Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Running Dirt - full transcript
The crew races to set up the mining plant and start running dirt. When the families arrive from Oregon and question the lack of gold and the men's only mechanic becomes dangerously ill, the tension builds so high Dorsey and Todd c...
Todd and Jack Hoffman are leading a team
of greenhorns into the Alaskan Wilderness.
You're about to lose your house. Don't lose faith.
They're risking it all to find gold.
Lookit that.
And save their families.
Holy ****.
Get the frig back.
-Let's go.
-Amen.
Now, they're putting their lives on
the line as they race to get mining.
-Get back. Get Back.
-(Snap-Screech)
Their only mechanic, James Harness,
falls dangerously ill.
If he goes, we're screwed.
Their mining machines run out of control.
Somebody's gonna get killed.
And Dorsey goes head to head with Todd.
-Don't talk to me that way.
-Don't try and intimidate me.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
The Hoffmans and their team of miners are
readying the claim for their mining machines.
A place to log right here and
a couple more logs to place.
Jack and Greg are building the ramp
where we're gonna put the shaker.
Hopefully we can get the trommel
and the shaker in place today.
That'd be good.
They've been here three weeks, and just have four
months left before the brutal Alaskan winter
freezes the land, making mining impossible.
The Hoffmans one hundred thousand dollars
working capitol won't last the summer.
They have to strike gold.
I'm guessing we're somewhere in the
27 to 32 thousand dollars a month range.
Dad, It, It's basically a thousand bucks a day.
We've got to get uh, get mining.
You know. We gotta make some money.
I gotta figure something out Dad. I'm gonna
put a little plan together to get us all going.
Todd and Jack have been
digging up dirt, looking for gold.
But the machines to extract it
sit in pieces across the claim.
The crew has to put them all together, but none
of them have ever done it on this scale before.
James. You want to ride with me?
To get it right, Todd's taking his chief mechanic,
James Harness, for some advice from an expert.
Across the creek from the Hoffmans
lies the Big Nugget Mine.
It's owner is ninety year old
John Schnabel, a mining legend.
And a very rich man.
John, I want to introduce
my mechanic, James.
You're a valuable man. Ha ha ha.
-Yeah.
-Sometimes.
-Yeah.
-So this is your plant huh.
This is a wash plant just like
the Hoffmans plan to build.
It separates tiny particles of gold from
thousands of tons of earth and rock.
Using three main components,
a shaker, a trommel and a duplex jig.
First dirt is dropped into the shaker.
The giant sieve shakes away the big boulders.
And allows gold and smaller rock
to fall through to the bottom.
Next, the dirt moves through to
the trommel, a big washing machine.
That breaks down the dirt into even smaller
particles that travel down to the duplex jig.
The jig is the final filter in the wash plant.
Under the water lies steel shot.
The jig vibrates the material through the shot
so that heavier particles fall to the bottom.
-Gold is 18 times heavier than water, so
-Okay.
When it wiggles the water lifts
the dirt up and gives it enough
room for the gold to fall down.
So, is it like loosening up the dirt.
-Yeah.
This finely tuned system has taken
10 years for John Schnabel to perfect.
Well, it's complicated.
I hope I can figure this out.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha..
Getting their wash plant set up right
will be the key to making money.
It's not unusual to pick up twenty five, thirty
thousand dollars in a shift. One day.
Wow.
Kinda cool man.
-Thanks for showing us around.
-No problem.
-We got to head off. Yo.
-Good luck Jack.
-Okay. We need it.
-I know. Every miner needs it.
Ha ha ha.
On their way home, the crew
stops off at Porcupine bridge.
Well, what did you guys think of his deal.
Yeah. Pretty complicated compared
to what I thought it'd be.
The problem is gonna be putting everything together.
We got to build things up and get the height.
You don't want to start too high.
Then you got to drive up
this ramp to get your stuff out.
We're gonna have to go both ways.
We're gonna have to build up.
And put stuff on a hill and then we're gonna
have to dig down in order to get that drop.
-It's really actually pretty tricky.
-Yeah.
We gotta figure this out man. A lot of
this is gonna be right on your shoulders.
I, I've never let you down before man.
I'm not gonna do it now.
Harness's plan is to place the wash plant
between the camp, and the creek from
where they'll draw their water.
They'll raise the shaker on to a ramp.
Set the trommel at ground level.
And dig a hole to put the duplex jig in.
They'll link the machines using sluice boxes.
Set them too steep, and they'll flush gold away.
Too flat, and material will come to a standstill.
The angles and the water flow have to be just right.
We are going to place the trommel.
The trommel is the centerpiece
of the Hoffman's wash plant.
Bring it closer to you so you got more control.
This is a pretty important piece
of our processing equipment.
We still got some work yet to do on it.
They hand built the trommel from scratch.
And it's still unfinished, and untested.
-We have no idea if it works.
-We just hope it lasts enough
for us to get some gold.
We're gonna have him come up here,
back it in, and set it right
in here on these two logs.
Dad, watch the little guys.
-You're good. No, no, you're good. That's good.
You're good.
-Okay. Come down.
-Jack.
-We're gonna unhook you and
then we'll go get the shaker.
-Alright.
The shaker weighs 22 thousand pounds.
The 400, the excavator will move it,
but it takes all that it's got.
It's kind of dangerous.
A week ago, Jack Hoffman almost destroyed
the shaker when it was delivered to the camp.
Oh. Oh no.
Good lord.
It's only been dropped once, so.
Better make sure and not do that anymore.
Jack doesn't want to make the same mistake twice.
-Hey Todd. You're hooked up wrong.
Don't do that.
-Don't do what?
-Don't hook them up wrong.
-Yeah. You hook them up,
then you go over the top.
He gets me into trouble. And I
don't need any more trouble, so.
Hey. Don't listen to him. He gets
himself into enough trouble. Trust me.
There's all kinds of marks on this
thing, and he did those all by himself.
Listen. I need one guy telling me stuff.
Greg's a rigger. Todd's not.
Ready?
-Okay. Keep it low.
-Keep it low. Keep it low.
Come up a little.
Jack's keeping the shaker close to the ground,
so that if he drops it, it won't get damaged.
See what I mean. A little dangerous.
But he has to lift it up, to get it on the ramp.
-Up up on the ramp. If you can.
-Good.
Bring it up. Bring it up.
(a lot of straining noises)
If you do any movement, come my way.
Looking good.
Finally, the shaker is safely on
it's ramp, above the trommel.
-Looks pretty well centered.
-I think it's quite good. Now,
we can push it round with the 270.
Next. The beating heart of Todd's mine arrives.
A massive generator that will
power the whole wash plant.
It kicks out 200,000 watts, can power
160 homes, and weighs 25,000 pounds.
I want it, right about here.
It's too heavy for the 400 to lift.
I can have him just, back that dozer
down in here, and we can chain off of it.
He wants to anchor the generator to the D6 dozer.
Put that hitch right here.
And drive the loader away.
There's only one chain,
and it will be at breaking point
If that chain snaps be
careful, cause pieces could fly.
Yeah. Chain can snap.
It's not like cable.
Todd knows the dangers, all too well.
Back in Oregon, when the generator was being
loaded, there was a near fatal cable snap.
Watch that cable.
(petwang)
-Oh!
-That could have killed somebody.
Hey. You shaddup. You don't talk like that.
Let's do it.
Okay. Let's just drop her here.
(scraping noises)
(clang)
Ow!
Their only chain has broken,
but they come up with a new plan.
Yeah. We got enough hanging off, he
thinks that we're gonna go ahead and
just put her down on the ground.
Sweet.
After it's epic journey, Todd
gives the generator a health check.
Uh, oh.
