Gold Rush: Parker's Trail (2017–2019): Season 5, Episode 3 - Flood Gold - full transcript
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Ooh! Come with me!
On the west
coast of New Zealand's
south island...
Oh, yeah!
...Parker
and his team are
a week into his search...
Whoa!
...for a cutting
edge wash plant...
Oh, my *bleep*!
...and new
mining techniques...
This is epic!
...to take back
to his claim in Alaska.
New Zealand's
home to the most efficient
and innovative gold miners,
as far as I'm concerned,
in the world,
so, that's why we're here.
To better
understand New Zealand's gold,
the team head 3,000
feet above sea level
to the Tai Poutini
National Park
to explore the mighty
Franz Josef Glacier.
So, as you can see,
the glacier's been here
for millions of years,
but the ice get
replenished really fast.
- Did you hear it move just then?
- Yes.
So, that's
the glacier just shuddering
underneath us,
as it moves, it'll make these
thumps and cracks, yeah.
Hey, Rookie,
what if this thing just
decided to just, like...
Close its doors.
Like the garbage
compactor in Star Wars.
Well, it wouldn't,
which is good for you guys,
and if it did, you would
behave much like a toothpaste.
Like a pimple.
They do close up, but they
won't close up rapidly.
Oh, my *bleep*!
- We'll keep moving, shall we?
- Okay.
- Oh...
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Are you all right?
Yeah, I'm fine.
Tyler has
the grace of a new born deer.
Oh, my *bleep*,
I'm very out of my comfort
zone, I'm from the desert.
Oh, my *bleep*.
Don't know how you
did that with a camera.
Hey,
just as a warning,
so, we're watching this
cloud build up behind us,
you would have known
we flew in with no cloud.
And now we've got cloud.
But we think that
this gonna blow through.
So, we just gonna be
keeping an eye on that.
Got ya.
Lots of quartz.
We're close
to the source.
I wonder if anybody
ever finds a nugget.
Yeah, look at that.
Yeah!
What do you think of that, Ty?
Well, when we
talk about, um,
big glacial movements
moving the gold,
this is what we're
talking about.
To date,
over 300 tons of gold
worth more than $15 billion
of today's prices
has been mined
on New Zealand's west coast.
The majority was freed
from these mountains,
and carried down by glaciers.
How does it work then?
Where, what, what do you mean,
"it carries it down,"
it just breaks the ground up?
Yeah, like, the erosion
caused by glaciers is huge.
Right? Just, like...
...thousands of tons
of ice grinding
against the mountains.
Where's the gold
sitting, like?
Well, the gold's, like,
in quartz veins.
The glaciers work
the material,
and, like, you know,
move it from one
valley to the next.
900-feet thick,
the Franz Josef Glacier
descends the Southern Alps
for almost eight miles,
plucking gold from quartz
veins as it moves.
The colossal weight
of the glacier
grinds it into a fine
powder known as flour gold.
As the glacier melts,
this gold is released
into positive
across the rivers
and valleys of the west coast.
That's how by the time
it gets to the ocean,
- how we were speaking about how fine it is...
- Mmm.
...in the west coast,
it's because it's
traveled so far
with such huge water movement,
it's just broken it down,
and it's made it finer
and finer and finer and finer.
Hey, Rookie, there's
a definite change going
on down the valley, bro.
Yeah, I'm keen
to get out of here.
What's happening,
Rookie, tell me.
We can see that there's
a change in the weather.
Oh, the clouds
are coming in.
Are we allowed
to fly through that?
We fly
underneath it, yeah,
so, it's not quite low enough
to shut us down yet.
Yeah, this is ugly.
And if it did
shut us down, you mean...
We might just,
uh, stay the night up here.
No.
No way. *bleep*
That actually makes
me a little nervous!
So, we're gonna go.
Oh, my *bleep*, when
the guard's saying,
"we gotta go..."
Gotta go!
Are we going straight
in the chopper now?
Yeah.
Ty,
we better go, come on.
Yeah, I'm trying, Dan.
We're gonna go
back through this crevasse.
Ty, speed it up.
- I'm trying!
- Foxtrot Oscar.
What are
the odds that we get
stuck up here right now?
20%.
What?
We have 20% of spending the night in the mountain?
Yeah.
We've gotta go!
Well,
just keep moving, guys.
Ty, hurry up!
I'm going, Dan!
I can't get my...
Whoa, easy!
Tyler, we need to go.
My fat arse
won't fit through.
Oh, my *bleep*.
Thank you.
Not a worries.
All right, come on, guys,
it's time to go.
Let's go!
Oh, my *bleep*.
"500 Ways
to Kill Parker," we should
have called this show.
We've been evacuated
so many times.
The team's
safely off the mountain,
it's time to get
back to business.
Where we going then?
We are going to meet
a guy called Pete Haddock.
Ooh, good name.
It is a good name.
He, um, is well known
in the area for doing
wash plants.
Yeah, I've heard
lots about him.
So, I'm hoping
Peter will, um,
have something to sell.
Oh, this'll be great.
Parker has
placed a $180,000 deposit
on a new claim
in Fairbanks, Alaska.
With just ten weeks
until the season starts,
he needs a superefficient
wash plant to tap
into the site's
$11 million potential.
I mean, the biggest
problem we've got right now
is we're up against
it for time.
If we don't find a plant
in-country to buy,
that we can move to Fairbanks
that's gonna be as
specialized as I want it,
it's gonna be tough.
Tyler's arranged
a meeting with gold miner
and wash plant builder,
Peter Haddock
100 miles north in Greymouth,
which was at the heart
of the west coast gold rush.
When gold was
discovered in 1864
on the Taramakau River,
miners flooded the area.
They became masters
at finding innovative ways
to catch the fine
glacial gold.
And almost 160 years later,
locals like Peter
are still world leaders
in wash plant technology.
Peter's known
for floating wash plants,
which is something
we haven't seen yet.
The dredge?
No, they're, it's a wash
plant that floats, basically.
- Really?
- Yeah.
Wow.
I mean, it's the same concept
of the big bucket line dredges
just instead of a bucket
line there's an excavator.
Something that could
interest you, Parker?
Um...
...I don't really know
much about them,
but I've met a lot of people
that have made a lot of money
with floating wash plants, so,
there's definitely
something to it.
Right, let's get out.
Let's see what he's got.
- How ya doing?
- How's it going?
Pleased to meet ya, Tyler,
after we talked on the phone.
Yeah, yeah, great to see ya.
- How's it going?
- Good, good. Yeah.
Bloody pleased
to meet ya, bud, yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah, well, welcome
to the E-Quip workshop.
So, this is where we,
um, do all our work.
As well as
running his own gold mine,
Peter Haddock has designed
and built wash plants
for over 25 years,
and he provides cutting
edge Kiwi engineering
to gold miners
all over the globe.
I've always felt like
gold miners made
good plant makers
because they know
what works and what
doesn't work, you know?
Yeah, exactly.
You guys look like
you're building a plant
right now, huh?
Yeah, we are, it's land-based,
you know, on the skids.
Are you still, uh,
doing the floating plants?
Yeah.
I've actually
never been, I've seen
a lot of photos
and videos, but I've
never been around one.
- Oh, really?
- A floater. No.
Oh, look,
I'd love to show ya.
Actually, the plant
that's for sale, but, um,
we're behind schedule on this,
so, we've got a bit
of a tight time frame,
- so, I'm a bit balls to the wall.
- Right.
Part of me
job this afternoon,
um, was to fold up
the catch tray, and we were
gonna do some rolling.
Um, I can do that.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah.
You're
the mechanical man,
Jeff, are ya?
- Yeah!
