Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue (2021): Season 2, Episode 9 - For Love of Nuggets - full transcript
You know what
I'm seeing here?
- What are you seeing?
- I'm seeing glacial till.
I am not
entirely convinced.
I am vastly more
experienced at this mine.
This is at it lays
when it got washed down.
Didn't get washed,
it got pushed.
- How?
- Because of multiple events.
No, absolutely not.
- You wouldn't have those layers on the bottom.
- Yeah, you would.
- It's the little stuff on the bottom.
- No.
- Same thing here.
- No.
Oh no!
- I've mined too many rivers.
- No, no! I disagree.
He's crazy.
Have to put spurs on
to drive down this road.
Yeah, you're
not joking, Freddy.
This road's pretty
rough, buddy.
Freddy and Juan
are in British Columbia,
deep in the Kootenay Rockies,
en route to
the Nip and Tuck claim,
owned by reclusive miner,
Stephen Lathem,
on the verge of washing out.
- Hey!
- Hello!
- Easy.
- Hey, killers.
Easy. No biting.
Be nice.
Hey, that's enough,
you guys.
Come on, stop it.
You're disrupting
our tranquility.
I'm Juan.
Man, is it ever
good to see you guys.
- Freddy.
- Oh, man!
This is him, I assume.
- James?
- Yeah, this is James, my partner.
- Juan.
- Hey, Juan.
Well, welcome to
the Nip and Tuck, guys.
Is this
what you call it?
Yeah, that's what
the name of this mine is.
'Cause of the biting dogs?
So, how long have you
been out here, Steve?
Inside the gate,
at the bottom there,
since about spring of 2008.
Everything up here
that you see...
So, the camp, the operation
just below camp,
and this operation,
2013 and on.
Steve's
Nip and Tuck mine
is a small placer claim
on 50 acres,
with one excavator and a small
trommel wash plant.
He has the mining rights,
but is unable to build
a permanent home here.
1996 was
the last time I lived in
what most people consider
normal accommodation.
I knew back then, living in
the city and working at,
you know, minimum wage jobs,
that if I wanted to get
to where I wanted--
The goal that
I wanted to reach,
I was gonna have
to make sacrifices.
And paying rent in the city
was not gonna help me
get here.
So, last two decades plus,
has been pretty rough living.
Steve has slept in
a converted shipping container
for the past decade,
with no power, no heating
and no running water.
I wouldn't mind hot
and cold running water.
I wouldn't mind
a shower on demand.
I wouldn't mind power,
that I could...
plug in whatever, you know.
All the stuff that most
people take for granted,
which, after living without
it for so long is...
foreign to me, really.
It's a hard life.
You wanna really
enjoy a shower?
Go without one
for a little while,
Steve's
goal before winter,
recover enough gold
to buy a plot of land
and build a home.
I found
a little piece of land.
But that's like,
tens of thousands of dollars.
And in order to buy
that piece of land,
I'm gonna need...
20, 30 ounces.
So, how much have
you produced this year?
Oh my goodness sakes,
what do you think, James?
A little bit over nine ounces,
I'd say, yeah.
It's not that good.
So, what you're saying is,
basically, in the next month
and a half,
- you gotta get another 20 ounces, is where you gotta be.
- Yeah.
Another 20, 30, if I want
to buy a piece of land.
This year hasn't
been that lucrative.
I've not been finding
that much gold.
The more in debt I go,
the farther off my
goal of a...
place to live is.
Not having
enough income to hire help,
the mine is
a one-man operation.
With friend, James Deraspe,
volunteering part-time.
People often ask me,
why am I here?
Why aren't I on my own
claims or something.
Well, there's many
reasons, but...
once we became friends, I...
truly wanted
to help him and...
you know, I know things
can be better for him.
You have any
of the gold from here?
'Cause I am looking at
2 and 1/2-inch holes in your
trommel over there.
Yeah, and I am glad
that they are that big.
'Cause there was rumored to
be a 36-ounce nugget found
up here, back in the day.
What is the chances
that that was the only one?
I think, slim.
The Nip and Tuck
sits just two miles
from the site of
British Columbia's
most famous gold rush,
at Wild Horse River.
In 1863,
American prospectors discovered
48 tons of gold there,
worth around $2 billion today.
If you dug a hole up here,
you will find gold
if you wash that gravel.
Over there, over there,
up there, down there.
It's all over the place.
You're getting me
all worked up here.
This is some stuff
that's just recently done
from a clean out and this is
what came out of that.
Oh, you got
some fines in there.
- Yeah, you do.
- Not much, though, right?
I love him
but I gotta say.
he needs to be convinced about
how much fine gold there is.
He doesn't think there's much.
There might be
more than you're losing.
I'd rather have a five-gallon
bucket full of that small stuff,
because a bucket of nuggets
is half full of air.
I kind of
look at it like this.
I'm not too concerned
about dropping the penny
when I got
a handful of toonies.
He's all
about the nuggets.
And is this what you have
collected this year, so far?
No,
this is last year.
He's had to
give up much of it.
For him to live,
we've had to sell.
So, you just been barely
getting by, then,
is what you're saying.
The reason that I have
managed to get this far,
as a placer operation,
is by reducing and reusing.
- So...
- Yeah. Well...
you know, all we can
do is try to help.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, absolutely.
And part of that, we gotta
watch it run. Let's see what
we've got going on and...
Yeah, we'll get her
fired up and get your
take on it.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- Let's run it.
For the first test,
Steve will run
the plant for four hours.
First bucket, Juan.
Full of gold.
10, 20, 30-ounce nuggets
of gold.
Most mining
operations use an excavator,
a rock truck and a loader
to get the pay
out of the ground
and to the plant.
But, not Steve.
Yeah, he's doing
everything with
the one machine
Tailing's.
Doing tailings.
Digging pay.
Basically, he's hauling pay.
He's doing it all
with one machine.
Steve
digs his paydirt
from just six feet
down in a small cut
and feeds it directly into
his makeshift wash plant.
A 44-inch diameter trommel,
made from a recycled
propane tank,
with a narrow ten-foot
sluice box to catch the gold.
You got
your phone with you?
Yeah.
Let's time
how long it takes him
to finish one bucket.
You're gonna have
to speed it up.
There we go, stop.
So, five minutes
for half a yard.
- Ten minutes for a yard.
- Yeah.
- So, he'll do-- He'll do six yards...
- So, times six.
- Six yards an hour is what he's doing, yeah.
- ...in an hour.
I'm pretty cautious when
it comes to this stuff.
Experience has told me to...
slow and easy wins
the race, right?
Not always.
When it comes to mining,
there is no slow and easy.
You gotta run.
You got a short season.
In that short season,
you run as much as you can.
Let's not talk about it. Beat it, beat it.
Just run her, man.
Just run her.
I like him
but he's gonna
drive me nuts, Freddy.
Yeah.
Swear there's gold
in that bucket
This guy's
definitely got gold fever.
Swear there's gold in this...
bucket.
Look at that slurry
coming out, Freddy.
- Yeah.
- Look how much we're losing.
Look how
dirty those rocks are.
Yeah.
I bet you, we're losing...
15-20 per cent of the fines
out of the end of that.
Yeah, I would agree.
The rocks are dirty.
Look at that.
You know, the reason
he's not seeing a whole
lot of fines,
probably 'cause
he's not even catching them.
- Stuck to these rocks.
- Not even giving them a chance.
Should we go wash it?
Yeah. Let's pan it.
Look at that, Fed.
Every bit of that should have
gone right through that trommel.
- Yeah. Yep.
- That should have been sluiced.
I bet you, those guys found
gold in that pan they took.
I would not doubt it.
There's gold in it.
There's one, two,
three, four pieces there.
That's not good, Freddy.
That wasn't even a full pan.
No, it wasn't.
He's throwing a lot of gold
out the end of that trommel.
This is off the end
of the sluice run, Freddy.
Yeah.
You see something?
Right there, one piece.
Two.
Yeah, little
itty-bitty ones.
A penny's worth of gold
but it's still getting lost.
Steve's operation
is built to catch
monster nuggets.
But he's losing fine gold
from both the trommel,
and the sluice.
There he is, fiddling around.
Now he seems to stop
and nitpick on stuff, huh?
He just needs to run.
Just run, baby. Run.
When there isn't
rocks going through it,
there's not gold
going through it.
Yeah.
The easiest way
for Steve to get more gold,
he's gotta wash more dirt.
Spend more time putting
rocks through those box.
Well, you know,
I took one test pan
off the end of that trommel,
and in that one pan,
it wasn't even full,
we got four colors.
Four sizeable colors.
How many hundreds...
thousands of pans are
there in a shift?
There you go.
So, you do the math.
He's got multiple problems.
I mean, there's
a lot of stuff going on.
I don't know
if we've got enough time.
Steve!
Last bucket.
After four hours,
it's time to pull the mats.
I was hoping to see couple
30-ounces in there.
Oh my God! You and me both.
- Man, I was hoping.
- You and me, both.
That's a little cutie.
It's not the 30-ouncer
that I wanted to see, but...
Well, shall we
get her cleaned out?
Yeah. Let's clean it up.
As James
and Juan clean the mats,
Steve gives Freddy
a tour of his home.
Looks
pretty rustic...
Modified shipping container.
It's not very fancy.
This is my home. Right here.
It's a bit tight.
It's cozy in here,
there's no question,
but I can't continue
living like this.
I need hot and cold
running water.
I need a place like
most people live.
Well, it's not the Hilton,
that's for sure.
No, it isn't.
Well,
one thing for sure,
he's not living
high on the hog.
He's living really,
really rustic.
I mean, I wouldn't want to
spend the winter in that
storage container.
And winters aren't short here.
He's put every bit of his gold
back into his mine
to hopefully, catch more
gold to get ahead.
