Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue (2021): Season 2, Episode 8 - The Gold Wizard - full transcript
Dude, I got to go
to the airport.
Andy just called,
I was on the phone
with Andy right now,
baby's coming.
- Oh, okay.
- I got to go. Yeah.
I got a flight
in half an hour.
- We got to go.
- Okay, let's go.
Juan's wife is about
to have a baby,
it's a bit early.
Like, two weeks.
It's gonna be a lot
harder to do this without you.
We're one hell of a team
when it comes to
getting stuff done
and tricks and stuff.
Yup, that's right.
I'm just saying
I'll miss you, buddy.
Thank you, Freddy.
I'll miss you too, bud.
It's gonna be
a little rougher on me.
But it's not the first time
I've worked by myself
and won't be the last.
Freddy is deep
in Canada's Yukon Territory,
two miles from the legendary
Klondike River
to help a father and a son
keep their mining dream
alive.
We're headed out
to see Mike and Mike.
Both of them came out
of the aerospace industry.
I don't know how much gold
they've recovered
for the season,
but I do know that
the days are running
short now.
It's a matter of weeks,
not months
before this place
gets froze up.
How's it going, guys?
Good. How you doing?
I assume
you're one of the Mikes.
- That's correct. I'm Mike Jr.
- Mike Jr.
- Hi, Freddy.
- Mike Sr?
Mike Sr. My wife, Cathy.
- Nice to meet you, Cathy.
- Good to see you.
Thank you so much for coming.
- Appreciate it very much.
- Oh, no worries.
Well, you said
that you used to be
in the aerospace business
when we talked.
- I did.
- So you probably learned a lot
- along the way in that?
- Oh, yeah.
I'm a little worried actually.
Now, I'm working
with a rocket scientist.
No, not hardly.
I'm just an old hillbilly.
Ex-Marine
and Vietnam vet,
Mike Capuano spent
most of his career
at Lockheed Martin.
Building advanced jets,
like the F-117
stealth fighter.
But he was forced
to retire early.
I got ill in 2012,
with leukemia,
and went through the whole
chemo bit for six months,
and that kind of thing.
I got a second chance at life,
so to speak.
And of course,
I had the gold fever as well.
So I made it my primary
bucket list item.
All bets are off.
It was go gold mining,
so that's how it started.
Mike spent
the last seven summers
mining solo in the Yukon,
and in 2020,
started working this claim.
It's a nice
little trommel.
Well, thank you
very much.
We had a smaller one
and I started out with that.
And then my son decided
he wanted to join,
- so...
- Build a bigger plant?
So I told him
we'll build a bigger plant.
That's what we did,
now we're here as a family,
you know, trying to make it.
Mike Jr.
also worked in aerospace.
But in 2017, he quit
his six-figure salary job
to spend precious time
with his 75-year-old dad
and help his goldmining
dream come true.
So you've got little kids,
I take it.
That's correct.
Three little ones at home.
So the amount of gold
you pull out of here
at the end of the season
is really important, huh?
Yes, it means a lot.
By the end of September,
I will not have seen my wife
for five months or my kids.
My wife doesn't enjoy
me being gone
and coming home broke.
You guys close to your gold
numbers you need for the year?
We're about halfway of that.
But you only got a few weeks left.
- Yeah.
- In the summer.
Yeah, we're gonna push
right on through to that
until it drives us
out of here, you know.
So right now,
we would need to find,
pull out of the ground another
40 oz. of gold this season
in order to survive
the winter,
but without help,
it's not gonna happen.
I got Michael Jr.
into this.
He's my child.
He'll always be my child.
I will never allow him
to fail at this.
Yukon never gives
its gold up easily.
- No, it doesn't.
- I'll do my best to help you
catch as much more of it
as we can.
We appreciate that.
Thank you.
Well, we're wasting
precious minutes.
Winter's coming.
- Let's fire it up.
- Okay.
I'll go grab the doodlebug,
come back and get you.
- What the hell's a doodlebug?
- You'll see.
So this is
a doodlebug, huh?
- It's a cute little machine.
- It is.
Yeah.
You work with what you got,
you know.
That's right.
Dance with the girl
you brought to the dance.
The Mikes
mine a 46-acre high bench.
The wash plant sits
a hundred feet above the cut
and 250 ft.
above the nearest creek.
Mike Jr. needs to drive
more than a mile to fire up
a powerful pump that feeds
water to their plant.
All clear.
It's a complicated procedure
they got going on here.
They got to run down the hill
to turn the pump on.
Mining this large high bench
with just two people
means the Mikes
only run the plant
four hours a day.
Okay, Dad. Here it comes.
10-4, I see water
in the pipe, over.
This test run
will help Freddy
set a benchmark
of their daily gold tools.
All right,
10-4, heading up.
Well,
let's go make some gold.
Let's do it.
Senior loads
the first bucket of pay
into the hopper
which feeds into their 14 ft.
self-filled trommel.
Here, the spray bars wash
the gold bearing material
off the rocks
into an eight-foot
sluice run.
The tailings collect
into a pit
and it's one of Junior's jobs
to clear them.
Hey, Mike,
I'm gonna go look
at your sluice.
The riffles in the sluice
are packing up.
Right now, they're getting
pretty tight,
which makes that gold skip
farther downstream.
If the riffles
are hard packed
after only 30 minutes,
the Mikes could be
losing gold
for the remaining
three and a half hours
of the run.
How many buckets?
One-ninety-five.
One-ninety-five?
Come on, pick it up.
What I usually do is,
Cathy's always got a radio on.
She likes to know
how many scoops we're getting.
He beeps his horn
on the excavator,
maybe three times
for three hundred,
four for four hundred,
et cetera.
And so he lets me know
where he's at.
So it's kind of cute.
Mike and Cathy
were married in 1979.
But in 2003, they split up.
We were apart
for 17 years
and reunited in January.
And we should be together now
until death do us part.
It's like a love story,
I think.
This is the first time
I've been with the guys
gold mining
because I never really had
one-on-one time
with Mikey and Mike
at the same time.
So this is pretty special.
It's definitely more fun
with more gold, yes.
I have a goal each week
to get at least an ounce
and pickers
from the sluice box,
but it hasn't been
happening lately.
If Freddy
can't help rescue
the Capuanos dwindling gold,
the family will have to
abandon their dream
of mining together.
We're leaking out
water up here.
You can see that material,
it's leaking out pretty bad.
I'll have to go grab
a gold pan
but I'll almost guarantee
there'll be some gold in it.
Hey, Mikey,
you guys have any water
up here to pan in?
Let's check
right over here.
Nope, it didn't build up yet.
You have a hose on the plant
that we could fill it with?
I don't.
I've got some buckets
of water.
Buckets of water?
I've got another
five if you need it.
Let me see
what we're at.
- That'll work.
- Okay.
Now this is
what's oozing out of your...
The back of your trommel there.
We got definite gold in there.
Yup, I see it.
There's a good piece
right there.
There's some dust
in there, boy.
What I seen in that pan,
there's some micro
fine gold there, super fine.
They're not really set up
to optimally catch that.
So, you know,
I'll just keep looking around
finding things
that need work on.
The sluice box
is a little short.
But we'll see what the mats
look like in the bottom
when we shut down.
Gold in the bottom
of the mats
is a sure sign
it's being washed
off the end of the sluice.
Hey, Mike,
take me some just off the top.
How much you want?
Just a little bit?
There you go.
Got that.
Some of the material
coming out of the trommel
is kind of muddy.
You see that bottom water jet?
They aren't doing anything,
right? On there?
Oh, yeah,
right through the last...
Yeah,
down at the bottom,
it's not washing any rock.
So what do you think,
ready to shut the pump down?
I think we are.
We're exactly four hours
right now.
- Okay.
- Exactly.
I'm gonna go down
and shut it off.
Okay.
It doesn't matter
what their past was,
they're gold miners now.
So it matters
what their future is.
And that's why I'm here.
Because I truly wanna help
these guys get more gold.
If I can help them get 10
or 15 or 20% more gold,
that'll be a big win.
It's a big win for me personally
and a big win
for them financially.
Okay.
Michael, shut her down.
Shut her down.
Let's have a look
in the sluice, guys.
Let's check it out.
Well,
I mean there's gold in it.
Yeah, unfortunately,
there's not a whole lot to see
but, uh...
See how these
are packed in?
- Yeah.
- Feel that right there.
It's solid material
all the way across.
There's no room for that gold
to fall down through
and get to the carpet.
I mean,
this cut we've been doing
is definitely not as good
as the last one
which, you know,
so we're not anticipating
any huge amounts of gold.
Looks like this
material doesn't have much
- for pickers.
- No, it doesn't, so.
- No.
- Mainly fine gold.
We're off
the main channel.
Our last cut, we were running,
we were getting
up to an ounce and a half
per hundred yards
put through the plant.
And that's pretty significant
compared to the new cut
we're on,
where we're averaging,
you know, half ounce
- or less sometimes.
