Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 3, Episode 6 - Game Changer - full transcript
Todd finally takes delivery of the Turbo Trommel. Dave's mine could close if they can't improve on their disastrous first clean up. The Dakota boys are forced to run second hand dirt and Parker sets a new goal.
At the edge of the Arctic Circle...
Oh, yeah.
..four crews are mining for gold.
We're running dirt now.
In the Klondike, the Hoffman crew is
split into two teams
on two different claims.
I'm seeing gold.
They want 1,000 ounces of gold worth
$1.6m.
We could have a million dollar
season.
At Quartz Creek, Todd Hoffman's crew
is yet to run any dirt.
Season's running out. We gotta get
going.
His enormous new Trommel is late.
And his entire season now depends on
getting it running.
I've waited a month for this
Trommel.
We're not gonna lose it here.
The footing's starting to let go.
Stop-stop.
Just down the road at Indian River...
A third of the season is gone
and we got absolutely nothing to
show for it.
..Dave Turin's crew has found
less than an ounce of gold
and may have to stop mining.
You think we should just abandon
this thing?
In Alaska...
Ready to make some gold.
..the Dakota boys making a shocking
discovery...
I suspect it's all been mined.
..that pits father against son.
This is crappy dirt and -
It's not crappy dirt.
Let's put it through the plant.
And over at Big Nugget...
Let's start it up.
..Parker Schnabel needs more gold
in a week... (BLEEP)
..than he got all of last season.
He's just crazy enough to do it.
at Indian River, Dave Turin's crew
is already a third of the way through
the season.
They have stopped all mining
after a disastrous clean-up produced
less than an ounce of gold.
Fred Dodge is in the cut, trying to
work out what went wrong.
Just trying a test pan here.
If this material is worthless...
big problem.
This issue right here, I had no
idea.
I didn't anticipate it.
It's very stressful when you can't
figure it out.
When Dave Turin test-drilled Indian
River,
the results showed twice as much gold
as at Quartz Creek.
It's good. I think we might hit our
thousand ounces.
Dave's team has spent the last four
weeks
and over $50,000 opening a cut and
running dirt.
Time to get some Indian gold.
But they got less than $15,000 worth
of gold.
Not even an ounce, guys.
The worst clean-up ever for the
Hoffman crew.
Now Indian River's future hangs in
the balance.
Dave needs to find the gold and fast.
We drilled it but our drilling can
only give you a spot check.
It doesn't give you the whole
breadth and width of that cut.
I hope for the best. The question is
how much gold is in the ground?
I wanna see multiple colours per
pan.
Sheesh. Not a colour.
I'll just keep testing.
I've got one.
Not a speck.
"Hey, Dave. Can you come down in
the pit and see me right away?"
What's up?
I've got five minute colours in 17
pans.
Five colours is all you've come up
with?
Barely visible in the pan.
I'm sorry, Dave. I don't know even
what to say.
I had good drill results. Is Fred
missing some of the gold?
Do you abandon the cut?
Right now I don't have an answer.
Todd calls an emergency meeting.
Dave, Freddie, we're coming off our
worst clean-up we've ever had.
I tell you what, we ain't gonna get
a thousand ounces unless it's in
that cut.
Do you think we should just abandon
this thing?
We've got way too much money in it,
Todd. I say we can't abandon it.
I think our best option is to just
strip away a foot at a time
or two feet at a time and then test.
Eventually we're gonna hit gold.
So, that's my plan.
OK.
But let's hope it didn't have
gold just where we drilled
and not anywhere else.
The pressure is on me. Definitely.
No doubt about it. And I feel it.
Because now it's up to me to find
gold after the two or three feet.
If it fails, I can't point the
finger at anybody.
Two miles north-east at Quartz
Creek...
Todd's crew is on good pay dirt but
they still don't have a wash plant.
Hey, how's it going down here?
Right now we're having to stockpile
pay dirt.
We're having a lot of problems right
now.
We don't have a wash plant.
If we had a wash plant, we could be
running this material right now.
But we don't.
We haven't run any
gold here at Quartz yet.
It's a nightmare right now.
In the off-season, Todd ordered a
revolutionary new Trommel.
I think this is the new thing in
mining.
He ripped out Little Blue to make way
for it.
It's out with the old and in with
the new.
It's already a third of the way
through the season
and the Trommel hasn't been
delivered.
I got a mountain of pay dirt right
here
and I got nothing to run it through.
It's getting to the point right now
where there's doubts that we're even
gonna run at all.
Todd is losing the confidence of his
crew and his 1,000 ounce gold
is slipping away with every passing
day.
He calls Ray, the Trommel's inventor
and manufacturer.
"Hello?"
Hey, Ray, it's Todd.
How's our Trommel?
"Oh, it's coming along good, Todd.
Just a few things to put on and -"
We just can't have any more
adjustments.
You need to just get it on that
truck and I need it here.
"Yeah, I'll have her done by -"
No. You gotta get it on that truck
and you gotta get it down here.
"It'll be on the road. For sure.
Guaranteed."
All right, man, I'm counting on
you.
Do not be late, man, I gotta get it
here.
"You got it, Todd."
This Trommel is gonna be the answer
for us.
We just gotta get that frickin'
thing here.
Ray promises delivery in five days.
The Trommel's on its way. It's gonna
be here.
I'd like to have this pad ready and
be mining within 24 hours
by the time it shows up.
Mitch, you're the only one that's
talked to Ray on the layout.
We need a 53-foot ramp. We'll put
the Trommel on that ramp,
excavator right behind it, start
feeding it.
Guys, here's the deal.
We gotta get this done and we gotta
get it done today.
So let's bust some ass and let's
catch up.
With the clock ticking, Todd throws
everything he has at preparing for
the Trommel's arrival.
OK, Andy, push that stuff up and
over the top.
10-4. I'll just kinda spread out
there thin.
Andy's pushing the dirt right into
this ramp.
That's where the Trommel's gonna
sit. Right along here.
Our machine is finally on its way.
It's getting close. You know, we're
excited.
We'll get the Trommel in and we will
kill it. We'll get a lot of gold.
It's about time. Season's running
out. We gotta get going.
In Alaska at the Big Nugget mine,
17-year-old Parker Schnabel and his
crew
are mining the pay streak in
Emerson Trench.
Hey, careful on that one. I put a
little too much in there.
All right. I'll baby it.
Good man.
Hope it'll make it over there.
Parker is pushing his crew hard
so they can get back to the only
virgin ground left on his claim.
We need to try to hurry all this
stuff up.
We're digging Emerson Trench so we
can get up to Smith Creek.
Last year a test revealed that Smith
Creek
holds a massive deposit of gold.
I mean this could secure the future
of Vermont.
But just as Parker was about to start
mining up on Smith Creek,
melting snow destroyed his only
access road.
The hill is dangerous. You shoot
down there like a toboggan,
flop into this river and join
the rest of the people wherever
heaven is.
Now, a third of the way through his
season, Parker is determined
to build a safe road up to the gold
on Smith Creek.
To fund the road construction
he needs 50 ounces or $80,000 out of
Emerson Trench.
And Parker is not patient.
So, I know you've been sitting in a
truck all day but, um,
it's for good reason cos we're going
for 50 ounces this week.
50 ounces. We'll need a lot of dirt
so keep doing your thing.
