An Australian television star and gold hunter has shown off one of the world’s rarest gold nuggets before pocketing thousands.
Tyler Mahoney, who presents the Gold Rush show on the Discovery Channel, bought the ‘once in a lifetime find’ from a prospector who unearthed the nugget in Clermont in Queensland’s central highlands.
The 22g Inca nugget, as it is known, is a hopper crystal – a crystal in a pyramid shape – in almost perfect condition that later sold for a phenomenal $15,000.
The West Australian was left speechless by the nugget’s beauty, which she said was about 92 per cent pure.
‘I’m holding one of the world’s rarest gold nuggets. I will never ever hold anything like this again, and I’m a gold digger. I do this for a living,’ Mahoney told her 22K TikTok followers.
‘When I saw a photo of this, my jaw dropped to the floor.
‘This is insane, It is one of the rarest types of gold nuggets in the world. It’s called the Inca nugget.’
‘It was found in Queensland by a local prospector, and it’s an almost perfect hopper crystal.’
Getting her hands on it was not a done deal when the Queenslander contacted her, though – she went up against another prospector in a bidding war for it, which she won.
The 22g Inca nugget (pictured) is a hopper crystal – a crystal in a pyramid shape – in almost perfect condition that later sold for a phenomenal $15,000
Mahoney did not reveal what she paid for it, but said ‘If I had found something like this (myself), I would have never got over it.
‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime find, this is a collector’s edition nugget.’
Mahoney told her followers that most gold nuggets are rubbed smooth as they travel through waterways, which made this uniquely-shaped nugget such a prized rarity.
‘This just does not occur in nature like this, those perfect straight lines, almost perfect rectangle,’ she explained.
‘Shapes like that don’t occur in nature and that’s what makes it so rare.’
Tyler Mahoney (pictured), who presents the Gold Rush show on the Discovery Channel, bought the ‘once-in-a-lifetime find’ after a prospector in Queensland discovered it
Tyler Mahoney auctioned off the 22g Inca nugget, which sold for $15,000
Though she loved owning and showing off the gold nugget, she decided to put it up for auction, giving people around the world a chance to own the special piece.
It fetched an eye-watering $15,000 – after a starting bid of $8,500 – which Mahoney revealed in reply to a question about its worth on social media.
She didn’t however disclose how much she originally paid the Queensland prospector for it in the first place.
Impressed viewers were awestruck by the precious nugget.
‘I’ve never seen a gold form like that,’ one commented.
Another added: ‘That’s absolutely amazing!! never seen anything like it!’
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