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A lot of people think that chimpanzees are these cute, cuddly creatures. One day we're sitting on the golf course, and we see a baby one go running across the fairway. The four caddies with us - all locals - drop our clubs and break into a sprint, chasing like hell after this baby monkey. In Sierra Leone, chimps are a good delicacy, so they wanted to catch and eat him.

The other thing is that once these bastard mammals grow up, they're like 400 pound monsters. Our mine had 2,100 employees - sometimes people couldn't come to work because there would be an adult chimpanzee in their front yard, eating papayas off the tree. You're essentially under house arrest in that situation, because the chimp will rip your arms off and kill you.

We sold the mine to an Australian company in August of 1992 - just in time, because in January 1993, hundreds of armed rebels swarmed the compound and looted all of our machinery for their diamond mines. We had about 100 heavily armed guards, but the government would only let them carry AK47's. When there are five or six hundred militia men charging forward, each of them carrying at least one AK47, some with rocket launchers and grenades - needless to say it was a short fight, and the mine hasn't re-opened since.