Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 3, Episode 8 - Up Smith Creek - full transcript

In the gold fields of North America,

four gold mining crews are halfway
through their do-or-die season.

The water's back on,
we're ready to roll.

In the Klondike, two Hoffman crews
on two different claims

are chasing one dream.

We're gonna try to make the American
dream an American reality.

At Quartz Creek, with his
brand-new trommel finally on site,

it's now or never for Todd Hoffman.

Holy crap, look at this.

I'm done, so back up.

And with Todd out of the race...



I have to ask you guys to do
something I know you won't wanna do.

..he's forced to beg
Dave Turin's crew for help...

We have to do our job
and do his job right now.

..to keep their investor
from pulling the plug.

Where is everybody?

I'm here, I need to see results.

I need to see the gold.

In Alaska... Whoo!

..Dakota Fred stumbles on what he
thinks is a gold-rich glory hole...

I found something very unusual
right over here.

..that just may hold the mother lode.
Whoo!

And at Big Nugget, Parker brings in
mining legend Tony Beets...

I'm a strong believer of drills.

..to help solve the two-year mystery
of Smith Creek.



Drill holes. Drill holes.
Drill holes.

And out of nowhere, Grandfather John
drops a bombshell on Parker.

So, Parker, be confident
that I will make it through this.

That I have a good
chance of surviving it.

And I'll be back.

In the Klondike, two Hoffman crews

are halfway through
their 150-day mining season.

You good?

So far they've banked 93 ounces
of gold, worth $150,000.

They desperately need seven more
ounces to hit 100,

the magic number to keep Jason
Otteson from pulling his funding.

If we don't get to that 100 ounces,

well, not only am I gonna lose face
with Jason,

I'm gonna lose face with
these guys right here.

Todd is counting on his new trommel
to produce the last seven ounces.

But it can only run at half speed
until a replacement motor arrives.

What we're trying to do is get
the maximum amount of output

through this machine
without burning it up.

Yeah, we got a hundred ounce promise

and this machine's
got to provide it,

so if it doesn't have it,

I don't know what's gonna happen.

Three weeks ago, Jason Otteson
gave the Hoffmans an ultimatum.

You have three weeks
to get 100 ounces,

then we'll have to pull the plug.

After Todd's new trommel
arrived seven weeks late...

(CRASH)

..and struggled to run dirt,

Dave Turin's Indian River crew are
responsible for all the 93
ounces they have to date.

I'll try to get the rest of that

and get us to 100
before he shows up.

Ready? MAN: Yeah.

Feeling the pressure, Todd vowed to
get the final seven ounces out of
Quartz Creek.

Now, a few days before
Jason is due to arrive,

Todd is running as much pay dirt
through his underpowered trommel as
he can.

I got Jason coming soon

and I want this thing
to produce the freaking gold.

I don't know if I'm gonna get there,
but we're gonna sure try.

Holy crap, look at this.

After only two hours running,
the trommel's motor overheats again.

What are you seeing, man?

I can feel all the heat coming off
the engine. It's getting warm.

I don't know how much more
it'll take.

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

This don't look good.

With the engine about to blow,

Todd has to make a tough decision.

It's not good,
we're shutting it down.

Dennis!

Just freaking cut it.

Thurber, cut the water.

Forget it.

Indian got 93 point
something ounces

and we're supposed
to get the other seven.

That's not good.

I'm not gonna get the hundred ounces
out of this plant.

It's just not gonna happen. And
you know what? It's off. I'm done.

So back up.

Two miles southwest at Indian River,

Team Turin is working
on their wash plant.

Good. It's looking good.

With Todd promising to find
the gold for Jason's deadline,

the guys are doing some fine-tuning.

This is part of what we do.

Especially when you're
in the Klondike.

You don't have, you know,
the ability to run to town.

So we make adjustments.

Since Dave Turin took over
as the boss of Indian River,

his crew has assembled
a massive wash plant...

I didn't think I'd ever
see this day.

