A GOLD hunter is to make a mint by selling a huge nugget known as The Prince Of Wales.
Kerry Thackwell, 62, found the 30g treasure while prospecting with his dad.
For four decades it sat untouched in a safe but is now set to fetch £25,000 at auction.
Kerry said: “I suppose I kept the nugget for sentimental reasons. It would come into my head from time to time, but I just left it in a safe.
“I recently returned to the area to care for a sick relative, though, and it got me thinking.
“My dad is really elderly these days and the thought of it being sold at auction really, really excites him. So we’ve decided the time is finally right to put it into auction.”
Kerry, of Marlow, Bucks, and his dad Ray, 89, found the nugget near the town of Dolgellau, in Gwynedd, in 1979.
The expert miners, originally from New Zealand, had been invited to survey and sample the area’s Gold Belt.
They found the nugget 6ft down in the Prince Of Wales mine.
It is the largest recorded nugget in Wales but at the time it would have fetched just £100 in scrap metal prices.
Kerry said: “The nugget wasn’t that deep but it was tucked into a corner. I saw it and thought ‘Nah, it can’t be’. But it was.
“We knew straight away we’d found something special.”
The nugget has been stored in a bank’s safe since.
It will be auctioned in Cardiff next month.
