Buying jewellery is no longer as simple as trotting down to your local Charles Greig and shelling out for something fancy enough to guarantee a warm reception in the boudoir. Nowadays it comes with an ethical checklist, to ensure that the rock in question wasn’t mined by a child slave, wouldn’t swell the coffers of a military junta or line the pockets of some whack job who has decided for no apparent reason to bomb the people of Ukraine back into the Stone Age.
Sticking Alrosa, the Russian company responsible for 28% of global diamond supply, on the sanctions list may be a start, but it doesn’t address the issue of Russian stones shipped off to India for cutting. This is all good news for Gemfields, which refers to itself as the world’s leading supplier of responsibly sourced coloured gemstones. The company has bounced back well from the challenges of Covid, restarting mining without any major issues after almost a year shut down, and ramping up quickly to excellent production...
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