..and moved an immense area
of earth and gravel...

Come on, baby.

..to produce all 93 ounces of gold
the Hoffmans have found this season.

Indian River is coming to life.

Now, a desperate and defeated
Todd Hoffman heads to Indian River.

What I have is a major problem.

I have Jason Otteson coming in and
I'm seven ounces short. Plain and
simple.

So obviously, I'm not gonna get it
out of this trommel,

so now I'm going down
to Indian River

and hopefully they got the extra
seven ounces because we're at 93.

If they don't, then my commitment
to Jason is not gonna be fulfilled,

and he's gonna be pissed.

Hey, guys, can I have everybody meet
over at the sluice box real quick?

I don't think they're gonna take it
very well, but that's just the way
it goes.

Hey, guys. How's it going?
Hey, what up?

Uh, I'm gonna have to ask you guys
to do something I know you're
not gonna wanna do.

I need seven more ounces.

I know.

What's happening down
in Quartz Creek?

Not much. You can't run anything
down there at Quartz?

You can't help us a little bit?
No, I tried. I'm done.

What happens if we break down?
What happens if the loader breaks?

Well, if...if this and if that,

but if we're running
I need the gold out of the box.

I hate it.
I hate asking you guys to do this.

I know it's a lot of work.

But if we piss this guy off,
none of us are gonna be running.

All right? Do your best,
that's all I can ask.

Do your best.

Sound good?
All right, see you guys.

Well, I'd like to see some effort,
you know, from Quartz Creek.

Right now they're sitting on
their ass in a lawn chair.

That's not effort.

We have to do our job
and do his job right now.

You know, it's more of a team thing
down here,

and to have someone just come down
and say, "Do this, do that,"

and walk away is...
hard to take.

Down at the Big Nugget mine
in southeast Alaska...

We're going big on Smith Creek.

..Parker and his crew are running the
virgin ground from up on Smith Creek

for the first time this season.

You know, this is a huge part
of our season,

what our season's based on
is this dig and...and its potential.

Parker digs what he hopes
is good pay dirt.

Rick runs it to the wash plant.

Parker has poured his heart and soul
into Smith Creek.

Expectations are high.

Um, the last time we were up here,
the gold looked pretty good.

I am pretty excited.

We've been waiting
a long time for this.

It means a lot to me.
It means a lot to my grandpa.

At the end of last season,

Parker found gold in a test hole
at the top of Smith Creek.

That's pretty nice.

He worked through
the harsh Alaskan winter

and spent $150,000
of his grandfather's money

moving 75,000 yards
of worthless dirt.

Fire in the hole!

Then he blasted a new, safer, road
up to Smith Creek and the gold.

Now Parker needs to see good gold
in this virgin ground

to pay his grandfather back

and to keep the Smith Creek dream
alive.

So we just finished our first
day of running from Smith Creek,

and, you know, the dirt looks good

and if there's gold in the box,
everything's great.

You know I'm happy, stoked.

You know, Smith Creek is extremely
important to Parker's family.

His grandfather has been holding
onto Smith Creek as a saviour

for a very long time.

And I know the family would like
to see some results up there

while Parker's grandfather
is still with us.

This is a really nervous time
for Parker.

Two flakes.

Nothing.

Last year, this ground
was rich with gold.

(SIGHS) But now there's nothing.

Why is that happening?

It doesn't make any sense.

Unless there was some sort of
contamination with the last test,
last year.

I don't know what to do.

(BLEEP)

In southeast Alaska,
at Porcupine Creek,

gold mining veteran Fred Hurt

is halfway through
the 150-day mining season.

I'm looking forward to digging
a little bit of rock right now.

We're into the good stuff right now.

The equipment is running.

I want to get out there
and I want to dig it now.

With only eight and a half ounces
of gold so far this season,

worth just $14,000,

the Dakota boys are frantically
scraping up pay dirt from glory hole
bedrock.

(LAUGHS)

Whoo!

