About us

Fair Trade Gemstones is a family business started by David Hargreaves, a mining engineer who has spent more than 25 years developing and consulting to the gemstone industry in both diamonds and coloured stones. 

He has developed gemstone mines in Africa which are prototypes and early examples of fair trade practice. He still consults extensively in the diamond and gemstone trade. 

He holds first class mine manager certificates in the UK and South Africa and, as a miner himself, understands and develops mines which uphold his principles. 

FTG can offer services, unique in the gemstones and jewellery industry, to meet the needs of a changing market.  Those needs include the demands of purchases to know not only the quality of the gems they are buying but also origins.

QUALITY now extends beyond the “four C’s” – colour, carat weight, clarity and inclusions;

Have the stones been enhanced, by heat-treatment, surface coating, fracture filling?

Indeed, are they natural or synthetic?

Origin now means more than the allure of Burmese ruby or Columbian emerald.  Has it come from an ethically-produced source, or a politically or military suspect region?

All the gemstones supplied by Fair Trade Gemstones declare-in-writing-their provenance.  This process results from a long standing affiliation with these associate companies:

1. Columbia Gem House INC of the USA.
2. The Permian Company Ltd of the UK. 

Fair Trade Gemstones is also pioneering the sales of packages of commercial gemstones to investors, the first imitative of its kind.  In an ear of near-negative interest rates, tangibles such as coins, stamps and works of art have become popular, but not gems.  A barrier has been the lack of a resale mechanism.  We have overcome this.

For more details of our services please contact us:

The Premium Company Ltd, owned and operated by the directors of Fair Trade Gemstones, draws on the services of some of the most skilled and experienced professionals in the industry.  It specialises in providing services throughout the mining chain from exploration through development, production and marketing.  It also facilitates mining finance and the monitoring of company performance.  It’s ten-page reference report, The Month in Mining, has a worldwide circulation and includes specialised gemstone and precious metals sections.