Leading the World to Shine Brighter: Ethical Gemstones for a Better Future

Our rough traceable partner Fura Gems, are passionate about ethical mining practices and sustainability. There state-of-the-art processes in Queensland, Australia, ensure that our gemstone mining practices are responsible and sustainable, while also meeting the highest standards of labour and safety regulations. The commitment to ethical and sustainable gemstone mining makes us a leader in the industry.

Responsible Mining

In 2020, FURA added Sapphire to its portfolio with acquisition of Capricorn Sapphire and Great Northern Mining. These mining licenses are in the highlands of Central Queensland of Australia, approximately 850 kilometers northwest of Brisbane.

In Australia, Sapphire is found in several east coast localities, from north Queensland to North-east Tasmania. Our beautiful Australian sapphires are from the Anakie Sapphire Fields & the Great Northern Mining. The mines are 100% owned by Fura Gems who has 15 sq.km area of mining license and 110 sq.km area of exploration license.

The responsible mining near Emerald all comes down to the government. All around the world, currently Australia & Montana are the two world's only first world countries with mining happening 100% according to the government's rules and regulations. The world buys bags from Italian brands, watches from Switzerland because of the value they add being a first world producing country.

Re-usable Australian water

The process includes state of the art technology for planning, execution and monitoring of these mines to achieve socially, economically and environmentally responsible operations. With automated and mechanical mining process, it ensures employee safety and environmental standards.

In the near future we will run out of clean water due all the things happening with mining and global warming (cutting down trees) around the world. Australian mines of Sapphires takes its water seriously; as an important and sustainable resource to re-use its water for years to come without dependency from other parts of Australia or the world.

At NGM, anything we do with water & trees goes hand in hand with our mission. Re-usable water and bringing back greenery to mined land is an amazing sight for the world.

Rehabilitation Part 1

The process of making the soil usable again, plants need to grow, trees need to grow, water needs to come back, the natural habitat needs to be restored.

This is exactly what this Seeder does. It makes sure that once the soil is fertile again, it plants seeds inside the topmost layer of the soil for what we call Seeding. This is the most critical part where manual seeding isn't possible, we use machines to do the job in Australia.

Grazing is also done in areas of the licensed mines in order to keep the animals (Cows & Sheeps) in their natural habitat. We see thee animals across all areas of the mining operations, internal communication keeps the animals in a certain area so they are natural controlled. We loved seeing this!

Rehabilitation Part 2 - MAGIC!

Only if all the mines in the world did this, we would have a happy Earth. This huge area that you see in the image on the right used to be one of Mining pits, it was so well taken care of that they converted the pit into a man made mountain by adding more soil from other areas and allow nature to grow there.

This is the point where we saw and realize that only if the rest of the world gemstone mining could follow these practices. Such practices adds cost, time and proper planning before they are implemented in a country like Australia.

Rough to Pre-Form

NGM purchases rough from FURA Gems via auction and the rough goes directly to our factory where the magic happens - beautifuly cut australian sapphires.

ROUGH-PREFORMS-CUT

Provenance Proof

We have incorporated cutting edge provenance proof blockchain technology into the process. From the moment the rough is purchases all the way to the end consumer, the whole process is captured via blockchain technology. It provides tracibility and validity to the supply chain process. Moreover, once entered into the system by any party, data cannot be altered. It is permanent.