Ethical Diamond Buying
What are conflict diamonds?
You may have heard of conflict diamonds or blood diamonds as they’re also called. These are rough diamonds that are traded to fund rebel fighters and insurgencies against legitimate governments. These diamonds became well known around the world in the late 1990's.
What are ethically sourced diamonds?
Diamonds which have been ethically sourced are not only conflict free but they go one step further. Diamonds which have been ethically sourced ensure safe working environments, fair pay and no abuse of human rights.
Every diamond we sell is conflict fee and has been ethically sourced
The Kimberley Process
This is an international diamond certification scheme which was established in 2003. The purpose of the scheme is to regulate the trade of rough diamonds to eliminate the flow of conflict diamonds and protect the legitimate trade of rough diamonds.
The Kimberley Process has been very successful and it has 56 participants which represent 82 countries (the European community counts as a single participant). Every major rough diamond producing country participates with this scheme.
Every participant of the Kimberley Process not only needs to meet the requirements of the scheme but they can also only trade with other members of the scheme who will also be obliged to meet the same requirements.
The Kimberley Process does not certify individual jewellers but we will only ever source diamonds from legitimate sources which adhere to the rules of the Kimberley Process. This ensures all of our diamonds have not been involved in any conflict funding.
Our Commitment
We are committed to ensuring every diamond we set into our jewellery is conflict free and ethically sourced.
To ensure this we will only ever source diamonds from suppliers who adhere to the Kimberley Process rules and we only every purchase diamonds from suppliers who are DTC Sight Holders. All DTC Sight Holders have been selected by De Beers to cut, polish and distribute diamonds which they have mined.
De Beers is an international corporation who specialise in diamond mining and trading. They own the largest group of diamond mines in the world and have strict policies in place to completely avoid any criminal activity, child labour and poor working conditions.
Ethical and Sustainable Precious Metals
As we’ve mentioned, it is incredibly important to us that all of the diamonds we sell are ethically sourced and this is also the case for the precious metals we use in our jewellery.
The process for mining precious metals can be harmful to the environment with gold mines emitting substances which can be harmful including Mercury and Cyanide. If not dealt with correctly, those substances can pollute nearby rivers.
Here at Lorel Diamonds we only use 100% refined (recycled) precious metals. By using only refined metal this decreased the demand for precious metal mining and preserves the earth’s natural resources. This also ensures we are not contributing to any potential harm to the environment or the safety of people and communities.
The process for recycling precious metals is actually fairly simple and during the process the metals don’t lose any of the physical or chemical properties. The metal is as good as new.
