Original subtitles

[laughs]

[narrator] On this Gold Rush...

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] ...the King of the Klondike,

Tony Beets, takes on his longest day...

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] ...as he battles to run two operations...

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] ...gets tough with new recruits...

[narrator] ...and fights to save a key piece of equipment...

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] ...all in pursuit of big gold.

[opening theme music playing]

[Tony speaking]

-[Minnie] Yeah. -[Tony speaking]

[narrator] On Paradise Hill,

Tony Beets enjoys the creature comforts of home.

[Minnie] This house, it really, really feels good.

Well, the way that you look, I have to look at it,

you're here six, seven months out of the year, right?

So at least, you should be comfortable.

[narrator] The King of the Klondike

is running two mining operations,

forcing him to split his time

between an Indian River crash pad 40 miles away

and his home at Paradise with wife, Minnie.

-Hey. -[Minnie chuckles]

[Tony speaking]

[Minnie] That'd be nice to pull some gold out of the hill.

[narrator] Tony's day begins at the 35-year-old, 350-yard-an-hour

Paradise Hill trommel...

[Mike] Shut it off!

[narrator] ...run by youngest son, Mike.

[trommel stops]

[narrator] At the end of the night shift,

Tony checks the sluices

to determine if it's time for a cleanup.

[Mike] Looking pretty good.

It's yellow.

[Tony speaking]

-[Mike] Yeah? -[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Oh, yeah.

[Tony speaking]

It's not gonna do a [bleep], uh, two rows the whole way.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Yeah.

That's a nice one.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Yeah, I get cranky if I don't eat.

[narrator] While the crew gets to work cleaning out the trommel...

Tony and Mike head to breakfast.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Uh, probably in a minute.

[radio static]

[Mike] Monica, do you copy, Monica?

[Monica speaking over radio]

Do you wanna come to the kitchen?

[Monica speaking]

[Mike] Good.

I've been having them haul every day,

got nice big paintballs, as you saw as you drive in.

[Tony speaking]

Yes.

-[Monica] Morning. -[Tony] Hey.

[Minnie] Good morning.

-Morning. -[Monica] Fine.

-How are you? -[Minnie] I like your hair.

Thanks.

Got up early this morning?

No. I put it in at night.

[Minnie] Oh. It looks nice.

It lets you plan on your day good.

Hmm.

Yeah. [chuckles]

-No "we" that statement. -[Tony speaking]

[Monica] Unless you're talking about you

-and your multiple personalities. -[Tony] Hmm.

[Minnie] Are you gonna head out pretty soon?

[Tony speaking]

[Minnie] Has anyone heard from Kevin?

[Tony speaking]

-No. -[Tony speaking]

-[Monica] You know what you gotta do? -[Tony speaking]

[Monica] Just rent a helicopter. [bleep].

-[laughs] Instead of-- -[Mike] Oh, I see. [bleep].

-Like, we just sit there above him and say... -[laughs]

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] This season,

eldest son, Kevin, is running his own operation

near the Indian River.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] This is [bleep] great!

[laughs]

Oy!

[Tony speaking]

[Monica] Mm-hmm.

-[Tony speaking] -[Monica speaking]

[groans]

[narrator] With nearly 3,000 acres of gold-rich claims...

the best way for Tony to monitor his empire is from the sky.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Yeah, I'm just looking at all the ground over here

that I stripped.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] From the 1,300 acres at Paradise Hill

managed by Mike...

it's a 40-mile flight south

to the 44 acres Kevin has leased from Tony...

where he's working a 3-acre section

of the Lynx Cut.

Yeah?

[Tony laughs]

[laughs]

[Tony and Minnie laughing]

I can, uh, I can already see the glare from here.

-[Tony laughs] -He actually looks kind of mad.

[Tony chuckles]

[Mike] Looks like someone made a little cut down here.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Next door to Kevin's claim on Scribner...

is Tony's 1,200-acre Indian River claim...

where this season, he's running two wash plants, a fleet of iron...

and a 50-strong workforce who've been on their own

since Tony left for Paradise Hill two days ago.

[Tony speaking]

[mouthing] No.

I just got slapped and told, "No."

[Tony speaking]

[laughs]

I think both of them are done.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] I don't know why, I'm having a blast.

It's kind of cool seeing everything from up here.

