A £50k gold nugget lying around waiting to be picked up? Don’t all rush at once!
Prospector bags find of a lifetime... but keeps location VERY secret
IT is the life-changing moment every prospector dreams of.
Now one lucky adventurer is set for a £50,000 windfall after unearthing Britain’s largest gold nugget in a Scottish river.
The collector found the lump – which weighs 3oz (85.7g), or 2.75 Troy ounces, the official system to weigh precious metals – while lying face down in a river for hours using a snorkel.
Named the Douglas Nugget, it is the largest gold nugget to have been found in British waters for 500 years.
The location where the precious metal was found is being kept secret, along with the identity of the prospector, to prevent a gold rush.
In 2016 a larger 3.4oz nugget was found off Anglesey but experts concluded it was from Australia and went down when a ship sank in the Irish Sea.
Gold expert Leon Kirk, of Gold Panning Supplies UK, said: ‘This is a very exciting and unprecedented find, but the nugget’s rarity means it is very hard to put a price on it.
‘I would say it is worth at least £50,000 but, as it’s rarer than a Aston Martin or a Fabergé egg, a billionaire could easily come along and pay a lot more for it.’
The Douglas Nugget is believed to be around the same diameter as a 1.6in golf ball. It was discovered two years ago by a British father but he has kept it a secret until now. And the man – in his forties – wishes to remain anonymous due to the scale of his find.
Breaking his silence, the finder said he came across it by ‘sniping’.
This method sees hunters pull on a dry suit and snorkel then lie face down in a river.
The father, who has been hunting for gold as a hobby for 20 years, said: ‘I was following a crack in the bedrock. This then led to a pocket, where I uncovered the nugget.
‘I called over my friend to have a look and we both assumed it to weigh less than an ounce. It wasn’t until I removed it that we realised just how big it was.’
He added: ‘I took off my glove and I jumped out of the water and screamed, “Bingo!”.
‘We were stunned and couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime.’’
The owner is keeping it in a safety deposit box but Mr Kirk hopes it will be acquired by a British museum, although legally it may have to be handed over to The Crown Estate.
Dr Neil Clark, author of Scottish Gold: Fruit Of The Nation, and curator at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, believes the shape of the Douglas Nugget could mean there is more waiting to be found close to the mystery location. He said: ‘It is difficult to say if this nugget broke from a larger chunk. The rounded edges indicate it has certainly been in the watercourse for a while.’
He added: ‘The fact that we have waited over 500 years for this nugget suggests it may be difficult to find another comparable one in the near future.’
‘Rarer than a Fabergé egg’