Thousands of miles on a barge.
It looks okay though.
Here's the jig.
The pump, pump 2, pump 3.
Here's the trommel and the shaker.
The last and lowest piece of the
wash plant, is the duplex jig.
The crew must dig a hole exactly
7 feet deep to put the jig in.
So the gold will flow down
the sluice boxes they put in place.
If the hole's the wrong depth,
the jig won't collect all the gold,
and they'll be throwing money away.
This time, Todd isn't taking
any chances with Jack.
If we screw this jig up,
our season's pretty much over.
So he's taking control himself.
Yeah.
Okay. There.
That's good. That's perfect.
Good job buddy. Hey.
Heh.
The jig almost completes the wash plant.
All that remains is to link it all together.
Up ahead: The Hoffman's plans collapse,
as their only mechanic James Harness
falls dangerously ill.
(deep coughing)
If we don't have him, that'll be a disaster.
Todd faces mutiny.
Don't yell at me or I'll punch
you right in the friggen face.
You hear me?
And the forces of nature
threaten to destroy the camp.
Get the frig out.
Todd Hoffman and his dad Jack,
are trying to start a gold
mine in the Alaskan wilderness.
Come on.
They're burning through their 100 thousand
dollar capital fast. And the short
mining season is slipping away.
Promised these guys we'd be
mining a week and a half ago.
And we're not.
With their mining machines in place,
they still have heavy engineering to
do before they can run dirt.
But the man with the plan is in his trailer.
-James you. You alright bud.
-(Coughing)
-I lost my lower back.
-Oh no.
James Harness injured his spine
10 years ago in a car accident.
And depends on morphine to cope with
the pain. But today it's not enough.
-You can't walk.
-I didn't bring my crutches.
-Alright brother, Get some rest.
-Okay man.
See you now.
It's not just his back that's causing
James problems. He's also suffering
from a chest infection.
Got a virus. A couple weeks ago.
It's taking me out.
Upper respiratory, um
A lot of bad things going on. (cough cough)
It's very very important that
we have him, healthy.
And ready to go.
He's already saved our bacon
several times on this trip.
-Aah.
-Being he's sick. It's all.
If we don't have him, then
to me that would be a disaster.
(cough cough cough)
Todd calls the doctor.
I am mining way out in Porcupine.
One of my crew members is sick.
Alright. Well, we're gonna head in.
I'm really sorry you're feeling like crap, dude.
Go go go go go.
With Todd and James gone,
the rest of the team must push on.
They're losing $1000 every day they're not mining.
And now have to try and get the shaker assembled
without their leader or chief mechanic.
The shaker has to be fitted with perforated
punch plates that will only allow smaller
rocks and gold to fall into the wash plant.
But the plates don't fit.
We have a grate that was perfectly flat.
The bed that it sits on,
in the shaker, is radiused.
We have to bend this to
conform to the radius rail.
Ex sheet metal worker Jim Thurber is
used to working with precision equipment.
But today has to improvise with nothing
more than a bulldozer and a backhoe.
This has got to be dead nuts perfect.
They must bend the plates to the exact curve
so that they'll fit perfectly on the shaker.
Keep your hand up so I know when.
Keep motioning. Keep motioning.
With over 40 years combined experience working
on construction sites Greg and Thurber have
managed to get the first of the plates inch perfect.
They've asked Realtor Jimmy Dorsey
to angle grind the edges.
Make sure you're not throwing
sparks at somebody else.
In his rush to get mining,
Dorsey's ignoring basic safety rules.
See if there's another face shield in there.
For you.
I drive all the day.
Face shield.
Safe guys. Slow but safe.
Unproductively. Unprofitable. Safe.
Alarm bells are ringing for
team safety officer James Thurber.
He's my biggest worry.
Somehow, he's not killed himself.
He's going to do one of us in.
He spots yet another mistake from Dorsey.
When we use a tool, 3500 rpm,
when you turn it off, it doesn't stop.
When you're laying it down, you know it's
against there. It can grind through the jacket.
I know. It's alright though.
It's not alright. Because when you cut
through there, I can't use this tool.
Dorsey's attitude forces team
foreman Greg to step in.
I'm counting on you, and a few times I've gone
like this, questioning, Am I clear, and you're
walking around like this, looking around.
Well, I been walking this
same line now for all day long.
There's no justification for this.
-Well I'm not gonna take
you just yelling at me.
-This is really important, Dorse.
-It's important to me too.
-Then you need to take the information
-I took the information.
-I took the information.
-You've taken it more than once.
And when it's the same person
making the same mistake.
The volume goes up.
And the seriousness goes up.
There's one mistake we've been making which
is not getting crap done because you're
so focused on safety all the damn time.
As soon as somebody gets
run over, you'll eat those words.
I'll show you pictures of people that threw
caution to the wind. Were gonna be
there for a second. Deader than dead.
I'll show you the picture of his own
(bleep) intestines coming out of his throat.
Then his brain, blown out the top of
his head. Do you want to see that, dude?
I just want to get damn things done.
Oh, way ahead of you. I wanted
to be mining gold last week too.
Somebody's gonna get hurt,
at the minimum. At the minimum.
Somebody's gonna get killed.
We're at this pace, we'll, we will have this
thing done by the end of the summer.
And by that time, I'm broke.
Gold mining, pfft, done. I'm done
with gold mining, at that point.
James and Todd return from the doctor.
(racking cough)
It's more serious than they thought.
Did a lot of different tests. So he
said I've got a horrible infection.
And it's most likely pneumonia.
I may have to go in the hospital.
If it's the bad kind of pneumonia,
it starts to eat you up.
This is serious stuff. You can't
even be in the sun when you take it.
James is under doctor's orders to lay
low for 3 days. (prolonged coughing)
I feel, just really sick.
I couldn't fix anything right now.
I can barely walk.
Without a mechanic, the
Hoffman's won't have a wash plant.
We're really really in deep deep trouble.
Could possibly jeopardize the whole
control, the whole operation.
The Hoffmans, and their team of miners
have been in camp for four weeks.
But they still haven't got
their wash plant working.
One hundred thousand pounds of
machinery lies unfinished,
and unconnected.
You notice there's no electrical cords going
to any of this stuff. And there's no
water going to any of this stuff.
I was supposed to get the gold from
the ground and dump it in to a,
into that machine up there.
And it's supposed to come
out the other end as money.
This isn't gonna pay my bills. It definitely
isn't going to take care of my family.
Like the rest of the crew, Dorsey is unemployed
and has come here to make money,
to feed his family.
Today, both he and Todd are driving
30 miles to Haines Airport to pick
up their wives and children.
I'm just excited to see my little baby girl
and my wife. We all led them get up
here, be a part of this, you know.
So uh, but yeah, I'm kind of scared
that we'll have, you know, enough
infra, infrastructure for 'em.
Jimmy Dorsey spent most of his meager
savings getting his wife, Joy and their
kids Ella and Hank to Alaska.
That is her.
That's her.
Tessa worked for her family.
And yeah, I'm nervous that
she's going to be happy up here.
Honey. It is ya.?
So good to see you.
Hi Brad.
-I missed you.
-Yeah. I missed you too.
Yeaaaah. Hee hee hee.
It's a big day for Todd too,
as he's reunited with his wife,
Shana, and their daughter, Olivia.
You have a god trip. I get a big hug.
It's just beautiful. Everywhere you look.
-It's just absolutely beautiful
-It's georgousl.
-everywhere you look.
It's just beautiful. Everywhere you look.
I just, I just can't believe it. I'm in awe.
Hi Joy. How ya doing,
You're doing good.
Life here is going to be
very different from Oregon.
-Do we have an expresso machine?
-No.
