Hoffman Family Gold (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Ice Ice Baby - full transcript
After
five tough weeks...
These guys were working
over 100 hours a week.
This isn't normal.
They're making things
work that shouldn't work.
...Todd Hoffman
and his crew...
Fire in the hole!
...are coming off
the best gold, yet.
50.95.
First time, we're over 50, guys!
- That's really good.
- Phenomenal.
But just when
things are going their way...
We're being more efficient and
equipment is running much better, now.
It feels like mining.
...winter
has arrived.
Holy *bleep*. Frozen!
Everything is frozen.
And after thecold
kills their best plant,
I'm frustrated. We have
the gold in the ground.
And when the
plant's not running,
it makes me mad.
The team worked
to keep the others alive...
This ain't going easy.
...so they can ge the
remaining 141 ounces needed...
We're gonna
be working around the clock.
24-7.
...before
their season freezes up.
This is the
moment where men are made.
We have to finish
the season strong.
We're gonna run the
wheels off this thing.
Right now, we're
at the home stretch.
I mean
this i a different animal.
Morning at the mi starts
early for camp welder Sparky Turner,
who arrives at Z Plant
to check the equipment
for the day of work ahead.
Oh!
It's already iced over.
Dude, ground's just frozen.
Look at all these icicles.
You know winter
is already here...
and you know we
only have a limited time.
Overnight saw a sudden
drop in temperatur to 21 degrees.
This is dangerously low
for a functioning mine.
It's frozen shut.
Uh, that's not good.
Oh, crap!
We need to
get up and get fired up.
That's
got a crack on it.
Dude, we got...
That was a cold snap.
It was supposed to
be 29 and we hit 21.
-Yeah.
-How bad is it?
Ah, it's not good.
Dakota! Dakota,
how much fuel have we got?
- It will make it until 12 o'clock.
- Okay.
Get ready to fire it up.
- We don't have time. This thing's gonna freeze up.
- Yeah.
Pumps on. How
much fuel in the pump?
I'll go check.
It's so cold.
This whole thing is gonna freeze
up probably in about 30 minutes.
Mike, what have we got?
We got one crack on the
side plane and the shaker deck.
We gotta get everything
fueled up quick.
This box is gonna ice over, so
we don't have any time to waste.
Mike, how long?
Half hour.
10 minutes, this plant has
gotta be running. Get it done!
Well, if I'm not busy talking
to you, maybe I'll get it done.
We got caught
with our pants down.
We almost got shut down.
Throw us out three,
four more weeks.
And here it is. It's 21.
We can only mine down
to about 12, 13 degrees,
and then we're done, done.
Frozen. Frozen.
At Hot Mess, mine owner,
Jason Otteson discovers the same outcome.
The wash plant
has frozen overnight.
Is it frozen onto the
sleeves right now?
Yeah, I'm frustrated.
The weather has been
an ass kicker this year.
It's been bad.
And we have pay dirt stacked up
and it's not washed.
That's the worst
situation as a miner.
We have the gold in the ground.
We have the guys
here to run the plant.
And when the
plant's not running,
it makes me mad
Water is the lifeline
of every plant on the mine.
It breaks up the
rocks and clay
and washes material
down the sluice,
separating out
the precious gold,
but once temperatures
drop to around 20 degrees,
plants began to lock up as the
water throughout them freezes.
And once temperatures
drop to 13 degrees and below,
there's no stopping the freeze
and it's no longer
safe to run the plants.
Hey,
Todd, the Big Trommel is down.
It's completely frozen.
We can't run it anymore.
This isn't good thing.
Sparky's gotta
get that thing done.
Go put pressure on him.
The thing is freezing up
every minute that goes by.
- I'm trying.
- You gotta get it going.
It's frozen.
- Everything is frozen.
- Get your torch on it.
That's gonna
take me a while to set up.
It's 10 minutes, Mike,
we gotta get it going.
Big Trommel is not running.
This is our last line
of defense, right now.
Until this plant
can run some dirt,
but we're almost 150
ounces from our goal.
We thought we might
have two more weeks,
but winter might be here now
Z is easier to start
back up, if it freezes up.
This one isn't, so...
This plant can produce
the most ounces daily.
We're losing a lot of
money if it's not running.
- She's ready!
- What's that?
She's ready! Go ahead, go!
Fire up the generator.
Yeah, let's get it going.
I'll help you fire up
and start feeding it.
We're gonna
ge this plant up and running,
no matter what it takes.
We're gonna feel and grease
later, get it up and running now,
start making gold.
You good, Nick?
Heads up,
heads up, heads up.
It's snowing right now.
Got a lot of time left.
It's gonna be cold.
It's gonna be tough.
Hopefully, we can
make it to the end.
I'll go deal with Jason on this.
He kind of effed up.
We won't get caught
like this, again.
With the
Hot Mes frozen solid
and Z Plant at risk
of freezing again,
Todd and Jason must come
up with a plan before night falls
and temperatures
drop even further.
-Hey, Todd.
-You feeling this?
It's coming.
The geese are flying.
They know what's up.
It means winter is coming fast.
This morning, there needed to
be an adjustment in schedule,
certainly, in light
of the freezing plant.
And now is when we have
to push into another level.
We have to run
through the night.
The guys don't like it.
It's hard.
-So... So we gotta run at night.
-Yeah.
I've been dreading this.
Actually, I've been
dreading it all season
because that's where
all the problems happen.
The ice...
And to be honest with you,
that's where stuff breaks.
I mean...
-It's tough.
-Tops blow up.
There's no other
way. It has to be done.
This time of year, it's a little
bit above freezing everyday,
and then at night, it
goes below freezing.
So our plants are made up of hoses
and spray nozzle and everything else
and that doesn't
do well if it's idle.
You have to spend hours
upon hours thawing it out.
We're fortunate to
ha the Z Plant running again
and the Test
Plant is cranking.
So, tonight, we're
gonna go to night shifts.
We gotta keep pushing and
pushing and run long hours.
And hopefully we can keep them
both running for a couple more nights.
Then, we can get Hot
Mess running again,
but it's gonna be a bigger
challenge to thaw it out.
This is the moment
where men are made.
We have to finish
the season strong.
And making it a vacation for
them will not win this battle.
-Yeah.
-It's gonna have to be a hard fight.
You know, if we can keep a
good attitude, we got a chance.
If not, this whole thing
is gonna disintegrate,
and we're gonna have
to get the hell out of here.
I think we're gonna have
to start up after dinner.
Their dinner will be breakfast.
-And everybody loves breakfast for dinner.
-Of course.
I know I do.
-I'm in.
-Let's do it.
All right, let's go.
Before the first
night shift of the season,
the day crew finishes their
shift by prepping the machinery,
so it can run straight
through the night.
They're gonna show up
about 12:00 a.m. or 12:30 a.m.
and run till about
8:00, 8:30 a.m.
How does that 200
pounds of hose feel?
That hose, I kid you not,
weighs about 200, 250 pounds.
We're doing the fuel
in on all the generators, pumps
plants, you name it.
You know I might
get put on night shift.
And I don't think anybody here understands
that if I do get put on night shift,
they also will have to
buy me a plane ticket
because I'm gonna
go straight home.
I can't stay awake at night
And it's not worth it in my eyes to
potentially risking me hurting somebody
And I made it known
before I came here
that the night
shift is something
that I can't and
won't partake in.
All right, I just tagged
and locked this out.
I'm gonna get in there
and grease that plant up.
All right, my man.
