Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue (2021): Season 3, Episode 3 - Married to the Mine - full transcript
How's it going,
Terry?
Terrible!
I've sunk in
about $120,000.
To me, it's everything.
Well, we know
he's losing gold, there.
What the heck here?
He's gonna need
another hand out here.
The biggest thing we need
to work on is his wife.
Since I've gotten
so big in the last few years,
she's a little
intimidated here.
Heads, you talk to her.
What's your biggest fear
here, honestly?
We don't have
time to screw up.
Now the generator stopped!
Did it just shut down?
I know
you wouldn't want to go
off the side
of this mountain here.
It's a long, long way's down
to that river, Juan.
Yeah, for sure.
That's a hell of a drop,
there, Freddy.
And I can't swim, so...
Freddy and Juan
are in British Columbia
traversing the remote
northern Rockies
10 miles north
of the U.S. border.
en route to a solo miner,
in what may be
his final season,
without a lifeline.
He's doing everything
from digging the pay,
to running the plant,
to taking care
of the tailings,
to putting everything up.
That's a ton of work
for just one person.
He must love
gold and gold mining.
That's for dang sure.
In the 1880s,
prospectors first mined
along the Salmo River,
as they hiked east
along the Dewdney Trail,
from Vancouver
to Wild Horse Creek.
Between 1899 and 1979,
almost 800,000 ounces of gold
were mined in the area,
worth $1.4 billion today.
Well, this looks
like it's it, huh, Juan?
Hey guys, how are you?
- Good.
- You must
be Terry. Juan.
- Nice to meet you, Juan.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, Terry.
- Freddy!
Nice to meet you, too, guys.
Holy smokes!
You guys made it in.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, we made it.
It's not the worst road
we've been on,
but it's definitely not
the best road we've been on.
It really lets you know that
you're in the backwoods here.
Gold mining is something that
I've always had a passion for.
On the weekends,
I would go down,
and sit with a couple
of old-timers,
and we were pulling out
some nice size gold nuggets.
My eyes kind of went
to saucers.
I want to know where
the big guy hid
his jewelry box,
and I want to dig it up.
Terry bought
this 247-acre placer mine
from his uncle,
and began to follow his dream.
My wife and I
started out
working with a small trommel,
hand mining,
you know, about a yard
to two and a half a day.
Oh, it was
really exciting.
We'd shovel
two, three hours at a time,
go have a beer,
come back, do some more,
and actually, we found
some really nice gold.
But Terry wanted
to go bigger.
In 2020, he cashed in
his retirement fund
and his family's life savings
to upsize his trommel
to a 15-ton wash plant.
I don't know
the exact number,
'cause Terry never told me,
but there's a lot.
Like, a lot.
We have no savings.
Everything we have
is on the line.
I've sunk in
about $120,000.
Into this.
Maybe to some people,
120 grand is not
a lot of money, but to me,
it's everything.
The huge investment
has become a strain
on their relationship.
It's very stressful.
Yeah.
Sleepless nights.
Mmm-hmm.
- Lots of those.
- Yes.
Our fair share of arguments
as a couple, you know?
All his savings
sunk into the equipment,
Terry hasn't been able
to hire any help.
He needs
help down there,
but, because
of the big equipment,
it's scary.
Like, you never know
what can happen, right?
Anything can go wrong.
I really don't feel
I have a place down there,
because I really
don't know what to do.
My dream here is
to say I'm an actual miner,
and if I could make this
into my livelihood
as I'm getting older,
then I'm a super happy guy,
because that means
I'm being successful.
- You're doing
all this all by yourself, huh?
- Yes, I am.
- So, you're feeding the plant?
- Yes.
- Tailings?
- I do that, too.
- Digging the pay?
- Yes.
- Wow.
- Doing the cleanup?
- Yes. Everything.
- Everything
all by yourself?
All by myself. Yes.
- It's a lot
of work for one guy.
- It is.
- Yes.
- A ton of work.
Last year was actually
my really first year
setting all this up,
trying to get everything
all up and running,
and of course,
it took me all summer
to go through, I would say,
about 40, 50 yards
of material.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, not much at all,
you know, especially...
So that's
all you've ran?
That's all I've ran
through this plant.
Are you
about out of savings?
Pretty much.
I'm losing a lot of money
doing what I'm doing.
We don't have nothing
in the account.
It's all invested into here.
You got
any of your gold?
Actually, yes, I do.
That's really
good-looking gold, though.
That's
beautiful gold.
What kind of gold
are you needing per day
to make a living in here?
Well, I would like
to at least pull out
an ounce every second day,
you know?
So, last summer
how much gold did you get?
About 20 grams last year.
- Twenty grams
last year.
- Yes.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah.
- Not much at all.
- No.
Twenty grams
of gold
is worth roughly $1,200.
What's your goal
for this year?
I need to make
at least 40 ounces a season
to get out of the red,
to get into the black.
Okay.
- You know?
- It's a big jump, yeah.
It is a huge step.
Terry needs more
than 50 times that amount,
around $70,000 in gold,
to make up his losses.
Well, let's fire the plant up,
and run four hours...
- Let's do it.
- ...see what we see.
All right. That sounds
good with me, guys.
Okay, Freddy!
Firing it up!
All right!
Let's
clock it, Juan-o.
Set the time.
Four hours.
The first step
in his process,
Terry sifts out large boulders
with a rock grizzly.
He then feeds the pay
into his five-yard
hopper feeder.
