![]() ![]() ![]() Johannesburg resident Thulani Manyathi, 36, travelled to KwaHlathi from the impoverished township of Alexandra with his four young daughters. The rough stone yielded nine major diamonds used to adorn the British crown jewels, as well as almost 100 minor brilliants. Rumor has it that the Cullinan, which weighed over 3,000 carats uncut, was lying only a few meters below ground and dug up with a pocketknife. "They are not tired, we are looking for money," Precious exclaimed.Ī man shows an unidentified stone as fortune seekers flock to the village after pictures and videos were shared on social media to show people celebrating after finding what they believe to be diamonds, in the village of KwaHlathi outside Ladysmith, South Africa, June 14. The boy clutched a transparent crystal the size of a ping pong ball. She had spent the night digging, with her teenage son and baby daughter. But this could change everything," said Precious, 38, who did not wish to give her full name. South Africa is also the birthplace of the Kimberley Process, an international certification scheme to keep conflict diamonds off the market. The country, internationally renowned for its mineral wealth, still holds a record for the world's largest ever rough diamond discovery ― the Cullinan ― found in 1905 in the small mining town by the same name. The prospect of finding a diamond sent glimmering ripples of hope to one of the poorest regions of South Africa as the coronavirus pandemic worsened decades of extremely high unemployment levels. "I'm going to buy a car, a house, send my kids to private school," she told AFP. "They are real," beamed Magudulela, in her 40s and struggling to feed her three children. Many found more of the mysterious stones and set them aside in small dirt-encrusted piles. News of the finding spread fast, triggering a rush to the site despite messages of caution by the government warning the stones could be worthless.Īt dawn, men and women upturned clumps of soil with shovels and picks and frantically rummaged through the earth with their bare hands. Thousands have flocked to the outskirts of KwaHlathi village, more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Johannesburg, after a cattle herder last week unearthed a handful of unidentified crystal-like stones. ![]() Single mother Lihle Magudulela spat out a mouthful of dirt as she sucked on a stone dug up from a hillside in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, convinced she might have found a diamond. A man uses a pickaxe to dig as fortune seekers flock to the village after pictures and videos were shared on social media to show people celebrating after finding what they believe to be diamonds, in the village of KwaHlathi outside Ladysmith, South Africa, June 14. ![]()
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