You got it.
It sounds like it's gonna be a tough
week. He's pushing for 50 ounces.
He's just crazy enough to do it.
I'll have my work cut out keeping
enough material at the plant.
Oh, yeah.
Last year Parker found only 35 ounces
of gold, worth $56,000.
He now wants one and a half times as
much in just one week.
And to get it, he'll have to push his
operation to its limit.
We have to run a lot of dirt to get
50 ounces. But we're going to.
Today we'll put about 1,000 yards
through our plant.
This plant's never seen 1,000 yards
in a week before,
let alone in a day.
I don't know if the plant's gonna be
able to handle that.
That's having a hard time.
The sluices are starting to plug a
little bit.
You know, we're pushing it to the
max.
There's a new rattle.
(CLANKING)
(BLEEP)
That's a big part of the bearing
right there.
The extra load on the Trommel has
destroyed a bearing.
Cut the power.
Just six hours into his big push,
Parker has to shut down the plant.
You know, trying to get 50 ounces
this week...
Um...it's gonna be even tougher now.
At Indian River, Dave Turin and his
crew are digging down once again
to try and find gold deeper in their
cut.
Todd's frustrated.
He's critical of the decision we
made to run that top gravel.
But I think if we abandoned this cut
we'd be completely at a loss.
At first, Dave believed all the
gravel in his cut contained gold.
But running the top layer produced
almost none.
Dave now thinks that the gold is
sitting deeper in the gravel.
To find out, he has to remove another
60cm from the entire cut.
We think there's gold at the bottom.
You make the best decision you can
and you live with it and you move
ahead.
It's kinda frustrating.
There's not even enough gold in this
to run it through the plant.
We gotta see these sluice boxes
filled with gold.
So far we haven't seen but a trace.
Right now it just looks like we're
moving dirt on a construction site.
That doesn't pay anybody.
To make matters worse,
Fred Dodge must leave the claim to
attend his own business.
My heart's invested now.
It isn't for financial gain for me.
It's to help these guys in any way
that I can.
Really got to become friends with
'em.
Thanks, Freddie. Appreciate it, man.
Great work.
Hope I helped. Gotta take care of my
own business.
I'll be back.
I guarantee when you get back we'll
have real pay dirt for you. OK.
Yep.
See you later.
By the next morning, the crew has
their cut 60cm deeper.
Dave heads out to test the new
gravel.
We have a financial responsibility.
We can't go out here and do this for
practice. That's just foolishness.
If there's no gold in that cut,
it's gonna be really difficult
to pack up and leave this place.
That will be one of the hardest
decision in my life.
Our luck hasn't been good.
We've taken another couple of feet
of gravel off.
And I wanna see if, uh, there's any
gold in - in these gravels.
For this ground to be profitable,
Dave needs to see at least 15 colours
in this pan.
There's gold in the pan. It's fine
but I see about one, two, three,
four... six colours?
That's better than any pan Freddie
had.
So, this is encouraging.
Dave sees enough gold in the first
pan to test the rest of the cut.
Well, that's a pretty good pan.
That's got about 15 good colours.
Every pan I've done today has had
gold in it.
So, that's a good sign. So we're
gonna start sluicing.
Fifteen colours is good enough to
fire up the wash plant once again.
Hey, guys. I think we're down on the
gold. We're back on it, you guys.
Sounds good, Dave. That's awesome
news, buddy.
Greg, knock that pile out.
We're ready to go.
10-4. Sounds good.
Good job, guys.
Get the plant running.
How's it going up there, Chris?
I tell you what, we're processing
material today.
This is it. We're back at it. We got
gold-bearing soils
we're heading up to the plant with
'em.
Well, things are going our way.
At Porcupine Creek in Southeast
Alaska
the Dakota boys are digging dirt
on their way back down to the Glory
Hole.
All the way back, we're just gonna
pull that all down.
Follow the bedrock right down,
wherever it goes.
It's time to go ahead and just mine
this whole area here.
The threat of a flood at the
beginning of the season,
forced Fred and Dustin to cut a new
route down to the Glory Hole gold.
I say we just stay right up against
it, follow it on down.
There's a good chance we're gonna
find a deposit of gold on that area.
Now one last obstacle stands between
the Dakota boys and the gold.
The old cabin is in the way.
It's about 60 years old.
We're just kinda working around it
but it's served its purpose.
The roof is falling in on it. It's
in disrepair now. Falling down.
I figure we got days
and days, probably weeks, of mining
just in this area, right under this
cabin.
Right now I'm hitting bedrock. Ten
feet over here.
I need to just clean off this
bedrock
all the way underneath this thing.
Then I'm ready to make some gold.
What cabin? The one up on the hill?
(CHUCKLES)
I don't see no cabin!
Why don't we just go ahead and pick
this roof off here right now
and get rid of it all at one time.
Right. Now we're hooking it up and,
uh, we get a little bind on that
and we're gonna see how it
hangs up there.
To save time, Fred wants to lift off
the entire roof in one piece.
Is it not coming over yet?
12 inches from the end of the tin.
Two inches. Contact.
Start pulling on the chain.
Pick the whole damn thing up.
Up, up, up, up.
Swing right, swing right. Right,
right, right.
The window has got it hooked
together here.
Shake it a little bit.
Get your saw blade out of there.
All right. What am I cutting?
Cut right below the chain right
there.
Stand by.
Pick it all up.
Take the whole damn thing.
The cabin is outta here.
Might as well get back to mining.
Do what we do best.
Dig some dirt, wash some rocks.
We can start digging in that area
now that the cabin's outta there.
I hope we'll start seeing some real
gold.
And, uh, I'm excited to see some
real gold.
The ground under the cabin is exposed
for the first time in 60 years.
The Dakota Boy immediately assess its
value.
This looks like the tail end.
I suspect it's all been mined.
It's crappy dirt.
It's not crappy dirt. I think this
material's gonna be fine.
It's completely useless.
We might squeeze a little bit of
gold out of that.
We're gonna have to move it
somewhere anyway.
It's a waste of time. We need to get
down to some good stuff.
Let's go ahead and put it through
the plant.
It's been probably mined 100 years
ago and they were a little bit
inefficient with their processing.
We would make more money if we spent
two days getting rid of this stuff
throwing it away and then get down
to the good stuff.
I don't agree. If you have to take
this stuff and just throw it away
you got nothing.
I'm not here to break even.
I wanna get down to the gold.
I tell you what. If there's not
three ounces in that box,
we'll clean that thing up tomorrow.
You can take this and get rid of it.
Otherwise, we're gonna be running
this stuff.
If there's three ounces, or more,
I'll run every bucket of this stuff.
I won't mention it ever again.
I'll run every single bucket.
We got a deal?
Sounds like a good deal.
I'll abide by it but it's gonna have
more than three ounces in it.
OK. There's no doubt. We'll see.
All right.
This stuff is just junk.
There's not gonna be
any gold in it, I don't think.
It just doesn't seem worth it.
At the Big Nugget Mine, Parker
Schnabel has set a goal
of 50 ounces for the week...
OK, I'm gonna go back up.
..but his grandfather's 26-year-old
wash plant has failed him.
The bearing on the upper side
here...
..completely went out on us.
I gotta change this outside bearing
right here.
Gary Grogan has the new bearing, but
still needs to get the old one off.