We're definitely dropping down
to the bottom of the hole now.

This is where it's at, down here.

All season, Dustin has been
trying to convince Fred

to get back down to the gold-rich
dirt at the bottom of the glory hole.

We need to get down to the good
stuff. I need to see gold.

We'll do it.

Just last week, Fred finally agreed
and they began pumping out the glory
hole.

Now it's dry, and the Dakota boys
are finally back on the material

that could turn their season around.

Got to rip on that bedrock
a little more.

Most miners would die
to have bedrock like that.

I really think
it's just chock-full of gold.

So I'm gonna dig it all up.

But suddenly, Fred stops digging.

He hit something very rare.

I found something very unusual
right over here in the bedrock.

We'll find out what's
in the bottom of that.

Look it here,
there's no bedrock here.

Look at that, it's still going down.

Still going down.

That's got to be a big gold catcher.

Fred suspects the depression in the
bedrock is part of an ancient
waterfall.

These anomalies,
known as glory holes,

are formed by
fast-moving rivers

that erode deep holes in the rock
over thousands of years.

If the river was gold-bearing, it
would have dropped large deposits of
gold.

Fred is hoping the gold is still
at the bottom of the hole.

C'est la vie, whatever happens,
happens. Here it goes.

But while Fred explores his new find,
Dustin is left waiting for pay dirt.

One day, a pauper...

next day, in the money.

Give me something to dig.

Just calm down,
you ain't on a schedule.

I want it now, not next year,
not in five years. I want it now.

(LAUGHS)

Whoo! Might find some good stuff
in here after all.

You'll spend 12 hours
panning a pile of dirt.

We'll see. We will see.

Uh, Fred and I have different
opinions on time well used.

Dustin is convinced Fred is wasting
time and money on a long shot.

He would rather run the bedrock
gravel that he thinks will hold
good gold.

But Fred wants to keep
testing this new material.

Dustin, I'm gonna have
to give you a couple of buckets,

I mean, special buckets.

Just go ahead
and just pan a little bit of it.

(BEEPING)

WOMAN: Holy crap.

He wanted it up here. OK.

I'll be panning for a while.

Fred's crazy sometimes.
He gets these feelings about dirt.

Is that a lot of material or what?

Evidently he must think
it's a really nice bucket,

so we'll have to test it.

North, in the Klondike...

At Indian River, the pressure is on.

Golly, things are just
running like a top.

The plant's running great.
The machinery's running good.

We're having a good day.

With Quartz Creek shut down,

it's up to Dave Turin's crew
to get to the 100 ounces

before their investor
Jason Otteson arrives.

I definitely feel the pressure.

There's a lot of pressure put on us
because we're the only ones

that are solidly and consistently
producing gold right now.

(MACHINERY WHIRRING)
Holy cow. Guys!

Holy smokes.
We got a blowout here.

Did Chris see sparks?
I did too, Greg.

Oh, coming out of the box?

They've lost power

and the wash plant
has ground to a halt.

There's no gold being produced.

Nobody's happy.

Whoa! Whoa!

The fusebox that controls power
to the hopper feeder
has short-circuited.

The best-case scenario is the wire
vibrated out and loose.

Worst-case scenario
is this breaker's shot.

If the circuit breaker has blown,
it will need to be replaced,

but there's no spare on site
and the clock is ticking.

You know, we're down a half a day
at this point, right now.

And when nothing's happening,
we're not getting any gold.

Dave decides to ignore the breaker.

He only replaces the one loose wire.

Fire in the hole.

(WHOOSHING) Yes!

Tripped the breaker. Whoo!

It's good news.
We're back making gold.

The water's back on,
we're ready to roll.

With the morning lost,
Fred Dodge has to run the plant hard

to have any chance of catching the
seven ounces of gold they urgently
need.

Just now I turned the speed up on
the plant to increase the
production.

You have X amount of gold

and you can get that gold in a
shorter time period without losing
it, do it.

