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Lazaro Lasimi and his colleagues descended hundreds of meters into the ground below the Mererani Hills, in Manyara in northern Tanzania. At the bottom of the mine, they dug 57 small holes, carefully placing dynamite in each one. Only when they were all safe on the surface did they press the trigger.
The explosion was designed to break up the hard rock that protects one of the world’s most unique natural resources: Tanzanite, the rare and brilliant blue-violet gemstone found only in Tanzania, and primarily in the Mererani Hills.
It usually takes 15 minutes for the powder to settle. That day, Lasimi recalls, something was different: it took half an hour, even with the oxygen pipes lowered into the depths to speed up the process.
Once the staff geologist gave the go-ahead, Lasimi and the team finally returned. Among the rubble, he saw small and medium rocks that he knew from seven years of experience in mines that probably contained tanzanite. He began to collect them.
One of his colleagues saw a huge black rock that had somehow survived the blast. He started beating it with a hammer, trying to break it into smaller pieces. But this rock was stronger than the hammer. Suddenly he realized: this was no ordinary rock; everything was tanzanite.
“Dude, come in, take a look, and have fun! [Hurry, come and take a look], “he yelled. The miners surrounded him. The gemstone weighed a staggering 9.27 kg. No one at the mine that day had seen anything like it. No one anywhere had.
It was, by some margin, the largest tanzanite stone ever discovered. And its owner, Saniniu Laizer, who was absent that day and who was later informed by his eldest son, Joseph, was about to become a US dollar millionaire and a Tanzanian shilling billionaire, multiple times.
“It was a surprise to all of us who were there that day. It was one of the happiest days of my life, ”Lasimi said.
From wealth to wealth
Saniniu Laizer, 52, lives in a large compound in Naisinyai village. It is in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, not far from the Mererani mines, with a population of about 10,000. There are six large houses in the complex, which he shares with his four wives and 32 children.
Laizer is by far the richest man in the village, even before his record-breaking find. The family owns farms and owns real estate and hotels in nearby Arusha. They own more than 2,000 head of cattle and too many sheep and goats to count. Laizer also runs a large and relatively sophisticated tanzanite mining operation, employing hundreds of young men. This is not a story from poverty to wealth; It is a story from wealth to wealth.
Laizer started his mining business 17 years ago with the profits from his cattle, according to his accountant and brother, Isaya. He began by finding small stones, which allowed him to invest in the machines necessary to find larger stones.
The obvious prosperity of the family is in stark contrast to the poverty of the village around their compound. While the Laizers get water from their private well, the rest of the village relies on a few communal wells. In the dry season, when they run out, people pay 1,000 shillings ($ .50) for a bucket brought in by tanker trucks from Arusha.
There are two secondary schools and seven elementary schools in the village, all run by the government. According to Valentine Tesha, executive director of the Naisinyai neighborhood, this is not enough to serve the large number of children in and around Naisinyai. This means that, with the exception of mines, employment opportunities are few and far between.
Laizer has little formal education; he cannot read or write, not that this has stopped him. His success has made him a kind of role model for the young people of the town. Young people said that he is jovial, good-hearted and always available for a chat. More recently, after all the media attention, it’s been a bit more difficult to pin down.
The big check
June 24 was a day that no one in Naisinyai will ever forget. The Minister of Mines, Dotto Biteko, arrived along with his cavalcade. The journalists and the cameras recorded everything. A makeshift stage was hastily erected, covered in the colors of the Tanzanian flag: green, yellow, black and blue.
The minister brought with him a large check in the amount of 7.7 billion shillings ($ 3.3 million). In exchange, Laizer turned in his record-breaking 9.27kg Tanzanite stone, along with another slightly smaller 5.1kg monster found the same day.
In a forced direction, Laizer, wrapped in his masai shuka, He said: “I thank God for this achievement because it is the first time I have achieved this size. When I found these, I notified the government officials who evaluated the stones and today they called me for payment ”.
He said he plans to use the money to build a school and clinic near his home and a shopping center in Arusha. You will also give 10% to your employees.
With one eye on the October 28 general election, Biteko took the opportunity to praise Tanzania’s mining policies. “We Tanzanians have decided that minerals should benefit us first as a country,” he said. “We have had enough of selling our gems to others who benefit while our communities remain poor.”
Even President John Magufuli called to offer his congratulations. “This is the benefit of small miners and this proves that Tanzania is rich,” said the president.
As soon as the magnitude of Laizer’s windfall was made public, hundreds of people gathered in front of his family’s compound, leaving their red and blue blankets on the ground. No one was invited, said Pakasi Mollel, Laizer’s brother-in-law, but because the Maasai are such a close-knit community, most of the visitors were treated as relatives.
It was a festive and celebratory atmosphere. Over the course of more than a week, 100 cows were slaughtered to feed the guests. “I’ve been here for days, chewing meat and meeting old and new friends, also rubbing shoulders with journalists holding their big cameras. I’m really enjoying it here, even though I don’t have anything in my pocket. I hope our older brother opens up and gives me some money, ”said Kalesi Lazaro, who said he was a neighbor of Laizer.
Tesha said the town was full of visitors from nearby rural areas who wanted to meet Laizer and ask for financial help. “It was terrible here, almost everyone wanted money from her,” she said. Few understood that the big check was for display only and that the cash was not yet in Laizer’s account. Finally, they left empty-handed, but with a stomach full of smoked meat.
Hard work pays
Saniniu Laizer is, in the context of Naisinyai, unimaginably rich. But he could have been scammed. “While the $ 3 million paid to the miner certainly changed his life forever, it is only one-twentieth of the potential retail value of the gemstones he discovered,” Eddie LeVian, chief executive officer of Le Vian Jewelers, said in a statement. The company is extensively involved in tanzanite.
Publicly, at least, Laizer doesn’t seem to care. “Selling to the government means there are no shortcuts … they are transparent,” he said in early August, on the occasion of another important find. This time, the tanzanite stone weighed 6.3 kg and he sold it to the government in exchange for another check for $ 2 million. This means that the three largest recorded tanzanite gemstones were discovered by Laizer’s company.
“I have nothing to complain about,” he said. “Hard work pays.”
This story was first published in The Continent, the pan-African weekly. Download your free copy here
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