Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a vital part of coloured gemstone and gold mining, but challenges such as cross-border smuggling and illicit financial flows need to be tackled, the CIBJO Congress heard.

“It is an opportune time for the industry to engage,” said James McQuilken, formerly of Pact in a panel discussion moderated by Edward Johnson, Corporate Responsibility Director of Gemfields.

Some 80 percent of coloured gemstones globally are mined by artisanal and small-scale miners.

Norbert Massay, Senior Program Manager at Moyo Gems and also Pact Tanzania, who joined remotely from Tanzania, outlined the Moyo Gems project, which delivers responsibly sourced gemstones in East Africa.

“Moyo Gems can be replicated, thanks to training by GIA,” he said, referring to initiatives reaching 1,800 miners in six countries.

Feriel Zerouki, who formerly led the Gemfair project at De Beers, supporting artisanal mining, spoke of its benefits for the traceability of natural diamonds.

“We can’t leave the artisanal mining sector behind,” she added.

“Artisanal mining is not a story of despair.”

“We need to agree on a journey of continuous improvement.”

Greg Valerio introduced Peace Gold, a peace-building mining initiative based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“Can we use the gold that is in the ground to fund peace?” he said.

He added that the project would be self-supporting and had been trademarked.

“When you consider the jewellery value chain, it starts as a source and ends up many times its value at the start of the chain.”

Elizabeth Arnott of Mwamba Mining said ASM had been operating without a route to market and that formalising the sector would grow the market.

“The opportunity is to build the connective tissue,” she said.

“We are investing in a traceability solution, because traceability gives a claim of responsible sourcing legitimacy.”

Arnott said informality and invisibility reinforce each other.

She added that brands needed to take action to support the artisanal mining sector.

Discussion centred largely on the barriers to formalisation. Difficulties in securing financing had denied stability to artisanal miners, panellists said.

Ms. Zerouki said the lack of a banking support system was a barrier to early efforts to support artisanal miners.

“The artisanal miners themselves face challenges in access to finance,” she said.

Regarding Peace Gold, Valerio, referring to banks’ concerns over risk, said: “Banks aren’t helpful.”