Hoffman Family Gold (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Episode #1.1 - full transcript

Well, let's go on in
to the promised land.

In the beginning...

There's gold
in that dirt, Dave.

there were
the Hoffmans.

Can't a guy risk it all
in America anymore?

We got one shot at this.

Jack, Hunter
and Todd Hoffman

- launched a 21st-century gold rush.
- Whoo!

Gold-zilla, man!

I can't catch
a freaking break.

And they walked away.



It's time
and it's over.

Four years later,
the Hoffmans are back.

I'd love to have
one more chance to mine.

One more time.

And they're up against
the most challenging mine

- they've ever faced.
- Shut it down! Shut it down!

This whole bridge
is shaking right now.

This is a hot mess!

The sacrifice... is huge.

The man
who started it all...

Been here, done this.

- Stop!

- ...is taking his family
- How bad is it?

- It's bad.
- for one...



- Things are gonna break every day.
- last...

- The guy is an idiot.

- shot.
- Come on, baby!

Million dollars!

This is
Hoffman Family Gold.

We're gonna
beat this mine.

If you don't go out
and live a life of adventure,

man, you're missing out,

because your days
are numbered.

People ask me,
"Why'd you mine
in the first place?"

And I look back and we were
in that recession, 08-09.

This recession
has just decimated
the aviation business.

- It's just bad.
- The way things are...

I don't know
what we're gonna do.

And the price of gold
was going up and I'm like,

"Economically,
we're gonna crash.

Gold's gonna go
through the roof."

We may have to sell
the airport.

Might be the best deal.
I just don't know.

- This was gonna be our last shot.

And, so, we just went all in.

You don't have to be
a rocket scientist
to gold mine.

You just gotta have
enough guts to go try it.

I took my family
out on an adventure
of a lifetime.

My kids grew up
on a gold mine.

Water's not getting
any warmer.

- You put your hands in there.
- You could do it.

Justin Bieber
of the north.

And I was able
to pull that off.

17 ounces.

At the end of the day,
we did okay on the gold.

We busted our ass, Todd.

That ground is *bleep*.
I'm done.

But we lost some friendships.

Let go of me now!

- Oh, my *bleep*

We're beat up from being
out on the road mining.

You are
freaking kidding me!

- Hey, Dad.
- Just leave me alone.

I had some...

relationship issues
with Hunter, my son.

- Why don't you have your radio?
- I gave the whole...

It died. I don't know why.

- Why? You didn't charge it?
- I did all this *bleep* myself and I got it going again.

Charge your radio!

And it just wasn't
worth it anymore.

You could just feel
we were done.

We were tired.

We lost our focus

as a family.

Let's pack up and go home.

So, then we walked away.

And went back home
to Oregon

to focus on my family.

It's a girl!

Now,
we're back in the city,

you know, one year, two years

to heal.

And that's what we did.

They were great years,

but you never really lose
that itch for mining.

My dad, you know, he built

a little wash plant
out in his front yard.

It's doesn't look new,
but it is.

You know what?
We missed it.

And then something
unexpected happened.

I got a phone call
from a friend.

Jason Otteson.

Jason said he's got
a mine up in Alaska

and he's struggling.

He's had a few people
try to come in and help him

and they're having breakdowns,
they need a mechanic.

They need help.

So, Jason asked
if I'd take a look
at the operation.

But I'm heading out
to the mine.

This place has got
a really good reputation

of being a pain in the ass
to mine

and a really good reputation

of having a hell
of a lot of gold.

One of the most
richest places in the world.

Why it's still here,

is because it's out
in the middle of nowhere.

It's rough. It's hard to mine.
It's hard to get parts.

It's like,
every little thing's
a struggle out here.

And it costs
a lot more money to get.

We only have about a third
of the season left.

But if we do a good job,

he's gonna hand this mine
over to us.

The last time
Todd Hoffman stepped
onto a gold mine

was nearly four years ago.

Now he has to decide
if getting back
into the gold mining game,

will be worth the risk.

I miss it.

We have some unfinished
business up here.

This is a chance
to set my family up
for generations.

The chance for me and Hunter's
relationship to grow.

Come here.

And also, for my father

to just live out
his mining dream.

You know, he'll be the first
to tell you that

he doesn't have
a lot of time left.

When I walked away
from mining,

I always kind of kept
my options open.

I always thought
maybe I would return,

but, you know,
my phone hasn't rang

and the opportunity
hasn't come knocking
since we left.

You know, if I say no
to this mine,

I'm probably saying no

to any last shot
I'm ever gonna have to mine.

My dad's last shot,

my son's last shot.

Hey, hey, hey!

- You made it.
- How are we doing?

- Good.
- This place is out in the middle of nowhere.

- It is.
- I wanna look around here.

