A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold. Watercourses often concentrate nuggets and finer gold in deposits placers. Nuggets are recovered by placer mining, but they are also found in residual deposits where the gold-bearing veins or lodes are weathered. Nuggets are also found in the tailings piles of mining operations. Gold nuggets are usually 20.5K to 22K purity (83% to 92%). Gold nuggets in Australia often are 23K or slightly higher, while Alaskan nuggets are usually at the lower end of the spectrum. Purity can be roughly assessed by the nugget color, the richer and deeper the orange-yellow the higher the gold content. The common impurities are silver and copper, and nuggets high in silver content constitute the alloy
While nuggets have been found on many goldfields around the world, those from Victoria were particularly large and abundant. From the time of the first goldrushes in the early 1850s, No one knows how many nuggets were found. During the late 1800s, the Mines Department compiled an official list of discoveries and also made models of some of the large nuggets. By the time the reporting system ceased in about 1910, 1300 nuggets over 20 ounces had been recorded. However, almost certainly many more nuggets were found than were recorded, as many discoverers avoided publicity for fear of being robbed. None of the large nuggets found during the goldrushes survived, as all were quickly melted down.
Here is an discovery The biggest gold nugget in the world :1. Welcome Stranger Nugget
The world's largest nugget was found just a couple of inches below the ground near Dunolly, Victoria, Australia on 5 February 1869. Welcome Stranger nugget weighing in at 2,315.5 troy ounces (72.02 kg) The Stranger gold nugget was discovered by John Deason and Richard Oates just 2 inches below the surface near a root of a tree in Bulldog Gully. Due to the size of the nugget it could not be weighed on any scales at the time and had to be broken down into 3 smaller pieces. And then the nugget was soon melted down into ingots and shipped to the Bank of England. In this 1869 illustration published shortly after the discovery, the size of the nugget (61 by 31 cm or 24 by 12 in.) is compared to a 12 inch (30 cm) scale bar. Before 1990, just about all large nuggets were melted down for their monetary value. Today there are less than a dozen known nuggets over 500 ounces. One replica of the "Welcome Stranger" nugget can be found at the City Museum in Treasury Place, in Melbourne, Victoria. The other replica is owned by descendants of John Deason.
2. Welcome Nugget
The Welcome Nugget was the name given to a large gold nugget, weighing 2,217 troy ounces 16 pennyweight. (68.98 kg) The original 'Welcome Nugget' was discovered on 9 June 1858 by a group of miners in the Ballart gold fields in Victoria, Australia
. At the time it was the largest single piece of natural gold ever found. A little over a year later, the nugget was melted down by the London mint to make gold coins, but models were made beforehand to create replicas like the one seen here. At around 2,217 troy ounces (69 kg), it remains the second largest gold nugget ever found. Because of their scarcity, large nuggets always fetch a price well above their value as precious metal. In 2013, the Welcome Nugget's gold content alone would be valued at nearly $4 million, but an actual specimen of this size and purity would sell for many times this amount.
Models of the Welcome Nugget were made and distributed to the Geological and Mining Museum in the Rocks in Sydney, and the Museum of Victoria, as well as the Powerhouse Museum, who purchased models of the Welcome Nugget. Models are also a feature of two displays in Ballarat, the Pioneer Miners (Gold) Monument on the corner of Sturt and Albert Streets in Ballarat Central and at The Gold Museum opposite Sovereign Hill at Golden Point. In the United States, a Replica of the "Welcome Nugget" is exhibited in the Mineralogical Museum at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
3. Pepita Canaa Nugget
The Canaã nugget, also known as the Pepita Canaa, was found on Sept 13, 1983 by miners at the Serra Pelada Mine in the State of Para, Brazil. Weighing 60.82 kilograms (134.1 lb; 2,145 oz), it is among the largest gold nuggets ever found,and is, today, the largest in existence. The main controversy regarding this nugget is that the excavation reports suggest that the existing nugget was originally part of a nugget weighing 5,291.09 ounces (150 kg; 331 lb) that broke during excavations. The Canaã nugget is displayed at the Banco Central Museum in Brazil along with the second and third largest nuggets remaining in existence, weighing respectively 1,506.2 ounces (42.70 kg; 94.14 lb) and 1,393.3 ounces (39.50 kg; 87.08 lb), which were also found at the Serra Pelada region.
4. Blanche Barkly Gold Nugget
The Blanche Barkly gold nugget discovered In August 1857, by Robert , James Ambrose , Samuel and Charles Napier and this gold nugget , weighing in at 1,743 oz ( 49.41 kilograms ) . The Blanche Barkley nugget was found at a depth of 13 feet, and within 5 feet or 6 feet of holes that were dug three years before.
5. Precious Gold Nugget
Precious gold nugget discovered 5 january 1871, by Ah chang and party , this gold nugget weighing in at 1,717 oz ( 48.67 kilograms ) . The 'Precious' nugget was originally obtained at Catto's Paddock, Berlin (now Rheola), west of Bendigo in Victoria. Depth from the surface, 12 feet. Gross weight, 1717 03. Approx. value, 6868 sterling pounds.
6. Canadian Gold Nugget
Gold was first discovered in Ballarat on the rise above Canadian Creek at the base of Poverty Point aka Golden Point in late August (21-24th) 1851. Reports in the Geelong Advertiser instigated the first rush to the Ballarat Diggings. The Gold Commissioner exercised authority over the newly arrived diggers and friction over mining licences and policing rankled many miners, especially those who could not afford the fee.
Canadian gold nugget discovered 31 january 1853 in Canadian Gully , by D, and J. Evans, J, Lees, W. Poulter and W.F.Green , this gold nugget weighing in at 1,319 oz ( 37.39 kilograms ) . Canadian gold nugget was found at a depth of 55 to 60 feet (17 to 18 m).
7. Lady Hontham Gold Nugget
Lady Hontham weighs 1,177 oz (33.66 kilograms ). and that the nugget had been found by Mc Donald, Irwin, Cock , Radcliffe, McPhillamy, Day, Lyons and Bryant. 8 September 1854. A nugget only 8 dwt. lighter than the last-named (which was known as the Lady Hotham) was discovered in Canadian Gully, Ballarat, at a depth of 60 feet, amongst quartz boulders and wash dirt going an ounce to the ton.
8. Great Triangle ( aka The Big Triangle )
Great Triangle ( aka The Big Triangle ) which is the largest gold nugget weighs 1,157.6 oz ( 36 kilograms ). Chief Curator Gapanyuk specified that the nugget had been found by one Nikofor Syutkin, a prospector. The nugget was found in 1842 at Tsarevo-Alexandrovsky placer in the Urals location in Ural Mountains. Great Triangle gold nugget its shape approaching the rectangular triangle with the size of the other two sides 27.5 and 31 cm. Nugget thickness of an average of 8 cm is a more or less flat, complex shape of the rock crystal gold.
9. Golden Eagle Nugget
Golden Eagle nugget weighing in at 1136 oz., found by sixteen year old Jack Larcombe on January 8th, 1931 in Larkinville, Western Australia. The nugget required two men to lift it and was given the name Golden Eagle gold nugget due to its resemblance to a bird.
10. Sarah Sands Gold Nugget
"The Sarah Sands" nugget was also found at Canadian Gully, Ballarat on the 20th January 1853. It was at a depth of 60 feet and weighed 1,117 oz (31,66 kg). It was associated with quartz. Sarah Sands gold nugget discovered by J.W. Gough, F.J.Sulley and J. Bristow
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