And hopefully...
by the end of this week,
Juan and myself can
help him catch more gold.
So he doesn't have to live in
a shipping container
all winter.
Moment of truth, huh?
Well, let's see
what it did, guys.
Dump it in the pan,
let's see what you got.
All right,
here goes.
Here we go.
0.13 of an ounce.
Not horrible.
No, it's all right, you know?
I mean, it was only
a short run.
$270 worth of gold
there for four hours.
Steve ran
just 24 yards.
That means he's getting
about half an ounce of gold
for every 100 yards
of paydirt.
Less than 50 percent of what
most mines produce.
He's barely making
enough to survive,
let alone buy
the land he needs
to build a home.
What we want to see
is more of that fine gold.
- We know you have it.
- Yeah.
We know it's here.
Do you think it is here?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's in the pan here.
Proof's right there.
There's some.
But I'm gonna
tell you right now,
the way you're
tuned up right now,
the fact that we caught this,
I bet there's
quite a bit more.
Just watching it,
I'll guarantee you, we can
help you catch more gold.
- Yeah.
- How much?
I don't know.
Whether, we'd only get
you ten percent more gold,
or 15 or 20.
- We're gonna sit down and come up with some ideas.
- Mmm-hmm.
And we'll run it
by you and see if...
if you're game with it.
- All right, we'll talk to you in a bit.
- Don't spill your gold.
No!
Worked too hard for it.
Trip.
Boy, he's got a bunch
of issues, Juano.
He's puking material
out the end.
And we panned it and there's
gold in every bit of it.
- Right.
- Yeah.
Gold coming out of
the end of the sluice, too.
- Yeah.
- Got two colors there.
So... we're losing
gold on both ends.
And the crazy thing is,
he heard a story about
someone getting a 35-ounce...
a 35-ounce nugget, who knows
when or where in this--
Or if it really happened.
Over the years,
if he would have not worried
about that 35-ounce nugget,
I guarantee,
he would have caught more
than 35 ounces of extra gold.
- Oh, easy. Easy.
- Yeah.
Sounds like he's that type
of guy that he's stuck
on his ideas and...
you know...
I'm hoping that he's
open to a change.
If he's not open
to much change,
there isn't much
we can do for him.
Yeah.
What do you think, Juano?
You know, we got that trommel
with those two-inch holes.
And you know, his dream
is to find that nugget.
I know.
Freddy and Juan
have four more days
to rescue Steve
Lathem's operation
to bring him enough gold
to build his dream home,
before winter.
The quickest and the easiest
and the most
cost-effective thing to do
would be to wrap that drum
- and screen it down a little bit.
- Yeah.
But that's gonna kill his
dream, like you said.
- Yeah.
- So...
I think the next best option
is we build a secondary...
- I agree.
- ...screening area here.
Build another sluice.
And then, we'll come into this
trommel drum and we'll
do slits.
One thing that's
gonna take, though,
we're gonna have to put
a whole new pump in, right?
- Yeah.
- 'Cause he doesn't have enough water now
to run this sluice box.
- Yeah, true. True.
- Right?
We're still gonna have
to do some dams inside.
Yeah. Well, I think
we put a dam...
right here.
Yeah and maybe
in the beginning.
Right here it needs a dam
in it too, a ring in it.
- Yeah, agreed.
- Right there.
So, we end up
putting three rings in,
adding a pump,
and then, building
a whole new sluice box.
Steve's wash plant
is set up to catch nuggets
with 2 1/2-inch
holes in the barrel.
But it's losing fine gold out
the end and the sluice box.
Freddy and Juan's solution,
add an extra sluice run
specifically for fine
gold recovery.
Cut a series of half-inch
slits in the trommel
to allow the fine gold to drop
into the new sluice.
Add three steel dams inside
to slow the material,
allowing more time to wash
the gold off the rocks.
I know a concern
for him, is...
what this is gonna cost.
Because you know, he is
a hand-to-mouth type of miner.
Living in a shipping
container, Juan.
But reality is, there's quite
a bit of work that goes
into this.
And I don't know if we got
enough time to do it.
Well, let's go,
talk to him about it.
All right. Let's do it.
And hopefully, he can
get a warm bed this winter.
Yeah.
Freddy and Juan
must convince Steve
to focus on fine gold.
But their fixes,
won't come cheap.
Well, we watched
your run there.
There's couple issues.
We totally get why you wanna
screen so big, you know.
The chance of being able
to catch that bigger nugget.
But we're really worried that
you're losing a lot of that
finer gold...
- Yes.
- ...because you are screening so big.
We actually got a couple
different ideas for that.
But one of them is that
we actually want to build
a new sluice for fine gold.
Rigged up just
for your finer gold.
- Strictly for fine gold. Yeah.
- Really?
We're actually gonna cut
slits in your trommel.
Yeah.
In front of that,
for the finer gold.
It's still there, so you can
hopefully achieve your dream
- of that monster nugget.
- Yes.
And the other one's gonna be
going after that fine gold.
Right?
In order to be able
to make that work,
we're gonna have
to add another pump.
You don't even have
enough water right now
for the sluice you have.
Right. Yeah.
So do you think
cutting these slits
in the trommel
is gonna help reduce
the water loss out of the end?
- No.
- Something else, we're gonna have to do.
- Juan's baffles inside...
- Yes.
...are gonna do that.
So, what we
wanna do is,
to slow down some
of that material,
- they hit a dam, so now it has to get...
- Slows it down.
It either goes over the dam,
or has to go down
through the screen.
Either way,
it's gonna increase your gold.
Now, for the kicker, though...
it sounds pretty expensive.
Well, that's where
we were going.
The material we're gonna need
to buy is gonna be about
3,500 bucks.
- 3,500?
- 3,500.
There's a few odds and ends
of scrap metal around here.
Maybe you guys have a look
around, see if you can...
Hopefully, there's
something that can be used
to keep cost down.
Yeah, we'll try.
You know what, though?
Juan and myself talked and...
we aren't gonna charge
you any labor.
We're gonna donate our time.
Okay?
We don't wanna see you
living in a shipping container.
So, all you have to
pay for is material.
Take me
a second here.
Deal, then?
- Absolutely. Absolutely.
- Let's do it.
Fine man.
Fine man. Fine man.
Thank you.
Wow! Well...
This could be
life-changing for Steve.
It really could, you know?
Hopefully, they're going
to be able to recover
a lot more gold, which means
more money, which means,
him being, getting
closer to his goal of...
having a place
to call his own.
I was just blown away,
like, "Oh my goodness!"
If I've been throwing away
as much gold as
they believe I've been
throwing away,
and after the next few days,
I'm not throwing that
gold away,
then that should allow me
to realize my dream
of having a little
piece of property.
Which is just... again,
beyond my wildest dreams.
Steve's poured everything he
has into this operation.
And really, you know this guy
is kind of stuck in his ways.
He's based
his complete mining plan
on the hope and dream
that he's gonna catch
a 35-ounce nugget.
It's kind of hard for Freddy
and I to come in here,
and try to change that.
So, what we're gonna do,
to concentrate on the fine
gold for him,
is we're gonna be able to
catch more of it in this
system we're building.
While Juan gets to
work on cutting the steel dams,
Freddy and Steve
explore this gold-rich land.
This country
looks a lot like...
where I'm from, in Colorado.
All the mountains and stuff.
What got you started
into gold mining?
I had gem fever before
I had the gold fever.
The gem fever
went in remission.
The gold fever took over.
I am chronically stricken now.
Treasure fever, that's it.
Chasing the myths
of the monster nuggets,
they head for the site of
the old mining town
of Fisherville.
- You lead the way. I'll follow you.
- Okay.
Yeah, just down this way.
In 1863,
word got out that there was
gold on the Wild Horse River.
And thousands of fortune
seeking prospectors
rushed to settle here.
They weren't disappointed.
The land was rich with
48 tons of nuggety gold.
I would not be surprised
to see a piece of gold,
just sitting right there.
I would not be surprised
to see that at all.
When it was
found Fisherville was
sitting on
the richest deposits,
the buildings were simply
picked up and moved higher,
allowing miner, Mike Reynolds
to mine the 36-ounce nugget
that Steve dreams
of repeating.
But within two years,
despite mining close
to 50 tons of gold,
the prospectors moved on,
leaving Fisherville,
a ghost town.
These were
the guys that started it.
These were the guys that
laid the ground work
for those that come after.
And... I often say,
you know, we are...
tomorrow's old timers.
And the best
way to find gold,
is to follow what
the old timers did.
The source
of the gold
that fed the rush
on the Wild Horse
has never been found.
It's this big score that Steve
has set his sights on.
This would
be the lower end
of what would have
been Fisherville.
Now it's possible
that the source
of the gold that fed the rush
on the Wild Horse
came out of Boulder Creek.
Basically, that gully
right there,
is where Boulder
Creek flows out
and the Nip and Tuck mine is
at the base of that mountain.
Okay.
You can have a spot here,
that'd be good.
Maybe not up
in that higher stuff
but down on the bottom,
looking at it.
So, being how that is in
such close proximity to here,
I... Well, I know I'm on it.
It's just getting.
Right?
If gold
was everywhere,
it wouldn't be
worth nothing, right?
Isn't
that the truth?
He's a character.
That's what he is.
He's got these big
dreams and big ideas.
But is there enough gold here?
Well, that's up to him.
I mean, it's his dream,
I think to find that big
piece of gold.
But whether there's any
of it here, I don't know.
These are the rings
that are gonna go inside
the trommel.
And what we'll do is,
we'll get 'em all welded in,
put corner gussets.
And what they're gonna do is,
it's gonna slow
the material down.
So that material that's
rushing down the trommel
actually has a chance
to get sluiced.
There it is.
There they are.
Let's have
a look in your cut.
Yeah.
