Word: oosthuizen
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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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...
...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...
...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...
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