Original subtitles

[theme music playing]

[soft instrumental music]

[Mitch Blaschke] Good morning. How's it going?

-[Nona Loveless] Good. How's it going with you? -[Mitch] Not too bad.

We got a lot going on out there.

[Nona] You're gonna have a busy few days. Parker's away.

So, you get to go running around like a chicken with your head cut off.

Oh, as big as this operation has gotten,

it leaves us a lot of area to cover.

Plus, trying to keep the Long Cut going at the same time.

Well, if you need a hand, I'm here to help out.

[Mitch] Hopefully, we can keep these plants around, keep some gold coming in.

[Nona] I got my fingers crossed.

[Mitch] All right. You have a great day.

[Nona] Take care.

[dramatic instrumental music]

[sighs] Parker's away today.

We got three wash plants running.

We gotta keep the wheels rolling.

I don't think we're gonna run out of work to do today.

[narrator] Mitch Blaschke is stepping into mine boss Parker Schnabel's shoes.

He's responsible for Parker's 9,500-acre empire,

where crew are running an army of wash plants round the clock.

In the Long Cut is 40-ton shaker, Rocksand.

Old faithful Big Red churns through pay in the Bridge Cut.

And wash plant Bob sluices for gold in the Sulfur Cut.

After a season of missteps,

everyone needs a big finish.

This is my 13th season mining,

11 of those now with Parker.

When I first started coming up here, gold mining,

you know, I was just a mechanic.

From there, you know, now I'm the foreman here at Parker's mine site.

And this company has gotten so big over the years.

What's crazy is, you know, thinking back how it started,

it was just, you know, one dozer when I started working for Parker.

[narrator] This season, Parker has amassed more ground and crew

than ever before,

and it's proven difficult to keep the gold flowing

and the machines running.

You know, right now, we've got Jordan heading out to fix the excavator.

We've got Janko and Taylor working on loaders.

So, there's constantly something that needs done.

[Taylor] The plants require everything to be working to have 100% uptime.

We really can't afford downtime, this season especially.

We're trying to get tons of sluicing done,

and these loaders are what get the job done.

[intriguing instrumental music]

[Mitch] Today, with Parker being gone,

I've gotta come out here and make sure everything's good.

There's a constant list of problems,

And the biggest issue with that is just trying to prioritize.

[Jordan on walkie-talkie]

[Mitch] Yeah, what's up?

All right, dude. I'll see you down there. Thanks.

Right now, we're gonna head over to the water pump here for Rocksand,

see exactly what's going on.

Not ideal, obviously, any time you have a situation like this,

your wash plant's down,

it's not producing gold.

At the end of the day and the end of the week,

Parker's gonna say, "Why are the numbers down? What's going on?"

You have to explain what exactly happened.

[narrator] Earlier this season...

[Parker] We live and die by the water pump, right?

Wash plants don't run, cuts don't get dewatered.

[narrator] Parker spent $540,000

on three new supersize water pumps.

[Parker] Do they give us a full tank of fuel?

Bone dry.

Thanks, guys.

Spent half a million, and they siphoned out the fuel tank.

They're brand new, but a lot of rust buildup in the tanks,

just 'cause they sat with no fuel in 'em.

And the first thing I said when I saw that was,

"Put these in a pond and test them before they come out."

[narrator] Mitch suspects rust has clogged the pump's fuel filter

and plans to swap it out for a much older spare.

Right now, we just gotta get this plant up and running.

And we have a water pump here that works,

and we're gonna put it back in place.

Right now, we got the 480 coming in here,

and we're gonna lift this pump out.

We're gonna put the old one back in place.

[narrator] Helping him, mechanic Jordan Sands.

[Jordan] Here I am, helping out my friends.

[Mitch] All right, here we go. Don't drop it.

Nice and easy.

Look at that.

Beautiful.

Right on the ball! That was beautiful.

