Deep inside mountain tunnels in Colombia where the heat is so intense it causes headaches, women with power tools are chipping away at boulders in search of gems. They have opened a difficult path for themselves in the emerald industry, a sector long dominated by men. Some once believed that if women worked in the mines, the emeralds would hide.
In tunnels dug hundreds of feet into the earth, hammers pound in search of something shiny and green, where oxygen is scarce and the heat so stifling it would make anyone sick. The hands holding these tools are those of a group of 200 Colombian women who search for emeralds in what is traditionally a man’s world. Female emerald miners chat after work at an informal mine near the town of Coscuez, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.
“But we continue to struggle here for the dream of having a home with tiles on the floors, a place that smells good and where no one can kick me out,” she said. She lives in a precarious hillside house where the walls are unpainted and the floor is made of cement. In her home outside Coscuez, Forero keeps some small, opaque emeralds that she has gathered over the past three months. She reckons that they are not worth more than $76 in all.
So she also works random jobs to make ends meet like washing uniforms, ironing clothes and cleaning homes. Flor Marina Morales said she started to work in the mines around Coscuez because she needed to provide for her kids. After they enter in a single file, they branch off in different directions and head into tunnels where each person has a designated area to drill. The rocks that break off the walls are carried outside in carts, washed and sifted through.
A female miner holds a fleck of an emerald on her fingertip, while working at an informal mine near the town of Coscuez, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Currently there are 200 women working in the mines around Coscuez, according to the local association of female miners. Some work alongside men, while others work in five small mines owned by women, where only female miners are allowed.Emerald miners arrive on motorbikes to an informal mine near the town of Coscuez, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.
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