Poor Artisanal Miners threatened by synthetic diamonds

[Johnbt]

"that now grows diamonds in Singapore and Malaysia."

I wonder if they pay a Living Wage? Social-consciousness goes hand in hand with eco-consciousness.

 

[MollyMalone]

That seems to be the shell of a company revitalised as a marketing company. The original firm was bought by an Indian family that now grows diamonds in Singapore and Malaysia.
Pure Grown have become a distribution firm it seems. I met one of their trainers in Vegas in June who has been an industry gemology teacher for many years.

Yes, I now see that Pure Grown is the retail distributor-marketer for IIa Technologies based in Singapore:
https://www.diamondintelligence.com/magazine/magazine.aspx?id=14459

IIa Technologies was granted certification for meeting the standards of ISO 14001:2004, an Environmental Management Standard, and ISO 9001:2008, a Quality Management Standard (I know Whiteflash is proud of holding this credential).
https://www.diamonds.net/News/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=48138&ArticleTitle=IIa+Technologies+Receives+ISO+Certification+

"that now grows diamonds in Singapore and Malaysia."
I wonder if they pay a Living Wage? Social-consciousness goes hand in hand with eco-consciousness.

According to reports that appeared in the local press in March 2015 -- when IIA Technologies launched its 200,000 sq. ft "diamond greenhouse" and research center in the Julong section of Singapore -- its then 250 employees were largely highly-skilled ones, "from Institute of Technical Education graduates to people with doctorate degrees. Most of them studied chemical engineering, mechanical engineering or physics."
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/worlds-largest-man-made-diamond-facility-launched-spore
https://www.straitstimes.com/busine...mond-growing-firm-shines-in-productivity-race

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Great research MM.
Yes. Poor starving PhDs

 

[LightBright]

Thanks for checking, kind sir!

I have just been on forums for too long and am very cynical, especially of low-post-count new members posting external links lol

Can you tell us how to eliminate tracking links? I’ve never figured out how to post a streamlined direct link, after finding a site via google search for example.

 

[MollyMalone]

Our main issue remains the way the synthetic people advertise their product as "ethical", as though nothing else is. Furthermore, by allowing synthetics to be called "diamonds", the FTC made it more difficult for consumers to distinguish one from the other.

I'm wondering about this bolded statement. Isn't the FTC still expecting purveyors of laboratory-grown diamonds to make clear to consumers that these are not mined diamonds? See this report of a discussion with the president and the senior legal counsel for the Jewelers Vigilance Committee
https://www.nationaljeweler.com/maj...ey-changes-the-ftc-made-to-the-jewelry-guides
today's bulletin from IDEX:
http://www.idexonline.com/FullArticle?Id=44163
and new Guidelines §§ 23.12 (c) (3); 23.25; and 23.27:
https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...jewelry-precious-metals-and-pewter-industries

 

[Johnbt]

Google searches turn up some of the most interesting things. This one belongs on lives of the rich and famous.

www.idexonline.com/DIB_876.pdf

I'm still looking to see what became of these accusations of billion-dollar fraud, etc. This a 14-page .pdf document with mentions of 13 Dubai companies who simultaneously defaulted on payments to Winsome of India, insurance written in Belgium, "fruits of laundered money", etc. The question seems to be whether or not the 13 companies are in fact completely separate from Winsome. The insurance policy appears to indicate they aren't/weren't.

The very, very, very, very short version... a claim that a $1.23 Billion fraudulent bank default in India led to some of the missing money being invested in Gemesis, etc.

It's probably just another day in the life of high finance, but I find it fascinating.

Then there's the court case that was filed in Florida. And on and on it goes. Whew.

Also of interest is the history listed near the end in the section title COMPANY DUE DILIGENCE.

(Time to go. I'm needed to assemble a basketball goal for my financee's 3-year-old grandson.)

 

[MollyMalone]

@Johnbt -- My late father-in-law, who was a diamond broker here in NYC, subscribed to Chaim Even-Zohar's Diamond Intelligence Briefs from its very beginning in 1984, and I always enjoyed reading his copies!
https://www.diamondintelligence.com/
Thanks for retrieving IDEX's re-publication of that particular DIB.

 

[Johnbt]

You're welcome. I'm still re-reading it - slowly - between chores.

I'm reading slowly because I had cataract surgery Tuesday and now have 20/20 vision in my new eye and 20/1200+ in the other (with surgery scheduled for the 28th.) I haven't seen this well since 1958 or so.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

A sweet bitter sweet tale for those interested:
http://time.com/longform/sierra-leone-peace-diamond/?#

 

[Johnbt]

"If consumers in America, Europe and Asia stop buying gemstones because they are tainted by human-rights violations, it will only make things worse for Sierra Leone, where 55% of exports come from mineral resources."

