Colombia's emerald reputation at risk

Leopoldo Losano, his clothes smeared with dirt and sweat, blinks as he emerges from the Puerto Arturo mine in the jungle-covered hills of Colombia.

''It's back-breaking,'' says Losano, 60, after guzzling water from a flask and collapsing onto a wooden bench in the tropical heat. ``But to find an emerald, it's worth it.''

Stones from the Boyacá mountains where Losano works helped Colombia build its reputation as the source of some of the world's finest emeralds. That image may be at risk as jewelers and traders use undisclosed materials to disguise natural flaws in the stones.

''Emeralds all over the world are treated, but the fact that it's happening in Colombia, where the finest stones come from, is the problem,'' said Shane McClure, director of identification services at the Carlsbad, Calif.-based Gemological Institute of America.

SEEKING CLARITY

The industry and the government are planning to bring greater transparency to the market and certify gems.

Colombia accounts for about half the world's $280-million-a-year emerald trade, said Stuart Robertson, research director at Gemworld International, which provides pricing and reference information, in Glenview, Ill. Other top producers include Brazil, Zambia and Afghanistan.

Jewelers have been treating emeralds with oils and resins to improve their color and condition since the time of Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 B.C. The green gemstones have been mined there for 4,000 years.

Nowadays, polymers are also used to fill cracks and enhance color.

''It's throwing very poor merchandise into the market,'' said Arthur Groom, a jeweler from Ridgewood, N.J., with $8 million in annual sales. ``What they are doing with the emeralds is only damaging their own industry.''

Colombia's government and the National Emerald Federation plan to open a laboratory this year where buyers can test stones and have them certified.

''We have to stop this before it's too late to prevent damage to one of our most prestigious industries,'' Interior Minister Carlos Holguin said in an interview at his Bogotá office.

The federation and the government also plan joint publicity campaigns aimed at tripling sales to as much as $425 million in five years from about $140 million in 2007, said federation President Carlos Arboleda.

''We want to make sure people know there is nothing illegal going on,'' said Arboleda, whose association represents miners, exporters, dealers and jewelers.

CRIME WAVES

Colombia's emerald trade has a history of crime and violence. After the government relinquished control of state-owned mines in 1973, rivals tried to stake out claims in a dispute known as the ''Green War.'' About 8,000 people died, according to Nixon Vega, 35, who helps run social programs for miners in Muzo, in the heart of Colombia's emerald-mining area.

In the late 1980s, more than 3,000 more died when drug lord Pablo Escobar attempted to seize control of the emerald industry and failed. Escobar, whom police shot dead in 1993, probably planned to use emeralds to launder drug money, Vega said.

The planned laboratory will do little to stamp out the doctoring of stones, said Edwin Molina, 27, who helps run Coexminas, the Bogotá-based company that owns the Puerto Arturo mine.

''What's the point of issuing a certificate providing information on the fillers if the next day they can be treated with something else?'' Molina said.

Many newly discovered emeralds first trade on the sidewalk of Avenida Jimenez in central Bogotá, where hundreds of dealers inspect stones in the light of day.

Many of those stones come from mines around Muzo, a six-hour drive away.

Inside the Puerto Arturo mine, 40 minutes along a winding mud trail from Muzo, miners haul trolleys piled with dirt though a warren of shafts.

The walls drip with humidity. The whine of drills pierces the air.

''The conditions are excellent compared with a few years back,'' said William Sanchez, 42, breathing from a plastic air tube punctured with holes. ``We get lunch and a decent break.''

Miners receive a commission for finding a stone. When a vein is discovered, the area is cordoned off, lights are installed and access is restricted.

The life-changing lure of the emeralds is such that even the mine tailings draw gem hunters.

Miner Horacio Peña, 27, and his wife sift dirt from the bed of a nearby stream in the hope that a find will lift them out of poverty, Peña said. He has been searching for emeralds since he was a child.

''It's the will of God and pure luck,'' Peña said. ``One day, I'll find it.''

Source :- Bloomberg News