A lucky gold hunter discovered a valuable gold nugget worth $4,000 buried two feet below the surface. The prospector, going by the name Bill M, stumbled upon the 50g nugget in the Ballarat region of south-west Victoria last week, but he’s keeping the exact location under wraps. He proudly displayed his find by sharing a photo of the nugget on the Australian Facebook group Detecting Downunder.
Bill M, also known as the prospector, discovered a 50g nugget on a piece of private land located in the Ballarat area of south-west Victoria. This nugget was found directly from a primary gold reef, suggesting that Bill may have stumbled upon something extraordinary as he dug down about two feet (60cm) to uncover it. A gold reef is a location where a significant amount of gold is found enclosed in the rock it was originally formed in. The community of treasure hunters expressed their excitement and curiosity about the find, with one user questioning the value of a nugget of that size. The group administrator calculated that, based on the current price of gold at $82 per gram, the nugget could be worth around $4,000. Some users added humor to the conversation, with one joking about burying something deep enough and another marveling at the incredible discovery.
One year later, a prospector made a significant discovery in the Ballarat region – a two-kilogram nugget. This find was considered the biggest in decades by Mark Day, a supplier of prospecting equipment at Gold Ballarat. He expressed surprise at the size of the nugget and urged the prospector to bring it to show him. The man, a regular customer, was visibly overwhelmed and uncertain about what to do with his find. Reportedly, buyers offered him $160,000 for the nugget. This discovery comes in a long history of notable gold finds in Australia, including the famous Welcome Stranger nugget found on 5 February 1869.
Displayed at Ballarat’s Gold Museum is the Welcome Home nugget, a significant piece in Australian history. Found by John Deason and Richard Oates in Moliagul, Victoria, this nugget weighed an incredible 72kgs and measured 60cms in length, fetching them £9,381. Another noteworthy nugget, The Welcome, was discovered by 22 miners at the Red Hill Mining Company site in Bakery Hill, Ballarat on 9 June 1858. Weighing 68.2kgs and measuring 53cms in length, it was sold for £10,500 and eventually made its way to the Royal Mint after being displayed in the Crystal Palace in London. Both nuggets hold a special place in Australian mining history.
On September 26th, 1980, Kevin Hillier stumbled upon a remarkable discovery known as “The Hand of Faith.” This massive nugget holds the title of being the largest nugget ever unearthed by a metal detector. Buried just 30cm beneath the surface in Kingower, a quaint town in the Shire of Loddon, Victoria, this nugget has made its mark in history. Weighing in at a whopping 27.2kg and measuring 45cm in length, it was eventually sold to the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas, where it continues to captivate visitors with its grandeur.
In 1995, the Normandy Nugget was uncovered in a stream near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, making it the second largest gold nugget known to man. Weighing 25.5kg and measuring 27cm in length, this impressive find is now under the ownership of the Newmont Mining Corporation and can be admired at the Perth Mint museum.
On December 18, 1906, The Poseidon was found in the gold mining town of Tarnagulla in Victoria, weighing 29.6kg. It was named after the Melbourne Cup racehorse that won that year. The discovery led to the area being called Poseidon Lead as more gold nuggets were found there.
