$460,000 8.2 Pound 131.2 oz Gold Nugget Found.

Saw this story on the Kellyco site. US nugget find.

Nugget was 8.2 pounds or 131.2 ounces.

Now the gold weight would value up at around $196,000. It was put up for auction and pulled in $460,000 A great $264,000 premium.

Just goes to show you any big nuggets are best put up for auction.

See article at - http://www.kellycodetectors.com/Finds/gold_nugget_find.php?utm_source=51211&utm_medium=email


$460,000 8.2 Pound Gold Nugget Found.
With a little luck and some mechanical help, a gold rush will explode next month in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Actually, it'll be a minirush - specifically for the 180-acre plot of land where the biggest Sierra gold nugget in existence was recently dug up.
Geologists are heading there on May 16 with ground-penetrating radar to assess how much more gold is lying around. By month's end, they expect to advise the owner to put the land up for sale for as much as $1.5 million. Maybe more.

"We'll just have to see what we can see," said geologist Fred Holabird, who helped auction the big nugget last month in Sacramento for $460,000.

Any hopes that another 8.2-pound whopper waits underground will probably be smashed flatter than a rattler's head under a shovel, everyone involved said. But that's just part of the picture.

"That big nugget was a 1-in-a-billion find, but the likelihood that there is more gold on that land is 100 percent," said Holabird, who has been a mining geologist for the federal government and Fortune 500 companies for 35 years. "Just how much I can't say just yet.

"But does it have a lot of potential? Yeah."

The owner of the land has kept his identity, and the specific location of his property, a tightly held secret, afraid of modern claim-jumpers.

For the purposes of selling, however, it's been revealed that the land is near the historic town of Washington (Nevada County) and it consists of mountainous spreads of pines with two streams cutting through it. There are no buildings.

"It's very rugged - absolutely knock-down, drag-out, drop-dead gorgeous backcountry," Holabird said. "If you bring your fishing pole, you're bound to catch some trout."

Getting to the gold, on the other hand, will require digging tools and stream pans. The current owner found his gigantic chunk last year, as well as two others weighing 4 and 10 ounces, with a metal detector and a pick.

Assayers have estimated that there may be as many as 4,000 ounces of gold underneath the plot's dirt. Based on prices logged Friday, $1,505 an ounce, that much gold would be worth about $6 million.

Holabird was skeptical that more in-depth studies would show that much gold existed on the land.

"We'll see about that," he said. "I'm going to do a full assessment before I put any numbers on anything."

Author and Western historian Robert Chand-ler noted that despite the glamorous tales of the Forty-Niners - who, coincidentally, did a lot of mining around the town of Washington - most gold-mining ventures go bust.

"Just because most mines never go anywhere doesn't mean there isn't gold up there," Chandler said. "Remember every spring, when new rains fill up the streambeds with new pieces, and people get up there in the hills and find them.

"With gold at a new high, I would think the owner would be very happy to sell right now," he said. "It's the perfect time."

Acan

WOWWWW !!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm Big nuggets always fetch a better price in the US , say you found it there and you get a extra premium from the local patriotic population , get shareholders in for a stake in mining the supposed big nugget claim zone, or sell off the rights for a quick buck.
Found with a cheap detector, big bucks for the land, the Geo involved with the sale, - something doesn't sound right here

Cheers Mark

Holy Crap

Something about the actual article doesn't sound right to me at all... The Sierra Nevada is indeed rich in gold but I don't think that nugget came from the deposits in the area and it doesn't resemble the types of gold found there in the past.

There was no mention of Kellyco's detector being used anywhere in the article so I'm going to remain very skeptical of the nature of the detector that was used. Something that might catch your eye is that the ads for the Noktar machines refer to "Radar" (Deep Processing Radar AKA: GPR) and yet curiously also mention "Electromagnetic" in describing the machine (eg: "This is the most advanced electromagnetic detection system ever produced"). These are two very different technologies.

