Jewellery is mined at a high cost. Our mothers, sister, fathers and brothers have paid with their lives. Many are ill with silicosis, having mined the gold you profit from in your jewellery stores. We call on you as an industry to demand Rand Refinery adopt similar protocols to the Kimberley Process, to the gold industry, so that consumers are able to determine if the gold jewellery the people of South Africa wear, came at the cost of someones life and dignity.
Why is this important?
Mining companies have been exploiting workers for decades when it has come to workers rights, safety and health. Many workers have died, slow painful deaths with no compensation, having worked in mines that produce gold used by jewellers. Public pressure forced regulation of conflict diamonds, and labelling of goods from Israel, now we need to use consumer power to transform the gold industrial complex.
.png)