After exploring
the gold-rich history
of the area,
Freddy investigates
Steve's pay,
to see if the potential
for a monster nugget payday
is really here.
You know
what I'm seeing here?
- What are you seeing?
- I'm seeing glacial till.
I... You know,
respectfully, I disagree.
When I start
cutting into this,
it's consistent.
When I dig a hole down there,
it's the same strata.
I dig a hole up here...
It would be.
Now, if you get
up further upstream...
- Yeah.
- ...that is absolutely glacial till.
It's a different consistency.
This is completely different.
Well, like, but this
stuff here, whether...
it was a slide at the end,
or this is just glacial till.
These are those properties
that was pushing in
front of that glacier.
Glacial till
is bad news.
As a solid glacier wall
bulldozes material
down a valley,
it scatters ground
to the front and sides
making gold deposits
hard to locate.
But if a river runs through
these scattered deposits,
its flow concentrates
the gold on the river bed,
making it easier to find.
A process known as reworking.
See, this
has never been reworked.
This is in place, so...
This is as it lays
when it got washed down.
It didn't get washed,
it got pushed.
I am not entirely convinced.
With all due respect,
I am vastly more experienced
at this mine site.
I mean, I can't see how this
this would have got pushed in
because you wouldn't have
those layers in the bottom.
Yeah, you would.
- How?
- Because multiple events.
Right? Why aren't your
boulders on bedrock?
It's not the big ones
that are at the bottom.
It's the little stuff
on the bottom.
- No. No.
- Same thing here.
- I've mined too many rivers.
- Oh, no! No!
I'm just not
convinced that this...
number one, was pushed in
and number two,
was reworked, you're saying--
- It's never been reworked.
- It's never been reworked.
Right? And it was
pushed in here.
But when you
start coupling that with
the speed it would take to
wash all the stuff in here...
That wasn't washed in, though.
I do
respectfully disagree.
Why was there no boulders
on the bottom of it?
Why is it just clay
on the bottom?
What that is,
is glacial silt.
That was one event.
And then you have that
boulder layer there,
that was a second event.
So, looking at it,
there's four different events
have happened.
Not counting the event that
originally put the gold
into the bedrock.
I tell you what,
I'll bet you 1,000 bucks--
I don't
have 1,000 bucks.
You know that.
Okay, a case of beer,
- it wasn't put in here with a massive water flow.
- But from which direction?
With all due respect,
Mr. Dodge, I am not convinced.
There's no bet.
I ain't got $1,000
to start whistling away.
I'm gonna be honest,
and get their
honest opinions, so...
A little bit of disagreement,
it never hurt.
It helps bring the...
the cream to the surface
or the gold to the bottom,
if you will.
Personally, I don't think
they've been reworked.
Actually, I know they
haven't been reworked.
What that means is,
the gold in this bedrock,
it was laid in there before
what's in the gravels on top.
Unable to help
Steve locate the reworked
pay streaks,
Freddy will have to focus
on modifying Steve's
wash plant.
Hopefully, make it
where doesn't have to
sleep in a shipping container
through the winter, but...
time will tell.
Making him some
new nugget riffles.
'Cause they don't
have any right now.
There's just
three days left in the rescue.
Freddy is in a race
to fix off-grid miner,
Steve Lathem's wash plant.
He's just got
expanded metal there.
So, if he does magically find
that 30-ounce nugget,
he may not catch it the way
his sluice box is set up now.
So, they recognize
that there's monster
nuggets up here.
And that's...
That makes my heart sing,
'cause I know there's big,
big, big gold in here.
I know it.
Well...
those are done.
He still needs to be
convinced about the fine gold.
But small gold
weighs heavy and...
let's face it,
if he's got a goal
as well as living costs,
every gram counts.
The brand
new sluice
should be the solution to
catching this fine gold.
It would have been
a lot less work...
to screen that trommel
down to a smaller size.
But at the same time,
that would destroy his
dream of catching the...
nugget that this big around,
which may or may
not be in the deposit.
So, we're gonna try to get
that smaller material
going down
this sluice box,
instead of trying to compete
with those monster boulders
that are going down
the other sluice box.
This is gonna
be the new side.
What that side's gonna be,
we're gonna have a whole
new undershoot
on this side of the trommel.
What we're gonna do is,
we're gonna perforate it.
And those slits that we're
gonna cut in there,
is gonna allow
that fine material
to drop down into this pan
and actually come into
the new sluice run.
So... in essence,
what we're doing is,
we're making
a multi-screening trommel.
So, we can have our fine gold
come down the one sluice
and then our chunky nuggety
gold on the other side.
While the wash
plant is down for repairs,
Steve gets ahead
by stockpiling pay.
Just have to
pull it through...
wear my teeth
burning through them
in no time.
And you're wearing the teeth
out on your excavator?
Yeah, I was just
rubbing the bedrock.
I couldn't dig into it at all.
Well, these have only
been on there for
less than a couple of months
and they're already
showing some pretty
severe signs of wear.
It was well over $1,000
to get these welded on
and I think they
took the shortcut.
They took the shortcut.
Yeah. I'll show you
how to hard face.
And you just keep putting
hard face on these teeth
every couple days.
Freddy has a fix
that is a fraction of
the cost of new teeth.
We're just
building meat up, right?
We'll just building
material up on here.
Now, we're just
building this up.
Here, run a pass over
the top of the line.
It doesn't have to be pretty.
'Cause the rocks don't care.
Yeah. Now throw
another one there.
Another one
on top of that one?
Yep.
So, do that every
couple days, right?
Right.
...and it's gonna make
these last a hell of a lot longer.
- Easy fix.
- Yeah.
Man, I never even
thought of that.
Hard facing on the teeth.
It's so obvious.
It takes somebody with
a little bit more experience
to say, "Wait a second,
why don't you try this?"
And I think Freddy's come up
with a pretty good solution
for that.
Three
days remaining.
The next priority is to adapt
the trommel to catch
fine gold.
So, what
we're gonna do,
we're gonna cut
a series of slots here
and what those slots
are gonna do,
is gonna allow
that fine material
to drop through the trommel,
into the new sluice run.
Hey, Juan.
Before you start cutting,
can I get a favor?
Could you tap this out for me?
Yeah, one second.
- More?
- Keep going.
- More?
- More.
How does that
look on your end?
Looks sexy. I'd run it.
Just weld
the back plate in here.
So that water, when it comes
through the slits Juan's
gonna cut,
all the water goes
where we want it to go.
First one.
Only about 6,000 more to go.
Freddy works
on the water supply.
We're adding a new sluice in.
Juan's cutting slits for it,
for the fine gold,
to get that smaller material
away from those...
two-inch boulders
he's got going down
his other sluice box.
By doing that,
adding that other sluice in,
we've gotta add more water.
So, we're gonna
build a manifold
to get the water from the pump
that we got coming.
We need to spin it now.
Little more. Good.
We're about quarter done.
Next one.
Don't tell nobody
about that one.
That's five-eight.
That's our secret right there,
that little guy.
We know we're not taking
anybody to the moon
with this one.
Oh, my goodness!
It's taking shape.
I am so excited.
We already know
that I'm losing gold.
Stuff flying out the end.
So, I'm really happy that
they're leaving those
holes as they are.
They recognize
that I have a dream.
And they're gonna do whatever
they can to help me
realize it.
So, I'm stoked.
We've got a hell of
a lot of stuff to still
do here.
And not a hell of a lot
of time to get it done in.
So...
just keep plugging away at it
and hopefully...
time works in our favor.
We've gotta get almost
everything done today,
so we could run tomorrow.
No time to waste here now.
At the Nip and Tuck
it's the penultimate day.
And the pressure is on.
Today is gonna be a busy day.
Juan cut these rings
out on his burn table.
We're gonna put
these in here to
slow that water and material
that was shooting out
the end of the trommel.
We get that material
going down the sluice box,
where it's supposed to go.
Oh, man!
My back hurts today.
I'm an old man.
Before
fitting the baffles,
Juan needs to smooth
the inside of the trommel
to ensure a snug fit.
Freddy pushes forward
on the new sluice.
These are column ribs
for the sluice box,
to make it stronger.
Just grinding them up,
so they weld a bit easier.
Do you
mind if I have a look
at what you're up to here?
I was building that new
sluice box for your fine gold.
Oh, damn! Look at that.
Oh, man!
So, it's flat.
See the ribs around it?
Cradle it, hold it together.
Oh, it's beefy.
Oh, man!
Oh, that is...
more scoocum than
anything I ever had.
Juan fits
the baffles
that'll slow the water flow
and divert the fine gold
into the new sluice
Freddy is finishing.
Damn!
Look at that.
Right on my ass.
Look how much
fun he's having.
How could I take
that away from him?
All right, we got
the machine here, so...
hopefully, that can help
get that up there.
Steve's borrowed
a smaller excavator
to bring in the new sluice.
Don't bend it.
Don't dent it.
Don't bend it.
Straight back.
Oh,
you put a dent it.
Don't bend it,
he said.
All right, down.
All right,
that should be good.
Perfect, guys.
Thank you.
You good with it?
Yeah,
it's uno, tres, cuatro.
Thought we'd come
up with the jacks now.
- I like it.
- We're good,
This is the most
scoocum sluice box
that has ever graced the steps
of the Nip and Tuck gold mine.
Oh, my goodness' sakes!
I can't wait to see it
with a mat in it,
some expanded metal,
fine gold spilling
all through there.
To adjust
the pitch of the new
find gold sluice,
and control water
flowing paydirt,
Freddy and Juan have a cheap,
but effective hack.
We got the new
sluice box in place.
We're getting it
set up right now.
We're getting the right
pitch on it.
What we did was,
Freddy actually got these
two little bottle jacks,
welded them on to a plate,
and we're gonna use
that as our adjustment.
We can adjust the pitch
or adjust the sluice
side to side with it,
to get it perfectly level.
