Esmaralda

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The Emerald Story:

The man of fine stature and brilliant smile has been previously mentioned. He greets me by name these days. I have to walk past him to go to El Bistro. The ladies in the shop also great me when I encounter them.
I am very proud of my Colombia souvenir. It equals my diamond souvenirs bought in Amsterdam during my first of many visits to that city.

Since it is a quite spectacular ‘piedra en bruto’ let me share some info about esmaraldas.


FROM SOMEWHERE ON THE INTERNET:



“After the invading Spanish army found Colombian natives with Emeralds, they gathered information which enabled them to plan and executelarge scale assaults against the Indians in the Emerald-rich mountainous region north of Bogotá.
At the time (mid-1600's), the Muzo Indians controlled the region and fought fiercely, but in vain, against the invading Spaniards. Today, descendants of the Muzos, called guaqueros, persist in risking their lives to dig for the gems while refusing to acknowledge anyone else's rights to the stones.
This, coupled with the exceedingly violent nature of Colombia's society in the southern part of the country, provides a volatile backdrop for the industry.
Today, the Colombia government nominally controls all but one Emerald mine-the Muzo. The Muzo Mine, has alternated between private ownership, public operation, and even British ownership. It is currently worked under a 10-year lease to develop the 200 hectare (roughly 480 acres) which comprise the primary Muzo deposit. Tecminas owns the lease until 2004, and their employees live and work in an armed camp.
Bandits and paramilitary patrols lie in wait along the two roads leading to and from Muzo. They operate under two simple premises:

1. Passengers in vehicles traveling into the mines are carrying large sums of cash, and,:
2. Those traveling out are carrying valuable Emeralds
These groups operate with impunity, are heavily armed, and have successfully attacked armed convoys consisting of as many as fifty armoured vehicles.



The Muzo mine "operation" is similarly surreal. Emerald deposits generally lie in calcite veins nestled in soft shale near the earth's surface. Bulldozers make repetitive swipes at the face of the sides of the steep valley slopes. There are several hundred workers, or piedreros, who earn approximately $600 per month.
In spite of the relatively low wage, Colombians queue up to fill vacancies-principally because of one fringe benefit - the monthly picando, when work crews surround the bulldozers as they dump their scrapings, carefully looking for flashes of white calcite. During the picando, workers are permitted to dig out Emeralds with their hands and small picks. A representative of the families who control Tecminas inspects their finds, selecting out the best chunks, known as gangas en bruto, for the company's owners. The piedreros are then allowed to pocket the remainder of their haul as a bonus for working at Muzo. The intrigue does not end here. Tecminas bulldozers dump tons of scraped shale and Emerald-bearing dirt into stream beds which carry the effluent downstream toward thousands of expectant guaqueros below.
On average, four or five guaqueros die each week in fights over Emeralds, women, and turf with more than a touch of alcohol, desperation, and jealousy thrown in for good measure. Ironically, the piedreros and guaqueros who brave and survive the violence of searching through mounds of shale and streambed tailings must then run the paramilitary and bandito-lined gauntlet along the roads from Muzo to Bogotá to finally earn their prize.


Emerald is of the silicate class of minerals, categorized as a "beryl."
Emeralds are found in several places on the planet. Without a doubt, the finest Emeralds come from the top three Colombian mines: Muzo, Chivor, and Cosquez. Emeralds of varying (but generally inferior) color, clarity, and quality are also mined in Brazil, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Madagascar, Nigeria, Russia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Emeralds are weighed in carats (not to be confused with karats, which refers to the purity of gold), with one carat equaling 1/5 gram, or 1/42 ounce. Because of the relatively low specific gravity of Emeralds (SGE = 2.72), Emeralds are physically larger than similarly weighted diamonds or rubies."

Although gaseous, mineral, or fracture inclusions can structurally weaken an Emerald, the green gem is rated 7.5-8 on the Mohs hardness scale and is, therefore, "harder than most steel." Diamonds have a Mohs hardness of 10."



There are many emerald shops here in Cartagena , just as there must be in Bogota and Medellin. How to chose where to buy? The emeralds all have to come from a mine. it’s the purest chance that I bought from a store that has the name of one of the more famous mines. That’s why the owner probably chose the name. There are pictures of the mine in the second shop. My piece of ‘piedra en bruto” weighs 9.0 carats …

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