Conflict Gold, DRC, 60 Minutes and Jewelers of America’s Spin: Inside Information for Consumers To Purchase Ethically Sourced Jewelry
~ By Marc Choyt, Publisher
Introduction:
“Reinforcing Confidence in the diamond and gold supply chain.” (Responsible Jewellery Council’s Website)
60 Minutes to Matt Runci, head of RJC and Jewelers of America: “Does your certification mean, for example, the gold didn’t come from Congo?”
Matt Runci, JA and Repsonsible Jewelry Council: “Source of origin is not yet a part of the Council’s Framework.”
Dear Jewelry Purchasers,
If you watched the 60 Minutes segment on Conflict Gold, you are concerned about the gold in your jewelry. You should be.
Jewelers of America (JA), the largest trade lobbying group of its kind, is very concerned about your reaction. It has sent out a “Key Message and Questions & Answers” letter to independent jewelers throughout America.
Having obtained the letter, I can tell you it has two purposes. The first and most obvious reason for the letter is to coach your local jeweler on how to handle your questions and concerns about conflict gold from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The second purpose of this letter is more subtle, but important for background information. It is to promote the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) to independent jewelers as a strong leader in these issues. Jewelers of America is a central player in the RJC. Matt Runci, who was interviewed in the 60 Minute segment, is head of both JA and RJC
I am writing this post to help you cut through the spin. The unfortunate fact is that the current jewelry supply chain, from a human rights and environmental point of view, is massively toxic.
Reading the rest of this article, you will get the information you need to make a difference.
“Key Messages”
In the letter to jewelers sent out by JA, not meant for the public, jewelers were given four key talking points which I will go through one by one.
1.) Jewelers are to tell you that they believe gold should be mined responsibly and sustainably.
Reality: Of course, everyone wants responsibility and sustainability. But the fact is that most jewelry in the US comes from Asian countries that don’t care where the gold is purchased from.
In the US, except for just a few companies, sourcing issues rank low to non-existent as a factor in a jeweler’s purchasing decision making.
Even a sincere expression of concern for the issue without an offering of jewelry made with 100% recycled or traceable gold shows that your jeweler just does not get the importance of these issues.
Tell them that you’ll shop somewhere else. It might help wake them up.
Another bit of spin here is the notion of “sustainable” jewelry. Large mining, well represented in the Responsible Jewelry Council (RJC), are branding themselves and gold mining as “sustainable.” That’s ridiculous. How can extraction of a limited resource creating, in the case of gold, massive amounts of cyanide or mercury pollution, be “sustainable?”
In fact, precious metal extraction in developing countries with poor regulatory power is often a “resource curse” for African nations that get very little back.
2. Jewelers are to tell you that they are actively seeking in writing, commitments from suppliers that assure a gold supply that does not fund wars.
Reality: Only a very few jewelers are taking this type of action. Besides, what is happening in the DRC is tragic, but in reality, the focus on it is a bit of a red herring. When considering the entire gold supply chain, only a tiny amount funds wars. The issue is “dirty gold”. You can assume that any gold jewelry from untraceable sources contains at least some dirty gold– gold mined somewhere in the world, causing environmental and human rights atrocities.
Do not purchase gold unless it can be traced to a source or it is recycled.
3. Jewelers are to tell you that they support trade organizations to pursue good practices. The (RJC) is their main one.
This is where the letter gets interesting for insiders in the jewelry sector, such as myself. RJC, which represents the big boys club in the jewelry sector, are creating a set of standards to “reinforce confidence in the diamond and gold supply chain.” However, international organizations, promoting a civil society, declined to support the RJC initiatives.
How can you reinforce confidence without barring your members from using dirty gold?. Since business from RJC members is huge, they are afraid to say, as I do in my editorial, “The emperor has no clothes.”
4. The fourth “key message” mentions that only 0.02% of the gold in the world is coming from the DRC and that they believe that even a small amount of this gold in the supply chain is too much.
Reality: This explanation is true, but again, as serious as this conflict gold is, it is still part of the larger issue of dirty gold, which is widespread. Your job, as a consumer, is to demand nothing less than 100% traceability in the precious metal that makes up the jewelry you are purchasing. Otherwise, you are contributing to the problem.
A few years ago, I was at the most important trade show in the jewelry business promoting ethical sourcing. I was largely ignored. In fact, when I tried to talk to a major buyer about ethical sourcing issues, she looked at me as if I was from the moon.
But now things are changing. More companies are recognizing that their supply chain makes them very vulnerable. You can make a difference. If just 5% of people purchasing jewelry raised these issues, much of the jewelry supply chain would undergo massive, rapid change for the better.
Jewelers will pay attention to your views.
Sincerely yours,
Marc Choyt, Publisher, fairjewelry.org
