I didn't say anything about the emerald mine rumor that Elon himself is responsible for. It was his quote from a 2014 Forbes article no longer live on their site. [1]

> Elon Musk: "... In South Africa, my father had a private plane we’d fly in incredibly dangerous weather and barely make it back. This is going to sound slightly crazy, but my father also had a share in an Emerald mine in Zambia."

I was talking about how a lot of his success came from Tesla, where he wasn't a founder, but instead an early investor. He started calling himself a founder one day, and the actual founders sued him. They settled. [2]

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20140729222547/http://www.forbes...

[2] https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/tesla-ceo-settles-for-...