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The "Welcome Stranger" was the name given to the largest gold nugget ever found and recorded. It measured 61 cm by 31 cm and was discovered by John Deason and Richard Oates at Moliagul, western Victoria, Australia on 5 February 1869 about 9 miles north-west of Dunolly and half-way between Maryborough and St Arnaud. It was found only 5cm below the surface on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully and it weighed 2316 troy ounces or 72.04 kg. The finders were paid £19,068. The Welcome Stranger is not the same as the "Welcome Nugget" found in Ballarat in 1858 which was the largest single nugget prior to the discovery of the Welcome Stranger.
However, larger than this is the Beyers and Holtermann nugget, the largest single piece of reef gold ever discovered in the world. The Beyers and Holtermann nugget was, strictly speaking, not a nugget, but what is called a matrix. Weighing in around 286 kilograms(about 630 pounds), it measured 150cm by 66cm, and was worth at least £12,000 at the time it was discovered, in October 1872. It was discovered by workers at the Star of Hope Gold Mining Co on Hawkins Hill, at the Hill End goldfields in New South Wales, Australia.
As to reef gold, gold sometimes appears as a "vein" included in rock, frequently quartz. In this case it was a quartz reef. By removing the rock around the vein, the gold included in that vein can be recovered in one piece. And that was the case with the Holtermann Nugget.
What is currently the largest nugget on display is probably the Hand of Faith Nugget. This 875 troy ounce (61 pounds, 11 ounce) nugget was discovered in 1980 by the use of a metal detector. It was buried some six inches below the surface of the ground near Wedderburn, Australia, about 40km north of Moliagul, where the Welcome Stranger was found.
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What was the biggest pure gold nugget ever found?
The Welcome Stranger is the biggest pure gold nugget ever found, discovered in Australia in 1869. It weighed a whopping 2,284 ounces (about 158 pounds) and was valued at the time of discovery at around $10,000.
What is the biggest amount of gold that has ever been found?
The largest nugget of gold ever found was the Welcome Stranger nugget, discovered in Australia in 1869, weighing approximately 2316 troy ounces (72 kg).
What is the biggest gold nuget in the world?
The largest gold nugget ever found is the Welcome Stranger nugget discovered in Australia in 1869. It weighed a staggering 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg) and measured about 24 inches long.
Who found the pride of Australia gold nugget?
The "Pride of Australia" gold nugget was found by a prospector named Rafael Selman in 2016 in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. Weighing 3.23 kilograms, it is one of the largest gold nuggets ever discovered in the region.
How heavy was the heaviest gold nugget found in Australia?
The heaviest gold nugget found in Australia is the "Welcome Stranger," discovered in 1869 in Victoria. It weighed about 2,520 troy ounces (78 kilograms) and remains the largest nugget ever discovered.
