Whiteflash-Diamond Playground

After 4 weeks most experts are skeptical at best. Original story: 7000 carat diamond discovered?

From MineWeb - Word is not yet out on the reported larger-than-Cullinan diamond found in South Africa yet, but there could still be hope.  President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses Ernest Blom told Mineweb today that he had a contract with its owners to assess, verify and market the stone if it was confirmed a diamond.  The stone could not leave South African shores to first appear in a place such as diamond centre Antwerp as this would imply breach of contract between the owners and Blom. The diamond expert said he spoke to partners of the diamond company today who agreed the assessment should take place soon. Blom said he previously did not want to pressure the small but experienced diamond diggers to start the verification process, as they had security concerns. “I would not like to pre-empt the marketing of the stone.  The first step is to verify the stone is a diamond and the second is to do the necessary paper work,” he said. Reports about the alleged diamond, found in the North West province of South Africa, first surfaced at the end of August when the SABC, the state broadcaster, said a diamond almost twice the size of the world’s largest Cullinan was discovered and transported to a vault in Johannesburg. 

Blom told Mineweb in the first week of September that he had been approached by small scale miners to verify the stone. He said at the time they were experienced miners and should have the ability to identify a rough diamond.  Industry sources have said in the meantime that a gem discovery of this size was unlikely - especially as the stone would have traveled downstream in the alluvial area of North West. The stone is reportedly about 7,500 carats compared to the Cullinan, the world’s largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found at 3,106 carats.  The Cullinan, found in 1905, has itself always been rumoured to be part of a larger crystal as there were indications that this could be the case at the time of its discovery.