Gold Rush (2006) - full transcript
We're under some pressure
in the Yukon
and scram on a little bit
to find ground.
Right now,
the main target
is on John Reeves' ground.
We're spending a lot of money
doing drilling,
so we need inclusive results.
To keep
his goldmining empire intact,
27-year-old mine boss
Parker Schnabel
is determined
to expand his operation
to Alaska.
He's gambled $180,000
to secure a claim,
but still doesn't know
if it has the gold he needs.
The thing about Fairbanks
that I really like
is it's a big district
with millions of ounces
of production.
They haven't had a huge
amount of exploration
in the last 10 or 20 years.
That's a good sign.
After striking out
on his first prospect,
Parker's heading
to the archives to find
his next spot.
John has a really
extensive archive
of information from,
you know, the early 1900s
until Fairbanks Exploration,
which was a big company,
um, quit the business
and John ended up owning it.
And he still has
all the original maps
and drawings,
which shows how thoroughly
they explored and mined
all of the properties
that John has.
Parker and master
driller Liam Ferguson meet
with land owner, John Reeves,
and son-in-law, Drew Langley,
to investigate a potential
lead at Cleary Creek.
Where a dredge may have
left behind virgin ground.
This is a block of ground.
It's right where the dredge
number 3 left off.
Um, we're a little unsure why
they stopped and turned around
and went back the other way.
Is there any way
you can find us
- some of the old drill reports
for this cell here?
Yup.
Not a problem. That'd be 1940.
Okay, sounds good.
So, for dredge 3.
- So this is as they were
making that turn.
Yeah.
This is the corner. Perfect.
So this
is your treasure map.
This is the treasure map.
This really gives us
a lot of information.
It's pretty clear that dredge
was on gold here.
'39 took out
over 30,000 ounces.
30,000 ounces.
In dredge 3 in 1939.
That's right
along here.
- That's this edge here.
'39 was leading up
to this here.
Yeah.
- 30,000 ounces.
Right here.
Looks like they actually
pre-struck the ground,
so they were intending
to go back in there,
at some point.
They left a lot of good ground
up there basically.
Some rich up there.
When the Fairbanks
Exploration Company shut down
dredge number 3 in 1957,
over 2 million ounces of gold
had been produced,
worth almost $4 billion today.
But it appears that in 1940,
for some reason, the dredge
stopped, turn a corner,
and left 22 acres of stripped
land unmined.
If the pay streak continues
on this virgin ground,
it could be 15 times richer
than Parker's Indian River
claims.
There's a lot of things
this map and Drew tell us.
Cut 7 was pretty good,
but marginal.
Cut 8, 9, and 10,
which was right on the end
before they turned,
went very good.
There was a lot of gold in it.
So that's encouraging
for what we're looking
at mining over here.
But it still doesn't help us
much with explaining why
the dredge turned around.
- You know, World War II
happening simultaneous to--
- 1940.
Well, they lost
a lot of workers...
Yeah.
...to the war efforts as well
and, uh, I mean, there's a lot
of different factors
- that are more than just
the gold playing a part.
Mmm-hmm.
All right, this is sweet.
Thanks, Drew.
- Not a problem.
- But we're gonna go see
if we can,
I guess go make sense
of this, huh?
The Cleary Creek
claim is 20 miles
outside of Fairbanks.
So, I think from about here,
we have about half
a million square feet
of virgin ground.
I think I can get along
that stripping pile,
put a line in now,
that's where we'll start.
Starting where the dredge
turned,
drill a series of test holes
across the stripped ground
and to the downstream end
of the claim,
to find out if the old timers
left a massive pay day behind.
But first, Liam needs
to build a road
into the drill zone.
The leaves
will be falling next,
then we'll be getting snow,
so we'd better quarry up
and find some gold,
so we can come mining here
next year.
Operator
Kyle Jacobs brings in
the $1 million Sonic drill
on Liam's new road.
Overloaded the pump
and it stalled
the machine out.
Damn it.
Yeah,
it's stuck on it right now.
Shifting the weight
of the 1,400-pound
drill head forward
should improve traction.
Try to get a run at it,
I guess keeping momentum up
may help.
Oh, here she goes.
Moors are bogging down.
That's more like it.
We made her, bud.
Barely, but we made her.
It's time
to find out
if Cleary Creek
still has gold rich
virgin ground.
See if we can find any gold.
Over halfway
through the mining season,
Tony Beets, the king
of the Klondike, is battling
to make a comeback
after a disastrous
miscalculation left him unable
to mine on Indian River.
So far, with one wash plant
running on Paradise Hill,
he's mined
just over 2,000 ounces
of gold.
Now he's pinning
his hopes on gold rich
white channel pay dirt
from the 25-acre wall cut.
Tony, Tony, do we got a copy?
Yup,
feeder keeps shutting down.
It's going, stopping,
going, stopping,
going, stopping.
It's leaving long stretches
on the bell end. DFA.
You want me to shut it down?
Yeah, okay.
I'll get down there
and shut it down right away.
Okay, let's go have a look.
Tony calls in
eldest son and mechanic,
Kevin, to investigate.
If it's gonna be
anywhere, it's gonna
be over here.
Oh, yeah, that's it,
right there.
Sprocket is no longer
a sprocket, it is now
an idler.
Meaning the teeth
that grab the rail,
ain't there no more,
she's smooth.
No wonder
she's skipping.
Now that means
she's pretty
Bare minimum,
we have to replace
that sprocket.
The feeder loads
gold rich pay
onto the conveyer,
leading to the trommel,
but after 25 years,
the teeth on the driver's
sprockets have worn smooth
and the belt is slipping.
The feeder's slipping
like a
I think those sprockets
are right done.
I don't know how
they look to you,
they look to me.
Probably don't have
any other choice.
We're not gonna
weld that back together.
It's been in there
for years, it's time
to put in a new one.
So, I'm gonna rip out,
put a new one together,
slam it back in,
off we go.
Removing
the feeder is a labor
intensive task.
First step, cut it free
from the hopper.
Hopefully, we can get it done
quick, get it back up
and running
and get back to the gold.
Yeah, I got another tab here,
too, that's welded.
Is there another weld
over there?
Now, to drag
the hopper out.
Nothing but problems
and headaches.
Tony's a smart man.
He can be a little tough
sometimes.
But you just make it work
and do whatever he asks.
This is gonna
be a long day.
We're all gonna take
a step back in case
falls.
I don't like
the look of this.
Better not drop it!
Well, that was close.
The Beets'
only wash plant is down
with a broken feeder.
Every hour
they're not sluicing,
Tony's losing $2,700.
There's always pressure
to get done.
The season's short as is,
but especially
with the trommel
'cause when it ain't spinning,
we ain't making
no gold.
With the hopper
out, they now need to detach
the 30-foot long conveyer
before they can even get
to the feeder.
Yup.
beautiful.
Mike loads
the conveyer
onto the 500-horsepower
Oshkosh military tank
transporter.
Not too bad.
While Mike uses
an excavator to push
the feeder free...
...Kevin
tag teams it using
the pipe layer to pull.
This thing is
We don't have any other parts
on site.
