The largest gold nuggets in the world.  Photo and details of the world's largest gold nugget Corn feeds on gold

The largest gold nuggets in the world. Photo and details of the world's largest gold nugget Corn feeds on gold

A measured gold bar with a pure metal content of at least 99.99% has a weight of 1 to 1000 grams.

In addition to measured gold bars, which are available for purchase in Russian banks, there are standard bars marked by Russian refineries and Soviet ones (dated before 1992), the fineness of which is at least 99.95%, weighing 11000-13300 grams.

When purchasing such a long-term and profitable investment of your own finances, like a gold bar, you need to know certain standards that an expensive purchase must comply with.

Gold bar rates

  • The first and basic rule when making a purchase is the place where the metal will be bought. Undoubtedly, this should be the central office or branch of a reliable bank that has a valid license for the sale of precious metal bullion.
  • For each weight of the ingot, there are GOST deviations in weight and ratios of length and width. The thickness of the measured ingot is not regulated and may be different.
  • The surface should be free of unevenness, roughness, small cracks and fatty deposits, i.e. the ingot must be absolutely flat. The only deviation allowed is that the surface may be slightly wavy due to temporary shrinkage and crystallization of the metal;
  • The inscription on the ingot must be well readable, the letters can be depressed or concave, depending on the stamping technology, continuous writing or poor readability is not allowed. The information contained in the inscription: the mass of the product, the sample, the name of the metal and the trademark of the manufacturer.

When buying an ingot, it must be accompanied by a certificate of conformity, in which all the information indicated on the product is duplicated. Each bar has its own, unique number and it is easy to track its path from the moment it leaves the factory to the point of sale.

In the production of gold bars, different technologies are used: metal casting, stamping and powder bars. In terms of their aesthetic qualities, stamped products look more attractive: during manufacture, the stamp is pressed against the metal, heated to the desired temperature. The equipment used in this production method is highly accurate, so this process is quite expensive. Usually, ingots weighing up to 500 grams are produced by stamping.

A measured gold bar with a pure metal content of at least 99.99% has a weight of 1 to 1000 grams.

The technology of casting products is as follows: molten metal is poured into finished molds, then the cooling process takes place, at the required temperature. The mass of gold bars is more than 500 grams. In terms of cost, the casting process can be attributed to the middle price category.

Powder manufacturing technology involves the use of powder processed by the electrolytic method as the basis. This is the most economical method, but is rarely used.

Gold is a valuable and rare metal. If we make a comparison, then in one day more steel is cast in the world metallurgy than gold bars have been cast in the entire history of mankind. Gold is famous for such qualities as ductility and is easily processed. Pure gold can be forged into a plate with a thickness of 0.001 mm and weighing several tens of times less than the weight of a human hair! The largest gold bar was found in Australia, its weight is 70 kg of pure gold, and its volume is comparable to the size of a large melon. Due to the fact that the metal is rare, almost all the gold mined in the history of mankind is in circulation. It is likely that the Olympic gold medal won by the athlete is made from jewelry belonging to the ancient royal family!

Gold and copper are the first metals discovered by mankind more than 5 thousand years ago. In the table of chemical elements, the metal is listed as Aurum, which means "radiant dawn." Historical facts indicate that the Egyptians considered gold to be part of the body of the gods and only noble persons could own it. The Greeks believed that metal was an alloy of sunlight and water. The Bible mentions golden offerings among the gifts of the Magi.

In the fourteenth century, a powdered mixture of diamond and gold was used as a cure for bubonic plague. And, of course, at all times alchemists tried to turn base metals into a precious alloy.

The gold standard is still the equivalent of the currencies of many countries to this day. Investing in gold bars weighing 1 kg or more is the most profitable and profitable. Now you know how much a bar of gold weighs, moreover, according to statistics, the price of gold, over the past century, has never reached critical values. Therefore, the interest in this expensive and rare metal today is comparable to the demand for gold in the era of royal courts.

The appearance of a large gold nugget is always an unusual event and not only causes great resonance in the mining industry, but also stimulates the imagination of the general public around the world. Finding a huge piece of gold is a happy dream, and not only during the gold rush. Which regions of the world boast the greatest nuggets?

Gold nuggets can be found in alluvial deposits (deposits formed by the movements of water) or in secondary deposits (associated with the failure of early primary deposits). Of course, gold nuggets can also be found in or near primary deposits. It is also technically possible to extract them from rock deposits if the stone surrounding the nugget can be removed.

