On its way to modernization emerald mining in Colombia is now experiencing the effect of the impact caused by the politically encouraged settlement of new foreign companies, the U.S.-owned Mineria Texas Colombia and Fura Gems, a company based in Dubai and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, which acquired in 2017 for US$ 10.2 million rights to the Coscuez emerald deposit.
The employment of 48 female workers by Fura Gems recently has attracted the attention of the specialized press. The move is an initiative of social responsibility aimed at establishing fair relations with local people as recommended by a Socialization Program developed immediately after the acquisition, following a public announcement at the Second World Emerald Symposium held in Bogota.
Fura Gems’ strategy intends to make a break with the past times when women in larger mining companies were only in charge of general services and believed to bring bad luck while operating to find emeralds. In 2015 a decree modified a law passed in 1987 which prohibited underground jobs in mines to women of all ages.
“We love the De Beers model” – Fura Gems’ CEO David Shetty said – “because years ago they came in and organized the place”. But is the local economy ready to respond to this impulse of reorganization? In practice the local communities are only partly based on the industrial exploitation and might resist to operational campaign designed to organize the place. Artisanal and informal small mining activities in villages of western Boyacá like Muzo, Maripí, Pauna, Santa Bárbara, Otanche and San Pablo de Borbur still offer a work to a large number of inhabitants, competing with industrial mining.
Hiring 300 people, only 17% of which are women, is but a first step to meet the requirements of the local people involved in activities related to emeralds. Particularly in the areas surrounding Coscuez the emerald economy is still founded on a traditional basis. Women and men work since several decades in the so called “guaqueria”, literally treasure hunting or tomb raiding, consisting in exploring, under heavy and dangerous conditions, abandoned tunnels or searching stones in open fields (voladoras) where trucks of informal miners deposit tons of ground for sorting. “The old methods benefit the local economy” – said to Bloomberg Maximiliano Barbosa, the president of the local independent miners’ association Asobarecol – “because artisanal miners sell what they find to locals in exchange for food and services”.
From the other hand since the very beginning of its settlement Fura Gems is focusing on its declared policy, investments against improved social conditions, sharing the returns of development.
“There has never been so much work around here” said to Bloomberg Carmen Delgado, currently a Fura Gems employee and a former independent miner. The Company’s Sustainability Team intercepted the aspiration of women to more stable and safe jobs.
In the meantime Fura Gems plans on starting digging a large tunnel to exploit the richest deposits, currently not accessible to miners and targeting a yearly production of 350,000 to 400,000 carats. But at the same time the company has shut four of 49 tunnels. “We’re not allowing informal mining to officially take place, but practically things take time” – Shetty said – “we can’t police the whole mountain”. Informal and unsafe mining with no investments and poor technology have already depleted the most easy to get emeralds. Yet locking tunnels could result in violence if the pro used benefits of the modern exploitation will not appeal the villagers.
Gem News published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #7, Summer 2019
