An amateur prospector using a budget metal detector made the find of a lifetime, stumbling upon a massive gold nugget worth $160,000. It weighed 143 ounces total and contained 83 ounces of the shiny yellow metal.
First-time prospector finds massive gold nugget
Some people have all the luck… An amateur prospector who spent $900 on a budget metal detector – a Minelab Equinox 800 – went to the southern state of Victoria to hunt for gold and made the discovery of a lifetime.
The man, who did not want to be identified, placed his budget metal detector over a rock and got a hit. Not really understanding what he had found, he took the nugget to Darren Kamp from Lucky Strike Gold to see what it was worth.
Gold dealer says biggest nugget he’s seen in 43-year career
Darren Kamp from Lucky Strike Gold said he didn’t think too much when he saw the man walk into his prospecting shop in Geelong, about an hour southwest of Melbourne, with a large backpack. He said people usually come in with fool’s gold or other rocks that look like gold.
“But he pulled this rock out and as he dropped it into my hand he said, ‘Do you think there’s $10,000 worth in it?'” Kamp recalled. “I looked at him and said, ‘Try $100,000.'”
“And he said, ‘Oh wow, the wife’s going to be happy with that,'” told 9News Australia.
The value worked out to $160,000 USD.
Kamp, valued and bought the specimen and called the nugget the biggest he’s seen in his 43-year career, BBC reported.
“I was just gobsmacked,” Kamp said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime find.”
While the discovery of such a massive nugget is rare, nonetheless, Australia is estimated to have the planet’s largest gold reserves, and many of the world’s largest nuggets were found in the country.
Beginner chose a “lucky” region, famed part of Australia’s gold rush
The man went searching in Victoria, Australia, an area with a rich history of mining, known as the “Golden Triangle” which stretches across Ballarat, Bendigo, and St Arnaud in Victoria and was central to Australia’s gold rush in the 1800s, People reported.
About 40 miles west of Bendigo is where the largest gold nugget in the world was found by two miners in 1869. That nugget was dubbed the “Welcome Stranger.” It weighed 154 pounds and measured 24 inches across. It was buried just beneath the dirt.
