Wal-Mart hopes new line eases worries over mining tactics
By Steve Painter
LITTLE ROCK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s recent move toward enabling jewelry shoppers to trace the origins of their purchases has drawn praise and cautions from groups that monitor the mining and jewelry manufacturing industries.
Wal-Mart’s new “Love, Earth” jewelry line is aimed at easing buyers’ concerns that their gold and silver items might be the result of forced labor or other unethical workplace practices, or that the precious-metal mining process left an environmental disaster behind.
The Bentonville-based company – the world’s largest jewelry retailer – announced the initiative earlier this month. By 2015, Wal-Mart said, it intends to have 10 percent of its jewelry meet the new standards, a step toward …
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This article was published Sunday, July 27, 2008.
Business, Pages 77, 86 on 07/27/2008
Source: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/
