* Emeralds may be next exotic market investment
* Green stone an investment play in Asia, Middle East
* Gemfields hopes to do what De Beers did for diamonds
By Manuela Badawy
NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) – A year ago, Heraldo
Casas found a 32-carat emerald on the outskirts of a mine near
Bogota that he sold for $170,000 to a vendor.
It was enough money for the poor miner to buy his family a
house in the Colombian capital. And Casas says his lucky find
got him hooked on working for virtually nothing, scouring the
countryside for more of the green, precious stones.
In Colombia, the world’s largest producer of raw emeralds,
the story told by Casas is no anomaly. Many of the
country’s poor work without a salary for several local emerald
mining concerns, hoping to pocket a few stones along the way and
make their own small fortunes.
It’s no easy way to earn a living. But for these poor
Colombians, there’s hope that better days may be on the horizon.
Some investment experts see growing demand for the stones in
places such as Asia and the Middle East, where for religious and
astrological reasons emeralds often have more appeal than
diamonds or other precious gems.
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