Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue (2021): Season 3, Episode 7 - Brothers in Arms - full transcript
Was once
a thousand people right here.
Then it dropped to 150
and now it's a ghost town.
150 years ago, definitely
a lot of gold in this area.
- The saloon, huh?
- Must have been, huh?
Just think, you know,
the guys, they mined
all the gold and they probably
spent a lot of it right here.
Yep. A lot of those old
gold miners,
they came to get rich,
but they spent every bit of it
- and blew it all.
- Yeah.
Old rocker box, the poor man's
wash plant.
- Yeah.
- It was way faster
than a gold pan.
They could run a hundred times
the amount of material
they could panning.
- Pretty neat to see.
- It is.
Well, let's get down
to that mine.
Check on the guys.
Well, Freddy, this
is our third time in Montana
in the last few years, huh?
Yeah, Roger that, Juan-O.
That sure is pretty, huh?
So what do we know
about these folks, Fred?
Well, their names
are Rich and Kevin
and they're brothers.
They've been in here
two years.
Nice.
Freddy and Juan
pushed deep into
Big Sky country,
70 miles west of Helena,
snaking towards
a struggling mine owned by
the Dietz brothers,
who, after decades apart,
reunited over the dream
of mining gold.
Do you know anything
about their plant?
Well, they said they've got
a small trommel
they can't seem
to keep running.
They seem to think
they're cursed in this valley.
I know a lot of miners
are kind of superstitious.
I kind of feel like
you make your own luck
and you make your own destiny.
Do you know Montana's motto?
It's actually oro y plata.
You know what that means?
Gold.
And I'm not sure on plata.
Silver.
Yeah, 10-4,
gold and silver.
In the early 1860s,
the discovery of large gold
and silver deposits attracted
so many fortune seekers
to this region
that the federal government
created a new territory
called Montana.
State capital, Helena,
started off as a mining camp
in 1864,
and by the late 1800s,
the riches pulled out
created more millionaires
per capita than anywhere
else in the nation.
Even today, there are nearly
5,000 gold mines in the state.
- Hi.
- How's it going, guys?
- Good. How you doing?
- Doing all right.
- I'm Kevin.
- Freddy.
- Nice to meet you.
- Freddy.
- Kevin.
- Nice to meet you, Ron.
- Rich.
- Glad to meet you, Rich.
- Yeah.
- Thank you for coming.
They've mined a lot of gold
out of these valleys.
- Definitely gold country.
- Oh, definitely, yeah.
Yeah.
This land was for sale
when I called Kevin up.
We knew there was gold up here
with the history,
and we found gold on it
right off the bat.
So we thought this
would be a good place.
What made me want to be
a gold miner was my quest
for adventure.
I spent a week here,
a week there, gold mining,
and now it's turned into
something a bit more
than that.
Now,
both in their 60s,
brothers Rich and Kevin Dietz
quit the daily grind
in pursuit of gold.
I was in a rock and roll band
until I was about 23.
Then 25 years
in an insurance field.
Started in sales and moved
my way up to eventually
a vice president.
For the last 20 years,
I've been doing background investigations
on people looking for jobs,
but I had a dream
of doing this.
The brothers
were brought up by their mom
in Casper, Wyoming.
It was hard for her.
She had three jobs,
and she wasn't around
very much.
I'm the oldest,
then my brother Randy,
and then Kevin, and then Kyle.
I became the young son
who got picked on.
Consequently, I left home
when I was 14,
and literally until
four years ago that we...
acquaintance may be
a better word than brothers,
and we reconnected
through gold.
We're really glad you're here,
because we need help.
How much gold you produced
last year?
We produced five ounces,
and we moved about
500 yards of dirt.
This year we moved about
700 yards of dirt,
and we've got about
three ounces.
So we've went back the way.
It's going, yeah,
the wrong direction.
What are you guys
looking at for amounts
of gold
you need to keep mining
in here?
We need about
an ounce a day.
What's the most
you've ever done in a day?
- Half ounce?
- Yeah, maybe.
So you're not making money
is what you're saying?
No, we're not even close.
We're in big trouble.
I have $75,000 in cash invested.
Rich probably has three,
four times that.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't want to know.
Right.
Basically, I've put everything
I've got into this.
I've sold my classic car,
my '68 Mustang.
We sold all my equipment,
so everything I've got
is invested right here,
right now.
If this doesn't work out,
I start over.
After sinking
their pensions, savings,
and more into the operation,
so far, the return
has not been worth the risk.
I named my wash plant Voodoo
because this is like a curse.
It consumes you.
It really does.
This is the feeder.
The chain is broken
there right now.
This is our excavator.
We've had lots of breakdowns.
Cash doesn't grow
on trees.
I don't want to just
throw it away
without potentially seeing
some sort of return
on investment.
Our land has been heavily
mined through the years.
We were confident when
we bought the land,
that the old timers
have not got it all.
But now, I'm losing hope
that there's commercial gold
on this land.
And as we stand here today,
I don't see a next year.
I'm hoping that Freddy
and Juan can help us
learn how to be better
gold miners.
We are just a small
operation. Everybody has
to start somewhere.
Well, we kind of got
a lay of the land now.
Why don't we take a look
at the plant, Fred?
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
Nice little setup
you guys got here.
Thank you.
- Did you build this plant?
- Yeah.
It's kind of my creation.
Rich built
his entire trommel
by watching internet videos.
What kind of yards
can you run through it?
Comfortably 20 yards an hour.
- That's
an old sander.
- Yes.
And it's not really
made for rocks that
we're running.
We've had considerable breakdowns
after breakdown,
after breakdown.
So this isn't working right
now at the moment, huh?
- No, the chain is broken
right now.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- We can run the hydraulics
and the belt,
but we can't run the chain.
At the shop, it worked great.
But then you get it up here
in the material
in the real world.
They're just not doing what
I thought it would do.
So how are you feeding
the plant?
What we're doing is just going
up here and dumping slowly.
So you're just feeding
directly on top
of that conveyor?
- Okay.
- Feeding directly
right into here.
And then it goes up
into the hopper.
Okay.
We'll have a look
at the sluices. Hey, Juano?
Here's a nugget trap.
What's the biggest
nugget you found?
About the width of a dime.
It was only like about,
I think, three grams
or two grams.
Yeah.
For extra support,
Rich and Kevin
brought in friends
Lyn and Jerry.
- How you gentlemen doing?
- How's it going, guys?
- Lyn.
- Lyn.
- Freddy.
- Nice to meet you.
- And Jerry.
- Jerry, nice to meet you.
Well, guys, you know
what Freddy and I really like
to do is we like to come
into a situation,
kind of see what you guys
got going on, do a test run.
And Freddy and I
are just going to walk around
- and see what's happening.
- See what your problems are,
your issues.
- Yeah.
- We'd like to do
a four-hour test.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- Let's do it, huh?
- Let's fire it up.
Fire it up.
Water's coming.
Here it comes.
Fire up the trommel.
That's kind of slow that way.
Yeah.
The hopper provides
a steady feed of pay
onto the belt.
With it out of commission,
Jerry must carefully
load directly onto
the conveyor,
leaving it empty for
a third of their run time
and slashing yardage
by roughly 30%.
The conveyor carries dirt up
to a pre-wash
before it passes through
the eight-foot trommel
that Rich fabricated
in his workshop.
Material then drops into
the 20-foot sluice run,
where gold should settle
in the riffles.
Jerry, Jerry, got a copy?
Kevin, we don't care
about that.
Now, that son of a gun's
packed.
- Yeah, it is.
- Holy cow.
This is just a pack.
A pack-it-up, machine is
what they've got here.
A pack-it-up, gold-losing
machine is what it is.
- Yep.
- There's nowhere
for it to sit.
Twenty minutes in,
Rich's handmade riffles
are already clogged.
Any fine gold
will be washed off
the end of the sluice
and lost.
I have to get away to get
that material evened out.
Right now, it's screwed up.
The material
they're running
doesn't look good.
Nothing.
I really don't like the look
of that material.
- Really, nothing.
- One little bitty speck.
- You want to pan
on that pay pile?
- Yeah, let's do it.
We haven't even ran an hour,
but we're not finding
much gold.
- You seeing anything?
- No, it doesn't look good
at all, Freddy.
- No.
- It's supposed to be
a gold country back here.
- Want me to pan it for you?
- Here, you pan this one.
See what we find.
There's nothing to speak of?
Well, I think we ought
to shut it down.
- What do you think, Juan?
- I agree.
We're just wasting fuel.
Hey, Rich.
Yes, sir.
I'll let this be your call,
but I think we ought
to shut the plant down.
Juan just panned one out
of this material here.
- Mm-hmm.
- Found one tiny, tiny speck.
Right now, we're just
burning fuel.
Right. Then there's no point
in doing it.
Okay. Well,
let's shut it down.
Guys, we've got
to shut it down.
Freddy's timer
at just 40 minutes.
The first test ends.
This might be the shortest run
of our history.
We're not finding hardly
any gold in it at all.
Where it's mainly
just dirt, and dirt's
for growing potatoes,
not for gold.
We'll clean it up,
and we'll see what we get.
Dang it.
That was a cluster .
Total cluster
All right, brother.
You hold this, and I'll move
the bucket.
I'm tired
of this .
The relationship
with my brother right now
is rocky at best.
He's my big brother,
and I'm the little brother.
We see things
two different ways.
Kevin and I, we've never been
real close,
so the time we get to spend
together is good.
Sometimes we fight
and whatnot,
and it isn't very pleasant
for him, and it isn't
very pleasant for me.
We're both stubborn
and pretty pig-headed.
Not a doctor
or a psychiatrist,
just so you know.
I don't expect you to be,
but if you could do some work
between me and my brother,
it'd be great.
I'm sorry. This whole thing's
going to hell. It really is.
Gold brought
the brothers together again,
but now risks driving
them further apart.
This is not worth, you know,
losing a brother or friend
or anything.
This could cost Rich
and me a relationship
that we're trying to rebuild,
and it could cost him.
It could cost him everything.
Ooh, that's what we said.
Well, it is what it is.
Let's run it and see
what it does.
Scale don't lie.
The Dietz brothers'
one-ounce-a-day goal means
their 40-minute test run
needs to deliver
well over 0.1 of an ounce.
0.06, guys.
That's, um...
really disappointing.
I mean...
I'm just guessing that
I'd say 75% of the material
- that was ran through
that plant.
- Just dirt.
- Yeah.
- Leave it right
where you found it.
You know, the problem is,
if you go in there
and you pan, you see
the odd piece
and you get excited.
You want to run it all,
but the truth of the matter
is you're wearing down
your plant.
You're wearing down
your equipment
for something that has
minimal, minimal gold in it.
This concerns me greatly
because I want my family
to be successful.
But at some point,
the money runs out.
That's how gold mining
is, though.
- I mean, it's always a gamble.
- And that's my concern.
So this is what
you're digging?
Yeah, this is the material
right here.
We don't really know
where the layers is.
After
a disappointing
first test run,
Freddy's first step, investigate
the Dietz brothers' pay.
How are you breaking
this bedrock up?
We're just using the excavator
out there,
but it went down the day
before you guys got here.
That almost looks like a mix
of gravel and volcanic ash.
When the stuff gets dried,
does it turn to, like,
a powder on you?
- Yes.
- Yep.
Absolutely.
You can see it, Juan.
Even though it's wet.
Powder.
So it's a streambed
of some kind at some point,
and then whatever volcano
put this ash down.
The Edel Mountains
in Montana is an ancient
volcanic field
active about a hundred
million years ago.
Its volcanoes have eroded
away, but the ash
from their eruptions remains
in the subsoil,
mixed with the region's
pockets of gold-rich pay dirt.
That's probably not very good
stuff right there.
When we got down
to this stuff,
- we really didn't plan much.
- I wouldn't even play
with that.
Freddy and I, we always
tell people this
when we first get there.
We can help you guys
find more gold.
We can help you guys catch
more gold, but we can't put
gold in the ground.
That's what I'm concerned about.
And just know,
on this property,
that's what it's going
to be. It's going to be
a treasure hunt.
You're going to find
these spots, you're going
to run them.
You can't just take
the whole dang hill because
it has a little bit of gold
in the beginning.
I'm sure there's a tremendous
amount of gold around here,
but this whole pit right here
in my eyes has played out.
So this is the retirement
plan then?
I'm all in. I've got this
as the only thing I've got,
I've auctioned off
everything I've got.
The old timers
worked at it many years ago,
and they did it by hand.
I believe, and everybody
we've talked to believes
the gold is here.
Ooh.
Sometimes gold gives
people wealth,
- and sometimes gold takes
people's wealth away.
- Taketh away.
Hopefully we can help
you where you're not
throwing away your retirement
money to go gold mining.
Without Juan and Freddy,
we're going to tear
a whole hill out
and not get nothing.
Without them, this thing
doesn't go past next week.
We're in another one
of those situations here
where we really, really want
to help these guys,
but we're only here
a few days.
Just driving in,
Juan and myself could see
that the amount of work
they did in these valleys
wasn't for nothing.
There was gold here,
and there's still gold here.
Just got to find it.
We've got a lot
to do today, Fred.
Yeah. The material they
were running,
what'd you find?
- One speck.
- One speck.
With the time we have,
I think a big part of what
we need to do here
is help them get on
some better ground.
I agree with you,
because it doesn't matter
how tuned up we get
the sluice box.
- Yeah.
- If there's no gold
in the dirt.
It's kind of a tough one, Freddy.
Well, what do you think
if we can possibly fix
that track hoe?
We definitely need
that track hoe running.
We'll be able to go up
and prospect.
Well, we can't do anything
without it.
There's a few things that
we can do on the plant.
Well, we've got
that sander, right?
- Yeah.
- It's got a steel plate, yeah,
with chain links on the side.
They said it's broke,
so it's made to just
move sand,
- and they're putting
rocks in it.
- Yeah.
And those rocks
are getting caught
in that chain
- and breaking it.
- Binding up and popping it up.
And then the sluice,
the water's going to one side,
and the material's going
to the other side.
- It's a nightmare.
- Yeah.
I think what we do here
is just put some plates
underneath at an angle
and force it to the center.
And you know what's
going to happen when
it comes out of the center.
- It's going to spread
properly, right?
- Then it spreads evenly.
The structure of the box
is good, but everything else
is going to have
to be replaced.
All new riffles, hold downs,
carpets, under carpets, everything.
- Everything in it.
- It'll be a complete box.
2,600 total to do it all,
just in material.
What do you think
about labor for us?
An ounce of gold apiece,
so 2,600.
- Plus two ounces of gold.
- Yeah.
I know Kevin's really nervous
about the cost of all of this,
- Mm-hmm.
- but that's what we need.
Freddy and Juan
identify three key problems
with the operation.
First, the drive chain
on the feeder's conveyor
is broken.
Repairing it will ensure
a consistent feed of pay
and increase the yardage run
by 30%.
Second, uneven distribution
of water and material causes
the sluice to clog up.
Juan and Freddy will upgrade
the carpet and riffles
in the sluice box
and attach metal plates
to force the flow of material
to the middle, creating
an even spread.
Third, and most importantly,
if they can't repair
the excavator
and find more gold
on the site,
all these fixes
will mean nothing.
How's it going, guys?
- Good. How you doing?
- Good.
Doing all right?
A couple things
that we want to do,
we want to fix
your guys' feeder. Obviously,
you know it's broke.
- The chain, yeah.
- Your sluice is plugged
solid top to bottom
when you ran yesterday.
- Mm-hmm.
- So any real fine gold
that's in your deposit,
you're going to lose
a lot of it.
- All right.
- You'll see that your water's
going one direction
and your material's going
the other in the first part
of that sluice box, right?
- Yeah.
- So I want to design a system
to get that material centered.
- And then it can actually
disperse out and evenly feed.
- Right.
We'll get a roll
of good miner's moss.
So it actually has a place
for that gold
- to get locked in there
and get trapped.
- It's expensive.
You know, it's like
700 bucks for a roll.
And then on top of that,
I watched you guys clean it up
the other day. You actually
have to bring out an impact,
wrenches, and everything
else to be able to get it
all taken apart.
What we want to do,
we want to eliminate all that
and actually build a set
of proper tie downs for it.
- Perfect.
- Yeah.
- Great.
- You only need
a hammer.
Yeah. Quick, easy.
He knows how to use one.
So 2,600 is what we're looking
at in material.
And then, once
you guys get going,
we'd like an ounce of gold
apiece for our labor.
We aren't making
really anything on it,
but it covers our expenses.
I totally appreciate
the information.
And it's no surprise
that we're having problems.
And I mean, just you guys
being here has opened up
- my eyes to what's possible,
because we're losing a lot.
- Yeah.
And that's got to be fixed.
I totally understand.
Sometimes you've got
to invest money to make money.
- You always do.
- Sometimes you have to bite
the bullet
and, you know,
go a little bit further.
If we walk away now,
we're not going to get
- any better than what we are.
- Well, let's do it then.
- Okay. Let's do it.
- Sounds great.
- Thank you, gentlemen.
- Thank you.
Okay, then.
Kevin is a numbers guy.
So when he says do it,
it was a big load off
of my mind.
I'm hoping that this
will all work out
and everybody will learn
from it and grow together.
The reason why it matters
so much to me
with my brother is that
I miss that family connection
that a lot of families have.
I'm still hopeful
that that will change
with the finding
of sufficient gold.
- How's it going, Kevin?
- Good, Freddy.
How you doing?
- Bring your map?
- Oh, I did.
Here's a look at it
right here.
In the historic
gold-rich hills
of western Montana,
Freddy Dodge
and mine owner Kevin Dietz
ready the hunt for ground
the old timers missed.
- Shaped like a snake.
- Yeah.
- Long and skinny, huh?
- Skinny.
It has all the markings
in terms of the boundaries,
but it also has areas
of where the past miners
have mined.
Why don't I show you around?
What we're doing right now
is more important than
anything else
we're doing for it.
You could have the nicest
wash plant in the world
and you just sit there
and polish it every day
'cause you don't have
any gold to run
through it, right?
- True.
- I want to show you something
on these rocks over here.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- You see that?
- Yeah.
You can see how the old timers
stacked those walls in there?
- Yep.
- For them to go through that
much work to do that,
evidently there was
some flipping good gold
right there.
Over time, that stuff
just keeps slowly, slowly,
slowly working down.
So at one time,
this whole pile would
have been over the creek
and the water would
have flowed through it.
As the rock face
eroded over millions of years,
it covered the gold-rich creek
at the bottom of the hillside.
To recover the gold,
the old timers shifted
tons of rock off the creek bed
by hand and used it to build
a retaining wall,
preventing further rock slides
while they mined.
- Well, let's keep looking
around, huh?
- Okay, sounds good.
I want to look at it
from the top
- and kind of get a lay
of the land.
- Yeah, for sure.
The gravel bed that was
in the bottom of the creek
before they mined it,
- that's what we want
to find up here.
- Yeah.
'Cause once upon a time,
that creek that's down
in the bottom was here
and it's eroded its way down
through over time.
So walking in here,
if there was a spot
I would dig,
it'd be this area,
because it's flat enough
it could hold gravels.
And lo and behold,
an old timer punched a hole
in there.
Yeah. Sure enough.
Let's see what might
be in there.
That one's been washed
a little bit.
Rocks washed smooth
by water indicated
dry riverbed, which could
be teeming with gold
brought down from deposits
further upstream.
What I think we ought
to do up on this flat,
- if we can get that tracko
fixed. Bring it up here
- Yeah.
and run a trench across.
- Did we find anything?
- Yeah.
You can see
the little nick in it.
- Oh, yeah.
- It was a pain in the butt
to get to, though.
On the other side
of the claim,
Juan and Rich rush to repair
a punctured hose
in the mini excavator.
We don't have a whole lot
of time, so fortunately
we were able to get this
hosing in,
and hopefully it'll help them
out to be able to find
- some decent ground.
- Good.
- Don't smack my truck, please.
- Okay.
- No leaks. Looks good.
- Good.
An hour later,
with the excavator back
in action, Freddy tackles
the hill.
Oh.
I don't know if we're going
to get this tracko up there
or not.
It's safe.
Good, Freddy.
Well, I'm going
to start digging.
Let's hope we can find
some material here.
Yeah, 10-4.
Now that the excavator
is fixed, I'm feeling
very hopeful.
I'm feeling a bit of
the excitement
that's starting to build back
in me that I had a couple
years ago
when we first started.
- You see how these rocks
are shingled?
- Yeah.
They're flat rocks.
They're laying flat.
It means it's been worked
by water.
This layer from right here
looks promising.
This certainly isn't
the same type of stuff
that we were digging.
This side of this wall
is tailings, I think.
- See how much tighter
these are?
- Yeah.
So I'm going to run
my hand down like that.
- Yeah.
- I'm getting the odd rock.
Now this side.
- That's tailings.
- Tailings.
That's one more thing
that I've learned from you.
What I'd like to do is some
panning on this material.
Freddy's test hole
cuts directly through
a spot between
the old timer's tailings
and untouched ground,
which should contain gold.
- Jerry, got a copy?
- Copy. Go ahead.
Freddy's got a bucket
that we're going to put
in your skid steer.
Copy that.
It's very interesting
watching Freddy.
It's like watching a master
at work who can read the signs
of the rock and the land.
It's looking good.
There you go. Now dump.
Thank you, sir.
Freddy runs
three yards through
the high banker
to concentrate the pay
before he pans it.
- Now let's see what's
in it, huh?
- Yeah.
Hopefully there's some gold
in it.
Yeah, hopefully there is.
Yeah.
Hmph.
It's 10 colors.
And it's not good.
Well.
I don't know what to do now.
I was hoping to see
like $5 worth of gold
in the pan there.
No.
25 cents worth of gold
was in that pan.
That's not enough.
I have mixed emotions,
you know, I got insides
just... are you making
the right call going further?
Where I draw the line
is I'm very close.
We're two years into this.
Literally, we're going
down Bankruptcy Road.
So basically we're back
to square one.
There was a tremendous amount
of gold produced here.
You can see it without
somebody telling you,
the amount of work
they did in these valleys
wasn't for nothing.
There was gold here
and there's still gold here.
How much is left and where
the do we find it?
We're running out
of time here,
I'll tell you that.
It's a beautiful place,
but at the same time,
you got to put food
on the table.
Freddy hits
the hills of Montana around
the Dietz mine
in a last ditch attempt
to find the brothers
some good ground.
Kevin's put a lot of
his finances on the line here
to mine gold and I've seen
his emotions roller coaster
the past couple of days.
Found gravels that should
have good gold in them.
Not enough gold, so I watched
him go
off the cliff.
Most important thing
in my mind right now
is to find what gold's
left on their property.
The old timers hit it hard.
On the ground up there,
you know,
you can see a couple benches.
It's an inside bend
on this creek,
that side is, which is good
for gravel benches.
There's one spot up there
that I want to look at.
We're just trying
to pick through
and find what the old timers
couldn't get to.
Water flows faster
around the outside of bends
and rivers and creeks.
The extra force of the water
eats away at the bank
at an increased rate.
Gold bearing benches
on this side of the river bank
will be eroded over time
and their gold washed away,
but the benches on the inside
are more likely to stay intact
with their gold
still trapped within.
It's kind of like that
sluice box down there.
The water is shooting wide
and the material stays
on the inside.
I just got to keep
looking around
and hopefully find something.
One of the issues that
we're having is
the heavier material is coming
down the sluice here
and we're getting a lot
of water here.
So what we want to do
is make sure that
it's an even feed
across the sluice box.
Juan strips
the sluice box
and attacks the issue
of uneven flow.
So we're going to force
all the material
to get concentrated
into about an eight by ten
chute and then what it'll do
is once it hits that little
concentration point,
it'll fan out and then
it'll actually have a more
even feed down the sluice box.
At the end of the day,
the more even of a feed
that we have on
the sluice box,
the better chance that
we have of catching
a lot of that finer gold.
So it's something simple,
but it'll help the recovery.
I'm going to get up
to the cut table,
get it all cut out and then
we'll get it installed.
I've got all the little pieces
of design that we need
to cut out.
That'll work.
- That flat back
from your plant...
- Yeah.
looks like nobody's
messed with it.
Really?
What I was thinking, Kevin,
is get up in here
and punch a couple holes.
Freddy thinks
he's found an untouched bend
on the inside
of an old meander.
I think we should punch some
holes and check it out, yeah?
Let's get the tracko
and hopefully, we have
more success
than our last one.
Well, right now I'm seeing
some rounded rock.
We found a layer,
if it's got decent gold in it,
that's about three feet
thick here.
So we'll see what's in it.
Could you take handfuls
of the brown and throw
it in the bucket
- and take it down and pan it?
- Okay.
- That ought to be enough.
- All right, I'll run down
and test that.
- That bucket.
- All right, perfect.
- All righty, thank you.
- I'll be back in just a bit.
Okay.
I'm doing a little panning
just to see if there's
something in here.
It's showing some pretty
good color right off the bat.
- I got those results, Freddy.
- How's it look?
Not so bad.
There was some jumps in it.
Yep.
This single pan
from the new test hole produces
three times as much gold
as Freddy's previous
bulk test.
The old timers missed it.
- We found it.
- You found it, Freddy.
- We found it.
- I can't, well,
I'm glad to say
we, but I'm saying
you found it.
You guys want
to start getting pay down,
so we can run
a second test here.
- Yeah?
- I guess time will tell
how much gold's in it.
Freddy,
he's so knowledgeable.
Rich and me, you know,
Freddy and Juan could
help repair our relationship,
and that's worth...
more than gold would
give you, for sure.
It's now all hands
on deck to fix the plant
and make sure Freddy's
prospecting mission
delivers a punch.
So we got a broken feeder.
We're not exactly sure
what's wrong.
They can't even use it.
Got to lift it up
and take a look.
So we got to get it apart,
see what we can do with it.
heavy.
Juan's feeder fix
will increase the amount
of material
fed into the wash plant
by a third.
Careful, guys. Don't trust it.
- How's it going, Juan-o?
- Hey, Freddy.
How you doing over there?
So those last tests we did
on this bench over here.
- Yeah, how did it look?
- There's gold in it.
- Is there?
- Yeah.
We got the prospecting
done, so I'm going
to start working on
- that sluice box
where you start it.
- Okay.
- Yeah. Perfect.
- I'll finish it for you.
- Let's do it.
- Okay. Thanks, buddy.
What we're doing here
is going to make wedges
to hold the riffles down
in the sluice box.
The system they had definitely
wasn't the greatest.
It was plugged up
all the way down.
The new riffle system
we're putting in is going
to save them time.
The plant's not running.
It's not catching gold.
Last one.
I was able to get
it all taken apart,
and I got these links
put back together.
That chain, that's what brings
the material forward.
These paddles are welded
onto the links,
and what happened was
this side must have gotten
caught up,
and it broke the links.
Bricks had a little section
of chain left over,
so I would pull a few links
off of it and repair it.
Welded this crossbar
back onto the link.
Pretty much ready to go.
So what do you think of
my new vest this year, Juan?
It's all right. It looks a lot
like the one last year, Fred.
- No. That's when
I had a zipper.
- Yeah, I know.
- This one's Velcro.
It's nice, though.
- Yeah.
Oh. Oh, no. No, no, no.
I need that.
This is my good vest.
- I'm going to buy you
a new one, Freddy.
- Here.
- Poor little guy.
- You tore my Velcro off.
Why would you do that?
- It was already off
there, Fred.
- No, it wasn't off.
Did you hear it go...
- Yeah, it was ready
to come off.
- No, it wasn't.
- You still got one.
- Now it's a safety hazard.
You still got a good one.
I'm done for the day.
I wasn't expecting to repair
my Velcro up.
- Are you ready?
- Yeah.
All right.
Coming your way.
In western Montana,
Juan leads the squad
as they finish the fix.
You're dead so far.
Come on down.
I think it's in, Juan,
on this side.
It's no showpiece,
but look at that.
It's in. Perfect.
- How's it going, Juan-O?
- Just got done
with that hopper.
I know they're still getting
pay down here,
so I guess wait for them
to get all the pay down
and we're ready to run.
- Yeah.
- That's the best gravel
we've seen.
Now we've got to run it
and see if there's
any gold in it.
I know Kevin and Rich
were both extremely
stressed out
about everything
going on here,
but hopefully this will
kind of alleviate some
of that stress for them.
- I like these guys.
- I do too.
Okay.
How's it going, guys?
- Hi.
- Hi, guys.
Freddy and Juan
spent the last five days overhauling
the Dietz brothers' operation.
So I say we run 80 minutes,
which is twice what
we ran last time,
so the math will be easy
and we'll see how much gold's
in it.
- Let's fire it up.
- Let's go.
- See what we got.
- Sounds good.
Fire it up.
Before
the hopper feeder
was out of action,
Juan fixed the drive chain
to allow more of pay through
the plant.
Material built up on one side
of the sluice,
blocking the riffles.
Juan installed a chute
that distributes material
across the full width
of the box alongside
Freddy's rebuilt sluices
with new riffles
and custom carpets.
But the new pay
Freddy prospected
could be the key to keeping
the brothers' mining dream
and their friendship alive.
- Hey. Going good.
- Going good.
There we go.
First bucket.
See if we can get
some color here.
Nice to be running again.
- Yeah.
- I hope there's gold in it.
First bucket's in, Juan.
Water turned brown.
Well, we got a lot of changes
in this box now, Juan.
- Yeah.
- Before it was the same,
the same, the same.
The same. Blob, blob, blob
all the way down.
All the way.
A lot better.
- Lyn.
- Yeah, go ahead.
How's it going up there
for you?
Yeah, that material
looks good.
I like it.
If you look at it
from this angle,
you see how it's just coming.
I like that flow much better.
- Got a chance.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
That looks very good dirt.
Way different than the stuff
we've been running.
- A lot finer, isn't it?
- A lot finer.
The tailings aren't piling up
as fast.
All that matters is that
there's gold in 'em.
- Look at how round,
that's river rock.
- Truck on.
Oh, hey.
Look at that one.
That's rounded.
- That's pretty good, bro.
- That's a rounded one.
There's another one.
Look at this one.
I'm going to get it.
Shut it down, guys.
That's 80 minutes.
Twice what we did last time.
So we'll see how much gold
we get out of it.
Okay, go ahead
and turn it off, Kevin.
Shutting it down.
- How's it looking, Juan?
- Looks pretty damn good, guys.
- Looks really good.
- Look in there.
This whole riffle's packed
all the way into this corner.
- Wow.
- I can see it, yeah.
We've never seen gold
in the...
- Look at that.
- Yeah, We've never
seen gold...
Look down here.
Look at that.
- Holy cow.
- Look down here.
If you guys want to start
knocking the boards
- and pulling the riffles out
of here.
- Okay.
We'll do it.
- All I need is a hammer
this time, Freddy.
- That's it, man.
Look at that.
No bolt.
No word. I find that wrench.
None of that.
Look at that.
How happy am I?
Cleanup from
the second test complete.
It's the moment of truth
for the Dietz brothers.
- Gentlemen, how's it going?
- Good, good.
- How you looking?
- Good, good.
- Got her dried up?
- I do.
- I'd like to see it.
- Yeah.
Pour her, Juano.
The first test
delivered 0.06 ounces
from 40 minutes.
Because we ran twice
as long, let's go 0.12.
If Freddy and Juan's
improvements work,
this second test of 80 minutes
should deliver more than
0.12 of an ounce.
Look how much
is left in the jar.
The reality is that's what
you're increasing.
- Wow.
- Awesome.
Pour it out, Juano.
0.44.
Right there is $900 worth
of gold.
- Wow.
- Hey.
- That's amazing, isn't it?
- Cool.
That's two ounces
of 100 yards.
For the amount of time
that was ran,
this is a 350 to 400%
increase in gold.
And it's amazing. Look at
all that fine gold
that's in there now.
- Yeah, it wasn't there before.
- We didn't have that before.
I couldn't be more
pleased, guys.
What do you think, bro?
I don't know what to think.
I'm speechless.
I mean, this is huge.
I'm totally grateful to them.
I can't explain what it means.
When there's still hope,
then your attitude goes up,
your enthusiasm goes up,
and your will
to do it goes up.
- And your morale
as a team goes up.
- Yeah. Totally.
And you guys changed that.
Today was just
totally amazing.
The sluice box
worked perfect.
Fred, Freddy, and Juan,
their improvements
to the plant,
they did exactly what
they said they were going
to do.
Now we know that there's gold
in the area.
We've learned how
to look for it.
We can come back next year.
This has been huge.
Well, there's your gold.
- Wow, nice. Look at that.
- Look at that.
- Guys, it's been a pleasure.
- Okay.
- Get loaded up and get out.
- Thank you so much.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- I can't say how much
I appreciate it.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, guys.
- Stay in touch, okay?
- Yeah.
- You too.
- Thank you, guys.
- Okay.
To see the pan of almost
a half ounce
after we've ran for 80 minutes
just blew me away
because that gold
really came out of our land,
that's pretty exciting.
And on top of that,
having a better relationship
with my brother,
and then on top of that,
having some hope
for next year,
it really puts it all into
a complete circle
and really fits
for this stage of our life.
So I'm very grateful for that.
Rich, we did this.
So, you know, we could get
a connection again.
It's important. It's--
I understand, it's been tough.
I'm sorry, you know,
for things that happened
in the past and I just,
you know,
we just got to learn
to maybe live with each other
- just a little bit, okay?
- I just...
I love you. I really do.
I'm sorry.
I really am.
I'm really sorry.
- I know it's hurting you.
- Let's go.
- I'm going to show you
that spot. All right.
- Thank you.
Kevin and Rich,
you know, you can tell
they have a lot
of brotherly love.
I'm hoping they're on
the same page,
so that way they can continue
to move forward as brothers
and hopefully run
a successful mine.
Before they didn't know
what to do.
Now they know what
material to look for.
They know some of the places
to look for it.
Today's a good day for them.
Today's a good day
for Juan and myself.
It's always good
to see people smile.
Well, let's get on
to the next one, huh?
a thousand people right here.
Then it dropped to 150
and now it's a ghost town.
150 years ago, definitely
a lot of gold in this area.
- The saloon, huh?
- Must have been, huh?
Just think, you know,
the guys, they mined
all the gold and they probably
spent a lot of it right here.
Yep. A lot of those old
gold miners,
they came to get rich,
but they spent every bit of it
- and blew it all.
- Yeah.
Old rocker box, the poor man's
wash plant.
- Yeah.
- It was way faster
than a gold pan.
They could run a hundred times
the amount of material
they could panning.
- Pretty neat to see.
- It is.
Well, let's get down
to that mine.
Check on the guys.
Well, Freddy, this
is our third time in Montana
in the last few years, huh?
Yeah, Roger that, Juan-O.
That sure is pretty, huh?
So what do we know
about these folks, Fred?
Well, their names
are Rich and Kevin
and they're brothers.
They've been in here
two years.
Nice.
Freddy and Juan
pushed deep into
Big Sky country,
70 miles west of Helena,
snaking towards
a struggling mine owned by
the Dietz brothers,
who, after decades apart,
reunited over the dream
of mining gold.
Do you know anything
about their plant?
Well, they said they've got
a small trommel
they can't seem
to keep running.
They seem to think
they're cursed in this valley.
I know a lot of miners
are kind of superstitious.
I kind of feel like
you make your own luck
and you make your own destiny.
Do you know Montana's motto?
It's actually oro y plata.
You know what that means?
Gold.
And I'm not sure on plata.
Silver.
Yeah, 10-4,
gold and silver.
In the early 1860s,
the discovery of large gold
and silver deposits attracted
so many fortune seekers
to this region
that the federal government
created a new territory
called Montana.
State capital, Helena,
started off as a mining camp
in 1864,
and by the late 1800s,
the riches pulled out
created more millionaires
per capita than anywhere
else in the nation.
Even today, there are nearly
5,000 gold mines in the state.
- Hi.
- How's it going, guys?
- Good. How you doing?
- Doing all right.
- I'm Kevin.
- Freddy.
- Nice to meet you.
- Freddy.
- Kevin.
- Nice to meet you, Ron.
- Rich.
- Glad to meet you, Rich.
- Yeah.
- Thank you for coming.
They've mined a lot of gold
out of these valleys.
- Definitely gold country.
- Oh, definitely, yeah.
Yeah.
This land was for sale
when I called Kevin up.
We knew there was gold up here
with the history,
and we found gold on it
right off the bat.
So we thought this
would be a good place.
What made me want to be
a gold miner was my quest
for adventure.
I spent a week here,
a week there, gold mining,
and now it's turned into
something a bit more
than that.
Now,
both in their 60s,
brothers Rich and Kevin Dietz
quit the daily grind
in pursuit of gold.
I was in a rock and roll band
until I was about 23.
Then 25 years
in an insurance field.
Started in sales and moved
my way up to eventually
a vice president.
For the last 20 years,
I've been doing background investigations
on people looking for jobs,
but I had a dream
of doing this.
The brothers
were brought up by their mom
in Casper, Wyoming.
It was hard for her.
She had three jobs,
and she wasn't around
very much.
I'm the oldest,
then my brother Randy,
and then Kevin, and then Kyle.
I became the young son
who got picked on.
Consequently, I left home
when I was 14,
and literally until
four years ago that we...
acquaintance may be
a better word than brothers,
and we reconnected
through gold.
We're really glad you're here,
because we need help.
How much gold you produced
last year?
We produced five ounces,
and we moved about
500 yards of dirt.
This year we moved about
700 yards of dirt,
and we've got about
three ounces.
So we've went back the way.
It's going, yeah,
the wrong direction.
What are you guys
looking at for amounts
of gold
you need to keep mining
in here?
We need about
an ounce a day.
What's the most
you've ever done in a day?
- Half ounce?
- Yeah, maybe.
So you're not making money
is what you're saying?
No, we're not even close.
We're in big trouble.
I have $75,000 in cash invested.
Rich probably has three,
four times that.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't want to know.
Right.
Basically, I've put everything
I've got into this.
I've sold my classic car,
my '68 Mustang.
We sold all my equipment,
so everything I've got
is invested right here,
right now.
If this doesn't work out,
I start over.
After sinking
their pensions, savings,
and more into the operation,
so far, the return
has not been worth the risk.
I named my wash plant Voodoo
because this is like a curse.
It consumes you.
It really does.
This is the feeder.
The chain is broken
there right now.
This is our excavator.
We've had lots of breakdowns.
Cash doesn't grow
on trees.
I don't want to just
throw it away
without potentially seeing
some sort of return
on investment.
Our land has been heavily
mined through the years.
We were confident when
we bought the land,
that the old timers
have not got it all.
But now, I'm losing hope
that there's commercial gold
on this land.
And as we stand here today,
I don't see a next year.
I'm hoping that Freddy
and Juan can help us
learn how to be better
gold miners.
We are just a small
operation. Everybody has
to start somewhere.
Well, we kind of got
a lay of the land now.
Why don't we take a look
at the plant, Fred?
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
Nice little setup
you guys got here.
Thank you.
- Did you build this plant?
- Yeah.
It's kind of my creation.
Rich built
his entire trommel
by watching internet videos.
What kind of yards
can you run through it?
Comfortably 20 yards an hour.
- That's
an old sander.
- Yes.
And it's not really
made for rocks that
we're running.
We've had considerable breakdowns
after breakdown,
after breakdown.
So this isn't working right
now at the moment, huh?
- No, the chain is broken
right now.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- We can run the hydraulics
and the belt,
but we can't run the chain.
At the shop, it worked great.
But then you get it up here
in the material
in the real world.
They're just not doing what
I thought it would do.
So how are you feeding
the plant?
What we're doing is just going
up here and dumping slowly.
So you're just feeding
directly on top
of that conveyor?
- Okay.
- Feeding directly
right into here.
And then it goes up
into the hopper.
Okay.
We'll have a look
at the sluices. Hey, Juano?
Here's a nugget trap.
What's the biggest
nugget you found?
About the width of a dime.
It was only like about,
I think, three grams
or two grams.
Yeah.
For extra support,
Rich and Kevin
brought in friends
Lyn and Jerry.
- How you gentlemen doing?
- How's it going, guys?
- Lyn.
- Lyn.
- Freddy.
- Nice to meet you.
- And Jerry.
- Jerry, nice to meet you.
Well, guys, you know
what Freddy and I really like
to do is we like to come
into a situation,
kind of see what you guys
got going on, do a test run.
And Freddy and I
are just going to walk around
- and see what's happening.
- See what your problems are,
your issues.
- Yeah.
- We'd like to do
a four-hour test.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- Let's do it, huh?
- Let's fire it up.
Fire it up.
Water's coming.
Here it comes.
Fire up the trommel.
That's kind of slow that way.
Yeah.
The hopper provides
a steady feed of pay
onto the belt.
With it out of commission,
Jerry must carefully
load directly onto
the conveyor,
leaving it empty for
a third of their run time
and slashing yardage
by roughly 30%.
The conveyor carries dirt up
to a pre-wash
before it passes through
the eight-foot trommel
that Rich fabricated
in his workshop.
Material then drops into
the 20-foot sluice run,
where gold should settle
in the riffles.
Jerry, Jerry, got a copy?
Kevin, we don't care
about that.
Now, that son of a gun's
packed.
- Yeah, it is.
- Holy cow.
This is just a pack.
A pack-it-up, machine is
what they've got here.
A pack-it-up, gold-losing
machine is what it is.
- Yep.
- There's nowhere
for it to sit.
Twenty minutes in,
Rich's handmade riffles
are already clogged.
Any fine gold
will be washed off
the end of the sluice
and lost.
I have to get away to get
that material evened out.
Right now, it's screwed up.
The material
they're running
doesn't look good.
Nothing.
I really don't like the look
of that material.
- Really, nothing.
- One little bitty speck.
- You want to pan
on that pay pile?
- Yeah, let's do it.
We haven't even ran an hour,
but we're not finding
much gold.
- You seeing anything?
- No, it doesn't look good
at all, Freddy.
- No.
- It's supposed to be
a gold country back here.
- Want me to pan it for you?
- Here, you pan this one.
See what we find.
There's nothing to speak of?
Well, I think we ought
to shut it down.
- What do you think, Juan?
- I agree.
We're just wasting fuel.
Hey, Rich.
Yes, sir.
I'll let this be your call,
but I think we ought
to shut the plant down.
Juan just panned one out
of this material here.
- Mm-hmm.
- Found one tiny, tiny speck.