I just want to see where our home is.
The next door neighbors are the Dorsey's.
Put me down. There's beer.
Let's scout. Wow.
Follow the winnebago man over there.
-How are you?
-It's good to see ya.
\
-Good.
The families get their first
look at their new homes.
It's nice and cool.
Wow. I did not expect this.
It's better than I thought it would be.
It's amazing. I mean, the scenery
is incredible, and beautiful. And
Jimmy has blown me away with this cabin.
I thought it was gonna be tiny, and
terrible, and it's pretty awesome.
After 5 weeks apart, the families are
finally re-united. But this is no vacation.
Dorsey's here to mine gold, and his
daughter Ella gets straight to the point.
-Daddy
-Yeah.
-Have you got any gold yet?
Anything shiny gold when you get it?
Aw, yeah. I don't have any
gold yet. We haven't ran any.
-But we dug some holes.
You see those holes?
-Yeah.
-Careful.
-Yeah.
What are they doing? They have all
this giant equipment and they
have like a couple barrels.
of tupperware containers and they're like
picking through rocks. What are they doing?
Look at all that dirt Daddy got.
Come here. I'll show you what I'm doing.
Okay. So what we do
They've been here for over a
month, and, I don't know
what's been going on here.
So, you haven't done any gold mining.
What have you been doing
up here. Vacationing?
-Mommy
-No. I know. You've been building
this cabin. I know. But there ha ha ha.
-What are you laughing at?
-This place is funny?
-No.
It's not funny.
-I mean, I'm not trying
I'm pissed off with these guys
cause they haven't done anything.
They haven't got anything together.
And I can't do it. I can't weld.
Well. You get everybody going.
-All the time.
-You know
-Is it funny to you.
-No. Not at all.
-So, I can't do this.
-What are you smiling at?
Everyone at Porcupine Creek is
investing 5 months of their life, unpaid.
And they're seriously behind schedule.
If they don't get this wash plant working,
and start finding gold soon,
they're facing financial disaster.
Jimmy Dorsey's had enough, and levels with team foreman, Greg.
We don't need any more talk.
Do we need a commitee?
No. We need a plan though. And right now,
I can't live the rest of the summer with
what I've got in my bank account.
-Neither can I.
-We're thinking alike here.
Are we gonna approach Todd with this?
He's gotta be, He's got
to step up and lead us.
Hey Todd. Come here.
Are we mining today?
-Uh, No. We're not.
-Why?
-We're gonna have a meeting
-I don't want a meeting.
I want to know why we're not mining?
Don't yell at me like that or I'll
punch you right in the friggen face.
Do you hear me?
-Don't talk to me that way.
-Don't try and intimidate me.
-Understand me.
-Don't try and intimidate.
We're gonna have a meeting in a second.
you want to come hard, come hard.
I'm coming hard? I want to
know why were not mining today?
There's a lot of reasons.
Some of it's your fault.
Some of it's his fault.
Some of it's my fault.
We're gonna have a meeting and you
can air it there. Everybody will be there.
The pressure is on Todd to get his team mining.
With doubts cast over his leadership,
he calls a crisis meeting for the whole crew.
Even James Harness drags himself
out of his trailer to make it.
I've been accused of not being a good leader.
Some of that is totally true, but
We' re so close to be mining. We have
nine things, that we can accomplish,
in 72 hours from this point,
and we could be running rock.
Okay. So here's the list.
The shaker hold downs.
-You gonna have to do it.
-Yup.
Okay. Greg and Thurber.
If you could help James with the shaker.
Dad. Finishing the plumbing
on the jig and set it in there.
We gotta be rocking and rolling.
Dorsey. You're gonna be working with me.
So that nobody else hurts you,
or you don't hurt anybody else.
-I don't want anybody else to hurt
-Put me on a bus right now.
-Okay.
I won't hurt nobody else, so
Okay. Shut your mouth. Don't interrupt.
That's how we're gonna do it.
I don't care if we got to stay up all night.
We can actually turn equipment on.
Start testing it.
Within 72 hours.
There's a lot riding on Todd's deadline.
We're gonna get it done in 72 hours or I'm
walking away. Cause I have no more money.
Then I'm walking off of here.
I'm going down to town.
I'm gonna get a job.
I'm serious about that. I will make money
this summer. One way or another.
Todd's promised his crew they
can be up and running in 3 days.
In 72 hours this equipment is gonna
be running. 72 hours from right now.
There's an amazing amount to do.
Harness is feeling better, and back in the saddle.
Even Dorsey is adjusting to
his role as Todd's assistant.
Turn the heat up a little bit.
The mining season is only a few
months long. We gotta be turning
some stuff on in 72 hours.
But Todd knows they won't hit their
deadline unless they get help.
If you could come up here dude.
Even for a couple friggen days and just
Hey. It would be huge for me dude.
He's asking a big favor from
an old friend, Dave Turin.
Dave runs a successful quarry back in
Sandy Oregon, and knows everything
there is to know about mining.
Pick you up. Feed you some crappy food.
Put you on an air mattress you know.
Whatever it takes, uh.
Awesome. Take care. Bye.
Ooh. That's huge.
Without Dave figuring this out,
I honestly think I'd screw this up.
Me and my dad would screw this one up royal.
With Dave 24 hours away, and the clock ticking,
the crew has no time to waste to get the
rest of the mine up and running.
Just gonna start digging
the water intake over here.
The intake is a 60 yard trench, directing water
from Porcupine creek to a holding pond that's
as close to the wash plant as they can get.
You have to be able to bring in
about 1000 gallons a minute.
Once this huge volume of water is flowing
down the trench to the holding pond,
it will act as a reservoir for the wash plant.
If you don't have this water, you
don't mine. It's just we need it,
we're gonna get it, and pretty soon.
But Jimmy Dorsey is anxious that
the plan is dangerously flawed.
It looks like a pretty innocent creek, but
you can see how fast this water flows.
I'm afraid this thing could not only
fill up our holding pond, but flood
our camp and then wash out the road.
But Jack doesn't seem worried about
anything except getting mining.
So, we're opening up our store.
Jack's got the trench ready to go.
We're gonna release the water. And hopefully
it will come down our trench and
fill up our intake pond.
Who knows what could go wrong.
Hey girl.
Who's that.
Hey. You stay away from the edge.
It's starting to undermine
right there. Back up.
The water is causing structural damage to the pond.
The sides are collapsing.
-Hey. This is a problem.
-We're gonna lose this bank, aren't we.
There it goes.
Oh. Frig.
Back it up.
If the pond caves in, it'll wipe
out the road behind, and
take out the wash plant.
The Hoffman's must make a decision.
Hey dad. I think we better get this shut off or
we're gonna have a big mess on our hands.
You want to stick with it?
If we get within a foot, I'll shut it off.
We'll let the water flow tonight.
We're gonna see what the damage is.
Uh, we're gonna put Jimmy
on pond watch tonight.
See if this thing holds. If it doesn't,
then uh, we'll be working through the
week trying to repair what we just did.
They are taking their biggest gamble yet.
At first light, Todd, Greg and Thurber,
are up to check if the sides
of the pond held out.
We got blessed on this one guys. Could have been
a huge disaster but it looks like it turned out
like we planned, which is actually pretty rare.
This really does mean we can mine.
The Hoffman's have two more days
to get their wash plant up and running.
Boosted by the success of the channel opening, Todd
wants to try the biggest and most dangerous piece
of machinery a day ahead of schedule.
Tonight we're gonna try to test
out the shaker. That's a big deal.
Whether it works or not, I honestly
don't know if it's gonna work or not.
and neither does Harness here.
-It'll work.
-If it doesn't, We've put a lot of money and
work and energy into that stupid thing.
