RJC officially recognises ‘Fairmined’ small-scale mining standard

The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) and the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) yesterday announced an official standard for artisanal and small-scale mining. 

The ‘Fairmined Standard v.2.0’ is now officially recognised as a Responsible Mining Standard under the RJC Chain of Custody (CoC) standard for precious metals.

The standard aims to mitigate concerns raised about downstream supply chain participants avoiding Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM), and further incentivise artisanal miners to become certified under the Fairmined Standard.

The Fairmined Standard now provides brands with three different innovative sourcing models; labelled, incorporated and Fairmined certificates.

Lina Villa-Cordoba, executive director at ARM, said: “The RJV recognition of the Fairmined Standard opens up important market possibilities for the Fairmined certified miners and the industry. We are very pleased the efforts of the miners are recognised and invite RJC members to further support the miners by joining the Fairmined initiative through our different sourcing models.”

Fiona Solomon, director of standards development at RJC, said: “The Fairmined Standard makes a vital contribution to formalisation and professionalisation of the ASM sector.”

In cooperation with ARM, RJC conducted a review of the comparability of the RJC Code of Practices standard and the Fairmined standard.

Image courtesy of Nigel Wright