It’s the stuff that dreams are made of for ordinary hard-working people everywhere.

One day you’re toiling away under the hot African sun, wondering how you’re going to feed a large family. Overnight you’re a multimillionaire with plans to ensure free schooling in your community and to build a shopping mall in your home town.

PAID R57-MILLION FOR BIGGEST TANZANITE STONES IN HISTORY
That’s the remarkable story of Saniniu Laizer, a 52-year-old small-scale independent miner from Tanzania.This week the Tanzanian government paid him the equivalent of around R57-million (US$3.4m) for finding the biggest Tanzanite stones in history. The stones weigh in collectively at 15kg, notably bigger than the previous record find, which weighed only 3.3kg.Laizer, who has four wives and 30 children, sold them to the government on Wednesday 24 June during a trading event in the northern region of Manyara. The government said via Twitter that it plans to put the stones in a museum.