1. boom, bonanza, gold rush, gravy, godsend, manna from heaven, windfall, bunce, happening, occurrence, occurrent, natural event
usage: a sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money); "the demand for testing has created a boom for those unregulated laboratories where boxes of specimen jars are processed like an assembly line"
2. gold rush, migration
usage: a large migration of people to a newly discovered gold field