Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
By Siona Ahuja ’24
Staff Writer
After spending years being dismissed as a mystical, new-age spiritual fad, healing crystals have seeped into the mainstream through a combination of social media aesthetics and the wellness juggernaut. Despite general economic stagnation during the pandemic, the sales of near-gemstones like amethysts and clear quartz skyrocketed in 2020. Since 2015, demand for crystals has more than doubled in the U.S. Diana Prado, who owns a small crystal shop in Longmont, Colorado, told The Guardian, “Sales have increased as if it was Christmas time.” Despite opening their store in January 2020, Prado and her mom survived the economic crash brought on by the pandemic and even saw $2,000 in additional profits every month.
Image of an amythest crystal, courtesy of pxfuel.com.
Uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 provided some people with opportunity for reflection and healing. In the meantime, popular culture, including celebrity companies like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, influenced some to turn to the likes of crystals. Some crystals reportedly have properties that could dissolve many pandemic-related anxieties. According to the website of Indigo Healing Arts Collective, a wellness studio in Wallingford, CT, yellow calcite can “boost the immune system and improve the metabolism.” Black tourmaline is used to “strengthen the immune system, balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and detoxify the body.” Hundreds of these rocks — in clusters, raw, or polished — are found at one place in America: Tucson, Arizona.
Walk into the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, and you will find yourself in geode heaven. Held annually in Tucson, it is the largest crystal show in the world, and the place where almost every American seller buys their supplies. “If you’re in the United States, and you own a crystal shop, you go to Tucson,” Julie Abouzelof, owner of Moonrise Crystals, said in an article for The New Republic. The mineral show also hosts sellers from across the globe.
While these crystals may be considered “healing” to those who collect them, a look into the underbelly of the industry offers a very different perspective. Information about the origins of these rocks, what conditions they are mined in and their detrimental environmental impacts is scarce, murky and often overlooked. The truth is, rocks like those sold in Tucson are often extracted in countries with unregulated labor laws, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar.
Eighty percent of the population in Madagascar living outside cities lives in poverty, subsisting on less than $1.90 every day. Despite being a mother lode of natural resources, including ocean jasper, a type of rock only found in Madagascar, the country faces high rates of exploitation and the miners are paid insufficient wages. Between two and four workers are recorded to die in the mines every year.
“There’s the possibility of landslide, that happens a lot here. The soil falls on them and they die,” Many Jean Rahandrinimaro, the deputy mayor of Anjoma Ramartina, a town in Madagascar that sits upon the largest rose quartz reserves in the world, told the Guardian in a 2019 interview. The workers are prone to inhaling the fine particles of these rocks, leading to the risk of lung cancer and silicosis. Child labor is prevalent; the U.S. Department of Labor and the International Labour Organization estimated around 85,000 children work in the mines of Madagascar.
The controversial $66 jade egg sold by Goop has come under fire for falsely claiming to improve vaginal health and sexual performance. Moreover, there are many petitions in circulation asking the company to disclose the sources of its gemstones. Given how expensive jade is, people have speculated that Goop could be sourcing the rock illegally from Myanmar. Tens of billions of dollars worth of jadeite are traded annually through an industry that is buried in environmental corruption. The jade industry is controlled by unscrupulous companies and is central to conflict between Myanmar’s government and the rebel Kachin Independence Army/Organisation. “The jade business is wreaking havoc on the people and environment of Kachin, where the stone is mined,” Global Witness, an international NGO that investigates environmental crimes, said in a 2015 report on the jade industry.
“While the origins of the crystals themselves might be vague, the environmental detriment that the multi-billion dollar crystal industry poses is clear.”
While the origins of the crystals themselves might be vague, the environmental detriment that the multi-billion dollar crystal industry poses is clear. Two of the largest copper mines in New Mexico that produce chrysocolla, a blue-green stone that is said to dissipate feelings of anxiety and guilt, and pyrite, a metallic cluster that theoretically encourages creativity and leadership, are reported to “generate an estimated 2 billion gallons of acid and metals contaminated seepage every year, requiring water treatment in perpetuity,” according to the environmental group Earthworks. These mines have also contributed to severe surface and groundwater contamination, which has led the State of New Mexico and the U.S. Department of Justice to file natural resource damage claims against the mines.
The near-gemstone trade, unlike the precious metals trade that includes gold and diamonds, is not under strictly-enforced regulations. Unethical practices escape close scrutiny by sellers or buyers through marketing tactics and a lack of transparency among mining companies. Environmental sustainability and higher ethical standards in crystal sourcing can be achieved through pressuring the government to issue fair trade certifications to crystals and their likes, petitioning for proper policies and wages for miners and buying from trusted sellers who are transparent about their sources. Without proper regulations, nothing can get rid of the vibes of human exploitation and environmental corruption.