And the pitch that
we want on it.
You know,
it's kind of a cool idea.
It's something cheap.
$30 worth
of material.
And look at that.
It's perfect. We can adjust
it however we want it.
Look,
it's dead notch level.
Both sluice runs
will need to be cleaned
before the final run.
Get some water through there,
to get that steel pushed out.
Or it's all gonna
be in your clean up.
That's all right.
It's not as heavy as gold.
It's gonna be a lot of steel.
Just clean
the damn sluice.
You're gonna have
micro pieces of steel
- all over in there.
- But gold's heavier.
I believe I mentioned,
he is a little hard headed.
You know...
Freddy knows
the most in my opinion.
Steve's gonna have
to understand that.
I think he's coming
to terms with it.
I'll clean it out,
I'll clean it out.
It's the final day.
Juan has cut the slits
and welded in the baffles.
The sluice box is fitted
and Freddy delivers
one final gift.
Hey James,
you need a hand?
- Absolutely.
- All right.
Oh man, look at the size
of that thing.
- Dude, this thing is crazy nice.
- Holy crap!
A new pump
to double the water flow
and keep the material
running smoothly
through both sluice boxes.
Set it down right
here for now, I think.
Wow! That thing
is just crazy nice.
- Scoocum!
- I'm jealous.
You're jealous?
Why you be jealous, buddy?
You're part of the show.
Right?
Nip and Tuck has never
had anything that nice.
No, ever.
That's crazy.
Oh, yeah!
- I'll start putting... Yep.
- Carpets in?
This is our
new hose here.
By putting the second sluice,
we're gonna be cutting out
some of the water going
to the main sluice.
So, what we need
to do is, add water
so it sluices properly.
So, by putting
the second line in,
we're gonna be
able to do that.
After five
days at the Nip and Tuck,
the fixes are complete.
You know, I think the biggest
thing we did here, was...
this actually new
sluice system.
What we're doing is,
we're actually giving
you a chance
to be able to sluice
that fine gold,
that fine material.
Now we got a sluice system
with the slots that
Juan cut in there.
It's half inch minus now
instead of two inch minus...
- Yeah.
- ...that's running down this sluice box, so...
Your half inch minus material
will be going down here.
And you still have
your dream available
for your big nugget
on the end over there.
And that was
a big thing, you know?
Freddy and I,
we talked about it.
You know, he didn't
wanna kill your dream.
I might just have to go back
and wash all my tailings
all over again
'cause I threw so much
gold out, prior to this.
Basically what we did
is, we gave you a whole
other circuit.
It's just awesome.
You look inside,
those rings that Juan cut,
you know, that material was
just sliding out before,
right?
On top of that,
you'll actually have
material build up
on the backside of these,
so what that does is,
gives it a chance to be
able to get kicked out.
Could never have
imagined, such a thing.
Yep.
Oh, my goodness,
can't wait to get some
gravel through it.
- Well...
- Us too.
- We're excited about it.
- Let's fire it up.
They'll run
another four-hour test
to find out if Freddy
and Juan's fixes
deliver the increase
in gold Steve needs
to buy his own land
and build a home.
I just wanna make sure
everything's in order,
all the pump
lines are straight,
so and so forth.
- That's good.
- Getting all distracted.
Fire this up.
- All right.
- Do it.
Time to put our money where
our mouth is, huh, Juano?
That's it.
That's exactly right.
Feed the beast, Steve.
All right,
here we go.
First scoop in the new system.
You can see it, Freddy.
Look at the difference.
No water
coming out the end.
That's pretty awesome.
I'm happy with that.
Steve!
What's Steve
so worried about?
I don't know.
After loading
one bucket of pay,
Steve has second thoughts.
I'm just gonna crank
it up a little bit.
The trommel motor...
'Cause I think
with the weight,
when I get weight in it,
it helps slow it down
a little bit.
So...
Okay, it's your
motor, you run her.
Is he turning it up?
I'd almost say,
turn it down more.
Me too.
It's his baby, though.
'Cause it's worked
well for him.
Yeah.
Something's not right.
Oh, what the...
It's that belt.
Which belt?
What's wrong with it?
It's smoking.
At the Nip
and Tuck mine,
the crucial final test
has ground to a halt.
He's had an issue
with his trommel, so...
I'm gonna shut
the pumps down for now.
The motor just
stopped, suddenly.
- It was spinning fine.
- We aren't sure why.
Are you sure it wasn't
steam coming off of here?
It might have been.
I just walked up to it
and saw it right away.
There we go.
You got oil in it?
Dude, it had oil.
It's a brand new motor.
I think it's the belt.
I think it's the belt
is stretching.
It's so much weight on it.
We'll try it again,
see what happens.
Steve
restarts the plant
but dials it back
to the original speed.
There's more
water, there's more rocks.
It seems like the belt
might be stretching
out a little bit.
The fan belt.
We do have a spare,
so I'm a little... not on edge
but I'm just running around,
making sure that
all these little
tweaks get made.
If that trommel's not turning,
there's no gold
coming out at all.
They've lost
ten minutes
but the run is back on.
If there is fine gold,
it should be dropping
through Juan's slits
and catching in
the new sluice.
Bigger nuggets can
still come through
the two-inch punch plate
and collect in
Steve's old sluice.
Those sluices
are both running
extremely well
and we got those slit cuts
for the finer gold
and the smaller pieces.
Now, they don't
have to compete
with those big ass rocks
going down that other
sluice box.
I know, we've improved
his gold recovery.
How much, I don't know.
But we'll find out soon.
When Freddy
and Juan first arrived,
the rocks coming out
of the end of the trommel
were covered in mud,
holding fine gold.
Check that out, Freddy.
It's a lot cleaner.
I mean, a lot cleaner.
I'm happy with that.
Juan's baffles have
slowed the water enough
to clean the gold,
off the rocks.
Freddy, look at that.
None of these are
smaller than two inches.
- Yeah.
- So, everything two inch and smaller
is making it through
the sluice run.
I'm happy with that.
- Yeah. It's awesome.
- I'm happy with that.
After four hours...
Hey, Steve...
last bucket.
Last one.
...they called
time on the final run.
Hey, Steve.
- Hey.
- So, what do you think?
See anything in there?
This box
is running awesome.
Yeah, oh,
and look at all... Oh, yeah.
Those riffles are doing
exactly what they're
supposed to.
- Yeah.
- Beautiful.
You know that if there's
any great big nuggets
they're gonna fall
right in, off the...
Probably be in
the top mat there.
Now, you actually
have the chance
of catching that
35-ounce nugget
you've been bragging about.
I don't know
what to say, guys.
Looks good,
I'm happy about it.
What we need to do is,
clean it up now
and see what we got.
Yeah, let's pull
the mats, huh?
Natural hammer.
Now we're getting ready
to pull the carpets out
to see what we got, I mean...
You're not seeing
much in there
but if the sluice
is working properly,
you don't wanna see it.
Because if it's on top,
and you can see it,
they can get away from you.
Hey, Steve,
have a look at this.
What do
you got there?
And this
is one pan size.
Just one pan.
No kidding!
- And look at all that fine--
- Oh, my goodness sakes!
- Look at that.
- Easy!
- Oh!
- You'll spill it.
But look
at all the fine gold.
It's really what
you wanna look at.
Oh, man!
Look at that.
Nice, nice and little tiny,
tiny, tiny little bits.
- That's pretty good.
- Absolutely.
Lots of real small
stuff there.
That's gotta
be exciting, huh?
I'm excited now, Juano.
- Yeah, me too.
- Yeah.
After five days,
it's time to find out
if Freddy and Juan's fixes
have worked.
Well, guys...
- Four-hour run.
- Moment of truth, huh?
Time for the weigh-in.
The first test run
weighed 0.13 of an ounce.
Freddy and Juan
promised Steve an increase
of at least 15 percent.
Which means this gold weigh
needs to be around
0.15 of an ounce.
- Here it is.
- Okay.
Look at that, 0.22
- 0.22.
- Nice!
- That's awesome. Yeah, me too.
- Proud of that, bud.
That's awesome.
Wow! I cannot
believe that, guys.
And look at all
the fine gold in there too.
Damn!
There is fine gold here.
What we were
talking originally, guys,
we promised you 15 percent
is what we would do.
That's quite a bit more
than 15 percent.
- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- Oh, that's way more.
A massive increase
of 70 percent.
I knew I was losing gold
but I never knew
it was that much.
Oh, my goodness' sakes!
What a difference this
is gonna make.
The changes we've
done this week,
you know, hopefully,
that puts you on a path,
where you can buy
that piece of property
and build yourself
a house on it.
In a full
day's running,
with Freddy and Juan's
70 percent increase,
Steve should now mine
around $1,000.
That's over an ounce,
every two days.
If the weather holds, it'll be
enough to get the 21
ounces he needs
to build his dream property.
I still think there's
time this season.
It's a tough hill
to climb but...
weather forecast is nice
for the month of October,
so...
Well, there's only one
way to do it, right?
- Yeah, that's wash, wash, wash.
- And that's run, run, run.
- Time in the machine.
- Run, run, run.
Thank you very
much, gentlemen.
Stay in touch, okay?
Absolutely.
- Later, James.
- Safe travels.
You know,
we came in here, Freddy
and we promised
him 15 percent.
We did a little better
than that.
I'm proud of this, Freddy.
Another good one.
- I'm proud, bud. Let's do it.
- Let's get on the road.
What do
they think of me?
After being here for a week?
"What a crazy old
miner, that guy is."
I can hear them
laughing right now
as they're driving
down the hill.
This is huge.
This is more than we
could have ever done.
This is gonna
be life-changing.
The next
goal on the horizon,
is a piece of property
and with the improvements
that Freddy and Juan did
to that trommel,
that's gonna help me
achieve that goal.
