Gold Rush: Parker's Trail (2017–2019): Season 5, Episode 5 - Trouble in Paradise - full transcript
Guys, guys, guys.
I've got reports of swallowing
levers, I've got reports
of flash flooding.
We need to bag out
and bag out now,
so pack your *bleep*.
Put your foot on the gas
and let's get
the hell out of here.
Right now.
This is not a discussion.
- Thanks, Sarge.
- Let's go.
- Okay.
- We need to get the *bleep* out of here now.
Give it some.
Let's go, go, go.
The closest town
is on evacuation watch.
An alert has been sent out
for them to get ready
to evacuate.
Look at the water
across the road. Holy *bleep*.
Okay.
Uh, we're driving
in a river.
Do we have an escape route?
Oh, my.
Ty, when I'm here before you,
- you know you're up.
- Late.
So you can give me *bleep*,
you can give me *bleep*,
you cannot.
I've worked here every morning
since we got here.
Danny, Jeff, I'm really sorry.
No, I don't give a *bleep*.
We're allowed to be late
once in awhile, right?
Let's go.
Twenty-seven
year old Parker Schnabel
is expanding
his goldmining operation.
He's on the hunt
for a state of the art
wash plant in New Zealand,
capable of securing him
a multi-million dollar pay out
on his new claim in Alaska.
Unfortunately,
there's no college class
or degree
for wash plant design
and efficiency.
We have to go out
and find the people
that have pioneered
the technology and develop
these ideas.
You know, New Zealand's
full of them.
We just have to go
hunt them down.
So we're going to see
a man named Eddie.
He's pretty well known
in these parts.
He builds wash plants.
- Eddie Gray.
- Eddie Gray.
Yeah, the Gray brothers.
They're well known everywhere.
You've heard
of him before, Parker?
Yeah.
- Well, that's amazing.
- Yeah.
Well, we're going
to the right place then,
aren't we?
From the central
Tasman region,
the team head 150 miles
south to Greymouth
to the legendary
Gray brothers workshop.
Gray brothers.
There we go.
Are you excited
about this one, Jeff?
Yeah, totally.
I've never met him, so this will be really cool.
Wow, big old workshop.
Goldminer
and engineer Eddie Gray
has over 40 years' experience
making and selling wash plants
all over the world
including the Yukon.
To date, his workshop has made
over 100 different plants
for some of the best
goldminers on the planet.
Hi. How's you go?
- Hi. Tyler.
- Hi, how are you?
- Jeff.
- How's it go?
Nice to meet you.
- Parker.
- Parker. How you going? I've seen you before.
Quite an impressive
workshop you've got.
Yeah, it's pretty good.
We built it all around mining.
Coal mining, gold mining.
Well, I mean, you guys,
you know, New Zealanders
have always had
some of the best
mining equipment.
- That's why we're here.
- Yeah.
Learn from the best, right?
Eddie's crew of 35
take on average 12 weeks
to build a custom plant
from scratch.
Parker's looking
for one design in particular.
Some of the ground
that we're looking at
in Alaska,
it does have some clay in it.
The nice thing
about a trommel
is it can do everything.
- Right?
- Yeah.
Part of the reason
why I'm on this trip
is to figure out
if we wanna get
a trommel or not.
The more basic, the better.
Trommels break up
coal rich paydirt by rotating
a steel drum
and blasting the material
with high pressure water.
Making them the best
at separating fine gold
from sticky clay.
A problem on Parker's
new claim.
The barrels
for the trommel,
- you'll roll those yourselves.
- We'll roll them, yeah.
There's a real art
in getting your trommel right.
You can see they got
their welding stations
all nicely set up.
This stuff right here, uh,
on that steel,
is becoming hard to get.
Good to see
they got lots of stock.
It's awesome. It's nice
to be across the world
and see that they're doing
the same thing.
And I know they do
good work here
because we have a good working
relationship with them
and there's quite
a bit of history.
Um, so yeah, it's good to see.
I'm definitely stoked.
I am so intrigued
by this.
- This whole machine.
- Yeah.
- What is it?
- Well, they call it a plasma cutter.
Oh, wicked.
Are you firing it up now?
Yeah, I am.
Just about to start.
- You can watch if you want.
- That is right up my alley.
Am I all right standing here?
Yeah, you're all right, bro.
Oh, *bleep*.
Bloody hell.
Get out the way.
At 45,000 degrees
Fahrenheit,
this plasma cutter burns
four and a half times hotter
than the surface of the sun
and can cut through steel
2 inches thick.
Oh, my *bleep*.
- It's pretty aggressive, isn't it?
- Yeah.
There you go.
It's a beautiful looking thing.
- It's cool to finally come here and, like, meet you guys.
- Oh, it's great.
We've been thinking
that we might try to buy
a plant if we can find one
in the country.
You could've, um...
Sold a screen
a couple of weeks ago.
Well, did you have
one sitting?
Yeah, we had
some sitting here. Yeah.
How long ago?
Before you had a couple
of machines here
that could've just been
taken straight out
of the door?
- Two, three weeks ago.
- Oh.
It's always the way
it works, though.
Timing. Two weeks.
And the place was just full
of gold screw trommels,
gold screens and...
So here we're...
we're pretty flat out.
That would've
been good to see.
When you don't need it,
and they're everywhere
- and when you need one, they're all gone.
- Yeah.
Well, one of my mates
got a flat to sell.
Who's that?
Allan Birchfield
is a good friend of mine.
I've heard of the Birchfields,
I've never met any of them, though.
They've been miners
for generations on
the West Coast.
And they've built, um,
about gold screens
for three generations
of that family.
Oh, wow.
He's got a machine for sale.
If you wanna give
Tony Beets a go,
that'd be the machine
to have a look at.
- Well, we should go have a look at it then.
- Yeah.
Eddie has suggested
the Birchfields
and yeah, they're a huge
name around here.
I've heard whispers of them.
Eddie gave us the address
and has given Allan a heads up
that we're gonna head over.
So I'm excited to go
and see Allan and see
what he has to offer.
Hot on the trail
of Eddie's lead,
the team follow the Grey River
20 miles northeast
towards the town of Ngahere
to the highly successful
Birchfield family claim.
This weather's
pretty awful, mate.
It's horrible.
I feel like the mass
of the rain has finally
hit as well.
Look how high the river is.
Yeah, there's flood
warnings all around us.
Very high.
I see a right hand turn here.
Is this it?
- Maybe.
- Yeah.
Do it.
- Do it?
- Looks like we're leaving
any form of main road.
Oh. Go on, Jeff.
Wowee. *bleep* Hello.
What is this?
That's a bridge.
We're not gonna fit...
Oh, my *bleep*. That thing's
frickin' rickity.
You're not
driving through that.
Then how are we supposed
to get through?
How do we get
around this?
We're gonna take
the whole roof off.
Um...
Go down there.
- I don't know.
- Let's try this.
- Are you going for it, Jeff?
- Is it safe?
I don't know.
It's our only shot.
Danny, do you think
that's safe?
Do you reckon...
I don't know. Hang on.
- Stop there for a sec.
- Yeah, just...
Let's have a look at it.
Parker, get out and walk through it.
See how deep it is.
You, Tyler.
You're the rain expert.
Let's just do it.
- Go.
- Are you gonna slam it?
- You ready? Yeah, I am.
- No, don't *bleep* go psycho.
Oh, my.
Oh,.
Whoa!
That was pretty deep.
Oh.
That was great.
Good job.
Holy *bleep*.
Look at the size of that.
That isn't a dredge.
Yeah, it is.
- That is huge.
- That's huge.
It looks like a massive
big building.
It's a big floating building.
- Holy *bleep*.
- How do they even float that?
Parker and his crew
are meeting Allan Birchfield,
the owner of a 90-year-old
supersize dredge.
At 3,850 tons,
it's the largest bucket lined
dredge in the world.
I've never seen
a dredge that big ever.
Gees. It's a monster.
