A pair of Australian gold diggers have beaten the odds to find two huge gold nuggets on the same day.
Brothers-in-law Brent Shannon and Ethan West are long time gold hunters, looking for gold in Australia’s famous historic gold fields in Victoria, South Australia. Their recent haul however is sure to be remembered by the two, with the two gold nuggets amounting to a combined weight of 3.5 kilos.
Shannon, West and West with their impressive discovery. Image seen on Sunrise on 7 Twitter.
The nuggets are estimated to be worth $350,000 Australian Dollars (£191,122.85 at the time of writing). Nuggets of this size however can often fetch more by selling to collectors who prize the unique quality of finding such a large naturally occurring lump of gold.
The pair’s efforts are featured on the Australian Discovery Channel’s “Aussie Gold Hunters” program, and the news of their discovery was featured on the 7News Sunrise TV show.
You might think there’s not much gold left to uncover on Victoria’s iconic goldfields, but these Aussie blokes are proving otherwise! pic.twitter.com/0mXkdLzDgT
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) August 20, 2020
Shannon and West, along with West’s father, use large-scale equipment to excavate earth, before turning to old fashioned metal detectors for precision location, and have found thousands of small bits of gold over the years.
They had spent months waiting for a permit to search the particular area the nuggets were discovered however, and Shannon spoke of their optimism when they finally receive permission: "I reckoned we were in for a chance. It was in a bit of virgin ground, which means it's untouched and hasn't been mined."
Australia has been one of the world’s leading producers of gold since the gold rushes in the late 1800’s, and large discoveries are still being made to this day. Just over a year ago, a family found a 20-ounce gold nugget while out for a walk also in Southern Australia. In the same month, a hobbyist also reported discovering a 1.4 kilo nugget, this time in Western Australia.
With gold prices rising to record highs during the pandemic, the discoveries could hardly come at a better time for those with the perseverance and luck to try their hand at gold hunting, and could spark something of a modern gold rush for gold hunters in Australia.