- Yeah, good, good.
- This is right up Jeff's alley, so...
- Yeah.
...if we can take you,
and you can leave him?
Yeah, would that
be all right, Jeff?
- Sounds good!
- Good.
Well, I'll hook you
up now to Mike,
our sort of foreman here,
so, Mike'll sort of show
you what's going on,
and then we could bugger
off out the claim and have
a look, ya know?
We've got enough time
of the day, I think, yeah,
so, that'll be cool.
'Kay, watch out,
coming through.
Jeff steps
in to take on Peter's
jobs at the workshop...
Fun to get my
hands dirty, always.
...freeing
him to show Parker,
Danny and Tyler
the wash plant at his
gold mine 13 miles away.
There it is.
Looks different.
Oh, wow!
Isn't that interesting,
Parker? Floating wash plant.
Yeah, it's very cool.
Oh, my *bleep*,
check that out!
That's crazy looking!
How you doing?
Doing good guys? Yeah!
How cool's this?
Yeah, this is our
floating plant.
Beautiful!
So, they're
a traditional wash plant,
but basically like
a land-based plant,
but it's on a floating
pontoon, so...
It's like
if a dredge and a land
wash plant had a baby.
Yeah!
These plants are the most
efficient way of mining.
- Wow.
- So, yeah, no, she's a pretty awesome piece of equipment.
That is cool.
How many people do
you need to operate it?
It's just a two-person
operation, really.
- Two?
- Yeah, two just run it nicely.
On the west coast
of New Zealand's south island,
Parker gets his first
look at local miner,
Peter Haddock's innovative
floating wash plant.
Has it sunk before?
It has, Parker, yeah.
Yeah, I've actually got
a photo here, actually.
It's pretty horrific,
really, she's, uh...
"It's pretty horrific really."
Yeah, so, um--
Oh, like,
properly upside down?
Yeah, like,
completely upside down.
How'd that happen?
Well, had a new
fella on it at the time,
he just overloaded the hopper.
Holy *bleep*!
And, of course,
that was us for a cabin,
- but we had it actually back and operating in ten days.
- Wow.
So, that's the horror story,
but they've been all over now.
I'm just, I'm just
here for the carnage.
How does
it work then?
They're, uh,
moved around by winches,
and, you know, he'll just
work his way across,
they take a couple
meters at a time,
and that just goes back
and forwards across the pond.
It's like a mining typewriter.
Floating atop
a 14-foot deep pond,
Peter's wash plant is
able to process 115 yards
of pay dirt an hour...
...and excavate it.
Feeds pay directly
into the plant's hopper
while the tailings fill
in the pond on the other side.
This superefficient system
uses anchors and winches
to allow the plant to follow
the path of the excavator
as it opens up new ground,
eliminating the need
for rock trucks and loaders.
Mining this way in Alaska
could save Parker hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
You wanna go over
closer and have a bit of look?
Yeah,
that'd be great.
We're gonna
ride the bucket, bud!
Oh, mate!
I've never
done this before.
Just don't
hold onto the pin.
Whoa! Easy!
Don't you dare!
We use the,
uh, the old stumps for
anchors for our ropes.
What about the winches?
Oh the winches? Yeah,
well, we take the weight,
make sure you got
a good weight on it,
and then let it
round, ya know?
Oh, yeah,
there we go!
So, it's easy
to move around,
and so it's all that
part of the efficiency
with the plant.
So, what does
this burn for fuel?
Oh, bugger all, really.
This whole setup must run
for less than an ounce a day.
- Uh, yeah, it's about a bit over an ounce a day.
- Is it?
Yeah, yeah.
But an economical operation
compared to have to truck wash
to a plant, as you know
all about, ya know?
Yeah, ours is, like,
an ounce an hour...
Yeah.
...that we're spending.
Huge difference.
We're gonna hop off then.
Thanks, buddy.
With a price
tag of $250,000...
...this could be the perfect
plant for Parker...
Would you like to have go?
- All right, sweet.
- Right-o!
But first...
...he needs to put
it to the test.
How's it going?
This is Parker,
so, um, hey, Parker's
coming round looking
to float the gold stream ops.
Do you mind
if I get some lessons?
Is that all right?
Yeah.
It's pretty hard to,
uh, jig under water.
Yeah, you can't
see where you digging.
Yeah.
And where'd
you leave off?
- Pretty much straight in front of ya.
- Gotcha.
I haven't done too much
digging under water,
so, I'm probably gonna have,
like, no dirt in the bucket.
Yeah.
A scoop of water.
Production's gonna suffer with me at the controls.
- Probably should...
- You'll be all right.
...get it
figured out or give it
back to you in a hurry.
- How's it going, guys?
- Yeah, good.
Hey,
sorry about that,
I just had a bloody
phone call, I gotta go
to a breakdown...
- Oh, okay.
- ...up the road to fix something,
so, uh, if you guys are
happy, then I'll scoot,
- and I'll be back in half an hour, eh?
- Yeah.
Good guys, okay.
Keep those hours up,
that's the main thing.
I'll catch ya's after.
See ya later, Peter.
- See ya, Danny.
- See ya in a bit, buddy.
Take care. You keep a good
eye on them, Danny,
- make sure they keep those bloody hours up.
- Don't worry, mate.
- All right, bud.
- All right, buddy, see ya later.
- Hello.
- Hey, how ya doing?
- I'm Tyler.
- I'm Breegan, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you!
Can we help in any way?
Well, we have to do
a rope change soon,
so, you could give
me a hand if you can.
Definitely,
I can help with that.
To keep
the 38-ton wash plant
in reach of the pay,
it's anchors need to be
moved every two days...
- Alrighty.
- Radio me.
Yep.
...so Breegan
mans the winches
while Tyler repositions
the anchor ropes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, Roger.
Dan, I'm worried I'm not
gonna be able to get this off.
No, he's gonna loosen
it up, look, there you go.
That one on the far
side's loosened.
There you go.
Loosen her off.
- Come on, Ty, get the muscles going.
- *bleep* *bleep*
Hang on. There we go.
- Which tree? That one?
- I think he said that one,
or that one there.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- That one?
- Yeah.
Make this tight.
- Put it on the tree. *bleep* That one needs to go...
- Yeah.
No, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no.
- You okay?
- Yeah, I'm okay. I've whacked my chin.
- I know you did, I heard it.
- Yeah, that hurt.
Let's have a look at your leg.
Oh, *bleep*.
That looks pretty bruised.
Oh, *bleep*.
- Are you okay?
- Yeah, I'm okay.
Tyler fails to secure
the anchor rope in time.
*bleep*
The wash plant
is drifting off course.
- Shall I try and grab the rope?
- Well, that's too far.
Shut it off, Parker.
Shut it off.
Rope's in the water.
This is really embarrassing.
I need it brought around.
- Get it.
- Dan, I can't *bleep*
- You can get it, you can get it.
- reach that.
How the *bleep*?
There's no ledge to go in.
Could get a stick.
Get a stick.
Yeah, get it. You get it.
Yes. Well done, Ty. Yes.
Well done.
You don't
need to wind it up.
Oh, good, I'll just do
all the hard labor.
Yeah, that's right, you will.
You want me
to treat you special
because you're a girl?
No, I just thought as a friend
you'd help me out.
You've got it.
It was a one man job.
Bloody hell.
Move quicker.
*bleep*
It was so heavy.
I thought I was gonna
go in the water.
I'm really *bleep* sorry.
That was a rookie move.
It happens. It's all good.
Right, what do you need, Ben?
Do you want me to run that
round there again?
Yeah, round that back around
to the front stump.
- That big one?
- Yeah, the big one.
All right, all right.
