Our Goal:
Ethical Fair-trade Gemstone Products
The key to “Ethical Mining and Fair Trade” is to build a transparent supply chain from the mine to the final product and have a third-party institution supervising and certifying the businesses that adhere to such transparent supply chains.
The current reality is:
- There is no independent certification scheme available globally.
- No third-party institution anywhere around the world would build or offer an independent certification scheme.
- There are lots of certification scams on the internet (meaning people that certify themselves, creating their own certification logos being awarded to themselves). Examples for that are the numeric stamps on silver jewelry (950, 925, etc..) when jewelers themselves certify the quality of their silver, or the Fair-Trade Gems® trademark promoted by Colombia Gem House to certify their own mining operation without any third-party oversight.
- Stone mining is mostly small-scale mining in remote areas in development countries. The individual miners keep the locations of their mines secret because they have reason to fear that their own clients or mining competitors will drive up to their mine and steal the rock when they are not present. Pinpointing mine locations as a means of transparency is often impossible.
At Gemrock we are trying to be as transparent as possible about the ethics and practices in our production chain. Transparency means being clear about what’s possible and what’s not and how we deal with the challenges. Improving our supply chain and delivering proof for it, is an ongoing effort. Please revisit this page from time to time to see how we are doing.
Unethical, unfair, and unacceptable: a list of everything that we reject.
In transition to ethical: the level of our bulk B2B wholesale to wholesale business. We are working with third-party companies to integrate them into an ethical work scheme. We are changing the Peruvian crystal industry from within one crystal at a time. It is not perfect. However, it is better than most.
“Nearly fully ethical” or “fully ethical”: By buying your products from our in-house production at our production unit at Alvar Peru SAC you are obtaining truly ethical crystals, crystal products, and jewelry. Here we have almost everything from the mine to the final product under our control.
Find out what are the ethical and environmental criteria we comply with:
No conflict areas:
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from conflict areas.
No drug production and terrorism
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from areas dominated by drug lords or terrorist organizations.
No child labor
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from mining operations that ignore, allow, or tolerate child labor.
No illegal mining
We do the mining for several of our stones ourselves, having all required permits, paying our miners all required benefits with real labor contracts, and doing everything possible to reduce environmental impact.
No Shadow business mining
We do the mining for several of our stones ourselves, having all required permits, paying our miners all required benefits with real labor contracts, and doing everything possible to reduce environmental impact.
No Environmental Destruction
We are not buying raw materials that have been mined in protected areas or biodiverse and sensible natural habitats. We are only buying gold and silver from legal mining companies which are obliged to comply with the government’s environmental standards. Stone mining in Peru is located in the coastal desert, an area nearly without vegetation, fauna, and water bodies. Stone mining does not require the use of chemicals.
Environmental impact reduction and compensation
In our lapidary workshop, we save water and energy and recycle materials. We compensate for the remaining environmental impacts by implementing a forest restoration project that neutralizes our carbon footprint, being globally the only company offering you carbon-neutral crystals and jewelry.
No shadow business lapidary work
Our Gemrock group company Alvar Peru SAC produces all our top-quality products in-house. We hire our workers with real contracts, register them with the labor ministry, and pay all labor benefits like paid vacations, paid sick leave, retirement funds, and health insurance. Additionally, we pay salaries that are much higher than the industry standard, we pay annual bonuses and we share 5 % of our annual profits with our employees. Finally, we are creating a non-discriminative, secure, and pleasing work environment.
No toxic jewelry
By producing all chains, jewelry pieces, and charms made from silver, gold plated silver, and gold with our partner company Herdel & del Molino SAC, part of the Gemrock Group, we make sure that no toxic substances are contaminating our products and that your health is protected.
Full Transparency
The goal of Alvar Peru SAC is to produce fully ethical and environmentally friendly crystals, crystal products, and jewelry. Transparency is a key element of our work and we are taking transparency to a level not seen before in the global crystal industry. We provide the most detailed paper trail as proof to our clients. We are happy to receive visits from our clients any time and to show them around.
All crystal, crystal products, and jewelry from Alvar Peru SAC are either fully ethical or nearly fully ethical.
No conflict areas:
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from conflict areas.
No drug production and terrorism
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from areas dominated by drug lords or terrorist organizations.
No child labor
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from mining operations that ignore, allow, or tolerate child labor.
