There is a cast replica of the nugget at the Western Australian School of Mines’ Mineral Museum in Kalgoorlie.īridge, Peter J., The Eagles Nest. Today a collector would pay a hefty premium for such a spectacular specimen.Īt today’s gold price (June 2022) it would be worth $2,652,000 and with a premium of 20% the Golden Eagle would be worth more than $3.1M. In the early days of gold mining, it was simply the gold content alone that determined the value of a nugget. The Larcombes sold the nugget to the State Government for £5,438, the equivalent of $530,000 today (2022). The discovery of the Golden Eagle during the Great Depression caused a rush to the Widgiemooltha area. Other diggers nearby reportedly heard a ‘terrific yell’ from Larcombe and rushed to the scene to find the teenager ‘staggering about with a massive slab of gold in his arms’. On the day of the momentous find Larcombe Jr had dug less than half a metre before hitting something solid. Larcombe Sr had spent the majority of his life prospecting for gold in Western Australia, primarily around Coolgardie and the surrounding goldfields where he had found plenty of gold. This find convinced them to stay in the area. Larcombe and his father, also Jim, had been prospecting in Larkinville, near Widgiemooltha, for a few weeks and were considering moving to richer ground when they unearthed a 2722 gram nugget. It measured over 620 millimeters in length and required two men to lift it properly. The nugget, named Golden Eagle for its resemblance to a bird, weighed 1,136 ounces or 32,200 grams. In January 1931, 17 year old Jim Larcombe discovered the largest gold nugget ever found in Western Australia.
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