Small-scale miner finds biggest tanzanite gems in history, worth $3.3m

Saniniu Laizer plans to build a school and shopping mall near his home in Tanzania, but will hold a big party first

A Tanzanian subsistence miner has hit the jackpot after the government handed him a cheque for 7.74bn Tanzanian shillings ($3.35m) for the two largest tanzanite gemstones ever found.

The two dark violet-blue gemstones, each about the dimensions of a forearm, were discovered by Saniniu Laizer in one of the tanzanite mines in the north of the country which are surrounded by a wall to control cross-border smuggling of the gemstones.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fSq4bN