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Miner in Guinea Digs Up 182-Carat Gem
By PAUL FOURNIER
Associated Press Writer
July 19, 2004, 2:36 PM EDT
CONAKRY, Guinea -- There's lucky: Finding a diamond when you're a young
miner sweating it out in the west African forests of Guinea. And 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 Monday 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 last
week. 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 four inches by 1.2 inches high -- roughly the size and
shape of your average computer mouse.
The Hope diamond, by contrast, is 45.52 carats.
The largest diamond ever found, the Cullinan, was a gawdy bowling-ball size
beauty at 3,106 carats in the rough.
Free-lance 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 $13 million to $20 million.
Industry officials and diplomats in Guinea on Monday would discuss the find
here only on condition of anonymity.
The 25-year-old, 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 Monday, the gem was in the capital, Conakry, behind steel doors at the
guarded Central Bank.
The young miner had no choice, a Western diplomat said -- he might have been
killed if he hadn't turned it over to the authorities.
An Associated Press reporter, visiting the area of the find, was unable to
locate the young miner.
Diamonds, along with aluminum ore and gold, are among 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 since it was found on government land, the gem's discoverer may
have believed 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.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
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