Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 3, Episode 5 - The Ultimatum - full transcript
Todd's investor demands to see 100 ounces of gold in the next three weeks. Parker's crew goes into meltdown when he forces them to replace a bridge and Fred attempts to make a precision part for his vital excavator.
.
In the Klondike gold fields,
two Hoffman crews
on two different claims are aiming
for a million-dollar season.
We can get this thousand ounces.
At Quartz Creek, Todd and Jack
clash over their new water supply.
Holy snikey.
Dad, this ain't gonna work.
(OVER RADIO) "Just watch and learn."
And Todd's main investor
threatens to pull the plug.
This looks like chaos here to me.
I might have backed the wrong horse.
While Todd treads water,
Dave Turin battles through...
Whoa! (BLEEP) We're on it!
..to his first cleanout
of the season.
I'm seeing gold. Indian River gold.
At Porcupine Creek,
Dakota Fred is out of luck, again.
Watch it!
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Oh, crap.
All of our stuff is breaking.
And at the Big Nugget mine, tempers
flare as Parker Schnabel's crew
is forced into bridge building
instead of getting to the gold.
Will you get out of here?!
Tell me where the grade is
and I'll do the (BLEEP),
and if you put that TV camera on
again, I'm gonna stick it up
your (BLEEP)!
It's 35 days into
the 150-day Klondike mining season.
At Indian River,
the Hoffmans' second claim,
Dave Turin is ready to run
pay dirt for the first time.
I've been dreaming about this day
all winter long.
We got the best wash plant in
the Yukon, we've got the best cut,
we've got gold in the ground.
Let's do this.
Let's roll. Yeah, let's do this.
Let's make some gold.
All the way, guys.
(ENGINE STARTS)
OK, we got water coming, Chris.
Are you ready for the shakers?
"OK, Greg."
(ENGINE WHIRS)
OK, start the feed conveyor.
It's time to get some Indian gold.
Three weeks ago, Dave's crew began
work on their claim at Indian River.
I think we have an opportunity
to beat the Hoffman crew.
They installed a massive new
wash plant.
This plant's gonna kick butt.
And when they finally hit
pay gravel,...
We got colour, Dave.
..the test results were
twice as good as Quartz Creek.
We got gold, boys. We're ready to go.
Chris Doumit is ready to load
their first bucket of dirt
into the hopper.
A conveyor moves the dirt up
nine metres to the shaker.
The screen deck separates out
the rocks
so only the fine material
flows into the sluice box.
This is our money-maker.
This is our sluice box.
Water then washes the dirt away.
Any gold will sink and get
caught in carpets in the sluice box,
known as miners' moss.
Looking good.
The tailings are perfectly clean.
I'm proud of this.
(CLUNK!)
Whoa! (BLEEP)
It's not running!
I don't know how to shut this down.
What happened?
The belt. It's not running,
it's sitting there spinning.
After running for two hours,
the belt feeding material
into the wash plant has stopped.
It's an old feeder. I don't know
what the issue is. Got a rock wedged
in it or something? Oh, shoot.
We blew a hose or something.
Oh, is that a hydraulic fan? Yep.
It's not good.
Is that what's leaking?
Sure looks like it to me.
Yeah, that's way down. Oh, no.
A cooling fan has failed,
causing the motor on the feed
conveyor to overheat and seize up.
We've got oil on the belt. Oh,
that's not good. Yep, got a leak.
The ruptured hydraulic fan
is leaking oil.
Unhook the hose.
It's really bad.
You don't want any oil in our
carpets, cos oil'll make gold float.
If the gold floats, it will wash
straight out of their sluice box.
Oil's definitely one of
the worst things you can get
in your sluice box.
I can't afford to take
that plant down.
Todd's still waiting on his plant,
so our whole operation is
relying on that.
That's the only thing producing gold
now. I gotta do something.
20 miles up the road,
Todd Hoffman is returning from an
emergency trip to British Columbia.
He was there to ensure his new
trommel was finished for delivery.
We had a successful trip. We're gonna
get that trommel, get it in place
and hopefully start mining ASAP
and get everything back on track.
Over the winter,
Todd made the bold decision
to invest in new mining technology
for this season.
There is nothing better than this.
I think we need to buy this.
We need to order it.
But four weeks into the season,
Todd's secret weapon had
still not arrived on the claim.
I need that thing running
- and I mean now.
While Todd was overseeing the
trommel build, his main investor,
Jason Otteson, arrived to find
Quartz Creek at a standstill.
Where's Todd?
I don't know.
Now Todd's back at the claim
to reassure his anxious investor.
How are you?
I don't know, we'll see.
Let's go on in and talk.
So our trommel is on its way.
Ten days from this point right now,
you're gonna see
equipment firing on all cylinders.
This looks like chaos here to me.
You know, it's not just equipment
out here, it's management issues.
I wanna see more organisation.
Walking around here, I saw people
just moving piles back and forth,
it looked like. It looked like
disarray. Some people didn't even
know where you were.
Thing is, a lot of things that
happened are out of our control.
One, I ordered a piece of equipment
and it didn't show up.
I had to jet down there,
I had to go and I had to go now.
I'm hearing excuses.
I'm not gonna come back here
and hear excuses next time.
We have a lot on the line.
You have three weeks to get
100 ounces.
Then we'll have to pull the plug.
The Hoffmans have just three weeks
to get $160,000-worth of gold,
more than they pulled out of
the Klondike in all of last season.
I don't think he's gonna get to his
goals. I think he's been coasting.
I might have backed the wrong horse.
With Todd's progress already
faltering,
the pressure is on to find gold,
and fast.
I don't like being
talked to like that by anybody,
but if I don't have 100 ounces
within three weeks,
he's gonna pull his financing
and... er... he's out.
600 miles south at Porcupine Creek,
Dakota Fred is digging for
his first pay dirt of the season.
Agh!
It has been five weeks already
we've been here
and we haven't turned
a single turn of dirt yet.
We gotta get going.
We've gotta get going.
At the beginning of the season,
the threat of a flood forced Fred
to abandon the gold-rich glory hole.
We're looking at a disaster.
He had to start again,
digging from the surface,
following a bedrock terrace
down to pay dirt.
I say we just stay
right up against it,
follow it on down
as far as we can go.
With a target of 160 ounces
this season,
Fred may finally be on the gold.
That looks like some
pretty nice dirt right there.
There might be some gold in that.
That reddish-orange stuff
is powdered up pyrite.
And, of course, that old pyrite
is associated with gold
so might be some finds in that stuff.
The 270 excavator is
the only machine Fred has
that can get down
to the gold-rich dirt.
But something's not right.
(METALLIC CRUNCH)
Something in here is broken
and it's flopping up and down.
Push down. That's good... Whoa!
(REVERSE BEEPS)
Hold, hold.
A little bit, little bit.
Whoa, right there.
That thing right here, see it?
That's not supposed to do that.
Hold right there.
Look like the shaft is broken.
Argh.
The excavator tracks
runs on idler wheels,
and one of the wheel mounts
has sheered off.
All of our stuff is breaking, Fred,
already.
When you can't move an excavator,
we got a serious problem.
Yes, we've got a serious problem.
I think we broke a shaft on one of
the big rollers for the track.
