Impact

BEAUTIFUL METAL SOUL

Metal is only beautiful if its entire lifecycle is considered. How was it formed? How was it extracted from the earth? How was it handled as it moved up the supply chain to become a ring on your finger or a garland around your neck. Was the land protected. Were the miners respected? Was nature honored?

Here is a sampling of ethical miners and designers that are producing some of the most beautiful metal jewelry in the world, from ore to store.

Photo: Courtesy of My Green Lifestyle. First gold bar certified Fairtrade and Fairmined.

The jewelry industry has a legacy of destructive mining practices, for both metals and gems, which are among the worst environmental polluters on the planet today. In addition, many of these mines are are rife with human rights abuses.

But now, Fairtrade International recently announced that twelve mines are emerging as the first in all of Africa to produce ethical gold.

Photo: Charlotte de Beauvoir. Green Gold Miner.

It is the start of Fairtrade International’s three-year plan, funded by Comic Relief, aiming to ban child labor, enforce health and safety regulations, and prevent massive toxic poisoning from chemicals such as mercury and cyanide, used in most mining operations. Their goal is to get European buyers interested in the idea of “green gold.”

Green Gold costs more. But Fairtrade is betting on the idea that people who care more are willing to pay more. The premiums can be invested in local mines, education, childcare and community groups. The success of the initiative was seen previously in South America, which began to sell Fairtrade gold two years ago.

Photo: Courtesy of EVE Ethical Jewelry.

The Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), has recently announced that Fairmined metals are now available to ethical jewelers in North America through FairSources.This is a giant achievement for the fair jewelry movement and for Artisanal and Small-scale Miners (ASM) globally.

FairSources is the first authorized trader of Fairmined Gold in America. They have merged the world’s largest consumer market for fairly traded goods with one of the world’s largest consumer markets for jewelry.

Photo: Courtesy of Earth Beat Foundation. Gold mines in Peru.

Two ASM communities in Peru, Sotrami and Aurelsa, and the Cotapata Cooperative in Bolivia, stand to benefit. They have worked diligently to achieve the Fairmined certification and now offer socially, environmentally, and sustainably produced gold to cutting-edge ventures like FairSources.This initiative will make it easier for all jewelers to work with ethical metals.

Photo: Courtesy of CIJ International Jewelry.

Eco-friendly designer, Toby Pomeroy, handcrafts gorgeous ethical metal jewelry in Corvallis, Oregon. His is among the first jewelry design studios in the United States to partner with the Fairtrade Foundation and the Alliance for Responsible Mining in offering the world’s first Fairmined gold in jewelry.

The studio is also among the first in the US to offer jewelry made from the Oro Verde mines, located in the Choco rainforest in Columbia. Oro Verde is one of only three mines in the world that have been certified in producing Fairtrade and Fairmined gold and is the only one that is mining without the use of hazardous chemicals.

Photo: Toby Pomeroy. TrueGold Platinum rings.

As of 2013, the Oro Verde mine remains the only source of environmentally responsible and socially uplifting Fairmined platinum. It is mined in a cooperative environment, by hand, without the use of heavy machinery.

Photo: Courtesy of Toby Pomeroy.

Toby Pomeroy’s TRUE GOLD™ jewelry line uses Fairmined completely traceable gold, platinum, diamonds and gemstones, showing complete authenticity from mine to market.

Photo: Courtesy of Toby Pomeroy.

According to the designer, “Just as we take great care in crafting of the planet’s most precious materials, we must go to great lengths to ensure that our procurement of these resources is one of as little negative impact as possible. To forgo this responsibility would taint on the legacy of these precious items, as true gifts from the earth.”

Photo: Toby Pomeroy. Two-tone EcoSilver earrings.

While fly fishing in his favorite Oregon coastal river, Pomeroy hatched another idea. He decided to ask his refiner to purify previously used scrap gold and silver so he could create another ethically sourced jewelry line. The launch of EcoPlatinum, EcoGold, and EcoSilver reclaimed metals lines set a new standard, defining ethical luxury in ways never seen previously.

Photo: Lisa Marie. Perfect Balance Collection ring.

More jewlery designers are turning to reclaimed metals to make their pieces. UK designer, Lisa Marie, uses and re-alloys decorative gold from clients. This way, she knows that the metal in her jewelry has not been produced at the further expense of communities, workers or the environment.

Photo: Lisa Marie. Whitefriar cufflinks.

Marie also recycles and repurposes glass in her designs. Her Whitefriar cufflinks, for example, feature millefiori that originally came from paperweights made from the James Powell & Sons Whitefriar glass factory, founded in 1720. They are set in reclaimed gold.

Photo: Courtesy of Caliber Collection. Caliber Collection Brass Cufflinks.

Jewelry designer Jessica Mindich’s approach to metal recycling has as extra dose of soul. Her The Caliber Collection is beautifully crafted from brass and steel that otherwise would be used to kill. Made from melting 250 guns and their bullet casings seized by the Newark New Jersey Police Department as part of their gun buyback program, these bracelets do double-duty beautiful. We featured Caliber in our post Bracelets Steal Hearts & Save Lives.

Photo: Courtesy of Energy and Environment.