Parker's crew has already lost 24
hours,
and is eager to get back to mining.
You're still trying to get the old
one off? Yeah.
This part is still seized on the
shaft itself.
I'm gonna have to either break it
off,
or try to pry it off.
If I can't get it off right here,
I'm gonna have to pull this whole
wheel out,
take it over to the shop, and pull
it off over there.
Now, that's a whole day's worth of
work.
If Parker loses the rest of the day,
there's no chance he'll reach
$80,000 in gold, this week.
What do you wanna do? I think I'm
gonna have to torch it off.
(GRUNTS) There's the broken piece.
And there's part of the bearings.
(CHUCKLES) What's left of 'em.
Right, I'll be able to set the new
one in and screw it back down.
We're ready to go. Let's start it
up. Stand back!
(ENGINE RUMBLES)
Look at that!
(SQUEAKING)
The wash plant is finally running
again,
but Parker has now lost
over a day to vital repair work.
We're a little behind, so...
..we have to pick up our hours cos
we're pushing the plant to the max.
The only thing left to do is run
more hours...
..which is kinda hellish, but if we
wanna do it, we gotta do it.
So, tonight, we'll probably go
awhile.
A lot of hours? A lot of hours.
Sound good? Are you up for it?
Definitely.
Right. Cool.
We are pushing it a little hard
here,
so we're trying as hard as we can,
to keep enough material over there
for them running the plant until
midnight.
We'll be able to go until 12, so it
would be nice, cos we need it
if we're gonna get 50 ounces this
week.
It's tough right now because...
..you know, we're tired, we've been
working long hours.
You can't see, really, cos it's
pretty dark.
You know, this...this plant's being
pushed hard.
At midnight, Parker shuts down to
check the sluices.
He'll know right away if their hard
work has paid off.
Looks like there's some gold down
there.
Yeah, I know, right. Yeah.
That's what I call a box full of
gold.
It was a pretty bad day
and we ran a long day,
hoping to make up for that.
Judging by what I see in this box,
it looks like we did.
We did, yeah. (LAUGHS)
At Indian River,
Dave Turin's wash plant has been
running
150 yards of pay dirt an hour,
for three long days.
Hanging in there. Hanging in there.
We're running dirt now. We're
running dirt.
Last bucket, Chris. Last bucket,
Davey.
We're done. We're done for the day.
5200 yards, man.
Flawless.
We couldn't ask for a better day.
(RUMBLING STOPS)
For the first time, Dave begins a
clean up,
without their mining expert Fred
Dodge.
Fred designed their sluice box, but
has been called away, on business.
I'm nervous.
We busted our ass. OK.
I know there's gold in here.
But I do not know this part of it.
Freddie's the expert.
He's not here.
That's the only thing - it just
makes me nervous.
To me, this is more critical than
digging the pit.
Freddie showed us how to do it.
All we have to do is mimic what he
did.
To remove the gravel from the sluice
box,
the crew has to run the pump at
exactly the right speed,
for exactly
the right amount of time.
What we're doing now is
just rinsing the light gravel,
so we got water going and it's
taking all the loose gravel out
and leaving the gold.
Freddie said three minutes if we're
at 1450.
We didn't do that much, when Fred
was here.
We're at 1450.
Hit the bypass and let it run for
three minutes.
Was it that much water? Yeah.
Running the right amount of water
for the right amount of time through
the sluice boxes
creates a vortex behind the riffles
that removes lighter material.
Too much water for too long
creates a vortex so powerful
it will flush the gold straight out
of the sluice box.
We watched Freddie do it.
I'm new at this.
Are you sure that's OK?
You're not worried about
washing any gold out right now?
I wouldn't go any more than this.
It's scaring me.
OK. We'll fix that, right now.
Chris shuts off the water.
The crew looks to see if there is
any gold left in the sluice.
Right now, I'm not seeing any gold.
The water hasn't drained completely
out,
but I was hoping to see some gold.
Hard to say.
There's little flakes in here.
I see one, little tiny piece.
Small.
I'm not seeing any.
Did we flush it? Not looking good.
We had a plant, we had a plan,
everything was clicking along,
and it turns out to be more of a
nightmare.
I'm not experienced enough, that's
what makes it hard.
Todd Hoffman is also struggling.
He is now seven weeks behind
schedule...
..but his cutting-edge Trommel has
finally made it up to Dawson City.
Todd meets its inventor Ray,
to guide the 27,000 kg machine
up the dirt road to Quartz Creek.
We're a third of the way
through the season,
and now I'm playing catch up...
Yeah.
So I hope - I hope she performs as
good as you say.
I know we're starting a little bit
behind here,
but I'm telling you, when you see
this machine running,
it's quick, it's quick, it runs.
They've brought the Trommel
over 1800 miles
to the Klondike.
But, before Ray can show off the
massive machine,
it has to make it through the most
dangerous stretch of road.
Hey, Mitch, go ahead of me.
Take a look at this bridge.
Let me know when you've got
a heads-up on it.
Just going across it now, I'm gonna
take a look here.
OK, Shorty, I got Mitch
checking out the bridge here.
Just come up to it and go ahead and
stop.
OK, I've got that, thank you.
We're gonna have to definitely take
a good look.
Let's take a look underneath it,
see what we've got here.
There's no rating on it.
The bridge is not marked with a
weight limit,
and the ground supporting it is
unstable.
That bridge isn't in real good
shape.
The biggest thing I'd worry about
is one of these ends cutting loose.
You can see the ground isn't real
stable over here.
You know, it'd be just like my luck
to have this frickin' bridge break
and my Trommel flop over into the
creek.
I would like to take it right
through the creek,
but I'm telling you, this is too
heavy,
and that will get stuck in that
creek.
This is the only route through
to the claim.
Todd must risk taking the Trommel
over the bridge,
and hope that it holds.
I'm waited a month for this Trommel
- we're not gonna lose it here.
We're gonna go across this bridge.
It's gonna make it.
OK, so here's what we'll do.
Tell me if you see the bridge
twisting, or doing anything funky,
OK?
OK. Here we go, Shorty.
Give me a feel.
"Bring it on, easy. Nice and easy."
OK, bring her up real slow, at a
crawl, Shorty.
At a crawl. "It's definitely gonna
be a little tight right here.
I'll keep coming. Let me know."
Slow, slow.
Easy. Easy, bring it up.
Mitch, did you hear that?
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Stop!
Stop!
Shorty, stop!
The footing's starting to let go.
OK, go, baby, go. Hammer down.
Come on through.
Everybody clear!
The footing's nearly collapsed, but
the Trommel is across the bridge
and finally on the home stretch into
Quartz Creek.
Woo!
(HORN HONKS) Woo!
There's the Trommel, guys.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
About time.
Good job. All right.
I never had a doubt, brother.
(LAUGHS)
Not many people can say they have
the best wash plant in the world,
except for me.
The technology on this, I believe,
is superior.
My goal is to have more ounces than
I had last year,
by the end of the month. Woo!
Back down at Porcupine Creek,
the Dakota boys have spent the last
two days
running tailings from beneath an old
cabin.
Gotta get out here, and get some
gold out of this stuff.
Fred is convinced they can make it
pay...
..but Dustin wants to abandon the
cabin dirt
for virgin pay dirt at the bottom of
the Glory Hole.