Want me
to untangle that a bit?
Haven't seen
that technique before.
There we go. We're good.
Oh.
Gotcha.
Here we go.
Back in business. There we go.
After a 30 minute shutdown,
they're back on the gold.
That took
a long *bleep* time,
didn't it?
I feel so bad
What a *bleep* show.
Yeah, I'm glad
that we're, you know,
checking a floating plant out
because I've never really
spent any time around them.
On New Zealand's
south island,
Parker has one hour left
to test drive Peter Haddock's
floating wash plant
and decide if
it's the plant he needs
for his new Alaska claim.
Yeah, I mean,
digging underwater
is definitely
a little bit weird
to get used to,
because in the Yukon
we're doing it dry
and I can see
exactly what we're doing.
But, yeah, I mean,
the huge benefit in this
is it just costs
nothing to run, right?
Like, you're digging it
straight out of the ground,
straight into a wash plant.
And the trade off
for not being able
to see what you're doing
is, you know,
a very efficient
mining system.
Here he comes.
After fixing the issue
at his other site...
- How you doing?
- Peter returns to the mine,
bringing Jeff with him
from his workshop.
- What do you reckon, Jeff?
- Yeah, that's a nice machine. Really nice.
Good, good.
Parker's been doing
a great job this afternoon,
so yeah,
hopefully he wants one.
What do you reckon, Parker?
- Pretty slick.
- It's really good, you know?
No, it's a
great system really.
Yeah, and I would
definitely get one, you know?
But, well,
there's one big issue.
How old is this unit?
She's 38 years old this year.
Wow.
I really want a modern
high tech wash plant,
so hopefully we can
see some other ones.
Ones that are newer?
Because I'd like
to see more of them.
Well, I can tell you
we've just,
this last year in 2021,
we bought a beautiful plant
up the road.
Brand new,
much the same as this,
but all really
modern technology.
The winches are all controlled
- from the excavator.
- Oh, wow.
I could hook you up with a guy
- and see if he's extra keen.
- That would be awesome, yeah.
And could see if JD
will actually be keen
to meet you guys.
- Cool.
- That would be amazing, yeah.
Yeah,
it would be great, yeah.
I'll grab some
contact details off you.
Yep, that'll be great.
I'll give them to you.
- Awesome. Thanks so much.
- All right.
- Thank you, yeah.
- I feel like a tourist.
I think it's
a really successful day.
We managed to get
another contact out of it.
His name's JD,
who apparently has
the best floating wash plant
in New Zealand.
Obviously,
it's been really good
seeing that,
but if that's like
a very average SUV,
the one that
we're gonna see tomorrow
is a Lamborghini.
Today was a good day.
- It was awesome.
- Wicked.
There was a moment
where I was embarrassed
to be a part of this group, Tyler.
Can't pick which moment that was.
- I just got off the phone to JD.
- Yeah.
He's not too sure
about showing us
his wash plant and mine site
without meeting us.
- Really?
- What?
So if it's okay with you guys,
I said we'd go down
and meet up with him tomorrow,
and then if
everything goes well
he'll agree
to take us out there.
- Are you okay with that, Parker?
- Mmm-hmm.
Yeah, so we're
meeting JD tomorrow.
He's a little cagey
about showing us
his mining operation,
which I totally appreciate.
He's extremely secretive,
from what I can gather,
but I really want access
to this floating wash plant
because it's
the creme de la creme.
Hopefully it goes well
and he shows us his plants
and his mining operation.
But for now it's bed time.
Who is this mysterious
JD character then?
- He is being a bit mysterious, isn't he?
- Yeah.
In New Zealand, you know,
the gold game's
small and secretive,
and everyone
likes to keep their cards
close to them.
No, I mean, it makes sense.
You know, for me it's like
I definitely wouldn't let
just anybody show up
with a camera crew
on our mine site.
The trailblazing innovations
on JD's wash plant
means he keeps its location
a well-guarded secret.
But yeah,
JD doesn't want to let us
on his mine site
until we've met him.
I'm feeling the pressure.
I feel like our character's
under analysis.
Well, if that's the case then we're *bleep*.
He's asked them
to meet him on the banks
of the Kokatahi River.
- How's it going?
- Hello.
- Good.
- Tyler, nice to finally meet you.
- I know, nice to finally meet you too.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I just like
to meet people
in person first,
make sure you're
trustworthy enough
to come to site.
Oh, so this is like
a stress test?
Yeah,
a bit of a sort of
stress test.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
What sort of speeds
are we talking about
in that?
You're doing well over 100
past all the rocks.
- Seriously?
- Yeah.
That's crazy.
I don't have
the greatest track record
with jet boats.
Well, she only takes
two passengers,
so couple of people
have got to draw
the short straw.
- You gonna do that, Ty?
- Absolutely not.
No.
- Looks like it's you two up then, hey?
- Oh, *bleep*
This is *bleep* a lot.
My mouth's just suddenly
gone a bit dry.
- I'm ready.
- Man.
The things we do
to get on a mine site.
*bleep* hell. Holy.
- You're gonna be like this the whole time, aren't you?
- Yes.
- You all right?
- Yeah.
JD, you've got an evil glint
in your eye, man.
Whoa!
Oh, *bleep* no.
- Split it. Yeah, baby.
- *bleep*
No. *bleep*
On the Kokatahi River,
secretive local miner JD
is testing Parker
and Danny's metal
- Woo.
- with a ride in his 2080 horsepower jet boat.
Whoa,
oh, *bleep*, no.
Whoa.
How long
do you reckon they'll be?
I'd say at least
a couple of hours.
I don't know.
- What?
- Yeah.
So, what,
we're just gonna stand here
for a couple of hours?
It's a pretty nice day.
I don't think they're gonna
be in any rush.
*bleep*
Jeff said we wouldn't get wet.
Oh.
Oh, my *bleep*.
Ah!
Oh, mate.
- Did you grow up doing this kind of stuff?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, from 16 all me mates had 'em.
- All right. Yeah.
We were always
motorbiking Saturday,
working Sunday.
- What a *bleep* playground.
- Amazing.
Shall we go for a walk?
There's actually a bit of gold just around here.
- Oh, yeah?
- What?
Yeah.
How long have you been mining?
I've been mining for 13 years.
- Gotcha.
- And then I grew up around here too,
so all these areas here
I was looking around with Dad
with the gold pan.
- So, this little creek here has got gold in it.
- Oh, wow.
- The only spot around here.
- Secret location.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, that's quartz.
- So that's a quartz vein?
- Yeah.
- That's where gold comes from, quartz veins.
- Oh, look.
- You bring a gold pan?
- No.
- Should have brought a gold pan, Dan.
- Oh, no, really?
Rookie mistake, that.
Because we don't
have a gold pan.
- Is there nuggets around here?
- There could be.
- JD.
- What?
Like, everything's,
like, guarded, innit?
Yeah, let's do it.
Yeah.
Looks like
they're having fun.
- You guys having fun?
- No, tons.
- I feel really bad.
- Why?
I actually
feel really terrible.
I'm really sorry.
- Yeah, right.
- It was *bleep* awful.
- JD.
- This thing is so slow.
Thanks for showing us that.
- Thanks so much, man.
- Yeah, no worries.
- So they passed the test?
- Yeah.
- Right on.
- See yous at the floater.
- Sweet.
- Oh, nice.
- All right.
- I feel guilty.
- Don't feel guilty. As long as you had fun.
- No, I do feel guilty.
- Don't feel guilty.
- I'm sorry.
As long as you guys had fun.
It was one of the *bleep* best days ever..
Initiation passed,
JD reveals the location
for his state-of-the-art
floating wash plant.
