Citrine with smokey quartz wand, mined in CO. This is a great example of what a crystal with a natural point looks like (you can also see the entry on Quartz here for more info on this). It is also a good example of something that is not mined in mass. This miner works for himself and is not exporting these in mass to yoga studios around the world.
Where Do Your Minerals Come From?
In 2018 I finished writing what I was planning on being a mineral book. I decided not to seek publication, but instead break up the chapters and make them available for my One 2 Three readers. It is what Mineral 101 is made up of, small chapters covering everything from minerals for grief, how to clean them, fake citrine, what to stay away from, etc… My final chapter in the book was about the ethics of mineral mining. I had done some research and learned about the distinction between minerals mined for our technology (our phones and computers), the mining of semi-precious and precious stones (diamonds and emeralds), and then the mining of specimen minerals, which is what you probably have in your home, on your altar, in your purse.
I was just at the Tucson mineral fair, and after two years of quarantine my eyes felt more sensitive to what I was seeing and a few things became more clear to me on this topic. I wanted to write more personally about where you minerals come from.
If you have been reading all the Mineral 101 entries then you know that my mother was a silversmith and I grew up with minerals and semi-precious stones covering our dinning room table. When she died in 2008 something opened up in me and I felt a strong connection and line of communication with them. I started to teach myself by working with them, using them during my own personal meditations, and going to mineral shows and talking to people there. The biggest teacher was using them when I would teach my weekly meditation class. I would walk around and I could feel what each person needed and would place it in their hand. After class I would have incredible conversations with students about what they felt and what they were going through in their life, which taught me things about each mineral I couldn’t have learned from a book and it really strengthen my intuition. This is what inspired the Mineral Meditation that is in the shop.
I decided to share this gift and start to seek out special specimens to sell. I have done consulting for shops as a buyer and for jewelers - you can see my collaboration with Ursa Major here. In going to big and small mineral shows, miner co-op sales, lapidary club shows, etc… I have leaned a lot about the world that you don’t see… Where do your minerals come from? How do they get to the shop before they get to you?
This is what most wholesale warehouses look like.
All of this most likely came from the Congo.
They are then bought by shop owners. You can see here most of these pieces have been carved or tumbled to be easier to sell because they are “more attractive”.
We have all seen this before. These have all come from a wholesale warehouse. Again, no shame — but there is an alternative.
In 2019 an informative article was published in the Guardian about mineral mining and how the wellness craze of the last seven or eight years has exasperated an already ongoing problem. Don’t worry… I know what you are thinking… the minerals you have in your house aren’t “bad”. There is nothing wrong with the minerals themselves, but it’s the world around them that needs to be exposed. It’s not unlike what we are learning about where our food comes from. Or even our clothing! I get it — sometimes we have to buy a t-shirt from The Gap. But, I want you to be better educated so when you go to buy something you feel empowered by knowing you have a choice and pause to think about what that choice means in the greater world.
When I buy minerals I think a lot about where my dollar is going. I would rather support people who when I pick something up say, “I mined that in Colorado.” And not something that was mined by someone in unsafe working conditions, who is working for a boss who profits from cheep labor and exploitation, who sells to a third party, and then is shipped half way around the world, and then sold at a wholesale warehouse, and finally then placed into a shop where someone is telling you it will help you with manifestation. I can’t support that. Again the minerals and crystals themselves aren’t “bad”, but the conditions of how it gets to you can be.
This is a personal choice. I am not trying to shame anyone here - we all have minerals like the ones I described above. Most likely, if you have a jade face roller, anything carved or tumbled, a cut crystal with a perfect point, an inexpensive quartz that you bought from a bowl near the cash register at your local yoga studio… it has come from a situation like the one I described above. Care for and love the ones you have, but know that you can make a choice to buy differently in the future.
Also, unlike fancy organic food, choosing to go an alternative route doesn’t mean it will be more expensive. Sometimes it’s the opposite. Even if it’s a pricy piece I feel better that it’s going directly to the person who’s doing the real work — and most of the time in better conditions for the earth - a pick axe and a shovel vs explosives and small tunnels with no ventilation. Also, some people sell specimens that have come from collections they have bought at auction. It’s like buying vintage or pre-owned designer clothes on consignment. These are fun to find, you can always tell because they come with a card that tells you where it was found, by who, the collection it was in, and maybe a date. When I sell these I always keep the card with the rock.
The photos to the left are examples of what these warehouse bulk minerals look like. To the right are photos are from shows like the ones I buy from. Everything in the Fields of Study shop is bought from people who actually did the mining or from a collectors collection bought at auction. There are a few exceptions here and there, but as time passes I try more and more to seek out things mined in the US by the miners themselves, and I try to stay away from the temptation to buy pretty things that I feel are adding to the problem. This will mean I will most likely never have lapis in the shop because most of it is mined in Afghanistan. It could also be that in my many years of collecting I want things that are more special and rare — and that is what I seek out for the shop — things you might never run across again.
I also think about the earth, and while I do think she is offering these beautiful minerals to us to use as tools in our collective healing, we owe it to her and to the people that belong to her to cultivate an existence that is fair, healthy, and honors our own humanity. If you care about this too this is something to think about moving forward.
This is Tom, he is my favorite Jade dealer.
Fairs that are run by miners, collectors, lapidarists, and mineral enthusiasts look like this. Where you can talk to a person and learn all about what you are buying and where it came from.
You can compare this to the minerals on the left. Not as “pretty” but way more interesting and rare. You’ll find one special thing, versus a whole bowl full of the same stone — thousands of people will have what you have.
Example of a label that comes with you mineral when you buy from someones collection.