Gold Fever in Australia

The price of gold is today around US $ 1592 per ounce. This is due to the large amount of new paper money being printed these days. Here in Australia where around 266 Tonnes of gold is mined annually there is still a lot of gold about. Most of the gold is found deep underground.

However there is still alluvial gold to be found near the surface in many places. Wind and water erosion is continually changing the surface of the landscape. New developments in metal detector technology make it possible to sniff out gold buried 2 feet or more below the gound. It is proving to be well worth while to go over ground previously examined by fossickers equipped with more primitive models. In January 2013 a 177oz ( 5 kilo) nugget was found and in 2011 a 112 oz (3.7) nugget was found. Prospecters are often a little reticent about their finds so no doubt a lot of smaller nuggets are also being found. The New York Times  a couple of years back reported on the Aussie gold fever and it shows no sign of abating.

Sometimes nuggets are even found on the surface,

Sometimes a little digging is required.