Hoffman Family Gold (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Dad to the Bone - full transcript
[narrator] In a remote
Alaskan wilderness,
Todd Hoffman's crew has
transformed the Mammoth Valley Mine.
[Dakota] The wash plant's
leaking and then the equipment is
leaking. But at least
we're running dirt.
[narrator] When they arrived
the plants were broken down
That's not good.
Fire up the generator.
[man] Fire it up!
[narrator] Today,
both are humming.
Yeah. This plant's running.
[narrator] The Hoffman
Team also found Todd's paydirt
rich with gold.
[both] 4.9.
That's over two ounces a hundred.
That's really good. Phenomenal.
[narrator] If two
plants can run this dirt,
the Hoffman's have a
shot of getting another
235 ounces of gold.
And reaching their
million dollar goal.
But the harsh winter
is approaching.
How bad is it, man?
Your freakin' wheel fell off.
[narrator] And the equipment...
You can't run a plant
without paydirt, Jason.
[narrator] ...is breaking down.
We need this running. Period.
I don't wanna talk anymore.
Call them in. Here
they come. Right here.
You all good?
Hey, Dad.
♪ Happy Birthday to you♪
♪ Happy Birthday to you♪
♪ Happy Birthday, dear Jack♪
♪ Happy Birthday to you♪
[man laughing]
How you doing?
I'm good.
We're getting lots of gold.
It's great. And Thurbs
doing great too, you know.
Thurbs getting really a whole
thing I have to take care of him.
[Jim laughs]
[Jim] You know, I feel sorry
for people that don't know Jack.
Some people might
think it's crazy, but he,
he knows how to live life.
Good boy.
[Jim] Just a true friend.
If you needed help,
that'd be the guy to call.
[Hunter] My grandpa's just been a
great role model of just how to be a man.
A lot of my life, I feel like
I've been more prone to
focus on negative things, an
part of his magic is
that he's so positive.
Things just work out
because of his mindset.
[Jack] We've been
married for 56 years.
I was 19 when I got married
You know, I had a
lot of things to learn.
But I got to learn it
with a wonderful wife.
She's been a real blessing.
You know, not many people
can say that. [chuckles]
Him and my grandma
have built like, a great family.
[Hunter] They're the
backbon of the whole family.
You know, my dad
passed away when I was 13.
You know, he's like,
dad's older brother.
Jack is a, one of a kind.
Plain and simple.
Oh, yeah.
No. I thought it was gone.
[laughs]
How can I not?
[Jack] Old men cry. You know,
that's the way it is. You know.
All right. Thank you. Love you.
-Okay. Bye-bye.
-Muah.
[narrator] It was 11 years ago,
when Jack firs celebrated his birthday,
on a gold mine.
[Jack] They've
gone through a lot of,
lot of effort to do
this, you know. So,
uh, it's not easy to
cook a cake up here.
I am also diabetic. And that's
all pure sugar, but it's pretty good.
Thank you.
You know, getting old,
it's gonna happen to everybody.
Each one of you is gonna be here.
I hope you make it through this.
And if I could say anything,
accept the Lord. That's it.
Once you accept the Lord,
you got everything
taken care of.
You go about life,
and it's fun.
It's been a blessing.
Thanks a lot, guys.
-[Jim] Well, happy birthday now. Get to work.
-[all laugh]
[Jack] Yeah.
[Todd] Having a little
bit o time with Jack
like that for his birthday,
is always special.
But I just got a radio call
And it basically
is bringing me
right back down to earth.
We got issues.
To run two plants, we gotta
have at least two trucks.
One of our trucks, literally
the wheel fell off.
And it stretched
some of the lug nuts.
It hogged out the
holes in the wheel.
It's bad.
Can't do what we're
trying to do with one truck.
Man, our trucks already old and
ragged as it is. Now
we're down to one.
I'm gonna go see
what Randy can do.
[narrator] Now that Z Plant and
the Hot Mess are both running,
each high volume wash plant
will need a steady supply of paydirt
coming from the dig sites.
Without two rock
trucks, this is impossible.
Well, how about is it, man?
Come and check it.
[Todd] Oh, my God.
That is the worst rim
I've ever seen in my life.
Yeah, dude.
[Randy] We had a
wheel that came loose.
And just ate away
at our openings.
Uh, a fully loaded truck,
actually, it was kind of overloaded.
Yeah, really overloaded.
[Randy] All that weight and all
that pressure is on them studs.
And she's not,
she's not last year's model.
So, that metal
was pretty fatigued,
and that's what caused this.
Did you think you can fix it?
It's, it's iffy.
It's iffy, we can
put it back together.
[Todd] Sparky, you think you
can weld that? It's pretty bad.
It is bad, but we
don't have a choice.
[Todd] Randy, you
work on the hub.
Sparky, weld that thing.
If you get to the point
where you think, hey,
this is a bad idea. Call me.
If not, bush fix
this thing, get it on.
We gotta be running
pay with this truck. Okay.
-[Sparky] Yeah.
-[Todd] Okay. All right.
-[Sparky] All righty then.
-[Randy] All right. Here we go.
After looking at it,
my heart sank.
[Todd] What I've
asked Randy to do,
and what I've
asked Sparky to do,
this isn't normal.
It's a tough fix and
the wheel could fall off.
And it could get worse.
If we don't have it,
that's five days I
gotta wait for parts.
That's a hundred ounces.
That's a thousand
yards per plant.
That means I can
only run one plant.
I shouldn't be asking
the guys to be doing this.
Really. It's above and beyond
what any mechanics are
doing in Alaska right now.
Anywhere. Okay?
They're making things
work that shouldn't work.
I don't wanna talk anymore.
We're gonna do our best to get it to
go on and stay on and not come off.
There's a lot of damage.
It destroyed this hub.
It destroyed the wheel.
We don't have time
to get another one here.
So, we're having to
repair what we have.
We just need to weld
the wheel back together.
I gotta do some surface
welding here and some grinding.
But other than that, I think
we can get it back together.
Will it last a week?
I told Sparky, it
might last three hours.
[narrator] Because of
the broken rock truck,
Big Trommel has
run out of paydirt.
[Todd] Shut it
down. Shut it off.
[narrator] And Todd
has to shut it down.
The news spreads quickly
to mine owner Jason.
[Jason] What's going on?
-I don't like what I'm seeing.
-Dude, I don't like what I'm seeing, either.
-This, this plant has...
-You don't want... You can't run it. Listen.
You can't run a plant
without paydirt, Jason.
Look over there.
You see any paydirt?
-Where's the truck?
-Your freakin' wheel fell off.
It literally
fell off the truck.
All the years I've been mining, I've
never seen a wheel fall off like that.
We don't have the days for this.
You knew this
equipment has worn.
We gotta fix it as
soon as it breaks.
We finally got this plant working
now. And now the pay is not here.
It's running. It's washing
dirt. There's no problems.
We were asking
them to do something
with broken parts.
We knew this season
was a challenge.
We knew that we had only so
many days to make this work.
And things are gonna
break every day.
That truck needs to be fixed.
He's not a miracle worker.
He can only do so much.
We need this running. Period.
I'll try. That's all we can do.
Get it running.
Well, it's easy to walk
up in here and try to
point fingers like we're
wasting time. It's like, "Dude.
We're doing everything we can.
We're working all these guys."
We're working over
100 hours a week.
-I know.
-It's like, dude.
This plant sucks.
[narrator] Randy and Sparky are
still working on the rock truck repair.
And so while Hot
Mess is shut down,
the crew takes advantage
and pulls its mats.
[Hunter] Dude, this
whole box is frozen solid.
It's not even late in the
year yet. I mean we still got
another four weeks of this.
[Matthew] When everything's
frozen up, we gotta thaw it,
and what we thought
is get a weed burner
and torch it.
Get it, get it thawed
and then, then pull it.
[Dakota] Perfect.
I'll warm my hands up.
[Matthew] Go get the
marshmallows, Dakota.
[Matthew] We're uh,
using this weed burner
to thaw the boxes like
a frozen block of dirt
This one in a fun things
you get to do whenever uh,
it gets cold.
[Nick] Just adding
hours to the task.
Seems like everything
we do around here is like,
-like that.
-Yeah.
[narrator] With the sluice
b sufficiently thawed,
the riffles which hold the
mats in place and trap the gold,
can be removed.
Then, the crew will
get their first look
at the material
Hot Mess has run.
[Nick] We're gonna
scoop of the carpets.
Get all the rough materials
piled into these buckets.
They call it concentrate.
[Hunter] They reason why pulling
the box is so important is because
all the gold that
we're trying to catch,
it's stuck right here.
[Nick] I'm walking
on gold right now.
It's a good feeling to know
the ground I stand on,
really rich.
Literally every scoop
matters in this situation.
[narrator] The mats that ar now
collected, carry much of the hope
for a successful
week of mining.
[Hunter] It's important tha we get all
these mats up to the cleanup room because
this Trommel right now is running
the most yards out of any of our plants.
This is very important
that you have
steady hands when you're doing
this otherwise you could be dropping
thousands of dollars of
gold out at any given moment.
I'll go get these things washed
and get them back in here.
[Nick] Happy birthday, grandpa.
We bought you some gold.
[chuckles] First clean up
off that Trommel. That's good.
