AYV News, October 16, 2024
Chief Executive Officer of De Beers Group, Al Cook, has encouraged Sierra Leoneans to work together to tell the real positive story about Sierra Leone diamonds to the world.
De Beers inaugurated its GemFair pilot programme in Sierra Leone’s Kono district with 14-member mine sites in 2018 to create a secure route to market for ethically sourced artisanal and small-scale diamonds.
It has now actively expanded membership and impact in helping formalise the ASM sector and improve the livelihoods of those working in the sector.
GemFair only purchase diamonds from artisanal and small-scale mined sources that are extracted, processed and transported responsibly and legitimately.
In 2020 it entered into an MoU with the Mano River Union (MRU) and German Development Corporation (GIZ) to expand its ASM training programme and tailor it to government and civil society trainers, delivering a unique ‘training-of-trainers’ programme for stakeholders in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and the Ivory Coast. This collaboration has also enabled them to build regional capacity on diamond fundamentals and valuation.
GemFair prioritises support for its members and this became the programme’s core operational focus throughout most of 2020.
CEO Al Cook said way back, some 30 years ago, Sierra Leone was synonymous with conflict diamonds but that GemFair has succeeded in transforming this ugly story and today, Sierra Leone’s diamonds are some of the most desired globally.
Al Cook said: “With GemFair, we want Sierra Leone diamonds to be seen as the most beautiful diamonds in the world”.
He said he visited Kono recently to get firsthand assessment on what he has been reading and hearing on the news about the situation on the ground was real, his assessment turns out very much positive.
He spoke about a miner named Dominic who has been mining diamond in Kono since 1972 but it has always been hard for him to realise profit. He said after his encounter with GemFair, Dominic is now seeing more shares of his value and has now been able to send and fund 4 of his children to university in Freetown.
Also met with one Haja Mariama who narrated a story of how she has used the training she got from GemFair to raise the standards of her team and ensure more protection for them.
He assured that with what he saw in Kono, he want to make sure that GemFair stands tall to market Sierra Leone diamonds around the world.
Al Cook said: “What we saw makes us now very much comfortable of the safety, the environmental, supply chain and human rights standards that the world aspires to, in dealing with Sierra Leone diamonds. GemFair can now work out how we market these Sierra Leonean diamonds to the global market, as we already know that Sierra Leone produces some of the most beautiful diamonds in the world.
“How could we bring that beauty to the world in a way that people can completely trust the standards to which those diamonds were mined? We are now very comfortable that we will now go forward and market those diamonds to global markets. So, over the next few months, we will be doing that, working with people from Sierra Lone in order to tell the story that would make people globally want to buy these diamonds”.
Al Cook said GemFair has really expanded over the years and that they would be working very carefully with the Government of Sierra Leone to make sure that they only buy diamonds from mines that are consistent with their state policies and regulations.
He used the opportunity to inform local miners that the best place in Sierra Leone to sell their diamonds is at GemFair, adding that beyond this initiative, GemFair is are working to take this goodies beyond Sierra Leone and across the world, so that more miners will benefit.
He said the last time people dealing on diamonds internationally hear about Sierra Leone was a long time ago and that those stories might have not been good, “so now, we need to work together to tell that real story about Sierra Leone diamonds, which will make more people trust and be ready to buy them”.
Al Cook said: “At this point, as a country, our message should be: Serra Leone is a country that has enjoyed decade of peace, risen its standards, a country with very beautiful places and people with responsible governments and above all, a country with very beautiful diamonds. If we can tell those stories to the world, they will attracts more people to come in and invest in diverse sectors for national development. If the message is passed the right way, I’m very confident that Sierra Leone diamonds would become some of the most treasured globally”.
Al Cook said GemFair is working on seeing that that Sierra Leone goes in the direction of beneficiation, where investors will come in and process the diamonds here in Sierra Leone to get jewelries and other things, as it is done in other countries like South Africa, where tens of factories are cutting and polishing diamonds and producing jewelries.
In order to do that, he said: “We need to provide education and work with institutions to have Sierra Leoneans polish and cut their diamonds to design jewelries. We will be meeting with the government to discuss how GemFair will come in to achieve these and who are the people we are to work with to build those skills of cutting and polishing diamonds and to manufacture jewelries”.
Speaking on GemFair’s Corporate Social Responsibilities, Al Cook said when they go out to sell their diamonds, buyers are always keen to know whether those diamonds are giving back positively to the people in the countries they are coming from.
He said the buyers will always want to know whether the diamonds are helping in the livelihoods of people back home from where they are coming and address key issues like climate change.
So for that reason, Al Cook said GemFair has been working closely with UN Women in Sierra Leone in the area of women’s empowerment, ensure that for every mine land that miners disturb, there is protect more than twice of that area as a biodiverse reserve.
He also informed that GemFair works with Stamford University to bring education to Sierra Leone on businesses and support local businesses as well. He encouraged Sierra Leoneans to work together with GemFair to tell the true story of their diamonds so that they will attract more buyers globally.
GemFair is a pilot project developed by De Beers Group that aims to create a secure and transparent route to market for ethically sourced Artisinal and Small-scale Mined (ASM) diamonds.
GemFair is scaling up its operations in Sierra Leone to give more miners the opportunity to benefit from the opportunities the program offers. It provides ASM diamond miners with access to De Beers Groups industry leading distribution channel, while seeking to improve ethical standards, working conditions and value for miners within the sector.
Since the pilot launched in April 2018, GemFair has seen significant progress across its operations, opening offices in both Koidu and Freetown, and developing a set of publicly available ASM standards to ensure a best practice approach for responsible sourcing.
The GemFair standards complement the Maendeleo Diamond Standards, which include standards relating to social, environmental and labor risks within the sector.
