Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 6, Episode 17 - Klondike Legend - full transcript
Tony Beets travels to the Netherlands, his native country and discusses his past and life growing up on a farm.
Narrator:
On this "gold rush"...
I think it's time to try
and push it a little more.
This old machine wasn't designed
to run that fast.
It's busted!
We're never gonna have
a wash plant this close
To fantasy land again.
Holy [bleep]
I've never seen
one this destroyed.
I don't give a [bleep]
As far as I'm concerned,
you can both go home.
Turn the feeder off!
Holy frick!
Todd: We're gonna beat parker
this year.
[ all cheering ]
We're looking
at selling this property.
One of
the potential buyers...
Is parker.
Captions paid for by
discovery communications
¶
We've found a lot of gold here,
and that's been good.
Now it's time to move on.
Narrator: At scribner creek,
parker schnabel mines
The last of the pay dirt
in the boundary cut.
Parker:
Everything's working well
and it's gone by quick, too.
You know,
that's the nicest part of this.
Been pretty low cost
To sluice as far as people go
and, you know, no trucks.
And it's been nice
to do over 1,000 ounces
Without hauling any pay.
Narrator:
Parker's plan to run a more
efficient mine is paying off.
Without spending a dime
to truck pay to his wash plant,
His massive boundary cut
Has produced
over $1 million in gold
And taken him to a total
of 2,104 ounces.
Parker has more gold
than todd hoffman
For the first time this season.
It doesn't seem like
too long ago
We were just
setting the plant up,
And now we're about
to move it again,
To the far end of the cut
so that we can sluice the pad
Of the north end.
I go where the gold goes.
Narrator:
By moving the wash plant
To the far end
of the boundary cut,
Parker plans to chase
the gold-rich pay to the north.
But foreman rick ness
has a different plan in mind.
So I've been thinking
about fantasy land.
Uh-huh. And?
And I'm thinking now's
the time, man.
Now's the time to what?
To get fantasy land.
You know, we've --
we're never gonna have
A wash plant this close
to fantasy land again.
That's kind of the plan, though,
is to work away from it.
Having mined out
the boundary cut,
Parker wants to
move goldzilla north
To mine the next section
of ground.
But before they shut down
to move the wash plant,
Rick wants to mine
a nearby cut
They've already stripped
called fantasy land.
But they'd have to start
using rock trucks again.
I don't think
we should, honestly.
Like, we haven't trucked a yard
of pay,
And we've done, oh, what,
over 1,000 ounces here?
Yeah. Trust me,
I love the new system.
It's working great.
But, you know, we --
We're never gonna have
a wash plant this close
To fantasy land again,
and it's not big enough
To justify moving
a wash plant there.
So it's -- we keep moving
farther away from it,
We're never gonna do it,
man.
You got a ton of money
in that thing.
Yeah.
And we've been waiting,
what, how long now
To find out
what's in there?
Two years.
You know, I really think
That there might be
some good gold over there.
I think that's [bleep]
fantasy land, parker.
Narrator: Two seasons ago,
Against foreman gene cheeseman's
advice,
Parker spent over $100,000
to strip fantasy land.
Parker: It's a bit of a risk.
You know, we are taking a gamble
Here with it.
But we're gonna give it a shot.
Narrator:
Initially, it paid out well.
How's that
for fantasy land?
That's, like,
a proper nugget.
But for two years now...
What the [bleep]
Broke the shank off.
...Permafrost
has frozen him out.
The gold we need
is right there.
It's just frozen.
Oh, fantasy land,
fantasy land.
This is the best opportunity
we've ever had, you know.
I think it should
be thawed by now.
I mean, it's been sitting
for over a year.
Kind of feel like
we should take it.
You'll just need to prep a road
and put a pump in, huh?
That's it, man.
Then it's ready to go.
We can do it in three days.
We can make it happen.
You reckon?
Yeah.
It's a bit of a haul.
It is, but we'll put the people
on it, hammer down --
Three days.
All right.
Cool.
All right. Three days of hauling
pay ain't the end of the world.
No.
Good call, rick.
Thanks, buddy.
As much as I hate it.
As much as it pains me.
[ laughs ]
Now it's thawed,
The 50,000 square feet
of virgin ground
Should be easy pickings.
Rick rallies the troops.
Gonna get it done.
And I think it's gonna be
just what we need to get us
Past our season total
and whup todd hoffman's ass.
So I'd say let's just
hit it with everything we've got
And get it done.
Let's do it.
Let's go.
Whoo!
Narrator:
To keep the plant fed,
four rock trucks
Have to haul
160 loads of dirt
For each of the next three days.
Parker:
This whole cut, I mean, if
we can get all this around that,
It's gonna really be a big boost
for us.
Rick:
There it is, mitch.
First load of pay
out of fantasy land.
About time, huh?
Whoo!
You probably thought this day
was never gonna come.
We hope it's got everything
we need to get 3,000 ounces
And beat the hoffmans
this season.
That's parker's big goal.
That's the goal
we've set for our team,
And it's what we're gonna
make happen with this cut here,
Hopefully.
Parker: Nice to be finally
sluicing it, you know?
Not the way I want to do it.
And, you know, we're deviating
from the plan
Quite a bit by trucking it
and all that.
But hopefully it pays off.
It's a really,
really important time.
We need to reach our goals.
Narrator: At mckinnon creek,
the hoffman crew
Is back to mining
their supercut.
But for the last four weeks,
their enormous cut
Has failed to produce
the 200 ounces of gold
They need a week
To hit their 2,700 ounce,
$3 million season goal.
Pierce: With the amount
of dirt we've run,
We should have
many thousands of ounces,
But just hasn't worked out
that way this year.
Narrator:
For the first time this season,
Todd hoffman has fallen
behind his young rival, parker.
To catch up,
he has to figure out
What they're doing wrong
in the supercut.
I mean, I don't have
to tell you guys this,
But 2,700, in my estimation,
is slipping away.
Part of the reason
why I mined here
Is 'cause I had drill holes.
This didn't mine
like it drilled.
Plain and simple.
If it did, I'd be kicking
parker's ass.
This hole right here
is 12 ounces per 100.
There should be a lot more gold
in that sluice box,
According to
the drill holes.
The gold just wasn't
in the dirt.
You wanna know
what we ought to do?
We ought to go out there and
take a really good look at it.
We could do some test pans
in there at bedrock.
Sound good?
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Narrator:
Dave heads out to test an area
Of the cut they thought
they'd picked clean.
Turin: So this is bedrock.
And sometimes the gold
can settle down
In between these rocks
that are laying sideways.
So I'm just gonna test here,
See if we left any gold in here.
This could be the difference
in our season.
See that? See there?
There's probably
25 pieces of gold in that.
Multiply this by 100,000 --
That's a lot of gold.
We're going after 2,700 ounces.
We spent hundreds
of thousands of dollars
To get to this point,
and we start leaving gold.
That's bad.
Narrator:
It's logan's job to get
all of the gold-rich pay dirt
Out of the supercut.
We got a little bit
of a problem.
What's that?
At the other end,
What we thought
was done --
This is what
we're leaving behind.
Shoot.
It's way too much gold
to be leaving in this cut.