What do you wanna do?
Do you wanna go with me,
Dan, and we'll go see
if they're here?
Yeah.
- Should we wait here?
- Yeah, wait here for the time being.
We'll just see if...
Go find him first.
- Okay, cool.
- And then we'll give you a shout, yeah?
- Yeah. Okay.
- Cool.
We'll be here.
Good grief.
That's insane.
Hope we're not trespassing.
Quite the maze.
This thing's huge.
Hello?
Mate, it feels
like something out
of Lord of the Rings.
Hello?
You could get lost
in this place.
This makes
Tony Beets' dredges
look like pocket toys.
I feel like we should
stay here until he gives us
the okay.
Yeah. That makes sense.
Hello?
Coming up...
Holy *bleep*.
I'm literally
standing on gold.
Parker, you'd have
done good, mate.
- Oh.
- You gotta be happy with that.
Hello?
In New Zealand,
south of the Paparoa
National Park,
Parker and his crew
are exploring a wash plant
for his Alaskan operation,
but the owner
is nowhere to be found.
Hello?
Uppo. Up here!
Ah, hi!
How do we get up there?
Up those stairs
over there.
He didn't have a gun, did he?
No.
I don't like it.
*bleep*
Hello.
I'm Tyler.
- Sure.
- Yeah. Sure.
Holy, it was.
- I'm Parker.
- Parker? Allan. G'day.
- Nice to meet you, mate.
- Good.
Um, Eddie Gray sent us.
He mentioned that you might
have a wash plant
that's for sale.
Well, unless you count
this one.
This one?
This thing
is so huge.
So is this thing, like,
actually for sale?
Oh,
a deal could be done.
Gotcha.
Owned by Allan
Birchfield and his family
for over 30 years,
the huge Canary dredge
has the capacity to churn
through the gold-rich
flood plains
of the Grey River
in record time.
The 300-foot long bucket line
scoops up 1,000 cubic yards
of pay an hour.
And deposits it
into the 12-foot wide trommel
where 10,000 gallons of water
per minute washes the dirt
and freeze the gold.
Since it was first run
in 1932,
the dredge has mined close
to 400,000 ounces of gold
worth nearly $700 million
in today's money.
Do you have time
to show us around?
Is that all right?
Yep. Look around here.
You can get in if you want.
Standing in a trommel.
This is mad.
It's a thousand
of those panels in there.
We run the same design,
but in our screen decks.
- Yeah.
- But like with the pegs and everything.
Yep. Plus you're pumping
10,000 gallons a minute
- out of this thing here.
- In this.
Yeah.
Wild. Very big trommel.
I've never seen
a trommel that big.
- Really cool.
- Yeah, unreal.
Like, it's really,
really cool.
Super interesting.
Well,
it did work perfectly.
- Well, not perfectly, but...
- Yeah.
- You know.
- It did its job.
Yeah, okay. It did its job.
With quite a bit of defect.
You guys wanna see something cool?
Have a look over here.
Oh, wow.
Tyler and Jeff
are joined by former dredge
master Ian
and Allan's son, Chris.
- Crazy.
- Holy *bleep*. Look at them all.
- Hundred and five.
- Hundred and five?
So when
it was digging,
it was about 20 buckets
we go past every minute.
Um...
So yeah, each bucket
travels up, tips up here,
comes back down,
takes another scoop.
Is that still pay
in the bucket?
Yeah, that's pay dirt.
So there's gold
in the bucket still.
In theory.
You're on a good patch. Wow.
If we go around here,
that's your primary
jigs there.
Nothing...
I've never spin any around anything anywhere close to this big.
You can see there
how it works.
Got your wedge wire screen
and you've got your ragging
sitting on top of it.
Massive pulsating
drums in the 30-foot wide jig
sift 500 tons
of pay dirt per hour
through layers of coarse
material known as ragging.
Vibrating mesh screens
then separate out the soil
from the fine gold,
increasing potential
gold recovery.
You really find much gold
that wouldn't fall
through that?
Not much.
Not many nuggets here.
So at my grandpa's place,
we had one jig about the size
of one of these cells.
And on this one
there's like 32 of them.
Sixty-four times bigger.
- Is there still a lot of gold to be mined around here?
- Yeah.
This is
the control room, huh?
When this thing was running,
did you ever run it?
- Generally preferred not to.
- Right.
You probably had a lot
of other things going on
when this was running.
Yes, exactly.
It only takes a crew of three.
- On board.
- On board. You got one guy on the cab
and two on the dig.
I've gotta say, like,
we've toured all over a lot
of mine sites
and this is, like,
has them all beat.
It really is so impressive.
You'd get one
over Tony Beets, wouldn't ya?
No kidding.
He wouldn't like that.
So is this thing, like,
actually for sale?
Yeah,
a deal could be done.
There you guys are.
What's going on?
- Checking the dredge out. This is awesome.
- Yeah, it's wild, huh?
So have we done the deal?
Parker's buying it.
We're off home.
What?
You're full of *bleep*.
What size
are we chopping it up into
to get it back?
No, we're just gonna chew
our way out to the ocean
and then tow it...
- Tow it.
- ...over to Alaska.
- I like it.
- And then up the Yukon River.
That sounds like a journey.
I mean, it's closer
to what I'm looking for
than the last wash plant
that we looked at.
But you overshot now.
We went and looked at
like a 20 yard an hour plant
that was for sale
and I'm like, a little small.
Now we come here
and it's like, I feel
like Goldilocks, like...
Too small. No, this is too big, Tyler.
I promise we'll find one
that's just right.
I really appreciate
the time, though.
One of the cooler days
that I've ever had in my life, honestly.
Thanks so much for having us.
All right. Well, thanks, guys.
I really appreciate it.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Cheers, guys.
- Bye.
It's pissing down.
The dredge is amazing,
but we need to get back
on track and get further
down the trail
and towards some decisions.
I've got small wash plant
syndrome now.
Aw.
Guys, guys, guys.
I've got reports swallowing
levers, I've got reports
of flash flooding.
We've got 100 mills of water
in the mountains.
We need to bag out
and bag out now,
so pack your *bleep*.
Put your foot on the gas
and let's get the hell
out of here.
- Thanks, Sarge.
- Let's go.
We need to get the *bleep* out of here now.
I've never seen
Sarge serious before.
Eight inches
of rain falls in an hour.
Swelling the Grey River
by more than 3 feet.
Oh, my *bleep*.
Is that the river?
It's actually
gotten higher. Holy *bleep*.
- Looks deeper.
- It looks deeper.
Oh, my...
Oh, my *bleep*.
Oh, my!
Give it some.
Let's go, go, go.
The closest town
is on evacuation watch.
An alert has been sent out
for them to get ready
to evacuate.
New Zealand
is no stranger
to natural disasters.
During a freak one
in 500 year storm,
water surged over the banks
of the Rangitaiki River
leading to mass evacuation
and millions of dollars
worth of damage.
So we're not camping it,
so I think, like literally,
the first hotel
that we come to.
Look at the water
across the road. Holy *bleep*.
Okay.
Uh, we're driving
in a river.
Do we have an escape route?
*bleep* me.
Look at the water
over here, guys.
That guy's house
is like in the water almost.
Look right here.
Look at the fence.
- His driveway. Look at this driveway.
- Oh, *bleep* hell.
*bleep*
We can't take this bridge
coming up. This whole road's
been washed out.
Which bridge is out?
- Dobson.
- Dobson. Dobson Road is now...
*bleep* I've got a feeling
that's how we get
to the next *bleep* mine site.
Oh.
Hang on.
It is, hang on.
Okay, we can't get
to the next mine site.
We're *bleep*.
That is *bleep*.
We're definitely
not getting to the guy
I had planned.
- We're gonna have to get a plan B together.
- Okay.
The road's washed out.
There's no chance.
We made it.
Well done, everyone.
- Good driving, Jeff.
- Thank you.