Night shift is
where things get really tough.
And it's not easy.
Anything can happen and
no one is awake, but two guys.
So it's pretty
rough out there.
Bring her down right here and I'm gonna
have you dump it right below me, here.
Up until this point,
we haven't had the rock
trucks running at night.
It's a little bit
more dangerous.
But right now, we don't
really have a choice,
so we're just taking
it nice and easy.
They've been hauling
pay to the plant.
We're getting a
nice, little stockpile.
And then we should be set
to run for the rest of the night.
Just come straight back to me,
and I'm gonna have you get it
nice and tight against this hill,
so it's out of the way.
Go
a little bit more right.
Yeah, perfect.
It looks good.
With enough pay at hand
and the machines greased and ready...
-Hey, Matt!
-Hey!
...it's time for Matt and Lu to begin
their first shift through the night.
-It's all yours, buddy.
-We'll see you.
-Good morning.
-Good morning.
Good work.
I think this plant is getting
a little bit more thawed out.
I'm able to run this material a little bit
faster than I was when I started which is good.
Crank up.
Get a little bit, hopefully
more than 2 scoops a minute in.
So even with the
Hot Mess down,
we can still get quite
a few yards through
with Test Plant and
the Z Plant together.
They both gotta be running.
So everybody's
working really hard.
Everybody's going
overtime, including myself.
You know what? We're
getting the yardage that we need
and we're gonna succeed
at this no matter what it takes.
Shut it down!
Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut the plant down!
The drive motor for the
shaker deck is caught sideways
like it has been
multiple times before.
With Hot Mess
frozen and not able to run,
Z Plant is the mine's
main producer of gold.
But it has just
unexpectedl shut down.
It throws this belt off, and then, we
have to shut down and fix it, obviously.
We're going on like five or six
times that this has happened
when I've been
running, at least.
It's definitely urgent to get
this guy back up and going.
The Big Trommel is
not even able to run
and this material is all frozen.
So I'm trying to dig it out
before Randy gets here,
save him some time.
Hopefully, uh...
...cut our shut down
time down a little bit.
Dakota, I need a 5/16
driver for that poly deck.
Randy will just try
to wiggle his arm in,
-but I'm gonna take it off, so he can look in there.
-Oh, okay.
-You know what I'm talking about.
-Yeah.
Too tired to do this.
I'm falling asleep
feeding the machine.
We're getting like four
hours of sleep right now.
We're working round
the clock, right now,
to try to keep this running
at least 23 hours a day
to keep it from freezing up
The other end of it is if
you keep it running too long
without maintenancing
it and greasing it,
you can have a failure
there from wear and tear,
so it's a fine line to
walk on productivity.
Now, we're shut down,
so we'll see what we can do
how quickly we can get
this guy back up and running
Well, well, well, we meet again.
-Looks like I managed to find the front loader parking.
-Yeah.
That belt
just jumped off.
Holy! That is off!
So check this out.
Oh!
- It's broken?
- Yep.
- I think that's the problem.
- Yeah.
So our adjusting plate...
that we've adjust tension
on, on our shaker deck
has broken free
from the punch plate
because you can't
weld to punch plate,
there's nothing to weld to it.
It's a bunch of holes.
It's just a terrible design.
It needs to be completely
removed and a new plate put in.
I can't believe
somebody even built this
with the punch
plate on the bottom.
- A punch plate.
- Was it cheaper than...
I'm not going
there, not going there.
I think it's just the way that
this whole plant is set up.
-There's a lot corners cut, initially.
-Yep.
This needs to be
done right the first time.
With Z Plant
and Hot Mess down,
and only Test Plant
to carry the load,
the Hoffmans are losing time
and money they don't have
which means another
critical bush fix for Randy
and a scavenger
hunt for the right parts.
Hey, uh, Sparky!
What's going on, my man?
We got an issue
here. Look at this.
The
adjuster's all broken.
We need to revamp
this and do it right.
Yeah, be done with this crap.
-You can pay for it now or you can pay it for later.
-Yeah.
And currently, he's been
paying for it for too long.
It's time to do it right.
Why don't we do this?
Up the creek here, there's some
old equipment on the side of the road.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's got electric motors.
Let's go see if we can't
find an adjustable plate.
-Get rid of this crap!
-Yeah.
And do it right
and we can adjust it
wherever we want it.
However we wanna do
and just stick it right there.
Let's take my truck.
We'll go up there
and look for parts.
Let's do it, baby.
Oh, Jason's here.
Jason, I need to go scrounging
for some parts to fix the plant.
What's a realistic
timeline, do you think?
-Couple hours?
-I'm hoping by the end of the day.
So, uh...
-I'll do my best.
-Okay.
Can you have it done by
dark, so we can at least have
the night shift start up?
I'm hoping
by the end of the day.
I mean it may freeze.
The temperature
has risen to 26 degrees.
But once the sun goes down,
the temperature will drop rapidly.
If it gets down to
around 18 degrees,
the plant will
shut down again.
All right, I get you.
Well, we'll do our best to get
it done as soon as possible,
before dark.
Sparky, we gotta haul ass.
The worst
time in placer mining
is the last third
of the season.
The weather is different.
I mean, this is a
different animal.
This is way harder
mining, but way better gold
than the Yukon
could ever dream of.
I'm not going home
without the gold.
We're gonna beat this mine.
But I'll tell you what.
We only have one
option right now,
and that's to get
the Z Plant running.
Have you ever seen
this drop like this?
- From 29 to 21?
- Every year.
This type of step down is
usually first of October, not now.
- We won't get caught again.
- No.
It was a wake-up call.
-We're not gonna get another chance like this.
-No.
I need you to lay
into these guys
on how important
this is 'cause this is it.
- It's over.
- Yeah.
-This happens again, we're screwed. Okay?
-Okay. Yeah.
If we lose
this, we got nothing.
Big Trommel's it.
-Jason, what do you think?
-Yeah, I agree.
And it's, it's...
You gotta
get that thing running.
This thing breaks,
we're screwed.
I mean, we had to
plan on this breaking.
I get it.
It'll be ready.
Sometimes,
everything feels
like it's just going
against you.
But I guarantee you, I'm
never gonna do this again.
My whole mining future
is on the table right now.
Our ponds are frozen up!
Our time's limited.
I guarantee that.
All right, you wanna
get this pull and get this thing done.
Yeah, let's get these pulled
to get them up to Jack and Thurber.
Do it.
She might be
froze up pretty bad.
We're the guys for the job.
Hot Mess was
operational for two day
after it's last mat pull.
Then, temperatures dropped
and the plant iced over.
We're gonna
be here a while.
Now the team
take this opportunity to clean
the mats off
its frozen sluice.
We're definitely battling
this freezing weath right now.
It makes this task way
harde than it needs to be.
Not only does
it make it harder,
it makes it take way longer.
It's really difficult.
You gotta come in and thaw
the whole box out, one at a time.
Get so frozen, you
can't even think right
It's definitely not easy.
It's like a *bleep* joke.
A sick joke.
As we get colder and
colder weather coming in
this job right here is gonna
get nearly impossible to do.
By the looks of this time..
I think we maybe have one or
two more cleanups in our book,
so we really need
to make sure that...
we're doing everything
we can to catch all the gold
and not make any
stupid mistakes.
What do you think? Have
we got a couple more weeks?
Maybe at the most.
I mean, looking at the weather,
it's just gonna get worse
and worse from here.
Unless we had a heated
dome tent for the whole plant.
That'd be pretty cool.