Right now, we're just
burning fuel.
Right. Then there's no point
in doing it.
Okay. Well,
let's shut it down.
Guys, we've got
to shut it down.
Freddy's timer
at just 40 minutes.
The first test ends.
This might be the shortest run
of our history.
We're not finding hardly
any gold in it at all.
Where it's mainly
just dirt, and dirt's
for growing potatoes,
not for gold.
We'll clean it up,
and we'll see what we get.
Dang it.
That was a cluster .
Total cluster
All right, brother.
You hold this, and I'll move
the bucket.
I'm tired
of this .
The relationship
with my brother right now
is rocky at best.
He's my big brother,
and I'm the little brother.
We see things
two different ways.
Kevin and I, we've never been
real close,
so the time we get to spend
together is good.
Sometimes we fight
and whatnot,
and it isn't very pleasant
for him, and it isn't
very pleasant for me.
We're both stubborn
and pretty pig-headed.
Not a doctor
or a psychiatrist,
just so you know.
I don't expect you to be,
but if you could do some work
between me and my brother,
it'd be great.
I'm sorry. This whole thing's
going to hell. It really is.
Gold brought
the brothers together again,
but now risks driving
them further apart.
This is not worth, you know,
losing a brother or friend
or anything.
This could cost Rich
and me a relationship
that we're trying to rebuild,
and it could cost him.
It could cost him everything.
Ooh, that's what we said.
Well, it is what it is.
Let's run it and see
what it does.
Scale don't lie.
The Dietz brothers'
one-ounce-a-day goal means
their 40-minute test run
needs to deliver
well over 0.1 of an ounce.
0.06, guys.
That's, um...
really disappointing.
I mean...
I'm just guessing that
I'd say 75% of the material
- that was ran through
that plant.
- Just dirt.
- Yeah.
- Leave it right
where you found it.
You know, the problem is,
if you go in there
and you pan, you see
the odd piece
and you get excited.
You want to run it all,
but the truth of the matter
is you're wearing down
your plant.
You're wearing down
your equipment
for something that has
minimal, minimal gold in it.
This concerns me greatly
because I want my family
to be successful.
But at some point,
the money runs out.
That's how gold mining
is, though.
- I mean, it's always a gamble.
- And that's my concern.
So this is what
you're digging?
Yeah, this is the material
right here.
We don't really know
where the layers is.
After
a disappointing
first test run,
Freddy's first step, investigate
the Dietz brothers' pay.
How are you breaking
this bedrock up?
We're just using the excavator
out there,
but it went down the day
before you guys got here.
That almost looks like a mix
of gravel and volcanic ash.
When the stuff gets dried,
does it turn to, like,
a powder on you?
- Yes.
- Yep.
Absolutely.
You can see it, Juan.
Even though it's wet.
Powder.
So it's a streambed
of some kind at some point,
and then whatever volcano
put this ash down.
The Edel Mountains
in Montana is an ancient
volcanic field
active about a hundred
million years ago.
Its volcanoes have eroded
away, but the ash
from their eruptions remains
in the subsoil,
mixed with the region's
pockets of gold-rich pay dirt.
That's probably not very good
stuff right there.
When we got down
to this stuff,
- we really didn't plan much.
- I wouldn't even play
with that.
Freddy and I, we always
tell people this
when we first get there.
We can help you guys
find more gold.
We can help you guys catch
more gold, but we can't put
gold in the ground.
That's what I'm concerned about.
And just know,
on this property,
that's what it's going
to be. It's going to be
a treasure hunt.
You're going to find
these spots, you're going
to run them.
You can't just take
the whole dang hill because
it has a little bit of gold
in the beginning.
I'm sure there's a tremendous
amount of gold around here,
but this whole pit right here
in my eyes has played out.
So this is the retirement
plan then?
I'm all in. I've got this
as the only thing I've got,
I've auctioned off
everything I've got.
The old timers
worked at it many years ago,
and they did it by hand.
I believe, and everybody
we've talked to believes
the gold is here.
Ooh.
Sometimes gold gives
people wealth,
- and sometimes gold takes
people's wealth away.
- Taketh away.
Hopefully we can help
you where you're not
throwing away your retirement
money to go gold mining.
Without Juan and Freddy,
we're going to tear
a whole hill out
and not get nothing.
Without them, this thing
doesn't go past next week.
We're in another one
of those situations here
where we really, really want
to help these guys,
but we're only here
a few days.
Just driving in,
Juan and myself could see
that the amount of work
they did in these valleys
wasn't for nothing.
There was gold here,
and there's still gold here.
Just got to find it.
We've got a lot
to do today, Fred.
Yeah. The material they
were running,
what'd you find?
- One speck.
- One speck.
With the time we have,
I think a big part of what
we need to do here
is help them get on
some better ground.
I agree with you,
because it doesn't matter
how tuned up we get
the sluice box.
- Yeah.
- If there's no gold
in the dirt.
It's kind of a tough one, Freddy.
Well, what do you think
if we can possibly fix
that track hoe?
We definitely need
that track hoe running.
We'll be able to go up
and prospect.
Well, we can't do anything
without it.
There's a few things that
we can do on the plant.
Well, we've got
that sander, right?
- Yeah.
- It's got a steel plate, yeah,
with chain links on the side.
They said it's broke,
so it's made to just
move sand,
- and they're putting
rocks in it.
- Yeah.
And those rocks
are getting caught
in that chain
- and breaking it.
- Binding up and popping it up.
And then the sluice,
the water's going to one side,
and the material's going
to the other side.
- It's a nightmare.
- Yeah.
I think what we do here
is just put some plates
underneath at an angle
and force it to the center.
And you know what's
going to happen when
it comes out of the center.
- It's going to spread
properly, right?
- Then it spreads evenly.
The structure of the box
is good, but everything else
is going to have
to be replaced.
All new riffles, hold downs,
carpets, under carpets, everything.
- Everything in it.
- It'll be a complete box.
2,600 total to do it all,
just in material.
What do you think
about labor for us?
An ounce of gold apiece,
so 2,600.
- Plus two ounces of gold.
- Yeah.
I know Kevin's really nervous
about the cost of all of this,
- Mm-hmm.
- but that's what we need.
Freddy and Juan
identify three key problems
with the operation.
First, the drive chain
on the feeder's conveyor
is broken.
Repairing it will ensure
a consistent feed of pay
and increase the yardage run
by 30%.
Second, uneven distribution
of water and material causes
the sluice to clog up.
Juan and Freddy will upgrade
the carpet and riffles
in the sluice box
and attach metal plates
to force the flow of material
to the middle, creating
an even spread.
Third, and most importantly,
if they can't repair
the excavator
and find more gold
on the site,
all these fixes
will mean nothing.
How's it going, guys?
- Good. How you doing?
- Good.
Doing all right?
A couple things
that we want to do,
we want to fix
your guys' feeder. Obviously,
you know it's broke.
- The chain, yeah.
- Your sluice is plugged
solid top to bottom
when you ran yesterday.
- Mm-hmm.
- So any real fine gold
that's in your deposit,
you're going to lose
a lot of it.
- All right.
- You'll see that your water's
going one direction
and your material's going
the other in the first part
of that sluice box, right?
- Yeah.
- So I want to design a system
to get that material centered.
- And then it can actually
disperse out and evenly feed.
- Right.
We'll get a roll
of good miner's moss.
So it actually has a place
for that gold
- to get locked in there
and get trapped.
- It's expensive.
You know, it's like
700 bucks for a roll.
And then on top of that,
I watched you guys clean it up
the other day. You actually
have to bring out an impact,
wrenches, and everything
else to be able to get it
all taken apart.
What we want to do,
we want to eliminate all that
and actually build a set
of proper tie downs for it.
- Perfect.
- Yeah.
- Great.
- You only need
a hammer.
Yeah. Quick, easy.
He knows how to use one.
So 2,600 is what we're looking
at in material.
And then, once
you guys get going,
we'd like an ounce of gold
apiece for our labor.
We aren't making
really anything on it,
but it covers our expenses.
I totally appreciate
the information.
And it's no surprise
that we're having problems.
And I mean, just you guys
being here has opened up
- my eyes to what's possible,
because we're losing a lot.
- Yeah.
And that's got to be fixed.
I totally understand.
Sometimes you've got
to invest money to make money.
- You always do.
- Sometimes you have to bite
the bullet
and, you know,
go a little bit further.
If we walk away now,
we're not going to get
- any better than what we are.
- Well, let's do it then.
- Okay. Let's do it.
- Sounds great.
- Thank you, gentlemen.
- Thank you.
Okay, then.
Kevin is a numbers guy.
So when he says do it,
it was a big load off
of my mind.
