An amateur prospector recently decided to go looking for gold in a field near Ballarat, Australia. Mainly because the field is a popular place that has been searched by prospectors for 162 years . . . although most people assumed that all the gold there had already been found. 

But the guy brought his trusty metal detector, kept at it, and on Wednesday, his patience was rewarded . . . in a BIG way. He found a gold nugget that weighed TWELVE POUNDS . . . which is the biggest gold strike in the area in more than 20 years.

The price of gold is currently more than $1,600 an ounce . . . which means that his gold nugget is worth more than $300,000.