Prospectors Laurence Contat, 37, and Cornelius Oosthuizen, 42, were sitting under a tree in a grassy meadow near the town of Belingwe having a spot of tea. Out in the hot sun around them were their "prospecting boys," African helpers trained to look for unusual rock outcrops. As they sat, recalls Contat, "an African named Chiwaro came in with a rock sample. He didn't think much of it, but it had what Colombian miners call morralla [the characteristic mineral in which emeralds are embedded]. The morralla may open into nothing; but it may also open into clusters of emeralds."
Abandoning their tea, the prospectors followed Chiwaro to the place where he had found the rock. They worked carefully up the slope, pushing the veld grass gently aside with their hands, until they struck an outcrop of pegmatite and schist. It was the end of their search. Embedded in the soft, weather-beaten rock were emerald clusters, green and unmistakable.
A Quiet Year. Contat and Oosthuizen did not shout the good news to the world. "We pretended to attach no importance to the deposit," says Contat. "We went there casually. We sorted our stones at night. We kept it quiet for a year."
But by last week the news was out, and Southern Rhodesia was in a dither about the greatest find of emeralds in Africa since the days of the ancients who used to dig the green gems from "Cleopatra's Mines" near the shores of the Red Sea. To the ancients, emeralds were a specific against epilepsy and dysentery, an aid in childbirth, eye troubles and the preservation of chastity. To Contat and Oosthuizen, the emeralds at Belingwe may represent a fortune in excess of $20 million. They have already turned down an offer of $2,800,000 for a quarter share in their profits.
The Southern Rhodesian government is as excited as the lucky prospectors. It has closed off an area of 500 sq. mi. surrounding the discovery. The Belingwe site itself is hedged in by three barbed-wire fences, one around the other, guarded by 18 policemen and two watchdogs and illuminated at night by two searchlights. A concrete blockhouse combining a processing plant and storage vaults will soon be built. The diggings themselves consist of a hole scarcely 2 ft. deep, and 3 ft. by 12 ft. wide. The work is done entirely by hand, since emeralds—unlike diamonds, which can be put through a crusher without harm—split easily.
Trace of Blue. The Belingwe gems are fine quality stones whose price on the world market will probably be higher than that of diamonds per carat of weight. A slight trace of blue in the gems (caused, says Contat, by "a needle-like inclusion of amphibole in the crystalline structure") may make them unique among emeralds. So far, few of the Belingwe gems have reached the jewel marts. The prospectors and the Southern Rhodesian government are aware that the world emerald market is small and extremely sensitive, and therefore will dole out the gems slowly to keep prices high.
What about Chiwaro, the African helper whose find led to the discovery of the emerald treasure? He has not been forgotten. The millionaire prospectors have promised him a lifetime pension of $420 a year.