Well, what was it in?
I'll show you what it's in.
It's kind of a weird deal.
See this kind of stuff?
It's this bedrock.
In here, try to get
in these brown spots
And dig it deep.
Throw it in trucks.
Let's get it going.
Pierce: All right.
Okay, man.
See ya.
I can't be too hard on logan.
This is the first year
he's actually digging bedrock.
So it's a learning curve
That you can't leave
that much gold in this cut.
This is our year, and we've
got to get better at it.
I'm okay with leaving
one or two color pans behind,
But that was 20 colors,
and they were big colors.
It's -- that's the kind of gold
that adds up.
Narrator: Mining more bedrock
could be the key
To turning the hoffman crew's
season around.
Hiatt:
Hey, dave, check out the bedrock
going up big green ugly
Right now.
Holy crap.
That's the biggest bedrock
And the best bedrock
we've seen this whole season.
I haven't seen
this kind of bedrock yet.
That's where the gold
should be.
That's some nice bedrock,
huh?
See it running
with these round quartz?
Oh.
Where they meet, huh?
Where they meet.
Should be good.
Narrator: Back in the cut...
Pierce: Oh.
I just got a lot of wood.
Holy frick.
Looks like a lot of wood
is just stuck right here.
But it's on bedrock,
where our best gold is.
My best judgement
is get as much gold
Up to that plant as possible,
so I'm gonna send it.
It's my job, moving pay dirt.
[ sighs ]
are you kidding me?
Hey, what's with this crap
you're sending me?
It's, like,
all loaded with wood.
I can run this garbage
through the wash plant.
It's definitely big, kevin.
I wouldn't send you
anything that's not pay.
There's wood in it,
but it's pay.
Dude, next time you see
a truck full of wood,
Tell 'em to go dump it off
the overburden pile.
He loves to complain.
If this cut has wood,
it has bedrock.
Sorry. Tough luck.
He can deal with it.
[ wash plant rumbling ]
Freddy!
That's not good.
Stop the feeder!
It's jammed up the chute!
Need to
shut the feeder down!
You got it? Down!
Got rocks piling in there.
Holy frick!
Oh, I tell ya what,
it won't break!
Wow.
Narrator: Mckinnon creek
is at a standstill.
The hoffman crew's
tailing chute is jammed.
Do you see
what there is?
There's a log.
What?
Dodge:
Chunk of wood, it was stuck,
and then the rock.
Why is there a piece --
like a log?
Oh, my god,
look at that thing.
Tell ya what,
it won't break.
Jack: It's flat wedged.
Got a lot of weight behind it.
Careful, though.
When that breaks loose,
it'll bury this.
Narrator:
Kevin heads into the cut
to settle a score.
Hiatt: Can't get gold
if you're broke down,
So apparently logan didn't
think I was serious.
I'll take care of this
right now.
You see this?
Look at that.
Guess what?
That's a frickin' break-down
right there.
I've already
had to shut down
Because something gets stuck
in the wash plant.
I've loaded 1,500 trucks a week
for 10 weeks.
That's 15,000 trucks,
kevin.
So you get five trucks
of this [bleep]
I don't care.
Hey. There's the hill.
Dump it freaking over the hill!
I don't decide
what's in this cut.
I don't need this crap.
Go dump it over the edge.
Narrator: Every hour
the plant is down
Costs todd and crew thousands
of dollars in gold.
The world's toughest piece
of ancient wood.
It's moving it.
Jack: Whatever you're doing,
it's working.
Turin: Did you get it?
Dodge:
Yeah, we got it.
That went right through
the grizzly bark.
Todd: Well, hopefully we didn't
damage this conveyer.
We could have jammed this up.
We could have even
broke the shaker.
We could have
broke the conveyer.
There's a lot of things
that could have happened.
But luckily we were on it.
So that's good.
All clear!
Narrator: Crisis averted,
the crew quickly gets back
To running bedrock
through monster red.
It's important
that we stay on pace
And keep reaching
our goals every week.
In order to do that, we got to
keep this plant running.
We have to stay focused
when we're running it
And just watch
everything constantly.
Narrator: There's only a month
left in the season,
And tony beets
has only 447 ounces,
Worth less
than half a million dollars.
He's less than halfway
to his 900-ounce goal.
His dredge project
is in trouble.
We've got the potential
To get some more speed
out of the bucket line here.
Should be able
to make it go quicker.
We been kind of coasting.
And, I mean, you got to walk
before you run,
But it's time
to pick it up.
More buckets a minute
means more gold.
I think it's time to try
and push it a little more.
My concern would be
is that this old machine
Wasn't designed
to run that fast.
I'd be pushing that motor
past it's nameplate rating,
But we cou--
No, no, no,
no, no, no.
I don't think we're gonna
make it self-destruct
Right off the bat.
Just, let's try it.
Narrator: The only way
for electrician jason folster
To increase the speed
of the bucket line
Is to override
the safety settings
On its motors.
Cheeseman: Hey, jason,
bump this thing up.
I have my concerns
about the old equipment, but...
Yeah, well, I get it,
But I don't -- I think
it was built pretty heavy,
And, you know, as long as
this stuff can handle it...
We haven't done it before
because we didn't really know
How hard to push this machine,
but I can reprogram it.
We can get probably another 25%,
30% out of it.
Now we're gonna push it
to the max.
All right.
Let's go see if it works.
Fire her up
and see what happens.
The bucket line immediately
picks up speed.
Cheeseman: I always wondered
what the potential was,
And knowing it,
we should be able
To get more speed
out of it.
Can you time the buckets,
monica, real quick?
Yes.
Full round, that was 2 minutes
and 15 seconds.
So 35 a minute.
Yeah, I know that.
Twelve buckets a minute more.
Narrator: By speeding up
the buckets by 30%,
Production jumps
form 100 to 130 yards per hour.
Thinking we should
do a test for 48 hours
And see if we have
much difference in our recovery,
You know.
Gene plans to run the dredge
At high speed
for the next two days
To see if it can deliver
the gold tony needs
Before winter hits the klondike.
He supervises as matt beaudry
and montana bailey
Start the first shift.
Yeah, those rocks come up
quite a bit quicker, eh?
It's like
operating anything --
It's going faster,
you got to pay more attention.
So...
So is this old dredge gonna
be able to handle this speed,
Like all the wenches
And the motors
and stuff like that?
I don't think -- it's not like
we're going light speed here.
We're just -- it's -- yeah,
I know it's old
And everything else, but they
built stuff tough back then,
And all the stuff I read up
on the thing
Is they were doing 30 -- 30-plus
buckets a minute out before.
So why can't we do it?
Yeah.
I'm pretty aware
of what's going on,
So as long as you pay attention,
watch your stuff.
Hey, montana, we got a rock
coming, so just watch up there.
Bailey: Oh, it's a good one, eh?
Gonna check it out?
Matt lowers the grizzly bars
to keep a big rock
From falling down
into the trommel.
[bleep]
it's busted, matt!
It's busted!
[bleep]
[bleep]
Narrator: Just three hours into
their two-day speed test
On the dredge,
Tony beets' crew
Has destroyed
their grizzly bars.
