Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue (2021): Season 3, Episode 1 - Old Dog, New Tricks - full transcript
I don't think that
what I'm doing here
needs to be addressed.
This may be a tough one.
Yee-haw!
When I got here, I saw
Mike needed help.
I think Freddy, he might learn
something from what I'm doing.
You know, I'm curious
to watch it run, Freddy.
There's a lot
of moving parts here.
So, there's about four,
five, six, seven,
eight, nine pieces of gold.
It's a bad sign.
If there's
nine pieces in a pan,
that could be millions.
I've brought my wife and kids.
So, this needs
to work out well.
Sharp mother--
- You all right?
- Yeah.
This mountain is my life.
This is all he has.
He has no one else up here.
This place...
it's where my heart is.
Good to be with my buddy
in his home state of Nevada.
So, what do you know
about Miner Mike?
He's been at it
for a long time.
So, he's a seasoned miner.
Sometimes,
it takes us coming in
before they're
willing to shut down
for a day or two to fix stuff.
'Cause they just wanna
keep making gold, you know.
This might be our first
mine intervention, Juano.
Freddy and Juan are
in the Snake Mountain Range
south of Nevada's great basin,
en route to a struggling claim
run by veteran miner,
Mike Stephens.
Gold was discovered
here in the 1860s
by miners on their way
west to California.
Historically seen
as big gold's country,
in 1865,
a 25-pound gold nugget,
worth over half a million
dollars today,
was discovered a few miles
north of Mike's claim.
- It's beautiful here.
- I like it a lot.
Yeah.
For nearly three decades,
Mike has made a living
hunting nuggets here.
But struggles
of the past two seasons
threatened to sink more
than just his own livelihood.
- I'm Juan.
- Hi, Juan.
- Will Mercer.
- Will.
- Mike, nice to meet you.
- Will.
- Yes, sir.
- And Mike I assume.
Well, it's a cool-looking
little plant you got here.
Thank you,
it's a work in progress.
So is it just you two
guys out here right now?
- Right now, yes it is.
- Okay.
How much gold
have you done this year?
Well, we just
got started so far.
Bad year
would be hundred ounces.
We need
four ounces a day,
and we're just not getting it.
Well, this is
my 28th season up here.
You know,
there was nothing here.
I built this place
from experience.
I didn't open up a textbook.
No one told me how to do this.
It was all from experience.
The resulting operation
is all things that work.
What seemed to be the...
the main issues?
What do you need out of us?
Thanks for coming,
but right now...
we do a pretty good job
on catching everything
with about a two percent loss.
So, Will's the one
that called you in.
I'm on my second season
in Nevada with this great guy.
But, there's a lot of
things that I'm seeing
that need a lot of help.
Um, he doesn't want
to accept the fact that he's
probably throwing gold away.
He's real big
on catching nuggets.
I think we're not
focusing on the other gold
that we could be capturing.
Um, if there's any way
that we can get y'all
out here to give us a hand,
we could probably
get this thing dialed in
and make more money.
There's a lot of things that
I saw right when I got here
that I didn't even know
how to fix.
Oh, yeah.
I'm pretty sure that
- we're losing a lot of money.
- Okay.
Will joined
the operation two seasons ago.
Mike is
looking for a partner
to come up
and help him with his mine.
So, I contacted him and
next thing I know,
I brought my family
across the country
to do some mining.
When I got here, I saw
Mike needed help.
I could see
there's a lot of problems.
If Freddy and Juan
didn't come this week
to help to get his
mine more productive
and catching more gold,
I don't know that Mike would
be able to sustain mining.
And, you know, I get it.
But, you know,
I brought
my wife and kids, so...
that's a lot
of mouths to feed.
Well, you got
any of your gold with ya?
I do, I do, it's uh,
this stuff is near
and dear to me.
- So...
- We won't steal it, promise.
I'd like you
to see some of the...
some of the typical stuff
we get up here.
- Ah, it's beautiful.
- Very chunky.
Yeah, nice.
In the 28 years
I've been doing this...
I would put it the certainty
at about 100% that
I've thrown away
- a large nugget,
something very big.
- Mmm-hmm.
That would make my eyes water.
Concentrate on
your small stuff.
I'd rather have
a bucket of that, than...
Oh, yeah.
...a bucket of those,
to be honest with ya.
- That's real space.
- I'd rather have
a bucket of both.
Right. Yeah.
Well, show us
around your plant, guys.
Okay, how about
we start at the beginning?
Works for me.
I think that
when they see it...
they're going to
respect what I've done.
I do things
a little differently here
than most
placer operations do.
But, maybe Freddy and Juan
can figure a way out
to catch those nuggets.
This is my CAT 773 haul truck.
I think he's gonna be
a little guarded
because this is his baby.
This is all he has,
he has no one else up here.
He has his excavators,
his rock truck
and his trommel.
Cut 1,700 holes
in there with the torch.
Diamond shape seemed to
work best instead of round.
Does a really good job.
And I think
anyone trying to
make a change to it,
I think he might
be a little stubborn.
It used to be
gear-driven,
and a couple years ago,
14 teeth snapped off of it.
So, instead of trying
to repair that,
I just ripped the gear off
and then put a drive system in
- and driving it with a tire.
- Yeah.
So, that works great.
Well, what do you think?
Let's run it for four hours
and see how much gold you get.
- Hell, yeah.
- Let's do it.
Right on.
They may
see some things that
may not work in their minds,
but after a little bit of
explanation, I think that, uh,
Freddy, he might
learn something
from what I'm doing.
Now, I'm not a rookie.
And I believe
I know the ground.
I know how to catch gold.
Let's go!
Get some gold!
First bucket, Juan.
Hope we can get
lucky with some gold today.
Whoo-hoo!
Twenty eight years ago,
Mike gave up his job
as an electrician
to hunt for gold.
I was making good money,
insurance benefits
and whatnot.
Then I said, it's time to go.
It's time to stop this
for a little while.
You just take
a little vacation.
I drove through
this area and, uh,
uh, I started seeing
these mountains and
the very first thing
that came to my mind was...
there's gold there.
I decided I was gonna
make a living in these
mountains and you know,
I was gonna get
this gold that's in
the ground out of it.
It was a learning experience.
This is
the real deal out here.
There's nobody
standing behind ya
showing you how to do this
and I had to learn it all...
right from scratch.
Mike spent
nearly three decades
building this mine
into not just his livelihood,
but also his home.
This is my life,
what I do here.
I wanna keep doing it forever.
To live out in the country,
and look at God's creation
every day.
You know, I'm curious
to watch it run, Freddy.
There's a lot
of moving parts here.
Yeah. You know,
it's been around a while.
This may be a tough one.
- Yeah.
- You know,
without rebuilding
their plant.
It would take
us two-three weeks just
to get everything redone.
He's worried
he may be losing good nuggets.
We'd need to start
with what's going to
get him the most gold
in his pocket,
in the time that we're here.
Mike feeds pay dirt
into the 1940s
converted asphalt dryer
he uses as a trommel.
Large rocks pass out the end
where Will collects them
in a waiting dump truck.
The small material
caught by the trommel
passes down through
a series of pipes into a jig.
Anything smaller
than one-eighth of an inch,
should fall
through the jig screen
and into Mike's
first sluice run.
The larger material passes
into a nine-inch wide chute
which funnels into
a repurposed oil barrel.
Calling this
a de-watering barrel,
Mike punched
holes into the drum
so when it spins,
the material gets
broken up and dried out.
This finest material then
passes down through the holes
and into his last chance
sluice boxes.
You know,
it's a little rough, but...
you know, he's got it set up
the way he wants it.
Mike believes his
plant's still very productive,
but there's a lot
of problems, you know,
it's not that
Mike's stubborn, it's just,
"Hey, we'll get to it,
we'll get to it,
we'll get to it.
It's patch, patch, patch."
You know, just, "Let's go,
let's go, let's go."
It's a crap shoot.
We've been running this plant
for so many years,
there's so many
things worn out.
We fix them when we have time.
Look at that sluice
down there.
We're only here
for a week, so...
just trying to look
and see if there's any things
that we can, uh, help them
recover more gold with.
And he's doing
a pretty good job.
You know, honestly,
the big, chunky gold he has,
it's easy to catch.
- Easy to catch those nuggets.
- Yeah.
It's the fine gold
you gotta worry about.
So, maybe
the bottom boxes...
That little guy?
What are you thinking?
It's got
all nugget riffles in there.
They're just
plugged right solid.
Yeah. That's something
we're gonna have to address.
Just keep on looking.
This little chute here.
That really isn't
gonna do anything,
the way he's got it set up.
You know, with the amount of
water you got coming off here,
there's gotta be
some fine gold in there too.
Yeah, I would imagine so.
Pulling out
all kinds of big rock.
Big rock means big gold.
This de-watering trommel,
it's just getting packed up.
We can fix that.
We'll figure something out.
To keep those
holes cleaned out.
Keep them getting blinded up.
The de-watering
trommel spins water
off the wet rocks
and reroutes any material
that is 3/16th
of an inch or less
into the last chance sluice.