It's definitely harder on the miners
moss and carpets doing it frozen.
That's for sure.
One more.
Back in here.
That looks pretty good.
Wrap up, get out of here and go get
those clean, come back and throw them in.
Dude, check this out.
We got an old conveyor.
-Really old trommel.
-Dude!
Look at this feeder over here.
That is totally made up.
Feeder hopper, dude.
Randy and
Sparky are under the gun
and hope to find some
part of the graveyard
that will help them make quick
work of fixing the Z plant motor.
Look at this motor.
Is there a plate on it?
-No plate.
-No plate, just wood.
Bolted to wood.
What do we got on this jig?
Nothing there.
-Nothing there.
-Nothing.
Nothing there.
Dude, check that out.
What if we mounted the
motor to a piece of steel, right?
Square steel.
The motor will be
bolted to the plate
so that we never have to worry
about the motor coming loose
and getting all
out of adjustment.
Bolt the motor
directly to the plate,
and then move the
plate, not the motor.
Before, the moto
was bolted to a punch plate
so readjusting the tension
meant moving and rebolting i
With Randy's fix,
inspired by his find
at the graveyard,
the motor will sit on
an adjustable track,
sliding back and
forth as needed.
So, then
we just check that out,
and all else fails,
we're gonna have to
handmake this, dude.
I think we're gonna
have to handmake it.
- Yep.
- -I don't think we ca buy these parts at the store
It's cold.
Jack and Jim are
washing this week's concentrate
from the frozen Hot Mess.
Oh, I'm trying
to die of hypothermia.
You know,
freeze-up's coming.
Yesterday, I walked out
and our handrail was froze.
We got all that we
need in that place.
We can't have any of
this equipment freezing.
One broken valve could shut
us down for days, you know?
We'd have to go into
Nome and get parts.
All this stuff, it is
dependent upon not freezing.
With the
night shift startin
everyone's working
around the clock.
You need a good sense of humor.
If you don't laugh, you'd cry.
So, uh, yeah. It's...
It's not easy.
The old saying, "If it was
easy, everybody would do it,"
but I don't think
they're that crazy.
Our part...
...is always fine because
we're always seeing gold.
You know, at least
a little bit, you know?
Hang on, we gotta have
room to put the bucket in there.
- You got her?
- Yep.
There we go. That's nice.
That's a whole
pile of gold there.
People don't understand
there's thousands of
dollars in this bucket.
There might not be
that many ounces,
but there's thousands
of dollars in this bucket.
And that's what pays the bills.
At the camp, Sparky
and Randy work feverishly
on their new mounting
syste for the Z plant motor,
trying to outrun the sun and fix
the plant before it freezes again.
This is gonna be
the platform for the motor.
Been working on this all day.
It's getting dark soon.
We've decided that
this is gonna be our adjuster.
Now that we've got this
stationary and drilled,
we can go ahead and finish
welding it to the steel structure,
and when we turn the turnbuckle,
it will raise the plate up
and adjust the belt tension.
I'm pretty sure me and Randy
got this down, but who knows?
I may have to wake
up, 2, 3 in the morning,
go out there and have to fix it.
Oh, man. This is
a lot of hard work.
I know Jason wanted
this ready for the night shift,
but, uh, quality takes time
You can't just...
...throw things together
and expect it to hold.
So, this time, we're
gonna do it right.
When it's done,
it'll be simple, easy.
Anybody can change the belt or
tension of the belt when we get done.
Hot to the touch?
Don't lick it yet?
- Yeah, I would say don't lick it yet.
- Okay.
Flip her back and then we can
put these washers and nuts on.
I think it'll
last till the next season,
but as long as we can make
this last till the end of the season,
that's what...
That's what counts,
for this thing to just
last four more weeks.
Hey, Randy, you got a copy?
This is Randy, go ahead.
Hey, i Sparky gonna
have that plat done for the night shift?
I think we're
gonna run a little late.
We gotta get the
night shift in if we can.
We'll, uh... We'll get it
done as fast as we can.
With
every passing hour,
the temperature drops furthe
getting into dangerous
territory for the plant.
Holy *bleep*, that's hot.
Damn it.
Did you just throw
your cinnamon roll off?
-No, a pork chop, dude. Even worse.
-Oh, my God!
That was my last pork
chop I just dropped on the ground.
I don't know if it's God saying that
today is just gonna get harder and harder
or if it's just a
simple mistake,
but I'm sad.
I'm gonna freak out, man.
Hey, Nick? You got a copy?
- Oh, crap.
- Yep, go for Nick.
Hey,
when you get done with lunch
I need you to relieve the
crew over at the test plant.
We gotta keep that running.
Yeah, I can try.
Dakota we'll put you in a truck.
Have it keep trucking.
Sick!
Time to go
be cold and wet.
Unfortunately, I had to
cut the guys' lunch short.
The Z plant's down. We have
to, uh, build a motor mount
The Big Trommel's down.
For right now,
we have this plant.
This plant's what we have,
and we're very blessed
to have that plant.
Weather's coming.
We don't have very many days
so right now, we're
at least running,
albeit on the smallest
plant we have,
but we're producing.
We're hitting that goal.
If we can get this
plant running all day,
we will not lose time.
All right, I need
some material in there.
You know, with Luke working
night shif and Matt working night shift
it's really just Dakota,
Sparky and myself.
We're out here grinding
around the clock,
many, many hours a day.
I think we're putting in between
16 and 18 hours a day right now.
It's like I'm just waiting for
this test plant to break down.
It's meant to be ran, you
know, 100 yards maybe a day,
and here, we're trying to ru
almost triple, quadruple tha
in a short amount of time.
It's hard on everything. It's...
It's not gonna last like this,
but we're gonna be the ones to
test it out and see how long it will go.
We gotta get up
there. It's getting dark.
Yeah.
With the sun going
down, the temperature is dropping
Randy and Sparky rush
to get the motor to Z plant
even as the welds
are still fresh.
That's hot.
Yeah, it's pretty hot.
Okay, one, two, three.
Toss it.
- Are you all right?
- Dude, you okay?
- Yeah.
- I'm good. Just...
That was like a leap of faith.
Like, I was either that's
going down or I'm going down.
Hey, did you
say you had a chain?
Yes, I do.
The motor
weighs almost 200 pounds,
so to get it
installed correctly,
we're gonna use the
excavato to put it in place.
That's a mighty rusty
chain you got there, uh...
- Yeah.
- ...Sparky.
If this motor
were to happen to drop,
there's no telling what
it could do to the shaft
or what it could do
to what I just welded.
Oh, no.
Careful!
Careful!
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Randy, stop!
Dude!
Careful!
Careful!
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Randy!
Dude!
I got it.
Nice
save, Randy.
It almost fell.
I'm gonna zip off
the old brackets,
and after we zip it off,
gonna shove this thing
right back into there,
weld the angle
that's behind it,
just so that we can
install that little...
That little swivel
right in front of it.
Hopefully, be able
to put the belt on
and test this thing out.
It's 9:30 PM.
The sun has dropped,
and with it, the temperature
Currently at 22 degrees,
Randy and Sparky know
they're on borrowed time
to get Z plant running
before she freezes up.
Perfect.
All right.
We can go ahead
and set her now, right?
Here, look
down these pulleys.
I'll pull this over
just a smidge.
All right. Now, that's...
- That's in.
- Oh, dude, that is spot on!
- That's a lot better now, isn't it?
- Yeah.
All right, I
like that. Let's do it.
