Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 7, Episode 12 - Abandonment - full transcript

I never thought
it'd come to this.

I lost my team.

Narrator:
On this "gold rush"...

We're killing ourselves
right now

trying to run this line
with four guys.

I need some pay,
and I need it now.

I wouldn't wish this
on anybody...

Even parker.

Gonna break something.
That's ridiculous.

-Shut it down!
-Holy crap!

Sucks for him.
It's my party, right?



We're on the pay dirt.

[ laughs ]

we've got to get big red
sluicing as soon as we can.

This is [bleep] frustrating.

[ bang ]

what the [bleep]
was that?

captions paid for by
discovery communications

I don't know.

Just not how I planned
it would work out.

I can't believe
what's happened this summer.

My guys are gone.

They're all gone.

Oh, you may be
watching the hoffmans

mine their last bit
of dirt,



and it might be
just frickin' today.

[ snake rattles ]

narrator: Three months ago,

todd came to oregon
with high hopes

for a $6 million season.

I want to see a miracle
on this mountain.

I want 5,000 ounces.

The hoffman crew began mining
for nuggets at the high bar.

Everybody's reputation's
on the line on this hill.

Narrator: Five weeks later,
with just 138 ounces of
gold...

I feel like such a fool
right now.

...He and his crew abandon
the high bar

and stake their season
on a new mine --

the buckland.

Todd: We got any chance
of saving this season,

it's right here.

Narrator:
After another six weeks

and a pathetic 64 ounces,

the crew fell apart...

Hey, hey, hey!
Knock it off!

That cut's done.
I'm done.

Narrator: ...And quit.

Todd: No, no.

I can't run this
without you, dave.

Come on.

Oregon was meant to be
a beautiful homecoming.

Todd: I can barely breathe.

My losses are

in the hundreds and hundreds
of thousands of dollars,

so, yeah.

[ sighs ]
I don't know.

It feels like a weight
on my shoulders.

Yeah, I'm too deep.
I can't quit.

Narrator: Todd started
the season with a crew of 15.

Now he's down to his dad,
his son,

and faithful friend thurber.

I don't know what
to tell you about this.

It's like, this is not
how I planned it to go.

Thurber,
why'd you stay with us?

You should be --
you should go home.

I've been through everything
with you guys.

All right.
Thanks, man.

Okay.

If we're gonna go out,
let's go out swinging.

Yep.

I know that that's
got gold in it.

It's just deep,
you know?

Well, I tell you what.

Thurber,
you grab a rock truck.

Hunter, you know probably more
about the plant

than any of us.

Why don't you run
the loader there?

Dad, go ahead and feed it.
Feed the plant.

I'm gonna load out
some pay.

And we're just gonna run
as much dirt as we can.

The ground is gonna give you
what it's gonna give you.

Well, there's always
possibilities, you know?

But right now, it doesn't
look real promising.

Oh, it's like
a frickin' pipe dream, dad,

to be honest with you.

All right,
let's go.

Narrator: Todd's already close
to 3/4 of a million dollars

in the hole.

To cover his costs,

he'll need to mine
another 500 ounces of gold --

more than twice
his total to date.

Todd: You know what?

Maybe we just wanted
to come home so bad

and wanted to believe in it
so bad.

You know, I don't know.

I never thought
it'd come to this.

[ sighs deeply ]

narrator:
Even with his whole crew

digging 100 feet down
in the cut,

they still struggled to find
any pay worth running.

Todd: While the guys strip
this whole cut,

I'm just scavenging
whatever I can.

I'm just trying to find
any bit that looks like pay.

I just got to keep the plant
running for right now.

Jack:
We have to stick with it.

We're caught between
a rock and a hard place.

We've got a big nut
to crack here.

I just don't know
how long it can go on.

Hunter:
Everything's gone the opposite

I hope that we get
some good gold in the box,

'cause we could really use

some -- some good news
right now.

You know,
everybody's gone.

But some people say
that -- that rock bottom

is at least
a solid foundation.

Maybe we can rebuild
from here.

So, everything's
running good here.

Sluicifer's running
through dirt good.

And the only problem is
there's
not a lot of gold in there.

Narrator: In the klondike,

parker schnabel
is halfway through his season.

But he has less than a third
of the gold he needs

to hit his target.

Schnabel: Our last cleanup
only had 102 ounces.

If we're gonna hit
our 4,000-ounce target here,

rick really needs to get going
down on indian river.

Narrator: Five miles west,
at indian river,

rick ness is working hard

to get their second operation
up and running.

-Focus on this area.
-Yeah.

And then, yeah,
try to clean this all up.

All right.
We'll just keep her going.