[Hunter] We're calling
that plant the Hot Mess,
but hopefully the, the
clean out is not a Hot Mess.
[Matthew] Yeah. I hear that
[narrator] The paydirt that has
been washed through these mats,
has shown the claim's promis
Yielding around 2.5
ounces per 100 yards,
when it was processed
through the Z Plant.
-All right. I like that.
-Let it drain off.
Firsthand experience, right here.
This guy knows what he's doing.
Killer gold. Jack
would call it crazy gold.
He's always wanted crazy gold. It's
his birthday. We're gonna give it to him.
[Jack laughs]
[Hunter] It's my grandpa's
76th birthday today.
And he loves gold mining
whether we're getting gold or not.
[Jack] You see any in there?
[Hunter] If my grandpa
wasn' here, I wouldn't be here.
He had a private conversation with
me and really wanted me to go with him.
So, I was like, "Okay,
I'm, I'm gonna go."
You should've seen that pan.
I did. I don't miss much.
[Hunter] I'd like it if we g
an unbelievable amount
of go while he's still alive.
We're gonna call this clean
"The Happy Birthday Jack."
It's gonna be 76 ounces.
[chuckles]
This is awful good
when you rinse out only that section
of carpet and you see that kind of gold.
You know that pan,
that's what we're here for.
Let's take these back up to the
sluice, let's get this thing fired up.
-[Hunter] Let's do it.
-[Dakota] All right.
[narrator] The Big
Trommel will be ready to go.
But only a bush
mechanic, Randy Huber
can fix the rock truck
that delivers the paydirt.
[Randy] So uh, on this 400
we had a wheel that came loose.
And just ate away
at our, our openings.
We had an inexperienced
rock truck driver on it. He
was doing 90 degree corners.
It destroyed the wheel.
And Jason said, "Look,
I have to have a rock truck."
So, I need you guys
to put it back together.
[chuckles]
Talk about doing the impossible.
This is not easy
for us to repair
because we don't have
a lot of metal to deal with.
So, we're gonna add
the steel back to this,
welding as much as we can.
And we're gonna bolt it
back on with some new studs.
And hope that it says on.
We got 23 holes and
we may have 10 we're
gonna be able to repair.
[Sparky] So, the thing is
we gotta stand this baby up,
so that I can weld inside here.
And so I can grind
off the facing of this.
-So, you need me to stand this thing up?
-Yeah.
So, uh. [bleep]
My only thing is what's
gonna keep it stood up.
Exactly. I was thinking,
like, maybe put the boom up.
Put it right behind it.
Okay. I can do that.
Because it will lean back
to where it is right now.
-Okay. So, let's make it happen, baby.
-All right.
[Randy] This is not easy for
us to do because it is dangerous.
Stay clear of that thing.
Clear.
[Randy] But yet, we're
desperate for gold right now.
We desperately need to
get the material in the box.
It's such a fine
piece of equipment.
The best thing on this mine,
next to the coffee maker.
[Sparky] Until we get this fixed, we're
losing another 100 ounces next week
-How is it looking, Mike?
-She stands.
Hey, can you chain that?
Yes, sir.
[Randy] There you go. That'll make
it easier to pick and put it back on too.
She ain't falling on me.
So, you know, I'll
continue putting studs in.
[Sparky] As insurance,
we're gonna have to end up
welding these lug nuts onto the wheel.
'Cause I'd hate to have
these fall right into the pi
Or even worse,
fall onto somebody.
That's the last thing
we want on this mine.
This may be a challenge.
But nonetheless, we
gotta get her done.
'Cause we have no choice
and Todd is counting on us.
[narrator] While Sparky and Randy continue
to struggle with the rock truck repairs.
[Sparky] So much
work has gotta be done.
[Randy] We don't
have a whole lot of time.
Of course, we never
have enough time.
[narrator] ...Jack and Jim have completed
their wash of the Big Trommel mats,
and have called Todd and
the team in for the results.
What's going on?
Well, we have a problem.
-[Jim] We get 2.4 ounces per 100 out of the test trommel.
-[Todd] Yeah.
The Big Trommel, same material,
we get less than a
half ounce per 100.
[Todd] I think we blew gold out.
[Jim] Yeah.
[Todd] Was the really
the same material?
[Jim] Exactly the same material.
Same?
[Jim laughs] Same pit.
[Hunter] It's not the
material. It's not catching.
I mean, we have to be
losing it, it's not the dirt.
It's got a lot of leaks and...
Oh, God.
The sluice looked
a little steep to me.
But I just didn't think it
was that bad, honestly.
Makes me sick to see
what we're losing.
We're losing like 80 percent.
Oh, yeah. Easy.
I don't wanna run
another yard through it,
until we fix
whatever is going on.
If you can fix it, fix it. But
don't use it. That's crazy.
We can't. We have to run it. We can't
get the yardage through that test plant.
We gotta get that
80-90 yards through it.
[Hunter] So, while it's down, we
need to take a look at what's going on.
-Yeah.
-[Todd] Dad, Thurber. Wanna look at the sluice?
Yeah. I think, everything,
we should start at the top.
If we have an issue,
fix it. Move to the next.
We clearly have a problem.
My dad and Jim probably have
30 years of combined experience.
So, if anybody can sniff out a problem
on that trommel, it'll be those guys.
Here's the deal. We can't rebuild the
whole thing. We don't have enough time.
Let's go up there.
Let's make the
changes that we can.
Check out the sluice. See
where's it's leaking, how much.
Let's attack it.
We need that 90
yards an hour, okay?
We're losing gold.
I'm gonna go find it.
[narrator] The Big Trommel
wash plant is shut down
waiting on the fix
to the rock truck.
Jack and Jim are
seizing this opportunity
to fully inspect the
plant for the flaws
that are costing them gold.
-[Jim] Oh.
-[Jack] I can see several things.
[Jim] Let's uh, grab the level.
We look super steep.
Yeah, you better. I can see
there's a lot of things wrong here.
-[Jim] That's sand.
-[Jack] Yeah.
[Jim] There. All these should
be going down the sluice.
[narrator] Jack and Jim will
inspect the framework of the plant,
checking for holes or gaps
where gold could leak out.
I bet it they've never cleaned.
This is where all the fine gold is.
[Jack] This is one
place they're losing gold.
[narrator] They'll make sur
the water pressure is consistent,
and strong enough to
break up clay deposits.
And move materials
through the trommel.
But their first
order of business
is to adjust the angle of
the sluice to the right slope.
Too shallow and bigger
rock will settle in the riffles,
disrupting the flow.
Too steep, and the gold
can rush out of the bottom.
[Jim] That sluice
box is too steep.
At level 4 foot, it should
be 8 inches down here.
[Jack] Yeah. That's 10.
-[Jim] 10. So, that's way off.
-[Jack] That's way too steep.
[Jim] I see other...
-[Jack] Well... [laughs]
-[Jim] ...issues.
Right here...
-I'm looking at it.
-All your gold's underneath this thing.
Well, in that sluice.
[Jim] There's a lot of gold...
-underneath here.
-Going...
Step on it. Look at that.
-[Jim] You can hear it crunching.
-[Jack] Yeah.
Wow. This thing isn't worth
the powder to blow it to hell.
Lost gold is not a smart idea.
You work hard to get it
in there. Why not keep it?
So, that's what Jim
and I are looking at.
We're seeing why
they aren't keeping it.
-Hey, Jack.
-Yes.
Another problem.
There's no water here.
This pipe here
goes 12 feet with no water.
Hitting the material
the whole time.
All these steel plates and stuff,
they're in there breaking it up.
Well, if it had water,
that would help that
concept to happen.
That's why material makes
it all the way out the end.
The longer we look,
there's more defects.
Here's material here that should
go through your plant. Right here.
Look at that. That's all
fine stuff. Why is that here?
That needs to be going in here,
down your sluice.
Just follow its track. It's
just going right down there.
Going in to the tailings.
They're hauling it away.
-It's gone.
-Oh, man.
They're taking
gold from one spot,
putting it in a different
spot. That's all they're doing.
[Jack] Wherever they threw
their tailings, there's a lo of gold.
I could go pan their slurry,
and find gold. I
will guarantee that.
I think, we ought to get
some of that material on.
And you ought to pan it.
No, you're right, Jack. There's
pay where you're standing.
Okay. Well, I'll come down and give me a
hand and we'll pick up some of that material.
Go pan it and...
-Let's do that.
-Let's find out.
[Jim] Let's do that.
[Jack] Yeah, I'm getting some.
We're taking three samples.
The end of the trommel,
where it looks like there's pay
spilling out the end,
which shouldn't happen.
We got a hole down there,
from a leak from the feeder box.
That all looks like pay,
we're taking a sample there.
We got gold up in the
trommel that looks trapped
behind some steel plating.
We're gotta take a sample there.
That's three very key parts of
the problems besides the obvious.
We're gonna find
out if we're right.
[Jim] Trapped
gold, number three.
That's it, bud.
Hey, well, we got the samples
we need. Let's go to the gold room,
and pan it.
There is not a lot of
time to get all the paydirt.
Get out of here
before it freezes up.
Old Man Winter's gonna
slam that door shut pretty quick.
Well, let's get this in here, pan
this stuff and see what we got.
[Jack] All right.
[Jim] Okay, So...