It's been an adventure.
Quite an adventure.
I'm seeing here?
- What are you seeing?
- I'm seeing glacial till.
I am not
entirely convinced.
I am vastly more
experienced at this mine.
This is at it lays
when it got washed down.
Didn't get washed,
it got pushed.
- How?
- Because of multiple events.
No, absolutely not.
- You wouldn't have those layers on the bottom.
- Yeah, you would.
- It's the little stuff on the bottom.
- No.
- Same thing here.
- No.
Oh no!
- I've mined too many rivers.
- No, no! I disagree.
He's crazy.
Have to put spurs on
to drive down this road.
Yeah, you're
not joking, Freddy.
This road's pretty
rough, buddy.
Freddy and Juan
are in British Columbia,
deep in the Kootenay Rockies,
en route to
the Nip and Tuck claim,
owned by reclusive miner,
Stephen Lathem,
on the verge of washing out.
- Hey!
- Hello!
- Easy.
- Hey, killers.
Easy. No biting.
Be nice.
Hey, that's enough,
you guys.
Come on, stop it.
You're disrupting
our tranquility.
I'm Juan.
Man, is it ever
good to see you guys.
- Freddy.
- Oh, man!
This is him, I assume.
- James?
- Yeah, this is James, my partner.
- Juan.
- Hey, Juan.
Well, welcome to
the Nip and Tuck, guys.
Is this
what you call it?
Yeah, that's what
the name of this mine is.
'Cause of the biting dogs?
So, how long have you
been out here, Steve?
Inside the gate,
at the bottom there,
since about spring of 2008.
Everything up here
that you see...
So, the camp, the operation
just below camp,
and this operation,
2013 and on.
Steve's
Nip and Tuck mine
is a small placer claim
on 50 acres,
with one excavator and a small
trommel wash plant.
He has the mining rights,
but is unable to build
a permanent home here.
1996 was
the last time I lived in
what most people consider
normal accommodation.
I knew back then, living in
the city and working at,
you know, minimum wage jobs,
that if I wanted to get
to where I wanted--
The goal that
I wanted to reach,
I was gonna have
to make sacrifices.
And paying rent in the city
was not gonna help me
get here.
So, last two decades plus,
has been pretty rough living.
Steve has slept in
a converted shipping container
for the past decade,
with no power, no heating
and no running water.
I wouldn't mind hot
and cold running water.
I wouldn't mind
a shower on demand.
I wouldn't mind power,
that I could...
plug in whatever, you know.
All the stuff that most
people take for granted,
which, after living without
it for so long is...
foreign to me, really.
It's a hard life.
You wanna really
enjoy a shower?
Go without one
for a little while,
Steve's
goal before winter,
recover enough gold
to buy a plot of land
and build a home.
I found
a little piece of land.
But that's like,
tens of thousands of dollars.
And in order to buy
that piece of land,
I'm gonna need...
20, 30 ounces.
So, how much have
you produced this year?
Oh my goodness sakes,
what do you think, James?
A little bit over nine ounces,
I'd say, yeah.
It's not that good.
So, what you're saying is,
basically, in the next month
and a half,
- you gotta get another 20 ounces, is where you gotta be.
- Yeah.
Another 20, 30, if I want
to buy a piece of land.
This year hasn't
been that lucrative.
I've not been finding
that much gold.
The more in debt I go,
the farther off my
goal of a...
place to live is.
Not having
enough income to hire help,
the mine is
a one-man operation.
With friend, James Deraspe,
volunteering part-time.
People often ask me,
why am I here?
Why aren't I on my own
claims or something.
Well, there's many
reasons, but...
once we became friends, I...
truly wanted
to help him and...
you know, I know things
can be better for him.
You have any
of the gold from here?
'Cause I am looking at
2 and 1/2-inch holes in your
trommel over there.
Yeah, and I am glad
that they are that big.
'Cause there was rumored to
be a 36-ounce nugget found
up here, back in the day.
What is the chances
that that was the only one?
I think, slim.
The Nip and Tuck
sits just two miles
from the site of
British Columbia's
most famous gold rush,
at Wild Horse River.
In 1863,
American prospectors discovered
48 tons of gold there,
worth around $2 billion today.
If you dug a hole up here,
you will find gold
if you wash that gravel.
Over there, over there,
up there, down there.
It's all over the place.
You're getting me
all worked up here.
This is some stuff
that's just recently done
from a clean out and this is
what came out of that.
Oh, you got
some fines in there.
- Yeah, you do.
- Not much, though, right?
I love him
but I gotta say.
he needs to be convinced about
how much fine gold there is.
He doesn't think there's much.
There might be
more than you're losing.
I'd rather have a five-gallon
bucket full of that small stuff,
because a bucket of nuggets
is half full of air.
I kind of
look at it like this.
I'm not too concerned
about dropping the penny
when I got
a handful of toonies.
He's all
about the nuggets.
And is this what you have
collected this year, so far?
No,
this is last year.
He's had to
give up much of it.
For him to live,
we've had to sell.
So, you just been barely
getting by, then,
is what you're saying.
The reason that I have
managed to get this far,
as a placer operation,
is by reducing and reusing.
- So...
- Yeah. Well...
you know, all we can
do is try to help.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, absolutely.
And part of that, we gotta
watch it run. Let's see what
we've got going on and...
Yeah, we'll get her
fired up and get your
take on it.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- Let's run it.
For the first test,
Steve will run
the plant for four hours.
First bucket, Juan.
Full of gold.
10, 20, 30-ounce nuggets
of gold.
Most mining
operations use an excavator,
a rock truck and a loader
to get the pay
out of the ground
and to the plant.
But, not Steve.
Yeah, he's doing
everything with
the one machine
Tailing's.
Doing tailings.
Digging pay.
Basically, he's hauling pay.
He's doing it all
with one machine.
Steve
digs his paydirt
from just six feet
down in a small cut
and feeds it directly into
his makeshift wash plant.
A 44-inch diameter trommel,
made from a recycled
propane tank,
with a narrow ten-foot
sluice box to catch the gold.
You got
your phone with you?
Yeah.
Let's time
how long it takes him
to finish one bucket.
You're gonna have
to speed it up.
There we go, stop.
So, five minutes
for half a yard.
- Ten minutes for a yard.
- Yeah.
- So, he'll do-- He'll do six yards...
- So, times six.
- Six yards an hour is what he's doing, yeah.
- ...in an hour.
I'm pretty cautious when
it comes to this stuff.
Experience has told me to...
slow and easy wins
the race, right?
Not always.
When it comes to mining,
there is no slow and easy.
You gotta run.
You got a short season.
In that short season,
you run as much as you can.
Let's not talk about it. Beat it, beat it.
Just run her, man.
Just run her.
I like him
but he's gonna
drive me nuts, Freddy.
Yeah.
Swear there's gold
in that bucket
This guy's
definitely got gold fever.
Swear there's gold in this...
bucket.
Look at that slurry
coming out, Freddy.
- Yeah.
- Look how much we're losing.
Look how
dirty those rocks are.
Yeah.
I bet you, we're losing...
15-20 per cent of the fines
out of the end of that.
Yeah, I would agree.
The rocks are dirty.
Look at that.
You know, the reason
he's not seeing a whole
lot of fines,
probably 'cause
he's not even catching them.
- Stuck to these rocks.
- Not even giving them a chance.
Should we go wash it?
Yeah. Let's pan it.
Look at that, Fed.
Every bit of that should have
gone right through that trommel.
- Yeah. Yep.
- That should have been sluiced.
I bet you, those guys found
gold in that pan they took.
I would not doubt it.
There's gold in it.
There's one, two,
three, four pieces there.
That's not good, Freddy.
That wasn't even a full pan.
No, it wasn't.
He's throwing a lot of gold
out the end of that trommel.
This is off the end
of the sluice run, Freddy.
Yeah.
You see something?
Right there, one piece.
Two.
Yeah, little
itty-bitty ones.
A penny's worth of gold
but it's still getting lost.
Steve's operation
is built to catch
monster nuggets.
But he's losing fine gold
from both the trommel,
and the sluice.
There he is, fiddling around.
Now he seems to stop
and nitpick on stuff, huh?
He just needs to run.
Just run, baby. Run.
When there isn't
rocks going through it,
there's not gold
going through it.
Yeah.
The easiest way
for Steve to get more gold,
he's gotta wash more dirt.
Spend more time putting
rocks through those box.
Well, you know,
I took one test pan
off the end of that trommel,
and in that one pan,
it wasn't even full,
we got four colors.
Four sizeable colors.
How many hundreds...
thousands of pans are
there in a shift?
There you go.
So, you do the math.
He's got multiple problems.
I mean, there's
a lot of stuff going on.
I don't know
if we've got enough time.
Steve!
Last bucket.
After four hours,
it's time to pull the mats.
I was hoping to see couple
30-ounces in there.
Oh my God! You and me both.
- Man, I was hoping.
- You and me, both.
That's a little cutie.
It's not the 30-ouncer
that I wanted to see, but...
Well, shall we
get her cleaned out?
Yeah. Let's clean it up.
As James
and Juan clean the mats,
Steve gives Freddy
a tour of his home.
Looks
pretty rustic...
Modified shipping container.
It's not very fancy.
This is my home. Right here.
It's a bit tight.
It's cozy in here,
there's no question,
but I can't continue
living like this.
I need hot and cold
running water.
I need a place like
most people live.
Well, it's not the Hilton,
that's for sure.
No, it isn't.
Well,
one thing for sure,
he's not living
high on the hog.
He's living really,
really rustic.
I mean, I wouldn't want to
spend the winter in that
storage container.
And winters aren't short here.
He's put every bit of his gold
back into his mine
to hopefully, catch more
gold to get ahead.
And hopefully...
by the end of this week,
Juan and myself can
help him catch more gold.