- Ooh, half ounce isn't good.
Right now, we're a little over
halfway to our goal.
We don't have much time left,
maybe four weeks.
So my wife is gonna be
very upset.
There's a lot of sacrifice
on her end.
You know,
we agreed on a figure
in order to survive
the winter.
I'm not at that figure yet.
And this cut was,
uh, that we're on right now,
was plan B,
if we ever ran out on plan A.
Well, if it's a half
ounce a hundred,
I'd hope there's no plan C.
- That's a lower grade...
- Yeah, right? No.
...than that, yeah.
Plan C is hit the road.
I don't know
if they're gonna have enough
gold in this new cut
the way they're talking.
You know, if it's only a half,
half ounce a hundred,
you know, that's one third
what they were getting
at their other cut
they were talking about.
It's like a paycheck.
You're making $60,000 a year
and then all of a sudden
you're making $20,000 a year.
So basically, you know,
it's a big, big kick
right in the ass.
My son Michael needs the gold
for his family.
But I'm worried
about him having enough
to do the things
he has to do.
So he doesn't have
to rush out and get a job
because if he gets a job,
then he may not be able
to come back next year
with his dad.
And that's the hard part.
I've only got a few days here
to help Mike, Mikey,
and Cathy.
It's gonna be a little tougher
to help these guys
catch more gold
because my buddy
Juan is not here with me.
But I'm sure they'll pitch in
and help as well.
So we'll figure it out,
we'll get it done.
Here.
How's it going, guys?
Good. How are you?
- Good, Freddy.
- Doing all right.
One thing is for sure,
you guys like loud stuff.
The space station
just called and asked
if you could turn
the volume down on this.
Have you done any cleanups
on this new cut
with the really fine gold
in it?
Yes.
Some of the gold in here though
you can barely see
that we looked at today.
- I mean, barely see it.
- Yeah, I don't know
that I've ever seen
that powder gold.
Yeah, there's a bunch of it
in here.
But we'll see if we can't find
a solution
to catch that fine gold
that gets by.
Sounds good.
What's your main reason
for being out here?
My main reason at first
it was just to come up
and be a part
of my dad's dream.
But gradually over the years,
it's turned into making money,
- finding gold.
- Yeah, yup.
What's your dad usually do
when you guys are cleaning up?
When we... when we break away
to do the clean up,
my dad will stay up top
and keep excavating pay.
To try to get more gold,
Senior works every spare hour
in the excavator.
As far
as gold mining is concerned,
if you don't work hard,
you're going nowhere.
You will not be successful.
This is not your,
uh, typical 9:00 to 5:00 job.
This is, uh, 7:00
in the morning
to 8:00, 9:00 at night,
every night.
My dad wants
to make this whole operation
just a huge success
and he's willing
to just work himself
to complete just exhaustion
to get it done.
It was scary
when he got sick.
In 2010, my dad called me
and he was, like, "Hey, look.
I'm not good,
you need to come up here."
I went to a doctor's
appointment with my dad
and that doctor said
he was...
90% dead, right,
at that appointment.
So, having him be able
to come back from that, right,
and now be doing
what he's doing is great.
I realized it was important
to spend time with him.
He's my partner.
We're both in it together.
We both have,
uh, a lot to gain
and certainly
we both have a lot to lose.
He's an older man
and, you know,
I worry about his health
and I worry about him working
too long,
too many hours.
We couldn't stop him
if we wanted to
because we've got that goal
that we need to reach.
- You got the gold?
- I do.
To continue mining
as a family,
the Capuanos need an ounce
and a half of gold a day.
Here you go.
These are the fines.
We kept them
in separate containers
so you could see
the size of the gold
- that we're getting.
- Cool.
Well, this fine stuff
is the stuff
that I really wanna help
you guys catch
because I think
you're losing some of it.
There's some powder in there
for sure.
- Pretty small.
- Yep.
So, .37,
so a third of an ounce.
There's your fines.
Well, how about
your bigger stuff now, huh?
So, over half ounce.
Just a little
over half an ounce.
Yeah.
That's, uh, not
what we're here for.
I mean, that doesn't even pay
the bills,
you know, for the run
and the fuel.
Oh, what do you think
we can do to be better at this
and catch more
of this fine gold?
There's a few things.
So, right now,
here's your trommel, right?
Materials going through,
right now,
you're leaking material out
right here, right?
- We are.
- Under the drum.
Right.
I think, we can get
that sealed up,
that'll get a little extra
gold right there.
Your spray bar going through.
We spin that spray bar
a little bit.
It's gonna wash
those rocks better.
Right.
Your Hungarian riffles
are packing up.
They're too tight
at the top end.
So, we take and modify those
or build a new set,
one of the two.
And then, I'd like to add
a four-foot
sluice extension on the end.
Its primary mission in life
is to help you catch
more of that fine gold,
that small gold
that you have here.
Oh,
that would be great.
If I can get it done right,
I wanna make it
where it hinges,
so it can fold back
onto itself.
- Yeah.
- Sounds good.
So, I can see
increasing you probably 10%,
- Fifteen percent.
- That's meaningful.
- Well, it all adds up.
- Certainly.
I figured out
numbers last night
and we're looking at probably
$2,000 to $3,000 in material.
Okay. Fair enough.
I'll give you
a full week's labor in here.
At the end of the season,
I want 1 oz. of gold
from you guys.
It's worth every penny,
every spec of gold
we'll give you.
Well, I guess,
uh, it's a deal.
- It's a deal.
- All right.
Thanks, Freddy.
- Appreciate it.
- Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you, guys.
And, uh, Juan's not here,
so screw him.
Yeah.
If Freddy was able to help us
reach our goal,
our target goal of another
40 oz. this season,
that would be amazing.
I'm going up to see
a friend of mine, Guy Favron.
See if I can, uh, buy some
steel off of him.
There wasn't any in town,
what I needed.
Hey, Freddy Dodge.
- How's it going?
- Good.
- How are you?
- Doing all right.
- It's good to see you.
- Awesome.
You know me, I always stop
by when I need something.
- That time of the year, eh?
- Yeah.
Well, I'm helping some guys
down the road here
and they got
a little trommel.
And I wanna build them some
- new riffles.
- Oh, yeah.
So, I need some angle iron,
some flat bar.
Yeah. We should be able
to fix you up
- with something here.
- Okay.
If we don't have it,
you don't need it.
That's right.
Watch your head there,
Freddy... Oh, you're good.
Smart-ass.
For the Yukon, your place
is like the Shangri-La
when you need steel.
What thickness
do you normally run?
That's an inch
and a half, is it?
- Oh, you want one inch.
- One inch for these guys.
Yeah. Inch and a quarter
is a bit mean.
Got you.
This would work
right here.
A piece of that
and a piece of inch
- and a quarter flat bar.
- Right on.
Got any that's not rusty?
Right.
What's our goal here?
Uh, I think Freddy said
eight degrees.
That should be fairly simple.
No Juan to help,
the Mikes go solo
on the spray bar fix.
Well, okay,
that was, like, 30.
The spray bar on
the plant is set vertically
but the rotation
of the trommel
forces rocks upwards
causing gold bearing pay
to pass through
without being
properly washed.
Freddy's plan, adjust
the precise angle of the bar
to allow the water jets to
effectively wash the material
before passing
into the sluices.
Oh, there we go. There we go.
- How's it going, guys?
- Okay.
We're just about there, Fred.
Okay. That'll help.
Yeah.
That's pretty close
to our eight degrees
right there.
Well, I just, uh, picked up
all the plumbing parts
to get a manifold on here.
So, you can have something
to wash stuff down,
- fill up buckets.
- That's awesome.
Oh, that'd be great.
That will certainly
be helpful.
Freddy's idea,
give them access to water
at the plant
by welding a valve
to the existing water pipe.
Yep.
Let me get
one more tack on it, Mike.
Okay. Cathy will be,
uh, extremely happy
about this.
She won't, uh, have to haul
all that, uh, water up here
to do her, uh, cleanouts with.
She generally lost
half of it anyway,
on the way up this hill.
- It's welded.
- Looks good.
Just leave the other half
un-welded.
That's for showers.
Well,
let's plumb it up, huh?
Yeah.
You guys seem to work
pretty good together.
Are you that way all the time
or just when I'm here?
For the most part,
we do pretty good together, honestly.
Mike likes to do all
the heavy work,
- saves my back.
- Yeah.
This is something
money can't buy.
This is, uh, a bond
between, uh, a father and son.
Can't put a price tag on it.
How much time a week
will that save you
- from hauling water?
- Oh, my goodness.
- Honestly.
- Hours, probably.
Oh, God, hours,
it's got to be hours.
I'd bet you it's close
to ten hours a week.
- Ten hours?
- Yeah.
- No.
- Well, Cathy,
um, she's gotta go down
and get all.
And then she gotta come back
up here.
- Fire the pump up.
- Load them in the truck.
No, this is great, Freddy.