Let's do the trapped gold first.
-All right.
-And then we'll see if there's gold
stuck up there. That's uh, gold
that was up underneath the trommel.
-[Jack] Yeah. Yeah.
-[Jim] Stuck on that plate.
[Jack] Usually, I'm
hoping for gold in the pan,
[chuckles] I don't want
to find it right now, this...
...this is not a good
time to find gold.
-[Jim] Ooh. Not good.
-[Jack] What are you seeing?
There are some finds in there.
-[Jim] Oh. Wow.
-[Jack] That's what you cal about a $25 dollar gold pan
maybe $50 dollar gold pan.
We're seeing a lot of gold.
-[Jim] Yeesh, that's bad. Okay, so, let's do...
-[Jack] All right. Yeah.
[Jim] ...that bucket there, where it
went out from a leak from the feeder box
and we dug that up.
[Jack] Here we go.
Look at that though.
-[Jack] Yeah.
-[Jim] Well, this is more lost gold.
[Jim] Those are three pickers, I
can pick those up with my fingers.
-Hmm-mmm.
-Those are big.
-Yeah.
-Tells you they
-were running good pay, just never made it.
-Yeah.
-[Jack] Next.
-This is lost gold from down in the hole.
-[stones and mud clattering]
-[Jim] At the end of the trommel,
where it looks there's
pay spilling out the end.
[Jack] Moment of truth here.
Oh, holy crap.
[Jim] That's bad. Now that's...
[Jack] That's bad.
That's worse than bad.
-[Jim] That is insane.
-Jeez. Jeez!
-Dude, that's, good pay.
-That's... they're pouring it out the
freaking end, that's
what we thought.
[Jim] And, this is going out. They've been
hauling this stuff away in their tailings.
We've got a big problem.
And, it makes me
feel better to know that
there is some issues with
the plant. I think they've lost
-more than they've captured...
-They've lost more than they've captured.
-[Jack] I'll tell you that.
-That is...
...not good.
Holy moly, that's gonna
make our goal possible.
[Jack] Holy smokes.
[narrator] Even if the tromm gets adjusted,
it will stil need a working rock truck
to deliver pay dirt.
[Sparky] So, what's going on here
is that we're trying to put this wheel
under this 400, with the
330. And once this thing's on,
I'll be able to weld it up, then
we get back to getting gold.
[Randy] We're
not on the hub yet.
See, that section
where there's no studs?
And, then there's a
section here with no holes,
so we need to clock the
tire and the hub together,
so it'll go together.
So, what I may have you do i
come in at a little bit
of angle at the bottom
and then just kind
of push i up and on.
Okay.
[Sparky] Hopefully,
this works.
Careful, if that
falls off that jack...
If he pushes any
harder right now...
...this whole jack could fal
This whole rear end of this 400,
could possibly
fall on somebody.
[Randy] Dude, we only got
a quarter of an inch to go.
[Sparky] Dude, you know what's crazy
is that those holes are lining up on top,
I don't see 'em lining
up on the bottom.
[Sparky] The wheel,
it's on the hub, and now
it's not sliding in, and
we got Chris, the operator
trying to shove it into the hub,
but we're having a hard time.
-[Randy] Does he need...
-[Sparky] No, he's gotta go down.
[Randy] Come
down just a little bit.
[Sparky] Is it getting close?
-[Randy] It's all crooked.
-[Sparky] What the heck, dude?
Go up.
[Randy] Keep going.
Come on, pop in there.
We're not getting
it, 'cause we lost
so much metal on that wheel.
[Sparky] Dude, this
doesn't work out right,
we may have to like,
-tell Todd, okay, man...
-[Randy] Aye, aye, aye!
[Randy] He's
crookeder than hell.
I don't think we've
accomplished anything.
[Todd] I just got a call
from Jack and Thurber
you know it didn't sound
like bad news, but...
...maybe it is.
Come on in.
We're gonna show
you something that
you're gonna be surprised about.
-Come on in, now.
-What? What do you wanna show us?
Well, Big Trommel,
-Hot Mess.
-[Todd] Yeah.
So, this here is
material that fell out,
before the trommel.
That's just a shovel full,
that didn't even
make it in there.
[Jim] This here is where
it was trapped, in that steel
where it couldn't get out.
-Yeah?
-It's good, trapped.
It's not going out, but...
The bad part is the material
that went through the trommel
out on to the ground.
-What?
-[Jim and Jack] Yeah.
-That's going back out into the ground.
-Yeah, that's one shovel full.
This was sitting after it
went through the trommel.
So, it's getting shoved
through. The water bars,
I don't know if you've looked in there,
the first 12 feet, there's no nozzles.
This travelled
through over the holes,
-and out onto the ground.
-Back on the ground.
Yeah.
And there's a
mound of stuff there.
Well, we're coming to the
conclusion that the mine's good.
-[Jack] Yeah.
-Equipment's rough.
-That's a shovel full.
-[Andy] Really bad.
-Yeah, it's horrible.
-[Jack] One freaking shovel.
All right, well,
what do we got
to do to fix that?
We need to get
water, more water.
You can't add a
bunch more water.
The slurry pump's maxed out.
What can you do
quickly? We're not going
to be able to redesign this
-damn thing.
-We can level
and get rid of the...
-Steepness of it?
-[Jack] Hmm-mmm.
Maybe slow it down to...
I mean, even if we cut it,
50 yards an hour, if
we're catching all the gold,
-it's better than dumping-- -So,
we slow down the amount of feed,
level the box...
I can move some water
lines, block these off.
-[Todd] Right.
-Move it to the front.
-[Todd] Okay.
-That's all we can do.
[Todd] Guys, you
got one day to fix this.
That's it, so, pick the
fixes you wanna make,
and get on it, 'cause
we got one day.
Then we run.
[Hunter] This isn't funny, dude, we
really need to get this thing running.
[Hunter sigh]
[Todd] That big Hot Mess,
a freaking broken
trommel.
-[Hunter] Yeah.
-[Todd] It almost looks like an art piece, or something,
I don't know.
I would not call that art.
I know Jack and Jim have a
whole list of things they wanna fix,
but we don't have
time to do that.
Well, it had gold coming
out the end, obviously
we got a water issue. I'm
gonna try to get inside there.
I'll work on the water
once you work on the sluice.
-[Hunter] Right.
-Then, let's get this thing running and
throw some dirt down and
see if we can catch some gold.
That's the main thing,
if it's not catching gold,
then it's just like
this is a huge joke.
All right. Let's do it.
[narrator] Meanwhile,
Randy and Sparky
are still struggling with their bush fix
to a badly damaged wheel on a rock truck.
[Sparky] This truck's
not in operation.
And, unfortunately, we can'
haul pay in the meantime.
Right now, we're having issues,
putting in the
wheel on this 400.
It's hitting on something
within the hub, but,
there's a jack right
underneath there.
If it hits it any more then,
we could take the jack out, and
this whole rear end could fall over.
[Sparky] How's it
looking right now?
[Randy] It's all crooked.
We're gonna see what ideas
Randy's got and maybe we can
put this thing on
as fast as possible.
[narrator] Randy's bush-fix solution
is to have Chris bring the excavator
and use the claw to
stabilize and line up the wheel.
[Randy] He sure is
better at this than I am.
-[Randy] How's that look now?
-[Sparky] Oh, ho, there you go.
-We got to put the teeth.
Yeah, and -[Sparky] Push on it.
Just push on it, dude.
Track in.
You gotta be
parallel with this guy.
[Randy] That's it.
Lower the jack.
-[Randy] And, then we're in it.
-[Sparky] Oh, will do.
[Sparky] I'm gonna lower it.
[Randy] Beautiful.
[Sparky] It's getting there.
-[Randy laughing]
-[Sparky] Ooh.
[Randy] That
sumbitch just went on.
-[Sparky] Dude...
-[laughing]
Without you, that
would be impossible.
[Randy] Thank you.
[Randy] With much
fight, we finally got this
stupid wheel back on the hub
Now, we've got all these jagged
ends, these metal jagged ends,
and they're
against each other.
So, what we're going to do is,
we're gonna have Sparky here,
drive the truck,
and what will happen is that, those
jagged edges will get broken down.
-Yeah.
-And, then by the end of the day,
we'll have a nice
married wheel and hub
that we can trust.
-[Sparky] Yeah.
-For, hopefully 10 days.
We gotta take it
easy here, Randy.
Now, we gotta get
some pay to the plant.
Hey, Randy. I'll
see you at the load.
[horns honking]
[Hunter] I know Jason wants to run this
thing, but I'm not gonna run it like this.
It's just stupid.
We got gold pouring
out, six different areas.
[Hunter] And the sluice
isn't even catching it, so...
There's a million issues, but I feel
like we should address the sluice first.
[Jim] This one looks
steep as all heck.
-[Jim] So, it needs to be eight inches at this end.
-[Hunter] Yeah.
This plant's frustrating, and there's
a lot of things that are wrong with it,
and we don't have
time to fix all of 'em, so...
I'm trying to focus in
on the ones we can fix.
Most importantly is the sluice,
making sure all the pay is actually
getting down the sluice.
I think we jack up,
the first sluice here.
Get it to eight inches.
Okay. Bring that level, Thurb.
-[Jim] Just crank it.
-[Todd] Go. Crank it up. See if it'll go more.