That's the one.
Oh, yeah.
Wow.
- That does look impressive.
- That thing's pretty nice.
JD spent over a year
researching and designing
every detail of this plant
to be perfect for his claim.
250 acres of gold-rich ground
on a flat valley plain,
minable year round,
he floods a quarter-acre pond
to allow the plant to float.
- Hello.
- How's it going?
Good.
- Oh, this looks great.
- Yeah.
Yeah, this is
the new and improved
six foot floater.
- Wow.
- Yeah, no, it's good.
Packed with innovation,
it's the most
technically advanced
floating wash plant
in the world.
- Shall we go have a look?
- Yeah, if that's all right.
- Is that a drawbridge?
- Yeah.
You got a copy there, Scotty?
Drop that drawbridge.
- So you just turn the pump off from the tap?
- Yeah.
And now he's bringing
the screen in,
and he'll drop
that drawbridge down.
- All from inside?
- All from the digger.
- Mate, that's amazing. This is very clever.
- Yeah, very cool.
From within
the excavator cab,
the operator uses
Bluetooth-connected systems
to control everything,
from the winches
that move the plant
to the waterflow.
Cameras allow the operator
to watch the hopper feeder,
trommel,
and tailings conveyor.
And a light-up
pressure monitor
ensures he is feeding it
at the perfect rate.
JD's plant is capable
of processing 115 yards
of paydirt per hour,
and has a price tag
of $445,000.
- How long before these things are running themselves?
- Robots.
- It's not far off, is it?
- No, literally.
- Yeah, so this is it.
- Wow. How long have you had it?
- About six months.
- Do you name your wash plants, JD?
It's S6.
- Hmm.
- I like that.
One of my neighbors
names all of his
after James Bond movies.
- Yeah.
- Must be a big James Bond fan.
- This is a pretty big platform.
- Yeah.
Yeah, there's a lot of room
on this screen.
Like, go sunbathing
on the back deck.
- Put some chairs out.
- Cocktails.
Oh,
it's a bit noisy for that.
We got a really nice
water filter system too.
- So it filters the water for the hydraulic ripples.
- Gotcha.
Because hydraulic ripples
are really good
until they clog up.
Right.
That's why we took all ours out.
And then we've also
got a camera up here
behind the trommel
so you can see
if you get a jam
up on the stacker.
Right. We just wait
'till there's three yards
of dirt piled up somewhere,
- and then shut down, and get the shovels out.
- Yeah.
You've got a solution
for everything.
Yeah.
I haven't been around
a lot of floaters
because we don't have
a lot of those in the Yukon,
but this is definitely
the nicest plant we've seen
this whole trip.
So, are you
the only one in this area
with this exact wash plant?
Yes, I think,
from what we can tell,
it's the only one
in the world.
- Only one in the world?
- Yeah.
That's cool, hey?
From what we can tell,
no one else controls it all
from the digger.
- You've essentially done what we are setting out to do.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- You know what I mean? Well, yeah, I mean, like,
Parkers needs
the perfect machine
- for the ground that he's got in Alaska.
- Yeah.
- And you've done exactly that here, yeah.
- Your...
Yeah.
What do you think?
*bleep* sick.
- That's *bleep* cool.
- Yeah.
I'm ready
to ship this thing to Alaska.
This is perfect. I love it.
So, have you mined all that?
Yeah, so that's
where we started,
about 100 meters out there.
We've mined down
and then we've come back
over all this,
and that's all our restoration
all ready for planting.
- And then trees will get planted?
- Yeah.
New Zealand
has strict reclamation laws,
and before permits
are granted,
miners must have
funds set aside
for a rehabilitation plan
approved by the local
environmental agencies.
Yeah, so you'll probably
come back here in,
like, 18 months,
and it won't even look like
it's been mined.
- No. No, you won't be able to tell.
- Sweet.
And the beautiful thing
about floating
is a very good,
and well managed,
and environmentally friendly
way of mining.
And, of course,
we don't want to not
look after the environment.
And we don't do it
just because we have to,
we do it because we want to.
- You can jump on the digger and have a go.
- Awesome.
On the west coast
of New Zealand's south island,
Parker is testing
what could be
the perfect wash plant
for his new claim
back in Alaska.
This one down?
Gotcha.
- What do you reckon of all this?
- Pretty sweet.
Yeah.
- Sweet. We all happy? Okay.
- Oh, yeah. Thanks, man.
- Thanks for the lesson.
- No worries.
I've been on
a lot of wash plants
and this is probably
the nicest one ever.
Like, probably one of the more
high-tech wash plants
in the world, really.
I mean, floating plants
have always seemed
a bit clunky to me,
but JD's solved that
with all of the controls
being in the cab.
Like, it's actually
an unreal system.
From the cab
of the excavator,
Parker can control
both the plant's movement
and its water pumps
with just a flick of a switch.
Yesterday, when we were
on Peter Haddock's
he had manual-style winches,
- Yeah.
- and this one's set up with hydraulic winches
that he can
control from the cab.
So they really
thought this plant out.
Yeah, I mean this plant's
definitely given me
a lot to think about.
It's super simple,
one-man operation.
One of the only wash plants
I've ever been around
that I've actually
enjoyed running.
It's really impressive, actually.
- All good, Parker?
- Yeah.
- We'll shut it off and go for a beer.
- Okay.
Are we gonna do a cleanup?
I'll be doing a cleanup.
- The camera guys will be going.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah.
- Can we get the footage from your cameras
on the actual...
- No.
- No?
It's definitely been
a theme so far
that the Kiwis don't want us
to see their gold,
which is fine.
We just have to move forward
and keep going.
Parker, this is it.
Moment of truth.
Park now faces
a critical decision.
Is JD's plant right
for the rugged terrain,
high in the tundra
of Fairbanks, Alaska?
- Oh, what do you think?
- It's one of the coolest,
- cleanest setups I've ever seen.
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
- You really did think of everything.
- I want one of those. Yeah.
- You want a new screen?
You get this huge advantage
- in just how cheap it is to run.
- Yeah.
But then the big disadvantage
in not seeing
what you're digging.
Yeah, so that's where
this is quite nice,
good floating ground.
- We've got a real flat, hard bottom,
- Right.
so it does match up
quite nicely.
And the biggest problem
in the Yukon, like,
so after our pits
are done mined
- it's, like, a bombing zone,
- Yeah.
right, of just,
like, huge holes.
And because
the ground's frozen
and it's all permafrost,
a lot of the bigger holes
will have frozen gravel
in the bottom of them
- Yeah.
- that you have to go back in for.
- Right? Right.
- So you got to leave it and let it thaw.
I would imagine
there's not really
a way to do it
- in which you didn't leave that behind, right?
- Yeah.
And if the bottom had been
all *bleep* over the place,
you would have done it,
- had to probably do it dry, huh?
- Yeah, correct.
Well, you've given me
a lot to think about.
That dredge was amazing.
But... we're not on ground
that it makes sense for
right now, I don't think.
So it won't fit for Fairbanks,
- but thanks for showing us that.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, thanks so much, man.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Definitely something to be proud of.
Even though we're not
walking away from here
with that wash plant,
if nothing else I think
it makes Parker think,
"I want a machine
which is as fit for purpose,
for the ground
that's in Alaska,
that this one is
to the ground that's here."
The ground in Fairbanks
is just not floating ground,
but of all
the plants I've seen
that one makes me
think most about, like,
really changing up
our mining style
if we find
another piece of ground
that it would suit.
It's a real shame
that this plant
won't work in Alaska
because of the ground,
but yeah, I bet if it did
Parker would have one
in a heartbeat.