After spending
nine hours removing
the feeder,
Tony now has to wait
three days for the replacement
sprocket to arrive.
This, I guess is what
you call putting all your eggs
in one basket.
Two-thirds
of the way
through the season,
Rick Ness is taking
the biggest gamble
of his mining career.
We're trying
to get 2,000 ounces this year.
And, uh, I think it's gonna
pay off huge.
Um, and if it doesn't,
we are gonna go down
in a blaze of glory
unlike anybody's ever seen.
He stopped sluicing
to concentrate his resources
on opening a monster cut.
The 190-foot deep
Rally Valley.
If Rick's not running pay dirt
in three weeks,
he won't have time
to get all the gold
before winter hits.
It's a bit of a gamble.
I hope this works out.
I did the math on it.
I've got three trucks running.
I need at least
600 truckloads a day.
There's just no way
to get those kind of numbers
with one shift.
Our best shot at it is...
Is adding a night crew.
Morning, pal.
Good morning, Richard.
I'm trying to be an, uh...
A scientist and do math.
And what are you thinking?
We're looking at over
a million yards
of overburden here
and, at the moment,
I think we've only moved
about 300,000.
So [bleep], at that rate
we're not gonna be sluicing
this year.
-[bleep], that's a lot
of dirt.
Yeah.
Well, what, uh...
What're you thinking?
Well, we're gonna have
to do a night shift.
If we wanna sluice this year,
that's the only way.
So I... I kind of need you
to step up and be
the night foreman.
Well,
I'm excited, man,
I'd definitely do that
for you.
If we can get it stripped
in three weeks,
that could be the difference
between us going home
with profit,
you with gold in your pocket,
or not.
I'll do my best I can
for you and, uh,
- hopefully, we can conquer
this at a fast pace.
- All right.
- Buddy, thanks.
- Get some sleep,
I'll see you tonight.
- All right?
- Sounds good, man.
I'm really gonna be putting
the pressure on Brennan.
You know, although
he does have several years
of experience now,
um, we're not gonna let him
think that that gets him
a free pass.
I really need him to, uh...
To work out.
I wanna shoot high.
I mean, I've taken on the role
of nightshift foreman
and it's a step
in the right direction
of trying to move up
the ladder.
To justify Rick's trust,
Brennan needs to hit 300 loads
by the end of the night.
Coming from working
at Parker's, we always find
a lot of gold
and I know what it takes
to get there.
But Parker and I,
we're not getting along
so much the last few years,
so I was walking on eggshells
90% of the time.
Last season,
Brennan came under pressure
as co-foreman
at Parker's claim.
Like, I shouldn't have
to walk the floor and find,
like, yards of rock.
I have hardly dug any of this.
I don't care.
You're in charge
or you're not in charge.
After jumping ship,
Brennan's determined to prove
he can handle the pressure.
Rick and I are
on the same page,
so I've been trying
to watch my ass and...
And show to him that I care
about what's going on.
I want us all to have
a successful season
and be ready
to come back next year
with a smile on our face.
What the hell is going on
in here?
Hey, Brennan, I think my truck
just messed up.
Something going on here,
I gotta check it out.
Are you being
serious right now?
Okay, buddy.
Well, I'll be up here
to help you.
I can't afford
this truck to go down
right now.
Unbelievable.
sakes, man.
damn it.
Yeah, this kind of sucks
'cause we don't have the time
for this to be down right now.
Three rock trucks, one down.
I don't know what
we're gonna do now.
The 34-ton truck
is not only out of commission,
it's also blocking the path
to the waste site.
Been down for the last
45 minutes.
Every load we miss is a load
that's hard to get back.
With time ticking,
Brennan needs
the stranded truck moved.
The rear axle's
bushing that holds it
to the front here fell apart.
No power can get
to the back wheels
because the drive shaft
isn't attached to the axle.
You wanna grab that, buddy?
So Brennan orders
his crew to remove it.
Okay, Nick, you think
if we just put that box down,
- you'll be able to limp it
up there?
- Yep.
Okay, buddy.
We'll get this thing rolling
and get theback
to work.
With only
a few hours left,
Brennan pushes
his two remaining trucks
to try and hit Rick's
300 load target.
How'd she go, buddy?
Well, not as good
as we wanted.
We, uh, didn't get
our 300 loads in.
Riley's truck
went down last night
there, so--
Are you serious?
- This is not a good start.
- No.
I don't know what's up
with these trucks,
I know they got a lot of hours
on them but...
It's just like every time
we're in the crunch,
we have to deal
with a breakdown.
Yeah, no,
I understand that.
I'm not trying
to give you
Hopefully, it's a quick fix
and...
You know, we get back
all the trucks running
and I'm gonna get to it
because I definitely
gotta get 300 this shift.
Okay, sounds good, buddy.
- Thanks, pal. Yeah.
- See you tonight.
Yeah, I mean,
we need to be hitting that
300 loads per shift,
Like, it has to happen.
If we're gonna get down
to pay in three weeks,
that's the only way
to do it.
Hopefully in the future
our luck changes
with these breakdowns.
Parker Schnabel
is racing to find new ground
in Alaska
to secure the future
of his mining business.
The ground here
is a lot deeper than
in the Yukon.
And, you know, where we think
that 40 or 50 feet
is really deep,
you know, in Alaska
that's the shallowest ground
around.
In a lot of the ground
that we'll be looking at,
it's 100 plus.
Definitely puts
the pressure on, um...
On doing good exploration
and just making sure you know
what's in the ground
before you lose
a bunch of money.
For the past three days,
drill operator, Kyle Jacobs,
has sunk a series
of 100 foot deep holes
searching for
gold rich virgin ground
at Dredge Corner.
For the ground to pay off,
he needs
at least 150 milligrams
of gold in each hole.
And so far,
he's found just 30.
It's nice to be out
in the woods.
We're struggling to get
on the gold.
Alaska is gonna be
a challenge for us.
- Hey, Kyle!
At 60 feet,
the drill hits bedrock
far sooner than expected.
Old-timers definitely
could have seen that bedrock.
And that's why they skipped
around Dredge Corner,
'cause they hadn't hit pay.
This shallower ground could
explain why the dredge turned.
Parker and Liam
take the drill sample
back to the gold room
to assess it further.
All right, so this is
the bottom of the hole
that we drilled.
There's no pay layer
in that sample.
There's nothing in there.
We're going broke.
I don't think
this is bedrock.
It's too shallow.
What do you think
we should do?
I think it's worth going back,
drill some holes, confirm what
we're seeing here.
All right, that seems like
a good call.
Liam suspects that
the hard layer they've hit
could be a layer of rock
with pay gravel,
with the real bedrock
hidden underneath.
Where's all the gold at, Doze?
Where's all the gold at?
If Liam's wrong,
Parker stands to lose
thousands more dollars
drilling worthless ground.
We're finding 10 to 15 feet
of gravel below this rock.
Usually don't have gravel
below bedrock,
so it's kind of weird
to, uh, drill.
What's up, dude?
Just hanging out
with the Doze man.
Is he finding any gold?
No, he's not
a very good gold-seeking dog.
Well, we've been finding
some pretty interesting stuff
here, too.
