From Business Standard

A high quality 125-carat diamond was discovered in the mining district of Kono in eastern Sierra Leone and exported, according to a press release from the National Minerals Agency (NMA), the west African country’s minerals regulating agency.

The diamond was found by a miner at Masabendu village in Nimiyama chiefdom in the Kono district in November 2013 and was sold at $818,000, Xinhua reported citing the NMA statement issued this weekend.

The diamond has now been exported after a royalty of $122,713 dollars paid to the government.

Since an export tariff of 15 percent was imposed on special stones (diamonds with a value of $500,000 or above) in 2009, the gem was the largest diamond to be exported through official channels.

The gem is “the largest single diamond found in Sierra Leone in 2013” and “one of the finest and most valuable reported in the country in recent times,” the NMA statement said.

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