A 35-foot conveyor belt
carries this material
to a prewash and shaker deck,
where it is grated
before it passes down
into the sluices.
Pretty wet material,
eh, Juan-o?
- Yeah,
very wet material.
- Pretty damp.
- He almost needs
a vibrator on that.
- Yeah.
Yeah. He does, if it's not
gonna fall through.
Stuff's just plugging up
on that grizzly.
Time to go have a look here,
see what's going on.
This material's been sitting
since last year.
So it's
pretty wet, huh?
It's still wet. Like, it's
already two years old.
I'm very frustrated right now.
I thought for sure
that the material
would be a little bit better.
But even though I inlined
my hopper feeder,
it's still sticking
to the inside walls.
So it's actually not sliding
down where it's supposed to.
Let's see what the heck here.
Now I gotta bang
the side, you know,
just to keep
the material moving.
Whew, okay.
Once through the hopper,
and into the shaker deck,
the paydirt splits into three
different sluice runs,
coarse, medium, and fine.
A fourth run, for extra fines,
passes through
a centrifugal bowl
that separates the gold
by rotating at high speed.
What do you think,
Juan?
I don't know, Fred.
I'm not a big fan
of that bowl.
No, I don't need it.
Let me get a gold pan.
I want to see
what that bowl is puking out.
A centrifugal bowl
is lined with rubber riffles.
Mounted on a vertical shaft,
it spins at over 100 rpm.
This centrifugal force
causes gold to travel upward
along the inside of the bowl,
to be pressed
against the walls,
and caught beneath the rim,
but if it becomes clogged
with wet pay,
gold escapes
into the tailings pond.
Bit of material
in there.
Two colors, Juan.
Maybe three.
It's so fine, it might need
a magnifying glass.
Yeah. I see two, Fred.
Two really fine ones, huh?
I have a lot more faith
in a really good sluice box,
- than that bowl in there.
- I do, too.
The problem with,
you know, those bowls, Freddy,
is just, there's no capacity.
- Nope.
- There's no capacity.
- It eventually starts
puking material out.
- Yep.
So, two colors in, you know,
a quarter of a cup,
half a cup of sand.
Well, we know
he's losing gold there.
So, right now, we'll be
taking a look at his screen,
see what it's doing.
Remember, he's screening
several different sizes.
At the screen deck,
Freddy and Juan spot
another problem.
That counterweight.
Stuff's just plugging up
on that.
Yeah.
Two and a half
hours into the run...
Back out I go.
...Terry still
battles the jammed hopper.
How's it going,
Terry?
Terrible!
I'm working like a dog.
- Whoa.
- I got blisters happening.
You're getting
blisters on that rock.
Don't kill yourself.
No, I'm trying not to.
- Can we just--
- So, this is what I do
on a daily basis
when I am out here.
How many buckets
have you put in so far?
Uh, that is my second,
but if you look
inside my hopper,
I bet you there's, like,
one full, complete bucket
- still hung up in there.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Uh, I don't know how
to get it, you know,
without, you know,
get in there
with a pick and a shovel.
Mild explosives?
That would work.
- Sometimes I feel like
blowing the damn thing up.
- Yeah.
But he's not running
- a lot of material
per hour, is he?
- No.
Maybe,
what, three yards?
Two and a half yards an hour?
It should be
at 10 yards an hour
through that plant.
More than anything,
I think he just needs help.
He's working
his ass off.
Feeding it,
tailings, starting it.
Well, you know,
between that feeder
and everything else,
you know,
he's got a lot
of little issues,
but really, I think
his biggest problem is
he's gonna need
another hand out here.
Yeah.
Oh, man!
Aw, the generator.
What's going on?
What happened?
Did it just shut down?
Yeah, it did.
Let's go look at it.
Right now,
we're at three hours.
The generator stopped!
I think I ran out of propane,
so I gotta turn the pump off.
Hey, Freddy. Hey, Juan.
Just letting you know
I ran out of propane.
Oh, okay.
Well, at least we made
three hours, though.
Probably knew you were getting
too many blisters.
Well, I think do a cleanup,
and weigh it up,
and see what we got.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Sounds good.
All right, guys.
I got my whole life investment
into this.
I got two granddaughters
that I get to also
have out here,
Audrey and little Zadie,
out to Papa's gold claim,
and go find treasure,
as she says, you know,
so hopefully,
I got a future for them
and in the mining world.
You know, really,
we only had three hours,
but for a one-guy operation,
man, you know,
he worked his ass off.
In the loader,
out of the loader,
in the loader,
out of the loader.
And I don't know
what his situation is
with his wife,
but we really need
to talk to her
about maybe helping.
Exactly.
You know, whether it's
feeding the plant,
or something, because
he can be doing other things.
Well, 'cause right now,
he's only doing
two yards an hour,
which is unsustainable.
- Hi Terry.
- Hey,
how's it going, guys?
Doing all right.
How are you?
I've got
some gold here
for you to weigh up.
Well, let's weigh it up.
Running out of fuel
means one-man band
Terry's test run
was just three hours,
and with material
constantly clogging,
he only ran six yards of pay.
Moment of truth, here.
Yeah, gotta make sure
we get all that out.
...06.
...06
for a three hour run.
Juan and myself,
we've seen a lot of stuff,
but this is almost
no worse than gold
that we've found.
You aren't gonna
buy a new house with it.
0.06 ounces,
worth around $100.
That's $15 a yard...
Okay.
...which, if you can
run yardage,
you can make money on it.
- Awesome.
- All right?
Well, that's what
I was hoping.