- Let's nail her.
- All right.
Go ahead, Todd. Go ahead.
Yeah, we
got her all aligned.
Sparky's about ready to,
uh, weld the, uh, backplate,
and then, uh, we gotta add some
steel here for our front adjustment,
and then we'll be ready.
We're working as
fast as we can, Todd.
Sorry about the lateness.
Ooh, he's getting
a knuckle sandwich.
The night crew
arrives to start their shift
All right, Luke, ready to
do this night shift thing?
But with Randy and Sparky
racing to get the motor plate fixed,
tonight's efforts will begi
with thawing the frozen plan
This is my first time
thawing the box out.
We've had ice over it before
and it took about
30 minutes, probably.
Can you see this down here?
See how hard it is?
And it's
all hands on deck
to get Z plant up and runnin
as more of the team show
up to help prepare the plant.
So, we just
got back to the Z.
We're gonna get everything
fueled and greased
and ready for the night crew.
We're gonna fire
up these machines,
get 'em all warmed up for 'em.
We wanna get this thing running
and hopefully, have it in about a
23-hour continuous loop every day.
Just like
your car or your truck,
you gotta keep your oil
changed, maintenance up.
Can't have any of these bushings
or bearings in here break down.
I mean, if one of these pieces of
equipment are down for a few hours,
that's just time
down on the plant.
As the crew finishes
readying the plant for the night shift,
all eyes turn to
Randy and Sparky,
who have to finish
the motor plate fix.
Putting this
on right now, it's, like...
We're working
with what we got...
...and we should be able to finish with
this thing in the next 30 minutes or so.
Todd's been hounding us on it.
Now, we're getting it done.
I can barely see what
I'm doing when it gets this dark.
It's pitch-black outside.
The night crew was
supposed to be on already,
and here we are
still fabricating,
and, uh, I'm...
I'm pretty sure Jason's gonna
give us an earful in the morning.
This is at the end of
the day. We're all tired, wet.
My socks have been soggy
for about 15 hours right now.
Um, I'm just not
very comfortable.
We're gonna run the
wheels off this thing.
Right now, we're
at the homestretch.
It's all hands on deck.
We need everybody just
to keep this plant running.
I'm pretty sure
that's it, Rando.
Yeah? You sure?
Dude, she looks
freaking amazing.
-Oh, yeah, dude.
-So much better than what it was.
-So much better, dude.
-Look at that sturdy mount,
- hinged.
- Dude, this thing's mint.
We'll never
have another issue.
Not at all, my man.
-She's ready to go.
-Good work, my man!
Hey, guys. It's below 20.
We're about ready
to kick it into gear.
Okay, 10-4.
- We'll start her up.
- All right.
There's no
question winter is here,
but hopefully, we can eke a
couple more weeks out of this thing.
I hope that we were able to run enough
dirt this wee so it doesn't set us back.
Most importantly right
now, I hope this thing starts.
Fire it up!
Okay, guys. Keep it going!
Good work!
Way to go!
I guess we're
going to night shifts.
All the guys?
- So, we're a little shorthanded, so that means...
- Me and you.
We can do it.
Probably the best
operators out there.
We started the night shift.
Used to have my own outfit
that said "night shift Todd."
-Okay?
-Wow.
-That's a little much.
-I can't fit in it anymore...
Yeah.
...but there is an outfit out
there that has my name on it.
You think he's
kidding. He's not kidding.
Little red jumpsuit.
What's so funny about that?
Did it have the flap in
the front or in the back?
It didn't have a flap.
Dude.
-What are you supposed to do, then?
-Hey, you don't stop.
Just let it happen.
That's how you do night shift.
Another night shi
comes to an end for Matt and Luke
as the day crew
arrives to start their shift.
I was just telling Dakota,
I'm really thankful we got a good
group of guys working the night shift
that we don't have
to worry about, so...
Thank you.
Well, I appreciate that and, uh,
I appreciate y'all busting
y'all's rear end all day.
-Making sure we have what we need to get going.
-Yeah.
All right, well, we'll get
these guys swapped out
-and you can head to bed.
-Yeah.
- All right, guys. Y'all have a good day.
- You, too.
-I appreciate it.
-All right.
We work hard at night.
The long freeze is coming.
It's getting colder.
Our pond has ice
all the way across it.
We know it's coming.
We know at some point,
we're gonna have to shut dow
We wanna keep going
as long as we can...
Morning, morning.
- Morning.
- Goodnight, goodnight.
...so we'll be as
productive as possible.
All right,
bro, have a good one.
All right. You, too, bud.
Been working
12 hours all night.
Dead tired.
Man, I could pass
out and I'm about to.
Yeah, I can't even... I'm not
even thinking straight right now,
so ready to go to bed.
Got the plant going.
Everything went real well.
Now, it's time to sleep.
We don't get some sleep,
then we won't be able to...
To go for the next night,
so now we're
gonna get some rest.
- Hey, boys.
- Hey.
Yo.
Hey, guys, I hope the night
shift hasn't been too brutal for you.
We're gonna have
to run 24/7, 24/7.
If the plant's running,
we can't really turn it off.
That sucks, but
I agree with you.
I'm concerned
that we're gonna make it.
Me, too.
We can't even get five...
A five-hour run in before
something happens.
That's why I'm surprised
everybody still has a good attitude,
'cause it's so frustrating.
You know, we're asking
a lot of these guys.
Moving to night shift means
even more grueling hours at night.
They're tired,
they're worn out,
but we gotta keep pushing
all the way to the goal line
especially because our
equipment just keeps breaking down
and we're losing hours.
I feel like I'm in, uh,
Groundhog Day with that Z plant.
Same.
Yeah.
It's hard 'cause we don't have a
lot of time to fix things correctly,
I get that, but...
...we keep Band-Aiding
stuff and we're paying for it.
Well, keep jamming it through.
As long as it's
running, feed it.
Don't overfeed
it, obviously, but...
...keep the material running.
Every bucket has gold in it.
Yeah.
- Hear, hear.
- Yeah.
You know, this week, we got in
trouble because of the plants freezing.
We need 47 ounces this week
and I'm cautiously
optimistic about it.
That actually looks
like it's pretty good.
-Dad, call it up, man.
-Okay.
There's, six,
seven, eight, nine,
10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15,
19, 20,
22, 25, 28...
...34, 35,
38,
39...
...40.
Right on the money.
Well, we went
backwards a little bit.
And the gold's in
the stinking ground.
Yeah, it's there.
Pay dirt's not the problem.
This is just over three ounces.
- A hundred? Wow.
- Over a hundred, yeah.
What I'm worried
about-- -The paydirt's going up,
and our plants are going down...
And we're still not on track.
And it's only gonna get harder.
Nothing's getting
in better shape.
Everything's wearing out.
It's getting colder.
We can still make it.
This pay dirt is
getting interesting.
We'll keep scratching.
Keep digging holes.
Keep testing, you know,
and keep the plants running.
It's all we can
do at this point.
With season's
en approaching rapidly,
the Hoffmans still need
101 ounces of gold.
In order to reach
their 300-ounce goal
before winter shuts
down the mine,
they'll need to get all
three wash plants runnin
and have teams
working around the clock.
I mean, I'm
honestly getting worried,
but I feel like we
could pull it off.
Just for the fact that
the gold is so good here.
We know what it
feels like to fall short,
and I want us to know
what it feels like to win.
Yeah.
This could be our
last year we ever go mining,
so whatever we need
to do to get to our goal,
we're just gonna have to do it.
