Big Nuggets.

[Marwick]

I was reading an article today on the 30 biggest Nuggets ever found.
Not surprised to see a majority were found in Victoria.
Just wondering how many of us still think there might be any more out there.
Not deep underground but within 500mm of surface.

 

[grubstake]

The Victorian Golden Triangle has been an astonishingly prolific place for bigger nuggets in the past and the odd one still turns up from time to time. I wouldn't doubt that there's some whoppers waiting out there somewhere, but maybe not out in the open, perhaps under a big tree or a road or a building. The Maryborough CBD is built over what was originally the rich, nuggety Main Lead - just take away those buildings and let me at it!

In the aftermath of WWII, with low cost war surplus mechanical equipment available to farmers and contractors, allowing old workings to be cheaply reclaimed for farmland, rich old diggings would have been permanently dozed, erased and forgotten. Some good nuggets the oldtimers missed with their haphazard pick and shovel methods, are probably still awaiting their day in the sun.

And don't get me started on those vineyards in Kingower, established before modern metal detectors became available, just across the road from where the Hand of Faith was found.

 

[Marwick]

I hear ya.
I was looking for prospecting land a bit closer to home on trilobite app and I reckon there could be good gold at Puckapunyal but it's all military land.

 

[XLOOX]

I hear ya.
I was looking for prospecting land a bit closer to home on trilobite app and I reckon there could be good gold at Puckapunyal but it's all military land.

and even if you could access the area, the lead and brass would drive you insane.

There are a couple of WW1/2 abandoned rifle ranges that I have detected on the edge of and even though I know there is gold there ( old alluvial workings and registered mines) I have been defeated each time by the sheer number of targets. Discrim VLF didnt really help.

..and lets not forget the UXO

 

[Moneybox]

Yesterday I pulled out a nice 3g nugget along with a multi-piece specimen with a good weight in gold. Today I took the GPX4500 with the 14" Elite coil to the same spot.



As you'd expect it detected a big deep target but it's the first time I've dug a banana. It's surely very old because this is dry desert country now. It's obviously quite rare, Mrs M is going to love it.

 

[XLOOX]

Steely Dan ?

 

[kiwifred]

Steely Dan ?

Dirty Work?

 

[XLOOX]

Dirty Work?

BRILLIANT !!!

 

[Hawkear]

I was reading an article today on the 30 biggest Nuggets ever found.
Not surprised to see a majority were found in Victoria.
Just wondering how many of us still think there might be any more out there.
Not deep underground but within 500mm of surface.

Went to my nugget book and inserting the 875 oz Hand of Faith* at no 17 on that list, the 30th largest nugget found in Victoria becomes a tiddler of 645 oz found at Heathcote in 1855.
Are there any more of this size left to be found 500mm from the surface?
A nugget of 645 oz would be approximately three quarters the size of the Hand of Faith size and at 500mm should sound off loudly to "come and dig me".
Given that the goldfields have been thrashed relentlessly over the last 35 to 40 years my answer would be very unlikely.
Are there any of that size still to be found by detectors at greater depths?
How deep does a detector go on a 645 oz nugget is the question. Never having had a 645 oz nugget to test on, I am only guessing about 3 to 4 feet.
Only 3 or 4 of the 30 largest nuggets were recorded as being found at depths between the surface and 500mm with just two more slightly deeper to the assumed detecting range limit of around 3 to 4 feet. So again I would have to say very unlikely.
Are there still monsters to be found at even greater depths beyond detector range?
If we divide the 30 largest nuggets into categories, 6 would be counted as shallow and 24 deep. The Hand of Faith was one of the shallow ones yet remained undiscovered for a long time until the advent of metal detectors. If we apply that ratio of one in 6 to the remaining 24 deep nuggets that suggests that there are at least 4 monsters still to be found at greater depths. The actual number is likely to be greater as even in the old days recovery of deep nuggets was much more difficult than shallow ones.

* I am still angry at the stupidity of the Victorian government not purchasing the Hand of Faith nugget when it was found. A priceless piece of natural history and heritage lost. If we ever do find another, I just hope we do not repeat that stupidity.