-[Todd] More, little more...
-[Jim groans]
-Are you tired?
-[Jim groans]
[Todd] Yes, Thurber, go.
You're doing it!
[Jim groans]
Oh, we've run out of jack.
We're done Thurb.
[Jim] What I can do... Block it.
Put the foot down deeper.
Knows a lot about jacks.
[Jim] I've jacked
up a lot of stuff.
[Todd] Show 'em your
finger from the jack accident.
[Jim] I got all these
cut off right here.
They couldn't find
that piece, so...
[Todd] You got a little,
tiny fingernail on there.
[Jim speaking]
[Todd] Let's go.
Gotta go up more. Go!
[Jim] Want me to do it, Hunter?
-[Todd] Thurb, stop.
-[Hunter groans]
[Todd] All right,
let's measure it.
-[Hunter] Right about level right there?
-[Todd] No. Yep.
[Todd] There you go.
-[Todd] Whoo.
-Now, we got a heck of a gap there, see that?
-[Jim] There, gold is just sliding right in.
-[Todd] Goddang it.
That's money right there.
Honestly, I wish we didn't have to run
this plant, but we don't have a choice.
-So...
-No.
[Hunter] We got to get the
Hot Mess patched up, at least
get the holes patched and
get the sluice working right.
Cause we're never gonna get the
yardage if we don't get this thing running.
Sparky's cutting of
this last sluice here.
Gonna only run two.
We'll get rid of this one,
divert water and
material to those two.
[narrator] The Big Trommel
sluice box has three channel
This means the water pumped
through the box is spread over all three
by using a divider
to cut off one of them.
The pump water can more effectively
push gold down into the mats,
and debris out of the way.
This will be better for
everything we're trying to achieve.
[Hunter] Working
with Sparky and Jim,
my Dad and my Grandpa.
Got some caulk.
I'm kind of the only thing that
makes it worth it sometimes
when everything
else sucks, so.
Thankfully I have Sparky here,
he's gonna help do
all the welding with me.
I'm ready to bang
this out, dude.
We're gonna keep a good attitude,
we're gonna get this thing patched up
and get it working
as best as we can
and we're gonna make a
mad dash towards the end.
Oh, yeah, baby.
Dude, I think the young
guns are taking over.
-Remember when he was just a little guy?
-Yeah.
Running around the mine?
I was a safety director
and I just knew one of those
guys was gonna get smashed.
[engine whirring]
It's not a playground.
[motor whirring]
But they didn't, thankfully.
Looks good.
Sparky's getting
his last weld in.
Finished the chute,
we patched the holes
we got the sluice divider
in and this is it right here.
After this we should
be good to go.
-You like it?
-Yeah.
All right, you killed it, bro.
Get outta here.
Al, what do you think?
Everything looking okay?
I think so. I'll get it
all hooked up here.
Okay.
[narrator] The day after
the Hoffman team's repairs,
the Big Trommel is
ready to run again.
[narrator] And they
hope to prove to Jason
that their fixes will pay off.
First what we did is we
brought the sluice up a little bit,
made it not so steep.
We put a divider,
cut off that far run
cause it wasn't
getting a lot of the pay
and it was taking
a lot of the water.
And then me and Sparky
got up in the hopper
and he welded some plates in.
Hopefully, most of the
pay is staying inside
-and these are actually working better.
-Good.
That's the idea.
We'll know when
we fire up the water.
Okay.
Let's go ahead
and fire the waters.
[motor whirring]
Here it comes, Al.
Here comes the water.
[Hunter] We're gonna know pretty
quick if our fixes are working or not.
I'm confident they are
but this thing has
a lot of holes in it.
You wanna run some
water through the box?
-Is that what you're wanting?
-Yeah.
You guys ready?
Let's run it. Let's go.
Fire in the hole!
[Jack] I start real early.
I get up in the morning.
I make my wife coffee
and I bring it to her in
her own bed every day.
So while I'm gone doing this...
I know she misses it.
Okay. [straining]
Phew.
But this is my
favorite thing to do.
I can go to bed at night
and I can sleep well
because I know I've
done a good day's work.
We've got it.
It's on.
I've also probably got
one of the best wives.
[chuckles] You know,
anybody could have.
Of course I better say
that, you know? [inhales]
And...
But it's the truth.
Now, that's a... that's
a critical moment.
We got it done.
[water running]
[Jason] You wanna run
some water through the box?
-Is that what you wanting?
-Yeah.
You guy's ready?
Let's run it. Let's go.
Fire in the hole.
[splashing]
I'm hoping the sluice's are
gonna actually catch gold now.
Here it comes.
I think it looks good.
[Hunter] These
are way more even.
You gotta have the material
and the water combination
even on all your sluice runs.
So far, I like it, honestly.
If you don't have the material
and the water evened
out on both your runs...
the riffles aren't
gonna work right
and you're not gonna catch gold.
Jim, you like it?
Yeah, it's running
good. It's not packing up
and you can feel the
stuff hitting ya, it's...
doing its job.
How's it looking going in?
Good. Way better.
It was still getting a
little bit of water, but...
Before Mike welded this...
it was pouring out.
It's way better than it was.
Could be worse.
Once they get material in
things are gonna change.
I wanna drop material in
and see what it looks like then.
Yeah, it's good.
We're gonna start
throwing some buckets in,
then we'll get a real...
a real judge on this thing.
Trommel turning on. heads up.
All clear.
All clear.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Here we go. Big
Trommel in action.
I can probably go around all
the spots where I pan the pay
and not find any
when we get done, so...
Yeah.
Way better than
it was, I like it.
Here it comes!
Whoo!
You're dropping pay.
First bucket of pay is
moving down the trommel
and getting to the screens.
We're gonna see
how it's dropping out.
Thurber, what do you think?
All good.
Is it packing or moving it?
No, it's moving it.
You can feel it hitting ya.
How's the rocks
coming off the end?
They clean?
Clean.
[narrator] The day
of fixes is paying off.
The altered pitch
angle of the sluice deck
and the divider
cutting off one channel
are trapping gold
more effectively.
And Sparky's welds are
stopping the major leak
where gold was
spilling onto the ground.
I'm not saying we're
God's gift to mining
but we've got enough
experience in here that we're...
We know, we know enough.
You know, just to be dangerous.
The Big Trommel's
our hope for the season.
Winter's coming
really really fast.
This plant has to stay
going and not stop.
She's not the prettiest girl
but she knows how to get
down on the dance floor.
You know what I'm saying?
Whoo!
[all cheering]
Dude, we're mining, brother.
[narrator] After running
Z plant for a full week
along with four days
on the Hot Mess.
It's time for a last wash
to see if the Hoffman's are
closer to their 300 ounce goal.
[Jack] Can you believe it?
We're actually mining.
Pretty cool, huh?
I don't know. I don't
care to go mining
and have another loss.
-We've already had a lot of those.
-No.
We need a win.
Yeah, we're gonna win.
Don't worry.
Are you happy now
that we're out here?
I am happy because
we're doing it together.
Gold mining is
not just work thing,
it's kind of a way of life.
It's something that you just do,
and you either enjoy it...
-Or you hate it.
-Or you hate it.
I enjoy it.
I started gold mining
back in the '80s.
I put everything on the line
I didn't make it.
I still love it.
Changed from gold
fever to a way of life.
And I'm gonna keep doing it
Until...
[chuckles]
My number's up.
Listen,
there's the capabilities of
making everybody wealthy.
And that, that...
That's the goal,
is to help people
and all these people.
-I think it's gonna be good.
-Yeah.
Well, I love ya.
Okay, love you too.
How's it going out there?
Good.
What's up boys?
Come on in here.
How's it going?
[narrator] With only four
weeks left in the season
the Hoffman's are still 235 ounces of
gold away from their 600 ounce goal.
In order to stay on track they're
going to have to have mined
at least 47 ounces
of gold this week.
[Todd] Oh.
Here we go.
What is it?
Looks good.
It is good.
It is good?
Wanna know how good?
-Yeah.
-Yeah, we do.
-It seems good.
-Yes, I do.
I'll lay it out.
[Jack] 10,
20,
30,
33,
35,
38,
42,
-.95.
-Wow!
Not bad.
-We're getting closer.
-Yeah.
Not bad at all.
Dude, I like it.
We've never had that before.
[chuckles]
We've never been on
ground that has gold like this.
And I think this is what
we've all been waiting for.
So I don't know
about you guys but...
This is ground
worth being here for.
[narrator] The Hoffman
team has made a leap forward,
but are still below
the weekly target.
To reach a million
dollars for the full season
they'll need to average
48 ounces per week
for the next four weeks.
Don't you feel it? We're like
starting to come back to life.
I feel like we're
starting to get--
The trucking's getting better.
We gotta get our chops back.
Beggars can't be choosers.
You know you haven't scratched
some pay dirt for a long time.
You feeling it?
-Are you feeling like you're getting in?
-Yeah.
-You're following the train?
-Yep.
What's it like?
The gravels and
everything here are different.
It is different than anything
that we've mined for.
Um, so there's a
learning curve to those.
But I think we're all starting
to get into the groove a little bit.
Feels like 360 mining is
coming back from the dead
...piece by piece.
Are you guys-- How
are you guys feeling?
I didn't think it'd ever happen.
