Elon Musk tries to dispel Dad Errol's Claim About The Existence of Their 'Mystery' Emerald Mine in Zambia

Elon Musk, Twitter CEO, announced on April 12 that he would pay 1 million Dogecoin to the person who successfully proved the existence of the mystery emerald mine in which his family is believed to hold shares. A long-running rumor claims that Elon Musk's father owns an emerald mine in South Africa and has given Elon financial assistance via the earnings. In recent months, numerous media outlets have also claimed that Elon owns the mine. These rumors gained momentum after Elon Musk's father, Errol Musk, said in an interview that he used emeralds from an "under the table" mine in Zambia to finance his son's escape from South Africa to America.

The rumors have reportedly annoyed the Twitter boss in the last few months. He tweeted in January that "the fake emerald mine thing is so annoying (sigh). Like, where exactly is this thing anyway?!" To dispel the emerald mine fortune rumors once and for all, Elon Musk issued the "one million Dogecoin" bounty in return for proof of its existence. Only it appears to have already backfired after Elon’s father claims the mine exists and has photos of the emeralds from the mine.

In an interview with the US Sun, Errol Musk claimed the emerald mine existed and joked about being eligible for Elon’s bounty. Errol Musk revealed that his emerald venture contributed to Elon’s initial success in the United States. When Errol read about the Dogecoin challenge, he said, “I was wondering if I could enter this contest because I can prove my existence.”  Eroll explained that Elon and his siblings knew about the emerald mine, and even his daughter still has several valuable pendants from the mine. He added, “Elon saw [the emeralds] at our house. He knew I was selling them.”

He went on to explain how he got his family into the emerald business when flying from South Africa to the UK to sell a plane. He explained he landed "at an airstrip near Zambia’s northern borders with Tanzania" and discovered that the locals dug out emeralds there for an Italian businessman. Errol Musk says he went into business with that person and the locals would dig up emeralds for $2 a load, which was “enough to feed an entire family for a month” at that time.

As for Elon Musk’s contention that an emerald mine never existed, Errol Musk believes that’s a matter of semantics. “What Elon is saying is that there was no formal mine," he explained, "It was a rock formation protruding from the ground in the middle of nowhere. There was no mining company. There are no signed agreements or financial statements. No one owned anything. The deal was done on a handshake with the Italian man at a time when Zambia was a free for all. Not even he knew exactly where the border was. At that time, it was like the Wild West.”

Errol Musk also commented on why he believes his son, Elon Musk, is pushing back against the narrative that his family made a fortune from emeralds. He said, “Elon’s main concern is not to appear to be a ‘trust fund kid’ who got everything given to him on a plate.”