On the excavator?
Yep. So we'll see what happens.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I need to walk around for a minute.
The excavator is
our number one machine.
It cannot go down -
and it is down, so...
In this remote area, getting
a replacement could take weeks.
Until they find a solution,
the Dakota boys can't mine.
Well, we're certainly crippled
right now,
so... we don't have any plans
right this minute for
a backup machine, excavator,
so we'll have to see
what the situation is.
I'm not...
(SIGHS) I don't have any plans
right now.
.
.
At Porcupine Creek, the Dakota boys
have been dealt another blow.
Their excavator has
a broken idler wheel mount.
It's no telling when we'll be able
to see that thing up here.
The broken mount is precisely
machined to align the idler wheel
with the excavator's track.
Fred comes up with a radical plan.
He'll try to make the highly
specialised part with scrap metal.
He's gonna make this thing
right here out of steel
that we got from the Grizzly boys.
Oh, I don't know.
Sometimes you gotta use material
for what you gotta use it for.
The 270's idler wheel is held in
place by an axle in a steel mount.
Fred's scrap metal replacement
will have to be precise enough
to fit into the chassis
and strong enough to support
the 130kg idler wheel.
If Fred's fix holds,
he will still have to force the
track back over the replaced wheel.
I've gotta work on this thing
non-stop till I get it finished.
I think we've got it. I hope.
Nice. Good job, Fred.
The improvised axle fits,
but turning rusted steel bars
into a precision mount
is a different proposition.
Fred's never sat down
and waited for anything.
He tries to rig it in some way.
Fred is done, but his copy
of the idler wheel mount
looks nothing like the original.
It looks huge
compared to that thing. Yes, it is.
Let's find out if
this thing's gonna do it for us.
(BLEEP) That's a lot of steel. Yep.
I hope it works.
All right.
Up. There.
Beautiful.
It's sitting in there just right.
I like that.
We put the wheel on it, we're gonna
find out real quick if it's gonna
hold or not. Real quick.
Now their makeshift axle and mount
must hold the 130 kilogram wheel.
It's a little bit scary.
(LAUGHS) You set down on it,
it just snaps off.
Well, we'll be sitting here
for another couple of weeks.
It has to work.
Come on down. It's gotta stretch
about eight to ten inches.
Let's go up with it. There you go.
Slowly. That strap's not made for
weight. Not for that kind of weight.
With the weight of the excavator
balancing on just one track,...
Hold up. Come out a little bit.
..the crew can't
afford to make mistakes.
Give it a bump.
That's it. Whoo! Looks good to me.
Oh, it will fit.
(LAUGHS) That's good.
Fred's handiwork fits.
And now the fight begins.
Yep.
But now is the hard part.
We have to put the track back on
and it's a little precarious.
They still have to pull the track
back over the idler wheel using only
a lightweight chain and ratchet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep moving up.
Melody, go around there and hook that
onto a... Oh, yeah, go.
Assume the chain might break.
You know how bad I wanna do this?
Euch!
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Watch it!
Yeah.
I wish we'd have done it
the way I ask him to do it.
Wait. What are we talking about?
You just blamed that on me.
Let me look at the thing one time.
Piece of (BLEEP)!
I just don't think it's gonna go.
I'm having my doubts right now.
I don't think this track's
gonna fit over it.
I don't know
how he's gonna fix that.
North, in the Klondike...
The Hoffmans face an ultimatum
from their investor.
They have to get 100 ounces
out of their two claims
in less than three weeks
or he'll pull out his money.
We have to fix the oil leak so that
we don't have oil on our belt.
At Indian River, Dave Turin's is
the only crew with a wash plant,
and it's broken down.
Either a hose loose in here or
it's blown a seal, I'm not sure.
They have to find
and fix a hydraulic leak, fast.
If it's the fan motor,
I'm gonna be extremely upset
because we put a brand-new motor
on it.
Look at that.
Fred Dodge discovers that the casing
of the cooling fan motor is cracked
and leaking hydraulic oil.
It had a flaw in the casting.
I never thought it'd be a hydraulic.
Brand-new hydraulic motor.
Fan motor.
Their only hope is
a box of old spare parts.
Let me see what we've got here.
I don't know what
all the spare parts are except...
This is an old used motor.
It's had millions of tons
of material through it.
The motor is old,
but it's all they've got.
OK, get all the oil off the belt.
We're ready to go again.
The crew cleans up the oil.
It's time to see
if the old motor still works.
Is the master on over there?
OK, bump it.
Fire in the hole.
(MACHINE WHIRS)
It's turning.
It's turning?
Right on. We're ready to go again.
The Indian River crew lost a day,
but they're back in business.
We had a few hiccups today
but we worked through them.
Now we're gonna catch some gold.
Yesterday was putting it together
but, really, this is the day
a guy looks forward to.
Gold in the sluice box.
South, at Big Nugget, Parker
Schnabel is not mining for gold.
He's building a new bridge
to make some quick cash.
Five feet's it. That's the number.
We need money, you know?
We're in a tough spot and
we're getting paid pretty good money
to put these bridges in,
so it's well worth it.
In the off season, Parker borrowed
$150,000 from his grandfather, John,
to get a head start.
That pressure's on my shoulders.
Even after a record 25 ounce haul
worth $40,000,
he still found himself with
a serious cash flow problem.
When you need money,
you need money, right?
He was unable to pay his new crew.
You don't have enough money
to pay all of that.
To get out of the red, Parker has
taken on a bridge building contract,
but he only has one week
to complete the job.
We're only allowed to have this
bridge out for seven days,
so if we don't get it in today
we're gonna start losing money.
The bridge has to fit perfectly
on either side of Porcupine Creek.
We're just gonna double check
the span of the bridge to make sure
we're setting our sill right under
the anchor points of the bridge.
Parker's foreman, Steve Robbins,
needs the ground to be firm
in order to test the levels.
Do you wanna stomp this a bit
with your bucket? No.
But operator Chauncey Craig, with
50 years' construction experience,
isn't used to taking orders.
Chauncey, take your bucket
and beat on it.
No. Steve, I told Roy Johnson
what the (BLEEP) I'm gonna do.
Now, if you wanna run this (BLEEP),
you go ahead.
I just want you to tamp on it
so we can see.
You do the other side!
I'm waiting for a bridge to get
across the water.
I'm gonna get in my pickup and go
home. (BLEEP) OK. Sorry about that.
I just want you to stomp on it
so we can see.
If you get (BLEEP) here, tell me
where grade is and I'll do (BLEEP),
and if you put that (BLEEP)
TV camera on again, I'm gonna stick
it up your (BLEEP)!
We don't have much time to
get this bridge in and,
if we're gonna get it in on time,
Steve and Chauncey need
to start working together.
Steve, what you need to do is stay
calm, cos you gotta keep me calm.
OK.
Chauncey? Yeah?
I just wanna make sure that
we listen to Steve
and everybody's on the same page
as we do that kind of stuff.
You know, let's try it
one more time. OK.
Chauncey makes peace with Steve and
they get back to the task in hand.
We're trying to get
the bridge in a position
where it'll be easy
to pull across the creek,
so we put a log under it,
then they're gonna push it
so that the log's in the middle and
the bridge is just teetering on it.
