A coal miner’s journey - Business - JamaicaObserver.com

A coal miner’s journey - Business - JamaicaObserver.com: "THE mysterious, black stones found in a passenger’s luggage earlier this week stumped Jamaican customs officers. Their smooth faces were a foot or more across and they had rough-hewn edges several inches deep. “They’re coal,” said their owner, Lincoln Bailey, but the gathered authorities were not convinced. Charcoal, they noted, left black smudges on everything it touched, but these did not. The rocks were impounded.
It took Bailey the better part of a day to get the samples back. “This is from Mchenga. I got it out last week,” he says, hefting one of the slabs and referring to the largest operating coal mine in Malawi, which he and his partner own. The samples are intended as gifts, to be mounted on heavy molombwa-wood plaques. But they’re not extravagant, and certainly nothing for Customs to worry about. With coal at US$95 a tonne, the rocks are worth less than a dollar each."

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