Again, the expedition started with a trip to the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, where Styve checked with the minister that we had permission to visit the mines he had contacted and that their licenses were up to date.
Read MoreAfter arriving at the site, I was keen to get down the mine and see for myself how Tsavorite is mined. I will admit, I was scared when seeing the entrance to the mine. Although this is a fully licensed mine there is no provision for health and safety and the mine is very much just a hole in the ground, with minimal supports. Having spent the last 2 years going on about fair-trade jewellery and having made it all the way to Tanzania and now to a mine, there’s no way I wasn’t going down. As nervous as I was, its worth remembering that these guys do this everyday and can spend hours underground at a time. Without the work these guys do we simply wouldn’t have the precious stones and metal that we use in fine jewellery. Fine jewellers are utterly reliant on miners like these for their supply of materials a fact seems lost on many who dismiss initiatives like Fair trade and Fairmined or any attempt to improve transparency and fairness within the jewellery supply chain.
Again, these conditions are down too money, with investment the mine can be made safer and better equipment provided for workers. In chatting to miners, I heard that mines owned by Chinese investors, often vilified in the west, make the best provisions for health and safety with helmets and other basic health and safety provision being made.
Coming face to face with the realities of small scale mining has made me all the more determined to help improve things. Fair-trade and Fairmined gold have started the process with gold and shown that in the face of doubt and opposition it is possible make positive changes in the jewellery industry. It takes effort and money but is worth it in my opinion.
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