- Oh, yeah?
Yeah, it's, um...
At first, we thought
we were drilling...
We drilled through
a big boulder
that was just floating.
And then, we started seeing it
again on another hole.
Then, we realized it wasn't
actually just a rock,
it was actually a full...
Bed of bedrock
with gravel below it.
How would that happen?
Um, it's probably slide rock
coming down off the hill.
Thousands of years ago,
a seam of rock slid
off the hillside,
covering what could be
a layer of gold-rich pay.
Over the years,
dirt was deposited above it.
When the old-timers stripped
this ground,
they may have believed that
the slide rock was bedrock
and abandoned it.
I mean,
it's a good thing that these
guys know what they're doing
because, like,
hitting that slide rock,
a lot of people would be like,
"Oh, we're on bedrock."
But it looks like there's some
gravel underneath it.
There's... There's more gravel
than we previously thought,
so that's good.
Gravel doesn't make
any money though.
It needs to be gravel
with gold in it.
I'm not just putting
the mining season on the line
for this.
This is literally
the mining career.
If this doesn't work out,
my guys, you know,
are gonna lose their bonus
and, uh, I'm gonna be
done mining.
That's how...
That's how serious this is.
At Rally Valley,
Rick Ness is less than halfway
to hitting gold-rich pay dirt
120 feet down.
He needs to start sluicing
within three weeks.
I split everybody in half.
I've got, uh,
four people running at night,
four people during the day.
We're just going straight down
in this cut.
You know, we'll be spending
three weeks, uh, without gold
coming in
and doing nothing
but burning fuel,
spending money, moving dirt.
And, uh, it's all for the hope
of a big pay day down here.
After a rock truck broke down
on Brennan's night shift,
Rick's running with only
two-thirds of his fleet.
I haven't had
a full-time mechanic all year
which is insane to me.
But we've kept things rolling.
If I've got machines go down,
and we're down for days or...
Or weeks or whatever,
or even a day, like,
I can't afford it.
So I did manage
to get Torsten back here.
Twenty-year-old
apprentice mechanic,
Torsten Petersson,
needs to replace
the broken bushing,
and refit
the rock truck's axle
and drive shaft.
They already lost like
a good 50 loads
so we gotta get this truck up
and going for them
as quick as possible.
Without the bushing in there,
and doing its job,
this thing's just like
a giant paper weight
sitting in the middle
of nowhere doing nothing.
It's great
to have Torsten back.
Hopefully, we can get
this truck back up
and running today,
and, uh, we'll be back
on track.
Back a bit.
Other way.
This?
Other way.
Keep going, keep... Stop.
After four hours,
Torsten and operator,
Nathan Thornington...
- You done yet?
Almost.
...are ready to see
if the fix has worked.
Really? Then how come
you're still under there?
Yeah,
'cause you're distracting me.
I am not.
You should have thought, like,
mechanics were multitaskers.
Shut up!
Torsten just got
that truck back up and running
so we're back at three trucks.
We're... We're not gonna hit
our 300 loads today.
You know, that's just, uh...
It's just not gonna happen.
We're gonna be at about 280,
uh, which is just
isn't acceptable.
Unfortunately for Brennan,
he's... He's picking up
the slack tonight.
And, uh, really hope that
he's up to it.
This is the deepest cut
I've ever done in my life,
and I wanna prove
to Rick and myself
that I can do this.
I'm hungry, man,
I'm awolf.
I wannamove up
the ladder.
Night shift foreman,
Brennan Ruault,
is racing to move
300 loads of overburden
and make up
the 20 loads short fall
from the day shift.
I think night shift's,
uh, doing a big help
for making up lost time.
We have
a lot less distractions.
We just get here.
We load, we load,
we load, we load.
And, uh, you know,
if we don't have
any breakdowns,
you know, it's achievable.
What the [bleep]?
No way!
Not the again here.
Can't even
peel through this ground.
You know, everything seems
to go good until it doesn't.
And now I hit this
hard ground again.
damn it.
Hey, Riley?
You got a copy, bud?
Riley. We got a copy, Brennan.
Just hit some
hard ground again here
and it's just...
I can't even dig it with
these tiger teeth.
We've hit some glacial till.
You know, it's like...
It's like a mud but very hard
packed with gravel.
brutal,
it might as well be frozen.
But it's not.
And it just...
Is very, very abrasive.
The only machine
that can rip the glacial till
is the 475 Dozer.
Okay, well, I gotta
get cracking here
and get ripping in the Dozer.
Let's switch Riley out.
But the 900 horsepower beast
costs $5000 in fuel a day.
With no money coming in,
it's a big call.
What you need to be able to do
is think quick on your feet,
especially at night time,
you know.
We cannot afford to lose
any loads at all, or time,
if we wanna get down
150 feet
just to get to pay.
The one deadly weapon we have
this year is this 475.
I mean, [bleep],
this thing push mountains
and rip mountains.
This thing's
worth its weight in gold
for what we gotta do.
With the glacial till being
torn out by the Dozer,
they can get back
to loading overburden
with the 700.
- Hey, Ricky!
- How did you go, buddy.
- Good, buddy. 323 loads.
- You did?
yeah.
- You're my man.
There's that weird hard
layer which is a
to get through.
Yeah, I don't get it.
I thought this was
all gonna be soft
and fluffy and we'll be
motoring through.
- Did you have to rip
it all or--
- Yeah, I did a little bit
threw Riley in the hole quick,
kept them going
and, uh, I got that...
but everybody was
on their game last night.
You had to get out
of the excavator, still hit
over 320. Dude, that's...
awesome.
Yeah, buddy.
I can't wait to see
what's at the bottom of this.
- Me too, dude.
- That's a lot of dirt.
Yeah, all right.
Having Brennan
on the team this year
just keeps paying off.
Man, I love it.
You know, when he stepped up
to be a night foreman, I knew
he's knock it out of the park.
You know, last night he
made up for the loads
that we missed
during the day shift.
And that's what I'm gonna
need him to do for the rest
of the year, so...
We still gotta lot of dirt
to get down to the pace.
But we'll get there.
After a three
day wait,
the new sprocket for
the paradise hill trommel
has arrived.
So far, the shutdown has
cost Tony almost $200,000
in lost gold.
We're not sluicing,
we aren't making money.
And if you ain't making
money, that means all
you doing is spending it.
With
the replacement part
lowered into position,
they must fit the feeder
track onto the new
sprocket.
What does it look like, Cody?
- Move at all?
It moved a bit.
Tony, copy Tony.
You wanna come
take a look at this?
We got it holed tight,
but it still won't line up
at the sprocket.
The steel rail
needs to locate precisely
on the sprocket teeth.
We measured between
top to top and it was an
eighth of an inch difference
in the front.
This ain't good.
Sprockets on the new gear,
they don't match the rail.
Meaning...
that when you turn it,
instead of fitting in
these pockets here,
they sit on the sprocket
teeth.
That's not good,
we have the exact same
problem in a week.
The old drive
sprocket on the feet
are wore smooth
'causing the track to skip.
But at the other end,
the idler sprockets
with no load on them
are still intact.
Tony's bush fix swap
the idlers with the drive
sprockets.
