Diamond News Archives

(IDEX Online) – CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, has announced the establishment of an industry-wide working committee to formulate Responsible Sourcing Guidelines specifically for the jewelry, gem and precious metals sectors.

The new body was created by the CIBJO Board of Directors in March following Board approval of a draft Responsible Sourcing Guidelines document.

When ratified, the guidelines will have the status of a CIBJO Blue Book, and are intended to provide a general framework for responsible sourcing practices, serving as a roadmap for all industry participants. The guidelines will be voluntary recommendations for members of the sector, and will not constitute a standard or compliance mechanism by CIBJO. This means that members of the industry who would like certification or any other formal recognition of their implementation of responsible sourcing policies will need to do so through an internationally recognised standards organisation, such as the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC).

The proposed CIBJO Responsible Sourcing Guidance will follow the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, and also supports the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The Responsible Sourcing Committee, chaired by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri, includes senior CIBJO officials from various industry sectors, as well as representatives of other industry organisations, including the RJC, with which CIBJO has a Memorandum of Understanding. The core Guidance document, which was approved by the CIBJO board in March 2018, was prepared by Philip Olden, a former managing director at the World Gold Council, who is an expert on responsible sourcing strategies in the precious metals and jewelry sector, and consults with major...

Reality is reality: Stock market pricing does not change economic, mathematical, or sociopolitical fact.

As US government debt sprints higher, faster all the time, there is no longer even political lip service being paid to fiscal responsibility. Who has time for topics as staid as balanced budgets when every day is a new circus of lies, angry tweets, and deflection?

Distraction is not a solution. The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Issuing more bad debt, faster, to pay for our current bad debt, will not fix the problem. The stock market is only pricing in the risk above the surface, if that, when it should be pricing in the whole iceberg. Gold and silver will retain their value when risk asset market inevitably capsize.

With the Trump fiscal policies and rearmament, America is taking more debt than in decades, even though its sovereign debt now exceeds $21.2 trillion, or 106 percent of the GDP. As fiscal stimulus kicks in (read: Trump's tax cuts), the deficit will widen.

The US is now the only major advanced economy that's expected to see a rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio over the next 5 years (almost 10%!). The huge leverage relies on the continued willingness of other countries to finance America's imbalances, even as US debt held by other countries already hovers around $6.4 trillion.

Meanwhile, the Sino-US bilateral friction continues, along with talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, and on tariffs with the EU.

And yet, US dollar has strengthened, while Dow Jones remains over 24,200. Is the market mispricing the risks, once again?

In the past decade, the US has increased its gold holdings by only some 0.5 ton, while Germany has cut...

Canada-listed Fura Gems (TSX-V:FUR), a new gemstone mining and marketing company headed by the former COO of Gemfields (LON:GEM), has found a 25.97-carat rough emerald at its Coscuez emerald mine located in Boyacá, Colombia.

The company says it's a “rare and exceptional” emerald given its size, colour saturation and clarity.

More to come…

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