A stunning 68-ounce gold nugget, worth more than AU$100,000, has been uncovered in remote Western Australia by a prospector using a state-of-the-art Minelab GPZ 7000 detector.
Amazingly, the nugget - named the ‘Duck’s Foot’ because of its shape - was the biggest of half-a-dozen sizeable nuggets found during the same trip.
“When I had finished digging it out, I just thought ‘Oh my god’,” he said of the find, a 3.23kg specimen which contains 2.11kgs of gold and is worth at least $110,000.
“There’s an amazing feeling of joy when you find a gold nugget, even a small one, so when I uncovered this one it was a really special moment,” he said.
The prospector, who doesn’t want to be named to protect his identity, uncovered the nugget in a very remote spot in W.A’s Northern Goldfields.
“I have been going to the same spot for years but with a better detector, better technology, I keep finding gold in patches I’ve been over many times. I can’t believe the amount I’ve left behind.”
The man, who’s retired, camps on-site for weeks or months at a time. On this trip the first strike was on the second day - a nugget big enough to pay for the expedition.
“That meant the pressure was off and I could relax a bit. I started looking for deep signals in ground I’d gone over before,” he said.
“When I heard that signal, I knew it could be something big.
“It was pretty deep at about 800mm in clay soil so it took more than two hours of careful digging to get it out.”
But it was certainly worth the effort. A dedicated prospector for more than a decade, he has no plans to stop anytime soon.
“I have always said to do this you need ruthless optimism and a happy heart. Why would I stop?”
The Duck’s Foot was uncovered using a Minelab GPZ 7000 detector coupled with the premium GPZ 19 coil. The GPZ 7000, which features a range of new technology, is a specialist gold hunter. With the Minelab 19” coil it provides significantly deeper ground penetration while maintaining a high degree of sensitivity for shallower, smaller nuggets.
“The GPZ 7000 with the GPZ 19 coil goes deeper than anything else I’ve used,” he said.
“When you find something with the 19” you have to dig a wide hole to get the coil in, but if you dig a narrower hole and put in a 14” coil can lose the signal, even when the coil is in the hole!”
Rob Anderson who owns the Prospectors Pick in Bunbury has known the anonymous prospector for a long time.
“I think it’s fair to say he’s been very successful over the years. He loves being outside, enjoying the outback, but at the same time he takes his prospecting very seriously.
“He really knows the technology, he updates it regularly to make sure he has the best, and he’s a specialist when it comes to finding deep nuggets. I think this find proves there’s still a lot of gold still out there, even in areas you might think have been picked clean.”