I'm hoping that this
will all work out
and everybody will learn
from it and grow together.
The reason why it matters
so much to me
with my brother is that
I miss that family connection
that a lot of families have.
I'm still hopeful
that that will change
with the finding
of sufficient gold.
- How's it going, Kevin?
- Good, Freddy.
How you doing?
- Bring your map?
- Oh, I did.
Here's a look at it
right here.
In the historic
gold-rich hills
of western Montana,
Freddy Dodge
and mine owner Kevin Dietz
ready the hunt for ground
the old timers missed.
- Shaped like a snake.
- Yeah.
- Long and skinny, huh?
- Skinny.
It has all the markings
in terms of the boundaries,
but it also has areas
of where the past miners
have mined.
Why don't I show you around?
What we're doing right now
is more important than
anything else
we're doing for it.
You could have the nicest
wash plant in the world
and you just sit there
and polish it every day
'cause you don't have
any gold to run
through it, right?
- True.
- I want to show you something
on these rocks over here.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- You see that?
- Yeah.
You can see how the old timers
stacked those walls in there?
- Yep.
- For them to go through that
much work to do that,
evidently there was
some flipping good gold
right there.
Over time, that stuff
just keeps slowly, slowly,
slowly working down.
So at one time,
this whole pile would
have been over the creek
and the water would
have flowed through it.
As the rock face
eroded over millions of years,
it covered the gold-rich creek
at the bottom of the hillside.
To recover the gold,
the old timers shifted
tons of rock off the creek bed
by hand and used it to build
a retaining wall,
preventing further rock slides
while they mined.
- Well, let's keep looking
around, huh?
- Okay, sounds good.
I want to look at it
from the top
- and kind of get a lay
of the land.
- Yeah, for sure.
The gravel bed that was
in the bottom of the creek
before they mined it,
- that's what we want
to find up here.
- Yeah.
'Cause once upon a time,
that creek that's down
in the bottom was here
and it's eroded its way down
through over time.
So walking in here,
if there was a spot
I would dig,
it'd be this area,
because it's flat enough
it could hold gravels.
And lo and behold,
an old timer punched a hole
in there.
Yeah. Sure enough.
Let's see what might
be in there.
That one's been washed
a little bit.
Rocks washed smooth
by water indicated
dry riverbed, which could
be teeming with gold
brought down from deposits
further upstream.
What I think we ought
to do up on this flat,
- if we can get that tracko
fixed. Bring it up here
- Yeah.
and run a trench across.
- Did we find anything?
- Yeah.
You can see
the little nick in it.
- Oh, yeah.
- It was a pain in the butt
to get to, though.
On the other side
of the claim,
Juan and Rich rush to repair
a punctured hose
in the mini excavator.
We don't have a whole lot
of time, so fortunately
we were able to get this
hosing in,
and hopefully it'll help them
out to be able to find
- some decent ground.
- Good.
- Don't smack my truck, please.
- Okay.
- No leaks. Looks good.
- Good.
An hour later,
with the excavator back
in action, Freddy tackles
the hill.
Oh.
I don't know if we're going
to get this tracko up there
or not.
It's safe.
Good, Freddy.
Well, I'm going
to start digging.
Let's hope we can find
some material here.
Yeah, 10-4.
Now that the excavator
is fixed, I'm feeling
very hopeful.
I'm feeling a bit of
the excitement
that's starting to build back
in me that I had a couple
years ago
when we first started.
- You see how these rocks
are shingled?
- Yeah.
They're flat rocks.
They're laying flat.
It means it's been worked
by water.
This layer from right here
looks promising.
This certainly isn't
the same type of stuff
that we were digging.
This side of this wall
is tailings, I think.
- See how much tighter
these are?
- Yeah.
So I'm going to run
my hand down like that.
- Yeah.
- I'm getting the odd rock.
Now this side.
- That's tailings.
- Tailings.
That's one more thing
that I've learned from you.
What I'd like to do is some
panning on this material.
Freddy's test hole
cuts directly through
a spot between
the old timer's tailings
and untouched ground,
which should contain gold.
- Jerry, got a copy?
- Copy. Go ahead.
Freddy's got a bucket
that we're going to put
in your skid steer.
Copy that.
It's very interesting
watching Freddy.
It's like watching a master
at work who can read the signs
of the rock and the land.
It's looking good.
There you go. Now dump.
Thank you, sir.
Freddy runs
three yards through
the high banker
to concentrate the pay
before he pans it.
- Now let's see what's
in it, huh?
- Yeah.
Hopefully there's some gold
in it.
Yeah, hopefully there is.
Yeah.
Hmph.
It's 10 colors.
And it's not good.
Well.
I don't know what to do now.
I was hoping to see
like $5 worth of gold
in the pan there.
No.
25 cents worth of gold
was in that pan.
That's not enough.
I have mixed emotions,
you know, I got insides
just... are you making
the right call going further?
Where I draw the line
is I'm very close.
We're two years into this.
Literally, we're going
down Bankruptcy Road.
So basically we're back
to square one.
There was a tremendous amount
of gold produced here.
You can see it without
somebody telling you,
the amount of work
they did in these valleys
wasn't for nothing.
There was gold here
and there's still gold here.
How much is left and where
the do we find it?
We're running out
of time here,
I'll tell you that.
It's a beautiful place,
but at the same time,
you got to put food
on the table.
Freddy hits
the hills of Montana around
the Dietz mine
in a last ditch attempt
to find the brothers
some good ground.
Kevin's put a lot of
his finances on the line here
to mine gold and I've seen
his emotions roller coaster
the past couple of days.
Found gravels that should
have good gold in them.
Not enough gold, so I watched
him go
off the cliff.
Most important thing
in my mind right now
is to find what gold's
left on their property.
The old timers hit it hard.
On the ground up there,
you know,
you can see a couple benches.
It's an inside bend
on this creek,
that side is, which is good
for gravel benches.
There's one spot up there
that I want to look at.
We're just trying
to pick through
and find what the old timers
couldn't get to.
Water flows faster
around the outside of bends
and rivers and creeks.
The extra force of the water
eats away at the bank
at an increased rate.
Gold bearing benches
on this side of the river bank
will be eroded over time
and their gold washed away,
but the benches on the inside
are more likely to stay intact
with their gold
still trapped within.
It's kind of like that
sluice box down there.
The water is shooting wide
and the material stays
on the inside.
I just got to keep
looking around
and hopefully find something.
One of the issues that
we're having is
the heavier material is coming
down the sluice here
and we're getting a lot
of water here.
So what we want to do
is make sure that
it's an even feed
across the sluice box.
Juan strips
the sluice box
and attacks the issue
of uneven flow.
So we're going to force
all the material
to get concentrated
into about an eight by ten
chute and then what it'll do
is once it hits that little
concentration point,
it'll fan out and then
it'll actually have a more
even feed down the sluice box.
At the end of the day,
the more even of a feed
that we have on
the sluice box,
the better chance that
we have of catching
a lot of that finer gold.
So it's something simple,
but it'll help the recovery.
I'm going to get up
to the cut table,
get it all cut out and then
we'll get it installed.
I've got all the little pieces
of design that we need
to cut out.
That'll work.
- That flat back
from your plant...
- Yeah.
looks like nobody's
messed with it.
Really?
What I was thinking, Kevin,
is get up in here
and punch a couple holes.
Freddy thinks
he's found an untouched bend
on the inside
of an old meander.
I think we should punch some
holes and check it out, yeah?
Let's get the tracko
and hopefully, we have
more success
than our last one.
Well, right now I'm seeing
some rounded rock.
We found a layer,
if it's got decent gold in it,
that's about three feet
thick here.
So we'll see what's in it.
Could you take handfuls
of the brown and throw
it in the bucket
- and take it down and pan it?
- Okay.
- That ought to be enough.
- All right, I'll run down
and test that.
- That bucket.
- All right, perfect.
- All righty, thank you.
- I'll be back in just a bit.
Okay.
I'm doing a little panning
just to see if there's
something in here.
It's showing some pretty
good color right off the bat.
- I got those results, Freddy.
- How's it look?
Not so bad.
There was some jumps in it.
Yep.
This single pan
from the new test hole produces
three times as much gold
as Freddy's previous
bulk test.
The old timers missed it.
- We found it.
- You found it, Freddy.
- We found it.
- I can't, well,
I'm glad to say
we, but I'm saying
you found it.
You guys want
to start getting pay down,
so we can run
a second test here.
- Yeah?
- I guess time will tell
how much gold's in it.
Freddy,
he's so knowledgeable.
Rich and me, you know,
Freddy and Juan could
help repair our relationship,
and that's worth...
more than gold would
give you, for sure.
