One of the few existing pictures of the Golden Eagle Nugget before it was melted down.

A gold nugget found during the time of the Great Depression… it still remains one of the largest single pieces of gold ever found anywhere in the world, and the largest still in Western Australia.

The official weight was 1136 troy ounces, which converts to 95 troy pounds, or roughly 78 pounds in the standard “avoirdupois” pound measurement that most people use for weights.

Gold in Western Australia

The occurrence of gold in the vast outback of Western Australia is certainly no secret to those interested in mining history. This is one of the richest mining regions in the country (the other being Victoria’s Golden Triangle).

That certainly isn’t to say that a discovery like the 1136 ounce Golden Eagle Nugget, as it came to be known, was anything but a life changing surprise for its finders. A miner named Jim Larcombe and his son are credited with the discovery.

Will Others be Found?

Only a few nuggets of this caliber have ever been found since that we are aware of. The Boot of Cortez in Mexico, the Hand of Faith in Australia, and handful of other nuggets even come close to this size. Both of those were found with metal detectors, a technology that didn’t exist back in the days when the Golden Eagle was discovered.

Metal detectors may be the primary reason why I still believe that there is a bigger nugget out there somewhere still yet to be found. This technology allows prospectors to search more area than they ever could before.

There certainly aren’t many left that are this big though. Historically, there have only been a few gold nuggets that broke the 1000 troy ounce mark. Nearly all are believed to have come from Australia. Other big nuggets have come from Brazil, but they were specimens of gold within hard rock, not clean pure gold nuggets.

Check out this video about the discovery: