Thought gold rushes belonged purely in the history books? Think again.

Plenty of people are still cashing in on the world's most desirable commodity, from the anonymous finder of the UK's second-largest nugget to the professional gold prospectors that are on the prowl in the Australian outback.

Click or scroll through our gallery to meet the individuals who turned the modern-day gold rush into their 9-5 job. All dollar amounts in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Considered by many to be the world's most successful prospector, Canadian Shawn Ryan has attained legendary status on account of his gold-finding prowess and is revered by many in the global gold industry.

Focussing his attentions on the Yukon – a territory in northwest Canada – the Midas touch prospector essentially sparked the modern-day gold rush in the territory back in the late noughties.

Ryan discovered the Yukon's multi-million-ounce White Gold deposit and has since amassed tens of thousands of claims in the territory.

Needless to say, the planet's premier prospector has become very rich indeed, and is reportedly a multimillionaire thanks to his many years of gold hunting.

In the US, Kevin Hoagland has made a successful career for himself by prospecting for the precious metal.

In addition to being the Executive Director of Development at the Gold Prospectors Association of America, Hoagland has also presented a TV show on gold prospecting and is now a podcaster and writer on the topic, too.

According to Hoagland's website, his interest in mining and gold panning began when he was a child.

He opened a prospecting store in the 90s and started teaching customers how to find gold themselves, claiming: "to this day my greatest joy is not just finding my own gold, it is the look on the faces of those that I helped guide them to their first gold".

We bet he was still pretty pleased with his biggest find though – a gold nugget worth a whopping $20,250 (£16.5k).

UK-based Alex Stead is also among the world's top individual prospectors, having found his first gold nugget at the age of nine.

Inspired by the Poldark novels as well as by the illustrious mining history of his birthplace in Cornwall, southwest England, the precious metals enthusiast used to travel across the world to Western Australia to indulge his hobby.

The gold lover has since sold his vaping business in Cornwall and purchased 12 gold mines of his own Down Under, and has even appeared on the Discovery Channel's Aussie Gold Hunters reality TV show (pictured).

Speaking to local newspaper Cornwall Live in 2018, Stead revealed that he aims to find around 10oz (283.5g) of gold a week, an amount he can sell for £10,000 ($12.3k). 

Like Stead, prospectors Brent Shannon and Ethan West are also stars of Aussie Gold Hunters.

They claim to have found "thousands" of small pieces of gold over the years. However, the brothers-in-law really struck it lucky in August 2020 when they unearthed two monster gold nuggets near the town of Tarnagulla in Australia's Victoria state.

The nuggets (pictured) had a combined weight of 7.7 pounds and were valued at a sparkling AU$350,000 (US$255k/£198k).

It just goes to show that a metal detector and a modicum of luck can be all it takes to chance upon a major find and score a fortune.

Nicknamed "The Gold Gypsies", Australians Greg and Christine Clark used to work in the construction industry before selling up their home in Queensland to pursue their dream of finding gold in Kalgoorlie.

Like Brent Shannon, Ethan West, and Alex Stead, the couple – who met on an amateur gold prospecting trip – found fame on Aussie Gold Hunters. They're now professional prospectors who run training days in the gold fields in Victoria.

While on the TV show, one of the Clarks' most successful finds was a 3oz (85g) nugget that was valued at around AUD$5,000 ($3.5k/£2.8k).

Greg has described gold prospecting as "better than a day at the beach. But it's not something you do once a week or month when the weather's good [...] it's become a lifestyle for us now".

Understandably, not every successful gold hunter wishes to make their identity public.

When the then-record-breaking Douglas Nugget was discovered in a Scottish river in 2016, news of the find wasn't released for two years and the identity of the prospector who found it – as well as the exact location of the river – was kept firmly under wraps. 

On its discovery, the Douglas Nugget weighed in at 3oz (87.5g) and was estimated to be worth £50,000 ($61.4k).

At the time, precious metal expert Leon Kirk from Gold Panning Supplies UK noted that the nugget's historical value was "off the Richter scale".

The nugget was found by an unnamed man in his 40s, who discovered it through a process known in the industry as "sniping". This involves wearing a snorkel and searching for gold on the riverbed.

Alaskan native Parker Schnabel followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather by becoming a professional gold miner.

Like many of the gold hunters on this list, he has taken his talent for prospecting to the small screen by appearing on the Discovery's Channel's Gold Rush TV series, which follows the adventures of family-run gold mines across Canada and Alaska. Schnabel has since presented his own spin-off series, Gold Rush: Parker's Trail. 

Schnabel's TV career has seen him travel from Papua New Guinea to Australia while his spin-off series, which debuted in 2017, is still airing today.

He's made a fortune off-screen, too. In 2012, Schnabel reportedly opened his own mine in the Klondike region of Canada and discovered over 1,000oz (28,350g) of gold, netting him an impressive $1.4 million (£1.1m).

Like his fellow Gold Rush star Parker Schnabel, Rick Ness started out by working for his family's gold mining business and has since set up his own mine.

According to his Facebook page, Ness, a former musician, now spends "6 months in the Klondike putting in a [year's] worth of work digging for gold" and spends the remaining six months of the year "recovering" in Milwaukee. 

In one notable episode of Gold Rush, Ness discovered $144,000 (£117.6k) worth of gold in the Klondike.

It's clear his career has been profitable; some reports suggest that Ness makes around $100,000 (£81.65k) every year, although it isn't known how much of this comes from his TV career as opposed to his mining exploits.

Sources suggest that his total net worth is around $4 million (£3.3m).

The third main cast member of Discovery's Gold Rush is Tony Beets. Unlike Schnabel and Ness, Beet didn't come from a gold mining background.

Instead, the Dutch-born prospector left his farm in Holland and moved to Dawson City, Canada, in 1982 in a bid to make his fortune with gold.

In an interview with Entrepreneur, Beets said: "I hung around Alberta and BC for a bit, then I went to the Yukon for the money. They said you can make a thousand bucks a week, so I thought: if they get that, I'll get a little more".

According to various sources, Beets is the richest Gold Rush cast member, with an estimated net worth of around $15 million (£12.3m).

But his TV career hasn't all been plain sailing. Beets found himself in hot water back in 2017 after a clip from the programme showed workers at his Tamarack Mine site setting fire to gasoline in a dredge pond.

The stunt, which Beets described as a "joke gone bad", violated the Yukon Waters Act and landed Beets with a $31,000 (£25.3k) fine. 

Self-proclaimed "professional gold digger" Tyler Mahoney comes from a long line of gold prospectors.

Born and raised in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, she made her first media appearance alongside her parents on Aussie Gold Hunters and went on to star in the Australian episodes of Gold Rush: Parker's Trail with presenter Parker Schnabel.

According to some sources, Mahoney – who also earns money as a model and Instagram influencer – burned through the money she made from selling her first significant gold discovery and regrets not saving the cash.

But as a TV star, podcaster, and founder of educational network The Prospectors Club, the 25-year-old has still managed to turn her love of prospecting into a successful career. 

Now discover the ordinary people who found extraordinary amounts of gold.