Eight weeks ago,

parker gave rick the chance
to run his own operation.

I'd love to bump our goal up
to 4,000 ounces

and try to do 1,000 ounces
down there.

So that's on you.

Yeah, let's do it, man.

Narrator: Since then,

rick's excavated
1.5 million yards of
overburden

in his struggle
to find gold-rich pay dirt.

Yeah, I'm hoping to get down
to pay dirt any minute here.

I've got some water poking up,
trying to ruin my day.

That's a pretty good sign that
I'm getting down to the level.

Don't quite have the wash
plant
up on the pad yet,

but everything
I'm doing right now

is leading up to that.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.
I know that feeling.

Teeth of the bucket are
starting
to chatter on some big rocks.

I betcha that's pay dirt.

Yep.

Bingo.

Oh, brennan,
guess what I've found?

We're on pay dirt, boy.

[ laughs ]

[ humming ]

this is my first pan
down at indian river.

I'm excited to see
what kind of result I can get.

I-I really want to see
some gold in this pan.

Make sure
you're on the right track.

Come on, gold.

Now we're talking.
Whoo.

Sweet.

There's a good
10 pieces in there.

And then, you know,
a bunch of little colors.

All right, so we're gonna
start
hauling pay finally.

Whoo!

[ laughs ]

narrator: The gold
in the ground at indian river

could save their season.

Ness: Five years ago,
I was the one

sitting in that rock truck
down there,

just hauling dirt.

And now I'm watching the dirt
get hauled up to the pad

for my own operation.

That's pretty sweet.

It's been a lot of hard work
to get here.

But it's all
paying off right now.

Narrator: But there will be
no gold without a wash plant.

And big red is stuck five
miles
away in parker's yard.

Ness: I need big red up here.
Without it, we're screwed.

We have approximately
60 hours on that run.

And that's been
pretty good.

And we made
some really good headway.

Narrator:
Dredge master kevin beets

is running 130 yards
of pay dirt an hour.

So far this season,

he's produced
1,445 ounces of gold,

worth $1.7 million.

Kevin: Plane.

Yeah, that's our plane.

That might be tony.

Narrator:
Tony's master plan this year?

Get a second dredge

running alongside this one
at eureka creek.

Already months behind schedule

and having invested
close to $2 million,

he's come to check
on his money-maker.

-All right.
-Okay. See you in a bit.

Pretty good.

Jason!
Shut it down!

[ clang ]

tony's costs are spiraling
out of control.

He needs to recover
every grain of gold he can

from kevin's operation.

Gold should settle in the
first
few feet of the sluices.

If tony finds gold
at the bottom of the riffles,

it means the dredge is blowing

thousands of dollars worth
of gold

right off the end.

Yeah?

Yeah?

[ whistles ]

[ whistles ]

-so?
-So?

So that leaves me
with a [bleep] problem to fix.

Well, mine, I guess.

So, basically,
make it [bleep] work?

All right.

[ airplane propeller whirring
]

kevin:
Well, apparently it's my show,

I'll come with something
that I like and go with it.

He doesn't like that,
well, sucks for him.

It's my party, right?

Ness:
All right, so we're gonna move

don't look like much
sitting up here right now,

but we'll get her
whipped back into shape.

Narrator: Rick ness
is down to pay dirt

at his indian river operation.

All he needs now is parker's
trusted old wash plant, big
red,

brought out of retirement
to save their season.

[ horn honks ]

schnabel:
Yeah, I mean, the wash plant's

and now we're damn close
to getting sluicing

and making some money.

Narrator: Parker brings in
his semi truck

along with a specialized
trailer
designed to load from the
front.

That trailer's about
as small as it could be an

it's gonna be tight,
but I don't care at this
point.

We're gonna get it
on that trailer

and we're gonna
get it moved.

Schnabel: I think she's got
some more gold in her.

Might not look like it,
but...

The [bleep] work's
just begun.

Narrator: First,
parker has to detach the semi

from the trailer,

then drag big red
onto the trailer

using a loader and an
excavator.

Finally,
he'll reattach the semi.

[ hose snaps ]

what the [bleep]

apparently,
I broke something.

Oh, I do know
what I did wrong.

[bleep] me.

Forgot to undo those.

Parker has snapped
the high-pressure air hoses

that operate
the trailer's brakes.

Big red is going nowhere.

For [bleep] sake!

-What are those, parker?
-What now?!

What?

I [bleep] up,

so just [bleep] off
for a minute.

This is [bleep] frustrating.

Ness: Well, it looks like
parker pulled away

before he completely
disconnected from the trailer.

Pulled out the air lines
and the electrical.

Nice.

