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Issue 00442 |
October 21 - 27, 2006 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Local News |
| Tiffany returns with renewed interest in tanzanite ‘King of Diamonds’ intends to help boost Mererani small scale miners By Valentine Marc Nkwame If all goes well, Tiffany, the global ‘Kings of Diamonds,’ will be moving into the country’s gemstone industry, to ensure that, even Tanzania’s coveted rare gemstones, tanzanite (or the industry associated with them) will become ‘forever as diamonds’. The world’s first marketer of tanzanite and internationally renowned house of high end jewelry, has just shown interest in rekindling their historical relationship with the Mererani mined, blue gemstones a project that could see more local miners benefitting from the rare stones found only in Mererani hills of Simanjiro, in Northern Tanzania. Tiffany & Co. An American based public company, is also the firm behind the term ‘tanzanite,’ having given the name to the blue gemstones back in the early 1960s, soon after the rare stones were discovered in Mererani, then part of Arusha Region. Tiffany continued to market tanzanite for a while then gradually decreased its dealership on the blue stones, concentrating on other types of jewelry. The head of International Business Development for the Diamond Division of Tiffany, Marcelo Souza, paid a visit to Arusha early this week and also went to Mererani Hills in his quest to see the possibility of his company working together with local miners as far as buying and marketing of tanzanite is concerned. Marcelo apparently, had been sent down by the Chairman of Tiffany, Michael J. Kowalski, following President Kikwete’s call for the global Jewelry giant to assist in both the promotion and marketing of tanzanite and helping local miners to make it in the gemstone industry, through their expertise and technical know-how. President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete was recently in the US where he visited the Tiffany establishment on the 680 Fifth Avenue in New York, accompanied by local miners and mineral dealers, among them Henry Nyiti the CEO of the Tengeru- based, Interstate Mining and Hussein Gonga the director of Prima Gems (Tanzania) Limited located along Goliondoi road. “It is too early to say anything about the proposed cooperation with Tanzanian gemstone industry,” said Marcelo Souza adding that at the moment they were just conducting an assessment of the local gems and their dealers, analyzing the whole industry and finding ways in which they could move in to assist. According to Souza, his company’s interest in tanzanite had waned, however following President Kikwete’s appeal, Tiffany felt the need to lend a helping hand to the dealers of the gemstone that was their trading brainchild of the 60s. “As a public company we are not focusing in making profit or anything.” “It is probably the best thing that the president has done to the local mining industry.” chipped in Henry Nyiti of the Interstate Mining Company, if the project materializes will see the rescue of small scale miners especially those dealing with Tanzanite. ‘The Tiffany representative has been satisfied on the way we conduct our activities and this has very much helped clear some negative speculations about Tanzanite mining,” added Hussein Gonga of Prima Gems. According to Gonga, the Tiffany official’s decision to talk to the workers who actually go down into the mines, has enabled him to get the actual situation straight from the horse’s mouth. But Marcelo Souza not only spoke to the working force in Mererani, but he himself went down a mining shaft to get the feel of the underground quarries in the scorching hot Simanjiro savannah hills. Later the Tiffany representative flew to Dar- es-salaam where he was to meet the president and other officials. The Tiffany blue-color trademark will also coincidentally, augur well with the Mererani mined blue stones, in fact even the first Tiffany catalog, known as the "Blue Book", that got published in 1845, has remained a tradition which is being carried onto this day. Considered to be one of the world's finest jewelry companies, Tiffany & Company, with a history of 170 years in business, has opened stores in major cities all over the world, including, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, Rome, Sydney and Johannesburg. Tiffany Diamonds are legendary. Charles Lewis Tiffany, the founder of Tiffany & Co., was dubbed "the King of Diamonds" by New York City newspapers. Even to this day, Tiffany diamonds are considered to be of the highest quality in the world. Tiffany and Company, employing over 7000 people, record a revenue of $2.2 billion as of 2004. Tiffany’s gemologists was instrumental in the international adoption of the metric carat as a weight standard for gems, and the Tiffany standard for sterling and platinum have been adopted as United States Standards. The company also takes the credit in revising the ‘Great Seal of the United States in 1885. Later in 1968, First Lady Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson commissioned Tiffany to design a White House china service, which featured ninety America flowers.
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