In two “Civil Society” letters to Michael Rae, CEO of the RJC and Matt Runci, Chairman of the Board of the RJC and head of Jewelers of America, Oxfam, Movimiento de tierras, CAFOD, Global Witness and others decline to support RJC, sighting a lack of a third party, multi-stakeholder approach for mining. Quoting from the letter to

Ethically sourced gems involve developing an entirely new approach to the supply chain that, in principal, is similar to the slow food, organics movement. Just as people want the link between farm to table, those developing a fair trade gemstone product are looking for the mine to market custody chain. Though some gemstones, particularly diamonds,

MSN reports in an article published on June 22nd reports that the court will allow toxic tailings from the Kensington Gold Mine near Juneau, Alaska to be legally dumped in a lake below Lion’s Head Mountain, The waste is expected to kill all the fish in the lake and pollute the local water tables. Earthjustice