Hoffman Family Gold (2022–…): Season 2, Episode 3 - Mine on the Line - full transcript
Two weeks
into gold season,
the Hoffman's are behind
with only 76 ounces.
We've kind of fallen back,
but we're going forward.
Now they must
average 92 ounces a week
to hit their 1,000
ounce benchmark.
We haven't seen
rain in a long time.
But extreme weather
threatens to bring
a sudden end...
Super worried about the water.
If we can't sluice,
we can't catch the gold.
...as drought conditions...
We could use a good rainy day.
...turn
to heavy rains...
Look at it. Oh my gosh.
Everybody shut down.
All hands on deck.
...that threaten
to wipe the mine...
All the water is just
pouring down Doll!
...off the map.
A month and half worth of work
right down the drain.
It's all
hands on deck for a battle
of biblical proportions...
We got a situation!
...where everything
is on the line.
If this water gets into
that cut, we're screwed.
Last year we had
unseasonable rain.
Highest amount
of rain on record.
This year is just the total
opposite. We haven't seen
rain in a long time.
Now we've got fires
coming through.
And, ah, there's a beautiful
mountain range over there,
but you can't see it
because of all the smoke.
Most of our foliage is
pulled back, away from
our domes and everything,
so we're okay if the fire
should come through.
I really hope it doesn't
happen, 'cause that's
a bad day.
My only fear is, is that we
won't have enough water.
Uh, we're running out,
real quick.
There is rain in the forecast,
but it's a ways out.
And, uh, boy, we could use
just a good rainy day.
The river is way down.
And I'm a little worried
this is, this is only July,
and we've got
a long ways to go.
I'm super worried about
the water. We've got
a drought going on.
I am running.
It is, uh, it's hot and dusty,
but how long we can run?
I don't know.
We don't have enough
water to sluice,
and if we can't sluice,
we can't catch the gold.
This new pay is
gonna go so fast.
It's dry. It's running quick.
I've never
seen it like this.
Usually it's raining.
With the Black
Pearl still disassembled
and weeks away from
being operational,
Todd will keep the Holy Roller
going until they
run out of water.
I really want to get
a thousand ounces.
The Holy Roller is running two
eight-inch suctions,
with an eight inch out
to the manifold system.
That pump in itself will
probably move about
3,000 gallons a minute.
That is a ton of water.
This truck holds
a thousand gallons.
Now imagine moving this truck
every minute, three times.
So we're trying to pull water
from everywhere we can.
This water that I'm
getting today is going
on the roads of camp.
The roads are as
dusty as can be.
So we need to keep that dust
down so that we don't have
any silica dust in our lungs.
But I had to come to
the river to get it,
because there wasn't
enough in the Doll
to fill the tank.
This drought is serious.
Where I'm standing at
right now, I would have been
15 feet underwater right here.
But not this year. This year,
we're only at four feet.
It's ridiculous.
I'm a little worried that
we're gonna have water
to make it through the year.
We have one of the finest
trommels I've ever seen.
But, if we don't have
any water to run
through the sluices,
or enough water to run
through the sluices?
We can pack it up and go home.
No water? No gold.
Here we go.
Now that I've got the thousand
gallons of water,
add in an extra 8,000
pounds and I've gotta
get it up the hill.
We all woke up this morning
to the smoke that blew in
from the forest fire.
And you're breathing it
all day. It's not easy.
But there's absolutely nothing
that's gonna stop me
from working on
the Black Pearl
and getting it running.
Hunter recently
purchased a large wash plant
he nicknamed the Black Pearl.
In order to haul it to
the mining site, he had to
cut it into three pieces.
The base, the trommel,
and the hopper.
Now, Hunter and Sparky must
refurbish each part before
they can reassemble it.
- What's up, my brother?
- What's up, G?
So after we've
cleaned up these rings,
maybe we can fix that
support beam where
the old guys [bleep] up bad.
- Dude, that's
so fricking bent.
- Yeah.
Some of
the older guys came in,
for whatever reason, they felt
like it was their job to
unload all of our wash plant.
- Whoa!
- Hold on!
- Whoa!
- Stop!
I can't even look
at this [bleep]!
- Hang on!
- Hold on and we'll
get that [bleep]!
How are we going to
weld it back together,
- when you're dragging it
on the ground?
- Don't worry about it.
Now we have
to take more work time,
more time that we could have
been building on this frame.
- Building that divider
that we need to do.
- Yeah.
Like, and these guys, like,
it felt like they didn't
care about our stuff.
Like, I genuinely
don't appreciate that.
Well, I already brought
it up with them.
And I already expressed
to them how I feel
about them doing this.
And it is what it is.
It's like, we're just
gonna fix it. And, you know.
The victory is going
to be sweeter.
Nobody
on our entire crew,
not my dad, not Andy,
not any of these guys,
They've never taken
a trommel this size,
cut it completely apart,
trucked it all the way out
to the middle of nowhere,
reassembled it,
and gold mined with it.
And that's what I'm about
to do. So I can't wait to see
this thing running.
Dude.
You know,
I prayed about things.
I said, "God, we need water."
Now I'm having to say,
"God, turn it off, please."
You know?
Right now, we've got
too much water.
As
the storm builds,
the fear of potentially
not having enough
water to run the mine
quickly turns to anxiety
that there's too much water.
Yeah, I got a copy.
Is it really that much water
coming down, huh?
Okay, everybody shut down.
All hands on deck.
Todd knows
that too much water can end
the season in an instant.
He mobilizes all crew members.
I just got a call from Andy,
he says all the water is
just pouring down Doll.
The ancient river bed
is flooding.
We're gonna go up there
and just see what we can do.
Look at this.
It's already come up
at least a foot.
It hasn't even begun.
And we've got two inches
of rain coming.
So what happens if Doll Creek,
I use that term loosely.
That's a river. It's gonna
be a river in a minute.
What happens if that breaks
into that pay dirt?
It's gonna dilute it.
It's gonna wash most of it
downstream, dilute it all out.
Put mud in on top of it.
We go to four to five ounces
a hundred to, I don't know.
An ounce, half ounce?
All we can do is, uh,
start putting in overflows.
Whatever we've gotta do
to save the cut.
Oh, dang. We go from
drought to tropical rains.
It was Jack's fault.
He started praying
really hard.
Yeah, maybe tell him
to back off a little bit.
I'm gonna have him back off
on those prayers,
because if this water
gets into that cut,
we're screwed.
We need to get more berms.
Put in some overflows,
and if you need help,
we'll put all hands on deck
and let's just fight for it.
Okay, we've got our
work cut out for us.
All right. Good luck.
Stay in touch on me.
All right.
You know, Todd has put a lot
of responsibility on me.
I don't know how
to do everything.
There's a lot of things
I get in and start doing
and I figure it out.
This is one that could be
way over my head.
With
the floodwaters rising,
Andy has his hands full
trying to protect
the ancient riverbed.
I don't know
how high up the water
level is gonna go,
so I'm gonna put some dirt
on these berms, try to get
them a little bit higher.
And hope for the best.
If floodwaters wash into
the ancient riverbed,
their one thousand ounce gold
may wash away with it.
What are you gonna do,
pack it in there, Andy?
Yeah, we'll get these things
built up as best I can.
With the team
spread out, the Holy Roller
remains shut down,
and Todd moves further behind.