You?
No, but I'm glad it did.
Alaskan wilderness,
Todd Hoffman's crew has
transformed the Mammoth Valley Mine.
[Dakota] The wash plant's
leaking and then the equipment is
leaking. But at least
we're running dirt.
[narrator] When they arrived
the plants were broken down
That's not good.
Fire up the generator.
[man] Fire it up!
[narrator] Today,
both are humming.
Yeah. This plant's running.
[narrator] The Hoffman
Team also found Todd's paydirt
rich with gold.
[both] 4.9.
That's over two ounces a hundred.
That's really good. Phenomenal.
[narrator] If two
plants can run this dirt,
the Hoffman's have a
shot of getting another
235 ounces of gold.
And reaching their
million dollar goal.
But the harsh winter
is approaching.
How bad is it, man?
Your freakin' wheel fell off.
[narrator] And the equipment...
You can't run a plant
without paydirt, Jason.
[narrator] ...is breaking down.
We need this running. Period.
I don't wanna talk anymore.
Call them in. Here
they come. Right here.
You all good?
Hey, Dad.
♪ Happy Birthday to you♪
♪ Happy Birthday to you♪
♪ Happy Birthday, dear Jack♪
♪ Happy Birthday to you♪
[man laughing]
How you doing?
I'm good.
We're getting lots of gold.
It's great. And Thurbs
doing great too, you know.
Thurbs getting really a whole
thing I have to take care of him.
[Jim laughs]
[Jim] You know, I feel sorry
for people that don't know Jack.
Some people might
think it's crazy, but he,
he knows how to live life.
Good boy.
[Jim] Just a true friend.
If you needed help,
that'd be the guy to call.
[Hunter] My grandpa's just been a
great role model of just how to be a man.
A lot of my life, I feel like
I've been more prone to
focus on negative things, an
part of his magic is
that he's so positive.
Things just work out
because of his mindset.
[Jack] We've been
married for 56 years.
I was 19 when I got married
You know, I had a
lot of things to learn.
But I got to learn it
with a wonderful wife.
She's been a real blessing.
You know, not many people
can say that. [chuckles]
Him and my grandma
have built like, a great family.
[Hunter] They're the
backbon of the whole family.
You know, my dad
passed away when I was 13.
You know, he's like,
dad's older brother.
Jack is a, one of a kind.
Plain and simple.
Oh, yeah.
No. I thought it was gone.
[laughs]
How can I not?
[Jack] Old men cry. You know,
that's the way it is. You know.
All right. Thank you. Love you.
-Okay. Bye-bye.
-Muah.
[narrator] It was 11 years ago,
when Jack firs celebrated his birthday,
on a gold mine.
[Jack] They've
gone through a lot of,
lot of effort to do
this, you know. So,
uh, it's not easy to
cook a cake up here.
I am also diabetic. And that's
all pure sugar, but it's pretty good.
Thank you.
You know, getting old,
it's gonna happen to everybody.
Each one of you is gonna be here.
I hope you make it through this.
And if I could say anything,
accept the Lord. That's it.
Once you accept the Lord,
you got everything
taken care of.
You go about life,
and it's fun.
It's been a blessing.
Thanks a lot, guys.
-[Jim] Well, happy birthday now. Get to work.
-[all laugh]
[Jack] Yeah.
[Todd] Having a little
bit o time with Jack
like that for his birthday,
is always special.
But I just got a radio call
And it basically
is bringing me
right back down to earth.
We got issues.
To run two plants, we gotta
have at least two trucks.
One of our trucks, literally
the wheel fell off.
And it stretched
some of the lug nuts.
It hogged out the
holes in the wheel.
It's bad.
Can't do what we're
trying to do with one truck.
Man, our trucks already old and
ragged as it is. Now
we're down to one.
I'm gonna go see
what Randy can do.
[narrator] Now that Z Plant and
the Hot Mess are both running,
each high volume wash plant
will need a steady supply of paydirt
coming from the dig sites.
Without two rock
trucks, this is impossible.
Well, how about is it, man?
Come and check it.
[Todd] Oh, my God.
That is the worst rim
I've ever seen in my life.
Yeah, dude.
[Randy] We had a
wheel that came loose.
And just ate away
at our openings.
Uh, a fully loaded truck,
actually, it was kind of overloaded.
Yeah, really overloaded.
[Randy] All that weight and all
that pressure is on them studs.
And she's not,
she's not last year's model.
So, that metal
was pretty fatigued,
and that's what caused this.
Did you think you can fix it?
It's, it's iffy.
It's iffy, we can
put it back together.
[Todd] Sparky, you think you
can weld that? It's pretty bad.
It is bad, but we
don't have a choice.
[Todd] Randy, you
work on the hub.
Sparky, weld that thing.
If you get to the point
where you think, hey,
this is a bad idea. Call me.
If not, bush fix
this thing, get it on.
We gotta be running
pay with this truck. Okay.
-[Sparky] Yeah.
-[Todd] Okay. All right.
-[Sparky] All righty then.
-[Randy] All right. Here we go.
After looking at it,
my heart sank.
[Todd] What I've
asked Randy to do,
and what I've
asked Sparky to do,
this isn't normal.
It's a tough fix and
the wheel could fall off.
And it could get worse.
If we don't have it,
that's five days I
gotta wait for parts.
That's a hundred ounces.
That's a thousand
yards per plant.
That means I can
only run one plant.
I shouldn't be asking
the guys to be doing this.
Really. It's above and beyond
what any mechanics are
doing in Alaska right now.
Anywhere. Okay?
They're making things
work that shouldn't work.
I don't wanna talk anymore.
We're gonna do our best to get it to
go on and stay on and not come off.
There's a lot of damage.
It destroyed this hub.
It destroyed the wheel.
We don't have time
to get another one here.
So, we're having to
repair what we have.
We just need to weld
the wheel back together.
I gotta do some surface
welding here and some grinding.
But other than that, I think
we can get it back together.
Will it last a week?
I told Sparky, it
might last three hours.
[narrator] Because of
the broken rock truck,
Big Trommel has
run out of paydirt.
[Todd] Shut it
down. Shut it off.
[narrator] And Todd
has to shut it down.
The news spreads quickly
to mine owner Jason.
[Jason] What's going on?
-I don't like what I'm seeing.
-Dude, I don't like what I'm seeing, either.
-This, this plant has...
-You don't want... You can't run it. Listen.
You can't run a plant
without paydirt, Jason.
Look over there.
You see any paydirt?
-Where's the truck?
-Your freakin' wheel fell off.
It literally
fell off the truck.
All the years I've been mining, I've
never seen a wheel fall off like that.
We don't have the days for this.
You knew this
equipment has worn.
We gotta fix it as
soon as it breaks.
We finally got this plant working
now. And now the pay is not here.
It's running. It's washing
dirt. There's no problems.
We were asking
them to do something
with broken parts.
We knew this season
was a challenge.
We knew that we had only so
many days to make this work.
And things are gonna
break every day.
That truck needs to be fixed.
He's not a miracle worker.
He can only do so much.
We need this running. Period.
I'll try. That's all we can do.
Get it running.
Well, it's easy to walk
up in here and try to
point fingers like we're
wasting time. It's like, "Dude.
We're doing everything we can.
We're working all these guys."
We're working over
100 hours a week.
-I know.
-It's like, dude.
This plant sucks.
[narrator] Randy and Sparky are
still working on the rock truck repair.
And so while Hot
Mess is shut down,
the crew takes advantage
and pulls its mats.
[Hunter] Dude, this
whole box is frozen solid.
It's not even late in the
year yet. I mean we still got
another four weeks of this.
[Matthew] When everything's
frozen up, we gotta thaw it,
and what we thought
is get a weed burner
and torch it.
Get it, get it thawed
and then, then pull it.
[Dakota] Perfect.
I'll warm my hands up.
[Matthew] Go get the
marshmallows, Dakota.
[Matthew] We're uh,
using this weed burner
to thaw the boxes like
a frozen block of dirt
This one in a fun things
you get to do whenever uh,
it gets cold.
[Nick] Just adding
hours to the task.
Seems like everything
we do around here is like,
-like that.
-Yeah.
[narrator] With the sluice
b sufficiently thawed,
the riffles which hold the
mats in place and trap the gold,
can be removed.
Then, the crew will
get their first look
at the material
Hot Mess has run.
[Nick] We're gonna
scoop of the carpets.
Get all the rough materials
piled into these buckets.
They call it concentrate.
[Hunter] They reason why pulling
the box is so important is because
all the gold that
we're trying to catch,
it's stuck right here.
[Nick] I'm walking
on gold right now.
It's a good feeling to know
the ground I stand on,
really rich.
Literally every scoop
matters in this situation.
[narrator] The mats that ar now
collected, carry much of the hope
for a successful
week of mining.
[Hunter] It's important tha we get all
these mats up to the cleanup room because
this Trommel right now is running
the most yards out of any of our plants.
This is very important
that you have
steady hands when you're doing
this otherwise you could be dropping
thousands of dollars of
gold out at any given moment.
I'll go get these things washed
and get them back in here.
[Nick] Happy birthday, grandpa.
We bought you some gold.
[chuckles] First clean up
off that Trommel. That's good.
[Hunter] We're calling
that plant the Hot Mess,
but hopefully the, the
clean out is not a Hot Mess.
