The sale of the 706-carat crude diamond, originally scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed until May 11. The diamond was discovered by a pastor named Emmanuel Momoh who handed it over to President Ernest Bai Koroma.

The deferral is due to lack of quality offers, which the authorities hoped. Finally, the date of May 11, 2017, was retained by the Sierra Leonean authorities for an auction of 709 carats crude diamond.

At the end of the week of proposed purchase, it is reported that only six offers are registered. This is the main reason that led Sierra Leone’s authority to postpone the operation. Alongside this main reason, it is reported that potential buyers from the United Arab Emirates and many other countries such as Israel, Belgium and South Africa have also manifested themselves.

“We had several external parties that expressed interest in the process. So we decided to extend the bidding period and we will extend it until May 10, 2017, “said Sahr Wonday, Managing Director of the National Mines Agency.

The raw diamond discovered in the province of Kono in the east of Sierra Leone by Emmanuel Momoh, an evangelical pastor, would be between the 10th and 15th largest ever discovered in the world and the most important since nearly a half In Sierra Leone.

For this auction, the government has two objectives: first to sell the diamond and secondly to take advantage of the opportunity to make the world aware that Sierra Leone still has precious stones and that investing in this country worth it.

“The government wants to attract as many people as possible from around the world and talk to the world to say that there are still diamonds in Sierra Leone and that investors need to invest here,” said Emmanuel Momoh

On Wednesday, April 5, was the day scheduled for the sale of the diamond, and the government said its value was still not estimated

“In order to accurately evaluate it, it would require special cleaning of the diamond and the use of machines that the country does not currently have,” says