At Edward Fleming Jewellery, we’re big on trying to make our business as ethical as possible.  It just seems common sense that you’d want to make sure your business isn’t harming people or the environment.

In the jewellery industry, the main areas of concern are workers’ rights, fair pay, funding conflict, and damage to the environment. All of these issues apply to the procurement of diamonds as well, which are still the world’s most popular gemstones, despite rising attempts to use alternative stones.

We want to be as clear as possible as to what issues come with the, well let’s just say it, beautiful diamonds used in jewellery making and how you can best avoid diamonds that have funded conflicts or otherwise caused harm or misery. All of this is so that maybe, just maybe,  our readers might even buy a diamond that, rather than doing harm, supports people in poorer countries with minimal damage to the environment.

It’s tricky, we’ll admit it. To quote Coldplay, “nobody said it was easy.” Plenty of diamond suppliers are alert to the fact that, thanks to resources such as this website, people are now more informed and engaged than ever about the source of their products.  Some suppliers are making a genuine effort to improve mine conditions and environmental impact, whilst others are going to great lengths to obscure these issues from public knowledge and skew the narrative using greenwashing.

And as if that didn’t make things difficult enough, getting the facts straight is trickier still because the diamond supply chain spans the globe and has its own idiosyncrasies and nuances that not everyone will be aware of. Not all diamonds are mined in the same way, not all diamonds come from the same place, and not all diamonds go through the same channels on their way to the final customer. To someone other than a jeweller who is deeply concerned with the ethical sourcing of diamonds, avoiding all of the research that comes with buying an ethical diamond might be tempting. Luckily, we’re here to narrow down the list of questions you need to ask yourself when purchasing a diamond and provide buyers with much-needed information, free of the obscurity so much of the diamond industry is cloaked in. But first, a couple definitions.

Briefly, the Kimberley Process is a scheme designed to stop diamonds funding conflict, using a series of custom measures.  It was set up in the early 2000s following the revelation that diamonds were helping to fund brutal conflicts in Sierra Leone, Angola, the DRC, and Liberia. Don’t worry, there’s more on the Kimberley Process to come, but let’s quickly consider the term ‘conflict-free’ first.

We all have a general idea of what ‘conflict-free’ means, but when it comes to diamonds, its meaning becomes quite specific. ‘Conflict diamonds’ are defined by the Kimberley Process as: ‘Rough diamonds used to finance wars against governments’. 

This definition, in 2021, ‘should’ mean that, at the very least, a buyer can be sure that the diamond they’ve bought is not helping to finance a war against a government.

This definition is pretty precise and we need to give it a bit of context.  In the late 90’s and early 2000s, Sierra Leone, Angola, The DRC, and Liberia were in the grips of fierce civil wars, where rebel groups were fighting against the countries’ governments.  As these groups took control of territory, they used the resources within these territories to fund their campaigns. As well as gold, timber, and other commodities, this included diamonds.

To combat this, the Kimberley Process was set up and, at the time, it was generally accepted to be a good solution to the problem. NGOs (non-governmental organisations), most notably Global Witness, helped to set it up and gave the scheme their backing.

Fast forward to 2020, and there is doubt as to whether the KP is still stopping rough diamond sales from financing wars against governments. NGOs like Global Witness and IMPACT have withdrawn their support for the process, and controversy in Zimbabwe, Angola, and Cameroon have done much to discredit the system.

Diamonds are found in many countries around the world. However, the diamonds used in jewellery primarily come from four regions:  Canada, Australia, Russia, and Africa. 

Many countries within Africa supply diamonds, and it is perhaps the best-known region for both diamond mining and the problems associated with it. We have the 2006 film Blood Diamond to thank for that.

Of these countries, most notably in terms of diamond industries are the D.R.C, Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Sierra Leone, the C.A.R, South Africa, Cameroon, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, the Ivory Coast, and Lesotho.

