Editor’s Note
This excerpt introduces the foundational myth of the Muisca people, featuring the creator god Are and the tragic tale of the guardians Fura and Tena. Their story explains the origin of a significant natural landmark and underscores core cultural values regarding fidelity, duty, and respect for the natural world.
In the beginning was Are, the great creator god of the Muiscas, who shaped Fura, a woman of divine beauty, and Tena, her husband, to be the guardians of life on Earth. Their sacred mission was to preserve nature and teach love and respect for life to human generations. Fura, benevolent and generous, one day allowed a young foreign man to climb the sacred mountain. Seduced by the youth and vitality of this man, she betrayed Tena. This infidelity triggered the wrath of the gods.
As punishment, the gods condemned Fura to weep for eternity. Her tears, filled with remorse and purity, fell on the mountains and transformed into sparkling green emeralds. Tena, faithful to Fura despite the betrayal, was petrified beside her on the mountain, forming the two peaks Fura and Tena, which overlook the Muzo valley in Colombia.
It is from this legend of the Muisca culture and its mythical mountain in the Andean region of Colombia, where one finds
that Fura Gems draws its name.
At its core, is jewelry anything other than a declaration of eternal love? And are colored gemstones perhaps its strongest emblems, with their tones evoking so many changing emotions?
Fura Gems is a specialist in the Big Three (emerald, ruby, sapphire) that began its journey in 2017 with emeralds from the Coscuez mine in Colombia, one of the country’s most iconic mines, and has since established itself on three continents with structured operations also in Mozambique for rubies and in Australia for sapphires.
Younger than its major competitors like Gemfields, its ambition is to bring often artisanal mines up to international standards, notably by investing in mechanization, traceability, and local social programs. In Colombia, where it all began, Fura Gems operates on a significant scale: 14 kilometers of 4-meter by 4-meter tunnels where trucks can travel up to 700 meters underground – a unique infrastructure in the Colombian emerald sector.
The challenges of safety, as well as environmental preservation and local community development, are all the more important and
declares its Head of Marketing and Communications, Gianluca Maina, whom we met at the GemGenève show, where he came to see his direct clients, the cutters, and the end clients of his company’s stones, the big names in jewelry and watchmaking, notably some of the most prestigious European houses in these categories.
Gianluca Maina:
