Faceting, tumbling and gem drilling training in Nairobi and Voi, Kenya
Voi is a city in Taita-Taveta County, in the very South of Kenya, close to Tsavo East National Park. The area is abound in mineral resources, specially gemstones like green tsavorite, ruby, tourmaline, red garnet, green garnet, tanzanite and others.
In 2017, iniciated by Mumbi, a project started to train small scale gemstone women miners in gemstone cutting, polishing, faceting and drilling. The idea is to enable these women to add value to their gemstones before selling.
By then, they used to retail the stones abroad in raw form for less money.
Since the beginning of the project, two groups of women started, five of each group stayed. They participted in several workshops (“Gem identification and value addition”, “Gem faceting”, “Gem faceting, tumbling and hole drilling” etc.).
All the women who were trained are continuing to participate in mining activities. Their feedback is that after cutting a stone they are able to sell them faster and to a higher price.
Recently, Mumbi is trying to connect with markets in the USA. We would like to shorten the supply chain from mines to markets. This will ensure the miners get the right value for their gems, and the buyers will know where their gems were mined — a deeper relationship of trust.