After more than a month of speculation, the ”world’s largest diamond”, said to be twice the size of the famous Cullinan diamond, was on Friday denounced as a ”piece of plastic” by the man at the centre of the drama over its discovery. Accusing former associates of a scam, Brett Jolly said he was going to lodge a complaint with the police.
President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses Ernest Blom has withdrawn from the verification process of a ”7 000-carat diamond” found in the North West in August. ”I withdraw from the process completely and disassociate myself from any further press statements made by anyone but myself,” Blom said on Friday in a statement.
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/ 6 September 2007
The mystery gem discovered in the North West last week has been certified as a diamond, according to a report in the <i>Mining Weekly</i> on Thursday morning. According to the weekly trade publication, verification of the gem, which is believed to be the largest diamond discovery in the world, has been completed and a certificate was expected to be available by 1pm.
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/ 1 September 2007
It was the kind of news item of which dreams are made. South Africa’s national radio led its 8pm bulletin with an announcement that the world’s biggest diamond had been discovered — and it was twice the size of the fabled Cullinan diamond. An hour later the discovery had fallen to the fifth item on the national news.
Verification of the large ”diamond” claimed to have been found in the North West this week could take few weeks, a shareholder of the company laying claim to it was reported as saying on Wednesday. Brett Jolly told the Associated Press: ”It’s totally unbelievable. You just don’t expect this kind of thing to happen.”