On the east side of the river, an
excavator rolls the bridge section
as far across the river as it can.
All right, hold that, hold that,
hold that. All right, whoa!
Go ahead and push down on it.
Go ahead and push down, OK.
If the bridge section falls into
the river, the job will turn into
a salvage mission,
costing Parker thousands of dollars.
If he pushes it into the water
it'll take off.
Don't let it, just let your end up.
On the west side, Chauncey has
to pull the bridge section
the final metre across the river.
OK. Off the bridge.
This is gonna be pushing its limits
right here.
Got a little more, Chauncey?
This half of the bridge
weighs 30 tons.
Is that all you got?
Is that all you've got?
The excavator is
only rated to lift 23 tons.
That excavator is right at its max
and I don't know
that it's gonna do this.
.
.
At the Big Nugget mine,
Parker Schnabel is replacing
the bridge over Porcupine Creek.
It sucks that we're about
six inches away from getting it up
on the abutment.
His excavator isn't powerful enough
to lift half of the bridge
into place, but to make quick cash
he needs the bridge finished today.
We need to bring
a second excavator over.
Hopefully two excavators will
get to the other side on their own.
If they can't, we got a problem.
Parker attempts to cross the river
in the second excavator.
If it gets stuck he'll lose
valuable time getting it out.
Oh.
Here we go.
Bingo.
Reach over and
take a bit of the weight
and that's all we gotta do. I'm
hooking you up to that other side.
That excavator couldn't do it so we
had to bring a second one over, and
that loses us quite a bit of time.
But, I mean, we'll get it.
Chauncey's gonna do all the work.
Right. He's gonna take a link.
The two excavators attempt to lift
the bridge into place.
Ready to go, here we go.
All right, straight up.
Steve Robbins takes charge.
Come on in, come on in,
you've gotta come in.
Perfect coordination is needed
to get the bridge in place.
There you go. No, easy, easy!
Easy, Chauncey!
Walk the track back, track back.
Make sure we don't hit the abutment.
Yo, come on. Go, yeah, whoa, whoa!
Whoa!
Hold! Hey, track back, Chauncey.
You're pushing it way over
the other way.
Track back, keep going.
You're good, keep going.
Good.
All right, just come on in.
Yay.
Wow.
Right on.
What time is it?
The crew has only three hours
of daylight left
to hit Parker's deadline.
Come on!
Back up a little more. Good.
And you're just gonna push it.
A little late.
Perfect. Right there.
So we got both halves of
the bridge in.
We're hooking them together
and the tough part's over.
We're back to mining.
With the bridge money,
Parker can finally pay his crew.
But when they leave for the
weekend, Parker decides to stay on.
So, I'm giving Steve and Gary
the rest of the day off. OK.
But, I want the plant
to keep running,
so you and I are gonna do that.
Right on. Can you handle that?
I think so. OK, good.
With only two of them working,
Parker has to dig dirt for
Austin to stockpile...
..and drive the loader
to feed the wash plant.
Without experienced crew,
Parker's not confident.
Looks good to me.
We're taking a bit of a risk because
there's a chance
we'll lose some gold,
but we need to be able to move
the yards, you know?
That's what matters to me
more than a few, you know,
percentage points on our recovery.
After running
the plant on their own for a day,
it's time for the boys
to see how they've done.
(ENGINE STOPS)
Time to look in the box.
Look at that (BLEEP).
That's (BLEEP) crazy.
I know. It's awesome.
It is.
I've never seen anything like that
before in my life.
It looks really good. It looks
like we had a really good day.
Across Porcupine Creek,
the Dakota boys are fixing
their broken down excavator.
We should be digging right now.
They've lost two days and,
until they get its track back on,
they can't dig for gold.
We can't mine at all right now.
There is only one thing left
for Fred to try.
We're gonna try to walk it on.
Everything's gotta come off.
Come through.
We're gonna set it on the ground
and just drive it and pull on it
as it goes, and we're hoping
it's just gonna jump on track.
Just like a bicycle chain.
Slowly driving the excavator forward
will either force
the track back on...
Watch your toes.
..or break it beyond repair.
First, they pull
the track into position
with the excavator's bucket.
Hold!
Come on forward. Full forward. Hold.
Let go.
Then Dustin inches
the 27,000kg machine forward.
You're standing way too close
to that track.
Well, move the back, the bucket back.
Go ahead. Hold right there.
It's on, it's on, it's on!
Hey, all right!
Yeah, baby.
All right.
Whoo!
(LAUGHS) I'm psyched.
I thought, at some point,
that was never gonna get on there.
That was a good feeling, seeing the
thing just jump right on there, just
like it was a saddle on a horse.
With nothing but scrap metal
and ingenuity,
Fred fixed their key piece
of machinery.
They can finally get back to work.
We'll be able to get back to mining,
getting some more of that gold.
Yes!
Up at Quartz Creek...
Todd's crew is
preparing for the arrival
of their custom-made wash plant.
They've spent two days
and thousands of dollars
digging a new intake pond.
All of last season,
the water they pulled from
Quartz Creek was far too dirty.
The gold floats in this dirty water.
We have made a goal of 1,000 ounces.
We're not gonna get it
if we use this kind of water.
I don't care what kind of equipment
you have, the cleaner the water,
the quicker the gold drops out.
Jack's found
another source of water.
Calder Creek,
360 metres across the road.
This is Quartz Creek water,
this is Calder Creek water.
OK, Dad, what have we got,
about 400 yards
all the way to our intake pond?
Yeah.
To dig his channel,
Jack has borrowed Greg Remsburg
from Indian River.
Greg has 20 years' construction
experience.
I was told to come dig a canal
and make it so that it drains all
the way to the new intake pond.
It's just my eyeball
at this point in time,
but I think we may be going uphill
from the creek to the pond.
I don't think anybody looked at this
very closely
before they said go ahead.
Really should take the laser and
find out what the elevations are,
see if we really have
a positive fall or not.
A laser leveller, or transit,
shines a horizontal beam
at a marked post.
Using a transit,
Jack could confirm that ground level
at the pond is lower than the creek.
If it isn't, the water won't flow.
But the Hoffmans
don't have a transit.
Somebody stole our transit
so we did this by eyeball,
but my dad's eyeballs aren't exactly
as young as they once were,
so hopefully
we got it going downhill
and we actually get water
in our trench
and that the intake pond fills up.
That's kind of the plan.
I eyeballed it as good as I can,
so don't know yet.
Todd walks along the canal
to check for himself.
Dad, this ain't even going downhill.
Argh!
Hey, Dad, I don't think
it's gonna work.
That's the $6,000 screw up
this year.
Without this,
we're not running at Quartz Creek.
We're dead in the water.
The only way that we can do it
right now is we have to just try it.
While Greg digs the channel,
Jack gets the rookie miners to build
a tunnel under the road.
You gotta really watch yourself.
OK.
The steel pipes have to be
carefully lifted into place.
It's heavy enough to break every bone
in your body if it fell on you.
Yeah, it's dangerous. It's fun.
Right now, we have gigantic metal
piping lifted by
a new excavator operator,
directed by an old man.
What could go wrong, right?
Don't talk while I'm doing this.