Thank you so much for it.
- Yeah, it's sweet.
- You're welcome.
More hours running,
there's more gold
in your pocket.
Well, let's get on to bigger
and better things.
- Thank you, sir.
- All right.
Let's do that.
I think the most important
thing we're gonna do
is, uh, build this fine
gold sluice for these guys.
It makes it a lot more
difficult without Juan here
because now, everything
that's screwed up
is all on me.
If I measure wrong,
if I cut wrong,
if we fit wrong,
my fault.
But at the same time,
I got to get it done,
so make hay when it rains
not when the sun shines sometimes.
We got a lot
to get done.
We gotta finish, you know,
putting that sluice box in.
I wanna get that backend
sealing up
where it's just puking
material out.
There's still a lot of things
to do here
but just not a lot of time
to get it done.
Operating as a one-man band,
it's all on Freddy to
get the family enough money
to see them
through the winter.
They're the type people
that a person really likes
to work with.
They laugh, they have smiles
on their faces,
and they seem to truly love
working together.
And that makes me
wanna help them more.
First job today,
attach Freddy's new four-foot
sluice extension
designed to catch
the fine gold
they've been losing.
Got about eight feet.
To get it into position,
they need to use
Freddy's crane.
But with the wash plant
perched
on the edge
of a steep incline,
fixing it
onto the existing sluice
is a risky operation.
Swing it out.
I'm gonna come through
over here, Mike...
- Okay.
- and then come down with it,
all right?
Easy, though. Don't slip.
- Oh, boy.
- Oh. I got it.
Coming up.
Hang on one second.
- Ah.
- Swinging.
Oh. That was funny.
Coming at you. Mike.
Okay, up right here.
Well, it's actually hooked
on the pan.
Can you just move up
a little bit?
- Crunch up just a little?
- Yeah.
- Okay. Pretty close?
- Really close.
- Winching down.
- Okay.
- There we go, huh?
- Yeah.
- That should do it.
- That ought to work.
So, would Juan
normally be doing
what I'm doing right now?
Yeah. Yeah.
You owe me, Juan.
Yeah, owe me, Juan.
This end is going to be
able to fold up
like this for transport.
It's gonna work out great.
No, we're constantly moving.
The whole idea
is to get the plant
as close to your pay
as possible,
you know,
to reduce the distance
that you have to
bring your pay dirt up.
It saves money with,
uh, you know, fuel and time.
For sure we need to hit
another pay channel
because, uh, the one that,
uh, we had been working on now
is quite pathetic
at this point,
so it doesn't pay the bills.
If there is not enough gold
in this cut,
maybe it's time for these guys
to go to a different spot
that has better gold.
A person might look at
the geology
of their cuts too.
But the modifications,
no matter
where they take the plant,
they're gonna be there.
They'll be catching more gold.
Let's unhook it
and see if it folds over.
Okay.
Now, that's trick.
I like this.
Should fold down now.
You wanna fold this
all the way?
- Yep.
- Okay.
As far as it'll fold.
That's great.
Perfect.
There's a lot on the line
for making sure
that Michael Jr. succeeds
at this game here
of gold mining.
And I not only owe it to him
but I owe it to his family
as well,
my daughter-in-law
and his children,
my grandchildren.
It's a pleasure
working with you, sir.
And with you. Thank you.
Don't get too much gold fever though.
- If there's not enough gold...
- Yeah.
- lose the fever.
- You're right.
I know it's hard
on my wife when I'm gone.
It's probably pretty tough.
I know she tells me
all about it
every time I call her.
Mike Jr.'s been
away from home
for five months.
Without service
up at the mine,
he can only call
his family once a week.
Hi, Charlie.
What are you doing?
I'm practicing my flips.
Oh. Can Mommy show me?
That was a good one.
Can you buy a horse?
I don't think I could buy
a horse yet, baby.
Let me see Ellie.
Is she over there walking
around? Look at her.
She wasn't even crawling
when I left. Hi, baby.
Hi, Ellie.
Say hi.
Hey, Daddy.
What's up with your hair?
Nothing.
What's going on?
Not much. How are you doing?
I'm doing good.
I miss you.
I miss you too,
really.
Yeah.
Charlie would like to know
if you're still my husband.
I am, still.
He said yes.
I am still your daddy.
So, I'm totally ready for you
to come home.
When are you coming?
Is the ground frozen
there yet?
It has not froze yet,
so we're looking
at maybe early October.
Okay.
Is that gonna be all right?
I don't have a choice
in the matter.
I don't wanna let my dad down.
What am I supposed to do?
This is his dream
to be up here with his son,
gold mining
and it's my dream too
because I love it
and I have gold fever,
but on the same note,
like, my wife doesn't
enjoy me being gone
for five months,
especially if I don't come
home with money.
The Capuanos' current cut
is giving up so little gold,
Freddy believes
they're off the pay.
Hello. Good.
How are you, guys?
Doing all right.
So he's called in Sydney,
a Yukon government geologist
to see if there's any hope
of getting back
on the main pay channel.
I spent a lot of time
in the Klondike, so.
Maybe you can lead us
in the right direction.
We were on very good pay
- for a while...
- Yeah.
ounce and a half, or better...
- Okay.
- per hundred yards,
and then it just
kind of ran out on us.
Well, this is interesting.
I've seen this deposit,
and the heavy pay channel,
it meanders.
The main gold
deposits follow
the same route
as the ancient rivers
that originally carried
the gold down the valley.
But finding that route
is the challenge.
- Whoo.
- Whoo.
Don't fall on that axe.
So this is where you've been
hauling the pay out of?
- Yes.
- Yes.
So you're sluicing
about a foot of this bedrock?
Yeah. We're trying to capture
any round rock
out of the bedrock
that we see.
Okay.
I would really doubt
that gold's gonna go
too much further
into this bedrock.
If it's flat-lying like that
and it's hard,
gold's not gonna penetrate it.
When you see they're sticking
up like this
and getting a natural riffle,
that's when the gold
is gonna be able to settle
- in those riffles, right?
- Okay. That's interesting.
Lacking the natural
riffles to trap gold,
this smooth bedrock
indicates that they are off
the main pay channel.
To help them relocate it,
Sydney needs to see
their old cut.
As you moved over here,
what did you see?
Bigger boulders along here
under the ramp.
It makes sense.
Bigger boulders,
more gold,
usually bigger gold.
You gotta find those boulders,
clean up that face,
and follow them.
And so here's your bedrock,
and I would come in here
and Freddy would tell you
the same thing.
I wanna pan every foot up.
I wanna know exactly
where I'm getting a good
pan because it's not cheap
to strip material.
In real terms,
is it worth moving that...
pile off with the equipment
you have
to get down to this?
You're in a good neighborhood.
You've got favorable geology,
your... You know,
your bedrock is good,
you've got big boulders.
It's just your challenge is
A, stripping efficiently,
keeping costs down,
being cued in
to your observations here
and panning,
and with Freddy's help
and capturing
that really fine gold
is going to be
kind of your secret to...
- Yeah, for sure.
- success here.
So basically, it sounds
like we're on the right track,
we just need to pan,
pan, pan, right?
Yeah, exactly. Right?
It's a lot cheaper
than drill, drill, drill.
Yeah.
It's not rocket science.
Yeah.
Anyway, you guys have
the perfect attitude
to be in the Klondike
for the next 60 years.
Or more.
I got 20 to go, so.
How's it going, Juano?
Doing all right.
Well, it must be good news
you're calling me, huh?
- You must've had a baby.
- Yeah.
Cool. Cool.
- Can I see the little guy?
- Yeah.
Freddy?
- You named him Freddy?
- Freddy.
Well, that's sure an honor, Juano.
A little taller
than me?
Hi, little guy.
He's yawning.
Well, relax
for a few days, Juano.
I will, buddy.
You take care
of that little Freddy...
- Will do, buddy.
- and the rest of that family.
- Will do, buddy.
- And it's a... it's a...
it's a huge honor
that you named that little one
after me, it really is.
Right on, buddy.
I'll talk to you soon.
Thank you.
- Bye, Ibarras.
- Bye.
Bye.
As Freddy Sr.
heads to the mine,
Mike Sr. and his son
take the doodlebug
into their old cut
to chase down
the main pay channel.
Shovel it down
and just get in there.
It actually looks pretty good
right in there.
Yeah, it does, doesn't it?
All right.
That should be all right.
- Now I'll just...
- Okay.
- I'll scoop some in.
- All right.
It should give us
a pretty good indicator
if we're in pay.
I see some color
right there.
Oh, yeah?
Check them out.
Look at that, one, two, three,
four, five...
There's probably 15, 20 colors
in there, it seems.
Oh, that's great. Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. You see them?
There's a couple
over here, too.
Actually quite a few.
Look at this.
- That's good.
- Probably close...
- That's a really good sign.
- to 20 colors in there.
Probably some of the best test
pans we've gotten.
This tells us
it's probably worth stripping
- and going after.