So, if you can go
from two yards an hour
to, let's say, 10,
instead of $30 an hour,
like you're running now,
it's 150 bucks an hour.
You just got to get
more material
going through that plant.
You got the gold here.
If Terry can run
80 yards of pay,
instead of 16,
he could make $1,200 a day,
and could exceed
his half an ounce target
to turn a profit.
The material
that he's running
- is super sticky.
- It's sticky.
Well, here's my thought.
He's got that static grizzly
over there.
- Yeah.
- Right?
So, the material
he's putting through there,
it's in the shade.
So, we take the material
out from under there,
and windrow it,
and spread it out.
What about
on his hopper here, Fred?
What about maybe putting
a little vibrator here to help
that material vibrate down?
I like it.
If we're gonna do that
let's put two vibrators on it.
But on top of this,
he's got issues
down at the recovery side
of it, too.
Honestly,
if he's good with it,
I think we eliminate
that bowl altogether.
Then we could put
an additional sluice out here.
Freddy and Juan
plan to set out the pay
into V-shaped piles
called windrows,
to dry it out before
going through the plant.
Two vibrators on the hopper
will stop any pay
sticking to the walls.
They will modify
a counterweight on the prewash
to help shake off
any remaining pay.
Finally, a new plumbing system
will divert material
away from the centrifugal bowl
and into a brand-new
sluice box.
But wash plant improvements
are just half the battle.
Really, I think
the biggest thing
we need to work on here
is his wife.
- That she's scared
of the equipment.
- One of us... One of us...
If we could turn this in
from a one-man operation
to a couples operation...
And two people are gonna be
twice the production as one.
Financially,
Terry's already
at rock bottom,
and these fixes
won't come cheap.
I know
he's on a budget, but...
- Each one of these...
- ...the vibrators are
a few hundred bucks apiece,
probably, right?
That sluice run and carpets
and everything else
come up to 3,200 bucks.
- So, at 3,200 bucks.
- Yeah.
You making
more blisters, Terry?
Hey, guys! Yeah,
I'm working on 'em.
Well, Juan and myself
put some ideas together.
Starting with your grizzly,
the way that you store
your material.
You actually leave it
underneath the grizzly.
Well, the problem there
is it gets just sopping wet.
So, our thoughts were
grizzly it,
and then windrow it out here,
so the wind hits it,
and the sun hits it,
and then put it in your plant.
The next one's gonna be,
obviously, your hopper.
- Yes.
- So we talked about putting
a vibrator on the top,
so it can help that material
vibrate through the hopper.
Next, we're gonna
eliminate your bowl...
- Okay.
- ...and
actually have it all
go down one sluice,
and extend it out,
And probably the...
Biggest.
- ...biggest fix...
- Yeah?
This is gonna be
the hardest fix,
possibly, as well.
It'll be the cheapest fix,
- but the hardest fix.
- But hard.
We'd like to get your wife
introduced into being able
to help a little bit more.
You know, I know
that this is something
- that you guys
started together.
- Yep.
- You guys
really loved it, right?
- Yes. Yes.
Now that
it's a little bit bigger,
she's a little scared of it.
- Yeah, she could be.
- Well, what if
we took a little time,
and we taught her
how to run the excavator?
Okay.
Well, my hat's off to you guys
if you could do it.
- I see that, too.
- Honestly, you know,
I've been wanting her
to be a part
since I've got this going,
but she's intimidated due to
the size of the equipment.
Yeah.
Now, the money part of it.
We figure that it's gonna take
about $3,200 in materials
to do what we want to do
here this week.
Well,
I'm on a very tight budget,
you know, so, uh,
almost breaking the bank,
but I'm just happy
you guys are here to do this.
Deal, then.
Good deal.
- Thank you
very much, guys.
- Sounds good.
I appreciate it so much.
Freddy and Juan mentioned
to me about maybe seeing
about getting Stephanie,
my wife,
to jump into an excavator.
I thought I would never,
ever see the day,
and maybe still not,
you know?
I think that's gonna be one
of the biggest things of all
is to get her
to feel confident enough
to even try, you know,
so I guess time will tell.
While they wait
for Stephanie to arrive
at the claim,
Juan begins work
in his cut trailer.
So, we're gonna add
a couple vibrators
to his feed hopper.
The way these vibrators work,
you gotta put 'em
on a base plate,
and then you actually
weld them to the structure,
but whatever you do,
you want to make sure
that the material
that you're welding to
is strong enough to be able
to hold up to the vibration.
So, what we're gonna do
is we're gonna add
a half-inch plate
as a base plate for it,
and that'll transfer
the vibration to the hopper,
so that way,
it can properly clean
the material
down in the hopper.
By the wash plant,
Freddy starts
teaching Terry to windrow,
an old miners' trick
to dry out dirt
going to the plant.
Start, put one there,
one there, one here,
loader bucket,
and then one next to it,
boom, boom, boom,
and then next to it,
boom, boom, boom.
All right!
Back in the hunt.
- Oh, this is perfect.
See how it...
- Yep.
Just keep it veed at the top,
like you got it, right...
- Okay.
- ...then put the next one
next to this one,
and the next one,
and the next one, all right?
It's hard to do, but don't
pile 'em into each other,
- so you got this Vee...
- Yes.
- ...and then you got this Vee,
so that water can run off.
- Gotcha.
Windrowing allows air to get
to a large surface area
of paydirt,
and encourages
excess moisture to evaporate.
Dry pay should mean
less clogging at the plant.