They move quickly
to save their water system
and their season.
All we wanna do
is build these berms up,
because if we get
a flash flood down here,
it's gonna go up
over the top, boom!
If this sucker runs over
into that cut right there,
we might as well just pack up
and go home.
It's a lot of weight on
Andy's shoulders.
I've gotta make sure
this stuff is done right.
So Andy's
dipping into some of our
best paydirt right there,
to actually go and put it
on the berm, because it's
actually waterproof.
Yeah. This stuff's fresh,
but it packs good,
so we'll use it
to save the cut.
We can get it back later.
I can't believe we're using
this rich paydirt right here
for the berm,
but, I don't know.
I think it's the less
of two weevils, bud.
Got it? All right, good,
because I don't want to
put any more of that
pay dirt on there.
Everything is about water.
Managing water. Keeping dirty
water here. Clean water here.
And no water in the cut.
And right now, I'm not
so sure we're gonna
be able to pull this off.
I don't know, dude.
Can we do it?
Are we gonna do it?
I hope so. It's all we can do.
I don't know what else to do.
Berm it up? I don't know.
We'll just see how much
rain comes tonight.
We're ready as good as we can.
Hey, keep your radio on.
We'll just monitor it.
It goes up a couple more feet,
we might be in trouble.
We can't always
pick our weather.
- No.
- Hey, at least we got rain.
I just hope the rain doesn't
destroy what we've got
cooking here, you know?
Yeah, for sure.
- All right,
good job. Let's go.
- All right.
While Todd and Andy
monitor the ancient river cut,
Flipping soaking wet.
Earlier, it was pouring down.
Hunter
starts working on
the Black Pearl's hopper.
- I might flip
that hopper over right now.
- Yeah.
I'm gonna come in here
with the excavator,
and I'll pick that up,
bring it over here,
tip it over and then we'll
rig it, pick it up,
and crib underneath,
so that we get those
legs off the ground.
And I'll just start
going on it.
Using chains,
Hunter and Sparky will attempt
to carefully tilt the hopper
onto its back, so they can
repair the bent support legs,
before reassembling
the entire wash plant.
This is
a lot of work for two guys
to do in the rain,
that I've never
done this before.
Yeah, stay back a little bit,
I'm gonna see if I can
get it off the ground.
Working in the rain
makes everything
much more difficult.
On top of that,
it's just miserable.
You're soaked to the bone.
Makes everything
much more hazardous
and much more difficult.
But right now,
we don't have a choice.
I'm gonna just keep it
low to the ground.
I'm gonna set it down
right here.
I want you to throw a chain,
see that little,
that little ring that's
welded on that left? Yep.
- Throw that chain in there.
- Gotcha.
Hunter wants to lay
the hopper on the most
level ground possible,
and it's Sparky's job
to rotate it into
just the right position.
Okay, go around
that way, Sparky.
Go around that way
and see if it'll spin.
It's a little heavy!
I can set it like this too,
and we'll tip it this way.
Pull it as far as you can
and I'll drop it.
And this will help, you ready?
Let's pull the chains off.
I'm going to use the bucket.
I'm going to tip it.
Just gonna tip
this hopper forward.
The chain's gonna be
a safety catch.
Go for it?
I think go for it.
Stay back. It's gonna get
a little squirrelly, man.
I'll lift those legs up,
and we'll shove those
big timbers underneath it.
Okay.
That's plenty.
- Is that enough
to slide those under?
- Yeah.
Right now, I'm not
gonna let anything stop us
getting this plant running.
You know, it's pouring
down rain, but there's
a lot of work to be done,
so we're just gonna
work through it.
We have to keep plugging away
on this plant.
And, you know, if we can
get it running, I think we're
gonna make a lot of money.
- Ready?
- Keep going,
keep going.
Try to get
that other one in.
I'm not gonna move.
It's plenty.
We've just dropped
the hopper on its side,
we're going to put some
cribbing underneath it
for safety precautions.
Other than that, we can
attack this project now.
- I like this.
- Yeah, this is sick.
How I wanted
it to go. Instead,
it went not good.
- Oh, that's money.
- Money, exactly,
dude. Money.
This is a prime example
of be careful
what you pray for.
Uh, we've asked for rain
and God has provided.
Unfortunately, now we have
a bit too much.
Our pond system has
completely filled up.
The pump has now died.
The pump
has been placed at
the edge of the pond,
to prevent the rising water
from washing out
the mine's main road.
Losing access to the road
would bring the mine
to a standstill.
It would be a very,
very bad thing.
So Randy must save the pump
in order to save the road.
Why did you stop?
The reason why
this pump's not running
is the fuel suction is here
and the fuel level has dropped
below the suction line.
So now I need to get
this pump back to normal,
so that the fuel pickup
can pick up the fuel.
Hey, who's in the, uh, 490
over here by the Pearl?
Tater, can you bring
that over here?
I need the assistance immediately.
If this breaks this little
barrier and floods our road,
eventually it'll find another
path and it'll slowly wash out
the dirt and rock of the road.
And then we've gotta rebuild
the whole entire road system.
Once we bring this back down,
then this road will be fine.
But we cannot lose the road.
Here comes Tater.
Just push down
on that tongue.
Yep, back her down.
Okay, hold that.
I'm gonna put some rocks
under the back of it.
Come on, baby.
Come on.
Go ahead and slightly let up.
See what that does.
Come on, baby.
Beautiful!
That sumbitch just went on!
Hopefully this will hold.
Look at this!
Holy [bleep].
We need an excavator
down here really quick
to cork this,
right by the orange farm, quick.
Despite Randy's
best effort to stop water
from flushing out the road,
additional rain
is overwhelming their pump.
Okay, what do you
wanna do? We got a situation.
I think we ought to cut
the road, but your call.
I think we'll just
cut it into this ditch.
Drain the water out.
I stopped everything from
coming into our system.
So it should... the pump
should start catching up.
If we cut a hole over here,
this water will hopefully
relieve itself over here.
And then we're gonna have to
build our dam back up here.
To keep
the overflowing pond from
washing away the entire road,
Andy digs a narrow
trench to contain
and control the flow.
Luckily, this didn't
happen during
the middle of the night,
or we would have woke up
to every cut flooded,
our berms all gone.
A month and a half
worth of work
right down the drain.
So, we're just gonna
stop mining, we're just
gonna let the water go.
I think we're gaining
on it, Andy. I think
we're gaining on it.
It's not getting
deeper down there.
It's dropping up here too.
With
the overflowing pond
being safely shunted
through the temporary channel,
Andy turns his attention
back to the ancient river cut,
where additional rain
overnight threatens to wash
out their richest paydirt.
I guess you gotta be careful
what you wish for around here.
You wish for rain,
you might get too much.
We had
a lot of rain last night.
We've got all of our pond
system and everything set up
to get a lot of water.
We were just in a drought
a few days ago, and now
we've got water everywhere,
so we're really close
on the berms being blown out,
so we're just trying
to fix everything.
This creek
is moving in a hurry!
This is, uh, yeah,
pretty intense.
Tater's up here
plugging it up,
putting the dam up
a little bit higher.
And I think we're gonna be
okay. Then I'm gonna stick
this culvert in the crossing,
because the culvert that's
there is not taking enough
water, so we're gonna fix it.