With rain predicted
for the next 12 hours,
the crew check into a hotel
to wait it out.
Like, I'm from the coast.
I'm used to rain.
But I don't like rain.
Especially after
after my buddy, David,
died last year
in a big landslide
after ten inches of rain.
It's always made me a bit...
Whenever it rains
I think about it.
Sucks.
And it is still
absolutely smashing it down.
I can literally hear it
banging against my window,
and you can hear it, you know,
the wind is so powerful
whipping off the ocean.
I'm so *bleep* exhausted.
It's been a huge
couple of days.
Feel really bad for the miners
that are getting washed out.
We had a couple
that we're meant to see,
and we can't even get to them
because the roads
are just gone.
- Wow, that storm left quick.
- Oh, my *bleep*, know.
Beautiful out.
After a 24 hour delay
due to flooding...
Gorgeous now.
The team
are back on the road.
So, we're going
to Louis Nel's mine site.
This is all
very last minute, though.
To be honest,
I don't know a lot.
So he seems like
he's pretty, like, open to us
having a look around
and seeing
if anything's for sale.
The team pivots
70 miles down the coast
to the historic
mining settlement of Ruatapu,
on a Hail Mary mission
to bring Parker's
million dollar shopping trip
back on track.
I've been really stressed out
the last couple of day
because I just haven't felt
like I've been delivering.
And the miners
were pulling out,
we couldn't
get to the mine sites
I had lined up.
I'm a little bit nervous.
I did not have this
planned out whatsoever.
You must be Uncle Louis.
Is this
an all right time for you?
Yeah, *bleep* Parker.
Any time, mate.
All right, well, good.
You're from
South Africa, right?
Gotcha.
Okay, so you
grew up mining, huh?
First diamond mining
back home.
You guys
were diamond mining?
Before moving
to the New Zealand gold fields
in 2017,
Louis Nel
and his son, Michael,
mined diamonds for 20 years
in the northern provinces
of South Africa.
Their biggest find
was an 85 carat gem
worth tens of millions
of dollars.
We're struggling
to find wash plants
that are for sale.
Oh, yeah?
That's really
what we're looking for
right now, yeah.
We still haven't decided
on a trommel, like...
I'm used to screen decks.
Mmm-hmm.
In the top.
Do you know
what would be really cool
is if we could do a little,
maybe if we did a little bit
of a tour of the place?
Yeah, we can quickly go.
- Is that all right?
- Yeah. Come, Parker, let's go.
Great.
Louis' 500 acres of gold-rich
but clay-filled ground
are similar
to Parker's new claim
in Alaska,
making it the perfect ground
to test drive a plant.
Nice site you got here, Louis.
Oh, *bleep*,
- you've got two more plants right over here.
- Yeah.
Holy cow.
Plants everywhere, Louis.
To bank as much gold as he can
and make the most
of his inconsistent pay,
Louis runs five trommels
at a time.
I didn't realize that this is
a full-on mining operation.
I don't know.
What's your first reaction?
It looks pretty good to me.
Look at this.
This is incredible.
And there's that one there,
and that one over there,
and one over there.
How many does he have here?
Is it six?
I think Parker's
gonna like that.
Thank *bleep*
Right.
Right.
- And that's for sale, Louis? You'd sell that?
- Yeah.
Do you notice a difference
in recovery rate on the jigs?
- Just...
- Gotcha.
Jigs take a little bit more maintenance, don't they?
A bit more work?
Right.
Using the jigs
in addition to sluices
means that even
the smallest pieces of gold
are caught
across Louis' claim,
maximizing his gold recovery.
I'd love to know
how much gold they're finding.
I want to get out
and take a look
at these things.
- They've even got jigs.
- Amazing.
- Parker's gonna be happy.
- You reckon?
Yeah,
I think you've done it.
- Good work, Tyler.
- To be honest,
this was a bit
of a fluke I think.
- Well, maybe don't tell him that.
- Yeah, I won't.
Keep that on your side.
Kind of like a kid
in a candy store right now.
This is perfect.
This is what
we've been looking for,
so I'm pretty stoked
for Tyler.
Huge sigh of relief
when we rocked up.
An amazing mine site,
great wash plants,
Parker seems happy.
Huge machinery,
which is a great start
as well.
You know, I think this will be
a really good mine site for us
because he's got
a variety of plants,
and we can see it all working,
and still haven't been
around a jig plant
that's been running.
I really want to go
check that jig plant out.
Maybe we could, like,
- just spend some time around a few different plants.
- Yeah.
And maybe we could even
kind of run a test of them,
- just in different types of material
- Yeah.
and how they wash.
Try to figure out
what's best suited for us
and for that ground.
Yeah.
You can pick and choose.
So, which is to be then?
We just saw
the birch fields dredge.
- And it has those big jig...
- Oh, the big one.
- It has those big jigs on it, so I'm on a bit of a jig kick.
- The old one, yeah.
So if it's all right,
go run that plant
with the jigs on it.
Sweet.
- That would be awesome.
- Yeah.
I'm really interested in
that recovery rate difference.
So, if it's
all right with you,
- then we can count the number of buckets,
- Yeah.
and then we'll know
what plant ran
- how much yardage
- Yeah.
and we can see
who has better recovery, huh?
Yeah. As long as you guys
do the cleanups yourself,
it's all good.
That is a real gold miner
- Yeah.
- because we all *bleep* hate doing cleanup.
- Sounds like a plan.
- All right. Shall we head over there?
- Yeah.
- All right.
- Perfect.
- Thanks, guys.
For me,
it's starting to get
to the point
where we need
to make some decisions
about, you know,
what we're using
as a wash plant in Alaska.
So, you know,
this is a good place
to be right now.
- What's your name, mate?
- Digger.
- Digger?
- Digger, yeah.
That's a great name.
At Louis Nel's
New Zealand claim,
Parker is pitting
two wash plants
against each other
to determine if a jig
is more efficient
at capturing fine gold
from clay-rich soil.
What's your opinion
of this plant? This one.
Jeff
is overseeing a six hour test
on a six foot red trommel
that processes
160 yards of paydirt an hour.
Right there, now they've got
the automatic cleaner on
it's a lot better.
Put any sand in it years ago
and it used to just
flood with sand.
Now they put
that automatic cleaner on
it runs through
these tables real good.
- How's this one feeling, Jeff?
- That feels good, yeah. Perfect.
I've been around one
that was in line like this
- at my grandpa's mine site.
- Yeah.
Parker will feed
the six foot yellow trommel.
He really liked it.
Right.
At 120 yards per hour,
it's 25% slower
than Jeff's red one
but has the advantage
of an eight ton motorized jig
which should capture
more of the hard-to-catch
fine gold.
Now I'm running a trommel
that's feeding a set of jigs,
which is actually
the same kind of setup
that my grandpa had,
and so it's kind of cool
to be having it happen again.
And, you know, it definitely
brings me back home
and makes me think
of growing up with Big Nugget.
Those sluice stones
look pretty short.
Are they short?
These are the same
we've been seeing here, yeah.
- They're about the same?
- Very short, compared to the Yukon,
and they're a lot longer.
Running
40 yards an hour quicker,
Jeff's plant
is able to process
a higher volume of pay.
And its short sluices
feature super-efficient
hydraulic ripples,
making the plant easy
to transport.
What you're looking for
is once the material
goes into the trommel
and gets washed and cleaned
as it goes down,
you want to make sure
that the tailings
coming out the end
are nice and washed
and there's not lots
of fine material on it.
Otherwise,
you're either running too fast
or you're not getting
a good enough wash,
and eventually
you're gonna lose gold.
I am currently
clearing the tailings
from both wash plants,
and it's also the first loader
I've ever driven
that is not a wheel.
It's got a stick
which is quite
out of my comfort zone.
Hopefully no one saw that.
Oh, I should have *bleep*
gone forward more for that.
Getting to be able
to be out on the field
and actually
test these wash plants
is so beneficial for us.
