For a student with a summer job working on a Belgian building site, \u201cmoney down the drain\u201d has taken on a whole new meaning: excavating the trenches for a sewage system, he stumbled across a hidden trove of gold worth an estimated \u20ac9m (\u00a38m).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe suddenly saw something lying there,\u201d 18-year-old Kobe told the Belgian news network VTM<\/a>. \u201cAt first I thought it was \u20ac1 coins. So we started digging them up. Then we saw a gold bar. It turned out to be a bit more than we thought.\u201d<\/p>\n The student, who has not been further identified, was working with colleagues on the site of a former brewery on Van Langenhovestraat in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, about 19 miles (30km) north-west of Brussels, when they made the discovery on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The hoard was stashed in a bag in a bricked-in cellar wall beneath the grand villa. Photograph: Facebook\/Dendermonde Local Police<\/p>\n The hoard, which includes gold coins, nuggets and numbered bullion bars, was stashed in a bag in a bricked-in cellar wall beneath the grand villa originally built for the brewery\u2019s owner, Theophilus Van Assche, in the late 19th century.<\/p>\n Kobe said: \u201cIt\u2019s just not something you expect when you\u2019re working on a regular Tuesday morning,\u201d adding that the treasure trove appeared to have been deliberately hidden. \u201cIt was really bricked in there \u2013 not in a safe or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Brewing on the site began in 1899 and ceased in 1970, and the listed property \u2013 the wrought-iron gates of which still bear the initials \u201cVA\u201d \u2013 is being completely renovated by the social welfare organisation CAW Oost-Vlaanderen to create new offices and housing.<\/p>\n The trove included gold coins, nuggets and numbered bullion bars. Photograph: Facebook\/Dendermonde Local Police<\/p>\n