So he doesn't have to live in
a shipping container
all winter.
Moment of truth, huh?
Well, let's see
what it did, guys.
Dump it in the pan,
let's see what you got.
All right,
here goes.
Here we go.
0.13 of an ounce.
Not horrible.
No, it's all right, you know?
I mean, it was only
a short run.
$270 worth of gold
there for four hours.
Steve ran
just 24 yards.
That means he's getting
about half an ounce of gold
for every 100 yards
of paydirt.
Less than 50 percent of what
most mines produce.
He's barely making
enough to survive,
let alone buy
the land he needs
to build a home.
What we want to see
is more of that fine gold.
- We know you have it.
- Yeah.
We know it's here.
Do you think it is here?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's in the pan here.
Proof's right there.
There's some.
But I'm gonna
tell you right now,
the way you're
tuned up right now,
the fact that we caught this,
I bet there's
quite a bit more.
Just watching it,
I'll guarantee you, we can
help you catch more gold.
- Yeah.
- How much?
I don't know.
Whether, we'd only get
you ten percent more gold,
or 15 or 20.
- We're gonna sit down and come up with some ideas.
- Mmm-hmm.
And we'll run it
by you and see if...
if you're game with it.
- All right, we'll talk to you in a bit.
- Don't spill your gold.
No!
Worked too hard for it.
Trip.
Boy, he's got a bunch
of issues, Juano.
He's puking material
out the end.
And we panned it and there's
gold in every bit of it.
- Right.
- Yeah.
Gold coming out of
the end of the sluice, too.
- Yeah.
- Got two colors there.
So... we're losing
gold on both ends.
And the crazy thing is,
he heard a story about
someone getting a 35-ounce...
a 35-ounce nugget, who knows
when or where in this--
Or if it really happened.
Over the years,
if he would have not worried
about that 35-ounce nugget,
I guarantee,
he would have caught more
than 35 ounces of extra gold.
- Oh, easy. Easy.
- Yeah.
Sounds like he's that type
of guy that he's stuck
on his ideas and...
you know...
I'm hoping that he's
open to a change.
If he's not open
to much change,
there isn't much
we can do for him.
Yeah.
What do you think, Juano?
You know, we got that trommel
with those two-inch holes.
And you know, his dream
is to find that nugget.
I know.
Freddy and Juan
have four more days
to rescue Steve
Lathem's operation
to bring him enough gold
to build his dream home,
before winter.
The quickest and the easiest
and the most
cost-effective thing to do
would be to wrap that drum
- and screen it down a little bit.
- Yeah.
But that's gonna kill his
dream, like you said.
- Yeah.
- So...
I think the next best option
is we build a secondary...
- I agree.
- ...screening area here.
Build another sluice.
And then, we'll come into this
trommel drum and we'll
do slits.
One thing that's
gonna take, though,
we're gonna have to put
a whole new pump in, right?
- Yeah.
- 'Cause he doesn't have enough water now
to run this sluice box.
- Yeah, true. True.
- Right?
We're still gonna have
to do some dams inside.
Yeah. Well, I think
we put a dam...
right here.
Yeah and maybe
in the beginning.
Right here it needs a dam
in it too, a ring in it.
- Yeah, agreed.
- Right there.
So, we end up
putting three rings in,
adding a pump,
and then, building
a whole new sluice box.
Steve's wash plant
is set up to catch nuggets
with 2 1/2-inch
holes in the barrel.
But it's losing fine gold out
the end and the sluice box.
Freddy and Juan's solution,
add an extra sluice run
specifically for fine
gold recovery.
Cut a series of half-inch
slits in the trommel
to allow the fine gold to drop
into the new sluice.
Add three steel dams inside
to slow the material,
allowing more time to wash
the gold off the rocks.
I know a concern
for him, is...
what this is gonna cost.
Because you know, he is
a hand-to-mouth type of miner.
Living in a shipping
container, Juan.
But reality is, there's quite
a bit of work that goes
into this.
And I don't know if we got
enough time to do it.
Well, let's go,
talk to him about it.
All right. Let's do it.
And hopefully, he can
get a warm bed this winter.
Yeah.
Freddy and Juan
must convince Steve
to focus on fine gold.
But their fixes,
won't come cheap.
Well, we watched
your run there.
There's couple issues.
We totally get why you wanna
screen so big, you know.
The chance of being able
to catch that bigger nugget.
But we're really worried that
you're losing a lot of that
finer gold...
- Yes.
- ...because you are screening so big.
We actually got a couple
different ideas for that.
But one of them is that
we actually want to build
a new sluice for fine gold.
Rigged up just
for your finer gold.
- Strictly for fine gold. Yeah.
- Really?
We're actually gonna cut
slits in your trommel.
Yeah.
In front of that,
for the finer gold.
It's still there, so you can
hopefully achieve your dream
- of that monster nugget.
- Yes.
And the other one's gonna be
going after that fine gold.
Right?
In order to be able
to make that work,
we're gonna have
to add another pump.
You don't even have
enough water right now
for the sluice you have.
Right. Yeah.
So do you think
cutting these slits
in the trommel
is gonna help reduce
the water loss out of the end?
- No.
- Something else, we're gonna have to do.
- Juan's baffles inside...
- Yes.
...are gonna do that.
So, what we
wanna do is,
to slow down some
of that material,
- they hit a dam, so now it has to get...
- Slows it down.
It either goes over the dam,
or has to go down
through the screen.
Either way,
it's gonna increase your gold.
Now, for the kicker, though...
it sounds pretty expensive.
Well, that's where
we were going.
The material we're gonna need
to buy is gonna be about
3,500 bucks.
- 3,500?
- 3,500.
There's a few odds and ends
of scrap metal around here.
Maybe you guys have a look
around, see if you can...
Hopefully, there's
something that can be used
to keep cost down.
Yeah, we'll try.
You know what, though?
Juan and myself talked and...
we aren't gonna charge
you any labor.
We're gonna donate our time.
Okay?
We don't wanna see you
living in a shipping container.
So, all you have to
pay for is material.
Take me
a second here.
Deal, then?
- Absolutely. Absolutely.
- Let's do it.
Fine man.
Fine man. Fine man.
Thank you.
Wow! Well...
This could be
life-changing for Steve.
It really could, you know?
Hopefully, they're going
to be able to recover
a lot more gold, which means
more money, which means,
him being, getting
closer to his goal of...
having a place
to call his own.
I was just blown away,
like, "Oh my goodness!"
If I've been throwing away
as much gold as
they believe I've been
throwing away,
and after the next few days,
I'm not throwing that
gold away,
then that should allow me
to realize my dream
of having a little
piece of property.
Which is just... again,
beyond my wildest dreams.
Steve's poured everything he
has into this operation.
And really, you know this guy
is kind of stuck in his ways.
He's based
his complete mining plan
on the hope and dream
that he's gonna catch
a 35-ounce nugget.
It's kind of hard for Freddy
and I to come in here,
and try to change that.
So, what we're gonna do,
to concentrate on the fine
gold for him,
is we're gonna be able to
catch more of it in this
system we're building.
While Juan gets to
work on cutting the steel dams,
Freddy and Steve
explore this gold-rich land.
This country
looks a lot like...
where I'm from, in Colorado.
All the mountains and stuff.
What got you started
into gold mining?
I had gem fever before
I had the gold fever.
The gem fever
went in remission.
The gold fever took over.
I am chronically stricken now.
Treasure fever, that's it.
Chasing the myths
of the monster nuggets,
they head for the site of
the old mining town
of Fisherville.
- You lead the way. I'll follow you.
- Okay.
Yeah, just down this way.
In 1863,
word got out that there was
gold on the Wild Horse River.
And thousands of fortune
seeking prospectors
rushed to settle here.
They weren't disappointed.
The land was rich with
48 tons of nuggety gold.
I would not be surprised
to see a piece of gold,
just sitting right there.
I would not be surprised
to see that at all.
When it was
found Fisherville was
sitting on
the richest deposits,
the buildings were simply
picked up and moved higher,
allowing miner, Mike Reynolds
to mine the 36-ounce nugget
that Steve dreams
of repeating.
But within two years,
despite mining close
to 50 tons of gold,
the prospectors moved on,
leaving Fisherville,
a ghost town.
These were
the guys that started it.
These were the guys that
laid the ground work
for those that come after.
And... I often say,
you know, we are...
tomorrow's old timers.
And the best
way to find gold,
is to follow what
the old timers did.
The source
of the gold
that fed the rush
on the Wild Horse
has never been found.
It's this big score that Steve
has set his sights on.
This would
be the lower end
of what would have
been Fisherville.
Now it's possible
that the source
of the gold that fed the rush
on the Wild Horse
came out of Boulder Creek.
Basically, that gully
right there,
is where Boulder
Creek flows out
and the Nip and Tuck mine is
at the base of that mountain.
Okay.
You can have a spot here,
that'd be good.
Maybe not up
in that higher stuff
but down on the bottom,
looking at it.
So, being how that is in
such close proximity to here,
I... Well, I know I'm on it.
It's just getting.
Right?
If gold
was everywhere,
it wouldn't be
worth nothing, right?
Isn't
that the truth?
He's a character.
That's what he is.
He's got these big
dreams and big ideas.
But is there enough gold here?
Well, that's up to him.
I mean, it's his dream,
I think to find that big
piece of gold.
But whether there's any
of it here, I don't know.
These are the rings
that are gonna go inside
the trommel.
And what we'll do is,
we'll get 'em all welded in,
put corner gussets.
And what they're gonna do is,
it's gonna slow
the material down.
So that material that's
rushing down the trommel
actually has a chance
to get sluiced.
There it is.
There they are.
Let's have
a look in your cut.
Yeah.
After exploring
the gold-rich history
of the area,
Freddy investigates
Steve's pay,
to see if the potential
for a monster nugget payday
is really here.