I'm really curious to see
if the wash plant
with the jig wins
or if the wash plant
with the sluice box wins.
It's really exciting.
I've taken that corner
*bleep* horrifically.
Hopefully no one saw that.
*bleep* *bleep* hell.
What's happening?
Holy *bleep*.
*bleep*
Yeah. What lever is it?
Holy *bleep*
Oh.
Yeah, it's jammed up
at the conveyor here.
We're gonna have
to get a shovel in here
and dig it out.
I'll come down
and give you a hand.
What's happened, mate?
The material's jammed up,
weighing the belt down,
stopping the belt from moving,
and I think
that's what happened
is a big rock came out
amongst a bunch
of small rocks,
stopping the belt
in its place.
Oh, *bleep*.
Oh, man.
Oh, there you go.
- I'll put it on, let it go, see if it goes.
- See if it goes?
- Jeff, is it all right?
- Yeah, we got it. We got to it pretty quick.
Okay, go ahead, Michael,
see if it turns.
See if you can bump it again?
There it goes. Right on.
Look at that rock.
Watch that thing come off.
- That was a big one.
- *bleep* hell.
We're lucky.
I'd say we dodged a bullet.
Back up and running,
Jeff and Parker
run the last buckets
of their six hour test
through the plants.
- How's Parker doing?
- Parker's doing good, mate.
He's got the swing of it.
He's quite good, yeah.
We can employ him.
He's quite good.
Yeah, I'm curious to see
how the gold recovery is,
and then have
a more serious conversation
about what our options are.
There is a fair bit
of time pressure on us,
and it gets worse by the day
to find a plant
and have a plan
for what we're gonna do
for a plant for Fairbanks,
because, and I want to be
sluicing early there.
- Copy, Parker?
- Yeah, what's up?
We got to shut down the jig
and do a cleanup,
and you guys can have a look.
- Oh, okay, I'll hop out. Thanks, man.
- Yeah.
Yeah, look at that.
It's so cool.
Getting jiggy with it.
I'm curious to see
how the gold recovery is.
You know,
if the price is right
I would consider
one of these plants
if they prove to be
good gold catchers.
Either of those
would suit our needs.
Is it just gonna be yellow?
There must be something.
Oh, wow.
- It's not all in the tailings?
- No, guarantee you.
You can test it.
- That's what we like to hear.
- That's cool, innit?
That's wicked.
With the yellow plant clean,
the team move
to the red plant.
- How's she looking, Michael?
- Looking pretty good.
- Yeah, you should see a bit now.
- Oh, my *bleep*
Oh, look.
- Yeah, that's awesome.
- Oh, look at that.
Look at it all
in there as well.
I'm literally
standing on gold.
Yeah, there it is.
Is this
your favorite part,
seeing the gold?
It makes the cleanup
all worthwhile.
- You don't get tired of doing it.
- Exactly.
Testing out those two plants
that we did today
was a good thing to do,
but we need
to make some decisions.
Clock's ticking.
That is a lot
of buckets of gold.
Halfway
through a six hour shift
loading pay...
Yeah, we're just
checking in with Parker,
see how he's doing.
Mate, he's not looking
the most talkative today.
I don't reckon
you're gonna get
an answer out of him.
In fact, I'd be willing
to bet five beers
you can't get more
than five words out of him.
- Five beers?
- Yeah.
- With three questions.
- You're on.
- I'm on?
- You're on.
Hey, Parker,
are you on here?
That's not a word.
That was a thumbs up.
How are you liking the hopper feeder?
Oh, my God.
You've got
one more question, Jeff.
In your own words,
tell me how you like
this plant.
It's all right.
- How many words was that?
- Two.
Winner.
You owe me five beers, Jeff.
Oh, yeah, this is nice.
That's a nice setup.
Right.
In the gold fields
of New Zealand's west coast,
the team are pitting
two wash plants
against each other.
Now, Parker wants to see
which one caught
the most gold.
- You see there, Parker?
- Oh, yeah. Not bad.
Louis, whose just been
an absolute dreamboat,
is super trusting,
really nice,
really helpful,
and he's letting us
in his gold room.
I mean,
there's not many miners
that let you just
wander in their gold room
and stand right where
all the gold's, like,
pouring off
the end of the table
and stuff like that.
The concentrate
from each plant
is passed through
the gold table,
where the fine gold
is separated
from the black sand.
Yes.
And there's probably
a lot of that
that you, like,
can't even see until you get it in a pile.
This is great.
It makes all the hard work
worth it when you see this,
- doesn't it?
- Yeah.
The gold processed,
it's time to weigh the results
of each six hour test.
Guys, this will be the jig.
First up,
the yellow jig plant
which ran 720 yards of pay.
And you don't want
the numbers on TV, right?
- No.
- All right.
Okay, mate.
- We're good. So, that's yours.
- Gotcha.
- Happy?
- Yeah.
- And then this one will be the red screen.
- It's gonna be...
I'll just zero it.
Next, the red trommel
which ran 960 yards of pay.
- Oh, *bleep*.
- There's only a gram difference.
One gram difference.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah, yeah, only a gram.
*bleep* You got to be
happy with that.
Wow, what a great test.
That's awesome.
The one with jigs
found a gram more
than the one without jigs,
so that's pretty good.
More gold
and from fewer yards of pay
puts the yellow jig plant
ahead in efficiency,
and on Parker's Alaskan ground
could increase profits
by $200,000.
So, the big pro of the jig
is definitely
- the fine gold recovery.
- Yeah.
But then on the con side
it's, like, a lot of
extra moving parts
and a lot of
extra setup time, and...
Right.
Right, get out of here.
I need to talk to Louis.
- On that note, we'll go. Thank you for that.
- Thank you very much.
Feel like we're close now.
Feel like we're so close.
I can literally smell it.
- So, what do we think?
- I feel like it's too good to be true, almost.
This is it. I think this is
our best opportunity,
Jeff, innit?
Yeah, I think
he's pretty happy with it.
I was happy
with the results, so...
Well, I mean,
which one he goes for
I don't know.
I'm thinking he likes
the jig, the jig plant.
- Really?
- Yeah, but who knows?
This could be the trip done.
It's a pretty
exciting feeling.
- Yeah.
- Mmm.
Here he comes.
Here he comes.
- So, I just had a chat with Louis and...
- And?
He's definitely limbering up.
Right? Like,
things are for sale,
he likes that we're here.
- Wicked.
- Yeah.
- Good.
- But I think we should stay here a bit more.
There's a bunch more plants
that we, like,
didn't even look at.
Like, him and I
were spinning around
in his pickup.
He's like, "Oh, yeah,
there's a couple
other screens there",
but we didn't even
get out of our truck.
If the offer's there
we should check out his...
because I'd like
to see his screen decks
because I just don't know
how they would deal
with this material
in this ground.
- You and I both know each screen inside and out,
- Yeah.
- but we haven't seen 'em on this kind of ground before.
- No.
You guys cool with that?
After four weeks on the road
looking at trommels
to deal with the clay
in his new Alaskan claim,
now Parker wants to explore
an entirely different plant,
a shaker deck with screens.
There is an element
of potentially being
back at square one here.
Everything up until this point
has been trommel-based.
You know, we're in the land
of fine gold mining.
They all use trommels.
They're all
very successful with them,
so...
I just hope we haven't opened
Pandora's Box
and now everything's
gonna be shaker deck based.
So, Parker's thrown
a little bit of a curveball.
Time is definitely
getting tight.
If Parker wants
to make the mining season
this year in Alaska
he's definitely
gonna start having
to make some decisions.
If he starts to sort of
change his mind
about the way
he wants to mine Alaska now
it would be
quite a big U-turn.
Shall we go find a spot
to set up shop?
Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- All right.
Wicked.
I don't even know
what type of wash plant
we're looking for.
That's why we're here.
Like, I'm approaching this
with a very open mind
and no expectation, like,
whether it's a trommel,
or a screen deck,
or some other type of machine
that we don't even know about.