Pointing out. No, I'm pointing out.
That's what you do with the bucket.
Ah, don't do that.
They set the pipes in a trench
and rebuild the road over them.
The issue is the culvert
and whether we're deep enough.
So, now, if we're not deep or deep
enough, you have a problem there.
OK, hey, Cab, are you about ready?
I don't know, Dad.
I don't think this is gonna work.
Hey, Dad, call your dog.
Come on, Blue, get over here.
Hurry up.
OK, Cab, pull that plug.
As soon as they take out the dam
blocking the creek,
they'll find out
if Jack's new channel runs downhill.
Hey, Dad, I don't think
it's gonna work.
I know you eyeballed it but,
you know,
your eyeballs aren't as young
as they once were.
Well, everything else works and I'm
gonna tell you that they work too.
We're gonna have to have a Plan B.
This thing is dry as a bone.
There's nothing in here.
Yeah, no, right there.
Don't go any deeper. Take that out.
(OVER RADIO) "OK, Todd, here comes
your water you've been wanting."
I don't think it's deep enough.
Oh, I might be wrong.
(OVER RADIO) "OK, Cab, I think
we're good for right now."
We're gonna be good.
It'll make it all the way down.
All the naysayers can suck eggs.
I think my dad's old eyeballs
are working.
For the first time
since they arrived in the Klondike,
the Hoffmans have clean water
for their wash plant.
Dad, you did a good job.
We got great clean water. Now we're
just missing our dang trommel.
Well, they got a really nice
swimming pool, that's for sure.
Down at Porcupine Creek in Alaska,
the Dakota boys' excavator is
back up and running.
Fred is back on the hunt for
gold-rich pay dirt.
That's just...
It's breaking up right now.
The Dakota boys
found their best gold last season
at the bottom of the glory hole.
Fred believes the same pay streak
runs along the bedrock
up to the surface
where he's now digging.
I know there's bedrock there
somewhere.
Already five weeks into the season,
the Dakota boys are
finally ready to run dirt.
Yeah, we're gonna wash a few rocks
right now.
(ENGINE STARTS)
Here comes the water!
This is easy digging.
But Dustin isn't happy.
He's convinced they need
to get down to the level of
the glory hole to find good gold.
I know we need 160 ounces,
but we ain't gonna find it
in this garbage dirt.
It's junk.
It just looks like topsoil.
This ain't even gonna make
a half an ounce.
No dirt I've ever run that
looked like this had gold in it.
It's just a waste of time.
This will be my last bucket, Fred.
I'm gonna shut her down.
I know, you wanna
look in the sluice box
and see if there's
anything in there already.
We got crap dirt, so I don't even
think we're gonna see a half ounce
a day.
After six hours of running,
Dustin's ready to start their
first cleanout of the season.
It's some (BLEEP) crappy dirt.
Spending $1,000 a day on fuel,
they'll need two-thirds of an ounce
of gold just to break even.
I don't think it's
even gonna pay for the diesel.
.
.
Up at Quartz Creek,
Todd and Jack's intake pond
is full of clean water,
and it's time to dam up
their new channel.
As usual, Jack does it his way.
Dad, you should've come down
this frigging ditch this way,
on this side of the ditch.
(OVER RADIO) "Yeah, I know,
but you just watch and learn."
Hey. Hey, whoa!
Dad, what are you gonna do?
Dad, are you sure this is...?
Holy snikey!
(LAUGHS)
Now, you know where we need the
rock, right? Right over here, right?
Well, I guess that's one way
to skin a cat.
My dad's a legend and you can't
argue with a legend, that's obvious.
At Porcupine Creek, Fred's crew is
hoping to finally see
their first gold of the season.
It's the first cleanout
at Porcupine.
Just look down that edge
and let's see you change your mind.
That's pyrite in there.
No, no, no.
Yeah, I see
a few little pieces there.
Fred is sure it's pay dirt.
Dustin's convinced it's just dirt.
They need at least two-thirds
of an ounce, worth around $1,000,
just to cover the cost of
the day's fuel.
Look at that. Oh, yeah.
I've found bigger, though. Good.
Well, we might pay for
our diesel after all.
There's more gold in this
than I thought. Fred was right.
I'm just a construction worker,
he's a miner.
I don't really look at dirt
the same way he does.
Look like three-quarters, Dustin.
What is your guess, Melody?
I do believe it's under an ounce.
So we're gonna weigh up.
One ounce, three, four, five.
One and a half ounces. Nice.
(LAUGHS)
An ounce and a half is worth
almost $2,500.
Fred's profit for the day is $1,500.
His season has finally begun.
An ounce and a half down
and one hundred and fifty-eight
and a half ounces to go.
That's impressive
for the dirt we were running.
And if that's on the top,
guess what's on the bottom.
At Indian River,
Dave Turin's wash plant
is firing on all cylinders
once again.
That's working good, Greg.
The two Hoffman crews have to rake
in a total of 100 ounces of gold
in the next two weeks to keep their
investor from shutting them down.
Pushing up pay dirt. Pushing up
pay dirt with gold in it! Whoo!
But only Dave's claim is
running dirt.
Bottom of my heart, Indian River is
gonna surprise a lot of people.
The Indian River crew
has been processing what
they hope is good pay dirt for
five days straight.
Hey, Greg, could you clear
the Grizzly?
OK, Freddy, that's it. Shut her down!
Done. Good day. Hopefully there's
some gold in this ground.
You wanna check out the sluice box,
see what we got?
After $30,000 and two weeks of work
to open up their first cut,...
Are we rich beyond
our wildest dreams?
..it's time to find out
if Indian River has gold.
I've been around a lot of sluices,
Dave. This one'll work good.
There's a piece of gold.
I'm seeing gold. Indian River gold.
This is good news.
We know there's gold in there,
it's just a matter of how much.
Good work, you guys.
We're gonna kick some butt now.
Dave brings the miners' moss from
the sluice box
to the gold recovery tent.
Fred Dodge begins the process
of rinsing any gold out of the mats.
After he washes them, he filters
the fine material left behind.
There's a lot riding on
this cleanout.
Actually, I think more so
than any of them.
With the crew at Quartz Creek
stalled until their new wash plant
arrives,
it's up to Indian River
to hit a gold streak.
You can see our gold is up top
and mixed in here.
With 100 ounces to get in just three
weeks, they need over 30 ounces,
worth about $50,000,
from this first week.
There's a lot of black sand,
though. A lot of black sand.
It's just absolute powder.
Not even an ounce, guys.
Not much gold there.
Dave and all the guys
at Indian River, Freddie,
they just did a clean-up and
I wanna see what the results are.
No fireworks, Todd.
What's that, a sample?
Oh, that is little. How much is that?
It's .87, Todd.
Six weeks into
their do or die season,
with two claims and two crews,
the Hoffmans don't even have
an ounce of gold.
When we first started
running material,
we were hoping for the best cleanup
we'd ever seen,
and we got just the opposite.
I can see where Dave's
gonna take this hard,
and he's the leader, so, you know,
it always falls upon that guy.
My dream was Indian River,
and we just delivered
the worst cleanup of our history.
But Indian River is
still gonna come back.
We're not dead,
we're not out of this thing.
We will come up with a solution
and a plan.
