Industry Partnerships
Who Has Gemfields Partnered With?
Gemfields is a leading advocate for improvements to the wider coloured gemstone and jewellery sector.
Whether working with international non-profits and industry associations or with brands in the Coloured Gemstones Working Group, we are at the heart of developing pioneering industry standards and initiatives. These provide open-access tools used by the whole industry to improve supply-chain transparency and white papers to identify areas for future focus.
Our responsibilities extend to how we sell rough gemstones at auction and return revenue to the country of origin. We guarantee full transparency throughout the process of export and sale of our gemstones, through our proprietary grading and auction platform. All taxes and royalties are repatriated to host countries, with full visibility provided to government representatives, who attend our auctions and receive full disclosure of the revenues and taxes due.
We also build desire for coloured gemstones through marketing campaigns.
Our relationship with Fabergé enables Gemfields to promote consumer awareness of responsibly mined coloured gemstones through beautiful designs and craftsmanship. In turn, Gemfields supports Fabergé, a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council, in positioning themselves as a responsible jewellery company.
Why Partner With Industry Bodies?
The coloured gemstone and jewellery industry is at a bit of a crossroads.
While we are pushing for greater transparency and a more modern manner of sourcing, there are others who are not supportive of this perspective, as it exposes illegitimate and immoral practices that they themselves profit from. Jewellery companies are increasingly demanding a balance between price, certainty of supply, quality, transparency and responsible practices. The industry has to understand and reconcile that there are legal risks and challenges that come from sourcing gemstones from artisanal, small-scale and particularly illicit sources. Partnering with likeminded industry bodies allows us to provide greater transparency and move the industry forward.
Transparency and Traceability
We work with a number of academic institutions and laboratories, we also invest in research that looks at how to make the industry more transparent and responsible.
We were the first test partner of the Emerald Paternity Test, the first emerald tracing technology launched by Provenance Proof in Switzerland in 2017. This uses nanotags to mark gems with an invisible imprint that cites the miner.
Our highest quality emeralds from the Kagem mine (in Zambia) are coded with this technology before going to auction. The imprint can withstand emerald treatments and the cutting process and can be accessed at any stage of the supply chain, proving provenance and boosting consumer confidence.
In November 2019, we married this advance with Provenance Proof’s blockchain technology at our high-quality emerald auction. The following month, we became the first miner to upload large quantities of rubies and emeralds to the blockchain, providing a next step towards the goal of full transparency.