Amateur gold digger finds 4.6kg nugget worth $160,000

A man in Australia has found a 4.6kg rock containing gold worth about $160,000. Photo: Lucky Strike Gold

An amateur gold digger in Australia has stumbled across a 4.6kg rock containing gold worth about $160,000, the BBC reported.

The unnamed man was using a budget metal detector when he made the “once-in-a-lifetime” find in the goldfields of Victoria state in the country’s south-east, where Australia’s gold rush took place in the 1800s.

The specimen was valued and bought by Darren Kamp, who owns a prospecting store in Geelong near Melbourne.

He said it was the biggest he had seen in a 43-year career.

“I was just gobsmacked. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime find,” Mr Kamp told the BBC.

Mr Kamp said people usually come to his store with “fools gold” — rocks that just look like gold.

“But he pulled this rock out and as he dropped it into my hand he said, ‘Do you think there’s A$10,000 ($6,600) worth in it?’”

“I looked at him and said, ‘Try A$100,000 ($66,000)’.”

But even that estimate was low — the 4.6kg rock contained about 2.6kg of gold.

“He said to me, ‘Oh the wife will be happy’,” said Mr Kamp.

Australia is estimated to have the world’s largest gold reserves and many of the world’s biggest nuggets have been found there.