Dig deep. Let's do this.
five tough weeks...
These guys were working
over 100 hours a week.
This isn't normal.
They're making things
work that shouldn't work.
...Todd Hoffman
and his crew...
Fire in the hole!
...are coming off
the best gold, yet.
50.95.
First time, we're over 50, guys!
- That's really good.
- Phenomenal.
But just when
things are going their way...
We're being more efficient and
equipment is running much better, now.
It feels like mining.
...winter
has arrived.
Holy *bleep*. Frozen!
Everything is frozen.
And after thecold
kills their best plant,
I'm frustrated. We have
the gold in the ground.
And when the
plant's not running,
it makes me mad.
The team worked
to keep the others alive...
This ain't going easy.
...so they can ge the
remaining 141 ounces needed...
We're gonna
be working around the clock.
24-7.
...before
their season freezes up.
This is the
moment where men are made.
We have to finish
the season strong.
We're gonna run the
wheels off this thing.
Right now, we're
at the home stretch.
I mean
this i a different animal.
Morning at the mi starts
early for camp welder Sparky Turner,
who arrives at Z Plant
to check the equipment
for the day of work ahead.
Oh!
It's already iced over.
Dude, ground's just frozen.
Look at all these icicles.
You know winter
is already here...
and you know we
only have a limited time.
Overnight saw a sudden
drop in temperatur to 21 degrees.
This is dangerously low
for a functioning mine.
It's frozen shut.
Uh, that's not good.
Oh, crap!
We need to
get up and get fired up.
That's
got a crack on it.
Dude, we got...
That was a cold snap.
It was supposed to
be 29 and we hit 21.
-Yeah.
-How bad is it?
Ah, it's not good.
Dakota! Dakota,
how much fuel have we got?
- It will make it until 12 o'clock.
- Okay.
Get ready to fire it up.
- We don't have time. This thing's gonna freeze up.
- Yeah.
Pumps on. How
much fuel in the pump?
I'll go check.
It's so cold.
This whole thing is gonna freeze
up probably in about 30 minutes.
Mike, what have we got?
We got one crack on the
side plane and the shaker deck.
We gotta get everything
fueled up quick.
This box is gonna ice over, so
we don't have any time to waste.
Mike, how long?
Half hour.
10 minutes, this plant has
gotta be running. Get it done!
Well, if I'm not busy talking
to you, maybe I'll get it done.
We got caught
with our pants down.
We almost got shut down.
Throw us out three,
four more weeks.
And here it is. It's 21.
We can only mine down
to about 12, 13 degrees,
and then we're done, done.
Frozen. Frozen.
At Hot Mess, mine owner,
Jason Otteson discovers the same outcome.
The wash plant
has frozen overnight.
Is it frozen onto the
sleeves right now?
Yeah, I'm frustrated.
The weather has been
an ass kicker this year.
It's been bad.
And we have pay dirt stacked up
and it's not washed.
That's the worst
situation as a miner.
We have the gold in the ground.
We have the guys
here to run the plant.
And when the
plant's not running,
it makes me mad
Water is the lifeline
of every plant on the mine.
It breaks up the
rocks and clay
and washes material
down the sluice,
separating out
the precious gold,
but once temperatures
drop to around 20 degrees,
plants began to lock up as the
water throughout them freezes.
And once temperatures
drop to 13 degrees and below,
there's no stopping the freeze
and it's no longer
safe to run the plants.
Hey,
Todd, the Big Trommel is down.
It's completely frozen.
We can't run it anymore.
This isn't good thing.
Sparky's gotta
get that thing done.
Go put pressure on him.
The thing is freezing up
every minute that goes by.
- I'm trying.
- You gotta get it going.
It's frozen.
- Everything is frozen.
- Get your torch on it.
That's gonna
take me a while to set up.
It's 10 minutes, Mike,
we gotta get it going.
Big Trommel is not running.
This is our last line
of defense, right now.
Until this plant
can run some dirt,
but we're almost 150
ounces from our goal.
We thought we might
have two more weeks,
but winter might be here now
Z is easier to start
back up, if it freezes up.
This one isn't, so...
This plant can produce
the most ounces daily.
We're losing a lot of
money if it's not running.
- She's ready!
- What's that?
She's ready! Go ahead, go!
Fire up the generator.
Yeah, let's get it going.
I'll help you fire up
and start feeding it.
We're gonna
ge this plant up and running,
no matter what it takes.
We're gonna feel and grease
later, get it up and running now,
start making gold.
You good, Nick?
Heads up,
heads up, heads up.
It's snowing right now.
Got a lot of time left.
It's gonna be cold.
It's gonna be tough.
Hopefully, we can
make it to the end.
I'll go deal with Jason on this.
He kind of effed up.
We won't get caught
like this, again.
With the
Hot Mes frozen solid
and Z Plant at risk
of freezing again,
Todd and Jason must come
up with a plan before night falls
and temperatures
drop even further.
-Hey, Todd.
-You feeling this?
It's coming.
The geese are flying.
They know what's up.
It means winter is coming fast.
This morning, there needed to
be an adjustment in schedule,
certainly, in light
of the freezing plant.
And now is when we have
to push into another level.
We have to run
through the night.
The guys don't like it.
It's hard.
-So... So we gotta run at night.
-Yeah.
I've been dreading this.
Actually, I've been
dreading it all season
because that's where
all the problems happen.
The ice...
And to be honest with you,
that's where stuff breaks.
I mean...
-It's tough.
-Tops blow up.
There's no other
way. It has to be done.
This time of year, it's a little
bit above freezing everyday,
and then at night, it
goes below freezing.
So our plants are made up of hoses
and spray nozzle and everything else
and that doesn't
do well if it's idle.
You have to spend hours
upon hours thawing it out.
We're fortunate to
ha the Z Plant running again
and the Test
Plant is cranking.
So, tonight, we're
gonna go to night shifts.
We gotta keep pushing and
pushing and run long hours.
And hopefully we can keep them
both running for a couple more nights.
Then, we can get Hot
Mess running again,
but it's gonna be a bigger
challenge to thaw it out.
This is the moment
where men are made.
We have to finish
the season strong.
And making it a vacation for
them will not win this battle.
-Yeah.
-It's gonna have to be a hard fight.
You know, if we can keep a
good attitude, we got a chance.
If not, this whole thing
is gonna disintegrate,
and we're gonna have
to get the hell out of here.
I think we're gonna have
to start up after dinner.
Their dinner will be breakfast.
-And everybody loves breakfast for dinner.
-Of course.
I know I do.
-I'm in.
-Let's do it.
All right, let's go.
Before the first
night shift of the season,
the day crew finishes their
shift by prepping the machinery,
so it can run straight
through the night.
They're gonna show up
about 12:00 a.m. or 12:30 a.m.
and run till about
8:00, 8:30 a.m.
How does that 200
pounds of hose feel?
That hose, I kid you not,
weighs about 200, 250 pounds.
We're doing the fuel
in on all the generators, pumps
plants, you name it.
You know I might
get put on night shift.
And I don't think anybody here understands
that if I do get put on night shift,
they also will have to
buy me a plane ticket
because I'm gonna
go straight home.
I can't stay awake at night
And it's not worth it in my eyes to
potentially risking me hurting somebody
And I made it known
before I came here
that the night
shift is something
that I can't and
won't partake in.
All right, I just tagged
and locked this out.
I'm gonna get in there
and grease that plant up.
All right, my man.
Night shift is
where things get really tough.
And it's not easy.