This is supposed
to be quick.
- Come on, there we go.
After 7 hours,
the sprockets are
swapped out.
Hopefully, we can get
back to sluicing soon.
It's a temporary fix
that Tony can only
hope will last
till the end of this season.
- Yeah.
- Damn right.
Much better.
Mike takes
the weight of the feeder
on the pipe layer
as Kevin in the excavator
pulls it back into position.
If everything goes smooth,
we may be able to sluice
tonight.
The 30 foot
conveyor is then bolted
back on to the new feeder.
I always feel like
any downtime is
too much down time.
'Cause we gottaproduce the season
sure enough as it is.
So, it will be very nice
to see this running again.
If the bush fixes
work, it will save weeks
of downtime
waiting for replacement parts.
Yeah.
All right, you ready?
Put some dirt on there,
let's get going.
All right, finally up
and running.
Everything should
work, I mean...
we fixed all the mechanical
stuff and...
work out.
Let's see if this
spins.
Beautiful. We have life
and movement.
This, uh,
stockpile we got here,
I'd bet you they could see it
from space if they
look real close.
And our side pieces
seem to be working,
lovely.
Good to see it moving' again.
Means we're making money
again, instead of just
spending it.
To stand any chance
of hitting his 4500 ounce
season goal,
Tony must mine
around the clock.
Okay, don't lick.
What do you think Pugsy,
you like being in here?
I mean, this job gets pretty
monotonous, so it could be
pretty lonely
after a while, you know,
so it is nice having him here,
makes me laugh.
- Good boy!
That's a good boy.
Coming up?
Come on.
Good man!
Good man, good man.
Who's that? Who's that?
Get 'em.
- Good man, get 'em!
- Your dog is so grumpy.
He's got so much hate
in such a tiny body.
- I'm just training him
who to growl at.
That's a guard dog.
You ready for quitting time?
You gonna go for
a big run afterwards?
You're gonna chase me
side by side?
Good man.
- Brendon, can I talk
to you for a bit?
- All right.
I hope you're
not fired.
- You're fired.
Rick is over
half way to pay at
Rally Valley,
and has some news for Brendon.
So no,
you're not fired.
- Okay, good.
You and I both know
the severity of what we're
up against in Rally Valley.
- Yeah, it's pretty big.
- Like, it's big.
- Yeah,
- Yeah, and, uh,
we're gonna have to have
eyes and ears in there
at all times
- because one mistake,
we're not gonna make it.
- Mmm-hmm.
- No.
- Coming in here, I said
I wasn't really looking
- for a foreman.
- Mmm-hmm.
Um, but, you know,
you have proved yourself
and things have changed a bit.
So, that's why I'm kinda
hoping that, you know,
I can ask you to step up.
Be the foreman, you know,
when I'm not around
and take that
responsibility on.
sure, man,
I'd love to do that.
- Yeah.
-[bleep], yeah.
That's awesome.
It's a no brainer for me.
I mean, it's been great
having you here this year.
You know, I've been
able to rely on you
and, um, you know, I think
this is a perfect time.
Appreciate that, man.
I don't know what to say.
I'm definitely excited
and I'll do my best
for you. So...
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
I got a lot of work
ahead of me.
Yeah, you do. We all do.
You sure you don't
want a minute to
think about it?
No. I hope
I'm ready for it.
You're ready. Yeah.
When I came here
I didn't know what to expect.
And so far it's been
the best move I've
ever made.
Super happy and now
Rick's asked me to
step up and be the foreman
in Rally Valley and you
know, I honestly couldn't
be happier.
But I got a lot of
work ahead
of me.
So I'm gonna get my
ass to bed.
Get up and get ready
to conquer the day
tomorrow.
Hi.
- How are you all?
- Um, surviving.
- I exist.
How did it go this week?
Uh, it was a
Well, that's nice.
What did you do?
Where did you break?
Uh, the feeder finally went.
- Wow.
- I noticed that it was...
So it was slipping'.
- Oh, yeah.
I crawled underneath...
for safety.
There was nothing.
- Cool.
- It's amazing we're
still turning.
With the feeder down
and all that, like so far
we've had quite the downtime.
Cool, so my child is expiring
and I want to see how much
gold you got.
Let's play.
- Expiring?
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, of course,
they have a due date.
All babies have a due date.
But they have
the best buy time.
Don't know.
I did it last time.
I'm off the hook.
I did it last time!
- No, no, I did it
the last time.
Michael!
Michael, you haven't
done it for a while.
Tony's only sluiced
wall cut white channel pay...
for two days this week.
He needs 237 ounces
to hit his goal.
Ten, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60,
seventy, 80,
ninety, 100.
Keep going.
No dies.
I know.
105.24
Worth almost
$190,000,
but less than half
of their weekly target.
Hundred ounces isn't great,
but we're making our way
towards our total,
or are we still
a long ways off?
Not a long ways off.
We're still quite a ways off.
I guess long ways still.
Hey, every little
ounce counts.
With that being said, I think
everybody should leave
and go to work.
What about you?
Yeah!
Because this is my house,
I can work from home.
- Can I work from home?
Nope.
- Can I work from home?
I can work
from home.
Nope, nope.
My new VR thing I can till
the mechanical hands,
I can do work from home!
I only need the Internet
and a computer, that's all
I need.
I take all of it.
In Cleary Creek, Alaska...
Make an a la carte...
It is difficult.
Whoa, you're like a pro, man!
Parker and drilling
contractor, Liam Ferguson,
have drilled 30 test holes
at Dredge Corner.
All right, Parker,
this is one of those holes
that I was talking about
that had a stump for a while,
but turns out
there's a layer
of false bedrock
that's coming off the hill
and bearing the gravel.
So we're kinda hoping
that maybe the old-timers
just hit that first layer
and stopped.
I'm surprised that you guys
found that, really.
It took a few holes.
Like it's pretty easy to just
hit bedrock and...
Yeah, so, we um--
Like,
"Oh, bedrock, cool.
Move on."
Is there any gold
in any of this?
Parker needs
at least 150 milligrams
of gold per hole
to make the ground viable.
We hit
in one hole, 26...
Right.
...thirty, and then
it just pretty consistently
seemed to hit 135,
hit virgin, 187...
One eighty seven. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah,
look at that!
Cool!
That one's not bad.
Yeah,
it's about 200 overall.
At 200 milligrams
per hole,
Dredge Corner is potentially
ten times richer
than Parker's claims
at Indian River.
Think of that nug.
Dude, you hit nug!
That's better than
all the other projects
that you've done with me.
There's more gold
in this ground.
It makes it easy.
With a payday
that could be worth
over $11.5 million,
Parker has found
Alaskan ground.
It's looking promising.
Go home and pack your bags.
- Thanks, dude.
See you, Parker.
Yeah, it's good to see
some gold coming out
of the drilling, you know?
Liam and I have drilled
a lot of ground
that has no gold in it,
or not enough to go mining.
And it's nice to finally
be like...
...honor some stuff
that's really productive.
Like, 6,000 ounces
drilled out so far,
and there's some
healthy profit in there.
Of course, I always want more.