This has really set the tone,
moving forward,
about what kind of
innovation and technology
we want to see.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Ooh! Come with me!
On the west
coast of New Zealand's
south island...
Oh, yeah!
...Parker
and his team are
a week into his search...
Whoa!
...for a cutting
edge wash plant...
Oh, my *bleep*!
...and new
mining techniques...
This is epic!
...to take back
to his claim in Alaska.
New Zealand's
home to the most efficient
and innovative gold miners,
as far as I'm concerned,
in the world,
so, that's why we're here.
To better
understand New Zealand's gold,
the team head 3,000
feet above sea level
to the Tai Poutini
National Park
to explore the mighty
Franz Josef Glacier.
So, as you can see,
the glacier's been here
for millions of years,
but the ice get
replenished really fast.
- Did you hear it move just then?
- Yes.
So, that's
the glacier just shuddering
underneath us,
as it moves, it'll make these
thumps and cracks, yeah.
Hey, Rookie,
what if this thing just
decided to just, like...
Close its doors.
Like the garbage
compactor in Star Wars.
Well, it wouldn't,
which is good for you guys,
and if it did, you would
behave much like a toothpaste.
Like a pimple.
They do close up, but they
won't close up rapidly.
Oh, my *bleep*!
- We'll keep moving, shall we?
- Okay.
- Oh...
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Are you all right?
Yeah, I'm fine.
Tyler has
the grace of a new born deer.
Oh, my *bleep*,
I'm very out of my comfort
zone, I'm from the desert.
Oh, my *bleep*.
Don't know how you
did that with a camera.
Hey,
just as a warning,
so, we're watching this
cloud build up behind us,
you would have known
we flew in with no cloud.
And now we've got cloud.
But we think that
this gonna blow through.
So, we just gonna be
keeping an eye on that.
Got ya.
Lots of quartz.
We're close
to the source.
I wonder if anybody
ever finds a nugget.
Yeah, look at that.
Yeah!
What do you think of that, Ty?
Well, when we
talk about, um,
big glacial movements
moving the gold,
this is what we're
talking about.
To date,
over 300 tons of gold
worth more than $15 billion
of today's prices
has been mined
on New Zealand's west coast.
The majority was freed
from these mountains,
and carried down by glaciers.
How does it work then?
Where, what, what do you mean,
"it carries it down,"
it just breaks the ground up?
Yeah, like, the erosion
caused by glaciers is huge.
Right? Just, like...
...thousands of tons
of ice grinding
against the mountains.
Where's the gold
sitting, like?
Well, the gold's, like,
in quartz veins.
The glaciers work
the material,
and, like, you know,
move it from one
valley to the next.
900-feet thick,
the Franz Josef Glacier
descends the Southern Alps
for almost eight miles,
plucking gold from quartz
veins as it moves.
The colossal weight
of the glacier
grinds it into a fine
powder known as flour gold.
As the glacier melts,
this gold is released
into positive
across the rivers
and valleys of the west coast.
That's how by the time
it gets to the ocean,
- how we were speaking about how fine it is...
- Mmm.
...in the west coast,
it's because it's
traveled so far
with such huge water movement,
it's just broken it down,
and it's made it finer
and finer and finer and finer.
Hey, Rookie, there's
a definite change going
on down the valley, bro.
Yeah, I'm keen
to get out of here.
What's happening,
Rookie, tell me.
We can see that there's
a change in the weather.
Oh, the clouds
are coming in.
Are we allowed
to fly through that?
We fly
underneath it, yeah,
so, it's not quite low enough
to shut us down yet.
Yeah, this is ugly.
And if it did
shut us down, you mean...
We might just,
uh, stay the night up here.
No.
No way. *bleep*
That actually makes
me a little nervous!
So, we're gonna go.
Oh, my *bleep*, when
the guard's saying,
"we gotta go..."
Gotta go!
Are we going straight
in the chopper now?
Yeah.
Ty,
we better go, come on.
Yeah, I'm trying, Dan.
We're gonna go
back through this crevasse.
Ty, speed it up.
- I'm trying!
- Foxtrot Oscar.
What are
the odds that we get
stuck up here right now?
20%.
What?
We have 20% of spending the night in the mountain?
Yeah.
We've gotta go!
Well,
just keep moving, guys.
Ty, hurry up!
I'm going, Dan!
I can't get my...
Whoa, easy!
Tyler, we need to go.
My fat arse
won't fit through.
Oh, my *bleep*.
Thank you.
Not a worries.
All right, come on, guys,
it's time to go.
Let's go!
Oh, my *bleep*.
"500 Ways
to Kill Parker," we should
have called this show.
We've been evacuated
so many times.
The team's
safely off the mountain,
it's time to get
back to business.
Where we going then?
We are going to meet
a guy called Pete Haddock.
Ooh, good name.
It is a good name.
He, um, is well known
in the area for doing
wash plants.
Yeah, I've heard
lots about him.
So, I'm hoping
Peter will, um,
have something to sell.
Oh, this'll be great.
Parker has
placed a $180,000 deposit
on a new claim
in Fairbanks, Alaska.
With just ten weeks
until the season starts,
he needs a superefficient
wash plant to tap
into the site's
$11 million potential.
I mean, the biggest
problem we've got right now
is we're up against
it for time.
If we don't find a plant
in-country to buy,
that we can move to Fairbanks
that's gonna be as
specialized as I want it,
it's gonna be tough.
Tyler's arranged
a meeting with gold miner
and wash plant builder,
Peter Haddock
100 miles north in Greymouth,
which was at the heart
of the west coast gold rush.
When gold was
discovered in 1864
on the Taramakau River,
miners flooded the area.
They became masters
at finding innovative ways
to catch the fine
glacial gold.
And almost 160 years later,
locals like Peter
are still world leaders
in wash plant technology.
Peter's known
for floating wash plants,
which is something
we haven't seen yet.
The dredge?
No, they're, it's a wash
plant that floats, basically.
- Really?
- Yeah.
Wow.
I mean, it's the same concept
of the big bucket line dredges
just instead of a bucket
line there's an excavator.
Something that could
interest you, Parker?
Um...
...I don't really know
much about them,
but I've met a lot of people
that have made a lot of money
with floating wash plants, so,
there's definitely
something to it.
Right, let's get out.
Let's see what he's got.
- How ya doing?
- How's it going?
Pleased to meet ya, Tyler,
after we talked on the phone.
Yeah, yeah, great to see ya.
- How's it going?
- Good, good. Yeah.
Bloody pleased
to meet ya, bud, yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah, well, welcome
to the E-Quip workshop.
So, this is where we,
um, do all our work.
As well as
running his own gold mine,
Peter Haddock has designed
and built wash plants
for over 25 years,
and he provides cutting
edge Kiwi engineering
to gold miners
all over the globe.
I've always felt like
gold miners made
good plant makers
because they know
what works and what
doesn't work, you know?
Yeah, exactly.
You guys look like
you're building a plant
right now, huh?
Yeah, we are, it's land-based,
you know, on the skids.
Are you still, uh,
doing the floating plants?
Yeah.
I've actually
never been, I've seen
a lot of photos
and videos, but I've
never been around one.
- Oh, really?
- A floater. No.
Oh, look,
I'd love to show ya.
Actually, the plant
that's for sale, but, um,
we're behind schedule on this,
so, we've got a bit
of a tight time frame,
- so, I'm a bit balls to the wall.
- Right.
Part of me
job this afternoon,
um, was to fold up
the catch tray, and we were
gonna do some rolling.
Um, I can do that.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah.
You're
the mechanical man,
Jeff, are ya?
- Yeah!
- Yeah, good, good.
- This is right up Jeff's alley, so...