On the way to stop illegal mining
Given the fact that miners keep their mining locations secret, we have no way to prove that the miner has all the permits required. We are trying to avoid illegal mining by forcing providers to accept bank transfers instead of cash payments and we require an official bill from the provider (including taxes). This way the provider is visible to the governmental entities and tax office. Illegal miners would not do this.
On the way to stop shadow business mining
We have no way to make sure that providers hire miners with written contracts and comply with labor regulations as well as the payment of legally required labor benefits. We are forcing providers to accept bank transfers instead of cash payments and we require an official bill from the provider (including taxes). This way the provider is visible to the governmental entities like the tax office (SUNAT) and to the governmental entity that supervises labor rights implementation (SUNAFIL). This way the provider runs the legal risk of not complying with labor law and tax regulations.
No Environmental Destruction
We are not buying raw materials that have been mined in protected areas or biodiverse and sensible natural habitats. We are only buying gold and silver from legal mining companies which are obliged to comply with the government’s environmental standards. Stone mining in Peru is located in the coastal desert, an area nearly without vegetation, fauna, and water bodies. Stone mining does not require the use of chemicals.
Environmental impact reduction and compensation
In our lapidary workshop, we save water and energy and recycle materials. We compensate for the remaining environmental impacts by implementing a forest restoration project that neutralizes our carbon footprint, being globally the only company offering you carbon-neutral crystals and jewelry.
No shadow business lapidary work
Our Gemrock group company Alvar Peru SAC produces all our top-quality products in-house. We hire our workers with real contracts, register them with the labor ministry, and pay all labor benefits like paid vacations, paid sick leave, retirement funds, and health insurance. Additionally, we pay salaries that are much higher than the industry standard, we pay annual bonuses and we share 5 % of our annual profits with our employees. Finally, we are creating a non-discriminative, secure, and pleasing work environment.
No toxic jewelry
By producing all chains, jewelry pieces, and charms made from silver, gold plated silver, and gold with our partner company Herdel & del Molino SAC, part of the Gemrock Group, we make sure that no toxic substances are contaminating our products and that your health is protected.
Full Transparency
The goal of Alvar Peru SAC is to produce fully ethical and environmentally friendly crystals, crystal products, and jewelry. Transparency is a key element of our work and we are taking transparency to a level not seen before in the global crystal industry. We provide the most detailed paper trail as proof to our clients. We are happy to receive visits from our clients any time and to show them around.
All crystal, crystal products, and jewelry from Alvar Peru SAC are either fully ethical or nearly fully ethical.
No conflict areas:
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from conflict areas.
No drug production and terrorism
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from areas dominated by drug lords or terrorist organizations.
No child labor
No gold, silver, gemstone, rough rock, or crystal is acquired from mining operations that ignore, allow, or tolerate child labor.
On the way to no illegal mining
Given the fact that miners keep their mining locations secret, we have no way to prove that the miner has all the permits required. We are trying to avoid illegal mining by forcing providers to accept bank transfers instead of cash payments and we require an official bill from the provider (including taxes). This way the provider is visible to the governmental entities and tax office. Illegal miners would not do this.
On the way to stop shadow business mining
We have no way to make sure that providers hire miners with written contracts and comply with labor regulations as well as the payment of legally required labor benefits. We are forcing providers to accept bank transfers instead of cash payments and we require an official bill from the provider (including taxes). This way the provider is visible to the governmental entities like the tax office (SUNAT) and to the governmental entity that supervises labor rights implementation (SUNAFIL). This way the provider runs the legal risk of not complying with labor law and tax regulations. We are constantly educating our providers about the legal risks of shadow business.
No Environmental Destruction
We are not buying raw materials that have been mined in protected areas or biodiverse and sensible natural habitats. We are only buying gold and silver from legal mining companies which are obliged to comply with the government’s environmental standards. Stone mining in Peru is located in the coastal desert, an area nearly without vegetation, fauna, and water bodies. Stone mining does not require the use of chemicals.
On the way to stop shadow business lapidary work
We are helping former shadow-business lapidary workshops transition to being a legal business by providing advice from our accountant and teaching them how to write bills and declare their taxes. We are forcing them to accept bank transfer payments and to issue official bills (tax included). This way those companies are visible to the governmental SUNAFIL, an institution that supervises the rights of workers. With this, the workshop runs the risk of huge fines if detected that workers are hired without contract and labor benefits. Sadly we do not have the possibility to check if workers in such providing companies are paid fairly and receive their benefits.
