Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 3, Episode 7 - Road to Gold - full transcript
Todd and his crew finally get to test the new Turbo Trommel. Dave pushes his crew to double their last clean out. The Dakota Boys receive a visit from the inspector and Parker brings in dynamite to blast a boulder.
.
In the Klondike,
Todd Hoffman's mining operation
is bigger than ever.
Here we go!
Yeah!
He's doubled his men and machines
in a quest for 1,000 ounces of gold.
There's gold in that dirt, Dave.
I'm telling you now,
we're gonna fricking do it.
To hit the mother load, the Hoffman
crew is split into two rival teams.
The heart's down here
at Quartz Creek.
Indian River is coming to life.
At Quartz Creek...
Oh!
Todd's turbo trommel finally
arrives on site.
The gold mining season
starts right fricking now.
Drop it, baby!
But two miles down the road
at Indian River,
Dave Turin's crew already has
gold in their sluice box.
Line after line of gold.
But despite the rivalry...
I hope he likes dust cos
he'll be eating it.
..both crews know that they need
each other just to stay in business.
What we hoped was gonna be
a friendly competition
is now ending up just a matter
of complete survival.
At Porcupine Creek in Alaska,
just as Dakota Fred gets back down
into the gold-rich glory hole,
he gets a surprise visitor
that could shut him down.
Hey, MSHA is here, man.
Oh, man! (BLEEP)!
And at Big Nugget, Parker Schnabel
makes one last-ditch attempt
to get to the gold
up on Smith Creek Hill.
There's gold up here somewhere,
now it's a matter of finding it.
Fire in the hole!
And this time,
nothing's gonna get in his way.
(BOOM!)
Over a third of the way through
the 150-day mining season,
Dave Turin's crew is hard at work
on the Hoffman's second claim
at Indian River.
The plant's going great. I'm a happy
camper, we're gold mining.
Greg Remsburg is excavating
some of their best pay gravel yet.
Chris Doumit feeds the wash plant.
Chris, how's it going over there?
Is everything holding together?
Oh, we got a great day going today,
we're on schedule,
everything's running smooth.
Two weeks ago, the Hoffman's
chief investor, Jason Otterson,
gave both teams an ultimatum.
You have three weeks to get
100 ounces.
Dave's team at Indian River
rose to the challenge,
pulling in a record-breaking
30-ounce cleanup
worth almost $50,000.
(ALL) Whoo!
Yeah! Nice job. All right!
Meanwhile at Quartz Creek,
Todd's team still doesn't
even have a wash plant.
It was meant to be here a month ago.
I need an answer.
What are we gonna do?
I don't have one for you right now.
They now need 70 ounces
in the next two weeks,
and Indian River is the only claim
running pay dirt.
Our whole operation is relying on
that plant, that's the only thing
producing gold now.
The clock is ticking. We've got
investors breathing down my back.
It looks like
we've shifted to Indian River,
having been the saviour,
and we understand that.
Team Turin's all over it.
To find $112,000 in gold,
Dave's crew has to more than double
its best clean up,
and run more yards of dirt
than ever before.
The plan for today is 1,000 yards
a day for five days.
We're gonna hit it as hard as
we can, we gotta keep the momentum.
But running that hard is tough
on the men - and machines.
Shut it down, Chris, shut it down!
(ENGINE GRINDS TO A HALT)
(BEEP)!
A root got down to the grizzly bars,
punched a hole through the belt,
and now bound up in the rollers,
so the whole belt is bound up.
So now we try to figure out
how to get it out of there.
The grizzly bars on top of
the hopper prevents anything
over-sized from falling
into the wash plant.
Somehow a large tree root
slipped through the bars.
It's ripped a hole in the heavy
rubber belt and jammed the rollers.
So if we get in there with a reset
and just take the whole thing off,
rubber, root and all.
The goal would be to empty the hopper
to get the belt repaired.
To get the root out
and to fix the belt,
Dave and team have to completely
take apart one side of the conveyor.
No, I'm not in a good mood.
This stuff kinda irritates me.
We're under pressure to keep running
and get gold, and then...
Once I get the root out
I can patch the belt.
It'll only take me a couple of hours,
but the problem is
I don't know how long it's gonna take
to get the root out.
Just another day in paradise.
Two miles away at Quartz Creek,
Todd's crew is in a mad scramble
to get its operation going.
It's over a month-and-a-half late,
but Todd's cutting-edge
turbo trommel has finally been
delivered by its inventor,
Ray Brosseuk.
Everything held together nice.
Yeah.
Nothing moved, looks good.
Guys, what you're looking at is
basically our make or break
of our season, this is out future.
I'm not kidding ya, this is it,
this is the machine
that's gonna change the whole game.
This is probably
the best wash plant in the world,
and I want it running
within 24 hours. Let's roll!
For the last seven weeks,
the trommel has had one delay
after another.
I'm gonna be honest with ya,
I'm disappointed and I need
that thing, now.
While they waited for its arrival,
Todd's team had nothing to do
but stockpile thousands of yards
of gold-bearing gravel.
Every ten minutes is another load
of pay dirt going by.
Should be going into a plant.
Where the hell's our new machine?
Two days ago,
the trommel finally arrived.
(KLAXON SOUNDS)
About fricking time, buddy.
But before Todd can catch any gold
in this massive machine,
he has to get it
into exactly the right position.
Fricking move this thing
into place, Ray.
Bring her down.
Down, down.
Roll it to me a little.
Hey!
They have to find some way of moving
the 27,000kg trommel
across 50 metres of uneven tailings,
and then turn it 90 degrees
before they can pull it up the slope
that will act as
its operating platform.
The trommel was built with
four low-loader wheels at the rear,
but the truck is gone,
and they now need to find a way
to pull the machine.
Ray brings in the 330 excavator.
So what do you wanna do, Ray?
I'll take up some of the weight,
then we'll crank in
the landing gear,
pull the blocks out and I'll start
walking it forward slowly. OK.
Up.
Clear.
Once the trommel's legs
are retracted, the 27,000kg machine
is held up by a single chain
attached to the excavator bucket.
There you go, I'd keep curling
your bucket out a little bit.
Straight down, keep going,
keep coming, keep coming,
keep coming, good.
Looking pretty heavy, guys.
Ray, easy does it.
Will that hold the weight?
Can't lift but I can hold.
The machine doesn't seem to have
enough power, that's his best
lifting capacity.
It's clear the excavator
isn't up to the job.
They bring in the stronger 460.
The biggest machine we got
and it may not be enough.
I really need this to work. Man, it's
60,000lbs, this ain't easy to do.
What do you think, Ray?
All I can do now is hope.
I'd sure hate to break it
on the last 50ft
after it's travelled 1,700 miles.
If the trommel falls
even just a few feet,
its frame could
buckle beyond repair.
Anyone that rigs anything
and sees a mess like that
would be rolling on the floor
laughing. That is (BLEEP) stuff.
Everybody clear?
Hopefully everything holds up here.
Stand clear.
Say a little prayer for our trommel.
Easy, easy, whoa, whoa, whoa!
(CLUNK!)
Are you guys all right?!
.
.
In the Klondike, the Hoffman crew
is struggling to get
their massive new trommel
into position.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
(CLUNK!)
Are you guys all right?
Yeah, we're OK.
Everything's got its weak point.
Todd has to come up with 70 ounces
of gold to keep his investor
from shutting down both
of his claims.
He desperately needs his
new trommel up and running.
Just bring in two excavators, let's
just try with both of them, huh?
Todd brings
the 330 back in to help out.
If we don't succeed,
just bring another excavator.
The crew chains the trommel
to both excavators.
Put it right on the fricking frame,
even if it bends it a little bit
we'll fix it.
This will screw up the frame.
You're gonna have a big mess
when you're done.
I don't like the chain on Walt's
side. It's against that spring perch.
Yeah,
I wouldn't lift this
the way this is hooked up.
Ray's afraid the lift will damage
his precision engineering,
but Todd's out of time.
This is super risky,
I'm tired of screwing around.
Walt, watch Mitch,
you guys work together.
Ten-four, buddy.
(MECHANICAL WHIR)
Stay together, stay together.
No, you're gonna break it.
No, I think you guys should stop.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Cos I think we just
bent the spring.
Before it's even moved one foot,
Ray has to step in.
OK, stick in.
Clip, clip.
Yeah, there you go, we're back in.
Todd's plan is not going to work
without crippling the trommel.
Jack takes over.
We've decided that the girls have
had their chance,
so Ray and I are
gonna hook this thing up properly.
Jack calls in the 220 loader.
What we're gonna do here is
roll the bucket forward.
With 22,000 kilos of lifting power,
Jack is confident the loader
can handle the massive trommel.
It looks pretty good.
All we can do is give it a try.
Well, now it's gotta work.
Come up with the whole thing.
Pull it up, pull it up, pull it up.
Keep coming, keep coming.
Nice, that's her right there.
I wouldn't go any higher, that's
good. Stay. Stay. Hold it there.
Well, here we go, we got it.
Now that's gonna work, Walt.
It's gonna work.
Under Jack and Ray's guidance,
the crew is able to slowly drag
the trommel onto the slope.
The excavator then rotates it
90 degrees,
and all three machines work together
to position the trommel
in its final resting place.
Whoo, that's a sweet sound.
Yes.
I like hearing that.
Good, we did it. OK.
That wasn't the smoothest thing
we've ever done in our life,
but we set it right in there level.
Yeah, we got her. I'll take it.
Young people think they can do
a whole lot more than what they can.
Old people just do it.
Now we can actually start mining.
We're back on track now.
We're in place. It's just a matter
of hook up the water and turn it on.
Now we're gonna come after Indian
River. I hope he likes dust cos he's
gonna be eating a lot of it.
At the Big Nugget Mine in Southeast
Alaska, 17-year-old Parker Schnabel,
and his grandfather John, meet with
veteran road builder Chauncey Craig.
They need a new safe way up
Smith Creek Hill.
I think we need to be up.
Yeah.
At the bottom of that brush.
Against the bridge over there.
I think this is the right thing
to do. Oh, sure. For sure.
So we're gonna start back about
100 feet before
we make the turn into Smith Creek
and start building the road up,
so that we have a longer hill
but less grade on that hill.
At the end of last season,
Parker found good gold from
a test dig on Smith Creek Hill.
This could secure the future
of the mine.
But his road to the top of the hill
was destroyed by melting snow after
Alaska's worst winter in 50 years.
All right, can we clean it up
and use that same road?
No, the hill is dangerous.
After last week's record cleanup...
55.
..worth $88,000, Parker has the
money for a new road up Smith Creek.
This is the best week we've had,
ever.
Chauncey has started the road
in a 330 excavator.
Up here pioneering the trail right
now. We gotta peel another now.
Parker's old road runs straight up
the hill at a steep angle.
It was dangerous for heavy machinery
then, and is impassable now.
The new road will be longer,
far less steep, and will follow
the contours of the hill,
but building it will not be easy.
The excavator will have to cling
to the hillside to dig,
and will have to build the road
ahead of itself.
Any mistakes, and the excavator
could tumble into Porcupine Creek
below.
Just a few hours into the job,
Chauncey is already flirting with
danger 20 metres above the creek.
(BLEEP)!
(BLEEP)!
He hits something hard.
It's a limestone outcrop.
How's it going?
I'm hitting pretty solid,
but I'm gonna jump on the dozer
and carry some of that ahead.
Chauncey's only hope now is the D8.
With almost 350 horsepower,
the dozer is the most
powerful machine on the mine.
If the rock is brittle, Chauncey
just may be able to chip away at it.
But even this mighty machine
can't move mountains.
If he can't find
a way through the rock,
Parker won't be able to get
to the gold on Smith Creek.
Smith Creek has gotten beyond
my abilities, you know, I need help.
It's as simple as that.
Across the river at Porcupine Creek,
Dakota Fred and his team are
digging beside the glory hole.
Whoa, what have we got here?
They're working overtime
to shift a lot of dirt,
but it's low-grade material
and Dustin is frustrated.
I've put in hundreds and hundreds
of hours
for a little bitty pinch
of a handful of gold.
So far the Dakota boys have
only found ten ounces of gold,
worth just $16,000.
I kinda pinned my hopes a little bit
on this stuff being a lot better.
It's paying for our diesel,
but that's about all.
Last season, when they got down
to bedrock at the bottom of
the glory hole, they dug out
12 ounces, worth almost $20,000,
in just two days.
Wow!
That's a lot of gold.
Man!
But early this season,
the threat of a catastrophic flood
kept them from going back to
the bottom of the glory hole.
And this stream itself will just
pick up all your equipment, wash 'em
down into the river.
And digging around the glory hole
hasn't produced any good gold.
It's junk.
It's junk dirt with no gold in it.
Now, weeks later,
flooding is no longer a threat,
and Dustin is
desperate for more gold.
We need to get down to the good
stuff. I need to see gold.
The bit of gold we have - I'm
getting a little nervous myself.
We only have
two-and-a-half months left. Yeah.
Get me down to the good stuff, Fred,
come on.
All right, you and Melody get out
there and haul ass. We'll do it.
Thanks, Fred.
Right now the gold
is under 15 metres of water.
They'll have to pump out over
four-and-a-half million litres
to get to it.
This is the start of
getting some real gold!
(ENGINE STARTS)
A diesel pump can remove
almost 33,000 litres an hour.
It's running. This is the beginning
of draining the big hole.
Hopefully it's full of gold.
But just as the pump fires up...
..an unwelcome visitor
shows up on the claim.
Freddy? What's going on?
MSHA's here, man.
Oh, crap. That's all we need,
a damn inspection right now,
after all this other crap.
Oh, man! (BLEEP)!
The Mining Safety and Health
Administration
is a government agency.
Its inspectors often show up
unannounced.
Let me go see
what the hell is going on.
And they have the power
to shut down a mine.
No, this is not (BLEEP),
this is not TV.
This is a Federal, this is a Federal
whatever. I don't know what it is.
That guy could shut us down.
It's like everybody's against us
somehow.
.
,
Watch my fingers here.
At Indian River, Dave Turin's
wash plant is at a standstill.
A tree root has jammed
the conveyor belt.
There's a root hung up in the belt.
We need to get it out.
This piece of wood or, it looks like
a root, came down,
went through our belt and got
jammed up on this roller,
so we gotta get this roller out of
the way, get the root outta here.
It blew a hole through the belt,
so we're gonna have to do a repair
on the belt as well.