Huge gold nuggets are found in every corner of the world. The list of such nuggets that have not been melted down and are still in one piece is presented below:

1. Pepita Canaa, Brazil

In 1983, miner Giulio de Deus Filo found a 60.8 kg nugget in the Brazilian Sierra Pelada gold region. The Pepita Canaa gold coin contains 52.3 kg of gold (1682 oz). Banco Central was acquired from Brazil in 1984. It can be viewed in the money museum of the aforementioned central bank.

It is worth noting that the piece from which Pepita Kanash was extracted was much larger, but during the extraction it was broken into several pieces.

In the early 80s, the Serra Pelada region was one of the most famous gold deposits in the world. Over 100,000 independent miners worked there. The conditions under which they worked at the time were extremely dangerous and the place itself was heavily overcrowded.

The Serada Pelada gold mine is currently closed. This happened in the late 1980s when the area was hit by floods and then government restrictions on mining were introduced. Brazil is still a significant gold producer. Its production in 2016, according to the US Geological Survey - USGS, amounted to 80 tons.

2. Big Triangle, Russia

The second largest nugget that has survived to this day is the Big Triangle. This piece of gold was found in the Ural region in 1842 by Nikofor Syutkin. Its total weight is 36.2 kg and the gold sample is 91%, which means it contains 32.9 kg of pure gold (1059 oz). The "Big Triangle" measures 31 x 27.5 x 8 cm, and as the name suggests, it is shaped like a triangle. The nugget was dug out from a depth of about 3.5 meters.

The Golden "Big Triangle" is the property of the Russian state. It is managed by the Gokhran Foundation (State Fund for Precious Stones and Precious Metals) and is currently represented in the Diamond Fund collection in the Kremlin. The Gokhran Foundation is a vast permanent exhibition jewelry crowns of the Russian state, precious stones, gold and plug-in nuggets.

The Urals was one of the first gold deposits in Russia, and large-scale gold mining projects are currently ongoing in many regions of the country, especially in the east. Russia is the third largest gold producer in the world and the fifth country in terms of gold reserves, with a mining output of 280 tons of gold in 2018.

3. Hand of faith, Australia

The "Hand of Faith" is a massive 27.6 kg piece of gold that was found near Kingwover, Australia. In 1980, he was found by Kevin Hillier using a metal detector. It contains 875 ounces of gold and measures 47 x 20 x 9 cm.

The piece was purchased by the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas and is currently on display on East Fremont Street, in the old downtown area of ​​Las Vegas.

4. Normandy Nugget, Australia

"Solid body of Normandy" - this is the name of a nugget with a mass of 25.5 kg, discovered in 1995. The golden body was found in an important gold mining center in Kalguri, Western Australia. According to Normandy research, Nugget has a gold purity of 80% to 90%.

The gold was purchased from the digger in 2000 by Normandy Mining, now part of Newmont Gold Corporation, and the nugget is currently on display at the Perth Mint Museum under a long-term contract with the corporation.

Western Australia has been a major gold mining area since the late 1980s, when numerous deposits were also discovered near Kalguri. The Pit Super mine, owned by the Fimiston Open Pit gold mine, is currently located in Calgary, the largest facility of its type in that country. Interestingly, this is the largest mine south of the equator. Most of the gold produced in the Super Pit mine comes in the form of gold nuggets, which are located in a small rock formation called the Golden Mile.

Australia is the second largest gold producer in the world, with 280 tons of gold produced in 2018, according to the US Geological Survey.

5. Royal Jewel, California

Gold "Iron Jewel" is a single crystalline gold mined in California in December 1992 by the Sonora Mining Company. The nugget was found in a quartz rock and through a hydrofluoric acid cleaning process, most of the quartz was removed to reveal a single mass of gold weighing 16.4 kg.

The gold can be seen at the Ironstone Vineyards Heritage Museum in California. It is sometimes referred to as "the specimen of Kaut's crystalline gold leaf" in reference to John Kouts, owner of Ironstone Vineyards.

California is associated with the famous gold rush of the 1840s. The United States is a significant global gold producer, producing about 220 tons of gold in 2018, ranking fourth behind China, Australia and Russia.

Currently, the largest production of this metal occurs in the states of Nevada and Alaska, although there are mines in California, such as the Mesquite gold mining company.

The largest nugget ever

The officially recognized largest gold nugget in the world, the existence of which was documented, is the Australian giant, found at the end of the 19th century. On October 19, 1872, Holterman and his partner Hugo Bayens stumbled upon a life-changing discovery. They found a huge slab of gold. This nugget was subsequently named the "Holterman Plate".

  • Length 144 centimeters.
  • Width 66 centimeters.
  • Thickness 10 centimeters.
  • Weight 235 kilograms.

