Silver; can it ever become an ethical metal?

There is plenty of information around about how gold and diamonds can be ethical. In recent years the term “blood diamonds” has become a household phrase and this year “Fairtrade” and “Fairmined gold” has joined it. But what is it that makes gold and diamonds ethical? And can we ever expect to see silver join this very exclusive group?

Silver

The jewellery industry is well known as a destructive, dirty business which uses a massive percentage of the world’s energy and is one of the largest employers but still pollutes, kills and maims the environment and peoples involved.

Both diamonds and gold have been able to make steps towards becoming ethical due to two main points:

Third party certification has been established to police the processes involved in mining and refining the materials and the checking the supply chain from earth to product. This is the Kimberley Process for diamonds and the Association for Responsible Mining combined with the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation for Fairtrade and Fairmined gold.

These materials are highly priced meaning that those who can afford to use the material are already spending a lot of money. Any additional Fairtrade premiums added onto this can be passed onto the consumer quite easily as products which contain gold and diamonds will already have a high price.

Silver prices have been relatively low in recent years meaning that additional premiums on top may discourage use of the material. However, over the past few months, the price of silver has also been rising making it a much more costly product than the same time last year. Perhaps this increased price may make silver as an ethical material more possible.

Silver is not mined on its own. Generally, silver is mined as a by-product of copper, gold and zinc mines. It was estimated in 2008 that only 30% of silver is mined from silver specific mines. As well as this, silver is not used with the same exclusivity as gold is within the jewellery industry. It is estimated that 80% of all gold mined ends up being used to produce jewellery. Compared to this, silver is used in industrial, medical and technological fields. Only 25% of silver is used for jewellery and silverware.

These two things combined mean that there is not the same amount of money put into silver as gold and diamonds making it less likely for the amount of time and money required to source materials more ethically to be put in.

Currently recycled silver is the most ethical source of silver and this is currently what Opulent Ethics use but we are hoping that this may change in time. Once it has been proved that gold can be mined in less harmful and more sustainable ways then, hopefully, this will percolate down to mining other materials including silver.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed for these developments soon.

That’s all for now….