The Brazilian Challenge: Bringing Artisanal Miners Into the System — and Building Communities that Last

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by Emily “D.D.” Frontiere –
Contributing Editor –
for the Roskin Gem News Report –

— Brazil is one of the most important colored gemstone locales in the world, exporting dozens of different varieties equaling hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of product annually. These gems are gathered from the hundreds of active mines that extract beryl, tourmaline, quartz, alexandrite, topaz, kunzite, and more. Some dealers fondly refer to Brazil as a “picnic basket” of colored gems.

There are a number of famous, high-yield operations including the Belmont emerald mine and the Cruzeiro tourmaline mine, both in the state of Minas Gerais, as well as the Paraiba Tourmaline mine in Rio Grande do Norte. However, not all gems come from medium-size mining operations. On the contrary, there are thousands of artisanal miners, called “garimpeiros,” who work individually, or in small groups, to mine remote gemstone deposits discovered by locals. The potential of these undocumented sites is massive, not because they are necessarily large deposits, but rather because of the vast number of them. Even if each site only houses a modest number of stones, when multiplied by the thousands of locations scattered throughout the country, that adds up to a significant revenue stream which would directly assist the local rural communities.

We spoke with Brian Cook, who mines and sells Brazilian rutilated quartz through his company Nature’s Geometry, and Clarissa Maciel, a Project Manager with The Brazilian Gems and Jewellery Trade Association (IBGM), about their grass-roots efforts in Brazil to promote artisanal mining and set up a model for sustainable advancement of local communities. We also reached out to Adriano Mol, leader of branding and marketing for the Cruzeiro Mine, who shared his thoughts from the perspective of a well-established and successful Brazilian mining operation.

Legal Mining
Brazil is an industry leader in terms of implementing laws and regulations which protect its natural resources and environment. For a new site to be legally authorized to operate and export, miners must procure environmental licenses and complete a great deal of paperwork. Unfortunately, this process is both confusing and expensive, and most garimpeiros are unable to finish it on their own.

With so much revenue at stake, and so many under-developed communities in line to benefit from legal mining operations, one might expect that the government would be motivated to streamline their process and offer assistance to small-scale miners in properly setting up their operations. This has not been the case in general, but Cook says that the government seems to be starting to take notice. He highlighted a program called “Garimpo Legal” started by the state government in Bahia, whose specific goal is to assist miners in joining cooperatives and formalizing their operations. There is another successful program of note in Piaui State called “APL da Opala” which supports the mining, cutting, and jewelry making of Brazilian opal, which Cook says “is a prime example for Brazilian authorities to emulate.”

Luckily for the garimpeiros, the government’s reluctance to help has not gone unnoticed, and support is coming from two directions: miners who have successfully established their own operations and non-profit organizations.

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It Starts with the Discovery of a Site

Cook and his wife Kendra Grace, a Bahia native, founded Nature’s Geometry in 1989 selling quartz native to Bahia. Over the past three and a half decades, he has become a champion for garimpeiros and rural communities that are trying to establish and maintain legally compliant mines. He explained that many new discoveries of gemstone-bearing land are made by locals who inadvertently discover the resource whilst going about their usual activities. Once word of a new deposit spreads, migratory garimpeiros who mine any gemstone variety they are faced with, flock to the area.

Should the deposit prove to have enough stones to warrant sustained mining activity, nearby small villages can quickly develop into towns. This rapid influx of money and people, Cook says, benefits the whole community. The problem is that these towns rarely gain economic traction outside of mining and stagnate after the gemstone supply peters out.

The Challenges Here
Thus, Cook says, there are, in fact, two separate problems that need to be solved: simplifying and making more affordable the process of gaining permits for legalized mining activity, and then creating stable communities that can continue to thrive after mines inevitably cease operations as mineral resources are exhausted and become economically unviable.

Addressing the first issue, Cook explained that little can be accomplished without the support of the government. “Brazil is focused on their native mineral and gemstone resources. Their mining laws are long-established and good. If federal, state, even local governments, had some sort of assistance to streamline the process for artisanal small-scale mining (ASM), to help with financing to get formalization, that would be huge. Brazil wants to formalize all of the small-scale miners, but the process is difficult.”

