One lucky man has shared his incredibly rare $150,000 find in the Australian outback, as a once-booming pastime enjoys a resurgence.
After digging for several days on the remote Mount Stuart station near Tibooburra, in far northwestern New South Wales, an amateur prospector finally found what he had long been searching for.
The man, who prefers not to be named, has had his fair share of false starts. But on one expedition in October, he finally struck gold — literally.
“It wasn’t a loud signal for the size of the piece that it is [but] once I got down to 100 [millimetres] or something like that, the [metal detector] was squealing,” the prospector 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.”
Weighing more than 1.2 kilograms, the quartz-speckled nugget contains approximately 940 grams of pure gold, according to testing.
“Look at that! I can’t believe this, look at this!” the man can be heard in video footage of the discovery.
“Have a crack at that — oh my god.”
The nugget, dubbed the “Tibooburra Spud”, is worth a staggering $150,000 to $160,000, but it could fetch up to $200,000 if sold at auction to a collector.
Do you have a story? Contact newsroomau@yahoonews.com
The nugget, dubbed the “Tibooburra Spud”, is worth a staggering $150,000 to $160,000, but it could fetch up to $200,000 if sold at auction to a collector. Source: ABC
Australia’s gold rushes of the 1850s transformed the nation, drawing hundreds of thousands of prospectors hoping to strike it rich.
More than 170 years later, the pastime is enjoying renewed interest among amateur treasure hunters armed with modern metal detectors.
RELATED:
Last year, Yahoo News reported how a pair of “good mates” in the country’s west became $160,000 richer after unearthing multiple large gold nuggets during a single prospecting mission.
James Allison, president of the Amalgamated Prospectors and Leaseholders Association of Western Australia, said the two men were trying their luck at Sandstone, a small town about 400km north-west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, when they uncovered the treasure.
Mount Stuart station is near Tibooburra, in far northwestern New South Wales. Source: Google
What are the benefits of prospecting?
Gold prices reached record highs in January, climbing to almost $8,000 per troy ounce (31.1 grams).
Despite easing from that peak, the precious metal remains highly valuable, trading at around $5,700 per ounce.
Greg Spangler sells prospecting supplies in the Broken Hill area. He thinks a spike in gold prices has driven more people to the activity.
“It’s got a lot of people interested,” Spangler told the ABC. Though he added that there are multiple other reasons people might take up the hobby.
“You get up in the morning, you’re the first one to see the sunrise … it’s very peaceful,” he said. “Just another pastime you can involve the whole family in.”
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube.