SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF GEM PRODUCTION: AN APPLICATION OF THE ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS

Abstract

The gems, jewelry, and precious metals sector is essential for developing regions with this activity and there is a high degree of informality in the mining and trading gemstone sectors. The present study analyzed data from the production process of precious stones in the Brazilian national market. We identified the importance of the factors contributing to the quality of the gemstone production process concerning mining, cutting, and marketing, under the scope of sustainable chain development. A list of references was used to select thirteen significant factors in the precious stone production process that contributed to the sustainable development of the chain related to mining, cutting, and marketing. We used a multicriteria decision model applying the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to consider the degree of importance of the production stage process of gemstones and the factors that impact the sustainable development of the production chain. In applying the model to the production stages, the criteria and sub-criteria factors were considered. The results suggest that sustainable development is highly related to gem mining (44.7%, rank 1), moderately related to gem cutting (32.5%, rank 2), and there is little relationship to gem marketing (22 .8%, rank 3), considering the criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives. The requirement related to the technical qualification and skill of the lapidary is the most critical factor in the production process. The second most important factor is commercialization, followed by the preservation of the mining area and the valuable life of the mine.