True, as scientists later found out, pure gold in the total mass of the plate accounted for 83 kilograms. And its lion's share was made up of quartz inclusions. So this is more likely not a nugget, but a massive piece of vein, in which the precious metal was interspersed with inclusions of quartz. But even this reduced weight of real gold is still a record.

At the sight of a bar of gold, many were interested in the question, how much does it weigh? Considering that this metal has one of the highest density values ​​among all others, and the ingot itself has impressive dimensions, this figure is clearly rather big. Investors will need to know how much a standard gold bar weighs.

Types of ingots

There are several types of bullion standards that have different applications and technologies. According to the method of application, they are divided into the following:

  • measured;
  • standard.
gold bars

Measured are intended for sale to citizens, standard ones are used only for technological needs. According to production technology, there is a division into several types:

  • stamped;
  • powder;
  • cast.

The designation of the stamped ones is SZSH, their weight does not exceed half a kilogram, they can be easily lifted with one finger. When stamping, they are cut off from flat sheets. Powdered ingots are made using an electrolytic method, and metal powders are used for their production. They are not used in the Russian Federation. They are the cheapest, and are also rarely used by banks in other countries.

Ingots, which are made by casting, have a large mass, it will be difficult to lift them with your fingers. Cast bricks weigh more than 500 grams, they are designated SLZ. The price is between powder and stamped. If the product does not meet the requirements of GOST, then it is sent for remelting to the manufacturer. Most of them must comply with the requirements of the London Bullion Market Association.

Ingot weight

An ingot is a piece of metal, it looks like a bar and has several different shapes of categories and masses. Banking has the highest standard of 999.9, that is, it is almost pure gold.

How much does a gold bar weigh? In most cases, they have a weight of 1 kg. It is precisely such as an investment object that any bank can offer you. Standard bars are regulated by the state or legislation. They have a weight of 11 to 13.3 kilograms.

In some countries, the bank may offer you to buy an ingot of different weights, starting from 1 gram. 200 kilograms weighs the largest ingot on earth, it is also made of the purest gold.

In 1943, the United States passed a law on. He said that gold in the country's reserve should be stored only in the form of bullion. A standard bar in the US gold reserve has a mass of 400 troy ounces. But for commercial purposes, they are also allowed to use bars of different weights.

So, for jewelers they are made weighing one kilogram, at the places of gold mining they are cast at 1200 troy ounces. A troy ounce weighs approximately 30 grams and is an international measure of the weight of gold. In troy ounces, gold is traded on the precious metal exchanges.

In order to imagine how much a gold bar weighs, you can take a 10-liter bucket and fill it with water. Try to pick it up: it's heavy, isn't it, so a bar of gold weighs even more.

Measured ingot in Russia

Products that are produced weighing up to one kilogram, have a fineness of 999.9 and are used for investment by individuals, are called measured. Used for sale, they are marked. Special requirements established by GOST include:

  • Permissible deviations in dimensions and weight for each weight. At the same time, the thickness of the product is not standardized, the standards are set only for length and width.
  • If there is an appropriate agreement, some parameters, including dimensions and shape, may change.
  • Products should not have chips and cracks, as well as stains from grease.
  • Changes in planes over time due to crystallization or shrinkage of the metal are allowed. The surface may be concave or convex.
  • The product must be marked, the inscriptions must contain letters and numbers and be legible.
  • Correction or merging of characters in the marking is unacceptable.
  • One or more sides may bear a distinctive symbol.

Gold bank bars

In accordance with the standard, they have the following markings:

  • the inscription "Russia", which is located in an oval;
  • mass designation in numbers;
  • the inscription "Gold";
  • a sample or fraction of the metal;
  • the manufacturer's brand is placed on the back or front of the product.

Thus, the measured bar must be marked and the weight must be indicated on it, which cannot exceed one kilogram.

standard ingot

Standard gold bar - how much is it? It must meet all Russian standards, and its mass is checked on a special scale. It is in the range from 11 to 13.3 kg, and the ingot must comply with the rules:

  • It must be made in the form of a truncated pyramid, which has established dimensions, which, in the event of a specific agreement, can be changed.
  • The surface must be shiny. The presence of stains and slags is not allowed.
  • There may be depressions up to 0.5 cm on the surface.
  • The marking is applied to the lower base and should include: metal grade, sample, manufacturer's mark, year.

In the Russian Federation, all this is indicated on one side of the ingot. Of course, a brick weighing more than 10 kg cannot be lifted with your fingers.

