An impressive gold nugget was recently discovered in Victoria by a local prospector and his trusty gold detector. Weighing an impressive 4.1kg and valued at over $250,000, this remarkable find has been given the name ‘Friday’s Joy’.
The discovery took place in the southern region of the renowned ‘Golden Triangle’ in Central Victoria, an area well-known for its abundance of high-quality gold nuggets.
The prospector, who preferred to stay unnamed, had discovered a gold nugget shaped like a tennis ball the day before, and had returned with his Minelab GPZ 7000 metal detector in hopes of finding more. “Initially, I thought it was trash, maybe an old horseshoe,” he recalled. “Around 12 inches beneath the surface, I could faintly see the outline of something. As I continued to remove the clay and dig deeper, I truly couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“I was in total disbelief as I didn’t think nuggets of this size were still around.”
The prospector had been going out in search of gold, coins and relics for more than a decade with a group of close friends. The group agreed if ever they found any valuable gold they would split the proceeds. They have shared celebratory beers after the huge discovery. The prospector admitted he wasn’t sure what to do with the nugget at first. “It’s like catching a big fish and not knowing what to do with it!” he said. “Where do we put it? I washed it in water, covered it in aluminum foil and kept it in my oven on the first night.”
The nugget is now locked up in a bank vault, waiting to be auctioned off.
The find has been christened as ‘Friday’s Joy’, commemorating the day it was discovered.
Victoria’s famous Golden Triangle, in which the nugget was found, is more of golden pentagon, an area bordered by Ballarat on the south, Wedderburn in the north, Tarnagulla on the east and Ararat in the west. The Golden Triangle was the historical site of the early Gold Rush period in the 1850s and it wasn’t until the 1980s that Western Australia overtook Victoria in gold production.
However the Golden Triangle still continues to inspire gold fever in hopeful prospectors. And the region keeps on giving – just last year a 3.5 kg nugget was found.
‘Friday’s Joy’ is far from the biggest gold nugget ever found in Australia. That record belongs to ‘The Welcome Stranger’ found near Moliagul, Victoria in 1869, weighing in at a staggering 72kg (2300 ounces). ‘Friday’s Joy’ is now sitting in a bank vault while a replica is being made.
The prospector who made the find has said he isn’t going to quit his day job, but plans to buy a van and travel around Australia.
Dermot Henry, acting head of sciences at Museum Victoria explained that historically Victorian goldfields had the greatest concentration of gold nuggets and have produced more large nuggets than any other field in the world.
This latest discovery was announced today by South Australia-based metal detector technology company, Minelab.
Leave a Reply