Anything can happen and
no one is awake, but two guys.
So it's pretty
rough out there.
Bring her down right here and I'm gonna
have you dump it right below me, here.
Up until this point,
we haven't had the rock
trucks running at night.
It's a little bit
more dangerous.
But right now, we don't
really have a choice,
so we're just taking
it nice and easy.
They've been hauling
pay to the plant.
We're getting a
nice, little stockpile.
And then we should be set
to run for the rest of the night.
Just come straight back to me,
and I'm gonna have you get it
nice and tight against this hill,
so it's out of the way.
Go
a little bit more right.
Yeah, perfect.
It looks good.
With enough pay at hand
and the machines greased and ready...
-Hey, Matt!
-Hey!
...it's time for Matt and Lu to begin
their first shift through the night.
-It's all yours, buddy.
-We'll see you.
-Good morning.
-Good morning.
Good work.
I think this plant is getting
a little bit more thawed out.
I'm able to run this material a little bit
faster than I was when I started which is good.
Crank up.
Get a little bit, hopefully
more than 2 scoops a minute in.
So even with the
Hot Mess down,
we can still get quite
a few yards through
with Test Plant and
the Z Plant together.
They both gotta be running.
So everybody's
working really hard.
Everybody's going
overtime, including myself.
You know what? We're
getting the yardage that we need
and we're gonna succeed
at this no matter what it takes.
Shut it down!
Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut the plant down!
The drive motor for the
shaker deck is caught sideways
like it has been
multiple times before.
With Hot Mess
frozen and not able to run,
Z Plant is the mine's
main producer of gold.
But it has just
unexpectedl shut down.
It throws this belt off, and then, we
have to shut down and fix it, obviously.
We're going on like five or six
times that this has happened
when I've been
running, at least.
It's definitely urgent to get
this guy back up and going.
The Big Trommel is
not even able to run
and this material is all frozen.
So I'm trying to dig it out
before Randy gets here,
save him some time.
Hopefully, uh...
...cut our shut down
time down a little bit.
Dakota, I need a 5/16
driver for that poly deck.
Randy will just try
to wiggle his arm in,
-but I'm gonna take it off, so he can look in there.
-Oh, okay.
-You know what I'm talking about.
-Yeah.
Too tired to do this.
I'm falling asleep
feeding the machine.
We're getting like four
hours of sleep right now.
We're working round
the clock, right now,
to try to keep this running
at least 23 hours a day
to keep it from freezing up
The other end of it is if
you keep it running too long
without maintenancing
it and greasing it,
you can have a failure
there from wear and tear,
so it's a fine line to
walk on productivity.
Now, we're shut down,
so we'll see what we can do
how quickly we can get
this guy back up and running
Well, well, well, we meet again.
-Looks like I managed to find the front loader parking.
-Yeah.
That belt
just jumped off.
Holy! That is off!
So check this out.
Oh!
- It's broken?
- Yep.
- I think that's the problem.
- Yeah.
So our adjusting plate...
that we've adjust tension
on, on our shaker deck
has broken free
from the punch plate
because you can't
weld to punch plate,
there's nothing to weld to it.
It's a bunch of holes.
It's just a terrible design.
It needs to be completely
removed and a new plate put in.
I can't believe
somebody even built this
with the punch
plate on the bottom.
- A punch plate.
- Was it cheaper than...
I'm not going
there, not going there.
I think it's just the way that
this whole plant is set up.
-There's a lot corners cut, initially.
-Yep.
This needs to be
done right the first time.
With Z Plant
and Hot Mess down,
and only Test Plant
to carry the load,
the Hoffmans are losing time
and money they don't have
which means another
critical bush fix for Randy
and a scavenger
hunt for the right parts.
Hey, uh, Sparky!
What's going on, my man?
We got an issue
here. Look at this.
The
adjuster's all broken.
We need to revamp
this and do it right.
Yeah, be done with this crap.
-You can pay for it now or you can pay it for later.
-Yeah.
And currently, he's been
paying for it for too long.
It's time to do it right.
Why don't we do this?
Up the creek here, there's some
old equipment on the side of the road.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's got electric motors.
Let's go see if we can't
find an adjustable plate.
-Get rid of this crap!
-Yeah.
And do it right
and we can adjust it
wherever we want it.
However we wanna do
and just stick it right there.
Let's take my truck.
We'll go up there
and look for parts.
Let's do it, baby.
Oh, Jason's here.
Jason, I need to go scrounging
for some parts to fix the plant.
What's a realistic
timeline, do you think?
-Couple hours?
-I'm hoping by the end of the day.
So, uh...
-I'll do my best.
-Okay.
Can you have it done by
dark, so we can at least have
the night shift start up?
I'm hoping
by the end of the day.
I mean it may freeze.
The temperature
has risen to 26 degrees.
But once the sun goes down,
the temperature will drop rapidly.
If it gets down to
around 18 degrees,
the plant will
shut down again.
All right, I get you.
Well, we'll do our best to get
it done as soon as possible,
before dark.
Sparky, we gotta haul ass.
The worst
time in placer mining
is the last third
of the season.
The weather is different.
I mean, this is a
different animal.
This is way harder
mining, but way better gold
than the Yukon
could ever dream of.
I'm not going home
without the gold.
We're gonna beat this mine.
But I'll tell you what.
We only have one
option right now,
and that's to get
the Z Plant running.
Have you ever seen
this drop like this?
- From 29 to 21?
- Every year.
This type of step down is
usually first of October, not now.
- We won't get caught again.
- No.
It was a wake-up call.
-We're not gonna get another chance like this.
-No.
I need you to lay
into these guys
on how important
this is 'cause this is it.
- It's over.
- Yeah.
-This happens again, we're screwed. Okay?
-Okay. Yeah.
If we lose
this, we got nothing.
Big Trommel's it.
-Jason, what do you think?
-Yeah, I agree.
And it's, it's...
You gotta
get that thing running.
This thing breaks,
we're screwed.
I mean, we had to
plan on this breaking.
I get it.
It'll be ready.
Sometimes,
everything feels
like it's just going
against you.
But I guarantee you, I'm
never gonna do this again.
My whole mining future
is on the table right now.
Our ponds are frozen up!
Our time's limited.
I guarantee that.
All right, you wanna
get this pull and get this thing done.
Yeah, let's get these pulled
to get them up to Jack and Thurber.
Do it.
She might be
froze up pretty bad.
We're the guys for the job.
Hot Mess was
operational for two day
after it's last mat pull.
Then, temperatures dropped
and the plant iced over.
We're gonna
be here a while.
Now the team
take this opportunity to clean
the mats off
its frozen sluice.
We're definitely battling
this freezing weath right now.
It makes this task way
harde than it needs to be.
Not only does
it make it harder,
it makes it take way longer.
It's really difficult.
You gotta come in and thaw
the whole box out, one at a time.
Get so frozen, you
can't even think right
It's definitely not easy.
It's like a *bleep* joke.
A sick joke.
As we get colder and
colder weather coming in
this job right here is gonna
get nearly impossible to do.
By the looks of this time..
I think we maybe have one or
two more cleanups in our book,
so we really need
to make sure that...
we're doing everything
we can to catch all the gold
and not make any
stupid mistakes.
What do you think? Have
we got a couple more weeks?
Maybe at the most.
I mean, looking at the weather,
it's just gonna get worse
and worse from here.
Unless we had a heated
dome tent for the whole plant.
That'd be pretty cool.
It's definitely harder on the miners
moss and carpets doing it frozen.
