Gemstones Any non-metallic mineral or other natural material (e.g., amber, jet, pearl) that can be cut and polished for use in jewelry and related products Mineral gemstones include: sapphire, ruby, diamond, emerald, topaz, turquoise and opal http://pubs.usgs.gov/ Why are some gems so expensive? With the exception of diamonds, most gemstones are highly valued because of their: Beauty Rarity Tradition Perception of permanence Aaron’s Ceremonial Breastplate "Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions—the work of a skilled craftsman Make it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen It is to be square—a span long and a span wide—and folded double Then mount four rows of precious stones on it […] Mount them in gold filigree settings There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes (Exodus 28) New International Version New American Standard King James Young’s Literal Translation Contemporary English Version New Living Translation ruby ruby sardius sardius carnelian red carnelian topaz topaz topaz topaz chrysolite pale-green peridot beryl emerald carbuncle carbuncle emerald emerald turquoise turquoise emerald emerald turquoise turquoise sapphire sapphire sapphire sapphire sapphire blue lapis lazuli emerald diamond diamond diamond diamond white moonstone jacinth jacinth ligure opal jacinth orange jacinth agate agate agate agate agate agate chrysolite beryl beryl beryl beryl blue-green beryl amethyst amethyst amethyst amethyst amethyst purple amethyst onyx onyx onyx onyx onyx onyx jasper jasper jasper jasper jasper jasper http://www.biblegateway.com/ The Curious Lore of Precious Stones Original Publication Date: 1913 Claimed that the twelve stones on Aaron’s breastplate symbolized the 12 months of the year, not the 12 tribes The Hebrew calendar contains either 12 or 13 months in a year January February garnet rose quartz 14.60 CT 94.83 CT $737.99 $266.75 Price per CT Price per CT $50 $0.35 amethyst SiO2 18.61 CT onyx 9.48 CT $626.99 $9.99 Price per CT Price per CT $34 aquamarine March SiO2 $0.95 SiO2 bloodstone 104.89 CT 3.04 CT $7,854.59 $12.99 Price per CT Price per CT $75 $4.27 http://www.thaigem.com/ April diamond May rock crystal 1.61 CT 4,500.00 CT $10,368.40 $2,528.75 Price per CT Price per CT $6,440 $0.56 emerald June SiO2 SiO2 chrysoprase 4.70 CT 4.57 CT $29.817.83 $9.35 Price per CT Price per CT $6,344 $2.08 alexandrite moonstone 15.58 CT 42.53 CT $93,230.99 $119.80 Price per CT Price per CT $5,984 $2.82 http://www.thaigem.com/ October November December opal tourmaline 26.62 CT 13.06 CT $18,688.16 $774.79 Price per CT Price per CT $702 $57 SiO2 topaz citrine 31.03 CT 18.97 CT $23,236.19 $160.67 Price per CT Price per CT $749 $8 tanzanite zircon 5.84 CT 13.32 CT $219.95 $6,681.99 Price per CT Price per CT $502 $38 http://www.thaigem.com/ Region Africa Europe (Russia) North America (Canada) Australia South America Asia (China) TOTAL Botswana 27.0% Angola 16.9% South Africa 14.1% Dem Rep Congo 7.4% Sierra Leone 1.1% Central African Rep 0.9% Tanzania 0.6% Liberia 0.3% Ivory Coast 0.3% Annual Worldwide Natural Diamond Namibia 5.3% Guinea 1.3% Production Value ($1,000) Market Share 5,354,910 1,595,000 453,555 360,600 76,450 16,480 68.2% 20.3% Mining 5.8%carats raw 114 million diamonds Ghana 4.6% Lesotho ~ $7,000,000,000 0.2% 0.1% 1.0% 0.2% Venezuela 0.6% Guyana 0.0% All phases of production, distribution, and retail 7,856,995 100.0% Brazil 2,000,000 workers 67,000,000 pieces of diamond jewelry http://www.worlddiamondcouncil.com/ 0.4% Why are some diamonds so expensive? Diamonds would be moderately expensive for the same Summary of the Settlement reasons other gemstones are (beauty, rarity, tradition, De Beers is the largest supplier of rough diamonds in the world Beginning in 2001, Plaintiffs etc.) in several states filed lawsuits against De Beers in state and federal courts alleging that De Beers unlawfully monopolized the diamonds supply of diamonds, conspired to fix, high raise, and control However, the price of is artificially due to diamond prices, and issued false and misleading advertising De Beers denies it violated the the blatant and highly successful manipulation of the law or did anything wrong world’s largest diamond conglomerate: DeBeers The Settlement Agreement provides that $22.5 Million be distributed to the Direct Purchaser The a virtual monopoly onClass jewelClass,company and that $272.5maintains Million will be distributed to the Indirect Purchaser De Beers also agrees to refrain from engaging in certainthe conduct that violates federal and state quality diamonds, controlling supply to keep the price antitrust laws and submit to the jurisdiction of the Court to enforce the Settlement high Claims must have been filed before May 19th, 2008 The company also has a