AUSSIE MAN MAKES INTERNATIONAL NEWS WHEN HIS DISCOVERY AUCTIONS AT A RECORD BREAKING PRICE

 

Has any of your hobby ever led you to make tons of money overnight? Before you begin brainstorming, we are not talking about pursuing a hobby that one might turn into a career. A gold prospector from Melbourne, Australia was just wondering around a site all alone with his metal detector in hand when his equipment detected something that changed his life forever. Read this once in a lifetime story of this man and how pursuing a hobby in leisure time made him ridiculously rich, that too overnight.

Gold Prospectors

Professional gold prospectors are often skeptical as they are well aware of metal detectors and their property of making exciting sounds only to find an old penny or simply a metal piece of no real value.. However, if prospecting gold were to be a walk in the park, people would quit their 9 to 5 and pursue the activity rather than working all day to meet their ends. Prospecting gold needs patience and a lot of money is spent to avail the resources required to meet the standards and not all the prospectors share similar objective.

Different Reasons

While many pursue the act of gold prospecting as a career and solely rely on their findings to meet their ends and lead their life. However, there are a few who do it thoroughly out of love and rather take the act as a hobby. From going out alone with their metal detector to searching potential sites with their friends over the weekend, there’s a lot that separates these prospectors. The reasons might differ but what matters the most to everyone is catching the big fish, and to do so one has to throw a big bait.

Expensive Equipment

Even in general, we get over excited about buying that newly launched smartphone which is only 10 percent better than its competitor. It may sound a bit extreme to a few people, but these prospectors are always willing to spend some serious amount of money on those brand new metal detectors to get the better of their rivals or say, competitors. Fortunately, there are times when the investment in these new toys pay off well as this Aussie gold-digger would soon make history with the help of his metal detector.

The GPZ 7000

The hobby of gold prospecting can cost a decent amount to your pocket if you ever think of pursuing it. The Minelab GPZ 7000 metal detector which spotted the Friday’s Joy is quite expensive. It is priced at a whopping $8000, however, the anonymous man and his group that discovered Thursday and Friday’s Joy feel that what they discovered with the help of this incredible tool was certainly worth their money.

Aussie Gold Rush

Australia is a hub of gold and the Victoria Gold Rush alone lasted for more than a decade beginning from 1851 and ending in the late 1860s producing enormous prosperity for the locals, the reason for which was the discovered goldmines in the region. Moreover, the largest gold nugget to have ever been discovered was found right here in Victoria in the year 1869 which also marked the end of an era…

The Largest Gold Deposit

Even the biggest gold nuggets would look like marbles in front of the great gold nugget that was discovered in 1869. This one weighed at 173 pounds, yes you read that right! Pounds, not ounces. The great gold nugget was entitled as the ‘Welcome Stranger’ and it still remains the largest gold nugget to have ever been discovered. Although this great discovery happened hundreds of years ago, the golden triangle would soon make the headlines again.

Golden Triangle

Even after centuries, Victoria is still a cynosure in the world of gold mining. Australia alone exported gold worth $13 billion in the year 2016. Moreover, Victoria alone consists of 2 percent of the total gold present on the planet. The golden triangle had been thoroughly explored and no one would bet on this anonymous man to find a 4.1 kg gold nugget but when he did, he took the whole city by storm as the location where he discovered it was too close to the golden triangle. But he hadn’t been always this lucky.

Not As Easy

Like any other job, the arduous task of gold prospecting has both its pros and cons. Nothing is certain in the world of gold-digging and there are people who spend years looking for a relic or a gold nugget but all they are left with at the end of the day are empty pockets. This anonymous man had been exploring these potential gold sites in Australia for years but his never-give-up attitude eventually worked in his favor.