We're not mining today.
This is critical and crucial.
We can't mess this up.
While most
of the crew scrambles
to control the water,
Hunter is determined to forge
ahead on the Black Pearl,
which remains in pieces.
- I wish
we didn't have to do this.
- Yeah, me too.
I wish Andy didn't drag it,
or else we'd have
a cross member.
The legs on
the hopper are bent from,
you know, the way it
was offloaded, so it's
gonna take more time
to get them straightened
back out and get them correct.
Otherwise, when we go
to mount it, nothing's
gonna line up.
There's a lot of work
to be done, and if we don't
get the Black Pearl running,
I don't see us reaching
a thousand ounces.
With the Holy Roller being
shut down with the flooding,
time is of the essence
right now.
I'm going to
torch these off. I'm going
to get this thing leveled.
If we're not welding
out here in the rain,
this thing's never
going to get done,
I'm never going
to get any gold,
and everything we've done
up until this point
is for nothing, so...
We messed up a lot of
our support beams here,
so I've gotta just cut 'em off
and start fresh.
You know how to bevel that?
Not really. I was hoping
you'd do it, 'cause
you're the master.
Gotcha.
You don't
wanna cut too far back.
We just want enough meat
to where we can grind
in there, make it perfect,
seat it, so this thing's
not freaking falling apart
when we're feeding
fricking rich gold in there.
Sparky's taught me
a lot about fabricating,
cutting, welding.
So we're just, like,
feeding off each other.
You know, the Holy Roller
is a brand new wash plant.
It's been worked on
for months inside of a shop.
Everything is brand new,
fresh paint.
And the Black Pearl's been
around since the 80's.
It's older than me and Sparky.
It needs an insane amount of
work, especially for two kids.
I've never done anything
like this before,
but we're gonna keep going
until we get it right.
There's not a single guy here
that was ever doing what we're
doing right now at our age.
That's a fact.
Dude, I used to fricking
deliver bounce houses
for a living, dude.
Now I'm out here,
and kicking it with this guy.
We're freaking kicking ass
and taking names, dude.
The biggest wash plant
they've ever seen,
in the history of their lives.
Like the flooded
road by the pond,
a crucial section of road
by Doll Creek has
also been flooded,
and in this case,
completely washed away.
It must be fixed before
mining operations can resume.
It's still running through
there like a freight train.
So Doll Creek is running
really hard right now.
We are currently isolated
because of this
hole in the road,
and half of the mine
and half of our equipment
is on one side,
and the other half is on
the other side. So we can't
do anything till we fix this.
We're gonna have to
drop another culvert in.
And, uh, to do that right,
right now, it's gonna be
a temporary culvert.
To do it right, you've gotta
pack rocks in there.
You can't do that when there's
water flowing around it.
So hopefully we can do this.
It's like doing surgery,
while everybody's still awake.
So Todd,
what we're thinking is,
is that I dig this
back a little bit,
and then put a berm...
Yes, yes.
...to keep the water out
of that side,
and then we can lay
the culvert and put
some water over it.
Yeah, I like it. Dig the berm
over there, get the whole
river going over there.
Come back here,
dig our culvert,
pack it in tons and tons
of rock and then shut it off.
The plan is
to dam up the creek
with a berm just downstream
of the break in the road,
then the crew will install
a new culvert to go
under the road
that will be laid
on top of it.
Once those are in place,
the berm will be removed
and the water can safely
flow under the road,
through the new culvert.
Hey, let's get this in.
All right,
a little left, a little left.
Right there. Thank you.
So the bank
is slowly giving away,
with the berm in the creek
just enough to get inside
there and do this ditch,
and get the culverts in.
It'll have to
go your way a little bit.
- That good?
- Heck yeah.
Right on the money.
We're trying to get them
as close as we can.
We don't have banding,
which normally you do.
We need that fabric
down there.
But what we're gonna
do is actually put
fabric over the top,
and that's gonna
hopefully keep a lot
of that rock and sediment
from going down into
that culvert, filling it up,
and then becoming useless.
Hey, Tater,
you wanna get in here?
If you want me to,
I'll dig it.
Tater's the better
operator than me, and I think
this kind of situation,
we need to get him
in the seat instead of me.
The bucket's
coming off. Oh yeah.
Just turning my bucket around
backwards on my machine,
so that I can reach out
and sprinkle rock
where I wouldn't have
been able to reach.
These creek changes
are pretty sick, huh?
Dude, that is bad ass,
brother. Bad ass.
Okay, heads up,
heads up.
We're trying to pack it in,
in layers. Layer by layer,
pack it in.
If you just dump it and bury
it, it's gonna get washed out,
so we're packing it in.
A little bit more,
put a little bit more.
Pack it in, pack it in,
pack it in!
Now I've gotta carefully
break this open,
and we're gonna take
all the river right down
this new culvert.
- So far it's handling it.
- Seems to be taking it.
So far so good.
I think we're gonna have
a win on this one.
We had to build these roads,
you know, and it's tough.
Like, you're
hemorrhaging money.
So what I'm hoping is
that we're gonna
make it up in the gold.
That this is worth it.
Otherwise we built, you know,
a bridge to nowhere.
Gonna run up here,
I'm gonna take
a look at this berm.
Hopefully it, uh, has held up.
After flash floods
threatened to wash out
the ancient river channel
and its rich paydirt,
Andy has returned
to inspect the dirt berms
he built to protect it.
If that berm was not there,
we would have lost it.
So we can't afford
that at this point.
We're already late.
I don't need to be
losing cuts to flooding.
Yesterday, you know,
we lost 20-30 thousand
dollars, probably.
We can't afford
to do that anymore.
The Holy Roller
stop-down means the Hoffman's
one thousand ounce gold
is slipping further away.
I'll tell you what, I see
the water going down,
my berm is still there.
There's no water in there
and I can see the paydirt,
so, hallelujah.
But
the good news is,
they've managed
to save the paydirt
that has the potential
of getting them there.
I found this ancient river
channel seven months ago,
and I've been thinking
about all winter digging it
that Mother Nature comes in,
torrential downpour, rain,
waters coming up,
if it would have blown this
thing out, it would have taken
all this material,
covered the whole thing.
We would have had
a lot of time and money
and effort lost.
It's another good day.
Any day that you can win
in Alaska, mining, I'll take.
I'm gonna let Todd know
that the berm has held up,
and we can get trucks
and stuff back in there
and we can get to digging.
Hopefully It's got
a lot of gold in it.
So, ancient riverbed,
it did not flood.
We were able to save the cut.
Having that river crawling
right along our cut?
Man, it was scary.
And if it were would have
flooded into that, it would
have been a disaster.
So, now we're gonna fire up
and get things going.
Here we go!
We'll let it warm up
a little bit.
Here we go!
It's almost turning.
All right, Randy,
go ahead and idle up.
Hey,
it's working! It's turning.
Okay, here we go!
We're back rolling!
We're putting dirt
through the plant.
I think we got lucky.
I thought that flood
was going to take us out,
but we got lucky this time.
Hopefully, that
doesn't happen again.
Muddy day.
It's going to be a pain
in the ass just because
of how heavy this thing is.
I think we'll be able
to spin it good,
but we'll see.
Hunter and Sparky
are preparing to move
the massive base of
the Black Pearl into position.