- Yeah.
...if we can take you,
and you can leave him?
Yeah, would that
be all right, Jeff?
- Sounds good!
- Good.
Well, I'll hook you
up now to Mike,
our sort of foreman here,
so, Mike'll sort of show
you what's going on,
and then we could bugger
off out the claim and have
a look, ya know?
We've got enough time
of the day, I think, yeah,
so, that'll be cool.
'Kay, watch out,
coming through.
Jeff steps
in to take on Peter's
jobs at the workshop...
Fun to get my
hands dirty, always.
...freeing
him to show Parker,
Danny and Tyler
the wash plant at his
gold mine 13 miles away.
There it is.
Looks different.
Oh, wow!
Isn't that interesting,
Parker? Floating wash plant.
Yeah, it's very cool.
Oh, my *bleep*,
check that out!
That's crazy looking!
How you doing?
Doing good guys? Yeah!
How cool's this?
Yeah, this is our
floating plant.
Beautiful!
So, they're
a traditional wash plant,
but basically like
a land-based plant,
but it's on a floating
pontoon, so...
It's like
if a dredge and a land
wash plant had a baby.
Yeah!
These plants are the most
efficient way of mining.
- Wow.
- So, yeah, no, she's a pretty awesome piece of equipment.
That is cool.
How many people do
you need to operate it?
It's just a two-person
operation, really.
- Two?
- Yeah, two just run it nicely.
On the west coast
of New Zealand's south island,
Parker gets his first
look at local miner,
Peter Haddock's innovative
floating wash plant.
Has it sunk before?
It has, Parker, yeah.
Yeah, I've actually got
a photo here, actually.
It's pretty horrific,
really, she's, uh...
"It's pretty horrific really."
Yeah, so, um--
Oh, like,
properly upside down?
Yeah, like,
completely upside down.
How'd that happen?
Well, had a new
fella on it at the time,
he just overloaded the hopper.
Holy *bleep*!
And, of course,
that was us for a cabin,
- but we had it actually back and operating in ten days.
- Wow.
So, that's the horror story,
but they've been all over now.
I'm just, I'm just
here for the carnage.
How does
it work then?
They're, uh,
moved around by winches,
and, you know, he'll just
work his way across,
they take a couple
meters at a time,
and that just goes back
and forwards across the pond.
It's like a mining typewriter.
Floating atop
a 14-foot deep pond,
Peter's wash plant is
able to process 115 yards
of pay dirt an hour...
...and excavate it.
Feeds pay directly
into the plant's hopper
while the tailings fill
in the pond on the other side.
This superefficient system
uses anchors and winches
to allow the plant to follow
the path of the excavator
as it opens up new ground,
eliminating the need
for rock trucks and loaders.
Mining this way in Alaska
could save Parker hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
You wanna go over
closer and have a bit of look?
Yeah,
that'd be great.
We're gonna
ride the bucket, bud!
Oh, mate!
I've never
done this before.
Just don't
hold onto the pin.
Whoa! Easy!
Don't you dare!
We use the,
uh, the old stumps for
anchors for our ropes.
What about the winches?
Oh the winches? Yeah,
well, we take the weight,
make sure you got
a good weight on it,
and then let it
round, ya know?
Oh, yeah,
there we go!
So, it's easy
to move around,
and so it's all that
part of the efficiency
with the plant.
So, what does
this burn for fuel?
Oh, bugger all, really.
This whole setup must run
for less than an ounce a day.
- Uh, yeah, it's about a bit over an ounce a day.
- Is it?
Yeah, yeah.
But an economical operation
compared to have to truck wash
to a plant, as you know
all about, ya know?
Yeah, ours is, like,
an ounce an hour...
Yeah.
...that we're spending.
Huge difference.
We're gonna hop off then.
Thanks, buddy.
With a price
tag of $250,000...
...this could be the perfect
plant for Parker...
Would you like to have go?
- All right, sweet.
- Right-o!
But first...
...he needs to put
it to the test.
How's it going?
This is Parker,
so, um, hey, Parker's
coming round looking
to float the gold stream ops.
Do you mind
if I get some lessons?
Is that all right?
Yeah.
It's pretty hard to,
uh, jig under water.
Yeah, you can't
see where you digging.
Yeah.
And where'd
you leave off?
- Pretty much straight in front of ya.
- Gotcha.
I haven't done too much
digging under water,
so, I'm probably gonna have,
like, no dirt in the bucket.
Yeah.
A scoop of water.
Production's gonna suffer with me at the controls.
- Probably should...
- You'll be all right.
...get it
figured out or give it
back to you in a hurry.
- How's it going, guys?
- Yeah, good.
Hey,
sorry about that,
I just had a bloody
phone call, I gotta go
to a breakdown...
- Oh, okay.
- ...up the road to fix something,
so, uh, if you guys are
happy, then I'll scoot,
- and I'll be back in half an hour, eh?
- Yeah.
Good guys, okay.
Keep those hours up,
that's the main thing.
I'll catch ya's after.
See ya later, Peter.
- See ya, Danny.
- See ya in a bit, buddy.
Take care. You keep a good
eye on them, Danny,
- make sure they keep those bloody hours up.
- Don't worry, mate.
- All right, bud.
- All right, buddy, see ya later.
- Hello.
- Hey, how ya doing?
- I'm Tyler.
- I'm Breegan, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you!
Can we help in any way?
Well, we have to do
a rope change soon,
so, you could give
me a hand if you can.
Definitely,
I can help with that.
To keep
the 38-ton wash plant
in reach of the pay,
it's anchors need to be
moved every two days...
- Alrighty.
- Radio me.
Yep.
...so Breegan
mans the winches
while Tyler repositions
the anchor ropes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, Roger.
Dan, I'm worried I'm not
gonna be able to get this off.
No, he's gonna loosen
it up, look, there you go.
That one on the far
side's loosened.
There you go.
Loosen her off.
- Come on, Ty, get the muscles going.
- *bleep* *bleep*
Hang on. There we go.
- Which tree? That one?
- I think he said that one,
or that one there.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- That one?
- Yeah.
Make this tight.
- Put it on the tree. *bleep* That one needs to go...
- Yeah.
No, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no.
- You okay?
- Yeah, I'm okay. I've whacked my chin.
- I know you did, I heard it.
- Yeah, that hurt.
Let's have a look at your leg.
Oh, *bleep*.
That looks pretty bruised.
Oh, *bleep*.
- Are you okay?
- Yeah, I'm okay.
Tyler fails to secure
the anchor rope in time.
*bleep*
The wash plant
is drifting off course.
- Shall I try and grab the rope?
- Well, that's too far.
Shut it off, Parker.
Shut it off.
Rope's in the water.
This is really embarrassing.
I need it brought around.
- Get it.
- Dan, I can't *bleep*
- You can get it, you can get it.
- reach that.
How the *bleep*?
There's no ledge to go in.
Could get a stick.
Get a stick.
Yeah, get it. You get it.
Yes. Well done, Ty. Yes.
Well done.
You don't
need to wind it up.
Oh, good, I'll just do
all the hard labor.
Yeah, that's right, you will.
You want me
to treat you special
because you're a girl?
No, I just thought as a friend
you'd help me out.
You've got it.
It was a one man job.
Bloody hell.
Move quicker.
*bleep*
It was so heavy.
I thought I was gonna
go in the water.
I'm really *bleep* sorry.
That was a rookie move.
It happens. It's all good.
Right, what do you need, Ben?
Do you want me to run that
round there again?
Yeah, round that back around
to the front stump.
- That big one?
- Yeah, the big one.
All right, all right.
Want me
to untangle that a bit?
Haven't seen
that technique before.