You know, we're here
to hunt down the best.
I've got reports of swallowing
levers, I've got reports
of flash flooding.
We need to bag out
and bag out now,
so pack your *bleep*.
Put your foot on the gas
and let's get
the hell out of here.
Right now.
This is not a discussion.
- Thanks, Sarge.
- Let's go.
- Okay.
- We need to get the *bleep* out of here now.
Give it some.
Let's go, go, go.
The closest town
is on evacuation watch.
An alert has been sent out
for them to get ready
to evacuate.
Look at the water
across the road. Holy *bleep*.
Okay.
Uh, we're driving
in a river.
Do we have an escape route?
Oh, my.
Ty, when I'm here before you,
- you know you're up.
- Late.
So you can give me *bleep*,
you can give me *bleep*,
you cannot.
I've worked here every morning
since we got here.
Danny, Jeff, I'm really sorry.
No, I don't give a *bleep*.
We're allowed to be late
once in awhile, right?
Let's go.
Twenty-seven
year old Parker Schnabel
is expanding
his goldmining operation.
He's on the hunt
for a state of the art
wash plant in New Zealand,
capable of securing him
a multi-million dollar pay out
on his new claim in Alaska.
Unfortunately,
there's no college class
or degree
for wash plant design
and efficiency.
We have to go out
and find the people
that have pioneered
the technology and develop
these ideas.
You know, New Zealand's
full of them.
We just have to go
hunt them down.
So we're going to see
a man named Eddie.
He's pretty well known
in these parts.
He builds wash plants.
- Eddie Gray.
- Eddie Gray.
Yeah, the Gray brothers.
They're well known everywhere.
You've heard
of him before, Parker?
Yeah.
- Well, that's amazing.
- Yeah.
Well, we're going
to the right place then,
aren't we?
From the central
Tasman region,
the team head 150 miles
south to Greymouth
to the legendary
Gray brothers workshop.
Gray brothers.
There we go.
Are you excited
about this one, Jeff?
Yeah, totally.
I've never met him, so this will be really cool.
Wow, big old workshop.
Goldminer
and engineer Eddie Gray
has over 40 years' experience
making and selling wash plants
all over the world
including the Yukon.
To date, his workshop has made
over 100 different plants
for some of the best
goldminers on the planet.
Hi. How's you go?
- Hi. Tyler.
- Hi, how are you?
- Jeff.
- How's it go?
Nice to meet you.
- Parker.
- Parker. How you going? I've seen you before.
Quite an impressive
workshop you've got.
Yeah, it's pretty good.
We built it all around mining.
Coal mining, gold mining.
Well, I mean, you guys,
you know, New Zealanders
have always had
some of the best
mining equipment.
- That's why we're here.
- Yeah.
Learn from the best, right?
Eddie's crew of 35
take on average 12 weeks
to build a custom plant
from scratch.
Parker's looking
for one design in particular.
Some of the ground
that we're looking at
in Alaska,
it does have some clay in it.
The nice thing
about a trommel
is it can do everything.
- Right?
- Yeah.
Part of the reason
why I'm on this trip
is to figure out
if we wanna get
a trommel or not.
The more basic, the better.
Trommels break up
coal rich paydirt by rotating
a steel drum
and blasting the material
with high pressure water.
Making them the best
at separating fine gold
from sticky clay.
A problem on Parker's
new claim.
The barrels
for the trommel,
- you'll roll those yourselves.
- We'll roll them, yeah.
There's a real art
in getting your trommel right.
You can see they got
their welding stations
all nicely set up.
This stuff right here, uh,
on that steel,
is becoming hard to get.
Good to see
they got lots of stock.
It's awesome. It's nice
to be across the world
and see that they're doing
the same thing.
And I know they do
good work here
because we have a good working
relationship with them
and there's quite
a bit of history.
Um, so yeah, it's good to see.
I'm definitely stoked.
I am so intrigued
by this.
- This whole machine.
- Yeah.
- What is it?
- Well, they call it a plasma cutter.
Oh, wicked.
Are you firing it up now?
Yeah, I am.
Just about to start.
- You can watch if you want.
- That is right up my alley.
Am I all right standing here?
Yeah, you're all right, bro.
Oh, *bleep*.
Bloody hell.
Get out the way.
At 45,000 degrees
Fahrenheit,
this plasma cutter burns
four and a half times hotter
than the surface of the sun
and can cut through steel
2 inches thick.
Oh, my *bleep*.
- It's pretty aggressive, isn't it?
- Yeah.
There you go.
It's a beautiful looking thing.
- It's cool to finally come here and, like, meet you guys.
- Oh, it's great.
We've been thinking
that we might try to buy
a plant if we can find one
in the country.
You could've, um...
Sold a screen
a couple of weeks ago.
Well, did you have
one sitting?
Yeah, we had
some sitting here. Yeah.
How long ago?
Before you had a couple
of machines here
that could've just been
taken straight out
of the door?
- Two, three weeks ago.
- Oh.
It's always the way
it works, though.
Timing. Two weeks.
And the place was just full
of gold screw trommels,
gold screens and...
So here we're...
we're pretty flat out.
That would've
been good to see.
When you don't need it,
and they're everywhere
- and when you need one, they're all gone.
- Yeah.
Well, one of my mates
got a flat to sell.
Who's that?
Allan Birchfield
is a good friend of mine.
I've heard of the Birchfields,
I've never met any of them, though.
They've been miners
for generations on
the West Coast.
And they've built, um,
about gold screens
for three generations
of that family.
Oh, wow.
He's got a machine for sale.
If you wanna give
Tony Beets a go,
that'd be the machine
to have a look at.
- Well, we should go have a look at it then.
- Yeah.
Eddie has suggested
the Birchfields
and yeah, they're a huge
name around here.
I've heard whispers of them.
Eddie gave us the address
and has given Allan a heads up
that we're gonna head over.
So I'm excited to go
and see Allan and see
what he has to offer.
Hot on the trail
of Eddie's lead,
the team follow the Grey River
20 miles northeast
towards the town of Ngahere
to the highly successful
Birchfield family claim.
This weather's
pretty awful, mate.
It's horrible.
I feel like the mass
of the rain has finally
hit as well.
Look how high the river is.
Yeah, there's flood
warnings all around us.
Very high.
I see a right hand turn here.
Is this it?
- Maybe.
- Yeah.
Do it.
- Do it?
- Looks like we're leaving
any form of main road.
Oh. Go on, Jeff.
Wowee. *bleep* Hello.
What is this?
That's a bridge.
We're not gonna fit...
Oh, my *bleep*. That thing's
frickin' rickity.
You're not
driving through that.
Then how are we supposed
to get through?
How do we get
around this?
We're gonna take
the whole roof off.
Um...
Go down there.
- I don't know.
- Let's try this.
- Are you going for it, Jeff?
- Is it safe?
I don't know.
It's our only shot.
Danny, do you think
that's safe?
Do you reckon...
I don't know. Hang on.
- Stop there for a sec.
- Yeah, just...
Let's have a look at it.
Parker, get out and walk through it.
See how deep it is.
You, Tyler.
You're the rain expert.
Let's just do it.
- Go.
- Are you gonna slam it?
- You ready? Yeah, I am.
- No, don't *bleep* go psycho.
Oh, my.
Oh,.
Whoa!
That was pretty deep.
Oh.
That was great.
Good job.
Holy *bleep*.
Look at the size of that.
That isn't a dredge.
Yeah, it is.
- That is huge.
- That's huge.
It looks like a massive
big building.
It's a big floating building.
- Holy *bleep*.
- How do they even float that?
Parker and his crew
are meeting Allan Birchfield,
the owner of a 90-year-old
supersize dredge.
At 3,850 tons,
it's the largest bucket lined
dredge in the world.
I've never seen
a dredge that big ever.
Gees. It's a monster.
What do you wanna do?
Do you wanna go with me,
Dan, and we'll go see
if they're here?