As I should get back
to the Yukon,
make sure we're making
enough money to pay
for all this.
in the Yukon
and scram on a little bit
to find ground.
Right now,
the main target
is on John Reeves' ground.
We're spending a lot of money
doing drilling,
so we need inclusive results.
To keep
his goldmining empire intact,
27-year-old mine boss
Parker Schnabel
is determined
to expand his operation
to Alaska.
He's gambled $180,000
to secure a claim,
but still doesn't know
if it has the gold he needs.
The thing about Fairbanks
that I really like
is it's a big district
with millions of ounces
of production.
They haven't had a huge
amount of exploration
in the last 10 or 20 years.
That's a good sign.
After striking out
on his first prospect,
Parker's heading
to the archives to find
his next spot.
John has a really
extensive archive
of information from,
you know, the early 1900s
until Fairbanks Exploration,
which was a big company,
um, quit the business
and John ended up owning it.
And he still has
all the original maps
and drawings,
which shows how thoroughly
they explored and mined
all of the properties
that John has.
Parker and master
driller Liam Ferguson meet
with land owner, John Reeves,
and son-in-law, Drew Langley,
to investigate a potential
lead at Cleary Creek.
Where a dredge may have
left behind virgin ground.
This is a block of ground.
It's right where the dredge
number 3 left off.
Um, we're a little unsure why
they stopped and turned around
and went back the other way.
Is there any way
you can find us
- some of the old drill reports
for this cell here?
Yup.
Not a problem. That'd be 1940.
Okay, sounds good.
So, for dredge 3.
- So this is as they were
making that turn.
Yeah.
This is the corner. Perfect.
So this
is your treasure map.
This is the treasure map.
This really gives us
a lot of information.
It's pretty clear that dredge
was on gold here.
'39 took out
over 30,000 ounces.
30,000 ounces.
In dredge 3 in 1939.
That's right
along here.
- That's this edge here.
'39 was leading up
to this here.
Yeah.
- 30,000 ounces.
Right here.
Looks like they actually
pre-struck the ground,
so they were intending
to go back in there,
at some point.
They left a lot of good ground
up there basically.
Some rich up there.
When the Fairbanks
Exploration Company shut down
dredge number 3 in 1957,
over 2 million ounces of gold
had been produced,
worth almost $4 billion today.
But it appears that in 1940,
for some reason, the dredge
stopped, turn a corner,
and left 22 acres of stripped
land unmined.
If the pay streak continues
on this virgin ground,
it could be 15 times richer
than Parker's Indian River
claims.
There's a lot of things
this map and Drew tell us.
Cut 7 was pretty good,
but marginal.
Cut 8, 9, and 10,
which was right on the end
before they turned,
went very good.
There was a lot of gold in it.
So that's encouraging
for what we're looking
at mining over here.
But it still doesn't help us
much with explaining why
the dredge turned around.
- You know, World War II
happening simultaneous to--
- 1940.
Well, they lost
a lot of workers...
Yeah.
...to the war efforts as well
and, uh, I mean, there's a lot
of different factors
- that are more than just
the gold playing a part.
Mmm-hmm.
All right, this is sweet.
Thanks, Drew.
- Not a problem.
- But we're gonna go see
if we can,
I guess go make sense
of this, huh?
The Cleary Creek
claim is 20 miles
outside of Fairbanks.
So, I think from about here,
we have about half
a million square feet
of virgin ground.
I think I can get along
that stripping pile,
put a line in now,
that's where we'll start.
Starting where the dredge
turned,
drill a series of test holes
across the stripped ground
and to the downstream end
of the claim,
to find out if the old timers
left a massive pay day behind.
But first, Liam needs
to build a road
into the drill zone.
The leaves
will be falling next,
then we'll be getting snow,
so we'd better quarry up
and find some gold,
so we can come mining here
next year.
Operator
Kyle Jacobs brings in
the $1 million Sonic drill
on Liam's new road.
Overloaded the pump
and it stalled
the machine out.
Damn it.
Yeah,
it's stuck on it right now.
Shifting the weight
of the 1,400-pound
drill head forward
should improve traction.
Try to get a run at it,
I guess keeping momentum up
may help.
Oh, here she goes.
Moors are bogging down.
That's more like it.
We made her, bud.
Barely, but we made her.
It's time
to find out
if Cleary Creek
still has gold rich
virgin ground.
See if we can find any gold.
Over halfway
through the mining season,
Tony Beets, the king
of the Klondike, is battling
to make a comeback
after a disastrous
miscalculation left him unable
to mine on Indian River.
So far, with one wash plant
running on Paradise Hill,
he's mined
just over 2,000 ounces
of gold.
Now he's pinning
his hopes on gold rich
white channel pay dirt
from the 25-acre wall cut.
Tony, Tony, do we got a copy?
Yup,
feeder keeps shutting down.
It's going, stopping,
going, stopping,
going, stopping.
It's leaving long stretches
on the bell end. DFA.
You want me to shut it down?
Yeah, okay.
I'll get down there
and shut it down right away.
Okay, let's go have a look.
Tony calls in
eldest son and mechanic,
Kevin, to investigate.
If it's gonna be
anywhere, it's gonna
be over here.
Oh, yeah, that's it,
right there.
Sprocket is no longer
a sprocket, it is now
an idler.
Meaning the teeth
that grab the rail,
ain't there no more,
she's smooth.
No wonder
she's skipping.
Now that means
she's pretty
Bare minimum,
we have to replace
that sprocket.
The feeder loads
gold rich pay
onto the conveyer,
leading to the trommel,
but after 25 years,
the teeth on the driver's
sprockets have worn smooth
and the belt is slipping.
The feeder's slipping
like a
I think those sprockets
are right done.
I don't know how
they look to you,
they look to me.
Probably don't have
any other choice.
We're not gonna
weld that back together.
It's been in there
for years, it's time
to put in a new one.
So, I'm gonna rip out,
put a new one together,
slam it back in,
off we go.
Removing
the feeder is a labor
intensive task.
First step, cut it free
from the hopper.
Hopefully, we can get it done
quick, get it back up
and running
and get back to the gold.
Yeah, I got another tab here,
too, that's welded.
Is there another weld
over there?
Now, to drag
the hopper out.
Nothing but problems
and headaches.
Tony's a smart man.
He can be a little tough
sometimes.
But you just make it work
and do whatever he asks.
This is gonna
be a long day.
We're all gonna take
a step back in case
falls.
I don't like
the look of this.
Better not drop it!
Well, that was close.
The Beets'
only wash plant is down
with a broken feeder.
Every hour
they're not sluicing,
Tony's losing $2,700.
There's always pressure
to get done.
The season's short as is,
but especially
with the trommel
'cause when it ain't spinning,
we ain't making
no gold.
With the hopper
out, they now need to detach
the 30-foot long conveyer
before they can even get
to the feeder.
Yup.
beautiful.
Mike loads
the conveyer
onto the 500-horsepower
Oshkosh military tank
transporter.
Not too bad.
While Mike uses
an excavator to push
the feeder free...
...Kevin
tag teams it using
the pipe layer to pull.
This thing is
We don't have any other parts
on site.
After spending
nine hours removing
the feeder,
Tony now has to wait
three days for the replacement
sprocket to arrive.
