It Took Months to Get Their Mining Permit. It Was Worth the Wait

Family members find 2 gold nuggets worth at least $250K in Australia
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2020 9:00 AM CDT
It Took Months to Get Their Mining Permit. It Was Worth the Wait
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/bodnarchuk)

It was an exciting episode Thursday of Aussie Gold Hunters on Discovery, with a family find that could soon make them several hundred thousand dollars richer. Prospector Brent Shannon searches for gold in Australia with his brother-in-law Ethan West as the "Poseidon Crew," and West says he has unearthed thousands of small nuggets over the past four years or so. But they managed to recently excavate a much bigger golden chunk near Victoria's Tarnagulla—in fact, two chunks, in the same day, per a Discovery Channel press release cited by CNN. The two nuggets weighed 7.7 pounds together, and their value is estimated at $250,000.

That price could jump by up to 30% if a private collector takes the nuggets off their hands. Per People, Shannon told the Aussie morning show Sunrise that, working with West's father, Paul, they used an excavator to dig up a bunch of dirt, spread it out over the ground, and then scan it with metal detectors. "We can recover more gold that way, and it's a better way to do it and a safer way to mine," he said. It took the men months to get the permit to dig in this area, and the section they were in had never been mined before. "Nobody has seen these pieces of gold for millions of years and we're the first people to lay eyes on them," Shannon said. "To have two large chunks in one day is quite amazing." (More gold stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X