Lazaro Lasimi and his colleagues descended hundreds of metres into the earth underneath the Mererani Hills, in Manyara in northern Tanzania. At the bottom of the mine, they dug 57 small holes, carefully placing dynamite into each. Only when they were all safely on the surface did they press the trigger.
One of his colleagues spotted a huge black rock that had somehow survived the blast. He started bashing it with a hammer, trying to break it into smaller pieces. But this rock was stronger than the hammer. Suddenly he realised: this wasn’t ordinary rock; the whole thing was tanzanite. Laizer is, by some distance, the richest man in the village — even before his record-breaking find. The family has 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 an extensive and relatively sophisticated tanzanite mining operation, employing hundreds of young men. This is not a rags-to-riches story; it is a riches-to-riches story.
There are two secondary and seven primary schools in the village, all government-run. According to Valentine Tesha, Naisinyai’s ward executive officer, this is not nearly enough to cater for the huge numbers of children in Naisinyai and the surrounding area. This means that, with the exception of the mines, employment opportunities are few and far between.
With one eye on the general election on October 28, Biteko used the opportunity to praise Tanzania’s mining policies. “We Tanzanians have decided that minerals should first benefit us as a country,” he said. “We have had enough of selling our gems to others who benefit while our communities remain poor.”called in to offer his congratulations. “This is the benefit of small-scale miners and this proves that Tanzania is rich,” the president said.
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