There are few places in the world where you can even remotely name the miner who extracted your gemstone from underground. Greenland Ruby that operates the ruby mine, is proud of and passionate about being a mine in Greenland. In fact, in 2020, figures confirmed that the mine was operated by 100% Greenlandic labour and that 74% of its costs went to local suppliers.
“It’s important to us that our employees are happy and that women also feel confident working in the ruby mine. Therefore, we look especially at housing conditions and the working environment so that we can attract female workers,” says Thorbjørn Friis, Compliance Officer at Greenland Ruby.
The mine is one of two operating in Greenland (the other is the anorthosite mine, run by Lumina Sustainable Materials in Kangerlussuaq,) and there is no shortage of social and environmental requirements. Together with the mine in Kangerlussuaq, they will jointly meet the high requirements for “Towards Sustainable Mining” to illustrate that there is no need to relax social and environmental requirements to mine in Greenland.
Greenland Ruby sells directly to jewellers and can trace their products very far, from extraction to the finished jewellery. To highlight areas such as responsible mining, gender equality, money laundering, due diligence and the overall value chain, Greenland Ruby has just achieved a 3-year certification under the “Responsible Jewellery Councils” principles.
The rubies are one example of the emergence of modern Greenland, a story of a business community that can be proudly showcased to tourists visiting Greenland. The beautiful shop in Nuuk Center invites people in for local gemstone storytelling. Here are local jewellery design suggestions, one of which came from a school teacher in Qaqortoq that has been developed into the series that adorn the shop.
Local jewellery artists can also come to the shop and select stones for their jewellery designs. If you are not lucky enough to be in Nuuk, cut stones are sold on the website to spread this beautiful Greenlandic product and sales offices in New York, Paris and Bangkok. In this way, Greenland Ruby is a link between the huge gemstone market and Greenland.
A percentage from every sale of rubies and sapphires goes to the “Pink Polar Bear Foundation”, which, among other things, supports research that helps protect Greenland’s inhabitants (people, animals and vegetation) from the adverse impacts of climate change and a resulting loss of culture. And to help strengthen the culture in the local environment, a fixed proportion of the foundation’s funds go to the skin sewing room in Qeqertarsuatsiaat.
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