What do we got to work with?

Not much, it looks like.

That 744 behind you there,

she looks pretty sad.

To help Todd
evaluate the mine,

he's brought in experts
Randy Hubler

and Andy Spinks.

If they don't like
what they see,
it's game over.

According to Jason
on this one here,

it's got a torque convertor
overheat issue.

I don't know
if you guys know,
but the torque convertor is

right about there
inside the belly
of that dozer.

It is not an easy repair.

You know what?
Randy's a true artist.

This one here
has got a couple of issues.

If I have a bush fix

with limited tools,

I would want
Randy in my corner.

He's the best bush mechanic
I've ever worked with.

It's all fixable,

but there's an issue
with everything.

What are we
looking at, Andy?

It looks like
it's an old pit.

That's where usually
you'll tail into,

so you can do
reclamation on it.

Andi Spinks,
he actually is a foreman.

The way he moves the dirt,
the cuts,

he's the guy.

It doesn't look like
they took any extra
out of the bottom,

so they're gonna have a pond
that's like three
or four feet deep.

They'll never be able to last
for the rest
of the season here.

I've worked with Andy
for several years
from the Yukon.

He was down in the jungle.

He loves gold mining.

He's damn good
at what he does.

If he doesn't wanna mine here,
I'm not mining here.

This doesn't look like
it's been used that much.

I mean, not in this century.

So far, I'm not feeling
a lot of love

from you two guys on either
the mining part of it,

or the mechanical part of it.

There's just no easy step
in this process.

And it is a process.

So, I don't know, Todd.
I don't know what to say.

It's just a lot of work.

We're months late.

Everything needs work.

Well, why don't we head over
to that little test plant,

run a little bit of dirt?

Jason said I can fire it up,
run about 50 or 100 yards

and let's look in the sluice.

If it's good,
let's think about it.

If it's bad, let's just get
the hell out of here.

- Huh?
- Okay.

- All right?
- Plan.

Well, you can't mine
without your team,

and right now,
my team doesn't wanna do it.

But before we call it,
we're gonna test the dirt.

The first step
in evaluating
a mine's potential,

is to gauge the value
of the paydirt,

which is an estimate
of the amount of gold

found in the earth.

Miners first excavate
100 yards of dirt,

which is then processed
until only the gold remains.

That gold's weight
completes the value metric

of ounces of gold,

per 100 yards of paydirt.

So,
we're gonna run 100 yards.

The best ground
we've ever mined is
one ounce per 100.

We need double that.

Two ounces a hundred

is a hell of a lot of gold.

We got some rough equipment.

We're out in the middle
of nowhere. We really are.

We are 200 miles from Russia.

It's gonna take a lot of gold
to make it worth it.

I can't believe it.
It started right up.

Crank the trommel up!

Conveyor's working.

All right.

Dump it in.

We've been waiting
four years to do this.

This stuff is what
dreams are made of right here.

Are we gonna have
a dream or not?

- What do you think?
- Washing rocks.

Too much or not enough?

Yeah, I can feel carpet.

I think we're all right.

If this dirt
isn't great right here,

we're going home.

Randy, shut it off.
Shut it down.

Let's see
what we got here.

- Holy crap.

- Look at the gold.
- What?

- Look at this gold.
- What?

Look at that bad boy.

- Oh, my...
- What?

Dude, let me see that.

- Dude!
- No way.

- No way.
- Get out.

That is crazy.

Look how big that thing is.

We've mined
for a lot of years.

I've never seen a nugget
in the sluice box that big.

- Poor dude.
- I've never seen one in the Klondike.

- Look at the riffles.
- Packed.

Full of gold.
Look at in the carpet...

Clear down here.

- The carpets are packed!
- Keep going. Look.

All the way down.

Look, this is packed.

- It is packed.
- It's buried in the carpet.

I guarantee you it's way more
than two ounces a hundred.

We ran the dirt.

Two ounces a hundred
is an understatement.

It's probably more like five.

We literally are having
a hard time believing
what we just ran.

Randy just got a whole
lot of fixing to do.

I do. I do.

Todd, this is
all incredible.

It's everything
Jason said it was.

I wish my dad could be here
to see this right now.

The number one thing
a son could do is

make your dad's dreams
come true one last time.

I think this is gonna happen.

A fox is here.

- What?
- Yeah, he's right over there.

- Right there.
- There's a fox.

Guys,
that's a good sign.

That's it, we're in.

I think we're gonna
throw our hat in the ring

and we're gonna go
give it hell.

After visiting
Jason Otteson's
claim in Alaska

and finding more gold
than expected,

Todd has set up
a meeting with Jason
to strike a deal.

I went up to the mine.
I looked at everything.

Yes, it's a lot of problems,

but it's got a lot of gold.