It will take the crew hours
just to get to the problem.
We wanna get our thousand yards
today, so we'll just do whatever
we have to do to get it.
The two Hoffman crews have
just a week left to get 70 ounces,
worth $110,000, and right now
neither crew is producing gold.
I hate these kinda things. It really
pisses me off, we're losing time,
we're losing daylight, and ultimately
losing our season, so what do you do,
other than go to work?
I wonder if we take this one loose
and can kinda roll it back a ways?
The most important thing for us to do
is to continue running this plant.
Being a team, it's gonna help us
beat Quartz Creek.
After two hours of fighting
the conveyor,
Mitch finally dislodges the root.
What we got going on is we have to
get this belt to a position where
we can repair it,
and right here we can't,
so we're gonna run the belt around,
get it down to the other end
and do our repair there.
So that's the damaged area
we have to fix,
it's not too bad
but bad enough to shut it down.
You're good, run it.
The belt is moved to a position
where Dave can reach the tear.
Now they need to fix the damage.
That's the ripped belt, that's what
that piece of wood did.
So now I'll put a square piece
back in and re-do it.
They haven't run dirt all day,
and Dave is feeling the pressure.
They have to start producing gold
as soon as possible.
It's late, but we're not gonna quit.
We got investors
breathing down our throat.
Todd doesn't have a trommel,
so the only ones making gold
and making money is Indian River.
Right now we're tightening down
the fasteners,
these hold the belt together
real tight,
so when you have material slipping
through, and gold, that's
not what Logi Bear likes to see.
This is the last step, and you just
break the bolts off. The last one.
Two-and-a-half hours. It'll be
all right. Turn this bad boy back on.
(ENGINE WHIRS)
We're going again.
Took a lot of effort but we're going.
It's late but we got
24 hours of daylight here.
We wanna get our thousand yards
today, so we'll just do whatever
we have to do to get it.
At Porcupine Creek in Alaska,
an MSHA safety inspector has
just surprised the Dakota boys.
Unplug your microphone.
OK.
All right, you're officially notified
you are not to film this man.
He is a Federal Official, you are
under strict orders not to film him.
What does he want, Fred?
Or record him. OK, Fred? Period.
The inspector has
the power to shut down the mine
if he finds
health and safety violations.
Last season, MSHA closed
Porcupine Creek for seven days.
Fred estimates
it cost him over $10,000.
We're shut down, Fred, we gotta...
Oh, (BLEEP)!
And with the Dakota boys
already over $50,000 in the red,
a shutdown could end their season.
The guy doesn't seem like
he's gonna shut us down
but neither did the last one,
so you never know.
After four hours on the mine,
the inspector finally leaves
Porcupine Creek.
He only cites the crew for a broken
window on one of the excavators.
We've basically gotten off OK with
this particular inspection.
It might be a turning point.
I think it will,
I think it'll be good motivation.
Up at Quartz Creek, Todd finally has
the new trommel in place.
The Hoffmans have 30 ounces,
worth less than $50,000
so far this season.
They need another 70 ounces
in under a week to produce
the 100 ounces of gold
they promised their investor.
OK, guys, are you ready? Yeah!
Let's do this.
They've waited seven long weeks
for the trommel to get
up to the Klondike.
This machine is the latest
in mining technology.
It requires little assembling
compared to the traditional shaker
at Indian River.
Hit the water.
Give me 1,000 RPM.
First, Mitch checks the water
is flowing properly.
One nozzle on the front bar
isn't spraying quite right,
might have some debris in it.
I think we got the right RPM
at 1,100.
Then they turn off the water
so that Ray, the trommel's designer,
can make final adjustments.
When this machine is all dialled in,
what percentage of gold do you think
you're getting?
97 percent down to 300 mesh fine,
and I had several geologists
actually test it for me.
You know, most people would say
that's impossible.
I know, it's not my word,
it's the professionals
who've come and tested it.
If what Ray says is true and
we can get 97 percent of the gold
out of this ground right here, it's
over for Indian River. Game over.
At the core of the trommel,
a rotating tube washes the rocks
so the gold and fine material
drops through to the outer drum.
Here the gold is pushed upwards,
then out into a sluice box
on the side of the machine.
It's over a month-and-a-half late,
but it's finally time to run
pay dirt through the turbo trommel.
All clear, Ray, go ahead.
You know what, I'm feeling awesome.
It's been a long time coming.
You know what, taking a risk on this
ground, took a risk on Ray,
took a risk on this machine,
and you know what?
All these guys are taking a risk
on me to make the right decisions.
The gold mining season for me
starts right fricking now.
Hey, Todd, let's run some dirt.
Todd has yet to produce
a single ounce of gold this season.
Now he'll find out
if the trommel was worth the wait.
(INTO RADIO) "First scoop, boys."
Drop it, baby!
Let it go. Whoa!
We're making gold now, buddy.
You know, this is it,
we're finally doing it.
First dirt ran this season
on Quartz Creek. Whoo!
Got a little bit too much material
in the drum itself right now.
It's loading the motor too much,
so it can't keep up
with as much draw as we have.
After only 20 minutes,
the crew spots a problem.
She's smoking. Whoa, whoa!
Oh, (BLEEP)!
Hold up, hold up.
This doesn't look good.
I'm really concerned about the
horsepower of the motor. It doesn't
look right. I'm really concerned.
The motor could seize up
if they continue running.
That's not good.
That's not good at all.
This could be a pretty serious deal.
With his investor showing up in just
a few days expecting 100 ounces
of gold, Todd's big day
quickly goes from good to bad.
If we have to get another motor, it
would take a week to get it in here,
and you know how things are up
in the north, sometimes a week turns
into two,
and that would just be a disaster.
At the Big Nugget Mine,
Parker is on a mission to build
a road up Smith Creek Hill.
Without a safe way up,
he can't get to pay dirt.
So this rock is giving us
a bit of a problem,
because we need
to get around this turn.
The only option might be to just
shoot this rock, to blow it up,
and get it outta here.
Luckily, Parker's family
is in the blasting business.
His dad, Roger,
builds roads for a living.
He has the equipment
Parker needs to blast rock.
We'll drive that on the ground,
then back off, turn around
and come back in, OK?
And his older brother, Payson,
is an expert driller
with years of experience
working with dynamite.
(KLAXON SOUNDS)
Holy crap! Whoo!
OK, so are we ready to go?
It's Father's Day, so I'm trying to
figure out what I'm doing here today
working for him.
He's supposed to be working for me.
I think that's the way
it's supposed to work.
Roger determines the best location
to drill the dynamite holes.
What I'm looking at is
just a pattern that'll
shear this off as best we can
and still be able to reach.
He's got a little bit of a problem
reaching it.
Yeah, it's going good.
My brother's doing a good job
drilling holes
and we're getting to pound it in
and next we'll put some powder in it
and... simple as that.
Payson drills tens holes
three metres deep
into the limestone outcrop.
We're putting the dynamite in the
hole, it'll blast the rock apart,
so it'll hopefully go to the left
here and fall into that hole for us.
This side.
Yeah, now we got the holes all set,
we'll just tie 'em altogether
and blow it up.
I'm gonna go to a safe haven
and blow this thing up.
(KLAXON SOUNDS)
Gonna blow this (BLEEP) up!
