Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People Read Free Page A

much gold was discovered here in just the first four
years? Over 170,000 pounds or 77,000 kilos. Among this massive load
of gold were several very large nuggets.

    By
1868, the town was huge. There were over 64,000 miners working for
over 300 mining companies. The last mine closed down in 1918 and the
busy little mining city slowly diminished down to practically
nothing. According to the Ballarat Historical Society, over
20,000,000 troy ounces of gold were mined and recovered from this
area.

    Like
many great treasure stories, a lot of the details of this incredible
find are secret. The prospector is simply known as “Bill”
and the exact location of the find is only known by a few lucky
people.

    Bill
made his lucky find in some really dense foliage. Trees and large
clumps of bushes are always difficult to detect. How are you
supposed to get your coil up under all the branches and leaves?
Because of this, most people choose to ignore these areas. Bill did
not, and he was well rewarded for his efforts because deep under a
gnarly mess of thick brush is where he discovered what he would call
“Destiny.”

    Destiny
weighs in at 8 pounds or 3.66 kilos. That is one big nugget! You can
see the Destiny nugget for yourself at the following web address:

    http://www.piecesofvictoria.com/international/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/The-Destiny-Nugget.jpg

    What Kind of Metal
Detector Was Used?
    While
a lot of the details surrounding the discovery of Destiny are closely
guarded secrets, there is one very important detail that is right out
in the open. Bill was using a Minelab GPX-5000 metal detector when he
found his monster nugget. Good on ya mate!

    What Happened to the
Destiny Nugget?
    As of
this writing, the Destiny nugget is on loan to Sovereign Hill where
it is proudly being displayed. Here are the details.

    Sovereign
Hill
    39
Magpie Street
    Ballarat,
Victoria
    3350
Australia

    Website: http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/

    Telephone:
03 5337 1199

    What Can We Learn From
This Amazing Find?
    Once
again it seems that persistence pays! Ballarat was a huge mining city
that produced tons of gold, but when those veins ran dry, people
vanished. There is always treasure to be found no matter how hard an
area has been previously hunted. Bill also did something no one else
did. He hunted for gold in a place that everyone else ignored.
Destiny was found in some dense, thick brush.

The Ausrox Nugget
    Australia seems to be
leading the way when it comes to big gold nuggets being found with a
metal detector. This last gold nugget find proves that point. This
story takes place just outside of the townsite known as Ora Banda.
The name roughly translates to, “Band of Gold.”

    Gold
was discovered in this area way back in 1893. The area grew and by
the year 1910 there were just over 2000 mining families living in the
area. Life was not easy for the miners. It was not like they had five
star accommodations.

    The
Ora Banda Hotel which was constructed in 1911 would become the
centerpiece for the town. If the walls of this hotel could talk,
there would be countless stories worth listening to.

    For
just over 40 years, the entire area boomed with the discovery of
gold, but by the late 1950s things came to a standstill and the
centerpiece hotel closed its doors. In 1981, the hotel was restored
and reopened. Now it is a popular tourist attraction and a great
place to grab a nice cold beer and some authentic local eats.

    Today,
there are still several gold mining companies working in the area.
They are still locating gold, but the mining companies would not be
the ones to locate an impressive monster nugget that tipped the
scales at over 62 troy pounds. That is just over 51 pounds or 23
kilograms. Three local prospectors using metal detectors would be the
lucky ones to make this find. Take a look at the Ausrox Nugget.

    Photo
courtesy the Houston Museum of Natural Science

    What Happened to This
Impressive Nugget?
    Much
of this incredible find is being