A prospector found a 5.5 kilogramme (12 pounds) gold nugget lying underground in the Australian town of Ballarat in Victoria Wednesday (January 16), local media reported.

The lucky finder decided to stay anonymous and handed the giant piece of gold to fellow prospector and gold shop owner Cordell Kent.

"The biggest nugget he had found was a quarter ounce (7 grammes) piece and then he found this one yesterday. So now his wife is very happy, he is very happy and the detector is paid for," Kent told Seven Network on Thursday (January 17).

Local media said the finder used a state of the art metal detector, the Minelab GPX-5000, to spot the piece of gold. Without this particular device, Kent told Nine Network, it would have been very hard to detect the nugget.

Kent is now in charge of selling it to the highest bidder.

The gold is worth more than 295,000 U.S. dollars (280,000 Australian dollars), the dealer told Nine Network.