The American Wealth Tour: How Another $80 Billion Gold Deposit in Alaska Could Help Launch a New Era of Wealth

“The fortunes of a nation lie beneath its own soil. Let no republic depend on foreign hands when Providence has stocked its lands with gold.” 

— Inspired by Thomas Jefferson

Publisher’s Note: Wealth Daily will be conducting a yearlong series called The American Wealth Tour. 

The American Wealth Tour is your front-row seat to the buried fortune beneath our homeland — massive resource deposits like Pebble Creek and Donlin that could redefine national wealth. This editorial series explores how these untapped treasures could fuel a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, support a strategic crypto reserve, and be tokenized through projects like NatGold. Moreover, it will show investors like you how to profit from it like never before. And it’s not just economics — it’s eco-patriotism: responsibly unlocking America’s natural inheritance to secure our future, protect our sovereignty, and share the wealth with the people.

Imagine a gold deposit so massive, so strategically important to the wealth of the United States and its citizens, that if fully developed, it could shift the global gold supply map forever.

And yet almost nobody’s talking about it.

Welcome to Donlin Gold, a colossal untapped gold deposit in the remote hills of southwestern Alaska. 

Backed by two mining titans — Barrick Gold and NovaGold Resources — this monster project holds one of the largest undeveloped gold reserves on the planet.

Here’s what makes Donlin so special — and why it could soon take center stage in America’s race to secure domestic critical resources.

First, Let’s Take a Look at the Numbers — They're Jaw-Dropping

We’re not dealing with some junior explorer sitting on a speculative patch of dirt.

This is a 39-million-ounce gold deposit (measured and indicated), grading 2.24 grams per tonne — nearly double the grade of most open-pit gold projects today.

Let that sink in, my friend.

This isn’t low-grade, marginal ore. This is high-grade gold in bulk quantities, sitting inside the borders of the United States, in a jurisdiction desperate for secure domestic mineral supplies.

And the kicker? 

Only a fraction of the land package has been explored. According to geologists on the ground, the surrounding district shows district-scale potential. In other words, it could be as big as the legendary Carlin gold trend in Nevada.

This means Donlin could easily double in size — or more — with further exploration.

It’s Big. It’s Rich. But Why Isn’t It Being Mined?

Simple answer: politics, permitting, and power lines.

Similar to Northern Dynasty’s Pebble Creek gold project to the south, the Donlin project is nestled deep in the wilds of Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim region — far from roads, far from power grids, and even farther from the bureaucratic comfort zone of the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers.

To get Donlin Gold into production, a natural gas pipeline would have to be built stretching a couple hundred miles.

The project has already gone through a decade-plus of permitting, tribal consultation, and environmental studies. It received its final EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) and Record of Decision from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2018 — a huge milestone.

But as with all mega-projects in today’s anti-mining climate, local lawsuits and appeals have slowed progress. Opponents cite concerns about fish habitats, cultural impacts, and environmental risks — especially regarding tailings management.

Still, unlike Pebble Creek, Donlin has key support from Native corporations that own the surface and subsurface rights: Calista Corporation and The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC). That’s not just symbolic. It’s crucial. 

These Alaska Native groups have publicly supported Donlin’s development, citing its job-creating potential, community infrastructure plans, and economic benefits for some of the state’s most underserved villages.

In Short, Donlin Isn’t Fighting Against Alaska — It’s fighting for It

Worth over $80 billion at today’s prices, the unmined gold is not hype. It’s not theory. It’s real, certified, and permitted.

And yet… billions of dollars of the precious metal remains stuck in place.

But that’s about to change — because a powerful convergence of technology, politics, and patriotism is creating a bold new path forward. A way to unlock Donlin’s value without ever moving a shovel of earth.

And it all starts with NatGold Digital and a radical new proposal to back America’s future with what we already own beneath our feet. 

I’ll explain more about that in a minute…

But first, let’s talk facts.

Donlin: The Crown Jewel No One’s Talking About

The Donlin Project is jointly owned by NovaGold Resources (NYSE: NG) and Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD), two biggies of the mining world. 

Both NovaGold and Barrick have sunk tens of millions of dollars into the Donlin Gold project. 

So this isn’t some remote speculative venture. 

So what’s the holdup?

The usual suspects: environmental litigation, infrastructure challenges, and a permitting process that moves at the speed of erosion.

In fact, efforts to move the Donlin Gold project forward lost in court again just last September. According to Courthouse News Service:

In a world where capital is scarce, diesel is expensive, and ESG politics dominate the headlines, building a $7 billion mega-mine in remote Alaska has become nearly impossible.

That’s why tokenization of Donlin’s unmined gold reserves could be the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for.

Like Pebble Creek, Donlin’s gold was first discovered in the 1980s. And yet just like Pebble Creek, Donlin’s massive wealth still sits in the ground, trapped in a maze of red tape with no foreseeable future.

NatGold: Unlocking Trillions Without Digging a Hole

Enter NatGold — a visionary model for a new kind of gold-backed digital asset.

Instead of extracting physical gold from the ground, NatGold proposes something bold and beautifully simple: Tokenize in-ground, certified gold reserves and give investors digital ownership of real, untouched wealth.

Each token is backed by a fraction of a certified gold ounce, verified by third-party geological reports, and secured on a transparent blockchain ledger.

It’s a modern vault — digital, auditable, and inflation-resistant — backed not by mined gold but by America’s unmined treasure chest.

Donlin is the ideal pilot project. With 39 million verified ounces just sitting there, why not tokenize 5 million — or all of it — and place it into a new national vault?

That vault has a name — and a purpose.

Trump’s Sovereign Wealth Fund: Turning Gold Into National Power

In early 2025, former President Donald Trump signed a landmark executive order aimed at reasserting U.S. control over its critical mineral supply chains. But behind that was a bigger vision — one that hasn’t yet been fully understood by markets or the media…

The creation of a U.S. sovereign wealth fund — backed not by Treasuries or foreign capital but by America’s own natural resources.

Imagine a digital, tokenized vault containing:

• Certified gold from Donlin and Pebble Creek
• Rare earths from Texas and Wyoming
• Copper, lithium, and antimony from Montana to Nevada

All tokenized. All transparent. All backed by geological truth.

This fund wouldn’t just be a financial asset — it would be a strategic weapon in the age of inflation, de-dollarization, and geopolitical realignment.

NatGold’s platform could provide the technology. Projects like Donlin could provide the assets. And America, for once, would be leveraging what it already has — instead of begging the world for what it needs.

Eco-Patriotism: A New Manifest Destiny

Let’s be clear: This isn’t about pillaging the environment. It’s not about open pits and cyanide leaching.

It’s about eco-patriotism — the belief that we can protect our wild and beautiful lands while still securing our economic future. That we can honor tribal partnerships, safeguard watersheds, and keep forests intact while unlocking value through the other American resource powerhouse: technological innovation.

With tokenization, America can finally recognize the economic value of its mineral wealth without needing to mine it today. That’s not just smart — it’s revolutionary.

It’s not resource exploitation. It’s resource recognition.

Final Word: The Mic Drop

The Donlin Gold project represents more than just ounces in the ground. It represents a choice.

A choice between continuing down a path of debt, dependency, and decline — or boldly leveraging our natural wealth to restore national strength.

And in that spirit, let’s end with this:

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants — and the wisdom to use what you already own.” 

— Inspired by American frontier philosophy

America already owns the gold.

Now it’s time we summon the wisdom to use it.

Let’s unlock it.

The Prophet of Profit,