[Matthew] Yeah. I hear that
[narrator] The paydirt that has
been washed through these mats,
has shown the claim's promis
Yielding around 2.5
ounces per 100 yards,
when it was processed
through the Z Plant.
-All right. I like that.
-Let it drain off.
Firsthand experience, right here.
This guy knows what he's doing.
Killer gold. Jack
would call it crazy gold.
He's always wanted crazy gold. It's
his birthday. We're gonna give it to him.
[Jack laughs]
[Hunter] It's my grandpa's
76th birthday today.
And he loves gold mining
whether we're getting gold or not.
[Jack] You see any in there?
[Hunter] If my grandpa
wasn' here, I wouldn't be here.
He had a private conversation with
me and really wanted me to go with him.
So, I was like, "Okay,
I'm, I'm gonna go."
You should've seen that pan.
I did. I don't miss much.
[Hunter] I'd like it if we g
an unbelievable amount
of go while he's still alive.
We're gonna call this clean
"The Happy Birthday Jack."
It's gonna be 76 ounces.
[chuckles]
This is awful good
when you rinse out only that section
of carpet and you see that kind of gold.
You know that pan,
that's what we're here for.
Let's take these back up to the
sluice, let's get this thing fired up.
-[Hunter] Let's do it.
-[Dakota] All right.
[narrator] The Big
Trommel will be ready to go.
But only a bush
mechanic, Randy Huber
can fix the rock truck
that delivers the paydirt.
[Randy] So uh, on this 400
we had a wheel that came loose.
And just ate away
at our, our openings.
We had an inexperienced
rock truck driver on it. He
was doing 90 degree corners.
It destroyed the wheel.
And Jason said, "Look,
I have to have a rock truck."
So, I need you guys
to put it back together.
[chuckles]
Talk about doing the impossible.
This is not easy
for us to repair
because we don't have
a lot of metal to deal with.
So, we're gonna add
the steel back to this,
welding as much as we can.
And we're gonna bolt it
back on with some new studs.
And hope that it says on.
We got 23 holes and
we may have 10 we're
gonna be able to repair.
[Sparky] So, the thing is
we gotta stand this baby up,
so that I can weld inside here.
And so I can grind
off the facing of this.
-So, you need me to stand this thing up?
-Yeah.
So, uh. [bleep]
My only thing is what's
gonna keep it stood up.
Exactly. I was thinking,
like, maybe put the boom up.
Put it right behind it.
Okay. I can do that.
Because it will lean back
to where it is right now.
-Okay. So, let's make it happen, baby.
-All right.
[Randy] This is not easy for
us to do because it is dangerous.
Stay clear of that thing.
Clear.
[Randy] But yet, we're
desperate for gold right now.
We desperately need to
get the material in the box.
It's such a fine
piece of equipment.
The best thing on this mine,
next to the coffee maker.
[Sparky] Until we get this fixed, we're
losing another 100 ounces next week
-How is it looking, Mike?
-She stands.
Hey, can you chain that?
Yes, sir.
[Randy] There you go. That'll make
it easier to pick and put it back on too.
She ain't falling on me.
So, you know, I'll
continue putting studs in.
[Sparky] As insurance,
we're gonna have to end up
welding these lug nuts onto the wheel.
'Cause I'd hate to have
these fall right into the pi
Or even worse,
fall onto somebody.
That's the last thing
we want on this mine.
This may be a challenge.
But nonetheless, we
gotta get her done.
'Cause we have no choice
and Todd is counting on us.
[narrator] While Sparky and Randy continue
to struggle with the rock truck repairs.
[Sparky] So much
work has gotta be done.
[Randy] We don't
have a whole lot of time.
Of course, we never
have enough time.
[narrator] ...Jack and Jim have completed
their wash of the Big Trommel mats,
and have called Todd and
the team in for the results.
What's going on?
Well, we have a problem.
-[Jim] We get 2.4 ounces per 100 out of the test trommel.
-[Todd] Yeah.
The Big Trommel, same material,
we get less than a
half ounce per 100.
[Todd] I think we blew gold out.
[Jim] Yeah.
[Todd] Was the really
the same material?
[Jim] Exactly the same material.
Same?
[Jim laughs] Same pit.
[Hunter] It's not the
material. It's not catching.
I mean, we have to be
losing it, it's not the dirt.
It's got a lot of leaks and...
Oh, God.
The sluice looked
a little steep to me.
But I just didn't think it
was that bad, honestly.
Makes me sick to see
what we're losing.
We're losing like 80 percent.
Oh, yeah. Easy.
I don't wanna run
another yard through it,
until we fix
whatever is going on.
If you can fix it, fix it. But
don't use it. That's crazy.
We can't. We have to run it. We can't
get the yardage through that test plant.
We gotta get that
80-90 yards through it.
[Hunter] So, while it's down, we
need to take a look at what's going on.
-Yeah.
-[Todd] Dad, Thurber. Wanna look at the sluice?
Yeah. I think, everything,
we should start at the top.
If we have an issue,
fix it. Move to the next.
We clearly have a problem.
My dad and Jim probably have
30 years of combined experience.
So, if anybody can sniff out a problem
on that trommel, it'll be those guys.
Here's the deal. We can't rebuild the
whole thing. We don't have enough time.
Let's go up there.
Let's make the
changes that we can.
Check out the sluice. See
where's it's leaking, how much.
Let's attack it.
We need that 90
yards an hour, okay?
We're losing gold.
I'm gonna go find it.
[narrator] The Big Trommel
wash plant is shut down
waiting on the fix
to the rock truck.
Jack and Jim are
seizing this opportunity
to fully inspect the
plant for the flaws
that are costing them gold.
-[Jim] Oh.
-[Jack] I can see several things.
[Jim] Let's uh, grab the level.
We look super steep.
Yeah, you better. I can see
there's a lot of things wrong here.
-[Jim] That's sand.
-[Jack] Yeah.
[Jim] There. All these should
be going down the sluice.
[narrator] Jack and Jim will
inspect the framework of the plant,
checking for holes or gaps
where gold could leak out.
I bet it they've never cleaned.
This is where all the fine gold is.
[Jack] This is one
place they're losing gold.
[narrator] They'll make sur
the water pressure is consistent,
and strong enough to
break up clay deposits.
And move materials
through the trommel.
But their first
order of business
is to adjust the angle of
the sluice to the right slope.
Too shallow and bigger
rock will settle in the riffles,
disrupting the flow.
Too steep, and the gold
can rush out of the bottom.
[Jim] That sluice
box is too steep.
At level 4 foot, it should
be 8 inches down here.
[Jack] Yeah. That's 10.
-[Jim] 10. So, that's way off.
-[Jack] That's way too steep.
[Jim] I see other...
-[Jack] Well... [laughs]
-[Jim] ...issues.
Right here...
-I'm looking at it.
-All your gold's underneath this thing.
Well, in that sluice.
[Jim] There's a lot of gold...
-underneath here.
-Going...
Step on it. Look at that.
-[Jim] You can hear it crunching.
-[Jack] Yeah.
Wow. This thing isn't worth
the powder to blow it to hell.
Lost gold is not a smart idea.
You work hard to get it
in there. Why not keep it?
So, that's what Jim
and I are looking at.
We're seeing why
they aren't keeping it.
-Hey, Jack.
-Yes.
Another problem.
There's no water here.
This pipe here
goes 12 feet with no water.
Hitting the material
the whole time.
All these steel plates and stuff,
they're in there breaking it up.
Well, if it had water,
that would help that
concept to happen.
That's why material makes
it all the way out the end.
The longer we look,
there's more defects.
Here's material here that should
go through your plant. Right here.
Look at that. That's all
fine stuff. Why is that here?
That needs to be going in here,
down your sluice.
Just follow its track. It's
just going right down there.
Going in to the tailings.
They're hauling it away.
-It's gone.
-Oh, man.
They're taking
gold from one spot,
putting it in a different
spot. That's all they're doing.
[Jack] Wherever they threw
their tailings, there's a lo of gold.
I could go pan their slurry,
and find gold. I
will guarantee that.
I think, we ought to get
some of that material on.
And you ought to pan it.
No, you're right, Jack. There's
pay where you're standing.
Okay. Well, I'll come down and give me a
hand and we'll pick up some of that material.
Go pan it and...
-Let's do that.
-Let's find out.
[Jim] Let's do that.
[Jack] Yeah, I'm getting some.
We're taking three samples.
The end of the trommel,
where it looks like there's pay
spilling out the end,
which shouldn't happen.
We got a hole down there,
from a leak from the feeder box.
That all looks like pay,
we're taking a sample there.
We got gold up in the
trommel that looks trapped
behind some steel plating.
We're gotta take a sample there.
That's three very key parts of
the problems besides the obvious.
We're gonna find
out if we're right.
[Jim] Trapped
gold, number three.
That's it, bud.
Hey, well, we got the samples
we need. Let's go to the gold room,
and pan it.
There is not a lot of
time to get all the paydirt.
Get out of here
before it freezes up.
Old Man Winter's gonna
slam that door shut pretty quick.
Well, let's get this in here, pan
this stuff and see what we got.
[Jack] All right.
[Jim] Okay, So...
Let's do the trapped gold first.
-All right.
