Looking north over the Muzo mines, about 105 km north of Bogota. 



Guaqueros working the gravels of the Rio Itoco, below the Muzo 

 mining area. 



already noted, was long known for mismanagement 

 and violence. In 1977 the government awarded five- 

 year leases for the Muzo mines to three private com- 

 panies. Under the new lease arrangement, Muzo is 

 more productive than at any other time in its 400-year 

 history. In 1978, just a year after the Muzo leasing be- 

 gan, Colombia's total emerald exports jumped to $40 

 million, compared to $2 million in 1973. 



Unfortunately, five-year leases encourage lessees to 

 mine as rapidly as possible, and their methods are not 

 as considerate of resources and the environment as 

 they should be. When the author visited Muzo in 1979 

 and again in 1980, the main area was being worked 

 harshly, with bulldozers and dynamite — methods that 

 had been avoided in the past because of the fragility of 

 emerald crystals. After an area has been dynamited, 

 bulldozers scrape away the overburden, exposing white 

 calcite veins where the emeralds are to be found. Teams 

 of laborers then work the veins with pick and shovel. 

 The emeralds they find are placed in canvas bags, then 

 are sorted by the mine lessees each evening. Afterward, 

 the parcels of sorted stones are taken to Bogota for 

 further grading and marketing. 



Because the main area is being stripped away with so 

 little care, a significant portion of the potential emerald 

 production is lost to the gravels of the Rio Itoco, and 

 each day finds the riverbed worked by some 15,000 

 guaqueros (independent miners, directly translated as 

 "treasure hunters"), whose lifestyle recalls that of our 

 own Forty-Niners during the California Gold Rush.FH 



18 



