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What might this massive diamond find be worth?
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone: July 2017 - USA Today reports the following find of a massive diamond (read original report here)
Extract: The recent find of a mammoth diamond the size of a hockey puck has everyone in this small West African nation wondering how big a fortune it will fetch.
Giddy talk about the gem’s worth is providing a needed uplift in a country long plagued by misfortunes that include a deadly Ebola epidemic in 2013-16 and a decade-long civil war that broke out in 1991.
“This diamond makes me happy even though I am not the owner,” said Mohamed Bangura, 28, a bartender on popular Lumley beach. “When I saw it being displayed on national TV by the president, I felt good that after all these years, our country is making headlines again for a good reason.”
A few years ago, this beach was deserted because of a nationwide ban on public gatherings to prevent the spread of Ebola, which killed nearly 4,000 people in Sierra Leone.
Now on a recent sunny day, people on the beach enjoy picnics and discuss how local Pastor Emmanuel Momoh found the huge diamond in May in his small mining plot in Kono, in the east.
Diamond experts say the gem could be the 10th-largest ever discovered and initially pegged its value at $50 million.
A few days before the new gem was put on auction, the diamond-mining firm Lucara sold an 813-carat diamond for $63 million in London. But the top offer for the Transparent Gem was only $7.8 million at a May auction. The government rejected the bid.
“The next step is to call for an international bidding to be held either in Tel Aviv or Antwerp to ensure the right price is paid,” government spokesman Abdulai Bayraytay said, referring to major diamond centers in Israel and Belgium.
Momoh believes he and his fellow citizens will receive their windfall soon. “I am very satisfied,” he said about giving the diamond to the authorities. “I am looking forward to the government working on how to sell the diamond in the interest of Sierra Leone.”
Others were impatient. “I want this diamond to be sold now,” said taxi driver Mohamed Sall, 34, of Bo South, an inland city. “Our country needs the money badly.”
Some also hope the diamond heals the nation after Ebola. “This is the first time since my adult life a diamond has been given this kind of attention,” said Ramatu Turay, 35, a street vendor in Port Loko, a northern district. “I lost relatives to Ebola in 2014. But this diamond is a way of wiping tears from Sierra Leone.”
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