A Man Has No Name

For the reasons best known to him, the miner kept his identity a secret and the anonymous man explained how he doubted his metal detector back in August 2016 and thought that it was good for nothing. Why wouldn’t he? After years of strenuous efforts and trusting his metal detector, he had only found rust and dirt and he wasn’t expecting much from his stars on that day as well, until…

A Leisure Activity

Prospecting is a full-time job for many who pursues it but there are also people out there who just do it over the weekends or in their leisure time utterly out of passion. This anonymous man belonged to the latter as he would often hang out with his friends and look for gold. While they had never expected much from their hobby, the group of friends had made a pact to equally distribute the value of their findings among themselves if anyone of them ever happened to get their hands on something big. Well, now was the time.

An Opening

This man was out there on a Thursday at the site, just a day before discovering the 4.1 kg gold nugget. You’ll be surprised to know that the 4.1 kg gold nugget wasn’t his only discovery as he had found an opening a day earlier. What the anonymous man discovered a day earlier is nothing in comparison to the 4.1 kg gold nugget but it inspired him to come back again on the next day and the rest is history.

Thursday’s Joy

On Thursday, he had discovered a baseball-shaped nugget of gold that weighed about 9 ounces and that much bling is worth a whopping $10,000 that would be enough for anyone to at least celebrate. He decided to name it Thursday’s Joy but don’t let the value of this baseball-sized nugget distract you from the fact that the “Friday’s Joy: the 4.1 kg gold nugget” is the real deal here as it is worth way more than a not so huge amount of $10,000.

Can’t Discern

Only a day prior to discovering the enormous gold nugget, the anonymous man had found a gold nugget that resembled a baseball in terms of its size and shape. By the looks of it, lady luck was at his side as he had somehow discovered 2 gold nuggets within a span of 48-hours. Having said that, there came a point when he misinterpreted the gold nugget for something that would probably make you laugh.

Old Horseshoes

“I thought it was rubbish at first, maybe an old horseshoe,” he told Minelab, the metal detector manufacturing company that makes the metal detector this anonymous man used on that particular day. However, he didn’t mind taking a look at it as prospecting was more of a pastime to him and he didn’t stress much about the value of his findings. Having said that, he would soon stumble upon something that would change his life.

An Incredible Sight

“About 12 inches below the ground, I could just barely make out the top of something. I really couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. Although this gold prospector had caught a mere glance of this strange object, it was enough for him to tell that it was something more than an old piece of rusting metal. Was the shining piece was what he thought it to be or was it going to be another let-down?

The Wait Is Over

As it transpired,  “This wasn’t an old piece of steel in front of me. I had just unearthed a colossal gold nugget–a once-in-a-lifetime find! I was in total disbelief as I didn’t think nuggets of this size were still around.” The anonymous man was later relieved to know that it was nothing but a gold nugget and he did the right thing by digging through the surface. Optimism can certainly take you places.

A Colossal Gold Nugget

It wasn’t an old horseshoe this time and the anonymous man was in for a big surprise. It was a massive gold nugget and it was big enough that the mining community decided to make a replica of it to further showcase it in a museum. What will be the first thing you would do if you were to stumble upon a gold nugget that’s worth a gazillion in dollars? For now, this anonymous man just wanted to celebrate before making the final decision.

Friday’s Joy

The cheeky name “Friday’s Joy” that the anonymous man gave to his newly found gold nugget is a nod to his previous discovery. The gold prospector explained that he is not at all a professional and he rather intends to keep his daily job for a living. Searching for gold comes to him more as a hobby that he pursues with a group of friends. He and his buddies made a deal to equally distribute anything they discovered among the members of the group.

Cindy’s Pride

Friday’s Joy was the bigger catch and it weighed quite heavy at 145 ounces, which is equivalent to eight pounds, more or less. It was more than enough to classify it as a huge nugget and it is almost about the same size as Cindy’s Pride. Cindy’s Pride is a nugget which was discovered in the year 1985. The nugget is by far the biggest find in the history but Friday’s Joy is somehow worth more. We’ll tell you how …

The Actual Worth

Cindy’s Pride was even heavier than the Friday’s Joy as it weighed an astounding 174 ounces. This huge gold nugget sold for $66,000 back in 1985 and the price of gold is way more than what it used to be. The amount that this anonymous prospector can expect for his Friday’s Joy would be somewhere over $180,000. That’s how much eight pounds of gold is worth today. However, he can make more money given the history of such gold nuggets.

