[Jewelry making - Article 00301] - Re: [Orchid] Responsible Gold

[Lisa Bialac-Jehle]

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    NY Times Article on "Ethical Gold" 

    Saw this today, thought it would be of interest to everyone. 

    Lisa,(Still remembering more things that the thief stole out of my
    car last week drat it!) Topanga, CA USA 

           ----------

           With This Ethical Ring I Thee Wed
           By Kirk Johnson

          MANY of the shoppers who happen into Leber Jeweler's modest
          brick storefront in Western Springs, Ill., just outside
          Chicago, don't know much, if anything, about the social and
          environmental costs of industrial gold mining. 

          Brian Leber, the president and owner of the 85-year-old
          company, is happy to enlighten. He can then quietly suggest a
          piece of jewelry that makes the concerns about mining moot:
          his Earthwise Jewelry line, which Leber manufactures using
          recycled gold. 

          "I try not to pontificate," Mr. Leber said. "But I do try to
          educate people on the issues." 

          In the last few years, as the outsize environmental impact of
          gold mining has been exposed, jewelers E280" as the retail face
          of the industry E280" have been trying to inoculate themselves
          against a consumer backlash. It is not here yet, but many
          people say it is sure to come. 

          In February eight jewelry companies E280" some small like
          Leber, others giant like Zale, the nation's second largest gold
          retailer after Wal- Mart E280" signed on to a national campaign
          called "No Dirty Gold." The campaign was created two years ago
          by a coalition of advocacy groups to highlight the issues
          surrounding gold and gold mining. 

          The pledge is minimal in its requirements, essentially a
          promise to work toward a resolution of gold's tangled issues,
          rather than a solution. But many environmentalists and industry
          officials say that the momentum and commitment are what
          matters. 

          "It's like the lock has been picked, opening a door that could
          lead to responsibly sourced gold," said Stephen D'Esposito, the
          president and executive director of Earthworks, a mining
          watchdog group in Washington that helped create the campaign.
          The eight companies together represent $6.3 billion in retail
          jewelry sales, or 14 percent of sales in the United States,
          according to Oxfam International, a confederation of groups
          that work on poverty and economic justice, and a leader of the
          campaign. 

          Along with Zale and Leber, the other signers aRe: the Signet
          Group (the parent firm of Sterling and Kay Jewelers), Helzberg
          Diamonds, Fortunoff, Cartier, Piaget and Van Cleef & Arpels. As
          recently as last year only Tiffany & Company had signed the "No
          Dirty Gold" pledge. 

          Most jewelers, including Mr. Leber, say that making jewelry of
          recycled gold is only a tiny piece of the answer. The deeper
          question, they say, lies around the phrase "responsible
          mining," and whether it is possible. About 80 percent of all
          the gold mined today is fabricated into jewelry. 

          "What does indeed constitute a responsible mining operation?"
          asked Michael J. Kowalski, the chairman and chief executive of
          Tiffany. "Who's there at the moment, and how do we get to where
          we need to be? 

          The critical next step is reaching a substantive agreement on
          those questions." 

          Tiffany buys most of its gold from a Utah mine called Bingham
          Canyon that does not use cyanide, which can pollute water and
          lead to the release of other pollutants like mercury. Last year
          Tiffany began processing its gold itself at a plant in Rhode
          Island as part of a strategy to control the supply chain.
          Tiffany aims ultimately to provide customers with a "chain of
          custody assurance" stating where the gold in a ring or necklace
          has been, from mine to display case. 

          These changes are partly coming about, people in and out of
          the jewelry industry say, because gold mining's environmental
          and social impacts have become impossible to ignore, especially
          in developing countries where political protests, corruption
          and displacement of indigenous peoples have often accompanied
          mining. 

          Because most of the known gold deposits in the world are in
          microscopic form E280" the shiny nuggets of old are as dated
          as the miner and his mule E280" huge industrial open-pit
          mines, usually using cyanide to retrieve the metal from base
          rock, are required to make mining economically viable. And
          because the grades of ore are so weak, the process is hugely
          destructive and wasteful, with at least 30 tons of waste rock
          often needed to produce a single gold ring. 