Yeah.
- Should we wait here?
- Yeah, wait here for the time being.
We'll just see if...
Go find him first.
- Okay, cool.
- And then we'll give you a shout, yeah?
- Yeah. Okay.
- Cool.
We'll be here.
Good grief.
That's insane.
Hope we're not trespassing.
Quite the maze.
This thing's huge.
Hello?
Mate, it feels
like something out
of Lord of the Rings.
Hello?
You could get lost
in this place.
This makes
Tony Beets' dredges
look like pocket toys.
I feel like we should
stay here until he gives us
the okay.
Yeah. That makes sense.
Hello?
Coming up...
Holy *bleep*.
I'm literally
standing on gold.
Parker, you'd have
done good, mate.
- Oh.
- You gotta be happy with that.
Hello?
In New Zealand,
south of the Paparoa
National Park,
Parker and his crew
are exploring a wash plant
for his Alaskan operation,
but the owner
is nowhere to be found.
Hello?
Uppo. Up here!
Ah, hi!
How do we get up there?
Up those stairs
over there.
He didn't have a gun, did he?
No.
I don't like it.
*bleep*
Hello.
I'm Tyler.
- Sure.
- Yeah. Sure.
Holy, it was.
- I'm Parker.
- Parker? Allan. G'day.
- Nice to meet you, mate.
- Good.
Um, Eddie Gray sent us.
He mentioned that you might
have a wash plant
that's for sale.
Well, unless you count
this one.
This one?
This thing
is so huge.
So is this thing, like,
actually for sale?
Oh,
a deal could be done.
Gotcha.
Owned by Allan
Birchfield and his family
for over 30 years,
the huge Canary dredge
has the capacity to churn
through the gold-rich
flood plains
of the Grey River
in record time.
The 300-foot long bucket line
scoops up 1,000 cubic yards
of pay an hour.
And deposits it
into the 12-foot wide trommel
where 10,000 gallons of water
per minute washes the dirt
and freeze the gold.
Since it was first run
in 1932,
the dredge has mined close
to 400,000 ounces of gold
worth nearly $700 million
in today's money.
Do you have time
to show us around?
Is that all right?
Yep. Look around here.
You can get in if you want.
Standing in a trommel.
This is mad.
It's a thousand
of those panels in there.
We run the same design,
but in our screen decks.
- Yeah.
- But like with the pegs and everything.
Yep. Plus you're pumping
10,000 gallons a minute
- out of this thing here.
- In this.
Yeah.
Wild. Very big trommel.
I've never seen
a trommel that big.
- Really cool.
- Yeah, unreal.
Like, it's really,
really cool.
Super interesting.
Well,
it did work perfectly.
- Well, not perfectly, but...
- Yeah.
- You know.
- It did its job.
Yeah, okay. It did its job.
With quite a bit of defect.
You guys wanna see something cool?
Have a look over here.
Oh, wow.
Tyler and Jeff
are joined by former dredge
master Ian
and Allan's son, Chris.
- Crazy.
- Holy *bleep*. Look at them all.
- Hundred and five.
- Hundred and five?
So when
it was digging,
it was about 20 buckets
we go past every minute.
Um...
So yeah, each bucket
travels up, tips up here,
comes back down,
takes another scoop.
Is that still pay
in the bucket?
Yeah, that's pay dirt.
So there's gold
in the bucket still.
In theory.
You're on a good patch. Wow.
If we go around here,
that's your primary
jigs there.
Nothing...
I've never spin any around anything anywhere close to this big.
You can see there
how it works.
Got your wedge wire screen
and you've got your ragging
sitting on top of it.
Massive pulsating
drums in the 30-foot wide jig
sift 500 tons
of pay dirt per hour
through layers of coarse
material known as ragging.
Vibrating mesh screens
then separate out the soil
from the fine gold,
increasing potential
gold recovery.
You really find much gold
that wouldn't fall
through that?
Not much.
Not many nuggets here.
So at my grandpa's place,
we had one jig about the size
of one of these cells.
And on this one
there's like 32 of them.
Sixty-four times bigger.
- Is there still a lot of gold to be mined around here?
- Yeah.
This is
the control room, huh?
When this thing was running,
did you ever run it?
- Generally preferred not to.
- Right.
You probably had a lot
of other things going on
when this was running.
Yes, exactly.
It only takes a crew of three.
- On board.
- On board. You got one guy on the cab
and two on the dig.
I've gotta say, like,
we've toured all over a lot
of mine sites
and this is, like,
has them all beat.
It really is so impressive.
You'd get one
over Tony Beets, wouldn't ya?
No kidding.
He wouldn't like that.
So is this thing, like,
actually for sale?
Yeah,
a deal could be done.
There you guys are.
What's going on?
- Checking the dredge out. This is awesome.
- Yeah, it's wild, huh?
So have we done the deal?
Parker's buying it.
We're off home.
What?
You're full of *bleep*.
What size
are we chopping it up into
to get it back?
No, we're just gonna chew
our way out to the ocean
and then tow it...
- Tow it.
- ...over to Alaska.
- I like it.
- And then up the Yukon River.
That sounds like a journey.
I mean, it's closer
to what I'm looking for
than the last wash plant
that we looked at.
But you overshot now.
We went and looked at
like a 20 yard an hour plant
that was for sale
and I'm like, a little small.
Now we come here
and it's like, I feel
like Goldilocks, like...
Too small. No, this is too big, Tyler.
I promise we'll find one
that's just right.
I really appreciate
the time, though.
One of the cooler days
that I've ever had in my life, honestly.
Thanks so much for having us.
All right. Well, thanks, guys.
I really appreciate it.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Cheers, guys.
- Bye.
It's pissing down.
The dredge is amazing,
but we need to get back
on track and get further
down the trail
and towards some decisions.
I've got small wash plant
syndrome now.
Aw.
Guys, guys, guys.
I've got reports swallowing
levers, I've got reports
of flash flooding.
We've got 100 mills of water
in the mountains.
We need to bag out
and bag out now,
so pack your *bleep*.
Put your foot on the gas
and let's get the hell
out of here.
- Thanks, Sarge.
- Let's go.
We need to get the *bleep* out of here now.
I've never seen
Sarge serious before.
Eight inches
of rain falls in an hour.
Swelling the Grey River
by more than 3 feet.
Oh, my *bleep*.
Is that the river?
It's actually
gotten higher. Holy *bleep*.
- Looks deeper.
- It looks deeper.
Oh, my...
Oh, my *bleep*.
Oh, my!
Give it some.
Let's go, go, go.
The closest town
is on evacuation watch.
An alert has been sent out
for them to get ready
to evacuate.
New Zealand
is no stranger
to natural disasters.
During a freak one
in 500 year storm,
water surged over the banks
of the Rangitaiki River
leading to mass evacuation
and millions of dollars
worth of damage.
So we're not camping it,
so I think, like literally,
the first hotel
that we come to.
Look at the water
across the road. Holy *bleep*.
Okay.
Uh, we're driving
in a river.
Do we have an escape route?
*bleep* me.
Look at the water
over here, guys.
That guy's house
is like in the water almost.
Look right here.
Look at the fence.
- His driveway. Look at this driveway.
- Oh, *bleep* hell.
*bleep*
We can't take this bridge
coming up. This whole road's
been washed out.
Which bridge is out?
- Dobson.
- Dobson. Dobson Road is now...
*bleep* I've got a feeling
that's how we get
to the next *bleep* mine site.
Oh.
Hang on.
It is, hang on.
Okay, we can't get
to the next mine site.
We're *bleep*.
That is *bleep*.
We're definitely
not getting to the guy
I had planned.
- We're gonna have to get a plan B together.
- Okay.
The road's washed out.
There's no chance.
We made it.
Well done, everyone.
- Good driving, Jeff.
- Thank you.
With rain predicted
for the next 12 hours,
the crew check into a hotel
to wait it out.
Like, I'm from the coast.
