AN INDIAN man who was earning just £3 a day stumbled across a diamond worth £77,000 in a discovery set to change his life.
Raju Gond, a manual labourer living in central India, will pick up any available job in his village to feed his family of nine.
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He usually earns around 350 Indian Rupees each day, roughly £3.25, in his home state of Madhya Pradesh.
Now Raju, 40, says his family’s lives have been “changed forever” after he uncovered the 19.22 carat diamond.
He was hunting for gold with his brother one day when they stumbled upon the jewel.
Raju and his brother Rakesh were searching a mine in Krishna Kalyanpur and had to pay about £7 a day to hunt for precious materials on the government-owned land.
After working with mines for a decade, Raju had finally stumbled across one of the incredible stones.
He said: “My heart pounded for a moment, but I knew immediately that it was a diamond when I kept on wiping the dirt as it kept on shining brightly.”
The brothers raced to get home and show their family what they had found.
Raju took his mum with him to the local Panna Diamond Office to get the stone evaluated.
They confirmed it was a white diamond weighing 19.22 carats, with an estimated value of approximately $100,000, or £77,668.
The Panna district, where the brothers live, is known for its diamonds.
Raju quickly opened a bank account and is waiting for the funds to flow in from his impressive discovery.
He plans to use it to pay off debts of around £4,600, fund education for his kids, build new homes, buy land and maybe buy a tractor.
“The massive find will change our lives,” he explains.
“First I will pay off debts amounting to around INR 5 lakh (£4,645).
“Then we will invest in the education of all the children, build houses, buy some land and maybe a tractor,” he added.
Some of the money from his discovery will have to go to the government as tax along with an 11.5 per cent royalty to officials who own the mine.
Raju’s huge family, made up of his parents, wife, seven children and his brother’s family, will be saved from serious financial struggle.
He plans to share the spoils with a dozen different relatives.
But even with their impressive find, the brothers returned to the mines only a day later to search for more diamonds.
“We will work hard to find a few more,” both brothers said.
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