[narrator] The rusted pump sent to the yard,

Mitch and Jordan set about craning in the replacement pump.

Hopefully, it's got enough life left in it here to finish this cut out.

Jordan's gonna get it rigged up here, we're gonna fly it in,

we gotta line up the discharge, get that hooked up,

and then we gotta get the suction on it.

And, hopefully, we'll be back up and sluicing.

Heck, yeah.

-[Jordan exclaims] -[Mitch] She's heavy.

[Jordan] Yeah, it is.

[Mitch] Don't put it over the water.

Right now, we're just positioning the pump.

The hardest part here is, we gotta line up our discharge on the pump

to our buried discharge here.

And it's pretty much gotta be right on the money.

[Jordan] Hella close.

[Mitch] You know, when you're doing this kind of stuff, dude,

stuff's gonna break, stuff's gonna not work.

[Jordan] Don't matter the product, don't matter the make.

-Right. -[Jordan] She's turning. She's on her way to break.

Ooh, I just came up with that right now.

-[Mitch] That was good. That communicated a lot over there. -Wow.

That, or I could take up, what, rhyming and just quit this [bleep]

Okay, yeah. Just be a poet over there.

So, right now, we've got our old pump back in place.

We're gonna tighten these up, and try and get us back running here.

Definitely, a lot of lost time here.

-Yeah, buddy! -[Jordan] Okay.

That went pretty good.

The big problem, and why this pump came out,

is because we knew the foot valve was having a problem.

When we turned the pump off, we noticed that our water line wouldn't hold water in it.

It would all bleed back out.

And that valve down here should stop that, keep the water in the line,

and it also allows the water pump to prime itself.

I've got the plant turned off. I've got the bypass turned off.

We're trying to pull all the air out of the pipeline

in order to start creating a vacuum.

[dramatic instrumental music]

[narrator] The pump sucks water from the pond using a rotating impeller,

creating a centrifugal force that pulls water in

and pushes it uphill to Rocksand.

Because the flip valve is broken,

water has escaped and created an air pocket in the pump,

blocking the impeller and stopping water flow.

Mitch's plan, known as deadheading,

is to max out the pump

and cause a vacuum powerful enough to suck water through the impeller

and push the air blockage up the pipe,

allowing water to float to Rocksand.

But if the pump is not turned down,

and the wash plant's bypass not opened at the correct moment,

the increased water pressure could blow the whole system.

So, this is 100% what you never wanna do,

and that's deadhead your pump.

You know, if we end up blowing the pipeline in half,

we're gonna have way bigger problems

than just what we already got going on.

This right here is one of those "Don't try this at home."

I can see that the lay flat hose is starting to collapse.

That means that it's pulling the air out of it.

[tense instrumental music]

-[rumbling] -There it is!

[whoops] We got her!

Hey! Hey!

Turn it down!

Hey, we got it there, but you can see just how much water pressure that was.

The bypass about blew out of the spot there.

When that water hit, it had a lot of energy.

When your hand first went up, I was like,

-"[bleep] he needs more water." -[Mitch] Oh, dude!

It about blew the bypass.

[sweeping instrumental music]

All right, we're back in action. Appreciate it.

-Thanks, man. -[Jordan] See ya, Mitch.

Right now, man, we just wanna get this plant back up and running.

[sweeping music continues]

You ready to sluice, buddy?

[Jordan on walkie-talkie]

[sweeping music continues]

At the end of the day, if this wash plant isn't running,

we're not getting anywhere near close to Parker's target.

[narrator] Coming up...

Oh, my [bleep]

[narrator] ...a critical machine goes down.

[Taylor] This is an absolute catastrophe.

[narrator] And Mitch's plan to keep Rocksand running...

Oh, come on! [bleep]

[narrator] ...hits the skids.

Not good, man. Not good at all.

[dramatic instrumental music]

[sweeping instrumental music]

Right now, getting the loader fleet up and running,

so it's really important we get 'em all in fighting shape,

'cause they'll be running 24 hours a day.