Because the bucket line's
moving quicker now,
The grizzly never
had enough time
To flip itself up.
The next bucket
came and hit that rock,
Which hit the grizzly
and broke it.
Narrator:
The grizzly bars are designed
to prevent boulders
From entering the trommel
By diverting them
down the boulder chute.
But now, the buckets
are running 30% faster,
They were able to catch
the big boulder,
But it got caught
on the next bucket.
The force of the bucket line
has cracked the hinge mechanism.
[bleep] thing.
I knew something
was gonna happen
'cause it was going too good
today.
Narrator:
Every hour the dredge is down,
Tony loses hundreds
of dollars in gold.
Yeah, that's good.
Tony: [bleep] do it.
Want to go open the gate?
Narrator: The two-day trial
Can't continue until matt
has tested the grizzlies.
Beaudry:
And put the grizzly down.
Yeah.
It works.
Kind of a trial and error,
with the speed bumped up.
The buckets are moving faster,
and [bleep] can happen.
Narrator: Matt finally restarts
their test.
Beaudry:
Back on, good to go.
Pretty much disaster diverted.
Dredge can't beat me.
Come on.
If we're gonna beat
frickin' parker,
We got to go
harder than this.
Narrator: To increase
their weekly gold count,
The hoffman crew
Has been digging deeper
in the supercut.
They've been running bedrock
for three days now.
Hopefully this cleanup,
coming up,
Running all this bedrock
will just be amazing
And one of our best.
[ wash plant creaking ]
Turin!
Got something wrong.
We've got something
broke.
Freddy dodge,
you got to copy.
It's just noise coming
out of this thing,
And it was right
out of the middle.
I got broken welds
on this side.
Dodge: I got two
on just this cross-support.
Oh, man.
They're cracking out
at the top, too.
When the screen shakes,
it's shaking thousands
And thousands of times
an hour.
The sides of this screen
are acting like they're trying
To break themselves
apart from one another.
Narrator: To separate rocks
from gold-rich material,
Monster red's shaker
vibrates 745 times per minute.
After two long seasons,
The welds that hold
the structure together
Have started to fail.
If they don't fix the problem,
Their shaker
will shake itself to pieces.
Can we fix it or not?
Turin: I think what we can do
is try welding 'em up, fred,
But I don't know
if that's gonna --
How will we get it --
Just welding them
is not gonna do it.
Because it broke
these welds, right?
There's a chance,
the way this is wrecked,
It won't make the rest
of the season.
Do we know of any other decks
or anything?
We'd never get one in time here
before it freezes solid.
Well, this -- this season
Just took a drastic turn
for the frickin' worst.
All of our gold
is sitting right here
In this mountain of pay.
And I don't care what it takes,
We're gonna get it
through that freakin' plant
If it kills us.
Or if it kills monster red.
Narrator:
Without a replacement shaker
for monster red,
Freddy has to come up
with a bush fix
And fast.
Dodge: The plan is, I'm gonna
put two cables in here
As an "x" with tighteners
on each end of the cables
And pull it tight,
pull it into itself,
And see if I can't control it
from going sideways.
Narrator: By installing
and then tightening four cables,
Freddy plans to pull
the joints back together
Before he re-welds them.
He's hoping that the cross brace
Will hold the shaker together
for the rest of the season.
Pull that tight, juan.
See if I can't knock
a couple teeth out
With a wrench under here.
Oh!
How tight's it feel, kevin?
Tighter than a guitar string?
It's good.
It's not gonna fix it,
but if I can slow it down,
Then maybe more welds
won't break.
Maybe we can get these
other ones welded up,
And maybe
it'll make the season.
Kevin and juan need to weld
the deck back together.
We're gonna have four, five
hours of just welding on that.
Todd:
Yes or no, can we fix it?
We're gonna fix it.
Okay, fix it.
Come on. Go.
I just started.
There's a kid up the creek
That's getting 2 more ounces
than us an hour,
So just get on it.
Hiatt:
There's a lot of metal in here
we have to look at.
So is that it for the shaker?
That's it.
Those were the last welds
we had to do.
Oh.
Good job, kevin.
Good job.
Todd:
Let's hope it holds.
Do you hear that sound?
Sounds like money.
Yeah.
Looks good, dave.
Yeah.
Everything's working.
Croaker: Night shift
is definitely considered
The toughest shift around,
But it's our production shift.
It's when we make the most gold.
Narrator:
At scribner creek, david croaker
Is in charge
of the night shift,
Running pay dirt
from their fantasy land cut.
Croaker:
We sluice the most at night
because there's no distractions.
It's just go, go, go.
Everybody else spends it.
We make it on nights.
Morning comes eventually,
And day shift can do any
of the maintenance and repairs
They need to do.
Narrator:
Before the day shift takes over,
Foreman rick
does his daily inspection.
Holy [bleep]
mitch!
Dude, you got to --
you got to look at this!
I don't like that look
on your face.
Oh, [bleep]
These screens
are shot to [bleep]
How long you think
they ran this like that?
'cause I've never seen one
this destroyed
And still in there.
It's not just the screens
that are worn out.
Our shaker deck
is about destroyed.
See these giant holes I could
put my whole hand inside of?
Not supposed to be that way.
What's happened here is,
these crown bars have worn down,
So as we're running
the shaker deck,
The screen's
jumping up and down,
And you can see all the divots
that it's making
In the crown bars here,
just tearing itself apart.
Narrator:
To keep the screens level,
The structure beneath
should be absolutely flat.
Mitch has hours of repairs ahead
Before they can
run goldzilla again.
Needs a lot of work.
We can fix it, just need time.
So it was probably like this
for a long time.
They probably just [bleep]
ignored it.
Narrator:
The night shift's mistake will
costs parker valuable run time.
Parker: For [bleep] sake.
Don't get a confused look.
Don't give me that [bleep]
croaker.
That's a pile of [bleep]
You're talking about how much
you're taking care of this thing
And keeping an eye on it.
It ran half the night
with no [bleep] screen
In the top deck.
The crown bars are
pounded to [bleep]
[bleep]
Ness: Just did a top
and bottom deck,
And it was completely gone,
Because I've never seen
a screen that gone.
There's just no way
that it wasn't --
It didn't happen within a matter
of a couple hours.
Like, it was literally
half [bleep] gone.
So this stops now.
Right now.
This [bleep] stops.
As far as I'm concerned,
you both go home.
Narrator: At scribner creek,
Instead of running
gold-rich pay dirt
From fantasy land,
Parker's crew is stuck
repairing a screen deck
That was destroyed
on the night shift.
Parker: If they don't
get their act together
And start taking care
of business,
They're both going home.
I'm not gonna deal
with it anymore.
If I can explain it to you
Without everybody
being all pissed off.
I've always just done
my job, as you know.
Have I ever
not done my job?
But it's...
Well, what the [bleep]
happening lately, then?
Every [bleep] day
we're getting [bleep] on.
I don't think I've given
you much [bleep] at all.
I don't think I've given anybody
any [bleep]
I think maybe that's
part of the problem.
No [bleep] issues
tomorrow morning, all right?
'cause he -- obviously you
can tell he's hot as [bleep]
And he's pouring it
on me because of it.
