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One of my cousins has a husband who worked at Goldman Sachs. He would go to Alaska and do some gold mining. He spent some $2 million and found 700oz in gold.... this was in 2010. He had been mining for several years and would spend up to 3 months in the summer there. Sometimes a few weeks or days to get away from his job.
In 2014 they were selling their vacation home for just $21.5 million. Just....

Here are some excerpts from a story about him from Nantucket magazine in 2010:

With a .50 caliber Smith and Wesson pistol strapped to his side as standard-issue equipment for protection from ever-present grizzly bears

“I’m not sure which threat is worse, the grizzlies or the mosquitoes,” says Sherlund as he describes living conditions far from those on Ocean Avenue, his ‘Sconset home just down the road from the Summer House.

Sherlund revels in the colorful stories of the Alaskan locals he has befriended. He once asked a woman from the mining community about the great opportunity of meeting men given the overwhelming male majority in mining towns. Her response was that “the odds are good, but the goods are odd.”

These days, high fuel costs, depleted stream beds and tougher regulations make it increasingly difficult for small-time mines.

“They go broke sooner or later,” said Fred Wilkinson, a 71-year-old miner whom Sherlund calls his mentor. “Unless you’ve got Wall Street backing you,” he jokes.

After nine days, Sherlund headed home and prepared for his first day back at the office. Up at 5 a.m., he shaved his beard, put on a pressed shirt and brown Italian loafers.

At the office, he couldn’t at first access his computer system for checking stock quotes. It uses a fingerprint reader for security. Sherlund’s hands were so chafed from mining that it didn’t recognize him.

A duffel bag on the floor held the fruits of his Alaska trip, a 10-pound brick, some loose flakes and nuggets in small glass vials.