Aussie's incredible outback find worth $35k: 'Once in a lifetime'

An Aussie armed with a metal detector has made a remarkable discovery near an iconic outback town with one expert describing the find — worth a whopping $35,000 — as 'once in a lifetime'.

Tyler Mahoney, a gold prospector from Kalgoorlie in WA, said her mate found the rare 230g gold nugget with 95 per cent purity along with numerous smaller nuggets from the same patch of ground near the gold mining town — making him a very rich man.

"He had a really good day out," Mahoney, a fourth-generation prospector, told Yahoo News Australia. "Back in the day, old-time prospectors would find nuggets like this often, but these days it's getting harder and harder to find. It's becoming once in a lifetime.

"Without machinery, it's even harder so finding this with only a metal detector is pretty impressive, it's as good as it gets."

Western Australia has a rich history of gold mining dating back to the 1880s, with the first gold rush sparked by the discovery of the 'Golden Mile' at Kalgoorlie in the 1890s. But finding large nuggets such as this one is becoming increasingly rare.

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Booming gold market reaches all-time high

Mahoney, a dealer through her company Prospectors Club, said she bought the nugget off her mate to help him sell it and it was sold within "three minutes of having it in my hands".

"They're getting so rare that as soon as a big one pops up, I have a long list of buyers," she explained. Mahoney said this particular nugget went to an investor in Queensland who would keep it in a safety deposit box.

"Investors aren't putting them out on display, they're buying them as an investment to hedge against inflation," she explained.

She added that the price of gold is "really good" right now which has "created a buzz" around the sought-after commodity, which has long been considered a store of wealth. In August, gold set a new all-time high price of AU$3,700 and many experts predict it will continue to rise well into 2025, making investors all the more desperate to get their hands on it.

Mahoney, who grew up digging for gold with her family, said that while it's rare to come across such big nuggets anymore, aspiring prospectors shouldn't give up.

"It's such a great hobby," she said, encouraging Aussies to "give it a go".

Aussie dad's 100k discovery near historic site

Mahoney's mate isn't the only Aussie making valuable and rare discoveries. Earlier this month, a dad made a life-changing find — unearthing a gold nugget worth $100,000 in bushland near Ballarat in Victoria.

Luke Phillips came across an almost 150-year-old miner's hole dating back to the Victorian gold rush and after a day of only finding tiny flecks of gold, he decided he might as well run his detector over a rotted, moss-covered log, which gave off a small and faint signal from his device near the mine. It was there he found the 868-gram gold nugget.

Have you made an amazing and rare find? We'd love to hear about it. Email News Editor Courtney at courtney.greatrex@yahooinc.com

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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