I'm gonna friggen put a piece of dynamite
under it and blow it the frig up.
In 1907, miners at Porcupine Creek redirected
the river to get at the gold in it's bed.
They built a wooden channel called a flume.
It was 8000 feet long, six to eight
feet deep, and 25 to 40 feet wide.
It was the largest in Alaska,
and cost a reported 200,000 dollars.
4.7 million in today's money.
The Hoffmans and their team of
miners are losing 1000 dollars
every day they're not mining.
We're 15 to twenty thousand dollars
behind, and we're 2 weeks behind.
The pressure's on. They've allotted
two more days to get their machinery
working and start making money.
This morning, Todd and Jack are on
their way to Haines Airport to pick up
their trump card from Oregon.
Dave Turin is coming up to
try to help and advise us.
Not only does he run a construction crew, not only
does he mine. He is actually willing to step
in and help us. Just glad he's coming.
-Hey.
-How you doing buddy?
-Well again.
-Have a good flight?
-How are ya.
-Good.
-I got it.
I can't even believe you're here dude.
Welcome.
-We got the equipment. I'm guessing
somewhere around 80, 90% set up.
-Well, that's good.
-But the main thing is, I'm worried about
the shaker. You know we had to modify it.
-Yeah.
-I want you to kind of look at
it before we fire it up.
-Yeah.
That is kind of the main thing.
Then if you could help us
out on, it would be, whew!
It'll happen. We'll get it together.
Dave's here not only to fire up
he equipment, but the miners too.
You guys are an inspiration.
You know, there's so many guys that are
on their butts, sitting around, watching tv,
collecting unemployment, and you know,
guys aren't made to do that.
So you guys start generating some
cash flow, you're gonna encourage
a lot of people. So, uh
You know, it encouraged me.
So don't hang your heads.
Keep your heads up.
And let's find some gold.
-This should really work good,
if you can get it going.
-Yeah.
I'm impressed. That's not a bad day at all.
And we had to make it all out of scrap.
But Dave immediately identifies a bunch
of changes they need to make to the shaker.
Go, but, you put an angle iron on here.
Put a six inch angle iron here.
Bring another angle iron up,
Cut all the excess weight off.
I don't think we need this.
Put a flange in here. Cut this off.
So that this isn't flopping around.
Run a web down so it's
supporting the outside.
And then, you're ready to go.
It's a tall order. But Greg and Jack begin
work on Dave's modifications immediately.
You know, Dave Turin is energizing our team.
His suggestions,, these aren't coming from books.
These are coming from actual experience.
I mean, it's really all coming together.
This is great. We came here for one
reason, and that's to feed our
families by finding gold.
Everyone's overwhelmed
with the job at hand.
We just need one person to come in and say
"Hey. You guys, you're almost to the finish line."
With Todd's help, Harness supplies
the finishing touches to his trommel.
I gave birth to this baby.
And it hurt.
What happened to your arm?
Third degree burns from molten metal.
I didn't really collapse to what I got
did weld mate together.
It's all theory, theoretical at this point.
The fact that this works, It's kind of like a
helicopter flying. You're not supposed to.
But they do.
So I think it's gonna work.
Cause we're all just crazy
enough to hope so.
With Dave Turin's help, the crew is ready
to test the first part of the wash plant
a day ahead of the deadline.
We're pushing 72 hours real hard.
We're right on the brink of firing up the shaker.
If this doesn't work as we hope it will.
Big question mark.
There's my future. Sitting on that hill right there.
I- have one nut to put on and
-Okay.
Basically ready.
Harness made sure the generator is working before
sending power to the shaker for the first time.
We'll warm up the generator and crank it up.
and see what the damage is.
With the power plant running smoothly,
it's time to test the shaker.
The forces up here are so great that these
things can actually just explode out the
side and steel flying everywhere.
We're nervous. Really nervous.
You just have to do a visual to make sure
you know where all your people are.
Your employees are. And you gotta make sure
they're off the machines. Everybody's clear.
You say "All Clear" then you fire stuff up.
You can't ever stress safety enough.
Let's Go!
(Bang-a-bang-a-bang-a-bang)
(slowing down)
(speeds back up)
Whoa whoa. Right there. Lookit.
Hey hey.
(Bang)
Hey hey.
-Whoa!
-Bang.
Hey hey.
-Whoa!
-Bang.
(Machine idling down)
This equipment can kill somebody and that's
the last thing we want to happen.
Take that off.
Dave Turin notices a desperate flaw
in the shaker set up and calls
everything to an emergency halt.
That shaker was bouncing everywhere. It could
have fallen right off that hill right there.
Basically Dave just saved, could have
saved our mining season right there.
With no anchor, the shaker began
to tear itself off it's base.
A potentially disastrous situation.
That could have been a catastrophe. You know.
It's 11pm, and even though it's mid
summer in Alaska the light is fading.
Before somebody gets hurt, I think
we're gonna knock off for the day.
The team has one day to find the solution.
The crew at Porcupine Creek has one day left
to get their mining machines up and running.
Yesterday, the shaker began to tear itself
off it's base. If they can't find a quick
fix they'll never hit their deadline.
As this thing's shaking, it's moving the rock down
the way. Every action has an equal and opposite
reaction. So if this thing wants to throw that down
You gotta get that base down solid.
-Throw some cables around a log,
Bury it.
-Bury it, and cover it back up with dirt.
-Then you're anchoring that thing down.
-What do you think James?
I think it'll work great.
Dave plans to bury a log, called a deadman,
and anchor the shaker to the ground.
But the major earthworks will take time.
The 72 hour deadline is almost up.
I don't know how long it takes
to get the deadman in there.
But we gotta get it done quick.
Jack sets about building the anchor.
It's now all that stands in the way of
the safe running of the shaker.
Dorsey. I want you to work with Jack.
I put Dorsey with him and I
don't know if that's a deadly combo.
But they're actually getting stuff done so
what can I say. I'm gonna leave them
alone until somebody starts screaming.
It's dropping.
It's such a useful half a day here.
I can't believe it.
We think, It ain't going
anywhere. It's 20,000 lbs.
Dave's kinda,
"That thing will walk right off the hill."
Said we got to bury a deadman.
Gotta put cables around it.
Latest changes.
-Good. I think it's gonna work.
-I'm optimistic. I really think
it's gonna come out okay.
The final day in the deadline is drawing
to a close. The team is ready to test
their wash plant for the first time.
I'm nervous about the modifications
we made. But we just gotta.
We gotta get it done. We gotta test it out.
We gotta get some rock across it.
And see what happens.
We're gonna give it a try.
I think we've checked everything out.
Ready to rock.
Let's do it.
Alright. Let's do this.
Check the fuse.
James is doing all his checks.
-You ready?
-Check.
Fire it up.
This rock is raw.
Working it's way down.
Smooth as molasses.
That's working.
Hurrah !
Holy crap.
-Wahoo. Woo.
-Ha ha ha.
-It works good man.
-Doesn't that look good?
-That looks great!
-Maybe this'll work man.
-Maybe! I never had a doubt.
-Glad you're here yet?
-Ha ha ha ha
-Geez.
Now we got something worth panning right there.
When we start seeing
gold down there in that jig
I think we'll all be like
"Oh my gosh. We're pulling this off".
You know, 72 hours ago,
I was ready to walk off.
I was there.
I didn't know what I was doing here.
When this thing turns on it's like
Of course I'm supposed to be here.
That's what we came to do.
We got guts guys.
-Good day.
We made our 72 hours. Not a problem.
Everything seems to work good.
The main thing, is this old guy right here, and uh
I think it actually worked better than I dreamed.
We're gonna b e rock and roll.