[narrator] In Parker's laydown yard,

mechanic Taylor Matejka is working on a broken loader

so the whole fleet will be operational.

Nacho.

Hey, buddy?

He's, like, the best therapy.

I can't have a bad day when I jump in my truck and Nacho is just chilling.

[tense instrumental music]

[Adrian Truong on walkie-talkie]

Yeah, go ahead.

You said water in the fuel?

All right, I'll be right out.

[narrator] A 25-mile drive away at Sulfur Creek,

a 220 loader, nicknamed Arnold, is broken.

And with no spare, wash plant Bob is shut down.

What's going on, buddy?

Code popped up. I shut it off right away.

All right. Well, give me a few minutes and we'll see what's happening.

-I'll hit you on the radio when I'm done. Cheers. -[Adrian] Sweet. Yeah.

[narrator] With gold production at a standstill,

Taylor must diagnose the problem

and get it back up and running as soon as possible.

[Taylor] Water in the fuel is no joke.

Sometimes, it's just a fault with the sensor,

or sometimes, we have a bigger problem.

This is called a water separator right here.

Any water that finds its way in the tank.

Water is heavier than the fuel,

so it should fill the bowl with water,

and the fuel would stay above it.

It's hard to tell what's going on here just by looking in there,

but it doesn't really look like diesel.

There's a lot of it.

Oh, my [bleep]

Smells like DEF.

[tense instrumental music]

No [bleep] way.

Looks like somebody might have put DEF in the fuel tank, 'cause...

[sniffs] this is not water.

And the only way you'd get DEF in the fuel system

is if you poured DEF into the fuel tank.

I wonder if this thing even runs.

[tense instrumental music]

[bleep]

[narrator] Diesel exhaust fluid, known as DEF,

helps reduce emissions.

But if it gets into the engine,

it can crystallize, causing catastrophic failure.

[sniffing]

[Taylor] Oh, my [bleep]

It's a huge bummer that this thing can't be running right now.

We have nothing to feed Bob without Arnold running here.

So, you know, time is money.

We got loaders at every plant right now.

We got one in the yard that's down.

We need this thing up and running, and this is a curveball.

And an unnecessary one at that.

[tense instrumental music]

Here's where you fill fuel.

Here's where you fill DEF.

Right? So, obviously, someone had this cap off,

and they poured DEF in the fuel tank.

We gotta talk to night shift and see and how we ended up in this predicament.

What I'm gonna do is take the cover off the bottom, drain the tank.

We'll see what's coming out of the tank.

[grunts]

Oh, my [bleep]

It's all [bleep] clear.

How much DEF did they dump in this thing?

Oh, my [bleep]

You got a 350-liter tank here that was close to full.

So, I drained 100 liters out.

The evac tank in my truck should be capable of handling the rest.

[tense instrumental music]

[motor starting]

And you can see, the clearer stuff at the bottom is DEF.

That's diesel.

This is absolute catastrophe for the fuel system.

[dramatic instrumental music]

I've still got my suction on it.

So, I hope that filling it here

can kind of flush the bottom of the tank, too.

[narrator] After draining almost $700 worth of contaminated fuel,

Taylor fills and drains the tank again

in an attempt to flush the fuel system clean.

So, we flushed out the tank and I filled it up.

So, what we know we have is clean fuel in the tank, for the most part.

So, we know that the contaminated fuel

ran through these filters.

So, we're gonna change those.

And then, all we have to worry about is what's in the fuel lines.

There's a lot to worry about there,

'cause if DEF ran through the injectors,

there's a very high chance that the injectors will fail.

If that happens, we're looking at

somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 bucks

just from a lapse in judgment.

So, we'll see.

[Mitch] Hey, man, how's it going?

[Tyler] We got two loaders down right now, so...

