AMATEUR GOLD PROSPECTOR MAKES THE FIND OF A LIFETIME IN AUSTRALIA, ONE $160,000 NUGGET
When I was a child and first learned about the American Gold Rush, I thought it was romantic. The idea that anyone could run out into the wilderness and find their fortune in gold seemed amazing. Of course, I was too young at the time to understand just how dangerous that was. But people still look for gold today in the wild, though it’s not often they find their fortune. But one amateur gold prospector in Victoria, Australia did just that. In one day! He was wandering around with a gold detector and found a giant rock that is worth $160,000.
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STUNNED AMATEUR PROSPECTOR WAS JUST HOPING IT MIGHT BE WORTH AT LEAST $10,000
The amateur prospector didn’t know what he had found with his Minelab Equinox 800 gold detector (which costs about $800). He knew he had found something decent, at least. But when he took it to the Lucky Strike Gold prospecting shop to be valued, he only took half the rock. The rock was very dirty, and he couldn’t see the gold on the outside of it. He was just hoping it was worth 10,000 Australian Dollars, and asked them if that was the case. The answer was: NO. But the person who valued it at the prospecting shop cleaned it up first to have a better idea to start.
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Cleaned up, that dirty rock had “gold oozing out of the rock everywhere.” And we’re talking a LOT of gold. In all, both halves of the 10.1-pound rock contained 5.7 pounds of gold. That is the find of a lifetime! That rock is now named the “lucky Strike Nugget,” for obvious reasons. While it’s an unusual find and the largest at this location, others have also found success as amateur prospectors in Australia. In 2013, there was a find worth $300,000; in 2020, there were two nuggets worth $250,000. Maybe it’s time to buy a gold detector and plan a field trip of a few months Down Under.