- Yup.
Certainly where the money is
gonna be.
A positive sign
they have relocated
the main channel,
but excavation
will take too long
for the second test run.
Once Freddy leaves,
this is where
we're gonna continue on.
Yeah.
We know Freddy's the master
of that fine gold recovery.
Pull it all together
with the new fixes
and then running where
we assume the pay channel is,
there's better gold,
we have a good chance
of salvaging our season.
Just like you said,
getting to our goal.
Hey, Mike? You got a minute?
Yeah, I sure do.
I could use
some help.
Okay.
Less than 24 hours
remaining,
Freddy still has to finish
one vital and precise fix.
- Got her?
- We're good.
Okay. So that's gonna be
our radius, right?
Perfect.
The Mikes' plant
is leaking gold-rich material
through a small gap
where the hopper and chute
overlaps the trommel mouth.
Freddy's plan,
weld a curved steel bracket
to the bottom of the chute
and bolt on
a wider piece of rubber
that will fill the gap.
The dimensions of the steel
plate are critical,
so it doesn't grind
against the trommel
and stop it rotating.
You go in
through the top,
I'll meet you
through the bottom.
Okay.
Well, Mike, it's gonna be
a real bugger to see,
- to weld it.
- Okay.
But I don't think
both of us are gonna fit
to tack it, but let's try it.
What you're saying is
we may have to spin it a bit.
Yeah.
Freddy needs Mike
to hold the bracket in place
while he welds
through a tiny gap
between the trommel
and chute.
Okay. Eyeballs.
Damn it.
I can't see it.
It's up underneath there.
Getting shocked now
because I'm wet.
But you're gonna have
to hold it in here
and I'm gonna have to go
from the outside and tack it.
- Okay.
- You know what I mean?
- Yup. Okay.
- I can't see underneath there.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I get it.
I can't see it at all.
It's too damn hard. Yup.
Yup.
So I'm just welding
by braille.
- Hey, Mike?
- Yeah.
I need
another set of hands.
- Okay.
- It's the world's smallest job
that takes three people
to get it tacked in.
I understand how that works,
you know.
Mikey's inside,
so I'll get you
to hold them like this.
All right.
And then he could
push that plate up against it,
that way we know
we got clearance, right?
- I got you.
- Okay. Eyeballs.
Well, now we go inside
with Mikey.
We got our bracket
welded in place.
Okay.
So now it's time
to put that rubber in now.
We're tighter
than a devout nun in here.
When you need them,
I got a handful of nuts here
- for you.
- Okay.
My nuts or your nuts?
Well, it's in there,
and that should stop
a bunch of the leaking.
It looks good.
Probably not all of it,
but most of it.
Yeah.
I like it, Freddy.
Yeah.
I appreciate it.
In the morning,
they'll run the plant
to see if it's enough
to ensure
the family can mine together
for years to come.
So today's gonna be
a big day,
it's the last day,
and we're gonna do
our second test
and see how well
these fixes worked.
Because I know for a fact
that they're losing gold
off the end.
To make the Mikes' sluice run
more effective
at catching gold,
Freddy added
a 4-foot extension
and made a new
set of Hungarian riffles.
That makes
things a little bit different.
So that piece of gold
that doesn't like
one situation
will get caught in another.
Right now,
we've got five there,
six, seven.
So we got seven changes
- instead of two in here now.
- Well, we...
All of our Hungarians
were symmetrical.
Yeah. You're still
gonna catch big gold in it.
Yeah.
But you have a better
chance actually
catching more of
the fine gold in it, too.
- Yeah.
- Well, let's fire it up.
- All right. Let's do it.
- Looks good. Let's go.
Dad, we're going
hot with the big pump.
- Standby.
- 10-4,
I'm gonna fire up
the generator.
Here comes the water, Mike.
Okay.
I see the water.
Okay. We're good to go.
10-4, I'm headed up.
First bucket, Mike.
First bucket
of pay dirt going in.
Hope it's full of gold.
Hey, Mike?
Mike? Have a look!
Only a little bit of water
coming out
every once in a while.
Oh, that's great, Freddy.
- Not mud.
- Great. What an improvement.
An hour
into the final test run,
the first major fix
is a success.
It's in there
and it's doing its job.
It's putting more gold
in that sluice box.
You can see in here,
when you guys swung
that spray bar around.
- Oh, yeah.
- Look at that. Yeah.
It's cleaning it way
better than it was.
Oh, yeah, I see it.
That bottom rocks
are getting water off now
because that water
in the bottom was, like,
that much farther over.
I'm looking
at the sluice box
from where
I'm perched up here,
and it looks fantastic,
it's running so smooth.
Hey, Dad,
we're going in.
Wow.
I can see the change
just from that first riffle,
the way the water
comes off of it.
Yeah.
They're working.
I like it.
Then that new sluice,
you can see
it's a bit flatter?
Yeah.
We need to get
as much gold as we can,
you know,
because that determines
the future for both of us, really.
You know, my dad can't afford
to not recover enough gold
and if I can't bring home
enough gold, you know,
that could dictate
whether or not
there is a next season.
The Mikes load pay
from the same lean cut
as they did in the first run.
This will give
a like-for-like test
on their gold recovery.
We'll know pretty quick
how much I've helped them out
with these fixes,
I hope it's a lot.
If I can get them increased
by 15 or 20%,
maybe that's just
the boost they need
to stay mining successfully.
That's four hours
right there.
Okay. Perfect.
Hey, Dad, you got a copy?
We're gonna go ahead
and shut down,
I'll let you know
when I'm in position.
Okay.
I'll see you in a minute.
Okay.
Last bucket of pay
going in the trommel.
Okay. Shut her down, Mike.
Shut her down.
You see any gold?
I see bigger pieces up top.
- Oh, yeah. See in here?
- Yeah.
See how they're not
packed solid?
Yup. Look it here.
Yeah.
There's some gold in it,
that's for sure.
That's a good sign.
Well, let's pull them out
and see what we see.
Okay.
All right. Sounds good.
A pan of the material caught
in Freddy's
new sluice extension
will show any gold
that would have disappeared
with the tailings.
Look at all that, guys.
You've been throwing
that away...
- Yeah.
- every single time.
Oh, my God.
Look at all this gold.
We have been missing that...
- You guys...
- this whole time.
Throwing it away
every time you run.
Oh, my God.
- But, you know what?
- But now you're catching them.
We have something
to look forward to now.
...you're gonna catch
more of it, right?
I'm really glad we
called you, Freddy.
- Yeah.
- We needed your help.
- Well, I'm glad to be here.
- Yeah. Thank you very much.
- Really. Sure.
- Glad to be here, guys.
Well, let's go clean it up.
Let's do it.
Final countdown.
The gold cleaned up,
it's the moment of truth.
- We got your gold.
- We do?
What do you want first,
the fines?
Well, let's put them all out,
we'll weigh them up.
But I'm curious
on the fines though
because that's what
that other sluice box,
and then modifying
those upper riffles, right?
It was to catch more
of that stuff right there.
So last time,
the fines, it was .37.
Yeah.
- Wow.
- Well, there's a half ounce.
- Nice.
- Oh, my God.
- Look at that, will you?
- That's good.
Oh, that's fantastic.
.65.
- Sweet.
- Oh, my Lord.
Yeah. So right here just
in the fines is more gold...
- What an improvement.
- than all the gold
put together last time.
So yeah, from .37 to .65.
This is good.
Well, how about
your bigger stuff now, huh?
One ounce. 1.01 ounces.
- Wow.
- That's terrific.
I'm happy with that,
because I was worried,
sick and nervous,
to be honest with you.
Yeah, I was nervous.
Oh, yeah.
- Thank you, Freddy.
- That's more than being happy.
Freddy's increased
gold recovery by 70%.
If they start running
the gold-rich pay
they've identified,
that could double
their gold haul.
We got three to four weeks
left in the season,
10, 12 ounces a week?
It should be no problem
hitting the goal.
I think we can do it.
Well, that's some
beautiful gold, guys.
- Yeah.
- It looks great.
Cathy and Michael Jr. and I,
we see a much
brighter future.
So hopefully,
it'll make a big difference,
whether or not he's up with us
here next year.
When we were doing
the gold clean up,
we found this little
angel nugget
and I'd like you to have it
because you are an angel.
Well, thank you very much, Cathy.
- Thank you, guys.
- Thank you.
- Really appreciate that.
- An angel among other things.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- Thank you so much.
Well, that means a lot.
- Thank you very much.
- You're welcome.
It's wonderful
having Freddy here.
I'm gonna miss him,
I really am.
But I'm so happy he helped us.
I really am.
I know it doesn't look
like I am, but I am.
He is the gold wizard.
There's no question about it.
You know, it's been
a lot of work this week
without Juano,
but we got it done.
These guys learned
a lot this week.
And the things that we built,
they'll have that forever.
You're welcome.
See you later, guys.
See you around.
Bye. Bye, Freddy.