If they get less than three ounces,
or $5,000 worth of gold from the
tailings,
Dustin will get his way.
We dug all last season, trying to
get down to the good stuff.
We finally got there and we started
on top again.
I wanna get rid of all this junk
dirt.
Get down to the pay stuff.
Do you wanna go ahead, and shut
down?
Copy that.
For the first time since joining his
dad at Porcupine,
Dustin is hoping there is no gold in
the sluice box.
This clean out, I think,
is gonna be a waste of our time.
Hopefully, I don't have to do
another clean out like this.
If it's less than three ounces,
then I won't have to worry about
this any more,
and we'll get down to
the real gold.
We'll certainly exceed our three
ounces.
That material,
even if it's been run before,
has certainly got some kind of gold
in it.
If it don't pay off with at least
three,
I guess I'll have to go along with
the programme,
and let him shove it off the side.
Oh, look at that. There you go.
Yeah, that's more gold than I
thought, that's for sure.
Very nice.
It's gonna be close, though.
It looks like there's gold in this
stuff up here on top, so...
How much, though? Not a lot.
I'm guessing about two-and-a-half
ounces.
Yeah, my guess is two to
two-and-a-half.
So, Dustin is gonna throw away all
that dirt out there
if we don't get three ounces outta
this.
How much do you think you got,
Fred?
Three ounces plus. Yeah.
This is where the gloating starts.
All right. Here we go.
Stay low, Fred,
don't let it bounce.
One.
There's two.
Three.
There's four.
There's five. Six.
7.1. All right.
A lot more than I thought.
Seven ounces is worth more than
$10,000.
We're gonna run every yard we got
out there.
I... We'll just take it, and just
peel it all the way down.
Some of it might not look real
good, but we'll go in and run it.
Just resign that the old man is
right. (LAUGHS)
I'm not looking forward to running
all this dirt, but I'll do it.
(GIGGLES)
I'll take it.
Oh. I'll take it.
At the Big Nugget mine, Alaska,
Parker and his crew are pushing
themselves and their machines hard,
to hit their goal of 50 ounces of
gold in just one week.
(THUDDING)
(BLEEP)
But Rick has a problem with his
excavator.
(BLEEP) ridiculous!
(BLEEP) I don't know what I'm gonna
do now.
Parker is forced to bring in a
replacement.
Wasn't nothing I did.
It took a lot of force to do what
happened to that bucket.
Yeah, I know that.
It's not a hammer. Mm-hm.
They have hammer attachments for
those things,
but the bucket's not one of 'em.
He ain't too happy about it,
so I guess I'll have to suck it up
and deal with it.
Parker needs to push his crew hard,
to find enough gold
to pay for the new road up Smith
Creek Hill.
Smith Creek, you know, like,
I had a huge excavation.
It's got me a little scared.
You know, we were going for 50. I'm
not sure if we've got it or not.
We don't have time to...
..you know, coast.
As Rick digs
Emerson Trench pay dirt,
he notices a change in the ground.
It seems like our pay streak here
might be getting a little thinner.
Looking at this dig site, it's
getting skinnier and skinnier.
Our pay streak's
getting shorter and shorter.
The material's changing.
Everything that we've done so far
has all been a lot of boulders,
a lot of gravel, and now it's
changing to no boulders
and there's more clay in it.
It's just real fine...fine sand.
If there's no gold in it, I don't
wanna be hauling useless material
to the plant.
Parker shuts down the wash plant
to see if the riffles have any gold
in them.
(MACHINERY HUMS)
That's too bad.
I don't know... I don't know what
you can do about it.
I don't think there's anything we
can do about it.
It seems that the Emerson gold has
dried up.
Glen starts to clean out.
If we don't get to 50 ounces,
Parker's gonna be disappointed.
The gold has to pay for Smith Creek
- you know, the road,
erm, just...everything.
The reality is...is we get what we
get
and I think it's gonna be a close
call.
That's why I'm pulling up all the
areas that I possibly can
to get all the gold.
This is the ery finest of the gold.
We're gonna run it on the table.
Sometimes, it's kinda hard to tell
exactly what it is you've got
until you actually weigh it out.
I just finished drying it. Sounds
good to me.
I think it's definitely gonna come
down to the wire, for sure. Right.
The Big Nugget mine is almost out of
pay dirt.
Parker has to get 50 ounces or
$80,000,
to have any chance of getting up to
the virgin ground on Smith Creek.
We just finished our push for 50.
We worked real hard.
We worked together. We've been a
real team.
Hopefully the results will show
that.
30. 32.
35.
55. 55 ounces. Right on.
In one week!
That's pretty exciting, guys!
With 55 ounces of gold... That's
pretty impressive, right there.
..worth about $88,000,
Parker can build a road up Smith
Creek.
We'll start working on Smith Creek.
We're cracking that open.
Yeah, it's pretty relieving.
I was thinking 50 ounces was a tall
order for the week, but we got it.
(LAUGHTER)
Since I've been up here - this is
the best week we've had, ever.
North, in the Klondike...
..the Indian River crew has been
running new gravel for three days.
They have begun a clean up that will
make or break their season.
I'm not feeling lucky.
Burned a lot of fuel, burned a lot
of man hours.
It all comes down to today.
Glass carpet could be the future of
Indian, right here.
A third of the season is gone, and
we got nothing to show for it.
0.86 is miserable, so we need a big
payday today.
Greg and Chris bring the miners moss
to the gold room.
Fred Dodge is back just in time
to run it through his gold recovery
machines.
Let's throw another carpet right
here.
I wanna get a little bit violent
with it.
Make sure we get
all of the material out of 'em.
Fred feeds the concentrate into the
jig,
to separate out the heavy
gold-bearing material.
I can help with the equipment.
I can help with some of the
knowledge I have
but, ultimately, it comes to what's
in the ground.
I have zero control over that.
There's a lot riding on this.
It's hard to just sit around and
wait. I wanna get it over with.
This has to be a good clean up.
We have to pull it off. There's too
many people depending on us.
So far, hundreds of thousands of
dollars
of mining equipment and fuel have
produced less than an ounce of gold.
Dave's crew needs
at least 10 ounces -
or $16,000 - to prove
Indian River is worth mining.
Freddie, how are we doing? Looks
better than last time.
Well, that's good, but that's not
saying much, Fred.
Hopefully, it's over 10.
We'll find out here, shortly.
How's it look, Jack?
There's a little black band over
there's got a couple of nuggets.
You're serious? We got nuggets? You
got some little nuggets.
We got gold.
It's hard to tell. All I can do is
hope for the best.
That was a huge decision, when we
decided to keep going on that cut.
We're gonna know right now whether
it paid off,
if that was a good decision or not.
All we can do now is wait.
It's what I've been doing all day.
You ready, Fred?
One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight...
..19, 20 - no way!
25. 26, Oh, my God. Six, seven!
29. There it is. We've over 30!
Woo! High five! Yeah!
Nice job. All right. Good job,
buddy.
30 ounces is worth close to $50,000
and double their best clean out from
all of last year.
Oh, I feel better. (LAUGHTER)
That's better, eh, Dave? That's
lots, better. Better than 0.86.
Only about 40 times better. I know.
(LAUGHTER)
I think this is an indicator of
what's to come.
What's to come, down low?