Interesting facts about the weight of products:

  • Gold is not only used in trading and jewelry. For many years it has been used to make Olympic medals. The first made medal weighed only 6 grams, the mass of modern medals is greater.
  • According to estimates, a total of 145,000 tons of gold was mined, how much is left is impossible to calculate, since new deposits are being discovered to this day.
  • The weight of gold is quite large. A tonne is a cube, the face of which is only 37 centimeters long. And if you weigh a cubic meter of this metal, you get more than 19 tons.
  • The sarcophagus of Tutankhamun, which was made of gold, weighed 1.5 tons.

Thus, for investments are used weighing one kilogram. Used to store reserves in the gold and foreign exchange reserve - 400 troy ounces or not more than 13.3 kilograms. If you wish, you can contact the banks and buy a gold bar in one.

A long time ago, in America, there lived an ancient people - the Incas. He possessed huge reserves of the yellow metal. There was so much of it that the Incas made dishes from it, as well as other useful things. No one thought that ordinary metal, which, moreover, is poorly adapted for economic life, would subsequently destroy the most ancient unique peoples. They were destroyed by the European colonialists, who began to melt metal into useless bricks from practical household items. This is how the local natives saw the situation. European colonialists rubbed their hands - they found gold - an artificial source of wealth and power. How much does a gold bar weigh today? What is its price? Let's try to answer this question.

How much does a gold bar weigh, which is the largest to date

The weight record holder is an ingot in Japan, created by the Mitsubishi Corporation. Its weight is 250 kg. The price of such a giant is about 4 million US dollars. Japan ousted Taiwan from the Guinness Book of Records - earlier in this country there was the largest ingot of 220 kg. Another number "9" was added to the Japanese giant. This means that the sample of the Japanese record holder is 999.9. The product is close to the absolute ideal. How much does a gold bar weigh (standard)? More on this.

How much does a gold bar weigh (standard) in kg

Standard bars - bars of precious metals produced at specialized enterprises. They are made according to certain standards - they are installed in each state independently. In our country, there is an international one, which is reflected in GOST 28058-89. So how much does a bar of gold weigh, based on global norms? Its weight ranges from 11 to 13.3 kg.

Gold bar standard requirements

In addition to weight, the following requirements apply to standard bars:

  1. The shape should have a regular truncated pyramid.
  2. The surface must be free of burrs, burrs, and other foreign inclusions.
  3. It must contain the number of the bar, the brand of the precious metal, the weight, the year of issue, the manufacturer's trademark, the symbols of the state of origin, and the sample.

What is a sample

The sample is the proportion of the base metal in the alloy. In gold watches, rings, and other jewelry, as a rule, 585 samples are used. This means that pure gold in them is slightly more than half. It is believed that this is the optimal amount that can be used in jewelry, otherwise they will constantly break and bend.

The highest grade used in gold bars is 999 (99.99%). International standards have a slightly lower specific gravity of the noble metal - 995%.

Measured ingot of gold

Measured ingot - a small ingot, which is widely popular among investors, banks, pawnshops. So, let's answer the question of how much a gold bar (measuring bar) weighs. It all depends on the type of ingot. There are two of them, depending on the method of manufacture:

  1. Stamped ingots - manufacturing technology is similar to issuing coins. Their weight ranges from 1 to 100 grams.
  2. Cast - "normal", from the point of view of a simple man in the street ingots. Their weight is from 200 to 1000 grams.

International measure

From international economists and investors it is impossible to hear the question of how much a gold bar weighs in kg, because. the precious metal on the stock exchanges is measured not in kilograms, but in troy ounces. It is this unit of measure that is used in world trade.

A troy ounce is a measure of the weight of precious metals, equal to 31.1035 grams. In our country, standard weight measures are used. Measured bars of Sberbank for the population are: 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 grams.

Is it profitable to invest in gold

A novice investor is interested in the question of whether it is profitable to invest in precious metals. This question was once asked by one of the largest investors in 2005. The cost of one share of Google was equal to one ounce. By 2008, an ounce was worth almost 2.5 times more than a share of the largest holding. It should be taken into account that 2005 is an active development of the world information giant.

How much gold is left in the earth

Gold, due to its value, rarely goes out of circulation. This means that gold teeth, for example, may contain metal from the utensils of royal monarchs. Of course, this is rare, but almost all the metal that mankind has ever mined is still in circulation. Scientists have calculated that another 80% of the precious metal is in the ground, therefore, it is not too late to think about the search.

Olympic medals

How much does 1 bar of gold weigh, how much pure metal does it contain - we have already said, but how much precious metal is in modern Olympic medals? The fact that they are entirely made of gold is a myth. Only the medals at the 1912 Olympics were truly gold. All the rest have only pollination. Only six grams of this metal is applied to Olympic medals.

