and jewellery producers have little incentive to abide by the initiatives they have signed. Mining in developing countries presents increasingly complex cost and compliance issues. Government enforcement regimes tend to be costly, and host governments, which have a myriad of local social or geopolitical issues to address and enforce, cannot be relied upon to take action against visiting industry in the name of environmental standards. ⁷⁴

Lack of enforcement is an impediment to improving the mining company’s environmental performance standards. This regulatory void puts the jewellery sector in an important position of influence; its support of third party monitoring and certification would give the sector influence in assessing international industry practices, particularly in developing or underdeveloped countries. The jewellery sector has the power to hold mining companies accountable, and to encourage them to improve mining standards in developing countries to coincide with standards in more developed regions.

Consumer Education

Self-assessment and self-regulation may also offer a company a competitive edge over others. Incentives coming from the jewellers themselves, greatly impact the industry, as exemplified by the Blood Diamonds campaign against DeBeers and other large diamond miners and producers. The Blood Diamonds campaign was so successful, that global awareness effectuated change in these industries, and improved social and human resources practices were put in place. That is not to say that the industry is without flaws with regard to the social aspect, however consumer pressures have put pressures on the jewellers who have then put pressure on producers and miners. Consumer awareness can therefore be deemed essential to the success of environmental sustainability initiatives as well. Therefore, it is important to impact consumer awareness through campaigns promoting ethical mining practices. The No Dirty Gold Campaign is taking the example of the Blood Diamonds campaign and is beginning to address the impacts of gold mining on societies and the environment.

Diamond and gold rings have enormous value-added potential. At the bottom of the chain, at the jewellery store, the diamonds have a relatively large financial impact. If the monetary value of a purchase is large, consumers spend more time evaluating the product. If jewellers themselves claim to deal only with ethical mines, then they can market themselves as ethical and sustainable companies. This campaign has worked with the market for Canadian diamonds which were initially marketed as “ethical diamonds.” Through consumer awareness, and pressures on the industry from the jewellers who purchase cut diamonds, an impact on the mining end of the industry can be quite significant. Culture changes can shift market direction. Jewellers can then take it upon themselves to impact the entire life cycle of gold and diamonds by forming councils and regulatory bodies to audit their suppliers. Jewellers hold a lot of power, since they supply the demand for jewellery, and as such, by prioritizing environmental sustainability, they would truly impact the entire industry. .

Eliminating Mining from the Life Cycle: Golden Circle Jewellers

Golden Circle Jewellers is a jewellery manufacturer and retailer that will attempt to sever the connection between mining and jewellers by using 100 percent post-consumer materials. The concept of recycling jewellery is not new, but a business concept that capitalizes on emerging marketing opportunities associated with increasingly environmentally-conscious consumers is.

Golden Circle Jewellers will operate in a small to medium sized community (e.g. Halifax) and marketed as an alternative to the bigger trans-national jewellery manufacturers. GCJ does not eliminate the need for mining activities globally, it fills a niche market with a huge growth potential.

Despite a 50 year supply surplus of gold, approximately 2, 500 tonnes are mined every year. Increasing the use of recycled materials for jewellery would reduce overall demand for mined metals. This decrease in demand would indicate a shift in consumer priority and the mining industry would be pressured to improve their public image by adopting sustainable practices and decreasing environmental impacts.

Vision

Golden Circle Jewellers (GCJ) removes the link to unsustainable mining practices and “closes the loop” in jewellery manufacturing. The vision of Golden Circle is to use only post-consumer materials, minimize or eliminate all ecological impacts, effectively remove mining from the life cycle of its products and ultimately achieve a minimum ecological footprint.

Golden Circle Model

The Golden Circle model involves two separate phases termed the outer circle and the inner circle. The two phases of production are determined by the consumer, based on availability of recyclable material and customer preference. GCJ has a goldsmith / metal smith on staff who will manufacture and design jewellery to specifications set by the customer.
The Outer Circle

The outer circle refers to the manufacturing of jewellery using recycled metals obtained from an external supplier. The facilities of each of the metal recyclers will be visited and must meet a set of minimum environmental requirements. The recycling facilities must be located in eastern Canada, adherent to Canadian environmental regulations, ISO 14001 certified and they must have minimal discharges. GCJ will work in conjunction with facility staff for the implementation of eco-efficiency strategies. Whenever possible the distance of the shipped materials will be minimized.

The environmental impacts of the outer circle are externalized to the individual metal recycling facilities and all attempts will be made to consult with the recyclers for minimizing their environmental impact. GCJ offers consumers in the outer circle the opportunity to make a donation to finance the planting of trees on a GCJ-owned tree plantation to counter-balance the emissions produced from the large scale smelting involved in the metal recycling process.

Canadian diamonds can be supplied on customer demand, but all efforts will be made to acquire materials that are recycled from previously enjoyed jewellery. Once the materials are acquired the consumer enters the inner circle.

The Inner Circle

Once into the inner circle, the materials enter a closed loop system, which means that all of the environmental impacts are controlled and minimized. All of the buildings operated by Golden Circle Jewellers are powered using a combination of solar and wind power. Deliveries made within the Halifax area are done by bicycle couriers, and if necessary, by a hybrid vehicle. A charcoal forge, using Forest Stewardship Council certified charcoal, is used to form the metal into jewellery.

Product stewardship plays an integral role in the inner circle. All jewellery can be returned to GCJ and, for a processing fee, can be reformed and re-designed to suit the customer’s changing fashion needs.


Conclusion
Given the nature of the mining industry, it is important to acknowledge that ecological sustainability in mining areas is a unique challenge. The key to protecting our resources and to ensure that society and nature remain as undisturbed as possible is a collaborative relationship between industry and government. Governments need to ensure that regulations that are in place are enforceable, and that companies are held accountable for mine reclamation. However, it is ultimately in the government’s interest to protect its people and resources, so they need to be actively involved in the mine reclamation process. Another important factor in ensuring sustainable mining is changing international initiatives into regulatory, enforceable rules. ISO 14001 is an effective way of certifying and monitoring mining activities. Diavik is a prime example of how mining can minimize its impact on the environment when adhering to international codes.

To decrease the environmental impact of the life-cycle of the diamond ring, mining practises need to be cleaner, water needs to be treated, transportation throughout the process needs to be decreased, and new technologies need to be used to detect mine sites to decrease all aspects of the mining process. An important note about the jewellery life-cycle is that a change at any level of the cycle will affect it entirely. Consumer awareness and changing the demand will have the strongest effect on the life-cycle, as it will require a change in practice if market forces are to remain steady. Money talks, and consumers are the source of that power.

Swaying personal attitudes towards purchasing gold and diamond rings will successfully change the behaviour of spending habits towards these jewels. The effectiveness of the Blood Diamond campaign is the best example of how information can change personal purchasing habits as well as create formal agreements between international governments and the diamond industry. The success of the No Dirty Gold campaign is still being determined but governments with their partners in industry can take the first steps towards curbing environmental impacts with effective policy, legislation, and enforcement.