The prospector, known as Bill M, found the 50g nugget on a private property in the Ballarat area, south-west Victoria, last week. The exact location remains a secret.
He shared a photo of the nugget to Australian Facebook group Detecting Downunder.
‘Gold prospector “Bill M” found this gorgeous 50 gram nugget on private property in the Ballarat area,’ the post read.
The prospector, known as Bill M, found the 50g nugget (pictured) on a private property in the Ballarat area, south-west Victoria
This is straight from a main gold reef and Bill looks like he’s onto something special. It was found about two feet (60cm) down.’
A gold reef is where a large amount of gold is found encased underground in the rock it was formed in.
The community of treasure hunters weighed in on the find.
Just wondering what a nugget of that size is worth? one user asked.
The group administrator answered: ‘At the current gold price of $82 per gram, it’s worth around $4k. Not a bad pay day.’
‘Damn it I thought I buried deep enough!’ another user joked.
‘Wow what a find,’ someone else said.
It comes a year after a prospector found a two-kilogram nugget (pictured) – also in the Ballarat region
It comes a year after a prospector found a two-kilogram nugget – also in the Ballarat region.
Mark Day, a prospecting gear supplier from Gold Ballarat, said it was the biggest nugget he’d heard of in decades.
‘I’ve been in this business for 25 years and this is the biggest find we have seen by one of our customers – that they’ve told me about anyway,’ he said.
Mr Day said he was shocked to hear of the size of the nugget, insisting the man, who was a regular customer of his, bring it in for him to see.
‘When he showed me the nugget here in the store he was shaking like a leaf. He didn’t know what to do with it. He hadn’t slept in three days.’
Buyers reportedly offered the man $160,000 for the nugget.
Australia’s Biggest Gold Finds
5 February 1869 – The Welcome Stranger
The Welcome Home nugget on display in Ballarat’s Gold Museum
The Welcome Stranger nugget is Australia’s biggest ever found. Discovered by prospectors John Deason and Richard Oates in the small town of Moliagul in Victoria, the nugget weighed a staggering 72kgs and 60cms in length. The find earned them £9,381 at the time.
9 June 1858 – The Welcome
The Welcome was discovered by a group of 22 miners at the Red Hill Mining Company site in Bakery Hill, Ballarat. The nugget spanned 53cms in length and weighed 68.2kgs. It was sold for £10,500 and ended up in the Crystal Palace in London before being sold to the Royal Mint in 1859.
26 September 1980 – The Hand of Faith
This nugget is the largest in the world to be found by a metal detector. It was found by Kevin Hillier resting vertically just 30cm below the surface in Kingower, a small town in the Shire of Loddon, Victoria. It was eventually sold to the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas- where it is still on display to this day. It weighs 27.2kg and is 45cm in length.
1995- Normandy Nugget
The nugget is the second largest gold nugget still in existence and was discovered in a creek bed near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. It weighs 25.5kg and is 27cm in length. It’s now owned by the Newmont Mining Corporation is still currently on display at the Perth Mint museum.
18 December 1906 – The Poseidon
Named after the winning Melbourne Cup racehorse that year, the nugget was discovered in the gold mining town of Tarnagulla in Victoria and weighed 29.6kg. The area which The Poseidon went onto become known as Poseidon Lead after many more gold nuggets were discovered there.