You know
what I'm seeing here?
- What are you seeing?
- I'm seeing glacial till.
I... You know,
respectfully, I disagree.
When I start
cutting into this,
it's consistent.
When I dig a hole down there,
it's the same strata.
I dig a hole up here...
It would be.
Now, if you get
up further upstream...
- Yeah.
- ...that is absolutely glacial till.
It's a different consistency.
This is completely different.
Well, like, but this
stuff here, whether...
it was a slide at the end,
or this is just glacial till.
These are those properties
that was pushing in
front of that glacier.
Glacial till
is bad news.
As a solid glacier wall
bulldozes material
down a valley,
it scatters ground
to the front and sides
making gold deposits
hard to locate.
But if a river runs through
these scattered deposits,
its flow concentrates
the gold on the river bed,
making it easier to find.
A process known as reworking.
See, this
has never been reworked.
This is in place, so...
This is as it lays
when it got washed down.
It didn't get washed,
it got pushed.
I am not entirely convinced.
With all due respect,
I am vastly more experienced
at this mine site.
I mean, I can't see how this
this would have got pushed in
because you wouldn't have
those layers in the bottom.
Yeah, you would.
- How?
- Because multiple events.
Right? Why aren't your
boulders on bedrock?
It's not the big ones
that are at the bottom.
It's the little stuff
on the bottom.
- No. No.
- Same thing here.
- I've mined too many rivers.
- Oh, no! No!
I'm just not
convinced that this...
number one, was pushed in
and number two,
was reworked, you're saying--
- It's never been reworked.
- It's never been reworked.
Right? And it was
pushed in here.
But when you
start coupling that with
the speed it would take to
wash all the stuff in here...
That wasn't washed in, though.
I do
respectfully disagree.
Why was there no boulders
on the bottom of it?
Why is it just clay
on the bottom?
What that is,
is glacial silt.
That was one event.
And then you have that
boulder layer there,
that was a second event.
So, looking at it,
there's four different events
have happened.
Not counting the event that
originally put the gold
into the bedrock.
I tell you what,
I'll bet you 1,000 bucks--
I don't
have 1,000 bucks.
You know that.
Okay, a case of beer,
- it wasn't put in here with a massive water flow.
- But from which direction?
With all due respect,
Mr. Dodge, I am not convinced.
There's no bet.
I ain't got $1,000
to start whistling away.
I'm gonna be honest,
and get their
honest opinions, so...
A little bit of disagreement,
it never hurt.
It helps bring the...
the cream to the surface
or the gold to the bottom,
if you will.
Personally, I don't think
they've been reworked.
Actually, I know they
haven't been reworked.
What that means is,
the gold in this bedrock,
it was laid in there before
what's in the gravels on top.
Unable to help
Steve locate the reworked
pay streaks,
Freddy will have to focus
on modifying Steve's
wash plant.
Hopefully, make it
where doesn't have to
sleep in a shipping container
through the winter, but...
time will tell.
Making him some
new nugget riffles.
'Cause they don't
have any right now.
There's just
three days left in the rescue.
Freddy is in a race
to fix off-grid miner,
Steve Lathem's wash plant.
He's just got
expanded metal there.
So, if he does magically find
that 30-ounce nugget,
he may not catch it the way
his sluice box is set up now.
So, they recognize
that there's monster
nuggets up here.
And that's...
That makes my heart sing,
'cause I know there's big,
big, big gold in here.
I know it.
Well...
those are done.
He still needs to be
convinced about the fine gold.
But small gold
weighs heavy and...
let's face it,
if he's got a goal
as well as living costs,
every gram counts.
The brand
new sluice
should be the solution to
catching this fine gold.
It would have been
a lot less work...
to screen that trommel
down to a smaller size.
But at the same time,
that would destroy his
dream of catching the...
nugget that this big around,
which may or may
not be in the deposit.
So, we're gonna try to get
that smaller material
going down
this sluice box,
instead of trying to compete
with those monster boulders
that are going down
the other sluice box.
This is gonna
be the new side.
What that side's gonna be,
we're gonna have a whole
new undershoot
on this side of the trommel.
What we're gonna do is,
we're gonna perforate it.
And those slits that we're
gonna cut in there,
is gonna allow
that fine material
to drop down into this pan
and actually come into
the new sluice run.
So... in essence,
what we're doing is,
we're making
a multi-screening trommel.
So, we can have our fine gold
come down the one sluice
and then our chunky nuggety
gold on the other side.
While the wash
plant is down for repairs,
Steve gets ahead
by stockpiling pay.
Just have to
pull it through...
wear my teeth
burning through them
in no time.
And you're wearing the teeth
out on your excavator?
Yeah, I was just
rubbing the bedrock.
I couldn't dig into it at all.
Well, these have only
been on there for
less than a couple of months
and they're already
showing some pretty
severe signs of wear.
It was well over $1,000
to get these welded on
and I think they
took the shortcut.
They took the shortcut.
Yeah. I'll show you
how to hard face.
And you just keep putting
hard face on these teeth
every couple days.
Freddy has a fix
that is a fraction of
the cost of new teeth.
We're just
building meat up, right?
We'll just building
material up on here.
Now, we're just
building this up.
Here, run a pass over
the top of the line.
It doesn't have to be pretty.
'Cause the rocks don't care.
Yeah. Now throw
another one there.
Another one
on top of that one?
Yep.
So, do that every
couple days, right?
Right.
...and it's gonna make
these last a hell of a lot longer.
- Easy fix.
- Yeah.
Man, I never even
thought of that.
Hard facing on the teeth.
It's so obvious.
It takes somebody with
a little bit more experience
to say, "Wait a second,
why don't you try this?"
And I think Freddy's come up
with a pretty good solution
for that.
Three
days remaining.
The next priority is to adapt
the trommel to catch
fine gold.
So, what
we're gonna do,
we're gonna cut
a series of slots here
and what those slots
are gonna do,
is gonna allow
that fine material
to drop through the trommel,
into the new sluice run.
Hey, Juan.
Before you start cutting,
can I get a favor?
Could you tap this out for me?
Yeah, one second.
- More?
- Keep going.
- More?
- More.
How does that
look on your end?
Looks sexy. I'd run it.
Just weld
the back plate in here.
So that water, when it comes
through the slits Juan's
gonna cut,
all the water goes
where we want it to go.
First one.
Only about 6,000 more to go.
Freddy works
on the water supply.
We're adding a new sluice in.
Juan's cutting slits for it,
for the fine gold,
to get that smaller material
away from those...
two-inch boulders
he's got going down
his other sluice box.
By doing that,
adding that other sluice in,
we've gotta add more water.
So, we're gonna
build a manifold
to get the water from the pump
that we got coming.
We need to spin it now.
Little more. Good.
We're about quarter done.
Next one.
Don't tell nobody
about that one.
That's five-eight.
That's our secret right there,
that little guy.
We know we're not taking
anybody to the moon
with this one.
Oh, my goodness!
It's taking shape.
I am so excited.
We already know
that I'm losing gold.
Stuff flying out the end.
So, I'm really happy that
they're leaving those
holes as they are.
They recognize
that I have a dream.
And they're gonna do whatever
they can to help me
realize it.
So, I'm stoked.
We've got a hell of
a lot of stuff to still
do here.
And not a hell of a lot
of time to get it done in.
So...
just keep plugging away at it
and hopefully...
time works in our favor.
We've gotta get almost
everything done today,
so we could run tomorrow.
No time to waste here now.
At the Nip and Tuck
it's the penultimate day.
And the pressure is on.
Today is gonna be a busy day.
Juan cut these rings
out on his burn table.
We're gonna put
these in here to
slow that water and material
that was shooting out
the end of the trommel.
We get that material
going down the sluice box,
where it's supposed to go.
Oh, man!
My back hurts today.
I'm an old man.
Before
fitting the baffles,
Juan needs to smooth
the inside of the trommel
to ensure a snug fit.
Freddy pushes forward
on the new sluice.
These are column ribs
for the sluice box,
to make it stronger.
Just grinding them up,
so they weld a bit easier.
Do you
mind if I have a look
at what you're up to here?
I was building that new
sluice box for your fine gold.
Oh, damn! Look at that.
Oh, man!
So, it's flat.
See the ribs around it?
Cradle it, hold it together.
Oh, it's beefy.
Oh, man!
Oh, that is...
more scoocum than
anything I ever had.
Juan fits
the baffles
that'll slow the water flow
and divert the fine gold
into the new sluice
Freddy is finishing.
Damn!
Look at that.
Right on my ass.
Look how much
fun he's having.
How could I take
that away from him?
All right, we got
the machine here, so...
hopefully, that can help
get that up there.
Steve's borrowed
a smaller excavator
to bring in the new sluice.
Don't bend it.
Don't dent it.
Don't bend it.
Straight back.
Oh,
you put a dent it.
Don't bend it,
he said.
All right, down.
All right,
that should be good.
Perfect, guys.
Thank you.
You good with it?
Yeah,
it's uno, tres, cuatro.
Thought we'd come
up with the jacks now.
- I like it.
- We're good,
This is the most
scoocum sluice box
that has ever graced the steps
of the Nip and Tuck gold mine.
Oh, my goodness' sakes!
I can't wait to see it
with a mat in it,
some expanded metal,
fine gold spilling
all through there.
To adjust
the pitch of the new
find gold sluice,
and control water
flowing paydirt,
Freddy and Juan have a cheap,
but effective hack.
We got the new
sluice box in place.
We're getting it
set up right now.
We're getting the right
pitch on it.
What we did was,
Freddy actually got these
two little bottle jacks,
welded them on to a plate,
and we're gonna use
that as our adjustment.
We can adjust the pitch
or adjust the sluice
side to side with it,
to get it perfectly level.
And the pitch that
we want on it.
