Jeweller - May 2022

High altitude artisanal gemstones miner, Karakorum Range, Northern Pakistan.
Artisanal coal scavenger, India.
in history could somehow lead to the expropriation
of land from local villagers and that these people,
including the farmer who made the discovery, could
receive next to nothing for his discovery?
And further, how can it be ‘responsible’ for that
land to be rezoned and issued to a high-ranking
government official before then being part-sold to
one of the world’s largest gemstone miners?
One example of many
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case.
There seems to be one rule for some of the world’s
poorest – artisanal miners mining by hand and
fighting to feed their families – and another rule for
the large mining companies.
Recently, I was talking with a colleague who is a
mining company senior executive who has spent
many years supplying contract services to gold
mining companies. He told me that one of the
world’s largest gold miners – a Western company -
had just made a substantial royalty payment to the
government in one of its countries of operation.
The village immediately adjacent to the mine which
generated this royalty payment has no sewerage,
and barely any electricity.
I’ve witnessed this first hand. Some of the worst
poverty I’ve seen in Africa has been right next to
some of its biggest gold mines.
However, for some reason, it’s ‘taken as gospel’
that most Western mining companies operate
responsibly because, regardless of whether this gold
producer is a member of the RJC, one can almost
certainly assume that gold sourced from its site is
being labeled as ‘responsibly sourced’!
While it’s true to say that the world’s poorest
artisanal miners, which everyone seems to love
taking a big stick to, are by no means perfect,
there are so many issues that must be considered
adjudicating on whether a mineral is responsibly
sourced.
Most of these issues are continually overlooked
44 | May 2022
Emerald
Sapphire
Ruby
Source: Gemfields
and responsible sourcing needs to be much more
holistic.
Evaluating the impacts of mining on local
communities - and that’s for large and artisanal
mines – must include factors such as employment,
in-country and regional stability (because people
are gainfully employed), environmental impacts, the
opportunity for people to acquire new skills and the
retention of wealth ‘in-country’.
My issue is that we all seem to be happy to attack the
small guys – the artisanal miners – because they are
easy to target and can’t fight back.
At the same time, we ignore the misdemeanors and
perils of the larger producers because they have
many more financial resources and powerful people
watching their backs.
In other words, holding the largest producers to
account is a much tougher task. Just look at Russian
diamond mining juggernaut Alrosa, if you need an
example.
'Responsibility’ sector
The RJC’s COP is clearly an improved attempt at
a more stringent and responsible due diligence
standard, however, no matter how rigorous people
attempt to make guidelines there will always be
loopholes that are in almost direct proportion to the
amount of subjectivity and latitude allowed within
those standards.
The subjectivity and loopholes vary from consultant
to consultant and auditor to auditor and the level and
extent of their life experience with the impoverished
nations of the Third World. Then you can overlay the
inequality of bargaining power between large and
small and you can start to understand the problem.
If you’re a small miner then your capacity to argue
that you are doing anything ‘responsible’ will
be almost minuscule when compared to any of
the world’s largest mining companies that hold
certification and have powerful board members,
lawyers and litigation budgets to fight anyone who
attempts to take them on.