What's a gold nugget?

It does sound delicious doesn't it? :) It's kind of what the word implies. It's a naturally occurring chunk of gold that can be mined through a placer mining process. It's never completely pure gold. gold nuggets usually range from 83% to 92% pure gold. The nuggets retrieved in Australia usually have a higher percentage of gold, and those found in Alaska have a lower percentage. The color of the nugget is a good indication of the percentage. If it has more of a yellowish orange hue - that menas the percentage of gold in the nugget is higher. Another common way of talking about how pure a gold nugget is is by referring to its fineness. If a gold nugget is referred to as "910 fine," that means that 910 parts of one thousand are gold. So it's another way of refereeing to the percentage. Usually, the rest of the nugget, that is the impurities in the nugget which are not gold are either silver or copper. If there is a lot of silver within a gold nugget, it is often know as an electrum, which is the name for a naturally occuring gold and silver alloy. In 1869, the biggest gold nugget ever found to date was discovered in Victoria, Australia. It weighed over 2520 troy ounces, which translates into more that 78 kilograms. It was named the Welcome Stranger and it was discovered by John Deason and Richard Oats. Then, much more recently, in 1980, the biggest gold nugget that was ever discovered by a metal detector was also found in Victoria. It was named "Hand of Faith."

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