An Australian gold digger turned up a stone weighing 10.1 pounds, more than half of which is gold, and one of the largest finds in recent times.
It’s the kind of photo that one would expect to see from the 1850s, in black and white, with the man wearing breeches, a wide-brimmed hat, and a bandana around his neck.
But even though it’s 2023, experienced prospector Darren Kamp says he’s never seen a rock like it before in his life.
“When it hit my hand, my jaw dropped with it,” Kamp told CNN on Tuesday. “It was just incredible. Once-in-a-lifetime find.”
Kamp runs Lucky Strike Gold which runs recreational prospecting trips into the gold-containing regions of Australia known collectively as the Golden Triangle, a profession he’s been engaged in for 43 years.
The finder took the rock to Kamp’s shop, believing there might be a few dozen grams of gold inside. It was very dirty, but after they split it open Kamp described the gold just “oozing out of it”.
The media called the finder an amateur, but equipped with a Minelab Equinox 800 detector with a price tag of USD$800, he probably had more than just beginner’s luck on his side.
The largest gold specimen Kamp ever found was a 24-ounce piece, which now would be worth around USD$46,753 at current market prices.
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