| A California man recently dug a spectacular gold | | | | gold, experienced prospectors in the western US |
| nugget weighing 5.17 ounces in the mother lode | | | | and Australia are having some considerable |
| region of Mariposa County, California. The | | | | success finding rich nugget patches missed by the |
| gentleman who found it made his discovery while | | | | old time miners of the 1800s. The recent |
| using a metal detector to look for gold nuggets in | | | | increases in the price of gold, now standing at |
| an area previously worked by the 49ers. The | | | | nearly $700 per ounce, has spurred the interest |
| finder valued his amazing chunk of gold at | | | | of many in pursuing the recreational art of |
| approximately $10,000 because of its beautiful | | | | prospecting for gold, and many are still heading to |
| specimen quality. The nugget was resting beneath | | | | the hills to see what they can find. |
| about one foot of soil, and was recovered in late | | | | Mariposa County is a historic location in the |
| April of 2007. Several friends have been working | | | | foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range at |
| this area with excellent results, and a good | | | | the southern end of California's Mother Lode |
| number of valuable finds have been made. Only a | | | | region. The town of Mariposa is a popular tourist |
| few weeks before this most recent stunning find, | | | | attraction, touted as the "gateway to Yosemite |
| another nugget, over three ounces in weight, was | | | | Valley". There are a number of other popular |
| recovered only about 50 feet away from the | | | | family oriented tourist attractions in the area as |
| spot the five-ounce nugget was found. The | | | | well, including California's State Mining and Mineral |
| location is on private property, and is not open to | | | | Museum. The collection contains mining artifacts, |
| the public. Locations containing concentrations of | | | | rare specimens of crystalline gold in its many |
| large nuggets like this one are known to | | | | forms, as well as beautiful gem and mineral |
| prospectors as "nugget patches", and finding them | | | | specimens from California and around the world. |
| is the goal of prospectors everywhere. | | | | This includes the Fricot nugget, a 200-ounce |
| Modern metal detectors are proving to be quite a | | | | crystalline gold specimen from California, thought |
| boon in recovering large gold nuggets, as the old | | | | to be one of the most beautiful pieces of natural |
| time prospectors had no tool in their arsenal that | | | | gold in the world. The town also allows gold |
| was anything close to it. Although there is work | | | | panning in Mariposa Creek, which runs through the |
| and special skills required to find this type of big | | | | town. |