Sometimes
it's the little things
that make a big difference.
No difference here.
If we can keep
the material dry,
it's gonna make
a huge difference here.
It sounds like a little thing.
"So your dirt's got
water in it."
Well, it's a huge thing.
As Terry
dries the pay,
wife Stephanie arrives
at the mine site.
I think
just one person does it.
- Yeah.
- That way,
it doesn't look like you're
- ganging up on her.
- Like, ganging up
on her, yeah.
So, uh,
flip a coin on it?
- Yeah, let's do it.
- You call it
in the air.
All right. Heads.
Heads you talk to her.
Okay.
- Heads it is.
- Argh. All right.
I guess it's me, Fred.
- It's you.
- Well,
I'll take the quarter, then.
I've never won
a coin flip, and that's one
I didn't want to win.
Hey, Stephanie.
Hey, killer.
What was her name again?
Athena.
Athena.
Athena, you little cutie!
Is she part pit bull?
- No.
- No?
I had a pit bill that
thought he was a chihuahua.
He's 120 pounds, and he'd want
to get on your lap, and...
...lick you like a popsicle
all the time.
I'm like,
"Come on, get off me."
So what's your biggest fear,
here, honestly?
You know,
when you guys started out,
you really enjoyed it.
- Mmm-hmm.
- You enjoyed
being a part of it...
- Yeah.
- ...and it was kind of
a family adventure.
It's huge.
I don't know.
It just is intimidating.
I worry about injury...
- Yeah.
- ...you know,
for one.
I'm a nurse's aide,
I'm not a nurse,
- but my arms and legs
are my livelihood, right?
- Yeah.
So, I really
can't get hurt here,
and then not be able to work.
I get that.
So, what we wanted
to talk to you about is
seeing if you would be willing
to get in the excavator.
Um...
I don't think so.
Terry would bring you
the material.
You just drop it
into the hopper.
No.
I'm not gonna be able
to even try it.
All the work that Terry's
doing on his own is just...
It's way too much work
for one person to do.
In order to be able
to make this
cash-positive or feasible,
Terry really could
use the help,
so it'll go from being
two and a half yards an hour
to 10, 15 yards an hour,
where you guys need to be.
I don't know.
Well, my wife
she's a five-foot-nothing,
you know,
a little Hawaiian gal,
and she's actually
a better operator than me.
Whenever we're doing stuff
at the shop,
she's actually the one that
runs the excavator for me.
You know, it's something
that she enjoys,
and once you kind of
get the hang of
how the controls
in that excavator work,
it's actually
pretty simple to run.
Okay.
- Good sport.
- I could try.
I'm not gonna
promise anything, but...
Well, that's all
we can ask for.
I'm
a little nervous.
A lot nervous.
But I'm willing to try.
Hey, Freddy.
Well, I got some good news.
I talked to Stephanie
and, you know,
she's open to the idea.
- Good job, man.
- Now I'm happy.
You know, I told her,
I'm like, "Hey, you know what?
At the end of the day,
your husband
really needs the help."
And she's like,
"I know, I know.
You know, I want to help."
I'm like, "Well,
this is an opportunity
- for you to help, so..."
- Yeah.
Well, I'm glad I lost
that coin toss, 'cause...
- Put that on me, yeah.
- Yeah, you're
a lot better talker
- than I am when it counts.
- Yeah, I got the gift of gab.
You do.
So what
do you think, Stephanie?
- You ready to give it a shot?
- Sure am.
All right, Stephanie.
Come on up.
Made you a little ramp here.
I'm not too sure
how things are gonna turn out,
but I never thought I would
ever see her in an excavator
coming down and doing it.
Let's go through the...
the controls on this.
First off, we have
your throttle there.
Also, it's a kill switch.
So, you go all
the way forward,
it actually kills the...
kills the motor,
shuts off the fuel.
Pull it back towards you
lifts up the boom, right?
- Lifts up
the boom, yeah.
- Okay, perfect.
So then you push it away
from you, drops the boom.
Then you go to the left,
bucket in, right?
- Bucket in, yeah.
- Okay.
And to the right,
opens up the bucket.
So then here,
bring this one towards you,
- that brings
your stick in, right?
- I can't wait.
Stick in, stick out.
- So that goes to the right,
and that's to the left.
- ...to the left.
- Well, let's start it
up and let's give it a shot.
- Okay, ignition...
Pull that throttle back
just a little bit...
All right, right there.
All right.
We'll just grab
a bucket of dirt right there
out of that pile.
You can drop your boom now.
Yeah, now remember stick in...
- Other way.
- Okay.
You're fine.
Now you're gonna want
to lift your boom up
at the same time.
Okay, then now curl. Now curl.
- That's pretty good.
- Not bad, not bad.
Well,
that's pretty cool,
your wife rode
on that tractor.
I know, right?
I... I can't believe Juan
actually convinced her
to, uh, get in there.
At the plant,
Freddy and Terry get started
on the first fix...
Old meat hammer.
...diverting water
from the malfunctioning
centrifugal bowl.
During that three hour run,
we noticed that that bowl
had gold coming out
of the end of it.
Did a few test
bands on it, so...
...we're gonna bypass the bowl
and get the material feeding
in to this line here...
...which will go into
a sluice, so that end
of the new sluice system
strictly designed for that
really, really fine gold.
Unlike most
wash plants which
are joined up,
Terry's uses
an elaborate system
which takes dirt
from the wash plant
to the sluice spots
in four large pipes.