We've got
our strongest chain
hooked up, so...
It's not easy
in the mud.
Everything's just way more
difficult when it's muddy.
Let's see if I can
slide it with this 490.
The goal is
to connect it to the hopper.
Honestly,
this is the biggest day
we've had in a long time.
Me and Sparky have been
welding on this plant
for... it seems like forever.
Just even getting the plant
to this point,
where we can start putting it
back together is a big deal.
It's going
pretty smooth right now,
just me and Hunter.
Nothing's broken yet,
so it's a good sign
we know what we're doing
and we're thinking
things methodically.
You're doing
a great job, brother!
- You like it there?
- This looks
pretty good.
In order to attach
the hopper to the frame,
they plan to use the excavator
to lift the hopper up
over the frame.
Then they will carefully lower
the hopper,
until it's four support beams
match up with those
on the frame.
Basically, we're welding
all these tabs to help align
all of these beams together.
Once we go to place it,
it's just gonna be me
and Sparky doing this,
we're gonna put
a tagline on it,
and, uh, if everything
goes to plan, it'll sit
perfectly on here.
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
One wrong move
can damage both the hopper
and the frame,
and cost the mine
more precious time.
It's critical that they slip
all four of the hopper's legs
over the tabs to
lock it into place.
Just bring her
this way a little bit.
We've been
waiting a long time
for this moment right here.
Okay.
All the tabs are in.
Hold on, hold on, hold on,
hold on. One tab is out.
It almost got in.
I think I might be able...
Might be able to pull a chain
on the other side of this.
- Okay, what do I do?
- Pick it up,
pick it up.
There you go. There you go.
Hold on.
All right. Go ahead.
Drop her like she's hot.
Okay, hold it.
Hold it, hold it.
That's pretty good.
That was a good idea.
That was a damn good idea.
This feels good.
It's like a huge weight
off our shoulders.
Hey, every time it's just me
and you working on this thing,
It's like...
you know what I mean?
This is sick, man, sick.
We've been out here welding,
cutting in the rain.
Even when we cut
this thing apart,
it was a lot to take on.
So now that we're reassembling
it, it feels really good, man.
We see the vision.
Now it's happening.
- What do you think?
- That is huge!
- It looks good, huh?
- Yeah.
We're trying to bring you
some crazy gold
to the gold room.
This is absolutely fantastic.
What you did today is more
than those dudes over there
done in about three days.
- My God.
- We appreciate you for
believing in this, Jack.
Well, you know,
it's gonna happen.
Get her going, man.
I'm really happy my little
brother is up here.
Nobody I love more
than that guy.
Mmm. Fresh [bleep] tee, dude.
He's just so funny.
You know that smell?
- Mmm.
- You're a [bleep].
- Smell it.
- Weirdo.
- Smell it.
- No!
Ten-four.
There's nobody
I love more on Earth
than my little brother.
You know, he's never trying
to get anybody to like him,
but everybody likes him.
I eat a pound
of Goldfish a week.
I don't know what it is
about him, it's just, like,
I just love the guy.
You know the
smell, dude.
Nice.
For our
second clean up,
Thurber out here.
This is all ancient
river channel pay.
After only
running for a total
of 20 hours due to the rain,
Todd and his crew pull
the Holy Roller's mats,
hoping they contain enough
gold to keep him afloat.
Well, we got, I don't know,
4,000 yards on the box.
Not a lot. Not a lot.
So we'll see
what happens here.
Dude, crazy week.
Hard on everybody.
Water. Flooding.
I was actually pretty
dang scared this week.
It was less than a foot
from flooding the whole cut.
We got all the culverts in,
got all the water diverted.
Got everything down.
And it's holding.
We should be good now.
- That could have
went really bad.
- Yeah.
Speaking of bad, we almost
lost the ancient river bed
that we've been digging
and digging and digging.
Look at this. It's already
come up at least a foot.
If that dike had blown
through, we would have lost
a third of our pay dirt.
- Huge.
- I was literally watching
the water come up.
And I just pull the road out.
And then Framer and Tater
came in and put a clank on,
set the culvert,
because it flooded.
Thank you, guys.
Seriously, though,
the experience
that you guys have
from a past life
came in handy in this life.
Tater, he went ahead
and switched
the bucket around.
That's kind of crazy.
I didn't know they did that.
I don't think that's
in the manual, Tater.
No, no, that doesn't come
in any instruction manual.
- That's hillbilly construction
right there.
- Yeah.
Black Pearl, gimme an update.
It's taken a lot of time,
but we're just trying
to do everything right,
so that when we get it
together, we're not gonna
have it fall apart on us.
The rain's blowing sideways.
We're standing
in a mud puddle.
All of our tools are caked
in mud. Our torch won't light.
We're caked in mud,
and we're just...
We've been soaked to the bone
for days trying to get
that thing together.
But it was a good moment
getting the hopper
put on there.
At least you can kind of
see it getting assembled.
So we're getting there.
We see the vision.
We've been talking about this
since day one.
It's like, we're never
gonna stop. We're gonna
keep on going.
There's gonna be a lot
of walls in front of us.
But if we can find a window,
if we can find a door and bust
it open, onto the next thing,
you know what I'm saying?
Nice. Nice. I like it.
Keep it up, man.
I know it's hard, Hunter.
I know you guys are struggling
out there. We see it.
You know, we're all one team.
So, keep pushing hard.
Get the Black Pearl
running, man.
As of right now,
the mine has produced
76 ounces of gold,
with 924 more needed,
to meet to reach 1,000 ounces
for the season.
To achieve that goal,
they need to average
92 ounces of gold per week.
Ah, I can tell by the way
you're dangling that thing,
that's not as heavy
as last week. Uh-oh.
What do you think, huh?
When you get
the little copper tray out...
- Yeah, it's not good.
- You know it's gonna hurt.
What do you think?
- Here we go.
- I don't know.
I'm just gonna pour it out.
It was a hard week.
I don't even...
Man, just pour it out.
It's definitely,
it's definitely a gut shot.
Where you're at? Five. Six.
Twenty three. Twenty four.
Twenty eight, 30, 34, 35,
36, 37, 38, 39.
39.2.
- It's not even half of where
we're supposed to be.
- Right.
That's still, what, 65,000?
Right? $65,000.
I mean, it's below what
we need,
but we had a lot of issues
that were out of our control.
I mean, it is what it is.
Last week we were at 76.
This week we're at 39.
We've got a grand total
of 115.
Now our average has to be
98 ounces a week,
every clean up, so...
The Holy Roller's
third week cleanup comes in
at just over 39 ounces,
for a running total
of 115 ounces.
The Hoffmans now need
98 ounces of gold per week
to reach their season goal
of 1,000 ounces.
Well, the bottom line is,
the challenges are not
gonna stop happening.
- Yeah.
- There's going to be
other stuff that happens.
We'll get flooded out again.
We're gonna break downs,
so that's even more reason
why we need the Black Pearl.
We're behind our average here.
The Black Pearl we're behind.
We're behind, personally,
in gold.
We've got to outperform
this in what we're doing.
Everybody does.
So let us know what
we can do to help.
- Yeah.
- Once we get you online,
- it's gonna go up.
- Oh, yeah.
Let's get some rest, guys.