There we go. We're good.
Oh.
Gotcha.
Here we go.
Back in business. There we go.
After a 30 minute shutdown,
they're back on the gold.
That took
a long *bleep* time,
didn't it?
I feel so bad
What a *bleep* show.
Yeah, I'm glad
that we're, you know,
checking a floating plant out
because I've never really
spent any time around them.
On New Zealand's
south island,
Parker has one hour left
to test drive Peter Haddock's
floating wash plant
and decide if
it's the plant he needs
for his new Alaska claim.
Yeah, I mean,
digging underwater
is definitely
a little bit weird
to get used to,
because in the Yukon
we're doing it dry
and I can see
exactly what we're doing.
But, yeah, I mean,
the huge benefit in this
is it just costs
nothing to run, right?
Like, you're digging it
straight out of the ground,
straight into a wash plant.
And the trade off
for not being able
to see what you're doing
is, you know,
a very efficient
mining system.
Here he comes.
After fixing the issue
at his other site...
- How you doing?
- Peter returns to the mine,
bringing Jeff with him
from his workshop.
- What do you reckon, Jeff?
- Yeah, that's a nice machine. Really nice.
Good, good.
Parker's been doing
a great job this afternoon,
so yeah,
hopefully he wants one.
What do you reckon, Parker?
- Pretty slick.
- It's really good, you know?
No, it's a
great system really.
Yeah, and I would
definitely get one, you know?
But, well,
there's one big issue.
How old is this unit?
She's 38 years old this year.
Wow.
I really want a modern
high tech wash plant,
so hopefully we can
see some other ones.
Ones that are newer?
Because I'd like
to see more of them.
Well, I can tell you
we've just,
this last year in 2021,
we bought a beautiful plant
up the road.
Brand new,
much the same as this,
but all really
modern technology.
The winches are all controlled
- from the excavator.
- Oh, wow.
I could hook you up with a guy
- and see if he's extra keen.
- That would be awesome, yeah.
And could see if JD
will actually be keen
to meet you guys.
- Cool.
- That would be amazing, yeah.
Yeah,
it would be great, yeah.
I'll grab some
contact details off you.
Yep, that'll be great.
I'll give them to you.
- Awesome. Thanks so much.
- All right.
- Thank you, yeah.
- I feel like a tourist.
I think it's
a really successful day.
We managed to get
another contact out of it.
His name's JD,
who apparently has
the best floating wash plant
in New Zealand.
Obviously,
it's been really good
seeing that,
but if that's like
a very average SUV,
the one that
we're gonna see tomorrow
is a Lamborghini.
Today was a good day.
- It was awesome.
- Wicked.
There was a moment
where I was embarrassed
to be a part of this group, Tyler.
Can't pick which moment that was.
- I just got off the phone to JD.
- Yeah.
He's not too sure
about showing us
his wash plant and mine site
without meeting us.
- Really?
- What?
So if it's okay with you guys,
I said we'd go down
and meet up with him tomorrow,
and then if
everything goes well
he'll agree
to take us out there.
- Are you okay with that, Parker?
- Mmm-hmm.
Yeah, so we're
meeting JD tomorrow.
He's a little cagey
about showing us
his mining operation,
which I totally appreciate.
He's extremely secretive,
from what I can gather,
but I really want access
to this floating wash plant
because it's
the creme de la creme.
Hopefully it goes well
and he shows us his plants
and his mining operation.
But for now it's bed time.
Who is this mysterious
JD character then?
- He is being a bit mysterious, isn't he?
- Yeah.
In New Zealand, you know,
the gold game's
small and secretive,
and everyone
likes to keep their cards
close to them.
No, I mean, it makes sense.
You know, for me it's like
I definitely wouldn't let
just anybody show up
with a camera crew
on our mine site.
The trailblazing innovations
on JD's wash plant
means he keeps its location
a well-guarded secret.
But yeah,
JD doesn't want to let us
on his mine site
until we've met him.
I'm feeling the pressure.
I feel like our character's
under analysis.
Well, if that's the case then we're *bleep*.
He's asked them
to meet him on the banks
of the Kokatahi River.
- How's it going?
- Hello.
- Good.
- Tyler, nice to finally meet you.
- I know, nice to finally meet you too.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I just like
to meet people
in person first,
make sure you're
trustworthy enough
to come to site.
Oh, so this is like
a stress test?
Yeah,
a bit of a sort of
stress test.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
What sort of speeds
are we talking about
in that?
You're doing well over 100
past all the rocks.
- Seriously?
- Yeah.
That's crazy.
I don't have
the greatest track record
with jet boats.
Well, she only takes
two passengers,
so couple of people
have got to draw
the short straw.
- You gonna do that, Ty?
- Absolutely not.
No.
- Looks like it's you two up then, hey?
- Oh, *bleep*
This is *bleep* a lot.
My mouth's just suddenly
gone a bit dry.
- I'm ready.
- Man.
The things we do
to get on a mine site.
*bleep* hell. Holy.
- You're gonna be like this the whole time, aren't you?
- Yes.
- You all right?
- Yeah.
JD, you've got an evil glint
in your eye, man.
Whoa!
Oh, *bleep* no.
- Split it. Yeah, baby.
- *bleep*
No. *bleep*
On the Kokatahi River,
secretive local miner JD
is testing Parker
and Danny's metal
- Woo.
- with a ride in his 2080 horsepower jet boat.
Whoa,
oh, *bleep*, no.
Whoa.
How long
do you reckon they'll be?
I'd say at least
a couple of hours.
I don't know.
- What?
- Yeah.
So, what,
we're just gonna stand here
for a couple of hours?
It's a pretty nice day.
I don't think they're gonna
be in any rush.
*bleep*
Jeff said we wouldn't get wet.
Oh.
Oh, my *bleep*.
Ah!
Oh, mate.
- Did you grow up doing this kind of stuff?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, from 16 all me mates had 'em.
- All right. Yeah.
We were always
motorbiking Saturday,
working Sunday.
- What a *bleep* playground.
- Amazing.
Shall we go for a walk?
There's actually a bit of gold just around here.
- Oh, yeah?
- What?
Yeah.
How long have you been mining?
I've been mining for 13 years.
- Gotcha.
- And then I grew up around here too,
so all these areas here
I was looking around with Dad
with the gold pan.
- So, this little creek here has got gold in it.
- Oh, wow.
- The only spot around here.
- Secret location.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, that's quartz.
- So that's a quartz vein?
- Yeah.
- That's where gold comes from, quartz veins.
- Oh, look.
- You bring a gold pan?
- No.
- Should have brought a gold pan, Dan.
- Oh, no, really?
Rookie mistake, that.
Because we don't
have a gold pan.
- Is there nuggets around here?
- There could be.
- JD.
- What?
Like, everything's,
like, guarded, innit?
Yeah, let's do it.
Yeah.
Looks like
they're having fun.
- You guys having fun?
- No, tons.
- I feel really bad.
- Why?
I actually
feel really terrible.
I'm really sorry.
- Yeah, right.
- It was *bleep* awful.
- JD.
- This thing is so slow.
Thanks for showing us that.
- Thanks so much, man.
- Yeah, no worries.
- So they passed the test?
- Yeah.
- Right on.
- See yous at the floater.
- Sweet.
- Oh, nice.
- All right.
- I feel guilty.
- Don't feel guilty. As long as you had fun.
- No, I do feel guilty.
- Don't feel guilty.
- I'm sorry.
As long as you guys had fun.
It was one of the *bleep* best days ever..
Initiation passed,
JD reveals the location
for his state-of-the-art
floating wash plant.
That's the one.
Oh, yeah.
Wow.
