The father of Elon MuskErrol, claims that he financed his billionaire son’s departure from South Africa to the United States with emeralds from a mine in Zambia.
The news comes after Elon Musk stated that he would pay one million dogecoin ($93,000 at current exchange rates) to anyone who can prove the existence of such a mine.
The famous emerald mine
In an exclusive interview with The US Sun, Errol stated that it was his a mine of emerald which helped pave the way for Elon to become a highly successful industry leader in the US.
Describing the moment he learned about the Dogecoin cryptocurrency bounty , Errol joked, “When I read that, I asked myself, ‘Can I participate, because I can prove that it existed?'”
“Elon knows it’s true. All the kids know it. My daughter has three or four pendants from emeralds“, he added. “Elon saw them (the emeralds) in our house. I knew he was selling them,” he continued.
Errol says he first came across the business while flying from South Africa on his way to the UK to sell a Cessna Golden Eagle aircraft. He explained that the mine is in the Lake Tanganyika region of Zambia, the second-largest producing country of emeralds largest in the world after Colombia.
Landing on an airstrip near Zambia’s northern border with Tanzania and what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, he met and befriended the Italian owner of the airstrip.
But Errol admits it was far from a conventional mining facility, and that may explain why Elon is so sure that no one can prove its existence.
“Under the table.”
Errol claims that villagers worked “under the table” to collect emeralds.
He explained, “What Elon is saying is that there was no formal mine. It was a rock formation sticking out of the ground in the middle of nowhere.”
“Nobody owned anything. The deal was done on a handshake with the Italian at a time when Zambia was free for all,” he added.
“Elon’s main concern is not to look like a ‘trust fund kid’ who got everything on a platter,” notes the tycoon’s father. “That’s what his detractors are pushing. It’s not true. Elon took risks and worked like lightning to be where he is today.”
“The emeralds helped us during a very difficult time in South Africa, when people were fleeing the country in droves, including his mother’s entire family, and income opportunities were at an all-time low. That’s all,” he concluded.
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