Jewelry News
Mercury Treaty May Reduce Dirty Gold Mining
Monday, February 4th, 2013Mercury, a highly toxic substance, is found in a lot of products – thermometers, dental fillings, batteries, and light bulbs. It is also a byproduct of coal production, cement production, and waste incineration. But today, the leading cause of man-made mercury pollution isn’t any of these. It’s gold mining. We find this fact alarming, but at least it means that a new international treaty to reduce global mercury pollution is focused, to a great extent, on stopping dirty gold mining. And this makes the treaty, finalized last month in Geneva, a very exciting development in the push to make jewelry production …
Greek Gold Mine Raises Philosophical Questions
Friday, January 25th, 2013When is a new mining operation good for local communities and when is a new mine a bad idea? That is the question facing Ierissos, Greece, where construction has begun on a new open pit gold mine. A recent New York Times article draws attention to the controversy. Ierissos is a picturesque seaside town located in the northeastern part of Greece. It is surrounded by mineral-rich, forested mountains, where according to legend Alexander the Great once mined for gold. The new mine could provide as many as 1,500 jobs to the community, adding life to the Greek economy at …
Surat, India: Where Blood Diamonds Go to Forget Their Past
Friday, January 11th, 2013It’s completely understandable why someone would not want to buy a Zimbabwean diamond. In 2008, the Zimbabwean military seized control of valuable diamond fields, massacring more than 200 miners, then enslaving and torturing others. Although diamond mining has now been turned over to private mining companies, those companies are controlled by Zimbabwe’s corrupt dictator, Robert Mugabe. He continues to steal diamond revenues, funneling them to his cronies and using them to entrench his brutal regime. Is there anything that U.S. consumers can do to make sure they don’t buy a Zimbabwean blood diamond? The Kimberley Process, the international …
Crisis in the Central African Republic: Are Diamonds to Blame?
Saturday, December 29th, 2012We’re alarmed by news reports that rebel soldiers in the Central African Republic (CAR) are close to taking over the country’s capital, Bangui. Thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes, and the U.S. Embassy evacuated its personnel yesterday. Any time a civil conflict breaks out in a diamond-rich country such as the CAR, we are sensitive to the possibility that diamond mining may worsen the bloodshed. In too many countries, diamond mining has contributed to bloody civil wars. In this case, is there reason to believe that the rebels are being financed by diamonds? Unfortunately, …
Conflict Minerals Law May Shake Up Jewelry Industry in 2013
Saturday, December 22nd, 2012The arrival of the New Year will mark an important moment in efforts to increase transparency in the jewelry supply chain. As of January 1, 2013, thousands of companies will be subject to a new U.S. law requiring them to disclose whether the gold in their products may have funded a tragic civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That simple disclosure requirement, we think, could not only help end the war in Congo, but could have snowball effects, helping create a more ethical jewelry industry overall. Although not well-known, the war in Congo is one of …
Kimberley Process Purpose Stumps the Press
Tuesday, December 18th, 2012If you’ve ever shopped for an ethical diamond – and you really, really wanted to be sure you were buying a diamond with reliably ethical origins – well, we understand how confusing a process that can be. Peeling past all the layers of “conflict diamond” mumble jumble is kind of a hard thing to do. How hard? Well, the next time you walk into a jewelry store to shop for a diamond, you might want to bring with you some of the world’s top international reporters. And you might want to have some of the most influential people in …
Brilliant Earth Attends Kimberley Process Meeting at State Department
Tuesday, November 27th, 2012We were on hand this morning at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. for one of the year’s most important gatherings in the global effort to raise ethical standards in diamond mining – the annual plenary session of the Kimberley Process, the international diamond certification scheme. Or, at least, the gathering had all the trappings of being important. But was it really? The atmosphere was reminiscent of a United Nations General Assembly meeting. Delegates from at least 74 sovereign governments seated themselves in the Loy Henderson Auditorium, a large, horseshoe-shaped conference hall inside the State Department. Interpreters …
Mugabe and Friends Loot $2 Billion in Diamonds, Report Says
Saturday, November 24th, 2012It’s no secret that corruption and poor governance can leave a country devastated. But Zimbabwe, which has long been ruled by the corrupt dictator Robert Mugabe, still serves as a cautionary tale. By almost any measure, the country is in terrible shape. The per capita income is just about $400 per year. The poverty rate is 63 percent. Life expectancy is just 51 years. A few months ago, the United Nations found that 1.6 million people in Zimbabwe would go hungry without emergency food aid. Surely it would be a blessing if some source of wealth were discovered that …
Canadian Diamond Mine Chosen as Top 100 Employer
Monday, November 12th, 2012We’re pleased to report that a survey has chosen one of our main diamond suppliers, the Diavik diamond mine, as one of Canada’s top 100 employers. This is the second year in a row that the mine has received this distinction. Brilliant Earth has always prided itself on sourcing diamonds from mines that meet the highest labor and environmental standards. When we first launched Brilliant Earth in 2005, we carefully evaluated labor and environmental standards at diamond mines around the world and concluded that the Diavik diamond mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories (as well as another Canadian mine, the …
San Francisco Jeweler
Monday, October 15th, 2012In addition to being an online leader in ethically sourced fine jewelry, Brilliant Earth maintains a special and well-known place among San Francisco jewelers. Where is Brilliant Earth? Brilliant Earth’s beautiful and serene boutique showroom is ideally situated in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Customers living in or visiting the area can view our stunning fine jewelry collection in person at our convenient Union Square location. The San Francisco Location One of the world’s most beautiful and romantic cities—home to cable cars, sea lions, the gleaming Golden Gate Bridge, and hill upon hill of awe-inspiring views—it’s …
