Frequently Asked Questions

A gem that has been mined, cut and polished in a responsible manner, with warranties that human rights have been respected, no child labour is involved, no civil wars have been financed with the proceeds of the sale, and miners & lapidaries receive a fair pay for their work.

Traceability is the documentation of the journey of a gemstone from the mine, to the cutting and polishing workshops and through the various dealers who sale the stone till it is sold to the final customer (either as a loose stone or set in jewellery).  Your gem provider should provide you with as much traceability information as possible.  Traceability is a must for a responsibly mined gemstone.

Not necessarily.  The process to mine, cut & polish and commercialise an ethical gemstone is not different than that of a ‘non ethical’ gemstone.  The higher the number of intermediate dealers involved, the higher the cost of the gemstone would be (no matter whether it is ethically or ‘non ethically’ sourced).  When responsibly-sourced gemstones are sold ‘from Mine to Market’, the supply chain is quite short and just a few intermediate dealers are involved, in which case the cost of the ethically sourced gemstone would be in fact lower.