![]() | #1 - Welcome Stranger The Welcome Stranger is the biggest recorded alluvial gold nugget known. It had a calculated refined weight of 3,123 oz and was discovered by Cornish prospectors John Deason and Richard Oates on 5 February 1869 at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, about 9 miles (14.6 kilometres) north-west of Dunolly. | ![]() Replica |
![]() | # 2 - Pepita Canaa The title of the largest known nugget still in existence goes to a nugget found at the Serra Pelada minesite in Brazil in 1983 by Julio de Deus Filho. Known variously as the 'Canaa Nugget' and 'Pepita Canaa Nugget', it is displayed in the Banco Central do Brasil's museum. Its gross weight is 60.82 kilograms with a gold content of 52.332 kilograms or 1,682.5 Troy ounces. | ![]() |
#3 - Golden Eagle nugget weighing in at 1136 oz., found by sixteen year old Jack Larcombe on January 8th, 1931 in Larkinville, Western Australia.![]() | ![]() |
![]() | #4 - Newmont's Normandy Nugget. The world’s 2nd largest existing gold nugget is the Normandy Nugget. It was discovered in 1995 in a dry creek bed near Kalgoorlie, Australia and weighs in at 899 oz. Currently its on display at the Perth Mint in Australia. #5 - Hand of Faith nugget weighing in at 875 oz. It was found in 1980 in Wedderburn, Australia using a metal detector. It currently resides at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas. | ![]() |
![]() | The "Boot of Cortez" is one of the most unusual nuggets in the World, and at 389.4 ounces Troy (32.4 Troy pounds), it is the largest surviving placer nugget discovered in the Western Hemisphere. The solid gold nugget was found in the Mexican Sonora Desert near the Arizona border in 1989. It was found by a local prospector using a metal detector he bought at Radio Shack. The nugget sold for $1,853,500 in Dallas in 2008. | ![]() |
![]() | The largest gold nugget ever found in Alaska is named the Alaska Centennial Nugget at 294.10 Troy Ounces. It was found near Ruby, Alaska in 1998 by a miner as he operated his bulldozer. The nugget rolled off the pile of dirt ahead of the bulldozer blade. It is the second largest nugget ever found in the Western Hemisphere behind the Boot of Cortez. | ![]() |
![]() | The Fricot Nugget is crystalline gold that was found by William Russell Davis in 1865. It was discovered while mining at the Grit Mine at Spanish Dry Diggin's in El Dorado County. It weighs 13.8 pounds (6.25 kg) and is the largest surviving crystalline gold nugget from the California Gold Rush era. | ![]() |
![]() | An amateur prospector discovered a huge gold nugget with an estimated value of more than $300,000 in Australia's Victoria state in 2013. The nugget weighing 177 ounces, or 5.5 kilograms was unearthed with a metal detector just outside Ballarat in a popular area for prospecting. | ![]() |
![]() | In early 2015 Berek Sawut, an ethnic Kazakh sheep herder, was taking an evening rest near the mine in China's northern Xinjiang region when he found a 17 pound nugget "practically lying on the bare ground." It was found in the region's remote Altay Prefecture area. | ![]() |
![]() Former Marine and disabled Vietnam veteran Terry Hughes recently hit the mother lode: an 8.7-ounce gold nugget. |
![]() | ![]() The 6.07-pound “Butte Nugget” sold for $ 400,000 in 2014. |