Amateur prospector discovers giant gold nugget valued at about 150,000 euros

It was in the Australian state of Victoria, in an area known as the “golden triangle”, where two English explorers discovered the world’s largest gold stone, weighing 72 kilos. Found in 1869, the discovery of the “Welcome Stranger” coincides with the gold rush between 1851 and the late 1860s.

154 years passed, an Australian amateur digger, who preferred to remain anonymous, wanted to try to match the historic discovery. The stone that he discovered does not weigh even 10 kilos, but it is worth 150,000 euros and was found in a mine with one of the simplest and cheapest gold detectors on the market. A stroke of luck with 4.6 kilos, where 2.6 is pure gold.

The explorer expected an offer of around 6,000 euros. But Darren Kamp, a gold appraiser for 43 years, suggested €60,000 for just half the gold nugget. In total, the rock is valued at about 150,000 euros.

“In 43 years, I’ve never seen an example with this much gold,” Kamp told CNN. The appraiser ended up buying Pedro at the end of last year. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery”added to the BBC.

At first, the prospector only brought half of the stone to Kamp. When he found it, he tore it in two and took the part that he thought was a gold nugget to the appraiser. In fact, the stone was very dirty and so the prospector did not realize that it was all gold, an easy conclusion to draw after cleaning.

Despite the fact that the purchase of the stone already occurred late last year, the story has only now broken because Kamp, who also sells metal detectors, has seen an increase in demand for these materials in his store, perhaps because gold has appreciated in the face of the global economic crisis. Although this type of discovery is rare, the tester wanted to show that very expensive detectors are not necessary to obtain the desired results.

Of course, a lot depends on the terrain: Australia has one of the largest gold reserves in the world.