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Thursday, 20th September 2007 (3573 views)

The owner and operator of the Gold Basin Mine in Chaffee County, Colorado has found two large gold nuggets at the tourist attraction, which he originally mistook for bubblegum, ABC News reported.

Dick Weeks, who found the gold nugget, told the television channel that he initially thought he had stumbled upon a piece of Juicy Fruit gum until he realised the substantial weight of the nugget.

Mr Weeks sent a video of the nuggets to Paul Morgan, curator of geology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, to confirm his suspicion that he had found genuine gold at the historic mine.

"From what I can see, it looks like they found gold," Mr Morgan told ABC, explaining that the weight of the nugget is a characteristic of the precious metal.

Solid gold nuggets are of particular value to collectors and Mr Morgan said that the larger of the two nuggets could sell for between three to four times its weight-based value, which is estimated to be about $1,000 (£498).

Located in the south-west end of Lost Canyon in the Twin Lakes of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the Gold Basin Mine offers recreational prospecting for tourists in the summer months.

 

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