The man who found the diamond got $115,000. Out of $6+ million. He was an employee.

"but it’s still a fortune in a country where nearly three-quarters of the population live on less than a dollar a day."

A sad ending so far, but at least he had a chance because of that one diamond.

 

[ChristineRose]

FYI, this time of year I buy 95% of my produce direct from farmers. In the winter the numbers are way less because I'd get sick if I didn't buy out of area, but I still eat plenty of frozen, storage, and greenhouse.

BTW the Kimberly process is easily subverted, and Blockchain wouldn't really help that. There's debate on how bad it is to buy diamonds from "bad" countries as the political situation has changed, and on one really knows how many diamonds have cheated the process. So I can understand why many people are not satisfied with it.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

I'm wondering about this bolded statement. Isn't the FTC still expecting purveyors of laboratory-grown diamonds to make clear to consumers that these are not mined diamonds? See this report of a discussion with the president and the senior legal counsel for the Jewelers Vigilance Committee
https://www.nationaljeweler.com/maj...ey-changes-the-ftc-made-to-the-jewelry-guides
today's bulletin from IDEX:
http://www.idexonline.com/FullArticle?Id=44163
and new Guidelines §§ 23.12 (c) (3); 23.25; and 23.27:
https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...jewelry-precious-metals-and-pewter-industries

Yes, it is clearly the intent of the FTC to eliminate confusion. But it is in the economic interest of synthetic sellers to blur the distinctions. So it remains to be seen how they will market it.

I am not sure what the basis of the assertion that the FTC has made it harder for consumers to "distinguish one from the other" by stating the obvious, that the material is technically 'diamond'. It's all about the qualifiers.

What struck me is that FTC allowed for the use of 'cultured' which was a big point of contention. However, they allowed it in a way that I don't think the synthetic marketers will want to use it since it requires the use one of the other qualifiers in conjunction with it. In other words, they can just simply call it 'cultured diamond' (which is what they desperately wanted to do). They will have to say something like 'cultured laboratory grown diamond' or 'cultured man-made diamond'.

I think the nomenclature the FTC has come up with is fair. I just hope the value proposition marketing that sellers do around synthetics is ethical. Currently, some of the sellers are misleading the public in terms of the social responsibility aspects.

 

[MollyMalone]

I think the nomenclature the FTC has come up with is fair. I just hope the value proposition marketing that sellers do around synthetics is ethical. Currently, some of the sellers are misleading the public in terms of the social responsibility aspects.

There aren't any FTC Guidelines (so far as I know) re using "ethical" or "more ethical" in marketing to us consumers. But there are FTC Guidelines re "eco-friendly" and the like, and it does seem that more than a few lab-grown diamond "brands" or retailers could find themselves jammed up for not following the 2012 Green Guide:
https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/f...s-revised-green-guides/greenguidessummary.pdf
https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/f...c-issues-revised-green-guides/greenguides.pdf

On the other hand, it seems there are more, and more balanced, summaries of the environmental & socially conscious pros and cons of mined and lab-grown diamonds than I recall from 5-6 years back. I'm seeing those on primarily the websites of primarily brick-and-mortar jewelers that sell both kinds of diamonds, but there are a few websites where I wouldn't have expected to see that more measured approach.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

It is going to be interesting - maybe we can provide a monitoring system with points for compliance - 100 best, 50 worst. Below 50 illegal.
BTW I believe the FTC has acted this way to enable USA to become a diamond producing country as they import all their diamonds (minus a tiny amueter mine product).

 

[MollyMalone]

* * * BTW I believe the FTC has acted this way to enable USA to become a diamond producing country as they import all their [mined] diamonds (minus a tiny amueter mine product).

Think you're hypothesizing that because the definition of diamond set forth in the FTC's new Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries "captures" laboratory-grown diamonds, that means lab-grown diamonds will be surreptitiously lumped in with mined US diamonds for some statistics-based purpose?

Don't know what statistics or purpose you're thinking of, nor do I know if there is a counterpart to the US Federal Trade Commission Act & the FTC itself in your country, Garry. But the USA FTC's Guides for various industries/trades (not just jewelry-related) are one way of implementing the Congressional prohibition of unfair and deceptive trade practices in commerce. The Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries itself notes that "persons, partnerships, or corporations in the business of appraising, identifying, or grading industry products should utilize the terminology and standards set forth in the guides" for the purpose of "prevent[ing] consumer deception." Which is why man-made diamonds still cannot be marketed, even under the new Guides for the Jewelry, etc., as naked "diamonds" with no informative descriptor.