At the Big Nugget mine in Alaska,

Parker's first run of Smith Creek
dirt had no gold.

He suspects the gold is on bedrock,

but in two seasons of mining
Smith Creek, he's yet to hit it.

I think there's good gold here.

And so if we can find bedrock,

I would feel pretty confident
spending a lot of money going after
that.

Parker has called in the big guns.

Klondike mining legend
Tony Beets is en route.

Tony Beets. Hi.
How are you doing?

Last season, Tony inspired Parker
when they met at his mine in the
Klondike.

How many ounces is that?

I've never seen that much gold
in the pan.

Now Tony and his wife have arrived at
Big Nugget to check out Parker's
operation.

It'll be nice to have him up here.

You know, he's been mining
for 30-something years.

And I'm sure that he'd be able
to offer us some pretty good advice.

He knows how to move dirt
and knows how to wash rocks.

Hey, Parker. Hey, Tony.
How's it going, my man?

Good, how are you?
Oh, doing OK. Hey.

Your homeless mother-in-law is here.
(LAUGHTER)

Parker walks Tony
up Smith Creek hill.

Just trying to get an overall
picture, right? Right, and so...

You ever had a geologist in here?
Not recently.

You know, it started actually with
my grandpa saying that it'd be
15 feet to bedrock. Mm-hm.

And that was 40 feet up.
(LAUGHS)

That was a ways up, then, wasn't it?
(BLEEP) Yeah. Yeah.

But, on the other side,
if there's nothing down there,

I'd rather find out now than in
three years. (BLEEP) yeah.

Don't waste your time (BLEEP)
around, hello.

I'm a strong believer in drilling.

It is cheap at any cost.

And then you know. Right.

It's never been drilled
or anything like that before.

Like, your grandpa has been thinking
about this now how long?

Probably ten years.
Well, there you go.

But before you stick another
100 or $200,000 in there,

I'm sure you want to know what's
down there. Yeah. Right?

Drill holes.
Drill holes. Drill holes.

Right. See?

A lot of these people today, they
like to (BLEEP) talk about it

and sit on it, and talk about it,
and whine about it.

He looks like one that is going to
go there and do something about it.

That's what it takes these days.
We need people like that.

That's what builds countries.
Not sitting and whining.

Get out there
and do something about it.

And he looks like one of those.
He'll do something.

See you in the Klondike, my man.
I'll be up there.

You take it easy, OK?
See you, Tony. Yep.

The main reason for drilling a hole
is to find bedrock.

Where there's bedrock, there's gold.

I'm done with the guesswork.
And I'm really excited to drill a
hole and figure out what's up here.

(LAUGHING) Whoo!

At Porcupine Creek,
in southeast Alaska,

Dakota Fred's excavating an
intriguing hole he's found in the
bedrock.

That hole down there
is not something usual.

That's a very unusual hole
right there.

I don't really know what created it,

but, uh, should be some gold
in that hole.

But Dustin thinks they should
be processing the bedrock gravel
they know holds gold.

Hey, Dustin.

Would you do me a favour
and hop out of your cab

and go over there and step down
in the bottom of that hole?

Let me see what you got.

That thing is surrounded by bedrock.

Pretty unusual, isn't it?
Yeah. Damned unusual.

And the bottom is actually smooth.

No nuggets.

Hm.

Nope. Nope?

We'll see. Never know.

There are no visible nuggets
in the hole.

But Fred still has a bucket
of material waiting to be tested.

I don't know what's in this stuff.

Oh...

I persuaded Dustin and Melody
to do this.

I really hope this comes off.

OK. OK, give me some more.

It all comes down to one little
bucket of stuff, right.

If they find just a few flakes
of gold from this small sample,

they have found a mini-glory hole
that could hold thousands in gold.

I'm a-looking here. I don't see
anything. I don't see anything.

No, that's not gold.

I'm gonna back-pan this
a little bit.

And there, we got some gold
in there.

Right there, a piece of gold
sticking up right there.

