There's Green in Them Thar Hills

By Laura Lopez/Cosquez

It was just before sunrise on a recent summer morning high in the Boyaca mountains of central Colombia. Already the steep terrain was bustling with prospectors called guaqueros, or treasure hunters. They were seeking their fortunes in the Cosquez cut, a mountainside excavation rich with dazzling gems -- emeralds.

Suddenly, 25 armed men disguised as soldiers appeared and rounded up eleven miners and guaqueros. Forcing them to lie face down in the gritty black soil, the gunmen coolly shot and killed their victims one by one, then escaped into the verdant hillside. When real Colombian soldiers arrived to investigate the slaughter, they got no information from local villagers. Though many people heard and saw the shootings, none would admit it for fear of meeting a similar fate. The official conclusion: the incident was just another in a long line of vendettas among the thousands of emerald hunters afflicted with "green fever."

Like cocaine, quality emeralds are big and dangerous business in Colombia. The country produces no less than 90% of the world's supply of the precious green stones. Just as plentiful is the bloodshed caused by territorial fights among rival clans of guaqueros. Unlike the diamond-mining industry, which is tightly controlled by the South African cartel, De Beers Consolidated Mines, the Colombian emerald business is wide open. Though the government grants mining rights to production companies and nominally regulates the industry, the vast majority of emeralds are brought to market by independent, unregulated guaqueros. "There are no economic laws that apply," says Jack Rotiewicz, general manager of one of the government-authorized mining companies, "and no one can even pretend to control the market."

The stakes are growing larger all the time. In the past two years strong consumer demand has helped push up world emerald prices by almost 30%. A polished, top-grade deep green stone weighing one carat now typically costs $5,000 on the retail market. Colombia exports an estimated $40 million worth of emeralds annually, but that does not account for all the gems that are illegally smuggled out of the country. Both the mining companies and the government lose millions of dollars in revenue because of the unauthorized activities of the guaqueros.

The government tried to seize control in the mid-1940s by nationalizing the mines, but that merely led to rampant corruption. Many of the bureaucrats put in charge looted the mining companies' profits. At the same time, the government could not stop the violence around the mines. After 900 deaths occurred at a mine one year in the early 1970s, the authorities had to shut it down. In 1977 the government decided to grant short-term leases to several private mining companies. That strategy, however, has had little success. The government-sanctioned companies produce only about 20% of Colombia's emerald exports. Guaqueros and smugglers account for the rest.

The inability of the government to control the industry has much to do with the nature of emerald mining. In a typical operation, bulldozers cut huge swaths across a mountainside. Then the miners tunnel into the ground with hydraulic jacks and dynamite. After that, the operators run water over the area to clean away the debris. This process exposes emerald-bearing white calcite veins. Miners are able to pick out the larger crystals, but most of the smaller ones have been washed down to shallow riverbeds below the mine, % where swarms of guaqueros sift through the mud in search of the precious stones. The most enterprising treasure hunters use dynamite and hand tools to burrow tunnels into places where a mining company has already excavated, trying to reach the white calcite veins.

If the free-lance miners hit pay dirt, they split the booty with other clan members, since holding out on one's fellows is a capital offense. Then the stones are usually sold to middlemen at the river's edge or in nearby towns and eventually wind up in the hands of smugglers. Every guaquero's dream is to find a large "drop of oil" stone -- one of great purity that could fetch thousands of dollars. Most of the treasure hunters, however, spend their days in extreme poverty, squandering what little they earn on liquor.

But the guaqueros come away with enough emeralds to make life frustrating for the production companies. Says one mining executive: "If we get 30% of what the mine produces, that's good." Another mine operator tried to introduce new equipment that would have greatly increased his production capacity and limited the amount of emeralds washed into the riverbed. But he gave up the plan when he received anonymous threats, which he assumed were from guaquero clans. "You can cooperate with them, or you can fight them," he says. "I prefer to cooperate because I prefer to live."

Within the mine sites, companies go to extreme lengths to preserve their profits. Each miner is watched at all times by two technicians and an armed security guard. The emeralds are typically put into large leather or canvas bags, which are locked in a combination safe and held up to 24 hours until a helicopter from Bogota, about 60 miles to the south, can take away the jewels.

Despite such precautions, employee theft is common. Among the offenders are the uniformed security guards and soldiers that protect every mine. At night, they often change to civilian clothes and join the guaqueros for a little prospecting. That is yet another reason why Colombia has a thriving black market in the green gems.