This, I guess is what
you call putting all your eggs
in one basket.
Two-thirds
of the way
through the season,
Rick Ness is taking
the biggest gamble
of his mining career.
We're trying
to get 2,000 ounces this year.
And, uh, I think it's gonna
pay off huge.
Um, and if it doesn't,
we are gonna go down
in a blaze of glory
unlike anybody's ever seen.
He stopped sluicing
to concentrate his resources
on opening a monster cut.
The 190-foot deep
Rally Valley.
If Rick's not running pay dirt
in three weeks,
he won't have time
to get all the gold
before winter hits.
It's a bit of a gamble.
I hope this works out.
I did the math on it.
I've got three trucks running.
I need at least
600 truckloads a day.
There's just no way
to get those kind of numbers
with one shift.
Our best shot at it is...
Is adding a night crew.
Morning, pal.
Good morning, Richard.
I'm trying to be an, uh...
A scientist and do math.
And what are you thinking?
We're looking at over
a million yards
of overburden here
and, at the moment,
I think we've only moved
about 300,000.
So [bleep], at that rate
we're not gonna be sluicing
this year.
-[bleep], that's a lot
of dirt.
Yeah.
Well, what, uh...
What're you thinking?
Well, we're gonna have
to do a night shift.
If we wanna sluice this year,
that's the only way.
So I... I kind of need you
to step up and be
the night foreman.
Well,
I'm excited, man,
I'd definitely do that
for you.
If we can get it stripped
in three weeks,
that could be the difference
between us going home
with profit,
you with gold in your pocket,
or not.
I'll do my best I can
for you and, uh,
- hopefully, we can conquer
this at a fast pace.
- All right.
- Buddy, thanks.
- Get some sleep,
I'll see you tonight.
- All right?
- Sounds good, man.
I'm really gonna be putting
the pressure on Brennan.
You know, although
he does have several years
of experience now,
um, we're not gonna let him
think that that gets him
a free pass.
I really need him to, uh...
To work out.
I wanna shoot high.
I mean, I've taken on the role
of nightshift foreman
and it's a step
in the right direction
of trying to move up
the ladder.
To justify Rick's trust,
Brennan needs to hit 300 loads
by the end of the night.
Coming from working
at Parker's, we always find
a lot of gold
and I know what it takes
to get there.
But Parker and I,
we're not getting along
so much the last few years,
so I was walking on eggshells
90% of the time.
Last season,
Brennan came under pressure
as co-foreman
at Parker's claim.
Like, I shouldn't have
to walk the floor and find,
like, yards of rock.
I have hardly dug any of this.
I don't care.
You're in charge
or you're not in charge.
After jumping ship,
Brennan's determined to prove
he can handle the pressure.
Rick and I are
on the same page,
so I've been trying
to watch my ass and...
And show to him that I care
about what's going on.
I want us all to have
a successful season
and be ready
to come back next year
with a smile on our face.
What the hell is going on
in here?
Hey, Brennan, I think my truck
just messed up.
Something going on here,
I gotta check it out.
Are you being
serious right now?
Okay, buddy.
Well, I'll be up here
to help you.
I can't afford
this truck to go down
right now.
Unbelievable.
sakes, man.
damn it.
Yeah, this kind of sucks
'cause we don't have the time
for this to be down right now.
Three rock trucks, one down.
I don't know what
we're gonna do now.
The 34-ton truck
is not only out of commission,
it's also blocking the path
to the waste site.
Been down for the last
45 minutes.
Every load we miss is a load
that's hard to get back.
With time ticking,
Brennan needs
the stranded truck moved.
The rear axle's
bushing that holds it
to the front here fell apart.
No power can get
to the back wheels
because the drive shaft
isn't attached to the axle.
You wanna grab that, buddy?
So Brennan orders
his crew to remove it.
Okay, Nick, you think
if we just put that box down,
- you'll be able to limp it
up there?
- Yep.
Okay, buddy.
We'll get this thing rolling
and get theback
to work.
With only
a few hours left,
Brennan pushes
his two remaining trucks
to try and hit Rick's
300 load target.
How'd she go, buddy?
Well, not as good
as we wanted.
We, uh, didn't get
our 300 loads in.
Riley's truck
went down last night
there, so--
Are you serious?
- This is not a good start.
- No.
I don't know what's up
with these trucks,
I know they got a lot of hours
on them but...
It's just like every time
we're in the crunch,
we have to deal
with a breakdown.
Yeah, no,
I understand that.
I'm not trying
to give you
Hopefully, it's a quick fix
and...
You know, we get back
all the trucks running
and I'm gonna get to it
because I definitely
gotta get 300 this shift.
Okay, sounds good, buddy.
- Thanks, pal. Yeah.
- See you tonight.
Yeah, I mean,
we need to be hitting that
300 loads per shift,
Like, it has to happen.
If we're gonna get down
to pay in three weeks,
that's the only way
to do it.
Hopefully in the future
our luck changes
with these breakdowns.
Parker Schnabel
is racing to find new ground
in Alaska
to secure the future
of his mining business.
The ground here
is a lot deeper than
in the Yukon.
And, you know, where we think
that 40 or 50 feet
is really deep,
you know, in Alaska
that's the shallowest ground
around.
In a lot of the ground
that we'll be looking at,
it's 100 plus.
Definitely puts
the pressure on, um...
On doing good exploration
and just making sure you know
what's in the ground
before you lose
a bunch of money.
For the past three days,
drill operator, Kyle Jacobs,
has sunk a series
of 100 foot deep holes
searching for
gold rich virgin ground
at Dredge Corner.
For the ground to pay off,
he needs
at least 150 milligrams
of gold in each hole.
And so far,
he's found just 30.
It's nice to be out
in the woods.
We're struggling to get
on the gold.
Alaska is gonna be
a challenge for us.
- Hey, Kyle!
At 60 feet,
the drill hits bedrock
far sooner than expected.
Old-timers definitely
could have seen that bedrock.
And that's why they skipped
around Dredge Corner,
'cause they hadn't hit pay.
This shallower ground could
explain why the dredge turned.
Parker and Liam
take the drill sample
back to the gold room
to assess it further.
All right, so this is
the bottom of the hole
that we drilled.
There's no pay layer
in that sample.
There's nothing in there.
We're going broke.
I don't think
this is bedrock.
It's too shallow.
What do you think
we should do?
I think it's worth going back,
drill some holes, confirm what
we're seeing here.
All right, that seems like
a good call.
Liam suspects that
the hard layer they've hit
could be a layer of rock
with pay gravel,
with the real bedrock
hidden underneath.
Where's all the gold at, Doze?
Where's all the gold at?
If Liam's wrong,
Parker stands to lose
thousands more dollars
drilling worthless ground.
We're finding 10 to 15 feet
of gravel below this rock.
Usually don't have gravel
below bedrock,
so it's kind of weird
to, uh, drill.
What's up, dude?
Just hanging out
with the Doze man.
Is he finding any gold?
No, he's not
a very good gold-seeking dog.
Well, we've been finding
some pretty interesting stuff
here, too.
- Oh, yeah?
Yeah, it's, um...