It's now all hands
on deck to fix the plant
and make sure Freddy's
prospecting mission
delivers a punch.
So we got a broken feeder.
We're not exactly sure
what's wrong.
They can't even use it.
Got to lift it up
and take a look.
So we got to get it apart,
see what we can do with it.
heavy.
Juan's feeder fix
will increase the amount
of material
fed into the wash plant
by a third.
Careful, guys. Don't trust it.
- How's it going, Juan-o?
- Hey, Freddy.
How you doing over there?
So those last tests we did
on this bench over here.
- Yeah, how did it look?
- There's gold in it.
- Is there?
- Yeah.
We got the prospecting
done, so I'm going
to start working on
- that sluice box
where you start it.
- Okay.
- Yeah. Perfect.
- I'll finish it for you.
- Let's do it.
- Okay. Thanks, buddy.
What we're doing here
is going to make wedges
to hold the riffles down
in the sluice box.
The system they had definitely
wasn't the greatest.
It was plugged up
all the way down.
The new riffle system
we're putting in is going
to save them time.
The plant's not running.
It's not catching gold.
Last one.
I was able to get
it all taken apart,
and I got these links
put back together.
That chain, that's what brings
the material forward.
These paddles are welded
onto the links,
and what happened was
this side must have gotten
caught up,
and it broke the links.
Bricks had a little section
of chain left over,
so I would pull a few links
off of it and repair it.
Welded this crossbar
back onto the link.
Pretty much ready to go.
So what do you think of
my new vest this year, Juan?
It's all right. It looks a lot
like the one last year, Fred.
- No. That's when
I had a zipper.
- Yeah, I know.
- This one's Velcro.
It's nice, though.
- Yeah.
Oh. Oh, no. No, no, no.
I need that.
This is my good vest.
- I'm going to buy you
a new one, Freddy.
- Here.
- Poor little guy.
- You tore my Velcro off.
Why would you do that?
- It was already off
there, Fred.
- No, it wasn't off.
Did you hear it go...
- Yeah, it was ready
to come off.
- No, it wasn't.
- You still got one.
- Now it's a safety hazard.
You still got a good one.
I'm done for the day.
I wasn't expecting to repair
my Velcro up.
- Are you ready?
- Yeah.
All right.
Coming your way.
In western Montana,
Juan leads the squad
as they finish the fix.
You're dead so far.
Come on down.
I think it's in, Juan,
on this side.
It's no showpiece,
but look at that.
It's in. Perfect.
- How's it going, Juan-O?
- Just got done
with that hopper.
I know they're still getting
pay down here,
so I guess wait for them
to get all the pay down
and we're ready to run.
- Yeah.
- That's the best gravel
we've seen.
Now we've got to run it
and see if there's
any gold in it.
I know Kevin and Rich
were both extremely
stressed out
about everything
going on here,
but hopefully this will
kind of alleviate some
of that stress for them.
- I like these guys.
- I do too.
Okay.
How's it going, guys?
- Hi.
- Hi, guys.
Freddy and Juan
spent the last five days overhauling
the Dietz brothers' operation.
So I say we run 80 minutes,
which is twice what
we ran last time,
so the math will be easy
and we'll see how much gold's
in it.
- Let's fire it up.
- Let's go.
- See what we got.
- Sounds good.
Fire it up.
Before
the hopper feeder
was out of action,
Juan fixed the drive chain
to allow more of pay through
the plant.
Material built up on one side
of the sluice,
blocking the riffles.
Juan installed a chute
that distributes material
across the full width
of the box alongside
Freddy's rebuilt sluices
with new riffles
and custom carpets.
But the new pay
Freddy prospected
could be the key to keeping
the brothers' mining dream
and their friendship alive.
- Hey. Going good.
- Going good.
There we go.
First bucket.
See if we can get
some color here.
Nice to be running again.
- Yeah.
- I hope there's gold in it.
First bucket's in, Juan.
Water turned brown.
Well, we got a lot of changes
in this box now, Juan.
- Yeah.
- Before it was the same,
the same, the same.
The same. Blob, blob, blob
all the way down.
All the way.
A lot better.
- Lyn.
- Yeah, go ahead.
How's it going up there
for you?
Yeah, that material
looks good.
I like it.
If you look at it
from this angle,
you see how it's just coming.
I like that flow much better.
- Got a chance.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
That looks very good dirt.
Way different than the stuff
we've been running.
- A lot finer, isn't it?
- A lot finer.
The tailings aren't piling up
as fast.
All that matters is that
there's gold in 'em.
- Look at how round,
that's river rock.
- Truck on.
Oh, hey.
Look at that one.
That's rounded.
- That's pretty good, bro.
- That's a rounded one.
There's another one.
Look at this one.
I'm going to get it.
Shut it down, guys.
That's 80 minutes.
Twice what we did last time.
So we'll see how much gold
we get out of it.
Okay, go ahead
and turn it off, Kevin.
Shutting it down.
- How's it looking, Juan?
- Looks pretty damn good, guys.
- Looks really good.
- Look in there.
This whole riffle's packed
all the way into this corner.
- Wow.
- I can see it, yeah.
We've never seen gold
in the...
- Look at that.
- Yeah, We've never
seen gold...
Look down here.
Look at that.
- Holy cow.
- Look down here.
If you guys want to start
knocking the boards
- and pulling the riffles out
of here.
- Okay.
We'll do it.
- All I need is a hammer
this time, Freddy.
- That's it, man.
Look at that.
No bolt.
No word. I find that wrench.
None of that.
Look at that.
How happy am I?
Cleanup from
the second test complete.
It's the moment of truth
for the Dietz brothers.
- Gentlemen, how's it going?
- Good, good.
- How you looking?
- Good, good.
- Got her dried up?
- I do.
- I'd like to see it.
- Yeah.
Pour her, Juano.
The first test
delivered 0.06 ounces
from 40 minutes.
Because we ran twice
as long, let's go 0.12.
If Freddy and Juan's
improvements work,
this second test of 80 minutes
should deliver more than
0.12 of an ounce.
Look how much
is left in the jar.
The reality is that's what
you're increasing.
- Wow.
- Awesome.
Pour it out, Juano.
0.44.
Right there is $900 worth
of gold.
- Wow.
- Hey.
- That's amazing, isn't it?
- Cool.
That's two ounces
of 100 yards.
For the amount of time
that was ran,
this is a 350 to 400%
increase in gold.
And it's amazing. Look at
all that fine gold
that's in there now.
- Yeah, it wasn't there before.
- We didn't have that before.
I couldn't be more
pleased, guys.
What do you think, bro?
I don't know what to think.
I'm speechless.
I mean, this is huge.
I'm totally grateful to them.
I can't explain what it means.
When there's still hope,
then your attitude goes up,
your enthusiasm goes up,
and your will
to do it goes up.
- And your morale
as a team goes up.
- Yeah. Totally.
And you guys changed that.
Today was just
totally amazing.
The sluice box
worked perfect.
Fred, Freddy, and Juan,
their improvements
to the plant,
they did exactly what
they said they were going
to do.
Now we know that there's gold
in the area.
We've learned how
to look for it.
We can come back next year.
This has been huge.
Well, there's your gold.
- Wow, nice. Look at that.
- Look at that.
- Guys, it's been a pleasure.
- Okay.
- Get loaded up and get out.
- Thank you so much.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- I can't say how much
I appreciate it.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, guys.
- Stay in touch, okay?
- Yeah.
- You too.
- Thank you, guys.
- Okay.
To see the pan of almost
a half ounce
after we've ran for 80 minutes
just blew me away
because that gold
really came out of our land,
that's pretty exciting.
And on top of that,
having a better relationship
with my brother,
and then on top of that,
having some hope
for next year,
it really puts it all into
a complete circle
and really fits
for this stage of our life.
So I'm very grateful for that.
Rich, we did this.
So, you know, we could get
a connection again.
It's important. It's--
I understand, it's been tough.
I'm sorry, you know,
for things that happened
in the past and I just,
you know,
we just got to learn
to maybe live with each other
- just a little bit, okay?
- I just...
I love you. I really do.
I'm sorry.
I really am.
I'm really sorry.
- I know it's hurting you.
- Let's go.
- I'm going to show you
that spot. All right.
- Thank you.
Kevin and Rich,
you know, you can tell
they have a lot
of brotherly love.
I'm hoping they're on
the same page,
so that way they can continue
to move forward as brothers
and hopefully run
a successful mine.
Before they didn't know
what to do.
Now they know what
material to look for.
They know some of the places
to look for it.
Today's a good day for them.
Today's a good day
for Juan and myself.
It's always good
to see people smile.
Well, let's get on
to the next one, huh?