Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 0, Episode 0 - Monster Machines - full transcript

On this "Gold rush"...

yeah!

All right. Let's crank her up.

The monster machines
That turn dirt...

Power! Yeah!

Into gold.

- Well, it's a big piece.
- Look at it.

Across six seasons,

The wash plants of "Gold rush,".

Derockers...

This is our Secret weapon.



Dredges...

Trommels...

Perfect.

And shakers...

I think this is good.

Have trapped
$18 million worth of gold.

- Hello.
- Woo-hoo.

We will reveal
The best wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

And...

parker!

The worst.

Watch that tower.

Gotta get out!!



Your wash plant could
Make you or break you.

It gets real personal.

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

"Gold rush" wash plants.

Have made miners fortunes
And broken the bank.

You know, I look back
At all the wash plants.

That I've ever had, and it's
Probably a lot like looking back.

At some of your old
Girlfriends, you know?

Some situations,
You have fond memories.

And some you look back
And go, "You know what?"

I'm just glad that I don't have
That wash plant any more."

everyone one of them
Is a finicky,

Temperamental thing.

That just when they wanna work,
They'll work great,

And when they don't want to,
They will ruin your life.

And watch what I do.

Gold is 18 times
Heavier than water, okay?

So it will settle.

But you gotta
Get it loosened up.

You know, That's a nice action.

For thousands of years,

People have panned
For gold using water.

To separate heavy gold
From lighter dirt.

This is a great pan, You know,

It's fantastic.

Today's gold-mining operations.

Have replaced pans
With gigantic machines,

But the principals
Are just the same.

A gold wash plant Has one goal,

And that's to extract.

A little bit of gold
Out of hundreds,

Thousands of tons of material.

You need to get
The material fed into it.

It need to wash the rocks.

And it needs to recover
The gold out of it.

But you cannot be
Chucking big rocks.

Down a sluice box with little
Bitty pieces of gold.

A screen deck
Separates out the larger rocks.

So only the fine material
Containing the gold passes.

Through into the sluice box.

Here, water carries
The worthless fine tailings.

Out of the end.

While the heavier
Gold sinks and settles.

- Look at that.
- My god.

- Wow, great.
- Look at that.

- Wow, that's cool.
- Holy cow.

Look at it.
It's just loaded down there.

Yeah.

A good wash plant
Has gotta be strong.

It's gotta be tough.

At the same time,
It's gotta have finesse.

Because you're trying to catch
Little bitty particles of gold,

Stuff you can barely see
With your naked eye.

When the hoffmans First set out.

To find their fortune,

They were so short of money...

Keep it low.

They had to build
Their own wash plant.

From secondhand parts and scrap.

I just kinda made it up
As I went along.

It's just cobbled together
With duct tape.

And chewing gum
In there somewhere.

Costing $20,000,

The wash plant weighs 14 tons,

Consumes 1,000 gallons
Of water a minute.

And runs 50 cubic-yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Let's go.

Chute's working good.
Looks good, so far.

I'll be damned.

Most wash plants break down.

The pay dirt using either
A vibrating shaker deck.

Or a rotating screened
Cylinder called a trommel.

The hoffmans'
Improvised plan has both.

I wish I could say.

That everything was
Working perfectly,

But I don't know that yet.

What are you Worried about?

Where is all that
Water coming from?

I can hear it Rattling.

I'm tired of crap breaking.

There's a hole.

Their shaker deck
Has ripped itself apart.

These bolts have
Actually pulled themselves.

Right through the bottom.

It's the movement
That's killing us.

If things can move,
Then they wear out.

That whole time
Was just desperate.

You know, we're just
Relying on this plant.

To, like, keep us going.

With their whole season.

Depending on this wash plant
Delivering gold,

Their only option...

Rip out and replace
The broken deck.

Okay, stand clear.

I'm hoping that we someday
Get to the stage.

Where we actually can
Call ourselves miners.

When they finally
Get the deck out,

They find the damage
Is way worse.

This one's cracked
All the way around the top.

Broke off.

The main supports
That hold this thing.

Together across Are cracked.

This isn't good.

So we're in the neighborhood
Of 600 welds I've gotta make.

By the time
I get that thing beefed up.

Okay, here we go. Coming down.

It takes mechanic james harness
4 days to overhaul the shaker.

Fire it up.

This shaker is the most
Vulgar, disgusting,

Amazingly violent thing
I've ever seen in my life.

- I love it.
- It's a lot quieter.

We spent way
More time welding on it.

Than actually sluicing with it.

Every ounce of gold.

Was paid in blood, sweat,
Embarrassment, and tears.

We pretty much did
Everything wrong.

Todd's first wash plant.

Recovered just
14 ounces of gold,

Worth $20,000...

A disastrous start,

But worse was still to come.

All right, dustin!

When the hoffmans left
Alaska for the klondike,

The dakota boys
Took over their claim.

Out with the old,
In with the new.

Their first move...

Get rid of todd's wash plant.

It's now history
As far as we're concerned.

It's outta here.

This is our secret weapon.

This thing is a derocker.

It'll handle big-old rocks.

This is the lamborghini
Of wash plants.

The $30,000 Derocker weighs in.

At 17 1/2 tons.

And runs 150 yards
Of pay dirt an hour,

Three times as much.

As the hoffmans'
Makeshift old plant.

The little particles
Of gold fall down.

In that little magic box.

And they're transformed
Into something in my pocket.

We're about to find
Out if it works.

Fire it up.

The derocker is
A rugged, all-in-one.

Gold-recovery system.

Instead of a vibrating screen
Deck or a rotating trommel,

It has a heavy-duty roller deck.

You better get back.

Pay dirt drops onto
The undulating deck.

Water jets wash
The gold off the rocks.

And through the slats.

The rolling truck wheels
Move the worthless rocks.

Down the deck And off the end.

While the gold washes down
Into the sluice box,

Where it settles In the ripples.

- I like that.
- Yeah.

That is nice.

Feed that plant,
Feed that plant,

Feed that plant over and over.

And over and over some more.

The derocker is designed.

To handle rocks and boulders.

Just like digging potatoes
Outta the ground.

Yeah, that's a 400-pound
Potato there.

Big rocks, big gold.

But every wash plant
Has its limits.

Whoa!

Quit it down!

It wasn't that easy.

Yeah, looked like
Right here's real low.

It should be A lot higher.

Hopefully it's A quick fix.

Holy We got some big problems.

You gotta See this, fred.

Holy.

Them tires Are ripped off.

We've got a broken spring
On that side over there.

It's shattered.

We've got two tires
Completely off the unit.

We sheared The shaft off.

Yep, the whole shaft
Is gone, everything.

This is the heart
Of the operation.

Yeah, without this thing,
You can't do anything.

Deep in the alaskan bush,

The dakota boys
Are forced to improvise.

So I'm gonna take
This old part here,

Gonna weld it onto this area
Right here,

Convert it to carry a wheel.

- I got it.
- Completed.

- Woo!
- Nothing to it.

We're gonna turn it on, see if
It, all holds together.

Looks good, fred!
We got it working!

I love it. Love it.

With fred
And dustin's bush fixes,

The derocker survived
Three mining seasons...

- we got gold.
- Look at it.

Well, it's A big piece.

And delivered
523 ounces of gold.

Worth $780,000 per season.

That's 12 times the haul.

Of the hoffmans' old wash plant.

It sounds bad.

Coming up...
- my goodness.

Where's all the water
Coming from?

We need to shut her down,
Parker, shut her down!

When 18-year-old Parker schnabel.

First arrived in the klondike,

He bought a 40-year-old
Wash plant from todd hoffman,

A conventional shaker...

"Little blue."

It's not the greatest
Wash plant.

But it was what I could afford.

It's a first wash plant,
A bit like a first car, I guess.

You never get a nice
First car, right?

Yeah, baby.

Right on.

We've got ourselves
A wash plant on the ground.

Costing $40,000,

The 10-ton machine runs
100 yards of pay dirt an hour.

I'm pretty sure
The hoffmans picked it up.

Off the side of the road.

And...

And they didn't put
Any work into it, obviously.

So by the time we got it,
It was in pretty rough shape.

Parker Tricks out little blue.

With a $10,000 hopper feeder.

To increase the amount of pay
Dirt he can force through.

Parker, it concerns me
That if we push it too hard,

Something's gonna give.

Yeah, I understand that.

But we need to put the dirt
Through the plant, okay?

I'm the boss.
I take the responsibility.

But it has to happen, All right?

Running little blue too hard.
We're gonna blow it up.

We're gonna destroy her.

If that happens,
Our season's screwed.

My goodness.

Parker, parker!

Hey, your shaker's
Moving real bad!

Sounds bad.

I don't know what's going on.
But it's not good.

Where is all the water
Coming from?

Dear!

We need to shut her down,
Parker, shut her down!

We need to take A look inside.

Not good.

What the.

We're not gonna be
Welding that back together.

In an afternoon.

The central shaft that drives.

The entire plant
Has sheared in two.

I think it's dead.

You've got Kidding me.

Between the hoffmans and parker,

Little blue recovered a total.

Of 300 ounces of gold
Worth $440,000.

Not a bad result
For a tired, old rust bucket.

For his third mining season,

Todd hoffman took
A leap of faith.

With new, cutting-edge
Technology.

The turbo trommel had some
Really nice technology in it,

And that's what
I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to bring
New technology to, you know,

A rather old
And set-in-their-ways industry.

The turbo trommel comes.

With a quarter
Million dollar price tag.

By spinning three times.

Faster than conventional
Trommels,

It runs 200 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Guys, this is probably.

The best wash plant
In the world,

And I want it running
Within 24 hours.

- Let's roll.
- Great. Let's go!

At the turbo trommel's core,

A rotating, perforated tube
Washes the rocks.

The gold and fine material
Drop through to the outer drum.

Where the gold
Is pushed back up,

Then out into a small sluice box.

On the side of the machine.

Holy! Look at this.

What are you Seeing, man?

I can feel all the heat
Coming off the engine.

It's getting Pretty warm.

I don't know how much more
It's gonna take.

Right now, I think
It's about ready to let go.

You know, it was
Kind of a prototype.

There was a lot of concepts.

That have been taken
From other things.

And put into the turbo trommel.

Sometimes, you get
Too many things going on.

Hold up, hold up.

This doesn't look good.

The horsepower of the motor
Doesn't look right.

I'm really concerned.

When the original
Motor isn't powerful enough...

We have to get Another motor in.

The designer Has to replace it.

That's looking good.
Straight in.

There you go. That's it, guys.

You did it.

Over the next week,

The hoffmans run 8,000 yards
Through the trommel.

We should have
A really good clean up,

A minimum, I think,
Of 15 ounces.

What do you guys think?
At least.

I'm gonna show you What we got.

There's 7.34 ounces.

Less than a fifth of what
They're hoping for.

And that's The grand total.

Thurber checks the tailings.

To see if the trommel
Is losing gold.

You are freaking kidding me.

Fourteen pieces,
And they aren't small.

I'm shutting this
Freaking thing off.

Until we figure out
What's going on.

- Yeah, you better.
- Thurb, run down there.

And kill the pump.

You're losing gold,

And I'm, like,
Pulling my hair out.

And trust me, I don't
Have enough to pull out.

Well, this isn't good.

I can see some daylight
Right here.

Between the drum And our spiral.

They used a urethane,
Like a sealant.

Yeah.

There's a section of it
Right there, 3 feet long.

The spiral In the outer drum.

Drives the gold up.

And out into the sluice box.

But the sealant
Between the spiral.

And the drum has come loose,

Allowing gold to slip down.

And drop out of the lower
Tailing chute.

It's gonna be turned off
For the season.

I'm really sorry.

Everybody, Of course, laughed.

And now I do. I laugh about it.

But, during the time,

You know, it's just,
Like, a nightmare.

It's probably the hardest,

Most scariest thing
We've ever done.

- Look at that thing.
- Looking good.

We got ourselves
A nice, new wash plant.

When the hoffmans left
The klondike for south america,

Teenage parker was, once again,

First in line
For their wash plant.

Getting "Big red"
From the hoffmans,

It was a real blessing,
You know.

I don't mind using
Their hand-me-downs,

Especially big red.

- Big red's original cost...
- A cool quarter million dollars.

Weighing 25 tons,

It chews through 180 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

All right. Let's crank her up.

Here it comes.

We got water.

Turn it on.

Whoa.

Rocking and rolling.

Unreal.

Big red has a 10,000-pound
Two-deck vibrating screen,

But its real innovation
Is freddy dodge's design.

Of an enormous 16-foot-wide,

Multi-stage sluice box,

Configured to catch everything.

From nuggets
To fine flakes of gold.

Changing the flows,
Changing the widths.

And a few other secret things,

It helps on the recoveries.

If you can start
Catching a percent here,

A percent there,
A percent there more,

All goes into your pocket.

But every wash plant
Has its weak points.

Parker.

Gene!

Gotta open That bypass.

This job.

Close the valve, Greg.

That plant.

As soon As we got big red,

Any time there's
A big chunk of bedrock,

The prewash would just plug up
And fill full of rocks.

And rocks would be pouring out
Of the prewash onto the deck.

And everything around it.

These rocks
Disturb the water flow.

And gold washes right out
Of the sluice box.

Every time we have a blow out,
We blow out gold.

If that wash plant
Ain't running,

You ain't making money.

And it just adds a huge amount
Of stress to every break down.

It's a bottleneck
In the whole system.

It's gotta get removed so that
We quit having blow outs.

Sometimes, you just
Have to get medieval.

Done With that thing.

I think this is good.

Once we got the problem solved,

Big red ate up all the rocks
We could throw at it.

And the rest of our
First season up here was great.

Every one of those
Is 100 ounces.

Ohhhhhh. That's impressive.

Over the next Four seasons,

Big red recovers
4,994 ounces of gold.

Worth $6.3 million,

The biggest total ever collected
By a "Gold rush" plant.

But still not
The ultimate wash plant.

When todd took the biggest
Gamble of his career.

And relocated to guyana...

this is Probably the hardest,

Most scariest thing
We've ever done.

He needed
A wash plant he could depend on.

You know, little red was...

Is actually a pretty
Damn good little trommel.

The $300,000
Octagon trommel weighs 23 tons.