Parker, get down there.
Ready, Dad?
Fire in the hole!
OK, do it, do it.
(BOOM!)
(BOTH LAUGH)
Yeah!
Where'd our tree go?
OK, OK, now you gotta wait.
Are those trees still up?!
Good job.
Thank you.
Shake your brother's hand.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Look at that,
it doesn't get better than that.
We're on our way up.
On Father's Day the Schnabel men
clear a path up to the gold
on Smith Creek Hill.
The shot went well, you know?
We got a nice little start
to a road punched out around that
corner, and now it's even better
because we've got, you know,
the width we need.
From there it'll only be
a two-day job to build that road
all the way up.
Back at Indian River
in the Klondike,
Dave Turin and his crew are pushing
hard to squeeze every ounce of gold
they can out of the ground.
In just a few days, Todd's chief
investor will arrive on the claim.
He's expecting to see 100 ounces.
But with Todd's trommel shut down,
it's up to Dave's crew
to find the gold and stop
the investor pulling the plug.
There's a lot of pressure on Indian
River, because we are the only ones
producing gold.
What we hoped was gonna start out
to be a friendly competition
is now ending up just a matter of
complete survival for the whole crew.
Dave's crew is running its best dirt
yet, and despite setbacks
they've put 5,000 yards through
the wash plant in just five days.
It's the end of another good week.
We're all hoping for
good stuff this week.
Hoping to have another
record-setting cleanup.
OK, Freddy, that's it, shut her down!
It's done.
Good job, Chris.
Went smooth, buddy.
Yeah.
It went smooth.
Indian River has already produced
one 30-ounce cleanout,
worth nearly $50,000.
But now they need their biggest
cleanout ever to give them
a chance of hitting 100 ounces.
Here's a nice little flake, Chris.
It's getting chunkier.
You could fill a tooth with that!
Looking good, looking real good.
They're just filthy dirty with gold.
Look at that gold
buried in the carpets.
Look at it sunk in there, too.
All the way across. Yeah.
Boy, looking at this from the
surface, we'll do 40, 50, 60 ounces.
Wow. That would be great.
Now look at this, Dave.
It's just line after line after line
of gold,
just buried into that carpet.
The miners have never seen gold
like this, but the 70 ounces
they still need is close to
their total for all of last season.
.
.
At Porcupine Creek, Fred and his
team have pumped enough water
out of the glory hole to start
digging dirt on its upper slopes.
Hey, Dustin, it looks like some
interesting stuff we got out here.
We might have a little gold
after all. Get it in there.
Dustin has fed the first 100 yards
into the wash plant.
Melody checks the sluice box.
Can you see it? It's a nugget.
I'll be (BLEEP)!
I'll be... That's the first nugget
I've seen out here.
But nothing's gonna stop us now.
I mean, once you see this
it just makes you go, so, yeah,
I'm gonna get to it.
There's a lot of incentive
when you start seeing bigger gold,
better gold, more gold.
All of a sudden you know that what
you're digging for is down there.
It's getting close,
we're getting there.
With the rock outcrop blasted,
over at Big Nugget,
Parker and his team now have just
one section of road to finish before
they can mine Smith Creek.
To fill in the last section of
the road,
the dump trucks have to back up
to the edge of a 15-metre drop.
Dumping off of the edge up there
with these trucks
can be a little hairy if you're
not paying close attention.
When I'm backing up I can only see
the top halves of my back tyres
sometimes, so...
Hope they're in the right spot.
Parker and rookie miner Rick Ness
carefully dump truck load after
truck load.
It will take over 500 loads
to build up the road.
Rick backs another load
dangerously close to the edge.
Oh (BLEEP)!
You gotta be kidding me! (BLEEP)
He has flipped the trailer
of the 22,000kg machine.
If he's damaged the hydraulics,
the truck could be
out of action for weeks.
I'm shaking right now.
That was scary.
It was a hell of a jolt and the cab
came off the ground
and I thought I might be going over,
but the cab stayed upright at least.
Chauncey's gonna get it back into
position, see if there's anything
wrong with it.
(BLEEPS)!
Well, it looks like it's OK.
It didn't do any damage to the rams,
so, phew,
I'd say that's a close call.
After only one near miss, the team
manages to complete the road.
For the first time in over 25 years
of mining at Big Nugget,
there's a safe route up to
the last virgin ground on the claim,
Smith Creek Hill.
Look at this, it's like a highway.
A beautiful road.
I've been waiting for this
a long time.
It looks pretty good.
I'm excited to be up here.
There's gold up here somewhere,
and now it's a matter of disciplining
ourselves and finding it.
Up at Quartz Creek, Thurber and Jack
are helping Fred Dodge
run Indian River concentrate
through their gold table.
If it keeps plugging away like this,
the gold's gonna add up,
everybody's gonna be happy.
Side of the concentrate here,
so it looks really healthy.
To see gold here without running it,
that's gonna be a good sign.
With Todd's trommel not working,
the future of the entire Hoffman
operation is riding on this cleanout
from just one week of
running at Indian River.
Want a hand, Jim?
Yeah, I could use a blue cup.
Oh, this is kinda cool cos its...
Rinse it out and you can see
a stream of gold out of
the bottom of this thing.
Clean as a whistle. Thanks, Freddy.
I don't know who put that table
so far away.
Rolling the pig now, Jim.
Finish it up and get it tabled.
They still have a few days
before Jason arrives,
but this cleanout has to produce
the better part of 70 ounces
for them to have any chance of
hitting his 100-ounce minimum.
I believe over 30 and under 40.
55 I'll guess. Hopefully I'm right.
What did you say, Thurber?
54-and-a-half.
54 looks real good.
This is the last of it, Jack.
OK.
I'm gonna go get to work.
See you later, Jack. Thanks a lot.
Jack carefully weighs
the Indian River gold.
20, 28, 30...
Whoa, man, it's gonna be good, Thurb.
40. Oh, my gosh.
Oh, crap!
Oh, my God, Jack!
The crew's largest cleanout to date
is 30 ounces, worth almost $50,000.
Oh. Oh, no way.
Oh. Oh.
No! Jeez!
OK, let's take it down
and show it to 'em.
OK, drive careful.
All right.
Jack drives down to Indian River
to deliver the news.
Holy cow! Our last cleanup.
Oh, jeez.
Now, guys, don't drop this, please.
That looks good, there.
This cleanup, guys,
is 63.41.
(WHISTLES AND LAUGHS) OK.
63.4!
Way to go, guys. Nice.
Unbelievable. Awesome!
In just one week, Indian River's
produced 63 ounces of gold,
worth over $100,000.
All the guys that put in
the hard work at Indian River,
you guys outta be pretty proud of
yourselves. 63 ounces, that's huge.
So good work, men.
Nice. 63!
Yeah.
Now wait a minute, Jason's coming,
he wanted 100 ounces before
he showed up. What are we at? 93.7.
We got another seven ounces to go
before he shows up.
I tell you what. I'll try to get
the rest of that and get us to 100
before he shows up. Dad, why don't
you say a little prayer real quick?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for
the opportunity to be here.
Wow, its been an incredible cleanup.
I never thought that we'd ever see
60 ounces in a cleanup.
This is... It's just phenomenal.
Last week we got 30 ounces,
and we were ecstatic over that.
We just doubled that.
