Well, things down here in Ballarat are just about normal... plenty of rain and sun in the one day, and random discoveries of gold nuggets aplenty.Taken from the front page of The Courier (the Ballarat newspaper):
A BALLARAT man will have a merry Christmas after finding eight gold nuggets worth more than $50,000 in bushland near Scarsdale. One nugget weighed in at 1.1kg and another seven were found in the patch measuring about 75cm.
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, discovered the gold over the past three weeks in shallow ground in a former mining area south-west of Ballarat. He is a member of the Ballarat Prospectors and Miners Association and among 250 prospectors in the area .
Mining Exchange Gold Shop owner Cordell Kent said the gold was of a high quality and would be worth more than $50,000 as nuggets.
"Even some very successful prospectors have never found a nugget this size," Mr Kent said. "It's stunning."
"We'll display it in the shop until Christmas and then it will be sold to collectors."
The gold was found by the experienced prospector using a hand-held metal detector. Mr Cordell said he expected a rush of interest in prospecting following the discovery. "A lot of people believe that the gold ran out in the 1800s, but this shows that it didn't," he said.
"The goldfields still produce gold every day and people just need to be lucky and work carefully and seriously."
The largest nugget has already been named the Golden Triangle in honour of Ballarat's golden history. Mr Cordell said the gold was of a high quality, with nuggets found around Ballarat typically 97.5 per cent pure.
He said the prospector was thrilled with his discovery.
"He was pretty stoked. "
"It's a good year's wages for a prospector."
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, discovered the gold over the past three weeks in shallow ground in a former mining area south-west of Ballarat. He is a member of the Ballarat Prospectors and Miners Association and among 250 prospectors in the area .
Mining Exchange Gold Shop owner Cordell Kent said the gold was of a high quality and would be worth more than $50,000 as nuggets.
"Even some very successful prospectors have never found a nugget this size," Mr Kent said. "It's stunning."
"We'll display it in the shop until Christmas and then it will be sold to collectors."
The gold was found by the experienced prospector using a hand-held metal detector. Mr Cordell said he expected a rush of interest in prospecting following the discovery. "A lot of people believe that the gold ran out in the 1800s, but this shows that it didn't," he said.
"The goldfields still produce gold every day and people just need to be lucky and work carefully and seriously."
The largest nugget has already been named the Golden Triangle in honour of Ballarat's golden history. Mr Cordell said the gold was of a high quality, with nuggets found around Ballarat typically 97.5 per cent pure.
He said the prospector was thrilled with his discovery.
"He was pretty stoked. "
"It's a good year's wages for a prospector."
The thing that I find the funniest is that some guy searching with one of those hand-held metal detectors actually found something valuable!
3 comments:
A nerd strikes it rich. Hurrah for the nuggety fields of Ballarat!
Excitement seems to follow you everywhere!
hmmmm....new picture....gremlins in the machine!
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