A man in Australia quite literally struck gold, the BBC reported.
It seems that the man, who has not been identified, was on a mission. According to the outlet, he was “wandering” in Western Australia’s Goldfield’s area — so named because it was where gold was first discovered in the 1809s — with a metal detector before he made a massive discovery about 18 inches beneath the ground under saltbush.
According to The Standard, the piece clocks in at 3 pounds (1.4 kg) and is worth $68,760 USD ($99,000 AUD).
Ultimately, he brought the piece to Finders Keepers Gold Prospecting in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
On Facebook, the shop called it a “monster” and said the “shiny rock’s worth heaps!”
According to the shop’s owner Matt Cook, the man, who had some gold-hunting experience, knew just what he had on his hands.
“He walked into my shop and showed me the nugget in his hand with a big smile on my face,” Cook told the BBC. “It just a bit bigger than a packet of smokes, and the density of it was incredible, so heavy.
Sam Spearing, the director of the Western Australia School of Mines at Curtin University, told the BBC that finds of this magnitude don’t happen regularly but they’re not entirely unheard of.
Indeed, this story isn’t the first of its kind. In September 2018, a man found a piece of gold worth $80,000 using a metal detector, Fox News reported. Using the same method, a man found a nugget worth $190,000 in 2016, according to Mining.com.
Striking gold — who knew!