You have
a small hose clamp?

I think I have some.

You have
a screwdriver, too?

-Flathead, right?
-Yeah.

Schnabel: There we go.

Yeah, that'll work.

Well, the air lines
are temporarily fixed.

Hopefully, that's enough
to get our wash plant moved.

All right.
Let's do this.

We're probably gonna have
to rig up to it.

Ness: We're just gonna get
both machines hooked up to it,

one on each end.

There we go.

All right.
We got this sucker in the air.

It's time to get it
on the trailer.

Whoa!

Easy.

Rick, just left a bit.

We got it.

That's it?

Perfect.

[ grunts ]

yeah.

Fits like a glove.

Yeah,
that worked smooth.

Yeah.

Schnabel: Yeah, we got
the plant on the trailer.

Now we just need
to chain it down

and drive her down
to indian river.

It's about, I don't know,
five, six miles.

Not too bad.

What's the worst
that can happen?

[ brakes hiss ]

[ bang ]

what the [bleep] was that?

[ brakes hiss ]

[ bang ]

what the [bleep] was that?

Narrator: Parker schnabel
is hauling 15 tons

of trusted, old wash plant
from his yard

to rick's new
indian river operation.

Are my back tires
not spinning?

But there's a problem
with the trailer.

[ air hisses ]

front one's spinning,
but not the rear two.

What the [bleep]?

The brakes
aren't releasing.

So, they're not getting the
air
they need to release.

Narrator:
The wheels are locked,

which means
the high-pressure air

is not reaching the brakes.

Parker tries
switching the hoses.

[ air hisses ]

what was that?

Heard a burst of air
back here.

What?

Oh, yeah, we got some air
coming back here now.

I can hear it.

I just switched them
again.

Oh, yeah.
Brakes are moving now.

Yeah.

All right, rick.

Let's get this wash plant
to indian river.

Now let's see what kind
of a super trucker I am.

Ness: Oh, that's
a sweet sight here --

big red coming down
the road behind me.

Heh, heh, heh.

Thing's [bleep] tall.

You know, for the most part,
this is gonna be rick's show.

And I'm excited about that.
I'm excited for him.

I mean, he's in for 1,000.

Hopefully, it'll be really
good
and he can do more.

Schnabel: Is that good?

Yeah, perfect!

Made it!

[ horn honks ]

[ laughs ]
whoo!

All right.

There you go.

There you go.
You got yourself a wash plant.

Narrator:
With pay dirt in the cut a

rick's indian river claim...
Good luck.

...Is almost ready
to start producing gold.

This old girl's produced
4,000 ounces for us

up to this date.

So, I need another 1,000 out
of it in the next two months.

Big red at indian river --
unreal.

[ horn honks ]

hey, thurber, I'm gonna have
to really fill you full here.

I'm gonna fill you up as much
as I can get in there.

Narrator: Todd hoffman's crew
has mutinied.

Now he's struggling
to run the buckland mine

with his dad,
his son, and thurber.

Okay,
I'll push you up.

Thurber: That's enough.

I mean, we're gonna
break something.

That's ridiculous.

Thurber hauls
what they hope is pay dirt

half a mile to the plant.

Hunter: You know, we're
killing
ourselves right now

trying to run this mine
with four guys.

And who knows if this pay
even has anything good in it.

Jack: I'm gonna be running out
of pay here pretty quick,
yeah.

I don't know if I'm digging up
my own ramp

that I -- I'm sitting on,

whether I'm getting pay
or getting dirt.

Hey, todd, we're running out
of pay up here.

There's not a lot I can do
about that right now.

I'm doing
the best we can.

Yeah, well,
you're gonna have to do

[ groans ]
a little bit better than that.

I don't know
what you're gonna do,

but I need some pay,
and I need it now.

Todd, this one truck
just isn't cutting it.

What's hunter doing
up there?

He's clearing tailings
out of the --

let the tailings pile up.
Who cares?

Tell hunter just get in a
truck
and get his ass down here!

All right.

Hey, hunter.

Your dad needs you
to hop in a rock truck,

come help haul pay.

We're not getting
enough over here.

Okay,
I'll go get in a truck.

Todd: Hey,
thanks for coming, man.

We needed your help
back here.

Okay.
I'll do my best.

Go for it.
Take this load.

Okay, thurb.

I'll telling you, I think
we can keep up with two
trucks.

Yeah, it's definitely
gonna help.

We're hauling
twice as much now.

I'm having to jump
between the loader

and the rock truck
right now.

I have to watch the wash
plant.
I have to do the tailings.

Feels like I'm doing
the job of three guys.

And I'm pretty maxed out
right now,

and it's pretty ridiculous.