So since we're [bleep]
close to the end,
Let's just hold it together
and finish, right?
[bleep]
Narrator:
Mechanic mitch blaschke
Steps in to weld
the worn-out shaker deck.
Blaschke: Right now I got a lot
of repair work to do here
Before we can get this
wash plant rattling again.
That's steel that used
to be 1/4-inch thick,
And it's disintegrated
down to nothing.
This right here's
gonna cost parker a lot of time
And definitely cost us all
a lot of gold.
Narrator: Rick vowed he'd run
all of the pay dirt
From fantasy land
in just three days.
It's day three, and the crew
is busy fixing the plant.
It's just drawing
fantasy land out, you know.
Fantasy land was supposed
to be a quick smash and grab,
Get it and go,
and now it's not.
You know, now it's taking
way longer than it should.
It's not part of the plan.
We're back together.
It's not a permanent fix,
but it'll get us by for a while.
Narrator:
After 10 hours of welding,
The crew replaces
the screen decks.
Every hour this thing's down,
It's costing
thousands of dollars.
So I just got to get it running.
Narrator: They're finally back
to mining fantasy land pay.
Ness:
For all these issues that we've
had in here, we really need --
We really need there to be
a lot of gold
To make this pay off.
All right, you're loaded.
Get a move on.
I'm getting fantasy land done
this year no matter what.
Pierce:
I really think all the gold
we need to get 3,000 ounces
And to beat the hoffmans
is in these trucks right now.
Narrator: At eureka creek,
gene has run tony's dredge
At 130 yards an hour for 2 days.
This weigh-in will tell them
if running the dredge faster
Is paying off in gold.
I think it's about time
we pour it because I'm curious.
Cheeseman: Yeah, me, too.
Based on 100 ounces a week,
this two-day test
Should produce
just over 30 ounces.
5...
10...
15...
20...
25...
30...
40...
42, 48, 49, 50.
56.3.
That's, I think,
what we've been shooting for.
I mean...
That works for me.
Narrator: 56 ounces
is worth over $60,000.
Tony's gold total now
stands at 503 ounces,
Or $553,000.
All in all,
it was going pretty good.
Just have to
pay more attention.
By increasing production 30%,
Tony and crew are back on track
to hit their 900-ounce target.
Cheeseman:
It's a good feeling when you can
see stuff come to its potential.
It's like anything I do,
I don't wanna do it half-assed.
If I wanna do something,
I wanna do a good job,
The best job I can do.
Every time it shuts down,
somebody needs to be in here.
Narrator: At mckinnon creek,
Freddy dodge
inspects monster red
To see if his bush fix
on the shaker deck is holding.
I'm just looking for anything
that's stretched, cracked,
Broken.
I've got to look one weld
at a time.
This is the heart
of the plat right here.
This screen goes down,
All [bleep] aside,
season's probably over.
Hey, freddy, how's
our fix holding up?
It looks good so far, kevin!
For the unorthodox thing
we did here.
That's -- that's good
to hear, man.
But I don't know how long
it's gonna hold up.
It's a temporary fix,
Not a permanent solution.
All right, that's it.
Last truck out of fantasy land.
Narrator: It's taken rick ness
and the crew four long days
To run all the pay
from their new cut.
Parker,
that's the last truck
Out of fantasy land heading
to the wash plant right now.
All right. Well, we're just
finishing up running it.
Hope there's some gold
in this [bleep]
Narrator: Parker delayed moving
the wash plant further upstream
Because rick persuaded him
to run trucks into fantasy land.
The cut's finally finished.
It's time to find out
if rick was right.
Am I walking
into my execution here?
You aren't.
So there's
the first 34.9.
For each
of the last three weeks,
Parker's boundary cut
Has paid over 300 ounces,
A third of $1 million,
Every cleanup.
So that's another 34.065.
69.
31...
No, 29.9.
It's not even 100.
Not even 100 ounces.
98.8.
Oh [bleep]
That's pathetic.
That is pretty pathetic.
Oh,
and for all the effort.
We should be trying
to get 300.
98 ounces,
Worth a little
over $100,000,
Proves fantasy land was
nothing more than a fantasy.
So that puts us at 22...
2,202,
something like that.
We got a long ways to go
if we're gonna hit 3,000.
That's for sure.
800 ounces.
Long ways to go and
a short time to get there.
That's the problem.
Yeah.
Narrator: With the unforgiving
klondike winter
On the horizon, parker
is running out of time.
Think we go where we know
the gold is, which is upstream.
So we got to get back up
in the boundary cut,
Figure out
what we're doing.
Get some ground opened up there,
get a spot for the plant, get --
Get dirt thrown
through the blocks.
Agreed.
Ness: Of course I'm upset
about fantasy land.
It's a kick in the teeth.
But, you know, someone
has to take a risk sometime.
And we all thought
it was a home run,
And it wasn't.
So...Next time.
Hiatt: Father in heaven,
thank you for this food,
And thank you for this season
And everything that
you've just blessed us with --
All the gold, equipment,
just everything.
We praise you,
in jesus' name, amen.
All: Amen.
Thanks, kev.
Narrator: So far this season,
The supercut has let
the hoffman crew down.
To get back on track,
Dave has had the crew
digging deeper into bedrock.
Whew!
Hey, everybody,
jack's here.
Okay.
Whoa!
Holy crap.
There's a pan of gold.
Turin: What is it, jack?
How much?
279.
[ all cheering ]
Narrator: 279 ounces,
worth over $300,000,
The hoffmans' biggest
cleanup this season.
We're at 23 --
just over 2,300 ounces.
We only got 400 more,
And we're gonna double
what we did last year.
We kicked some butt.
Narrator: By insisting that
they mine deeper into bedrock,
Dave has the hoffman crew
back on top.
With 2,376 ounces,
Worth $2.6 million,
Todd has overtaken parker
in the quest
To be king of the klondike.
Todd: We're gonna beat parker
this year.
We're gonna get through --
we're gonna make it to the end.
We're gonna kick some ass.
Narrator:
The hoffman's 2,700-ounce
season goal is within reach.
But the next morning,
claim owner
Peter tallman
arrives unannounced.
You guys stay out.
Two years into this,
I haven't had any trouble,
And you've been
very respectful
And you've done
what you said you would do.
It's been the best mining season
that I've ever had.
It's -- it's been great.
Could possibly go
over 3,000.
That's a really,
really good feat.
An impressive one.
But we're looking at
doing some corporate changes,
And one of them is selling
this property.
What -- what's the price?
$5 million.
Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna be
in a position to buy anything.
You should know that
on the buyer's list,
One of the potential buyers
is parker.
Narrator:
On the next "gold rush"...
If I don't find another mine,
they're gonna be out of a job.
I got a tip on a mine in oregon.
[ device whining ]
I think I found something!
It's frickin' gold.
Hey, guys!
Rattlesnake!
If we turn right now,
We might still get
some gold in the box.
Cheeseman:
Kick it that way more!
Now it's all [bleep]
Let's get [bleep] moved.
You're not gonna --
it's gonna [bleep] fall over!
If we took care of our [bleep]
this wouldn't happen.
