Miner of multi-million euro diamond remains in hiding

A YOUNG miner thought it was his lucky day when he found a huge diamond while sweating it out in the west African forests of Guinea.

But yesterday he probably felt he was too lucky: finding a 182-carat stone that everyone starting with the government of Guinea wants a piece of.

Now the stone, four times the size of the famous Hope diamond, is tucked away deep in the vaults of Guinea's Central Bank.

And the 25-year-old miner who found it is, if not exactly in hiding, certainly making himself scarce.

State radio in impoverished, mineral-rich Guinea announced the find and mining industry officials confirmed that the stone though not flawless was a fortune in the rough.

"It's a quite brilliant diamond, of good enough quality despite having numerous veins. One thing is certain it's worth millions of dollars," said a top official with the Aredor mining company, Guinea's biggest diamond operation.

The Guinea gem is four inches from tip to tip on its longest side and 1.2 inches wide roughly the size and shape of a computer mouse.

The Hope diamond, by contrast, is 45.52 carats.

The largest diamond ever found, the Cullinan, was a gaudy bowling-ball size beauty at 3,106 carats in the rough.

Freelance discoveries of big diamonds in west and central Africa typically touch off fierce frenzies, pitting the finders and first-round buyers against would-be money-makers higher up the food chain.

Finders, terrified, have been known to flee into the bush rather than dare bring their find to market.

In Congo in 2000, the government confiscated a 265-carat stone and jailed its local buyer for a month, freeing both only after massive public protests.

That stone eventually went at auction in Israel for an industry-estimated, unconfirmed 15 million.

Industry officials and diplomats in Guinea would discuss the find only on condition of anonymity.

The unnamed miner struck his shovel on the stone at a dig in south-east Guinea.

By Monday, the gem was in the capital, Conakry, behind steel doors at the guarded Central Bank.