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Australia gold: Amateur digger finds massive gold nugget with metal detector

The gold specimenImage source, Darren Kamp
Image caption,

The rock was found in an Australian region famous for gold

An Australian man has made a huge discovery - a rock containing 2.6kg of gold.

He found it in Victoria in Australia, a place famous for its history of gold.

The rock has been valued at 240,000 Australian dollars, which is equal to around 拢130,000.

Gold expert and buyer Darren Kamp thinks it is the biggest chunk of gold that he has ever been sold in his life.

"Once in a lifetime find"

Image source, Darren Kamp

This is how Darren Kamp, the man that bought the golden nugget, described the discovery!

He reckons the gold in the rock is worth 240,000 Australian dollars.

The person who found the rock didn't want to be named, but they used a cheap metal detector to find the gold.

He was also an amateur rock digger - which means he is not a professional.

Image source, Predrag Zdravkovic / EyeEm
Image caption,

This is pyrite - or fool's gold. Darren said people often bringing him large chunks of it, thinking it's real gold from Australia's goldfields

When he first showed gold expert Darren Kamp his find, he thought it would be worth around 10,000 Australian dollars which is less than 5% of the value that the gold expert gave it in the end!

The rock contained around 2.6kg of gold within it, and Darren thinks it's the biggest one he's ever seen in his 43-year career.

Where can you find gold in Australia?

Discoveries like this one are extremely rare - you're not very likely to find gold in your back garden.

However, Australia is estimated to have the world's biggest reserves of gold, and some of the largest golden nuggets have been found throughout the country.

This find was made in Victoria's goldfields in Australia, which was the centre of the country's gold rush in the 1800s.

History: What was the Australian gold rush?

In 1851, a man found flecks of gold in a place called Bathurst, in Australia.

Even more gold was then found in Victoria, which is the state nearby.

Lots of people across the country - - and from around the world - then rushed towards Victoria to try find a bit of gold themselves.

Many chose to leave their jobs, hoping to make a fortune in the goldfields.

Image source, Cavan Images
Image caption,

This is what a large gold-mine in Australia looks like now