The team was launched at the second World Emerald Symposium in Bogota.
Fura said it had decided to launch the all-female wash plant project as the first part of a series of initiatives to promote women's participation after its socialisation programme found that women wanted to take a more active role in emerald mining.
Women in West Boyacá had traditionally been "barequeras" in emerald mining, washing tailings to find rough emerald, but had not been employed for formal work in other areas, although Fura had employed them in administrative roles, general services, cooking and training on the trial washing facility.
Candidates for the all-women team were assessed according to their knowledge, skills, abilities, attitude, motivation, interest regarding the various resources required, and their proven ability to learn the required skills to a level of competency.
They then completed a safety and mining competencies course, ran by Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje in their initial months at Fura, and were also trained to wash, sort and grade on a temporary washing facility to be prepared for the new and modernised installation.
Fura expects the new 100t per hour wash plant to be operational in the March 2019 quarter.
The minimum 30-strong team of women will take on a range of roles, such as material feeding, picking, loading, recording, security and pump and equipment managing.
All electrical repairs will also be carried out entirely by women, with Fura to organise their training in all the required competencies to "promote further professional growth, skill development and empowerment for local women".
Fura CEO Dev Shetty said the local women had been "continuously demonstrating their skills and competence at Coscuez, and in doing so, they are promoting a cultural transformation that challenges the previous perception of their role in mining".
"The all-female wash plant reflects our commitment to the development and empowerment of women through professional and personal growth, as well as of communities as a whole," he said.
