It is a well-recited fact that South Africa has produced roughly a third of the entire stock of gold on earth. While the country is undoubtedly the most historically prolific producer, there has always been a certain romantic element lacking in the type of gold extracted from the bowels of that treasure-troved landscape.

Despite South Africa’s auriferous richness, there has been a distinct lack of significantly large or whopper-type nuggets discovered in this , especially specimens comparable to the 2 284 oz Welcome Stranger discovered during the Australian gold rush. The overwhelming percentage of our gold has been microscopic in nature and mined from exceptionally deep and difficult-to-process conglomerate reefs.

This point is particularly illustrated if one compares gold with our other ‘glittering’ mining sector – diamonds. Besides being one of the world’s most historically prolific producers, four of the ten largest rough diamonds ever discovered, including the exceptional 3 106 ct Cullinan diamond, were found in South African mines. In comparison, the largest gold nugget ever discovered here would barely make it into the list of the 30 largest nuggets, let alone the top ten.

However, this is not to say that South Africa assumes no place in the more romanticised genre of gold nugget history. Indeed, South Africa’s historical narrative, especially pertaining to the gold rushes of the former Eastern Transvaal, is littered with the tales of the discovery of some impressive gold nuggets.
It will come as little surprise that most of the tales and information regarding great lumps of gold is largely confined to Pilgrim’s Rest, South Africa’s ultimate gold rush town of the highly romanticised digger era.

Unfortunately, information relating to the exact number and size of nuggets found in Pilgrim’s Rest is distinctly absent from the historical record and one has to rely on more anecdotal evidence to draw a picture of the nature of such discoveries.

A letter written in January 1874 by a certain AE McDonald, just months after alluvial gold had been discovered in the Pilgrim’s Rest valley, gives an indication of not only the nature of the nuggets, but also the attitude towards such geological curiosities: “A great deal of gold has been unearthed; I saw one large nugget weighing 20 lb (9 kg); it was at the bank for exhibition. I went into the bank to see it and, as I entered, I asked the manager to shew (sic) it to me. ‘Yes, with pleasure,’ he replied, and, as I stood, talking over the events of the past weeks, waiting for him to bring forth the nugget, my patience began to get exhausted and I again reminded him I had come to see the nugget. “He laughed most heartily, and said that, but for his confidence in my honesty, he would have thought I was trying to smuggle it away, for I had been leaning over it during our conversation. I thought it was a stone they had there for a paper weight. “
The discoverer must have been a good judge of gold, for most people would have passed it over. All gold nuggets are not so ugly; some are formed in a pretty, fantastic shape. I saw one a perfect shape of an oak tree, and I have one resembling a man on horseback.”

The largest gold nugget discovered in South Africa exists only as legend. It is said that the auriferous lump weighed over 25 lb, equating to well over 300 oz, and was found under a very large boulder in the bed of a stream running through the Pilgrim’s Rest valley. It is alleged that, as soon as it was uncovered, two members of the syndicate working the claim snatched the nugget and made a hasty beeline for Lourenco Marques (now Maputo) and were never heard of again. However, even in legend, South Africa’s largest nugget was only one-seventh of the size of the Welcome Stranger.

Certainly, three of the most famous, and if not largest, gold nuggets found in South Africa include the Breda, the Reward and the Voortrekker nuggets.
The 214 oz Breda nugget was discovered in 1876 by Michael van Breda, who was one of the pioneer diggers on the New Caledonia goldfield. The nugget, which weighed over 2 kg, was found within the Columbia reef on a steep hill just above the Blyde river. It is said that Van Breda and his partner, Macaulay, were two of the luckiest diggers in Pilgrim’s Rest, for, in two hours, they uncovered gold weighing over 3.6 kg.

Following a close second was the 213 oz Reward nugget. It was found by George Russel and his partner, Isaac Lilley, another two of Pilgrim’s Rest’s luckiest diggers, and brought the finders £750 when sold.

The Voortrekker nugget, weighing a not unsubstantial 123 oz, was discov-ered in May 1875 in a Pilgrim’s Valley claim owned by one of South African commercial history’s shadiest characters, Alois Nellmapius.

Interestingly, the only picture we have of a historic gold nugget is that of the Perseverance, also known as the Lilley nugget. The nugget, weighing an impressive 119 oz, was dug out of the stream by Lilley and Russel at almost precisely the spot where the village of Pilgrim’s Rest stands today.

Unfortunately, no specimens of large South African gold nuggets exist today, having all been melted down into bullion in a bygone era where wealth and profit took priority over natural geological curiosities.

However, not all has been lost. Museum Africa, in Johannesburg, boasts a collection of just under 40 small specimens of gold nuggets sourced from across Africa.