And because the Guides' definitions do not have universal application, I foresee no change in how, e.g., the US Department of the Interior's Geological Survey agency reports on diamonds in its Annual Summaries and Yearbooks where the agency has long been distinguishing mined from synthetic diamonds in its descriptions of data compiled re the yield-production & import-export of industrial diamonds as well as gem-quality diamonds.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

There aren't any FTC Guidelines (so far as I know) re using "ethical" or "more ethical" in marketing to us consumers. But there are FTC Guidelines re "eco-friendly" and the like, and it does seem that more than a few lab-grown diamond "brands" or retailers could find themselves jammed up for not following the 2012 Green Guide:
https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/f...s-revised-green-guides/greenguidessummary.pdf
https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/f...c-issues-revised-green-guides/greenguides.pdf

On the other hand, it seems there are more, and more balanced, summaries of the environmental & socially conscious pros and cons of mined and lab-grown diamonds than I recall from 5-6 years back. I'm seeing those on primarily the websites of primarily brick-and-mortar jewelers that sell both kinds of diamonds, but there are a few websites where I wouldn't have expected to see that more measured approach.

Thanks for that Molly. Yes, I think 'green' and 'eco-friendly' claims are an appropriate analog.

Claiming “Green, made with recycled content” may be deceptive if the environmental costs of using recycled content outweigh the environmental benefits of using it.

You could replace that with:
Claiming 'lab grown diamonds are the socially responsible alternative to natural diamonds' may be deceptive if the social costs of damaging the diamond mining industry are greater than the benefits to society of the synthetic diamond industry.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Claiming 'lab grown diamonds are the socially responsible alternative to natural diamonds' may be deceptive if the social costs of damaging the diamond mining industry are greater than the benefits to society of the synthetic diamond industry.

if the social costs of damaging the 90% of people who work in the diamond mining and polishing industry who are dirt poor

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Think you're hypothesizing that because the definition of diamond set forth in the FTC's new Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries "captures" laboratory-grown diamonds, that means lab-grown diamonds will be surreptitiously lumped in with mined US diamonds for some statistics-based purpose?

Don't know what statistics or purpose you're thinking of, nor do I know if there is a counterpart to the US Federal Trade Commission Act & the FTC itself in your country, Garry. But the USA FTC's Guides for various industries/trades (not just jewelry-related) are one way of implementing the Congressional prohibition of unfair and deceptive trade practices in commerce. The Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries itself notes that "persons, partnerships, or corporations in the business of appraising, identifying, or grading industry products should utilize the terminology and standards set forth in the guides" for the purpose of "prevent[ing] consumer deception." Which is why man-made diamonds still cannot be marketed, even under the new Guides for the Jewelry, etc., as naked "diamonds" with no informative descriptor.

And because the Guides' definitions do not have universal application, I foresee no change in how, e.g., the US Department of the Interior's Geological Survey agency reports on diamonds in its Annual Summaries and Yearbooks where the agency has long been distinguishing mined from synthetic diamonds in its descriptions of data compiled re the yield-production & import-export of industrial diamonds as well as gem-quality diamonds.

MM I am not talking about stats. Yes, we have an equivalent in Australia (ACCC) but I am talking global politics and trade wars and balance of payments etc

 

[Texas Leaguer]

if the social costs of damaging the 90% of people who work in the diamond mining and polishing industry who are dirt poor

I think we should be focused on the mining sector because the polishers will still be polishing as the market share of synthetics increases. The losers will be the miners and those dependent on the mining industry, who I agree, tend to be among the neediest folks on the planet. And there are many great success stories in terms of community development in diamond mining areas. The economies of whole countries have been transformed due to diamond mining. Botswana is a good example of beneficiation in infrastructure, education and health care.

 

[Garnetgirl]

Thank you for starting this thread, @Garry H (Cut Nut) It was so interesting and informative. I learned a lot

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I think we should be focused on the mining sector because the polishers will still be polishing as the market share of synthetics increases. The losers will be the miners and those dependent on the mining industry, who I agree, tend to be among the neediest folks on the planet. And there are many great success stories in terms of community development in diamond mining areas. The economies of whole countries have been transformed due to diamond mining. Botswana is a good example of beneficiation in infrastructure, education and health care.