Ness: [bleep] sick of it.
[ tires squeal ]
Where'd everybody [bleep] go?
On this "gold rush"...
I think it's time to try
and push it a little more.
This old machine wasn't designed
to run that fast.
It's busted!
We're never gonna have
a wash plant this close
To fantasy land again.
Holy [bleep]
I've never seen
one this destroyed.
I don't give a [bleep]
As far as I'm concerned,
you can both go home.
Turn the feeder off!
Holy frick!
Todd: We're gonna beat parker
this year.
[ all cheering ]
We're looking
at selling this property.
One of
the potential buyers...
Is parker.
Captions paid for by
discovery communications
¶
We've found a lot of gold here,
and that's been good.
Now it's time to move on.
Narrator: At scribner creek,
parker schnabel mines
The last of the pay dirt
in the boundary cut.
Parker:
Everything's working well
and it's gone by quick, too.
You know,
that's the nicest part of this.
Been pretty low cost
To sluice as far as people go
and, you know, no trucks.
And it's been nice
to do over 1,000 ounces
Without hauling any pay.
Narrator:
Parker's plan to run a more
efficient mine is paying off.
Without spending a dime
to truck pay to his wash plant,
His massive boundary cut
Has produced
over $1 million in gold
And taken him to a total
of 2,104 ounces.
Parker has more gold
than todd hoffman
For the first time this season.
It doesn't seem like
too long ago
We were just
setting the plant up,
And now we're about
to move it again,
To the far end of the cut
so that we can sluice the pad
Of the north end.
I go where the gold goes.
Narrator:
By moving the wash plant
To the far end
of the boundary cut,
Parker plans to chase
the gold-rich pay to the north.
But foreman rick ness
has a different plan in mind.
So I've been thinking
about fantasy land.
Uh-huh. And?
And I'm thinking now's
the time, man.
Now's the time to what?
To get fantasy land.
You know, we've --
we're never gonna have
A wash plant this close
to fantasy land again.
That's kind of the plan, though,
is to work away from it.
Having mined out
the boundary cut,
Parker wants to
move goldzilla north
To mine the next section
of ground.
But before they shut down
to move the wash plant,
Rick wants to mine
a nearby cut
They've already stripped
called fantasy land.
But they'd have to start
using rock trucks again.
I don't think
we should, honestly.
Like, we haven't trucked a yard
of pay,
And we've done, oh, what,
over 1,000 ounces here?
Yeah. Trust me,
I love the new system.
It's working great.
But, you know, we --
We're never gonna have
a wash plant this close
To fantasy land again,
and it's not big enough
To justify moving
a wash plant there.
So it's -- we keep moving
farther away from it,
We're never gonna do it,
man.
You got a ton of money
in that thing.
Yeah.
And we've been waiting,
what, how long now
To find out
what's in there?
Two years.
You know, I really think
That there might be
some good gold over there.
I think that's [bleep]
fantasy land, parker.
Narrator: Two seasons ago,
Against foreman gene cheeseman's
advice,
Parker spent over $100,000
to strip fantasy land.
Parker: It's a bit of a risk.
You know, we are taking a gamble
Here with it.
But we're gonna give it a shot.
Narrator:
Initially, it paid out well.
How's that
for fantasy land?
That's, like,
a proper nugget.
But for two years now...
What the [bleep]
Broke the shank off.
...Permafrost
has frozen him out.
The gold we need
is right there.
It's just frozen.
Oh, fantasy land,
fantasy land.
This is the best opportunity
we've ever had, you know.
I think it should
be thawed by now.
I mean, it's been sitting
for over a year.
Kind of feel like
we should take it.
You'll just need to prep a road
and put a pump in, huh?
That's it, man.
Then it's ready to go.
We can do it in three days.
We can make it happen.
You reckon?
Yeah.
It's a bit of a haul.
It is, but we'll put the people
on it, hammer down --
Three days.
All right.
Cool.
All right. Three days of hauling
pay ain't the end of the world.
No.
Good call, rick.
Thanks, buddy.
As much as I hate it.
As much as it pains me.
[ laughs ]
Now it's thawed,
The 50,000 square feet
of virgin ground
Should be easy pickings.
Rick rallies the troops.
Gonna get it done.
And I think it's gonna be
just what we need to get us
Past our season total
and whup todd hoffman's ass.
So I'd say let's just
hit it with everything we've got
And get it done.
Let's do it.
Let's go.
Whoo!
Narrator:
To keep the plant fed,
four rock trucks
Have to haul
160 loads of dirt
For each of the next three days.
Parker:
This whole cut, I mean, if
we can get all this around that,
It's gonna really be a big boost
for us.
Rick:
There it is, mitch.
First load of pay
out of fantasy land.
About time, huh?
Whoo!
You probably thought this day
was never gonna come.
We hope it's got everything
we need to get 3,000 ounces
And beat the hoffmans
this season.
That's parker's big goal.
That's the goal
we've set for our team,
And it's what we're gonna
make happen with this cut here,
Hopefully.
Parker: Nice to be finally
sluicing it, you know?
Not the way I want to do it.
And, you know, we're deviating
from the plan
Quite a bit by trucking it
and all that.
But hopefully it pays off.
It's a really,
really important time.
We need to reach our goals.
Narrator: At mckinnon creek,
the hoffman crew
Is back to mining
their supercut.
But for the last four weeks,
their enormous cut
Has failed to produce
the 200 ounces of gold
They need a week
To hit their 2,700 ounce,
$3 million season goal.
Pierce: With the amount
of dirt we've run,
We should have
many thousands of ounces,
But just hasn't worked out
that way this year.
Narrator:
For the first time this season,
Todd hoffman has fallen
behind his young rival, parker.
To catch up,
he has to figure out
What they're doing wrong
in the supercut.
I mean, I don't have
to tell you guys this,
But 2,700, in my estimation,
is slipping away.
Part of the reason
why I mined here
Is 'cause I had drill holes.
This didn't mine
like it drilled.
Plain and simple.
If it did, I'd be kicking
parker's ass.
This hole right here
is 12 ounces per 100.
There should be a lot more gold
in that sluice box,
According to
the drill holes.
The gold just wasn't
in the dirt.
You wanna know
what we ought to do?
We ought to go out there and
take a really good look at it.
We could do some test pans
in there at bedrock.
Sound good?
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Narrator:
Dave heads out to test an area
Of the cut they thought
they'd picked clean.
Turin: So this is bedrock.
And sometimes the gold
can settle down
In between these rocks
that are laying sideways.
So I'm just gonna test here,
See if we left any gold in here.
This could be the difference
in our season.
See that? See there?
There's probably
25 pieces of gold in that.
Multiply this by 100,000 --
That's a lot of gold.
We're going after 2,700 ounces.
We spent hundreds
of thousands of dollars
To get to this point,
and we start leaving gold.
That's bad.
Narrator:
It's logan's job to get
all of the gold-rich pay dirt
Out of the supercut.
We got a little bit
of a problem.
What's that?
At the other end,
What we thought
was done --
This is what
we're leaving behind.
Shoot.
It's way too much gold
to be leaving in this cut.
Well, what was it in?
I'll show you what it's in.