I think-I think, Dave, the graph's
going up.
We got this much!
Nice!
Nice, Fred. Come here. Yeah! Woo!
subtitles by Deluxe
Oh, yeah.
..four crews are mining for gold.
We're running dirt now.
In the Klondike, the Hoffman crew is
split into two teams
on two different claims.
I'm seeing gold.
They want 1,000 ounces of gold worth
$1.6m.
We could have a million dollar
season.
At Quartz Creek, Todd Hoffman's crew
is yet to run any dirt.
Season's running out. We gotta get
going.
His enormous new Trommel is late.
And his entire season now depends on
getting it running.
I've waited a month for this
Trommel.
We're not gonna lose it here.
The footing's starting to let go.
Stop-stop.
Just down the road at Indian River...
A third of the season is gone
and we got absolutely nothing to
show for it.
..Dave Turin's crew has found
less than an ounce of gold
and may have to stop mining.
You think we should just abandon
this thing?
In Alaska...
Ready to make some gold.
..the Dakota boys making a shocking
discovery...
I suspect it's all been mined.
..that pits father against son.
This is crappy dirt and -
It's not crappy dirt.
Let's put it through the plant.
And over at Big Nugget...
Let's start it up.
..Parker Schnabel needs more gold
in a week... (BLEEP)
..than he got all of last season.
He's just crazy enough to do it.
at Indian River, Dave Turin's crew
is already a third of the way through
the season.
They have stopped all mining
after a disastrous clean-up produced
less than an ounce of gold.
Fred Dodge is in the cut, trying to
work out what went wrong.
Just trying a test pan here.
If this material is worthless...
big problem.
This issue right here, I had no
idea.
I didn't anticipate it.
It's very stressful when you can't
figure it out.
When Dave Turin test-drilled Indian
River,
the results showed twice as much gold
as at Quartz Creek.
It's good. I think we might hit our
thousand ounces.
Dave's team has spent the last four
weeks
and over $50,000 opening a cut and
running dirt.
Time to get some Indian gold.
But they got less than $15,000 worth
of gold.
Not even an ounce, guys.
The worst clean-up ever for the
Hoffman crew.
Now Indian River's future hangs in
the balance.
Dave needs to find the gold and fast.
We drilled it but our drilling can
only give you a spot check.
It doesn't give you the whole
breadth and width of that cut.
I hope for the best. The question is
how much gold is in the ground?
I wanna see multiple colours per
pan.
Sheesh. Not a colour.
I'll just keep testing.
I've got one.
Not a speck.
"Hey, Dave. Can you come down in
the pit and see me right away?"
What's up?
I've got five minute colours in 17
pans.
Five colours is all you've come up
with?
Barely visible in the pan.
I'm sorry, Dave. I don't know even
what to say.
I had good drill results. Is Fred
missing some of the gold?
Do you abandon the cut?
Right now I don't have an answer.
Todd calls an emergency meeting.
Dave, Freddie, we're coming off our
worst clean-up we've ever had.
I tell you what, we ain't gonna get
a thousand ounces unless it's in
that cut.
Do you think we should just abandon
this thing?
We've got way too much money in it,
Todd. I say we can't abandon it.
I think our best option is to just
strip away a foot at a time
or two feet at a time and then test.
Eventually we're gonna hit gold.
So, that's my plan.
OK.
But let's hope it didn't have
gold just where we drilled
and not anywhere else.
The pressure is on me. Definitely.
No doubt about it. And I feel it.
Because now it's up to me to find
gold after the two or three feet.
If it fails, I can't point the
finger at anybody.
Two miles north-east at Quartz
Creek...
Todd's crew is on good pay dirt but
they still don't have a wash plant.
Hey, how's it going down here?
Right now we're having to stockpile
pay dirt.
We're having a lot of problems right
now.
We don't have a wash plant.
If we had a wash plant, we could be
running this material right now.
But we don't.
We haven't run any
gold here at Quartz yet.
It's a nightmare right now.
In the off-season, Todd ordered a
revolutionary new Trommel.
I think this is the new thing in
mining.
He ripped out Little Blue to make way
for it.
It's out with the old and in with
the new.
It's already a third of the way
through the season
and the Trommel hasn't been
delivered.
I got a mountain of pay dirt right
here
and I got nothing to run it through.
It's getting to the point right now
where there's doubts that we're even
gonna run at all.
Todd is losing the confidence of his
crew and his 1,000 ounce gold
is slipping away with every passing
day.
He calls Ray, the Trommel's inventor
and manufacturer.
"Hello?"
Hey, Ray, it's Todd.
How's our Trommel?
"Oh, it's coming along good, Todd.
Just a few things to put on and -"
We just can't have any more
adjustments.
You need to just get it on that
truck and I need it here.
"Yeah, I'll have her done by -"
No. You gotta get it on that truck
and you gotta get it down here.
"It'll be on the road. For sure.
Guaranteed."
All right, man, I'm counting on
you.
Do not be late, man, I gotta get it
here.
"You got it, Todd."
This Trommel is gonna be the answer
for us.
We just gotta get that frickin'
thing here.
Ray promises delivery in five days.
The Trommel's on its way. It's gonna
be here.
I'd like to have this pad ready and
be mining within 24 hours
by the time it shows up.
Mitch, you're the only one that's
talked to Ray on the layout.
We need a 53-foot ramp. We'll put
the Trommel on that ramp,
excavator right behind it, start
feeding it.
Guys, here's the deal.
We gotta get this done and we gotta
get it done today.
So let's bust some ass and let's
catch up.
With the clock ticking, Todd throws
everything he has at preparing for
the Trommel's arrival.
OK, Andy, push that stuff up and
over the top.
10-4. I'll just kinda spread out
there thin.
Andy's pushing the dirt right into
this ramp.
That's where the Trommel's gonna
sit. Right along here.
Our machine is finally on its way.
It's getting close. You know, we're
excited.
We'll get the Trommel in and we will
kill it. We'll get a lot of gold.
It's about time. Season's running
out. We gotta get going.
In Alaska at the Big Nugget mine,
17-year-old Parker Schnabel and his
crew
are mining the pay streak in
Emerson Trench.
Hey, careful on that one. I put a
little too much in there.
All right. I'll baby it.
Good man.
Hope it'll make it over there.
Parker is pushing his crew hard
so they can get back to the only
virgin ground left on his claim.
We need to try to hurry all this
stuff up.
We're digging Emerson Trench so we
can get up to Smith Creek.
Last year a test revealed that Smith
Creek
holds a massive deposit of gold.
I mean this could secure the future
of Vermont.
But just as Parker was about to start
mining up on Smith Creek,
melting snow destroyed his only
access road.
The hill is dangerous. You shoot
down there like a toboggan,
flop into this river and join
the rest of the people wherever
heaven is.
Now, a third of the way through his
season, Parker is determined
to build a safe road up to the gold
on Smith Creek.
To fund the road construction
he needs 50 ounces or $80,000 out of
Emerson Trench.
And Parker is not patient.
So, I know you've been sitting in a
truck all day but, um,
it's for good reason cos we're going
for 50 ounces this week.
50 ounces. We'll need a lot of dirt
so keep doing your thing.
You got it.
It sounds like it's gonna be a tough
week. He's pushing for 50 ounces.
He's just crazy enough to do it.