Anything larger
is sent up the conveyor
to the tailings pile.
I'll keep looking around,
you wanna start panning?
- Yeah, I'll take a look at it,
see what we're losing.
- Okay.
Juan will sample
the tailings out of the
de-watering trommel
where, if Mike's right about
catching 98% of his gold,
there should be
nothing but clean gravel.
And there's gold in it.
See, right there.
There's about four,
five, six,
seven, eight, nine...
nine pieces of gold.
One of them's
actually pretty sizeable.
The other eight,
they're not real big
but they're there.
It's a bad sign.
You know that
de-watering screen?
What we're doing there,
I think we're actually
creating kind of,
a muddy mass,
and we're actually pushing it
out the tailings conveyor.
We're never even
having a chance
to be able to sluice it.
Last bucket. One more.
Hoping to see
some big nuggets.
Come on, big gold.
Shut it down.
Now, Mike...
so I panned
some of your tailings
coming on that conveyor.
Out of one pan,
it was three-quarters full.
Had about nine pieces in it.
Freaking dumping gold.
They're little,
but they're there.
I'm shocked.
And, that's out of one pan.
- Whoa!
- We send pans
through, all day, every day.
Damn.
If there's nine pieces
in a pan going up,
that could be millions.
Heart-broken?
Don't be heart-broken,
that's why we're here, Mike.
Freddy and I, we're here,
we wanna help as best we can.
Uh, I'm just hoping
that he's gonna be
open to changes, you know.
What's going on, Mike?
Today was
quite a shocking day.
When I saw the gold
that was in the conveyor,
it's made my belly churn
a little bit.
Honestly,
you got a lot of it down.
You know, you've done a lot
of work out here,
and you did all this
with your money.
This mountain is my life.
And I put my heart
and soul into this place.
I met my ex-wife
and we got married.
So, I took her daughter
under my wing
and, uh, did the best
I could to be her father.
And, uh, you know,
I worked really hard
to be that...
that person in her life.
That was solid.
But when she was 19,
she passed away.
I'm sorry to hear that.
That's a tough thing,
man, that's a tough thing.
Shortly thereafter,
uh, I got divorced,
so, lost my wife,
lost my daughter.
So, this place...
it's where my heart is.
This has been my crutch.
- That's real.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Real. Man.
It's a big concern
that I've invested my life,
I've given up my career,
to be out here.
Like, right now, I need help.
Honestly, this mine's
more than just a mine for him.
This is what's holding him
together, this is his purpose.
This is his reason
for being right now, so...
we really gotta
pull out all the stops
and help him out
as much as we can.
Time to lay some gold up, huh?
Yeah, and this is the gold we
got from that four-hour run.
Dump her in.
To cover
the soaring cost of fuel,
repairs and make a profit...
There's some
chunky stuff in there.
... Mike needs around
four ounces per day.
And there's
some fine stuff too.
This four-hour
test must deliver
no less than two ounces.
There's 1.37.
Drop that guy in there too.
1.60.
We have some ideas.
One thing is, we know
we're losing fine gold
and we need
to focus on that, so,
it's not the most
ideal situation,
but I know you're worried
about your nuggets, right?
- Yeah.
- Those big nuggets
going off the end.
A guy I know...
he's a metal-detecting
professional.
I thought about
bringing him in to just
swing a metal detector
around your tailings piles
and see if he finds
a nice nugget there.
Sounds great.
- Sounds good.
- See you in a minute, guys.
You know my...
my deal structure with Mike
is I get a percentage of the
gold at the end of the season.
If he can't get his
mine more productive
in catching more gold,
eventually,
it's all gonna give.
It's truly, financially,
it's a burden.
Looking for lost nuggets,
- Freddy!
- How's it going, Steve?
Oh, man, great.
Freddy calls in
an old friend
and treasure hunter
to search hundreds of tones
of coarse tailings.
Mike, the claim owner here,
he is worried
and I can see why
that's he's losing
some substantial
size pieces of gold.
Okay, sure.
What I was hoping
you'd do, Steve, is uh,
get your detector
and start hitting
some of his tailings piles.
Sure. Yeah, I'd be more
than happy to.
I know you know
what you're doing, so...
- All right.
- ...I'll let you be
and let you get busy.
I have dug
some half-pound nuggets.
Metal detecting and, uh,
this machine will do
a fabulous job at that
if you just get over one.
That's what I would
call a screamer.
It's really loud.
Really obvious target.
It's exactly what a gold
nugget would sound like.
If Steve finds
nuggets in the tailings,
it will confirm Mike's fear
that his plant's allowing
nuggets to pass right through.
And where is it?
Okay, I got it in a scoop.
Okay, now it's not
in the scoop.
Put that down.
Back in the scoop and...
unfortunately...
in this case,
it was a shell casing.
While Steve
continues the hunt
for lost big gold,
Well, honestly Freddy,
there's...
there's a few things
we can do here.
Freddy and Juan
devise a plan
to capture the equally
valuable finer stuff.
He's got that little trough, right?
I think we, uh,
cut in to here,
make a wider sluice,
so that water is just deep
in there, right?
It's not catching any gold.
This de-watering trommel,
what do you think
about maybe putting
a spray bar or a jet in here?
- So it's blowing
through those holes.
- Absolutely.
No, I think that's good.
Then he's got
these little sluices here.
But he's got all
nugget riffles in there.
They're just
plugged right solid.
I think when you pull
the nugget riffles out,
get it set for fine gold.
'Cause even if they're losing
it here and here,
we get the opportunity
to catch it here after that,
that's the number one goal
right there.
Freddy and Juan
will target three key areas
where Mike
is losing fine gold.
The jig sends material
through a narrow
nice-inch chute.
A new 22-inch wide
sluice box will slow the water
and allow the gold to settle.
The holes in the de-watering
trommel block up,
letting gold pass out
onto the tailings conveyor.
A high-powered
spray bar will blast it
through the holes
in the barrel
and safely into
the sluices below.
The nugget riffles
on the sluices clog
causing gold
to wash over the top.
A new set of fine gold riffles
will prevent build up
and catch any gold brought
down from the barrel.
After seven hours searching...
How's it going, Steve?
... Steve delivers the result
from his nugget hunt.
Well, I think Mike's doing
a good job honestly, uh,
found a lot of goodies,
but none of it was
gold nuggets, unfortunately.
There might be
a lost nugget or two out
there, but there's not like,
- a pile of lost gold. No.
- Nothing to lose sleep over?
- No. I mean...
- Good, he'll be
happy to see that.
Steve not finding
a big piece of gold,
you know, that's the final
decision for me,
not to try to catch nuggets.
Thank you.
You know, thank you, Steve,
for not finding a nugget,
and I don't know that I'll
ever say that ever again.
With lost
nuggets ruled out...
Well, we came up with
a little bit of a game plan.
Freddy and Juan
propose their fixes.
You know, one of the big
issues that we did have
that we saw was
that material coming
off the end of the conveyor,
it had gold in it still.
Try losing some
of your smaller gold
off the end of the jig,
we got an opportunity
to catch it
with the new
sluice box right there.
Which now, you're so narrow,
it doesn't have much
of a chance to find a home.
So, we talked about it and...
you know, with everything
we're doing for you,
we'd like a...
two ounces of gold.
Well...
Each.
- Two ounces each?
- Two ounces each.
And that would
cover our expenses.
It's a tough choice,
but I'd say,
let's go, let's do it.
- Deal then.
- Sounds good, it's a deal.
- Let's do it.
- Appreciate it.
Well, we'll start working.
- Yes, sir, sounds good.
- Thank you. Thank you.
You know,
if I'm losing $50,000 a year,
well, that's substantial,
and over a 20-year period,
$50,000 a year
is a million bucks.
So, that's a good trade-off
for four ounces of gold,
and the price
of some material.
I don't know how much
longer that plant would run
the way Mike has it.
But he needs to make, you know
his last stand on this thing.
And right now, with Freddy
and Juan coming up,
I think that they'll help him
make that last stand
and get right back on track
where he needs to be.
What I'm doing is
designing the sluice box
that Freddy wants to build.
In the cut trailer,
Juan gets to work fabricating
the first of their fixes.
It's gonna be
a little different,
it's not just a regular
straight sluice box
it's gonna have a little bit
of a taper at the front.
A bespoke
22-inch fine gold sluice
to replace Mike's
narrow nine-inch chute.
You know, right now fuel costs
is just killing everyone.
But it's gone
to the point where
this extra percentage
could actually mean
the difference of him
eating or actually
putting fuel in the plant.
One thing you
wanna do with materials,
you can't let it
have its own way.
You gotta force it
into the situation
you want it into.
- Yeah, by funneling it.
- Especially with gold.
In eastern Nevada,
Freddy and Juan
are battling
a patched up plant.
It's kinda like
putting chutes in for cattle.
And a miner
who's set in his ways.
This may be a tough one.
Freddy's first fix,
converting Mike's
nine-inch steel chute
into a 22-inch
gold-catching sluice.
