Small scale miner becomes overnight millionaire after finding biggest ever tanzanite gems

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A small scale miner in Tanzania has become an overnight millionaire after finding the two largest tanzanite gemstones ever discovered.

The Tanzanian government handed subsistence miner Saniniu Laizer a cheque for 7.74bn shillings ((£2.7m) on Wednesday in exchange for the stones.

Mr Laizer discovered the two dark violet-blue gemstones, each about the size of a forearm, in one of the tanzanite mines in the north of the country.

These are surrounded by a wall to control cross-border smuggling of the gemstones.

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