A pastor working in the mines of eastern Sierra Leone has unearthed a 706-carat diamond. The government plans to hold a transparent auction for the gem in a country once tainted by so-called blood diamonds. “A 706-carat diamond was presented to President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma yesterday evening,” the president’s office said on Thursday. The district where the 706-carat diamond was discovered is where the US-Belgian businessman Michel Desaedeleer, accused of enslavement and diamond trafficking during Sierra Leone’s civil war, is alleged to have committed his crimes. That gem is second in size only to the Cullinan diamond, which was unearthed in South Africa in 1905.

Source: The Guardian March 16, 2017 15:22 UTC