Staff Reporter.
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development Ravi Pillay on Sunday announced that the stones discovered in KwaHlathi near Ladysmith are not real diamonds.
Pillay, speaking at a media briefing, said a preliminary report revealed that the stones are quartz crystals.
“The tests conducted conclusively revealed that the stones discovered in the area are not diamonds as some had hoped,” Pillay said.
“In fact, what has been discovered are quartz crystals that are common across the Karoo Supergroup with an extensional facture planes within and along the contact of Karoo dolerite sill.”
The government had sent a team of geological and mining experts to the area to collect stones for analysis.
The team included the Department of Mineral Resources’ (DMRE’s) regional officials from KZN, the Council for Geoscience, South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator, and Mintek.
Thousands of people have been flocking to the outskirts of KwaHlathi village after a cattle herder last week unearthed a handful of unidentified crystal-like stones.
Pillay said the preliminary report showed that the area is geographically located on the edge of the Karoo dolerite sill, which is not in a zone where diamond occurrences are present.
“This was further confirmed by visual, geological and chemical analyses that were conducted,” the MEC said.
He said the value of the quartz crystals was yet to be established, adding that their value is very low compared to that of diamonds.
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silicon and oxygen atoms, according to Electronicsnotes.com.