Unless you know something I don't, any mining outside of lease or claim blocks is prohibited unless it is done with a 6" intake suction and 18hp or smaller/less, even then there are areas that are restricted.
That is for shore out to 3 miles, Alaska water. Beyond 3 miles is federal waters controlled by the BOEM, I have never heard of them allowing mining either exploration nor production.
When the top meter has 27% of the gold to beadrock, it's going to be very hard for operators to justify getting 5% per meter going down when they can move over and get another 27% from the top.
Nome is unique, this is why so many successful miners from elsewhere come to Nome and fail. Not saying this will fail, but it's about the same as the Arch 1 that got 70 ozt in 2011, they never came back with it. Poor guys didn't even pay for more than fuel.
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