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A.
Raw materials
Local
The major raw
material used by the industry is gold. Other materials
used are silver and precious or semi-precious stones.
Gold,
silver, south sea pearls and some precious stones are locally
available. The more
valuable materials such as diamonds and other precious
stones have
to be sourced from abroad.
The
Philippines has an abundant supply of gold. Annual
reports on world gold
production and demand by the Consolidated Gold Field
Limited ranked the Philippines as the fourteenth (14th)
highest gold producing country in the world with a
production output of 28.4 metric tons in 1995.
In Asia, it is ranked the third largest gold
producer next to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
In
1999, the Philippine gold production reached 31,031
kilograms.
The
Philippines also has the Bangko Sentral (BSP) gold
refinery, which is accredited by the London Metal
Exchange. BSP is equipped to process raw materials in
the form of unrefined gold and silver bullion to produce
gold bars with purities up to 99.95% as well as silver
bars with minimum purity of 92.5%. BSP also sells 24
carat gold in grains and thin sheets with selling prices
based on the daily LME price plus an estimated 2% to 3%
processing fee. With the liberalization of gold trading,
gold is also available from local miners and/or small
refiners though gold quality from sources other than BSP
is not certified.
Gold
and silver are sourced locally from Camarines Norte,
Davao Province and
other parts of Mindanao.
The
Philippines south sea pearl has been declared as the Philippines national gem. Pearl farms are located in
Palawan and southern part of the country.
Imported
Imported
components of fine jewelry are diamonds, ruby, emerald and other precious
and semi-precious stones.
B.
Labor
The industry employs a
pool of more than 100,000 workers. Salaries are
dependent on the type of workers, which is if he is a
goldsmith, stone setter, cleaner, and platter, wax
modeler, casting operator or designer.
The
main mode of training is through apprenticeship.
However, training centers specifically for the jewelry
industry workers have already been set-up and jointly
managed by the government and private
sector to upgrade the skills of the workers and improve
productivity. These major training centers are the Philippine Jewelry Training Center in Bulacan and San
Eligius
Jewelry Training Center located at Cottage Industry
Technology Center, DTI, Marikina City. The University of
Regina Carmelli in Bulacan now offers 4-year course on
Jewelry Making.
C.
Packaging Materials
Packaging
materials for fine jewelry comes in colored small boxes
and pouches. These packaging materials must have no hard
or pointed articles to ensure that jewelry shall not be
scratched or damaged.
D.
Appropriate Standards and Certification
The Bureau of Product Standards through the
Technical Committee on Jewelry had developed a total of
ten (10) jewellery standards and these are as follows:
-
PNS
1301:1995/ISO 853:1986 (Ring Sizes)
-
PNS
1305:1995/ISO 9202:1991 (Fineness of Precious
Metals)
-
PNS
1306:1995/ISO 8654:1987 (Colors of Gold Alloys)
-
PNS
1307:1995/ISO 10713:1992 (Gold Alloy Coating)
-
PNS
1308:1996 (Methods of Alloying)
-
PNS
1314:1996 (Marking Requirements for Gold Jewelry)
-
PNS
1315:1996 (Marking Requirements for Silver Jewelry)
-
PNS
1321:1996 (Marking Requirements for Platinum
Jewelry)
-
PNS
1416:1996 (Determination of Gold in Gold Jewelry
Alloys by Cupellation
Method ?Fire Assay)
-
PNS
1 417:1996
(Determination of Silver in Silver Jewelry Alloys by
Volumetric (potentiometric) method using
sodium chloride or potassium chloride
The
standard specifies that symbols shall be used to
identify gold, silver and platinum while numerals shall
be used to designate the precious metal content.
These shall be clearly and indelibly engraved or
stamped in the item together with the manufacturer?s
name, trademark or other identifying mark. |
