On 7 January 2019, a special meeting took place in Vienna, Austria. People from all over Europe gathered to talk about one of the most exciting topics in the gold sector: Fairmined.
Goldsmiths, jewelers, refiners and suppliers from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland followed the invitation by the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and travelled to Vienna to participate in the Fairmined Meeting Europe. As Fairmined Licensees and Authorized Suppliers they actively participate in the Fairmined Initiative by buying and selling Fairmined Gold and producing beautiful products with an added value, such as jewelry or coins.
One of the objectives of this day was to update the participants on the work of the Alliance for Responsible Mining and progress of the Fairmined Program. Conny Havel, Head of Supply Chains and Markets, shared information on sales, market, supply, demand and impact of Fairmined in 2018, as well as giving an update on the 11 Fairmined certified mining organizations and ARM’s work plan 2019 to supportand further grow gold supply chains from responsible artisanal and small-scale mining.
Furthermore, two workshops were held. The first workshop focused on the revision of the Fairmined Standard 2.0, as 2019 will see the development of Fairmined Standard 3.0. Following ISEAL’s international recommendations for Standards Development, sustainability standards should be reviewed at least every five years for continued relevance and for effectiveness in meeting its stated objective. The Fairmined Licensees and Suppliers were invited to reflect on the requirements of the Fairmined Standard 2.0 that apply to them and share their inputs on how to improve version 3.0. Interesting discussions emerged and the participants had the opportunity to reflect on important topics with Felix Hruschka, expert on artisanal and small-scale mining, president of the ARM Board and one of the leader’s in the development of historic, present and future Fairmined Standards. This workshop was part of the initial collection of inputs from specific Fairmined Stakeholders, the public communication of the revision and consultation of the Fairmined Standard 3.0 will start in the coming months.
The second workshop focused on collecting inputs for the Fairmined Market Strategy 2019, according to ARM’s philosophy to shape its works as much as possible to the needs of its partners. The highly motivated group reflected on what their expectations and needs are to be successful with Fairmined, on what works well and what should be improved, on values and customers, amongst others. A special highlight were the values which our partners associate with Fairmined, as they perfectly reflect how its developers want it to be perceived:
The feedback from the participants was extremely positive and ARM thanks all those who travelled to Vienna to contribute and make the meeting a success. One of the greatest pleasures of our work is to engage with these dedicated people who call themselves “Fairmined Family”!
