The news that a Victorian man recently found a 4.8kg hunk of quartz, with traces of gold weighing nearly 76 ounces, could spark a new gold rush … with grey nomads leading the charge!
The lucky prospector known only as Caz – who can expect a windfall of about $120,000 – says he told the world about his ‘strike’ at a riverbed in Ballarat to give encouragement to others.
Experts reckon that an abundance of gold still lies undiscovered in central Victoria and advanced detection technology means anyone can find it. That could explain why so many metal detectors – some of which can find deposits at a depth of up to one metre – are stashed in so many rigs.
Doug Stone, a goldfield mapmaker and former mines geologist, told Channel 9 news that the gold rushes of the 19th century only “picked the eyes” out of gold deposits in the region and prospectors will be digging up precious nuggets “for another 1000 years”.
Mr Stone said the gold discovery is among a steady flow of finds, particularly from the ‘golden triangle’ of Bendigo-Ballarat-Stawell, since metal detectors were introduced to Victoria in 1979.
“There’d have to be over 1000 ounces a year found in central Victoria alone,” Mr Stone told Channel 9. “We don’t hear about a lot of the big ones, because people don’t want the publicity — they only want the publicity when they go to sell it.”
Mr Stone said that the original prospectors stuck to creek lines and traced some of the gold up to quartz reefs on the hillsides.
“There is still all this virgin land between the gully lines and the hilltops they didn’t touch,” he said. “And instead of turning over thousands of cubic metres of soil, today you can sweep an area with a coil on the ground and listen for a signal.”
Fossicking for gold in Victoria is open to anyone with a Miner’s Right permit, available from the Department of Primary Industries at $30 for two years.