“Last year, I sat in on a presentation in my mining community of rutilated quartz in Bahia where the state mining company CBPM sent people to give presentations to miners. This recent initiative, Garimpo Legal, is a state driven effort to educate and help ASM become formalized. The room was full – it was wonderful. A quarter of the participants were women miners. However, it was a fast and furious presentation. Good information was presented, yet the miners were left trying to grasp how this information benefitted them. I realized that we have to get formalized, but how do they pay for it? There is a lot of required documentation, and you have to hire a geologist to review the site and give a report. Then there is an environmental license that you have to hire another specialist for. It ends up costing thousands of dollars to get the proper paperwork done to submit to the government and most miners just don’t have that kind of money.”

Cook further stated that providing miners with at least some of the necessary funds for these surveys and licenses should be feasible for the government. “If small-scale operations need money, say a thousand bucks, the state can supply that. It’s a small investment for state government.” This type of help, Cook says, would benefit ASM miners both in starting operations and maintaining them – “I know multi-generational mining families that are abandoning sites because they can’t afford to keep it up. So we are losing production when the potential is still huge.”

Progress Requires Coordination of Efforts

The Brazilian government is taking some action to help artisanal miners, but they are doing so with isolated efforts that are neither coordinated with each other nor done taking into account the unique needs of individual regions. Using the CBPM conference as an example, Cook says that the people involved with the company are simply not always in touch with rural living – “They were all young, well-educated, well-meaning, and live in the capital city Salvador. They come out to the mining area, and they may not really understand what it is like for the miners and their families… or the local culture. They told me that the current president of CBPM wants to support more artisanal mining. This was great news to me and I intend to meet with the president this year in support. Twenty years ago CBPM tried to create training in this community for cutting stones. They sent a whole bunch of equipment to this area near Novo Horizonte. But it just sat there and languished. Rusted. Because they didn’t leave anybody to train people to use them and make sure that it happened. The state government is ready to make a new effort.”

So, Cook says that he sees solving this first problem of getting and keeping mining operations going should be straightforward – “In general, this is what it is going to take. Don’t just educate. Bring the paperwork and help the miners fill it out. Also, you need people who are there to run and operate things. Administration… and the money to keep that going until it becomes self-sufficient. On a state budget, it’s not a lot. In our quartz mining community, we are fortunate to have an active miners cooperative, COOPEGANH, which is a strong support for the miners benefit. Cooperatives will be a key partner for the State efforts to help ASM communities. But you also need people like me who are imbedded in the community – I first arrived here in 1983 – to help make sure things happen. Then we need to be able to tell the stories to the jewelry industry. Jewelry retailers and consumers are wishing for these stories, which will ultimately enrich the longevity of our industry.”

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Mining Is Not a Sustainable Pursuit

Now on to the second concern, maintaining communities once gemstone mining activity stops. Cook describes gemstone mining, or mining of any kind, as “by definition, not sustainable.” Natural resources are finite, and it is important for communities based on mines to make plans to support themselves after that resource is exhausted. Cook says that the key to future success comes from targeted education.

To this end, Cook, a board member of Gems Keep Giving*, has proposed the Academia da Serra, an educational program that begins by addressing immediate health and safety concerns of miners, starting a new lapidary academy, and educating the next generation about how to keep their land healthy and producing revenue after the gems are gone. To make this project sustainable, the Academia is intended to launch in phases. As each stage matures and becomes profitable, the subsequent phase can then be launched using those funds.

*Gems Keep Giving is an independent nonprofit organization that grew out of an
International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA) initiative to support
artisanal gemstone mining and cutting communities worldwide.

This project began with funds raised during the pandemic to help remote miners and their families who were struggling with food security, and a number of organizations participated. It started with The Crystal Clear CIC based in London. More recently, Gems Keep Giving has donated $22,500 over two years. Another notable supporter is the Sonance Foundation, which generously donated $10,000 to Gems Keep Giving for the miners’ safety equipment.

Cook is proud to say that the first stage of the Academia da Serra, which focuses on the immediate health challenges facing miners, has launched, and local garimpeiros are already benefiting. Specifically, miners working with quartz are informed about silicosis, a serious and irreversible disease that comes from inhaling the rock dust released by mining activity. In addition to damaging the lungs, silicosis symptoms include weight loss, blue-tinted skin called cyanosis, and cracked nails. Scarred lungs are more vulnerable to secondary illnesses like tuberculosis and cancer. Thanks to the funds donated by Gems Keep Giving, local miners have become educated about silicosis and supplied with specialized protective masks.

