A giant gold nugget was recently found in Northern California’s historic Gold Country and it’s going up for sale.
The mammoth item weighs in at 6.07 pounds and is expected to carry a price tag of $350,000.
The Butte nugget was discovered by an unnamed prospector who asked dealer Don Kagin to keep his name private.
The giant gold nugget was found in July on public land in the Butte County mountains. Most public lands in California allow for prospecting.
rare-minerals expert David McCarthy told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was blindfolded and taken to the site so he would be satisfied the nugget was genuine.
The giant gold nugget was found in July but it won’t make its public debut until Thursday at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show.
The Butte nugget is actually relatively small for the Butte County area, in 1859 a prospector pulled out a 54-pound piece of gold. However, it has been decades since a rock over six pounds has been discovered in the area.
While gold mining operations most often require thousands of dollars in equipment and teams of workers these days, this prospector used a metal detector to find his prize.
At first the giant gold nugget was believed to be a pipe or other piece of junk that would interfere with further prospecting. It was as dug up to the surprise of the seller.