There's no doubt about it,
we put the best team together,
we got the best plant,
we've worked out butts off.
63 ounces. That's huge.
subtitles by Deluxe
.
In the Klondike,
Todd Hoffman's mining operation
is bigger than ever.
Here we go!
Yeah!
He's doubled his men and machines
in a quest for 1,000 ounces of gold.
There's gold in that dirt, Dave.
I'm telling you now,
we're gonna fricking do it.
To hit the mother load, the Hoffman
crew is split into two rival teams.
The heart's down here
at Quartz Creek.
Indian River is coming to life.
At Quartz Creek...
Oh!
Todd's turbo trommel finally
arrives on site.
The gold mining season
starts right fricking now.
Drop it, baby!
But two miles down the road
at Indian River,
Dave Turin's crew already has
gold in their sluice box.
Line after line of gold.
But despite the rivalry...
I hope he likes dust cos
he'll be eating it.
..both crews know that they need
each other just to stay in business.
What we hoped was gonna be
a friendly competition
is now ending up just a matter
of complete survival.
At Porcupine Creek in Alaska,
just as Dakota Fred gets back down
into the gold-rich glory hole,
he gets a surprise visitor
that could shut him down.
Hey, MSHA is here, man.
Oh, man! (BLEEP)!
And at Big Nugget, Parker Schnabel
makes one last-ditch attempt
to get to the gold
up on Smith Creek Hill.
There's gold up here somewhere,
now it's a matter of finding it.
Fire in the hole!
And this time,
nothing's gonna get in his way.
(BOOM!)
Over a third of the way through
the 150-day mining season,
Dave Turin's crew is hard at work
on the Hoffman's second claim
at Indian River.
The plant's going great. I'm a happy
camper, we're gold mining.
Greg Remsburg is excavating
some of their best pay gravel yet.
Chris Doumit feeds the wash plant.
Chris, how's it going over there?
Is everything holding together?
Oh, we got a great day going today,
we're on schedule,
everything's running smooth.
Two weeks ago, the Hoffman's
chief investor, Jason Otterson,
gave both teams an ultimatum.
You have three weeks to get
100 ounces.
Dave's team at Indian River
rose to the challenge,
pulling in a record-breaking
30-ounce cleanup
worth almost $50,000.
(ALL) Whoo!
Yeah! Nice job. All right!
Meanwhile at Quartz Creek,
Todd's team still doesn't
even have a wash plant.
It was meant to be here a month ago.
I need an answer.
What are we gonna do?
I don't have one for you right now.
They now need 70 ounces
in the next two weeks,
and Indian River is the only claim
running pay dirt.
Our whole operation is relying on
that plant, that's the only thing
producing gold now.
The clock is ticking. We've got
investors breathing down my back.
It looks like
we've shifted to Indian River,
having been the saviour,
and we understand that.
Team Turin's all over it.
To find $112,000 in gold,
Dave's crew has to more than double
its best clean up,
and run more yards of dirt
than ever before.
The plan for today is 1,000 yards
a day for five days.
We're gonna hit it as hard as
we can, we gotta keep the momentum.
But running that hard is tough
on the men - and machines.
Shut it down, Chris, shut it down!
(ENGINE GRINDS TO A HALT)
(BEEP)!
A root got down to the grizzly bars,
punched a hole through the belt,
and now bound up in the rollers,
so the whole belt is bound up.
So now we try to figure out
how to get it out of there.
The grizzly bars on top of
the hopper prevents anything
over-sized from falling
into the wash plant.
Somehow a large tree root
slipped through the bars.
It's ripped a hole in the heavy
rubber belt and jammed the rollers.
So if we get in there with a reset
and just take the whole thing off,
rubber, root and all.
The goal would be to empty the hopper
to get the belt repaired.
To get the root out
and to fix the belt,
Dave and team have to completely
take apart one side of the conveyor.
No, I'm not in a good mood.
This stuff kinda irritates me.
We're under pressure to keep running
and get gold, and then...
Once I get the root out
I can patch the belt.
It'll only take me a couple of hours,
but the problem is
I don't know how long it's gonna take
to get the root out.
Just another day in paradise.
Two miles away at Quartz Creek,
Todd's crew is in a mad scramble
to get its operation going.
It's over a month-and-a-half late,
but Todd's cutting-edge
turbo trommel has finally been
delivered by its inventor,
Ray Brosseuk.
Everything held together nice.
Yeah.
Nothing moved, looks good.
Guys, what you're looking at is
basically our make or break
of our season, this is out future.
I'm not kidding ya, this is it,
this is the machine
that's gonna change the whole game.
This is probably
the best wash plant in the world,
and I want it running
within 24 hours. Let's roll!
For the last seven weeks,
the trommel has had one delay
after another.
I'm gonna be honest with ya,
I'm disappointed and I need
that thing, now.
While they waited for its arrival,
Todd's team had nothing to do
but stockpile thousands of yards
of gold-bearing gravel.
Every ten minutes is another load
of pay dirt going by.
Should be going into a plant.
Where the hell's our new machine?
Two days ago,
the trommel finally arrived.
(KLAXON SOUNDS)
About fricking time, buddy.
But before Todd can catch any gold
in this massive machine,
he has to get it
into exactly the right position.
Fricking move this thing
into place, Ray.
Bring her down.
Down, down.
Roll it to me a little.
Hey!
They have to find some way of moving
the 27,000kg trommel
across 50 metres of uneven tailings,
and then turn it 90 degrees
before they can pull it up the slope
that will act as
its operating platform.
The trommel was built with
four low-loader wheels at the rear,
but the truck is gone,
and they now need to find a way
to pull the machine.
Ray brings in the 330 excavator.
So what do you wanna do, Ray?
I'll take up some of the weight,
then we'll crank in
the landing gear,
pull the blocks out and I'll start
walking it forward slowly. OK.
Up.
Clear.
Once the trommel's legs
are retracted, the 27,000kg machine
is held up by a single chain
attached to the excavator bucket.
There you go, I'd keep curling
your bucket out a little bit.
Straight down, keep going,
keep coming, keep coming,
keep coming, good.
Looking pretty heavy, guys.
Ray, easy does it.
Will that hold the weight?
Can't lift but I can hold.
The machine doesn't seem to have
enough power, that's his best
lifting capacity.
It's clear the excavator
isn't up to the job.
They bring in the stronger 460.
The biggest machine we got
and it may not be enough.
I really need this to work. Man, it's
60,000lbs, this ain't easy to do.
What do you think, Ray?
All I can do now is hope.
I'd sure hate to break it
on the last 50ft
after it's travelled 1,700 miles.
If the trommel falls
even just a few feet,
its frame could
buckle beyond repair.
Anyone that rigs anything
and sees a mess like that
would be rolling on the floor
laughing. That is (BLEEP) stuff.
Everybody clear?
Hopefully everything holds up here.
Stand clear.
Say a little prayer for our trommel.
Easy, easy, whoa, whoa, whoa!
(CLUNK!)
Are you guys all right?!
.
.
In the Klondike, the Hoffman crew
is struggling to get
their massive new trommel
into position.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
(CLUNK!)
Are you guys all right?
Yeah, we're OK.
Everything's got its weak point.
Todd has to come up with 70 ounces
of gold to keep his investor
from shutting down both
of his claims.