Let me see that.

This might be
a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity.

And there he is.

I'm not sure why,
but Jason's flying in
in a helicopter.

I don't know
if he's trying to look cool
and intimidate me,

but I own this airport.

So I see this all the time.
It's not a big deal.

- How was your trip?
- It was good.

- Nice to see you again.
- Come on in, man.

If I could negotiate
a deal with Jason...
Come on in.

...and come out of this thing
with a long-term lease,

that is what I'm looking for.

So, tell me what you think
about the mine.

It's rough.

It's got issues.

Equipment, the road system,

the wash plants.

It's in a remote location,
logistics are challenging.

But the most important thing
is the gold.

This mine has good gold.

What you saw
on that box is real.

- Cut to the chase with me.
- Yeah.

Money wise,
what do you gotta do here?

I need a million dollars
this season

to break even.

We're over
three quarters
of the way there.

- Okay.
- Maybe 500 ounces.

If the weather holds up,
we oughta be okay.

And I know you want to mine.

I know you want it
for your dad.

And this is a place
that I know you guys
would do well.

If I can get you
the amount of gold
that you need,

you give me a lease.

Multi-year lease.

And then, I'll come in

and actually

ramp it up from there.

This is a big ask.

You're wanting me
to lock up for years.

It's a good project.

Now, Todd's not
the first person I'd call
to go rescue

a mine project.

I know he has a lot
of heart and desire

and he has a lot of want to be

in a project that has
good gold. He needs it.

At the same time...

I need him
to take over this season.

I will say

I'm used to being in control.

I want...

this ground. I want a lease.

You get me
to a million dollars of gold
this season,

you have a lease

and a future.

- Let's do it.
- All right.

With only
seven weeks left
in the season,

Todd has to help Jason
reach his million-dollar goal,

around 600 ounces of gold.

I think he's got
quite a bit of gold.

I think we can do it.

We're gonna find out
when we get up there.

But with a mine
on its last leg,

and winter just weeks away,

it's a task
Todd can't face alone.

Here's the info
on the mine.

I'm gonna start
with the bad news first.

- All right.
- Number one,

it's in the middle of nowhere.

The equipment, there's a lot
that doesn't run.

It needs some work.

- Yeah.
- Now, for the good part,

the really good part.

- Okay?
- It's probably the best gold

that not only
have we ever seen,

it might be the richest mine

that we'll ever get a chance
to mine on.

It is loaded.

- I would like that.
- Yeah?

- Yeah.
- We got one more shot at this.

Do you wanna go?

Yeah, I wanna go.

If you don't go,
you're gonna be wondering

why you didn't.

I'm older,
but I can still clean up gold.

I've cleaned up more gold
than most people
have ever seen in their life.

I'm all up for it.

I'm ready.

I love gold mining.

I'm not normal.

I'll take it any chance I get.

You're gonna have to tell Mom.
Not me.

I have no problems with that.

Yeah, but will she?

- You know...
- That's your problem.

Yeah,
that's my problem.

You know,
I've grown up my whole life,

I was going mining
every single year

to, you know,
now taking some time off.

A year ago,
me and my good buddy Nick

started our own
gas line company.

We've pretty much been busy,

you know,
since the day we started.

When I first heard my dad was
gonna go check out a mine,

it freaked me out
a little bit, honestly because...

You know, the last season
the land was really hard.

We were working six,
seven days a week.

There would be days where...

I would get into an argument
with my dad,

Can't afford
any screw-ups.

You're gonna have to talk
to him, but you're gonna have
to be firm with him.

I've only
been nice...

I don't care about being nice!

You gotta be firm.
Go ahead and handle it.

You know, and it'd be so bad
that I didn't even wanna
go home,

and I would just go, like,
and sleep in my truck.

My dad was really hard on me.

What the heck
is going on, man?

It's funny
'cause me and my grandpa
work great together.

But my grandpa and my dad
don't work well together.

And me and my dad
don't work well together. So...

You know what I'm saying.
I mean...

Might be my dad's fault.

You wanna hear
the story?

Yeah. How'd it go?

The road system,
the mining plan...

I don't believe
it's up to par

to where we need it to be.

We're out of time.
We're behind.

If we hadn't seen the gold,
I think we would've said no.

It's rich.

Every time I hear it's rich,
it makes me nervous.

Everybody's gold mine
is the richest gold mine.
You know what I'm saying?

Dude, it's probably
the best gold I 've ever seen.

- You think it's that good?
- It's really good.

If all goes well,
he's gonna hand us
a lease to this mine,

and then we got, who knows,

we could have ten, 20, 30
years of mining.

But we don't wanna
go without you.

Yeah, I mean,
I like what I'm doing
right now.

And my company's going good.

