Diamond News Archives

Speaking at the opening session of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme Intersessional Meeting (KPI) in Mumbai, World Diamond Council (WDC) President Stephane Fischler has called on Kimberley Process-member governments to do what is necessary to safeguard the interests of their mining communities and consequently optimize the developmental potential of their natural resources.

"We must agree that the Kimberley Process should ensure that each government takes responsibility to ensure a chain of provenance, earning the trust of consumers wherever they are, and in so doing produce the revenues that must filter back to the grass roots of the mining communities," Fischler stated.

Historically, he noted, one of the most critical factors determining whether a country's economy can take advantage of the potential offered by its rough diamond deposits, is the relative absence of ongoing conflict and violence.

"There is a dramatic disparity between the development level of those countries and the others that suffered the tragedy of civil war, Fischler continued. "Only today are some slowly realizing the opportunities that their commodities could offer, in helping maintain the peace and allowing for nation building."

The KPI of 2019 is one of two gatherings of all KP participants that will take place in India this year. It is the final year of a three-year reform and review process underway in the organization. "The Kimberley Process has today a one-time opportunity to make a difference in those countries where the diamond industry has not yet met its developmental potential," the WDC President noted.

Mr. Fischler delineated the elements that distinguish review from reform. Reform, he said, involves enhancing internal processes, so that the KP can "make better use of the instruments we ourselves have...

Jewelers for Children held its 21^st annual Facets of Hope event on June 2, at the Venetian, in Las Vegas. 

The charity announced that $1.3 million had been raised to support their charity partners in the year ahead, bringing the cumulative total since 1999 to $ 56.7 million that has been donated on behalf of the industry to help children in need. 

Each year it's amazing how generous our industry is to children in need," said Pam Mortensen, JFC board chair. "The stories from our charity partners and the number of children we have reached is something we can all feel very proud of."

JFC recognized Judy Fisher of Reeds Jewelers and David Bonaparte of Jewelers of America.

Guests were also treated to a performance by 16-year-old Aniya who had her wish granted when she got to meet performer Jessie J. The group also heard from Jackie who aged out of the foster care system and is now in college. The evening also included a watch give-away as well as a silent and live auction.    

This year, JFC combined forces with the JCK Show for a high-energy, fun-filled after party at Tao.  All attendees at the Facets of Hope could attend and Tao Beach was set aside for JFC supporters to mingle and enjoy the evening.  

During the program, Mortensen announced that the $ 1.3 million the charity was pledging included $ 300,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, $ 350,000 to Make-A-Wish America, $ 300,000 to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and $ 250,000 to the National CASA Association.  Also announced was a commitment of $ 50,000 to Make-A-Wish International for wish granting in...

HTTP/2 200 server: nginx date: Fri, 14 Jun 2019 20:00:04 GMT content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 content-length: 55527 vary: Accept-Encoding, Cookie cache-control: max-age=3600, public x-ua-compatible: IE=edge content-language: en x-content-type-options: nosniff x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT last-modified: Fri, 14 Jun 2019 20:00:00 GMT etag: W/"1560542400" x-backend-server: drupal-7744dd484d-m4758 age: 5 varnish-cache: HIT x-cache-hits: 3 x-served-by: varnish-1 accept-ranges: bytes ...

References

1. ^{^} Skip to main content (www.zerohedge.com)