Right now, I don't know
that solution and plan,
but we're not out.
Don't count us out yet.
subtitles by Deluxe
.
In the Klondike gold fields,
two Hoffman crews
on two different claims are aiming
for a million-dollar season.
We can get this thousand ounces.
At Quartz Creek, Todd and Jack
clash over their new water supply.
Holy snikey.
Dad, this ain't gonna work.
(OVER RADIO) "Just watch and learn."
And Todd's main investor
threatens to pull the plug.
This looks like chaos here to me.
I might have backed the wrong horse.
While Todd treads water,
Dave Turin battles through...
Whoa! (BLEEP) We're on it!
..to his first cleanout
of the season.
I'm seeing gold. Indian River gold.
At Porcupine Creek,
Dakota Fred is out of luck, again.
Watch it!
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Oh, crap.
All of our stuff is breaking.
And at the Big Nugget mine, tempers
flare as Parker Schnabel's crew
is forced into bridge building
instead of getting to the gold.
Will you get out of here?!
Tell me where the grade is
and I'll do the (BLEEP),
and if you put that TV camera on
again, I'm gonna stick it up
your (BLEEP)!
It's 35 days into
the 150-day Klondike mining season.
At Indian River,
the Hoffmans' second claim,
Dave Turin is ready to run
pay dirt for the first time.
I've been dreaming about this day
all winter long.
We got the best wash plant in
the Yukon, we've got the best cut,
we've got gold in the ground.
Let's do this.
Let's roll. Yeah, let's do this.
Let's make some gold.
All the way, guys.
(ENGINE STARTS)
OK, we got water coming, Chris.
Are you ready for the shakers?
"OK, Greg."
(ENGINE WHIRS)
OK, start the feed conveyor.
It's time to get some Indian gold.
Three weeks ago, Dave's crew began
work on their claim at Indian River.
I think we have an opportunity
to beat the Hoffman crew.
They installed a massive new
wash plant.
This plant's gonna kick butt.
And when they finally hit
pay gravel,...
We got colour, Dave.
..the test results were
twice as good as Quartz Creek.
We got gold, boys. We're ready to go.
Chris Doumit is ready to load
their first bucket of dirt
into the hopper.
A conveyor moves the dirt up
nine metres to the shaker.
The screen deck separates out
the rocks
so only the fine material
flows into the sluice box.
This is our money-maker.
This is our sluice box.
Water then washes the dirt away.
Any gold will sink and get
caught in carpets in the sluice box,
known as miners' moss.
Looking good.
The tailings are perfectly clean.
I'm proud of this.
(CLUNK!)
Whoa! (BLEEP)
It's not running!
I don't know how to shut this down.
What happened?
The belt. It's not running,
it's sitting there spinning.
After running for two hours,
the belt feeding material
into the wash plant has stopped.
It's an old feeder. I don't know
what the issue is. Got a rock wedged
in it or something? Oh, shoot.
We blew a hose or something.
Oh, is that a hydraulic fan? Yep.
It's not good.
Is that what's leaking?
Sure looks like it to me.
Yeah, that's way down. Oh, no.
A cooling fan has failed,
causing the motor on the feed
conveyor to overheat and seize up.
We've got oil on the belt. Oh,
that's not good. Yep, got a leak.
The ruptured hydraulic fan
is leaking oil.
Unhook the hose.
It's really bad.
You don't want any oil in our
carpets, cos oil'll make gold float.
If the gold floats, it will wash
straight out of their sluice box.
Oil's definitely one of
the worst things you can get
in your sluice box.
I can't afford to take
that plant down.
Todd's still waiting on his plant,
so our whole operation is
relying on that.
That's the only thing producing gold
now. I gotta do something.
20 miles up the road,
Todd Hoffman is returning from an
emergency trip to British Columbia.
He was there to ensure his new
trommel was finished for delivery.
We had a successful trip. We're gonna
get that trommel, get it in place
and hopefully start mining ASAP
and get everything back on track.
Over the winter,
Todd made the bold decision
to invest in new mining technology
for this season.
There is nothing better than this.
I think we need to buy this.
We need to order it.
But four weeks into the season,
Todd's secret weapon had
still not arrived on the claim.
I need that thing running
- and I mean now.
While Todd was overseeing the
trommel build, his main investor,
Jason Otteson, arrived to find
Quartz Creek at a standstill.
Where's Todd?
I don't know.
Now Todd's back at the claim
to reassure his anxious investor.
How are you?
I don't know, we'll see.
Let's go on in and talk.
So our trommel is on its way.
Ten days from this point right now,
you're gonna see
equipment firing on all cylinders.
This looks like chaos here to me.
You know, it's not just equipment
out here, it's management issues.
I wanna see more organisation.
Walking around here, I saw people
just moving piles back and forth,
it looked like. It looked like
disarray. Some people didn't even
know where you were.
Thing is, a lot of things that
happened are out of our control.
One, I ordered a piece of equipment
and it didn't show up.
I had to jet down there,
I had to go and I had to go now.
I'm hearing excuses.
I'm not gonna come back here
and hear excuses next time.
We have a lot on the line.
You have three weeks to get
100 ounces.
Then we'll have to pull the plug.
The Hoffmans have just three weeks
to get $160,000-worth of gold,
more than they pulled out of
the Klondike in all of last season.
I don't think he's gonna get to his
goals. I think he's been coasting.
I might have backed the wrong horse.
With Todd's progress already
faltering,
the pressure is on to find gold,
and fast.
I don't like being
talked to like that by anybody,
but if I don't have 100 ounces
within three weeks,
he's gonna pull his financing
and... er... he's out.
600 miles south at Porcupine Creek,
Dakota Fred is digging for
his first pay dirt of the season.
Agh!
It has been five weeks already
we've been here
and we haven't turned
a single turn of dirt yet.
We gotta get going.
We've gotta get going.
At the beginning of the season,
the threat of a flood forced Fred
to abandon the gold-rich glory hole.
We're looking at a disaster.
He had to start again,
digging from the surface,
following a bedrock terrace
down to pay dirt.
I say we just stay
right up against it,
follow it on down
as far as we can go.
With a target of 160 ounces
this season,
Fred may finally be on the gold.
That looks like some
pretty nice dirt right there.
There might be some gold in that.
That reddish-orange stuff
is powdered up pyrite.
And, of course, that old pyrite
is associated with gold
so might be some finds in that stuff.
The 270 excavator is
the only machine Fred has
that can get down
to the gold-rich dirt.
But something's not right.
(METALLIC CRUNCH)
Something in here is broken
and it's flopping up and down.
Push down. That's good... Whoa!
(REVERSE BEEPS)
Hold, hold.
A little bit, little bit.
Whoa, right there.
That thing right here, see it?
That's not supposed to do that.
Hold right there.
Look like the shaft is broken.
Argh.
The excavator tracks
runs on idler wheels,
and one of the wheel mounts
has sheered off.
All of our stuff is breaking, Fred,
already.
When you can't move an excavator,
we got a serious problem.
Yes, we've got a serious problem.
I think we broke a shaft on one of
the big rollers for the track.
On the excavator?
Yep. So we'll see what happens.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I need to walk around for a minute.
The excavator is
our number one machine.
