Two young friends in central India found a diamond valued at about £50,000, a rare windfall in one of the country’s most deprived districts.
Satish Khatik, 24, and Sajid Mohammed, 23, found the 15.3-carat stone while working a small plot of land they had leased only weeks earlier in Panna, a diamond-bearing district in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The discovery was confirmed after the pair took the stone to the Panna Diamond Office for evaluation.
“The estimated market price of the stone is Rs 5m to Rs 6m,” Anupam Singh, Panna’s official diamond evaluator, told BBC Hindi. That’s between £41,400 and £49,700. “It will be auctioned soon.”
Diamond auctions overseen by the government are held every three months in Panna, attracting traders from across India and overseas.
Final prices are influenced by global benchmarks, including the Rapaport report, a widely used reference for diamond pricing, as well as currency fluctuations. Under Indian rules, 12 per cent of the auction value is deducted by the state as royalty and tax, with the remainder paid to the finder.
For Mr Khatik and Mr Mohammed, who earn their living running a meat shop and a fruit stall respectively, the find could transform their prospects. They are both the youngest sons in low-income households.
Their families, like so many in Panna, have searched for diamonds for generations. Mr Mohammed said his father and grandfather spent decades digging in the same fields, finding little more than “dust and slivers of quartz”.
His father told the BBC that providence had finally rewarded their “hard work and patience”.
Panna, part of the Bundelkhand region, faces chronic poverty, water shortages, and unemployment, yet holds most of India’s known diamond reserves.
Although India’s reserves are small compared with those of major global producers, they are historically significant.
Most large mines are run by the federal government, but each year local authorities lease out small plots, typically eight metres across, to residents for a nominal annual fee of about £1.6.
In the absence of steady jobs, many locals turn to diamond hunting despite the long odds. Miners typically work by hand, digging shallow pits, hauling out soil, washing it through sieves and painstakingly sorting dried stones after work or on their days off. Most never strike anything of value.
Ravi Patel, Panna’s mining officer, said the success of Mr Khatik and Mr Mohammed was exceptional. “The two mined a precious diamond in Krishna Kalyanpur just 20 days ago and deposited it at the Panna Diamond Office today," he was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
More than 60 diamonds have been deposited at the Panna Diamond Office this year, most of them small or flawed, the Indian Express reported.
Last month, six farmers jointly discovered five stones, three of gem quality, together valued at about £10,000.
In spite of their find, Mr Khatik and Mr Mohammed said they weren’t making big plans yet.
“We are not thinking of buying land, expanding our businesses or moving to a bigger city, not yet,” the friends said. “For now, we’re focused on getting our sisters married.”
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