A lucky gold hunter struck gold when he discovered a valuable gold nugget worth $4,000 buried just two feet below the surface. Bill M, the prospector, unearthed the 50g nugget in the Ballarat region of south-west Victoria last week on a private property. The specific location is being kept under wraps. Bill shared a photo of the impressive nugget on Detecting Downunder, an Australian Facebook group. The post marveled at the find, stating, “Gold prospector ‘Bill M’ stumbled upon this stunning 50 gram nugget on private land in the Ballarat area.”
Bill M, a prospector, made a significant discovery of a 50g nugget in the Ballarat region of south-west Victoria on private property. The nugget was unearthed from a main gold reef, indicating that Bill may have stumbled upon something extraordinary. A gold reef is a deposit of gold found underground within the rock it was formed in. The community of treasure hunters expressed their excitement and curiosity about the discovery. One user pondered on the value of such a nugget, to which the group administrator estimated it to be worth around $4,000 based on the current price of gold. Some users jokingly expressed surprise at not burying their own treasures deep enough, while others marveled at the impressive find.
One year later, a prospector discovered a two-kilogram nugget in the Ballarat region, following a similar discovery the year before. Mark Day, a supplier of prospecting equipment from Gold Ballarat, stated that this was the largest nugget he had heard of in decades. He mentioned being in the business for 25 years and was surprised by the size of the nugget found by one of his regular customers. The customer, visibly shaken, brought the nugget to the store for Mr. Day to see, as he didn’t know what to do with it and had trouble sleeping for days. Offers of $160,000 were made to purchase the nugget. This discovery is now part of Australia’s history of notable gold finds, alongside the Welcome Stranger found on 5 February 1869.
The Welcome Stranger nugget, found in the small town of Moliagul in Victoria by John Deason and Richard Oates, is the largest nugget ever discovered in Australia. Weighing an incredible 72kgs and measuring 60cms in length, it fetched them £9,381 at the time of its discovery.
On 9 June 1858, the Welcome nugget was found by a group of 22 miners at the Red Hill Mining Company site in Bakery Hill, Ballarat. This impressive nugget was 53cms long and weighed 68.2kgs, eventually selling for £10,500. After being displayed at the Crystal Palace in London, it was sold to the Royal Mint in 1859.
On September 26, 1980, a nugget known as “The Hand of Faith” was discovered by Kevin Hillier using a metal detector in Kingower, a small town in Victoria, Australia. This impressive nugget, weighing 27.2kg and measuring 45cm in length, is the largest nugget ever found using a metal detector. It was later sold to the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas, where it continues to be showcased to this day.
In 1995, the Normandy Nugget was found in a creek near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, making it the second biggest gold nugget known. Weighing 25.5kg and measuring 27cm in length, this beauty is now under the ownership of the Newmont Mining Corporation. You can catch a glimpse of it at the Perth Mint museum, where it is proudly on display.
On December 18, 1906, a massive gold nugget weighing 29.6kg was unearthed in the town of Tarnagulla in Victoria, Australia. Named after the Melbourne Cup winning racehorse of that year, The Poseidon nugget led to the discovery of many more gold nuggets in the area, eventually giving rise to the name Poseidon Lead.
Rating: Five out of five
(The content is urging readers to rate something without providing specific details or context.)