It cannot go down -
and it is down, so...
In this remote area, getting
a replacement could take weeks.
Until they find a solution,
the Dakota boys can't mine.
Well, we're certainly crippled
right now,
so... we don't have any plans
right this minute for
a backup machine, excavator,
so we'll have to see
what the situation is.
I'm not...
(SIGHS) I don't have any plans
right now.
.
.
At Porcupine Creek, the Dakota boys
have been dealt another blow.
Their excavator has
a broken idler wheel mount.
It's no telling when we'll be able
to see that thing up here.
The broken mount is precisely
machined to align the idler wheel
with the excavator's track.
Fred comes up with a radical plan.
He'll try to make the highly
specialised part with scrap metal.
He's gonna make this thing
right here out of steel
that we got from the Grizzly boys.
Oh, I don't know.
Sometimes you gotta use material
for what you gotta use it for.
The 270's idler wheel is held in
place by an axle in a steel mount.
Fred's scrap metal replacement
will have to be precise enough
to fit into the chassis
and strong enough to support
the 130kg idler wheel.
If Fred's fix holds,
he will still have to force the
track back over the replaced wheel.
I've gotta work on this thing
non-stop till I get it finished.
I think we've got it. I hope.
Nice. Good job, Fred.
The improvised axle fits,
but turning rusted steel bars
into a precision mount
is a different proposition.
Fred's never sat down
and waited for anything.
He tries to rig it in some way.
Fred is done, but his copy
of the idler wheel mount
looks nothing like the original.
It looks huge
compared to that thing. Yes, it is.
Let's find out if
this thing's gonna do it for us.
(BLEEP) That's a lot of steel. Yep.
I hope it works.
All right.
Up. There.
Beautiful.
It's sitting in there just right.
I like that.
We put the wheel on it, we're gonna
find out real quick if it's gonna
hold or not. Real quick.
Now their makeshift axle and mount
must hold the 130 kilogram wheel.
It's a little bit scary.
(LAUGHS) You set down on it,
it just snaps off.
Well, we'll be sitting here
for another couple of weeks.
It has to work.
Come on down. It's gotta stretch
about eight to ten inches.
Let's go up with it. There you go.
Slowly. That strap's not made for
weight. Not for that kind of weight.
With the weight of the excavator
balancing on just one track,...
Hold up. Come out a little bit.
..the crew can't
afford to make mistakes.
Give it a bump.
That's it. Whoo! Looks good to me.
Oh, it will fit.
(LAUGHS) That's good.
Fred's handiwork fits.
And now the fight begins.
Yep.
But now is the hard part.
We have to put the track back on
and it's a little precarious.
They still have to pull the track
back over the idler wheel using only
a lightweight chain and ratchet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep moving up.
Melody, go around there and hook that
onto a... Oh, yeah, go.
Assume the chain might break.
You know how bad I wanna do this?
Euch!
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Watch it!
Yeah.
I wish we'd have done it
the way I ask him to do it.
Wait. What are we talking about?
You just blamed that on me.
Let me look at the thing one time.
Piece of (BLEEP)!
I just don't think it's gonna go.
I'm having my doubts right now.
I don't think this track's
gonna fit over it.
I don't know
how he's gonna fix that.
North, in the Klondike...
The Hoffmans face an ultimatum
from their investor.
They have to get 100 ounces
out of their two claims
in less than three weeks
or he'll pull out his money.
We have to fix the oil leak so that
we don't have oil on our belt.
At Indian River, Dave Turin's is
the only crew with a wash plant,
and it's broken down.
Either a hose loose in here or
it's blown a seal, I'm not sure.
They have to find
and fix a hydraulic leak, fast.
If it's the fan motor,
I'm gonna be extremely upset
because we put a brand-new motor
on it.
Look at that.
Fred Dodge discovers that the casing
of the cooling fan motor is cracked
and leaking hydraulic oil.
It had a flaw in the casting.
I never thought it'd be a hydraulic.
Brand-new hydraulic motor.
Fan motor.
Their only hope is
a box of old spare parts.
Let me see what we've got here.
I don't know what
all the spare parts are except...
This is an old used motor.
It's had millions of tons
of material through it.
The motor is old,
but it's all they've got.
OK, get all the oil off the belt.
We're ready to go again.
The crew cleans up the oil.
It's time to see
if the old motor still works.
Is the master on over there?
OK, bump it.
Fire in the hole.
(MACHINE WHIRS)
It's turning.
It's turning?
Right on. We're ready to go again.
The Indian River crew lost a day,
but they're back in business.
We had a few hiccups today
but we worked through them.
Now we're gonna catch some gold.
Yesterday was putting it together
but, really, this is the day
a guy looks forward to.
Gold in the sluice box.
South, at Big Nugget, Parker
Schnabel is not mining for gold.
He's building a new bridge
to make some quick cash.
Five feet's it. That's the number.
We need money, you know?
We're in a tough spot and
we're getting paid pretty good money
to put these bridges in,
so it's well worth it.
In the off season, Parker borrowed
$150,000 from his grandfather, John,
to get a head start.
That pressure's on my shoulders.
Even after a record 25 ounce haul
worth $40,000,
he still found himself with
a serious cash flow problem.
When you need money,
you need money, right?
He was unable to pay his new crew.
You don't have enough money
to pay all of that.
To get out of the red, Parker has
taken on a bridge building contract,
but he only has one week
to complete the job.
We're only allowed to have this
bridge out for seven days,
so if we don't get it in today
we're gonna start losing money.
The bridge has to fit perfectly
on either side of Porcupine Creek.
We're just gonna double check
the span of the bridge to make sure
we're setting our sill right under
the anchor points of the bridge.
Parker's foreman, Steve Robbins,
needs the ground to be firm
in order to test the levels.
Do you wanna stomp this a bit
with your bucket? No.
But operator Chauncey Craig, with
50 years' construction experience,
isn't used to taking orders.
Chauncey, take your bucket
and beat on it.
No. Steve, I told Roy Johnson
what the (BLEEP) I'm gonna do.
Now, if you wanna run this (BLEEP),
you go ahead.
I just want you to tamp on it
so we can see.
You do the other side!
I'm waiting for a bridge to get
across the water.
I'm gonna get in my pickup and go
home. (BLEEP) OK. Sorry about that.
I just want you to stomp on it
so we can see.
If you get (BLEEP) here, tell me
where grade is and I'll do (BLEEP),
and if you put that (BLEEP)
TV camera on again, I'm gonna stick
it up your (BLEEP)!
We don't have much time to
get this bridge in and,
if we're gonna get it in on time,
Steve and Chauncey need
to start working together.
Steve, what you need to do is stay
calm, cos you gotta keep me calm.
OK.
Chauncey? Yeah?
I just wanna make sure that
we listen to Steve
and everybody's on the same page
as we do that kind of stuff.
You know, let's try it
one more time. OK.
Chauncey makes peace with Steve and
they get back to the task in hand.
We're trying to get
the bridge in a position
where it'll be easy
to pull across the creek,
so we put a log under it,
then they're gonna push it
so that the log's in the middle and
the bridge is just teetering on it.
On the east side of the river, an
excavator rolls the bridge section
as far across the river as it can.
