Golden nuggets are obtained in the Motherlode Mine by searching the sack after cleaning the pay-dirt. There is a 3.13% chance of pay-dirt yielding a golden nugget. A full sack of 108 pay-dirt has a 96.76% probability to contain at least one golden nugget. They can be traded in for various rewards from Prospector Percy's Nugget Shop.
For a one-time fee of 100 golden nuggets paid to Prospector Percy, players with a base level of 57 Mining can unlock the upper level of the Motherlode Mine. For 50 golden nuggets, players can gain access to a hopper on the upper level of the Motherlode Mine. Players can also upgrade the pay-dirt sack for 200 golden nuggets. The full Prospector kit costs 180 nuggets.
Below are probabilities of obtaining a certain number of golden nuggets per given quantity of cleaned pay dirts.
Number of pay dirt
Number of golden nuggets
Average obtained
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Default sack
108
3.2%
11.3%
19.5%
22.2%
18.8%
12.7%
12.4%
3.4
Upgraded sack
189
0.2%
1.5%
4.6%
9.2%
13.8%
16.5%
54.3%
5.9
Trivia
Soft clay packs were once tradeable upon release and could be sold to Prospector Percy for golden nuggets, effectively allowing players to buy golden nuggets using coins. This was not widely known or used until achievement diaries were released, where the prospector kit was required for the hard Falador Diary. It was first accepted by Jagex Moderators as an "unforeseen feature", but packs were changed to become untradeable in an update on 9 April2015, returning golden nuggets to their intended untradeable status.
Prior to an update in November 2023, the golden nugget yield rate was usually 7/256 (2.73%), although there were some levels (43, 57, 71, 85, 99) where the golden nugget yield was 8/256 (3.13%).
Cost
