Big revelation about Elon Musk and his father’s alleged emerald mine

Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, claimed he made a lot of money from trading emeralds worldwide but did not own a stake in a mine.

Pretoria-born billionaire Elon Musk has previously denied that his fortunes and success were built on profits from an emerald mine partially owned by his father.

Elon said in a post on X on 7 May 2023 that “no objective evidence whatsoever” confirmed the mine’s existence.

“Errol told me that he owned a share in a mine in Zambia, and I believed him for a while, but nobody has ever seen the mine, nor are there any records of its existence,” Elon said.

“If this mine were real, he would not require financial support from my brother and me,” Elon stated.

Elon added that he had never inherited anything from anyone, nor had anyone given him a large financial gift.

His comments followed criticism that his wealth was built on a pyramid of privilege, which included an “Apartheid emerald mine”.

Errol explained his side of the situation in a recent MacG podcast. He claimed he did indeed deal in emeralds from an African mine.

Errol said he used to generate most of his income through construction. However, in the late eighties, the economy collapsed, and construction ground to a halt.

He said he had to sell his Cessna 421 Golden Eagle aircraft, but things took a strange turn. He found a buyer in England but needed to transport the plane there.

However, he explained he had to delay landing there because his flight plan through Saudi Arabia fell over Eid.

He detoured to Lake Tanganyika because he had always wanted to see it. He landed at a newly built airfield built by an Italian group through a company registered in Panama.

The group, who worked with the Zambian government, told Errol they would buy the plane from him at the same price as the buyer in England.

However, they offered him a deal. They would give him half their shares in an emerald mine if he gave half the money back.

They promptly presented him with 118 cut emeralds and promised regular rough emeralds from the mine.

“I gave them half the money back and took the emeralds. I started to sell the emeralds when I arrived back in South Africa,” Errol said.

He discovered that the best strategy was to go to the top jewellers globally and sell the pieces to rich people.

“I sold emeralds for years. I eventually got a cutter in Eloff Street in Johannesburg to cut and polish the stones,” he said. “I sold emeralds in England, Germany, Austria, and New York.”

He explained how he started to buy uncut emeralds from numerous sources, dealing only in cash.

The industry was so dangerous that the transactions happened in the street instead of in a building, where people feared being robbed or harmed.

“Everything was cash. Even when I sold emeralds to the jewellers, it was always cash,” Errol said.

He kept the money in a safe at home, which he used to run the business and pay for everyday expenses.

“I told my two boys, Elon and Kimbal, they can take money for anything they need. However, they must just leave a note,” he said.

When asked why Elon would say his father did not own an emerald mine, Errol said his children have an axe to grind.

“I never owned a mine. However, I received rough emeralds from Katanga mine through the people I did a deal with the aeroplane,” he said.

“Elon came to the mine with me. He was at the mine. So, he knows it very well. Elon knows everything about the emeralds,” Errol said.

Errol said Elon did not want to admit to everything in his childhood because he wanted to tell people in America that he also had a hard time.

He added that he could not cover all of Elon and Kimbal’s costs while they were studying in the United States.

“Elon’s fees from the Wharton School came to around R250,000. I gave them all the money I had to study here. However, I could not pay that amount,” he said.

Therefore, he used study loans. “I don’t think he has anything to complain about because he paid off the loans within four years of leaving university,” he said.