Let's get rolling
in the morning.
You guys get
your beauty sleep in.
into gold season,
the Hoffman's are behind
with only 76 ounces.
We've kind of fallen back,
but we're going forward.
Now they must
average 92 ounces a week
to hit their 1,000
ounce benchmark.
We haven't seen
rain in a long time.
But extreme weather
threatens to bring
a sudden end...
Super worried about the water.
If we can't sluice,
we can't catch the gold.
...as drought conditions...
We could use a good rainy day.
...turn
to heavy rains...
Look at it. Oh my gosh.
Everybody shut down.
All hands on deck.
...that threaten
to wipe the mine...
All the water is just
pouring down Doll!
...off the map.
A month and half worth of work
right down the drain.
It's all
hands on deck for a battle
of biblical proportions...
We got a situation!
...where everything
is on the line.
If this water gets into
that cut, we're screwed.
Last year we had
unseasonable rain.
Highest amount
of rain on record.
This year is just the total
opposite. We haven't seen
rain in a long time.
Now we've got fires
coming through.
And, ah, there's a beautiful
mountain range over there,
but you can't see it
because of all the smoke.
Most of our foliage is
pulled back, away from
our domes and everything,
so we're okay if the fire
should come through.
I really hope it doesn't
happen, 'cause that's
a bad day.
My only fear is, is that we
won't have enough water.
Uh, we're running out,
real quick.
There is rain in the forecast,
but it's a ways out.
And, uh, boy, we could use
just a good rainy day.
The river is way down.
And I'm a little worried
this is, this is only July,
and we've got
a long ways to go.
I'm super worried about
the water. We've got
a drought going on.
I am running.
It is, uh, it's hot and dusty,
but how long we can run?
I don't know.
We don't have enough
water to sluice,
and if we can't sluice,
we can't catch the gold.
This new pay is
gonna go so fast.
It's dry. It's running quick.
I've never
seen it like this.
Usually it's raining.
With the Black
Pearl still disassembled
and weeks away from
being operational,
Todd will keep the Holy Roller
going until they
run out of water.
I really want to get
a thousand ounces.
The Holy Roller is running two
eight-inch suctions,
with an eight inch out
to the manifold system.
That pump in itself will
probably move about
3,000 gallons a minute.
That is a ton of water.
This truck holds
a thousand gallons.
Now imagine moving this truck
every minute, three times.
So we're trying to pull water
from everywhere we can.
This water that I'm
getting today is going
on the roads of camp.
The roads are as
dusty as can be.
So we need to keep that dust
down so that we don't have
any silica dust in our lungs.
But I had to come to
the river to get it,
because there wasn't
enough in the Doll
to fill the tank.
This drought is serious.
Where I'm standing at
right now, I would have been
15 feet underwater right here.
But not this year. This year,
we're only at four feet.
It's ridiculous.
I'm a little worried that
we're gonna have water
to make it through the year.
We have one of the finest
trommels I've ever seen.
But, if we don't have
any water to run
through the sluices,
or enough water to run
through the sluices?
We can pack it up and go home.
No water? No gold.
Here we go.
Now that I've got the thousand
gallons of water,
add in an extra 8,000
pounds and I've gotta
get it up the hill.
We all woke up this morning
to the smoke that blew in
from the forest fire.
And you're breathing it
all day. It's not easy.
But there's absolutely nothing
that's gonna stop me
from working on
the Black Pearl
and getting it running.
Hunter recently
purchased a large wash plant
he nicknamed the Black Pearl.
In order to haul it to
the mining site, he had to
cut it into three pieces.
The base, the trommel,
and the hopper.
Now, Hunter and Sparky must
refurbish each part before
they can reassemble it.
- What's up, my brother?
- What's up, G?
So after we've
cleaned up these rings,
maybe we can fix that
support beam where
the old guys [bleep] up bad.
- Dude, that's
so fricking bent.
- Yeah.
Some of
the older guys came in,
for whatever reason, they felt
like it was their job to
unload all of our wash plant.
- Whoa!
- Hold on!
- Whoa!
- Stop!
I can't even look
at this [bleep]!
- Hang on!
- Hold on and we'll
get that [bleep]!
How are we going to
weld it back together,
- when you're dragging it
on the ground?
- Don't worry about it.
Now we have
to take more work time,
more time that we could have
been building on this frame.
- Building that divider
that we need to do.
- Yeah.
Like, and these guys, like,
it felt like they didn't
care about our stuff.
Like, I genuinely
don't appreciate that.
Well, I already brought
it up with them.
And I already expressed
to them how I feel
about them doing this.
And it is what it is.
It's like, we're just
gonna fix it. And, you know.
The victory is going
to be sweeter.
Nobody
on our entire crew,
not my dad, not Andy,
not any of these guys,
They've never taken
a trommel this size,
cut it completely apart,
trucked it all the way out
to the middle of nowhere,
reassembled it,
and gold mined with it.
And that's what I'm about
to do. So I can't wait to see
this thing running.
Dude.
You know,
I prayed about things.
I said, "God, we need water."
Now I'm having to say,
"God, turn it off, please."
You know?
Right now, we've got
too much water.
As
the storm builds,
the fear of potentially
not having enough
water to run the mine
quickly turns to anxiety
that there's too much water.
Yeah, I got a copy.
Is it really that much water
coming down, huh?
Okay, everybody shut down.
All hands on deck.
Todd knows
that too much water can end
the season in an instant.
He mobilizes all crew members.
I just got a call from Andy,
he says all the water is
just pouring down Doll.
The ancient river bed
is flooding.
We're gonna go up there
and just see what we can do.
Look at this.
It's already come up
at least a foot.
It hasn't even begun.
And we've got two inches
of rain coming.
So what happens if Doll Creek,
I use that term loosely.
That's a river. It's gonna
be a river in a minute.
What happens if that breaks
into that pay dirt?
It's gonna dilute it.
It's gonna wash most of it
downstream, dilute it all out.
Put mud in on top of it.
We go to four to five ounces
a hundred to, I don't know.
An ounce, half ounce?
All we can do is, uh,
start putting in overflows.
Whatever we've gotta do
to save the cut.
Oh, dang. We go from
drought to tropical rains.
It was Jack's fault.
He started praying
really hard.
Yeah, maybe tell him
to back off a little bit.
I'm gonna have him back off
on those prayers,
because if this water
gets into that cut,
we're screwed.
We need to get more berms.
Put in some overflows,
and if you need help,
we'll put all hands on deck
and let's just fight for it.
Okay, we've got our
work cut out for us.
All right. Good luck.
Stay in touch on me.
All right.
You know, Todd has put a lot
of responsibility on me.
I don't know how
to do everything.
There's a lot of things
I get in and start doing
and I figure it out.
This is one that could be
way over my head.
With
the floodwaters rising,
Andy has his hands full
trying to protect
the ancient riverbed.
I don't know
how high up the water
level is gonna go,
so I'm gonna put some dirt
on these berms, try to get
them a little bit higher.
And hope for the best.
If floodwaters wash into
the ancient riverbed,
their one thousand ounce gold
may wash away with it.
What are you gonna do,
pack it in there, Andy?
Yeah, we'll get these things
built up as best I can.
With the team
spread out, the Holy Roller
remains shut down,
and Todd moves further behind.