At first, we thought
we were drilling...
We drilled through
a big boulder
that was just floating.
And then, we started seeing it
again on another hole.
Then, we realized it wasn't
actually just a rock,
it was actually a full...
Bed of bedrock
with gravel below it.
How would that happen?
Um, it's probably slide rock
coming down off the hill.
Thousands of years ago,
a seam of rock slid
off the hillside,
covering what could be
a layer of gold-rich pay.
Over the years,
dirt was deposited above it.
When the old-timers stripped
this ground,
they may have believed that
the slide rock was bedrock
and abandoned it.
I mean,
it's a good thing that these
guys know what they're doing
because, like,
hitting that slide rock,
a lot of people would be like,
"Oh, we're on bedrock."
But it looks like there's some
gravel underneath it.
There's... There's more gravel
than we previously thought,
so that's good.
Gravel doesn't make
any money though.
It needs to be gravel
with gold in it.
I'm not just putting
the mining season on the line
for this.
This is literally
the mining career.
If this doesn't work out,
my guys, you know,
are gonna lose their bonus
and, uh, I'm gonna be
done mining.
That's how...
That's how serious this is.
At Rally Valley,
Rick Ness is less than halfway
to hitting gold-rich pay dirt
120 feet down.
He needs to start sluicing
within three weeks.
I split everybody in half.
I've got, uh,
four people running at night,
four people during the day.
We're just going straight down
in this cut.
You know, we'll be spending
three weeks, uh, without gold
coming in
and doing nothing
but burning fuel,
spending money, moving dirt.
And, uh, it's all for the hope
of a big pay day down here.
After a rock truck broke down
on Brennan's night shift,
Rick's running with only
two-thirds of his fleet.
I haven't had
a full-time mechanic all year
which is insane to me.
But we've kept things rolling.
If I've got machines go down,
and we're down for days or...
Or weeks or whatever,
or even a day, like,
I can't afford it.
So I did manage
to get Torsten back here.
Twenty-year-old
apprentice mechanic,
Torsten Petersson,
needs to replace
the broken bushing,
and refit
the rock truck's axle
and drive shaft.
They already lost like
a good 50 loads
so we gotta get this truck up
and going for them
as quick as possible.
Without the bushing in there,
and doing its job,
this thing's just like
a giant paper weight
sitting in the middle
of nowhere doing nothing.
It's great
to have Torsten back.
Hopefully, we can get
this truck back up
and running today,
and, uh, we'll be back
on track.
Back a bit.
Other way.
This?
Other way.
Keep going, keep... Stop.
After four hours,
Torsten and operator,
Nathan Thornington...
- You done yet?
Almost.
...are ready to see
if the fix has worked.
Really? Then how come
you're still under there?
Yeah,
'cause you're distracting me.
I am not.
You should have thought, like,
mechanics were multitaskers.
Shut up!
Torsten just got
that truck back up and running
so we're back at three trucks.
We're... We're not gonna hit
our 300 loads today.
You know, that's just, uh...
It's just not gonna happen.
We're gonna be at about 280,
uh, which is just
isn't acceptable.
Unfortunately for Brennan,
he's... He's picking up
the slack tonight.
And, uh, really hope that
he's up to it.
This is the deepest cut
I've ever done in my life,
and I wanna prove
to Rick and myself
that I can do this.
I'm hungry, man,
I'm awolf.
I wannamove up
the ladder.
Night shift foreman,
Brennan Ruault,
is racing to move
300 loads of overburden
and make up
the 20 loads short fall
from the day shift.
I think night shift's,
uh, doing a big help
for making up lost time.
We have
a lot less distractions.
We just get here.
We load, we load,
we load, we load.
And, uh, you know,
if we don't have
any breakdowns,
you know, it's achievable.
What the [bleep]?
No way!
Not the again here.
Can't even
peel through this ground.
You know, everything seems
to go good until it doesn't.
And now I hit this
hard ground again.
damn it.
Hey, Riley?
You got a copy, bud?
Riley. We got a copy, Brennan.
Just hit some
hard ground again here
and it's just...
I can't even dig it with
these tiger teeth.
We've hit some glacial till.
You know, it's like...
It's like a mud but very hard
packed with gravel.
brutal,
it might as well be frozen.
But it's not.
And it just...
Is very, very abrasive.
The only machine
that can rip the glacial till
is the 475 Dozer.
Okay, well, I gotta
get cracking here
and get ripping in the Dozer.
Let's switch Riley out.
But the 900 horsepower beast
costs $5000 in fuel a day.
With no money coming in,
it's a big call.
What you need to be able to do
is think quick on your feet,
especially at night time,
you know.
We cannot afford to lose
any loads at all, or time,
if we wanna get down
150 feet
just to get to pay.
The one deadly weapon we have
this year is this 475.
I mean, [bleep],
this thing push mountains
and rip mountains.
This thing's
worth its weight in gold
for what we gotta do.
With the glacial till being
torn out by the Dozer,
they can get back
to loading overburden
with the 700.
- Hey, Ricky!
- How did you go, buddy.
- Good, buddy. 323 loads.
- You did?
yeah.
- You're my man.
There's that weird hard
layer which is a
to get through.
Yeah, I don't get it.
I thought this was
all gonna be soft
and fluffy and we'll be
motoring through.
- Did you have to rip
it all or--
- Yeah, I did a little bit
threw Riley in the hole quick,
kept them going
and, uh, I got that...
but everybody was
on their game last night.
You had to get out
of the excavator, still hit
over 320. Dude, that's...
awesome.
Yeah, buddy.
I can't wait to see
what's at the bottom of this.
- Me too, dude.
- That's a lot of dirt.
Yeah, all right.
Having Brennan
on the team this year
just keeps paying off.
Man, I love it.
You know, when he stepped up
to be a night foreman, I knew
he's knock it out of the park.
You know, last night he
made up for the loads
that we missed
during the day shift.
And that's what I'm gonna
need him to do for the rest
of the year, so...
We still gotta lot of dirt
to get down to the pace.
But we'll get there.
After a three
day wait,
the new sprocket for
the paradise hill trommel
has arrived.
So far, the shutdown has
cost Tony almost $200,000
in lost gold.
We're not sluicing,
we aren't making money.
And if you ain't making
money, that means all
you doing is spending it.
With
the replacement part
lowered into position,
they must fit the feeder
track onto the new
sprocket.
What does it look like, Cody?
- Move at all?
It moved a bit.
Tony, copy Tony.
You wanna come
take a look at this?
We got it holed tight,
but it still won't line up
at the sprocket.
The steel rail
needs to locate precisely
on the sprocket teeth.
We measured between
top to top and it was an
eighth of an inch difference
in the front.
This ain't good.
Sprockets on the new gear,
they don't match the rail.
Meaning...
that when you turn it,
instead of fitting in
these pockets here,
they sit on the sprocket
teeth.
That's not good,
we have the exact same
problem in a week.
The old drive
sprocket on the feet
are wore smooth
'causing the track to skip.
But at the other end,
the idler sprockets
with no load on them
are still intact.
Tony's bush fix swap
the idlers with the drive
sprockets.
This is supposed
to be quick.
