A miner has unearthed the biggest gold nugget in history, leading him to secure 40 stone (250kg) of the precious metal in a £10million find.
Henry Dole made the huge discovery at the Beta Hunt mine near Kambalda in western Australia.
He first found a nugget weighing 14 stone (90kg), 10 of which was estimated to be made of the precious metal. Worth about £2million, it took three men to lift the piece.
It beats the country's Welcome Stranger nugget, which was previously though to be the biggest ever discovered with a weight of just under 12.3 stone (78kg).
Airleg driller Mr Dole then came across a second nugget that weighed about 9.4 stone (60kg)with an estimated worth of £1.5million before uncovering even more.
The miner - who has more than 16 years' experience - said he has seen 'nothing like this' in his entire career.
'As I was drilling it, you could see the gold shavings coming out of all the holes and I thought "there’s something here",' he said.
'And then after we fired it and I came in the next day and washed it all down, it was just everywhere.'
He unearthed the 'unbelievable' haul while working about 500 metres underground for RNC Minerals.
The firm's chief executive, Mark Selby, said that finding such huge nuggets was a 'once-in-a-lifetime' moment.
Mr. Selby says the discovery shows that Beta Hunt could turn out to be 'a very large gold mine'.
Senior geologist Zaf Thanos said of the huge find: 'You might go your whole life and you'll never see anything like it.'
Armed guards will be deployed to transport the nuggets to a vault and security has increased at the mine.
Henry Dole made the huge discovery at the Beta Hunt mine near Kambalda in western Australia.
He first found a nugget weighing 14 stone (90kg), 10 of which was estimated to be made of the precious metal. Worth about £2million, it took three men to lift the piece.
It beats the country's Welcome Stranger nugget, which was previously though to be the biggest ever discovered with a weight of just under 12.3 stone (78kg).
Airleg driller Mr Dole then came across a second nugget that weighed about 9.4 stone (60kg)with an estimated worth of £1.5million before uncovering even more.
The miner - who has more than 16 years' experience - said he has seen 'nothing like this' in his entire career.
'As I was drilling it, you could see the gold shavings coming out of all the holes and I thought "there’s something here",' he said.
'And then after we fired it and I came in the next day and washed it all down, it was just everywhere.'
He unearthed the 'unbelievable' haul while working about 500 metres underground for RNC Minerals.
The firm's chief executive, Mark Selby, said that finding such huge nuggets was a 'once-in-a-lifetime' moment.
Mr. Selby says the discovery shows that Beta Hunt could turn out to be 'a very large gold mine'.
Senior geologist Zaf Thanos said of the huge find: 'You might go your whole life and you'll never see anything like it.'
Armed guards will be deployed to transport the nuggets to a vault and security has increased at the mine.
Music: "Laser Groove" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: Daily Mail, ABC, The West
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