series of highly successful marketing campaigns (e.g., “a diamond is forever”) to keep demand high https://diamondsclassaction.com/ “A Diamond is Forever” http://www.adiamondisforever.com/ African Diamond Producing Countries Guinea Central African Rep Sierra Leone Dem Rep Congo Liberia Tanzania Ivory Coast Botswana Ghana Lesotho Angola South Africa Namibia Wars in African Diamond-Producing Nations Since 1990 Lesotho Intervention (1998) Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana First Congo War (1996-1997) Dem Rep Congo, Rwanda, Uganda (over 200,000 civilian killed) Great War of Africa (1998-2003) Dem Rep Congo, Zimbabwe, Angola, Rwanda, Uganda, Namibia, Chad, Libya, Sudan, Burundi (5,400,000 deaths) Angolan Civil War (1975-2002) (over 500,000 military casualties) Guinea-Bissau Civil War (1998-1999) First Liberian Civil War (1989-1996) (over 200,000 killed) Sierra Leone Civil War (1991-2002) (~75,000 dead) Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003) (~150,00 killed) Ivory Coast Civil War (2002-2007) Patients at a clinic in Freetown Their hands were chopped off by rebels (RUF) in the Sierra Leone Civil War http://www.msu.edu/course/pls/461/stein/refugees.htm Human Rights Abuses by RUF (Sierra Leone rebel group) Massacres, Individual Murders, and Fire-Related Deaths Burning Alive The Use of Games to Maximize Terror Mutilation and Amputation Rape and Sexual Assault Abduction Targeting of Particular Groups The Use of Civilians as Human Shields The Use of Drugs by the RUF and Forced Drugging of Civilians Treatment of Prisoners Violations of Medical Neutrality Human Rights Watch, 1999 Getting Away with Murder, Mutilation, Rape: New Testimony from Sierra Leone 11: 3(A) http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/sierra/index.htm# Human Rights Abuses by RUF (Sierra Leone rebel group) “Some of the atrocities committed by the RUF rebels were unthinkable Infants and children were thrown into burning houses, the hands of toddlers as young as two were severed with machetes, girls as young as eight were sexually abused, and hundreds of children of all ages were traumatically separated from their communities and forced to walk into the hills with strangers whom they had seen kill their family members In some cases children, many of them originally abductees, participated in the perpetration of these abuses Child combatants armed with pistols, rifles, and machetes actively participated in killings and massacres, severed the arms of other children, and beat and humiliated men old enough to be their grandfathers Often under the influence of drugs, they were known and feared for their impetuosity, lack of control, and brutality Human Rights Watch, 1999 Getting Away with Murder, Mutilation, Rape: New Testimony from Sierra Leone 11: 3(A) http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/sierra/index.htm# UNICEF estimates there were 5,400 child soldiers in the RUF, but the number could have been as high as 10,000 or more Many former RUF child soldiers are currently being recruited for wars in other western African nations (e.g., Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea) Human Rights Watch, 2005 Youth, Poverty and Blood: The Lethal Legacy of West Africa’s Regional Warriors 17:5(A) Photo: ©UNICEF / Giacomo Pirozzi http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol15no3/153chil2.htm For a Few Dollars More Global Witness, April, 2003 100 page report on how terrorist groups Hezbullah and al Qaeda used diamonds to support their activities, including: Fundraising Avoiding financial sanctions Money laundering Transport of funds Report also addresses al Qaeda’s use of other commodities like gold and the gemstone tanzanite http://www.globalwitness.org For a Few Dollars More August 7, 1998 - 10:30 a.m Simultaneous bombing of U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and injuring 4,500 An FBI investigation blamed many members of al Qaeda, including terrorists connected to several companies involved in the diamond trade http://archives.cnn.com/2000/LAW/10/20/embassy.bombings.01/ http://www.globalwitness.org For a Few Dollars More After August 7, 1998 Al Qaeda diamond operatives flee Tanzania, taking their experience in the diamond trade to their new homes in West Africa - particularly Liberia and Sierra Leone http://www.globalwitness.org For a Few Dollars More Al Qaeda Charles Taylor Former president of Liberia, currently being tried in the Special Court for Sierra Leone at the Hague for war crimes (8/21/08) http://afp.google.com/ RUF Diamond Trade http://www.globalwitness.org For a Few Dollars More Estimates of the amount of money raised for al Qaeda by the diamond trade vary, ranging somewhere in the tens of millions of dollars After the 9/11 attacks, all parties in