-Somebody put DEF in the diesel tank. -[Mitch] Oh, no.

[narrator] Across the claim, Mitch is on his rounds,

checking in with mechanic Tyler Jankowski.

[Mitch] Little operator error there.

Yeah, man. Not the time to do this.

-No, that's not good at all. -No.

[Mitch] All right, let's go see what's going on with this thing.

-Okay, awesome. Thank you. -Thanks, dude. Appreciate it.

[narrator] Determined to keep the operation running in Parker's absence,

Mitch heads to the Sulfur Cut.

You know, this time of the season, I think, is the toughest

because everybody is thinking about going home.

This mining season, six months long.

It's a lot of work to get done.

It's a lot of hours everybody's putting in out here.

And if you lose focus for just a short period of time,

you know, something can go wrong.

But it all takes time and costs money.

[tense instrumental music]

[Taylor] What's going on?

[Mitch] What'd you find?

So, I have drained the whole tank.

I filled and drained again.

I've changed... changed the fuel filters,

And right now, this is fuel coming directly out of the head.

So, right now, you're just trying to purge everything

-out of the fuel system. -[Taylor] Yeah.

-Yeah. -And get everything out of the cylinder head.

Not good, man. Not good at all.

-I mean, last time, we had to do injectors in it. -[Taylor] Yeah.

Yeah, and we don't have a set of injectors here, so let's cross our fingers.

[Mitch] Well, man, I know every other loader's got a job to do out here,

so we need this thing running and get Bob back fired up.

This is the end of her, so we can fire it up here pretty quick.

It gets real expensive real quick.

Not only the expense of fixing the machine,

-but now we got a wash plant that's not running. -[Taylor] Yeah.

All right, buddy. Well, let me know what you find out.

Yeah, sounds good. I'll get a hold of you when we get it running.

Taylor's doing everything he can here to get her fired back up.

We're gonna order some injectors and some spare parts.

But, hopefully, we can get it running with what we got.

[tense instrumental music]

[Taylor] Mitch is busy. He's got a lot going on.

He's trying to manage a lot of people and a lot of equipment.

And he's about as pleased as I am

to find out that there is DEF in the fuel tank.

I don't think you can go overkill on this step.

My tricep would disagree right now.

But if that [bleep] is in the head, we might be [bleep]

Now, we gotta cross our fingers and hope that it runs nicely.

[narrator] Now, Taylor has just one shot to fire up the loader.

If the DEF is in the fuel injectors,

it'll cause irreversible damage

and wash plant Bob will stay shut down

until new parts arrive.

So...

here goes nothing.

-[engine choking] -[tense instrumental music]

[engine running]

I'm really happy that it's running all right.

Not to get too excited here, but I think we can fire up Bob.

[triumphant instrumental music]

-Hey, buddy. -[Adrian] Hey, man. We're all good to go?

Fingers crossed, man, you know?

-[Adrian] Fingers crossed. -Everyone should learn a lesson from this one, too.

-I gotta talk to the night shift, boys. -Sure. Yeah.

But this could have been a hell of a lot worse.

But, yeah, let's get after it.

-Awesome. Thanks, Taylor. -Cheers, bro.

Take it easy.

[whoops] Gonna go run the plant now,

fire up Bob, and then we're gonna get some dirt in the hopper.

[sweeping instrumental music]

I'm jamming the hopper folds, trying to make up the lost time.

I like getting more gold. More potential for a bonus for me.

Right now, Bob is doing exactly what he needs to here...

which is washing rocks and making gold.

So, since it's motoring along, I'm gonna go keep making my rounds.

[dramatic instrumental music]

Just call home and see how everybody's doing.

[soft instrumental music]

[boy on call]

[Mitch] Oh, hello.

[woman on call]

[Mitch] Oh, yeah, it does.

You're growing up quick.

[woman speaking]

[boy yelling]

[Mitch] Oh, really?

What's up with you, chick?