I'm definitely coming back
next season,
there's no question about it.
to the airport.
Andy just called,
I was on the phone
with Andy right now,
baby's coming.
- Oh, okay.
- I got to go. Yeah.
I got a flight
in half an hour.
- We got to go.
- Okay, let's go.
Juan's wife is about
to have a baby,
it's a bit early.
Like, two weeks.
It's gonna be a lot
harder to do this without you.
We're one hell of a team
when it comes to
getting stuff done
and tricks and stuff.
Yup, that's right.
I'm just saying
I'll miss you, buddy.
Thank you, Freddy.
I'll miss you too, bud.
It's gonna be
a little rougher on me.
But it's not the first time
I've worked by myself
and won't be the last.
Freddy is deep
in Canada's Yukon Territory,
two miles from the legendary
Klondike River
to help a father and a son
keep their mining dream
alive.
We're headed out
to see Mike and Mike.
Both of them came out
of the aerospace industry.
I don't know how much gold
they've recovered
for the season,
but I do know that
the days are running
short now.
It's a matter of weeks,
not months
before this place
gets froze up.
How's it going, guys?
Good. How you doing?
I assume
you're one of the Mikes.
- That's correct. I'm Mike Jr.
- Mike Jr.
- Hi, Freddy.
- Mike Sr?
Mike Sr. My wife, Cathy.
- Nice to meet you, Cathy.
- Good to see you.
Thank you so much for coming.
- Appreciate it very much.
- Oh, no worries.
Well, you said
that you used to be
in the aerospace business
when we talked.
- I did.
- So you probably learned a lot
- along the way in that?
- Oh, yeah.
I'm a little worried actually.
Now, I'm working
with a rocket scientist.
No, not hardly.
I'm just an old hillbilly.
Ex-Marine
and Vietnam vet,
Mike Capuano spent
most of his career
at Lockheed Martin.
Building advanced jets,
like the F-117
stealth fighter.
But he was forced
to retire early.
I got ill in 2012,
with leukemia,
and went through the whole
chemo bit for six months,
and that kind of thing.
I got a second chance at life,
so to speak.
And of course,
I had the gold fever as well.
So I made it my primary
bucket list item.
All bets are off.
It was go gold mining,
so that's how it started.
Mike spent
the last seven summers
mining solo in the Yukon,
and in 2020,
started working this claim.
It's a nice
little trommel.
Well, thank you
very much.
We had a smaller one
and I started out with that.
And then my son decided
he wanted to join,
- so...
- Build a bigger plant?
So I told him
we'll build a bigger plant.
That's what we did,
now we're here as a family,
you know, trying to make it.
Mike Jr.
also worked in aerospace.
But in 2017, he quit
his six-figure salary job
to spend precious time
with his 75-year-old dad
and help his goldmining
dream come true.
So you've got little kids,
I take it.
That's correct.
Three little ones at home.
So the amount of gold
you pull out of here
at the end of the season
is really important, huh?
Yes, it means a lot.
By the end of September,
I will not have seen my wife
for five months or my kids.
My wife doesn't enjoy
me being gone
and coming home broke.
You guys close to your gold
numbers you need for the year?
We're about halfway of that.
But you only got a few weeks left.
- Yeah.
- In the summer.
Yeah, we're gonna push
right on through to that
until it drives us
out of here, you know.
So right now,
we would need to find,
pull out of the ground another
40 oz. of gold this season
in order to survive
the winter,
but without help,
it's not gonna happen.
I got Michael Jr.
into this.
He's my child.
He'll always be my child.
I will never allow him
to fail at this.
Yukon never gives
its gold up easily.
- No, it doesn't.
- I'll do my best to help you
catch as much more of it
as we can.
We appreciate that.
Thank you.
Well, we're wasting
precious minutes.
Winter's coming.
- Let's fire it up.
- Okay.
I'll go grab the doodlebug,
come back and get you.
- What the hell's a doodlebug?
- You'll see.
So this is
a doodlebug, huh?
- It's a cute little machine.
- It is.
Yeah.
You work with what you got,
you know.
That's right.
Dance with the girl
you brought to the dance.
The Mikes
mine a 46-acre high bench.
The wash plant sits
a hundred feet above the cut
and 250 ft.
above the nearest creek.
Mike Jr. needs to drive
more than a mile to fire up
a powerful pump that feeds
water to their plant.
All clear.
It's a complicated procedure
they got going on here.
They got to run down the hill
to turn the pump on.
Mining this large high bench
with just two people
means the Mikes
only run the plant
four hours a day.
Okay, Dad. Here it comes.
10-4, I see water
in the pipe, over.
This test run
will help Freddy
set a benchmark
of their daily gold tools.
All right,
10-4, heading up.
Well,
let's go make some gold.
Let's do it.
Senior loads
the first bucket of pay
into the hopper
which feeds into their 14 ft.
self-filled trommel.
Here, the spray bars wash
the gold bearing material
off the rocks
into an eight-foot
sluice run.
The tailings collect
into a pit
and it's one of Junior's jobs
to clear them.
Hey, Mike,
I'm gonna go look
at your sluice.
The riffles in the sluice
are packing up.
Right now, they're getting
pretty tight,
which makes that gold skip
farther downstream.
If the riffles
are hard packed
after only 30 minutes,
the Mikes could be
losing gold
for the remaining
three and a half hours
of the run.
How many buckets?
One-ninety-five.
One-ninety-five?
Come on, pick it up.
What I usually do is,
Cathy's always got a radio on.
She likes to know
how many scoops we're getting.
He beeps his horn
on the excavator,
maybe three times
for three hundred,
four for four hundred,
et cetera.
And so he lets me know
where he's at.
So it's kind of cute.
Mike and Cathy
were married in 1979.
But in 2003, they split up.
We were apart
for 17 years
and reunited in January.
And we should be together now
until death do us part.
It's like a love story,
I think.
This is the first time
I've been with the guys
gold mining
because I never really had
one-on-one time
with Mikey and Mike
at the same time.
So this is pretty special.
It's definitely more fun
with more gold, yes.
I have a goal each week
to get at least an ounce
and pickers
from the sluice box,
but it hasn't been
happening lately.
If Freddy
can't help rescue
the Capuanos dwindling gold,
the family will have to
abandon their dream
of mining together.
We're leaking out
water up here.
You can see that material,
it's leaking out pretty bad.
I'll have to go grab
a gold pan
but I'll almost guarantee
there'll be some gold in it.
Hey, Mikey,
you guys have any water
up here to pan in?
Let's check
right over here.
Nope, it didn't build up yet.
You have a hose on the plant
that we could fill it with?
I don't.
I've got some buckets
of water.
Buckets of water?
I've got another
five if you need it.
Let me see
what we're at.
- That'll work.
- Okay.
Now this is
what's oozing out of your...
The back of your trommel there.
We got definite gold in there.
Yup, I see it.
There's a good piece
right there.
There's some dust
in there, boy.
What I seen in that pan,
there's some micro
fine gold there, super fine.
They're not really set up
to optimally catch that.
So, you know,
I'll just keep looking around
finding things
that need work on.
The sluice box
is a little short.
But we'll see what the mats
look like in the bottom
when we shut down.
Gold in the bottom
of the mats
is a sure sign
it's being washed
off the end of the sluice.
Hey, Mike,
take me some just off the top.
How much you want?
Just a little bit?
There you go.
Got that.
Some of the material
coming out of the trommel
is kind of muddy.
You see that bottom water jet?
They aren't doing anything,
right? On there?
Oh, yeah,
right through the last...
Yeah,
down at the bottom,
it's not washing any rock.
So what do you think,
ready to shut the pump down?
I think we are.
We're exactly four hours
right now.
- Okay.
- Exactly.
I'm gonna go down
and shut it off.
Okay.
It doesn't matter
what their past was,
they're gold miners now.
So it matters
what their future is.
And that's why I'm here.
Because I truly wanna help
these guys get more gold.
If I can help them get 10
or 15 or 20% more gold,
that'll be a big win.
It's a big win for me personally
and a big win
for them financially.
Okay.
Michael, shut her down.
Shut her down.
Let's have a look
in the sluice, guys.
Let's check it out.
Well,
I mean there's gold in it.
Yeah, unfortunately,
there's not a whole lot to see
but, uh...
See how these
are packed in?
- Yeah.
- Feel that right there.
It's solid material
all the way across.
There's no room for that gold
to fall down through
and get to the carpet.
I mean,
this cut we've been doing
is definitely not as good
as the last one
which, you know,
so we're not anticipating
any huge amounts of gold.
Looks like this
material doesn't have much
- for pickers.
- No, it doesn't, so.
- No.
- Mainly fine gold.
We're off
the main channel.
Our last cut, we were running,
we were getting
up to an ounce and a half
per hundred yards
put through the plant.
And that's pretty significant
compared to the new cut
we're on,
where we're averaging,
you know, half ounce
- or less sometimes.
- Ooh, half ounce isn't good.
