Sierra Leone to sell 709-carat diamond in New York auction

FREETOWN: Sierra Leone said Tuesday it plans to auction off a massive 709-carat diamond at a December sale in New York, aiming to make a clean break with the ‘blood diamonds’ of its past.

The stone, which was unearthed in March, is the largest discovered in Sierra Leone in almost a halfcentury and is between the 10th and 15th largest ever found worldwide, experts say.

Sierra Leone authorities told reporters that the massive gem will go up for sale on Dec 4 at Rapaport Auctions, which specialises in the diamond trade.

The government has pledged to be transparent in the stone’s sale, mindful of the history of crossborder diamond trafficking that fuelled Sierra Leone’s civil war from 1991-2002.

Such ‘blood diamonds’ were often found by enslaved members of the population, who were killed or maimed by rebel groups if they refused to dig.

The 709-carat behemoth was discovered by Emmanuel Momoh, an Evangelical pastor who is also one of hundreds of so-called artisanal miners in Kono, Sierra Leone’s key mining district.

Momoh said he hoped the sale would “improve the lives of the people by providing water, electricity, schools, health facilities, roads and bridges” in the Kono region.

The state expects to collect 15 per cent of the sale’s proceeds and a 30-per cent income tax.