Who did not dream to find the largest gold nugget in the world? Some statisticians claim that every inhabitant of the planet has more chances to find a gold nugget than to win in the lottery. Despite the rarity of this metal in nature. Who is lucky and what is the largest gold nugget found in the world?
Bit of theory
Native gold is a piece of rock that has formed in natural conditions unchanged, with an admixture of silver, copper, other metals and weighing more than 5 grams. Gold nuggets are formed in sedimentary rocks of the geological shells of the earth. Truly giant nuggets, most of very modest sizes and masses, are rarely found.
Why gold?
It would seem that gold is a rather soft metal. Durable parts cannot be made from it; it is used mainly in jewelry workshops. But by value in the history of civilization he has no equal. And all because it is very small on the planet - only one billionth of the metal is contained in the earth's crust.
Unverified Data
To begin with, we turn to unconfirmed data about the largest gold nugget in the world. These are facts about which there is no documentary data, but only descriptive ones.
In ancient Arabic chronicles there is evidence of a gold nugget the size of an elbow per elbow (an ancient measure of length). The place of find is Zaruban, on the lands of present-day Afghanistan. It is estimated that with such dimensions its weight would be somewhere around two tons. Somehow I don’t really believe it, right?
Although sources indicate two nuggets weighing about two tons and 960 kg, respectively, found in 1145 in the Czech Republic.
There are descriptions that, having fallen from a ship sailing from the New World to Spain, another giant nugget sank. Here are just no data about its weight.
There is evidence that in Brazil in the XIX century a gold nugget was found, weighing 200 kilograms. But then where is he?
Described and captured giants
The first largest gold nugget in the world, photos of which are preserved, was found in Australia. The Bayers and Holterman company, which was developing the vein in 1872, discovered a piece of quartz weighing 250 kg, on which a layer of gold had grown. Called the Holterman Plate, today it is the largest gold nugget in the world, weighing 83 kilograms. It really looks like a stove, and its photographs, fortunately, have been preserved.
Lucky John Deason and Richard Oates two years later in a nearby mine found a nugget that weighed 72 kg, and his photographs also reached us. In contrast to the nugget itself, which even failed to really weigh - there were no corresponding weights. That is why it was divided into pieces and now different sources are confused in its exact weight (from 93 kg to 72 kg).
Australia continues to lead the ranking of places of discovery of such a natural formation as the largest gold nugget in the world. Although the largest gold deposit (25-50% of the total world production) is located in South Africa and is called Witwatersrand.
It is impossible not to mention at least two. In Victoria, the “Welcome Stranger” was found weighing 70.9 kg. A legend is associated with this find that it was discovered just on the road when the wagon's wheel broke.
Another one, Oliver Martin, was found by a gold seeker when he buried a partner. His weight was 36.6 kg, and the enterprising Oliver (just that prospector) not only sold it for almost 23 thousand dollars, but also earned half of this amount at the shows of the find.
However, all these wonderful finds were sawn, chopped, re-melted and sold. Only now it became apparent that their price would have been much higher if they had been preserved in their original form.
Preserved Natural Miracle
The third largest gold nugget in the world that has managed to survive is the Big Triangle. It belongs to the Diamond Fund of Russia. A natural ingot weighs 36 kg. This is a find of 1842 on the Mias River, the territory of the Urals.
I would like to mention the nugget of the Russian collection - Mephistopheles. He invariably delights the audience with his exact coincidence with the profile of the character of the same name and weighs 20.25 grams.
Russia has the largest collection of gold nuggets in the world, the exposition of which was opened in 1967. It showed the world about 100 nuggets, whose total weight is more than 100 kg.
Throughout the existence of mankind and the development of civilization, gold attracted us with its splendor and magic. It forced the knights to do crazy things, desperate to go to the ends of the world. The most stubborn at the end of the journey were expected surprises and not always the ones they desired. But faith and hope did not leave the daredevils.