The Issue with Ethical Crystal Sourcing
Regarding the sourcing of crystals: An interaction I had with a business recently brought home for me just how little most people—including businesses that assert otherwise—understand about crystal sourcing. This particular business caught my attention because it claims to be an “International Ethical Crystal Retailer.” My suspicion radar, attuned to the many untruths and half-truths told by the crystal industry, was triggered. Most claims of “ethical sourcing” are unsubstantiated. I was curious to see how this retailer would substantiate its claims.
The Complex Journey of Crystals from Mine to Market
Numerous varieties of rocks and minerals are extracted in one nation yet are refined in another. They are frequently unearthed in magnificent mountains and are shipped by the ton across a great distance—typically, thousands of miles—before they arrive at an outlet to which we can wholesale them. So I ask you: How easy do you think it is to keep track of all the crystals during their journey from mines across the world to 1508? The owner of the business at 1508 has an answer. Part of her answer is to work with “small independent communities that are looked after and mine consciously.”
Crystal Healing: The Placebo Effect and Lack of Scientific Evidence
Crystal healers maintain that the stones emit a unique vibrational frequency—one that can be harnessed for various kinds of healing. However, there is no scientific evidence to support this notion. In fact, scientists argue that what crystal enthusiasts ‘feel’ could largely be a placebo effect. If crystal healing actually worked, then any kind of crystal (regardless of where or how it was mined) should be capable of vibrationally identical feats. While not endorsing crystal healing, scientists are nevertheless working out the nanochemistry of how the atomic arrangement within a crystal gets it to emit light—and why that might be a health hazard.
The Business’s Claims of Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing
Elsewhere on their site, they elaborate on their ethical and sustainable business practices, which they say extend throughout their entire supply chain. They assert that they get their crystals exclusively from small family-owned mines. They also make extensive claims—far too many to quote here—that almost verged on hype about the sustainable mining methods that they say their suppliers use. This business has a stated commitment to sourcing its minerals and rocks from highly responsible suppliers—those whose practices align with the business’s ethos of harming no one and nothing.
The Reality of Ethical Sourcing: Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan
They even assure, “Everyone who undertakes the journey of a crystal with us is well taken care of.” At the end of the lengthy and detailed page, they assert, “We believe that to be a business with ethics, you must be able to show good ethical conduct throughout all aspects of your business, which includes promoting good ethical practices to your customers.” After reading all of this, I found out they sell lapis lazuli from Afghanistan.
Lapis Lazuli Mining in Afghanistan: A Conflict Mineral
For more than 6,000 years, lapis lazuli has been mined at Sar-e Sang, situated high in the Hindu Kush Mountains. The gorgeous blue stone is not found anywhere else in Afghanistan. For a long time, lapis lazuli has been known to be a ‘conflict mineral’ because it has helped to fund all sorts of bad stuff, from corruption and privatization of public services to terrorism. A few weeks ago, I raised a similar concern with another business. But when I spoke to its proprietors, they told me the lapis lazuli mine where their material comes from is owned by a local family. That, I believe, is not possible.
Tracked and Traced: The Buzzword in Ethical Sourcing
In a previous article of mine concerning crystals that are obtained in an ethical manner, I included the business owner’s response. “Tracked and traced” is a newer buzzword that many smaller crystal retailers are now using. It sounds good, and it really should. For a business to say its materials are “tracked and traced,” it has to have an established and actual system that can provide substantial and verifiable evidence that its products were obtained legally and ethically.
The Challenges of Verifying Ethical Sourcing
Additionally, they need to understand where the raw materials were excavated and the identity of the miners. They must also offer proof demonstrating every phase of their pathway until they reach the wholesale supplier. The vast majority of rocks and minerals employed for the purpose of crystal healing have undergone some form of processing. They are often sawed into pieces, shaped into statues, or have undergone some of the most basic forms of rock processing—cleaning and preparation for sale in the commercial sector.
Child Labor in the Mining Industry: A Global Issue
I have worked for many years in Africa and Asia and have learned it is commonplace for children to be part of the workforce. I have also witnessed some of the conditions under which work is carried out. This photo was taken while visiting a potential supplier in India in 2007. I saw children much younger than the two boys in this photo working at that site. Young children often labor because their families can’t afford to keep them in school. Indian boys and men work around a table cutting and polishing gemstones. Most of the rocks and minerals sold around the world are mined in places like Brazil, India, and Afghanistan, as well as several African countries, including Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Lack of Independent Oversight in Crystal Mining
Monitoring mining practices and working conditions depends on having an independent governing entity in place. Without that, how can we really know whether anything unethical is happening? Most retailers who say their crystals are ethically sourced seem to take their suppliers at face value. And their suppliers? Well, for the most part, they’re in China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Brazil—places with a lot of either crystal or potential cover-up (see above re: governing entities not being local.) Of course, some retailers do venture out into the field. But even if they do, what portion of them television personalities, in comparison with the audience for whom the scene is being shot, don’t have local rights?
