Two massive gold nuggets worth $250,000 discovered in Australia | Dinogo

The two gold nuggets weigh a total of kilograms (7.7 pounds) and were discovered on the same day near Tarnagulla in Victoria, as featured on Thursday’s episode of ‘Aussie Gold Hunters’ on the Discovery Channel.

Prospectors Brent Shannon and his brother-in-law Ethan West located the nuggets within hours, with the assistance of West’s father, Paul West, according to a press release from the Discovery Channel.

If sold to a collector, the nuggets could potentially fetch up to 30% more than their estimated value by weight, the release stated.

‘I had a feeling we were in luck,’ Shannon told Australian morning show Sunrise. ‘It was in some untouched ground, which means it hadn’t been mined yet.’

According to the press release, the pair had been waiting for months to receive a permit that would allow them to begin their gold-searching efforts in the area.

West estimates that over the past four years, he has collected thousands of small pieces of gold.

‘This is definitely one of the most important discoveries,’ West commented. ‘Finding two large nuggets in a single day is incredible.’

The team, known as the Poseidon Crew, shared with Sunrise that they begin by using an excavator to move dirt, followed by a metal detector to search for any hidden gold.

In January 2013, an amateur prospector uncovered a 5.5-kilogram (12.1-pound) gold nugget buried 60 centimeters (23.6 inches) underground near Ballarat, about an hour's drive south of Tarnagulla.

Gold has been continuously discovered in the region since 1851, but modern technology has become a crucial tool for today's prospectors, said Cordell Kent, owner of The Mining Exchange Gold Shop, in 2013.

‘In the past, miners could only see or feel gold, but with modern detectors, they can actually hear it,’ Kent explained.