Tanzanite - Rare?

[Rocchic]

I am tending to begin to agree. I love my jewellery and gemstones - I hve 4 tanzanite rings and 2 saphire rings I will not be purchasing anymore - maybe I need to stick to Gem jewellery where the mining is more strictly controlled or the gem easier to extract. I expect tho that the response will be from many different sources is that if we dont buy then we put poor people out of work so they earn nothing - this was a factor of the Primark documentary. I too saw the youngsters who went to various different countries to see where our 'cheap' goods are sourced. Maybe we should start closer to home.

 

[Meeshoo]

I am tending to begin to agree. I love my jewellery and gemstones - I hve 4 tanzanite rings and 2 saphire rings I will not be purchasing anymore - maybe I need to stick to Gem jewellery where the mining is more strictly controlled or the gem easier to extract. I expect tho that the response will be from many different sources is that if we dont buy then we put poor people out of work so they earn nothing - this was a factor of the Primark documentary. I too saw the youngsters who went to various different countries to see where our 'cheap' goods are sourced. Maybe we should start closer to home.

Rocchic that's a very pragmatic approach and I agree with you. NO vendor will say "yes I buy from mines where children are used". They may know, they may not. They may suspect, they may not. If they were to stop buying from all gem sources where there may be a hint of anything unethical they would stop selling altogether I'm afraid. They see the bigger picture. They understand that to stop buying would actually affect the economy for those underpriviledged as well. It's a horrible world.

If you have a strong preference for only buying ethical jewellery then I'd stick with items that don't contain gemstones I'm afraid (or buy only simulants).

 

[Rocchic]

Such a difficult one Meeshoo - there is the bigger picture I agree - I think if only more of the owners would pay their workers more it would help. Faritrade goods generally cost us more - should they ?

We had a culture here for many years of child slave labour - and built much of our architecture on slavery - maybe its human nature and it takes time to change.

I always thought Body Shop got it right by putting something back into the communities - altho I didnt like the sell out to L loreal but thats another story

 

[norbie]

Hi all,

I stumbled across this forum topic on Google - I'm a shareholder in Tanzanite One and know quite a bit about the company's operations. There's a few things I wanted to clarify for you in response to the original poster's first question.

The price of Tanzanite is currently rising as demand picks up after the global financial crisis. Production target has been been increased to 2.2 million carats for 2010 (15% increase over 2009 production of 1.91 million carats) and there is strong demand for this with sales so far this year being a great success and gem prices increasing by approx 10% so far this year (a sales update due shortly will give a better figure than this).

Also T1 use this grading and classification system which you may find handy:

If you want to buy Tanzanite and be sure of it's quality/background you need to buy through an official sales partner of T1 - there is a list available here - http://tanzaniteone.com/tanzanite_sightholders.htm#sight

If anyone has any questions with regards to Tanzanite One, please don't hesistate to ask.