Freddy plans to disconnect
the bulb and use a T-junction
to divert the water
Terry?
Terrible!
I've sunk in
about $120,000.
To me, it's everything.
Well, we know
he's losing gold, there.
What the heck here?
He's gonna need
another hand out here.
The biggest thing we need
to work on is his wife.
Since I've gotten
so big in the last few years,
she's a little
intimidated here.
Heads, you talk to her.
What's your biggest fear
here, honestly?
We don't have
time to screw up.
Now the generator stopped!
Did it just shut down?
I know
you wouldn't want to go
off the side
of this mountain here.
It's a long, long way's down
to that river, Juan.
Yeah, for sure.
That's a hell of a drop,
there, Freddy.
And I can't swim, so...
Freddy and Juan
are in British Columbia
traversing the remote
northern Rockies
10 miles north
of the U.S. border.
en route to a solo miner,
in what may be
his final season,
without a lifeline.
He's doing everything
from digging the pay,
to running the plant,
to taking care
of the tailings,
to putting everything up.
That's a ton of work
for just one person.
He must love
gold and gold mining.
That's for dang sure.
In the 1880s,
prospectors first mined
along the Salmo River,
as they hiked east
along the Dewdney Trail,
from Vancouver
to Wild Horse Creek.
Between 1899 and 1979,
almost 800,000 ounces of gold
were mined in the area,
worth $1.4 billion today.
Well, this looks
like it's it, huh, Juan?
Hey guys, how are you?
- Good.
- You must
be Terry. Juan.
- Nice to meet you, Juan.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, Terry.
- Freddy!
Nice to meet you, too, guys.
Holy smokes!
You guys made it in.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, we made it.
It's not the worst road
we've been on,
but it's definitely not
the best road we've been on.
It really lets you know that
you're in the backwoods here.
Gold mining is something that
I've always had a passion for.
On the weekends,
I would go down,
and sit with a couple
of old-timers,
and we were pulling out
some nice size gold nuggets.
My eyes kind of went
to saucers.
I want to know where
the big guy hid
his jewelry box,
and I want to dig it up.
Terry bought
this 247-acre placer mine
from his uncle,
and began to follow his dream.
My wife and I
started out
working with a small trommel,
hand mining,
you know, about a yard
to two and a half a day.
Oh, it was
really exciting.
We'd shovel
two, three hours at a time,
go have a beer,
come back, do some more,
and actually, we found
some really nice gold.
But Terry wanted
to go bigger.
In 2020, he cashed in
his retirement fund
and his family's life savings
to upsize his trommel
to a 15-ton wash plant.
I don't know
the exact number,
'cause Terry never told me,
but there's a lot.
Like, a lot.
We have no savings.
Everything we have
is on the line.
I've sunk in
about $120,000.
Into this.
Maybe to some people,
120 grand is not
a lot of money, but to me,
it's everything.
The huge investment
has become a strain
on their relationship.
It's very stressful.
Yeah.
Sleepless nights.
Mmm-hmm.
- Lots of those.
- Yes.
Our fair share of arguments
as a couple, you know?
All his savings
sunk into the equipment,
Terry hasn't been able
to hire any help.
He needs
help down there,
but, because
of the big equipment,
it's scary.
Like, you never know
what can happen, right?
Anything can go wrong.
I really don't feel
I have a place down there,
because I really
don't know what to do.
My dream here is
to say I'm an actual miner,
and if I could make this
into my livelihood
as I'm getting older,
then I'm a super happy guy,
because that means
I'm being successful.
- You're doing
all this all by yourself, huh?
- Yes, I am.
- So, you're feeding the plant?
- Yes.
- Tailings?
- I do that, too.
- Digging the pay?
- Yes.
- Wow.
- Doing the cleanup?
- Yes. Everything.
- Everything
all by yourself?
All by myself. Yes.
- It's a lot
of work for one guy.
- It is.
- Yes.
- A ton of work.
Last year was actually
my really first year
setting all this up,
trying to get everything
all up and running,
and of course,
it took me all summer
to go through, I would say,
about 40, 50 yards
of material.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, not much at all,
you know, especially...
So that's
all you've ran?
That's all I've ran
through this plant.
Are you
about out of savings?
Pretty much.
I'm losing a lot of money
doing what I'm doing.
We don't have nothing
in the account.
It's all invested into here.
You got
any of your gold?
Actually, yes, I do.
That's really
good-looking gold, though.
That's
beautiful gold.
What kind of gold
are you needing per day
to make a living in here?
Well, I would like
to at least pull out
an ounce every second day,
you know?
So, last summer
how much gold did you get?
About 20 grams last year.
- Twenty grams
last year.
- Yes.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah.
- Not much at all.
- No.
Twenty grams
of gold
is worth roughly $1,200.
What's your goal
for this year?
I need to make
at least 40 ounces a season
to get out of the red,
to get into the black.
Okay.
- You know?
- It's a big jump, yeah.
It is a huge step.
Terry needs more
than 50 times that amount,
around $70,000 in gold,
to make up his losses.
Well, let's fire the plant up,
and run four hours...
- Let's do it.
- ...see what we see.
All right. That sounds
good with me, guys.
Okay, Freddy!
Firing it up!
All right!
Let's
clock it, Juan-o.
Set the time.
Four hours.
The first step
in his process,
Terry sifts out large boulders
with a rock grizzly.
He then feeds the pay
into his five-yard
hopper feeder.
A 35-foot conveyor belt
carries this material
to a prewash and shaker deck,
where it is grated
before it passes down
into the sluices.