And runs 100 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

A screen deck for guyana
Wasn't gonna work,

So that's why
I went with a trommel.

We knew there was
Probably gonna be clay.

And a trommel beats up clay
To get the gold out.

Day's been Running great.

Curious to see What's in here.

But after
3 months in the jungle,

The hoffmans have failed to find.

Any gold-rich ground.

Ultimately, You could have.

The best wash plant
In the world.

If you're not on good ground,
It's not worth anything.

Who cares?

Shut it off, dave.

We got some Gold down there?

No.

Right there,
We got a freaking diamond.

- And that was in the sluice?
- Darn right it was.

If we got one
Freaking diamond here,

I will guarantee you.

There's 100 of 'em
Down in the creek.

We're not running this plant
Until we get something.

To catch diamonds
On the end of there.

I bought some diamond
Jigs off some,

Some brazilians in the ghetto.

And drug 'em all the way
Out in the jungle.

- Touchdown.
- Right on!

Water's coming on.
Jigs are working.

Everything coming out
Of little red's sluices pours.

Onto a mesh screen.

Rubber diaphragms then pulse
Water up and down.

To wash away lighter material.

And leave behind any diamonds.

It's doing exactly
What it's supposed to do.

Awesome.

Shutting her down.

That shines pretty hard.
That's a diamond, dude.

We got a diamond.

Your very first
Diamond you ever find.

Is the coolest thing.

You know, you think you're
Gonna get tons of 'em.

And they're gonna get
Bigger and bigger.

But, for me, they, like,
Started out big.

And got smaller and smaller.

Five months in,
Little red has recovered.

Just $4,000 worth
Of gold and diamonds.

Todd's career is At rock bottom.

I lost a lot of sleep
Out there in the jungle,

Lost a lot of money
Out in the jungle.

And damn near lost my friends
Out in the jungle.

Hey, we got Rotation!

That whole situation
Wasn't little red's fault.

We hauled her back
To the klondike,

And she finally started
Getting some gold.

- Look at that.
- That's what the guys.

Came to see, Right there.

We didn't see a lot
Of this in the jungle.

- No.
- You guys know what this...

I'm glad we aren't
Mining diamonds this year.

In just a month
On gold-rich ground,

Little red redeemed herself.

And upped her gold total
To 138 ounces,

Worth over $160,000.

Coming up...

tony beets Has successfully.

Run conventional wash plants
For over 30 years.

But 2 years ago,

Tony risked everything...

When he decided to mine
Like the old-timers.

Are you nuts?

The 76-year-old dredge.

Is the most Expensive wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

Costing $1 million,

It weighs a colossal 350 tons.

And runs 100 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

This thing's
Older than we are, tony.

How do we know
Anything'll even work in it?

The dredge floats in a pond.

A 24-ton bucket line
Chews through pay dirt.

And drops it into the 9-ton
Onboard trommel.

There, water washes
Any gold off the rocks.

And down to the sluice box,
Where it settles out.

From day one, tony sets
The pace for the rebuild.

Holy! Is that
The way you gotta do it?

Tony, you're
Destroying the dredge.

Over the next 4 months,

Tony takes the dredge apart,

Hauls it 150 miles to his claim.

And puts it back together...

Beam by beam...

Bolt by bolt.

The moment of truth.

Comes on the very last day
Of the season.

For the first time In 3 decades,

The dredge runs pay dirt.

The monster Comes alive.

Wow. Jeez. That is awesome.

- That's amazing.
- Right?

That's Pretty cool, tony.

That is amazing.

Throughout The next season,

The dredge mines klondike pay.

The running costs per yard?

Around a quarter of
A traditional wash plant.

In its first season,

The only working gold dredge
In north america.

Produced 737 ounces
Worth $810,000,

Not a massive total,
But top marks for efficiency.

Fire it up!

As todd hoffman's ambition grew,

So did his wash plant.

Monster red is
Queen of the klondike.

I think she still is probably
One of the best plants.

Ever ran up there.

Put the water
3,000 gallons a minute.

And let's Rock and roll.

Let's go get Some gold.

Two hundred kw, buddy.

Clear.

Feel it rumbling In the ground.

Like a train going by.

Monster red's cost?

$360,000 dollars.

The 50-ton machine runs.

A massive 300 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Monster red is, by far,

The nicest gold wash plant
I've ever put together,

And I've been doing it
For around 30 years.

It's got a wicked screen on it.

You know, it's just
Tearing material apart.

And getting it
To the sluice box.

The screen decks,
Vibrating 745 times a minute,

Handles six times as much dirt
As the hoffmans' first plant.

We're 300 yards
An hour right now.

Once you throw a bucket in,

You gotta get it
Outta the bucket.

Bam, bam.

It's so hard
To keep up with this plant.

They don't call it
Monster red for nothing.

When you're running
A wash plant that big,

And you're feeding it
That much material,

You have a lot of tailings.

You got a lot of issues.

Hey, dave, can you
Come down by the pump?

We got a freaking
Huge problem here.

What's up?

At 300 yards an hour,
This is gonna fill up.

We're filling up our lake
With tailings.

Running all that material
Into my pond,

I would have filled
That pond up so fast,

It'd make your head spin.

Dave!

Todd comes up
With an innovative solution,

A double sand screw.

The mixture of water
And fine tailings.

That come out of the sluice box.

Pour into the sand screw's base.

The clean water flows back
Into a drainage gully,

Which leads down Into the lake.

A pair of sand screws drive
The fine tailings upwards...

And out onto a conveyer
To join the coarse tailings.

Fire it up.

There she goes, Up to the top.

Come on! Baby, take it.

So far, so good.

Doing its job.

Perfect.

Look down there.

Holy.

Holy cow, I've never seen it
Look so good in the middle.

Once we got
Monster red tuned in,

It was just an amazing feeling
Week after week.

Of just throwing that
Much gold on the table.

Just bam, bam, bam!

You... you dream about that.

Over two seasons,

Monster red recovered.

A massive 4,067 ounces of gold
Worth $4.6 million.

But it still wasn't the show's
Fastest-producing plant.

When the hoffmans.

Wanted to mine
A remote beach in chile,

There was no handy
Wash plant available.

Can't buy one, We'll build it.

We just had to use junk wood,

Bad tools and do it
In 110 degrees.

Fire it up.

Here it comes.

Nice job.

Wasn't crap for gold there.

My first wash plant.

That I actually put...

Jellyfish through.

Over six full seasons,

The wash plants featured
In "Gold rush".

Have processed over
2 million tons of pay dirt...

And consumed a billion
Gallons of water...

To recover 14,000 ounces
Of gold worth $18 million.

In 2015, one wash plant.

Made a dramatic contribution
To this total.

After a couple seasons up here,

We start getting ideas.

Of how to increase
Our gold in the box.

Parker transformed
His wash plant setup...

Woo!

When he opened
The biggest cut of his career.

I mean, Instead of hauling pay.

All over the place
To a wash plant,

We wanted to use a mobile plant.

And get it right in
With the pay.

And that's where
Goldzilla came into play,

Is that it was
A higher yardage plant.

And we could move it
Around a bit easier.

Built in 1982,

Goldzilla is a high-volume,
Portable plant,

Despite weighing in at 25 tons.

I mean, it's A fairly old plant.

But where big red
Does 130 yards an hour,

This will push over 200,

I think, because there's
So much room in the sluice runs.

The shaker sits above
A set of four sluices.

Beneath them,
A weighted arm rotates.

Oscillating the material
In the sluices.

Helps separate the sand
And dirt from the gold.

The disadvantage
To an oscillating box is,

Not only is there
More moving parts,

But the thing has
To be perfectly level.

And it's not simple.

- Rick.
- Yeah?

The sluice isn't
Swinging properly,

Like it's out of balance
Or something.

It's hammering.

Yeah, that's weird.

Sluice box Isn't oscillating.

It's just Banging around.

Well, you can see
All the water's coming out.

Of the left side Of each run.

So it's leaning This way.

I think it's laying down
On the side.

As the machine
Starts getting out of level,

It started undermining
The plant pretty bad.

And then, you start losing gold.

I can't stand it when
The wash plants break down.

You're a slave
To the damn thing.

Try and chisel
Some dirt underneath it.

Should I try Lifting it?

Go ahead. I'll see
What it does here.

Rick needs to get
His excavator bucket.

Under the wash plant
To level it out.

Biggest thing you gotta
Worry about's sliding forward.

But the excavator is dangerously
Close to a water pipe.

Watch those water lines.

I think we got
Really lucky there.

You got 1/2 inch.

Come on, come on.

Keep going.

Almost there.

There you go.

Run that sucka.

We're good to go.

Once we worked all the bugs
Out of goldzilla,

It was a lot of fun
Because we ran.

That thing faster and harder.

Than any other wash plant
We've ever hand.

And the whole plan Worked great.

You know, we got
The plant to the pay.

Our feed system was beautiful.

With the conveyors
And everything.

We found a lot of gold.

In just 10 weeks,

Goldzilla recovered 2,322 ounces.

Of gold worth $2.5 million.

That's over $200,000 a week,

Proving, by far,

The most efficient wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

And helping parker to his
Best-ever season.

So I reckon that's
Probably about 25 ounces,

Which takes us
Past the hoffmans.

So that takes us to 3,362.

Good job, buddy.

You get a hug, There, gramps.

Thank you.

Sluicifer!

Next time... Whoa!

One mega-packed "Gold rush."

Look out!

There's no gold here.

Dave's dozing the pay.

Whoa! What Are you doing?!

Get outta the way.

I never thought
It'd come to this.

I lost my team.

On this "Gold rush"...

We're killing ourselves
Right now.

Trying to run this line
With four guys.

I need some pay,
And I need it now.

I wouldn't wish this
On anybody...

Even parker.

Gonna break something.
That's ridiculous.

- Shut it down!
- Holy crap!

Sucks for him.
It's my party, right?

We're on the pay dirt.

We've got to get big red
Sluicing as soon as we can.

This is frustrating.

What the Was that?

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications.

I don't know.

Just not how I planned
It would work out.

I can't believe
What's happened this summer.

My guys are gone.

They're all gone.

You may be Watching the hoffmans.

Mine their last bit Of dirt,

And it might be
Just frickin' today.

Three months ago,

Todd came to oregon
With high hopes.

For a $6 million season.

I want to see a miracle
On this mountain.

I want 5,000 ounces.

The hoffman crew began mining
For nuggets at the high bar.

Everybody's reputation's
On the line on this hill.

Five weeks later,
With just 138 ounces of gold...

I feel like such a fool
Right now.

He and his crew abandon
The high bar.

And stake their season
On a new mine...

The buckland.

We got any chance
Of saving this season,

It's right here.

After another six weeks.

And a pathetic 64 ounces,

The crew fell apart...

Hey, hey, hey! Knock it off!

That cut's done. I'm done.

And quit.

No, no.

I can't run this
Without you, dave.

Come on.

Oregon was meant to be
A beautiful homecoming.

I can barely breathe.

My losses are.

In the hundreds and hundreds
Of thousands of dollars,

So, yeah.

I don't know.

It feels like a weight
On my shoulders.

Yeah, I'm too deep.
I can't quit.

Todd started
The season with a crew of 15.

Now he's down to his dad,
His son,

And faithful friend thurber.

I don't know what
To tell you about this.

It's like, this is not
How I planned it to go.

Thurber, Why'd you stay with us?

You should be...
You should go home.

I've been through everything
With you guys.

All right. Thanks, man.

Okay.

If we're gonna go out,
Let's go out swinging.

Yep.

I know that that's
Got gold in it.

It's just deep, You know?

Well, I tell you what.

Thurber, You grab a rock truck.

Hunter, you know probably more
About the plant.

Than any of us.

Why don't you run
The loader there?

Dad, go ahead and feed it.
Feed the plant.

I'm gonna load out Some pay.

And we're just gonna run
As much dirt as we can.

The ground is gonna give you
What it's gonna give you.

Well, there's always
Possibilities, you know?

But right now, it doesn't
Look real promising.

It's like
A frickin' pipe dream, dad,

To be honest with you.

All right, Let's go.

Todd's already close
To 3/4 of a million dollars.

In the hole.

To cover his costs,

He'll need to mine
Another 500 ounces of gold...

More than twice
His total to date.

You know what?

Maybe we just wanted
To come home so bad.

And wanted to believe in it
So bad.

You know, I don't know.

I never thought
It'd come to this.

Even with his whole crew.

Digging 100 feet down
In the cut,

They still struggled to find
Any pay worth running.

While the guys strip
This whole cut,

I'm just scavenging
Whatever I can.

I'm just trying to find
Any bit that looks like pay.

I just got to keep the plant
Running for right now.

We have to stick with it.

We're caught between
A rock and a hard place.

We've got a big nut
To crack here.

I just don't know
How long it can go on.

Everything's gone the opposite
Of how we planned it to go.

I hope that we get
Some good gold in the box,

'cause we could really use.

Some... some good news
Right now.

You know, Everybody's gone.

But some people say
That... that rock bottom.

Is at least A solid foundation.

Maybe we can rebuild From here.

So, everything's
Running good here.

Sluicifer's running
Through dirt good.

And the only problem is there's
Not a lot of gold in there.

In the klondike,

Parker schnabel
Is halfway through his season.

But he has less than a third
Of the gold he needs.

To hit his target.

Our last cleanup
Only had 102 ounces.

If we're gonna hit
Our 4,000-ounce target here,

Rick really needs to get going
Down on indian river.

Five miles west,
At indian river,

Rick ness is working hard.

To get their second operation
Up and running.

- Focus on this area.
- Yeah.

And then, yeah,
Try to clean this all up.

All right.
We'll just keep her going.

Eight weeks ago,

Parker gave rick the chance
To run his own operation.

I'd love to bump our goal up
To 4,000 ounces.

And try to do 1,000 ounces
Down there.

So that's on you.

Yeah, let's do it, man.

Since then,

Rick's excavated
1.5 million yards of overburden.

In his struggle
To find gold-rich pay dirt.

Yeah, I'm hoping to get down
To pay dirt any minute here.

I've got some water poking up,
Trying to ruin my day.

That's a pretty good sign that
I'm getting down to the level.