You know, to go gold mining,

you kind of have to like put
everything on hold.

But I like going
on the adventure, you know.
I love grandpa.

Right. Yeah.

If we were ever gonna get
grandpa up in the gold fields,

this is it. I'm not doing
this again.

I mean, honestly...

I can't watch grandpa
sit around here and mow
anymore more grass.

We need to get him
the hell out of here.

I can't watch Jack
paint another birdhouse.
All right?

It's getting weird.

I know he'll want me
to go. That's a memory
I want to share with him.

- So...
- Yeah.

I'm in.

Let's go up there
and make this a win.
Let's turn this thing around.

- All righty.
- All right, give me a kiss.

Bye.

Gosh. Be careful.

- Love you, too.
- Give me a hug you big, handsome...

- Bye. I love you too.
- I love you.

For the first time
in four years,

the Hoffmans are saying
goodbye to their loved ones,

and returning to gold mining.

- I'm gonna miss you.
- I'm gonna miss you, too.

- Get a lot of gold.
- Ah, get a lot of gold.

- That's a...
- We gotta pay the bills.

I am so looking
forward to it.

I know for a fact
that this is my last shot
at gold mining.

You have so many days
that you're numbered here
on this earth.

When that last day comes,
you're going.

When my last day comes,
you better hope
I'm not your pilot.

- You're okay.

- I will be all right.

- You'll be all right.
- Yeah.

I see a truck
I recognize, Todd.

You didn't think I was gonna
let you go north without him,
Dad, did you?

- I thought I was gonna have to.
- Yeah!

- Oh, geez. All right.
- Yay, honey!

- Hey.
- Hey!

How you doing?

You didn't think
you were going
all by yourself, did you?

Yeah, man!

Jim Thurber,
he's the real deal.

He's like an uncle
to my kids.

I've known Thurber for years.

He and I go way back.

He's always wanted to go
on an adventure.

And that's what started
the very first season.

He went with us
on our adventures.

I love my job.

Knowing Todd and Jack
gave me an opportunity

that I couldn't have been
able to do.

So, uh, very thankful.

There's been
a lot of hard times
but, you know,

it was expected. It's life.

Throw your underwear in,
let's get out of here.

- I got all three pair.

All right,
love you guys.
Let's load up.

- Good luck.
- See y'all.

There they go again.

The Hoffman crew
have a long journey
to reach the mine.

First flying from Portland
to Nome,

a trip of over 2,000 miles.

Once in Nome,
they hit the road.

Jason's claim,
the Mammoth Valley Mine,

sits in the center
of Alaska's Seward Peninsula,

a sparsely populated landmass
that projects 200 miles
into the Bering Sea.

The claim is an 80-mile drive
due north of Nome
up the Kougarok Road,

one of only three
major roadways
in the peninsula,

winding through
the Kigluaik Mountain Range,

and landing in a broad valley
of gold-filled tundra.

We are remote.

We are very, very close
to Russia up here.

Here we are late.
Weather's closing in.

But luckily these guys
have a good head start
on the gold.

They just need help
getting to the finish line.

I only wanted
to do this again,

if I had all the right people
with me.

There's nobody that
I'd rather be mining
with than you, Jim.

I mean, the gold
up here is insane.

Like you always wanted
crazy gold and that sounds
like what we're in for.

If it isn't crazy gold,
I'm gonna be
very disappointed.

Todd also needs
some young guns.

And he's brought mining muscle
from close to home.

Foreman Andy Spinks
is bringing up his son, Dakota,

who grew up visiting mines,
like his childhood friend,
Hunter Hoffman.

You're not
little boys anymore.

You're gonna be put
into the lion's den.

I think we're ready for it.

I don't even think
that they have
a running toilet out here.

So this is gonna be crazy.

Hunter has brought up
his best friend, Nick Young.

Hunter and Nick
just started their own
gas installation business,

which they're putting on hold
to help make this a success.

You know, I feel like
this is a once-in-a-lifetime
type of opportunity.

I think it's gonna be
worth it.

Dude, I don't
freaking know about this.

I know you've never
really been around mines,

but this does
not look good, dude.

You know
my dad's got us into some
crazy situations before.

Something's
definitely wrong.

Not getting
the gold has got us
in a freaking corner.

I'm hoping that, uh,
it's not another one of those.

Everything is dead here.

Todd's first challenge

is to integrate his crew
with the workers,

who have struggled
to produce gold.

I think Jason's crew,
they're very inexperienced.

They're good guys.
They're good men.

I think he's surrounded
himself with some yes guys.

This stuff is learned
from hard knocks.

I've spent millions of dollars

putting my guys
through the education

that we can invest
into these guys.

The first order
of business is for Todd
to address Jason's crew,

who have been working
this mine for six months.

