JNA Awards 2020 - Jewellery Industry Best Practices

JNA AWARDS • 2020 103 our employees’ safety, drive an increase in productivity and reduce our impact to the environment,” Burgess sums up. The group promotes a proactive culture of innovation. At Esmeraldas de los Andes (EDLA), Muzo’s high-tech emerald transformation workshop, innovative thinking is considered a required skill among all employees. This reflects the openness and commitment of the company to new ideas and continuous improvement. As a result of these efforts, 75 percent of the 52 initiatives proposed by Muzo employees were successfully implemented in 2019. Altogether, these led to steadygrowth forMuzo. Fromtwocompanies, the group now has six under its fold. It also holds 11 mining titles, and has cut more than 77,000 stones to date. Manpower also grew from 267 to 1,231 employees within the last decade. “We promote local talent in our operations in the Boyacá region, where more than 70 percent of our mine employees come from. This allows us to spur economic development and bring all their prior mining experience and knowledge to our business,” he adds. Embracing sustainability The Muzo emerald journey impacts thousands of lives, states Burgess, who is not only talking about the group’s employees or their families. Having observed widespread poverty in Western Boyacá, Muzo launched Seeds of Progress – a livelihood project that offered local residents a chance to work the cocoa fields and sell their own produce. The programme also connected the farmers to buyers in Colombia and other parts of the world. In 2018, Furatena Cacao started to export Seeds of Progress cocoa to Malaysia. Transactions with buyers from other parts of Colombia and other countries such as Canada, soon followed. Today, the initiative supports 1,485 families that produce approximately 2,600 hectares of cocoa, as well as 50 farms certified with Good Agricultural Practices and 538 other producers. The effort resulted in 1,600 visits to farms and led to the establishment of a warehouse for storing cocoa beans in the region. Similarly, a total of 267,445 kilos of dried cocoa was sold in 2019, marking a 38 percent increase from the previous year. Cacao bean quality also increased from 40 percent to 65 percent fermentation. On top of these, Muzo was lauded as one of the Top 10 mining companies in Colombia, and was recognised by the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Colombia for its corporate social responsibility projects. Even the difficulties brought about by the pandemic could not deter Muzo in its objectives. “We believe that COVID-19 is an opportunity for sustainability. More than ever, clients and stakeholders are looking into actions and commitments that will help build a brighter future through environmental protection and contributing to the well-being of the people,” Burgess states. 1. Esmeraldas de los Andes’ (EDLA) state-of-the-art workshop where Muzo emeralds are transformed 2. A pair of polished Muzo emeralds 3. An EDLA gemstone cutter examines a Muzo emerald 4. Charles Burgess, President of The Muzo Companies Colombia 5. Cut and polished emerald from Muzo Emerald Colombia 3 4 5