Knowing where a diamond comes from, its origin, is a big part of knowing if it has been mined ethically or not, and if it has helped to fund conflict or not. If a diamond has come from a region where there is a war going on, there’s a strong chance that these diamonds have, in some way, helped to fund this conflict. (along with any other natural resources there)

For example, diamonds from Canada and Australia are guaranteed to be ‘conflict-free’. They are also mined in modern, safe conditions from mines where at least some environmental controls are applied.  They are verifiably the most ethical choice when it comes to diamonds at present.

Russia’s diamonds are where things become a bit confusing once more. 

Diamonds from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, and especially Botswana will be free from conflict. In addition, workers’ rights, pay, and conditions will be, on the whole, fair. The main issue to take into consideration with diamonds from these regions is corruption.

Diamonds from Sierra Leona and Tanzania will be conflict-free, but, as these countries’ industries are less developed, their working conditions are quite basic. By basic, we mean that mining methods will also be basic, in addition to low pay and little in the way of health and safety provisions for workers. Unfortunately, many communities depend upon this income, given the lack of other jobs, and therefore have no choice but to persist with mining despite the dangers.

Diamonds from Angola, Zimbabwe, the Ivory Coast, and Cameroon are, at best, contentious.

Diamonds from the C.A,R, have a high chance of being involved in funding conflict and have, in the recent past, been banned from the Kimberley Process.

Knowing which country your diamond is from forms just one part of the ethical equation.  Which type of mine they’re from matters too, as this might vary even within one country. There are two types of diamond mines: pipe mines and alluvial mines.

Pipe mines are mines which extract diamonds from deep underground.  These mines are expensive to create and operate, as they are large in scale and use machinery as well as manpower to extract the materials in which diamonds are found, known as Kimberlite.

Examples of these large-scale pipe mines are found in Canada, Russia, South Africa, and Botswana. As these mines are operated by registered companies to whom rules and guidelines apply, and in countries with strict governance, conditions in these mines are generally considered to be fair and safe.

Where pipe mines are concerned, it is perhaps the environmental factors that are more pressing.  Power and water consumption are be monumental, as these mines shift tons of earth in order to get to the depths they reach.  The exact amount consumed varies from mine to mine; however, for perspective, the infamous ‘Big Hole’ diamond mine in South Africa yielded 1ct for every 1.72 tonnes of material removed.

The other type of diamond mine is an alluvial mine.  The diamonds found in alluvial deposits have formed in Kimberlite pipes: a naturally occurring carrot-shaped volcanic pipe formed through the high-pressure eruption of kimberlite magma. However, due to geology and water erosion, the rocks these diamonds originated in have been worn away, and the diamonds have been moved. As a result, the diamonds can now be found in dry river beds or out at sea.

Alluvial diamond mines are much smaller in scale and are mostly artisanal mining operations. Artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) is a huge sector, which directly and indirectly employees 100 million people worldwide, across all aspects of the diamond acquisition process..

ASM can be very dangerous, but people continue to do it for a variety of reasons. Most often they do so because it is the only opportunity to earn money in a region, though the allure of finding a stone that can make you a millionaire overnight also plays a part.

These types of mines are found in many countries throughout Africa.

In Namibia, diamonds were discovered near the coastal town of Luderitz, in what is now a desert. But this desert is thought to have once been a river bed. Further prospecting uncovered that diamonds from the same source have been washed out to sea. As a result, this is the only location in the world where marine diamond mining takes places.

Strictly speaking, this is also an alluvial deposit. However, the stones have to be mined in a different way. Instead of using manpower, featuring shovels and pickaxes, making holes in the ground, or diving to the bottom of a river and filling a bucket with soil in which to scavanage for diamonds, marine diamond mining relies on large ships with specialised equipment on board.

So, bearing all this in mind, how do you determine which type of mine is the better: pipe or alluvial?

