Every grey nomad who travels with a pick, some sort of metal detector, or a sieve in their rig will be hitting the treasure trail with renewed vigour following the unearthing of a monster gold nugget in Western Australia.
A prospector struck it lucky in the northern Goldfields when his high-tech detector led him to a 3.23kg specimen containing 68 troy ounces or 2.11kg of gold. It is estimated to be worth at least $110,000.
The retired man, who wishes to remain anonymous, had been combing the same patch of land with an older metal detector for years, but new machinery made all the difference.
“It was pretty deep at about 800mm in clay soil, so it took more than two hours of careful digging to get it out,” he told the West Australian newspaper. “When I had finished digging it out, I just thought ‘Oh my God’!”
The nugget has been dubbed ‘Duck’s Foot’ because of its shape.
Rob Anderson, who owns the Prospectors Pick in Bunbury, said it should give hope to all gold hunters.
“I think this find proves there’s still a lot of gold still out there,” he said. “Even in areas you might think have been picked clean.”
The West Australian reports that, earlier this month, Canadian gold mining company RNC Minerals announced it had found a whopping 9,250 ounces of gold worth$15.9 million at its Beta Hunt gold mine, also in the Goldfields near Kambalda, in just one week.
That included two huge specimens weighing 95kg and 63kg with a combined estimated gold content of more than 4,000 ounces, which president Mark Selby said could rank among the biggest ever discovered.
This is fantastic very exciting times for the finders, We are looking at retirement in a couple of years, and look forward to new beginnings and detecting.