Emily Riedel

Biography: From Discovery Channel, discovery.com/profiles/ Seven years ago, Emily came to Nome for a summer to mine with her childhood friend Zeke Tenhoff. Hoping to fund her studies at a European opera conservatory, Emily’s brief dalliance with gold mining has evolved from part-time summer job into a full-fledged occupation. Now Emily is running her own operation – The Eroica – and is the only female captain and dredge owner in the Nome gold mining fleet. With the competition for ground increasing – mainly in size – Emily is determined to carve out her piece of the pie and prove to the boys in Nome that you don’t need a mega-dredge to be a successful miner.