Nearly nine months after it was discovered, the 709ct “Peace” diamond will be auctioned in New York on Monday 4th December 2017.
This is the 14th largest diamond in the world and the second largest found in Sierra Leone. The true value of the stone has not been revealed but an initial US$7.7 million had been rejected.
However the distribution of the proceeds from the sale of the 709 carats diamond has already been allocated.
In a video shot in Belgium, the head of the company dealing with the marketing and sales of the diamond Martin Rappaport revealed that 59% of the proceeds from the sale of the diamond will go to the government. The next 15% will go to the diamond community development fund and the next 36% will go to the diggers, which apparently includes Pastor Momoh. It is not clear whether this is the authorized distribution of the revenue from the diamond.
Pastor Momoh is a licensed diamond dealer and it was expected the government will only get 3% of the proceeds.
According to the Alluvial Diamond Mining (amendment) rules 2006, the royalty on export of diamonds is 3% of the export value, and Royalty for small scale mining lease holders (like Pastor Momoh) wishing to export their winning is 5% of export value plus valuation fee of 1%.
Monday November 27, 2017.