National Post Staff | Jan 17, 2013 1:10 PM ET



When an amateur prospector with a metal detector found something under a bush in Ballarat, Australia, he thought it was part of a car hood. Then he saw “a glint of gold.”

When he started scraping away dirt, “the gold kept expanding and expanding,” a friend of the unidentified man told the BBC. When he finished, he’d revealed the full scale of his find: a 22-cm-long hunk of gold weighing 5.5 kg.

It’s now up for sale for $260,000.

He is going to pay off a lot of bills and pay off his house
It’s an “extremely significant” discovery, Cordell Kent, owner and dealer of Ballarant Mining Exchange Gold Shop, told the BBC. “I have been a prospector and dealer for two decades, and cannot remember the last time a nugget over 100 ounces [2.8 kg] has been found locally.”

After discovering the nugget, the man rushed home to tell his wife. “He is going to pay off a lot of bills and pay off his house,” Kent said. “It’s a real life changer.”

The gold dealer told Australian media others had passed the site of the treasure in the past, but their detectors missed it.

If there are any more huge nuggets to find in the area, they may start surfacing soon. Kent’s expecting the find to create an amateur prospector gold rush.

“A finding like this gives people hope,” he said. “There’s nothing like digging up money, it’s good fun.”

If that asking price is accurate, I'd buy it. Cool nugget at just over melt.

Just checked and it is sold.

Wonder how much went to the govt

That was one thing I found very interesting about Australia, but never did any metal detector work myself. A number of the rig hands had found small nuggets and made jewelry for their wives / girl friends.