He desperately needs his
new trommel up and running.
Just bring in two excavators, let's
just try with both of them, huh?
Todd brings
the 330 back in to help out.
If we don't succeed,
just bring another excavator.
The crew chains the trommel
to both excavators.
Put it right on the fricking frame,
even if it bends it a little bit
we'll fix it.
This will screw up the frame.
You're gonna have a big mess
when you're done.
I don't like the chain on Walt's
side. It's against that spring perch.
Yeah,
I wouldn't lift this
the way this is hooked up.
Ray's afraid the lift will damage
his precision engineering,
but Todd's out of time.
This is super risky,
I'm tired of screwing around.
Walt, watch Mitch,
you guys work together.
Ten-four, buddy.
(MECHANICAL WHIR)
Stay together, stay together.
No, you're gonna break it.
No, I think you guys should stop.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Cos I think we just
bent the spring.
Before it's even moved one foot,
Ray has to step in.
OK, stick in.
Clip, clip.
Yeah, there you go, we're back in.
Todd's plan is not going to work
without crippling the trommel.
Jack takes over.
We've decided that the girls have
had their chance,
so Ray and I are
gonna hook this thing up properly.
Jack calls in the 220 loader.
What we're gonna do here is
roll the bucket forward.
With 22,000 kilos of lifting power,
Jack is confident the loader
can handle the massive trommel.
It looks pretty good.
All we can do is give it a try.
Well, now it's gotta work.
Come up with the whole thing.
Pull it up, pull it up, pull it up.
Keep coming, keep coming.
Nice, that's her right there.
I wouldn't go any higher, that's
good. Stay. Stay. Hold it there.
Well, here we go, we got it.
Now that's gonna work, Walt.
It's gonna work.
Under Jack and Ray's guidance,
the crew is able to slowly drag
the trommel onto the slope.
The excavator then rotates it
90 degrees,
and all three machines work together
to position the trommel
in its final resting place.
Whoo, that's a sweet sound.
Yes.
I like hearing that.
Good, we did it. OK.
That wasn't the smoothest thing
we've ever done in our life,
but we set it right in there level.
Yeah, we got her. I'll take it.
Young people think they can do
a whole lot more than what they can.
Old people just do it.
Now we can actually start mining.
We're back on track now.
We're in place. It's just a matter
of hook up the water and turn it on.
Now we're gonna come after Indian
River. I hope he likes dust cos he's
gonna be eating a lot of it.
At the Big Nugget Mine in Southeast
Alaska, 17-year-old Parker Schnabel,
and his grandfather John, meet with
veteran road builder Chauncey Craig.
They need a new safe way up
Smith Creek Hill.
I think we need to be up.
Yeah.
At the bottom of that brush.
Against the bridge over there.
I think this is the right thing
to do. Oh, sure. For sure.
So we're gonna start back about
100 feet before
we make the turn into Smith Creek
and start building the road up,
so that we have a longer hill
but less grade on that hill.
At the end of last season,
Parker found good gold from
a test dig on Smith Creek Hill.
This could secure the future
of the mine.
But his road to the top of the hill
was destroyed by melting snow after
Alaska's worst winter in 50 years.
All right, can we clean it up
and use that same road?
No, the hill is dangerous.
After last week's record cleanup...
55.
..worth $88,000, Parker has the
money for a new road up Smith Creek.
This is the best week we've had,
ever.
Chauncey has started the road
in a 330 excavator.
Up here pioneering the trail right
now. We gotta peel another now.
Parker's old road runs straight up
the hill at a steep angle.
It was dangerous for heavy machinery
then, and is impassable now.
The new road will be longer,
far less steep, and will follow
the contours of the hill,
but building it will not be easy.
The excavator will have to cling
to the hillside to dig,
and will have to build the road
ahead of itself.
Any mistakes, and the excavator
could tumble into Porcupine Creek
below.
Just a few hours into the job,
Chauncey is already flirting with
danger 20 metres above the creek.
(BLEEP)!
(BLEEP)!
He hits something hard.
It's a limestone outcrop.
How's it going?
I'm hitting pretty solid,
but I'm gonna jump on the dozer
and carry some of that ahead.
Chauncey's only hope now is the D8.
With almost 350 horsepower,
the dozer is the most
powerful machine on the mine.
If the rock is brittle, Chauncey
just may be able to chip away at it.
But even this mighty machine
can't move mountains.
If he can't find
a way through the rock,
Parker won't be able to get
to the gold on Smith Creek.
Smith Creek has gotten beyond
my abilities, you know, I need help.
It's as simple as that.
Across the river at Porcupine Creek,
Dakota Fred and his team are
digging beside the glory hole.
Whoa, what have we got here?
They're working overtime
to shift a lot of dirt,
but it's low-grade material
and Dustin is frustrated.
I've put in hundreds and hundreds
of hours
for a little bitty pinch
of a handful of gold.
So far the Dakota boys have
only found ten ounces of gold,
worth just $16,000.
I kinda pinned my hopes a little bit
on this stuff being a lot better.
It's paying for our diesel,
but that's about all.
Last season, when they got down
to bedrock at the bottom of
the glory hole, they dug out
12 ounces, worth almost $20,000,
in just two days.
Wow!
That's a lot of gold.
Man!
But early this season,
the threat of a catastrophic flood
kept them from going back to
the bottom of the glory hole.
And this stream itself will just
pick up all your equipment, wash 'em
down into the river.
And digging around the glory hole
hasn't produced any good gold.
It's junk.
It's junk dirt with no gold in it.
Now, weeks later,
flooding is no longer a threat,
and Dustin is
desperate for more gold.
We need to get down to the good
stuff. I need to see gold.
The bit of gold we have - I'm
getting a little nervous myself.
We only have
two-and-a-half months left. Yeah.
Get me down to the good stuff, Fred,
come on.
All right, you and Melody get out
there and haul ass. We'll do it.
Thanks, Fred.
Right now the gold
is under 15 metres of water.
They'll have to pump out over
four-and-a-half million litres
to get to it.
This is the start of
getting some real gold!
(ENGINE STARTS)
A diesel pump can remove
almost 33,000 litres an hour.
It's running. This is the beginning
of draining the big hole.
Hopefully it's full of gold.
But just as the pump fires up...
..an unwelcome visitor
shows up on the claim.
Freddy? What's going on?
MSHA's here, man.
Oh, crap. That's all we need,
a damn inspection right now,
after all this other crap.
Oh, man! (BLEEP)!
The Mining Safety and Health
Administration
is a government agency.
Its inspectors often show up
unannounced.
Let me go see
what the hell is going on.
And they have the power
to shut down a mine.
No, this is not (BLEEP),
this is not TV.
This is a Federal, this is a Federal
whatever. I don't know what it is.
That guy could shut us down.
It's like everybody's against us
somehow.
.
,
Watch my fingers here.
At Indian River, Dave Turin's
wash plant is at a standstill.
A tree root has jammed
the conveyor belt.
There's a root hung up in the belt.
We need to get it out.
This piece of wood or, it looks like
a root, came down,
went through our belt and got
jammed up on this roller,
so we gotta get this roller out of
the way, get the root outta here.
It blew a hole through the belt,
so we're gonna have to do a repair
on the belt as well.
It will take the crew hours
just to get to the problem.
We wanna get our thousand yards
today, so we'll just do whatever
we have to do to get it.
