Our collaborative approach

At Rio Tinto Diamonds, we aim to ensure the integrity of the diamond pipeline from mine to market. Our belief in corporate social responsibility in the diamond industry has led us to form partnerships and collaborations with leading international diamond industry bodies.

Rio Tinto Diamonds supports the following organisations and their initiatives to break the link between legitimate trade in diamonds and conflict diamonds.

The Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices (CRJP)

Rio Tinto is proud to be a founding member of The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), previously known as the Council For Responsible Jewellery Practices.

Established in 2005, the RJC is a not-for-profit industry organization with a mandate to promote responsible, ethical, social and environmental practices throughout the diamond and gold jewellery supply chain from mine to retail. Essentially membership of the RJC signals to both consumers and other industry participants and organisation's commitment to "playing fair" in all aspects of their business - and expecting others to do the same.

The RJC is a multi-member organisation, with more than 90 members from small and large companies across all sectors of the jewellery chain, as well as trade associations and other groups.The creation of the RJC demonstrates that ethical business practices are important to the diamond industry, along with recognition that they are respected and practised by organisations both large and small.

The RJC has published an industry standard, the Code of Practices, which is largely drawn from international best practice. The RJC's certification system requires Members to be audited by accredited, third party auditors to verify their conformance with the Council's standards, which are set out in its Code of Practices. Members who have been independently verified as conforming to the Code of Practices will become Certified Members of the Responsible Jewellery Council. Certified members will be allocated a unique certification identification number and be entitled to use the RJC logo under licence.

The certification system is set out in five core implementation documents that will guide Members and accredited auditors through the certification process. The documents are publicly available on the RJC's website.

Rio Tinto Diamonds supports the initiatives of the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), the umbrella organisation of the world jewellery industry. We value CIBJO's role of educator and communicator on matters of business responsibility and actively participate through debate and input on all initiatives associated with protecting consumer confidence in the diamond jewellery industry.

With the development of the CIBJO Blue Book, CIBJO plays a fundamental role in the governance of industry and setting standards which ensures that jewellery can be described accurately on the basis of an internationally agreed nomenclature and grading system.

For more information about CIBJO's initiatives, please visit the CIBJO website. 

The World Diamond Council

Rio Tinto Diamonds is one of 50 diamond industry organisations represented in the World Diamond Council (WDC).

The World Diamond Council's primary mandate is the development, implementation and overseeing of a tracking system for the export and import of rough diamonds to prevent the exploitation of diamonds for illicit purposes such as war and inhumane acts (conflict diamonds). Through the World Diamond Council, the diamond industry works openly and in partnership with the people and governments whenever and wherever such challenges take place.

Rio Tinto Diamonds actively supports the work of the WDC in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and similar initiatives aimed at breaking the link between legitimate trade in diamonds and conflict diamonds. While governments must be the primary agencies for the Kimberley Process, the scheme demands a range of technical support from the industry. The WDC's role in coordinating industry support includes the provision of experts from the Kimberley Process Monitoring Missions and the fielding of peer support teams. Rio Tinto Diamonds' personnel provide such expert assistance, ranging from technical advice to membership of review teams.

In addition to industry support, Rio Tinto Diamonds is an active participant in the WDC consumer education campaign, through their website. This campaign proactively communicates the profound benefits of the jewellery industry to millions of people around the world. The campaign's enhanced focus on provenance and related consumer confidence issues underscores the critical importance of balanced and objective information about the jewellery industry being publicly available.