If I can get
Jason's crew to follow me
and this plan,

we got a chance. If not,
this whole thing is sunk.

Hey, guys.

Todd Hoffman.

Hey, how you doing, man?

- Chris.
- Chris.

So, we got a call from Jason,
your boss,

and I know
how I would feel

if the positions were switched
because we've been there.

We're here to help.

We're not here to step
on any toes 'cause
I don't want to do that.

You say that you can help.

A couple years ago,
I lost everything.

I had nowhere to go.
I'm living
in my travel trailer.

That's why I am here.

I've never worked
with the Hoffmans before.

I have to admit,
when I found out
they were coming up,

you know, I wasn't real
excited about it.

We've been here grinding
it out all season long.

This is my home.

And I don't wanna see
it go away.

You know we all came here,

and we all had adversity
that brought us
to this place.

And so we love this place.
We love this ground.
We love the work we do,

and we love doing it together.

And we need
to be profitable
this season

in order to make it
to the next step.

Guys, I'm not gonna come in
and screw up your mine.

I really feel like we can come
in and help each other out.

We're at war together
against time,

the weather,
against the equipment.

And if we can come
together as a team,
maybe we can succeed.

The thing about it here is
we struggle everyday.

Everyday something breaks.

We don't have
nice, new equipment
to throw at this,

and now we're shut down again.

Well, that's
why we got Randy.

Randy's one of the best
bush mechanics ever.

- Chris, you got a welder?
- Sparky.

Sparky, are you willing
to work with Randy?

Randy has punched
three of my employees.

I'll take some punches.

That doesn't bother me.

I've been knocked out
a few times.

You can see
because of my nose.

How often do you guys
do a cleanup?

We have done two cleanups
so far this season.

They've only done
two cleanups
the whole season,

and to me that's unheard of.

A cleanup is
when all the materials

that have come
through the wash plants,
the mud, dirt, and rocks,

are reduced to a fine dirt
mixed with gold,
known as concentrate,

which is taken in buckets
to a gold room.

There, specialized machines
are used to separate
the gold from the muck.

How do you guys know
all the dirt you ran?

- We don't.
- So you guys are kind of shooting in the dark.

Shooting in the dark.
We look at the box.

If there's gold in the box,
we keep going.

So without a cleanup room
and doing cleanups,
you're flying blind.

You've got to know
where you're at.

I need the cleanup room
built in 72 hours.

- Can you guys do it?
- Yeah. We could do it.

If you're not cleaning
your gold,

Jason cannot know
how much gold
he really has.

And with only
seven weeks left

before winter comes in
and shuts us down,

we could be in deep,
deep trouble.

Now, hurry the hell up.
You guys are both old.

Together, you'Re
a 190 years old.

- Let's get to work, all right?

Jason got
some material to run.

He's got tons of work
just stacked up,
so it's crazy.

Incredible. Holy Moly.

Buckets of concentrate

have been sitting
in Jason's storage for months.

My word.

- The carpets are packed!
- Keep going. Look.

Concentrate is
the dirt captured in the mats
and carpets of mining plants.

This is where
the gold is found.

The Hoffmans have agreed
to help Jason hit
his 600 ounce goal.

Whatever his crew has mined
so far this season,

the Hoffmans have to come up
with the remaining balance.

Their future in mining

relies on what's at the bottom
of these buckets.

So we've been thrown
a major curveball.

Until we know
what's in those buckets
that Jason has,

we really don't know
how much gold we have.

We don't know if seven weeks
is gonna be enough time

to recover
and get the gold we need.

Already behind schedule,

the team wastes
no time getting to work.

The Mammoth Valley Mine
has three plants,

enough to get the job done
if they all worked.

We got here and there's
only one plant working,

but it's too small
to do us any good.

That plant's designed
just to test paydirt.

So that we don't have
to shut down the big ones
to do a test.

So the big trommel has
too many fixes
to get it operational.

What we gotta do
is get the Z plant running.

And if we don't get it
running quick,

it's game over.

- Let's do it.
- Let's do it.

Todd instructs
his team to assess

what it will take to get
Z plant up and running.

So this is the boneyard.

This is where
all the dead equipment are.

Everything that we have here
is probably ten
to 25 years old.

The D10 dozer,
we got a nasty oil leak,
as you can see.

The eight needs
a head gasket.

The 400 needs brakes.

Eh, everything.

Equipment comes here to die.
That's it.

These roads are rough.

Two things I can already tell
that need to be worked on.

- Their water management. And their road building.
- Yeah.

I could tell you
right now

that plant's kind of buried.
That needs work.

- That pond system's not right.
- No.

That shaker looks
pretty beat-up.

It's almost daunting.
It's all so overwhelming
to me.

