Each precious metal and gem used in luxury jewellery has its own production and trade patterns, resulting in a highly fragmented sector.
The main materials used are gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, and coloured gems.
Economic downturns affect sales of Luxury Jewelry – slow Chinese growth, for example, recently dampened demand for diamonds – but gold and silver bullion remain safe havens for wealth.
Raw materials are extracted by both large-scale corporations and small-scale artisanal operations, with the latter contributing a surprising amount to global supply.
Data on the number of people employed in the extraction and processing of precious metals and gems is patchy, but there may be more than 170 million, primarily in low-income countries.