This shaker is the most vulgar, disgusting
Subs by
Jack T
Amazingly violent thing I've ever
seen in my life.
I love it.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
of greenhorns into the Alaskan Wilderness.
You're about to lose your house. Don't lose faith.
They're risking it all to find gold.
Lookit that.
And save their families.
Holy ****.
Get the frig back.
-Let's go.
-Amen.
Now, they're putting their lives on
the line as they race to get mining.
-Get back. Get Back.
-(Snap-Screech)
Their only mechanic, James Harness,
falls dangerously ill.
If he goes, we're screwed.
Their mining machines run out of control.
Somebody's gonna get killed.
And Dorsey goes head to head with Todd.
-Don't talk to me that way.
-Don't try and intimidate me.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
The Hoffmans and their team of miners are
readying the claim for their mining machines.
A place to log right here and
a couple more logs to place.
Jack and Greg are building the ramp
where we're gonna put the shaker.
Hopefully we can get the trommel
and the shaker in place today.
That'd be good.
They've been here three weeks, and just have four
months left before the brutal Alaskan winter
freezes the land, making mining impossible.
The Hoffmans one hundred thousand dollars
working capitol won't last the summer.
They have to strike gold.
I'm guessing we're somewhere in the
27 to 32 thousand dollars a month range.
Dad, It, It's basically a thousand bucks a day.
We've got to get uh, get mining.
You know. We gotta make some money.
I gotta figure something out Dad. I'm gonna
put a little plan together to get us all going.
Todd and Jack have been
digging up dirt, looking for gold.
But the machines to extract it
sit in pieces across the claim.
The crew has to put them all together, but none
of them have ever done it on this scale before.
James. You want to ride with me?
To get it right, Todd's taking his chief mechanic,
James Harness, for some advice from an expert.
Across the creek from the Hoffmans
lies the Big Nugget Mine.
It's owner is ninety year old
John Schnabel, a mining legend.
And a very rich man.
John, I want to introduce
my mechanic, James.
You're a valuable man. Ha ha ha.
-Yeah.
-Sometimes.
-Yeah.
-So this is your plant huh.
This is a wash plant just like
the Hoffmans plan to build.
It separates tiny particles of gold from
thousands of tons of earth and rock.
Using three main components,
a shaker, a trommel and a duplex jig.
First dirt is dropped into the shaker.
The giant sieve shakes away the big boulders.
And allows gold and smaller rock
to fall through to the bottom.
Next, the dirt moves through to
the trommel, a big washing machine.
That breaks down the dirt into even smaller
particles that travel down to the duplex jig.
The jig is the final filter in the wash plant.
Under the water lies steel shot.
The jig vibrates the material through the shot
so that heavier particles fall to the bottom.
-Gold is 18 times heavier than water, so
-Okay.
When it wiggles the water lifts
the dirt up and gives it enough
room for the gold to fall down.
So, is it like loosening up the dirt.
-Yeah.
This finely tuned system has taken
10 years for John Schnabel to perfect.
Well, it's complicated.
I hope I can figure this out.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha..
Getting their wash plant set up right
will be the key to making money.
It's not unusual to pick up twenty five, thirty
thousand dollars in a shift. One day.
Wow.
Kinda cool man.
-Thanks for showing us around.
-No problem.
-We got to head off. Yo.
-Good luck Jack.
-Okay. We need it.
-I know. Every miner needs it.
Ha ha ha.
On their way home, the crew
stops off at Porcupine bridge.
Well, what did you guys think of his deal.
Yeah. Pretty complicated compared
to what I thought it'd be.
The problem is gonna be putting everything together.
We got to build things up and get the height.
You don't want to start too high.
Then you got to drive up
this ramp to get your stuff out.
We're gonna have to go both ways.
We're gonna have to build up.
And put stuff on a hill and then we're gonna
have to dig down in order to get that drop.
-It's really actually pretty tricky.
-Yeah.
We gotta figure this out man. A lot of
this is gonna be right on your shoulders.
I, I've never let you down before man.
I'm not gonna do it now.
Harness's plan is to place the wash plant
between the camp, and the creek from
where they'll draw their water.
They'll raise the shaker on to a ramp.
Set the trommel at ground level.
And dig a hole to put the duplex jig in.
They'll link the machines using sluice boxes.
Set them too steep, and they'll flush gold away.
Too flat, and material will come to a standstill.
The angles and the water flow have to be just right.
We are going to place the trommel.
The trommel is the centerpiece
of the Hoffman's wash plant.
Bring it closer to you so you got more control.
This is a pretty important piece
of our processing equipment.
We still got some work yet to do on it.
They hand built the trommel from scratch.
And it's still unfinished, and untested.
-We have no idea if it works.
-We just hope it lasts enough
for us to get some gold.
We're gonna have him come up here,
back it in, and set it right
in here on these two logs.
Dad, watch the little guys.
-You're good. No, no, you're good. That's good.
You're good.
-Okay. Come down.
-Jack.
-We're gonna unhook you and
then we'll go get the shaker.
-Alright.
The shaker weighs 22 thousand pounds.
The 400, the excavator will move it,
but it takes all that it's got.
It's kind of dangerous.
A week ago, Jack Hoffman almost destroyed
the shaker when it was delivered to the camp.
Oh. Oh no.
Good lord.
It's only been dropped once, so.
Better make sure and not do that anymore.
Jack doesn't want to make the same mistake twice.
-Hey Todd. You're hooked up wrong.
Don't do that.
-Don't do what?
-Don't hook them up wrong.
-Yeah. You hook them up,
then you go over the top.
He gets me into trouble. And I
don't need any more trouble, so.
Hey. Don't listen to him. He gets
himself into enough trouble. Trust me.
There's all kinds of marks on this
thing, and he did those all by himself.
Listen. I need one guy telling me stuff.
Greg's a rigger. Todd's not.
Ready?
-Okay. Keep it low.
-Keep it low. Keep it low.
Come up a little.
Jack's keeping the shaker close to the ground,
so that if he drops it, it won't get damaged.
See what I mean. A little dangerous.
But he has to lift it up, to get it on the ramp.
-Up up on the ramp. If you can.
-Good.
Bring it up. Bring it up.
(a lot of straining noises)
If you do any movement, come my way.
Looking good.
Finally, the shaker is safely on
it's ramp, above the trommel.
-Looks pretty well centered.
-I think it's quite good. Now,
we can push it round with the 270.
Next. The beating heart of Todd's mine arrives.
A massive generator that will
power the whole wash plant.
It kicks out 200,000 watts, can power
160 homes, and weighs 25,000 pounds.
I want it, right about here.
It's too heavy for the 400 to lift.
I can have him just, back that dozer
down in here, and we can chain off of it.
He wants to anchor the generator to the D6 dozer.
Put that hitch right here.
And drive the loader away.
There's only one chain,
and it will be at breaking point
If that chain snaps be
careful, cause pieces could fly.
Yeah. Chain can snap.
It's not like cable.
Todd knows the dangers, all too well.
Back in Oregon, when the generator was being
loaded, there was a near fatal cable snap.
Watch that cable.
(petwang)
-Oh!
-That could have killed somebody.
Hey. You shaddup. You don't talk like that.
Let's do it.
Okay. Let's just drop her here.
(scraping noises)
(clang)
Ow!
Their only chain has broken,
but they come up with a new plan.
Yeah. We got enough hanging off, he
thinks that we're gonna go ahead and
just put her down on the ground.
Sweet.
After it's epic journey, Todd
gives the generator a health check.
Uh, oh.
Thousands of miles on a barge.
It looks okay though.
Here's the jig.
The pump, pump 2, pump 3.
Here's the trommel and the shaker.
