Fort Knox Nome 2009

George and I got a private tour of where they divide the gold for the week from the commercial site.  They had a special secured building where they separated the gold.  It was really a small little hooch secured with a lock and inside complete with seasoned gold miner security officers.  I think gold miners are pretty honest and respectful on the whole but I guess it is serious business protecting the gold.  I should clarify a bit; gold miners are honest except when it comes to telling exactly how much gold they got.  I think of them like fishermen except fishermen maximize and gold miners minimize.  The building was equipped with a deister, or shaker, table that separated the gold from the black sands.  It was interesting to see the concentrates from the commercial site being fed onto deister table where you could see the gold being separated.  The gold was divided on Friday night with a sort of lottery system.  Everyone received a number with number 1 raking in the biggest nugget.  To add suspense the nuggets decreased in size with winners 2-10.  Then the division of gold was equal with the rest of the participants.