I'm used to rain.
But I don't like rain.
Especially after
after my buddy, David,
died last year
in a big landslide
after ten inches of rain.
It's always made me a bit...
Whenever it rains
I think about it.
Sucks.
And it is still
absolutely smashing it down.
I can literally hear it
banging against my window,
and you can hear it, you know,
the wind is so powerful
whipping off the ocean.
I'm so *bleep* exhausted.
It's been a huge
couple of days.
Feel really bad for the miners
that are getting washed out.
We had a couple
that we're meant to see,
and we can't even get to them
because the roads
are just gone.
- Wow, that storm left quick.
- Oh, my *bleep*, know.
Beautiful out.
After a 24 hour delay
due to flooding...
Gorgeous now.
The team
are back on the road.
So, we're going
to Louis Nel's mine site.
This is all
very last minute, though.
To be honest,
I don't know a lot.
So he seems like
he's pretty, like, open to us
having a look around
and seeing
if anything's for sale.
The team pivots
70 miles down the coast
to the historic
mining settlement of Ruatapu,
on a Hail Mary mission
to bring Parker's
million dollar shopping trip
back on track.
I've been really stressed out
the last couple of day
because I just haven't felt
like I've been delivering.
And the miners
were pulling out,
we couldn't
get to the mine sites
I had lined up.
I'm a little bit nervous.
I did not have this
planned out whatsoever.
You must be Uncle Louis.
Is this
an all right time for you?
Yeah, *bleep* Parker.
Any time, mate.
All right, well, good.
You're from
South Africa, right?
Gotcha.
Okay, so you
grew up mining, huh?
First diamond mining
back home.
You guys
were diamond mining?
Before moving
to the New Zealand gold fields
in 2017,
Louis Nel
and his son, Michael,
mined diamonds for 20 years
in the northern provinces
of South Africa.
Their biggest find
was an 85 carat gem
worth tens of millions
of dollars.
We're struggling
to find wash plants
that are for sale.
Oh, yeah?
That's really
what we're looking for
right now, yeah.
We still haven't decided
on a trommel, like...
I'm used to screen decks.
Mmm-hmm.
In the top.
Do you know
what would be really cool
is if we could do a little,
maybe if we did a little bit
of a tour of the place?
Yeah, we can quickly go.
- Is that all right?
- Yeah. Come, Parker, let's go.
Great.
Louis' 500 acres of gold-rich
but clay-filled ground
are similar
to Parker's new claim
in Alaska,
making it the perfect ground
to test drive a plant.
Nice site you got here, Louis.
Oh, *bleep*,
- you've got two more plants right over here.
- Yeah.
Holy cow.
Plants everywhere, Louis.
To bank as much gold as he can
and make the most
of his inconsistent pay,
Louis runs five trommels
at a time.
I didn't realize that this is
a full-on mining operation.
I don't know.
What's your first reaction?
It looks pretty good to me.
Look at this.
This is incredible.
And there's that one there,
and that one over there,
and one over there.
How many does he have here?
Is it six?
I think Parker's
gonna like that.
Thank *bleep*
Right.
Right.
- And that's for sale, Louis? You'd sell that?
- Yeah.
Do you notice a difference
in recovery rate on the jigs?
- Just...
- Gotcha.
Jigs take a little bit more maintenance, don't they?
A bit more work?
Right.
Using the jigs
in addition to sluices
means that even
the smallest pieces of gold
are caught
across Louis' claim,
maximizing his gold recovery.
I'd love to know
how much gold they're finding.
I want to get out
and take a look
at these things.
- They've even got jigs.
- Amazing.
- Parker's gonna be happy.
- You reckon?
Yeah,
I think you've done it.
- Good work, Tyler.
- To be honest,
this was a bit
of a fluke I think.
- Well, maybe don't tell him that.
- Yeah, I won't.
Keep that on your side.
Kind of like a kid
in a candy store right now.
This is perfect.
This is what
we've been looking for,
so I'm pretty stoked
for Tyler.
Huge sigh of relief
when we rocked up.
An amazing mine site,
great wash plants,
Parker seems happy.
Huge machinery,
which is a great start
as well.
You know, I think this will be
a really good mine site for us
because he's got
a variety of plants,
and we can see it all working,
and still haven't been
around a jig plant
that's been running.
I really want to go
check that jig plant out.
Maybe we could, like,
- just spend some time around a few different plants.
- Yeah.
And maybe we could even
kind of run a test of them,
- just in different types of material
- Yeah.
and how they wash.
Try to figure out
what's best suited for us
and for that ground.
Yeah.
You can pick and choose.
So, which is to be then?
We just saw
the birch fields dredge.
- And it has those big jig...
- Oh, the big one.
- It has those big jigs on it, so I'm on a bit of a jig kick.
- The old one, yeah.
So if it's all right,
go run that plant
with the jigs on it.
Sweet.
- That would be awesome.
- Yeah.
I'm really interested in
that recovery rate difference.
So, if it's
all right with you,
- then we can count the number of buckets,
- Yeah.
and then we'll know
what plant ran
- how much yardage
- Yeah.
and we can see
who has better recovery, huh?
Yeah. As long as you guys
do the cleanups yourself,
it's all good.
That is a real gold miner
- Yeah.
- because we all *bleep* hate doing cleanup.
- Sounds like a plan.
- All right. Shall we head over there?
- Yeah.
- All right.
- Perfect.
- Thanks, guys.
For me,
it's starting to get
to the point
where we need
to make some decisions
about, you know,
what we're using
as a wash plant in Alaska.
So, you know,
this is a good place
to be right now.
- What's your name, mate?
- Digger.
- Digger?
- Digger, yeah.
That's a great name.
At Louis Nel's
New Zealand claim,
Parker is pitting
two wash plants
against each other
to determine if a jig
is more efficient
at capturing fine gold
from clay-rich soil.
What's your opinion
of this plant? This one.
Jeff
is overseeing a six hour test
on a six foot red trommel
that processes
160 yards of paydirt an hour.
Right there, now they've got
the automatic cleaner on
it's a lot better.
Put any sand in it years ago
and it used to just
flood with sand.
Now they put
that automatic cleaner on
it runs through
these tables real good.
- How's this one feeling, Jeff?
- That feels good, yeah. Perfect.
I've been around one
that was in line like this
- at my grandpa's mine site.
- Yeah.
Parker will feed
the six foot yellow trommel.
He really liked it.
Right.
At 120 yards per hour,
it's 25% slower
than Jeff's red one
but has the advantage
of an eight ton motorized jig
which should capture
more of the hard-to-catch
fine gold.
Now I'm running a trommel
that's feeding a set of jigs,
which is actually
the same kind of setup
that my grandpa had,
and so it's kind of cool
to be having it happen again.
And, you know, it definitely
brings me back home
and makes me think
of growing up with Big Nugget.
Those sluice stones
look pretty short.
Are they short?
These are the same
we've been seeing here, yeah.
- They're about the same?
- Very short, compared to the Yukon,
and they're a lot longer.
Running
40 yards an hour quicker,
Jeff's plant
is able to process
a higher volume of pay.
And its short sluices
feature super-efficient
hydraulic ripples,
making the plant easy
to transport.
What you're looking for
is once the material
goes into the trommel
and gets washed and cleaned
as it goes down,
you want to make sure
that the tailings
coming out the end
are nice and washed
and there's not lots
of fine material on it.
Otherwise,
you're either running too fast
or you're not getting
a good enough wash,
and eventually
you're gonna lose gold.
I am currently
clearing the tailings
from both wash plants,
and it's also the first loader
I've ever driven
that is not a wheel.
It's got a stick
which is quite
out of my comfort zone.
Hopefully no one saw that.
Oh, I should have *bleep*
gone forward more for that.
Getting to be able
to be out on the field
and actually
test these wash plants
is so beneficial for us.
I'm really curious to see
if the wash plant
with the jig wins
or if the wash plant
with the sluice box wins.
