A farmer in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna area mined a high-quality diamond, this time measuring 6.47 carats, on government-leased land. This is the sixth time in two years.
“The farmer, Prakash Majumdar, found this diamond from a mine in Jaruapur village in the district on Friday,” said Nutan Jain, the diamond officer in charge.
Diamond will be auctioned off in the near future
“The 6.47 carat diamond will be put up for sale in the upcoming auction and the price will be fixed as per the government guidelines,” she stated.
Majumdar stated that the proceeds from the auction will be split among his four quarrying partners.
“We deposited the 6.47 carat diamond at the Government Diamond Office,” he added.
After deducting taxes, the proceeds would be distributed to the farmer
He claimed to have discovered a 7.44-carat diamond last year. In addition, he had mined four other precious stones weighing two to 2.5 carats in the previous two years.
Officials stated that the raw diamond would be auctioned, with the proceeds going to the farmer after government royalties and taxes were deducted.
Panna is estimated to have 12L carats of diamond deposits
According to private estimates, the 6.47-carat diamond is expected to earn roughly Rs. 30 lakh at auction.
Panna district is estimated to hold 12 lakh carats of diamond deposits. Local farmers and laborers are given tiny patches of land on lease in the Panna diamond reserve area to mine diamonds and deposit them with the district mining officer.
Last year, another farmer mined a diamond valued Rs. 60 lakh.
Notably, Lakhan Yadav, a peasant from the Panna district, mined a 14.98-carat diamond worth Rs. 60 lakh last year on property leased from the government for Rs. 200.