Right now, we're a little over
halfway to our goal.
We don't have much time left,
maybe four weeks.
So my wife is gonna be
very upset.
There's a lot of sacrifice
on her end.
You know,
we agreed on a figure
in order to survive
the winter.
I'm not at that figure yet.
And this cut was,
uh, that we're on right now,
was plan B,
if we ever ran out on plan A.
Well, if it's a half
ounce a hundred,
I'd hope there's no plan C.
- That's a lower grade...
- Yeah, right? No.
...than that, yeah.
Plan C is hit the road.
I don't know
if they're gonna have enough
gold in this new cut
the way they're talking.
You know, if it's only a half,
half ounce a hundred,
you know, that's one third
what they were getting
at their other cut
they were talking about.
It's like a paycheck.
You're making $60,000 a year
and then all of a sudden
you're making $20,000 a year.
So basically, you know,
it's a big, big kick
right in the ass.
My son Michael needs the gold
for his family.
But I'm worried
about him having enough
to do the things
he has to do.
So he doesn't have
to rush out and get a job
because if he gets a job,
then he may not be able
to come back next year
with his dad.
And that's the hard part.
I've only got a few days here
to help Mike, Mikey,
and Cathy.
It's gonna be a little tougher
to help these guys
catch more gold
because my buddy
Juan is not here with me.
But I'm sure they'll pitch in
and help as well.
So we'll figure it out,
we'll get it done.
Here.
How's it going, guys?
Good. How are you?
- Good, Freddy.
- Doing all right.
One thing is for sure,
you guys like loud stuff.
The space station
just called and asked
if you could turn
the volume down on this.
Have you done any cleanups
on this new cut
with the really fine gold
in it?
Yes.
Some of the gold in here though
you can barely see
that we looked at today.
- I mean, barely see it.
- Yeah, I don't know
that I've ever seen
that powder gold.
Yeah, there's a bunch of it
in here.
But we'll see if we can't find
a solution
to catch that fine gold
that gets by.
Sounds good.
What's your main reason
for being out here?
My main reason at first
it was just to come up
and be a part
of my dad's dream.
But gradually over the years,
it's turned into making money,
- finding gold.
- Yeah, yup.
What's your dad usually do
when you guys are cleaning up?
When we... when we break away
to do the clean up,
my dad will stay up top
and keep excavating pay.
To try to get more gold,
Senior works every spare hour
in the excavator.
As far
as gold mining is concerned,
if you don't work hard,
you're going nowhere.
You will not be successful.
This is not your,
uh, typical 9:00 to 5:00 job.
This is, uh, 7:00
in the morning
to 8:00, 9:00 at night,
every night.
My dad wants
to make this whole operation
just a huge success
and he's willing
to just work himself
to complete just exhaustion
to get it done.
It was scary
when he got sick.
In 2010, my dad called me
and he was, like, "Hey, look.
I'm not good,
you need to come up here."
I went to a doctor's
appointment with my dad
and that doctor said
he was...
90% dead, right,
at that appointment.
So, having him be able
to come back from that, right,
and now be doing
what he's doing is great.
I realized it was important
to spend time with him.
He's my partner.
We're both in it together.
We both have,
uh, a lot to gain
and certainly
we both have a lot to lose.
He's an older man
and, you know,
I worry about his health
and I worry about him working
too long,
too many hours.
We couldn't stop him
if we wanted to
because we've got that goal
that we need to reach.
- You got the gold?
- I do.
To continue mining
as a family,
the Capuanos need an ounce
and a half of gold a day.
Here you go.
These are the fines.
We kept them
in separate containers
so you could see
the size of the gold
- that we're getting.
- Cool.
Well, this fine stuff
is the stuff
that I really wanna help
you guys catch
because I think
you're losing some of it.
There's some powder in there
for sure.
- Pretty small.
- Yep.
So, .37,
so a third of an ounce.
There's your fines.
Well, how about
your bigger stuff now, huh?
So, over half ounce.
Just a little
over half an ounce.
Yeah.
That's, uh, not
what we're here for.
I mean, that doesn't even pay
the bills,
you know, for the run
and the fuel.
Oh, what do you think
we can do to be better at this
and catch more
of this fine gold?
There's a few things.
So, right now,
here's your trommel, right?
Materials going through,
right now,
you're leaking material out
right here, right?
- We are.
- Under the drum.
Right.
I think, we can get
that sealed up,
that'll get a little extra
gold right there.
Your spray bar going through.
We spin that spray bar
a little bit.
It's gonna wash
those rocks better.
Right.
Your Hungarian riffles
are packing up.
They're too tight
at the top end.
So, we take and modify those
or build a new set,
one of the two.
And then, I'd like to add
a four-foot
sluice extension on the end.
Its primary mission in life
is to help you catch
more of that fine gold,
that small gold
that you have here.
Oh,
that would be great.
If I can get it done right,
I wanna make it
where it hinges,
so it can fold back
onto itself.
- Yeah.
- Sounds good.
So, I can see
increasing you probably 10%,
- Fifteen percent.
- That's meaningful.
- Well, it all adds up.
- Certainly.
I figured out
numbers last night
and we're looking at probably
$2,000 to $3,000 in material.
Okay. Fair enough.
I'll give you
a full week's labor in here.
At the end of the season,
I want 1 oz. of gold
from you guys.
It's worth every penny,
every spec of gold
we'll give you.
Well, I guess,
uh, it's a deal.
- It's a deal.
- All right.
Thanks, Freddy.
- Appreciate it.
- Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you, guys.
And, uh, Juan's not here,
so screw him.
Yeah.
If Freddy was able to help us
reach our goal,
our target goal of another
40 oz. this season,
that would be amazing.
I'm going up to see
a friend of mine, Guy Favron.
See if I can, uh, buy some
steel off of him.
There wasn't any in town,
what I needed.
Hey, Freddy Dodge.
- How's it going?
- Good.
- How are you?
- Doing all right.
- It's good to see you.
- Awesome.
You know me, I always stop
by when I need something.
- That time of the year, eh?
- Yeah.
Well, I'm helping some guys
down the road here
and they got
a little trommel.
And I wanna build them some
- new riffles.
- Oh, yeah.
So, I need some angle iron,
some flat bar.
Yeah. We should be able
to fix you up
- with something here.
- Okay.
If we don't have it,
you don't need it.
That's right.
Watch your head there,
Freddy... Oh, you're good.
Smart-ass.
For the Yukon, your place
is like the Shangri-La
when you need steel.
What thickness
do you normally run?
That's an inch
and a half, is it?
- Oh, you want one inch.
- One inch for these guys.
Yeah. Inch and a quarter
is a bit mean.
Got you.
This would work
right here.
A piece of that
and a piece of inch
- and a quarter flat bar.
- Right on.
Got any that's not rusty?
Right.
What's our goal here?
Uh, I think Freddy said
eight degrees.
That should be fairly simple.
No Juan to help,
the Mikes go solo
on the spray bar fix.
Well, okay,
that was, like, 30.
The spray bar on
the plant is set vertically
but the rotation
of the trommel
forces rocks upwards
causing gold bearing pay
to pass through
without being
properly washed.
Freddy's plan, adjust
the precise angle of the bar
to allow the water jets to
effectively wash the material
before passing
into the sluices.
Oh, there we go. There we go.
- How's it going, guys?
- Okay.
We're just about there, Fred.
Okay. That'll help.
Yeah.
That's pretty close
to our eight degrees
right there.
Well, I just, uh, picked up
all the plumbing parts
to get a manifold on here.
So, you can have something
to wash stuff down,
- fill up buckets.
- That's awesome.
Oh, that'd be great.
That will certainly
be helpful.
Freddy's idea,
give them access to water
at the plant
by welding a valve
to the existing water pipe.
Yep.
Let me get
one more tack on it, Mike.
Okay. Cathy will be,
uh, extremely happy
about this.
She won't, uh, have to haul
all that, uh, water up here
to do her, uh, cleanouts with.
She generally lost
half of it anyway,
on the way up this hill.
- It's welded.
- Looks good.
Just leave the other half
un-welded.
That's for showers.
Well,
let's plumb it up, huh?
Yeah.
You guys seem to work
pretty good together.
Are you that way all the time
or just when I'm here?
For the most part,
we do pretty good together, honestly.
Mike likes to do all
the heavy work,
- saves my back.
- Yeah.
This is something
money can't buy.
This is, uh, a bond
between, uh, a father and son.
Can't put a price tag on it.
How much time a week
will that save you
- from hauling water?
- Oh, my goodness.
- Honestly.
- Hours, probably.
Oh, God, hours,
it's got to be hours.
I'd bet you it's close
to ten hours a week.
- Ten hours?
- Yeah.
- No.
- Well, Cathy,
um, she's gotta go down
and get all.
And then she gotta come back
up here.
- Fire the pump up.
- Load them in the truck.
No, this is great, Freddy.
Thank you so much for it.
- Yeah, it's sweet.