Don't quite have the wash plant
Up on the pad yet,

But everything
I'm doing right now.

Is leading up to that.

Yeah. I know that feeling.

Teeth of the bucket are starting
To chatter on some big rocks.

I betcha that's pay dirt.

Yep.

Bingo.

Brennan, Guess what I've found?

We're on pay dirt, boy.

This is my first pan
Down at indian river.

I'm excited to see
What kind of result I can get.

I-I really want to see
Some gold in this pan.

Make sure
You're on the right track.

Come on, gold.

Now we're talking. Whoo.

Sweet.

There's a good
10 pieces in there.

And then, you know,
A bunch of little colors.

All right, so we're gonna start
Hauling pay finally.

Whoo!

The gold
In the ground at indian river.

Could save their season.

Five years ago, I was the one.

Sitting in that rock truck
Down there,

Just hauling dirt.

And now I'm watching the dirt
Get hauled up to the pad.

For my own operation.

That's pretty sweet.

It's been a lot of hard work
To get here.

But it's all
Paying off right now.

But there will be
No gold without a wash plant.

And big red is stuck five miles
Away in parker's yard.

I need big red up here.
Without it, we're screwed.

We have approximately
60 hours on that run.

And that's been Pretty good.

And we made
Some really good headway.

Dredge master kevin beets.

Is running 130 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

So far this season,

He's produced
1,445 ounces of gold,

Worth $1.7 million.

Plane.

Yeah, that's our plane.

That might be tony.

Tony's master plan this year?

Get a second dredge.

Running alongside this one
At eureka creek.

Already months behind schedule.

And having invested
Close to $2 million,

He's come to check
On his money-maker.

- All right.
- Okay. See you in a bit.

Pretty good.

Jason! Shut it down!

Tony's costs are spiraling
Out of control.

He needs to recover
Every grain of gold he can.

From kevin's operation.

Gold should settle in the first
Few feet of the sluices.

If tony finds gold
At the bottom of the riffles,

It means the dredge is blowing.

Thousands of dollars worth
Of gold.

Right off the end.

Yeah?

Yeah?

- So?
- So?

So that leaves me
With a problem to fix.

Well, mine, I guess.

So, basically, Make it work?

All right.

Well, apparently it's my show,
So I'll make it happen.

I'll come with something
That I like and go with it.

He doesn't like that,
Well, sucks for him.

It's my party, right?

All right, so we're gonna move
Big red down to indian river.

Don't look like much
Sitting up here right now,

But we'll get her
Whipped back into shape.

Rick ness Is down to pay dirt.

At his indian river operation.

All he needs now is parker's
Trusted old wash plant, big red,

Brought out of retirement
To save their season.

Yeah, I mean, the wash plant's
The heart of the operation,

And now we're damn close
To getting sluicing.

And making some money.

Parker brings in His semi truck.

Along with a specialized trailer
Designed to load from the front.

That trailer's about As small as
it could be And still do the job.

It's gonna be tight,
But I don't care at this point.

We're gonna get it
On that trailer.

And we're gonna Get it moved.

I think she's got
Some more gold in her.

Might not look like it, But...

The work's Just begun.

First,
Parker has to detach the semi.

From the trailer,

Then drag big red
Onto the trailer.

Using a loader and an excavator.

Finally,
He'll reattach the semi.

What the.

Apparently, I broke something.

I do know What I did wrong.

Me.

Forgot to undo those.

Parker has snapped
The high-pressure air hoses.

That operate
The trailer's brakes.

Big red is going nowhere.

For sake!

- What are those, parker?
- What now?!

What?

I up,

So just off For a minute.

This is frustrating.

Well, it looks like
Parker pulled away.

Before he completely
Disconnected from the trailer.

Pulled out the air lines
And the electrical.

Nice.

You have A small hose clamp?

I think I have some.

You have A screwdriver, too?

- Flathead, right?
- Yeah.

There we go.

Yeah, that'll work.

Well, the air lines
Are temporarily fixed.

Hopefully, that's enough
To get our wash plant moved.

All right. Let's do this.

We're probably gonna have
To rig up to it.

We're just gonna get
Both machines hooked up to it,

One on each end.

There we go.

All right.
We got this sucker in the air.

It's time to get it
On the trailer.

Whoa!

Easy.

Rick, just left a bit.

We got it.

That's it?

Perfect.

Yeah.

Fits like a glove.

Yeah, That worked smooth.

Yeah.

Yeah, we got
The plant on the trailer.

Now we just need
To chain it down.

And drive her down
To indian river.

It's about, I don't know,
Five, six miles.

Not too bad.

What's the worst
That can happen?

What the was that?

What the was that?

Parker schnabel
Is hauling 15 tons.

Of trusted, old wash plant
From his yard.

To rick's new
Indian river operation.

Are my back tires Not spinning?

But there's a problem
With the trailer.

Front one's spinning,
But not the rear two.

What the?

The brakes Aren't releasing.

So, they're not getting the air
They need to release.

The wheels are locked,

Which means
The high-pressure air.

Is not reaching the brakes.

Parker tries
Switching the hoses.

What was that?

Heard a burst of air Back here.

What?

Yeah, we got some air
Coming back here now.

I can hear it.

I just switched them Again.

Yeah. Brakes are moving now.

Yeah.

All right, rick.

Let's get this wash plant
To indian river.

Now let's see what kind
Of a super trucker I am.

That's A sweet sight here...

Big red coming down
The road behind me.

Heh, heh, heh.

Thing's tall.

You know, for the most part,
This is gonna be rick's show.

And I'm excited about that.
I'm excited for him.

I mean, he's in for 1,000.

Hopefully, it'll be really good
And he can do more.

Is that good?

Yeah, perfect!

Made it!

Whoo!

All right.

There you go.

There you go.
You got yourself a wash plant.

With pay dirt in the cut
And big red on-site,

Rick's indian river claim...
Good luck.

Is almost ready
To start producing gold.

This old girl's produced
4,000 ounces for us.

Up to this date.

So, I need another 1,000 out
Of it in the next two months.

Big red at indian river...
Unreal.

Hey, thurber, I'm gonna have
To really fill you full here.

I'm gonna fill you up as much
As I can get in there.

Todd hoffman's crew
Has mutinied.

Now he's struggling
To run the buckland mine.

With his dad,
His son, and thurber.

Okay, I'll push you up.

That's enough.

I mean, we're gonna
Break something.

That's ridiculous.

Thurber hauls
What they hope is pay dirt.

Half a mile to the plant.

You know, we're killing
Ourselves right now.

Trying to run this mine
With four guys.

And who knows if this pay
Even has anything good in it.

I'm gonna be running out
Of pay here pretty quick, yeah.

I don't know if I'm digging up
My own ramp.

That I... I'm sitting on,

Whether I'm getting pay
Or getting dirt.

Hey, todd, we're running out
Of pay up here.

There's not a lot I can do
About that right now.

I'm doing The best we can.

Yeah, well,
You're gonna have to do.

A little bit better than that.

I don't know
What you're gonna do,

But I need some pay,
And I need it now.

Todd, this one truck
Just isn't cutting it.

What's hunter doing Up there?

He's clearing tailings
Out of the...

Let the tailings pile up.
Who cares?

Tell hunter just get in a truck
And get his ass down here!

All right.

Hey, hunter.

Your dad needs you
To hop in a rock truck,

Come help haul pay.

We're not getting
Enough over here.

Okay, I'll go get in a truck.

Hey, Thanks for coming, man.

We needed your help Back here.

Okay. I'll do my best.

Go for it. Take this load.

Okay, thurb.

I'll telling you, I think
We can keep up with two trucks.

Yeah, it's definitely
Gonna help.

We're hauling Twice as much now.

I'm having to jump
Between the loader.

And the rock truck Right now.

I have to watch the wash plant.
I have to do the tailings.

Feels like I'm doing
The job of three guys.

And I'm pretty maxed out
Right now,

And it's pretty ridiculous.

Hunter's running around like
A chicken with his head cut off.

But he's doing A real good job.

Hey, We have a water leak.

The feeder's blowing water
Out the back.

Shut it down!

Holy crap!

Hey, kill the pump!

I got the water off.

We blew a hose here.

All right.
I'm gonna shut the plant down.

We have a hose
That feeds the main conveyor.

It either just blew off
Or the straps broke.

I don't know which.

Holy cow.

Blew the clamp right off. Aw.

You know, these are the type
That you can't reuse.

Thurber, Go find some clamps.

Let's clamp it back on.
We'll see if it'll hold.

What if I wasn't here
At the wash plant?

I'm half a mile away
At the cut, okay?

Hey, I... I can't...

No, he can't watch
The whole thing and feed it.

And if something goes wrong
And really breaks,

Then we're not Mining at all.

Hunter, we're not blaming you
Or blaming anybody.

I am sorry.
I know we're shorthanded.

But we got to keep our eyes
On this frickin' plant.

So, let's just Keep it rolling.

Found three brand-new
Heavy-duty clamps.

- Yeah, that looks all right.
- Yeah, it is. Even better.

- Think it'll reach?
- Yeah.

Let me hold on to it. Okay, go.

Stagger all these.

Okay. I think we got her.

You guys want To fire up?

You know, something like that
Could've just shut us down.

I think we got real lucky
On a hose.

This summer's been unbelievable.

It's been very, very difficult.

I wouldn't wish this
On anybody...

Even parker.

We gonna rip this
Old piece of off.

Then we're gonna
Bring in a new one.

Kevin beets' dredge
Has been losing gold.

Down the fine-tailing chutes.

It's a very gentle procedure,
As you can see.

Splash!

Done.

Kevin's plan... replace
The simple, old, metal chutes.

With a pair
Of 20-foot sluice boxes.

Containing mats
And expanded metal.

This should trap all the gold
He's been losing.

Mechanic mike beaudry
Has come to help.

Do everything we can
On the ground.

Then, soon as we're ready,
We'll slam this stuff in quick,

And we'll be done.

Then the dredge
Can go back to work.

Each of the finished sluice
Extensions weighs 1,500 pounds.

They must be perfectly lined up
With the runs on the dredge.

So water flows evenly
All the way to the end.

Go up, kevin.

Hold up, kev!

Don't get too crazy.

Ken, Pull that in that way.

Okay, just wait.
That's not gonna work.

Thing looks like
It's twisted in the middle.

Which way Are you thinking?

That way?

Right now,
It's looking this way...

Or it's looking this way.
Tilted that way?

- It's tilted this way.
- That one is or both of them?

This one.

Just hang on.

This needs to go that way?

Yeah.

Well, that's okay.

Go get me that...

Pull on that.

Pull it slow, slow, Slow, slow.

There you go.

There you go.

How about this way? Yeah?

Yeah. That's better.

I'm not sure how much
I trust these cables.

Why?

'Cause that's A lot of weight.

Those cables are good
For 5,000 pounds each.

Tighten that other turnbuckle up
A little bit more?

Yeah.

It's sitting in there
Quite nice.

You know, it's a little heavier
Than we were expecting,

But it's all we need.

Just got to sit there And work.

Now that they're on,
We can fire her up,

Start making gold again.

Here we go.

I hear water.

And here she comes.

Well, they're still on,
So that's a good start.

They seem to be working.

Overall, I'm happy.

Just got to wait
And see how they work out.

Get in here, doumitt.

"Sluicifer"
Is a tough word to say.

- Thank you, mitch.
- No problem.

For three weeks,

Parker has been mining
The boundary cut extension.

But the results
Have been falling short.

After another week of running,

It's time to see
If things have improved.

So, I know we've been focused
On getting big red moved.

But sluicifer's
Still sluicing away.

And, hopefully,
This boundary cut extension.

Got a little better.

Our last cleanup was, What, 102?

Yeah, pretty pathetic.

To keep on track.

To hit his 4,000-ounce,
$4.8 million season,

Parker needs this cleanup
To produce over 160 ounces.

Well,
Here's the moment of truth.

Hopefully, it adds up.

It's at 20... 40...

60... 80... 100.

Not much more Than that.

106.9.

So nothing's changed.

Man.

I mean, dude, it's still
100 ounces of gold,

But that should be
Almost double that.

With how many rocks
We skipped across that.

- Ounce an hour.
- Oof.

What's that take us to, Chris?

About 1,285 now.

Man, we got to start
Upping that.

Well, and it really
Highlights the fact.

That we need big red
Up and going.

'Cause we've got to do
Over 250 ounces a week.

For the rest Of the season.

We've got to get big red
Sluicing as soon as we can.

Yeah, understood. I agree.

And once we turn it on,
We can't turn that thing off,

Because, at this rate...

I mean, big red can
Do these numbers easy.

All right, rick.
I just need you to get on that.

10-4. I'm on it.

Thanks, guys.

Yeah, I mean,
This boundary cut extension.

Is pretty dog.

We're at the point now where
We're in a fair bit of trouble,

So I'm really counting on rick
To get big red up and going,

Get some gold coming
Out of indian river.

It's 8:00 p.M.

The rest of the crew
Is eating dinner,

But rick's got other priorities.

I've got big red Down in my cut.

I'm gonna drag it Up to the pad.

I'm gonna be pulling gold
Out of my own cut.

And it's one hell Of a feeling.

I got chills When I said that.

- All right.
- Go time.

Come on, baby. Let's go.

This is the easy part now.
I'm in the flats.

I got one hell of a hill
To climb with it, though.

Yeah, this hill
Is a pretty steep angle.

Whoo!

Big red's on the pad!

Yes!

It's another cleanup.

We don't do these Every day.

Yeah.

Kevin beets has fitted
New sluice extensions.

To the back end of the dredge.

After two days of welding
And four days of running,

They've shut down
For an all-important cleanup.

This second tub is gonna keep
The gold concentrate separate.

Between the new runs
That we added in last week.

And the rest Of the dredge.

So it's gonna give
Everybody a good idea.

Of what was actually
Going off the end.

What's gonna be
Really interesting.

Is to see How much gold we get.

Out of those Back-sluice runs.

I don't know.
We're waiting on you.

To stay on track.

To hit tony's
2,000-ounce season target,

Kevin needs
Around 50 ounces a week.

10, 20.

You got 50.

60.

70, 80, 90, 100.

Good. 140, 150.

180, 190, 200. Perfect.