Take a look at some of the other SCAM devices sold by Kellyco:
There's the OKM range of "detectors".... including the EXP-5000 Pro (GPR) for just $56,799.00... 25 meter depth.
There's the GPL VII (Ground Penetrating Locator AKA: Long Range Locator) rrp $6,450.00
I've taken screen captures from their website in the past where they've offered Plum-Bobs made from precious metal that are held over treasure maps to "show the holder where the gold is" (via magic no doubt) and in recent years they were found to be manufacturing and selling Long Range Locators... a scam device that is the electronic equivalent to dowsing for metal with two sticks.

Kellyco is one of the "exclusive" sellers of the "Golden King" and after interviewing one of Australia's few experts on GPR only last week, he assured us that the beam from these devices is only as narrow as the diameter of your little finger and that you need to program the speed you cover a set distance into the machine and it will build up a gradual picture of the density of the ground as you slowly traverse the area. If you walk too fast or too slow, the slice of ground you have covered will be false. He was also adamant that it was impossible to locate individual nuggets and coins etc with such primitive technology. Only extremely large objects (eg aircraft) and differences in soil density over large areas can be glimpsed with GPR.

Don't take my word for it... here's the Double Speak sirectly from the Kellyco Page:
"Golden King (Detector) Deep Processor Radar employs very advanced software, making use of artificial intelligence algorithms on a LINUX operating system. The software interprets the structure of the target signal and other data similar to the way human logic operates."

Just garbage repeated from the manufacturer in this instance.

What a shame they sully the reputations of the other fine brands of detectors on their product list by adding Golden King to it. Would you believe that the phones are running hot with requests for this device?

If it worked as promised, the people selling it would be the only ones using it.

Nokta has just started sending unsolicited information packages to all the Detecting stores in Australia in order to convince them to start stocking their products. They are sending DVDs and color brochure packs out by signed couriers. Some stores were signing for more than two or three per day last week.

Here's an amusing post on the subject that I feel is worth quoting.
"Hi buddies,
You are talking about DPR-deep processing radar- or or a total scam of Nokta. As i m a Turkish citizen, really sorry about the purchasers of Nokta Detectors abroad. They are really making scams with a lot of huge advertisings for toys.
One guy mentioned that they went to NOKTA and tested in their field. Yes they have field with full of cheating that never resembles real ground territories.
Before with their Nokta 106 which is a scam also, they were trying inside the shop and showing to people that it detects from 2m away one gold bracalet!!! How it is possible with a simple 12,5Khz VLF metal detector?
Yes if the mentioned firm is Nokta everything with cheating is possible.

Nokta earned really huge amount of money from Turkish Tr.hunters, this is a fact. But when the day came and people came to know the detectors they made is not working as they demonstrated in ads and field they rebelled and now Nokta has a very bad name in Turkish market and not able sell detectors. So what they made?
They started to export by having some non-caring only selling targeted companies such as Kellyco and many others. Poor you are.

This Golden King or Princess is a simple VLF detector that furnished with lots of useless aspects. Nokta 106 which is a simple and very bad working VLF detector has been covered by LCD screen and put some more big coils for it.
Check it out: their all detectors work with 12,5KHZ even 10 years back one even Golden Princess. They do not have technology but money to cheat and advertise around.

...Believe me purchase one Chinese Metal Detector is better than this for depth with the same coils. ....

You know what the DPR or GPR means? Yes you know but Nokta doesn't know or want to cheat people with wordplayings. 12,5Khz and DPR!!!"

Since Turkey is the source of half of the fake Minelab, Garrett and Whites detectors (not to mention Coiltek, Minelab and Nugget Finder coils), it would be prudent to be skeptical of any claims made by Nokta.

Had a chat to Kellyco re the detector that found this big nugget...(Nokta Golden King ), they gave what I thought was an honest reply indicating that the detector will handle Australian mineral conditions and that several are being operated out here at the moment. Also that the detector is designed to locate large tatgets and although it will find gold nuggs, that is not its prime function; It is what the yanks call a treasure Locator which in America refers to large buried cache objects.
Looking at the advertising it seems to me that you get quite a lot of metal detector for the price. Yes it is made in Turkey but that does not necesseraly make it an inferior bit of technology.
it would be interesting to hear from anybody in Aussie who is or has been using one of these units and for what purpose is it being used?

