Environmental protection has become a major concern, but there is another equally essential one: the development, well-being and empowerment of the local populations who help create company wealth.
In the diamond sector, GemFair ™ – an inclusive program set up by the De Beers Group in 2018 – is on this eco-responsible trajectory. Its aim is to allow artisanal mines (ASM – Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining) to mine and sell their diamonds in safe conditions that respect people and the environment. The program guarantees access to the international diamond market by complying with all the standards required in the sector, while developing initiatives in the fields of finance, education, health and agriculture. The goal is not to be a charitable organization, but to help miners become responsible, independent players in the diamond market.
In October, GemFair bought its 10,000th diamond, an opportunity to take stock of its activity.
Rubel & Ménasché had the pleasure of interviewing Feriel Zerouki, Senior VP of Provenance, Ethics & Industry Relations at the De Beers Group, responsible for the GemFair program.
Washplant – Artisanal diamond mine site, Kono, Sierra Leone
IH: The ASM (Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining) sector supplies between 10 and 20% of the world’s diamond production. How many people make a living from it?
The problem with artisanal mining is that it’s an informal sector, so there aren’t really any official figures. We rely on data available from governments and on the global diamond data we have. We estimate that around 1.5 million people make a living from it.
IH: Why did you choose to set up in Sierra Leone?
At the moment, we are only present in Sierra Leone (Kono region). We chose this country for several reasons. Firstly, we noticed that 50% of diamond production there was artisanal, which gave us a great opportunity to roll out our program. The second reason was that the government had developed a whole infrastructure to help establish the ASM. So we immediately found an excellent partner who was ready to help us in our efforts. And we plan to reinforce our objectives. The third reason is that the country’s reputation has been tarnished by blockbuster films based on historical conflicts. Our aim was to change the narrative on artisanal mining, which is often seen through the prism of conflict diamonds, whereas it is a lack of means, poverty and subsistence that lie at the heart of the problem. Changing this image was extremely important to us because for the majority, artisanal mining is a positive livelihood story.
IH: The 2023 and 2024 production figures for ASMs working with GemFair show substantial growth. How do you explain this?
The artisanal mining sector is based on trust. Before entering Sierra Leone and committing to the project, we put a lot of research into understanding the country’s ecosystem. But apart from academic research and NGO documents, we couldn’t find anything that gave us a complete picture of the situation on the ground. The reality is that artisanal miners have often been exploited. They saw many people arrive and say: “I’m here to help you, I’m here to change your situation”, and then what happened? These people left, or had only come for short-term or research projects. When they left, the miners who had worked with them became even more vulnerable. Yet there is a genuine ecosystem in the country. Once you’re in, you really have to plan to stay and build trust. The biggest concern of the artisanal miners who sign up with us is whether we’re going to stay and whether they’ll be able to make a living from their activity.. That’s why there was a great deal of caution towards us in the beginning, but we gained their trust through the way we interacted with the miners, working alongside them. Then COVID came along. They were worried that we were going to close down and leave, as many others had done before us. But we decided to repurpose our activity and provide support to mining communities through food security and health provisions to help them through the pandemic. And that’s where you see the increase in production that you mentioned, because communities understood that we were much more than a foreign investor, that we were a good corporate citizen. We didn’t leave, and that reinforced their confidence.
Artisanal miner recovering a diamond
IH: We are currently experiencing a major slowdown in the diamond market. How might this affect your relationship with miners, and in particular your purchasing policy?
Despite the industry slowdown, our rules of engagement with ASMs remain intact. Just as we work to improve standards with the artisanal mining sector, we offer the right price, based on our global price book. When prices fluctuate, we take the time to explain this to the miners. They trust our way of working, and we continue to offer to buy whatever they offer, keeping them in the international supply chain.
Eco-responsibility is also a major issue. We remain heavily involved in mining site reclamation and environmental initiatives to protect nature. Our partnership with artisanal miners is based on the long term, allowing us to weather the various cycles of the industry. The miners are very familiar with these cycles; they’ve been in the diamond business for hundreds of years, through their parents, grandparents, uncles and so on. They are very aware of what cycles may look like, and of the considerable impact volatility has on them. The difference when they engage with us is stability and sustainable marketing.
The GemFair diamond logging toolkit : one of GemFair’s missions is to teach miners how to value their diamonds
IH: What are your plans for the future, and how will the GemFair program develop?
We have made good progress in the Kono region (Sierra Leone). We’re now planning to expand our activities into Kenema (Sierra Leone) and Angola, a country with which the De Beers Group has a Memorandum of Understanding announced last February 2024 at the Mining Indaba in South Africa. So right now, we’re observing how the artisanal mining sector works in Angola to make sure that the GemFair program will be viable.