Cutting and Polishing
The second initiative of the Academia da Serra is training other members of mining communities, particularly women, to add value to the raw gemstone resource by tumbling the gems on-site. This simple step accomplishes quite a bit. In addition to adding value to the individual gems, it satisfies a need in the global gemstone marketplace for traceable product.

Cook hopes that the profits from tumbled product will be sufficient to purchase basic lapidary machinery that will allow locals to cut, form, polish, drill, carve, and make beads. This more advanced processing adds further value to the product and, again, fills a wider need for traceable product. With government support in setting up lapidary academies, more income will land with the local community.

There is another goal associated with this stage. Cook says that many of Brazil’s skilled jewelers and designers are forced to purchase gemstones from foreign countries because Brazil does not have sufficient skilled lapidaries who are able to facet stones with the precision necessary for fine jewelry. He wants this to change. Access to more native faceted stones would eliminate some importation costs for Brazilian artists, and it would increase pride in finished jewelry that used entirely Brazilian product and talent. Again, another major benefit of this is transparent traceability of gems from their mining, processing, and setting.

The final stage of this project is suggesting the introduction of a science curriculum in local schools teaching regenerative agriculture. Locals, already familiar with traditional methods of living off the land, can learn what types of crops feed the local soil and enrich it over time, rather than depleting it. Not only can they grow nutrient-dense food, but also other types of plants that produce high-value crops such as herbs, spices, medicinal plants, and essential oils that can be traded and exported, or turned into new products for the region, ensuring the community continues to thrive economically.

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IBGM Is Making Headway with the Brazilian Government

While Cook stated, “most of the federal government’s attention and focus is big-scale mines, with big money and big investment,” Maciel said that IBGM has been actively communicating with the federal government to assist artisanal miners who have been overlooked. “Over the past three years, IBGM has led an intensive dialogue with the Federal Government to develop a self-regulation framework aimed at enabling legal and functional small-scale mining operations in Brazil. During this period, we implemented a strategic shift: our focus evolved from primarily tax and commercial advocacy to a broader regulatory agenda centered on traceability, sustainability, and compliance.”

Maciel says that progress is being made. “There is growing awareness within the government, and ongoing dialogue continues to align practical industry-led solutions—such as those proposed by Brian—with public policy efforts.” To support this statement, she highlighted three changes in particular that have come about thanks to IBGM’s advocacy. The first is the Mercury-Free Gold Project (2025–2026), which, she says, “promotes the adoption of clean technologies in small and medium-scale mining. A compliance seal is being implemented to ensure Brazilian products meet the strict requirements of international markets such as the EU and the United States.”

Secondly, Maciel provided information about the Local Productive Arrangements (APLs) — 2026, an initiative which is in line with Cook’s goal of educating local lapidaries which would allow for Brazilian gems to be processed in Brazil. “IBGM has proposed the structuring of regional mining clusters in areas such as Macaúbas and the Paramirim Basin (Bahia). The objective is to formalize colored gemstone extraction and integrate miners directly into cutting and jewelry value chains, reducing reliance on informal intermediaries and increasing value at origin.”

Lastly, the Institutional Strengthening and Regulatory Advocacy in 2025 addresses the lengthy time that it takes for miners to obtain the necessary licenses — “In response to administrative obstacles at the National Mining Agency, IBGM led a multisector coalition advocating for its modernization. We have consistently emphasized that delays in mining licensing are a primary driver of informality, affecting compliance across the jewelry supply chain and Brazil’s international reputation.”

Better Record-Keeping of Loose Gemstone Inventory is Necessary

As IBGM is a large non-profit with ties to mining communities across Brazil, Maciel is in a unique position to have a wider understanding of the country’s gems and jewelry trade. We asked her about a concern shared by multiple loose gemstone sellers at the Tucson gem shows that it has been increasingly difficult for them to obtain high-quality Brazilian stones. “Over the past three years, production has been impacted by regulatory barriers and enforcement actions. In southern Brazil, for example, several mining operations were temporarily halted due to irregularities involving the use of improvised explosives. Resuming activity required coordinated efforts between the private sector, the Army, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office through formal adjustment agreements.”

