According to a report on BBC, a sierra lone based Pastor Momoh has discovered a
diamond, weighing 706 carats in Kono district, Sierra Leone.
The diamond is currently locked up in Sierra Leone's central bank in Freetown with a 24hour heavy security surveillance. The diamond is
said to be one of the 20 largest diamonds ever found on earth.
However, the world is wondering whether the community will benefit from
this precious gemstone.
Freelance or artisanal miners are common in Sierra Leone's diamond-rich
areas and according to Mathew Nyaungwa from Rough and Polished diamond
analysts, the discovered diamond weighing 706 carats in Konom is the 13th
largest diamond ever to be found.
Nyaungwa added that it is difficult to estimate a price as it is "quality
not size [that] determines the value of a diamond".
And it was gathered that the discovery may have a blemish.
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According to Nyaungwa, the world’s five largest diamonds are Cullinan
Diamond, found in South Africa in 1905, weighed 3,107 carats, Lesedi La Rona,
found in Botswana in 2015, weighed 1,111 carats, Excelsior Diamond, found in
South Africa in 1893, weighed 995 carats, Star of Sierra Leone, found in Sierra
Leone in 1972, weighed 969 carats and Incomparable Diamond, found in DR Congo
in 1984, weighed 890 carats.
But Pastor Momoh's discovery, which has not yet been valued, is the biggest
diamond to be found in Sierra Leone since 1972, when the 969-carat Star of
Sierra Leone was dug up.
Last May, diamond-mining firm Lucara sold a 813-carat stone for $63m (£51m)
at a closed auction in London.
However, a government official in a statement on Thursday, March 16, said
that the diamond will be sold with a 'transparent' bidding process to the
benefit of the community and country.
"A 706-carat diamond was presented to President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma
yesterday evening," the statement said.
"Receiving the diamond President Koroma thanked the chief and his
people for not smuggling the diamond out of the country," it added,
referring to the Tankoro chiefdom where Momoh uncovered the gem.
The diamond will be sold in Sierra Leone with a "transparent"
bidding process to the benefit of the community and country, the statement
said.
"I have to help the government and my people, so all of us can
benefit," presidential spokesman Abdulai Bayraytay quoted the pastor
as saying.
Sierra Leone is well known for its diamond industry but it has had a
chequered history.
Diamond sales partly fuelled the country's decade-long civil war when rebel
groups exchanged them for weapons
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