Hunter's running around like
a chicken with his head cut
off.

But he's doing
a real good job.

Hey,
we have a water leak.

The feeder's blowing water
out the back.

Shut it down!

Holy crap!

Hey, kill the pump!

I got the water off.

Ah, we blew a hose here.

All right.
I'm gonna shut the plant down.

We have a hose
that feeds the main conveyor.

It either just blew off
or the straps broke.

I don't know which.

Holy cow.

Blew the clamp right off.
Aw.

You know, these are the type
that you can't reuse.

Thurber,
go find some clamps.

Let's clamp it back on.
We'll see if it'll hold.

What if I wasn't here
at the wash plant?

I'm half a mile away
at the cut, okay?

Hey,
I -- I can't --

no, he can't watch
the whole thing and feed it.

And if something goes wrong
and really breaks,

then we're not
mining at all.

Hunter, we're not blaming you
or blaming anybody.

I am sorry.
I know we're shorthanded.

But we got to keep our eyes
on this frickin' plant.

So, let's just
keep it rolling.

Found three brand-new
heavy-duty clamps.

-Yeah, that looks all right.
-Yeah, it is. Even better.

-Think it'll reach?
-Yeah.

Let me hold on to it.
Okay, go.

Stagger all these.

Okay.
I think we got her.

You guys want
to fire up?

You know, something like that
could've just shut us down.

I think we got real lucky
on a hose.

This summer's been
unbelievable.

It's been very, very
difficult.

I wouldn't wish this
on anybody...

Even parker.

Old piece of [bleep] off.

Then we're gonna
bring in a new one.

Narrator: Kevin beets' dredge
has been losing gold

down the fine-tailing chutes.

It's a very gentle procedure,
as you can see.

Splash!

[bleep] done.

Kevin's plan -- replace
the simple, old, metal chutes

with a pair
of 20-foot sluice boxes

containing mats
and expanded metal.

This should trap all the gold
he's been losing.

Mechanic mike beaudry
has come to help.

Beaudry: Do everything we can
on the ground.

Then, soon as we're ready,
we'll slam this stuff in
quick,

and we'll be done.

Then the dredge
can go back to work.

Each of the finished sluice
extensions weighs 1,500
pounds.

They must be perfectly lined
up
with the runs on the dredge

so water flows evenly
all the way to the end.

Go up, kevin.

Hold up, kev!

Don't get too crazy.

Ken,
pull that in that way.

Okay, just wait.
That's not gonna work.

[bleep] thing looks like
it's twisted in the middle.

Which way
are you thinking?

That way?

Righnow,
it's looking this way --

or it's looking this way.
Tilted that way?

-It's tilted this way.
-That one is or both of them?

This one.

Just hang on.

[ sighs ]

this needs to go that way?

Yeah.

Well, that's okay.

Go get me that...

Pull on that.

Pull it slow, slow,
slow, slow.

There you go.

There you go.

How about this way?
Yeah?

Yeah.
Oh, oh, that's better.

I'm not sure how much
I trust these cables.

Why?

'cause that's
a lot of weight.

Those cables are good
for 5,000 pounds each.

Tighten that other turnbuckle
up
a little bit more?

Yeah.

It's sitting in there
quite nice.

You know, it's a little
heavier
than we were expecting,

but it's all we need.

Just got to sit there
and work.

Now that they're on,
we can fire her up,

start making gold again.

[ water flowing ]
here we go.

Oh, I hear water.

And here she comes.

Oh [bleep]

well, they're still on,
so that's a good start.

They seem to be working.

Overall, I'm happy.

Just got to wait
and see how they work out.

Get in here, doumitt.

"sluicifer"
is a tough word to say.

-Thank you, mitch.
-No problem.

Narrator: For three weeks,

parker has been mining
the boundary cut extension.

But the results
have been falling short.

After another week of running,

it's time to see
if things have improved.

So, I know we've been focused
on getting big red moved.

But sluicifer's
still sluicing away.

And, hopefully,
this boundary cut extension

got a little better.

Our last cleanup was,
what, 102?

Yeah, pretty pathetic.

Narrator: To keep on track

to hit his 4,000-ounce,
$4.8 million season,

parker needs this cleanup
to produce over 160 ounces.

Well,
here's the moment of truth.

Hopefully, it adds up.

It's at 20...40...

60...80...100.

Not much more
than that.

106.9.

Man: Oh.

So nothing's changed.

Oh, man.

I mean, dude, it's still
100 ounces of gold,

but that should be
almost double that

with how many rocks
we skipped across that.

-Ounce an hour.
-Oof.

What's that take us to,
chris?

