The Hand Of Faith gold nugget was found in Australia just a few
years ago. This is the kind of story we probably all dream of from time
to time.
The gent who found it had recently purchased a metal detector and while passing over the ground received such a loud signal that he figured his new machine was acting up and almost did not dig for it.
He dug down six inches and discovered what is believed to be the worlds second largest nugget ever found. He finally sold it to the golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas for a cool one million dollars.
Kevin Hillier was his name and the nugget weighed 876 troy ounces that translates to 61 pounds 11 ounces.
In Australia, a great percentage of nuggets are found in the dry desert. You may wonder how the gold will get to there when there are no visible creeks to be seen.
Over many thousands and millions of years our planet has had wet and dry eras. During the wet ones, the earth has been inundated with extremely heavy rains. The water bursts from the banks of the creeks, rivers and washes and pours out into flatland carrying with it boulders, sand, gravel and gold that has been broken and eroded form the mother lode.
The worlds largest nugget of gold ever found was the Holtermann nugget discovered at Hill End, New South Whales Australia. This was a massive part of a lode vein so it may not really count as a nugget because it had not broken from the vein or lode which is really what counts for a nugget to be called a nugget. The Australians call this sort of gold, reef gold. This so called nugget weighed 290 kilograms or 638 pounds.
As far as a true gold nugget goes the largest ever found was named the Welcome Stranger. It weighed 2316 troy ounces or 158 pounds. Two gentlemen named John Deason and Richard Oates of Australia found it near Moliagul on February 5th 1869. The nugget was really broken up into three pieces in order to weigh it. Yet even before that a few chunks were broken off by other miners.
The amazing thing about gold is that it never rusts or goes away. Nothing effects it. When wreck divers find gold coins sitting in the salt water for hundreds of years it is as shiny and yellow as it was when the ship hit the bottom.
This nugget was smelted down into gold ingots many years ago, but the gold still exists in the form of jewelry and may even be on a few circuit contacts in your own computer or riding up there in the heavens as a part of a satellite.
Of course these are only the record holders. There are countless small nuggets out there. They sit in among the gravel in creeks as well as out in the dry washes in the desert waiting for you or I to find them. Plenty are found by weekend prospectors using sluice boxes, small gold dredges, hi-bank dredges and every kind of gadget imaginable. They search for nuggets in creek beds and even in the desert sands for the elusive gold.
Placer gold is the type of gold found away from the mother lode which may be far underground. Due to erosion it may be miles away from where it originated. If you have ever witnessed a flash flood in the desert or the hills you will have seen, or heard, stones and rocks tumbling along being pushed by the torrent of water. That is how the gold is moved around in the creeks and rivers. In some countries where there rocky mountain crests, boulders the size of automobiles get washed down the overflowing rivers just as gold does.
The gent who found it had recently purchased a metal detector and while passing over the ground received such a loud signal that he figured his new machine was acting up and almost did not dig for it.
He dug down six inches and discovered what is believed to be the worlds second largest nugget ever found. He finally sold it to the golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas for a cool one million dollars.
Kevin Hillier was his name and the nugget weighed 876 troy ounces that translates to 61 pounds 11 ounces.
In Australia, a great percentage of nuggets are found in the dry desert. You may wonder how the gold will get to there when there are no visible creeks to be seen.
Over many thousands and millions of years our planet has had wet and dry eras. During the wet ones, the earth has been inundated with extremely heavy rains. The water bursts from the banks of the creeks, rivers and washes and pours out into flatland carrying with it boulders, sand, gravel and gold that has been broken and eroded form the mother lode.
The worlds largest nugget of gold ever found was the Holtermann nugget discovered at Hill End, New South Whales Australia. This was a massive part of a lode vein so it may not really count as a nugget because it had not broken from the vein or lode which is really what counts for a nugget to be called a nugget. The Australians call this sort of gold, reef gold. This so called nugget weighed 290 kilograms or 638 pounds.
As far as a true gold nugget goes the largest ever found was named the Welcome Stranger. It weighed 2316 troy ounces or 158 pounds. Two gentlemen named John Deason and Richard Oates of Australia found it near Moliagul on February 5th 1869. The nugget was really broken up into three pieces in order to weigh it. Yet even before that a few chunks were broken off by other miners.
The amazing thing about gold is that it never rusts or goes away. Nothing effects it. When wreck divers find gold coins sitting in the salt water for hundreds of years it is as shiny and yellow as it was when the ship hit the bottom.
This nugget was smelted down into gold ingots many years ago, but the gold still exists in the form of jewelry and may even be on a few circuit contacts in your own computer or riding up there in the heavens as a part of a satellite.
Of course these are only the record holders. There are countless small nuggets out there. They sit in among the gravel in creeks as well as out in the dry washes in the desert waiting for you or I to find them. Plenty are found by weekend prospectors using sluice boxes, small gold dredges, hi-bank dredges and every kind of gadget imaginable. They search for nuggets in creek beds and even in the desert sands for the elusive gold.
Placer gold is the type of gold found away from the mother lode which may be far underground. Due to erosion it may be miles away from where it originated. If you have ever witnessed a flash flood in the desert or the hills you will have seen, or heard, stones and rocks tumbling along being pushed by the torrent of water. That is how the gold is moved around in the creeks and rivers. In some countries where there rocky mountain crests, boulders the size of automobiles get washed down the overflowing rivers just as gold does.
Joe and Irma MacMillan have spent many years backpacking, skiing,
and simply enjoying life in the mountains of British Columbia. Their
website http://whistler-outdoors.com
is full of tips on snowboarding, camping, kayaking, rafting, camp
cooking and fishing. They met on a blind date in 1957 and are still
married. Take a look at their story here http://www.whistler-outdoors.com/about-us.html
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Macmillan
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