208. 220.

226.30.

I think that's
Pretty reasonable.

A couple of bucks.

Okay.

This is from the extensions,
Both of them.

Okay.

Yeah.

2 ounces.

3 ounces. 4 ounces.

4.26 ounces.

So, what's The grand total now?

230.6.

An extra $5,000 a week...

Money tony desperately needs.

To get his second dredge
Back on track.

And that extra 2% every cleanup,
That's gonna help.

Let's pull the mats.

You guys do a cleanup,
And we'll see what we got.

- Okay.
- Let's hope it's good.

In oregon, Todd's skeleton crew.

Has fed monster red for a week.

We've worked very hard,

And I want to go back and see
If our hard work paid off.

But they won't know
If they've hit the pay streak.

Until they do the cleanup.

Hey. What do we got cooking?

Well...

Not a whole lot.

Like, break-even?

To have any chance
Of breaking even this season,

They need at least
50 ounces a week...

$60,000 worth of gold.

Nowhere even near.

Let's see, man.
Just take the thing off.

I got to look.

That's it?

That's it.

You're friggin' kidding me.

- No.
- Nope.

I could tell you right now
That's barely worth weighing.

Go ahead and weigh it,

But I'm telling you,
That's not good.

2.8.

Yeah.

Todd, I don't know what to say.

We've put... Yards.

It's not worth all of us there
Sitting all day running.

For that little bit Of gold.

Well, there's really
Only two choices...

We keep giving a shot
Or we quit and go home.

Working with him till the end,
I don't know.

That gold does not
Make it worth it.

If we just walk away Right now,

You know, It's... it's done.

It's over.

No, I'm not happy.

I'm not happy about it.

I got 10 or 12 pieces
Of heavy equipment at least.

I got my back against the wall.

You know, I don't know if
I can keep doing this anymore.

I got a friggin' rainbow coming
Down into the cut down here.

On the next "Gold rush"...

I don't even want To hear it.

Every day he's not sluicing.

Is costing us
20,000, 30,000 bucks.

Feels like mine Right now.

She's rising From the ashes!

To be quite honest
With you, young man,

I'm really not impressed.

This could beat the subway
Any day, wouldn't it?

100:00:01,002... > 00:00:02,568
On this "Gold rush"...

yeah!

All right. Let's crank her up.

The monster machines
That turn dirt...

Power! Yeah!

Into gold.

- Well, it's a big piece.
- Look at it.

Across six seasons,

The wash plants of "Gold rush,".

Derockers...

This is our Secret weapon.

Dredges...

Trommels...

Perfect.

And shakers...

I think this is good.

Have trapped
$18 million worth of gold.

- Hello.
- Woo-hoo.

We will reveal
The best wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

And...

parker!

The worst.

Watch that tower.

Gotta get out!!

Your wash plant could
Make you or break you.

It gets real personal.

"Gold rush" wash plants.

Have made miners fortunes
And broken the bank.

You know, I look back
At all the wash plants.

That I've ever had, and it's
Probably a lot like looking back.

At some of your old
Girlfriends, you know?

Some situations,
You have fond memories.

And some you look back
And go, "You know what?"

I'm just glad that I don't have
That wash plant any more."

everyone one of them
Is a finicky,

Temperamental thing.

That just when they wanna work,
They'll work great,

And when they don't want to,
They will ruin your life.

And watch what I do.

Gold is 18 times
Heavier than water, okay?

So it will settle.

But you gotta
Get it loosened up.

You know, That's a nice action.

For thousands of years,

People have panned
For gold using water.

To separate heavy gold
From lighter dirt.

This is a great pan, You know,

It's fantastic.

Today's gold-mining operations.

Have replaced pans
With gigantic machines,

But the principals
Are just the same.

A gold wash plant Has one goal,

And that's to extract.

A little bit of gold
Out of hundreds,

Thousands of tons of material.

You need to get
The material fed into it.

It need to wash the rocks.

And it needs to recover
The gold out of it.

But you cannot be
Chucking big rocks.

Down a sluice box with little
Bitty pieces of gold.

A screen deck
Separates out the larger rocks.

So only the fine material
Containing the gold passes.

Through into the sluice box.

Here, water carries
The worthless fine tailings.

Out of the end.

While the heavier
Gold sinks and settles.

- Look at that.
- My god.

- Wow, great.
- Look at that.

- Wow, that's cool.
- Holy cow.

Look at it.
It's just loaded down there.

Yeah.

A good wash plant
Has gotta be strong.

It's gotta be tough.

At the same time,
It's gotta have finesse.

Because you're trying to catch
Little bitty particles of gold,

Stuff you can barely see
With your naked eye.

When the hoffmans First set out.

To find their fortune,

They were so short of money...

Keep it low.

They had to build
Their own wash plant.

From secondhand parts and scrap.

I just kinda made it up
As I went along.

It's just cobbled together
With duct tape.

And chewing gum
In there somewhere.

Costing $20,000,

The wash plant weighs 14 tons,

Consumes 1,000 gallons
Of water a minute.

And runs 50 cubic-yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Let's go.

Chute's working good.
Looks good, so far.

I'll be damned.

Most wash plants break down.

The pay dirt using either
A vibrating shaker deck.

Or a rotating screened
Cylinder called a trommel.

The hoffmans'
Improvised plan has both.

I wish I could say.

That everything was
Working perfectly,

But I don't know that yet.

What are you Worried about?

Where is all that
Water coming from?

I can hear it Rattling.

I'm tired of crap breaking.

There's a hole.

Their shaker deck
Has ripped itself apart.

These bolts have
Actually pulled themselves.

Right through the bottom.

It's the movement
That's killing us.

If things can move,
Then they wear out.

That whole time
Was just desperate.

You know, we're just
Relying on this plant.

To, like, keep us going.

With their whole season.

Depending on this wash plant
Delivering gold,

Their only option...

Rip out and replace
The broken deck.

Okay, stand clear.

I'm hoping that we someday
Get to the stage.

Where we actually can
Call ourselves miners.

When they finally
Get the deck out,

They find the damage
Is way worse.

This one's cracked
All the way around the top.

Broke off.

The main supports
That hold this thing.

Together across Are cracked.

This isn't good.

So we're in the neighborhood
Of 600 welds I've gotta make.

By the time
I get that thing beefed up.

Okay, here we go. Coming down.

It takes mechanic james harness
4 days to overhaul the shaker.

Fire it up.

This shaker is the most
Vulgar, disgusting,

Amazingly violent thing
I've ever seen in my life.

- I love it.
- It's a lot quieter.

We spent way
More time welding on it.

Than actually sluicing with it.

Every ounce of gold.

Was paid in blood, sweat,
Embarrassment, and tears.

We pretty much did
Everything wrong.

Todd's first wash plant.

Recovered just
14 ounces of gold,

Worth $20,000...

A disastrous start,

But worse was still to come.

All right, dustin!

When the hoffmans left
Alaska for the klondike,

The dakota boys
Took over their claim.

Out with the old,
In with the new.

Their first move...

Get rid of todd's wash plant.

It's now history
As far as we're concerned.

It's outta here.

This is our secret weapon.

This thing is a derocker.

It'll handle big-old rocks.

This is the lamborghini
Of wash plants.

The $30,000 Derocker weighs in.

At 17 1/2 tons.

And runs 150 yards
Of pay dirt an hour,

Three times as much.

As the hoffmans'
Makeshift old plant.

The little particles
Of gold fall down.

In that little magic box.

And they're transformed
Into something in my pocket.

We're about to find
Out if it works.

Fire it up.

The derocker is
A rugged, all-in-one.

Gold-recovery system.

Instead of a vibrating screen
Deck or a rotating trommel,

It has a heavy-duty roller deck.

You better get back.

Pay dirt drops onto
The undulating deck.

Water jets wash
The gold off the rocks.

And through the slats.

The rolling truck wheels
Move the worthless rocks.

Down the deck And off the end.

While the gold washes down
Into the sluice box,

Where it settles In the ripples.

- I like that.
- Yeah.

That is nice.

Feed that plant,
Feed that plant,

Feed that plant over and over.

And over and over some more.

The derocker is designed.

To handle rocks and boulders.

Just like digging potatoes
Outta the ground.

Yeah, that's a 400-pound
Potato there.

Big rocks, big gold.

But every wash plant
Has its limits.

Whoa!

Quit it down!

It wasn't that easy.

Yeah, looked like
Right here's real low.

It should be A lot higher.

Hopefully it's A quick fix.

Holy We got some big problems.

You gotta See this, fred.

Holy.

Them tires Are ripped off.

We've got a broken spring
On that side over there.

It's shattered.

We've got two tires
Completely off the unit.

We sheared The shaft off.

Yep, the whole shaft
Is gone, everything.

This is the heart
Of the operation.

Yeah, without this thing,
You can't do anything.

Deep in the alaskan bush,

The dakota boys
Are forced to improvise.

So I'm gonna take
This old part here,

Gonna weld it onto this area
Right here,

Convert it to carry a wheel.

- I got it.
- Completed.

- Woo!
- Nothing to it.

We're gonna turn it on, see if
It, all holds together.

Looks good, fred!
We got it working!

I love it. Love it.

With fred
And dustin's bush fixes,

The derocker survived
Three mining seasons...

- we got gold.
- Look at it.

Well, it's A big piece.

And delivered
523 ounces of gold.

Worth $780,000 per season.

That's 12 times the haul.

Of the hoffmans' old wash plant.

It sounds bad.

Coming up...
- my goodness.

Where's all the water
Coming from?

We need to shut her down,
Parker, shut her down!

When 18-year-old Parker schnabel.

First arrived in the klondike,

He bought a 40-year-old
Wash plant from todd hoffman,

A conventional shaker...

"Little blue."

It's not the greatest
Wash plant.

But it was what I could afford.

It's a first wash plant,
A bit like a first car, I guess.

You never get a nice
First car, right?

Yeah, baby.

Right on.

We've got ourselves
A wash plant on the ground.

Costing $40,000,

The 10-ton machine runs
100 yards of pay dirt an hour.

I'm pretty sure
The hoffmans picked it up.

Off the side of the road.

And...

And they didn't put
Any work into it, obviously.

So by the time we got it,
It was in pretty rough shape.

Parker Tricks out little blue.

With a $10,000 hopper feeder.

To increase the amount of pay
Dirt he can force through.

Parker, it concerns me
That if we push it too hard,

Something's gonna give.

Yeah, I understand that.

But we need to put the dirt
Through the plant, okay?

I'm the boss.
I take the responsibility.

But it has to happen, All right?

Running little blue too hard.
We're gonna blow it up.

We're gonna destroy her.

If that happens,
Our season's screwed.

My goodness.

Parker, parker!

Hey, your shaker's
Moving real bad!

Sounds bad.

I don't know what's going on.
But it's not good.

Where is all the water
Coming from?

Dear!

We need to shut her down,
Parker, shut her down!

We need to take A look inside.

Not good.

What the.

We're not gonna be
Welding that back together.

In an afternoon.

The central shaft that drives.

The entire plant
Has sheared in two.

I think it's dead.

You've got Kidding me.

Between the hoffmans and parker,

Little blue recovered a total.

Of 300 ounces of gold
Worth $440,000.

Not a bad result
For a tired, old rust bucket.

For his third mining season,

Todd hoffman took
A leap of faith.

With new, cutting-edge
Technology.

The turbo trommel had some
Really nice technology in it,

And that's what
I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to bring
New technology to, you know,

A rather old
And set-in-their-ways industry.

The turbo trommel comes.

With a quarter
Million dollar price tag.

By spinning three times.

Faster than conventional
Trommels,

It runs 200 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Guys, this is probably.

The best wash plant
In the world,

And I want it running
Within 24 hours.

- Let's roll.
- Great. Let's go!

At the turbo trommel's core,

A rotating, perforated tube
Washes the rocks.

The gold and fine material
Drop through to the outer drum.

Where the gold
Is pushed back up,

Then out into a small sluice box.

On the side of the machine.

Holy! Look at this.

What are you Seeing, man?

I can feel all the heat
Coming off the engine.

It's getting Pretty warm.

I don't know how much more
It's gonna take.

Right now, I think
It's about ready to let go.

You know, it was
Kind of a prototype.

There was a lot of concepts.

That have been taken
From other things.

And put into the turbo trommel.

Sometimes, you get
Too many things going on.

Hold up, hold up.

This doesn't look good.

The horsepower of the motor
Doesn't look right.

I'm really concerned.

When the original
Motor isn't powerful enough...

We have to get Another motor in.

The designer Has to replace it.

That's looking good.
Straight in.

There you go. That's it, guys.

You did it.

Over the next week,

The hoffmans run 8,000 yards
Through the trommel.

We should have
A really good clean up,

A minimum, I think,
Of 15 ounces.

What do you guys think?
At least.

I'm gonna show you What we got.

There's 7.34 ounces.

Less than a fifth of what
They're hoping for.

And that's The grand total.

Thurber checks the tailings.

To see if the trommel
Is losing gold.

You are freaking kidding me.

Fourteen pieces,
And they aren't small.

I'm shutting this
Freaking thing off.

Until we figure out
What's going on.

- Yeah, you better.
- Thurb, run down there.

And kill the pump.

You're losing gold,

And I'm, like,
Pulling my hair out.

And trust me, I don't
Have enough to pull out.

Well, this isn't good.

I can see some daylight
Right here.

Between the drum And our spiral.

They used a urethane,
Like a sealant.

Yeah.

There's a section of it
Right there, 3 feet long.

The spiral In the outer drum.

Drives the gold up.

And out into the sluice box.

But the sealant
Between the spiral.

And the drum has come loose,

Allowing gold to slip down.

And drop out of the lower
Tailing chute.

It's gonna be turned off
For the season.

I'm really sorry.

Everybody, Of course, laughed.

And now I do. I laugh about it.

But, during the time,

You know, it's just,
Like, a nightmare.

It's probably the hardest,

Most scariest thing
We've ever done.

- Look at that thing.
- Looking good.

We got ourselves
A nice, new wash plant.

When the hoffmans left
The klondike for south america,

Teenage parker was, once again,

First in line
For their wash plant.

Getting "Big red"
From the hoffmans,

It was a real blessing,
You know.