- You're welcome.
More hours running,
there's more gold
in your pocket.
Well, let's get on to bigger
and better things.
- Thank you, sir.
- All right.
Let's do that.
I think the most important
thing we're gonna do
is, uh, build this fine
gold sluice for these guys.
It makes it a lot more
difficult without Juan here
because now, everything
that's screwed up
is all on me.
If I measure wrong,
if I cut wrong,
if we fit wrong,
my fault.
But at the same time,
I got to get it done,
so make hay when it rains
not when the sun shines sometimes.
We got a lot
to get done.
We gotta finish, you know,
putting that sluice box in.
I wanna get that backend
sealing up
where it's just puking
material out.
There's still a lot of things
to do here
but just not a lot of time
to get it done.
Operating as a one-man band,
it's all on Freddy to
get the family enough money
to see them
through the winter.
They're the type people
that a person really likes
to work with.
They laugh, they have smiles
on their faces,
and they seem to truly love
working together.
And that makes me
wanna help them more.
First job today,
attach Freddy's new four-foot
sluice extension
designed to catch
the fine gold
they've been losing.
Got about eight feet.
To get it into position,
they need to use
Freddy's crane.
But with the wash plant
perched
on the edge
of a steep incline,
fixing it
onto the existing sluice
is a risky operation.
Swing it out.
I'm gonna come through
over here, Mike...
- Okay.
- and then come down with it,
all right?
Easy, though. Don't slip.
- Oh, boy.
- Oh. I got it.
Coming up.
Hang on one second.
- Ah.
- Swinging.
Oh. That was funny.
Coming at you. Mike.
Okay, up right here.
Well, it's actually hooked
on the pan.
Can you just move up
a little bit?
- Crunch up just a little?
- Yeah.
- Okay. Pretty close?
- Really close.
- Winching down.
- Okay.
- There we go, huh?
- Yeah.
- That should do it.
- That ought to work.
So, would Juan
normally be doing
what I'm doing right now?
Yeah. Yeah.
You owe me, Juan.
Yeah, owe me, Juan.
This end is going to be
able to fold up
like this for transport.
It's gonna work out great.
No, we're constantly moving.
The whole idea
is to get the plant
as close to your pay
as possible,
you know,
to reduce the distance
that you have to
bring your pay dirt up.
It saves money with,
uh, you know, fuel and time.
For sure we need to hit
another pay channel
because, uh, the one that,
uh, we had been working on now
is quite pathetic
at this point,
so it doesn't pay the bills.
If there is not enough gold
in this cut,
maybe it's time for these guys
to go to a different spot
that has better gold.
A person might look at
the geology
of their cuts too.
But the modifications,
no matter
where they take the plant,
they're gonna be there.
They'll be catching more gold.
Let's unhook it
and see if it folds over.
Okay.
Now, that's trick.
I like this.
Should fold down now.
You wanna fold this
all the way?
- Yep.
- Okay.
As far as it'll fold.
That's great.
Perfect.
There's a lot on the line
for making sure
that Michael Jr. succeeds
at this game here
of gold mining.
And I not only owe it to him
but I owe it to his family
as well,
my daughter-in-law
and his children,
my grandchildren.
It's a pleasure
working with you, sir.
And with you. Thank you.
Don't get too much gold fever though.
- If there's not enough gold...
- Yeah.
- lose the fever.
- You're right.
I know it's hard
on my wife when I'm gone.
It's probably pretty tough.
I know she tells me
all about it
every time I call her.
Mike Jr.'s been
away from home
for five months.
Without service
up at the mine,
he can only call
his family once a week.
Hi, Charlie.
What are you doing?
I'm practicing my flips.
Oh. Can Mommy show me?
That was a good one.
Can you buy a horse?
I don't think I could buy
a horse yet, baby.
Let me see Ellie.
Is she over there walking
around? Look at her.
She wasn't even crawling
when I left. Hi, baby.
Hi, Ellie.
Say hi.
Hey, Daddy.
What's up with your hair?
Nothing.
What's going on?
Not much. How are you doing?
I'm doing good.
I miss you.
I miss you too,
really.
Yeah.
Charlie would like to know
if you're still my husband.
I am, still.
He said yes.
I am still your daddy.
So, I'm totally ready for you
to come home.
When are you coming?
Is the ground frozen
there yet?
It has not froze yet,
so we're looking
at maybe early October.
Okay.
Is that gonna be all right?
I don't have a choice
in the matter.
I don't wanna let my dad down.
What am I supposed to do?
This is his dream
to be up here with his son,
gold mining
and it's my dream too
because I love it
and I have gold fever,
but on the same note,
like, my wife doesn't
enjoy me being gone
for five months,
especially if I don't come
home with money.
The Capuanos' current cut
is giving up so little gold,
Freddy believes
they're off the pay.
Hello. Good.
How are you, guys?
Doing all right.
So he's called in Sydney,
a Yukon government geologist
to see if there's any hope
of getting back
on the main pay channel.
I spent a lot of time
in the Klondike, so.
Maybe you can lead us
in the right direction.
We were on very good pay
- for a while...
- Yeah.
ounce and a half, or better...
- Okay.
- per hundred yards,
and then it just
kind of ran out on us.
Well, this is interesting.
I've seen this deposit,
and the heavy pay channel,
it meanders.
The main gold
deposits follow
the same route
as the ancient rivers
that originally carried
the gold down the valley.
But finding that route
is the challenge.
- Whoo.
- Whoo.
Don't fall on that axe.
So this is where you've been
hauling the pay out of?
- Yes.
- Yes.
So you're sluicing
about a foot of this bedrock?
Yeah. We're trying to capture
any round rock
out of the bedrock
that we see.
Okay.
I would really doubt
that gold's gonna go
too much further
into this bedrock.
If it's flat-lying like that
and it's hard,
gold's not gonna penetrate it.
When you see they're sticking
up like this
and getting a natural riffle,
that's when the gold
is gonna be able to settle
- in those riffles, right?
- Okay. That's interesting.
Lacking the natural
riffles to trap gold,
this smooth bedrock
indicates that they are off
the main pay channel.
To help them relocate it,
Sydney needs to see
their old cut.
As you moved over here,
what did you see?
Bigger boulders along here
under the ramp.
It makes sense.
Bigger boulders,
more gold,
usually bigger gold.
You gotta find those boulders,
clean up that face,
and follow them.
And so here's your bedrock,
and I would come in here
and Freddy would tell you
the same thing.
I wanna pan every foot up.
I wanna know exactly
where I'm getting a good
pan because it's not cheap
to strip material.
In real terms,
is it worth moving that...
pile off with the equipment
you have
to get down to this?
You're in a good neighborhood.
You've got favorable geology,
your... You know,
your bedrock is good,
you've got big boulders.
It's just your challenge is
A, stripping efficiently,
keeping costs down,
being cued in
to your observations here
and panning,
and with Freddy's help
and capturing
that really fine gold
is going to be
kind of your secret to...
- Yeah, for sure.
- success here.
So basically, it sounds
like we're on the right track,
we just need to pan,
pan, pan, right?
Yeah, exactly. Right?
It's a lot cheaper
than drill, drill, drill.
Yeah.
It's not rocket science.
Yeah.
Anyway, you guys have
the perfect attitude
to be in the Klondike
for the next 60 years.
Or more.
I got 20 to go, so.
How's it going, Juano?
Doing all right.
Well, it must be good news
you're calling me, huh?
- You must've had a baby.
- Yeah.
Cool. Cool.
- Can I see the little guy?
- Yeah.
Freddy?
- You named him Freddy?
- Freddy.
Well, that's sure an honor, Juano.
A little taller
than me?
Hi, little guy.
He's yawning.
Well, relax
for a few days, Juano.
I will, buddy.
You take care
of that little Freddy...
- Will do, buddy.
- and the rest of that family.
- Will do, buddy.
- And it's a... it's a...
it's a huge honor
that you named that little one
after me, it really is.
Right on, buddy.
I'll talk to you soon.
Thank you.
- Bye, Ibarras.
- Bye.
Bye.
As Freddy Sr.
heads to the mine,
Mike Sr. and his son
take the doodlebug
into their old cut
to chase down
the main pay channel.
Shovel it down
and just get in there.
It actually looks pretty good
right in there.
Yeah, it does, doesn't it?
All right.
That should be all right.
- Now I'll just...
- Okay.
- I'll scoop some in.
- All right.
It should give us
a pretty good indicator
if we're in pay.
I see some color
right there.
Oh, yeah?
Check them out.
Look at that, one, two, three,
four, five...
There's probably 15, 20 colors
in there, it seems.
Oh, that's great. Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. You see them?
There's a couple
over here, too.
Actually quite a few.
Look at this.
- That's good.
- Probably close...
- That's a really good sign.
- to 20 colors in there.
Probably some of the best test
pans we've gotten.
This tells us
it's probably worth stripping
- and going after.
- Yup.
Certainly where the money is
gonna be.