Adrian SS

AdrianSS there are a number of vids on youtube showing people operating them if you have the time.
Panther

I to have been looking at these apparently marvellous deep signal machines, and i know there are some big fatties at depth that even a m/l 5000 would have little hope of locating,
Would it be fair to say the "Hand of faith" at 6 to 10 feet is out of range to a 5000 {not knowing}, yet these "Golden King" ground penetrating radar can apparently detect it. The mind boggles
at the thought of it, well we do live in an age of technical advancement and i for one aint walkin the mile with one eye closed. Would be great if someone knew someone with a
friend of a friend who thinks he has one of these machines to be able to Really check it out instead of all the Porky Pies attached. We, as a prospecting forum owe this to ourselves if
only for piece of mind.
Anyhows, just to add to the can of worms, check this utube out, me thinks the dude in the white shirt and the other in the heavy jacket (probly concealing an AK47) are in cahoots,
and that measure stick is hiding a lump of lead, especially from 2:50 on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYtHSUSqELY

Cheers, and may all ur dreams be like mine.
Picknshuffle

Maybe we can help out Tyquanium in the members finds section pay for his choppa with an endorsement from these guys....

Seems like a lot of scammers think that the lure of gold is an ever expanding market

GT

Yeah I have looked at a few of those videos and they do not demenstrate the machine very well, I would not buy on the video evidense. When you go to the trouble of producing a detector like the Gold King you would think that they could come up with a much better demo vid.

Con artists have been fooling gullible people for thousands of years.

So who's brave enough to admit they actually believe this story??

I donot necessarely believe that this particular detector works as well as it is said to work but I do know that there is Ground Penetrating radar detectors and mapping instruments that do respond very well to differing mineral densities and can go very deep into the ground depending on the frequency used and the TX power.
As far as Electromagnetic detection systems are concerned; All VLf, LF, Hf, VHF, UHF transmitters are Electromagnetic wave transmitters. Whether it visible light, Infrared Light or UV Light, Radio waves, Microwaves, Gamma rays, Cosmic Rays, they are all electromagnetic waves and can all be used for Radar purposes. So no matter what wavelength the detector is transmitting, it is technically a radar transmitter and receiver.
It does appear that the gold king transmits an intense narrow pulsed EMW into the ground and takes some time to build up an image on the comp screen.

G'day Gents.

Acan, Funny. Since when did the Americans go back to using the "Avoirdupois" system for weighing gold.I always thought that the weight of precious metals such as that of gold/platinum etc. were measured in "Troy oz"? Or have I been living in disillusionment all this time.?????

Cheers kon61.

Don't get sucked into this "last surviving USA big nugget" story Acan, the whole story is a lie. Con men have conned America. The nugget in the picture is as Aussie as I am.

You may not have been around the detecting game 20 odd years ago, but that nugget being claimed as the "Washington nugget" was NOT found in California, it was found right here is Victoria, Australia.

The rarer the find, the higher the price I guess? All the same it's wrong that one of our own legendary nuggets is being claimed by the Yanks!

There should be a law against it!

kon61 wrote:
G'day Gents.

Acan, Funny. Since when did the Americans go back to using the "Avoirdupois" system for weighing gold.I always thought that the weight of precious metals such as that of gold/platinum etc. were measured in "Troy oz"? Or have I been living in disillusionment all this time.?????

Cheers kon61.

No ya have not missed anything.

Troy Weight is the International standard for measuring gold qty in all gold transactions and is also used for silver, platinum and gemstones.
One ounce Troy = 1.09 imperial ouncs or 31.1 gms
24 grains= 1 pennyweight (dwt)
20 pennyweights= 1 ounce (oz) Troy
480 grains= 1 ounce (oz) Troy
12 ounces Troy = 1 pound (Troy)
1 carat = 1/5 gram = 3.1 grains (approx)

If somebody is measuring their gold in ounces Avoirdupois and are charging the current price per oz then they are ripping people off and commiting a crime because 1 ounce Avoirdupois = 28.38 gms

Dunnart wrote:Don't get sucked into this "last surviving USA big nugget" story Acan, the whole story is a lie. Con men have conned America. The nugget in the picture is as Aussie as I am.