You know,
it's kind of a cool idea.
It's something cheap.
$30 worth
of material.
And look at that.
It's perfect. We can adjust
it however we want it.
Look,
it's dead notch level.
Both sluice runs
will need to be cleaned
before the final run.
Get some water through there,
to get that steel pushed out.
Or it's all gonna
be in your clean up.
That's all right.
It's not as heavy as gold.
It's gonna be a lot of steel.
Just clean
the damn sluice.
You're gonna have
micro pieces of steel
- all over in there.
- But gold's heavier.
I believe I mentioned,
he is a little hard headed.
You know...
Freddy knows
the most in my opinion.
Steve's gonna have
to understand that.
I think he's coming
to terms with it.
I'll clean it out,
I'll clean it out.
It's the final day.
Juan has cut the slits
and welded in the baffles.
The sluice box is fitted
and Freddy delivers
one final gift.
Hey James,
you need a hand?
- Absolutely.
- All right.
Oh man, look at the size
of that thing.
- Dude, this thing is crazy nice.
- Holy crap!
A new pump
to double the water flow
and keep the material
running smoothly
through both sluice boxes.
Set it down right
here for now, I think.
Wow! That thing
is just crazy nice.
- Scoocum!
- I'm jealous.
You're jealous?
Why you be jealous, buddy?
You're part of the show.
Right?
Nip and Tuck has never
had anything that nice.
No, ever.
That's crazy.
Oh, yeah!
- I'll start putting... Yep.
- Carpets in?
This is our
new hose here.
By putting the second sluice,
we're gonna be cutting out
some of the water going
to the main sluice.
So, what we need
to do is, add water
so it sluices properly.
So, by putting
the second line in,
we're gonna be
able to do that.
After five
days at the Nip and Tuck,
the fixes are complete.
You know, I think the biggest
thing we did here, was...
this actually new
sluice system.
What we're doing is,
we're actually giving
you a chance
to be able to sluice
that fine gold,
that fine material.
Now we got a sluice system
with the slots that
Juan cut in there.
It's half inch minus now
instead of two inch minus...
- Yeah.
- ...that's running down this sluice box, so...
Your half inch minus material
will be going down here.
And you still have
your dream available
for your big nugget
on the end over there.
And that was
a big thing, you know?
Freddy and I,
we talked about it.
You know, he didn't
wanna kill your dream.
I might just have to go back
and wash all my tailings
all over again
'cause I threw so much
gold out, prior to this.
Basically what we did
is, we gave you a whole
other circuit.
It's just awesome.
You look inside,
those rings that Juan cut,
you know, that material was
just sliding out before,
right?
On top of that,
you'll actually have
material build up
on the backside of these,
so what that does is,
gives it a chance to be
able to get kicked out.
Could never have
imagined, such a thing.
Yep.
Oh, my goodness,
can't wait to get some
gravel through it.
- Well...
- Us too.
- We're excited about it.
- Let's fire it up.
They'll run
another four-hour test
to find out if Freddy
and Juan's fixes
deliver the increase
in gold Steve needs
to buy his own land
and build a home.
I just wanna make sure
everything's in order,
all the pump
lines are straight,
so and so forth.
- That's good.
- Getting all distracted.
Fire this up.
- All right.
- Do it.
Time to put our money where
our mouth is, huh, Juano?
That's it.
That's exactly right.
Feed the beast, Steve.
All right,
here we go.
First scoop in the new system.
You can see it, Freddy.
Look at the difference.
No water
coming out the end.
That's pretty awesome.
I'm happy with that.
Steve!
What's Steve
so worried about?
I don't know.
After loading
one bucket of pay,
Steve has second thoughts.
I'm just gonna crank
it up a little bit.
The trommel motor...
'Cause I think
with the weight,
when I get weight in it,
it helps slow it down
a little bit.
So...
Okay, it's your
motor, you run her.
Is he turning it up?
I'd almost say,
turn it down more.
Me too.
It's his baby, though.
'Cause it's worked
well for him.
Yeah.
Something's not right.
Oh, what the...
It's that belt.
Which belt?
What's wrong with it?
It's smoking.
At the Nip
and Tuck mine,
the crucial final test
has ground to a halt.
He's had an issue
with his trommel, so...
I'm gonna shut
the pumps down for now.
The motor just
stopped, suddenly.
- It was spinning fine.
- We aren't sure why.
Are you sure it wasn't
steam coming off of here?
It might have been.
I just walked up to it
and saw it right away.
There we go.
You got oil in it?
Dude, it had oil.
It's a brand new motor.
I think it's the belt.
I think it's the belt
is stretching.
It's so much weight on it.
We'll try it again,
see what happens.
Steve
restarts the plant
but dials it back
to the original speed.
There's more
water, there's more rocks.
It seems like the belt
might be stretching
out a little bit.
The fan belt.
We do have a spare,
so I'm a little... not on edge
but I'm just running around,
making sure that
all these little
tweaks get made.
If that trommel's not turning,
there's no gold
coming out at all.
They've lost
ten minutes
but the run is back on.
If there is fine gold,
it should be dropping
through Juan's slits
and catching in
the new sluice.
Bigger nuggets can
still come through
the two-inch punch plate
and collect in
Steve's old sluice.
Those sluices
are both running
extremely well
and we got those slit cuts
for the finer gold
and the smaller pieces.
Now, they don't
have to compete
with those big ass rocks
going down that other
sluice box.
I know, we've improved
his gold recovery.
How much, I don't know.
But we'll find out soon.
When Freddy
and Juan first arrived,
the rocks coming out
of the end of the trommel
were covered in mud,
holding fine gold.
Check that out, Freddy.
It's a lot cleaner.
I mean, a lot cleaner.
I'm happy with that.
Juan's baffles have
slowed the water enough
to clean the gold,
off the rocks.
Freddy, look at that.
None of these are
smaller than two inches.
- Yeah.
- So, everything two inch and smaller
is making it through
the sluice run.
I'm happy with that.
- Yeah. It's awesome.
- I'm happy with that.
After four hours...
Hey, Steve...
last bucket.
Last one.
...they called
time on the final run.
Hey, Steve.
- Hey.
- So, what do you think?
See anything in there?
This box
is running awesome.
Yeah, oh,
and look at all... Oh, yeah.
Those riffles are doing
exactly what they're
supposed to.
- Yeah.
- Beautiful.
You know that if there's
any great big nuggets
they're gonna fall
right in, off the...
Probably be in
the top mat there.
Now, you actually
have the chance
of catching that
35-ounce nugget
you've been bragging about.
I don't know
what to say, guys.
Looks good,
I'm happy about it.
What we need to do is,
clean it up now
and see what we got.
Yeah, let's pull
the mats, huh?
Natural hammer.
Now we're getting ready
to pull the carpets out
to see what we got, I mean...
You're not seeing
much in there
but if the sluice
is working properly,
you don't wanna see it.
Because if it's on top,
and you can see it,
they can get away from you.
Hey, Steve,
have a look at this.
What do
you got there?
And this
is one pan size.
Just one pan.
No kidding!
- And look at all that fine--
- Oh, my goodness sakes!
- Look at that.
- Easy!
- Oh!
- You'll spill it.
But look
at all the fine gold.
It's really what
you wanna look at.
Oh, man!
Look at that.
Nice, nice and little tiny,
tiny, tiny little bits.
- That's pretty good.
- Absolutely.
Lots of real small
stuff there.
That's gotta
be exciting, huh?
I'm excited now, Juano.
- Yeah, me too.
- Yeah.
After five days,
it's time to find out
if Freddy and Juan's fixes
have worked.
Well, guys...
- Four-hour run.
- Moment of truth, huh?
Time for the weigh-in.
The first test run
weighed 0.13 of an ounce.
Freddy and Juan
promised Steve an increase
of at least 15 percent.
Which means this gold weigh
needs to be around
0.15 of an ounce.
- Here it is.
- Okay.
Look at that, 0.22
- 0.22.
- Nice!
- That's awesome. Yeah, me too.
- Proud of that, bud.
That's awesome.
Wow! I cannot
believe that, guys.
And look at all
the fine gold in there too.
Damn!
There is fine gold here.
What we were
talking originally, guys,
we promised you 15 percent
is what we would do.
That's quite a bit more
than 15 percent.
- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- Oh, that's way more.
A massive increase
of 70 percent.
I knew I was losing gold
but I never knew
it was that much.
Oh, my goodness' sakes!
What a difference this
is gonna make.
The changes we've
done this week,
you know, hopefully,
that puts you on a path,
where you can buy
that piece of property
and build yourself
a house on it.
In a full
day's running,
with Freddy and Juan's
70 percent increase,
Steve should now mine
around $1,000.
That's over an ounce,
every two days.
If the weather holds, it'll be
enough to get the 21
ounces he needs
to build his dream property.
I still think there's
time this season.
It's a tough hill
to climb but...
weather forecast is nice
for the month of October,
so...
Well, there's only one
way to do it, right?
- Yeah, that's wash, wash, wash.
- And that's run, run, run.
- Time in the machine.
- Run, run, run.
Thank you very
much, gentlemen.
Stay in touch, okay?
Absolutely.
- Later, James.
- Safe travels.
You know,
we came in here, Freddy
and we promised
him 15 percent.
We did a little better
than that.
I'm proud of this, Freddy.
Another good one.
- I'm proud, bud. Let's do it.
- Let's get on the road.
What do
they think of me?
After being here for a week?
"What a crazy old
miner, that guy is."
I can hear them
laughing right now
as they're driving
down the hill.
This is huge.
This is more than we
could have ever done.
This is gonna
be life-changing.
The next
goal on the horizon,
is a piece of property
and with the improvements
that Freddy and Juan did
to that trommel,
that's gonna help me
achieve that goal.
It's been an adventure.
Quite an adventure.