An impoverished labourer has struck it rich with discovery of a massive diamond worth more than $100,000 in India’s Panna district, the BBC is reporting.

Raju Gound told the British broadcaster that he had been leasing mines in the region for more than 10 years in the hope of finding a diamond. He turns to small-scale diamond mining during the monsoon season when agricultural and masonry work dry up.

“It’s tedious work,” he said. “We dig a pit, pull out chunks of soil and rock, wash them in a sieve and then carefully sift through thousands of dried, tiny stones to look for diamonds.”