GOLDEN NUGGET

A Ballarat man, who wished to remain anonymous, discovered an incredibly rare 5.5kg gold nugget last week at a depth of 60cm.

                        Owner of Ballarat’s Mining Exchange Gold Shop Cordell Kent said “the discovery of such a large nugget was extremely rare, we’ve got 800 local prospectors on our records. I cannot remember the last time we saw a nugget of this size.”

While it is yet to be determined what portion of the nugget is pure gold, with the price of gold at $1600 an ounce, the 5.5 kilogram (177 troy ounces) nugget is likely to fetch top dollar.

If the total mass of gold is pure, it could be worth upwards of $280,000, the unusual shape can increase the worth also.

An international expert in gold prospecting, Cordell Kent was confident of the gold’s authenticity and said scientific testing of the nugget would undoubtedly support this.

Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria Ballarat branch president Malcolm Matthews said “that nuggets found in the Ballarat region were typically of very high quality in terms of gold purity”.

After 162 years of gold rush Ballarat is still producing gold nuggets, but we doubt another one of this size will be discovered for a while!