After seven years of searching for lost items with his metal detector, an Australian father has finally unearthed a nugget of gold worth up to $100,000.
Luke Phillips was using his metal detector in bushland in Ballarat when he came across a nearly 150-year-old mine hole dating back to the Victorian gold rush era and set to work to find out if there was anything valuable inside.
After a day of finding only tiny particles of gold, he decided he might as well run his detector over a rotting, moss-covered tree trunk near the mine that was emitting a small, faint signal from his device.
“It wasn’t until I rolled the log out of the way that I could hear the signal better,” he told 9News. “Often you dig deeper and deeper, hoping and eventually you find an old rusty nail, a horseshoe or a lead ball.”
Instead, he dug up the 868 gram gold nugget.
“It was an exhilarating feeling – I knew this was a once in a lifetime moment. This moment will stay with me forever,” said Phillips.
Big gold nugget will change a family’s life
Phillips has reportedly sold the nugget since finding it in May, and while the sale price is confidential, it could have likely fetched six figures, as nuggets of this size often sell for a higher price.
The discovery and the resulting sale price have “changed” Phillips’ life after he had to give up full-time work several years ago for health reasons. He said the gold will be “a huge help” to his family.
“It’s obviously not something I’m going to spend my retirement on, but I can use it to pay a few bills and put a little bit towards the mortgage or buy a car,” he said.
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