The largest gold nuggets in the world

Native gold

Throughout almost the entire history of mankind, gold has always been a symbol of success, wealth and prosperity. Because of this seemingly useless metal, betrayals and murders were committed, wars were started and entire empires were crushed. Man has always been attracted and fascinated by the shine of gold, especially native gold. Native gold, or gold nugget, is a piece of gold that formed naturally in nature and was found in natural conditions.

Nuggets

Most often, nuggets are found in sedimentary rocks. The vast majority of nuggets found are of very modest size and weigh several tens or hundreds of grams, but there are also real giants among them.

Arab chronicles of the 11th century mention a nugget found on the territory of modern Afghanistan, the size of which was determined as “elbow to elbow”. A gold nugget of this size would weigh approximately two tons. Unfortunately, it is not possible to verify this fact today. The largest documented gold nugget in the world was discovered in the Star of Hope gold mines in Australia. The nugget was a slab measuring 144 cm by 66 cm and 10 cm thick. About 83 kg of gold “accumulated” on this slab, consisting of quartz. Because of its peculiar shape, the nugget was called the “Holtermann Plate”; unfortunately, it was later melted down into metal.

Australian gold

Australia is undoubtedly the leader in the size of gold nuggets found here. Thus, in 1857, the “Brilliant Barkley” nugget, which weighed 54.2 kg, was mined at the mines of Australia, in 1858 - the “Desired Stranger” nugget, weighing 69 kg, in 1868 - the “Desired Stranger” nugget, which weighed 71 kg . Also in 1868, in the gold mines of Australia, prospectors extracted the “Canadian 1st” nugget weighing 50.4 kg; later the “Canadian 2nd” weighing 40 kg was found. Another giant among nuggets was found in 1901 in Japan, on the island of Honshu. He was named "Japanese" and weighed 71 kg.

The largest nugget found in Russia

The largest nugget found in Russia was mined in 1842 near the Miass River in the Urals. The nugget weighing 36 kg was called the “Golden Triangle”. It is still kept in the nugget collection of the Diamond Fund of Russia and is the largest surviving gold nugget in the world, because, unfortunately, most of the large nuggets were melted down into metal for one reason or another.

Of the latest finds, a nugget weighing 33 kg, found in the mines of the Khabarovsk Territory in 2003, deserves attention, which also replenished the treasury of the Diamond Fund of Russia.