A huge nugget of gold, nicknamed the Devil's Ear because of its peculiar shape, was found by miners in Siberia on Friday 13th, as a full moon shone over Russia. Depending on its purity, it may be worth £180,000 ($300,000).
- Precious lump was cast aside by a sifting machine at the Ukhagan mine
- Fortunately, nugget was spotted by a worker while he was levelling a pile
- Named Devil's Ear due to shape and the fact its 6.66kg weight features the 'devil's number'
- Miners are hoping to find more gold nuggets in the Bodaybinsky district
- Devil's Ear is around ten times smaller than the world's largest nugget, Welcome Stranger, which weighed in at 72.02 kg (158.78 lbs)
'Even the giant nugget's weight seems sinister - including three sixes - 6.664kg (14.69lb)' reported The Siberian Times.
Depending on its purity, this would make the nugget worth around £180,000 ($300,000).
'The nugget was found on Friday 13 June, coinciding with a full moon,' said a statement by local officials.
The nugget was found by an eagle-eyed worker at the Ukhagan mine in the Irkutsk region's Bodaybinsky district in Siberia. Miners are now hoping to find more gold nuggets in the region.
They admitted that the mine's machinery, meant to identify gold, cast the find aside.
'A worker, who started to level the pile, found the nugget.'
Now there is added excitement at the Siberian mine. Such finds rarely come singly.
'If there is one, there will be a second and it is possible that very soon the Devil's Ear will have a brother.'
Sergey Kozlov, Ugakhan director, said: 'The nugget was found in a new mine that according to preliminary estimate doesn't have that much gold.
'Now the miners are very hopeful that an old saying 'one nugget never walks alone' will work for them again.
'But first we will have to check the dropouts more carefully - to see what else the clever equipment threw away.'
The Welcome Stranger Nugget is thought to be the biggest gold nugget ever found.
Weighing in at 72.02 kg (158.78 lbs), it was more than ten times the size of the Devil's Ear nugget.
World's Largest Gold Nugget
The Welcome Stranger Nugget is largely thought to be the world's biggest gold nugget ever found.
Weighing in at 72.02 kg (158.78 lbs), it was more than ten times the size of the Devil's Ear nugget recently found by miners in Siberia.
It was discovered near Dunolly, Victoria in Australia on 5 February 1869. The nugget was 61 cm (24 inches) wide. This compares to the Devil's nugget which is 21 cm (8.3 inches) wide.
Soon after it was dicovered, the nugget was melted down into ingots and shipped to the Bank of England.
There is a story of a miner who found a large nugget, somewhere in the Middle Ages, in Russia, near a lake.
When he went to sell it, nobody wanted gold, because it was a famine year, and food was everything.
In disgust, he went back and threw it in the lake.
I see that this was found in the neighborhood of Lake Baikal.
Hmmm......
btw...I'd say that's at least 900 fine if not 950 fine gold in that picture.