No toxic jewelry
By producing all chains, jewelry pieces, and charms made from silver, gold plated silver, and gold with our partner company Herdel & del Molino SAC, part of the Gemrock Group, we make sure that no toxic substances are contaminating our products and that your health is protected.
Transparency
Gemrock Peru SAC is in charge of the large volume wholesale to wholesale bulk crystal business. This business line is the intent to change the system from within by working with miners, lapidary shops, and international wholesalers who previously did not care. We cannot guarantee fully ethical crystals in this business segment and we are honest and open about it. We are not hiding behind meaningless terms and lies. However, we are in the process of changing the tide, one crystal at a time. If you want fully ethical crystals, crystal products, and jewelry, please buy products from our company Alvar Peru SAC. When producing our top-quality products in-house we are almost in full control of every detail from the mine to the final product.
Gemrock Peru SAC works with lapidary shops in transition for its B2B wholesale to wholesale business with minimum orders of 500 kilos or 5000 USD (in jewelry) with ocean shipping for low-quality mass products. We are changing the system from within one crystal at a time.
All silver and gold jewelry is ethically produced by our partner company Herdel & del Molino S.A.C.
Conflict areas:
Gold, silver, gemstones, rough rock, or crystals come from areas of war or civil war, financing one or several parties of the conflict, and are related to human rights violations, gender discrimination, or massive substance abuse.
Drug production and terrorism
Gold, silver, gemstones, rough rock, or crystals, that come from areas dominated by drug lords or terrorist organizations, financing those organizations, and are related to human rights violation, murder, and lawlessness.
Child labor
Mining operations that ignore, allow, or tolerate child labor.
Illegal mining
Mining without a permit, mining in protected areas, and mining on the concession of third parties without their permission or knowledge.
Shadow business mining
Cash-based mining operations that hide their activities, they do not pay taxes, hire miners without written contracts, and do not comply with labor regulations and legally required labor benefits.
Environmental Destruction
Mining in protected areas and highly sensitive biodiverse habitats. Mining that causes chemical contamination.
No environmental restoration or damage mitigation.
Mining and lapidary work that does not care to reduce environmental damage, restore habitats after ending the activities, or mitigate its climate change impact.
Shadow business lapidary work
Cash-based production of cut and polished crystal products which are made by unregistered companies without working permits, that hide their activities, do not pay taxes, hire workers without written contracts, and do not comply with labor regulations and legally required labor benefits.
Toxic jewelry
jewelers try to increase their profit by mixing toxic substances like lead, cadmium, or nickel into silver and gold jewelry. The presence of such substances can cause allergies and other health consequences for consumers.
No Transparency
Unethical crystal companies will not be transparent about where their crystals come from, about child labor, about illegal and shadow business mining, and shadow business lapidary work. They will deny environmental impacts. They will not be able to show measures to reduce or compensate for environmental impacts. They will not be able or willing to provide a paper trail as proof. They will use empty meaningless words to fool you (like “hand-selected crystals”). They will refuse to answer your questions. They will provide superficial excuses (like “We know our miners personally”, “We support the communities”, or: “our miners are artisans”). Some will even try to scam you with invented certifications and assurances.
None of the Gemrock group companies knowingly engages in any of those activities.
Why choose Gemrock?
All our workers are hired under formal working contracts and provided with all legally required health, labour and retirement benefits.
We are going to great length to find the right process for each type of stone in order to achieve the best possible polish.
During our lapidary production we have a rigurous review process in place that filters out any product that shows the tyniest scratches.
We strive for perfect shapes in all our products, even if this means an extreemly high effort in carving.
Even if handmade piece by piece, we do offer standartized sizes that do not vary more than 2 to 3 mm. This improves the pricing process of our clients.
We are constantly improving our production process in order to achieve shorter production times while maintaining quality. Also we are trying to save water and energy.
All our workers are hired under formal working contracts and provided with all legally required health, labour and retirement benefits.
We are going to great length to find the right process for each type of stone in order to achieve the best possible polish.
During our lapidary production we have a rigurous review process in place that filters out any product that shows the tyniest scratches.
We strive for perfect shapes in all our products, even if this means an extreemly high effort in carving.
Even if handmade piece by piece, we do offer standartized sizes that do not vary more than 2 to 3 mm. This improves the pricing process of our clients.
We are constantly improving our production process in order to achieve shorter production times while maintaining quality. Also we are trying to save water and energy.
Get in Touch
+51 994104206
gemrockinternational@gmail.com