4 years ago
A Tanzanian mine owner hit the jackpot when miners employed by him discovered a Tanzanite stone weighing 6.3 kilograms.
Two large and rough Tanzanite stones were discovered in the month of June, in a mine owned by 52-year-old Saniniu Laizer. The stones later sold for $3.4 million.
The latest discovery, a third, uncharacteristically large Tanzanite stone was discovered on Laizer’s mine only a month later. The third stone left Laizer $2.1 million richer than he was to begin with.Tanzania’s finance minister, Philip Mpango, handed Laizer a dummy cheque amounting to 4.8 billion Tanzanian shillings.
However, Laizer’s story is not exactly the rags-to-riches story that many news outlets have made it out to be. As reported by The Guardian, Laizer employs over 200 people under his mining business.
“He has logistics experts, engineers, geologists who help him in the planning of the operations. He doesn’t himself go to the pit to dig. He has a number of tried labourers who do the mining,” manager Kiria Laizer told the source.
Laizer sold all three of his most impressive discoveries to the government. He urged other miners to do the same, by saying,” Selling to the government means there are no shortcuts... they are transparent.” Laizer plans to build a shopping mall and a school from his recent windfall gains.
Tanzanite is one of the rarest gemstones on Earth. It was discovered in 1967 and is only found in a small Northern region of Tanzania.The country built a fence around Tanzanite mines in order to end the illegal trade of the precious stone, believed to be 1,000 times rarer than diamonds.