-And then we'll see if there's gold
stuck up there. That's uh, gold
that was up underneath the trommel.
-[Jack] Yeah. Yeah.
-[Jim] Stuck on that plate.
[Jack] Usually, I'm
hoping for gold in the pan,
[chuckles] I don't want
to find it right now, this...
...this is not a good
time to find gold.
-[Jim] Ooh. Not good.
-[Jack] What are you seeing?
There are some finds in there.
-[Jim] Oh. Wow.
-[Jack] That's what you cal about a $25 dollar gold pan
maybe $50 dollar gold pan.
We're seeing a lot of gold.
-[Jim] Yeesh, that's bad. Okay, so, let's do...
-[Jack] All right. Yeah.
[Jim] ...that bucket there, where it
went out from a leak from the feeder box
and we dug that up.
[Jack] Here we go.
Look at that though.
-[Jack] Yeah.
-[Jim] Well, this is more lost gold.
[Jim] Those are three pickers, I
can pick those up with my fingers.
-Hmm-mmm.
-Those are big.
-Yeah.
-Tells you they
-were running good pay, just never made it.
-Yeah.
-[Jack] Next.
-This is lost gold from down in the hole.
-[stones and mud clattering]
-[Jim] At the end of the trommel,
where it looks there's
pay spilling out the end.
[Jack] Moment of truth here.
Oh, holy crap.
[Jim] That's bad. Now that's...
[Jack] That's bad.
That's worse than bad.
-[Jim] That is insane.
-Jeez. Jeez!
-Dude, that's, good pay.
-That's... they're pouring it out the
freaking end, that's
what we thought.
[Jim] And, this is going out. They've been
hauling this stuff away in their tailings.
We've got a big problem.
And, it makes me
feel better to know that
there is some issues with
the plant. I think they've lost
-more than they've captured...
-They've lost more than they've captured.
-[Jack] I'll tell you that.
-That is...
...not good.
Holy moly, that's gonna
make our goal possible.
[Jack] Holy smokes.
[narrator] Even if the tromm gets adjusted,
it will stil need a working rock truck
to deliver pay dirt.
[Sparky] So, what's going on here
is that we're trying to put this wheel
under this 400, with the
330. And once this thing's on,
I'll be able to weld it up, then
we get back to getting gold.
[Randy] We're
not on the hub yet.
See, that section
where there's no studs?
And, then there's a
section here with no holes,
so we need to clock the
tire and the hub together,
so it'll go together.
So, what I may have you do i
come in at a little bit
of angle at the bottom
and then just kind
of push i up and on.
Okay.
[Sparky] Hopefully,
this works.
Careful, if that
falls off that jack...
If he pushes any
harder right now...
...this whole jack could fal
This whole rear end of this 400,
could possibly
fall on somebody.
[Randy] Dude, we only got
a quarter of an inch to go.
[Sparky] Dude, you know what's crazy
is that those holes are lining up on top,
I don't see 'em lining
up on the bottom.
[Sparky] The wheel,
it's on the hub, and now
it's not sliding in, and
we got Chris, the operator
trying to shove it into the hub,
but we're having a hard time.
-[Randy] Does he need...
-[Sparky] No, he's gotta go down.
[Randy] Come
down just a little bit.
[Sparky] Is it getting close?
-[Randy] It's all crooked.
-[Sparky] What the heck, dude?
Go up.
[Randy] Keep going.
Come on, pop in there.
We're not getting
it, 'cause we lost
so much metal on that wheel.
[Sparky] Dude, this
doesn't work out right,
we may have to like,
-tell Todd, okay, man...
-[Randy] Aye, aye, aye!
[Randy] He's
crookeder than hell.
I don't think we've
accomplished anything.
[Todd] I just got a call
from Jack and Thurber
you know it didn't sound
like bad news, but...
...maybe it is.
Come on in.
We're gonna show
you something that
you're gonna be surprised about.
-Come on in, now.
-What? What do you wanna show us?
Well, Big Trommel,
-Hot Mess.
-[Todd] Yeah.
So, this here is
material that fell out,
before the trommel.
That's just a shovel full,
that didn't even
make it in there.
[Jim] This here is where
it was trapped, in that steel
where it couldn't get out.
-Yeah?
-It's good, trapped.
It's not going out, but...
The bad part is the material
that went through the trommel
out on to the ground.
-What?
-[Jim and Jack] Yeah.
-That's going back out into the ground.
-Yeah, that's one shovel full.
This was sitting after it
went through the trommel.
So, it's getting shoved
through. The water bars,
I don't know if you've looked in there,
the first 12 feet, there's no nozzles.
This travelled
through over the holes,
-and out onto the ground.
-Back on the ground.
Yeah.
And there's a
mound of stuff there.
Well, we're coming to the
conclusion that the mine's good.
-[Jack] Yeah.
-Equipment's rough.
-That's a shovel full.
-[Andy] Really bad.
-Yeah, it's horrible.
-[Jack] One freaking shovel.
All right, well,
what do we got
to do to fix that?
We need to get
water, more water.
You can't add a
bunch more water.
The slurry pump's maxed out.
What can you do
quickly? We're not going
to be able to redesign this
-damn thing.
-We can level
and get rid of the...
-Steepness of it?
-[Jack] Hmm-mmm.
Maybe slow it down to...
I mean, even if we cut it,
50 yards an hour, if
we're catching all the gold,
-it's better than dumping-- -So,
we slow down the amount of feed,
level the box...
I can move some water
lines, block these off.
-[Todd] Right.
-Move it to the front.
-[Todd] Okay.
-That's all we can do.
[Todd] Guys, you
got one day to fix this.
That's it, so, pick the
fixes you wanna make,
and get on it, 'cause
we got one day.
Then we run.
[Hunter] This isn't funny, dude, we
really need to get this thing running.
[Hunter sigh]
[Todd] That big Hot Mess,
a freaking broken
trommel.
-[Hunter] Yeah.
-[Todd] It almost looks like an art piece, or something,
I don't know.
I would not call that art.
I know Jack and Jim have a
whole list of things they wanna fix,
but we don't have
time to do that.
Well, it had gold coming
out the end, obviously
we got a water issue. I'm
gonna try to get inside there.
I'll work on the water
once you work on the sluice.
-[Hunter] Right.
-Then, let's get this thing running and
throw some dirt down and
see if we can catch some gold.
That's the main thing,
if it's not catching gold,
then it's just like
this is a huge joke.
All right. Let's do it.
[narrator] Meanwhile,
Randy and Sparky
are still struggling with their bush fix
to a badly damaged wheel on a rock truck.
[Sparky] This truck's
not in operation.
And, unfortunately, we can'
haul pay in the meantime.
Right now, we're having issues,
putting in the
wheel on this 400.
It's hitting on something
within the hub, but,
there's a jack right
underneath there.
If it hits it any more then,
we could take the jack out, and
this whole rear end could fall over.
[Sparky] How's it
looking right now?
[Randy] It's all crooked.
We're gonna see what ideas
Randy's got and maybe we can
put this thing on
as fast as possible.
[narrator] Randy's bush-fix solution
is to have Chris bring the excavator
and use the claw to
stabilize and line up the wheel.
[Randy] He sure is
better at this than I am.
-[Randy] How's that look now?
-[Sparky] Oh, ho, there you go.
-We got to put the teeth.
Yeah, and -[Sparky] Push on it.
Just push on it, dude.
Track in.
You gotta be
parallel with this guy.
[Randy] That's it.
Lower the jack.
-[Randy] And, then we're in it.
-[Sparky] Oh, will do.
[Sparky] I'm gonna lower it.
[Randy] Beautiful.
[Sparky] It's getting there.
-[Randy laughing]
-[Sparky] Ooh.
[Randy] That
sumbitch just went on.
-[Sparky] Dude...
-[laughing]
Without you, that
would be impossible.
[Randy] Thank you.
[Randy] With much
fight, we finally got this
stupid wheel back on the hub
Now, we've got all these jagged
ends, these metal jagged ends,
and they're
against each other.
So, what we're going to do is,
we're gonna have Sparky here,
drive the truck,
and what will happen is that, those
jagged edges will get broken down.
-Yeah.
-And, then by the end of the day,
we'll have a nice
married wheel and hub
that we can trust.
-[Sparky] Yeah.
-For, hopefully 10 days.
We gotta take it
easy here, Randy.
Now, we gotta get
some pay to the plant.
Hey, Randy. I'll
see you at the load.
[horns honking]
[Hunter] I know Jason wants to run this
thing, but I'm not gonna run it like this.
It's just stupid.
We got gold pouring
out, six different areas.
[Hunter] And the sluice
isn't even catching it, so...
There's a million issues, but I feel
like we should address the sluice first.
[Jim] This one looks
steep as all heck.
-[Jim] So, it needs to be eight inches at this end.
-[Hunter] Yeah.
This plant's frustrating, and there's
a lot of things that are wrong with it,
and we don't have
time to fix all of 'em, so...
I'm trying to focus in
on the ones we can fix.
Most importantly is the sluice,
making sure all the pay is actually
getting down the sluice.
I think we jack up,
the first sluice here.
Get it to eight inches.
Okay. Bring that level, Thurb.
-[Jim] Just crank it.
-[Todd] Go. Crank it up. See if it'll go more.
-[Todd] More, little more...