If we catch it here,
we don't have to worry
about losing it farther down.
Let's say if we make
that bottom in square...
then we got
rock wearing on rock
cause rocks are gonna build up
in these corners, right?
Then, when all those rocks
are coming down,
they're gonna hit that,
they're gonna go over and
down, but it's not wearing
your steel off that way.
- It's gonna wear
the rocks out.
- Yup.
- I love it.
- So, I'll go get started.
- Sounds good.
- Laying out material.
- Thank you, sir.
- Thank you.
Water is flowing too fast
through Mike's
narrow nine-inch chute,
giving the gold
no opportunity to be caught.
The new wider sluice
will allow the material
to fan out and slow down,
allowing gold to settle in the
new expanded metal riffles.
One of the things
that we really wanna focus on
is we wanna make sure
everything is completely
level and square and straight.
At the cut trailer,
the new sluice
is taking shape.
If there's any kind
of bows or bends,
what it'll do, it'll create
a spot for that gold to go
underneath and get lost.
These magnets are set up,
so they're a true 90.
You put 'em in,
you turn 'em on,
and it actually
holds your plate in place,
so that way you can weld it
and when you weld it,
you know it's 100%,
it's gonna be a 90 degree.
To make the angle
stay perfectly straight,
Juan has a clever trick.
So, what we're doing here...
we call these ribs,
but what this does...
is basically gives the box
itself a little more rigidity.
So that way,
when we're moving it,
or when it's on the plant
and it's turning,
it's twisting, you know,
it doesn't get distorted.
So by putting these ribs in,
it doesn't flex,
it doesn't move.
And there's no water
going underneath the sluice.
All right, we got
the last weld here.
Last weld, that was it.
Juan's up there
building that new sluice box
for this area right now.
I think he got the easy job,
me and Mike got the hard job.
Before they
can install the new sluice,
Freddy and Mike
must remove the old chute.
- Not moving at all.
- Mmm-hmm.
After 20 years,
the old chute is stuck firm.
- Felt like it moved that time.
- Didn't budge.
Shoot.
While Juan
waits for them to
remove the old chute...
Some things are nice,
you got your family
here with ya.
Oh, I love it.
I don't know how I'd be able
to do it out here all summer,
you know, without them.
He heads
to meet Will's family,
who traveled
2000 miles across the country
for a better life.
- Come on, Calvin.
- Hi.
Come say hi to Daddy.
Hi, Mr. Juan.
- Nice to meet you.
- How you doing?
Nice to meet you, too.
- Juan.
- Juan, Lauren.
- Nice to meet you, Lauren.
How you doing?
- Very nice to meet you.
- Andrew, Mr. Juan.
- Andrew, how you doing, bud?
- Good.
- Why don't you show
Mr. Juan what
you got going on?
The main reason
that I came out to mine is...
because of my son, Andrew.
Maybe he could fix
your sluice box too.
- What have you got going on?
- Hey, bud.
He has cystic fibrosis.
It's a genetic lung disease
and it's hard on his lungs.
- I just crushed up this.
- Mama.
You crushed it?
How'd you crush it?
The average
life expectancy right now
in the US is about 42.
As a parent,
when you get a
diagnosis like this,
specially something
you don't fully understand,
it hits you hard.
Can I take a look at your pan?
Yes.
On the surface,
he's a happy six-year-old,
ready to get out and enjoy
life, run, jump, play.
But, you know, if Andrew
catches a cold or the flu,
it could lead to permanent
lung damage in his lungs.
Since birth, Andrew
has needed daily treatment.
But the clean Nevada air
has made a big difference.
Since coming
back from, um, last year,
his lungs were crystal clear.
The doctors were
just ecstatic, as were we.
And that's why we knew...
we're gonna continue
this gold mining.
Andrew's got his rock crusher
that he can
do his gold panning,
and find that gold
like his daddy does 'cause...
he looks up to everything
that Will does
and wants to be just like him.
I just trickle it on there.
This gold is actually
the heaviest
so that means
the water can't carry it.
- Or all the dirt will go down.
- That's right.
Cystic fibrosis is a very,
um, expensive disease.
- Nice to meet you, bud.
- Good.
There are
a lot of doctor visits,
there is a lot of medications
he takes in a days' time,
twenty-five pills roughly
that help, you know,
keep his lungs
as healthy as possible.
Bye.
I got four littles ones and...
you know, really,
what we do is for them.
You know, so I totally get
what you're doing now.
Makes a lot more sense.
Yeah, who else is crazy enough
to drag their family
across the country?
It's amazing what he's
doing out here with his son
and honestly,
it's helping his son's health.
To me, that's one
of the most noble things
he could be doing.
Andrew's a great kid.
I'm gonna talk to Freddy,
see what we can do
'cause now I wanna do
something special for him.
Perfect.
Hey, Juano.
Give it a shot, huh?
With two
build days remaining,
it's all hands on deck
to install the new sluice box
in the 20-year-old system.
Well, it's gonna be sad
to see that old girl go,
but out with the old,
in with the new.
We didn't
wanna cut it out till
we had it safely secured.
'Cause if we'd have just
cut it loose before,
it would have just fell before
we would have tied on to it.
So, we gotta get it done safe.
- All right, it's got
tension on it, Freddy.
- Okay.
Ready to cut?
- Coming up.
- Let's fly this kite.
Bye-bye, baby.
There's Mike over there
saying goodbye to his baby.
Oh.
That's part
of his life right there.
It just got taken away.
Nice knowing ya.
You know how many patches
we put in the damn thing?
Let's just get in there
see what it looks like.
Cross your fingers,
let's hope it fits.
Whoa! Oh, oh, oh!
Pull that in that way.
Give it a push
into that corner over there.
It's almost there.
There it is.
The eagle has landed.
Let's weld it.
- Take it down just a smidge.
- I did.
- Right there.
- You're too high.
- Bring it down just a--
- Mike, I'm looking
right at the top of it.
Okay.
- You happy, Will?
- Yes.
Lock it in right there.
Bingo!
Ready to put
some dirt through this thing.
Well, no matter what,
we've got a lot
to get done today.
It's the last day here we can
work on stuff and...
you know, we're behind
schedule as it is.
All we can
do now is just press on.
And just work, work, work.
With just 24 hours to go,
Freddy needs to complete
the de-watering fix.
Fishing.
I'm gonna throw it
right there.
What we're gonna try to do
is get some more water
into that de-watering screen.
I know it sounds crazy
but by getting
more water into it,
it's gonna clean
that material better,
and hopefully get it to those
lower sluice boxes
we're gonna modify,
instead of it going
up in the conveyor
into the tailings pile.
The holes
in the de-watering trommel
are packed with debris
allowing fine gold
to escape up the conveyor.
Freddy and Juan's fix
adds a high-powered spray bar
to keep water flowing,
cleaning material
and the punch plate
at the same time.
There is no chance
of catching that piece of gold
if it hits that conveyor.
But if we can get it before
it hits that conveyor,
it's in these guys' pocket.
Gotta put some spurs on.
Back to my rodeo days.
Back when I was barrel racing.
Freddy's first step,
weld a bracket
to mount the spray bar
inside the
free-spinning barrel.
Gonna weld the stand there.
Long range welding.
Don't roll in.
Sharp mother--
When you guys
retire this drum,
you can sell it
to a razor blade company.
I can't say, it's, uh,
super uncomfortable
but I've been a heck
of a lot more comfortable.
Well, one more job done.
Spray bar installed,
Freddy connects it
to Mike's water supply.
Lots of stuff to do.
We gotta cut into his
main line, put a valve on it.
Get a hose up there
and get it hooked up.
So when we fire this plant
back up, it's ready to go.
- Well, you wanna cut that?
- Yeah, definitely.
So, you enjoying it
out in the west?
Oh, yeah,
I love it out here.
I mean, Mike has been a wealth
of knowledge, you know,
and what I've
learned in the last
few years with him is...
feel like I can go
to the Yukon
and just strike it big.
Nah.
Stick with this spot.
- Yeah, I like it here.
- Yeah.
- There she is.
- Yeah.
Plumbing complete,
it's time to get back
on the horse
for the finishing touches.
- Got some glue?
- Yes, sir.
We'll get this on there.
Kinda see where it's at now.
- What do you think?
- Yeah, make sure
it clears.
I think it's going to.
- We're clearing that?
- Yeah,
we're gonna clear.
- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah, we're good.
I like it.
- Perfect fix.
- Perfect, man.
Only a few hours
of daylight remaining.
Freddy rushes to
complete his final fix
on the end sluices.
Well, right now,
we're running
out of time in here.
We got a lot
of stuff to get done
so we can fire
this plant up for
another four-hour test run.
So we're gonna tune these up
with some fine gold riffles.
The nugget
riffles in Mike's final
chance sluice run
quickly pack up,
allowing gold to
wash over the top.
A new set of fine gold riffles
made from expanded metal,
will prevent that build up
and catch any gold
brought down from the barrel.
Do you have
those heavy Hungarian
riffles that are made...
that are made
for coarser material, right?
