Trifter

If your looking to score a great deal on some fine Colombian Emeralds and you’ve got immense “cojones,” you can’t find better quality than at the Coscuez emerald mine. The Coscuez mine is located in the region of Muzo- in Boyaca  Province. Its one of three emerald mines located on the Cordillera Oriental mountains, the other two are Muzo and Penas Blancas. The mine is famed as having produced, what was for many years the largest emerald  ever mined, at 1759 carats. The emerald became known as the Guinness emerald crystal, and today is held at Banco National de la Republic in Bogota.

Originally the mines were owned and run by the government, which eventually privatized the mines due to lawlessness in the region.  The company that has owned the  Coscuez mine since the 1970’s is called Esmeracol, and it employs about 2 thousand miners to work the mine, although in total about 6 thousand people  work at the site. Many of the miners sell emeralds on the black market, as they are unpaid , which  the company allows them too . The company keeps a close eye on the miners  to prevent them from taking  too many.

The black market emeralds are sold to emerald dealers from Bogota, and ultimately end up at some of the worlds best jewelry stores.  Coscuez  is like a small city and has all the amenities the miners need such as stores, bars, banks, cafes  and brothels.  Once in while the miners discover “la pintada” or  painted, which is an area of the mine with a bright green glow, and will yield many emerald clusters. Working at the mine is incredibly dangerous, because seismic activity could cause a collapse at any time.

In the valleys around the mine other people known as quaqueros (cowboys) filter through the loose rock  and streams with their bare hands, looking for a scrape of emerald left behind by the miners.  Many of the quaqueros and their families have been living and working at the mine for most of their lives, hoping to strike it rich . They are impoverished people and have less rights than even the miners.  Although  they are  tough  and often  watch out for each others welfare.  If you ask them how many emeralds they have found they will probably tell you none. But that’s to be expected in this environment.