I agree with most of what you said Bryan.
But regarding cutters and those who grade and plan rough, then grade and catagorise the eventual polished - please consider:
1. Synthetic rough is either HPHT and blocky, or more and more is coming out as CVD in flat tablets where depth is the only constraint.
2. in all cases the hardness directions are known and there is no demand for the skilled labour for polishing.
3. this all means automation is far easier to apply to grown rough
4. Natural diamond crystals undergo very expensive planning with hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment per stone operated by engineers with maths and physics education.
5. because there will be fewer rarity related issues (De Beers is not bothering to grade cut, colour or clarity for example) the cutting skills and education and salary requirements will result in loss of good jobs in cutting centers for probably 300,000 to 400,000 people. Mostly in Surat India.
6. demand for grading diamonds will fall away if mined diamonds loose favour. How many people do GIA employ in their labs in India????? It must be a big number of gem educated people who later often find their way into other industry jobs as they have in USA.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

I agree with most of what you said Bryan.
But regarding cutters and those who grade and plan rough, then grade and catagorise the eventual polished - please consider:
1. Synthetic rough is either HPHT and blocky, or more and more is coming out as CVD in flat tablets where depth is the only constraint.
2. in all cases the hardness directions are known and there is no demand for the skilled labour for polishing.
3. this all means automation is far easier to apply to grown rough
4. Natural diamond crystals undergo very expensive planning with hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment per stone operated by engineers with maths and physics education.
5. because there will be fewer rarity related issues (De Beers is not bothering to grade cut, colour or clarity for example) the cutting skills and education and salary requirements will result in loss of good jobs in cutting centers for probably 300,000 to 400,000 people. Mostly in Surat India.
6. demand for grading diamonds will fall away if mined diamonds loose favour. How many people do GIA employ in their labs in India????? It must be a big number of gem educated people who later often find their way into other industry jobs as they have in USA.

Excellent points Garry. You raised my awareness.

There is A LOT at stake in making sure the synthetic market is developed responsibly.

 

[JulieN]

According to DDI:
Up to 20% of the world’s gem-quality diamonds are produced by artisanal miners – people who dig for diamonds using rudimentary equipment. Often the whole family is involved, including children. There are 1.5 million artisanal miners in Africa and South America, working in 18 different countries.

And there are many great success stories in terms of community development in diamond mining areas. The economies of whole countries have been transformed due to diamond mining. Botswana is a good example of beneficiation in infrastructure, education and health care.

Bryan, can you point me towards these success stories where miners' lives have been made better through rudimentary pick-and-axe mining, as in, they are moving up the economic scale, eg. health indicators are improving, children are spending more time in school, marriage age is rising? I'm sure you don't think that child miners is a good thing, and any alternatives that these children have surely are not good quality ones, but is mining really the least worse alternative?

You emphasize that traditional miners will lose out the most because they are the poorest.... consider that they are a very small group, only 1.5M people as you said... and in a way have very little to lose. As a thought experiment, it would make much more economic sense for luxury diamond buyers to get simulants/lab-created stones and donate a fraction of the price difference to these impoverished miners. Africa already has been seeing benefits of Chinese investment, globalisation, etc.... if the benefits of the industry are so unequally distributed, maybe it's a great time for some churn.

When I buy French fleur de sel de Carmargue, the carton has the signature (digital, not hand-signed) of the person who hand-raked and harvested it... a lovely little bit of romantic advertising, with emphasis on the human, hand-made manufacture of the product. Fleur de sel is atrociously expensive compared to to the pounds of industrial salt you can buy, and really not any better than standard table or kosher salt. I buy it because it is a gussied-up luxury product (that I can actually afford) that makes me feel like I'm treating myself.

For a long time, diamond retailers have been making the value of a stone dependent on it's physical characteristics, but now that we have lab-made diamonds, perhaps the human elements that go from taking crystal to gem need to be emphasized? Still not sure the image of impoverished child miners working the earth is the right picture.

 

[Karl_K]

I have been thinking a lot about what I was going to say in this thread and keep coming back and reading it.

Artisanal mining is where the greatest amount of abuse both to people and the environment is taking place in the industry today.
On the other hand there are a lot of people that rely on it as bad as it is to eat.
At the same time in some cases they are trashing sources of drinking water and poisoning the land and themselves while they are doing it.

On the other hand:

I am a fan of man made diamonds from a technology and a wow shiny perspective.
They are here to stay and will in my opinion grow as a larger and larger part of the industry.
They are not going to go away.

 

[OoohShiny]

I have been thinking a lot about what I was going to say in this thread and keep coming back and reading it.

Artisanal mining is where the greatest amount of abuse both to people and the environment is taking place in the industry today.
On the other hand there are a lot of people that rely on it as bad as it is to eat.
At the same time in some cases they are trashing sources of drinking water and poisoning the land and themselves while they are doing it.