What those were doing is
they were blinding over on ya.
So whatever gold
you were catching in here,
you were probably
catching the first day.
And then, after that,
the thing
locked up on you like concrete
and then any gold
you would have caught in here
is now in your tailings pile.
So, this will alleviate that.
Win, win, win, win, win.
It's been awesome
to see those guys
find all the problems in
someone's plant and operation
and not embarrass 'em,
but show 'em
a good, easy, solid fix.
Eyeballs.
You know,
seeing the passion
that they have for it
and seeing that they truly...
do care to try to help
us capture more gold, I mean,
it's absolutely been amazing.
- How's it look?
- Actually, that
one's not square.
We're working
late tonight 'cause...
there's more to this
than what we initially thought
like just cutting
that stuff out.
Coming along
all right down there?
Little by little,
it's kind of, uh,
- small.
- Yeah.
You burn yourself in one spot
to weld to burn your plants
off in another spot.
Oh, yeah.
You look at it and you think,
"I can do that in two hours."
Four hours later, you're still
screwing with it,
trying to tear it apart.
- You all right?
- Yeah.
We gotta get it done.
'Cause tomorrow's
judgement day to see if
what we've done here is gonna
work or not gonna work.
Gold mining is thirsty work,
and lucky for Andrew,
there's only one stand
in town.
- How you doing, buddy?
- Hi, Mr. Freddy,
hi, Mr. Juan.
- Hey, bud.
- Bump.
- How you doin' buddy?
- Hey, buddy.
All right, tell them
what you're selling today.
- AU Lemonade.
- What? Lemonade?
You probably don't get
many visitors out here, huh?
So what's "AU" stand for?
- Gold.
- Gold! That's right,
give me five!
- There you go.
- Knuckle-buster.
- There you go.
- Attaboy.
I'll take
the yellow lemonade.
- All different...
- I'll take one of everything.
Excellent.
Do you take
debit card, Andrew?
No, but you
can give me some gold.
I'll tell you what,
here you go.
- Thank you, sir.
- Oh, my goodness.
What do you say?
- Thank you, sir.
- Thank you.
- Bye, guys.
- Bye, buddy.
- Thank you, pleasure
to meet you guys.
- Bye.
Don't drink too much of that,
okay, Calvin?
World's most
remote lemonade stand.
You know, we've had
to go shut down for
a couple days now but...
- Yes, you have.
- I'm hoping that...
you know,
the improvements we made
are gonna help you guys out.
It's the
final day on Freddy
and Juan's mine intervention.
Time to see if their fixes
can rescue Mike's dream.
You know, it's our goal that
the increased recovery will
make up for it in short order.
- I'm really looking forward
to seeing the results of it.
- Yup.
Right here, we teed
into your existing water line.
Now, we've got water
going into that
de-watering barrel.
So, it will wash that material
more and hopefully,
keep that gold
from going up that conveyor
and gone forever.
Well, before, guys,
you had some riffles in here
but it wasn't really a sluice
box, it was a chute.
It was a good chute
to transfer material,
but it was also
transferring the gold
to go up that conveyor, right?
We actually
built you a new sluice run.
Every chance
we can give that gold
to get settled out
and get trapped,
we want to make sure
we can do that,
and that's what
we're doing with that sluice.
Yeah, we're looking
forward to seeing what that
sluice box actually gives us.
Well, in that little
sluice down there, guys,
the riffles you had in it,
were the wrong riffle
for that type of material.
We simplified it,
and we've got a riffle
configuration in there now
that's gonna go
after that fine gold.
I'm looking forward to those
green mats turning yellow.
Well, really guys,
there's only one
thing left to do, huh?
- Run, run, run.
- Let's run it.
- Let's fire it up.
- Run, run, run.
- Fire it up!
- Let's do it.
All right, firing up.
There it is.
- Started our run.
- Four hours.
Hope we can get lucky
with some gold today.
Whoo-hoo!
First bucket, huh?
- First bucket.
- This site is ready.
Yee-haw!
Done first scoop
with his new riffles.
Boldly put this dirt
where no dirt has gone before.
So we built
the real sluice box here.
Now the gold that's
getting by that jig,
has a fighting chance.
As long as it's got
a fighting chance,
we've got
a chance to catch it.
Well, the final chance sluices
are running
a hell of a lot better
than they were before.
You can see them
doing their job now.
You can
actually see in the drum.
How the drum
from halfway over...
- Clean. Yup.
- ...it's a little cleaner.
And look at the material,
a bit cleaner.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
You can see it
right now, it's visible.
It's already clean.
Compared to what
the drum was before,
- it was completely brown,
the whole thing.
- Yeah. Yup.
Moment of truth.
I'm gonna take a pan.
- Can it?
- Juan took it there.
- We'll see what's in it.
- Right off the conveyor.
Well, let's go pan this, guys.
It sounds counterproductive
because of
the watering trommel.
But what it's doing
is help break up
the rest of that
material up and get it down.
Get it screened.
Rather lose
a little water
than a lot of gold.
Yeah, for sure.
The first test run
showed Mike
was hemorrhaging gold
with nine pieces
in just a single pan.
Not a speck of gold.
No. No gold.
Juano.
- Way better.
- That's all you wanna
see right there.
I'm happy with that.
- Yeah.
- Extremely happy.
'Cause you have
to make the material
do what you want it to to.
You have to force it to do it.
If you let it go on its own,
it's gonna do
whatever it's gonna do.
I'd say y'all did it.
What Freddy just
pulled off the conveyor,
I mean, it's a complete
game changer.
Mike, last bucket! Four hours!
Last bucket!
Moment of truth.
So, how does it look?
- It looks good.
- Yeah?
The results
of this test
will determine if Freddy
and Juan's fixes
have successfully
secured Mike and
Will's future here.
If we get a 10% increase,
I'll really be happy.
It'll also
make me sad because...
we've been throwing
some gold away.
This is what we got
in the four-hour run.
Okay.
And once again,
we got a nice, flat nugget
that didn't fit in the vial,
so I'm just gonna
pour it in there what we got
in the four-hour run,
a little bit better material.
The first test
delivered 1.6 ounces.
Anything more than two ounces,
promises a profit.
2.20.
2.2 ounces.
A 37% increase
on the first run,
- over a 100-day season.
- Whoo-hoo!
This could
deliver Mike 440 ounces,
worth over three-quarters
of a million dollars.
I am so happy
with you guys coming up here
and the work you did.
You're gonna
make us a lot of money
in the long run
with this stuff.
That's right.
That's gonna be a windfall.
It's fabulous.
I'm so happy for it.
And now we've got a better
outlook on the future.
It's gonna help
keep us afloat.
I think it's
absolutely amazing.
I mean, y'all took something
made an adjustment,
and it's proof
right there that, I mean,
it's gonna change our season.
When I work with Mike,
you know we have a partnership
on this mine and...
just that increase in gold
by the end of the year,
what I'll see different,
it's gonna be a big change,
it's really gonna
make life a lot easier.
It's amazing.
And I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- Thank you.
Well, Andrew, I think
Freddy's got a little
bit of a gift for you, bud.
- Ready, Juan?
- Yeah, let's pull it out.
This is your wash plant.
- Your wash plant.
This was Juan's idea.
- It's got your name on it.
- Know what that says?
Andrew.
- Yeah!
- Yeah, it does.
- Give Juan five on that one.
- Here you go, buddy.
I think at first
he was almost speechless,
'cause he wasn't sure
what to expect, but...
once they explained to him
exactly what it is
and how to use it,
he can't wait to start running
some paydirt through it.
If Mike's trommel
happens to break down,
I'd lease him this for like...
a hundred dollars an hour.
so you can keep
making gold out here.
With my new wash plant,
I'll find so much gold.
I'll find more gold
than Mr. Mike.
Right on, buddy.
It's your own wash plant.
Thank y'all very much.
- You're welcome.
- No problem, man.
Absolutely a pleasure.
In the last
few days that Freddy
and Juan have been here,
it's just been
absolutely amazing.
For what Mike
has going on up here,
I think it's gonna
change his outlook
on the production
of this mine.
I'm glad Juan and
Freddy answered my call
to get them to come up here.
- Well, you guys take care.
- Bye guys, appreciate it.
- We're outta here.
- Thank you,
thanks again.
- Hey, I appreciate it.
- Y'all be safe.
Well, what we've
done for 'em this week is, uh,
we've emphasized
on catching more
of that fine gold.
Thanks, guys.
See ya. Good luck.
Where these guys
were... were losing
quite a percentage
of it in the past but, uh,
you know,
we got the plant tuned up.
What that means
is more gold in his pocket,
means more
money in his pocket.
It has been
an emotional week.
It's a tough life.
And I've had
a few issues that
I've had to deal with
but thank God
I have this place.
And it's helped
me make it through
some of the difficult times.
Man, I'm sure glad
Will's called Freddy and Juan.
And the changes that they made
are awesome.
And it's gonna
help us stay afloat.
Thank you, Freddy and Juan.
