An amateur prospector in the Australian outback has made the find of a lifetime after digging up a massive gold nugget valued at over $150,000.
Gold prospecting is the act of searching for new gold deposits. He recalled only one other time he saw a prospector find a gold nugget weighing more than a kilogram. The gold nugget specked with quartz, named Tibooburra Spud, weighs nearly 1.2 kg, according to the outlet. Testing shows 940 grams is pure gold.
“You dig lots of rubbish … lots of lead bullets, old timer’s nails, horseshoes, everything,” he told ABC News. Greg Spangler, who sells prospecting supplies in Broken Hill, told the outlet that although finding gold nuggets weighing over a kilogram is rare, more and more people have shown interest in prospecting and taken it up as a hobby. Spangler told the outlet, “We have a fictitious club [called] the Ounce Club … but not many people [are] in the ‘Kilo Club’. As for why people are interested in prospecting, Spangler said, “You get up in the morning, you’re the first one to see the sunrise … it’s very peaceful,” adding, “Just another pastime you can involve the whole family in.”