I'll have my work cut out keeping
enough material at the plant.
Oh, yeah.
Last year Parker found only 35 ounces
of gold, worth $56,000.
He now wants one and a half times as
much in just one week.
And to get it, he'll have to push his
operation to its limit.
We have to run a lot of dirt to get
50 ounces. But we're going to.
Today we'll put about 1,000 yards
through our plant.
This plant's never seen 1,000 yards
in a week before,
let alone in a day.
I don't know if the plant's gonna be
able to handle that.
That's having a hard time.
The sluices are starting to plug a
little bit.
You know, we're pushing it to the
max.
There's a new rattle.
(CLANKING)
(BLEEP)
That's a big part of the bearing
right there.
The extra load on the Trommel has
destroyed a bearing.
Cut the power.
Just six hours into his big push,
Parker has to shut down the plant.
You know, trying to get 50 ounces
this week...
Um...it's gonna be even tougher now.
At Indian River, Dave Turin and his
crew are digging down once again
to try and find gold deeper in their
cut.
Todd's frustrated.
He's critical of the decision we
made to run that top gravel.
But I think if we abandoned this cut
we'd be completely at a loss.
At first, Dave believed all the
gravel in his cut contained gold.
But running the top layer produced
almost none.
Dave now thinks that the gold is
sitting deeper in the gravel.
To find out, he has to remove another
60cm from the entire cut.
We think there's gold at the bottom.
You make the best decision you can
and you live with it and you move
ahead.
It's kinda frustrating.
There's not even enough gold in this
to run it through the plant.
We gotta see these sluice boxes
filled with gold.
So far we haven't seen but a trace.
Right now it just looks like we're
moving dirt on a construction site.
That doesn't pay anybody.
To make matters worse,
Fred Dodge must leave the claim to
attend his own business.
My heart's invested now.
It isn't for financial gain for me.
It's to help these guys in any way
that I can.
Really got to become friends with
'em.
Thanks, Freddie. Appreciate it, man.
Great work.
Hope I helped. Gotta take care of my
own business.
I'll be back.
I guarantee when you get back we'll
have real pay dirt for you. OK.
Yep.
See you later.
By the next morning, the crew has
their cut 60cm deeper.
Dave heads out to test the new
gravel.
We have a financial responsibility.
We can't go out here and do this for
practice. That's just foolishness.
If there's no gold in that cut,
it's gonna be really difficult
to pack up and leave this place.
That will be one of the hardest
decision in my life.
Our luck hasn't been good.
We've taken another couple of feet
of gravel off.
And I wanna see if, uh, there's any
gold in - in these gravels.
For this ground to be profitable,
Dave needs to see at least 15 colours
in this pan.
There's gold in the pan. It's fine
but I see about one, two, three,
four... six colours?
That's better than any pan Freddie
had.
So, this is encouraging.
Dave sees enough gold in the first
pan to test the rest of the cut.
Well, that's a pretty good pan.
That's got about 15 good colours.
Every pan I've done today has had
gold in it.
So, that's a good sign. So we're
gonna start sluicing.
Fifteen colours is good enough to
fire up the wash plant once again.
Hey, guys. I think we're down on the
gold. We're back on it, you guys.
Sounds good, Dave. That's awesome
news, buddy.
Greg, knock that pile out.
We're ready to go.
10-4. Sounds good.
Good job, guys.
Get the plant running.
How's it going up there, Chris?
I tell you what, we're processing
material today.
This is it. We're back at it. We got
gold-bearing soils
we're heading up to the plant with
'em.
Well, things are going our way.
At Porcupine Creek in Southeast
Alaska
the Dakota boys are digging dirt
on their way back down to the Glory
Hole.
All the way back, we're just gonna
pull that all down.
Follow the bedrock right down,
wherever it goes.
It's time to go ahead and just mine
this whole area here.
The threat of a flood at the
beginning of the season,
forced Fred and Dustin to cut a new
route down to the Glory Hole gold.
I say we just stay right up against
it, follow it on down.
There's a good chance we're gonna
find a deposit of gold on that area.
Now one last obstacle stands between
the Dakota boys and the gold.
The old cabin is in the way.
It's about 60 years old.
We're just kinda working around it
but it's served its purpose.
The roof is falling in on it. It's
in disrepair now. Falling down.
I figure we got days
and days, probably weeks, of mining
just in this area, right under this
cabin.
Right now I'm hitting bedrock. Ten
feet over here.
I need to just clean off this
bedrock
all the way underneath this thing.
Then I'm ready to make some gold.
What cabin? The one up on the hill?
(CHUCKLES)
I don't see no cabin!
Why don't we just go ahead and pick
this roof off here right now
and get rid of it all at one time.
Right. Now we're hooking it up and,
uh, we get a little bind on that
and we're gonna see how it
hangs up there.
To save time, Fred wants to lift off
the entire roof in one piece.
Is it not coming over yet?
12 inches from the end of the tin.
Two inches. Contact.
Start pulling on the chain.
Pick the whole damn thing up.
Up, up, up, up.
Swing right, swing right. Right,
right, right.
The window has got it hooked
together here.
Shake it a little bit.
Get your saw blade out of there.
All right. What am I cutting?
Cut right below the chain right
there.
Stand by.
Pick it all up.
Take the whole damn thing.
The cabin is outta here.
Might as well get back to mining.
Do what we do best.
Dig some dirt, wash some rocks.
We can start digging in that area
now that the cabin's outta there.
I hope we'll start seeing some real
gold.
And, uh, I'm excited to see some
real gold.
The ground under the cabin is exposed
for the first time in 60 years.
The Dakota Boy immediately assess its
value.
This looks like the tail end.
I suspect it's all been mined.
It's crappy dirt.
It's not crappy dirt. I think this
material's gonna be fine.
It's completely useless.
We might squeeze a little bit of
gold out of that.
We're gonna have to move it
somewhere anyway.
It's a waste of time. We need to get
down to some good stuff.
Let's go ahead and put it through
the plant.
It's been probably mined 100 years
ago and they were a little bit
inefficient with their processing.
We would make more money if we spent
two days getting rid of this stuff
throwing it away and then get down
to the good stuff.
I don't agree. If you have to take
this stuff and just throw it away
you got nothing.
I'm not here to break even.
I wanna get down to the gold.
I tell you what. If there's not
three ounces in that box,
we'll clean that thing up tomorrow.
You can take this and get rid of it.
Otherwise, we're gonna be running
this stuff.
If there's three ounces, or more,
I'll run every bucket of this stuff.
I won't mention it ever again.
I'll run every single bucket.
We got a deal?
Sounds like a good deal.
I'll abide by it but it's gonna have
more than three ounces in it.
OK. There's no doubt. We'll see.
All right.
This stuff is just junk.
There's not gonna be
any gold in it, I don't think.
It just doesn't seem worth it.
At the Big Nugget Mine, Parker
Schnabel has set a goal
of 50 ounces for the week...
OK, I'm gonna go back up.
..but his grandfather's 26-year-old
wash plant has failed him.
The bearing on the upper side
here...
..completely went out on us.
I gotta change this outside bearing
right here.
Gary Grogan has the new bearing, but
still needs to get the old one off.
Parker's crew has already lost 24
hours,
and is eager to get back to mining.
You're still trying to get the old
one off? Yeah.