You helped me out
and you taught an
old dog some new tricks.
what I'm doing here
needs to be addressed.
This may be a tough one.
Yee-haw!
When I got here, I saw
Mike needed help.
I think Freddy, he might learn
something from what I'm doing.
You know, I'm curious
to watch it run, Freddy.
There's a lot
of moving parts here.
So, there's about four,
five, six, seven,
eight, nine pieces of gold.
It's a bad sign.
If there's
nine pieces in a pan,
that could be millions.
I've brought my wife and kids.
So, this needs
to work out well.
Sharp mother--
- You all right?
- Yeah.
This mountain is my life.
This is all he has.
He has no one else up here.
This place...
it's where my heart is.
Good to be with my buddy
in his home state of Nevada.
So, what do you know
about Miner Mike?
He's been at it
for a long time.
So, he's a seasoned miner.
Sometimes,
it takes us coming in
before they're
willing to shut down
for a day or two to fix stuff.
'Cause they just wanna
keep making gold, you know.
This might be our first
mine intervention, Juano.
Freddy and Juan are
in the Snake Mountain Range
south of Nevada's great basin,
en route to a struggling claim
run by veteran miner,
Mike Stephens.
Gold was discovered
here in the 1860s
by miners on their way
west to California.
Historically seen
as big gold's country,
in 1865,
a 25-pound gold nugget,
worth over half a million
dollars today,
was discovered a few miles
north of Mike's claim.
- It's beautiful here.
- I like it a lot.
Yeah.
For nearly three decades,
Mike has made a living
hunting nuggets here.
But struggles
of the past two seasons
threatened to sink more
than just his own livelihood.
- I'm Juan.
- Hi, Juan.
- Will Mercer.
- Will.
- Mike, nice to meet you.
- Will.
- Yes, sir.
- And Mike I assume.
Well, it's a cool-looking
little plant you got here.
Thank you,
it's a work in progress.
So is it just you two
guys out here right now?
- Right now, yes it is.
- Okay.
How much gold
have you done this year?
Well, we just
got started so far.
Bad year
would be hundred ounces.
We need
four ounces a day,
and we're just not getting it.
Well, this is
my 28th season up here.
You know,
there was nothing here.
I built this place
from experience.
I didn't open up a textbook.
No one told me how to do this.
It was all from experience.
The resulting operation
is all things that work.
What seemed to be the...
the main issues?
What do you need out of us?
Thanks for coming,
but right now...
we do a pretty good job
on catching everything
with about a two percent loss.
So, Will's the one
that called you in.
I'm on my second season
in Nevada with this great guy.
But, there's a lot of
things that I'm seeing
that need a lot of help.
Um, he doesn't want
to accept the fact that he's
probably throwing gold away.
He's real big
on catching nuggets.
I think we're not
focusing on the other gold
that we could be capturing.
Um, if there's any way
that we can get y'all
out here to give us a hand,
we could probably
get this thing dialed in
and make more money.
There's a lot of things that
I saw right when I got here
that I didn't even know
how to fix.
Oh, yeah.
I'm pretty sure that
- we're losing a lot of money.
- Okay.
Will joined
the operation two seasons ago.
Mike is
looking for a partner
to come up
and help him with his mine.
So, I contacted him and
next thing I know,
I brought my family
across the country
to do some mining.
When I got here, I saw
Mike needed help.
I could see
there's a lot of problems.
If Freddy and Juan
didn't come this week
to help to get his
mine more productive
and catching more gold,
I don't know that Mike would
be able to sustain mining.
And, you know, I get it.
But, you know,
I brought
my wife and kids, so...
that's a lot
of mouths to feed.
Well, you got
any of your gold with ya?
I do, I do, it's uh,
this stuff is near
and dear to me.
- So...
- We won't steal it, promise.
I'd like you
to see some of the...
some of the typical stuff
we get up here.
- Ah, it's beautiful.
- Very chunky.
Yeah, nice.
In the 28 years
I've been doing this...
I would put it the certainty
at about 100% that
I've thrown away
- a large nugget,
something very big.
- Mmm-hmm.
That would make my eyes water.
Concentrate on
your small stuff.
I'd rather have
a bucket of that, than...
Oh, yeah.
...a bucket of those,
to be honest with ya.
- That's real space.
- I'd rather have
a bucket of both.
Right. Yeah.
Well, show us
around your plant, guys.
Okay, how about
we start at the beginning?
Works for me.
I think that
when they see it...
they're going to
respect what I've done.
I do things
a little differently here
than most
placer operations do.
But, maybe Freddy and Juan
can figure a way out
to catch those nuggets.
This is my CAT 773 haul truck.
I think he's gonna be
a little guarded
because this is his baby.
This is all he has,
he has no one else up here.
He has his excavators,
his rock truck
and his trommel.
Cut 1,700 holes
in there with the torch.
Diamond shape seemed to
work best instead of round.
Does a really good job.
And I think
anyone trying to
make a change to it,
I think he might
be a little stubborn.
It used to be
gear-driven,
and a couple years ago,
14 teeth snapped off of it.
So, instead of trying
to repair that,
I just ripped the gear off
and then put a drive system in
- and driving it with a tire.
- Yeah.
So, that works great.
Well, what do you think?
Let's run it for four hours
and see how much gold you get.
- Hell, yeah.
- Let's do it.
Right on.
They may
see some things that
may not work in their minds,
but after a little bit of
explanation, I think that, uh,
Freddy, he might
learn something
from what I'm doing.
Now, I'm not a rookie.
And I believe
I know the ground.
I know how to catch gold.
Let's go!
Get some gold!
First bucket, Juan.
Hope we can get
lucky with some gold today.
Whoo-hoo!
Twenty eight years ago,
Mike gave up his job
as an electrician
to hunt for gold.
I was making good money,
insurance benefits
and whatnot.
Then I said, it's time to go.
It's time to stop this
for a little while.
You just take
a little vacation.
I drove through
this area and, uh,
uh, I started seeing
these mountains and
the very first thing
that came to my mind was...
there's gold there.
I decided I was gonna
make a living in these
mountains and you know,
I was gonna get
this gold that's in
the ground out of it.
It was a learning experience.
This is
the real deal out here.
There's nobody
standing behind ya
showing you how to do this
and I had to learn it all...
right from scratch.
Mike spent
nearly three decades
building this mine
into not just his livelihood,
but also his home.
This is my life,
what I do here.
I wanna keep doing it forever.
To live out in the country,
and look at God's creation
every day.
You know, I'm curious
to watch it run, Freddy.
There's a lot
of moving parts here.
Yeah. You know,
it's been around a while.
This may be a tough one.
- Yeah.
- You know,
without rebuilding
their plant.
It would take
us two-three weeks just
to get everything redone.
He's worried
he may be losing good nuggets.
We'd need to start
with what's going to
get him the most gold
in his pocket,
in the time that we're here.
Mike feeds pay dirt
into the 1940s
converted asphalt dryer
he uses as a trommel.
Large rocks pass out the end
where Will collects them
in a waiting dump truck.
The small material
caught by the trommel
passes down through
a series of pipes into a jig.
Anything smaller
than one-eighth of an inch,
should fall
through the jig screen
and into Mike's
first sluice run.
The larger material passes
into a nine-inch wide chute
which funnels into
a repurposed oil barrel.
Calling this
a de-watering barrel,
Mike punched
holes into the drum
so when it spins,
the material gets
broken up and dried out.
This finest material then
passes down through the holes
and into his last chance
sluice boxes.
You know,
it's a little rough, but...
you know, he's got it set up
the way he wants it.
Mike believes his
plant's still very productive,
but there's a lot
of problems, you know,
it's not that
Mike's stubborn, it's just,
"Hey, we'll get to it,
we'll get to it,
we'll get to it.
It's patch, patch, patch."
You know, just, "Let's go,
let's go, let's go."
It's a crap shoot.
We've been running this plant
for so many years,
there's so many
things worn out.
We fix them when we have time.
Look at that sluice
down there.
We're only here
for a week, so...
just trying to look
and see if there's any things
that we can, uh, help them
recover more gold with.
And he's doing
a pretty good job.
You know, honestly,
the big, chunky gold he has,
it's easy to catch.
- Easy to catch those nuggets.
- Yeah.
It's the fine gold
you gotta worry about.
So, maybe
the bottom boxes...
That little guy?
What are you thinking?
It's got
all nugget riffles in there.
They're just
plugged right solid.
Yeah. That's something
we're gonna have to address.
Just keep on looking.
This little chute here.
That really isn't
gonna do anything,
the way he's got it set up.
You know, with the amount of
water you got coming off here,
there's gotta be
some fine gold in there too.
Yeah, I would imagine so.
Pulling out
all kinds of big rock.
Big rock means big gold.
This de-watering trommel,
it's just getting packed up.
We can fix that.
We'll figure something out.
To keep those
holes cleaned out.
Keep them getting blinded up.
The de-watering
trommel spins water
off the wet rocks
and reroutes any material
that is 3/16th
of an inch or less
into the last chance sluice.
