http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10190125%255E13762,00.htmlMiner digs up 182-carat diamond
By Paul Fournier in Guniea
July 20, 2004
THERE'S lucky: Finding a diamond when you're a young miner sweating it out in the west African forests of Guinea.
And then there's too lucky: finding a 182-carat stone that everyone - starting with the government of Guinea - wants a piece of.
Result: the stone, four times the size of the famous Hope diamond, was tucked away today deep in the vaults of Guinea's Central Bank. No pictures, please.
And the 25-year-old miner who found it, if not exactly in hiding, was making himself scarce. No interviews, please.
State radio in impoverished, mineral-rich Guinea announced the find Thursday. Guinea mining industry officials confirmed Monday that the newly dug-up stone - though not flawless - was a fortune in the rough.
"It's a quite brilliant diamond, of good enough quality despite having numerous veins. One thing is certain - it's worth millions of dollars," a top official with the Aredor mining company, Guinea's biggest diamond operation, told The Associated Press.
The Guinea gem is 10cm from tip to tip on its longest side and 3cm wide - roughly the size and shape of a computer mouse.
The Hope diamond, by contrast, is 45.52 carats. The largest diamond ever found, the Cullinan, was a gaudy bowling-ball size beauty at 3,106 carats in the rough.
Freelance discoveries of big diamonds in west and central Africa typically touch off fierce, fast-buck feeding frenzies, pitting the finders and first-round buyers against would-be moneymakers higher up the food chain.
Finders, terrified, have been known to flee into the bush rather than dare bring their find to market.
In Congo in 2000, the government confiscated a 265-carat stone and jailed its local buyer for a month, freeing both only after massive public protests. That stone eventually went at auction in Israel for an industry estimated, unconfirmed $US13 million ($17.81 million) to $US20 million ($27.41 million).
Industry officials and diplomats in Guinea today would discuss the find here only on condition of anonymity. The miner, who was not identified, struck his shovel on the stone at a dig in southeast Guinea, bordering Ivory Coast and Liberia.
Authorities gave few other details of the diamond's first hours and days in the light. It was clear, however, that the rock's time with its discoverer was brief.
By today, the gem was in the capital, Conakry, behind steel doors at the guarded Central Bank.
"The young man didn't have a choice - maybe he might have been killed if he hadn't turned it over to authorities," a Western diplomat said, on condition of anonymity.
An Associated Press reporter, visiting the area of the find, was unable to locate the young miner. A dozen miners, frightened themselves, refused to give any information on the man's whereabouts.
Diamonds, along with aluminum ore and gold, are one of the top exports of Guinea, a resource-rich but virtually undeveloped country whose people live on less than a dollar a day.
The Aredor mining company, using heavy equipment in high-dollar operations, turns up an average of 30,000 carats each year.
Small-scale miners like the 25 year old, with no more overhead than the cost of a spade, produce 300- to 400 carats a year here.
The 182-carat stone came from a site owned by the government and leased to miners.
Miners are believed to slip many smaller finds into their pockets, taking the stones out for smuggling and avoiding the government and any cuts it would take.
Especially because it was found on government land, the gem's owner may have judged bypassing Guinea's officials too risky in this case, experts said.
Authorities were to inspect the stone later this week and offer an official estimate. The finder - if luck holds - would likely receive an undetermined percentage of that, industry officials said.
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Dang Minors think they can just dig out of the ground what we adults Spent years putting there...
Oh Dang spell checker, it was Miners, Not Children...
nevermind Nothing to see here.
Stephen
Topic: Have I mentioned Lately, I don't like kids??? (Read 944 times)