I don't mind using
Their hand-me-downs,

Especially big red.

- Big red's original cost...
- A cool quarter million dollars.

Weighing 25 tons,

It chews through 180 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

All right. Let's crank her up.

Here it comes.

We got water.

Turn it on.

Whoa.

Rocking and rolling.

Unreal.

Big red has a 10,000-pound
Two-deck vibrating screen,

But its real innovation
Is freddy dodge's design.

Of an enormous 16-foot-wide,

Multi-stage sluice box,

Configured to catch everything.

From nuggets
To fine flakes of gold.

Changing the flows,
Changing the widths.

And a few other secret things,

It helps on the recoveries.

If you can start
Catching a percent here,

A percent there,
A percent there more,

All goes into your pocket.

But every wash plant
Has its weak points.

Parker.

Gene!

Gotta open That bypass.

This job.

Close the valve, Greg.

That plant.

As soon As we got big red,

Any time there's
A big chunk of bedrock,

The prewash would just plug up
And fill full of rocks.

And rocks would be pouring out
Of the prewash onto the deck.

And everything around it.

These rocks
Disturb the water flow.

And gold washes right out
Of the sluice box.

Every time we have a blow out,
We blow out gold.

If that wash plant
Ain't running,

You ain't making money.

And it just adds a huge amount
Of stress to every break down.

It's a bottleneck
In the whole system.

It's gotta get removed so that
We quit having blow outs.

Sometimes, you just
Have to get medieval.

Done With that thing.

I think this is good.

Once we got the problem solved,

Big red ate up all the rocks
We could throw at it.

And the rest of our
First season up here was great.

Every one of those
Is 100 ounces.

Ohhhhhh. That's impressive.

Over the next Four seasons,

Big red recovers
4,994 ounces of gold.

Worth $6.3 million,

The biggest total ever collected
By a "Gold rush" plant.

But still not
The ultimate wash plant.

When todd took the biggest
Gamble of his career.

And relocated to guyana...

this is Probably the hardest,

Most scariest thing
We've ever done.

He needed
A wash plant he could depend on.

You know, little red was...

Is actually a pretty
Damn good little trommel.

The $300,000
Octagon trommel weighs 23 tons.

And runs 100 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

A screen deck for guyana
Wasn't gonna work,

So that's why
I went with a trommel.

We knew there was
Probably gonna be clay.

And a trommel beats up clay
To get the gold out.

Day's been Running great.

Curious to see What's in here.

But after
3 months in the jungle,

The hoffmans have failed to find.

Any gold-rich ground.

Ultimately, You could have.

The best wash plant
In the world.

If you're not on good ground,
It's not worth anything.

Who cares?

Shut it off, dave.

We got some Gold down there?

No.

Right there,
We got a freaking diamond.

- And that was in the sluice?
- Darn right it was.

If we got one
Freaking diamond here,

I will guarantee you.

There's 100 of 'em
Down in the creek.

We're not running this plant
Until we get something.

To catch diamonds
On the end of there.

I bought some diamond
Jigs off some,

Some brazilians in the ghetto.

And drug 'em all the way
Out in the jungle.

- Touchdown.
- Right on!

Water's coming on.
Jigs are working.

Everything coming out
Of little red's sluices pours.

Onto a mesh screen.

Rubber diaphragms then pulse
Water up and down.

To wash away lighter material.

And leave behind any diamonds.

It's doing exactly
What it's supposed to do.

Awesome.

Shutting her down.

That shines pretty hard.
That's a diamond, dude.

We got a diamond.

Your very first
Diamond you ever find.

Is the coolest thing.

You know, you think you're
Gonna get tons of 'em.

And they're gonna get
Bigger and bigger.

But, for me, they, like,
Started out big.

And got smaller and smaller.

Five months in,
Little red has recovered.

Just $4,000 worth
Of gold and diamonds.

Todd's career is At rock bottom.

I lost a lot of sleep
Out there in the jungle,

Lost a lot of money
Out in the jungle.

And damn near lost my friends
Out in the jungle.

Hey, we got Rotation!

That whole situation
Wasn't little red's fault.

We hauled her back
To the klondike,

And she finally started
Getting some gold.

- Look at that.
- That's what the guys.

Came to see, Right there.

We didn't see a lot
Of this in the jungle.

- No.
- You guys know what this...

I'm glad we aren't
Mining diamonds this year.

In just a month
On gold-rich ground,

Little red redeemed herself.

And upped her gold total
To 138 ounces,

Worth over $160,000.

Coming up...

tony beets Has successfully.

Run conventional wash plants
For over 30 years.

But 2 years ago,

Tony risked everything...

When he decided to mine
Like the old-timers.

Are you nuts?

The 76-year-old dredge.

Is the most Expensive wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

Costing $1 million,

It weighs a colossal 350 tons.

And runs 100 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

This thing's
Older than we are, tony.

How do we know
Anything'll even work in it?

The dredge floats in a pond.

A 24-ton bucket line
Chews through pay dirt.

And drops it into the 9-ton
Onboard trommel.

There, water washes
Any gold off the rocks.

And down to the sluice box,
Where it settles out.

From day one, tony sets
The pace for the rebuild.

Holy! Is that
The way you gotta do it?

Tony, you're
Destroying the dredge.

Over the next 4 months,

Tony takes the dredge apart,

Hauls it 150 miles to his claim.

And puts it back together...

Beam by beam...

Bolt by bolt.

The moment of truth.

Comes on the very last day
Of the season.

For the first time In 3 decades,

The dredge runs pay dirt.

The monster Comes alive.

Wow. Jeez. That is awesome.

- That's amazing.
- Right?

That's Pretty cool, tony.

That is amazing.

Throughout The next season,

The dredge mines klondike pay.

The running costs per yard?

Around a quarter of
A traditional wash plant.

In its first season,

The only working gold dredge
In north america.

Produced 737 ounces
Worth $810,000,

Not a massive total,
But top marks for efficiency.

Fire it up!

As todd hoffman's ambition grew,

So did his wash plant.

Monster red is
Queen of the klondike.

I think she still is probably
One of the best plants.

Ever ran up there.

Put the water
3,000 gallons a minute.

And let's Rock and roll.

Let's go get Some gold.

Two hundred kw, buddy.

Clear.

Feel it rumbling In the ground.

Like a train going by.

Monster red's cost?

$360,000 dollars.

The 50-ton machine runs.

A massive 300 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Monster red is, by far,

The nicest gold wash plant
I've ever put together,

And I've been doing it
For around 30 years.

It's got a wicked screen on it.

You know, it's just
Tearing material apart.

And getting it
To the sluice box.

The screen decks,
Vibrating 745 times a minute,

Handles six times as much dirt
As the hoffmans' first plant.

We're 300 yards
An hour right now.

Once you throw a bucket in,

You gotta get it
Outta the bucket.

Bam, bam.

It's so hard
To keep up with this plant.

They don't call it
Monster red for nothing.

When you're running
A wash plant that big,

And you're feeding it
That much material,

You have a lot of tailings.

You got a lot of issues.

Hey, dave, can you
Come down by the pump?

We got a freaking
Huge problem here.

What's up?

At 300 yards an hour,
This is gonna fill up.

We're filling up our lake
With tailings.

Running all that material
Into my pond,

I would have filled
That pond up so fast,

It'd make your head spin.

Dave!

Todd comes up
With an innovative solution,

A double sand screw.

The mixture of water
And fine tailings.

That come out of the sluice box.

Pour into the sand screw's base.

The clean water flows back
Into a drainage gully,

Which leads down Into the lake.

A pair of sand screws drive
The fine tailings upwards...

And out onto a conveyer
To join the coarse tailings.

Fire it up.

There she goes, Up to the top.

Come on! Baby, take it.

So far, so good.

Doing its job.

Perfect.

Look down there.

Holy.

Holy cow, I've never seen it
Look so good in the middle.

Once we got
Monster red tuned in,

It was just an amazing feeling
Week after week.

Of just throwing that
Much gold on the table.

Just bam, bam, bam!

You... you dream about that.

Over two seasons,

Monster red recovered.

A massive 4,067 ounces of gold
Worth $4.6 million.

But it still wasn't the show's
Fastest-producing plant.

When the hoffmans.

Wanted to mine
A remote beach in chile,

There was no handy
Wash plant available.

Can't buy one, We'll build it.

We just had to use junk wood,

Bad tools and do it
In 110 degrees.

Fire it up.

Here it comes.

Nice job.

Wasn't crap for gold there.

My first wash plant.

That I actually put...

Jellyfish through.

Over six full seasons,

The wash plants featured
In "Gold rush".

Have processed over
2 million tons of pay dirt...

And consumed a billion
Gallons of water...

To recover 14,000 ounces
Of gold worth $18 million.

In 2015, one wash plant.

Made a dramatic contribution
To this total.

After a couple seasons up here,

We start getting ideas.

Of how to increase
Our gold in the box.

Parker transformed
His wash plant setup...

Woo!

When he opened
The biggest cut of his career.

I mean, Instead of hauling pay.

All over the place
To a wash plant,

We wanted to use a mobile plant.

And get it right in
With the pay.

And that's where
Goldzilla came into play,

Is that it was
A higher yardage plant.

And we could move it
Around a bit easier.

Built in 1982,

Goldzilla is a high-volume,
Portable plant,

Despite weighing in at 25 tons.

I mean, it's A fairly old plant.

But where big red
Does 130 yards an hour,

This will push over 200,

I think, because there's
So much room in the sluice runs.

The shaker sits above
A set of four sluices.

Beneath them,
A weighted arm rotates.

Oscillating the material
In the sluices.

Helps separate the sand
And dirt from the gold.

The disadvantage
To an oscillating box is,

Not only is there
More moving parts,

But the thing has
To be perfectly level.

And it's not simple.

- Rick.
- Yeah?

The sluice isn't
Swinging properly,

Like it's out of balance
Or something.

It's hammering.

Yeah, that's weird.

Sluice box Isn't oscillating.

It's just Banging around.

Well, you can see
All the water's coming out.

Of the left side Of each run.

So it's leaning This way.

I think it's laying down
On the side.

As the machine
Starts getting out of level,

It started undermining
The plant pretty bad.

And then, you start losing gold.

I can't stand it when
The wash plants break down.

You're a slave
To the damn thing.

Try and chisel
Some dirt underneath it.

Should I try Lifting it?

Go ahead. I'll see
What it does here.

Rick needs to get
His excavator bucket.

Under the wash plant
To level it out.

Biggest thing you gotta
Worry about's sliding forward.

But the excavator is dangerously
Close to a water pipe.

Watch those water lines.

I think we got
Really lucky there.

You got 1/2 inch.

Come on, come on.

Keep going.

Almost there.

There you go.

Run that sucka.

We're good to go.

Once we worked all the bugs
Out of goldzilla,

It was a lot of fun
Because we ran.

That thing faster and harder.

Than any other wash plant
We've ever hand.

And the whole plan Worked great.

You know, we got
The plant to the pay.

Our feed system was beautiful.

With the conveyors
And everything.

We found a lot of gold.

In just 10 weeks,

Goldzilla recovered 2,322 ounces.

Of gold worth $2.5 million.

That's over $200,000 a week,

Proving, by far,

The most efficient wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

And helping parker to his
Best-ever season.

So I reckon that's
Probably about 25 ounces,

Which takes us
Past the hoffmans.

So that takes us to 3,362.

Good job, buddy.

You get a hug, There, gramps.

Thank you.

Sluicifer!

Next time... Whoa!

One mega-packed "Gold rush."

Look out!

There's no gold here.

Dave's dozing the pay.

Whoa! What Are you doing?!

Get outta the way.

I'm gonna go down in that cut,
Find that damn gold.

I don't have The right tools.

I can't Get anything done.

How much?

Holy.

Parker, Parker!

Hey, your shaker's
moving real bad!

Hold up, hold up.

NO.

NO.

Hey, Dave, can you
come down by the pump?

We got a freaking
huge problem here.

I never thought
It'd come to this.

I lost my team.

On this "Gold rush"...

We're killing ourselves
Right now.

Trying to run this line
With four guys.

I need some pay,
And I need it now.

I wouldn't wish this
On anybody...

Even parker.

Gonna break something.
That's ridiculous.

- Shut it down!
- Holy crap!

Sucks for him.
It's my party, right?

We're on the pay dirt.

We've got to get big red
Sluicing as soon as we can.

This is frustrating.

What the Was that?

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications.

I don't know.

Just not how I planned
It would work out.

I can't believe
What's happened this summer.

My guys are gone.

They're all gone.

You may be Watching the hoffmans.

Mine their last bit Of dirt,

And it might be
Just frickin' today.

Three months ago,

Todd came to oregon
With high hopes.

For a $6 million season.

I want to see a miracle
On this mountain.

I want 5,000 ounces.

The hoffman crew began mining
For nuggets at the high bar.

Everybody's reputation's
On the line on this hill.

Five weeks later,
With just 138 ounces of gold...

I feel like such a fool
Right now.

He and his crew abandon
The high bar.

And stake their season
On a new mine...

The buckland.

We got any chance
Of saving this season,

It's right here.

After another six weeks.

And a pathetic 64 ounces,

The crew fell apart...

Hey, hey, hey! Knock it off!

That cut's done. I'm done.

And quit.

No, no.

I can't run this
Without you, dave.

Come on.

Oregon was meant to be
A beautiful homecoming.

I can barely breathe.

My losses are.

In the hundreds and hundreds
Of thousands of dollars,

So, yeah.

I don't know.

It feels like a weight
On my shoulders.

Yeah, I'm too deep.
I can't quit.

Todd started
The season with a crew of 15.

Now he's down to his dad,
His son,

And faithful friend thurber.

I don't know what
To tell you about this.

It's like, this is not
How I planned it to go.

Thurber, Why'd you stay with us?

You should be...
You should go home.

I've been through everything
With you guys.

All right. Thanks, man.

Okay.

If we're gonna go out,
Let's go out swinging.

Yep.

I know that that's
Got gold in it.

It's just deep, You know?

Well, I tell you what.

Thurber, You grab a rock truck.

Hunter, you know probably more
About the plant.

Than any of us.

Why don't you run
The loader there?

Dad, go ahead and feed it.
Feed the plant.