It's kind of a weird deal.
See this kind of stuff?
It's this bedrock.
In here, try to get
in these brown spots
And dig it deep.
Throw it in trucks.
Let's get it going.
Pierce: All right.
Okay, man.
See ya.
I can't be too hard on logan.
This is the first year
he's actually digging bedrock.
So it's a learning curve
That you can't leave
that much gold in this cut.
This is our year, and we've
got to get better at it.
I'm okay with leaving
one or two color pans behind,
But that was 20 colors,
and they were big colors.
It's -- that's the kind of gold
that adds up.
Narrator: Mining more bedrock
could be the key
To turning the hoffman crew's
season around.
Hiatt:
Hey, dave, check out the bedrock
going up big green ugly
Right now.
Holy crap.
That's the biggest bedrock
And the best bedrock
we've seen this whole season.
I haven't seen
this kind of bedrock yet.
That's where the gold
should be.
That's some nice bedrock,
huh?
See it running
with these round quartz?
Oh.
Where they meet, huh?
Where they meet.
Should be good.
Narrator: Back in the cut...
Pierce: Oh.
I just got a lot of wood.
Holy frick.
Looks like a lot of wood
is just stuck right here.
But it's on bedrock,
where our best gold is.
My best judgement
is get as much gold
Up to that plant as possible,
so I'm gonna send it.
It's my job, moving pay dirt.
[ sighs ]
are you kidding me?
Hey, what's with this crap
you're sending me?
It's, like,
all loaded with wood.
I can run this garbage
through the wash plant.
It's definitely big, kevin.
I wouldn't send you
anything that's not pay.
There's wood in it,
but it's pay.
Dude, next time you see
a truck full of wood,
Tell 'em to go dump it off
the overburden pile.
He loves to complain.
If this cut has wood,
it has bedrock.
Sorry. Tough luck.
He can deal with it.
[ wash plant rumbling ]
Freddy!
That's not good.
Stop the feeder!
It's jammed up the chute!
Need to
shut the feeder down!
You got it? Down!
Got rocks piling in there.
Holy frick!
Oh, I tell ya what,
it won't break!
Wow.
Narrator: Mckinnon creek
is at a standstill.
The hoffman crew's
tailing chute is jammed.
Do you see
what there is?
There's a log.
What?
Dodge:
Chunk of wood, it was stuck,
and then the rock.
Why is there a piece --
like a log?
Oh, my god,
look at that thing.
Tell ya what,
it won't break.
Jack: It's flat wedged.
Got a lot of weight behind it.
Careful, though.
When that breaks loose,
it'll bury this.
Narrator:
Kevin heads into the cut
to settle a score.
Hiatt: Can't get gold
if you're broke down,
So apparently logan didn't
think I was serious.
I'll take care of this
right now.
You see this?
Look at that.
Guess what?
That's a frickin' break-down
right there.
I've already
had to shut down
Because something gets stuck
in the wash plant.
I've loaded 1,500 trucks a week
for 10 weeks.
That's 15,000 trucks,
kevin.
So you get five trucks
of this [bleep]
I don't care.
Hey. There's the hill.
Dump it freaking over the hill!
I don't decide
what's in this cut.
I don't need this crap.
Go dump it over the edge.
Narrator: Every hour
the plant is down
Costs todd and crew thousands
of dollars in gold.
The world's toughest piece
of ancient wood.
It's moving it.
Jack: Whatever you're doing,
it's working.
Turin: Did you get it?
Dodge:
Yeah, we got it.
That went right through
the grizzly bark.
Todd: Well, hopefully we didn't
damage this conveyer.
We could have jammed this up.
We could have even
broke the shaker.
We could have
broke the conveyer.
There's a lot of things
that could have happened.
But luckily we were on it.
So that's good.
All clear!
Narrator: Crisis averted,
the crew quickly gets back
To running bedrock
through monster red.
It's important
that we stay on pace
And keep reaching
our goals every week.
In order to do that, we got to
keep this plant running.
We have to stay focused
when we're running it
And just watch
everything constantly.
Narrator: There's only a month
left in the season,
And tony beets
has only 447 ounces,
Worth less
than half a million dollars.
He's less than halfway
to his 900-ounce goal.
His dredge project
is in trouble.
We've got the potential
To get some more speed
out of the bucket line here.
Should be able
to make it go quicker.
We been kind of coasting.
And, I mean, you got to walk
before you run,
But it's time
to pick it up.
More buckets a minute
means more gold.
I think it's time to try
and push it a little more.
My concern would be
is that this old machine
Wasn't designed
to run that fast.
I'd be pushing that motor
past it's nameplate rating,
But we cou--
No, no, no,
no, no, no.
I don't think we're gonna
make it self-destruct
Right off the bat.
Just, let's try it.
Narrator: The only way
for electrician jason folster
To increase the speed
of the bucket line
Is to override
the safety settings
On its motors.
Cheeseman: Hey, jason,
bump this thing up.
I have my concerns
about the old equipment, but...
Yeah, well, I get it,
But I don't -- I think
it was built pretty heavy,
And, you know, as long as
this stuff can handle it...
We haven't done it before
because we didn't really know
How hard to push this machine,
but I can reprogram it.
We can get probably another 25%,
30% out of it.
Now we're gonna push it
to the max.
All right.
Let's go see if it works.
Fire her up
and see what happens.
The bucket line immediately
picks up speed.
Cheeseman: I always wondered
what the potential was,
And knowing it,
we should be able
To get more speed
out of it.
Can you time the buckets,
monica, real quick?
Yes.
Full round, that was 2 minutes
and 15 seconds.
So 35 a minute.
Yeah, I know that.
Twelve buckets a minute more.
Narrator: By speeding up
the buckets by 30%,
Production jumps
form 100 to 130 yards per hour.
Thinking we should
do a test for 48 hours
And see if we have
much difference in our recovery,
You know.
Gene plans to run the dredge
At high speed
for the next two days
To see if it can deliver
the gold tony needs
Before winter hits the klondike.
He supervises as matt beaudry
and montana bailey
Start the first shift.
Yeah, those rocks come up
quite a bit quicker, eh?
It's like
operating anything --
It's going faster,
you got to pay more attention.
So...
So is this old dredge gonna
be able to handle this speed,
Like all the wenches
And the motors
and stuff like that?
I don't think -- it's not like
we're going light speed here.
We're just -- it's -- yeah,
I know it's old
And everything else, but they
built stuff tough back then,
And all the stuff I read up
on the thing
Is they were doing 30 -- 30-plus
buckets a minute out before.
So why can't we do it?
Yeah.
I'm pretty aware
of what's going on,
So as long as you pay attention,
watch your stuff.
Hey, montana, we got a rock
coming, so just watch up there.
Bailey: Oh, it's a good one, eh?
Gonna check it out?
Matt lowers the grizzly bars
to keep a big rock
From falling down
into the trommel.
[bleep]
it's busted, matt!
It's busted!
[bleep]
[bleep]
Narrator: Just three hours into
their two-day speed test
On the dredge,
Tony beets' crew
Has destroyed
their grizzly bars.
Because the bucket line's
moving quicker now,
The grizzly never
had enough time
To flip itself up.