The last and lowest piece of the
wash plant, is the duplex jig.
The crew must dig a hole exactly
7 feet deep to put the jig in.
So the gold will flow down
the sluice boxes they put in place.
If the hole's the wrong depth,
the jig won't collect all the gold,
and they'll be throwing money away.
This time, Todd isn't taking
any chances with Jack.
If we screw this jig up,
our season's pretty much over.
So he's taking control himself.
Yeah.
Okay. There.
That's good. That's perfect.
Good job buddy. Hey.
Heh.
The jig almost completes the wash plant.
All that remains is to link it all together.
Up ahead: The Hoffman's plans collapse,
as their only mechanic James Harness
falls dangerously ill.
(deep coughing)
If we don't have him, that'll be a disaster.
Todd faces mutiny.
Don't yell at me or I'll punch
you right in the friggen face.
You hear me?
And the forces of nature
threaten to destroy the camp.
Get the frig out.
Todd Hoffman and his dad Jack,
are trying to start a gold
mine in the Alaskan wilderness.
Come on.
They're burning through their 100 thousand
dollar capital fast. And the short
mining season is slipping away.
Promised these guys we'd be
mining a week and a half ago.
And we're not.
With their mining machines in place,
they still have heavy engineering to
do before they can run dirt.
But the man with the plan is in his trailer.
-James you. You alright bud.
-(Coughing)
-I lost my lower back.
-Oh no.
James Harness injured his spine
10 years ago in a car accident.
And depends on morphine to cope with
the pain. But today it's not enough.
-You can't walk.
-I didn't bring my crutches.
-Alright brother, Get some rest.
-Okay man.
See you now.
It's not just his back that's causing
James problems. He's also suffering
from a chest infection.
Got a virus. A couple weeks ago.
It's taking me out.
Upper respiratory, um
A lot of bad things going on. (cough cough)
It's very very important that
we have him, healthy.
And ready to go.
He's already saved our bacon
several times on this trip.
-Aah.
-Being he's sick. It's all.
If we don't have him, then
to me that would be a disaster.
(cough cough cough)
Todd calls the doctor.
I am mining way out in Porcupine.
One of my crew members is sick.
Alright. Well, we're gonna head in.
I'm really sorry you're feeling like crap, dude.
Go go go go go.
With Todd and James gone,
the rest of the team must push on.
They're losing $1000 every day they're not mining.
And now have to try and get the shaker assembled
without their leader or chief mechanic.
The shaker has to be fitted with perforated
punch plates that will only allow smaller
rocks and gold to fall into the wash plant.
But the plates don't fit.
We have a grate that was perfectly flat.
The bed that it sits on,
in the shaker, is radiused.
We have to bend this to
conform to the radius rail.
Ex sheet metal worker Jim Thurber is
used to working with precision equipment.
But today has to improvise with nothing
more than a bulldozer and a backhoe.
This has got to be dead nuts perfect.
They must bend the plates to the exact curve
so that they'll fit perfectly on the shaker.
Keep your hand up so I know when.
Keep motioning. Keep motioning.
With over 40 years combined experience working
on construction sites Greg and Thurber have
managed to get the first of the plates inch perfect.
They've asked Realtor Jimmy Dorsey
to angle grind the edges.
Make sure you're not throwing
sparks at somebody else.
In his rush to get mining,
Dorsey's ignoring basic safety rules.
See if there's another face shield in there.
For you.
I drive all the day.
Face shield.
Safe guys. Slow but safe.
Unproductively. Unprofitable. Safe.
Alarm bells are ringing for
team safety officer James Thurber.
He's my biggest worry.
Somehow, he's not killed himself.
He's going to do one of us in.
He spots yet another mistake from Dorsey.
When we use a tool, 3500 rpm,
when you turn it off, it doesn't stop.
When you're laying it down, you know it's
against there. It can grind through the jacket.
I know. It's alright though.
It's not alright. Because when you cut
through there, I can't use this tool.
Dorsey's attitude forces team
foreman Greg to step in.
I'm counting on you, and a few times I've gone
like this, questioning, Am I clear, and you're
walking around like this, looking around.
Well, I been walking this
same line now for all day long.
There's no justification for this.
-Well I'm not gonna take
you just yelling at me.
-This is really important, Dorse.
-It's important to me too.
-Then you need to take the information
-I took the information.
-I took the information.
-You've taken it more than once.
And when it's the same person
making the same mistake.
The volume goes up.
And the seriousness goes up.
There's one mistake we've been making which
is not getting crap done because you're
so focused on safety all the damn time.
As soon as somebody gets
run over, you'll eat those words.
I'll show you pictures of people that threw
caution to the wind. Were gonna be
there for a second. Deader than dead.
I'll show you the picture of his own
(bleep) intestines coming out of his throat.
Then his brain, blown out the top of
his head. Do you want to see that, dude?
I just want to get damn things done.
Oh, way ahead of you. I wanted
to be mining gold last week too.
Somebody's gonna get hurt,
at the minimum. At the minimum.
Somebody's gonna get killed.
We're at this pace, we'll, we will have this
thing done by the end of the summer.
And by that time, I'm broke.
Gold mining, pfft, done. I'm done
with gold mining, at that point.
James and Todd return from the doctor.
(racking cough)
It's more serious than they thought.
Did a lot of different tests. So he
said I've got a horrible infection.
And it's most likely pneumonia.
I may have to go in the hospital.
If it's the bad kind of pneumonia,
it starts to eat you up.
This is serious stuff. You can't
even be in the sun when you take it.
James is under doctor's orders to lay
low for 3 days. (prolonged coughing)
I feel, just really sick.
I couldn't fix anything right now.
I can barely walk.
Without a mechanic, the
Hoffman's won't have a wash plant.
We're really really in deep deep trouble.
Could possibly jeopardize the whole
control, the whole operation.
The Hoffmans, and their team of miners
have been in camp for four weeks.
But they still haven't got
their wash plant working.
One hundred thousand pounds of
machinery lies unfinished,
and unconnected.
You notice there's no electrical cords going
to any of this stuff. And there's no
water going to any of this stuff.
I was supposed to get the gold from
the ground and dump it in to a,
into that machine up there.
And it's supposed to come
out the other end as money.
This isn't gonna pay my bills. It definitely
isn't going to take care of my family.
Like the rest of the crew, Dorsey is unemployed
and has come here to make money,
to feed his family.
Today, both he and Todd are driving
30 miles to Haines Airport to pick
up their wives and children.
I'm just excited to see my little baby girl
and my wife. We all led them get up
here, be a part of this, you know.
So uh, but yeah, I'm kind of scared
that we'll have, you know, enough
infra, infrastructure for 'em.
Jimmy Dorsey spent most of his meager
savings getting his wife, Joy and their
kids Ella and Hank to Alaska.
That is her.
That's her.
Tessa worked for her family.
And yeah, I'm nervous that
she's going to be happy up here.
Honey. It is ya.?
So good to see you.
Hi Brad.
-I missed you.
-Yeah. I missed you too.
Yeaaaah. Hee hee hee.
It's a big day for Todd too,
as he's reunited with his wife,
Shana, and their daughter, Olivia.
You have a god trip. I get a big hug.
It's just beautiful. Everywhere you look.
-It's just absolutely beautiful
-It's georgousl.
-everywhere you look.
It's just beautiful. Everywhere you look.
I just, I just can't believe it. I'm in awe.
Hi Joy. How ya doing,
You're doing good.
Life here is going to be
very different from Oregon.
-Do we have an expresso machine?
-No.
I just want to see where our home is.
The next door neighbors are the Dorsey's.
Put me down. There's beer.
Let's scout. Wow.
Follow the winnebago man over there.
