Miners in the rough: The hidden journey of your jewels by Kontinentalist

This story aims to focus on miners, rather than the precious gems they dig from the earth – exploring the complexities and exploitation in the mining industry in parts of Asia.

We decided to tell this exploitation story through Myanmar and Afghanistan case studies, as these two Asian countries are commonly involved in complex state-conflicts. The conclusion hopes to call for an urgency for consumers, businesses and governments to enforce proper support and regulation for the mining community.

We used data-visualisation to narrate the general history of humanity's fascination with gemstones, global gem flows, gem trade from mine to market, Myanmar Jade licenses granted by the junta government and residential displacement due to gem conflicts in Afghanistan. The infographics strings a story of local communities and workers being exploited for the global mineral exports.