About 1,285 now.

Man, we got to start
upping that.

Well, and it really
highlights the fact

that we need big red
up and going.

'cause we've got to do
over 250 ounces a week

for the rest
of the season.

We've got to get big red
sluicing as soon as we can.

Yeah, understood.
I agree.

And once we turn it on,
we can't turn that thing off,

because, at this rate...

I mean, big red can
do these numbers easy.

All right, rick.
I just need you to get on
that.

10-4.
I'm on it.

Thanks, guys.

Yeah, I mean,
this boundary cut extension

is pretty dog [bleep]

we're at the point now where
we're in a fair bit of
trouble,

so I'm really counting on rick
to get big red up and going,

get some gold coming
out of indian river.

Narrator: It's 8:00 p.M.

The rest of the crew
is eating dinner,

but rick's got other
priorities.

I've got big red
down in my cut.

I'm gonna drag it
up to the pad.

I'm gonna be pulling gold
out of my own cut.

And it's one hell
of a feeling.

I got chills
when I said that.

[bleep] go time.
All right.

Come on, baby.
Let's go.

This is the easy part now.
I'm in the flats.

I got one hell of a hill
to climb with it, though.

Yeah, this hill
is a pretty steep angle.

Whew.

Whoo!

Big red's on the pad!

Yes!

[ grunts ]

it's another cleanup.

We don't do these
every day.

Yeah.

Narrator: Kevin beets has
fitted
new sluice extensions

to the back end of the dredge.

After two days of welding
and four days of running,

they've shut down
for an all-important cleanup.

This second tub is gonna keep
the gold concentrate separate

between the new runs
that we added in last week

and the rest
of the dredge.

So it's gonna give
everybody a good idea

of what was actually
going off the end.

Ah [bleep]

what's gonna be
really interesting

is to see
how much gold we get

out of those
back-sluice runs.

I don't know.
We're waiting on you.

Narrator: To stay on track

to hit tony's
2,000-ounce season target,

kevin needs
around 50 ounces a week.

Tony: 10, 20.

You got 50.

60.

70, 80, 90, 100.

Good.
140, 150.

180, 190, 200.
Perfect.

208.
220.

226.30.

I think that's
pretty [bleep] reasonable.

Eh, a couple of bucks.

Okay.

This is from the extensions,
both of them.

Okay.

Yeah.

2 ounces.

3 ounces.
4 ounces.

4.26 ounces.

So, what's
the grand total now?

230.6.

Narrator:
An extra $5,000 a week --

money tony desperately needs

to get his second dredge
back on track.

And that extra 2% every
cleanup,
that's gonna [bleep] help.

Let's pull the mats.

You guys do a cleanup,
and we'll see what we got.

-Okay.
-Let's hope it's good.

Narrator: In oregon,
todd's skeleton crew

has fed monster red for a
week.

We've worked very hard,

and I want to go back and see
if our hard work paid off.

Narrator: But they won't know
if they've hit the pay streak

until they do the cleanup.

Hey.
What do we got cooking?

-Well...
-Hmm.

Not a whole lot.

Like, break-even?

Narrator: To have any chance
of breaking even this season,

they need at least
50 ounces a week --

$60,000 worth of gold.

Nowhere even near.

Let's see, man.
Just take the thing off.

I got to look.

That's it?

That's it.

You're friggin' kidding me.

-No.
-Nope.

[ sighs ] oh.

I could tell you right now
that's barely worth weighing.

Go ahead and weigh it,

but I'm telling you,
that's not good.

2.8.

Yeah.

Todd,
I don't know what to say.

[ groans ]
we've put...Yards.

It's not worth all of us there
sitting all day running

for that little bit
of gold.

Well, there's really
only two choices --

we keep giving a shot
or we quit and go home.

Working with him till the end,
I don't know.

That gold does not
make it worth it.

If we just walk away
right now,

you know,
it's -- it's done.

It's over.

Todd: No, I'm not happy.

I'm not happy about it.

I got 10 or 12 pieces
of heavy equipment at least.

I got my back against the
wall.

You know, I don't know if
I can keep doing this anymore.

I got a friggin' rainbow
coming
down into the cut down here.

Narrator:
On the next "gold rush"...

I don't even want
to hear it.

Schnabel:
Every day he's not sluicing

is costing us
20,000, 30,000 bucks.

Feels like mine
right now.

She's rising
from the ashes!

To be quite [bleep] honest
with you, young man,

I'm really not impressed.

This could beat the subway
any day, wouldn't it?

It's time to start
the next phase.

What the hell's
he doing here?

I am tired of feeling
like a frickin' loser.

Hey, everybody,
ready to pull out?