[Tony speaking]

Oh!

[narrator] Back on his Indian River claims

after 48 hours away...

[narrator] ...Tony must make sure progress

stripping a new section of the comeback cut is on track...

[narrator] ...overseen by foreman, Cousin Mike.

-[Cousin Mike] What's that? -[Tony speaking]

No, but we wanted to drag it over here.

Yeah.

[Cousin Mike] ...yeah.

[horn honks]

I like working for, uh, Tony.

You know what you get, you know what you have.

Tony is still not slowing down,

but running up and down between two mines,

that's, uh, very hard.

The goal this year is big for Tony,

but it's also big for me.

This is the first year I'm in this position.

And I always like to do a good job,

but especially now because it's a... a big thing.

[Tony speaking]

Huh?

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] After 48 hours at Paradise Hill,

Tony Beets has returned to his Indian River claim.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] In the Comeback Cut,

a rookie driver has tipped a rock truck on the waste pile

and becomes stuck, slowing down production.

[Tony speaking]

Oh, yeah, when I was going up to the dump,

but, uh, it just started feeling

like I was sinking in, you know?

So, I... I gave it a little more gas,

but I got stuck,

and then I was trying to empty the box to go out,

but then I just-- It just flipped, like, randomly,

right, by itself.

[narrator] To right the 34-ton rock truck

and get production back on track,

Tony takes control of the 750 excavator.

[engine starts]

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] The rock truck is dangerously close to the edge of the pile,

where the dirt is less compacted

and could collapse at any moment.

[clanking]

[Tony speaking]

[clanking]

[engine revs]

[engine revs]

[narrator] The universal joint,

essential for handling the uneven terrain,

is broken...

taking the truck out of action until it can be replaced.

[Tony speaking]

[Darien] Tony was pretty pissed off about the whole ordeal,

but, um, I'm going back to working.

Uh, he said that things like that happen, you know?

So, I just gotta do what I gotta do

and keep on going.

[Tony speaking]

[snickers]

[laughs]

[chuckles]

[exclaims]

[horn honking]

[Tony speaking]

[horns honking]

[laughs]

[narrator] After spying on Kevin's operation from the sky,

now Tony is heading to Scribner for a closer look.

Hey, Tony.

How you going, Ton'?

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin] Hey, I'd say this is a surprise,

but yeah, I'm not surprised.

[narrator] As landlord,

Tony receives a 10% royalty

on everything Kevin mines.

Already working the Lynx Cut,

now Kevin is looking for his next spot.

[Tony speaking]

-[Brennan] Gold. -[Kevin] Uh, answers, mostly.

[Tony speaking]

-Very helpful. -[Brennan laughs]

We just wanna know what next bit of ground we should test.

[Tony speaking]

-[Kevin] I know. -[Tony speaking]

-[Kevin] Okay. -[Tony speaking]

[Brennan] So, 30 years ago,

was it still pretty much dozer-mining back then?

[Tony speaking]

[Brennan] How much did they miss back then

doing just dozering off the floor, like all the pay?

[Brennan] Yeah. [laughing] Is that right? [continues laughing]

-[Brennan] Yeah. -[Tony speaking]

[Brennan] Yeah.

I've been eyeing that up the whole time.

[Tony speaking]

Perfect.

You don't happen to know where that test plant out here?

[Kevin] All right.

[Kevin] Go look for it. No, no, no.

Just the test plant.

[Tony speaking]

-Pickup truck, perfect. -[Tony speaking]

[Brennan] Okay, thanks, Tony.

-[Tony speaking] -[Kevin] Oh, no.

-[Brennan laughing] What? -[Kevin groans]

-[Tony speaking] -[Brennan] See ya.

[laughs]

[bleeps and laughs]

He's just a big [bleep] kid, eh?

Oh, yeah, this is probably the highlight of his [bleep] day, honestly.

But that... that does answer a few questions.

[Brennan] Oh, yeah, for sure.

And we can mine that far piece over to our border

-as we're sluicing. -Walking in, yeah.

He almost certainly left some stuff,

so I'll see about getting that test plant over.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Coming up...

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] After checking in on the cuts, Tony heads to his office.