I'm gonna load out Some pay.

And we're just gonna run
As much dirt as we can.

The ground is gonna give you
What it's gonna give you.

Well, there's always
Possibilities, you know?

But right now, it doesn't
Look real promising.

It's like
A frickin' pipe dream, dad,

To be honest with you.

All right, Let's go.

Todd's already close
To 3/4 of a million dollars.

In the hole.

To cover his costs,

He'll need to mine
Another 500 ounces of gold...

More than twice
His total to date.

You know what?

Maybe we just wanted
To come home so bad.

And wanted to believe in it
So bad.

You know, I don't know.

I never thought
It'd come to this.

Even with his whole crew.

Digging 100 feet down
In the cut,

They still struggled to find
Any pay worth running.

While the guys strip
This whole cut,

I'm just scavenging
Whatever I can.

I'm just trying to find
Any bit that looks like pay.

I just got to keep the plant
Running for right now.

We have to stick with it.

We're caught between
A rock and a hard place.

We've got a big nut
To crack here.

I just don't know
How long it can go on.

Everything's gone the opposite
Of how we planned it to go.

I hope that we get
Some good gold in the box,

'cause we could really use.

Some... some good news
Right now.

You know, Everybody's gone.

But some people say
That... that rock bottom.

Is at least A solid foundation.

Maybe we can rebuild From here.

So, everything's
Running good here.

Sluicifer's running
Through dirt good.

And the only problem is there's
Not a lot of gold in there.

In the klondike,

Parker schnabel
Is halfway through his season.

But he has less than a third
Of the gold he needs.

To hit his target.

Our last cleanup
Only had 102 ounces.

If we're gonna hit
Our 4,000-ounce target here,

Rick really needs to get going
Down on indian river.

Five miles west,
At indian river,

Rick ness is working hard.

To get their second operation
Up and running.

- Focus on this area.
- Yeah.

And then, yeah,
Try to clean this all up.

All right.
We'll just keep her going.

Eight weeks ago,

Parker gave rick the chance
To run his own operation.

I'd love to bump our goal up
To 4,000 ounces.

And try to do 1,000 ounces
Down there.

So that's on you.

Yeah, let's do it, man.

Since then,

Rick's excavated
1.5 million yards of overburden.

In his struggle
To find gold-rich pay dirt.

Yeah, I'm hoping to get down
To pay dirt any minute here.

I've got some water poking up,
Trying to ruin my day.

That's a pretty good sign that
I'm getting down to the level.

Don't quite have the wash plant
Up on the pad yet,

But everything
I'm doing right now.

Is leading up to that.

Yeah. I know that feeling.

Teeth of the bucket are starting
To chatter on some big rocks.

I betcha that's pay dirt.

Yep.

Bingo.

Brennan, Guess what I've found?

We're on pay dirt, boy.

This is my first pan
Down at indian river.

I'm excited to see
What kind of result I can get.

I-I really want to see
Some gold in this pan.

Make sure
You're on the right track.

Come on, gold.

Now we're talking. Whoo.

Sweet.

There's a good
10 pieces in there.

And then, you know,
A bunch of little colors.

All right, so we're gonna start
Hauling pay finally.

Whoo!

The gold
In the ground at indian river.

Could save their season.

Five years ago, I was the one.

Sitting in that rock truck
Down there,

Just hauling dirt.

And now I'm watching the dirt
Get hauled up to the pad.

For my own operation.

That's pretty sweet.

It's been a lot of hard work
To get here.

But it's all
Paying off right now.

But there will be
No gold without a wash plant.

And big red is stuck five miles
Away in parker's yard.

I need big red up here.
Without it, we're screwed.

We have approximately
60 hours on that run.

And that's been Pretty good.

And we made
Some really good headway.

Dredge master kevin beets.

Is running 130 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

So far this season,

He's produced
1,445 ounces of gold,

Worth $1.7 million.

Plane.

Yeah, that's our plane.

That might be tony.

Tony's master plan this year?

Get a second dredge.

Running alongside this one
At eureka creek.

Already months behind schedule.

And having invested
Close to $2 million,

He's come to check
On his money-maker.

- All right.
- Okay. See you in a bit.

Pretty good.

Jason! Shut it down!

Tony's costs are spiraling
Out of control.

He needs to recover
Every grain of gold he can.

From kevin's operation.

Gold should settle in the first
Few feet of the sluices.

If tony finds gold
At the bottom of the riffles,

It means the dredge is blowing.

Thousands of dollars worth
Of gold.

Right off the end.

Yeah?

Yeah?

- So?
- So?

So that leaves me
With a problem to fix.

Well, mine, I guess.

So, basically, Make it work?

All right.

Well, apparently it's my show,
So I'll make it happen.

I'll come with something
That I like and go with it.

He doesn't like that,
Well, sucks for him.

It's my party, right?

All right, so we're gonna move
Big red down to indian river.

Don't look like much
Sitting up here right now,

But we'll get her
Whipped back into shape.

Rick ness Is down to pay dirt.

At his indian river operation.

All he needs now is parker's
Trusted old wash plant, big red,

Brought out of retirement
To save their season.

Yeah, I mean, the wash plant's
The heart of the operation,

And now we're damn close
To getting sluicing.

And making some money.

Parker brings in His semi truck.

Along with a specialized trailer
Designed to load from the front.

That trailer's about As small as
it could be And still do the job.

It's gonna be tight,
But I don't care at this point.

We're gonna get it
On that trailer.

And we're gonna Get it moved.

I think she's got
Some more gold in her.

Might not look like it, But...

The work's Just begun.

First,
Parker has to detach the semi.

From the trailer,

Then drag big red
Onto the trailer.

Using a loader and an excavator.

Finally,
He'll reattach the semi.

What the.

Apparently, I broke something.

I do know What I did wrong.

Me.

Forgot to undo those.

Parker has snapped
The high-pressure air hoses.

That operate
The trailer's brakes.

Big red is going nowhere.

For sake!

- What are those, parker?
- What now?!

What?

I up,

So just off For a minute.

This is frustrating.

Well, it looks like
Parker pulled away.

Before he completely
Disconnected from the trailer.

Pulled out the air lines
And the electrical.

Nice.

You have A small hose clamp?

I think I have some.

You have A screwdriver, too?

- Flathead, right?
- Yeah.

There we go.

Yeah, that'll work.

Well, the air lines
Are temporarily fixed.

Hopefully, that's enough
To get our wash plant moved.

All right. Let's do this.

We're probably gonna have
To rig up to it.

We're just gonna get
Both machines hooked up to it,

One on each end.

There we go.

All right.
We got this sucker in the air.

It's time to get it
On the trailer.

Whoa!

Easy.

Rick, just left a bit.

We got it.

That's it?

Perfect.

Yeah.

Fits like a glove.

Yeah, That worked smooth.

Yeah.

Yeah, we got
The plant on the trailer.

Now we just need
To chain it down.

And drive her down
To indian river.

It's about, I don't know,
Five, six miles.

Not too bad.

What's the worst
That can happen?

What the was that?

What the was that?

Parker schnabel
Is hauling 15 tons.

Of trusted, old wash plant
From his yard.

To rick's new
Indian river operation.

Are my back tires Not spinning?

But there's a problem
With the trailer.

Front one's spinning,
But not the rear two.

What the?

The brakes Aren't releasing.

So, they're not getting the air
They need to release.

The wheels are locked,

Which means
The high-pressure air.

Is not reaching the brakes.

Parker tries
Switching the hoses.

What was that?

Heard a burst of air Back here.

What?

Yeah, we got some air
Coming back here now.

I can hear it.

I just switched them Again.

Yeah. Brakes are moving now.

Yeah.

All right, rick.

Let's get this wash plant
To indian river.

Now let's see what kind
Of a super trucker I am.

That's A sweet sight here...

Big red coming down
The road behind me.

Heh, heh, heh.

Thing's tall.

You know, for the most part,
This is gonna be rick's show.

And I'm excited about that.
I'm excited for him.

I mean, he's in for 1,000.

Hopefully, it'll be really good
And he can do more.

Is that good?

Yeah, perfect!

Made it!

Whoo!

All right.

There you go.

There you go.
You got yourself a wash plant.

With pay dirt in the cut
And big red on-site,

Rick's indian river claim...
Good luck.

Is almost ready
To start producing gold.

This old girl's produced
4,000 ounces for us.

Up to this date.

So, I need another 1,000 out
Of it in the next two months.

Big red at indian river...
Unreal.

Hey, thurber, I'm gonna have
To really fill you full here.

I'm gonna fill you up as much
As I can get in there.

Todd hoffman's crew
Has mutinied.

Now he's struggling
To run the buckland mine.

With his dad,
His son, and thurber.

Okay, I'll push you up.

That's enough.

I mean, we're gonna
Break something.

That's ridiculous.

Thurber hauls
What they hope is pay dirt.

Half a mile to the plant.

You know, we're killing
Ourselves right now.

Trying to run this mine
With four guys.

And who knows if this pay
Even has anything good in it.

I'm gonna be running out
Of pay here pretty quick, yeah.

I don't know if I'm digging up
My own ramp.

That I... I'm sitting on,

Whether I'm getting pay
Or getting dirt.

Hey, todd, we're running out
Of pay up here.

There's not a lot I can do
About that right now.

I'm doing The best we can.

Yeah, well,
You're gonna have to do.

A little bit better than that.

I don't know
What you're gonna do,

But I need some pay,
And I need it now.

Todd, this one truck
Just isn't cutting it.

What's hunter doing Up there?

He's clearing tailings
Out of the...

Let the tailings pile up.
Who cares?

Tell hunter just get in a truck
And get his ass down here!

All right.

Hey, hunter.

Your dad needs you
To hop in a rock truck,

Come help haul pay.

We're not getting
Enough over here.

Okay, I'll go get in a truck.

Hey, Thanks for coming, man.

We needed your help Back here.

Okay. I'll do my best.

Go for it. Take this load.

Okay, thurb.

I'll telling you, I think
We can keep up with two trucks.

Yeah, it's definitely
Gonna help.

We're hauling Twice as much now.

I'm having to jump
Between the loader.

And the rock truck Right now.

I have to watch the wash plant.
I have to do the tailings.

Feels like I'm doing
The job of three guys.

And I'm pretty maxed out
Right now,

And it's pretty ridiculous.

Hunter's running around like
A chicken with his head cut off.

But he's doing A real good job.

Hey, We have a water leak.

The feeder's blowing water
Out the back.

Shut it down!

Holy crap!

Hey, kill the pump!

I got the water off.

We blew a hose here.

All right.
I'm gonna shut the plant down.

We have a hose
That feeds the main conveyor.

It either just blew off
Or the straps broke.

I don't know which.

Holy cow.

Blew the clamp right off. Aw.

You know, these are the type
That you can't reuse.

Thurber, Go find some clamps.

Let's clamp it back on.
We'll see if it'll hold.

What if I wasn't here
At the wash plant?

I'm half a mile away
At the cut, okay?

Hey, I... I can't...

No, he can't watch
The whole thing and feed it.

And if something goes wrong
And really breaks,

Then we're not Mining at all.

Hunter, we're not blaming you
Or blaming anybody.

I am sorry.
I know we're shorthanded.

But we got to keep our eyes
On this frickin' plant.

So, let's just Keep it rolling.

Found three brand-new
Heavy-duty clamps.

- Yeah, that looks all right.
- Yeah, it is. Even better.

- Think it'll reach?
- Yeah.

Let me hold on to it. Okay, go.

Stagger all these.

Okay. I think we got her.

You guys want To fire up?

You know, something like that
Could've just shut us down.

I think we got real lucky
On a hose.

This summer's been unbelievable.

It's been very, very difficult.

I wouldn't wish this
On anybody...

Even parker.

We gonna rip this
Old piece of off.

Then we're gonna
Bring in a new one.

Kevin beets' dredge
Has been losing gold.

Down the fine-tailing chutes.

It's a very gentle procedure,
As you can see.

Splash!

Done.

Kevin's plan... replace
The simple, old, metal chutes.

With a pair
Of 20-foot sluice boxes.

Containing mats
And expanded metal.

This should trap all the gold
He's been losing.

Mechanic mike beaudry
Has come to help.

Do everything we can
On the ground.

Then, soon as we're ready,
We'll slam this stuff in quick,

And we'll be done.

Then the dredge
Can go back to work.

Each of the finished sluice
Extensions weighs 1,500 pounds.

They must be perfectly lined up
With the runs on the dredge.

So water flows evenly
All the way to the end.

Go up, kevin.

Hold up, kev!

Don't get too crazy.

Ken, Pull that in that way.

Okay, just wait.
That's not gonna work.

Thing looks like
It's twisted in the middle.

Which way Are you thinking?

That way?

Right now,
It's looking this way...

Or it's looking this way.
Tilted that way?

- It's tilted this way.
- That one is or both of them?

This one.

Just hang on.

This needs to go that way?

Yeah.

Well, that's okay.

Go get me that...

Pull on that.

Pull it slow, slow, Slow, slow.

There you go.

There you go.

How about this way? Yeah?

Yeah. That's better.

I'm not sure how much
I trust these cables.

Why?

'Cause that's A lot of weight.

Those cables are good
For 5,000 pounds each.

Tighten that other turnbuckle up
A little bit more?

Yeah.

It's sitting in there
Quite nice.

You know, it's a little heavier
Than we were expecting,

But it's all we need.

Just got to sit there And work.

Now that they're on,
We can fire her up,

Start making gold again.

Here we go.

I hear water.

And here she comes.

Well, they're still on,
So that's a good start.

They seem to be working.

Overall, I'm happy.

Just got to wait
And see how they work out.

Get in here, doumitt.

"Sluicifer"
Is a tough word to say.

- Thank you, mitch.
- No problem.

For three weeks,

Parker has been mining
The boundary cut extension.

But the results
Have been falling short.

After another week of running,

It's time to see
If things have improved.

So, I know we've been focused
On getting big red moved.

But sluicifer's
Still sluicing away.

And, hopefully,
This boundary cut extension.

Got a little better.

Our last cleanup was, What, 102?

Yeah, pretty pathetic.

To keep on track.

To hit his 4,000-ounce,
$4.8 million season,

Parker needs this cleanup
To produce over 160 ounces.