This part is still seized on the
shaft itself.
I'm gonna have to either break it
off,
or try to pry it off.
If I can't get it off right here,
I'm gonna have to pull this whole
wheel out,
take it over to the shop, and pull
it off over there.
Now, that's a whole day's worth of
work.
If Parker loses the rest of the day,
there's no chance he'll reach
$80,000 in gold, this week.
What do you wanna do? I think I'm
gonna have to torch it off.
(GRUNTS) There's the broken piece.
And there's part of the bearings.
(CHUCKLES) What's left of 'em.
Right, I'll be able to set the new
one in and screw it back down.
We're ready to go. Let's start it
up. Stand back!
(ENGINE RUMBLES)
Look at that!
(SQUEAKING)
The wash plant is finally running
again,
but Parker has now lost
over a day to vital repair work.
We're a little behind, so...
..we have to pick up our hours cos
we're pushing the plant to the max.
The only thing left to do is run
more hours...
..which is kinda hellish, but if we
wanna do it, we gotta do it.
So, tonight, we'll probably go
awhile.
A lot of hours? A lot of hours.
Sound good? Are you up for it?
Definitely.
Right. Cool.
We are pushing it a little hard
here,
so we're trying as hard as we can,
to keep enough material over there
for them running the plant until
midnight.
We'll be able to go until 12, so it
would be nice, cos we need it
if we're gonna get 50 ounces this
week.
It's tough right now because...
..you know, we're tired, we've been
working long hours.
You can't see, really, cos it's
pretty dark.
You know, this...this plant's being
pushed hard.
At midnight, Parker shuts down to
check the sluices.
He'll know right away if their hard
work has paid off.
Looks like there's some gold down
there.
Yeah, I know, right. Yeah.
That's what I call a box full of
gold.
It was a pretty bad day
and we ran a long day,
hoping to make up for that.
Judging by what I see in this box,
it looks like we did.
We did, yeah. (LAUGHS)
At Indian River,
Dave Turin's wash plant has been
running
150 yards of pay dirt an hour,
for three long days.
Hanging in there. Hanging in there.
We're running dirt now. We're
running dirt.
Last bucket, Chris. Last bucket,
Davey.
We're done. We're done for the day.
5200 yards, man.
Flawless.
We couldn't ask for a better day.
(RUMBLING STOPS)
For the first time, Dave begins a
clean up,
without their mining expert Fred
Dodge.
Fred designed their sluice box, but
has been called away, on business.
I'm nervous.
We busted our ass. OK.
I know there's gold in here.
But I do not know this part of it.
Freddie's the expert.
He's not here.
That's the only thing - it just
makes me nervous.
To me, this is more critical than
digging the pit.
Freddie showed us how to do it.
All we have to do is mimic what he
did.
To remove the gravel from the sluice
box,
the crew has to run the pump at
exactly the right speed,
for exactly
the right amount of time.
What we're doing now is
just rinsing the light gravel,
so we got water going and it's
taking all the loose gravel out
and leaving the gold.
Freddie said three minutes if we're
at 1450.
We didn't do that much, when Fred
was here.
We're at 1450.
Hit the bypass and let it run for
three minutes.
Was it that much water? Yeah.
Running the right amount of water
for the right amount of time through
the sluice boxes
creates a vortex behind the riffles
that removes lighter material.
Too much water for too long
creates a vortex so powerful
it will flush the gold straight out
of the sluice box.
We watched Freddie do it.
I'm new at this.
Are you sure that's OK?
You're not worried about
washing any gold out right now?
I wouldn't go any more than this.
It's scaring me.
OK. We'll fix that, right now.
Chris shuts off the water.
The crew looks to see if there is
any gold left in the sluice.
Right now, I'm not seeing any gold.
The water hasn't drained completely
out,
but I was hoping to see some gold.
Hard to say.
There's little flakes in here.
I see one, little tiny piece.
Small.
I'm not seeing any.
Did we flush it? Not looking good.
We had a plant, we had a plan,
everything was clicking along,
and it turns out to be more of a
nightmare.
I'm not experienced enough, that's
what makes it hard.
Todd Hoffman is also struggling.
He is now seven weeks behind
schedule...
..but his cutting-edge Trommel has
finally made it up to Dawson City.
Todd meets its inventor Ray,
to guide the 27,000 kg machine
up the dirt road to Quartz Creek.
We're a third of the way
through the season,
and now I'm playing catch up...
Yeah.
So I hope - I hope she performs as
good as you say.
I know we're starting a little bit
behind here,
but I'm telling you, when you see
this machine running,
it's quick, it's quick, it runs.
They've brought the Trommel
over 1800 miles
to the Klondike.
But, before Ray can show off the
massive machine,
it has to make it through the most
dangerous stretch of road.
Hey, Mitch, go ahead of me.
Take a look at this bridge.
Let me know when you've got
a heads-up on it.
Just going across it now, I'm gonna
take a look here.
OK, Shorty, I got Mitch
checking out the bridge here.
Just come up to it and go ahead and
stop.
OK, I've got that, thank you.
We're gonna have to definitely take
a good look.
Let's take a look underneath it,
see what we've got here.
There's no rating on it.
The bridge is not marked with a
weight limit,
and the ground supporting it is
unstable.
That bridge isn't in real good
shape.
The biggest thing I'd worry about
is one of these ends cutting loose.
You can see the ground isn't real
stable over here.
You know, it'd be just like my luck
to have this frickin' bridge break
and my Trommel flop over into the
creek.
I would like to take it right
through the creek,
but I'm telling you, this is too
heavy,
and that will get stuck in that
creek.
This is the only route through
to the claim.
Todd must risk taking the Trommel
over the bridge,
and hope that it holds.
I'm waited a month for this Trommel
- we're not gonna lose it here.
We're gonna go across this bridge.
It's gonna make it.
OK, so here's what we'll do.
Tell me if you see the bridge
twisting, or doing anything funky,
OK?
OK. Here we go, Shorty.
Give me a feel.
"Bring it on, easy. Nice and easy."
OK, bring her up real slow, at a
crawl, Shorty.
At a crawl. "It's definitely gonna
be a little tight right here.
I'll keep coming. Let me know."
Slow, slow.
Easy. Easy, bring it up.
Mitch, did you hear that?
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Stop!
Stop!
Shorty, stop!
The footing's starting to let go.
OK, go, baby, go. Hammer down.
Come on through.
Everybody clear!
The footing's nearly collapsed, but
the Trommel is across the bridge
and finally on the home stretch into
Quartz Creek.
Woo!
(HORN HONKS) Woo!
There's the Trommel, guys.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
About time.
Good job. All right.
I never had a doubt, brother.
(LAUGHS)
Not many people can say they have
the best wash plant in the world,
except for me.
The technology on this, I believe,
is superior.
My goal is to have more ounces than
I had last year,
by the end of the month. Woo!
Back down at Porcupine Creek,
the Dakota boys have spent the last
two days
running tailings from beneath an old
cabin.
Gotta get out here, and get some
gold out of this stuff.
Fred is convinced they can make it
pay...
..but Dustin wants to abandon the
cabin dirt
for virgin pay dirt at the bottom of
the Glory Hole.
If they get less than three ounces,
or $5,000 worth of gold from the
tailings,
Dustin will get his way.