The two Hoffman crews have
just a week left to get 70 ounces,
worth $110,000, and right now
neither crew is producing gold.
I hate these kinda things. It really
pisses me off, we're losing time,
we're losing daylight, and ultimately
losing our season, so what do you do,
other than go to work?
I wonder if we take this one loose
and can kinda roll it back a ways?
The most important thing for us to do
is to continue running this plant.
Being a team, it's gonna help us
beat Quartz Creek.
After two hours of fighting
the conveyor,
Mitch finally dislodges the root.
What we got going on is we have to
get this belt to a position where
we can repair it,
and right here we can't,
so we're gonna run the belt around,
get it down to the other end
and do our repair there.
So that's the damaged area
we have to fix,
it's not too bad
but bad enough to shut it down.
You're good, run it.
The belt is moved to a position
where Dave can reach the tear.
Now they need to fix the damage.
That's the ripped belt, that's what
that piece of wood did.
So now I'll put a square piece
back in and re-do it.
They haven't run dirt all day,
and Dave is feeling the pressure.
They have to start producing gold
as soon as possible.
It's late, but we're not gonna quit.
We got investors
breathing down our throat.
Todd doesn't have a trommel,
so the only ones making gold
and making money is Indian River.
Right now we're tightening down
the fasteners,
these hold the belt together
real tight,
so when you have material slipping
through, and gold, that's
not what Logi Bear likes to see.
This is the last step, and you just
break the bolts off. The last one.
Two-and-a-half hours. It'll be
all right. Turn this bad boy back on.
(ENGINE WHIRS)
We're going again.
Took a lot of effort but we're going.
It's late but we got
24 hours of daylight here.
We wanna get our thousand yards
today, so we'll just do whatever
we have to do to get it.
At Porcupine Creek in Alaska,
an MSHA safety inspector has
just surprised the Dakota boys.
Unplug your microphone.
OK.
All right, you're officially notified
you are not to film this man.
He is a Federal Official, you are
under strict orders not to film him.
What does he want, Fred?
Or record him. OK, Fred? Period.
The inspector has
the power to shut down the mine
if he finds
health and safety violations.
Last season, MSHA closed
Porcupine Creek for seven days.
Fred estimates
it cost him over $10,000.
We're shut down, Fred, we gotta...
Oh, (BLEEP)!
And with the Dakota boys
already over $50,000 in the red,
a shutdown could end their season.
The guy doesn't seem like
he's gonna shut us down
but neither did the last one,
so you never know.
After four hours on the mine,
the inspector finally leaves
Porcupine Creek.
He only cites the crew for a broken
window on one of the excavators.
We've basically gotten off OK with
this particular inspection.
It might be a turning point.
I think it will,
I think it'll be good motivation.
Up at Quartz Creek, Todd finally has
the new trommel in place.
The Hoffmans have 30 ounces,
worth less than $50,000
so far this season.
They need another 70 ounces
in under a week to produce
the 100 ounces of gold
they promised their investor.
OK, guys, are you ready? Yeah!
Let's do this.
They've waited seven long weeks
for the trommel to get
up to the Klondike.
This machine is the latest
in mining technology.
It requires little assembling
compared to the traditional shaker
at Indian River.
Hit the water.
Give me 1,000 RPM.
First, Mitch checks the water
is flowing properly.
One nozzle on the front bar
isn't spraying quite right,
might have some debris in it.
I think we got the right RPM
at 1,100.
Then they turn off the water
so that Ray, the trommel's designer,
can make final adjustments.
When this machine is all dialled in,
what percentage of gold do you think
you're getting?
97 percent down to 300 mesh fine,
and I had several geologists
actually test it for me.
You know, most people would say
that's impossible.
I know, it's not my word,
it's the professionals
who've come and tested it.
If what Ray says is true and
we can get 97 percent of the gold
out of this ground right here, it's
over for Indian River. Game over.
At the core of the trommel,
a rotating tube washes the rocks
so the gold and fine material
drops through to the outer drum.
Here the gold is pushed upwards,
then out into a sluice box
on the side of the machine.
It's over a month-and-a-half late,
but it's finally time to run
pay dirt through the turbo trommel.
All clear, Ray, go ahead.
You know what, I'm feeling awesome.
It's been a long time coming.
You know what, taking a risk on this
ground, took a risk on Ray,
took a risk on this machine,
and you know what?
All these guys are taking a risk
on me to make the right decisions.
The gold mining season for me
starts right fricking now.
Hey, Todd, let's run some dirt.
Todd has yet to produce
a single ounce of gold this season.
Now he'll find out
if the trommel was worth the wait.
(INTO RADIO) "First scoop, boys."
Drop it, baby!
Let it go. Whoa!
We're making gold now, buddy.
You know, this is it,
we're finally doing it.
First dirt ran this season
on Quartz Creek. Whoo!
Got a little bit too much material
in the drum itself right now.
It's loading the motor too much,
so it can't keep up
with as much draw as we have.
After only 20 minutes,
the crew spots a problem.
She's smoking. Whoa, whoa!
Oh, (BLEEP)!
Hold up, hold up.
This doesn't look good.
I'm really concerned about the
horsepower of the motor. It doesn't
look right. I'm really concerned.
The motor could seize up
if they continue running.
That's not good.
That's not good at all.
This could be a pretty serious deal.
With his investor showing up in just
a few days expecting 100 ounces
of gold, Todd's big day
quickly goes from good to bad.
If we have to get another motor, it
would take a week to get it in here,
and you know how things are up
in the north, sometimes a week turns
into two,
and that would just be a disaster.
At the Big Nugget Mine,
Parker is on a mission to build
a road up Smith Creek Hill.
Without a safe way up,
he can't get to pay dirt.
So this rock is giving us
a bit of a problem,
because we need
to get around this turn.
The only option might be to just
shoot this rock, to blow it up,
and get it outta here.
Luckily, Parker's family
is in the blasting business.
His dad, Roger,
builds roads for a living.
He has the equipment
Parker needs to blast rock.
We'll drive that on the ground,
then back off, turn around
and come back in, OK?
And his older brother, Payson,
is an expert driller
with years of experience
working with dynamite.
(KLAXON SOUNDS)
Holy crap! Whoo!
OK, so are we ready to go?
It's Father's Day, so I'm trying to
figure out what I'm doing here today
working for him.
He's supposed to be working for me.
I think that's the way
it's supposed to work.
Roger determines the best location
to drill the dynamite holes.
What I'm looking at is
just a pattern that'll
shear this off as best we can
and still be able to reach.
He's got a little bit of a problem
reaching it.
Yeah, it's going good.
My brother's doing a good job
drilling holes
and we're getting to pound it in
and next we'll put some powder in it
and... simple as that.
Payson drills tens holes
three metres deep
into the limestone outcrop.
We're putting the dynamite in the
hole, it'll blast the rock apart,
so it'll hopefully go to the left
here and fall into that hole for us.
This side.
Yeah, now we got the holes all set,
we'll just tie 'em altogether
and blow it up.
I'm gonna go to a safe haven
and blow this thing up.
(KLAXON SOUNDS)
Gonna blow this (BLEEP) up!
Parker, get down there.
Ready, Dad?
Fire in the hole!
OK, do it, do it.
(BOOM!)