A Rare Occasion

What makes this gold nugget so attractive to the buyers is its very size, It certainly isn’t 1851 anymore and it is quite rare to stumble upon a gold nugget of such size. What’s more startling is the fact that such gold nuggets can rack up twice as much as their original value during the auctions for the simple reason. This implies that Friday’s Joy can manage to make $500,000 which is twice as much the market value. Someone’s getting rich pretty soon.

Still Hot

The Golden Triangle still has a lot of gold left in it. It was four years ago when a prospector stumbled upon a gold nugget that had almost the same size as that of Friday’s Joy. It weighed almost 3.7 kilograms and was named the Destiny gold nugget, it was eventually sold at an auction for $292,000 in the year 2014.

A Few Beers

What would be the first thing you do if you were to stumble upon a huge gold nugget? Need some time to think maybe? These Aussie guys decided to knock a couple of cold ones before brainstorming. “It’s like catching a big fish and not knowing what to do with it!” the prospector told Minelab. “Where do we put it? I washed it in water, covered it in aluminum foil and kept it in my oven on the first night.”

Touring The Nation

Ultimately, the nugget was locked inside a bank vault before selling it at the auction. The first thing the anonymous prospectors wishes to buy is a van to go on a driving tour of Australia. He would certainly grab his metal detector and explore exotic places to discover what the ground yields.

A Historic Find

Fraser Kendall, the director of Minelab’s marketing and sales division,  described it as an incredible find. “We’re thrilled that a Minelab customer has made such an amazing and important discovery,” he said. “[He] was prospecting in an area that others had clearly worked over and this just goes to show that there’s plenty of gold still coming out of Victoria.”

A Viral Story

Anything remotely important or say sensationalizing ends up being on the internet and this story was no exception. It was not an everyday story and the news of this man finding an enormously big colossal gold nugget went viral over the internet in no time. Many online media platforms and other sites published this story and the audiences were quite interested in knowing the intricate detail of this gold-hunting expedition.

In The News

How could the story of a man finding gold worth $250,000 not make it to the news? While the story was already all over the internet, more people were aware of this incredible discovery via local news channels that featured this story. Moreover, Minelab couldn’t just throw this opportunity away and they were doing all in their power to sell this story that could very well help them in business.

Thanks To Minelab

The anonymous man thanked Minelab in an interview and stated “I would still be searching without getting my hands at anything valuable if I hadn’t changed my old good for nothing detector and replaced it with Minelab’s GPZ 7000. The company has entitled its device as the “next level of gold detection” on their official website. The GPZ is apparently “equipped with Minelab’s exclusive, groundbreaking, Zero Voltage Transmission (ZVT) technology and state-of-the-art features”. In a nutshell, it’s the best in class.

Rise In Sales

Minelab came out to be the bigger winner amid everything that happened. The monthly sales rose up to $190,000 when it turned out that there were more people other than this anonymous man who had used the Minelab metal detector in their successful hunt for gold. Moreover, Minelab claimed to have adopted more advanced technology in their new metal detector and it has discovered a $250,000 worth of gold, we are more than convinced.

A Lucrative Hobby

Gold prospecting is apparently more lucrative than we might think. Many people have made a career out of it and the rest have at least discovered something valuable. A man named Mick Brown from Australia discovered a 2.7 kg nugget which further sold for a massive $175,000. It was last year when he stumbled upon a gold nugget with the help of his Minelab metal detector and named his discovery “Fair Dinkum.” By the looks of it, we should immediately get off our computer screens and instead invest in a metal detector.