Thanks Buck. We can always count on you to cut through the c r a p ...

Notice that your example also works the way around. Picking up from where you started, you can divide the length and you have 1.5m of 1,402 grams, divide again and you have .75m of 2,804 grams, and again for .375m of 5,608 grams, and then .1875m of 11,216 grams, and then roughly 9cm containing 22,432 grams of gold! And when you are down to that level, there is no need to build a mine. You just bend down, pick up the 720 ounces of gold and put the US$800,000 in your pocket...

All the best.