(BOTH LAUGH)
Yeah!
Where'd our tree go?
OK, OK, now you gotta wait.
Are those trees still up?!
Good job.
Thank you.
Shake your brother's hand.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Look at that,
it doesn't get better than that.
We're on our way up.
On Father's Day the Schnabel men
clear a path up to the gold
on Smith Creek Hill.
The shot went well, you know?
We got a nice little start
to a road punched out around that
corner, and now it's even better
because we've got, you know,
the width we need.
From there it'll only be
a two-day job to build that road
all the way up.
Back at Indian River
in the Klondike,
Dave Turin and his crew are pushing
hard to squeeze every ounce of gold
they can out of the ground.
In just a few days, Todd's chief
investor will arrive on the claim.
He's expecting to see 100 ounces.
But with Todd's trommel shut down,
it's up to Dave's crew
to find the gold and stop
the investor pulling the plug.
There's a lot of pressure on Indian
River, because we are the only ones
producing gold.
What we hoped was gonna start out
to be a friendly competition
is now ending up just a matter of
complete survival for the whole crew.
Dave's crew is running its best dirt
yet, and despite setbacks
they've put 5,000 yards through
the wash plant in just five days.
It's the end of another good week.
We're all hoping for
good stuff this week.
Hoping to have another
record-setting cleanup.
OK, Freddy, that's it, shut her down!
It's done.
Good job, Chris.
Went smooth, buddy.
Yeah.
It went smooth.
Indian River has already produced
one 30-ounce cleanout,
worth nearly $50,000.
But now they need their biggest
cleanout ever to give them
a chance of hitting 100 ounces.
Here's a nice little flake, Chris.
It's getting chunkier.
You could fill a tooth with that!
Looking good, looking real good.
They're just filthy dirty with gold.
Look at that gold
buried in the carpets.
Look at it sunk in there, too.
All the way across. Yeah.
Boy, looking at this from the
surface, we'll do 40, 50, 60 ounces.
Wow. That would be great.
Now look at this, Dave.
It's just line after line after line
of gold,
just buried into that carpet.
The miners have never seen gold
like this, but the 70 ounces
they still need is close to
their total for all of last season.
.
.
At Porcupine Creek, Fred and his
team have pumped enough water
out of the glory hole to start
digging dirt on its upper slopes.
Hey, Dustin, it looks like some
interesting stuff we got out here.
We might have a little gold
after all. Get it in there.
Dustin has fed the first 100 yards
into the wash plant.
Melody checks the sluice box.
Can you see it? It's a nugget.
I'll be (BLEEP)!
I'll be... That's the first nugget
I've seen out here.
But nothing's gonna stop us now.
I mean, once you see this
it just makes you go, so, yeah,
I'm gonna get to it.
There's a lot of incentive
when you start seeing bigger gold,
better gold, more gold.
All of a sudden you know that what
you're digging for is down there.
It's getting close,
we're getting there.
With the rock outcrop blasted,
over at Big Nugget,
Parker and his team now have just
one section of road to finish before
they can mine Smith Creek.
To fill in the last section of
the road,
the dump trucks have to back up
to the edge of a 15-metre drop.
Dumping off of the edge up there
with these trucks
can be a little hairy if you're
not paying close attention.
When I'm backing up I can only see
the top halves of my back tyres
sometimes, so...
Hope they're in the right spot.
Parker and rookie miner Rick Ness
carefully dump truck load after
truck load.
It will take over 500 loads
to build up the road.
Rick backs another load
dangerously close to the edge.
Oh (BLEEP)!
You gotta be kidding me! (BLEEP)
He has flipped the trailer
of the 22,000kg machine.
If he's damaged the hydraulics,
the truck could be
out of action for weeks.
I'm shaking right now.
That was scary.
It was a hell of a jolt and the cab
came off the ground
and I thought I might be going over,
but the cab stayed upright at least.
Chauncey's gonna get it back into
position, see if there's anything
wrong with it.
(BLEEPS)!
Well, it looks like it's OK.
It didn't do any damage to the rams,
so, phew,
I'd say that's a close call.
After only one near miss, the team
manages to complete the road.
For the first time in over 25 years
of mining at Big Nugget,
there's a safe route up to
the last virgin ground on the claim,
Smith Creek Hill.
Look at this, it's like a highway.
A beautiful road.
I've been waiting for this
a long time.
It looks pretty good.
I'm excited to be up here.
There's gold up here somewhere,
and now it's a matter of disciplining
ourselves and finding it.
Up at Quartz Creek, Thurber and Jack
are helping Fred Dodge
run Indian River concentrate
through their gold table.
If it keeps plugging away like this,
the gold's gonna add up,
everybody's gonna be happy.
Side of the concentrate here,
so it looks really healthy.
To see gold here without running it,
that's gonna be a good sign.
With Todd's trommel not working,
the future of the entire Hoffman
operation is riding on this cleanout
from just one week of
running at Indian River.
Want a hand, Jim?
Yeah, I could use a blue cup.
Oh, this is kinda cool cos its...
Rinse it out and you can see
a stream of gold out of
the bottom of this thing.
Clean as a whistle. Thanks, Freddy.
I don't know who put that table
so far away.
Rolling the pig now, Jim.
Finish it up and get it tabled.
They still have a few days
before Jason arrives,
but this cleanout has to produce
the better part of 70 ounces
for them to have any chance of
hitting his 100-ounce minimum.
I believe over 30 and under 40.
55 I'll guess. Hopefully I'm right.
What did you say, Thurber?
54-and-a-half.
54 looks real good.
This is the last of it, Jack.
OK.
I'm gonna go get to work.
See you later, Jack. Thanks a lot.
Jack carefully weighs
the Indian River gold.
20, 28, 30...
Whoa, man, it's gonna be good, Thurb.
40. Oh, my gosh.
Oh, crap!
Oh, my God, Jack!
The crew's largest cleanout to date
is 30 ounces, worth almost $50,000.
Oh. Oh, no way.
Oh. Oh.
No! Jeez!
OK, let's take it down
and show it to 'em.
OK, drive careful.
All right.
Jack drives down to Indian River
to deliver the news.
Holy cow! Our last cleanup.
Oh, jeez.
Now, guys, don't drop this, please.
That looks good, there.
This cleanup, guys,
is 63.41.
(WHISTLES AND LAUGHS) OK.
63.4!
Way to go, guys. Nice.
Unbelievable. Awesome!
In just one week, Indian River's
produced 63 ounces of gold,
worth over $100,000.
All the guys that put in
the hard work at Indian River,
you guys outta be pretty proud of
yourselves. 63 ounces, that's huge.
So good work, men.
Nice. 63!
Yeah.
Now wait a minute, Jason's coming,
he wanted 100 ounces before
he showed up. What are we at? 93.7.
We got another seven ounces to go
before he shows up.
I tell you what. I'll try to get
the rest of that and get us to 100
before he shows up. Dad, why don't
you say a little prayer real quick?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for
the opportunity to be here.
Wow, its been an incredible cleanup.
I never thought that we'd ever see
60 ounces in a cleanup.
This is... It's just phenomenal.
Last week we got 30 ounces,
and we were ecstatic over that.
We just doubled that.
There's no doubt about it,
we put the best team together,
we got the best plant,
we've worked out butts off.
63 ounces. That's huge.
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