{"id":1192544,"date":"2020-06-26T13:54:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T18:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourceworld.com\/?p=58677"},"modified":"2020-06-26T13:54:31","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T18:54:31","slug":"gigantic-tanzanite-gemstones-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1192544","title":{"rendered":"Gigantic tanzanite gemstones discovered"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The two tanzanite gemstones are the largest ever found, according to the mines ministry. Photograph: Tanzania Ministry of Minerals\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Tanzanian mining entrepreneur was rewarded with $3.35 million after miners at his operation in the east African country discovered the two largest tanzanite gemstones ever recorded.<\/p>\n

Tanzania is the only place in the world where tanzanite is found. Geologically known as blue-violet zoisite, Tiffany & Co. named the crystal tanzanite, believing that name was more consumer friendly.<\/p>\n

The two dark violet-blue gemstones, each about 30cm long and 10cm thick, were discovered by miners employed by Saniniu Laizer in a mine in the north of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a big party tomorrow,\u201d Laizer, from Simanjiro district in Manyara,\u00a0told the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019t afford to take their children to school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Laizer runs a substantial mining operation with over 200 employees. He was not present when the record-breaking find was made.<\/p>\n

The first gemstone weighed 9.27 kg and the second 5.103 kg, a mines ministry spokesperson said. Both gemstones found last week, however, the discovery only became known when Laizer sold them to the government on June 24. He said that 10% of the earnings from the sale of the stones will be distributed among the workers.<\/p>\n

Relatives said Laizer, 52, was organizing celebrations in his home village. Tanzania President John Magufuli telephoned Laizer to congratulate him on live television.<\/p>\n

The president reportedly ordered officials to buy the two gemstones and place them in the national museum in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.<\/p>\n

Tanzanite is found only in a small northern region (approximately 7\u00a0km long and 2\u00a0km wide) near the\u00a0Mererani<\/a>\u00a0Hills. It was first identified in 1967. The gemstone is noted for its remarkably strong\u00a0trichroism<\/a>, meaning that it appears alternately blue, violet and burgundy depending on\u00a0crystal<\/a>\u00a0orientation. The biggest previous tanzanite find was 3.38-kg stone found by a mining company in 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Tanzanian mining entrepreneur was rewarded with $3.35 million after miners at his operation in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[622],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1192544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192545,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192544\/revisions\/1192545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1192544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1192544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1192544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}