Money Talks: Auction for 709-carat diamond fails

[Music] it was the discovery of a lifetime a full-time man of the cloth moonlighting as a miner must have thought his prayers were answered when he found the ultimate diamond government's want to attract I mean investors out there in the world and to speak to the world that there are still die alone in Saiga you and Artemis and push goes in first of the grown men who faced the 709 karat jewel was found in Sierra Leone's collar district well known for its diamond rich mines which funded the country's 11-years Civil War the uncut diamond is the most valuable discovery in 40 years international media was speculating it was worth anywhere between 50 and 90 million dollars in the end the highest bid was 7.7 million dollars but authorities remain optimistic as they wait for better offers and this is where the more you expand the time you get a pool of more bidders the better for us in terms of price pastor Emmanuel Momo could have held on to the diamond and sold it himself instead he chose to turn it in to the government in hopes that the proceeds from its sale would transform his community and improve the mining industry one of Africa's poorest countries Sierra Leone has been recovering from an eighteen-month outbreak of Ebola in 2014 which killed close to 4,000 people and cost the economy more than 1 billion dollars mining and agriculture are the backbone of Sierra Leone's economy and diamonds make up 50 percent of export revenues Sierra Leone's government has turned down this latest bid in hopes it will fetch a much higher price the auction is reported to be continuing in Belgium but an official closing date has not yet been released at FM yakin sonia trt world [Music] you

Channel: TRT World

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Keywords: TRT WORLD, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, MONEY TALKS, ADEFEMI AKINSANYA, SIERRA LEONE, DIAMOND, FREETOWN, 709 CARAT DIAMOND, DIAMOND AUCTION, DIAMOND AUCTION FAILS, International news, Latest news, News clips, News stories, News videos, Business, Africa, News, World News, TRT World, TRT, TRT News

Id: 07KlDHGq_5k

Length: 2min 16sec (136 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2017