A gold miner has found a 4.6 kg nugget worth AUD 240,000 or almost EUR 150,000 in the gold fields of the state of Victoria (Australia).
A find worth its weight in gold. A gold prospector, who prefers to remain anonymous, has found a gold nugget worth A$240,000, or almost €150,000, in the gold fields of the state of Victoria, Australia.
When the lucky winner introduced himself to the prospectus shop Lucky Strike Gold in Geelong, the second largest city in the state, he did not expect to receive such a sum. “Do you think it’s worth 10,000 Australian dollars (more than 6,000 euros)?” the latter asked Darren Kamp, the premises’ owner, according to the BBC.
The multimeter test performed by the store manager confirmed that the gold was interconnected throughout the nugget. With a total weight of 4.6 kg, the stone contained 83 ounces of gold or 2.6 kg of precious metal. Darren Kump bought the nugget from the prospector before christening it “Lucky Strike”.
“In 43 years of prospecting for gold I have never seen a specimen with so much gold. A few may have been found in the 1850s, but these days it’s very rare. I myself dreamed of finding something so big. The biggest I found prospecting was 24 ounces 12 years ago,” Darren Kump told The Guardian.
A nugget found with an amateur device
Aside from the success associated with the discovery of this treasure, the head of Lucky Strike Gold spoke of the prospector’s “incredible” luck due to the equipment used for this find.
The latter made this discovery with a device costing AUD 1,200, or less than €740, which is an entry-level detector. According to Darren Kamp, the device would not have been able to detect the nugget if it had been more than 15 cm in the ground.
Despite its weight and value, Lucky Strike is not the largest gold nugget discovered in Australia. In 1869, a rock called the Welcome Stranger, also found in the state of Victoria, yielded 2,300 ounces of gold.