A 52-year-old Tanzanian miner named Saniniu Laizer became a millionaire after selling 2 biggest ever found rough Tanzanite stones. It is believed that the only place where you can find Tanzanite is the Merelani mining site in Manyara. This is the place where Laizer mined these two stones. These two large gems weighted together 15kg and by selling them, Saniniu Laizer earned £2.4m from the Tanzanian government.
What did Laizer mine?
Tanzanite is one of the rarest and most beautiful gemstones in the whole world. Tanzanian geologist estimate that we may run out of sources of Tanzanite within the next 20 years. Tanzanite was discovered not so long ago – only in 1967 and until now the largest ever found tanzanite weighted 3.3kg.
The colour of natural Tanzanite varies between purple, blue, violet, yellow-green and brown. After heating, the yellow, green and brown colour vanishes and only purple, blue and violet remain.
As said before, the only place on Earth where you could mine Tanzanite stones is in northern Tanzania. Mines in this area must be surrounded by a wall to prevent cross-border smuggling.
The new life of Saniniu Laizer
Laizer, the new Tanzanite millionaire, who has 4 wives and more than 30 children is planning to celebrate this occasion by slaughtering one of his cows.
“There will be a big party tomorrow,” he told the BBC.
He also said that he is planning to invest his money in his community in Simanjiro district in Manyara, Tanzania.
“I want to build a shopping mall and a school. I want to build this school near my home. There are many poor people around here who can’t afford to take their children to school,” Laizer told the BBC.
“I am not educated but I like things run in a professional way. So I would like my children to run the business professionally.”
President John Magufuli made a call to congratulate Laizer on the find. President John Magufuli also says that this is proof that Tanzania is rich.
Laizer said that he doesn’t want to change his style of living and still wants to take care of his 2000 cows. He also said that he doesn’t need any extra precautions because he believes that the security in the place he lives is enough and that he can even walk around at night without any problem.