That's for sure.
One more.
Back in here.
That looks pretty good.
Wrap up, get out of here and go get
those clean, come back and throw them in.
Dude, check this out.
We got an old conveyor.
-Really old trommel.
-Dude!
Look at this feeder over here.
That is totally made up.
Feeder hopper, dude.
Randy and
Sparky are under the gun
and hope to find some
part of the graveyard
that will help them make quick
work of fixing the Z plant motor.
Look at this motor.
Is there a plate on it?
-No plate.
-No plate, just wood.
Bolted to wood.
What do we got on this jig?
Nothing there.
-Nothing there.
-Nothing.
Nothing there.
Dude, check that out.
What if we mounted the
motor to a piece of steel, right?
Square steel.
The motor will be
bolted to the plate
so that we never have to worry
about the motor coming loose
and getting all
out of adjustment.
Bolt the motor
directly to the plate,
and then move the
plate, not the motor.
Before, the moto
was bolted to a punch plate
so readjusting the tension
meant moving and rebolting i
With Randy's fix,
inspired by his find
at the graveyard,
the motor will sit on
an adjustable track,
sliding back and
forth as needed.
So, then
we just check that out,
and all else fails,
we're gonna have to
handmake this, dude.
I think we're gonna
have to handmake it.
- Yep.
- -I don't think we ca buy these parts at the store
It's cold.
Jack and Jim are
washing this week's concentrate
from the frozen Hot Mess.
Oh, I'm trying
to die of hypothermia.
You know,
freeze-up's coming.
Yesterday, I walked out
and our handrail was froze.
We got all that we
need in that place.
We can't have any of
this equipment freezing.
One broken valve could shut
us down for days, you know?
We'd have to go into
Nome and get parts.
All this stuff, it is
dependent upon not freezing.
With the
night shift startin
everyone's working
around the clock.
You need a good sense of humor.
If you don't laugh, you'd cry.
So, uh, yeah. It's...
It's not easy.
The old saying, "If it was
easy, everybody would do it,"
but I don't think
they're that crazy.
Our part...
...is always fine because
we're always seeing gold.
You know, at least
a little bit, you know?
Hang on, we gotta have
room to put the bucket in there.
- You got her?
- Yep.
There we go. That's nice.
That's a whole
pile of gold there.
People don't understand
there's thousands of
dollars in this bucket.
There might not be
that many ounces,
but there's thousands
of dollars in this bucket.
And that's what pays the bills.
At the camp, Sparky
and Randy work feverishly
on their new mounting
syste for the Z plant motor,
trying to outrun the sun and fix
the plant before it freezes again.
This is gonna be
the platform for the motor.
Been working on this all day.
It's getting dark soon.
We've decided that
this is gonna be our adjuster.
Now that we've got this
stationary and drilled,
we can go ahead and finish
welding it to the steel structure,
and when we turn the turnbuckle,
it will raise the plate up
and adjust the belt tension.
I'm pretty sure me and Randy
got this down, but who knows?
I may have to wake
up, 2, 3 in the morning,
go out there and have to fix it.
Oh, man. This is
a lot of hard work.
I know Jason wanted
this ready for the night shift,
but, uh, quality takes time
You can't just...
...throw things together
and expect it to hold.
So, this time, we're
gonna do it right.
When it's done,
it'll be simple, easy.
Anybody can change the belt or
tension of the belt when we get done.
Hot to the touch?
Don't lick it yet?
- Yeah, I would say don't lick it yet.
- Okay.
Flip her back and then we can
put these washers and nuts on.
I think it'll
last till the next season,
but as long as we can make
this last till the end of the season,
that's what...
That's what counts,
for this thing to just
last four more weeks.
Hey, Randy, you got a copy?
This is Randy, go ahead.
Hey, i Sparky gonna
have that plat done for the night shift?
I think we're
gonna run a little late.
We gotta get the
night shift in if we can.
We'll, uh... We'll get it
done as fast as we can.
With
every passing hour,
the temperature drops furthe
getting into dangerous
territory for the plant.
Holy *bleep*, that's hot.
Damn it.
Did you just throw
your cinnamon roll off?
-No, a pork chop, dude. Even worse.
-Oh, my God!
That was my last pork
chop I just dropped on the ground.
I don't know if it's God saying that
today is just gonna get harder and harder
or if it's just a
simple mistake,
but I'm sad.
I'm gonna freak out, man.
Hey, Nick? You got a copy?
- Oh, crap.
- Yep, go for Nick.
Hey,
when you get done with lunch
I need you to relieve the
crew over at the test plant.
We gotta keep that running.
Yeah, I can try.
Dakota we'll put you in a truck.
Have it keep trucking.
Sick!
Time to go
be cold and wet.
Unfortunately, I had to
cut the guys' lunch short.
The Z plant's down. We have
to, uh, build a motor mount
The Big Trommel's down.
For right now,
we have this plant.
This plant's what we have,
and we're very blessed
to have that plant.
Weather's coming.
We don't have very many days
so right now, we're
at least running,
albeit on the smallest
plant we have,
but we're producing.
We're hitting that goal.
If we can get this
plant running all day,
we will not lose time.
All right, I need
some material in there.
You know, with Luke working
night shif and Matt working night shift
it's really just Dakota,
Sparky and myself.
We're out here grinding
around the clock,
many, many hours a day.
I think we're putting in between
16 and 18 hours a day right now.
It's like I'm just waiting for
this test plant to break down.
It's meant to be ran, you
know, 100 yards maybe a day,
and here, we're trying to ru
almost triple, quadruple tha
in a short amount of time.
It's hard on everything. It's...
It's not gonna last like this,
but we're gonna be the ones to
test it out and see how long it will go.
We gotta get up
there. It's getting dark.
Yeah.
With the sun going
down, the temperature is dropping
Randy and Sparky rush
to get the motor to Z plant
even as the welds
are still fresh.
That's hot.
Yeah, it's pretty hot.
Okay, one, two, three.
Toss it.
- Are you all right?
- Dude, you okay?
- Yeah.
- I'm good. Just...
That was like a leap of faith.
Like, I was either that's
going down or I'm going down.
Hey, did you
say you had a chain?
Yes, I do.
The motor
weighs almost 200 pounds,
so to get it
installed correctly,
we're gonna use the
excavato to put it in place.
That's a mighty rusty
chain you got there, uh...
- Yeah.
- ...Sparky.
If this motor
were to happen to drop,
there's no telling what
it could do to the shaft
or what it could do
to what I just welded.
Oh, no.
Careful!
Careful!
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Randy, stop!
Dude!
Careful!
Careful!
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Randy!
Dude!
I got it.
Nice
save, Randy.
It almost fell.
I'm gonna zip off
the old brackets,
and after we zip it off,
gonna shove this thing
right back into there,
weld the angle
that's behind it,
just so that we can
install that little...
That little swivel
right in front of it.
Hopefully, be able
to put the belt on
and test this thing out.
It's 9:30 PM.
The sun has dropped,
and with it, the temperature
Currently at 22 degrees,
Randy and Sparky know
they're on borrowed time
to get Z plant running
before she freezes up.
Perfect.
All right.
We can go ahead
and set her now, right?
Here, look
down these pulleys.
I'll pull this over
just a smidge.
All right. Now, that's...
- That's in.
- Oh, dude, that is spot on!
- That's a lot better now, isn't it?
- Yeah.
All right, I
like that. Let's do it.
- Let's nail her.
- All right.
