Retail sales of the super-premium gemstone, tanzanite, top half-a-billion dollars a year, worldwide.
But the sole source of tanzanite, Tanzania, nets just $20 million from the raw stones.
Now, with a little help from Australia, efforts are underway to try to boost the returns to the source country.
SBS travelled at the invitation of the Tanzanian government to trace the jewel's journey from rough to riches.
On the edge of the Serengeti, villagers screen mine tailings searching for a pale blue-green stone called tanzanite.
A good find can feed a family for months.
Their luck is aided by the nearby mine's decidedly low-tech processes, which can allow small stones to slip through.
At the mine, a narrow rocky shaft leads to a big metal skip on rails which acts as a taxi to the mine's lower levels, some 100 metres below.
It's not a journey for the faint hearted, as the rocky walls whiz by barely a hand span away.
Then it's a tricky climb along narrow ledges using steel cables for support, to reach the mine face.
The overseer, known by all as Anton the Giant, says the mining process has hardly changed since the stone was discovered in the 1960s - crowbars and shovels dominate.
"Hands on, it's very labour intensive and as you can see this is the way that we do get our material out, this is just a continuous rope system that we do. And it takes about 15 kilograms per bag. We bring it up to here, we throw it in there and then at the bottom we pull it out with a skip to the surface and from there we collect it and take it to plant. (SFX continue and play under voicer)
It's hard work, as miners bathed in sweat shovel ore into bags to be hauled to the surface.
Their quest is one of the world's most elusive gems.
Found only at a single site near Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzanite is extremely rare, in fact about 1000 times rarer than diamonds.
There are just five mines working the deposit.
This one, owned by a company called Tanzanite One is richest; its rudimentary methods delivering about ten carats of high quality stones a day.
However, improved efficiency may yield more, and that's something Australia excels at.
Tanzanite One's owner Ami Mpungwe says Australia helped Tanzania's resource sector recover from near collapse during the country's period of socialism, and now he's looking to Australian ingenuity again.
"Australia is a major superpower of the mining industry, you have to deal with Australia, you are quite advanced you've been there, I've seen it, and I think we can gain a lot by associating with Australia in terms of experience in industry, technology and human resource knowledge, but also in terms of management of these resources."
A world away in the posh Perth suburb of Claremont, Jacquie Chan is at the heart of a coals-to-Newcastle, or rather, Tanzanite-to-Tanzania tale.
The gemstone is notoriously difficult to cut and requires a high level of skill to polish and set.
Ms Chan says as a result, large pieces such as the necklace she's wearing, can take a long time to make.
"This piece of necklace has 47 carats of tanzanite and it took us a while to actually put this necklace together - eight weeks - to showcase what the beauties of the different hues of blues are."
Until now, Tanzania has sent its stones elsewhere for processing and has missed out on much of the profit from the final product.
Ms Chan's taken a different approach, where raw stones have been sent to Australia, crafted into jewellery and then exported back, giving Tanzanian retailers premium pieces they can make a greater return on.
She's now embarking on the next stage, supporting Tanzanian schools and helping the nation develop its own skills in gem processing, known as lapidary (lappa-dairy)
We would like to do a lot more for the community, and I do have lots of different plans, and how we would like to help different schools in Tanzania, one school in particular, but, we will get there, we will try and raise more funds for that school and we will try and bring more skills into that nation.
Ami Mpungwe says the initiative promises more jobs and bigger profits as local Tanzanians learn the art of gemstone-cutting.
"What's happening now in the gemstone subsector is the value addition is taking place in Tanzania which is quite significant and this is an area where people thought it was not possible but I think my company is demonstrating that it is possible. The point I think we're making is about beneficiation, and I think the challenge to drive as much value as possible within the country and creating as many jobs as possible within."
But the fledgling industry faces another problem - competition.
Tanzanite's value has steadily grown since high-end jeweller Tiffany's named it in their collection.
It's spawned a lucrative black market which has seen Kenya become a Tanzanite exporter … even though it has no tanzanite reserves, as Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete (juh-KYE-uh ki-KWAY-teh) explains.
"You cannot prevent smuggling 100 per cent. There is always smuggling going on - we are trying our best to prevent smuggling. What we are really trying to do here is really strengthen, organise the markets locally, we have been doing that, we are seeing results , but we are still aware that there is smuggling going on, well, we are neighbours, we will talk to each other."
The talks are beginning to yield results, with the two countries pledging to co-operate to curb illegal exports.
And as the domestic processing industry is gradually built up, it's hoped that joint effort will see Tanzania reaping even greater returns from the gem that carries its name.
