Elon Musk Stresses Self-Reliance From A Young Age As He Dismisses Alleged Emerald Mine Connection Of Family

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO on Thursday denied that there was any evidence of an “emerald mine,” which has been the subject of media reports for years.

What Happened: Musk replied to tweets that featured insinuations that the entrepreneur benefitted from his father Errol’s part-ownership of Emerald mine or from the apartheid. 

If this half of an article is a small glimpse into the apartheid mines his family owned haha even the Onion tells more truthful stories than CNN and Fox https://t.co/K70RPdJV6S

— Dr. ሉቃስ (@howlpolitically) March 25, 2021

Musk instead pointed to a piece by The Save Journalism Committee written by Jeremy Arnold which contained a teardown of the 2018 Business Insider article that contained an interview with Errol.

2/2
My father & his extended family have been dependent on financial support from my brother & me for over 20 years.

This article is actually accurate: https://t.co/eVpCX9V1NB

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2021

Musk stressed his struggles during his younger days when, he said, he arrived in Canada in 1989 with just CAD 2,500 ($2000) and paid his own way through college, racking up $100,000 in student debt.

Why It Matters: The South African-born Musk is an industrial designer, engineer, and serial entrepreneur. Besides heading Tesla, he is also the founder of the Boring Company, Neuralink, and SpaceX.

See also: How to Invest in Tesla Stock

Musk’s early ventures included Zip2, purchased by Compaq in a $341 million deal, and X.com, which merged into Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal Holdings Ltd PYPL.

See Also: Elon Musk Advises Fellow CEOs To Spend Less Time On PowerPoint And Do This Instead

The Tesla CEO today is worth $167 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, and is the second richest person on the planet. 

It is notable, Arnold points out that Musk is estranged from his father and has been so “for decades.”

There is no paperwork to corroborate the emerald mine story, according to Arnold.

The total lifetime profits from the emerald mine stake came to approximately $400,000 (in 2021 dollars), as per Errol’s report to his son’s family office, noted the Save Journalism Committee write-up.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed nearly 1.6% higher at $640.39 on Thursday and rose 0.35% in the after-hours session.

Read Next: Elon Musk Violated Labor Laws With 2018 Tweet, Tesla Ordered To Reinstate Union Activist

Photo by Samferdselsdepartementet on Flickr