Go ahead, Todd. Go ahead.
Yeah, we
got her all aligned.
Sparky's about ready to,
uh, weld the, uh, backplate,
and then, uh, we gotta add some
steel here for our front adjustment,
and then we'll be ready.
We're working as
fast as we can, Todd.
Sorry about the lateness.
Ooh, he's getting
a knuckle sandwich.
The night crew
arrives to start their shift
All right, Luke, ready to
do this night shift thing?
But with Randy and Sparky
racing to get the motor plate fixed,
tonight's efforts will begi
with thawing the frozen plan
This is my first time
thawing the box out.
We've had ice over it before
and it took about
30 minutes, probably.
Can you see this down here?
See how hard it is?
And it's
all hands on deck
to get Z plant up and runnin
as more of the team show
up to help prepare the plant.
So, we just
got back to the Z.
We're gonna get everything
fueled and greased
and ready for the night crew.
We're gonna fire
up these machines,
get 'em all warmed up for 'em.
We wanna get this thing running
and hopefully, have it in about a
23-hour continuous loop every day.
Just like
your car or your truck,
you gotta keep your oil
changed, maintenance up.
Can't have any of these bushings
or bearings in here break down.
I mean, if one of these pieces of
equipment are down for a few hours,
that's just time
down on the plant.
As the crew finishes
readying the plant for the night shift,
all eyes turn to
Randy and Sparky,
who have to finish
the motor plate fix.
Putting this
on right now, it's, like...
We're working
with what we got...
...and we should be able to finish with
this thing in the next 30 minutes or so.
Todd's been hounding us on it.
Now, we're getting it done.
I can barely see what
I'm doing when it gets this dark.
It's pitch-black outside.
The night crew was
supposed to be on already,
and here we are
still fabricating,
and, uh, I'm...
I'm pretty sure Jason's gonna
give us an earful in the morning.
This is at the end of
the day. We're all tired, wet.
My socks have been soggy
for about 15 hours right now.
Um, I'm just not
very comfortable.
We're gonna run the
wheels off this thing.
Right now, we're
at the homestretch.
It's all hands on deck.
We need everybody just
to keep this plant running.
I'm pretty sure
that's it, Rando.
Yeah? You sure?
Dude, she looks
freaking amazing.
-Oh, yeah, dude.
-So much better than what it was.
-So much better, dude.
-Look at that sturdy mount,
- hinged.
- Dude, this thing's mint.
We'll never
have another issue.
Not at all, my man.
-She's ready to go.
-Good work, my man!
Hey, guys. It's below 20.
We're about ready
to kick it into gear.
Okay, 10-4.
- We'll start her up.
- All right.
There's no
question winter is here,
but hopefully, we can eke a
couple more weeks out of this thing.
I hope that we were able to run enough
dirt this wee so it doesn't set us back.
Most importantly right
now, I hope this thing starts.
Fire it up!
Okay, guys. Keep it going!
Good work!
Way to go!
I guess we're
going to night shifts.
All the guys?
- So, we're a little shorthanded, so that means...
- Me and you.
We can do it.
Probably the best
operators out there.
We started the night shift.
Used to have my own outfit
that said "night shift Todd."
-Okay?
-Wow.
-That's a little much.
-I can't fit in it anymore...
Yeah.
...but there is an outfit out
there that has my name on it.
You think he's
kidding. He's not kidding.
Little red jumpsuit.
What's so funny about that?
Did it have the flap in
the front or in the back?
It didn't have a flap.
Dude.
-What are you supposed to do, then?
-Hey, you don't stop.
Just let it happen.
That's how you do night shift.
Another night shi
comes to an end for Matt and Luke
as the day crew
arrives to start their shift.
I was just telling Dakota,
I'm really thankful we got a good
group of guys working the night shift
that we don't have
to worry about, so...
Thank you.
Well, I appreciate that and, uh,
I appreciate y'all busting
y'all's rear end all day.
-Making sure we have what we need to get going.
-Yeah.
All right, well, we'll get
these guys swapped out
-and you can head to bed.
-Yeah.
- All right, guys. Y'all have a good day.
- You, too.
-I appreciate it.
-All right.
We work hard at night.
The long freeze is coming.
It's getting colder.
Our pond has ice
all the way across it.
We know it's coming.
We know at some point,
we're gonna have to shut dow
We wanna keep going
as long as we can...
Morning, morning.
- Morning.
- Goodnight, goodnight.
...so we'll be as
productive as possible.
All right,
bro, have a good one.
All right. You, too, bud.
Been working
12 hours all night.
Dead tired.
Man, I could pass
out and I'm about to.
Yeah, I can't even... I'm not
even thinking straight right now,
so ready to go to bed.
Got the plant going.
Everything went real well.
Now, it's time to sleep.
We don't get some sleep,
then we won't be able to...
To go for the next night,
so now we're
gonna get some rest.
- Hey, boys.
- Hey.
Yo.
Hey, guys, I hope the night
shift hasn't been too brutal for you.
We're gonna have
to run 24/7, 24/7.
If the plant's running,
we can't really turn it off.
That sucks, but
I agree with you.
I'm concerned
that we're gonna make it.
Me, too.
We can't even get five...
A five-hour run in before
something happens.
That's why I'm surprised
everybody still has a good attitude,
'cause it's so frustrating.
You know, we're asking
a lot of these guys.
Moving to night shift means
even more grueling hours at night.
They're tired,
they're worn out,
but we gotta keep pushing
all the way to the goal line
especially because our
equipment just keeps breaking down
and we're losing hours.
I feel like I'm in, uh,
Groundhog Day with that Z plant.
Same.
Yeah.
It's hard 'cause we don't have a
lot of time to fix things correctly,
I get that, but...
...we keep Band-Aiding
stuff and we're paying for it.
Well, keep jamming it through.
As long as it's
running, feed it.
Don't overfeed
it, obviously, but...
...keep the material running.
Every bucket has gold in it.
Yeah.
- Hear, hear.
- Yeah.
You know, this week, we got in
trouble because of the plants freezing.
We need 47 ounces this week
and I'm cautiously
optimistic about it.
That actually looks
like it's pretty good.
-Dad, call it up, man.
-Okay.
There's, six,
seven, eight, nine,
10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15,
19, 20,
22, 25, 28...
...34, 35,
38,
39...
...40.
Right on the money.
Well, we went
backwards a little bit.
And the gold's in
the stinking ground.
Yeah, it's there.
Pay dirt's not the problem.
This is just over three ounces.
- A hundred? Wow.
- Over a hundred, yeah.
What I'm worried
about-- -The paydirt's going up,
and our plants are going down...
And we're still not on track.
And it's only gonna get harder.
Nothing's getting
in better shape.
Everything's wearing out.
It's getting colder.
We can still make it.
This pay dirt is
getting interesting.
We'll keep scratching.
Keep digging holes.
Keep testing, you know,
and keep the plants running.
It's all we can
do at this point.
With season's
en approaching rapidly,
the Hoffmans still need
101 ounces of gold.
In order to reach
their 300-ounce goal
before winter shuts
down the mine,
they'll need to get all
three wash plants runnin
and have teams
working around the clock.
I mean, I'm
honestly getting worried,
but I feel like we
could pull it off.
Just for the fact that
the gold is so good here.
We know what it
feels like to fall short,
and I want us to know
what it feels like to win.
Yeah.
This could be our
last year we ever go mining,
so whatever we need
to do to get to our goal,
we're just gonna have to do it.
Dig deep. Let's do this.