Pretty wet material,
eh, Juan-o?
- Yeah,
very wet material.
- Pretty damp.
- He almost needs
a vibrator on that.
- Yeah.
Yeah. He does, if it's not
gonna fall through.
Stuff's just plugging up
on that grizzly.
Time to go have a look here,
see what's going on.
This material's been sitting
since last year.
So it's
pretty wet, huh?
It's still wet. Like, it's
already two years old.
I'm very frustrated right now.
I thought for sure
that the material
would be a little bit better.
But even though I inlined
my hopper feeder,
it's still sticking
to the inside walls.
So it's actually not sliding
down where it's supposed to.
Let's see what the heck here.
Now I gotta bang
the side, you know,
just to keep
the material moving.
Whew, okay.
Once through the hopper,
and into the shaker deck,
the paydirt splits into three
different sluice runs,
coarse, medium, and fine.
A fourth run, for extra fines,
passes through
a centrifugal bowl
that separates the gold
by rotating at high speed.
What do you think,
Juan?
I don't know, Fred.
I'm not a big fan
of that bowl.
No, I don't need it.
Let me get a gold pan.
I want to see
what that bowl is puking out.
A centrifugal bowl
is lined with rubber riffles.
Mounted on a vertical shaft,
it spins at over 100 rpm.
This centrifugal force
causes gold to travel upward
along the inside of the bowl,
to be pressed
against the walls,
and caught beneath the rim,
but if it becomes clogged
with wet pay,
gold escapes
into the tailings pond.
Bit of material
in there.
Two colors, Juan.
Maybe three.
It's so fine, it might need
a magnifying glass.
Yeah. I see two, Fred.
Two really fine ones, huh?
I have a lot more faith
in a really good sluice box,
- than that bowl in there.
- I do, too.
The problem with,
you know, those bowls, Freddy,
is just, there's no capacity.
- Nope.
- There's no capacity.
- It eventually starts
puking material out.
- Yep.
So, two colors in, you know,
a quarter of a cup,
half a cup of sand.
Well, we know
he's losing gold there.
So, right now, we'll be
taking a look at his screen,
see what it's doing.
Remember, he's screening
several different sizes.
At the screen deck,
Freddy and Juan spot
another problem.
That counterweight.
Stuff's just plugging up
on that.
Yeah.
Two and a half
hours into the run...
Back out I go.
...Terry still
battles the jammed hopper.
How's it going,
Terry?
Terrible!
I'm working like a dog.
- Whoa.
- I got blisters happening.
You're getting
blisters on that rock.
Don't kill yourself.
No, I'm trying not to.
- Can we just--
- So, this is what I do
on a daily basis
when I am out here.
How many buckets
have you put in so far?
Uh, that is my second,
but if you look
inside my hopper,
I bet you there's, like,
one full, complete bucket
- still hung up in there.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Uh, I don't know how
to get it, you know,
without, you know,
get in there
with a pick and a shovel.
Mild explosives?
That would work.
- Sometimes I feel like
blowing the damn thing up.
- Yeah.
But he's not running
- a lot of material
per hour, is he?
- No.
Maybe,
what, three yards?
Two and a half yards an hour?
It should be
at 10 yards an hour
through that plant.
More than anything,
I think he just needs help.
He's working
his ass off.
Feeding it,
tailings, starting it.
Well, you know,
between that feeder
and everything else,
you know,
he's got a lot
of little issues,
but really, I think
his biggest problem is
he's gonna need
another hand out here.
Yeah.
Oh, man!
Aw, the generator.
What's going on?
What happened?
Did it just shut down?
Yeah, it did.
Let's go look at it.
Right now,
we're at three hours.
The generator stopped!
I think I ran out of propane,
so I gotta turn the pump off.
Hey, Freddy. Hey, Juan.
Just letting you know
I ran out of propane.
Oh, okay.
Well, at least we made
three hours, though.
Probably knew you were getting
too many blisters.
Well, I think do a cleanup,
and weigh it up,
and see what we got.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Sounds good.
All right, guys.
I got my whole life investment
into this.
I got two granddaughters
that I get to also
have out here,
Audrey and little Zadie,
out to Papa's gold claim,
and go find treasure,
as she says, you know,
so hopefully,
I got a future for them
and in the mining world.
You know, really,
we only had three hours,
but for a one-guy operation,
man, you know,
he worked his ass off.
In the loader,
out of the loader,
in the loader,
out of the loader.
And I don't know
what his situation is
with his wife,
but we really need
to talk to her
about maybe helping.
Exactly.
You know, whether it's
feeding the plant,
or something, because
he can be doing other things.
Well, 'cause right now,
he's only doing
two yards an hour,
which is unsustainable.
- Hi Terry.
- Hey,
how's it going, guys?
Doing all right.
How are you?
I've got
some gold here
for you to weigh up.
Well, let's weigh it up.
Running out of fuel
means one-man band
Terry's test run
was just three hours,
and with material
constantly clogging,
he only ran six yards of pay.
Moment of truth, here.
Yeah, gotta make sure
we get all that out.
...06.
...06
for a three hour run.
Juan and myself,
we've seen a lot of stuff,
but this is almost
no worse than gold
that we've found.
You aren't gonna
buy a new house with it.
0.06 ounces,
worth around $100.
That's $15 a yard...
Okay.
...which, if you can
run yardage,
you can make money on it.
- Awesome.
- All right?
Well, that's what
I was hoping.
