gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, Chivor, history

The history of the Chivor emerald mine in Colombia is rife with legend and adventure. The tale traces from early exploitation by natives, to work by the Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries, to 200 years of abandonment and jungle overgrowth. The story then picks up with rediscovery in the 1880s by the Colombian mining engineer Francisco Restrepo using hints from a historical manuscript. Still, the saga continued, with repeated shortages of investment funds driving multiple ownership changes and little progress towards mining the largely inaccessible deposit. The German gem merchant Fritz Klein, in cooperation with Restrepo, pursued limited mining activities with a small number of workers for a few months in 1912. Seeking to expand operations, Klein prior to the outbreak of World War I brought together a group of German investors aiming to purchase the mine as the “Syndikat El Chivor”. The ensuing hostilities, however, terminated all such efforts. After the war, an American company, the “Colombian Emerald Syndicate, Ltd.”, took ownership in 1919, and mining operations resumed under the new leadership. Nonetheless, a bankruptcy proceeding instigated in 1923 eventually led to a sale of the mining properties and transfer to another American entity, the “Colombia Emerald Development Corporation”. The coming years saw multiple cycles of increasing and decreasing mining activity, interrupted by completely unproductive periods. Shares of the company became a subject of speculation and alleged bourse manipulation, giving rise to legal proceedings in the mid-1920s. Thereafter South African mining engineer Peter W. Rainier sought to restore focus and profits to the operational side, but the mine was forced to close in 1931. After several years of near-dormancy, an attempted restart in 1947 following World War II brought only severe financial difficulties for the company, by then renamed “Chivor Emerald Mines, Ltd.”, and culminated in operation under receivership from 1952 to 1970. During that period, the American mining engineer Willis F. Bronkie guided activities as receiver and mining engineer.