Anything larger
is sent up the conveyor
to the tailings pile.
I'll keep looking around,
you wanna start panning?
- Yeah, I'll take a look at it,
see what we're losing.
- Okay.
Juan will sample
the tailings out of the
de-watering trommel
where, if Mike's right about
catching 98% of his gold,
there should be
nothing but clean gravel.
And there's gold in it.
See, right there.
There's about four,
five, six,
seven, eight, nine...
nine pieces of gold.
One of them's
actually pretty sizeable.
The other eight,
they're not real big
but they're there.
It's a bad sign.
You know that
de-watering screen?
What we're doing there,
I think we're actually
creating kind of,
a muddy mass,
and we're actually pushing it
out the tailings conveyor.
We're never even
having a chance
to be able to sluice it.
Last bucket. One more.
Hoping to see
some big nuggets.
Come on, big gold.
Shut it down.
Now, Mike...
so I panned
some of your tailings
coming on that conveyor.
Out of one pan,
it was three-quarters full.
Had about nine pieces in it.
Freaking dumping gold.
They're little,
but they're there.
I'm shocked.
And, that's out of one pan.
- Whoa!
- We send pans
through, all day, every day.
Damn.
If there's nine pieces
in a pan going up,
that could be millions.
Heart-broken?
Don't be heart-broken,
that's why we're here, Mike.
Freddy and I, we're here,
we wanna help as best we can.
Uh, I'm just hoping
that he's gonna be
open to changes, you know.
What's going on, Mike?
Today was
quite a shocking day.
When I saw the gold
that was in the conveyor,
it's made my belly churn
a little bit.
Honestly,
you got a lot of it down.
You know, you've done a lot
of work out here,
and you did all this
with your money.
This mountain is my life.
And I put my heart
and soul into this place.
I met my ex-wife
and we got married.
So, I took her daughter
under my wing
and, uh, did the best
I could to be her father.
And, uh, you know,
I worked really hard
to be that...
that person in her life.
That was solid.
But when she was 19,
she passed away.
I'm sorry to hear that.
That's a tough thing,
man, that's a tough thing.
Shortly thereafter,
uh, I got divorced,
so, lost my wife,
lost my daughter.
So, this place...
it's where my heart is.
This has been my crutch.
- That's real.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Real. Man.
It's a big concern
that I've invested my life,
I've given up my career,
to be out here.
Like, right now, I need help.
Honestly, this mine's
more than just a mine for him.
This is what's holding him
together, this is his purpose.
This is his reason
for being right now, so...
we really gotta
pull out all the stops
and help him out
as much as we can.
Time to lay some gold up, huh?
Yeah, and this is the gold we
got from that four-hour run.
Dump her in.
To cover
the soaring cost of fuel,
repairs and make a profit...
There's some
chunky stuff in there.
... Mike needs around
four ounces per day.
And there's
some fine stuff too.
This four-hour
test must deliver
no less than two ounces.
There's 1.37.
Drop that guy in there too.
1.60.
We have some ideas.
One thing is, we know
we're losing fine gold
and we need
to focus on that, so,
it's not the most
ideal situation,
but I know you're worried
about your nuggets, right?
- Yeah.
- Those big nuggets
going off the end.
A guy I know...
he's a metal-detecting
professional.
I thought about
bringing him in to just
swing a metal detector
around your tailings piles
and see if he finds
a nice nugget there.
Sounds great.
- Sounds good.
- See you in a minute, guys.
You know my...
my deal structure with Mike
is I get a percentage of the
gold at the end of the season.
If he can't get his
mine more productive
in catching more gold,
eventually,
it's all gonna give.
It's truly, financially,
it's a burden.
Looking for lost nuggets,
- Freddy!
- How's it going, Steve?
Oh, man, great.
Freddy calls in
an old friend
and treasure hunter
to search hundreds of tones
of coarse tailings.
Mike, the claim owner here,
he is worried
and I can see why
that's he's losing
some substantial
size pieces of gold.
Okay, sure.
What I was hoping
you'd do, Steve, is uh,
get your detector
and start hitting
some of his tailings piles.
Sure. Yeah, I'd be more
than happy to.
I know you know
what you're doing, so...
- All right.
- ...I'll let you be
and let you get busy.
I have dug
some half-pound nuggets.
Metal detecting and, uh,
this machine will do
a fabulous job at that
if you just get over one.
That's what I would
call a screamer.
It's really loud.
Really obvious target.
It's exactly what a gold
nugget would sound like.
If Steve finds
nuggets in the tailings,
it will confirm Mike's fear
that his plant's allowing
nuggets to pass right through.
And where is it?
Okay, I got it in a scoop.
Okay, now it's not
in the scoop.
Put that down.
Back in the scoop and...
unfortunately...
in this case,
it was a shell casing.
While Steve
continues the hunt
for lost big gold,
Well, honestly Freddy,
there's...
there's a few things
we can do here.
Freddy and Juan
devise a plan
to capture the equally
valuable finer stuff.
He's got that little trough, right?
I think we, uh,
cut in to here,
make a wider sluice,
so that water is just deep
in there, right?
It's not catching any gold.
This de-watering trommel,
what do you think
about maybe putting
a spray bar or a jet in here?
- So it's blowing
through those holes.
- Absolutely.
No, I think that's good.
Then he's got
these little sluices here.
But he's got all
nugget riffles in there.
They're just
plugged right solid.
I think when you pull
the nugget riffles out,
get it set for fine gold.
'Cause even if they're losing
it here and here,
we get the opportunity
to catch it here after that,
that's the number one goal
right there.
Freddy and Juan
will target three key areas
where Mike
is losing fine gold.
The jig sends material
through a narrow
nice-inch chute.
A new 22-inch wide
sluice box will slow the water
and allow the gold to settle.
The holes in the de-watering
trommel block up,
letting gold pass out
onto the tailings conveyor.
A high-powered
spray bar will blast it
through the holes
in the barrel
and safely into
the sluices below.
The nugget riffles
on the sluices clog
causing gold
to wash over the top.
A new set of fine gold riffles
will prevent build up
and catch any gold brought
down from the barrel.
After seven hours searching...
How's it going, Steve?
... Steve delivers the result
from his nugget hunt.
Well, I think Mike's doing
a good job honestly, uh,
found a lot of goodies,
but none of it was
gold nuggets, unfortunately.
There might be
a lost nugget or two out
there, but there's not like,
- a pile of lost gold. No.
- Nothing to lose sleep over?
- No. I mean...
- Good, he'll be
happy to see that.
Steve not finding
a big piece of gold,
you know, that's the final
decision for me,
not to try to catch nuggets.
Thank you.
You know, thank you, Steve,
for not finding a nugget,
and I don't know that I'll
ever say that ever again.
With lost
nuggets ruled out...
Well, we came up with
a little bit of a game plan.
Freddy and Juan
propose their fixes.
You know, one of the big
issues that we did have
that we saw was
that material coming
off the end of the conveyor,
it had gold in it still.
Try losing some
of your smaller gold
off the end of the jig,
we got an opportunity
to catch it
with the new
sluice box right there.
Which now, you're so narrow,
it doesn't have much
of a chance to find a home.
So, we talked about it and...
you know, with everything
we're doing for you,
we'd like a...
two ounces of gold.
Well...
Each.
- Two ounces each?
- Two ounces each.
And that would
cover our expenses.
It's a tough choice,
but I'd say,
let's go, let's do it.
- Deal then.
- Sounds good, it's a deal.
- Let's do it.
- Appreciate it.
Well, we'll start working.
- Yes, sir, sounds good.
- Thank you. Thank you.
You know,
if I'm losing $50,000 a year,
well, that's substantial,
and over a 20-year period,
$50,000 a year
is a million bucks.
So, that's a good trade-off
for four ounces of gold,
and the price
of some material.
I don't know how much
longer that plant would run
the way Mike has it.
But he needs to make, you know
his last stand on this thing.
And right now, with Freddy
and Juan coming up,
I think that they'll help him
make that last stand
and get right back on track
where he needs to be.
What I'm doing is
designing the sluice box
that Freddy wants to build.
In the cut trailer,
Juan gets to work fabricating
the first of their fixes.
It's gonna be
a little different,
it's not just a regular
straight sluice box
it's gonna have a little bit
of a taper at the front.
A bespoke
22-inch fine gold sluice
to replace Mike's
narrow nine-inch chute.
You know, right now fuel costs
is just killing everyone.
But it's gone
to the point where
this extra percentage
could actually mean
the difference of him
eating or actually
putting fuel in the plant.
One thing you
wanna do with materials,
you can't let it
have its own way.
You gotta force it
into the situation
you want it into.
- Yeah, by funneling it.
- Especially with gold.
In eastern Nevada,
Freddy and Juan
are battling
a patched up plant.
It's kinda like
putting chutes in for cattle.
And a miner
who's set in his ways.
This may be a tough one.
Freddy's first fix,
converting Mike's
nine-inch steel chute
into a 22-inch
gold-catching sluice.
If we catch it here,
we don't have to worry
about losing it farther down.