Is that enough for you, Dustin?
It's looking good, Fred.

It's looking real good.
Wow!

Huh! It's looking beautiful.

(LAUGHS)

All right, let's go dig that hole.

Yee-haw!

Across the creek at Big Nugget, it's
judgement day for Parker Schnabel.

He's drilling Smith Creek in search
of bedrock and the gold he thinks is
sitting on it.

A big part of mining is just, you
know, being able to solve mysteries.

And Smith Creek is all mystery.

And hopefully,
today we'll change that.

On its way to Big Nugget,
an Air Rotary Drill rig,

armed with 500 feet, around 150
metres, of drilling steel to locate
bedrock.

Kind of feels like the calm
before the storm.

It's a big day on Smith Creek today,

because we're gonna drill it and see
how far down bedrock is

and the possibilities of big gold
being up there is very high.

But for Smith Creek
to be worth mining,

Parker needs gold in bedrock gravel
less than 50 feet, or 15 metres,
down.

If we drill 30 feet and we hit
bedrock we're in good shape.

40 feet, we can get there,
but it won't be pretty.

50 feet, you're pushing it.

If the bedrock is deeper
than 50 feet,

Parker won't have
enough time or money

to get all the way down
to the pay gravel.

We'll find bedrock. I'm confident
we'll find it today.

I don't believe it'll take too long.
I don't think we'll go very deep.

Moment of truth.

Now I'm about to spend
a lot of money in a hurry.

The drilling rig uses
four hydraulic motors

to power each
of the three rotating drill bits

that cut a vertical shaft
into the ground.

As the drill digs down,
lengths of steel casing

are hammered over the drill stem
to keep the hole from collapsing.

Compressed air and water
are pumped down inside the casing

to lift core samples to the surface
for Parker to test.

We got an eight-inch hole down to
20 feet so we'll drive this pipe in.

We don't know anything past 20 feet,

and they're about to tell us
what's down there,

so hopefully we start hitting
something pretty hard and then
bedrock.

He's
kicking the air compressor in.

Everything's gonna come out of here,
so you want to spread out.

At 25 feet, the first sample
shows no bedrock.

Foot after foot, not a thing.

Are you gonna put another case in?
We'll have to.

Now 40 feet down, fast approaching
Parker's maximum depth of 50 feet,

still nothing but junk dirt.

How many? About 50.
We're at 50 feet? Yeah.

The drill hits 50 feet,
Parker's limit.

There has to be bedrock
and gold in this sample

to keep his grandfather's
Smith Creek dream alive.

Clay, just clay. Just a conglomerate
of clay and broken rocks.

Absolute crap.

There's the same exact stuff
50 feet below us

as there is right at the surface.

We'll go deeper. All right.

(BLEEP)

(CLANGING)

You know, we'll drill
until we hit bedrock.

We're at 80 feet and still going.

We're at 88 feet.

I think we're at bedrock.

Looks like bedrock.

88 feet to bedrock.

Pretty depressing.

Bedrock at 88 feet,
around 26 metres down.

It's over for Smith Creek,

unless the sample reveals
unprecedented gold.

There's nothing down there.

No gold.

Up north at Quartz Creek...

Todd Hoffman's mine is shut down.

He swallows his pride
and calls his investor

to ask for more time
to get to 100 ounces.

(RINGING TONE)

This is Jason.
Hey, Jason, this is Todd.

Hey, Todd, how are you?

Uh, do you got a minute?
You got a minute?

Well, I happen to be in Fairbanks
right now

so, I'll come over in 24 hours

and I'll look forward to seeing
the...the results and the progress.

So you're gonna be over here when?

In 24 hours I'll be there. Mm.

That's quick. OK.

I look forward to seeing that gold.
See you.

OK, bye, buddy.

He's coming, and he's actually
gonna be here tomorrow.

I did not expect him
to be here for a while.

With Jason arriving in less than
24 hours, Todd needs gold and fast.