[narrator] Stretched thin, Tony Beets is hiring new crew,

but you need more than a good resume

to impress the King of the Klondike.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] No matter how strong their handshake,

for Tony to reach his goal of running two plants, twenty-four-seven,

he needs to make sure the new recruits are holding their own.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony groans]

[narrator] Earlier in the season,

the Greenhorn strip 20 feet of worthless overburden

to reach the gold-rich gravel layer, which was processed through the plant.

But Tony believes some of the gravels were left behind,

potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[Tony speaking]

[Geoff] And that was just right on the top.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Tony's suspicion confirmed,

it's down to rookie miner, DJ, to take out the remaining pay.

[Tony speaking]

[DJ] Yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony and DJ speaking in other language]

[Tony speaking in English]

[both laugh]

-[Tony speaking] -[DJ] I know.

[Tony speaking]

I'm Dickjan Postema.

Uh, saying in my own language for now.

But most other guys, they call me DJ

because it's easier to pronounce

and, yeah, I'm coming from Holland.

I'm almost at the same place as where Tony came from, from Friesland.

Yeah, it's pretty difficult because the, yeah, the conditioning,

and you see the water and, uh, the different colors in the dirt

and the the gravel and that kind of stuff, so.

I'm getting used to it now.

I personally have quite a hard time telling the difference

between, like pay and hard rock

or just overburden and stuff like that.

There's such high expectations,

um, and such a specific way that Tony likes things done.

It's an intimidating atmosphere.

There's still frozen dirt here underneath my pocket here.

Maybe you can take it out for me.

[Tony speaking]

No, I'm just asking you for a favor. [chuckles]

[Tony speaking]

[DJ speaking on radio]

[narrator] Now that Tony's happy DJ is getting all the remaining pay,

the trucks roll in and start hauling it to the plant.

[Tony speaking]

[DJ] Tony is a pretty good person to talk with,

and especially when I'm talking in my own language.

I'm... I'm learning a lot from Tony, yeah.

[man 1 on radio]

[Tony speaking]

[man 1 on radio]

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] At Indian River, mine boss Tony Beets is having a day.

He's been driving his claim since 6:30 a.m.

And now the road connecting camp to the rest of the mine has collapsed,

leaving an old bridge as the only access point.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] The bridge is unsuitable for the heavy equipment,

so Tony must rebuild the road

or risk his biggest iron becoming stranded in the cut.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] All that's left is for Tony to test his work.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Still on the clock, Tony grabs a quick dinner,

before heading to the gold room...

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] ...and he knows exactly what he wants.

[Tony speaking]

That's the new combo.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] In 2016, Tony paid one million dollars for a second dredge,

originally built in 1946.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] After two years, he sunk another million dollars

in moving and rebuilding it, but never finished the job.

And it's been derelict since 2018.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony speaking]

-[producer] Why is that? -[Tony speaking]

[Monica] Oh, not too much. You?

-[Tony speaking] -[Monica] Never-ending.

[narrator] Tony Beets has been run ragged

but still needs to make his last check of the day.

The gold room and the latest news on his Indian River gold count.

Well, it's slow and steady, you know.

[Tony speaking]

-Well, you don't really want everybody in here, either. -[Tony speaking]

You sure about it?

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] To separate the gold from the fine, worthless dirt,

Monica runs it through a gold table

where water and vibrations sort the heavier gold into the grooves

and deposit it in a bucket below.

It's then dried out, ready to be weighed.

-[Tony speaking] -[Monica] All right.

[Tony speaking]

-Take it and run! -[Tony speaking]

Put it in a jar?

-[Tony speaking] -Save it for a rainy day?

[Tony speaking]

Don't go away mad, as they say.

[Tony speaking]

-[Monica] Yeah. -[Tony speaking]

With Tony, every part of my life he has been,

you know, my father, my boss and everything else

for the last, well, almost 20 years of my life,

um, and so...

there is no one part of him separate from the other.

Now, he's an old man, he can be a little bit more relaxed.

Anytime my kids are around this guy is like...

[bleep] melted butter in our hands.

[narrator] After a long day on the mine site,

Tony heads to his Indian River crash pad.

[Tony speaking]

But I don't even think I'm gonna paint them and just leave him as is, so.

End of the day, I'm gonna crawl in the hot tub,

so I'm gonna get naked. So I think that's it.

[all laughing]

[Tony] Ladies and gentlemen, I got [bleep] to do.