They move quickly
to save their water system
and their season.
All we wanna do
is build these berms up,
because if we get
a flash flood down here,
it's gonna go up
over the top, boom!
If this sucker runs over
into that cut right there,
we might as well just pack up
and go home.
It's a lot of weight on
Andy's shoulders.
I've gotta make sure
this stuff is done right.
So Andy's
dipping into some of our
best paydirt right there,
to actually go and put it
on the berm, because it's
actually waterproof.
Yeah. This stuff's fresh,
but it packs good,
so we'll use it
to save the cut.
We can get it back later.
I can't believe we're using
this rich paydirt right here
for the berm,
but, I don't know.
I think it's the less
of two weevils, bud.
Got it? All right, good,
because I don't want to
put any more of that
pay dirt on there.
Everything is about water.
Managing water. Keeping dirty
water here. Clean water here.
And no water in the cut.
And right now, I'm not
so sure we're gonna
be able to pull this off.
I don't know, dude.
Can we do it?
Are we gonna do it?
I hope so. It's all we can do.
I don't know what else to do.
Berm it up? I don't know.
We'll just see how much
rain comes tonight.
We're ready as good as we can.
Hey, keep your radio on.
We'll just monitor it.
It goes up a couple more feet,
we might be in trouble.
We can't always
pick our weather.
- No.
- Hey, at least we got rain.
I just hope the rain doesn't
destroy what we've got
cooking here, you know?
Yeah, for sure.
- All right,
good job. Let's go.
- All right.
While Todd and Andy
monitor the ancient river cut,
Flipping soaking wet.
Earlier, it was pouring down.
Hunter
starts working on
the Black Pearl's hopper.
- I might flip
that hopper over right now.
- Yeah.
I'm gonna come in here
with the excavator,
and I'll pick that up,
bring it over here,
tip it over and then we'll
rig it, pick it up,
and crib underneath,
so that we get those
legs off the ground.
And I'll just start
going on it.
Using chains,
Hunter and Sparky will attempt
to carefully tilt the hopper
onto its back, so they can
repair the bent support legs,
before reassembling
the entire wash plant.
This is
a lot of work for two guys
to do in the rain,
that I've never
done this before.
Yeah, stay back a little bit,
I'm gonna see if I can
get it off the ground.
Working in the rain
makes everything
much more difficult.
On top of that,
it's just miserable.
You're soaked to the bone.
Makes everything
much more hazardous
and much more difficult.
But right now,
we don't have a choice.
I'm gonna just keep it
low to the ground.
I'm gonna set it down
right here.
I want you to throw a chain,
see that little,
that little ring that's
welded on that left? Yep.
- Throw that chain in there.
- Gotcha.
Hunter wants to lay
the hopper on the most
level ground possible,
and it's Sparky's job
to rotate it into
just the right position.
Okay, go around
that way, Sparky.
Go around that way
and see if it'll spin.
It's a little heavy!
I can set it like this too,
and we'll tip it this way.
Pull it as far as you can
and I'll drop it.
And this will help, you ready?
Let's pull the chains off.
I'm going to use the bucket.
I'm going to tip it.
Just gonna tip
this hopper forward.
The chain's gonna be
a safety catch.
Go for it?
I think go for it.
Stay back. It's gonna get
a little squirrelly, man.
I'll lift those legs up,
and we'll shove those
big timbers underneath it.
Okay.
That's plenty.
- Is that enough
to slide those under?
- Yeah.
Right now, I'm not
gonna let anything stop us
getting this plant running.
You know, it's pouring
down rain, but there's
a lot of work to be done,
so we're just gonna
work through it.
We have to keep plugging away
on this plant.
And, you know, if we can
get it running, I think we're
gonna make a lot of money.
- Ready?
- Keep going,
keep going.
Try to get
that other one in.
I'm not gonna move.
It's plenty.
We've just dropped
the hopper on its side,
we're going to put some
cribbing underneath it
for safety precautions.
Other than that, we can
attack this project now.
- I like this.
- Yeah, this is sick.
How I wanted
it to go. Instead,
it went not good.
- Oh, that's money.
- Money, exactly,
dude. Money.
This is a prime example
of be careful
what you pray for.
Uh, we've asked for rain
and God has provided.
Unfortunately, now we have
a bit too much.
Our pond system has
completely filled up.
The pump has now died.
The pump
has been placed at
the edge of the pond,
to prevent the rising water
from washing out
the mine's main road.
Losing access to the road
would bring the mine
to a standstill.
It would be a very,
very bad thing.
So Randy must save the pump
in order to save the road.
Why did you stop?
The reason why
this pump's not running
is the fuel suction is here
and the fuel level has dropped
below the suction line.
So now I need to get
this pump back to normal,
so that the fuel pickup
can pick up the fuel.
Hey, who's in the, uh, 490
over here by the Pearl?
Tater, can you bring
that over here?
I need the assistance immediately.
If this breaks this little
barrier and floods our road,
eventually it'll find another
path and it'll slowly wash out
the dirt and rock of the road.
And then we've gotta rebuild
the whole entire road system.
Once we bring this back down,
then this road will be fine.
But we cannot lose the road.
Here comes Tater.
Just push down
on that tongue.
Yep, back her down.
Okay, hold that.
I'm gonna put some rocks
under the back of it.
Come on, baby.
Come on.
Go ahead and slightly let up.
See what that does.
Come on, baby.
Beautiful!
That sumbitch just went on!
Hopefully this will hold.
Look at this!
Holy [bleep].
We need an excavator
down here really quick
to cork this,
right by the orange farm, quick.
Despite Randy's
best effort to stop water
from flushing out the road,
additional rain
is overwhelming their pump.
Okay, what do you
wanna do? We got a situation.
I think we ought to cut
the road, but your call.
I think we'll just
cut it into this ditch.
Drain the water out.
I stopped everything from
coming into our system.
So it should... the pump
should start catching up.
If we cut a hole over here,
this water will hopefully
relieve itself over here.
And then we're gonna have to
build our dam back up here.
To keep
the overflowing pond from
washing away the entire road,
Andy digs a narrow
trench to contain
and control the flow.
Luckily, this didn't
happen during
the middle of the night,
or we would have woke up
to every cut flooded,
our berms all gone.
A month and a half
worth of work
right down the drain.
So, we're just gonna
stop mining, we're just
gonna let the water go.
I think we're gaining
on it, Andy. I think
we're gaining on it.
It's not getting
deeper down there.
It's dropping up here too.
With
the overflowing pond
being safely shunted
through the temporary channel,
Andy turns his attention
back to the ancient river cut,
where additional rain
overnight threatens to wash
out their richest paydirt.
I guess you gotta be careful
what you wish for around here.
You wish for rain,
you might get too much.
We had
a lot of rain last night.
We've got all of our pond
system and everything set up
to get a lot of water.
We were just in a drought
a few days ago, and now
we've got water everywhere,
so we're really close
on the berms being blown out,
so we're just trying
to fix everything.
This creek
is moving in a hurry!
This is, uh, yeah,
pretty intense.
Tater's up here
plugging it up,
putting the dam up
a little bit higher.
And I think we're gonna be
okay. Then I'm gonna stick
this culvert in the crossing,
because the culvert that's
there is not taking enough
water, so we're gonna fix it.
We're not mining today.
