An amateur prospector has uncovered a 1.2kg gold nugget near Tibooburra in New South Wales, in a find believed to be worth up to $200,000.
The discovery was made at Mt Stuart Station, in the remote north-west of the state, after the prospector had spent several days searching the red dirt with a metal detector.
The nugget contains about 940g of pure gold and is currently valued at between $150,000 and $160,000 based on spot prices. Its unusual appearance could see a collector pay as much as $200,000, according to the prospector.
He has named the specimen the “Tibooburra Spud”. Footage of the find shows him scraping into the rocky soil before a flash of gold appears in the hole and he lifts out the rough, quartz-flecked nugget.
The discovery nearly went unnoticed. The prospector said the initial signal from his Gold Monster 2000 detector was faint, despite the size of the piece.
“It wasn’t a loud signal for the size of the piece that it is but once I got down to 100mm or something like that, the machine was squealing,” he told the ABC.
“It might have been on the first or second scrape I just seen this bright yellow dot in the centre of the hole.”
The prospector, who has spent years searching for gold, said he had been finishing for the day in mid-October when the detector picked up the signal.
He said the experience of finding worthless metal after following promising signals meant he had been cautious about believing he had uncovered something valuable.
“You dig lots of rubbish … lots of lead bullets, old timer’s nails, horseshoes, everything,” he said. “Just keep walking, keep swinging, keep digging every target.”
