02/12/2015
February 13, 2015 RSS - SocietyXinjiang herdsman finds 17 pound gold nugget
Xinhua 2015-02-08 08:59 (GMT+8)
The 17 pound gold nugget. (Photo courtesy of Chinaneww.com)
The 17 pound gold nugget. (Photo courtesy of Chinaneww.com)
A herdsman in China's far western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region found a 17 pound (7.85 kilogram) gold nugget that was "practically lying on the ground."
The Kazak herdsman, Berek Sawut, from Qinghe county in Altay prefecture made the extraordinary discovery around 5pm last Friday. The estimated price for such unexpected luck, assuming the nugget is 80 percent pure (nuggets are usually 80%-90% percent pure), is a whopping 1.6 million yuan (US$255,000) based on latest gold prices.
Zhu Xinfeng, a local expert said the price of natural gold, considering its uniqueness, is often several times higher than that of standard gold.
The random-shaped nugget is about 23 centimeters long, 18 cm on its widest side and 8 cm at its thickest.
A gold nugget is a naturally produced irregular piece of gold, and is most frequently found through mining. The name Altay means gold in Mongolian. A 1.84 kg gold nugget was also found in Altay in 2010.
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