So, if you can go
from two yards an hour
to, let's say, 10,
instead of $30 an hour,
like you're running now,
it's 150 bucks an hour.
You just got to get
more material
going through that plant.
You got the gold here.
If Terry can run
80 yards of pay,
instead of 16,
he could make $1,200 a day,
and could exceed
his half an ounce target
to turn a profit.
The material
that he's running
- is super sticky.
- It's sticky.
Well, here's my thought.
He's got that static grizzly
over there.
- Yeah.
- Right?
So, the material
he's putting through there,
it's in the shade.
So, we take the material
out from under there,
and windrow it,
and spread it out.
What about
on his hopper here, Fred?
What about maybe putting
a little vibrator here to help
that material vibrate down?
I like it.
If we're gonna do that
let's put two vibrators on it.
But on top of this,
he's got issues
down at the recovery side
of it, too.
Honestly,
if he's good with it,
I think we eliminate
that bowl altogether.
Then we could put
an additional sluice out here.
Freddy and Juan
plan to set out the pay
into V-shaped piles
called windrows,
to dry it out before
going through the plant.
Two vibrators on the hopper
will stop any pay
sticking to the walls.
They will modify
a counterweight on the prewash
to help shake off
any remaining pay.
Finally, a new plumbing system
will divert material
away from the centrifugal bowl
and into a brand-new
sluice box.
But wash plant improvements
are just half the battle.
Really, I think
the biggest thing
we need to work on here
is his wife.
- That she's scared
of the equipment.
- One of us... One of us...
If we could turn this in
from a one-man operation
to a couples operation...
And two people are gonna be
twice the production as one.
Financially,
Terry's already
at rock bottom,
and these fixes
won't come cheap.
I know
he's on a budget, but...
- Each one of these...
- ...the vibrators are
a few hundred bucks apiece,
probably, right?
That sluice run and carpets
and everything else
come up to 3,200 bucks.
- So, at 3,200 bucks.
- Yeah.
You making
more blisters, Terry?
Hey, guys! Yeah,
I'm working on 'em.
Well, Juan and myself
put some ideas together.
Starting with your grizzly,
the way that you store
your material.
You actually leave it
underneath the grizzly.
Well, the problem there
is it gets just sopping wet.
So, our thoughts were
grizzly it,
and then windrow it out here,
so the wind hits it,
and the sun hits it,
and then put it in your plant.
The next one's gonna be,
obviously, your hopper.
- Yes.
- So we talked about putting
a vibrator on the top,
so it can help that material
vibrate through the hopper.
Next, we're gonna
eliminate your bowl...
- Okay.
- ...and
actually have it all
go down one sluice,
and extend it out,
And probably the...
Biggest.
- ...biggest fix...
- Yeah?
This is gonna be
the hardest fix,
possibly, as well.
It'll be the cheapest fix,
- but the hardest fix.
- But hard.
We'd like to get your wife
introduced into being able
to help a little bit more.
You know, I know
that this is something
- that you guys
started together.
- Yep.
- You guys
really loved it, right?
- Yes. Yes.
Now that
it's a little bit bigger,
she's a little scared of it.
- Yeah, she could be.
- Well, what if
we took a little time,
and we taught her
how to run the excavator?
Okay.
Well, my hat's off to you guys
if you could do it.
- I see that, too.
- Honestly, you know,
I've been wanting her
to be a part
since I've got this going,
but she's intimidated due to
the size of the equipment.
Yeah.
Now, the money part of it.
We figure that it's gonna take
about $3,200 in materials
to do what we want to do
here this week.
Well,
I'm on a very tight budget,
you know, so, uh,
almost breaking the bank,
but I'm just happy
you guys are here to do this.
Deal, then.
Good deal.
- Thank you
very much, guys.
- Sounds good.
I appreciate it so much.
Freddy and Juan mentioned
to me about maybe seeing
about getting Stephanie,
my wife,
to jump into an excavator.
I thought I would never,
ever see the day,
and maybe still not,
you know?
I think that's gonna be one
of the biggest things of all
is to get her
to feel confident enough
to even try, you know,
so I guess time will tell.
While they wait
for Stephanie to arrive
at the claim,
Juan begins work
in his cut trailer.
So, we're gonna add
a couple vibrators
to his feed hopper.
The way these vibrators work,
you gotta put 'em
on a base plate,
and then you actually
weld them to the structure,
but whatever you do,
you want to make sure
that the material
that you're welding to
is strong enough to be able
to hold up to the vibration.
So, what we're gonna do
is we're gonna add
a half-inch plate
as a base plate for it,
and that'll transfer
the vibration to the hopper,
so that way,
it can properly clean
the material
down in the hopper.
By the wash plant,
Freddy starts
teaching Terry to windrow,
an old miners' trick
to dry out dirt
going to the plant.
Start, put one there,
one there, one here,
loader bucket,
and then one next to it,
boom, boom, boom,
and then next to it,
boom, boom, boom.
All right!
Back in the hunt.
- Oh, this is perfect.
See how it...
- Yep.
Just keep it veed at the top,
like you got it, right...
- Okay.
- ...then put the next one
next to this one,
and the next one,
and the next one, all right?
It's hard to do, but don't
pile 'em into each other,
- so you got this Vee...
- Yes.
- ...and then you got this Vee,
so that water can run off.
- Gotcha.
Windrowing allows air to get
to a large surface area
of paydirt,
and encourages
excess moisture to evaporate.
Dry pay should mean
less clogging at the plant.
Sometimes
it's the little things
that make a big difference.