“Initially, accumulated inventories helped offset these disruptions. However, feedback gathered during the Tucson shows suggests that these stockpiles have now been significantly reduced, while international demand has strengthened again — resulting in renewed purchasing activity.”

Maciel also pointed to a shortage of skilled gem processors in Brazil as a contributing factor in the overall gem shortage. “A portion of Brazilian rough is indeed exported and cut abroad. This can sometimes create the perception of supply shortages in certain markets, even when production at origin remains relatively stable.”

Women Are Getting Involved!

Another issue brought up during our conversation with Cook was that women are a large, untapped resource in the Brazilian gems and jewelry trade. Many garimpeiros, he said, are men without roots tying them to a single location. Women tend not to be involved in active mining. Recall that the second step in his Academia da Serra is to train locals to tumble gemstones. This, Cook says, is a great place for women to become trained and directly participate in the supply chain.

Working at an administrative level, Maciel is a woman working in a largely masculine world. She also sees a bright future for Brazilian women. “The increasing participation of women in the gemstone and jewelry sector is one of the most meaningful transformations we are witnessing. We recently conducted a survey to better understand the presence of women in strategic roles within our exporting companies, and over 70% reported having women in such positions.”

“At IBGM, I work across the entire value chain, which has traditionally been somewhat segmented—male-dominated in areas such as mining and gemstone trading, while women have been more present in finished products, particularly within jewelry houses and fashion accessories. However, there has been a clear and positive shift, with more women assuming strategic roles across the entire value chain—from mining operations to design, marketing, and institutional leadership.”

With demographics already changing, Maciel is optimistic about the future for women in the Brazilian gems and jewelry industry. “Looking ahead, I believe the sector will continue to benefit from this diversification. Greater inclusion strengthens governance, fosters innovation, and aligns the industry more closely with the expectations of global consumers, who increasingly value transparency, responsibility, and social impact.”

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The View from the Top

The Cruzeiro Mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil is world-renowned for its tourmalines, rubellites, and other gemstones. Founded in 1940, the mine was purchased by the Neves family in 1980 and has become a model operation, not only for its environmentally friendly philosophy, but also for its mine-to-market strategy—mining Brazilian gems, processing them, and having native designers set them, all before they are exported.

Adriano Mol has been involved with the Cruzeiro for the last five years, but his ties to the gems and jewelry community are much deeper than that. His father worked as a gem dealer and exporter, and Mol entered the trade himself at the age of 16. He is a professor of gemstone and lapidary design at Minas Gerais State University.

Despite their impressive output, Mol describes the Cruzeiro as “a modern artisanal mining operation,” saying that they have avoided incorporating advanced industrial equipment on site. “The Cruzeiro mine is a modern artisanal mine because of its scale and scientific approach. We use only picks and axes, and use elevator shafts (for access). Gemstones are picked and sorted by hand. It is very similar to how the garimpeiros mine.”

As the Cruzeiro is essentially a scaled-up version of the small-scale mining ventures that Cook and Maciel support, we asked Mol for his thoughts about what it takes for a large-scale mine to run long-term. He says it is a combination of luck, planning, and respect for nature.

When the Neves family purchased the Cruzeiro in 1980, the local gemstone resource was thought to have been exhausted. Finding gems, Mol said, “was like a lightning strike.” However, luck is just the start. After all, anyone can be struck by lightning. Sustained success comes from careful planning that considers not just profit, but the local community and environment. Anything less Mol describes as “predatory mining” which involves rapid work intended to collect as many gems as possible, with or without permits, showing no regard for the land or the people living there.

To be clear, this subset of garimpeiros is not the type of people that Cook, Maciel, and the hundreds of other Brazilian professionals and researchers working on this issue support. These miners, Mol said, tend to travel away from their native areas, and often don’t bother with legalizing claims at all. Instead, they may be working illegally on land claimed by someone else, which partially explains their haste. Such mindless resource grabbing is unacceptable and Mol reflected that mining companies and governmental authorities have made great strides, especially in the years following the pandemic, to stem such activity. In fact, Mol says that it is the success of these efforts which partially explains the decreased volume of gemstone exports from Brazil observed by so many international gem dealers. “Recently, the big rare-earth mining companies have been making claims for all of the mining areas in Northeastern Minas Gerais state. With the increasing strictness of environmental laws, they started to go after those small guys who were digging in the big company’s land. This lessened the amount of material being produced. A lot of what was available (on the global market) was illegally mined.”

