Elon Musk denies his family's emerald mine ever existed

Elon Musk has refuted claims that his family once owned an emerald mine, despite commenting on it in the past.

The tech billionaire tweeted: "The fake emerald mine thing is so annoying (sigh). Like where exactly is this thing anyway!?"

He was responding to his mother, Maye Musk, who also questioned the history of the mine story.

She wrote: "Found this @CBSNews @elonmusk interview from 1998. I didn’t know about the emerald mine and wealthy parents until I read it on @Twitter about ten years ago. So, why did we live in a rent controlled apartment?"

Sadly for the Musk duo, the internet is forever and people have receipts.

Some added links to the tweet, which ended up sparking a context warning to Elon's post.

According to the Twitter flag, Musk claimed in 2014 to Forbes that he had an emerald mine in Zambia.

In 2018, Musk also told Business Insider that his father Errol purchased a 50 per cent share in the mine after selling a plane.

As well as providing links, people started commenting Musk's own words back at him under his tweet.

One person wrote and shared a screencap of an old article from Forbes: "In Zambia. This is a direct quote from you in 2014."

Tech critic Paris Marx added: "Musk and his family seem particularly sensitive about shaping the narrative about their history lately, especially around the emerald mine. They act like they’ve never heard of it before, even though he bragged to Forbes about it in 2014."

As per the Forbes article, Musk said: "This is going to sound slightly crazy, but my father also had a share in an Emerald mine in Zambia."

"There were AK-47s all over the place and I’m thinking, 'Man, this could really go bad'."

Oddly enough, the interview in question is no longer live on Forbes' website and there is no note explaining why it has been removed.

So Futurism approached the journalist who conducted the interview, freelancer Jim Clash.

"I did interview Elon, he said what he said, and I don’t know why they’d take it down," Clash said, as per Futurism.

In Musk's defence, it can be hard to keep track of how many mines one's parents own, where they are, and what precious stones they pry from the Earth.

Oh wait a minute, yes it is.

So, in the words of Rachel Green from the classic '90s sitcom Friends: "It's not that common, it doesn't happen to every guy, and it is a big deal".

It's not clear why the Musk family is so cagey about this emerald mine they did or did not own, but either way, there are several references said by Elon and Errol Musk referring to the mine, so who knows what the issue is.

Also, who cares if he owned an emerald mine, anyway?

Elon Musk and Forbes have been approached for comment.