IH: What is GemFair doing to guarantee the traceability of diamonds from artisanal mines?
At De Beers, we know that the provenance of natural diamonds is extremely important for consumer confidence. With GemFair, we have a major advantage: our diamonds have a beautiful story to tell, one that many consumers don’t know. We actually began our journey in 2005, before the word ‘provenance’ even existed in the jewelry world. This was shortly after the Kimberley Process was set up to tackle the burning issue of conflict diamonds. We began mapping our supply chain to find out who works at the middlemen, who cuts and polishes, where the jewelry is set, who the customers are, and how our diamonds get from source to retail. The aim was to ensure that our stones reached consumers in a way that met, and sometimes exceeded, their expectations. In 2009, we created our Pipeline Integrity programme, aimed at identifying our own diamonds in relation to the other stones they are mixed with along the supply chain. The ‘aggregation’ of diamonds, whatever their origin, is essential to provide customers with a comprehensive offering. Hence the importance of clearly identifying each stone from the moment it is mined, and accurately tracking each stage of the journey (sorting, trading, cutting, polishing, etc.). To achieve this, De Beers set up the Tracr™ digital traceability platform, which allows us to track a diamond in its entirety in a perfectly reliable way. Upstream of this tracking, Tracr had to be able to guarantee three key elements at the outset by means of a digital fingerprint: the correspondence between rough and rough, rough and polished, and polished and polished.
IH: Is there not a way of highlighting diamonds from artisanal mines to the customer, in much the same way as Fairmined or Fairtrade gold?
The story of a natural diamond is crucial. That’s why we attach great importance to its provenance, which answers the question: who, where and how? Who? De Beers, which complies with strict standards, regularly verified by third parties (BPP, RJC, etc.). Where? Diamonds extracted from large operations come from Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Canada. Artisanal diamonds come from Sierra Leone and soon from Angola. That’s how customers make their choice; because we provide information on the provenance, and they’ll be able to find out the story. And we’ll tell you more soon to give you an answer to your question about highlighting diamonds from artisanal mines.
IH: My next question concerns the ecosystem. The Natural Diamond Council has produced a very well-documented, detailed report on the positive spin-offs of the diamond economy. How does the GemFair program fit into this ecosystem?
We work with around 400 sites in Sierra Leone and around 6,000 people make a living from them. But I’d like to tell you something important. COVID hit us all hard. Personally, I was in a privileged position, I was safe, I could order anything I needed, I had access to healthcare, but at the same time, I knew that if I had an accident or got sick, I wouldn’t be able to take my child to hospital. Throughout this time, I kept in touch with my teams on site, who were in a much more precarious situation than I was. One of the managers said to me: “You know, we’re used to Sierra Leone, we’ve lived through the civil war and the Ebola epidemic, but we call COVID ‘the hunger virus’ because here, the price of rice has risen by 400% and there’s no more work, the borders are closed and trade has stopped”. Our team on site worked hard to provide food, taking the risk of going into the field , and I really understood how important it was to ensure stability and food security. We brought in an agronomist from France to look at ways of fertilizing the land on the former mine sites, which would also reduce the risk of malaria from mosquitoes proliferating in the stagnant water at the bottom of the mines. So we filled in and fertilized the wells (producing rice, carrots and watermelons) and the women of the community are in charge of looking after them. If an epidemic breaks out again, we don’t want the miners to go hungry. We’re proud of this progress because the communities now know how to manage their land, and we’ve trained them to do so.
Then in terms of education, our priority is mine safety, and our initiatives have a direct impact on miners over the long term, with or without us. We also set the highest standards when it comes to health. We offer training in health, safety and first aid, we provide first-aid kits, and we organize workshops. During COVID, we provided materials, equipment and medical follow-up.
Before GemFair, many projects were launched and failed. Few brands take the risk of committing to ASMs – by which I mean committing directly and being accountable – without going through an NGO to support them. De Beers is the only mining group name that is so well known to the public. When you ask consumers about diamonds, the name De Beers instantly springs to mind. This gives us real responsibility.
To drive these changes, you need a stable, long-term, viable, sustainable horizon, and for that, commitment can only be based on a commercial solution. The ASM sector can in no way be confused with conflict diamonds. It employs many more people than the big mines, with a significant impact on local populations. Don’t think of artisanal mines as a “social project”, but in terms of a “business project”, where you do good by doing well, i.e., you’re able to make a long-term commitment because your business is profitable and prosperous. The miners are proud; they’re not asking for charity, but to be able to sell their diamonds to lift themselves out of poverty.
Image : Feriel Zerouki