- That does look impressive.
- That thing's pretty nice.
JD spent over a year
researching and designing
every detail of this plant
to be perfect for his claim.
250 acres of gold-rich ground
on a flat valley plain,
minable year round,
he floods a quarter-acre pond
to allow the plant to float.
- Hello.
- How's it going?
Good.
- Oh, this looks great.
- Yeah.
Yeah, this is
the new and improved
six foot floater.
- Wow.
- Yeah, no, it's good.
Packed with innovation,
it's the most
technically advanced
floating wash plant
in the world.
- Shall we go have a look?
- Yeah, if that's all right.
- Is that a drawbridge?
- Yeah.
You got a copy there, Scotty?
Drop that drawbridge.
- So you just turn the pump off from the tap?
- Yeah.
And now he's bringing
the screen in,
and he'll drop
that drawbridge down.
- All from inside?
- All from the digger.
- Mate, that's amazing. This is very clever.
- Yeah, very cool.
From within
the excavator cab,
the operator uses
Bluetooth-connected systems
to control everything,
from the winches
that move the plant
to the waterflow.
Cameras allow the operator
to watch the hopper feeder,
trommel,
and tailings conveyor.
And a light-up
pressure monitor
ensures he is feeding it
at the perfect rate.
JD's plant is capable
of processing 115 yards
of paydirt per hour,
and has a price tag
of $445,000.
- How long before these things are running themselves?
- Robots.
- It's not far off, is it?
- No, literally.
- Yeah, so this is it.
- Wow. How long have you had it?
- About six months.
- Do you name your wash plants, JD?
It's S6.
- Hmm.
- I like that.
One of my neighbors
names all of his
after James Bond movies.
- Yeah.
- Must be a big James Bond fan.
- This is a pretty big platform.
- Yeah.
Yeah, there's a lot of room
on this screen.
Like, go sunbathing
on the back deck.
- Put some chairs out.
- Cocktails.
Oh,
it's a bit noisy for that.
We got a really nice
water filter system too.
- So it filters the water for the hydraulic ripples.
- Gotcha.
Because hydraulic ripples
are really good
until they clog up.
Right.
That's why we took all ours out.
And then we've also
got a camera up here
behind the trommel
so you can see
if you get a jam
up on the stacker.
Right. We just wait
'till there's three yards
of dirt piled up somewhere,
- and then shut down, and get the shovels out.
- Yeah.
You've got a solution
for everything.
Yeah.
I haven't been around
a lot of floaters
because we don't have
a lot of those in the Yukon,
but this is definitely
the nicest plant we've seen
this whole trip.
So, are you
the only one in this area
with this exact wash plant?
Yes, I think,
from what we can tell,
it's the only one
in the world.
- Only one in the world?
- Yeah.
That's cool, hey?
From what we can tell,
no one else controls it all
from the digger.
- You've essentially done what we are setting out to do.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- You know what I mean? Well, yeah, I mean, like,
Parkers needs
the perfect machine
- for the ground that he's got in Alaska.
- Yeah.
- And you've done exactly that here, yeah.
- Your...
Yeah.
What do you think?
*bleep* sick.
- That's *bleep* cool.
- Yeah.
I'm ready
to ship this thing to Alaska.
This is perfect. I love it.
So, have you mined all that?
Yeah, so that's
where we started,
about 100 meters out there.
We've mined down
and then we've come back
over all this,
and that's all our restoration
all ready for planting.
- And then trees will get planted?
- Yeah.
New Zealand
has strict reclamation laws,
and before permits
are granted,
miners must have
funds set aside
for a rehabilitation plan
approved by the local
environmental agencies.
Yeah, so you'll probably
come back here in,
like, 18 months,
and it won't even look like
it's been mined.
- No. No, you won't be able to tell.
- Sweet.
And the beautiful thing
about floating
is a very good,
and well managed,
and environmentally friendly
way of mining.
And, of course,
we don't want to not
look after the environment.
And we don't do it
just because we have to,
we do it because we want to.
- You can jump on the digger and have a go.
- Awesome.
On the west coast
of New Zealand's south island,
Parker is testing
what could be
the perfect wash plant
for his new claim
back in Alaska.
This one down?
Gotcha.
- What do you reckon of all this?
- Pretty sweet.
Yeah.
- Sweet. We all happy? Okay.
- Oh, yeah. Thanks, man.
- Thanks for the lesson.
- No worries.
I've been on
a lot of wash plants
and this is probably
the nicest one ever.
Like, probably one of the more
high-tech wash plants
in the world, really.
I mean, floating plants
have always seemed
a bit clunky to me,
but JD's solved that
with all of the controls
being in the cab.
Like, it's actually
an unreal system.
From the cab
of the excavator,
Parker can control
both the plant's movement
and its water pumps
with just a flick of a switch.
Yesterday, when we were
on Peter Haddock's
he had manual-style winches,
- Yeah.
- and this one's set up with hydraulic winches
that he can
control from the cab.
So they really
thought this plant out.
Yeah, I mean this plant's
definitely given me
a lot to think about.
It's super simple,
one-man operation.
One of the only wash plants
I've ever been around
that I've actually
enjoyed running.
It's really impressive, actually.
- All good, Parker?
- Yeah.
- We'll shut it off and go for a beer.
- Okay.
Are we gonna do a cleanup?
I'll be doing a cleanup.
- The camera guys will be going.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah.
- Can we get the footage from your cameras
on the actual...
- No.
- No?
It's definitely been
a theme so far
that the Kiwis don't want us
to see their gold,
which is fine.
We just have to move forward
and keep going.
Parker, this is it.
Moment of truth.
Park now faces
a critical decision.
Is JD's plant right
for the rugged terrain,
high in the tundra
of Fairbanks, Alaska?
- Oh, what do you think?
- It's one of the coolest,
- cleanest setups I've ever seen.
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
- You really did think of everything.
- I want one of those. Yeah.
- You want a new screen?
You get this huge advantage
- in just how cheap it is to run.
- Yeah.
But then the big disadvantage
in not seeing
what you're digging.
Yeah, so that's where
this is quite nice,
good floating ground.
- We've got a real flat, hard bottom,
- Right.
so it does match up
quite nicely.
And the biggest problem
in the Yukon, like,
so after our pits
are done mined
- it's, like, a bombing zone,
- Yeah.
right, of just,
like, huge holes.
And because
the ground's frozen
and it's all permafrost,
a lot of the bigger holes
will have frozen gravel
in the bottom of them
- Yeah.
- that you have to go back in for.
- Right? Right.
- So you got to leave it and let it thaw.
I would imagine
there's not really
a way to do it
- in which you didn't leave that behind, right?
- Yeah.
And if the bottom had been
all *bleep* over the place,
you would have done it,
- had to probably do it dry, huh?
- Yeah, correct.
Well, you've given me
a lot to think about.
That dredge was amazing.
But... we're not on ground
that it makes sense for
right now, I don't think.
So it won't fit for Fairbanks,
- but thanks for showing us that.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, thanks so much, man.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Definitely something to be proud of.
Even though we're not
walking away from here
with that wash plant,
if nothing else I think
it makes Parker think,
"I want a machine
which is as fit for purpose,
for the ground
that's in Alaska,
that this one is
to the ground that's here."
The ground in Fairbanks
is just not floating ground,
but of all
the plants I've seen
that one makes me
think most about, like,
really changing up
our mining style
if we find
another piece of ground
that it would suit.
It's a real shame
that this plant
won't work in Alaska
because of the ground,
but yeah, I bet if it did
Parker would have one
in a heartbeat.
This has really set the tone,
moving forward,
about what kind of
innovation and technology
we want to see.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.