What happened?

Whoa! Are you kidding me? You lost your two front teeth. What?

[Mitch] Well, I'm glad you didn't.

I'll be home pretty soon.

[woman speaking]

[boy speaking]

[Mitch] Okay. Love you.

[woman speaking]

[boy speaking]

Bye, baby. Be good for your mom, okay?

-Bye. -[woman speaking]

-Me, too. Bye. -[woman speaking]

[Mitch] You know, I've got a four-year-old and six-month-old,

and you're up here for six months at a time.

But at the end of the day, you gotta work.

I wanna try and get home as fast as possible.

That's why I try and get as much work done each day as I possibly can.

And that's really the motivator for me is,

you know, if I can make that wash plant run a little faster,

if I can get through the cut a little bit quicker by being more efficient.

It's just that much sooner that I get to, you know, spend time with my kids.

So, that's what it's all about.

[narrator] Mine boss Parker Schnabel is away on business,

leaving foreman Mitch Blaschke holding down the fort.

[Mitch] There's more that has to be taken care of

because he's not here doing what he normally does.

The biggest thing is just keeping morale up and keeping everybody focused.

This time of the year is tough.

And it's not gonna get any easier until the end of this season

and everybody's heading home.

[narrator] Mitch is nearing the end of this season-long project,

the 20-acre Long Cut.

[Mitch] Now, at the start of the year, Parker said

the Long Cut has to be completed this season,

and he said, "I don't care what you have to do to make that happen.

Just make sure it gets done."

Now, the Long Cut has been pretty consistent.

It's been a pretty consistent pain in the ass since the start of it,

and it's put up one hell of a fight here.

But If it was easy, it would have been done a long time ago.

And that's the reason why the gold is still here for us to get.

[narrator] After swapping out the water pump,

Mitch is digging out more pay dirt.

[Mitch] What I'm doing right now is just going back along the edge.

Originally, when we were putting the ditch in here, that edge was all frozen.

But now this has had time to thaw out,

and it really generates quite a bit of material here.

So, you know, by going back in here and cleaning this up,

you know, we're looking at several shifts of material for the wash plant.

We're gonna get this loaded in the trucks up to Rocksand.

[dramatic instrumental music]

I'm really happy that I get to be a part of this operation.

[narrator] Driving the pay to the plant is rock truck driver Tayvin Peterson.

[Tayvin] I actually really enjoy working for Mitch

because he seems to really care and he'll do anything that needs done.

I'm just grateful that I have great operators surrounding me

that know what they're doing.

[dramatic instrumental music]

Got lots of dirt to throw through the wash plant, still.

So, you know, we're out here going like jackrabbits,

trying to get everything done.

[narrator] At Rocksand, newly-promoted loader operator John Kurtz

is running the plant solo for the first time,

feeding it 250 yards of pay dirt an hour.

[John] Running a loader is definitely a big step up responsibility-wise

from a rock truck.

Running a loader, you have about a million other things you gotta be watching.

It's a good way to prove to yourself that you're reliable

and someone that people can count on.

[dramatic instrumental music]

Oh, that's a big [bleep]. Holy [bleep]

Oh, my [bleep] feeder is clogged!

[tense instrumental music]

That's water!

Oh, come on, you [bleep]

I had a clog up in my feeder, so I had to run up and hit the breaker,

and then come hit the bypass

before that explodes.

[intriguing instrumental music]

[groans]

Hey, Mitch.

[Mitch on radio]

[John on radio]

[Mitch speaking]

Copy that.

[tense instrumental music]

Those rocks away at the bottom.

So, it's blocking my dirt from hitting the feeder belt.

I'm just trying to dig out the dirt, and I'm about...

not even halfway.

[narrator] Large rocks have slipped through the grizzly bars

and clogged the bottom of the hopper feeder.

[John] Oh, there's a big [bleep]

[grunts]

[narrator] To clear it, John will have to dig out a mountain of dirt by hand.

