The Mojave Nugget is a large

gold nugget A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of Native metal, native gold. Watercourses often concentrate nuggets and finer gold in placer deposit, placers. Nuggets are recovered by placer mining, but they are also found in residual deposits wher ...

found in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. It was found in the Stringer district near Randsburg by prospector Ty Paulsen in 1977 using a

metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. A metal detector consists of a control box, an adjustable shaft, and ...

. The nugget, which weighs , is part of the Margie and Robert E. Petersen Collection of gold nuggets that was donated to the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are par ...

. As of 2022, the bullion value of 4.9 kg of gold is approximately US$400,000. The collection contains 132 pieces of gold and has a total weight of more than .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mojave Nugget Gold nuggets Natural history of the Mojave Desert Metal detecting finds in the United States 1977 in California