Experience: I unearthed a mammoth from the ice age

An incredible storm blew up, as if we had released more than just an animal

I'd been working as a gold miner for only 30 days when I made my big discovery. The company I'd been employed by, Treadstone Gold, had begun its second season mining a cut in Eureka Creek in a remote region in Yukon, north-western Canada.

I had been operating various machines as I learned the ropes, and early in the afternoon of 21 June this year I was using an excavator with a ripper" attachment - a big metal hook that allowed me to break through the permafrost.