- Just look at it.
- The odds are definitely stacked against us.

Our work's
cut out for us.

Let's go down
and take a closer look.

I wanna see
what it's gonna take
to get it running.

Looks kinda rough.

Doesn't look
just kinda.

- What do you guys call this plant?
- Z plant.

Why was it called Z?
It was last choice?

It's in the shape of a Z.

The Z plant is
a shaker deck system.

The dirt is loaded
by an excavator
into the hopper on top.

Then, the dirt is blasted
with water,

as it runs across
the large bouncing shaker deck
with a screen.

This separates the gold
from other material.

The goal is to get
the gold through
the shaker deck screen

and onto the sluice box.

The gold then sinks
and is caught in the riffles.

- It looks rough.
- Yeah.

That's not good.

It's crucial
that the Hoffman crew get
Z plant running.

With only the test plant
in operation,

they can't run dirt,
which means they
aren't producing gold.

And Todd knows, no gold,
no lease.

Tell me. What do we got to do?
How do we get this thing
running?

All the springs
on the shaker deck

need to be replaced.
They're all broken.

What do you mean?
They're all broken?

- There's got to be a couple of good ones.
- No, sir.

Also the shaker deck has got
some cracks that need
to be welded.

- Wait a minute. Your shaker's cracked?
- Yes, sir.

We've had cracks before
and we weld,

- you know...
- They hold okay?

They tend to re-crack
but we just keep rewelding.

And then you said
something about water
too, Chris?

Right.
A lot of material
gets caught in the hopper

- because there's not a lot of water flow up there.
- Yeah.

The side jaw,
your spring's broken,
your shaker's cracked

and all that and you need
new spray bars.

I bet it's gotten
a lot of gold
over the years.

It has gotten a lot of gold
but that's an issue
right now, too.

The most important part
of this plant, the riffles,
they're toast.

What?

- What do you mean the riffles are toast?
- They're worn so thin

and a lot of them
are even missing.

So.

Good Lord.

Son of a gun, man.

On a normal year,

we got a crew of guys
that are doing
all the maintenance,

working on machinery,
working on wash plants.

They got here
and they didn't maintain anything.

They tried to skip steps
in the process
and you cannot skip steps.

Lot of work to do.

Makes you wonder
how much gold
they've really gotten so far.

The team
quickly gets to work...

Perfect, Nick.

...while Todd's
72-hour deadline looms
over Jack and Jim

as they set off in search
of a foundation
for the wash room.

We gotta build
another gold room.

- That's like number eight?
- Yeah.

A gold wash room
is built to weather
the elements.

Inside are machines that use
vibrations to separate gold
from concentrated dirt.

To remain stable,
they must be bolted down
to a solid foundation.

Jack and Jim hope to find
what they're looking for
at a junkyard,

87 miles south in Nome.

Look at this.

It's already half built.

When searching
for a foundation
this far off the grid,

Jack and Jim take
what they can get.

- That would work, wouldn't it?
- Yeah.

For our duplex jig
and our gold table,
they vibrate.

If it's not a solid base,
the vibration goes elsewhere
besides to the machine.

That's a nice piece of china.
Don't break it.

Hey, hey!

It's critical to have
a good foundation,
and we have it.

Yeah!

It looks like heck,
but who cares.

Things are gonna
work out good.

Todd gave us
a 72-hour window,
so we gotta get going.

Okay.

So we can get it
unhooked, right?
It can tilt.

Yeah.

Yeah, but dude.

It's not gonna tilt off.
It's not gonna slide off.

- This thing weighs so much.
- Yeah, it will.

You'd have to have it at,
like, this angle.

We're gonna come around...

We're gonna come around
and hook on to it somewhere.

If we put the truck up higher,

and he's lower
with the loader...

and let him drive out.

What if we got the 330
and just held it on one side?

Get the guy out of here
and all come down together.

We're trying
to get a plan but...

Too many chefs in the kitchen.

If we can move that,
you can lift it.

Listen, I'll put the forks in,
he'll drive out,
and then I'll set it down.

- Let's do it.
- Okay, let's do it.

Let's do it.

Let's try with the loader.
That loader's not supposed
to lift that way.

If it does,
it'll be a miracle.
Let's try it.

Let's do it.

We can just lift this
a little bit
and get the truck out.

Coming down with it
is gonna be tough.

This could be
a 35,000 pound chunk
of concrete right here.

I honestly don't know
how this is gonna go.

I think it might work.
We might make it.

Do it.

Okay, don't move.

Hold it right there.

You ready?

Pull it out real slow.

Okay...

Let's go.

- Stop!
- You said go.

No.

- We said...
- Yes, you did.

Slow.

- Okay.
- Turn your hearing aid up.

Real slow.

Go up a little bit
more, Andy,

We can't.

