text: As geeks, we get excited about phones that are 10 per cent faster than their competitors, and camera sensors that capture 20 per cent more light. That technological arms race is equally ferocious in the metal detector world, as crazy as that sounds, and avid hobbyists can spend serious money on new toys that they compare with their mates. Sometimes, though, it pays off — like for one (anonymous) Aussie gold-digger that found a 4.1-kilo nugget in Victoria's Golden Triangle. 
   
   Informally named "Friday's Joy", the nugget will go up for auction and is expected to net more than $250,000 — the same value that the (relatively) well-known Cindy's Pride, one of the largest single gold deposits ever found in Australia, is worth. The 145-ounce nugget was actually the second one the wisely-wants-to-remain-anonymous prospector found, but it was a damn sight larger than the 9-ounce speck that drew him to the location originally. 
   
   Looking for the tech angle? This news comes to us by way of Minelab, the Aussie company that makes the GPZ 7000 — apparently the "next level of gold detection" according to Minelab's website — and a wide range of other gold and treasure detectors. The GPZ is supposedly "equipped with Minelab’s exclusive, groundbreaking, Zero Voltage Transmission (ZVT) technology and state-of-the-art features", and "offers the deepest ground penetration and represents the most significant advancement in gold detecting technologies in years". Hey, if it's found a $250,000 piece of gold, you've convinced us. 
   
   And apparently gold detecting is a more lucrative hobby than we thought, too; a prospector called Mick Brown found a 2.7-kilogram nugget worth $175,000 that he called "Fair Dinkum" last year, also with a Minelab detector. Maybe we should hang up our keyboards and invest in a metal detector instead. [Minelab] ||||| Welcome Nugget 
   
   This massive 68 kilo (150 lbs.) gold "boulder" was discovered by a group of miners in the Ballart gold fields in Victoria, Australia on 9 June 1858. The first two miners to see the nugget fainted at the sight of it. At the time it was the largest single piece of natural gold ever found. A little over a year later, the nugget was melted down by the London mint to make gold coins, but models were made beforehand to create replicas like the one seen here. At around 2,217 troy ounces (69 kg), it remains the second largest gold nugget ever found. Because of their scarcity, large nuggets always fetch a price well above their value as precious metal. In 2013, the Welcome Nugget's gold content alone would be valued at nearly $4 million, but an actual specimen of this size and purity would sell for many times this amount. ||||| An Australian prospector has discovered a massive 145-ounce gold nugget worth more than $250,000. 
   
   Dubbed ‘Friday’s Joy’, the nugget was found with a Minelab metal detector in an already work-over area at the southern edge of central Victoria’s Golden Triangle, an area well known for yielding gold, finding the top of the nugget only around 30cm below the ground. 
   
   The prospector who found the nugget wanted to stay anonymous. 
   
   “I thought it was rubbish at first, maybe an old horseshoe,” the man said,“I was in total disbelief as I didn’t think nuggets of this size were still around.” 
   
   An avid prospector – having prospected for more than ten years – the man had an agreement with his other gold prospecting enthusiast friends to split the proceeds on any large gold item found when they went prospecting together. 
   
   Upon the find, he was unsure of what to do at first. 
   
   “It’s like catching a big fish and not knowing what to do with it,” he said. 
   
   “I washed it in water, covered it in aluminium foil and kept it in my oven on the first night.” 
   
   The man did not intend to quit his job and retire, instead aiming to buy a van and travel around Australia, sightseeing and prospecting. 
   
   The nugget is currently in a bank vault, with a replica in construction. Plans for an auction are also underway. 
   
   Minelab’s regional sales and marketing director Fraser Kendall said the company was thrilled a customer made such a discovery. 
   
   “He was prospecting in an area that others had clearly worked over and this just goes to show that there’s plenty of gold still coming out of Victoria,” he said. 
   
   Kendall added that the nugget was on par with the 159.3 ounce ‘Cindy’s Pride’, and surpassed prospector Mick Brown’s 87-ounce ‘Fair Dinkum’ gold nugget found last year near the Wedderburn, around 200km north of Melbourne; it was later auctioned for $175,000.
target: – Wednesday saw what could be the world's largest-ever pearl; Thursday, a massive gold nugget weighing in at around 9 pounds. Found in central Victoria's Golden Triangle in Australia by an explorer who wishes to stay anonymous, per ABC.net.au, the gleaming chunk of precious metal, estimated to be worth up to $190,000, was found 12 inches below the surface using what Gizmodo Australia calls a $7,600 Minelab metal detector known as the "next level of gold detection." "I thought it was rubbish at first, maybe an old horseshoe," says the prospector, who's been scouting for buried treasure in his spare time for 10 years with a group of friends, per 9News. But as he dug deeper, the finder of the nugget now being called "Friday's Joy" realized he hadn't just stumbled across some junkyard-worthy detritus. The prospector, who had found a 9-ounce gold nugget the previous day, initially wasn't sure what to do with this substantially larger find—discovered, incidentally, in a location that had already been "worked over," a Minelab rep tells AustraliaMining.com—so he rinsed it off with water, wrapped it tinfoil, and stuck it in his oven for the night. For now, the gold piece remains secure in a bank vault until it can be sold at auction, and the prospector, who has promised to split the proceeds with his metal-detecting group, is planning to use his share to buy a van so he can travel around his home continent. His lucrative new lucky charm is still far from being the world's biggest: Per the Discovery Channel, that honor goes to the 158-pound "Welcome Stranger" nugget found in Dunolly, Victoria, in 1869. (Once found in a plane toilet: 32 gold nuggets.)