FOCUS 20 | JNA March/April 2023 sapphires is an attractive feature for many buyers. Most Montana sapphires require heat treatment but, for some, the lower risk in comparison to buying from Africa where it is more challenging to trace the stones to the mine and extraction circumstances, outweigh the unusual pale-green and blue-green colours of the Montana production. Another venture in the West offering responsibly mined, traceable rubies and pink sapphires is Greenland Ruby. Like rubies from Mong Hsu in Burma, almost all of Greenland's production is heated with borax. Some would immediately label them as glass-filled but there is a technical difference between “heated with borax” and “glass-filled” rubies, as the company explains on its website. “I recently saw top-quality 6mm red ruby beads from Longido, Tanzania,” explained gem merchant Jeffrey Bergman SGC SSEF. “They were unheated and cost US$20 per bead, which would have been US$200 if they were from Greenland.” The morale of the story is that stones traceable to a responsible source, combined with a good dollop of sales and marketing will fetch a premium, irrespective of their unconventional colour and treatment. Looking east, Fuli Gemstones offers responsibly mined peridot from the foothills of China’s Changbai mountains. Established in 2015, the vertically integrated company currently supplies peridots from its bulk-sampling operations. Once full-scale mining starts, it aims to become a dominant player for peridot. Fuli has already begun to reshape the demand landscape for peridot, aggressively marketing itself as a responsible mine. Community impact Other mine-to-market initiatives include Moyo Gems, which offers retailers and jewellery manufacturers the opportunity to source directly from small-scale mining communities in East Africa. Virtu Gems is an online source connecting miners and cutters in Africa to the industry and consumer-at-large. Cristina Villegas, director, Sustainable Markets for the NGO PACT said, "It is important to clarify that gemstone suppliers do not have to create a fancy responsible sourcing programme. They should understand their sources, choose one thing to work on with a mining community then document, commit, grow, and communicate to customers." Gem Legacy, founded by US-based merchant Roger Dery, works at a grassroots level to provide basic tools to informal and small-scale mining communities and supports schools and skills development in East Africa. Nigeria-focused Mina Stones and Zambia-based Jewel of Africa actively support the gemstone community in their respective countries. “Most artisanal miners have traditionally been villagers discovering gemoutcrops while on hunts after the harvesting season is over and before the planting season begins,” revealed Jewel of Africa Co-Founder Rashmi Sharma. “We are committed to ensuring that the communities we work with benefit from our purchases and that our activities comply with laws and regulations.” transforms the rough into a facetted gem. This is supported by a digital ledger or Provenance Proof blockchain. Once set and sold in a jewel, customers can bring the jewel for testing to check the mine of origin. But whether technology translates into responsible sourcing depends on the behaviour of the stakeholders involved and the integrity of the information provided. Provenance Proof Director Klemens Link said, “Our latest venture is the Provenance Proof Marketplace, which gives the gem industry access to buy transparently traded gems. We believe provable transparency and traceability empowers trust. It is also important for us that the artisanal mining sector is not excluded.” To that end, many initiatives by Provenance Proof remain free-of-charge. This year, it will be adding more third-party verified information on stakeholders and on asset level, for instance, through gemmological laboratories, auditing organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or government authorities. Mining operations Fura Gems, which operates large-scale emerald, ruby and sapphire mines in Colombia, Mozambique and Australia, has fast-tracked growth by taking over prevailing mining operations and deposits. Its Australian mine is already an RJC member, and Fura has registered with RJC with the aim of completing certification for the group and all its other operating sites by the end of 2023. Montana in the US has emerged as a key source for responsibly mined sapphires, courtesy of Potentate Mining, which owns around 90 per cent of the most prolific deposit in the Rock Creek region. Due to strict environmental regulation and higher costs of a first-world economy, Potentate runs a lean operation and has undertaken several conservation initiatives such as using recycled water to process production and, despite the 3,300 acres at their disposal, not disturbing more than five acres at a time without rehabilitation of the land. Potentate's offering of traceable, responsibly mined Donna Hourani x Gemfields earrings 耳环
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