The next bucket
came and hit that rock,
Which hit the grizzly
and broke it.
Narrator:
The grizzly bars are designed
to prevent boulders
From entering the trommel
By diverting them
down the boulder chute.
But now, the buckets
are running 30% faster,
They were able to catch
the big boulder,
But it got caught
on the next bucket.
The force of the bucket line
has cracked the hinge mechanism.
[bleep] thing.
I knew something
was gonna happen
'cause it was going too good
today.
Narrator:
Every hour the dredge is down,
Tony loses hundreds
of dollars in gold.
Yeah, that's good.
Tony: [bleep] do it.
Want to go open the gate?
Narrator: The two-day trial
Can't continue until matt
has tested the grizzlies.
Beaudry:
And put the grizzly down.
Yeah.
It works.
Kind of a trial and error,
with the speed bumped up.
The buckets are moving faster,
and [bleep] can happen.
Narrator: Matt finally restarts
their test.
Beaudry:
Back on, good to go.
Pretty much disaster diverted.
Dredge can't beat me.
Come on.
If we're gonna beat
frickin' parker,
We got to go
harder than this.
Narrator: To increase
their weekly gold count,
The hoffman crew
Has been digging deeper
in the supercut.
They've been running bedrock
for three days now.
Hopefully this cleanup,
coming up,
Running all this bedrock
will just be amazing
And one of our best.
[ wash plant creaking ]
Turin!
Got something wrong.
We've got something
broke.
Freddy dodge,
you got to copy.
It's just noise coming
out of this thing,
And it was right
out of the middle.
I got broken welds
on this side.
Dodge: I got two
on just this cross-support.
Oh, man.
They're cracking out
at the top, too.
When the screen shakes,
it's shaking thousands
And thousands of times
an hour.
The sides of this screen
are acting like they're trying
To break themselves
apart from one another.
Narrator: To separate rocks
from gold-rich material,
Monster red's shaker
vibrates 745 times per minute.
After two long seasons,
The welds that hold
the structure together
Have started to fail.
If they don't fix the problem,
Their shaker
will shake itself to pieces.
Can we fix it or not?
Turin: I think what we can do
is try welding 'em up, fred,
But I don't know
if that's gonna --
How will we get it --
Just welding them
is not gonna do it.
Because it broke
these welds, right?
There's a chance,
the way this is wrecked,
It won't make the rest
of the season.
Do we know of any other decks
or anything?
We'd never get one in time here
before it freezes solid.
Well, this -- this season
Just took a drastic turn
for the frickin' worst.
All of our gold
is sitting right here
In this mountain of pay.
And I don't care what it takes,
We're gonna get it
through that freakin' plant
If it kills us.
Or if it kills monster red.
Narrator:
Without a replacement shaker
for monster red,
Freddy has to come up
with a bush fix
And fast.
Dodge: The plan is, I'm gonna
put two cables in here
As an "x" with tighteners
on each end of the cables
And pull it tight,
pull it into itself,
And see if I can't control it
from going sideways.
Narrator: By installing
and then tightening four cables,
Freddy plans to pull
the joints back together
Before he re-welds them.
He's hoping that the cross brace
Will hold the shaker together
for the rest of the season.
Pull that tight, juan.
See if I can't knock
a couple teeth out
With a wrench under here.
Oh!
How tight's it feel, kevin?
Tighter than a guitar string?
It's good.
It's not gonna fix it,
but if I can slow it down,
Then maybe more welds
won't break.
Maybe we can get these
other ones welded up,
And maybe
it'll make the season.
Kevin and juan need to weld
the deck back together.
We're gonna have four, five
hours of just welding on that.
Todd:
Yes or no, can we fix it?
We're gonna fix it.
Okay, fix it.
Come on. Go.
I just started.
There's a kid up the creek
That's getting 2 more ounces
than us an hour,
So just get on it.
Hiatt:
There's a lot of metal in here
we have to look at.
So is that it for the shaker?
That's it.
Those were the last welds
we had to do.
Oh.
Good job, kevin.
Good job.
Todd:
Let's hope it holds.
Do you hear that sound?
Sounds like money.
Yeah.
Looks good, dave.
Yeah.
Everything's working.
Croaker: Night shift
is definitely considered
The toughest shift around,
But it's our production shift.
It's when we make the most gold.
Narrator:
At scribner creek, david croaker
Is in charge
of the night shift,
Running pay dirt
from their fantasy land cut.
Croaker:
We sluice the most at night
because there's no distractions.
It's just go, go, go.
Everybody else spends it.
We make it on nights.
Morning comes eventually,
And day shift can do any
of the maintenance and repairs
They need to do.
Narrator:
Before the day shift takes over,
Foreman rick
does his daily inspection.
Holy [bleep]
mitch!
Dude, you got to --
you got to look at this!
I don't like that look
on your face.
Oh, [bleep]
These screens
are shot to [bleep]
How long you think
they ran this like that?
'cause I've never seen one
this destroyed
And still in there.
It's not just the screens
that are worn out.
Our shaker deck
is about destroyed.
See these giant holes I could
put my whole hand inside of?
Not supposed to be that way.
What's happened here is,
these crown bars have worn down,
So as we're running
the shaker deck,
The screen's
jumping up and down,
And you can see all the divots
that it's making
In the crown bars here,
just tearing itself apart.
Narrator:
To keep the screens level,
The structure beneath
should be absolutely flat.
Mitch has hours of repairs ahead
Before they can
run goldzilla again.
Needs a lot of work.
We can fix it, just need time.
So it was probably like this
for a long time.
They probably just [bleep]
ignored it.
Narrator:
The night shift's mistake will
costs parker valuable run time.
Parker: For [bleep] sake.
Don't get a confused look.
Don't give me that [bleep]
croaker.
That's a pile of [bleep]
You're talking about how much
you're taking care of this thing
And keeping an eye on it.
It ran half the night
with no [bleep] screen
In the top deck.
The crown bars are
pounded to [bleep]
[bleep]
Ness: Just did a top
and bottom deck,
And it was completely gone,
Because I've never seen
a screen that gone.
There's just no way
that it wasn't --
It didn't happen within a matter
of a couple hours.
Like, it was literally
half [bleep] gone.
So this stops now.
Right now.
This [bleep] stops.
As far as I'm concerned,
you both go home.
Narrator: At scribner creek,
Instead of running
gold-rich pay dirt
From fantasy land,
Parker's crew is stuck
repairing a screen deck
That was destroyed
on the night shift.
Parker: If they don't
get their act together
And start taking care
of business,
They're both going home.
I'm not gonna deal
with it anymore.
If I can explain it to you
Without everybody
being all pissed off.
I've always just done
my job, as you know.
Have I ever
not done my job?
But it's...
Well, what the [bleep]
happening lately, then?
Every [bleep] day
we're getting [bleep] on.
I don't think I've given
you much [bleep] at all.
I don't think I've given anybody
any [bleep]
I think maybe that's
part of the problem.
No [bleep] issues
tomorrow morning, all right?
'cause he -- obviously you
can tell he's hot as [bleep]
And he's pouring it
on me because of it.
So since we're [bleep]
close to the end,
Let's just hold it together
and finish, right?