This is critical and crucial.
We can't mess this up.
While most
of the crew scrambles
to control the water,
Hunter is determined to forge
ahead on the Black Pearl,
which remains in pieces.
- I wish
we didn't have to do this.
- Yeah, me too.
I wish Andy didn't drag it,
or else we'd have
a cross member.
The legs on
the hopper are bent from,
you know, the way it
was offloaded, so it's
gonna take more time
to get them straightened
back out and get them correct.
Otherwise, when we go
to mount it, nothing's
gonna line up.
There's a lot of work
to be done, and if we don't
get the Black Pearl running,
I don't see us reaching
a thousand ounces.
With the Holy Roller being
shut down with the flooding,
time is of the essence
right now.
I'm going to
torch these off. I'm going
to get this thing leveled.
If we're not welding
out here in the rain,
this thing's never
going to get done,
I'm never going
to get any gold,
and everything we've done
up until this point
is for nothing, so...
We messed up a lot of
our support beams here,
so I've gotta just cut 'em off
and start fresh.
You know how to bevel that?
Not really. I was hoping
you'd do it, 'cause
you're the master.
Gotcha.
You don't
wanna cut too far back.
We just want enough meat
to where we can grind
in there, make it perfect,
seat it, so this thing's
not freaking falling apart
when we're feeding
fricking rich gold in there.
Sparky's taught me
a lot about fabricating,
cutting, welding.
So we're just, like,
feeding off each other.
You know, the Holy Roller
is a brand new wash plant.
It's been worked on
for months inside of a shop.
Everything is brand new,
fresh paint.
And the Black Pearl's been
around since the 80's.
It's older than me and Sparky.
It needs an insane amount of
work, especially for two kids.
I've never done anything
like this before,
but we're gonna keep going
until we get it right.
There's not a single guy here
that was ever doing what we're
doing right now at our age.
That's a fact.
Dude, I used to fricking
deliver bounce houses
for a living, dude.
Now I'm out here,
and kicking it with this guy.
We're freaking kicking ass
and taking names, dude.
The biggest wash plant
they've ever seen,
in the history of their lives.
Like the flooded
road by the pond,
a crucial section of road
by Doll Creek has
also been flooded,
and in this case,
completely washed away.
It must be fixed before
mining operations can resume.
It's still running through
there like a freight train.
So Doll Creek is running
really hard right now.
We are currently isolated
because of this
hole in the road,
and half of the mine
and half of our equipment
is on one side,
and the other half is on
the other side. So we can't
do anything till we fix this.
We're gonna have to
drop another culvert in.
And, uh, to do that right,
right now, it's gonna be
a temporary culvert.
To do it right, you've gotta
pack rocks in there.
You can't do that when there's
water flowing around it.
So hopefully we can do this.
It's like doing surgery,
while everybody's still awake.
So Todd,
what we're thinking is,
is that I dig this
back a little bit,
and then put a berm...
Yes, yes.
...to keep the water out
of that side,
and then we can lay
the culvert and put
some water over it.
Yeah, I like it. Dig the berm
over there, get the whole
river going over there.
Come back here,
dig our culvert,
pack it in tons and tons
of rock and then shut it off.
The plan is
to dam up the creek
with a berm just downstream
of the break in the road,
then the crew will install
a new culvert to go
under the road
that will be laid
on top of it.
Once those are in place,
the berm will be removed
and the water can safely
flow under the road,
through the new culvert.
Hey, let's get this in.
All right,
a little left, a little left.
Right there. Thank you.
So the bank
is slowly giving away,
with the berm in the creek
just enough to get inside
there and do this ditch,
and get the culverts in.
It'll have to
go your way a little bit.
- That good?
- Heck yeah.
Right on the money.
We're trying to get them
as close as we can.
We don't have banding,
which normally you do.
We need that fabric
down there.
But what we're gonna
do is actually put
fabric over the top,
and that's gonna
hopefully keep a lot
of that rock and sediment
from going down into
that culvert, filling it up,
and then becoming useless.
Hey, Tater,
you wanna get in here?
If you want me to,
I'll dig it.
Tater's the better
operator than me, and I think
this kind of situation,
we need to get him
in the seat instead of me.
The bucket's
coming off. Oh yeah.
Just turning my bucket around
backwards on my machine,
so that I can reach out
and sprinkle rock
where I wouldn't have
been able to reach.
These creek changes
are pretty sick, huh?
Dude, that is bad ass,
brother. Bad ass.
Okay, heads up,
heads up.
We're trying to pack it in,
in layers. Layer by layer,
pack it in.
If you just dump it and bury
it, it's gonna get washed out,
so we're packing it in.
A little bit more,
put a little bit more.
Pack it in, pack it in,
pack it in!
Now I've gotta carefully
break this open,
and we're gonna take
all the river right down
this new culvert.
- So far it's handling it.
- Seems to be taking it.
So far so good.
I think we're gonna have
a win on this one.
We had to build these roads,
you know, and it's tough.
Like, you're
hemorrhaging money.
So what I'm hoping is
that we're gonna
make it up in the gold.
That this is worth it.
Otherwise we built, you know,
a bridge to nowhere.
Gonna run up here,
I'm gonna take
a look at this berm.
Hopefully it, uh, has held up.
After flash floods
threatened to wash out
the ancient river channel
and its rich paydirt,
Andy has returned
to inspect the dirt berms
he built to protect it.
If that berm was not there,
we would have lost it.
So we can't afford
that at this point.
We're already late.
I don't need to be
losing cuts to flooding.
Yesterday, you know,
we lost 20-30 thousand
dollars, probably.
We can't afford
to do that anymore.
The Holy Roller
stop-down means the Hoffman's
one thousand ounce gold
is slipping further away.
I'll tell you what, I see
the water going down,
my berm is still there.
There's no water in there
and I can see the paydirt,
so, hallelujah.
But
the good news is,
they've managed
to save the paydirt
that has the potential
of getting them there.
I found this ancient river
channel seven months ago,
and I've been thinking
about all winter digging it
that Mother Nature comes in,
torrential downpour, rain,
waters coming up,
if it would have blown this
thing out, it would have taken
all this material,
covered the whole thing.
We would have had
a lot of time and money
and effort lost.
It's another good day.
Any day that you can win
in Alaska, mining, I'll take.
I'm gonna let Todd know
that the berm has held up,
and we can get trucks
and stuff back in there
and we can get to digging.
Hopefully It's got
a lot of gold in it.
So, ancient riverbed,
it did not flood.
We were able to save the cut.
Having that river crawling
right along our cut?
Man, it was scary.
And if it were would have
flooded into that, it would
have been a disaster.
So, now we're gonna fire up
and get things going.
Here we go!
We'll let it warm up
a little bit.
Here we go!
It's almost turning.
All right, Randy,
go ahead and idle up.
Hey,
it's working! It's turning.
Okay, here we go!
We're back rolling!
We're putting dirt
through the plant.
I think we got lucky.
I thought that flood
was going to take us out,
but we got lucky this time.
Hopefully, that
doesn't happen again.
Muddy day.
It's going to be a pain
in the ass just because
of how heavy this thing is.
I think we'll be able
to spin it good,
but we'll see.
Hunter and Sparky
are preparing to move
the massive base of
the Black Pearl into position.
