The 145-ounce gold nugget found late in August was “absolutely genuine” and “absolutely from near the Golden Triangle” in central Victoria, says Minelab Metal Detectors’ sales and marketing director for Australia and New Zealand Fraser Kendall.
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The “news” of the huge nugget sparked debate about how fortuitously the find coincided with the approach of school holidays and whether it was timed simply to promote prospecting equipment sales.
Some Ballarat gold experts who The Courier spoke also doubted its provenance and believed it was sourced from outside the state.
The veil of secrecy common around gold finds however makes it difficult to establish the veracity of the claims.
Mr Kendall from Minelab Metal Detectors on the other hand was adamant the gold was found recently.
“Apart from the legal aspects of being a publicly-listed company, and having to comply with laws about proper process regarding what we say publicly, releasing a fake find is just something that we wouldn’t do ethically,” said Mr Kendall.
“I can understand there’s a lot of speculation about these finds, and some conjecture.
“But there are hundreds of finds every day, and social media escalates them. There’s really a huge interest in this. It’s just that this find was so big we felt it was worth a media release.”
Mr Kendall said his company is often are asked not to reveal the location of a find for obvious reasons.
“People do invest a lot of energy and money in making these finds, and it’s understandable if they would prefer to keep it to themselves in some way.”
Ballarat prospecting specialist Mark Day of E.E.Day agrees that miners and prospectors can be sensitive about the locations of where they are working, and about the outcomes of finds as well.
“You can often hear stories of good friends who prospect together and then become enemies because one went out when the other wasn’t there, or one jumped his claim,” said Mr Day.
“Some people like to keep their finds to themselves. Other people like to publicise it, get on Facebook; and social media is really a big thing that people are doing with gold.”
Mr Day says he strongly recalls the first big nugget he saw, when he was travelling with his father Col in the early 1980s in Kilmore, picking up detectors from a supplier.
“He pulled out a big nugget wrapped in a tea towel, and I remember holding it and thinking it was a rock.
“Many years later I discovered it was the Hand of Faith.”
