In the outback of Australia’s historic goldfields, Vicki Plumridge jumps for joy when she pulls a small nugget of gold from the earth.
The retired former shop assistant was learning to use her new metal detector when it started beeping near the moss-covered ruins of a building. After Plumridge dug the nugget out of the shallow earth with a plastic shovel, a guide estimated that it weighed about 0.2 grams of gold, worth about 40 Australian dollars (US$26.58).
“But it’s worth a million dollars to me,” said the 63-year-old, who had purchased the metal detector just a few days earlier. “My heart sings.”
Plumridge’s story is becoming increasingly common, as enthusiasts flock to Australia’s 9,600 sq km “golden triangle” in the heart of Victoria, known as one of the world’s most promising regions for gold nuggets.
Prospectors have been spurred by record gold prices, social media, the success of the Aussie Gold Hunters television program and a love of the outdoors, according to Reuters interviews with a dozen gold miners.
Plumridge’s metal detector, Minelab’s Gold Monster 2000, purchased for A$2,999, sold out across the country within weeks of its launch on October 20, according to Leanne Kamp, co-owner of Lucky Strike Gold, a gold prospecting equipment shop in Geelong.
“It’s a very competitive price and we’ve seen a big increase in sales this year, partly because the price of gold has attracted everyone’s interest,” said Kamp, who has been leading gold exploration tours since 2007.
“We have a lot of international customers. Some Germans are coming next week. The Germans love gold. The Swiss also seem to love gold. And we will have some Americans too,” he added.
The chance of finding nuggets at historic sites improves with each new generation of metal detectors, which is why there is a rush on new models as soon as they are launched, he pointed out.
WORLDS BIGGEST NUGGETS
Enthusiasts flocked to 19th-century gold rush towns like Ballarat, which laid the foundation of Melbourne’s early wealth and helped make Australia one of the world’s three largest gold producers.
The region has yielded the world’s largest nugget, the 72kg Welcome Stranger, found in the 1860s, as well as the Hand of Faith, the largest nugget found with a metal detector, 27.2kg in 1980. As of February 2023, an amateur prospector discovered a 4.6kg nugget in the region with a detector, according to the state government.
The lure of large nuggets is one of the attractions for Damian Duke, 39, who works in construction. Duke went gold panning with his father, who passed away three years ago. Now he brings his son Ethan with him.
The 11-year-old inherited his grandfather’s detector and Duke recently upgraded his car, he told Reuters.
“With today’s prices, there really is a chance of finding a life-changing piece of gold,” he said.
Gold has set consecutive new records this year, surpassing US$4,500 a troy ounce on Friday. Goldman Sachs expects prices to reach $4,900 by the end of 2026, with further increases likely if private investors continue to diversify their portfolios amid geopolitical and fiscal uncertainty.
In Victoria, prospectors must purchase a permit from the state government. The permit allows them to pan for gold only with hand tools and to keep all gold found.
Demand for mining permits, which cost A$28.60 each and have a term of ten years, has reached record levels, reaching almost 16,000 in November, up from almost 11,000 last year, according to data from the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action provided exclusively to Reuters.
In total, there are over 100,000 active mining permits in Victoria.
The dream of wealth may push people to get started, but they stay for the psychological benefits of focusing on the search, being outdoors and connecting with others, searchers said.
“It’s really good for your mental health being out here. You get immersed in nature, you can’t think about anything else – I love looking at all the wildflowers,” said Kelly Smith, a 50-year-old from the rural town of Koondrook, who was panning for gold with her partner during a training session organized by the Maryborough Gold Centre.
“You’re not guaranteed to find anything. But you sure as hell won’t find anything if you don’t look.”
GLOBAL PHENOMENON
Victoria’s latest gold rush is part of a larger phenomenon, said Ben Harvey, executive general manager of Minelab at Adelaide-based Codan, which is the world’s largest maker of portable metal detectors.
Beyond Codan’s communications division, strong sales of metal detectors in both the Australian domestic market and in Africa and the Americas have helped double the company’s share value this year.
In Africa, demand is driven by artisanal miners working in cooperatives to improve their living standards, Harvey explained. In Latin America, there is also recreational interest from enthusiasts searching for coins and other treasures, he told Reuters in an interview.
Behind the success is Codan’s engineering team’s commitment to improving the technology and reducing background noise, allowing prospectors to focus on the gold, he added.
“What a prospector is looking for is to go out, find gold and find more than he found the last time,” he concluded.
($1 = 1.5049 Australian dollars)
(Editing by Melanie Burton and Hollie Adams; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