The Limits of Transparency in Crystal Sourcing
One website I checked offered an insider’s perspective on crystal sourcing. The owner of the site explained that her material supplier sends photos and videos of the actual excavation process. These shots accompany the story of where and how the core materials for her offerings were found. She also included pictures of the stairs and railings made of quartered stone that were almost invisible to the eye but were apparently not as finely crafted as they could have been.
The Impossibility of Ensuring Ethical Compliance in Crystal Sourcing
I can hardly believe that a mom-and-pop shop ordering K2 of clear quartz from a business in Indonesia can ensure that their orders comply with U.S. environmental standards. I recently interviewed the president of the largest supplier of crystals from Madagascar who, with his associate—both of whom are Americans—spend half their year traveling the globe to trade fairs. “Oh, let me tell you about child labor in Madagascar,” this supplier said, after I mentioned the problem. And then he did. This is the essence of the problem. If you want to buy a crystal, it is almost impossible to ensure that its procurement did not involve child labor or other abuses.
The Impact of Mining on Communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Over 60% of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Cobalt is vital for making our modern electronics, from the laptops and tablets we work on to the smartphones we can’t seem to put down. But the DRC doesn’t just have cobalt; it also has one of the largest lithium deposits in the world. Lithium is containing in the batteries that power just about all our portable devices, including the electric vehicles that are becoming more and more common. Despite all this wealth of resources, the DRC is a fragile state at best, ruled by a combination of mayhem—episode after episode of violence, such as the recent civil war—that comes down to conflicts over these very resources.
Child Labor in the DRC’s Mining Sector
Child labor is common in mining, and mining is a huge part of the economy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mining employs children as young as seven, who work long hours underground and near pit heads. There have been numerous studies that show a direct link between child labor and certain national and multinational companies. Our next section explores this issue.
The Plight of Afghan Workers and the Taliban’s Impact on Mining
A year after the Taliban regained control in 2021, the economy fell apart. Men and women alike go hungry, and if you can get a decent job, we say you’re lucky. Unemployment is around 15%, and under the Taliban’s judicial reforms, punishments can include stoning, flogging, and the not-so-uncommon “being buried alive.” Those found guilty of homosexuality are thrown off buildings. A beheading in public for a teenager is a special kind of performance art. It says, “You should be terrified.” The Taliban is very good at using terror as a tool. A 19-year-old’s recent performance as “decent human beings” got a two-day tour of honor for the beheading they allegedly committed. And there’s lapis lazuli.
Afghanistan’s Mineral Wealth and the Impact of Corruption
Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is vast, running into trillions of dollars, but because of poor governance, near-total corruption, and a lack of investment, this extremely valuable resource does not benefit the economy. Brought in by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the late 2000s and early 2010s, very little geological information had been available before then. The federal Afghanistan Geological Survey has not done strong work for years. Half of the information in the surveys done under the aegis of the Geological Survey of America is known to be wrong. That is how far down the well of corruption in both offices governance has sunk.
The Remote and Hazardous Conditions of Lapis Lazuli Mining in Sar-e Sang
The drive to the Kocha Valley, where the stone is mined, takes over twelve hours. There are no roads and access is by steep, treacherous slopes. Only recently has a village been built to house the hundreds of miners who now live in such close proximity to the mine that it almost seems like the mine is in the middle of this little village. And the mine can only be worked for a few months each year—an impossibility in bad weather. So, to really grasp just how remote and how hard it is to get to the mine at Sar-e Sang, download and read the PDF of the article that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) published years ago on the subject (accessible at https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/winter-1981-lapis-afghanistan-wyart).
The Dangerous Working Conditions for Lapis Lazuli Miners
Using gas lamps and with very little ventilation, miners work under unsafe conditions. To unearth new veins, dynamite is used, and the miners have no safety or breathing equipment of any kind. From doing business in Asia, I know that suppliers are not always forthcoming about where their materials come from or how they’ve been processed. Many will tell you whatever you want to hear to make a sale, and I have little doubt that the materials we were buying and using were as unsafe as the conditions under which they were mined.
The Difficulty of Ensuring Ethical Crystal Sourcing: Personal Experience
For three decades as cabin crew, I flew to many places around the world. Between 2003 and 2019, I obtained rocks and minerals for my company, Stone Mania, in several countries, including India, Pakistan, Madagascar, and China, as well as in parts of Africa, the USA, and Australia. Remember: Any company that claims its crystals have been ‘ethically and sustainably sourced’ is saying its products have been mined and processed in accordance with those principles.
A New Crystal Business and Its Sales Practices
The business I’m discussing in this article has existed for a little over two years now. They make most of their sales through Instagram live video, but operate as a full-fledged online store.