A miner has unearthed the biggest gold nugget in history, leading him to secure 40 stone of the precious metal in a £10million find.
Henry Dole made the huge discovery at the Beta Hunt mine near Kambalda in western Australia.
He first found a nugget weighing 14 stone, 10 of which was estimated to be made of the precious metal. Worth about £2million, it took three men to lift the piece.
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Miner Henry Dole (second from left) is pictured with mine geologist Lachlan Kenna (first from left) as well as foreman Warren Edwards (second from right) and geologist Zaf Thanos (far right)
Mr Dole (pictured with a piece from the total haul) discovered the largest nugget of gold ever and it took three men to lift it
It beats the country’s Welcome Stranger nugget, which was previously though to be the biggest ever discovered with a weight of just under 12.3 stone.
Airleg driller Mr Dole then came across a second nugget that weighed about 9.4 stone with an estimated worth of £1.5million before uncovering even more, Daily Star reports.
The miner – who has more than 16 years’ experience – said he has seen ‘nothing like this’ in his entire career.
‘As I was drilling it, you could see the gold shavings coming out of all the holes and I thought “there’s something here”,’ he said.
‘And then after we fired it and I came in the next day and washed it all down, it was just everywhere.’
He unearthed the ‘unbelievable’ haul while working about 500 metres underground for RNC Minerals.
The total haul (pictured, top, and, below, pieces of the total find) is estimated to be worth £10millio
Diggers unearthed a huge haul of the precious metal while working in western Australia, including the world’s heaviest nugget of gold to date
The firm’s chief executive, Mark Selby, said that finding such huge nuggets was a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ moment.
Mr Selby says the discovery shows that Beta Hunt could turn out to be ‘a very large gold mine’.
Kambalda, the western Australian town close to where Mr Dole discovered the biggest nugget of gold in world history
Senior geologist Zaf Thanos said of the huge find: ‘You might go your whole life and you’ll never see anything like it.’
Armed guards will be deployed to transport the nuggets to a vault and security has increased at the mine.