Legend of the Golden Fleece

Many peoples used sheep's wool to wash gold. This method was practiced by some peoples of the Caucasus, the Egyptians. The Greeks, who saw the booty with their own eyes, were not initiated into the mysteries of all operations. They saw only the finished picture: sheep's wool, all covered with precious metals. This is where the legend of the Golden Fleece came from.

Corn eats gold

Surprisingly, ordinary corn “mines” gold from the ground, accumulates it in its stems. This was discovered by chance, when analyzing the composition of the ash. Corn feeds on solutions of various salts from the soil to obtain vital elements: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. Together with them, the plant extracts other elements, including gold. However, do not rush to grow corn on your farms for the metal: the concentrate is so small that it is unlikely that you will get rich growing this plant for the sake of gold.

The trade in nuggets has long gained popularity in developed countries. So, they are actively traded in the UAE, individual states of Africa, the USA. A frequent purpose of buying such products is interior decoration. Gold blocks effectively fit into the luxurious furnishings of the homes of wealthy people. However, nuggets are of the greatest value as investment objects.

Rare specimens are the subject of competition between well-known collectors. For their acquisition, they are ready to give any means.

Geologists also benefit from such profitable finds. With the help of their detailed consideration, specialists manage to identify and predict gold deposits at the local level.

Gold nuggets are large pieces of native metals. Until now, experts have not come to a consensus on which piece of gold should be called a nugget.

Some professionals call for ingots weighing more than 1 kg to be called nuggets, others are inclined to think that even a piece of about 4 mm in size rightfully deserves such a name, if nature endowed it with a unique shape and bright brilliance.

It was the found nuggets that became the beginning of people's acquaintance with precious metals. They marked the beginning of the history of the use of gold as a material for making jewelry and other items.

The cost of nuggets is determined by their size. The larger the piece, the more expensive the price will be. Thus, the average cost of Australian nuggets ranges from 18 dollars per gram if it is less than 6 grams, and 30 dollars per gram for larger specimens (from 8 to 16 grams).

When determining the cost of a nugget, an important factor is given to such a factor as its shape. The original execution of pure gold is many times more expensive than a rolled copy, mined from placers. Therefore, the search for such finds is justified.

Gold mining often brings good luck in the form of found nuggets. If we compare gold with other metals, then its concentration in the soil is much less than the same iron, copper, lead and others. However, scientists have found that the noble metal is also present in plants and living organisms.

Gold nuggets: an overview of the largest finds

The largest gold nugget in the world was discovered in 1872 in Australia. The field of this "giant" was the Hill End mine. The find was 144 centimeters long, 66 centimeters wide, and 10 centimeters thick. The nugget was given the name "Holterman Plate". Its mass was 285 kg, of which pure gold was about 83.3 kg. This piece of gold was used for melting down and making jewelry.


The Welcome Stranger is the second largest gold nugget after the Holterman Plate, weighing 70.9 kg. It was also found in Australia and allowed to be melted down.


The "Big Triangle" - a piece of gold weighing 36 kg was found on October 8, 1942 in the South Urals in the Miass region. According to experts in 1842, its cost was 28,146 rubles. This copy has survived to our time, but its price has become much higher. Today it is kept in the Diamond Fund of the Russian Federation.

Russia is the owner of the richest collection of nuggets in the world. The exhibition, held in Moscow in 1967, consisted of at least a hundred finds, the total weight of which was more than 200 kg. Nuggets such as "Hare Ears"(3.34 kg), "Camel"(9.3 kg), "Horse Head"(14 kg) became the largest specimens.

The greatest interest among visitors to the Diamond Fund is nugget "Mephistopheles". Its low weight of 20.25 grams is compensated by its unique appearance, reminiscent of the profile of an evil spirit in Renaissance mythology. Disputes about his education subsided a few years after the unique find. Some experts believed that nature could not create such an image. However, many studies have shown the absence of artificial processing of this ingot.

"Golden heart"- Another large nugget found in Alaska. It became the fifth largest among all the ingots, the finds of which were registered in the state of Alaska. The initial impression of the find was disappointing. It looked more like a piece of black gale, because it was covered with a crust of minerals.

It is important to know that, without special permission, it is prohibited by law. All such operations are criminally punishable. If gold was found by accident, it is regarded as a "find", which must certainly be given to the state, having received 20% of its value minus income tax.

Legal ownership applies only to banking and jewelry gold. It is also allowed to repurchase, donate and perform other legal operations with it.