http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20080122/tuhome.htmTeenager finds gem of a precious stone
A YOUNG man from Buin, Bou-gainville, has stumbled onto a gem believed to be a ruby.
Joseph Tokura from Tarava village fronted up at the Buka Post-Courier office last Friday morning with his precious stone – the size and shape of a lolly – and both light bluish/greenish in colour. It is very shiny and reflects images like a mirror.
A Bougainvillean mineral geologist based in Tanzania, east Africa, who is on holidays said the “shiny stone’’ was a ruby and worth a lot of money, adding it was used for making precious necklaces, earrings and rings.
Tokura found the stone in Mivo River on the border of Buin and Siwai in south Bougainville.
Last Friday, the Post-Courier office was flooded with curious people who wanted to get a glimpse of Mr Tokura’s treasure. By 10am Mr Tokura and his group disappeared with the gem neatly wrapped in a piece of paper and tucked in a wallet because the whole of Buka Town was after him to see his “stone’’.
Mr Tokura said during the festive season while he was at home he had dreamt that all of a sudden he had become a rich man.
“I was sleeping that night, just before New Year when I had a dream. Someone instructed me to go to Mivo River and to the location and look for this shiny object. Very early in the morning while no one was up I got my goggles, spear and knife and went to Mivo,’’ he recalled.
He went to the place he dreamt about and put on his goggles and dived into the water. He found the shiny object. This shiny stone was stuck in a big stone and it took him a while to remove it.
Mr Tokura said in Buka he was lured by buyers, two of them offering him K10,000 for the gem.
He rejected both offers. When asked why, he said in his dream a voice had warned him in a parable not to go for any offer on the street but to go for the highest.
Mr Tokura believes the gift is from God and he has already made up his mind what to do with the money from the precious stone.
“When I get the money I will complete the church building in the village. I’ve always wanted to build that church and I believe God gave me this stone to get the money to complete His holy house,’’ he said.