          A months-long investigation by The New York Times, which led to
          a four-part series last year called "The Cost of Gold," also
          raised questions about how and whether communities in
          developing countries consent to the mines in their midst, and
          whether the long-term environmental impacts in places like
          Nevada and Indonesia are being correctly assessed. Then
          there's the Wal-Mart effect. 

          Wal-Mart's strategy for everything it sells, including gold,
          is to eliminate the middleman, buy direct from suppliers and
          pass the savings on to customers. Jewelers are following suit
          as they try to cut costs and compete. Industry experts and
          executives say the trend has nothing to do with ethics, but
          that more control of supply makes the ethics debate over dirty
          gold somewhat easier, because companies are already thinking
          more deeply about where things come from. 

          "The overall theme is know your vendors," said David H.
          Sternblitz, a vice president and the treasurer at Zale
          Corporation. "Make sure you know who you're dealing with." 

          Mining and jewelry companies are also realizing that internal
          codes of conduct or environmental rules are meaningless without
          independent verification and inspection. Insurance companies
          and socially conscious investment funds are also beginning to
          demand standards of conduct that can be assessed by outsiders. 

          "They want be able to credibly say, 'I am not with stupid,' "
          said Michael Rae, the president of the Council for Responsible
          Jewellery Practices, a group formed last year by retailers and
          mining companies. "To avoid being judged by the lowest common
          denominator of the industry, they need a means by which they
          can differentiate their practices." 

          Alternative voices in a deeply conservative industry are also
          starting to speak up. 

          Jennifer Horning, an artist and metal worker in San Francisco,
          is among the founders of a group called Ethical Metalsmiths. In
          May her group will present a show designed to foster awareness
          about responsible mining at the annual meeting of the Society
          of North American Goldsmiths in Chicago. One artist will
          exhibit a gold charm bracelet hung with tiny handcuffs, guns
          and coffins; another made a stark metal syringe with gold in
          the chamber ready for injection. 

          Companies like greenKarat.com, a Web-based business in Texas,
          and Seraglia couture in London are also proselytizing the
          virtues of so- called ethical jewelry. 

          "Initially it's a harder sell," said Lucy Wills, who founded
          Seraglia last year to use recycled gold. But Ms. Wills said
          she takes heart from the sharp growth in consciousness about
          food and the social and environmental conditions of its
          production. 

          "We won the battle with food; we're kind of getting there with
          clothing," she said. "I think maybe in a few years time people
          will be thinking more about jewelry too." 

          Andrew and Johanna Heyduk are already there. The Heyduks, who
          live in New York City, shopped for responsibly mined gold last
          year for their wedding bands. They ended up not buying gold at
          all. When they took their vows in Vermont in October, it was
          with platinum rings from greenKarat. 

          But even if responsible, ethical mining is possible, verifying
          it will be difficult even with the best of intentions, industry
          experts say. Diamonds, furs and timber all look simple by
          comparison, because they all come in a discrete form that can
          be tracked by a paper trail. A specific tree produces a
          specific two-by-four; a diamond comes from one mine that can be
          found on a map. 

          Gold is not like that. It must be purified and smelted,
          amalgamated and combined into forms that jewelry makers can
          then use. That means many more steps on the journey from mine
          to display case, and no easy trail to follow. 

          Mr. Rae's appointment to the Council for Responsible Jewellery
          Practices in February is seen as a sign of change; he was
          formerly with the World Wildlife Fund in Australia, working the
          other side of the issue as an environmentalist. He says
          certified gold will require an entirely different strategy. 

          "Instead of a chain of custody, we have gone instead to a
          chain of confidence," Mr. Rae said. He said that by 2008 the
          council hopes to have a set of processes and standards with
          independent third-party verification at every step of the
          jewelry creation and selling process. Groups like Earthworks
          and Oxfam are working on a similar time frame to establish a
          certification process for mining operations. 

          How much of the ferment is real? Environmentalists and
          industry insiders are divided: some hopeful, others braced for
          system that burnishes gold's image without changing anything on
          the ground. 

          "It will be proven over time," Ms. Horning at Ethical
          Metalsmiths said. "But it's the beginning of a dialogue and
          that is the most important thing to us."
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