It's really exciting.
I've taken that corner
*bleep* horrifically.
Hopefully no one saw that.
*bleep* *bleep* hell.
What's happening?
Holy *bleep*.
*bleep*
Yeah. What lever is it?
Holy *bleep*
Oh.
Yeah, it's jammed up
at the conveyor here.
We're gonna have
to get a shovel in here
and dig it out.
I'll come down
and give you a hand.
What's happened, mate?
The material's jammed up,
weighing the belt down,
stopping the belt from moving,
and I think
that's what happened
is a big rock came out
amongst a bunch
of small rocks,
stopping the belt
in its place.
Oh, *bleep*.
Oh, man.
Oh, there you go.
- I'll put it on, let it go, see if it goes.
- See if it goes?
- Jeff, is it all right?
- Yeah, we got it. We got to it pretty quick.
Okay, go ahead, Michael,
see if it turns.
See if you can bump it again?
There it goes. Right on.
Look at that rock.
Watch that thing come off.
- That was a big one.
- *bleep* hell.
We're lucky.
I'd say we dodged a bullet.
Back up and running,
Jeff and Parker
run the last buckets
of their six hour test
through the plants.
- How's Parker doing?
- Parker's doing good, mate.
He's got the swing of it.
He's quite good, yeah.
We can employ him.
He's quite good.
Yeah, I'm curious to see
how the gold recovery is,
and then have
a more serious conversation
about what our options are.
There is a fair bit
of time pressure on us,
and it gets worse by the day
to find a plant
and have a plan
for what we're gonna do
for a plant for Fairbanks,
because, and I want to be
sluicing early there.
- Copy, Parker?
- Yeah, what's up?
We got to shut down the jig
and do a cleanup,
and you guys can have a look.
- Oh, okay, I'll hop out. Thanks, man.
- Yeah.
Yeah, look at that.
It's so cool.
Getting jiggy with it.
I'm curious to see
how the gold recovery is.
You know,
if the price is right
I would consider
one of these plants
if they prove to be
good gold catchers.
Either of those
would suit our needs.
Is it just gonna be yellow?
There must be something.
Oh, wow.
- It's not all in the tailings?
- No, guarantee you.
You can test it.
- That's what we like to hear.
- That's cool, innit?
That's wicked.
With the yellow plant clean,
the team move
to the red plant.
- How's she looking, Michael?
- Looking pretty good.
- Yeah, you should see a bit now.
- Oh, my *bleep*
Oh, look.
- Yeah, that's awesome.
- Oh, look at that.
Look at it all
in there as well.
I'm literally
standing on gold.
Yeah, there it is.
Is this
your favorite part,
seeing the gold?
It makes the cleanup
all worthwhile.
- You don't get tired of doing it.
- Exactly.
Testing out those two plants
that we did today
was a good thing to do,
but we need
to make some decisions.
Clock's ticking.
That is a lot
of buckets of gold.
Halfway
through a six hour shift
loading pay...
Yeah, we're just
checking in with Parker,
see how he's doing.
Mate, he's not looking
the most talkative today.
I don't reckon
you're gonna get
an answer out of him.
In fact, I'd be willing
to bet five beers
you can't get more
than five words out of him.
- Five beers?
- Yeah.
- With three questions.
- You're on.
- I'm on?
- You're on.
Hey, Parker,
are you on here?
That's not a word.
That was a thumbs up.
How are you liking the hopper feeder?
Oh, my God.
You've got
one more question, Jeff.
In your own words,
tell me how you like
this plant.
It's all right.
- How many words was that?
- Two.
Winner.
You owe me five beers, Jeff.
Oh, yeah, this is nice.
That's a nice setup.
Right.
In the gold fields
of New Zealand's west coast,
the team are pitting
two wash plants
against each other.
Now, Parker wants to see
which one caught
the most gold.
- You see there, Parker?
- Oh, yeah. Not bad.
Louis, whose just been
an absolute dreamboat,
is super trusting,
really nice,
really helpful,
and he's letting us
in his gold room.
I mean,
there's not many miners
that let you just
wander in their gold room
and stand right where
all the gold's, like,
pouring off
the end of the table
and stuff like that.
The concentrate
from each plant
is passed through
the gold table,
where the fine gold
is separated
from the black sand.
Yes.
And there's probably
a lot of that
that you, like,
can't even see until you get it in a pile.
This is great.
It makes all the hard work
worth it when you see this,
- doesn't it?
- Yeah.
The gold processed,
it's time to weigh the results
of each six hour test.
Guys, this will be the jig.
First up,
the yellow jig plant
which ran 720 yards of pay.
And you don't want
the numbers on TV, right?
- No.
- All right.
Okay, mate.
- We're good. So, that's yours.
- Gotcha.
- Happy?
- Yeah.
- And then this one will be the red screen.
- It's gonna be...
I'll just zero it.
Next, the red trommel
which ran 960 yards of pay.
- Oh, *bleep*.
- There's only a gram difference.
One gram difference.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah, yeah, only a gram.
*bleep* You got to be
happy with that.
Wow, what a great test.
That's awesome.
The one with jigs
found a gram more
than the one without jigs,
so that's pretty good.
More gold
and from fewer yards of pay
puts the yellow jig plant
ahead in efficiency,
and on Parker's Alaskan ground
could increase profits
by $200,000.
So, the big pro of the jig
is definitely
- the fine gold recovery.
- Yeah.
But then on the con side
it's, like, a lot of
extra moving parts
and a lot of
extra setup time, and...
Right.
Right, get out of here.
I need to talk to Louis.
- On that note, we'll go. Thank you for that.
- Thank you very much.
Feel like we're close now.
Feel like we're so close.
I can literally smell it.
- So, what do we think?
- I feel like it's too good to be true, almost.
This is it. I think this is
our best opportunity,
Jeff, innit?
Yeah, I think
he's pretty happy with it.
I was happy
with the results, so...
Well, I mean,
which one he goes for
I don't know.
I'm thinking he likes
the jig, the jig plant.
- Really?
- Yeah, but who knows?
This could be the trip done.
It's a pretty
exciting feeling.
- Yeah.
- Mmm.
Here he comes.
Here he comes.
- So, I just had a chat with Louis and...
- And?
He's definitely limbering up.
Right? Like,
things are for sale,
he likes that we're here.
- Wicked.
- Yeah.
- Good.
- But I think we should stay here a bit more.
There's a bunch more plants
that we, like,
didn't even look at.
Like, him and I
were spinning around
in his pickup.
He's like, "Oh, yeah,
there's a couple
other screens there",
but we didn't even
get out of our truck.
If the offer's there
we should check out his...
because I'd like
to see his screen decks
because I just don't know
how they would deal
with this material
in this ground.
- You and I both know each screen inside and out,
- Yeah.
- but we haven't seen 'em on this kind of ground before.
- No.
You guys cool with that?
After four weeks on the road
looking at trommels
to deal with the clay
in his new Alaskan claim,
now Parker wants to explore
an entirely different plant,
a shaker deck with screens.
There is an element
of potentially being
back at square one here.
Everything up until this point
has been trommel-based.
You know, we're in the land
of fine gold mining.
They all use trommels.
They're all
very successful with them,
so...
I just hope we haven't opened
Pandora's Box
and now everything's
gonna be shaker deck based.
So, Parker's thrown
a little bit of a curveball.
Time is definitely
getting tight.
If Parker wants
to make the mining season
this year in Alaska
he's definitely
gonna start having
to make some decisions.
If he starts to sort of
change his mind
about the way
he wants to mine Alaska now
it would be
quite a big U-turn.
Shall we go find a spot
to set up shop?
Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- All right.
Wicked.
I don't even know
what type of wash plant
we're looking for.
That's why we're here.
Like, I'm approaching this
with a very open mind
and no expectation, like,
whether it's a trommel,
or a screen deck,
or some other type of machine
that we don't even know about.
You know, we're here
to hunt down the best.