São Paulo – In September, a new stage will begin in a Brazilian project to provide training on jewellery production to Algerians. The Brazilian Association of Small and Medium Gems, Jewels, Similar Products and Miners (Abragem) carried out the initial stage of a training program late last year and will proceed with the initiative within two months.
The second stage will focus on jewel cutting.
The first part of the course was an overview of gemmology, taught by one of Brazil’s foremost specialists in the field, Pérsio de Moraes Branco. The program’s launch was attended by Algerian ministers, according to Abragem chairman Harilton Carlos de Vasconcelos Sobrinho, who travelled alongside Branco. The course was attended by 20 students from across Algeria.
The students included people who work with jewellery, especially corals, and artisans specializing in leather and metal-based handicraft. According to Branco, they are new to precious stones and the students’ knowledge level was widely varied. “One of them was a teacher with several books on gold jewellery published, and others had plenty of hands-on experience. This experience, however, was largely limited to metals, some of them with corals,” says Branco.
The same group will attend the new training stage. This time, the teachers will be four Abragem-affiliated. The goal is to have the Algerian professionals pass on the knowledge at a designated school yet to be built in Algeria. The training, both last year and this year, takes place at a facility made available by the Regional Organisation for Geology and Mines (ORGN), in Tamanrasset, in southern Algeria.
The next stage will last three months. According to Vasconcelos, the subjects will include facet-cutting, aka mechanical cutting, and artisanal cutting. The students will be divided into two groups that will sit classes on each of the fields.
The project is a cooperation between the Brazilian and Algerian governments. The Brazilian part is carried out by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and handled by Abragem. In Algeria, the project has been entrusted to the Ministry of Handicraft and operated by the Tamanrasset Handicraft Chamber. The second stage was scheduled to begin in February, but was postponed due to operational issues. The only pending detail for the next phase, due in September, is translation, according to Vasconcelos.
The project aims at professionalization and is designed to allow Algeria to fulfil its potential, inaugurating a new productive sector. “Algeria boasts a long-standing tradition in jewel making using metal and other materials, but precious stones are not widespread. In the country, there are mineral resources that can be used in jewellery, although they are mostly non-transparent minerals, and this is one of the Algerian government’s goals in carrying out the project with Brazil,” says Branco.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
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