Dirty Gold
Industrial gold mining is a dirty business, there's no denying it. We are signatories to the 'no dirty gold campaign' and are working to prove to the big suppliers that there is a market for ethically mined gold.
Things, however, are improving and we can now supply
Full Certifed Fairtrade and Fairmined Gold.
This is the big one, and in no way easy to solve. Large-scale gold mining can be extremely environmentally invasive, and it's very difficult to know where your gold has come from through the regular supply chain. Because we are a bespoke jeweller and don't know what you are going to want your ring to be made out of until you have your appointment, we face some special challenges that jewellers who are designing collections for manufacture can get around.
As an industry, with the Responsible Jewellery Council we have been proving to the large mining companies that extracting gold in a cleaner, more responsible way is important to customers, and the gold mining industry has started to clean up its act. It's not there yet, but there is progress and momentum is building.
Gold mined under fully certified Fairtrade principles is now available and a huge step in the right direction. Customers pay a premium which is passed directly to the miners who use it to develop a sustainable way of life for their communitied.
Related blog articles
- Harriet's blog article on dirty gold.
- Alice's blog article on dirty gold.