In central India, a pair of childhood friends who grew up together recently unearthed a 15.34-carat diamond in a local diamond mining area. The diamond is estimated to be worth tens of thousands of dollars, a discovery that will permanently improve their impoverished lives.
According to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on December 17, the friends are 24-year-old Satish Khatik and 23-year-old Sajid Mohammed. A few weeks ago, they rented a small mining area in the town of Panna, Madhya Pradesh at a low price and began digging for diamonds.
Panna is one of the least developed areas in India, with residents facing poverty, water scarcity, and unemployment. Despite these challenges, the region holds a significant portion of India’s diamond reserves and remains a hub for diamond hunters.
While most of the local mines are operated by the central government, small mining areas are leased to local residents at symbolic prices each year. With limited job opportunities in the city, residents hope to find diamonds to improve their lives, but most return empty-handed.
Satish and Sajid proved to be much luckier. One winter morning, they unearthed a diamond, which was later confirmed by official appraiser Anupam Singh to be a 15.34-carat gem-quality diamond, valued at approximately 6 million Indian Rupees (approximately 55,000 to 66,000 USD) and set to be auctioned.
The Indian government holds diamond auctions every quarter, attracting buyers from across India and overseas. Singh mentioned that the auction’s estimated price is evaluated based on the dollar exchange rate and international diamond prices published by the Rapaport Group.
The discovery of this diamond brought immense joy to Satish and Sajid. They expressed, “Now we can help organize a wedding for our sisters.”
Satish operates a meat shop in the market, while Sajid sells fruits. Both come from impoverished families that have been mining diamonds for generations, and they are the youngest sons in their families. After renting a small mining area on November 19, they would search through heaps of soil in their spare time or during breaks from work.
Like most locals, they would dig with their hands, sift through the soil and stones, wash them with a sieve, and carefully sift through thousands of dry pebbles to find diamonds.
Ravi Patel, a mining official in the Panna region, remarked that it was truly fortunate for Satish and Sajid to find a gem-quality diamond in just a few weeks.
In response, Sajid shared that his father and grandfather had been digging for decades without finding anything except for quartz fragments and dust. Now, with his successful diamond discovery, his father Nafees said, “God has finally rewarded their hard work and patience.”
In a previous report by Da Ji Yuan, in Panna, a man named Raju Gond found a 19.22-carat white diamond last year, valued at nearly 100,000 USD. This discovery lifted him out of poverty overnight, and their family’s life was forever changed.