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!

THE NORMAN BROOKS TROPHY

Sir Norman Brookes was a Melbourne born Tennis legend, he was the first non-Briton to win the men’s singles at Wimbledon along with many many more achievements. He is considered to have been a world number one player in the 1900’s.

As well as his sporting ventures Brookes along with his wife Mabel were commended time and time again for their philanthropic ventures. Norman Brookes was knighted “in recognition of service to public service” in 1939. Lady Brookes became Dame Madame Brookes in 1955 for her work also.

In 2012 W J Sanders was given a very special commission from Tennis Australia to make the Australian Men’s Open Tennis trophy named as “The Norman Brookes Trophy.” The trophy is actually a replica of a magnificent silver trophy modelled on the “Warwick Vase” crafted by an English silversmith in 1906. Our silver replica will be awarded to the winner of the 2013 Australian open. Fortunately Tennis Australia took the time and expense to film the making of our trophy and have uploaded it on You Tube. We invite you to view the video on the following link.

THE GOLDEN GLOBES

Turquoise is incredibly popular at the moment and last night at the golden globes Alyssa Milano and Salma Hayek were spotted sporting some amazing turquoise earrings!!

Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, and is measured as 6 on the mohs scale of hardness.

The substance has been known by many names, but the word turquoise, which dates to the 16th century, is derived from an Old French word for “Turkish”, because the mineral was first brought to Europe from Turkey, from the mines in historical Khorasan Province of Iran.The Iranians named it “phirouza”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UcMBDYWs2s