I'm way off the ground now.

I'm gonna take
that wood out of there.

Are they high?
What's going on?

He can actually
go right now.

I know.

- Okay
- But, Slow!

Really slow!

Don't move. Shut up.

Get out of there.

All right. Hold up.

Don't move.

Too heavy for that.

That loader is not ready
for that. It's amazing
that it lifts what it lifts.

I'm gonna go grab
that four sixty.

We're just gonna get
that bucket on the front
of the concrete.

Take a thousand pounds off
and it will
just drive right out.

We never quit.
We never say die.
We're gonna get her done.

You know,
and it's the way it is.

Once I get it up a little bit,

I'm going to give you
the high sign,
and you just pull out, okay?

Okay, ready?

That's it.
It's coming back down.
Hold up! Hold up!

Come on out.

Go, go, go!
Go, go, go, go!

Stay back.

Okay.

Whoo!

Yeah, boys.

- Way to go, Hunter!

There's your concrete, Jack.

Got it off that truck.

Truck driver's out of here
and we can start building
our gold room.

All right,
y'all only have 30 hours left, so...

Good job, guys! Good job.

Back at Z plant.

I wanna start the pump.

Bush mechanic,
Randy Hubler, has been called
in to inspect another snag,

a faltering pump.

The boys had noticed
some indifference
in the water pressure.

And the water is pulsating.

Well, that, in itself,
is gonna wash the gold right
out of the box.

If the Z Plant
doesn't get proper
water pressure,

it can't separate gold
from the other materials,
thus, stopping production.

I think that pumps water out.

- It's wobbly.
- Yeah.

The impeller is worn
quite a bit.

I got an idea.

It's a wild one.

I wanna take
this whole back half
of this pump off,

replace it with
that one up there at camp.

- We got one up there, sitting on the ground, don't we?
- Right.

Hey. How bad is it?
What happen?

I suspect that we've got
a pump failure. It's internal.
We got another one.

I have another one at camp.

I sent Dakota
to go get the other pump
right here.

Good.

Let's solve this problem.
I don't care what it takes.

- Everything looks the same.
- It's exactly the same.

Well, get under there, Randy.
Here you go.

Luckily, Randy's quick.

Go ahead
and put that flange gasket on.

It's like a guy
that paints pictures.
He's really an artist.

All right Al,
swing that baby over here.

Gentle, go easy.

Okay. Hold that for a minute.

Randy has got quirks
like all of us do.
But I'll tell you what,

he is the best bush mechanic
I've ever seen.

Whoo!

I mean, he pulls stuff out
of the garbage
and builds stuff together.

I mean,
he's just, he's amazing
at what he can do.

All right. Here we go. Clear.

Already sounds better.

Water's coming up the pipe.
See how heavy
it's gettin' out here.

Yeah.

Much better.

Well, that solved that issue.

Randy's masterplan
worked, and the water pump
is fully operational again.

Z plant is one step closer
to being back up and running.

We're rocking!

This is the most critical part
of this whole mine.

I wish we had the directions.

Here we go!

Got the shelter up.
We're getting closer.
A lot closer.

Jack and Jim have
four hours left to complete
their gold wash room.

It's coming together.
It's little overwhelming doing
all this out in the bush.

But we'll get it.

Here to put the pressure
on him, man.

Hurry up,

That's good. Hey!

Right now, it's level.

- How's that?
- Now it's good.

With the shaker table securely
bolted to the cement slab,

Off to the water,

the last step is
to fill it with clean water.

- You got it?
- Yeah.

Woah!

Getting in there, ...

You got a screen on it.

Is it coming out?

Yeah.

Hang on, it's moving.

They're filming it?

- Hey, the table's leaking.
- Stop.

- Where's the plug to where the pump is in?
- You can't put your finger.

- Stop!
- No, we're not stopping. You guys find your plug.

I'm just gonna hang out here
for a little while.

Keep your finger in there, sir.

Hey.

Come here.

One of the perks
up here is the animal life.

Come here.

This little fox
is he's pretty friendly.

I like feeding him,
I like taking care of him.

He comes up
and he literally eats out
of my hand.

He's, kinda like, our mascot.

Keep your finger
in there, sir.

Oh, sh... here.

Bring me food once in a while, Jack.

This is not a "how-to" video,
to fire up your gold room.

When you winterize something,
you drain all the water.

But,
after you drain all the water,
you should put the plugs back.

'Cause now it's full of water,
and, I got my finger
for a plug.

That's what happens
when you got two elderly guys
running your clean up room.

They forget parts.

Randy found me
a plug. Get that in there.

- You're ready?
- Yeah. Just do it.

Hey.

- Going?
- Yeah.

- Dude.
- Oh, dude.

