Huge gold nugget found in Sierra up for auction

RENO (AP) - Some 150 years after the forty-niners rushed west in search of riches, a 6-pound nugget found in the Sierra Nevada shows there's still gold in them thar hills.

The nugget, discovered near Nevada City, Calif., last year by an unidentified man on his property, is expected to fetch from $225,000 to $400,000 when it goes up for auction March 15 in Sacramento, Calif.

Fred Holabird is a mining geologist whose Reno-based Western Americana memorabilia company is staging the auction.

He thinks it's the largest California gold nugget left in existence. He says virtually all of California's gold fields have been thoroughly explored and mined.