Garimpeiros who do want to establish legal and sustainable operations are another story entirely, and Mol is proud to tell the story of the Neves family as an example. “Locals take good care of the mine and the land. Not the predatory approach. It is a lot of families working together, multiple generations of the same family working with the same companies. The first generation of the Neves family who ran the Cruzeiro was a local man. A simple man. He was a man of the land. He planted a lot of trees to grow his own supply of timber from his own forest. Of course, you need wood because that is how the mine tunnels are anchored. He knew that wood would be needed in the future for the mine to be sustainable.”

“The family were not trying to set an example for everyone. They just thought it was right. Then people realized that this is the right way to do it. Before, they were laughed at. Still today, some of their practices are not entirely comprehended. We do things for kids in the city where the headquarters are. The mine has provided water and land to the community. The Neves family has provided land for people to settle on.”

“There are no skeletons in the closet at the Cruzeiro. Good social practice, good environmental practice, good governance. Everything is done by the book. Cruzeiro has had good success because they have always done it right, they just recently started promoting it better. They were doing it right before it was required (by law).”

Mol also advises that support for garimpeiros needs to come from native mentors and the local state government. Brazil is larger than the continental US, and the needs of individual regions vary tremendously. As an example, Mol pointed to the south of Brazil — “we have a lot of artisanal mining there. But those guys are well organized in cooperatives. They are culturally prone to it.” It is the goal of Cook, Maciel, and so many others to establish cooperatives in Bahia and all over Brazil which, they hope, will in time become part of the culture of those communities as well.

Environmental
Also in line with the goal of education promoted by Cook, Mol said that it is important to recognize that Brazil has implemented strong environmental laws necessary to protect its lands, but many of the country’s regular citizens struggle to comply with them. “We are a developing country. There is a lot of lack of education here. Most of the miners will lack access to everything that has to be done. So, on top of the financial situation, there is a social situation here. We have first-world legislation and a third-world educational system and developing social system.”

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Let’s Keep the Momentum Going!

The gems and jewelry trade in Brazil is one of the largest in the world. Yet, its mining yields, gemstone processing, and jewelry output are far from its fullest potential. The process to get started mining a new deposit legally is both difficult and expensive, an insurmountable hurdle for many artisanal miners who lack the education and means to fully understand what is required. There are champions of garimpeiros like Cook, who offer their knowledge to miners just starting out.

This does not mean that artisanal miners can’t succeed, as evidenced by the Neves family who have not only complied with all legal requirements, but implemented sustainable practices into their daily operations before they were necessary.

While individuals like Cook can make a huge impact in local communities with projects like the Academia da Serra, and the Cruzeiro acting as a responsible example, Brazil is too big with too many individual deposits for them to make much of a dent in the problem on a larger scale. This is where non-profit organizations like IBGM step in. With access to more resources, professionals like Maciel can better communicate with the government to both propose and lobby for practical solutions. Additionally, Mol stressed that there are hundreds of native Brazilians associated with the trade who are actively striving to help their countrymen thrive with all of the issues mentioned.

The combined efforts of established miners and professional advocates are making a difference in the everyday lives of people who need it the most living in rural communities. They have put together long-term plans that help with immediate safety issues and stretch to future economic safety. By following strict environmental laws to protect the environment and keeping track of their product by processing it within the same community, Brazilian miners can offer the global community highly desirable, fully traceable goods. Including women in the supply chain further injects energy into the system.

Now that headway is being made, the goal is to keep that momentum moving forward. Charitable organizations including Gems Keep Giving, The Crystal Clear CIC, and The Sonance Foundation are among those supporting this worthy cause.

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About the Author:
Emily “D.D.” Frontiere is a gemologist, gems and jewelry appraiser, and freelance writer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can read more of her work here as well as posted with the International Gem Society. ddfrontiere@gmail.com.

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