\u201cWe\u2019ve got a gold panning area for everybody to access just outside of town. You will find gold, it\u2019s a designated fossicking area – but the larger pieces like that are not found very often these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
He estimated the nugget could sell for around $25,000, given both its size and rarity. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not unrealistic today for a large piece of gold,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe larger nuggets do have a premium because they\u2019re just so rare to find. They always hold their value, so a piece like that is quite collectable.\u201d<\/p>\n
With gold prices climbing, the timing couldn\u2019t have been better. <\/p>\n
\u201cGold was trading at $7025 an ounce this morning,\u201d Eden said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s had significant gains in the last couple of years. It\u2019s just one of those things, like a house in Queenstown – it just keeps going up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eden said the find had left the prospectors \u201cabsolutely rapt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine if you found it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to pay off your mortgage or buy you a section, but it\u2019s definitely a boost. Once they sell it, it might pay off the credit card.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the discovery was a reminder for would-be gold hunters to stick to legal fossicking zones.<\/p>\n
The prospectors found the nugget at a claim near Arrowtown, a historic gold mining town and popular tourist destination near Queenstown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there are designated fossicking areas around New Zealand, it is an offence to start fossicking on somebody else\u2019s claim,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve got a claim, it\u2019s cost you a lot of money to buy and maintain it. If somebody comes along and helps themselves – that\u2019s stealing, and it is a punishable offence.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that the 70g nugget was found in a legal claim by the lucky prospectors – though they would not be disclosing its location.<\/p>\n
Arrowtown remained one of the best places in the country for beginners, Eden said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur town has a two-kilometre fossicking area, which is huge,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great place to bring the kids, a very safe river, perfect for a picnic or a swim. And you might just find a bit of gold as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019ve got a gold panning area for everybody to access just outside of town. You will find gold,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8990,79986,79984,6326,11424,71,79989,4241,305,21520,29155,39084,111,139,79987,69,13792,8205,8244,9095,7812,213,20705,79985,79988,19985,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-111760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-8990","9":"tag-70g","10":"tag-arrowtown","11":"tag-biggest","12":"tag-finds","13":"tag-from","14":"tag-gleaming","15":"tag-gold","16":"tag-have","17":"tag-hills","18":"tag-hunters","19":"tag-location","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nugget","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-pair","25":"tag-rare","26":"tag-recent","27":"tag-secret","28":"tag-seen","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-struck","31":"tag-unearth","32":"tag-unearthing","33":"tag-worth","34":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}