sent an open letter to the Biden administration, requesting presidential support of a moratorium on deep seabed mining.

In addition to this request, the group asked for the government to “take steps to meet the demand for critical minerals through sustainable, circular economy policies, including advanced recycling and domestic processing paired with mining reform and better international sourcing requirements, such as the IRMA Standard.”

There is a solution available to detect and mitigate problems more readily, but it has not yet made its way in the diamond sector. I refer to the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, which is the only third-party, arms-length certification of industrial scale mining for all mined materials that is co-created and governed equitably by the private sector, local communities, civil society, and workers. The KP CSC calls for IRMA certification for all industrial diamond mines.”