Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has committed to invest a sum of US$ 1.3 million to expand the distribution of its innovative gem guide for artisanal miners to other communities and countries in Africa. This follows the successful completion of a pilot in Tanzania and feedback from small-scale coloured gemstone miners there.

The announcement of the endowment was made by GIA President and CEO Susan Jacques while speaking at the recent ICA Congress in Bangkok.

In a statement released yesterday, the global organisation that runs gemmological labs and conducts gemmological education in many parts of the world, said that over the next four years, the programme will be expanded in Tanzania, where the successful pilot has just been completed, and also taken to Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia.

GIA said that in collaboration with Pact, a Washington D.C.-based international development non-profit organisation with expertise in the region, it plans to reach 10,000 miners and share relevant information on how to evaluate the quality of the rough they mine.

“This is a tremendous step forward in our efforts to bring information directly to artisanal miners right at the beginning of the gem and jewelry supply chain,” said Jacques. “We know that this investment will bring an invaluable benefit to miners, their families and the communities in which they live.”

Work on the gem guide project began shortly after GIA Distinguished Research Fellow Dr. James Shigley saw the difficult working conditions of artisanal miners during a 2008 trip to Kenya and Tanzania. He worked along with Dona Dirlam, then-director of the GIA library, and GIA research and library staff, to create the booklet, “Selecting Gem Rough: A Guide for Artisanal Miners.”

First developed in English and later translated into Swahili, the photo-rich booklet has images of the gemstones found in East Africa and illustrations of how to examine and evaluate rough gems. The booklet is waterproof and comes with a durable plastic tray that can be used to sort gems and do basic gemmological evaluations. GIA said it piloted the program in 2016, working with Pact.

“We found that for every dollar invested, there was a 12-fold social return that will last years into the future,” said Cristina M. Villegas, technical program manager for Pact’s Mines to Markets program. “With their new knowledge, miners improve their income, send their children to school, invest in their mines and their communities.”

GIA staff, including Robert Weldon, current director of the Richard T. Liddicoat Gemological Library and Information Center at GIA and a major contributor to the development and content of the guide, trained more than 1,000 artisanal miners on how to use the guide and tray during a two-week period earlier this year in Tanzania. GIA’s initial efforts to provide information to small scale, artisanal miners came full circle when the GIA team visited the Tanzanian Association of Women Miners (TAWOMA), who participated in the very first training session for the guide.

“There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the reaction of the miners as they learn the material – you instantly see that you’ve positively made a change in someone’s life,” said Weldon. “These transcendent moments make us so proud that we can provide artisanal miners with a gem guide that gives them the confidence to know their value in the market.”

Pic caption: Pact representative Norbert Massay, GIA Graduate Gemologist (GG) Marvin Wambua and GIA’s library director Robert Weldon explaining the gem guide to artisanal miners in MoroGoro, Tanzania

Pic courtesy: GIA

***