Let's say if we make
that bottom in square...
then we got
rock wearing on rock
cause rocks are gonna build up
in these corners, right?
Then, when all those rocks
are coming down,
they're gonna hit that,
they're gonna go over and
down, but it's not wearing
your steel off that way.
- It's gonna wear
the rocks out.
- Yup.
- I love it.
- So, I'll go get started.
- Sounds good.
- Laying out material.
- Thank you, sir.
- Thank you.
Water is flowing too fast
through Mike's
narrow nine-inch chute,
giving the gold
no opportunity to be caught.
The new wider sluice
will allow the material
to fan out and slow down,
allowing gold to settle in the
new expanded metal riffles.
One of the things
that we really wanna focus on
is we wanna make sure
everything is completely
level and square and straight.
At the cut trailer,
the new sluice
is taking shape.
If there's any kind
of bows or bends,
what it'll do, it'll create
a spot for that gold to go
underneath and get lost.
These magnets are set up,
so they're a true 90.
You put 'em in,
you turn 'em on,
and it actually
holds your plate in place,
so that way you can weld it
and when you weld it,
you know it's 100%,
it's gonna be a 90 degree.
To make the angle
stay perfectly straight,
Juan has a clever trick.
So, what we're doing here...
we call these ribs,
but what this does...
is basically gives the box
itself a little more rigidity.
So that way,
when we're moving it,
or when it's on the plant
and it's turning,
it's twisting, you know,
it doesn't get distorted.
So by putting these ribs in,
it doesn't flex,
it doesn't move.
And there's no water
going underneath the sluice.
All right, we got
the last weld here.
Last weld, that was it.
Juan's up there
building that new sluice box
for this area right now.
I think he got the easy job,
me and Mike got the hard job.
Before they
can install the new sluice,
Freddy and Mike
must remove the old chute.
- Not moving at all.
- Mmm-hmm.
After 20 years,
the old chute is stuck firm.
- Felt like it moved that time.
- Didn't budge.
Shoot.
While Juan
waits for them to
remove the old chute...
Some things are nice,
you got your family
here with ya.
Oh, I love it.
I don't know how I'd be able
to do it out here all summer,
you know, without them.
He heads
to meet Will's family,
who traveled
2000 miles across the country
for a better life.
- Come on, Calvin.
- Hi.
Come say hi to Daddy.
Hi, Mr. Juan.
- Nice to meet you.
- How you doing?
Nice to meet you, too.
- Juan.
- Juan, Lauren.
- Nice to meet you, Lauren.
How you doing?
- Very nice to meet you.
- Andrew, Mr. Juan.
- Andrew, how you doing, bud?
- Good.
- Why don't you show
Mr. Juan what
you got going on?
The main reason
that I came out to mine is...
because of my son, Andrew.
Maybe he could fix
your sluice box too.
- What have you got going on?
- Hey, bud.
He has cystic fibrosis.
It's a genetic lung disease
and it's hard on his lungs.
- I just crushed up this.
- Mama.
You crushed it?
How'd you crush it?
The average
life expectancy right now
in the US is about 42.
As a parent,
when you get a
diagnosis like this,
specially something
you don't fully understand,
it hits you hard.
Can I take a look at your pan?
Yes.
On the surface,
he's a happy six-year-old,
ready to get out and enjoy
life, run, jump, play.
But, you know, if Andrew
catches a cold or the flu,
it could lead to permanent
lung damage in his lungs.
Since birth, Andrew
has needed daily treatment.
But the clean Nevada air
has made a big difference.
Since coming
back from, um, last year,
his lungs were crystal clear.
The doctors were
just ecstatic, as were we.
And that's why we knew...
we're gonna continue
this gold mining.
Andrew's got his rock crusher
that he can
do his gold panning,
and find that gold
like his daddy does 'cause...
he looks up to everything
that Will does
and wants to be just like him.
I just trickle it on there.
This gold is actually
the heaviest
so that means
the water can't carry it.
- Or all the dirt will go down.
- That's right.
Cystic fibrosis is a very,
um, expensive disease.
- Nice to meet you, bud.
- Good.
There are
a lot of doctor visits,
there is a lot of medications
he takes in a days' time,
twenty-five pills roughly
that help, you know,
keep his lungs
as healthy as possible.
Bye.
I got four littles ones and...
you know, really,
what we do is for them.
You know, so I totally get
what you're doing now.
Makes a lot more sense.
Yeah, who else is crazy enough
to drag their family
across the country?
It's amazing what he's
doing out here with his son
and honestly,
it's helping his son's health.
To me, that's one
of the most noble things
he could be doing.
Andrew's a great kid.
I'm gonna talk to Freddy,
see what we can do
'cause now I wanna do
something special for him.
Perfect.
Hey, Juano.
Give it a shot, huh?
With two
build days remaining,
it's all hands on deck
to install the new sluice box
in the 20-year-old system.
Well, it's gonna be sad
to see that old girl go,
but out with the old,
in with the new.
We didn't
wanna cut it out till
we had it safely secured.
'Cause if we'd have just
cut it loose before,
it would have just fell before
we would have tied on to it.
So, we gotta get it done safe.
- All right, it's got
tension on it, Freddy.
- Okay.
Ready to cut?
- Coming up.
- Let's fly this kite.
Bye-bye, baby.
There's Mike over there
saying goodbye to his baby.
Oh.
That's part
of his life right there.
It just got taken away.
Nice knowing ya.
You know how many patches
we put in the damn thing?
Let's just get in there
see what it looks like.
Cross your fingers,
let's hope it fits.
Whoa! Oh, oh, oh!
Pull that in that way.
Give it a push
into that corner over there.
It's almost there.
There it is.
The eagle has landed.
Let's weld it.
- Take it down just a smidge.
- I did.
- Right there.
- You're too high.
- Bring it down just a--
- Mike, I'm looking
right at the top of it.
Okay.
- You happy, Will?
- Yes.
Lock it in right there.
Bingo!
Ready to put
some dirt through this thing.
Well, no matter what,
we've got a lot
to get done today.
It's the last day here we can
work on stuff and...
you know, we're behind
schedule as it is.
All we can
do now is just press on.
And just work, work, work.
With just 24 hours to go,
Freddy needs to complete
the de-watering fix.
Fishing.
I'm gonna throw it
right there.
What we're gonna try to do
is get some more water
into that de-watering screen.
I know it sounds crazy
but by getting
more water into it,
it's gonna clean
that material better,
and hopefully get it to those
lower sluice boxes
we're gonna modify,
instead of it going
up in the conveyor
into the tailings pile.
The holes
in the de-watering trommel
are packed with debris
allowing fine gold
to escape up the conveyor.
Freddy and Juan's fix
adds a high-powered spray bar
to keep water flowing,
cleaning material
and the punch plate
at the same time.
There is no chance
of catching that piece of gold
if it hits that conveyor.
But if we can get it before
it hits that conveyor,
it's in these guys' pocket.
Gotta put some spurs on.
Back to my rodeo days.
Back when I was barrel racing.
Freddy's first step,
weld a bracket
to mount the spray bar
inside the
free-spinning barrel.
Gonna weld the stand there.
Long range welding.
Don't roll in.
Sharp mother--
When you guys
retire this drum,
you can sell it
to a razor blade company.
I can't say, it's, uh,
super uncomfortable
but I've been a heck
of a lot more comfortable.
Well, one more job done.
Spray bar installed,
Freddy connects it
to Mike's water supply.
Lots of stuff to do.
We gotta cut into his
main line, put a valve on it.
Get a hose up there
and get it hooked up.
So when we fire this plant
back up, it's ready to go.
- Well, you wanna cut that?
- Yeah, definitely.
So, you enjoying it
out in the west?
Oh, yeah,
I love it out here.
I mean, Mike has been a wealth
of knowledge, you know,
and what I've
learned in the last
few years with him is...
feel like I can go
to the Yukon
and just strike it big.
Nah.
Stick with this spot.
- Yeah, I like it here.
- Yeah.
- There she is.
- Yeah.
Plumbing complete,
it's time to get back
on the horse
for the finishing touches.
- Got some glue?
- Yes, sir.
We'll get this on there.
Kinda see where it's at now.
- What do you think?
- Yeah, make sure
it clears.
I think it's going to.
- We're clearing that?
- Yeah,
we're gonna clear.
- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah, we're good.
I like it.
- Perfect fix.
- Perfect, man.
Only a few hours
of daylight remaining.
Freddy rushes to
complete his final fix
on the end sluices.
Well, right now,
we're running
out of time in here.
We got a lot
of stuff to get done
so we can fire
this plant up for
another four-hour test run.
So we're gonna tune these up
with some fine gold riffles.
The nugget
riffles in Mike's final
chance sluice run
quickly pack up,
allowing gold to
wash over the top.
A new set of fine gold riffles
made from expanded metal,
will prevent that build up
and catch any gold
brought down from the barrel.
Do you have
those heavy Hungarian
riffles that are made...
that are made
for coarser material, right?