-How are you?
-It's good to see ya.
\
-Good.
The families get their first
look at their new homes.
It's nice and cool.
Wow. I did not expect this.
It's better than I thought it would be.
It's amazing. I mean, the scenery
is incredible, and beautiful. And
Jimmy has blown me away with this cabin.
I thought it was gonna be tiny, and
terrible, and it's pretty awesome.
After 5 weeks apart, the families are
finally re-united. But this is no vacation.
Dorsey's here to mine gold, and his
daughter Ella gets straight to the point.
-Daddy
-Yeah.
-Have you got any gold yet?
Anything shiny gold when you get it?
Aw, yeah. I don't have any
gold yet. We haven't ran any.
-But we dug some holes.
You see those holes?
-Yeah.
-Careful.
-Yeah.
What are they doing? They have all
this giant equipment and they
have like a couple barrels.
of tupperware containers and they're like
picking through rocks. What are they doing?
Look at all that dirt Daddy got.
Come here. I'll show you what I'm doing.
Okay. So what we do
They've been here for over a
month, and, I don't know
what's been going on here.
So, you haven't done any gold mining.
What have you been doing
up here. Vacationing?
-Mommy
-No. I know. You've been building
this cabin. I know. But there ha ha ha.
-What are you laughing at?
-This place is funny?
-No.
It's not funny.
-I mean, I'm not trying
I'm pissed off with these guys
cause they haven't done anything.
They haven't got anything together.
And I can't do it. I can't weld.
Well. You get everybody going.
-All the time.
-You know
-Is it funny to you.
-No. Not at all.
-So, I can't do this.
-What are you smiling at?
Everyone at Porcupine Creek is
investing 5 months of their life, unpaid.
And they're seriously behind schedule.
If they don't get this wash plant working,
and start finding gold soon,
they're facing financial disaster.
Jimmy Dorsey's had enough, and levels with team foreman, Greg.
We don't need any more talk.
Do we need a commitee?
No. We need a plan though. And right now,
I can't live the rest of the summer with
what I've got in my bank account.
-Neither can I.
-We're thinking alike here.
Are we gonna approach Todd with this?
He's gotta be, He's got
to step up and lead us.
Hey Todd. Come here.
Are we mining today?
-Uh, No. We're not.
-Why?
-We're gonna have a meeting
-I don't want a meeting.
I want to know why we're not mining?
Don't yell at me like that or I'll
punch you right in the friggen face.
Do you hear me?
-Don't talk to me that way.
-Don't try and intimidate me.
-Understand me.
-Don't try and intimidate.
We're gonna have a meeting in a second.
you want to come hard, come hard.
I'm coming hard? I want to
know why were not mining today?
There's a lot of reasons.
Some of it's your fault.
Some of it's his fault.
Some of it's my fault.
We're gonna have a meeting and you
can air it there. Everybody will be there.
The pressure is on Todd to get his team mining.
With doubts cast over his leadership,
he calls a crisis meeting for the whole crew.
Even James Harness drags himself
out of his trailer to make it.
I've been accused of not being a good leader.
Some of that is totally true, but
We' re so close to be mining. We have
nine things, that we can accomplish,
in 72 hours from this point,
and we could be running rock.
Okay. So here's the list.
The shaker hold downs.
-You gonna have to do it.
-Yup.
Okay. Greg and Thurber.
If you could help James with the shaker.
Dad. Finishing the plumbing
on the jig and set it in there.
We gotta be rocking and rolling.
Dorsey. You're gonna be working with me.
So that nobody else hurts you,
or you don't hurt anybody else.
-I don't want anybody else to hurt
-Put me on a bus right now.
-Okay.
I won't hurt nobody else, so
Okay. Shut your mouth. Don't interrupt.
That's how we're gonna do it.
I don't care if we got to stay up all night.
We can actually turn equipment on.
Start testing it.
Within 72 hours.
There's a lot riding on Todd's deadline.
We're gonna get it done in 72 hours or I'm
walking away. Cause I have no more money.
Then I'm walking off of here.
I'm going down to town.
I'm gonna get a job.
I'm serious about that. I will make money
this summer. One way or another.
Todd's promised his crew they
can be up and running in 3 days.
In 72 hours this equipment is gonna
be running. 72 hours from right now.
There's an amazing amount to do.
Harness is feeling better, and back in the saddle.
Even Dorsey is adjusting to
his role as Todd's assistant.
Turn the heat up a little bit.
The mining season is only a few
months long. We gotta be turning
some stuff on in 72 hours.
But Todd knows they won't hit their
deadline unless they get help.
If you could come up here dude.
Even for a couple friggen days and just
Hey. It would be huge for me dude.
He's asking a big favor from
an old friend, Dave Turin.
Dave runs a successful quarry back in
Sandy Oregon, and knows everything
there is to know about mining.
Pick you up. Feed you some crappy food.
Put you on an air mattress you know.
Whatever it takes, uh.
Awesome. Take care. Bye.
Ooh. That's huge.
Without Dave figuring this out,
I honestly think I'd screw this up.
Me and my dad would screw this one up royal.
With Dave 24 hours away, and the clock ticking,
the crew has no time to waste to get the
rest of the mine up and running.
Just gonna start digging
the water intake over here.
The intake is a 60 yard trench, directing water
from Porcupine creek to a holding pond that's
as close to the wash plant as they can get.
You have to be able to bring in
about 1000 gallons a minute.
Once this huge volume of water is flowing
down the trench to the holding pond,
it will act as a reservoir for the wash plant.
If you don't have this water, you
don't mine. It's just we need it,
we're gonna get it, and pretty soon.
But Jimmy Dorsey is anxious that
the plan is dangerously flawed.
It looks like a pretty innocent creek, but
you can see how fast this water flows.
I'm afraid this thing could not only
fill up our holding pond, but flood
our camp and then wash out the road.
But Jack doesn't seem worried about
anything except getting mining.
So, we're opening up our store.
Jack's got the trench ready to go.
We're gonna release the water. And hopefully
it will come down our trench and
fill up our intake pond.
Who knows what could go wrong.
Hey girl.
Who's that.
Hey. You stay away from the edge.
It's starting to undermine
right there. Back up.
The water is causing structural damage to the pond.
The sides are collapsing.
-Hey. This is a problem.
-We're gonna lose this bank, aren't we.
There it goes.
Oh. Frig.
Back it up.
If the pond caves in, it'll wipe
out the road behind, and
take out the wash plant.
The Hoffman's must make a decision.
Hey dad. I think we better get this shut off or
we're gonna have a big mess on our hands.
You want to stick with it?
If we get within a foot, I'll shut it off.
We'll let the water flow tonight.
We're gonna see what the damage is.
Uh, we're gonna put Jimmy
on pond watch tonight.
See if this thing holds. If it doesn't,
then uh, we'll be working through the
week trying to repair what we just did.
They are taking their biggest gamble yet.
At first light, Todd, Greg and Thurber,
are up to check if the sides
of the pond held out.
We got blessed on this one guys. Could have been
a huge disaster but it looks like it turned out
like we planned, which is actually pretty rare.
This really does mean we can mine.
The Hoffman's have two more days
to get their wash plant up and running.
Boosted by the success of the channel opening, Todd
wants to try the biggest and most dangerous piece
of machinery a day ahead of schedule.
Tonight we're gonna try to test
out the shaker. That's a big deal.
Whether it works or not, I honestly
don't know if it's gonna work or not.
and neither does Harness here.
-It'll work.
-If it doesn't, We've put a lot of money and
work and energy into that stupid thing.
I'm gonna friggen put a piece of dynamite
under it and blow it the frig up.