- That was lucky.
- Praise God, excellent.

- Way to go...

We're about ready.

Let me, uh, turn it on.
We'll see.

- This is the last piece of the puzzle right here.
- This is it.

We are good to go.

Whoo!

For the first time
in four years,

the Hoffmans have
their wash equipment up
and running.

But no one is more excited
than Jack.

Everything's ready.
And I'm ready for a tank
of material to come in,

you know, that we can clean up
and get the gold out.

I think we did it.

- Yeah. Did we meet our deadline?
- Barely. But we made it.

Finally! Crank her up
and let's go.

I've been wanting to know
exactly how much gold's
on this property.

We're gonna find out.

Herbert's really good
with the jig.

The jig is the first step
in washing dirt.

Concentrate is poured
into the top of the machine

and sifted through
a small screen

which allows gold and sand
to pass through
into a bucket below.

When finished,
the bucket will contain gold
as well as black sand.

Jack.

Oh, yeah! There we go.

It is, black sand
and if you could see
the gold's in my hand there.

That's what's gonna go
on the table,

and a lot of this black sand
is gonna be gone.

To separate
the gold from the black sand,

the mixture is poured
onto a shaker table.

Since gold
is heavier than sand,

the table is able
to separate the two by shaking
and spraying fresh water.

We got
this gold line coming out,
marching on down.

The gold then drops
through a hole
and into a cup.

When it comes down,
the important thing is that
it ends in number one cup.

First gold in the cup.

We're all gonna see
what it looks like.

- Four or five ounces.
- Okay.

Basically, we're trying
to get it dry.

So we can have an
accurate weight,

You sometimes have to, kinda,
lift it, let the moisture out.

While you're drying
that I'm gonna keep
everything running.

Yeah.

As Jack and Jim
extract the gold

from five months' worth
of Jason's concentrate.

I've never seen
her shaker deck
in this condition.

Over the Z plant,
the crew has been working on
its many problems.

Trying to get it back up
and running.

With the spray bars, ripples,
and hopper repaired,

they're ready
for their last big fix.

Let's get
the springs in, so we know
what we're dealing with.

Okay.

And he's about to lift
the shaker back,

so that we're gonna place
these old springs,
as they're not good anymore.

Without working springs,

the shaker deck
can't properly separate
the gold from other materials.

These are brand new springs.

It's really gotta shake
this dirt, so we get a lot
of gold this season.

Up. Up.

Man, that spring
is broken that left side.

Oh, my goodness!

This is terrible.

This is part
of the old springs
that came off there.

It's not supposed
to be like that.
It's all supposed to be...

one piece, so as you can see,
it wasn't shaking very good.

So,
we're gonna throw those away.

This thing dang near
needs a lot of things.

But, you know what...

It's gotten a lot of gold
over the years.

We're gonna help
and get it running.

And I'm gonna start kicking
some ass again with it.

You see it in there first?

Almost.

- Money.
- That plan worked.

Z plant is one step
closer to running dirt
for the first time in weeks.

Let's get on it.

Todd declares victory
for the day.

What would to take
to declare victory
to the season?

The golden guys,
what do we got?

Well, we did all
of his concentrate
in the buckets he had stored,

- from, who knows, how long.
- Yeah.

In order
to secure next year's lease,

Todd agreed
to get Jason to
a one million dollar season,

or 600 ounces of gold.

Jack and Jim have extracted
all of Jason's gold produce
so far this season.

Initial results
from the clean up
are only a 284 ounces

with one final tally to go.

- We've already cleaned 284 ounces.
- We got our final clean up.

Good.

- You guys wanna see what it is yes?
- Yeah.

One, two, three,
four, five, six,

seven, eight, nine, ten...

11, 12, 13, 14, 15,

16, 17, 18,

19, 21, 22.45.

That is a grand total
of 306 ounces.

And that's what they've done
in the last four-five months?

Five months.
We got seven weeks
to do the same amount of gold.

After five months
of mining Jason's crew
came up short

with just over 300 ounces.

The Hoffman's need
to come up with roughly
300 ounces of gold

in just weeks
before Alaska's harsh winter
freezes them out.

I thought the weather and all
the other issues would be way
farther ahead than this, so

they're hurting.

I know it's gonna be hard.

We got seven weeks
to double this,
guys, basically.

We're gonna give it everything
we got, okay?

We don't walk out of here
with the least.

We're just gonna have
to go for it.

I'm all in.

I can't believe it,
we found out Jason's total
was lower than we expected.

So we have to get
as much gold as he's gotten
this whole season

and we only have seven weeks
to do it.

A lot of people
will quit after this.

It is just too much at stake.

I'm not going home a loser,

I didn't bring my team,
by dad, my son, everybody,
to fail.

We're gonna beat this mine.