City manager Josie Bahnke said that the volume of calls from Lower 48 prospectors has been overwhelming. Kerwin Krause with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources said that DNR offices have received a call every five minutes, especially on Mondays following the Friday-evening shows.
[Krause] said that he warns newcomers to mining in the north that it is not as easy as it looks on TV. "We're telling people that there are no leases available now," Krause said.
Recreational miners can work on West Beach, but they have to be standing in water up to their knees and they can use small dredges with suction hoses less than 6 inches in diameter and rocker sluice boxes, Krause said.
Krause worries that Nome newcomers will blow all their cash on their gold fantasies and have no way to support themselves or get home. Read more.
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