What those were doing is
they were blinding over on ya.
So whatever gold
you were catching in here,
you were probably
catching the first day.
And then, after that,
the thing
locked up on you like concrete
and then any gold
you would have caught in here
is now in your tailings pile.
So, this will alleviate that.
Win, win, win, win, win.
It's been awesome
to see those guys
find all the problems in
someone's plant and operation
and not embarrass 'em,
but show 'em
a good, easy, solid fix.
Eyeballs.
You know,
seeing the passion
that they have for it
and seeing that they truly...
do care to try to help
us capture more gold, I mean,
it's absolutely been amazing.
- How's it look?
- Actually, that
one's not square.
We're working
late tonight 'cause...
there's more to this
than what we initially thought
like just cutting
that stuff out.
Coming along
all right down there?
Little by little,
it's kind of, uh,
- small.
- Yeah.
You burn yourself in one spot
to weld to burn your plants
off in another spot.
Oh, yeah.
You look at it and you think,
"I can do that in two hours."
Four hours later, you're still
screwing with it,
trying to tear it apart.
- You all right?
- Yeah.
We gotta get it done.
'Cause tomorrow's
judgement day to see if
what we've done here is gonna
work or not gonna work.
Gold mining is thirsty work,
and lucky for Andrew,
there's only one stand
in town.
- How you doing, buddy?
- Hi, Mr. Freddy,
hi, Mr. Juan.
- Hey, bud.
- Bump.
- How you doin' buddy?
- Hey, buddy.
All right, tell them
what you're selling today.
- AU Lemonade.
- What? Lemonade?
You probably don't get
many visitors out here, huh?
So what's "AU" stand for?
- Gold.
- Gold! That's right,
give me five!
- There you go.
- Knuckle-buster.
- There you go.
- Attaboy.
I'll take
the yellow lemonade.
- All different...
- I'll take one of everything.
Excellent.
Do you take
debit card, Andrew?
No, but you
can give me some gold.
I'll tell you what,
here you go.
- Thank you, sir.
- Oh, my goodness.
What do you say?
- Thank you, sir.
- Thank you.
- Bye, guys.
- Bye, buddy.
- Thank you, pleasure
to meet you guys.
- Bye.
Don't drink too much of that,
okay, Calvin?
World's most
remote lemonade stand.
You know, we've had
to go shut down for
a couple days now but...
- Yes, you have.
- I'm hoping that...
you know,
the improvements we made
are gonna help you guys out.
It's the
final day on Freddy
and Juan's mine intervention.
Time to see if their fixes
can rescue Mike's dream.
You know, it's our goal that
the increased recovery will
make up for it in short order.
- I'm really looking forward
to seeing the results of it.
- Yup.
Right here, we teed
into your existing water line.
Now, we've got water
going into that
de-watering barrel.
So, it will wash that material
more and hopefully,
keep that gold
from going up that conveyor
and gone forever.
Well, before, guys,
you had some riffles in here
but it wasn't really a sluice
box, it was a chute.
It was a good chute
to transfer material,
but it was also
transferring the gold
to go up that conveyor, right?
We actually
built you a new sluice run.
Every chance
we can give that gold
to get settled out
and get trapped,
we want to make sure
we can do that,
and that's what
we're doing with that sluice.
Yeah, we're looking
forward to seeing what that
sluice box actually gives us.
Well, in that little
sluice down there, guys,
the riffles you had in it,
were the wrong riffle
for that type of material.
We simplified it,
and we've got a riffle
configuration in there now
that's gonna go
after that fine gold.
I'm looking forward to those
green mats turning yellow.
Well, really guys,
there's only one
thing left to do, huh?
- Run, run, run.
- Let's run it.
- Let's fire it up.
- Run, run, run.
- Fire it up!
- Let's do it.
All right, firing up.
There it is.
- Started our run.
- Four hours.
Hope we can get lucky
with some gold today.
Whoo-hoo!
First bucket, huh?
- First bucket.
- This site is ready.
Yee-haw!
Done first scoop
with his new riffles.
Boldly put this dirt
where no dirt has gone before.
So we built
the real sluice box here.
Now the gold that's
getting by that jig,
has a fighting chance.
As long as it's got
a fighting chance,
we've got
a chance to catch it.
Well, the final chance sluices
are running
a hell of a lot better
than they were before.
You can see them
doing their job now.
You can
actually see in the drum.
How the drum
from halfway over...
- Clean. Yup.
- ...it's a little cleaner.
And look at the material,
a bit cleaner.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
You can see it
right now, it's visible.
It's already clean.
Compared to what
the drum was before,
- it was completely brown,
the whole thing.
- Yeah. Yup.
Moment of truth.
I'm gonna take a pan.
- Can it?
- Juan took it there.
- We'll see what's in it.
- Right off the conveyor.
Well, let's go pan this, guys.
It sounds counterproductive
because of
the watering trommel.
But what it's doing
is help break up
the rest of that
material up and get it down.
Get it screened.
Rather lose
a little water
than a lot of gold.
Yeah, for sure.
The first test run
showed Mike
was hemorrhaging gold
with nine pieces
in just a single pan.
Not a speck of gold.
No. No gold.
Juano.
- Way better.
- That's all you wanna
see right there.
I'm happy with that.
- Yeah.
- Extremely happy.
'Cause you have
to make the material
do what you want it to to.
You have to force it to do it.
If you let it go on its own,
it's gonna do
whatever it's gonna do.
I'd say y'all did it.
What Freddy just
pulled off the conveyor,
I mean, it's a complete
game changer.
Mike, last bucket! Four hours!
Last bucket!
Moment of truth.
So, how does it look?
- It looks good.
- Yeah?
The results
of this test
will determine if Freddy
and Juan's fixes
have successfully
secured Mike and
Will's future here.
If we get a 10% increase,
I'll really be happy.
It'll also
make me sad because...
we've been throwing
some gold away.
This is what we got
in the four-hour run.
Okay.
And once again,
we got a nice, flat nugget
that didn't fit in the vial,
so I'm just gonna
pour it in there what we got
in the four-hour run,
a little bit better material.
The first test
delivered 1.6 ounces.
Anything more than two ounces,
promises a profit.
2.20.
2.2 ounces.
A 37% increase
on the first run,
- over a 100-day season.
- Whoo-hoo!
This could
deliver Mike 440 ounces,
worth over three-quarters
of a million dollars.
I am so happy
with you guys coming up here
and the work you did.
You're gonna
make us a lot of money
in the long run
with this stuff.
That's right.
That's gonna be a windfall.
It's fabulous.
I'm so happy for it.
And now we've got a better
outlook on the future.
It's gonna help
keep us afloat.
I think it's
absolutely amazing.
I mean, y'all took something
made an adjustment,
and it's proof
right there that, I mean,
it's gonna change our season.
When I work with Mike,
you know we have a partnership
on this mine and...
just that increase in gold
by the end of the year,
what I'll see different,
it's gonna be a big change,
it's really gonna
make life a lot easier.
It's amazing.
And I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- Thank you.
Well, Andrew, I think
Freddy's got a little
bit of a gift for you, bud.
- Ready, Juan?
- Yeah, let's pull it out.
This is your wash plant.
- Your wash plant.
This was Juan's idea.
- It's got your name on it.
- Know what that says?
Andrew.
- Yeah!
- Yeah, it does.
- Give Juan five on that one.
- Here you go, buddy.
I think at first
he was almost speechless,
'cause he wasn't sure
what to expect, but...
once they explained to him
exactly what it is
and how to use it,
he can't wait to start running
some paydirt through it.
If Mike's trommel
happens to break down,
I'd lease him this for like...
a hundred dollars an hour.
so you can keep
making gold out here.
With my new wash plant,
I'll find so much gold.
I'll find more gold
than Mr. Mike.
Right on, buddy.
It's your own wash plant.
Thank y'all very much.
- You're welcome.
- No problem, man.
Absolutely a pleasure.
In the last
few days that Freddy
and Juan have been here,
it's just been
absolutely amazing.
For what Mike
has going on up here,
I think it's gonna
change his outlook
on the production
of this mine.
I'm glad Juan and
Freddy answered my call
to get them to come up here.
- Well, you guys take care.
- Bye guys, appreciate it.
- We're outta here.
- Thank you,
thanks again.
- Hey, I appreciate it.
- Y'all be safe.
Well, what we've
done for 'em this week is, uh,
we've emphasized
on catching more
of that fine gold.
Thanks, guys.
See ya. Good luck.
Where these guys
were... were losing
quite a percentage
of it in the past but, uh,
you know,
we got the plant tuned up.
What that means
is more gold in his pocket,
means more
money in his pocket.
It has been
an emotional week.
It's a tough life.
And I've had
a few issues that
I've had to deal with
but thank God
I have this place.
And it's helped
me make it through
some of the difficult times.
Man, I'm sure glad
Will's called Freddy and Juan.
And the changes that they made
are awesome.
And it's gonna
help us stay afloat.
Thank you, Freddy and Juan.
You helped me out
and you taught an
old dog some new tricks.