[bleep]
Narrator:
Mechanic mitch blaschke
Steps in to weld
the worn-out shaker deck.
Blaschke: Right now I got a lot
of repair work to do here
Before we can get this
wash plant rattling again.
That's steel that used
to be 1/4-inch thick,
And it's disintegrated
down to nothing.
This right here's
gonna cost parker a lot of time
And definitely cost us all
a lot of gold.
Narrator: Rick vowed he'd run
all of the pay dirt
From fantasy land
in just three days.
It's day three, and the crew
is busy fixing the plant.
It's just drawing
fantasy land out, you know.
Fantasy land was supposed
to be a quick smash and grab,
Get it and go,
and now it's not.
You know, now it's taking
way longer than it should.
It's not part of the plan.
We're back together.
It's not a permanent fix,
but it'll get us by for a while.
Narrator:
After 10 hours of welding,
The crew replaces
the screen decks.
Every hour this thing's down,
It's costing
thousands of dollars.
So I just got to get it running.
Narrator: They're finally back
to mining fantasy land pay.
Ness:
For all these issues that we've
had in here, we really need --
We really need there to be
a lot of gold
To make this pay off.
All right, you're loaded.
Get a move on.
I'm getting fantasy land done
this year no matter what.
Pierce:
I really think all the gold
we need to get 3,000 ounces
And to beat the hoffmans
is in these trucks right now.
Narrator: At eureka creek,
gene has run tony's dredge
At 130 yards an hour for 2 days.
This weigh-in will tell them
if running the dredge faster
Is paying off in gold.
I think it's about time
we pour it because I'm curious.
Cheeseman: Yeah, me, too.
Based on 100 ounces a week,
this two-day test
Should produce
just over 30 ounces.
5...
10...
15...
20...
25...
30...
40...
42, 48, 49, 50.
56.3.
That's, I think,
what we've been shooting for.
I mean...
That works for me.
Narrator: 56 ounces
is worth over $60,000.
Tony's gold total now
stands at 503 ounces,
Or $553,000.
All in all,
it was going pretty good.
Just have to
pay more attention.
By increasing production 30%,
Tony and crew are back on track
to hit their 900-ounce target.
Cheeseman:
It's a good feeling when you can
see stuff come to its potential.
It's like anything I do,
I don't wanna do it half-assed.
If I wanna do something,
I wanna do a good job,
The best job I can do.
Every time it shuts down,
somebody needs to be in here.
Narrator: At mckinnon creek,
Freddy dodge
inspects monster red
To see if his bush fix
on the shaker deck is holding.
I'm just looking for anything
that's stretched, cracked,
Broken.
I've got to look one weld
at a time.
This is the heart
of the plat right here.
This screen goes down,
All [bleep] aside,
season's probably over.
Hey, freddy, how's
our fix holding up?
It looks good so far, kevin!
For the unorthodox thing
we did here.
That's -- that's good
to hear, man.
But I don't know how long
it's gonna hold up.
It's a temporary fix,
Not a permanent solution.
All right, that's it.
Last truck out of fantasy land.
Narrator: It's taken rick ness
and the crew four long days
To run all the pay
from their new cut.
Parker,
that's the last truck
Out of fantasy land heading
to the wash plant right now.
All right. Well, we're just
finishing up running it.
Hope there's some gold
in this [bleep]
Narrator: Parker delayed moving
the wash plant further upstream
Because rick persuaded him
to run trucks into fantasy land.
The cut's finally finished.
It's time to find out
if rick was right.
Am I walking
into my execution here?
You aren't.
So there's
the first 34.9.
For each
of the last three weeks,
Parker's boundary cut
Has paid over 300 ounces,
A third of $1 million,
Every cleanup.
So that's another 34.065.
69.
31...
No, 29.9.
It's not even 100.
Not even 100 ounces.
98.8.
Oh [bleep]
That's pathetic.
That is pretty pathetic.
Oh,
and for all the effort.
We should be trying
to get 300.
98 ounces,
Worth a little
over $100,000,
Proves fantasy land was
nothing more than a fantasy.
So that puts us at 22...
2,202,
something like that.
We got a long ways to go
if we're gonna hit 3,000.
That's for sure.
800 ounces.
Long ways to go and
a short time to get there.
That's the problem.
Yeah.
Narrator: With the unforgiving
klondike winter
On the horizon, parker
is running out of time.
Think we go where we know
the gold is, which is upstream.
So we got to get back up
in the boundary cut,
Figure out
what we're doing.
Get some ground opened up there,
get a spot for the plant, get --
Get dirt thrown
through the blocks.
Agreed.
Ness: Of course I'm upset
about fantasy land.
It's a kick in the teeth.
But, you know, someone
has to take a risk sometime.
And we all thought
it was a home run,
And it wasn't.
So...Next time.
Hiatt: Father in heaven,
thank you for this food,
And thank you for this season
And everything that
you've just blessed us with --
All the gold, equipment,
just everything.
We praise you,
in jesus' name, amen.
All: Amen.
Thanks, kev.
Narrator: So far this season,
The supercut has let
the hoffman crew down.
To get back on track,
Dave has had the crew
digging deeper into bedrock.
Whew!
Hey, everybody,
jack's here.
Okay.
Whoa!
Holy crap.
There's a pan of gold.
Turin: What is it, jack?
How much?
279.
[ all cheering ]
Narrator: 279 ounces,
worth over $300,000,
The hoffmans' biggest
cleanup this season.
We're at 23 --
just over 2,300 ounces.
We only got 400 more,
And we're gonna double
what we did last year.
We kicked some butt.
Narrator: By insisting that
they mine deeper into bedrock,
Dave has the hoffman crew
back on top.
With 2,376 ounces,
Worth $2.6 million,
Todd has overtaken parker
in the quest
To be king of the klondike.
Todd: We're gonna beat parker
this year.
We're gonna get through --
we're gonna make it to the end.
We're gonna kick some ass.
Narrator:
The hoffman's 2,700-ounce
season goal is within reach.
But the next morning,
claim owner
Peter tallman
arrives unannounced.
You guys stay out.
Two years into this,
I haven't had any trouble,
And you've been
very respectful
And you've done
what you said you would do.
It's been the best mining season
that I've ever had.
It's -- it's been great.
Could possibly go
over 3,000.
That's a really,
really good feat.
An impressive one.
But we're looking at
doing some corporate changes,
And one of them is selling
this property.
What -- what's the price?
$5 million.
Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna be
in a position to buy anything.
You should know that
on the buyer's list,
One of the potential buyers
is parker.
Narrator:
On the next "gold rush"...
If I don't find another mine,
they're gonna be out of a job.
I got a tip on a mine in oregon.
[ device whining ]
I think I found something!
It's frickin' gold.
Hey, guys!
Rattlesnake!
If we turn right now,
We might still get
some gold in the box.
Cheeseman:
Kick it that way more!
Now it's all [bleep]
Let's get [bleep] moved.
You're not gonna --
it's gonna [bleep] fall over!
If we took care of our [bleep]
this wouldn't happen.
Ness: [bleep] sick of it.
[ tires squeal ]
Where'd everybody [bleep] go?