Well,
Here's the moment of truth.

Hopefully, it adds up.

It's at 20... 40...

60... 80... 100.

Not much more Than that.

106.9.

So nothing's changed.

Man.

I mean, dude, it's still
100 ounces of gold,

But that should be
Almost double that.

With how many rocks
We skipped across that.

- Ounce an hour.
- Oof.

What's that take us to, Chris?

About 1,285 now.

Man, we got to start
Upping that.

Well, and it really
Highlights the fact.

That we need big red
Up and going.

'Cause we've got to do
Over 250 ounces a week.

For the rest Of the season.

We've got to get big red
Sluicing as soon as we can.

Yeah, understood. I agree.

And once we turn it on,
We can't turn that thing off,

Because, at this rate...

I mean, big red can
Do these numbers easy.

All right, rick.
I just need you to get on that.

10-4. I'm on it.

Thanks, guys.

Yeah, I mean,
This boundary cut extension.

Is pretty dog.

We're at the point now where
We're in a fair bit of trouble,

So I'm really counting on rick
To get big red up and going,

Get some gold coming
Out of indian river.

It's 8:00 p.M.

The rest of the crew
Is eating dinner,

But rick's got other priorities.

I've got big red Down in my cut.

I'm gonna drag it Up to the pad.

I'm gonna be pulling gold
Out of my own cut.

And it's one hell Of a feeling.

I got chills When I said that.

- All right.
- Go time.

Come on, baby. Let's go.

This is the easy part now.
I'm in the flats.

I got one hell of a hill
To climb with it, though.

Yeah, this hill
Is a pretty steep angle.

Whoo!

Big red's on the pad!

Yes!

It's another cleanup.

We don't do these Every day.

Yeah.

Kevin beets has fitted
New sluice extensions.

To the back end of the dredge.

After two days of welding
And four days of running,

They've shut down
For an all-important cleanup.

This second tub is gonna keep
The gold concentrate separate.

Between the new runs
That we added in last week.

And the rest Of the dredge.

So it's gonna give
Everybody a good idea.

Of what was actually
Going off the end.

What's gonna be
Really interesting.

Is to see How much gold we get.

Out of those Back-sluice runs.

I don't know.
We're waiting on you.

To stay on track.

To hit tony's
2,000-ounce season target,

Kevin needs
Around 50 ounces a week.

10, 20.

You got 50.

60.

70, 80, 90, 100.

Good. 140, 150.

180, 190, 200. Perfect.

208. 220.

226.30.

I think that's
Pretty reasonable.

A couple of bucks.

Okay.

This is from the extensions,
Both of them.

Okay.

Yeah.

2 ounces.

3 ounces. 4 ounces.

4.26 ounces.

So, what's The grand total now?

230.6.

An extra $5,000 a week...

Money tony desperately needs.

To get his second dredge
Back on track.

And that extra 2% every cleanup,
That's gonna help.

Let's pull the mats.

You guys do a cleanup,
And we'll see what we got.

- Okay.
- Let's hope it's good.

In oregon, Todd's skeleton crew.

Has fed monster red for a week.

We've worked very hard,

And I want to go back and see
If our hard work paid off.

But they won't know
If they've hit the pay streak.

Until they do the cleanup.

Hey. What do we got cooking?

Well...

Not a whole lot.

Like, break-even?

To have any chance
Of breaking even this season,

They need at least
50 ounces a week...

$60,000 worth of gold.

Nowhere even near.

Let's see, man.
Just take the thing off.

I got to look.

That's it?

That's it.

You're friggin' kidding me.

- No.
- Nope.

I could tell you right now
That's barely worth weighing.

Go ahead and weigh it,

But I'm telling you,
That's not good.

2.8.

Yeah.

Todd, I don't know what to say.

We've put... Yards.

It's not worth all of us there
Sitting all day running.

For that little bit Of gold.

Well, there's really
Only two choices...

We keep giving a shot
Or we quit and go home.

Working with him till the end,
I don't know.

That gold does not
Make it worth it.

If we just walk away Right now,

You know, It's... it's done.

It's over.

No, I'm not happy.

I'm not happy about it.

I got 10 or 12 pieces
Of heavy equipment at least.

I got my back against the wall.

You know, I don't know if
I can keep doing this anymore.

I got a friggin' rainbow coming
Down into the cut down here.

On the next "Gold rush"...

I don't even want To hear it.

Every day he's not sluicing.

Is costing us
20,000, 30,000 bucks.

Feels like mine Right now.

She's rising From the ashes!

To be quite honest
With you, young man,

I'm really not impressed.

This could beat the subway
Any day, wouldn't it?

100:00:01,002... > 00:00:02,568
On this "Gold rush"...

yeah!

All right. Let's crank her up.

The monster machines
That turn dirt...

Power! Yeah!

Into gold.

- Well, it's a big piece.
- Look at it.

Across six seasons,

The wash plants of "Gold rush,".

Derockers...

This is our Secret weapon.

Dredges...

Trommels...

Perfect.

And shakers...

I think this is good.

Have trapped
$18 million worth of gold.

- Hello.
- Woo-hoo.

We will reveal
The best wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

And...

parker!

The worst.

Watch that tower.

Gotta get out!!

Your wash plant could
Make you or break you.

It gets real personal.

"Gold rush" wash plants.

Have made miners fortunes
And broken the bank.

You know, I look back
At all the wash plants.

That I've ever had, and it's
Probably a lot like looking back.

At some of your old
Girlfriends, you know?

Some situations,
You have fond memories.

And some you look back
And go, "You know what?"

I'm just glad that I don't have
That wash plant any more."

everyone one of them
Is a finicky,

Temperamental thing.

That just when they wanna work,
They'll work great,

And when they don't want to,
They will ruin your life.

And watch what I do.

Gold is 18 times
Heavier than water, okay?

So it will settle.

But you gotta
Get it loosened up.

You know, That's a nice action.

For thousands of years,

People have panned
For gold using water.

To separate heavy gold
From lighter dirt.

This is a great pan, You know,

It's fantastic.

Today's gold-mining operations.

Have replaced pans
With gigantic machines,

But the principals
Are just the same.

A gold wash plant Has one goal,

And that's to extract.

A little bit of gold
Out of hundreds,

Thousands of tons of material.

You need to get
The material fed into it.

It need to wash the rocks.

And it needs to recover
The gold out of it.

But you cannot be
Chucking big rocks.

Down a sluice box with little
Bitty pieces of gold.

A screen deck
Separates out the larger rocks.

So only the fine material
Containing the gold passes.

Through into the sluice box.

Here, water carries
The worthless fine tailings.

Out of the end.

While the heavier
Gold sinks and settles.

- Look at that.
- My god.

- Wow, great.
- Look at that.

- Wow, that's cool.
- Holy cow.

Look at it.
It's just loaded down there.

Yeah.

A good wash plant
Has gotta be strong.

It's gotta be tough.

At the same time,
It's gotta have finesse.

Because you're trying to catch
Little bitty particles of gold,

Stuff you can barely see
With your naked eye.

When the hoffmans First set out.

To find their fortune,

They were so short of money...

Keep it low.

They had to build
Their own wash plant.

From secondhand parts and scrap.

I just kinda made it up
As I went along.

It's just cobbled together
With duct tape.

And chewing gum
In there somewhere.

Costing $20,000,

The wash plant weighs 14 tons,

Consumes 1,000 gallons
Of water a minute.

And runs 50 cubic-yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Let's go.

Chute's working good.
Looks good, so far.

I'll be damned.

Most wash plants break down.

The pay dirt using either
A vibrating shaker deck.

Or a rotating screened
Cylinder called a trommel.

The hoffmans'
Improvised plan has both.

I wish I could say.

That everything was
Working perfectly,

But I don't know that yet.

What are you Worried about?

Where is all that
Water coming from?

I can hear it Rattling.

I'm tired of crap breaking.

There's a hole.

Their shaker deck
Has ripped itself apart.

These bolts have
Actually pulled themselves.

Right through the bottom.

It's the movement
That's killing us.

If things can move,
Then they wear out.

That whole time
Was just desperate.

You know, we're just
Relying on this plant.

To, like, keep us going.

With their whole season.

Depending on this wash plant
Delivering gold,

Their only option...

Rip out and replace
The broken deck.

Okay, stand clear.

I'm hoping that we someday
Get to the stage.

Where we actually can
Call ourselves miners.

When they finally
Get the deck out,

They find the damage
Is way worse.

This one's cracked
All the way around the top.

Broke off.

The main supports
That hold this thing.

Together across Are cracked.

This isn't good.

So we're in the neighborhood
Of 600 welds I've gotta make.

By the time
I get that thing beefed up.

Okay, here we go. Coming down.

It takes mechanic james harness
4 days to overhaul the shaker.

Fire it up.

This shaker is the most
Vulgar, disgusting,

Amazingly violent thing
I've ever seen in my life.

- I love it.
- It's a lot quieter.

We spent way
More time welding on it.

Than actually sluicing with it.

Every ounce of gold.

Was paid in blood, sweat,
Embarrassment, and tears.

We pretty much did
Everything wrong.

Todd's first wash plant.

Recovered just
14 ounces of gold,

Worth $20,000...

A disastrous start,

But worse was still to come.

All right, dustin!

When the hoffmans left
Alaska for the klondike,

The dakota boys
Took over their claim.

Out with the old,
In with the new.

Their first move...

Get rid of todd's wash plant.

It's now history
As far as we're concerned.

It's outta here.

This is our secret weapon.

This thing is a derocker.

It'll handle big-old rocks.

This is the lamborghini
Of wash plants.

The $30,000 Derocker weighs in.

At 17 1/2 tons.

And runs 150 yards
Of pay dirt an hour,

Three times as much.

As the hoffmans'
Makeshift old plant.

The little particles
Of gold fall down.

In that little magic box.

And they're transformed
Into something in my pocket.

We're about to find
Out if it works.

Fire it up.

The derocker is
A rugged, all-in-one.

Gold-recovery system.

Instead of a vibrating screen
Deck or a rotating trommel,

It has a heavy-duty roller deck.

You better get back.

Pay dirt drops onto
The undulating deck.

Water jets wash
The gold off the rocks.

And through the slats.

The rolling truck wheels
Move the worthless rocks.

Down the deck And off the end.

While the gold washes down
Into the sluice box,

Where it settles In the ripples.

- I like that.
- Yeah.

That is nice.

Feed that plant,
Feed that plant,

Feed that plant over and over.

And over and over some more.

The derocker is designed.

To handle rocks and boulders.

Just like digging potatoes
Outta the ground.

Yeah, that's a 400-pound
Potato there.

Big rocks, big gold.

But every wash plant
Has its limits.

Whoa!

Quit it down!

It wasn't that easy.

Yeah, looked like
Right here's real low.

It should be A lot higher.

Hopefully it's A quick fix.

Holy We got some big problems.

You gotta See this, fred.

Holy.

Them tires Are ripped off.

We've got a broken spring
On that side over there.

It's shattered.

We've got two tires
Completely off the unit.

We sheared The shaft off.

Yep, the whole shaft
Is gone, everything.

This is the heart
Of the operation.

Yeah, without this thing,
You can't do anything.

Deep in the alaskan bush,

The dakota boys
Are forced to improvise.

So I'm gonna take
This old part here,

Gonna weld it onto this area
Right here,

Convert it to carry a wheel.

- I got it.
- Completed.

- Woo!
- Nothing to it.

We're gonna turn it on, see if
It, all holds together.

Looks good, fred!
We got it working!

I love it. Love it.

With fred
And dustin's bush fixes,

The derocker survived
Three mining seasons...

- we got gold.
- Look at it.

Well, it's A big piece.

And delivered
523 ounces of gold.

Worth $780,000 per season.

That's 12 times the haul.

Of the hoffmans' old wash plant.

It sounds bad.

Coming up...
- my goodness.

Where's all the water
Coming from?

We need to shut her down,
Parker, shut her down!

When 18-year-old Parker schnabel.

First arrived in the klondike,

He bought a 40-year-old
Wash plant from todd hoffman,

A conventional shaker...

"Little blue."

It's not the greatest
Wash plant.

But it was what I could afford.

It's a first wash plant,
A bit like a first car, I guess.

You never get a nice
First car, right?

Yeah, baby.

Right on.

We've got ourselves
A wash plant on the ground.

Costing $40,000,

The 10-ton machine runs
100 yards of pay dirt an hour.

I'm pretty sure
The hoffmans picked it up.

Off the side of the road.

And...

And they didn't put
Any work into it, obviously.

So by the time we got it,
It was in pretty rough shape.

Parker Tricks out little blue.

With a $10,000 hopper feeder.

To increase the amount of pay
Dirt he can force through.

Parker, it concerns me
That if we push it too hard,

Something's gonna give.

Yeah, I understand that.

But we need to put the dirt
Through the plant, okay?

I'm the boss.
I take the responsibility.

But it has to happen, All right?

Running little blue too hard.
We're gonna blow it up.

We're gonna destroy her.

If that happens,
Our season's screwed.

My goodness.

Parker, parker!

Hey, your shaker's
Moving real bad!

Sounds bad.

I don't know what's going on.
But it's not good.

Where is all the water
Coming from?

Dear!

We need to shut her down,
Parker, shut her down!

We need to take A look inside.

Not good.

What the.

We're not gonna be
Welding that back together.

In an afternoon.

The central shaft that drives.

The entire plant
Has sheared in two.

I think it's dead.

You've got Kidding me.

Between the hoffmans and parker,

Little blue recovered a total.

Of 300 ounces of gold
Worth $440,000.

Not a bad result
For a tired, old rust bucket.

For his third mining season,

Todd hoffman took
A leap of faith.

With new, cutting-edge
Technology.

The turbo trommel had some
Really nice technology in it,

And that's what
I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to bring
New technology to, you know,

A rather old
And set-in-their-ways industry.

The turbo trommel comes.

With a quarter
Million dollar price tag.

By spinning three times.

Faster than conventional
Trommels,

It runs 200 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Guys, this is probably.

The best wash plant
In the world,

And I want it running
Within 24 hours.

- Let's roll.
- Great. Let's go!

At the turbo trommel's core,

A rotating, perforated tube
Washes the rocks.