All right, hold that, hold that,
hold that. All right, whoa!
Go ahead and push down on it.
Go ahead and push down, OK.
If the bridge section falls into
the river, the job will turn into
a salvage mission,
costing Parker thousands of dollars.
If he pushes it into the water
it'll take off.
Don't let it, just let your end up.
On the west side, Chauncey has
to pull the bridge section
the final metre across the river.
OK. Off the bridge.
This is gonna be pushing its limits
right here.
Got a little more, Chauncey?
This half of the bridge
weighs 30 tons.
Is that all you got?
Is that all you've got?
The excavator is
only rated to lift 23 tons.
That excavator is right at its max
and I don't know
that it's gonna do this.
.
.
At the Big Nugget mine,
Parker Schnabel is replacing
the bridge over Porcupine Creek.
It sucks that we're about
six inches away from getting it up
on the abutment.
His excavator isn't powerful enough
to lift half of the bridge
into place, but to make quick cash
he needs the bridge finished today.
We need to bring
a second excavator over.
Hopefully two excavators will
get to the other side on their own.
If they can't, we got a problem.
Parker attempts to cross the river
in the second excavator.
If it gets stuck he'll lose
valuable time getting it out.
Oh.
Here we go.
Bingo.
Reach over and
take a bit of the weight
and that's all we gotta do. I'm
hooking you up to that other side.
That excavator couldn't do it so we
had to bring a second one over, and
that loses us quite a bit of time.
But, I mean, we'll get it.
Chauncey's gonna do all the work.
Right. He's gonna take a link.
The two excavators attempt to lift
the bridge into place.
Ready to go, here we go.
All right, straight up.
Steve Robbins takes charge.
Come on in, come on in,
you've gotta come in.
Perfect coordination is needed
to get the bridge in place.
There you go. No, easy, easy!
Easy, Chauncey!
Walk the track back, track back.
Make sure we don't hit the abutment.
Yo, come on. Go, yeah, whoa, whoa!
Whoa!
Hold! Hey, track back, Chauncey.
You're pushing it way over
the other way.
Track back, keep going.
You're good, keep going.
Good.
All right, just come on in.
Yay.
Wow.
Right on.
What time is it?
The crew has only three hours
of daylight left
to hit Parker's deadline.
Come on!
Back up a little more. Good.
And you're just gonna push it.
A little late.
Perfect. Right there.
So we got both halves of
the bridge in.
We're hooking them together
and the tough part's over.
We're back to mining.
With the bridge money,
Parker can finally pay his crew.
But when they leave for the
weekend, Parker decides to stay on.
So, I'm giving Steve and Gary
the rest of the day off. OK.
But, I want the plant
to keep running,
so you and I are gonna do that.
Right on. Can you handle that?
I think so. OK, good.
With only two of them working,
Parker has to dig dirt for
Austin to stockpile...
..and drive the loader
to feed the wash plant.
Without experienced crew,
Parker's not confident.
Looks good to me.
We're taking a bit of a risk because
there's a chance
we'll lose some gold,
but we need to be able to move
the yards, you know?
That's what matters to me
more than a few, you know,
percentage points on our recovery.
After running
the plant on their own for a day,
it's time for the boys
to see how they've done.
(ENGINE STOPS)
Time to look in the box.
Look at that (BLEEP).
That's (BLEEP) crazy.
I know. It's awesome.
It is.
I've never seen anything like that
before in my life.
It looks really good. It looks
like we had a really good day.
Across Porcupine Creek,
the Dakota boys are fixing
their broken down excavator.
We should be digging right now.
They've lost two days and,
until they get its track back on,
they can't dig for gold.
We can't mine at all right now.
There is only one thing left
for Fred to try.
We're gonna try to walk it on.
Everything's gotta come off.
Come through.
We're gonna set it on the ground
and just drive it and pull on it
as it goes, and we're hoping
it's just gonna jump on track.
Just like a bicycle chain.
Slowly driving the excavator forward
will either force
the track back on...
Watch your toes.
..or break it beyond repair.
First, they pull
the track into position
with the excavator's bucket.
Hold!
Come on forward. Full forward. Hold.
Let go.
Then Dustin inches
the 27,000kg machine forward.
You're standing way too close
to that track.
Well, move the back, the bucket back.
Go ahead. Hold right there.
It's on, it's on, it's on!
Hey, all right!
Yeah, baby.
All right.
Whoo!
(LAUGHS) I'm psyched.
I thought, at some point,
that was never gonna get on there.
That was a good feeling, seeing the
thing just jump right on there, just
like it was a saddle on a horse.
With nothing but scrap metal
and ingenuity,
Fred fixed their key piece
of machinery.
They can finally get back to work.
We'll be able to get back to mining,
getting some more of that gold.
Yes!
Up at Quartz Creek...
Todd's crew is
preparing for the arrival
of their custom-made wash plant.
They've spent two days
and thousands of dollars
digging a new intake pond.
All of last season,
the water they pulled from
Quartz Creek was far too dirty.
The gold floats in this dirty water.
We have made a goal of 1,000 ounces.
We're not gonna get it
if we use this kind of water.
I don't care what kind of equipment
you have, the cleaner the water,
the quicker the gold drops out.
Jack's found
another source of water.
Calder Creek,
360 metres across the road.
This is Quartz Creek water,
this is Calder Creek water.
OK, Dad, what have we got,
about 400 yards
all the way to our intake pond?
Yeah.
To dig his channel,
Jack has borrowed Greg Remsburg
from Indian River.
Greg has 20 years' construction
experience.
I was told to come dig a canal
and make it so that it drains all
the way to the new intake pond.
It's just my eyeball
at this point in time,
but I think we may be going uphill
from the creek to the pond.
I don't think anybody looked at this
very closely
before they said go ahead.
Really should take the laser and
find out what the elevations are,
see if we really have
a positive fall or not.
A laser leveller, or transit,
shines a horizontal beam
at a marked post.
Using a transit,
Jack could confirm that ground level
at the pond is lower than the creek.
If it isn't, the water won't flow.
But the Hoffmans
don't have a transit.
Somebody stole our transit
so we did this by eyeball,
but my dad's eyeballs aren't exactly
as young as they once were,
so hopefully
we got it going downhill
and we actually get water
in our trench
and that the intake pond fills up.
That's kind of the plan.
I eyeballed it as good as I can,
so don't know yet.
Todd walks along the canal
to check for himself.
Dad, this ain't even going downhill.
Argh!
Hey, Dad, I don't think
it's gonna work.
That's the $6,000 screw up
this year.
Without this,
we're not running at Quartz Creek.
We're dead in the water.
The only way that we can do it
right now is we have to just try it.
While Greg digs the channel,
Jack gets the rookie miners to build
a tunnel under the road.
You gotta really watch yourself.
OK.
The steel pipes have to be
carefully lifted into place.
It's heavy enough to break every bone
in your body if it fell on you.
Yeah, it's dangerous. It's fun.
Right now, we have gigantic metal
piping lifted by
a new excavator operator,
directed by an old man.
What could go wrong, right?
Don't talk while I'm doing this.
Pointing out. No, I'm pointing out.
That's what you do with the bucket.
Ah, don't do that.
They set the pipes in a trench
and rebuild the road over them.
