Reuters recently reported on a jewelry shop in Chichester, England which has formed a partnership with miners in a cooperative in Choco, Colombia called the Green Gold (“Oro Verde”) project.

Together they are working with the Fairtrade Foundation — which backs farmers and workers from poor countries to develop their communities through fairer terms of trade. They aim to extend Fairtrade’s successful labeling to gold. Analysts say global sales of ethical gold jewelry are probably less than one percent of the total $56 billion gold jewelry market based on figures from London-based consultancy GFMS — and the Fairtrade label is a year or so away.

An interesting start to a long discussion.