Aussie dad's life-changing $100,000 find
After seven years of hunting for lost items with his metal detector, one Vi dad has struck gold - unearthing a nugget worth about $100,000.
Luke Phillips, who shares metal-detecting videos on his YouTube channel Dig It Detecting, recorded the moment found the nugget in the Goldfields region.
Phillip initially found tiny flecks of gold in the 150-year-old miner's hole dating back to the Victorian gold rush. It was when he decided to run his detector over a moss-covered log that he heard a faint signal.
He rolled the log over and thought he might actually be digging for a horseshoe before repeatedly exclaiming “oh my god” as he realises it was something much bigger.
“This is probably the deepest target I’ve ever dug for gold,” Phillips said in the video.
“Holy smokes! Mate, we didn’t dig that far for no reason,” he says to his friend, Andrew, as they unearthed the nugget.
“Holy smokes, if we didn’t get a gram before we’ve certainly got it now.
“Holy f***, look at it!”
Phillips then joked his friend would not need his glasses to see the nugget.
“I’ve never witnessed or seen or experienced something quite like this,” Phillips said. “I didn’t expect to see gold. That is so cool.”
Phillips continued to excavate a larger hole, and couldn't hide how astonished he was.
“I never thought I would see this day where I was going to unearth a nugget,” he said.
“It’s like an egg ... that’s like a freaking egg.”
He took the nugget home where he cleaned it and weighed it at 868.4g.
He has reportedly sold the nugget since finding it back in May, and although the sale price was confidential, it was likely to have been sold for a six-figure-price.
"It was an exhilarating feeling — I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. That moment in time will be with me forever," Phillips told 9News.
The discovery and sale of the gold nugget has been "life-changing" for Phillips after he had to stop working full time due to health issues a few years ago.
He said that the nugget will help out his family in a "big way".
"It's not something I'm going to retire on, of course, but it will pay some bills off and we can put a bit on the mortgage, or buy a car," he said.
Images: YouTube