Tanzania’s Mining Model Is Starting to Pay Off

In 1967, a Maasai herder called Jumanne Mhero Ngoma stumbled across a clump of unusual violet crystals in the Mereli Hills near the Tanzanian city of Arusha. For his discovery, Ngoma was awarded 50,000 shillings about $22 in today's money. However, the rights to sell the mineral were awarded to Henry B. Platt, vice president of the American jeweller Tiffany and Co and the great-grandson of its founder, Louis Comfort Tiffany. Platt named the stone 'Tanzanite' and boasted in a marketing campaign that the jewel could only be found in two places Tanzania and Tiffany's. Between 1967 and 1971, an estimated 2 million carats of Tanzanite were mined in Tanzania, sold almost exclusively by Tiffany's. Today those stones could be worth up to $1.2 billion. The story of Tanzania's mineral wealth being siphoned off by external agents is not unique in Africa.