Well, once again, things are going to get tricky. Despite being a seemingly simple question, it’s anything but. There are many factors to consider when determining which mine is “better”. This could include considerations such as environmental impact, working conditions, or

Large scale pipe mines are operated by large companies and, as a result of being subject to more regulations, working conditions are generally better. However, they are often criticised for excluding locals from their higher paying jobs. Additionally, as these mines are usually owned by foreign companies, the diamonds they extract leave the country, along with the wealth the generate, therefore having less of a financial impact on the countries which produce the diamonds than they could do. As mentioned earlier, large scale mining operations also have a far greater detrimental environmental impact, consuming massive amounts of water and energy, not to mention the indelible mark they leave on the land by being created.

Small-scale mining, however, is undoubtedly more dangerous for the workers. Small-scale miners face many dangers.

It’s hard to imagine that the majority of small-scale miners would put themselves at such peril if better opportunities existed in other sectors. But the reality of many places these mines exist in is not as such. While small-scale mining does offer the opportunity for unprecedented riches should the miner find something on the scale of the Cullinan diamond, it is extremely rare that they are so fortunate. In addition, the miners are also vulnerable to exploitation by middlemen, who may give them far less than the diamond’s value.

In our opinion, the ideal ethical diamond is one mined by a small-scale artisanal miner, who is able to empower themselves, their family, and their community, and who has help to make the conditions they work in safer.

It should be easy, right? But once again we say, welcome to the diamond industry, where things are rarely as straightforward as they should be. Even today, this is the main problem with the diamond industry: tracing the diamond. This is why closed supply chain operations, such as Canada Mark, are best option. The vast majority of diamonds don’t and have never been involved with funding conflict, and there are measures to stop this from happening. Unfortunately, however, they are far from infallible.

The main means of determining where the diamond is from is with the diamond certificate. On a diamond certificate, the country of origin is not noted. In 2019, the GIA introduced a Diamond country of origin report, but this scheme is limited and requires that the diamond that has been submitted has been mined by a company participating in the scheme. This excludes the vast majority of small-scale diamond miners. Yet, whilst this scheme is limited, it is a step in the right direction.

So, why haven’t these legitimate producers stepped up efforts to make sure you, the lovely buyer, knows with 100% certainty where your stone is from? Why is it still hard to nail down this seemingly basic fact

Russia has huge diamond deposits and a large diamond mining industry.  Alrosa is the biggest player in Russia and this huge, partly state-owned, company also has operations around the world.

Information from Russia regarding diamonds is really tightly controlled, so it is hard to know exactly what conditions are like in its mines.  Though we can make some observations using publicly available information such as reports of an incident at the Mir mines in 2017 that killed 9 people, little is known about the mines.

Rumours of Russian involvement in the diamond industry in the CAR persist.

In 2014, Russia illegally annexed Crimea from the Ukrainian government. Alrosa is a partly state-owned diamond mining and trading company.  The Kimberley process defines conflict diamonds as ‘Rough diamonds used to finance wars against governments’ and prohibits their sale. Russia has remained in the Kimberley Process, Russian diamonds have entered the world market and in 2020 Russia chairs the Kimberley Process

Okay, now we’ve covered a lot of information, let’s get down some good rules of thumb and what questions to ask when considering what diamond to buy.

Lab-grown diamonds have gained quite a bit of popularity. But, unlike naturally occurring diamonds, you don’t hear about the ethical side of their creation as often. They're aggressively marketed as the ethical alternative and inherently conflict-free. So, are they by definition ethical? In short, no.

As we have discussed, the definition of conflict-free is very precise when it comes to diamonds and deliberately so. Going by the definition used in the Kimberley Process, there is no evidence to suggest that any lab-grown diamonds fall outside of this definition. However, some lab grown diamonds are used in weapons. It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but artificial diamonds can actually be used in laser weapons, leading them to be dubbed ‘lab grown conflict diamonds’.

The creation of lab-grown stones is a very energy intensive process. While the stones created in a lab certainly have less of a carbon footprint than a diamond from a large pipe mine, it is still significantly greater than that of a diamond from an ASM. However, rather than addressing these above issues, sellers of lab-grown diamonds prey upon the pre-existing notion that mined diamonds are bad, therefore, lab-grown ones are good. In doing so, the industry keeps unsuspecting buyers from asking important questions.