The gold and fine material
Drop through to the outer drum.

Where the gold
Is pushed back up,

Then out into a small sluice box.

On the side of the machine.

Holy! Look at this.

What are you Seeing, man?

I can feel all the heat
Coming off the engine.

It's getting Pretty warm.

I don't know how much more
It's gonna take.

Right now, I think
It's about ready to let go.

You know, it was
Kind of a prototype.

There was a lot of concepts.

That have been taken
From other things.

And put into the turbo trommel.

Sometimes, you get
Too many things going on.

Hold up, hold up.

This doesn't look good.

The horsepower of the motor
Doesn't look right.

I'm really concerned.

When the original
Motor isn't powerful enough...

We have to get Another motor in.

The designer Has to replace it.

That's looking good.
Straight in.

There you go. That's it, guys.

You did it.

Over the next week,

The hoffmans run 8,000 yards
Through the trommel.

We should have
A really good clean up,

A minimum, I think,
Of 15 ounces.

What do you guys think?
At least.

I'm gonna show you What we got.

There's 7.34 ounces.

Less than a fifth of what
They're hoping for.

And that's The grand total.

Thurber checks the tailings.

To see if the trommel
Is losing gold.

You are freaking kidding me.

Fourteen pieces,
And they aren't small.

I'm shutting this
Freaking thing off.

Until we figure out
What's going on.

- Yeah, you better.
- Thurb, run down there.

And kill the pump.

You're losing gold,

And I'm, like,
Pulling my hair out.

And trust me, I don't
Have enough to pull out.

Well, this isn't good.

I can see some daylight
Right here.

Between the drum And our spiral.

They used a urethane,
Like a sealant.

Yeah.

There's a section of it
Right there, 3 feet long.

The spiral In the outer drum.

Drives the gold up.

And out into the sluice box.

But the sealant
Between the spiral.

And the drum has come loose,

Allowing gold to slip down.

And drop out of the lower
Tailing chute.

It's gonna be turned off
For the season.

I'm really sorry.

Everybody, Of course, laughed.

And now I do. I laugh about it.

But, during the time,

You know, it's just,
Like, a nightmare.

It's probably the hardest,

Most scariest thing
We've ever done.

- Look at that thing.
- Looking good.

We got ourselves
A nice, new wash plant.

When the hoffmans left
The klondike for south america,

Teenage parker was, once again,

First in line
For their wash plant.

Getting "Big red"
From the hoffmans,

It was a real blessing,
You know.

I don't mind using
Their hand-me-downs,

Especially big red.

- Big red's original cost...
- A cool quarter million dollars.

Weighing 25 tons,

It chews through 180 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

All right. Let's crank her up.

Here it comes.

We got water.

Turn it on.

Whoa.

Rocking and rolling.

Unreal.

Big red has a 10,000-pound
Two-deck vibrating screen,

But its real innovation
Is freddy dodge's design.

Of an enormous 16-foot-wide,

Multi-stage sluice box,

Configured to catch everything.

From nuggets
To fine flakes of gold.

Changing the flows,
Changing the widths.

And a few other secret things,

It helps on the recoveries.

If you can start
Catching a percent here,

A percent there,
A percent there more,

All goes into your pocket.

But every wash plant
Has its weak points.

Parker.

Gene!

Gotta open That bypass.

This job.

Close the valve, Greg.

That plant.

As soon As we got big red,

Any time there's
A big chunk of bedrock,

The prewash would just plug up
And fill full of rocks.

And rocks would be pouring out
Of the prewash onto the deck.

And everything around it.

These rocks
Disturb the water flow.

And gold washes right out
Of the sluice box.

Every time we have a blow out,
We blow out gold.

If that wash plant
Ain't running,

You ain't making money.

And it just adds a huge amount
Of stress to every break down.

It's a bottleneck
In the whole system.

It's gotta get removed so that
We quit having blow outs.

Sometimes, you just
Have to get medieval.

Done With that thing.

I think this is good.

Once we got the problem solved,

Big red ate up all the rocks
We could throw at it.

And the rest of our
First season up here was great.

Every one of those
Is 100 ounces.

Ohhhhhh. That's impressive.

Over the next Four seasons,

Big red recovers
4,994 ounces of gold.

Worth $6.3 million,

The biggest total ever collected
By a "Gold rush" plant.

But still not
The ultimate wash plant.

When todd took the biggest
Gamble of his career.

And relocated to guyana...

this is Probably the hardest,

Most scariest thing
We've ever done.

He needed
A wash plant he could depend on.

You know, little red was...

Is actually a pretty
Damn good little trommel.

The $300,000
Octagon trommel weighs 23 tons.

And runs 100 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

A screen deck for guyana
Wasn't gonna work,

So that's why
I went with a trommel.

We knew there was
Probably gonna be clay.

And a trommel beats up clay
To get the gold out.

Day's been Running great.

Curious to see What's in here.

But after
3 months in the jungle,

The hoffmans have failed to find.

Any gold-rich ground.

Ultimately, You could have.

The best wash plant
In the world.

If you're not on good ground,
It's not worth anything.

Who cares?

Shut it off, dave.

We got some Gold down there?

No.

Right there,
We got a freaking diamond.

- And that was in the sluice?
- Darn right it was.

If we got one
Freaking diamond here,

I will guarantee you.

There's 100 of 'em
Down in the creek.

We're not running this plant
Until we get something.

To catch diamonds
On the end of there.

I bought some diamond
Jigs off some,

Some brazilians in the ghetto.

And drug 'em all the way
Out in the jungle.

- Touchdown.
- Right on!

Water's coming on.
Jigs are working.

Everything coming out
Of little red's sluices pours.

Onto a mesh screen.

Rubber diaphragms then pulse
Water up and down.

To wash away lighter material.

And leave behind any diamonds.

It's doing exactly
What it's supposed to do.

Awesome.

Shutting her down.

That shines pretty hard.
That's a diamond, dude.

We got a diamond.

Your very first
Diamond you ever find.

Is the coolest thing.

You know, you think you're
Gonna get tons of 'em.

And they're gonna get
Bigger and bigger.

But, for me, they, like,
Started out big.

And got smaller and smaller.

Five months in,
Little red has recovered.

Just $4,000 worth
Of gold and diamonds.

Todd's career is At rock bottom.

I lost a lot of sleep
Out there in the jungle,

Lost a lot of money
Out in the jungle.

And damn near lost my friends
Out in the jungle.

Hey, we got Rotation!

That whole situation
Wasn't little red's fault.

We hauled her back
To the klondike,

And she finally started
Getting some gold.

- Look at that.
- That's what the guys.

Came to see, Right there.

We didn't see a lot
Of this in the jungle.

- No.
- You guys know what this...

I'm glad we aren't
Mining diamonds this year.

In just a month
On gold-rich ground,

Little red redeemed herself.

And upped her gold total
To 138 ounces,

Worth over $160,000.

Coming up...

tony beets Has successfully.

Run conventional wash plants
For over 30 years.

But 2 years ago,

Tony risked everything...

When he decided to mine
Like the old-timers.

Are you nuts?

The 76-year-old dredge.

Is the most Expensive wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

Costing $1 million,

It weighs a colossal 350 tons.

And runs 100 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

This thing's
Older than we are, tony.

How do we know
Anything'll even work in it?

The dredge floats in a pond.

A 24-ton bucket line
Chews through pay dirt.

And drops it into the 9-ton
Onboard trommel.

There, water washes
Any gold off the rocks.

And down to the sluice box,
Where it settles out.

From day one, tony sets
The pace for the rebuild.

Holy! Is that
The way you gotta do it?

Tony, you're
Destroying the dredge.

Over the next 4 months,

Tony takes the dredge apart,

Hauls it 150 miles to his claim.

And puts it back together...

Beam by beam...

Bolt by bolt.

The moment of truth.

Comes on the very last day
Of the season.

For the first time In 3 decades,

The dredge runs pay dirt.

The monster Comes alive.

Wow. Jeez. That is awesome.

- That's amazing.
- Right?

That's Pretty cool, tony.

That is amazing.

Throughout The next season,

The dredge mines klondike pay.

The running costs per yard?

Around a quarter of
A traditional wash plant.

In its first season,

The only working gold dredge
In north america.

Produced 737 ounces
Worth $810,000,

Not a massive total,
But top marks for efficiency.

Fire it up!

As todd hoffman's ambition grew,

So did his wash plant.

Monster red is
Queen of the klondike.

I think she still is probably
One of the best plants.

Ever ran up there.

Put the water
3,000 gallons a minute.

And let's Rock and roll.

Let's go get Some gold.

Two hundred kw, buddy.

Clear.

Feel it rumbling In the ground.

Like a train going by.

Monster red's cost?

$360,000 dollars.

The 50-ton machine runs.

A massive 300 yards
Of pay dirt an hour.

Monster red is, by far,

The nicest gold wash plant
I've ever put together,

And I've been doing it
For around 30 years.

It's got a wicked screen on it.

You know, it's just
Tearing material apart.

And getting it
To the sluice box.

The screen decks,
Vibrating 745 times a minute,

Handles six times as much dirt
As the hoffmans' first plant.

We're 300 yards
An hour right now.

Once you throw a bucket in,

You gotta get it
Outta the bucket.

Bam, bam.

It's so hard
To keep up with this plant.

They don't call it
Monster red for nothing.

When you're running
A wash plant that big,

And you're feeding it
That much material,

You have a lot of tailings.

You got a lot of issues.

Hey, dave, can you
Come down by the pump?

We got a freaking
Huge problem here.

What's up?

At 300 yards an hour,
This is gonna fill up.

We're filling up our lake
With tailings.

Running all that material
Into my pond,

I would have filled
That pond up so fast,

It'd make your head spin.

Dave!

Todd comes up
With an innovative solution,

A double sand screw.

The mixture of water
And fine tailings.

That come out of the sluice box.

Pour into the sand screw's base.

The clean water flows back
Into a drainage gully,

Which leads down Into the lake.

A pair of sand screws drive
The fine tailings upwards...

And out onto a conveyer
To join the coarse tailings.

Fire it up.

There she goes, Up to the top.

Come on! Baby, take it.

So far, so good.

Doing its job.

Perfect.

Look down there.

Holy.

Holy cow, I've never seen it
Look so good in the middle.

Once we got
Monster red tuned in,

It was just an amazing feeling
Week after week.

Of just throwing that
Much gold on the table.

Just bam, bam, bam!

You... you dream about that.

Over two seasons,

Monster red recovered.

A massive 4,067 ounces of gold
Worth $4.6 million.

But it still wasn't the show's
Fastest-producing plant.

When the hoffmans.

Wanted to mine
A remote beach in chile,

There was no handy
Wash plant available.

Can't buy one, We'll build it.

We just had to use junk wood,

Bad tools and do it
In 110 degrees.

Fire it up.

Here it comes.

Nice job.

Wasn't crap for gold there.

My first wash plant.

That I actually put...

Jellyfish through.

Over six full seasons,

The wash plants featured
In "Gold rush".

Have processed over
2 million tons of pay dirt...

And consumed a billion
Gallons of water...

To recover 14,000 ounces
Of gold worth $18 million.

In 2015, one wash plant.

Made a dramatic contribution
To this total.

After a couple seasons up here,

We start getting ideas.

Of how to increase
Our gold in the box.

Parker transformed
His wash plant setup...

Woo!

When he opened
The biggest cut of his career.

I mean, Instead of hauling pay.

All over the place
To a wash plant,

We wanted to use a mobile plant.

And get it right in
With the pay.

And that's where
Goldzilla came into play,

Is that it was
A higher yardage plant.

And we could move it
Around a bit easier.

Built in 1982,

Goldzilla is a high-volume,
Portable plant,

Despite weighing in at 25 tons.

I mean, it's A fairly old plant.

But where big red
Does 130 yards an hour,

This will push over 200,

I think, because there's
So much room in the sluice runs.

The shaker sits above
A set of four sluices.

Beneath them,
A weighted arm rotates.

Oscillating the material
In the sluices.

Helps separate the sand
And dirt from the gold.

The disadvantage
To an oscillating box is,

Not only is there
More moving parts,

But the thing has
To be perfectly level.

And it's not simple.

- Rick.
- Yeah?

The sluice isn't
Swinging properly,

Like it's out of balance
Or something.

It's hammering.

Yeah, that's weird.

Sluice box Isn't oscillating.

It's just Banging around.

Well, you can see
All the water's coming out.

Of the left side Of each run.

So it's leaning This way.

I think it's laying down
On the side.

As the machine
Starts getting out of level,

It started undermining
The plant pretty bad.

And then, you start losing gold.

I can't stand it when
The wash plants break down.

You're a slave
To the damn thing.

Try and chisel
Some dirt underneath it.

Should I try Lifting it?

Go ahead. I'll see
What it does here.

Rick needs to get
His excavator bucket.

Under the wash plant
To level it out.

Biggest thing you gotta
Worry about's sliding forward.

But the excavator is dangerously
Close to a water pipe.

Watch those water lines.

I think we got
Really lucky there.

You got 1/2 inch.

Come on, come on.

Keep going.

Almost there.

There you go.

Run that sucka.

We're good to go.

Once we worked all the bugs
Out of goldzilla,

It was a lot of fun
Because we ran.

That thing faster and harder.

Than any other wash plant
We've ever hand.

And the whole plan Worked great.

You know, we got
The plant to the pay.

Our feed system was beautiful.

With the conveyors
And everything.

We found a lot of gold.

In just 10 weeks,

Goldzilla recovered 2,322 ounces.

Of gold worth $2.5 million.

That's over $200,000 a week,

Proving, by far,

The most efficient wash plant.

In "Gold rush" history.

And helping parker to his
Best-ever season.

So I reckon that's
Probably about 25 ounces,

Which takes us
Past the hoffmans.

So that takes us to 3,362.

Good job, buddy.

You get a hug, There, gramps.

Thank you.

Sluicifer!

Next time... Whoa!

One mega-packed "Gold rush."

Look out!

There's no gold here.

Dave's dozing the pay.

Whoa! What Are you doing?!

Get outta the way.

I'm gonna go down in that cut,
Find that damn gold.

I don't have The right tools.

I can't Get anything done.

How much?

Holy

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.