At Unearthed we are incredibly passionate about how and where our stones are sourced, which is why we mostly work directly with family owned mines ourselves and cut out the middle man.
We are very serious about ethical sourcing of our stones. Child slavery, unsafe working conditions and unfair pay are prevalent in this industry. No human should be subjected to the loss of basic human rights or exploited for the purpose of gain. Further to this, the environmental effects of can be huge - we prefer to use suppliers who can offset these, such as using recycled water for cutting stones and decreasing emissions by hand mining rather than large machinery.
Based on the premise that crystals provide healing qualities and work by emitting energy, if they’re mined in destructive ways, would this not mean they would be emitting this frequency and thus become null and void for purpose? These are the major deciding factors for us to only help fund mines that have fundamental standards that adhere to our own.
Where possible, we meet our overseas suppliers face to face (usually in a mutual meeting place yearly like the Tucson Gem show) and we also FaceTime with them to see their mines and tools, working conditions and talk to the staff to ensure they are treated well. Personally, we choose to work with small family owned mines so we can build relationships with them and ensure we all have the same ethos. It is a lot of work to find these types of ventures and then to build a real working relationship with them, but to us it is absolutely fundamental. 80% of our stones are sourced this way, directly from the mines. The other 20% (mostly tumbles and some rough stones) we source from a local wholesaler who shares our views.
All of our crystals are sourced from ethical locations around the world, and every single one of our products is hand chosen; for its beauty, for its magic & for its mystery. Each one of our pieces is one of a kind, so if you find something you love, get it before it's gone.