In 1907, miners at Porcupine Creek redirected
the river to get at the gold in it's bed.
They built a wooden channel called a flume.
It was 8000 feet long, six to eight
feet deep, and 25 to 40 feet wide.
It was the largest in Alaska,
and cost a reported 200,000 dollars.
4.7 million in today's money.
The Hoffmans and their team of
miners are losing 1000 dollars
every day they're not mining.
We're 15 to twenty thousand dollars
behind, and we're 2 weeks behind.
The pressure's on. They've allotted
two more days to get their machinery
working and start making money.
This morning, Todd and Jack are on
their way to Haines Airport to pick up
their trump card from Oregon.
Dave Turin is coming up to
try to help and advise us.
Not only does he run a construction crew, not only
does he mine. He is actually willing to step
in and help us. Just glad he's coming.
-Hey.
-How you doing buddy?
-Well again.
-Have a good flight?
-How are ya.
-Good.
-I got it.
I can't even believe you're here dude.
Welcome.
-We got the equipment. I'm guessing
somewhere around 80, 90% set up.
-Well, that's good.
-But the main thing is, I'm worried about
the shaker. You know we had to modify it.
-Yeah.
-I want you to kind of look at
it before we fire it up.
-Yeah.
That is kind of the main thing.
Then if you could help us
out on, it would be, whew!
It'll happen. We'll get it together.
Dave's here not only to fire up
he equipment, but the miners too.
You guys are an inspiration.
You know, there's so many guys that are
on their butts, sitting around, watching tv,
collecting unemployment, and you know,
guys aren't made to do that.
So you guys start generating some
cash flow, you're gonna encourage
a lot of people. So, uh
You know, it encouraged me.
So don't hang your heads.
Keep your heads up.
And let's find some gold.
-This should really work good,
if you can get it going.
-Yeah.
I'm impressed. That's not a bad day at all.
And we had to make it all out of scrap.
But Dave immediately identifies a bunch
of changes they need to make to the shaker.
Go, but, you put an angle iron on here.
Put a six inch angle iron here.
Bring another angle iron up,
Cut all the excess weight off.
I don't think we need this.
Put a flange in here. Cut this off.
So that this isn't flopping around.
Run a web down so it's
supporting the outside.
And then, you're ready to go.
It's a tall order. But Greg and Jack begin
work on Dave's modifications immediately.
You know, Dave Turin is energizing our team.
His suggestions,, these aren't coming from books.
These are coming from actual experience.
I mean, it's really all coming together.
This is great. We came here for one
reason, and that's to feed our
families by finding gold.
Everyone's overwhelmed
with the job at hand.
We just need one person to come in and say
"Hey. You guys, you're almost to the finish line."
With Todd's help, Harness supplies
the finishing touches to his trommel.
I gave birth to this baby.
And it hurt.
What happened to your arm?
Third degree burns from molten metal.
I didn't really collapse to what I got
did weld mate together.
It's all theory, theoretical at this point.
The fact that this works, It's kind of like a
helicopter flying. You're not supposed to.
But they do.
So I think it's gonna work.
Cause we're all just crazy
enough to hope so.
With Dave Turin's help, the crew is ready
to test the first part of the wash plant
a day ahead of the deadline.
We're pushing 72 hours real hard.
We're right on the brink of firing up the shaker.
If this doesn't work as we hope it will.
Big question mark.
There's my future. Sitting on that hill right there.
I- have one nut to put on and
-Okay.
Basically ready.
Harness made sure the generator is working before
sending power to the shaker for the first time.
We'll warm up the generator and crank it up.
and see what the damage is.
With the power plant running smoothly,
it's time to test the shaker.
The forces up here are so great that these
things can actually just explode out the
side and steel flying everywhere.
We're nervous. Really nervous.
You just have to do a visual to make sure
you know where all your people are.
Your employees are. And you gotta make sure
they're off the machines. Everybody's clear.
You say "All Clear" then you fire stuff up.
You can't ever stress safety enough.
Let's Go!
(Bang-a-bang-a-bang-a-bang)
(slowing down)
(speeds back up)
Whoa whoa. Right there. Lookit.
Hey hey.
(Bang)
Hey hey.
-Whoa!
-Bang.
Hey hey.
-Whoa!
-Bang.
(Machine idling down)
This equipment can kill somebody and that's
the last thing we want to happen.
Take that off.
Dave Turin notices a desperate flaw
in the shaker set up and calls
everything to an emergency halt.
That shaker was bouncing everywhere. It could
have fallen right off that hill right there.
Basically Dave just saved, could have
saved our mining season right there.
With no anchor, the shaker began
to tear itself off it's base.
A potentially disastrous situation.
That could have been a catastrophe. You know.
It's 11pm, and even though it's mid
summer in Alaska the light is fading.
Before somebody gets hurt, I think
we're gonna knock off for the day.
The team has one day to find the solution.
The crew at Porcupine Creek has one day left
to get their mining machines up and running.
Yesterday, the shaker began to tear itself
off it's base. If they can't find a quick
fix they'll never hit their deadline.
As this thing's shaking, it's moving the rock down
the way. Every action has an equal and opposite
reaction. So if this thing wants to throw that down
You gotta get that base down solid.
-Throw some cables around a log,
Bury it.
-Bury it, and cover it back up with dirt.
-Then you're anchoring that thing down.
-What do you think James?
I think it'll work great.
Dave plans to bury a log, called a deadman,
and anchor the shaker to the ground.
But the major earthworks will take time.
The 72 hour deadline is almost up.
I don't know how long it takes
to get the deadman in there.
But we gotta get it done quick.
Jack sets about building the anchor.
It's now all that stands in the way of
the safe running of the shaker.
Dorsey. I want you to work with Jack.
I put Dorsey with him and I
don't know if that's a deadly combo.
But they're actually getting stuff done so
what can I say. I'm gonna leave them
alone until somebody starts screaming.
It's dropping.
It's such a useful half a day here.
I can't believe it.
We think, It ain't going
anywhere. It's 20,000 lbs.
Dave's kinda,
"That thing will walk right off the hill."
Said we got to bury a deadman.
Gotta put cables around it.
Latest changes.
-Good. I think it's gonna work.
-I'm optimistic. I really think
it's gonna come out okay.
The final day in the deadline is drawing
to a close. The team is ready to test
their wash plant for the first time.
I'm nervous about the modifications
we made. But we just gotta.
We gotta get it done. We gotta test it out.
We gotta get some rock across it.
And see what happens.
We're gonna give it a try.
I think we've checked everything out.
Ready to rock.
Let's do it.
Alright. Let's do this.
Check the fuse.
James is doing all his checks.
-You ready?
-Check.
Fire it up.
This rock is raw.
Working it's way down.
Smooth as molasses.
That's working.
Hurrah !
Holy crap.
-Wahoo. Woo.
-Ha ha ha.
-It works good man.
-Doesn't that look good?
-That looks great!
-Maybe this'll work man.
-Maybe! I never had a doubt.
-Glad you're here yet?
-Ha ha ha ha
-Geez.
Now we got something worth panning right there.
When we start seeing
gold down there in that jig
I think we'll all be like
"Oh my gosh. We're pulling this off".
You know, 72 hours ago,
I was ready to walk off.
I was there.
I didn't know what I was doing here.
When this thing turns on it's like
Of course I'm supposed to be here.
That's what we came to do.
We got guts guys.
-Good day.
We made our 72 hours. Not a problem.
Everything seems to work good.
The main thing, is this old guy right here, and uh
I think it actually worked better than I dreamed.
We're gonna b e rock and roll.
This shaker is the most vulgar, disgusting
Subs by
Jack T
Amazingly violent thing I've ever
seen in my life.
I love it.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.