- Come on, there we go.
After 7 hours,
the sprockets are
swapped out.
Hopefully, we can get
back to sluicing soon.
It's a temporary fix
that Tony can only
hope will last
till the end of this season.
- Yeah.
- Damn right.
Much better.
Mike takes
the weight of the feeder
on the pipe layer
as Kevin in the excavator
pulls it back into position.
If everything goes smooth,
we may be able to sluice
tonight.
The 30 foot
conveyor is then bolted
back on to the new feeder.
I always feel like
any downtime is
too much down time.
'Cause we gottaproduce the season
sure enough as it is.
So, it will be very nice
to see this running again.
If the bush fixes
work, it will save weeks
of downtime
waiting for replacement parts.
Yeah.
All right, you ready?
Put some dirt on there,
let's get going.
All right, finally up
and running.
Everything should
work, I mean...
we fixed all the mechanical
stuff and...
work out.
Let's see if this
spins.
Beautiful. We have life
and movement.
This, uh,
stockpile we got here,
I'd bet you they could see it
from space if they
look real close.
And our side pieces
seem to be working,
lovely.
Good to see it moving' again.
Means we're making money
again, instead of just
spending it.
To stand any chance
of hitting his 4500 ounce
season goal,
Tony must mine
around the clock.
Okay, don't lick.
What do you think Pugsy,
you like being in here?
I mean, this job gets pretty
monotonous, so it could be
pretty lonely
after a while, you know,
so it is nice having him here,
makes me laugh.
- Good boy!
That's a good boy.
Coming up?
Come on.
Good man!
Good man, good man.
Who's that? Who's that?
Get 'em.
- Good man, get 'em!
- Your dog is so grumpy.
He's got so much hate
in such a tiny body.
- I'm just training him
who to growl at.
That's a guard dog.
You ready for quitting time?
You gonna go for
a big run afterwards?
You're gonna chase me
side by side?
Good man.
- Brendon, can I talk
to you for a bit?
- All right.
I hope you're
not fired.
- You're fired.
Rick is over
half way to pay at
Rally Valley,
and has some news for Brendon.
So no,
you're not fired.
- Okay, good.
You and I both know
the severity of what we're
up against in Rally Valley.
- Yeah, it's pretty big.
- Like, it's big.
- Yeah,
- Yeah, and, uh,
we're gonna have to have
eyes and ears in there
at all times
- because one mistake,
we're not gonna make it.
- Mmm-hmm.
- No.
- Coming in here, I said
I wasn't really looking
- for a foreman.
- Mmm-hmm.
Um, but, you know,
you have proved yourself
and things have changed a bit.
So, that's why I'm kinda
hoping that, you know,
I can ask you to step up.
Be the foreman, you know,
when I'm not around
and take that
responsibility on.
sure, man,
I'd love to do that.
- Yeah.
-[bleep], yeah.
That's awesome.
It's a no brainer for me.
I mean, it's been great
having you here this year.
You know, I've been
able to rely on you
and, um, you know, I think
this is a perfect time.
Appreciate that, man.
I don't know what to say.
I'm definitely excited
and I'll do my best
for you. So...
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
I got a lot of work
ahead of me.
Yeah, you do. We all do.
You sure you don't
want a minute to
think about it?
No. I hope
I'm ready for it.
You're ready. Yeah.
When I came here
I didn't know what to expect.
And so far it's been
the best move I've
ever made.
Super happy and now
Rick's asked me to
step up and be the foreman
in Rally Valley and you
know, I honestly couldn't
be happier.
But I got a lot of
work ahead
of me.
So I'm gonna get my
ass to bed.
Get up and get ready
to conquer the day
tomorrow.
Hi.
- How are you all?
- Um, surviving.
- I exist.
How did it go this week?
Uh, it was a
Well, that's nice.
What did you do?
Where did you break?
Uh, the feeder finally went.
- Wow.
- I noticed that it was...
So it was slipping'.
- Oh, yeah.
I crawled underneath...
for safety.
There was nothing.
- Cool.
- It's amazing we're
still turning.
With the feeder down
and all that, like so far
we've had quite the downtime.
Cool, so my child is expiring
and I want to see how much
gold you got.
Let's play.
- Expiring?
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, of course,
they have a due date.
All babies have a due date.
But they have
the best buy time.
Don't know.
I did it last time.
I'm off the hook.
I did it last time!
- No, no, I did it
the last time.
Michael!
Michael, you haven't
done it for a while.
Tony's only sluiced
wall cut white channel pay...
for two days this week.
He needs 237 ounces
to hit his goal.
Ten, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60,
seventy, 80,
ninety, 100.
Keep going.
No dies.
I know.
105.24
Worth almost
$190,000,
but less than half
of their weekly target.
Hundred ounces isn't great,
but we're making our way
towards our total,
or are we still
a long ways off?
Not a long ways off.
We're still quite a ways off.
I guess long ways still.
Hey, every little
ounce counts.
With that being said, I think
everybody should leave
and go to work.
What about you?
Yeah!
Because this is my house,
I can work from home.
- Can I work from home?
Nope.
- Can I work from home?
I can work
from home.
Nope, nope.
My new VR thing I can till
the mechanical hands,
I can do work from home!
I only need the Internet
and a computer, that's all
I need.
I take all of it.
In Cleary Creek, Alaska...
Make an a la carte...
It is difficult.
Whoa, you're like a pro, man!
Parker and drilling
contractor, Liam Ferguson,
have drilled 30 test holes
at Dredge Corner.
All right, Parker,
this is one of those holes
that I was talking about
that had a stump for a while,
but turns out
there's a layer
of false bedrock
that's coming off the hill
and bearing the gravel.
So we're kinda hoping
that maybe the old-timers
just hit that first layer
and stopped.
I'm surprised that you guys
found that, really.
It took a few holes.
Like it's pretty easy to just
hit bedrock and...
Yeah, so, we um--
Like,
"Oh, bedrock, cool.
Move on."
Is there any gold
in any of this?
Parker needs
at least 150 milligrams
of gold per hole
to make the ground viable.
We hit
in one hole, 26...
Right.
...thirty, and then
it just pretty consistently
seemed to hit 135,
hit virgin, 187...
One eighty seven. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah,
look at that!
Cool!
That one's not bad.
Yeah,
it's about 200 overall.
At 200 milligrams
per hole,
Dredge Corner is potentially
ten times richer
than Parker's claims
at Indian River.
Think of that nug.
Dude, you hit nug!
That's better than
all the other projects
that you've done with me.
There's more gold
in this ground.
It makes it easy.
With a payday
that could be worth
over $11.5 million,
Parker has found
Alaskan ground.
It's looking promising.
Go home and pack your bags.
- Thanks, dude.
See you, Parker.
Yeah, it's good to see
some gold coming out
of the drilling, you know?
Liam and I have drilled
a lot of ground
that has no gold in it,
or not enough to go mining.
And it's nice to finally
be like...
...honor some stuff
that's really productive.
Like, 6,000 ounces
drilled out so far,
and there's some
healthy profit in there.
Of course, I always want more.
As I should get back
to the Yukon,
make sure we're making
enough money to pay
for all this.