No difference here.
If we can keep
the material dry,
it's gonna make
a huge difference here.
It sounds like a little thing.
"So your dirt's got
water in it."
Well, it's a huge thing.
As Terry
dries the pay,
wife Stephanie arrives
at the mine site.
I think
just one person does it.
- Yeah.
- That way,
it doesn't look like you're
- ganging up on her.
- Like, ganging up
on her, yeah.
So, uh,
flip a coin on it?
- Yeah, let's do it.
- You call it
in the air.
All right. Heads.
Heads you talk to her.
Okay.
- Heads it is.
- Argh. All right.
I guess it's me, Fred.
- It's you.
- Well,
I'll take the quarter, then.
I've never won
a coin flip, and that's one
I didn't want to win.
Hey, Stephanie.
Hey, killer.
What was her name again?
Athena.
Athena.
Athena, you little cutie!
Is she part pit bull?
- No.
- No?
I had a pit bill that
thought he was a chihuahua.
He's 120 pounds, and he'd want
to get on your lap, and...
...lick you like a popsicle
all the time.
I'm like,
"Come on, get off me."
So what's your biggest fear,
here, honestly?
You know,
when you guys started out,
you really enjoyed it.
- Mmm-hmm.
- You enjoyed
being a part of it...
- Yeah.
- ...and it was kind of
a family adventure.
It's huge.
I don't know.
It just is intimidating.
I worry about injury...
- Yeah.
- ...you know,
for one.
I'm a nurse's aide,
I'm not a nurse,
- but my arms and legs
are my livelihood, right?
- Yeah.
So, I really
can't get hurt here,
and then not be able to work.
I get that.
So, what we wanted
to talk to you about is
seeing if you would be willing
to get in the excavator.
Um...
I don't think so.
Terry would bring you
the material.
You just drop it
into the hopper.
No.
I'm not gonna be able
to even try it.
All the work that Terry's
doing on his own is just...
It's way too much work
for one person to do.
In order to be able
to make this
cash-positive or feasible,
Terry really could
use the help,
so it'll go from being
two and a half yards an hour
to 10, 15 yards an hour,
where you guys need to be.
I don't know.
Well, my wife
she's a five-foot-nothing,
you know,
a little Hawaiian gal,
and she's actually
a better operator than me.
Whenever we're doing stuff
at the shop,
she's actually the one that
runs the excavator for me.
You know, it's something
that she enjoys,
and once you kind of
get the hang of
how the controls
in that excavator work,
it's actually
pretty simple to run.
Okay.
- Good sport.
- I could try.
I'm not gonna
promise anything, but...
Well, that's all
we can ask for.
I'm
a little nervous.
A lot nervous.
But I'm willing to try.
Hey, Freddy.
Well, I got some good news.
I talked to Stephanie
and, you know,
she's open to the idea.
- Good job, man.
- Now I'm happy.
You know, I told her,
I'm like, "Hey, you know what?
At the end of the day,
your husband
really needs the help."
And she's like,
"I know, I know.
You know, I want to help."
I'm like, "Well,
this is an opportunity
- for you to help, so..."
- Yeah.
Well, I'm glad I lost
that coin toss, 'cause...
- Put that on me, yeah.
- Yeah, you're
a lot better talker
- than I am when it counts.
- Yeah, I got the gift of gab.
You do.
So what
do you think, Stephanie?
- You ready to give it a shot?
- Sure am.
All right, Stephanie.
Come on up.
Made you a little ramp here.
I'm not too sure
how things are gonna turn out,
but I never thought I would
ever see her in an excavator
coming down and doing it.
Let's go through the...
the controls on this.
First off, we have
your throttle there.
Also, it's a kill switch.
So, you go all
the way forward,
it actually kills the...
kills the motor,
shuts off the fuel.
Pull it back towards you
lifts up the boom, right?
- Lifts up
the boom, yeah.
- Okay, perfect.
So then you push it away
from you, drops the boom.
Then you go to the left,
bucket in, right?
- Bucket in, yeah.
- Okay.
And to the right,
opens up the bucket.
So then here,
bring this one towards you,
- that brings
your stick in, right?
- I can't wait.
Stick in, stick out.
- So that goes to the right,
and that's to the left.
- ...to the left.
- Well, let's start it
up and let's give it a shot.
- Okay, ignition...
Pull that throttle back
just a little bit...
All right, right there.
All right.
We'll just grab
a bucket of dirt right there
out of that pile.
You can drop your boom now.
Yeah, now remember stick in...
- Other way.
- Okay.
You're fine.
Now you're gonna want
to lift your boom up
at the same time.
Okay, then now curl. Now curl.
- That's pretty good.
- Not bad, not bad.
Well,
that's pretty cool,
your wife rode
on that tractor.
I know, right?
I... I can't believe Juan
actually convinced her
to, uh, get in there.
At the plant,
Freddy and Terry get started
on the first fix...
Old meat hammer.
...diverting water
from the malfunctioning
centrifugal bowl.
During that three hour run,
we noticed that that bowl
had gold coming out
of the end of it.
Did a few test
bands on it, so...
...we're gonna bypass the bowl
and get the material feeding
in to this line here...
...which will go into
a sluice, so that end
of the new sluice system
strictly designed for that
really, really fine gold.
Unlike most
wash plants which
are joined up,
Terry's uses
an elaborate system
which takes dirt
from the wash plant
to the sluice spots
in four large pipes.
Freddy plans to disconnect
the bulb and use a T-junction
to divert the water