At Porcupine Creek,

the Dakota boys are on
their second day of running dirt

from the mini-glory hole
Fred discovered.

Love it. Love it!

(LAUGHING)

Halfway through the season,

they only have eight and a half
ounces of gold, worth just $14,000.

Gotta check it out
and see what we got.

We're kind of excited
about this dirt. (LAUGHS)

You're splashing gold
all over the place, Fred.

Really, really hope that
there's some gold in the bottom.

I mean, we need this to happen.

We're poor.

Fred has sunk his life savings
into Porcupine Creek.

He desperately needs a big pay day.

A lot of people ask me,
"Why do you keep going, Fred,

"with all the adversity
and everything?"

Hey, the Dakota boys
just don't quit.

WOMAN: I can't imagine being in his
shoes with all the financial issues.

He knew what he wanted and he told
us what to do and we went for it.

(TRUCK BEEPING)
Yep, here they come.

All right. Hey, Fred.
All right, time for a weigh-in.

Nice. Cool. We get to see what
we've been working so hard at.

All right, here we go.

Oh! OK.
There's one.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Ten.

11. All right.

12, 13, 14.

Wow, that's awesome.

15, 16.

Wow. Really?

17. (LAUGHS)
Oh, come on.

18.

18... seven.

Wow. That's 19 ounces.
18.7 ounces.

Whoa! (LAUGHING)

Wow. Congratulations!

Hey, I think that's pretty neat.

Gold, look at that. Gold!
That's pretty big.

Wow. That was some good material
you dug in.

That's proof we're in the right spot
and getting to it.

I'm really glad that I was wrong.

Aaah! You know, this is what
dreams are made of.

Would that mean we get an extra day
off? Well... (LAUGHING)

18.7 ounces is worth $30,000,
a record for the Porcupine crew.

They're finally on dirt
that could change their lives.

We could really actually hit it big.

You just don't know.

I'm ready. It's... I'm charged up.

It's a pretty damn good feeling.

I think we're gonna
double last year.

I think we should definitely
double last year.

Just be a good target.

North at Indian River,

Dave Turin's crew is out of time.

Jason Otteson's arriving soon

and he's expecting
to see 100 ounces of gold.

But at this point, they only have 93.

I think Todd got himself
in a bit of a pickle here.

He, uh, made some promises that
I don't think he's able to keep.

It's crazy.

If we don't get this seven ounces,
the investor pulls the plug

and he says, "That's it,
we're shutting you guys down."

I couldn't handle
a disappointment like that.

The crew is scrambling to run
as much pay dirt as possible.

But Jason is en route.

What do you think?
We're just...out of time.

Hey, Chris, let's, uh, let's make
that the last bucket. OK.

Jason's on his way.
He's gonna be here any time.

You know, we're looking
for seven ounces.

It's there or it's not,
you know, I don't know.

Here we go, moment of truth.

All right, let's clean it up.

Just up the road at Quartz Creek,

investor Jason Otteson has arrived.

Where is everybody?

I see everything unmanned.

Do we have people here
running things?

This is very disappointing.

That's not acceptable.

When I was here last time I told
Todd I needed to see 100 ounces,
three weeks.

I'm here.
I need to see results.

I need to see the gold.

Over at the gold tent,
Todd is watching and waiting

as the Indian River crew finishes
their all-important cleanup.

What do you think?
We almost there?

All we got to do is finish this bit,
dry and weigh it and you'll have
your number. OK.

This is crazy. I have investors'
money in this project

and they're counting on it to work.

This has to be done differently.

I'm not happy.

I need to go find Todd.

Are we almost there?

It's close.

Been looking for you guys.

We had a deal
and that's why I'm here.

Are we gonna get to our goal
of 100?

What do you think, Freddy?

After $5,000 worth of drilling
at the Big Nugget mine,

Parker thinks Smith Creek
is finished.

But Glen, his gold recovery expert,
does one last test to make sure.

