How to source ethical engagement and wedding rings

As the first Fairtrade gold reaches the UK from Africa, here's everything you need to know about sourcing ethical gold, silver and diamonds...
The Nestled ring was the winner of The Ingle & Rhode 2017 Fairtrade Gold Design Awards competition. It is made in 18ct white Fairtrade gold, and set with a 0.5ct round brilliant cut Canadian (traceable) diamond. Valued at £3.2k, it is currently available to win: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/bicbim
Ingle and Rhode
Lizzie Rivera20 October 2017

Rumours abound about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's imminent engagement, following reports that the actress had tea with the Queen, last week.

The engagement ring will no doubt be spectacular, and unless an heirloom, will surely have to be ethically sourced - as Ms Markle urged her readers to "keep being the change you wish to see in the world" when she shut down her lifestyle blog The Tig earlier this year.

When choosing engagement and wedding rings a lot of thought and time goes into choosing the right colour and style of gold, and the size and clarity of the diamond.

However, how the gold and diamonds are mined is not one something many of us consider. The brutal reality is that the stories behind these tokens of love and commitment are often ones of child labour, mercury poisoning and exploitation.

Unless, that is, you buy your wedding band from a more responsible source.

The first Fairtrade mined gold from Africa hit the UK last month and the first pieces of jewellery will be available to buy by Christmas.

It has been a three-year process, supported by Comic Relief funding. To become Fairtrade-certified mines have to meet basic health and safety regulations - such as not using a the same bowl to wash a baby and pan for gold with mercury.

The miners are also guaranteed 95 per cent of the internationally agreed price (LMBA) of gold, plus a Fairtrade premium of £1,500 per kilogram that's used to invest in community projects such as building schools, hospitals and creating access to electricity.

Before Fairtrade, the miners were only receiving 60 per cent of the LMBA price for their gold and the average daily wage was just 75p - £1.50.

The UK has been selling a small amount of Fairtrade gold from Peru since 2011.

"The launch was very significant," says Tim Ingle, of ethical jeweller Ingle & Rhode. “It gave credibility to the fact that there’s an issue around gold mining and also provided a credible solution.”

Fairtrade gold costs about four per cent more than non-Fairtrade gold.
Ingle and Rhode

Director of Cred jewellery, Alan Frampton, has visited the Peru mines every six months for the past six years. He says: “We have to know who is producing our gold and under what conditions. When we tell this story to our customers it becomes very personal."

Ethical jewellery still isn’t mass market, although its becoming more popular as Millennials, in particular, insist on better traceability.

Access to technology and increased awareness is helping the miners demand better conditions, too.

“Before, we didn’t know what the price of gold was, or how we could find out. Now we take our phones out and Google the price,” says Josephine Aguttu, a mine worker from an organisation working towards Fairtrade certification.

"We were silenced by the middlemen, but now we are organised we’re not so easy to manipulate."

ETHICAL JEWELLERY: A GUIDE

Cred Jewellery: hammered Fairtrade gold weddings start from £440
Cred Jewellery

GOLD & SILVER
Buying Fairtrade gold ensures a better livelihood for the gold miners. However, gold is a soft metal and so is always mixed with other alloy metals to make it more robust.

The alloy mix is also used to change the colour of the gold from traditional yellow, to rose gold or white. There is currently no way of tracing the alloy mix.

The higher the carat, the higher percentage of gold in the wedding band - a 9 ct gold ring has 37.5 per cent gold, and an 18 carat gold ring has 75 per cent.

Some jewellers will give you the option of using recycled precious metals to create your wedding band, including Ingle & Rhode - where it costs the same to choose this option as it does to buy Fairtrade Gold.

“I personally prefer supporting Fairtrade over recycled,” says Ingle. “All metal is recycled, so reusing old jewellery doesn’t have as big an impact as demanding better mining conditions.”

Silver is a by-product of gold mining, so Fairtrade silver is harder to source.

PLATINUM & PALLADIUM
This used to be available to buy as Fairtrade - but isn't any more due to the small Fairtrade mine getting taken over by larger non-Fairtrade mines around it.

Currently the best way to buy Platinum or Palladium is recycled, from an accredited source such as SCS Global Services in the US.

Palladium is a by-product of platinum mining.

Lab grown diamonds are classified as type IIA, the most valued and purest form of diamond. Less than 2% of the world’s mined diamonds belong to this category.
Cred Jewellery

DIAMONDS
Almost all jewellers will tell you their diamonds are ethically sourced and certified by the Kimberly Process. Framption and Ingle insist this isn't worth the paper it is written on.

“This is used, unfortunately, by the industry to try to fool consumers,” says Ingle.

Both jewellers source their diamonds from Canada where they have a well-established traceability scheme, such as the Canadian Mark Scheme. Diamonds which are over 0.3 carats are laser inscribed, but that’s not viable for the smaller ones.

Cred Jewellery is now also offers lab grown diamonds which are created from a small diamond seed in a high pressure, high temperature conditions - a similar process to how they are naturally created. Leonardo DiCarprio is just one of the high-profile investors in this technology.

"Mining diamonds is an energy intensive and ecologically invasive procedure, affecting fragile ecosystems across the world,” says Frampton. "Lab grown diamonds are a victory for the environment, human rights and diamond supply chain transparency.”

They are currently sold for around two-thirs of the price of a conventional diamond, and Frampton believes they will hold their value - perhaps even bringing the value of a naturally produced diamond down in years to come.

Ingle & Rhode source their sapphires from Sri Lanka, where the mining is made up collectives or co-operatives, with a lower environmental impact than large scale mining
Ingle and Rhode

COLOURED GEM STONES: RUBIES, SAPPHIRES, EMERALDS...
These are generally mined in smaller artisanal mines, which can be rife with similar problems to gold.

It’s much harder to trace the source, which means you may be supporting small-scale producers or you may be buying from corrupt mines.

The buyer's decision essentially has to be based on their trust of the jeweller.

The best way to build this is to ask lots of questions about how they source of their precious metals and stones. A key factor will be if someone from the company has visited the mine and can speak about the experience first-hand.

EXPECTED COSTS
Fairtrade gold costs about four per cent more than non-Fairtrade gold. Buyers can also expect to pay a premium of at least 10 per cent to have it crafted by a UK jeweller, rather than mass-produced in a factory in Asia.

Canadian Diamonds are about 10-15 per cent more expensive than diamonds from mines in other parts of the world.

WIN a white Fairtrade gold and Canadian diamond engagement ring worth £3,200. ENTER HERE.

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