Mass Mining

[Nature's Breath]

OK I'm just interested in hearing people's views about the mass mining of crystals. It is something that first came to my attention a few years back and I have looked on the internet for information but this is the best I came up with

http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/crystals.htm

Basically how 'green' or 'earth friendly' is mining for crystals when in modern day its done on such a large scale, money making scale?

It's one of those things that has stuck in my mind for years ....yet I've never seen discussed

[FlyingBear]

Yup, that's why I stopped buying crystals years ago.

[SandStorm]

Well, you can always get your crystal by yourself, or in mineralogy fairs or similars, most of the crystals and stones that are there come from "left-overs" (?, I'm not sure if that's their correct name) of other mining workings, like arids or metallics...

[CzechWoods]

This is a problem in deed.

The main problem is, that stones mined with more tenderness, meaning not using dynamite for example are much more expensive, and my experience is this: people want it cheap.

You see I have this example. I have one of my wholesale suppliers who gurantees that NO CHILD LABOUR is involved in his products. They are of course more expensive, because he pays fair prices to the workers, so their children need not to work in order the family to survive.

While some people are willing to pay a bit more for each of the no-child-labour products, there is also a lot of people who will tell you, (I quote)
"Oh, how thoughtful of youz. Fantastic. Keep that up. But you see, I bought mine at your competitors who are 25% cheaper. Maybe their products were ok too?"

[CzechWoods]

Forgot to add, the article you posted contains hypocricity non the less. In order to type their message onto the intrenet, the user needs a computer, which consists of the parts produced under the same exploiting circumstances.

The copper inside the computers is mines in copper mines, that are so huge, it is unimaginable.

here are pictures. scroll down to the bottom of the page. second last picture, see those tiny dowts ? those are trucks for the debris. as on the last pic.
http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/input/sanchez/chile/chile4.html

here you can see the size of the truck. maybe this gives you an idea
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~hbrasse/gulliver.html

It is true that many stones are mined with dynamite and with expoitation of the earth and the native people.
It is equally true, that some people choose the stones they sell very carefully, that - at leats in my case - I also have contacts to locals and local mining clubs, and that I take special care on how to picking the right stones albeit I am not the cheapest out there.

I take this article personally because of the way I pick the stones.