What I'm doing is I'm...
I'm washing this here

and I'm looking for nuggets in here.

Holy crap!

It's like a silver bullet!

This is from years ago.
This was at 65 feet.

We...we have the key to the puzzle
for Smith Creek.

We know it's all been run before,
it's not virgin ground.

For Smith Creek, it's a bust.

After two years of hard work
and around $200,000,

the Schnabel family dream
to mine Smith Creek is over.

My grandpa will be pretty, uh...

pretty disturbed by this, you know?

I mean, he was really convinced

and had me really convinced
that this was the place to be.

It'll gut my grandpa.

He'll be pretty gutted by it.

Parker has to break the bad news
to his beloved grandfather John.

Well, hello, Parker.

How are you doing?
Oh, I'm doing fine.

I'm kind of sorry
I missed you all week.

I wanted to get up to the mine,

but I just felt a little bit
uncomfortable with driving,

so I stayed home.

And I'm glad you're down here.

I'm glad to see you.
How come you can't get up there?

Well, I've... I am plagued
with a lot of, uh, medical problems.

I have an infection
that I have had for ten months.

I have a bad time with my urethra...

Bleeding... it gets a lot of blood.

So the doctors, they'll probably
take the position it has to come
out.

And, uh, that's not done
very often with people my age.

I'm not gonna leave you right now,
I hope.

You know, it's a little early.
I'm only 92.

So, Parker, be confident
that I will make it through this.

That I have a good chance
of surviving it.

And I'll be back. OK?

I allow myself to accept there's
a certain element of uncertainty

what's gonna take place
when I go down.

News of his grandfather's impending
surgery is a shock to Parker.

Yeah, I mean, I just, I couldn't
tell my grandpa about Smith Creek.

Not with the...
with the shape he's in.

You know, not with
what he's gonna go through.

I can't crush his, you know,
only dream at Big Nugget.

Back at Quartz Creek...

time is up for the Hoffman crew.

They're about to find out if they've
hit Jason's 100 ounce target.

With this cleanup here we might make

the 100 ounces that we talked
about before, so...

All right, I need that.
I need to see that.

OK, Freddy, weigh her up.

All they need
is seven ounces of gold.

One. Two.

Three. Four.

Six.
Moment of truth, Todd.

Six and a half.
Come on, Freddy, pour it.

Getting nervous?

Nope.

Seven. All right.
Oh, my word. We did it.

(LAUGHS) Eight, nine, ten, 11, 12...

Oh, no.

13, 14, 15...

17, 18...

19, 20.

Holy cr... 21.

Yeah. Nice. We did it.

All right.
There's your seven.

Dude. You got it.
Onward and upwards, my friend.

You know, coming here,
I was nervous today.

You've gotten this hurdle.
I want to set another one.

I'd like to come back in three weeks
and see 350 ounces from, from both
mines.

Possibly we could hit that goal.

Indian River is kicking some butt
right now. OK?

We'll probably get 250 ounces
out of Indian in three weeks.

If I can get this trommel going,
all things go good,

I can probably throw in another
hundred out of this.

I'm counting on you. OK.

Thanks for coming out.
Call me if you need anything. OK.

I really like Jason, but he's tough.

He's not easy to work with.

He just keeps pushing it up,
pushing it up.

I dodged one bullet, but I got
another coming right at me.

The Hoffman crew has hit their goal.

They have 115 ounces, worth $185,000.

But with only
half of the season left,

they'll need to move heaven and earth
to hit their 1,000 ounce season goal.

Now, have we had setbacks?
Yeah, we've had a lot of setbacks.

I could blame it on this or that,

But in the end,
it's my responsibility,

and I'll get this freaking trommel
running

and we'll start pulling gold
out in two different locations.

Absolutely. Yes. We just got to
believe and I think we can get to
1,000 ounces, I really do.

I'm behind you. Yep.

We're all behind you, Todd,
110 percent, you and Jack.

We're gonna try to make the American
dream an American reality.

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