Have the social issues of gemstone and diamond mining also steered you towards post-consumer recycled gemstones?
Relative to something like gold mining which has both massive environmental and social issues, most issues with diamonds and gemstones are on the social side. Generally, there’s a lack of equity in the distribution of wealth with diamond mining, and a mind-boggling lack of transparency in the supply chain. Many companies make claims such as ‘ethical’, ‘conflict-free’, or ‘sustainable’ but many of these claims are unsubstantiated, and in some cases, impossible.
You can prove, empirically, that a given stone is a diamond, and you can differentiate between naturally-produced and synthetic diamonds with empirical testing, but anything beyond that is a claim – where it’s from, that it’s recycled, where it was cut, that it’s ‘ethically-sourced’, etc.
People use gemstones as tokens of love and commitment, in ceremony and commemoration. They should be able to feel confident that at the very least, the stone on their finger didn’t contribute to bad social or environmental realities during its extraction, trading, or cutting, which often happen in disadvantaged parts of the world.
If you’re going to make a claim, show us, don’t tell us. Prove it. Words matter, and they matter not at all - reality is what matters. Prove it with good 3rd party validation, prove it with documentation (by which I do not mean, explicitly, a signed piece of paper), prove it with transparency, or prove it otherwise. No one, no system, and no thing is perfect, but we must start somewhere and every stone we source, every time we buy is an opportunity to ask questions and to try to do better.