A diamond rush that brought thousands of impoverished South Africans to a village with picks and shovels turns out to have been sparked by very common and not very valuable quartz crystals. “The tests conducted conclusively revealed that the stones discovered in the area are not diamonds,” a government statement said, according to the BBC. Since a herder found the first stone on June 12, thousands of people from across South African descended on KwaHlathi village, although fewer than 500 reportedly remain.
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