Another little gem of equipment he built was a nifty sample splitter. In order to get accurate assays, you need to have really good, representative samples for the assayer to process.

In last month’s issue we covered the initial discovery of gold, the subsequent gold rush that occurred around Nome, some of the geology of the area and past production. We’ll conclude the article in this issue with a further examination of the geology and deposit types, discuss the resources...

…it was immediately evident the previous owner had not been using a detector. During just a few months of working the dumps part-time, he recovered gold in quartz specimens valued in excess of $40,000.

We descended hunched over, down a long, steep, wooden staircase to the 1,000-level.