BHOPAL: A labourer has turned millionaire almost overnight in

on Friday after he unearthed a gem-quality diamond just two days after taking lease of a shallow mine.

Officials have valued the sparkler at Rs 10 lakh. Vasant Singh will get the money after the diamond is auctioned next month. Last year, a daily wager had found a diamond worth Rs 1.5 crore after leasing an 8m x 8m patch.

A resident of Shahnagar in

district, Singh works as a labourer and was allocated a 6m x 4m patta in Krishnakalyanpur region on September 25 for a fee of Rs 200. It gave him mining permit for three months, but he struck big on the second day of the dig.

As he was washing the pebbles quarried from his patta, he found something glitter. Clutching the stone in his hand , he first ran to his house to show it to his family. Then, with his heart racing, he ran to Panna diamond officer S N Pandey. It turned out to be a 4.33 carat gem quality stone.

"He has submitted the diamond in our office. We will include it in the auction of diamonds in the coming days and Vasant will get the proceeds," Pandey told TOI. "He will be paid the value of the diamond minus11.5% government royalty and 2% other taxes," Pandey said.

Feeling lucky? Head to Panna and take a patta for diamond mining. Anyone can pay a small fee and start digging, but few get lucky. Most of them dig for the entire period of the lease and end up with pebbles. Luck shines on very few.

The shallow diamond mines of Panna are located about 40km from the diamond mines operated by National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC). This poor and backward region has another diamond pocket, in Buxwah region of neighbouring Chattarpur district, where the government is trying to revive mining after British-Australian diamond major Rio Tinto wrapped up its operations in 2016.