Sierra Leone to take big cut of diamond
Miners who found 706-carat stone valued at $50M forced to share
DAKAR, Senegal — Fistsize and lumpy, the rock a team of miners came upon recently in the diamond fields of Sierra Leone was orange with red speckles that looked like tiny droplets of palm oil.
They almost tossed it aside. But the rock was unusual enough to take to a local diamond dealer.
“The look on his face when he saw the rock made me believe that we discovered something extraordinary,” said the Rev. Emmanuel Momoh, a pastor who runs the team of diggers who found the rock.
The strange lump turned out to be one of the biggest diamonds ever uncovered in Sierra Leone — an estimated 706 carats, valued at as much as $50 million. But Momoh’s decision to hand the diamond over to the Sierra Leone government to handle the sale has set off a debate in a country where suspicion of officials runs high.
Sierra Leone allows miners to sell diamonds up to a certain size but requires them to turn over larger stones to the government to sell, with the proceeds, in theory, going to the ones who found them, minus an unspecified government tax. Often, diamonds are sold on the black market, depriving the government of sorely needed revenue.
President Ernest Bai Koroma, who appeared on television brandishing the gem, has tried to calm those fears, saying the government would act in everyone’s best interests.
Government officials placed the diamond, and a document attesting that Momoh was its owner, in a vault at the central bank.
Officials have contacted interested buyers, said Alhaji Ajibu Jalloh, the deputy spokesman for the government. The government will update the public with radio and television reports, he said.
“The pastor will have his share, the community where the diamond was discovered will have its share and everyone else involved will have their share of the proceeds,” he said.
Momoh said he’s worried: So far no one has told him what his cut will be.
“I want to contribute in the development of my community, but at the same time I don’t want to be a beggar in about 10 or 15 years from now,” he said.