A positive sign
they have relocated
the main channel,
but excavation
will take too long
for the second test run.
Once Freddy leaves,
this is where
we're gonna continue on.
Yeah.
We know Freddy's the master
of that fine gold recovery.
Pull it all together
with the new fixes
and then running where
we assume the pay channel is,
there's better gold,
we have a good chance
of salvaging our season.
Just like you said,
getting to our goal.
Hey, Mike? You got a minute?
Yeah, I sure do.
I could use
some help.
Okay.
Less than 24 hours
remaining,
Freddy still has to finish
one vital and precise fix.
- Got her?
- We're good.
Okay. So that's gonna be
our radius, right?
Perfect.
The Mikes' plant
is leaking gold-rich material
through a small gap
where the hopper and chute
overlaps the trommel mouth.
Freddy's plan,
weld a curved steel bracket
to the bottom of the chute
and bolt on
a wider piece of rubber
that will fill the gap.
The dimensions of the steel
plate are critical,
so it doesn't grind
against the trommel
and stop it rotating.
You go in
through the top,
I'll meet you
through the bottom.
Okay.
Well, Mike, it's gonna be
a real bugger to see,
- to weld it.
- Okay.
But I don't think
both of us are gonna fit
to tack it, but let's try it.
What you're saying is
we may have to spin it a bit.
Yeah.
Freddy needs Mike
to hold the bracket in place
while he welds
through a tiny gap
between the trommel
and chute.
Okay. Eyeballs.
Damn it.
I can't see it.
It's up underneath there.
Getting shocked now
because I'm wet.
But you're gonna have
to hold it in here
and I'm gonna have to go
from the outside and tack it.
- Okay.
- You know what I mean?
- Yup. Okay.
- I can't see underneath there.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I get it.
I can't see it at all.
It's too damn hard. Yup.
Yup.
So I'm just welding
by braille.
- Hey, Mike?
- Yeah.
I need
another set of hands.
- Okay.
- It's the world's smallest job
that takes three people
to get it tacked in.
I understand how that works,
you know.
Mikey's inside,
so I'll get you
to hold them like this.
All right.
And then he could
push that plate up against it,
that way we know
we got clearance, right?
- I got you.
- Okay. Eyeballs.
Well, now we go inside
with Mikey.
We got our bracket
welded in place.
Okay.
So now it's time
to put that rubber in now.
We're tighter
than a devout nun in here.
When you need them,
I got a handful of nuts here
- for you.
- Okay.
My nuts or your nuts?
Well, it's in there,
and that should stop
a bunch of the leaking.
It looks good.
Probably not all of it,
but most of it.
Yeah.
I like it, Freddy.
Yeah.
I appreciate it.
In the morning,
they'll run the plant
to see if it's enough
to ensure
the family can mine together
for years to come.
So today's gonna be
a big day,
it's the last day,
and we're gonna do
our second test
and see how well
these fixes worked.
Because I know for a fact
that they're losing gold
off the end.
To make the Mikes' sluice run
more effective
at catching gold,
Freddy added
a 4-foot extension
and made a new
set of Hungarian riffles.
That makes
things a little bit different.
So that piece of gold
that doesn't like
one situation
will get caught in another.
Right now,
we've got five there,
six, seven.
So we got seven changes
- instead of two in here now.
- Well, we...
All of our Hungarians
were symmetrical.
Yeah. You're still
gonna catch big gold in it.
Yeah.
But you have a better
chance actually
catching more of
the fine gold in it, too.
- Yeah.
- Well, let's fire it up.
- All right. Let's do it.
- Looks good. Let's go.
Dad, we're going
hot with the big pump.
- Standby.
- 10-4,
I'm gonna fire up
the generator.
Here comes the water, Mike.
Okay.
I see the water.
Okay. We're good to go.
10-4, I'm headed up.
First bucket, Mike.
First bucket
of pay dirt going in.
Hope it's full of gold.
Hey, Mike?
Mike? Have a look!
Only a little bit of water
coming out
every once in a while.
Oh, that's great, Freddy.
- Not mud.
- Great. What an improvement.
An hour
into the final test run,
the first major fix
is a success.
It's in there
and it's doing its job.
It's putting more gold
in that sluice box.
You can see in here,
when you guys swung
that spray bar around.
- Oh, yeah.
- Look at that. Yeah.
It's cleaning it way
better than it was.
Oh, yeah, I see it.
That bottom rocks
are getting water off now
because that water
in the bottom was, like,
that much farther over.
I'm looking
at the sluice box
from where
I'm perched up here,
and it looks fantastic,
it's running so smooth.
Hey, Dad,
we're going in.
Wow.
I can see the change
just from that first riffle,
the way the water
comes off of it.
Yeah.
They're working.
I like it.
Then that new sluice,
you can see
it's a bit flatter?
Yeah.
We need to get
as much gold as we can,
you know,
because that determines
the future for both of us, really.
You know, my dad can't afford
to not recover enough gold
and if I can't bring home
enough gold, you know,
that could dictate
whether or not
there is a next season.
The Mikes load pay
from the same lean cut
as they did in the first run.
This will give
a like-for-like test
on their gold recovery.
We'll know pretty quick
how much I've helped them out
with these fixes,
I hope it's a lot.
If I can get them increased
by 15 or 20%,
maybe that's just
the boost they need
to stay mining successfully.
That's four hours
right there.
Okay. Perfect.
Hey, Dad, you got a copy?
We're gonna go ahead
and shut down,
I'll let you know
when I'm in position.
Okay.
I'll see you in a minute.
Okay.
Last bucket of pay
going in the trommel.
Okay. Shut her down, Mike.
Shut her down.
You see any gold?
I see bigger pieces up top.
- Oh, yeah. See in here?
- Yeah.
See how they're not
packed solid?
Yup. Look it here.
Yeah.
There's some gold in it,
that's for sure.
That's a good sign.
Well, let's pull them out
and see what we see.
Okay.
All right. Sounds good.
A pan of the material caught
in Freddy's
new sluice extension
will show any gold
that would have disappeared
with the tailings.
Look at all that, guys.
You've been throwing
that away...
- Yeah.
- every single time.
Oh, my God.
Look at all this gold.
We have been missing that...
- You guys...
- this whole time.
Throwing it away
every time you run.
Oh, my God.
- But, you know what?
- But now you're catching them.
We have something
to look forward to now.
...you're gonna catch
more of it, right?
I'm really glad we
called you, Freddy.
- Yeah.
- We needed your help.
- Well, I'm glad to be here.
- Yeah. Thank you very much.
- Really. Sure.
- Glad to be here, guys.
Well, let's go clean it up.
Let's do it.
Final countdown.
The gold cleaned up,
it's the moment of truth.
- We got your gold.
- We do?
What do you want first,
the fines?
Well, let's put them all out,
we'll weigh them up.
But I'm curious
on the fines though
because that's what
that other sluice box,
and then modifying
those upper riffles, right?
It was to catch more
of that stuff right there.
So last time,
the fines, it was .37.
Yeah.
- Wow.
- Well, there's a half ounce.
- Nice.
- Oh, my God.
- Look at that, will you?
- That's good.
Oh, that's fantastic.
.65.
- Sweet.
- Oh, my Lord.
Yeah. So right here just
in the fines is more gold...
- What an improvement.
- than all the gold
put together last time.
So yeah, from .37 to .65.
This is good.
Well, how about
your bigger stuff now, huh?
One ounce. 1.01 ounces.
- Wow.
- That's terrific.
I'm happy with that,
because I was worried,
sick and nervous,
to be honest with you.
Yeah, I was nervous.
Oh, yeah.
- Thank you, Freddy.
- That's more than being happy.
Freddy's increased
gold recovery by 70%.
If they start running
the gold-rich pay
they've identified,
that could double
their gold haul.
We got three to four weeks
left in the season,
10, 12 ounces a week?
It should be no problem
hitting the goal.
I think we can do it.
Well, that's some
beautiful gold, guys.
- Yeah.
- It looks great.
Cathy and Michael Jr. and I,
we see a much
brighter future.
So hopefully,
it'll make a big difference,
whether or not he's up with us
here next year.
When we were doing
the gold clean up,
we found this little
angel nugget
and I'd like you to have it
because you are an angel.
Well, thank you very much, Cathy.
- Thank you, guys.
- Thank you.
- Really appreciate that.
- An angel among other things.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- Thank you so much.
Well, that means a lot.
- Thank you very much.
- You're welcome.
It's wonderful
having Freddy here.
I'm gonna miss him,
I really am.
But I'm so happy he helped us.
I really am.
I know it doesn't look
like I am, but I am.
He is the gold wizard.
There's no question about it.
You know, it's been
a lot of work this week
without Juano,
but we got it done.
These guys learned
a lot this week.
And the things that we built,
they'll have that forever.
You're welcome.
See you later, guys.
See you around.
Bye. Bye, Freddy.
I'm definitely coming back
next season,
there's no question about it.