On the other hand:

I am a fan of man made diamonds from a technology and a wow shiny perspective.
They are here to stay and will in my opinion grow as a larger and larger part of the industry.
They are not going to go away.

I think what you're trying to say is... it's complicated lol

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Bryan, can you point me towards these success stories where miners' lives have been made better through rudimentary pick-and-axe mining, as in, they are moving up the economic scale, eg. health indicators are improving, children are spending more time in school, marriage age is rising? I'm sure you don't think that child miners is a good thing, and any alternatives that these children have surely are not good quality ones, but is mining really the least worse alternative?

You emphasize that traditional miners will lose out the most because they are the poorest.... consider that they are a very small group, only 1.5M people as you said... and in a way have very little to lose. As a thought experiment, it would make much more economic sense for luxury diamond buyers to get simulants/lab-created stones and donate a fraction of the price difference to these impoverished miners. Africa already has been seeing benefits of Chinese investment, globalisation, etc.... if the benefits of the industry are so unequally distributed, maybe it's a great time for some churn.

When I buy French fleur de sel de Carmargue, the carton has the signature (digital, not hand-signed) of the person who hand-raked and harvested it... a lovely little bit of romantic advertising, with emphasis on the human, hand-made manufacture of the product. Fleur de sel is atrociously expensive compared to to the pounds of industrial salt you can buy, and really not any better than standard table or kosher salt. I buy it because it is a gussied-up luxury product (that I can actually afford) that makes me feel like I'm treating myself.

For a long time, diamond retailers have been making the value of a stone dependent on it's physical characteristics, but now that we have lab-made diamonds, perhaps the human elements that go from taking crystal to gem need to be emphasized? Still not sure the image of impoverished child miners working the earth is the right picture.

Julie,
I would point you to the DDI site. They are catalyzing the collective efforts to organize and improve the artisenal sector. You can see how they are approaching the challenges, what they are learning, what they are building, and how their efforts are impacting lives.
http://www.ddiglobal.org/login/resources/ddi-annual-report-2016-english.pdf

Bear in mind that Whiteflash is older than DDI! Community development takes time to bear fruit.

With regard to the thought experiment, I feel it is far better to support the development of the business of arsenal mining whereby you enable the workers to create their own value and incentive to achieve and prosper in a capitalist style, rather than collecting a tax on synthetics to provide them as a form of welfare.

I agree with your ideas about need to do better marketing around the positive social aspects of natural mined diamonds. As you mention, other products do this effectively, raising awareness and allowing consumers to support those products that actually contribute to the greater good.

 

[sledge]

I made reference in an earlier posts to farmers on the side of the road. These people have been hard at it all week.

 

[Johnbt]

I'll bite. Why would liberals and tech entrepreneurs do what?

If they shoot all of the poor miners, who is going to supply them with product? Will they go find their own diamonds in the mud? I doubt it.

I finally quit guessing and did a google image search. It's just another stupid internet meme.

I've been on line since modems were 300 baud, maybe less. I think the www needs more signal and less noise.

 

[ChristineRose]

Since when is manufacturing diamonds liberal?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Another example of the excellent work of DDI:
(I wonder if we set up a fund raising effort, would PriceScoper's and vendors consider donating and we could send a more significant amount?)
How does one combat cross border diamond smuggling? Education is the key!

It's been said the smuggling of diamonds across borders has been an issue plaguing countries for decades. To combat this very issue, Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) has launched an anti-smuggling initiative for border communities in the Mano River Union region of West Africa.

GIZ representative opening the workshop in Freetown

Over the past two weeks, DDI hosted sensitization workshops in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Monrovia, Liberia, with more close to 40 government agents and civil society representatives in attendance.

Participants of the workshop are being trained to create awareness and sensitize members of border communities about diamond smuggling.


The free flow of diamonds across borders is illegal, but unfortunately not everyone knows that fact. The significant artisanal diamond mining in these countries, most of it being informal, makes controlling production and trade of diamonds difficult, to the detriment of the national economies and potential development for the mining communities.


The first phase of the program involved a pilot project in Guinea. The pilot was a success with and now the initiative has evolved to the other countries of the Mano River Union region.


"It's exciting to see the kind of impact this initiative can have on reducing smuggling across border communities," added Dorothée Gizenga, DDI Executive Director. "We're really looking forward to expanding the program to help the formalization of the artisanal diamond economy."

Workshop attendees in Monrovia

We thank the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale

Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the sustainable development arm of the German government, and the European Union, whose support is made this project possible.


This initiative is part of the Kimberley Process Regional Approach to address common KP implementation issues in the region and strengthen enforcement.