the diamonds-for-arms dealing in Sierra Leone and Liberia claimed they did not know they were dealing with al Qaeda operatives http://www.globalwitness.org The Kimberley Process http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/ “In order to fully combat the scourge of conflict diamonds, on November 5, 2002, fifty-two governments ratified and adopted the final Kimberley Process Certification Scheme [… and …] have agreed that they will only allow for the import and export of rough diamonds if those rough diamonds come from or are being exported to another Kimberley Process participant The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme requires that each shipment of rough diamonds being exported and crossing an international border be transported in a tamper-resistant container and accompanied by a governmentvalidated Kimberley Process Certificate Each certificate should be resistant to forgery, uniquely numbered and include data describing the shipment’s content.” Angola, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, People’s Republic of China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, India, Israel, Japan, Republic of Korea, Lesotho, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Philippines, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States of America and Zimbabwe (12/20/02) World Diamond Council, 2002 The Essential Guide to Implementing The Kimberley Process PDF: http://www.worlddiamondcouncil.com/ National Day of Action on Conflict Diamonds September 18, 2004 Amnesty International surveyed 246 stores in 50 U.S cities: 27% of shops were able assure us that they had a policy on conflict diamonds 30% of the shops that said they had a policy were unable to produce a hard copy or explain it 13% of shops provided warranties to their customers as a standard practice 37% of the shops claimed to be aware of the conflict diamonds issue, but 54% of them reported an inaccurate definition of the crisis 28% of the shops were aware of the Kimberley Process 29% of those who were aware of the Kimberley Process had only a minimal or limited understanding of it When asked whether consumers inquired about conflict diamonds, 83% of respondents answered rarely or never 110 shops refused outright to take the survey http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/action_update.html 12/20/06 The release of the movie “Blood Diamond” prompted DeBeers (through their major trade organization) to launch an extensive website lauding the diamond industry as a force for good in the undeveloped world: http://www.diamondfacts.org/ Among other questionable statements, it includes the fact that approximately one million people are employed by the diamond industry in India What it doesn’t report is that up to 10% of those workers are children (12-13 years old), and many of those are “bonded” – a polite word for children sold into slavery http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=61 Conflict Diamonds US jewelry retailers still not doing enough Published February, 2007 The majority of the top-selling US retail jewelers that provided information to Global Witness and Amnesty International not have adequate policies in place to combat blood diamonds A survey, conducted by Global Witness and Amnesty International between December 2006 and February 2007, queried the 37 jewelry retailers listed collectively by National Jeweler magazine as The $100 Million Supersellers on their policies to stop the trade in blood diamonds 56% of respondents had no auditing procedures to combat blood diamonds 57% of respondents had no policy posted on their websites 50% of these huge retailers did not respond at all The survey also noted that a few industry leaders such as Helzberg Diamond Shops, Sterling (Signet) and Tiffany & Co have taken stronger measures to combat conflict diamonds http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/549/en/global_witness_amnesty_international_uk_diamond_re [...]... international border be transported in a tamper-resistant container and accompanied by a governmentvalidated Kimberley Process Certificate Each certificate should be resistant to forgery, uniquely numbered and include data describing the shipment’s content.” Angola, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, People’s Republic of China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo,... major trade organization) to launch an extensive website lauding the diamond industry as a force for good in the undeveloped world: http://www.diamondfacts.org/ Among other questionable statements, it includes the fact that approximately one million people are employed by the diamond industry in India What it doesn’t report is that up to 10% of those workers are children (12-13 years old), and many