The issue is the culvert
and whether we're deep enough.
So, now, if we're not deep or deep
enough, you have a problem there.
OK, hey, Cab, are you about ready?
I don't know, Dad.
I don't think this is gonna work.
Hey, Dad, call your dog.
Come on, Blue, get over here.
Hurry up.
OK, Cab, pull that plug.
As soon as they take out the dam
blocking the creek,
they'll find out
if Jack's new channel runs downhill.
Hey, Dad, I don't think
it's gonna work.
I know you eyeballed it but,
you know,
your eyeballs aren't as young
as they once were.
Well, everything else works and I'm
gonna tell you that they work too.
We're gonna have to have a Plan B.
This thing is dry as a bone.
There's nothing in here.
Yeah, no, right there.
Don't go any deeper. Take that out.
(OVER RADIO) "OK, Todd, here comes
your water you've been wanting."
I don't think it's deep enough.
Oh, I might be wrong.
(OVER RADIO) "OK, Cab, I think
we're good for right now."
We're gonna be good.
It'll make it all the way down.
All the naysayers can suck eggs.
I think my dad's old eyeballs
are working.
For the first time
since they arrived in the Klondike,
the Hoffmans have clean water
for their wash plant.
Dad, you did a good job.
We got great clean water. Now we're
just missing our dang trommel.
Well, they got a really nice
swimming pool, that's for sure.
Down at Porcupine Creek in Alaska,
the Dakota boys' excavator is
back up and running.
Fred is back on the hunt for
gold-rich pay dirt.
That's just...
It's breaking up right now.
The Dakota boys
found their best gold last season
at the bottom of the glory hole.
Fred believes the same pay streak
runs along the bedrock
up to the surface
where he's now digging.
I know there's bedrock there
somewhere.
Already five weeks into the season,
the Dakota boys are
finally ready to run dirt.
Yeah, we're gonna wash a few rocks
right now.
(ENGINE STARTS)
Here comes the water!
This is easy digging.
But Dustin isn't happy.
He's convinced they need
to get down to the level of
the glory hole to find good gold.
I know we need 160 ounces,
but we ain't gonna find it
in this garbage dirt.
It's junk.
It just looks like topsoil.
This ain't even gonna make
a half an ounce.
No dirt I've ever run that
looked like this had gold in it.
It's just a waste of time.
This will be my last bucket, Fred.
I'm gonna shut her down.
I know, you wanna
look in the sluice box
and see if there's
anything in there already.
We got crap dirt, so I don't even
think we're gonna see a half ounce
a day.
After six hours of running,
Dustin's ready to start their
first cleanout of the season.
It's some (BLEEP) crappy dirt.
Spending $1,000 a day on fuel,
they'll need two-thirds of an ounce
of gold just to break even.
I don't think it's
even gonna pay for the diesel.
.
.
Up at Quartz Creek,
Todd and Jack's intake pond
is full of clean water,
and it's time to dam up
their new channel.
As usual, Jack does it his way.
Dad, you should've come down
this frigging ditch this way,
on this side of the ditch.
(OVER RADIO) "Yeah, I know,
but you just watch and learn."
Hey. Hey, whoa!
Dad, what are you gonna do?
Dad, are you sure this is...?
Holy snikey!
(LAUGHS)
Now, you know where we need the
rock, right? Right over here, right?
Well, I guess that's one way
to skin a cat.
My dad's a legend and you can't
argue with a legend, that's obvious.
At Porcupine Creek, Fred's crew is
hoping to finally see
their first gold of the season.
It's the first cleanout
at Porcupine.
Just look down that edge
and let's see you change your mind.
That's pyrite in there.
No, no, no.
Yeah, I see
a few little pieces there.
Fred is sure it's pay dirt.
Dustin's convinced it's just dirt.
They need at least two-thirds
of an ounce, worth around $1,000,
just to cover the cost of
the day's fuel.
Look at that. Oh, yeah.
I've found bigger, though. Good.
Well, we might pay for
our diesel after all.
There's more gold in this
than I thought. Fred was right.
I'm just a construction worker,
he's a miner.
I don't really look at dirt
the same way he does.
Look like three-quarters, Dustin.
What is your guess, Melody?
I do believe it's under an ounce.
So we're gonna weigh up.
One ounce, three, four, five.
One and a half ounces. Nice.
(LAUGHS)
An ounce and a half is worth
almost $2,500.
Fred's profit for the day is $1,500.
His season has finally begun.
An ounce and a half down
and one hundred and fifty-eight
and a half ounces to go.
That's impressive
for the dirt we were running.
And if that's on the top,
guess what's on the bottom.
At Indian River,
Dave Turin's wash plant
is firing on all cylinders
once again.
That's working good, Greg.
The two Hoffman crews have to rake
in a total of 100 ounces of gold
in the next two weeks to keep their
investor from shutting them down.
Pushing up pay dirt. Pushing up
pay dirt with gold in it! Whoo!
But only Dave's claim is
running dirt.
Bottom of my heart, Indian River is
gonna surprise a lot of people.
The Indian River crew
has been processing what
they hope is good pay dirt for
five days straight.
Hey, Greg, could you clear
the Grizzly?
OK, Freddy, that's it. Shut her down!
Done. Good day. Hopefully there's
some gold in this ground.
You wanna check out the sluice box,
see what we got?
After $30,000 and two weeks of work
to open up their first cut,...
Are we rich beyond
our wildest dreams?
..it's time to find out
if Indian River has gold.
I've been around a lot of sluices,
Dave. This one'll work good.
There's a piece of gold.
I'm seeing gold. Indian River gold.
This is good news.
We know there's gold in there,
it's just a matter of how much.
Good work, you guys.
We're gonna kick some butt now.
Dave brings the miners' moss from
the sluice box
to the gold recovery tent.
Fred Dodge begins the process
of rinsing any gold out of the mats.
After he washes them, he filters
the fine material left behind.
There's a lot riding on
this cleanout.
Actually, I think more so
than any of them.
With the crew at Quartz Creek
stalled until their new wash plant
arrives,
it's up to Indian River
to hit a gold streak.
You can see our gold is up top
and mixed in here.
With 100 ounces to get in just three
weeks, they need over 30 ounces,
worth about $50,000,
from this first week.
There's a lot of black sand,
though. A lot of black sand.
It's just absolute powder.
Not even an ounce, guys.
Not much gold there.
Dave and all the guys
at Indian River, Freddie,
they just did a clean-up and
I wanna see what the results are.
No fireworks, Todd.
What's that, a sample?
Oh, that is little. How much is that?
It's .87, Todd.
Six weeks into
their do or die season,
with two claims and two crews,
the Hoffmans don't even have
an ounce of gold.
When we first started
running material,
we were hoping for the best cleanup
we'd ever seen,
and we got just the opposite.
I can see where Dave's
gonna take this hard,
and he's the leader, so, you know,
it always falls upon that guy.
My dream was Indian River,
and we just delivered
the worst cleanup of our history.
But Indian River is
still gonna come back.
We're not dead,
we're not out of this thing.
We will come up with a solution
and a plan.
Right now, I don't know
that solution and plan,
but we're not out.
Don't count us out yet.
subtitles by Deluxe
.