![]() It was purchased by the Golden Nugget Casino in the USA and is on display in their casino lobby in Las Vegas, Nevada.Īustralia also lays claim to the fourth largest gold nugget – the Normandy Nugget. The Hand of Faith was found in 1980 in Kingower – located in the famous Victoria region of Australia – and was discovered with a metal detector. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons. Weighing 27.66kg, the Hand of Faith had 875 troy ounces of gold and would be worth £1,162,875 by the current 2022 gold price. Still in existence today though is the Hand of Faith. Throughout the 1850s produced several large nuggets: The Welcome Stranger, the Welcome Nugget and the Lady Hotham are just some of Australia’s biggest gold nuggets found. Russia is still one of the largest gold producers in the world to this day, with the country mining 272.3 tonnes of gold in 2017.Īs mentioned above, Australia has produced some of the biggest gold nuggets ever found. The nugget is owned by the Russian state, and is on display as part of the ‘Diamond Fund’ collection at the Kremlin in Moscow. The Great Triangle weighs 36.2kg, and has 32.94kg or 1,059 troy ounces of gold, giving it a metal spot value of £1,407,411. Given it is still the world’s largest nugget, one can only imagine how impressive it might have been were it removed whole.įound in the Russian Urals in 1842, the Great Triangle is considered the second largest gold nugget still in existence. Is controversial in that the original nugget was reportedly much larger, but split into several pieces during its removal from the ground. These two would be worthy of their own places on this list but, being unnamed by Brazilian authorities, remain confined to anonymity. The museum also contains two other, unnamed nuggets weighing 46.85kg and 43.34kg respectively, which were also mined in Serra Pelada. The Canaan gold nugget was purchased in 1984 by the Banco Central do Brasil, and is now displayed in their money museum in Brasilia. With a gross weight of 60.82kg and containing 52.33kg of gold, this equates to 1,682 troy ounces and would be worth £2,236,942 based on metal value alone at today’s gold price. The Pepita Canaã is the world’s largest gold nugget and was found in the Serra Pelada – the ‘Naked Mountain’ – in Brazil in 1983. Many such gold nuggets have sadly passed into legend and can no longer be seen.īelow we have listed the top 5 named gold nuggets that still exist today and can be viewed. This appears to be the biggest gold nugget ever found, but over the thousands of years of human history it is possible that a bigger gold nugget could have been found. ![]() Today it would likely be displayed in a museum, but the Welcome Stranger was instead divided into three parts in order to make it easier to transport and melt down. Weighing 78kg, this gold nugget was found in Australia in 1869. Many of the largest gold nuggets ever found no longer exist making it difficult to validate them and ensure accurate measurements.įor example, the ‘Welcome Stranger’ is often considered to be one of the biggest gold nuggets ever found. What is the biggest gold nugget ever found?Ĭhoosing the 5 biggest gold nuggets is more difficult than might first be imagined. The most common impurities in nuggets are silver and copper but, if high enough amounts are present, the nugget will then be considered as Electrum. Gold nuggets are usually of around 80% to 90% purity and those of higher fineness will have a richer, deeper gold colour. Nuggets that are removed from lodes directly, by careful mining, are usually still crystalline in nature, and often contain quartz or other lode matrix materials. Gold nuggets that have been eroded will typically exhibit smoother edges as evidence of their exposure to water. This happens by one of two methods erosion or mining. The weight, the unique shine and – of course – the high value, all make finding a big gold nugget a once-in-a-lifetime moment, and it is that windfall or lottery moment that makes these gold finds so interesting.Ī gold nugget is a fragment of gold that has been removed from its original lode. The idea of finding a lump of the dense precious metal is the dream of many prospectors. The discovery of one of the world’s biggest gold nuggets always sends shockwaves of excitement throughout the mining world, but it entices the general public too.
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