You may not have been around the detecting game 20 odd years ago, but that nugget being claimed as the "Washington nugget" was NOT found in California, it was found right here is Victoria, Australia.

The rarer the find, the higher the price I guess? All the same it's wrong that one of our own legendary nuggets is being claimed by the Yanks!

There should be a law against it!

I think your right Dunnart, have a look at the "Gem & Treasure" mag May 1981 front cover has something remarkably similar, although this shows the other side compared to the "USA" one.

cheers dave

8.2 LB = 98.4 oz Troy. Not 131.2 oz?? This is avoirdupois wt. and there is 16 oz av to one pound.
So if this nugg was sold as 131.2 oz and not corrected to Troy ounces then somebody got ripped off.

Australian Nugg found in Wedderburn VIC in 1981 is similar in appearance to the 8.2 pounder but the Aussie nug weighed 256 oz Troy = 21 pound troy.

If you go back through old GG&T mags to around 1987, maybe 88, you will find this exact nugget, and it wasn't found in California. It was found right here in Victoria. Same weight, same nugget.

The "Washington nugget" story is nothing more than a lie.

G'day Dunnart, I have complete sets of GG&T from about 86 - 89 I will have to have a look.

This nugget was found in 87 by my uncle in rokewood, Victoria, Australia using a mine lab. A lot of people here know this and it is well documented and many photographs so this is going to be huge when it all comes undone for whoever is trying to make some huge $$$.

Yes Jarrod, things may get pretty heated when the truth is exposed.

Someone has paid 3 x spot price for a rare nugget claimed to be the largest surviving American slug in private collections( or something to this effect), claimed to be found last year in California.

This nugget that is being labelled the "Washington Nugget" was found here in Victoria in 1987 by a very experienced prospector, who after 30+ years is still prospecting today. Because of his rather monastic manner in which he applies his trade, he would rather not have his identity known on here or any other forum, at least not for the moment.

So if anyone has knowledge of him or his find, please PM me if you wish, but please do not expose his identity.

Once I work out how to post some pics of this nugget that have in my possession (circa 1987) I will let you make up your own mind on it's authenticity.

Here is one way of posting pics, have a bit of a look and give it a try.

https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t4882-easy-way-of-posting-pictures-on-the-forum

And here is another way.
https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t2759-posting-pictures?highlight=posting+pics

A lot of people read this forum, so you chaps would want to be very sure of what you are suggesting if the crap hits the fan because of what is being said here.

I am 100% sure mate. 100%. i will be going to rokewood pub tomorrow to see if they still have the picture and i will take a photo and put it up on here. It is dated and even has a ruler next to it, i will blur out the name though.
The original finder has it all under control and hopefully the story will break soon.

Just curious. What was the recorded weight of this nugget? I know there was a 3 kg nug found near Rokewood in 1987 as well as who found it, i don't know of other big nuggs from there although i have always thought that the country around Rokewood looked very promising for nuggs and possibly deep lead gold.
I will have a look back through my AGG&T mags tomorrow.
I know there was a big nugg knocked off in a smash n grab raid in 81(Pride Of Australia) but I think that was larger than the one that is pictured and claimed as being found by a gold king.

98.5 or there-a-bouts. It was found in 1987..

I just uploaded a few photos but something happened and it didn't work. I got a "preview', but it didn't actually make it.

I'll try again.

This photo is off USA website: http://www.mostexpensivethings.org/biggest-and-most-expensive-gold-nugget-in-the-world-in-the-10-years.html


Another USA website;
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-03-16/bay-area/28693608_1_holabird-kagin-americana-fred-holabird-coin


Finder and staff at the Railway Hotel Dunolly. Circa 1990.


Close-up.


This is photo from finder. Quality is poor because I couldn't upload it, so I took a snapshot of it.Circa 1987


Much more still to come by many people. This was a very well documented find at the time.

Sounds like the nugg I am thinking of.
Bugger!! That's it for sure. Someone is in the poo hey?

Well done mate. Saves me driving to rokewood! It's the exact same nugget!