A miner found a 143-carat diamond in a river in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and sold it for $1,4-million, an industry official said on Friday.
Amos Maseko discovered the stone in a river near Banalia, 129km north of Kisangani, where usually only diamonds of between one and three carats are to be found, the president of the Congolese Federation of Gold and Diamonds, John Tokole, said.
”This is the first time anything this big has been found here,” Tokole said. ”The money will be invested here. The proceeds from the sale to Lebanese businessman Ismael Karmel will go to Maseko’s association of miners.”
Miners such as Maseko usually scrape together a living using a sieve to wash diamonds out of the gravely earth. Despite the DRC’s vast mineral wealth, which also includes gold, copper and cobalt, the country is struggling to recover from more than 30 years of ruinous dictatorship followed by five years of war.
Most of the DRC’s ample diamond reserves are to be found in the Kasai provinces, more than 600km south-west of Kisangani. — Sapa-dpa