We've got
our strongest chain
hooked up, so...
It's not easy
in the mud.
Everything's just way more
difficult when it's muddy.
Let's see if I can
slide it with this 490.
The goal is
to connect it to the hopper.
Honestly,
this is the biggest day
we've had in a long time.
Me and Sparky have been
welding on this plant
for... it seems like forever.
Just even getting the plant
to this point,
where we can start putting it
back together is a big deal.
It's going
pretty smooth right now,
just me and Hunter.
Nothing's broken yet,
so it's a good sign
we know what we're doing
and we're thinking
things methodically.
You're doing
a great job, brother!
- You like it there?
- This looks
pretty good.
In order to attach
the hopper to the frame,
they plan to use the excavator
to lift the hopper up
over the frame.
Then they will carefully lower
the hopper,
until it's four support beams
match up with those
on the frame.
Basically, we're welding
all these tabs to help align
all of these beams together.
Once we go to place it,
it's just gonna be me
and Sparky doing this,
we're gonna put
a tagline on it,
and, uh, if everything
goes to plan, it'll sit
perfectly on here.
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
One wrong move
can damage both the hopper
and the frame,
and cost the mine
more precious time.
It's critical that they slip
all four of the hopper's legs
over the tabs to
lock it into place.
Just bring her
this way a little bit.
We've been
waiting a long time
for this moment right here.
Okay.
All the tabs are in.
Hold on, hold on, hold on,
hold on. One tab is out.
It almost got in.
I think I might be able...
Might be able to pull a chain
on the other side of this.
- Okay, what do I do?
- Pick it up,
pick it up.
There you go. There you go.
Hold on.
All right. Go ahead.
Drop her like she's hot.
Okay, hold it.
Hold it, hold it.
That's pretty good.
That was a good idea.
That was a damn good idea.
This feels good.
It's like a huge weight
off our shoulders.
Hey, every time it's just me
and you working on this thing,
It's like...
you know what I mean?
This is sick, man, sick.
We've been out here welding,
cutting in the rain.
Even when we cut
this thing apart,
it was a lot to take on.
So now that we're reassembling
it, it feels really good, man.
We see the vision.
Now it's happening.
- What do you think?
- That is huge!
- It looks good, huh?
- Yeah.
We're trying to bring you
some crazy gold
to the gold room.
This is absolutely fantastic.
What you did today is more
than those dudes over there
done in about three days.
- My God.
- We appreciate you for
believing in this, Jack.
Well, you know,
it's gonna happen.
Get her going, man.
I'm really happy my little
brother is up here.
Nobody I love more
than that guy.
Mmm. Fresh [bleep] tee, dude.
He's just so funny.
You know that smell?
- Mmm.
- You're a [bleep].
- Smell it.
- Weirdo.
- Smell it.
- No!
Ten-four.
There's nobody
I love more on Earth
than my little brother.
You know, he's never trying
to get anybody to like him,
but everybody likes him.
I eat a pound
of Goldfish a week.
I don't know what it is
about him, it's just, like,
I just love the guy.
You know the
smell, dude.
Nice.
For our
second clean up,
Thurber out here.
This is all ancient
river channel pay.
After only
running for a total
of 20 hours due to the rain,
Todd and his crew pull
the Holy Roller's mats,
hoping they contain enough
gold to keep him afloat.
Well, we got, I don't know,
4,000 yards on the box.
Not a lot. Not a lot.
So we'll see
what happens here.
Dude, crazy week.
Hard on everybody.
Water. Flooding.
I was actually pretty
dang scared this week.
It was less than a foot
from flooding the whole cut.
We got all the culverts in,
got all the water diverted.
Got everything down.
And it's holding.
We should be good now.
- That could have
went really bad.
- Yeah.
Speaking of bad, we almost
lost the ancient river bed
that we've been digging
and digging and digging.
Look at this. It's already
come up at least a foot.
If that dike had blown
through, we would have lost
a third of our pay dirt.
- Huge.
- I was literally watching
the water come up.
And I just pull the road out.
And then Framer and Tater
came in and put a clank on,
set the culvert,
because it flooded.
Thank you, guys.
Seriously, though,
the experience
that you guys have
from a past life
came in handy in this life.
Tater, he went ahead
and switched
the bucket around.
That's kind of crazy.
I didn't know they did that.
I don't think that's
in the manual, Tater.
No, no, that doesn't come
in any instruction manual.
- That's hillbilly construction
right there.
- Yeah.
Black Pearl, gimme an update.
It's taken a lot of time,
but we're just trying
to do everything right,
so that when we get it
together, we're not gonna
have it fall apart on us.
The rain's blowing sideways.
We're standing
in a mud puddle.
All of our tools are caked
in mud. Our torch won't light.
We're caked in mud,
and we're just...
We've been soaked to the bone
for days trying to get
that thing together.
But it was a good moment
getting the hopper
put on there.
At least you can kind of
see it getting assembled.
So we're getting there.
We see the vision.
We've been talking about this
since day one.
It's like, we're never
gonna stop. We're gonna
keep on going.
There's gonna be a lot
of walls in front of us.
But if we can find a window,
if we can find a door and bust
it open, onto the next thing,
you know what I'm saying?
Nice. Nice. I like it.
Keep it up, man.
I know it's hard, Hunter.
I know you guys are struggling
out there. We see it.
You know, we're all one team.
So, keep pushing hard.
Get the Black Pearl
running, man.
As of right now,
the mine has produced
76 ounces of gold,
with 924 more needed,
to meet to reach 1,000 ounces
for the season.
To achieve that goal,
they need to average
92 ounces of gold per week.
Ah, I can tell by the way
you're dangling that thing,
that's not as heavy
as last week. Uh-oh.
What do you think, huh?
When you get
the little copper tray out...
- Yeah, it's not good.
- You know it's gonna hurt.
What do you think?
- Here we go.
- I don't know.
I'm just gonna pour it out.
It was a hard week.
I don't even...
Man, just pour it out.
It's definitely,
it's definitely a gut shot.
Where you're at? Five. Six.
Twenty three. Twenty four.
Twenty eight, 30, 34, 35,
36, 37, 38, 39.
39.2.
- It's not even half of where
we're supposed to be.
- Right.
That's still, what, 65,000?
Right? $65,000.
I mean, it's below what
we need,
but we had a lot of issues
that were out of our control.
I mean, it is what it is.
Last week we were at 76.
This week we're at 39.
We've got a grand total
of 115.
Now our average has to be
98 ounces a week,
every clean up, so...
The Holy Roller's
third week cleanup comes in
at just over 39 ounces,
for a running total
of 115 ounces.
The Hoffmans now need
98 ounces of gold per week
to reach their season goal
of 1,000 ounces.
Well, the bottom line is,
the challenges are not
gonna stop happening.
- Yeah.
- There's going to be
other stuff that happens.
We'll get flooded out again.
We're gonna break downs,
so that's even more reason
why we need the Black Pearl.
We're behind our average here.
The Black Pearl we're behind.
We're behind, personally,
in gold.
We've got to outperform
this in what we're doing.
Everybody does.
So let us know what
we can do to help.
- Yeah.
- Once we get you online,
- it's gonna go up.
- Oh, yeah.
Let's get some rest, guys.
Let's get rolling
in the morning.
You guys get
your beauty sleep in.