-[Jim groans]
-Are you tired?
-[Jim groans]
[Todd] Yes, Thurber, go.
You're doing it!
[Jim groans]
Oh, we've run out of jack.
We're done Thurb.
[Jim] What I can do... Block it.
Put the foot down deeper.
Knows a lot about jacks.
[Jim] I've jacked
up a lot of stuff.
[Todd] Show 'em your
finger from the jack accident.
[Jim] I got all these
cut off right here.
They couldn't find
that piece, so...
[Todd] You got a little,
tiny fingernail on there.
[Jim speaking]
[Todd] Let's go.
Gotta go up more. Go!
[Jim] Want me to do it, Hunter?
-[Todd] Thurb, stop.
-[Hunter groans]
[Todd] All right,
let's measure it.
-[Hunter] Right about level right there?
-[Todd] No. Yep.
[Todd] There you go.
-[Todd] Whoo.
-Now, we got a heck of a gap there, see that?
-[Jim] There, gold is just sliding right in.
-[Todd] Goddang it.
That's money right there.
Honestly, I wish we didn't have to run
this plant, but we don't have a choice.
-So...
-No.
[Hunter] We got to get the
Hot Mess patched up, at least
get the holes patched and
get the sluice working right.
Cause we're never gonna get the
yardage if we don't get this thing running.
Sparky's cutting of
this last sluice here.
Gonna only run two.
We'll get rid of this one,
divert water and
material to those two.
[narrator] The Big Trommel
sluice box has three channel
This means the water pumped
through the box is spread over all three
by using a divider
to cut off one of them.
The pump water can more effectively
push gold down into the mats,
and debris out of the way.
This will be better for
everything we're trying to achieve.
[Hunter] Working
with Sparky and Jim,
my Dad and my Grandpa.
Got some caulk.
I'm kind of the only thing that
makes it worth it sometimes
when everything
else sucks, so.
Thankfully I have Sparky here,
he's gonna help do
all the welding with me.
I'm ready to bang
this out, dude.
We're gonna keep a good attitude,
we're gonna get this thing patched up
and get it working
as best as we can
and we're gonna make a
mad dash towards the end.
Oh, yeah, baby.
Dude, I think the young
guns are taking over.
-Remember when he was just a little guy?
-Yeah.
Running around the mine?
I was a safety director
and I just knew one of those
guys was gonna get smashed.
[engine whirring]
It's not a playground.
[motor whirring]
But they didn't, thankfully.
Looks good.
Sparky's getting
his last weld in.
Finished the chute,
we patched the holes
we got the sluice divider
in and this is it right here.
After this we should
be good to go.
-You like it?
-Yeah.
All right, you killed it, bro.
Get outta here.
Al, what do you think?
Everything looking okay?
I think so. I'll get it
all hooked up here.
Okay.
[narrator] The day after
the Hoffman team's repairs,
the Big Trommel is
ready to run again.
[narrator] And they
hope to prove to Jason
that their fixes will pay off.
First what we did is we
brought the sluice up a little bit,
made it not so steep.
We put a divider,
cut off that far run
cause it wasn't
getting a lot of the pay
and it was taking
a lot of the water.
And then me and Sparky
got up in the hopper
and he welded some plates in.
Hopefully, most of the
pay is staying inside
-and these are actually working better.
-Good.
That's the idea.
We'll know when
we fire up the water.
Okay.
Let's go ahead
and fire the waters.
[motor whirring]
Here it comes, Al.
Here comes the water.
[Hunter] We're gonna know pretty
quick if our fixes are working or not.
I'm confident they are
but this thing has
a lot of holes in it.
You wanna run some
water through the box?
-Is that what you're wanting?
-Yeah.
You guys ready?
Let's run it. Let's go.
Fire in the hole!
[Jack] I start real early.
I get up in the morning.
I make my wife coffee
and I bring it to her in
her own bed every day.
So while I'm gone doing this...
I know she misses it.
Okay. [straining]
Phew.
But this is my
favorite thing to do.
I can go to bed at night
and I can sleep well
because I know I've
done a good day's work.
We've got it.
It's on.
I've also probably got
one of the best wives.
[chuckles] You know,
anybody could have.
Of course I better say
that, you know? [inhales]
And...
But it's the truth.
Now, that's a... that's
a critical moment.
We got it done.
[water running]
[Jason] You wanna run
some water through the box?
-Is that what you wanting?
-Yeah.
You guy's ready?
Let's run it. Let's go.
Fire in the hole.
[splashing]
I'm hoping the sluice's are
gonna actually catch gold now.
Here it comes.
I think it looks good.
[Hunter] These
are way more even.
You gotta have the material
and the water combination
even on all your sluice runs.
So far, I like it, honestly.
If you don't have the material
and the water evened
out on both your runs...
the riffles aren't
gonna work right
and you're not gonna catch gold.
Jim, you like it?
Yeah, it's running
good. It's not packing up
and you can feel the
stuff hitting ya, it's...
doing its job.
How's it looking going in?
Good. Way better.
It was still getting a
little bit of water, but...
Before Mike welded this...
it was pouring out.
It's way better than it was.
Could be worse.
Once they get material in
things are gonna change.
I wanna drop material in
and see what it looks like then.
Yeah, it's good.
We're gonna start
throwing some buckets in,
then we'll get a real...
a real judge on this thing.
Trommel turning on. heads up.
All clear.
All clear.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Here we go. Big
Trommel in action.
I can probably go around all
the spots where I pan the pay
and not find any
when we get done, so...
Yeah.
Way better than
it was, I like it.
Here it comes!
Whoo!
You're dropping pay.
First bucket of pay is
moving down the trommel
and getting to the screens.
We're gonna see
how it's dropping out.
Thurber, what do you think?
All good.
Is it packing or moving it?
No, it's moving it.
You can feel it hitting ya.
How's the rocks
coming off the end?
They clean?
Clean.
[narrator] The day
of fixes is paying off.
The altered pitch
angle of the sluice deck
and the divider
cutting off one channel
are trapping gold
more effectively.
And Sparky's welds are
stopping the major leak
where gold was
spilling onto the ground.
I'm not saying we're
God's gift to mining
but we've got enough
experience in here that we're...
We know, we know enough.
You know, just to be dangerous.
The Big Trommel's
our hope for the season.
Winter's coming
really really fast.
This plant has to stay
going and not stop.
She's not the prettiest girl
but she knows how to get
down on the dance floor.
You know what I'm saying?
Whoo!
[all cheering]
Dude, we're mining, brother.
[narrator] After running
Z plant for a full week
along with four days
on the Hot Mess.
It's time for a last wash
to see if the Hoffman's are
closer to their 300 ounce goal.
[Jack] Can you believe it?
We're actually mining.
Pretty cool, huh?
I don't know. I don't
care to go mining
and have another loss.
-We've already had a lot of those.
-No.
We need a win.
Yeah, we're gonna win.
Don't worry.
Are you happy now
that we're out here?
I am happy because
we're doing it together.
Gold mining is
not just work thing,
it's kind of a way of life.
It's something that you just do,
and you either enjoy it...
-Or you hate it.
-Or you hate it.
I enjoy it.
I started gold mining
back in the '80s.
I put everything on the line
I didn't make it.
I still love it.
Changed from gold
fever to a way of life.
And I'm gonna keep doing it
Until...
[chuckles]
My number's up.
Listen,
there's the capabilities of
making everybody wealthy.
And that, that...
That's the goal,
is to help people
and all these people.
-I think it's gonna be good.
-Yeah.
Well, I love ya.
Okay, love you too.
How's it going out there?
Good.
What's up boys?
Come on in here.
How's it going?
[narrator] With only four
weeks left in the season
the Hoffman's are still 235 ounces of
gold away from their 600 ounce goal.
In order to stay on track they're
going to have to have mined
at least 47 ounces
of gold this week.
[Todd] Oh.
Here we go.
What is it?
Looks good.
It is good.
It is good?
Wanna know how good?
-Yeah.
-Yeah, we do.
-It seems good.
-Yes, I do.
I'll lay it out.
[Jack] 10,
20,
30,
33,
35,
38,
42,
-.95.
-Wow!
Not bad.
-We're getting closer.
-Yeah.
Not bad at all.
Dude, I like it.
We've never had that before.
[chuckles]
We've never been on
ground that has gold like this.
And I think this is what
we've all been waiting for.
So I don't know
about you guys but...
This is ground
worth being here for.
[narrator] The Hoffman
team has made a leap forward,
but are still below
the weekly target.
To reach a million
dollars for the full season
they'll need to average
48 ounces per week
for the next four weeks.
Don't you feel it? We're like
starting to come back to life.
I feel like we're
starting to get--
The trucking's getting better.
We gotta get our chops back.
Beggars can't be choosers.
You know you haven't scratched
some pay dirt for a long time.
You feeling it?
-Are you feeling like you're getting in?
-Yeah.
-You're following the train?
-Yep.
What's it like?
The gravels and
everything here are different.
It is different than anything
that we've mined for.
Um, so there's a
learning curve to those.
But I think we're all starting
to get into the groove a little bit.
Feels like 360 mining is
coming back from the dead
...piece by piece.
Are you guys-- How
are you guys feeling?
I didn't think it'd ever happen.
You?
No, but I'm glad it did.