Many people know Tyler Mahoney through The Prospectors Club, but not everyone knows the story behind how it all started.
Tyler is a 4th generation gold prospector from Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, one of the most historic and wild gold mining regions in the world.
Kalgoorlie and the surrounding Goldfields are not easy places to live or work. The landscape is vast, remote and unforgiving. Summers regularly climb above 45 to 50°C, the ground is hard, the distances are enormous, and help can sometimes be hundreds of kilometres away.
But it is also one of the richest gold regions on earth.
Gold has been part of Tyler’s life since childhood. Growing up in a prospecting family meant school holidays were rarely spent in cities or on beaches. Instead, they were spent in the bush, travelling through the outback with family, visiting old diggings from the 1800s and learning how to read the land in search of gold.
From a young age she learned the patience and persistence that prospecting requires. Swinging metal detectors for hours, digging countless signals, and understanding that sometimes the reward only comes after long days of hard work.
In her book Gold Digger, Tyler writes about the unique mindset prospecting creates. It teaches people to be comfortable with uncertainty. A prospector can spend an entire day digging signals and finding nothing, only to suddenly uncover a beautiful nugget that has been sitting untouched in the earth for thousands, sometimes millions of years.
That moment, when gold finally appears in the dirt, is what keeps prospectors coming back.
In her early twenties, Tyler decided to become a full time prospector, living and working in the remote Australian outback. Prospecting is far from glamorous. It involves long days in extreme heat, equipment breakdowns in the middle of nowhere, flat tyres on remote tracks and months spent far from towns.
But for those who love the search for gold, it is one of the most rewarding ways to live.
Tyler’s knowledge and passion for prospecting eventually caught the attention of television producers, leading to her appearance on the Discovery Channel series Aussie Gold Hunters. The show introduced audiences around the world to modern day prospecting and gave viewers a glimpse into the challenges and excitement of searching for natural gold in the Australian outback.
It also showed something many people had not seen before, a young woman running a serious prospecting operation in one of the harshest environments in the world.
Following the show, Tyler wrote Gold Digger, sharing stories from the goldfields and her journey growing up in a prospecting family. The book explores the realities of life chasing gold in the outback and the lessons learned from building a career in one of the most unpredictable industries there is.
As Tyler travelled and met collectors and investors, she realised something interesting.
Most people love gold, but very few people ever get to see it in its natural form.
People are familiar with gold bars, jewellery and coins, but natural gold nuggets are rarely seen outside of mining communities.
That idea led to the creation of The Prospectors Club.
The Prospectors Club was built to connect collectors and investors directly with the prospectors who find natural gold nuggets. Instead of being melted down and refined, these pieces of gold are preserved exactly as they came out of the ground, each with its own shape, character and story.
What started as a small idea quickly grew into a global community of people who appreciate the rarity and beauty of natural gold.
This is what lead to Tyler’s partnership with Richmond Auctions in the United States. After 2 phone calls a deal was done and it was a partnership that was meant to be. Together they host major international gold nugget auctions featuring rare and investment grade natural gold pieces from Australia, North America and other historic gold regions around the world.
From a childhood spent prospecting in the bush outside Kalgoorlie to building a global community of gold collectors, Tyler’s journey has always been centred around one thing, a deep passion for natural gold.
And while the business has grown, the heart of it remains the same.
The thrill of hearing a signal in the dirt, digging it up and discovering a piece of gold that nature has been shaping for thousands of years.
And sharing that discovery with the world.