Leaving aside the craptastic grammar: (a) laying one's hand palm-upwards on the earth when crouching isn't much more comfortable than pointing one's spade-shaped beard to the sky, and (b) to end up in his palm those nuggets are going to have to pass right through his hand.

Actually, the former is not that uncomfortable, and perfectly fine to achieve. For the latter, it evidently came from the ground around his hand and then fell in.