I was working an area in the Golden Triangle when I found a shallow and solitary 2.2g gram nugget. After spending the rest of day carefully detecting the area to no avail, I decided to give up on that location and try elsewhere. A few months had passed and having only found a few small nuggets at other locations, I decided to go back and have another detect in the area I found the 2.2g nugget. 4 hours passed and I had only dug junk targets, an old bottle cap and a few shotgun pellets. There were few recent unfilled holes around which I also covered up. I was quite lazily wondering around when I got a booming signal from the GPZ 7000. It was quite shallow and I thought it was going to be more surface rubbish. Never leaving a target in the ground, I kicked the leaf litter to the side and swung the detector over the target, it was still in the ground. Becoming slightly more interested but defiantly not convinced, I upholstered my pick and took about an inch of soil off the surface and tried again. The target was still in the hole and the Zed was overloading. After finding that 2.2g nugget a month prior, I knew the ground was shallow, so I started to think there is a chance this may be a nice nugget. I set up my camera in a neighbouring tree to capture the dig on film. I took another few inches of soil off the top and the target was still in the hole, so I got my pin pointer out and found it was now in reach of the Profind35. I put the GPZ aside and kept working with the pick, digging around the target to ensure it not damaged. After clearing the hole of loose soil with my bare hands, the pin pointer was telling me we were close to the target. After unsuccessfully testing a few handfuls of soil with the pin pointer, I finally hard the target in my hand. It took a second to process what it was, but I saw that glimmer of yellow and then it confirmed. It was not junk this time, but a nice big gold nugget. Huge in-fact. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was a monster. I was over the moon and could barely contain my emotions. As prospectors, we spend countless hours, days, years searching for gold, and when you uncover a huge nugget after all this time and hard work, it is an indescribable feeling, a feeling that you never get sick off. After a few excited phone calls to friends and family, I sat down by myself and took it all in, admiring what I just discovered. After those few minutes of admiration, I filled in my hole, put the nugget in my top pocket, because it was too big for my gold container, and got straight back into it. The only difference now was that I had a huge smile on my face and I weighed 153 grams heavier. It was a very memorable moment and one I will never forget.
J Gold - Victoria, Australia