We dug all last season, trying to
get down to the good stuff.
We finally got there and we started
on top again.
I wanna get rid of all this junk
dirt.
Get down to the pay stuff.
Do you wanna go ahead, and shut
down?
Copy that.
For the first time since joining his
dad at Porcupine,
Dustin is hoping there is no gold in
the sluice box.
This clean out, I think,
is gonna be a waste of our time.
Hopefully, I don't have to do
another clean out like this.
If it's less than three ounces,
then I won't have to worry about
this any more,
and we'll get down to
the real gold.
We'll certainly exceed our three
ounces.
That material,
even if it's been run before,
has certainly got some kind of gold
in it.
If it don't pay off with at least
three,
I guess I'll have to go along with
the programme,
and let him shove it off the side.
Oh, look at that. There you go.
Yeah, that's more gold than I
thought, that's for sure.
Very nice.
It's gonna be close, though.
It looks like there's gold in this
stuff up here on top, so...
How much, though? Not a lot.
I'm guessing about two-and-a-half
ounces.
Yeah, my guess is two to
two-and-a-half.
So, Dustin is gonna throw away all
that dirt out there
if we don't get three ounces outta
this.
How much do you think you got,
Fred?
Three ounces plus. Yeah.
This is where the gloating starts.
All right. Here we go.
Stay low, Fred,
don't let it bounce.
One.
There's two.
Three.
There's four.
There's five. Six.
7.1. All right.
A lot more than I thought.
Seven ounces is worth more than
$10,000.
We're gonna run every yard we got
out there.
I... We'll just take it, and just
peel it all the way down.
Some of it might not look real
good, but we'll go in and run it.
Just resign that the old man is
right. (LAUGHS)
I'm not looking forward to running
all this dirt, but I'll do it.
(GIGGLES)
I'll take it.
Oh. I'll take it.
At the Big Nugget mine, Alaska,
Parker and his crew are pushing
themselves and their machines hard,
to hit their goal of 50 ounces of
gold in just one week.
(THUDDING)
(BLEEP)
But Rick has a problem with his
excavator.
(BLEEP) ridiculous!
(BLEEP) I don't know what I'm gonna
do now.
Parker is forced to bring in a
replacement.
Wasn't nothing I did.
It took a lot of force to do what
happened to that bucket.
Yeah, I know that.
It's not a hammer. Mm-hm.
They have hammer attachments for
those things,
but the bucket's not one of 'em.
He ain't too happy about it,
so I guess I'll have to suck it up
and deal with it.
Parker needs to push his crew hard,
to find enough gold
to pay for the new road up Smith
Creek Hill.
Smith Creek, you know, like,
I had a huge excavation.
It's got me a little scared.
You know, we were going for 50. I'm
not sure if we've got it or not.
We don't have time to...
..you know, coast.
As Rick digs
Emerson Trench pay dirt,
he notices a change in the ground.
It seems like our pay streak here
might be getting a little thinner.
Looking at this dig site, it's
getting skinnier and skinnier.
Our pay streak's
getting shorter and shorter.
The material's changing.
Everything that we've done so far
has all been a lot of boulders,
a lot of gravel, and now it's
changing to no boulders
and there's more clay in it.
It's just real fine...fine sand.
If there's no gold in it, I don't
wanna be hauling useless material
to the plant.
Parker shuts down the wash plant
to see if the riffles have any gold
in them.
(MACHINERY HUMS)
That's too bad.
I don't know... I don't know what
you can do about it.
I don't think there's anything we
can do about it.
It seems that the Emerson gold has
dried up.
Glen starts to clean out.
If we don't get to 50 ounces,
Parker's gonna be disappointed.
The gold has to pay for Smith Creek
- you know, the road,
erm, just...everything.
The reality is...is we get what we
get
and I think it's gonna be a close
call.
That's why I'm pulling up all the
areas that I possibly can
to get all the gold.
This is the ery finest of the gold.
We're gonna run it on the table.
Sometimes, it's kinda hard to tell
exactly what it is you've got
until you actually weigh it out.
I just finished drying it. Sounds
good to me.
I think it's definitely gonna come
down to the wire, for sure. Right.
The Big Nugget mine is almost out of
pay dirt.
Parker has to get 50 ounces or
$80,000,
to have any chance of getting up to
the virgin ground on Smith Creek.
We just finished our push for 50.
We worked real hard.
We worked together. We've been a
real team.
Hopefully the results will show
that.
30. 32.
35.
55. 55 ounces. Right on.
In one week!
That's pretty exciting, guys!
With 55 ounces of gold... That's
pretty impressive, right there.
..worth about $88,000,
Parker can build a road up Smith
Creek.
We'll start working on Smith Creek.
We're cracking that open.
Yeah, it's pretty relieving.
I was thinking 50 ounces was a tall
order for the week, but we got it.
(LAUGHTER)
Since I've been up here - this is
the best week we've had, ever.
North, in the Klondike...
..the Indian River crew has been
running new gravel for three days.
They have begun a clean up that will
make or break their season.
I'm not feeling lucky.
Burned a lot of fuel, burned a lot
of man hours.
It all comes down to today.
Glass carpet could be the future of
Indian, right here.
A third of the season is gone, and
we got nothing to show for it.
0.86 is miserable, so we need a big
payday today.
Greg and Chris bring the miners moss
to the gold room.
Fred Dodge is back just in time
to run it through his gold recovery
machines.
Let's throw another carpet right
here.
I wanna get a little bit violent
with it.
Make sure we get
all of the material out of 'em.
Fred feeds the concentrate into the
jig,
to separate out the heavy
gold-bearing material.
I can help with the equipment.
I can help with some of the
knowledge I have
but, ultimately, it comes to what's
in the ground.
I have zero control over that.
There's a lot riding on this.
It's hard to just sit around and
wait. I wanna get it over with.
This has to be a good clean up.
We have to pull it off. There's too
many people depending on us.
So far, hundreds of thousands of
dollars
of mining equipment and fuel have
produced less than an ounce of gold.
Dave's crew needs
at least 10 ounces -
or $16,000 - to prove
Indian River is worth mining.
Freddie, how are we doing? Looks
better than last time.
Well, that's good, but that's not
saying much, Fred.
Hopefully, it's over 10.
We'll find out here, shortly.
How's it look, Jack?
There's a little black band over
there's got a couple of nuggets.
You're serious? We got nuggets? You
got some little nuggets.
We got gold.
It's hard to tell. All I can do is
hope for the best.
That was a huge decision, when we
decided to keep going on that cut.
We're gonna know right now whether
it paid off,
if that was a good decision or not.
All we can do now is wait.
It's what I've been doing all day.
You ready, Fred?
One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight...
..19, 20 - no way!
25. 26, Oh, my God. Six, seven!
29. There it is. We've over 30!
Woo! High five! Yeah!
Nice job. All right. Good job,
buddy.
30 ounces is worth close to $50,000
and double their best clean out from
all of last year.
Oh, I feel better. (LAUGHTER)
That's better, eh, Dave? That's
lots, better. Better than 0.86.
Only about 40 times better. I know.
(LAUGHTER)
I think this is an indicator of
what's to come.
What's to come, down low?
I think-I think, Dave, the graph's
going up.
We got this much!
Nice!
Nice, Fred. Come here. Yeah! Woo!
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