Elon Musk offered a million Dogecoin (almost $78000) last week to anyone who could prove the existence of an emerald mine his father supposedly owned. His father Errol Musk then dropped a bombshell in an interview with The Sun, saying that the mine did, in fact, exist, and all his children knew about it.
Elon Musk is one of the world’s richest men today, but doubts have long swirled around claims that he is entirely self-made. Some claim that contrary to reports about Musk growing up underprivileged in South Africa, he was actually raised in an upper middle-class family that owned emerald mines. The narrative about his family owning an emerald mine has been spreading on the internet since at least 2018, after Business Insider published articles stating that the Tesla CEO’s father owned an emerald mine in Zambia.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk tweeted that he would “pay a million Dogecoin for proof of this mine’s existence!”
However, in an exclusive interview with The Sun, his father Errol Musk confirmed the existence of the mine and said it bankrolled his son’s career.
“When I read that, I wondered, ‘Can I enter, because I can prove it existed’,” said Errol Musk.
“Elon knows it’s true. All the kids know about it. My daughter has three or four emerald pendants. Elon saw them (the emeralds) at our house. He knew I was selling them.”
However, the billionaire’s father admitted his mining business operated largely ‘under the table’ with no formal agreements. “What Elon is saying is that there was no formal mine. 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,” he said.
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