[John] I'm hoping once Mitch sees this,

that he'll understand my situation and won't have to get thrown back in the truck,

'cause I will be very upset if that's the case,

[tense instrumental music]

Well, there's the man of the hour.

What's up, man?

I got a big old boulder

-right at the bottom of my feed belt. -[Mitch] Yeah.

And it's just causing the back end of the feeder to clog up,

and where the front end has nothing.

So, I have a feeling we'll have to, like, shovel more,

-or something. -[Mitch] Let's have a look.

Oh, yeah.

Well, let's go ahead and get the plant back shaking...

-[John] Okay. -and all the belts going. We'll turn the water on

-and we'll start purging out what we can here. -[John] Okay.

[intriguing instrumental music]

What happens is these big rocks get wedged in there.

Once that happens, the material builds up,

-causes a lot of chaos. -[machine starts]

You know, John's one of our new loader operators,

but he's doing a really good job up here.

And this is the best thing to do when a problem like this happens,

is call for help.

John did the hard work.

So, we're gonna get this thing cleared out here and get it back rolling.

Every minute we're down here is just gold we're not gonna have at the end of the week.

[narrator] Mitch thinks John has already cleared enough rocks

to turn on the feeder and dislodge the remaining dirt.

-[feeder starts] -[John] There we go.

[Mitch] Let's let it just feed out.

[John] I think we're good.

[Mitch] Let her clear out here.

Oh, yeah, she's dropping down nicely now.

We're looking really good right now. The material is dropping off the back wall.

Got the big rocks removed. Everything's flowing now.

Time to throw dirt at it.

[John] That was my first kind of shut down I've had.

Glad that Mitch was happy about everything,

and it wasn't too big of an issue.

I mean, I had most of it shoveled out to where it would just slide all out

when he showed up and fired the plant up for me.

So, I'm glad he was in good spirits about it.

Definitely gonna have a couple of beers after work, though. [bleep]

[Mitch] Well, we got the plant back up and running.

Pretty soon, he'll understand what he has to do in those situations

and be able to take care of it on his own.

You know, when I look at all the seasons I've been up here mining

and where it all started,

you know, I was the guy up here pulling wrenches.

And when I'd get everything up and going,

I'd jump in machinery and, you know, help move the dirt, as well.

And I think that really helps me a lot with, you know, being the foreman now,

because I've fixed the machinery, I've operated the machinery.

I've run the wash plants.

You know, mistakes and lessons that you've learned in the past

help you in the future.

Definitely still learning things new every day.

With as much as Parker throws at us,

it's constantly a challenge of trying to do more with less.

[dramatic instrumental music]

Well, the Long Cut is not so long anymore.

We almost got this.

[rumbling]

-[engine shuts off] -What was that?

Oh, that stick cylinder is walking out.

You've gotta be [bleep] kidding me!

Yo, Taylor, you got a copy, man?

[Taylor on radio]

[Mitch] This thing is [bleep]

[dramatic instrumental music]

Uh, Mitch hit me on the radio and said that he was running this hoe,

and the pin popped out of the stick cylinder.

There it is.

[narrator] In the Long Cut, foreman Mitch Blaschke is facing another breakdown.

The 480 digging pay is sidelined.

It's a race against the clock for mechanic Taylor to get it fixed

before Rocksand runs out of pay.

It's a good thing Mitch caught this in time.

Had the pin walked all the way out

while he was loading the truck or something,

the results could have been a lot different.

You know, it risks damaging the truck that it's loading,

it risks damaging the excavator,

and it could injure the person sitting in the rock truck

if this stick were to fall down uncontrollably.

I brought some steel out with me, so I'll just

fashion something that keeps that pin from wanting to walk out again.

It can't go that way. It can only go this way.

So, if I weld a chunk of steel on the back side of it,

it's probably the fastest way to get this thing back up and running.

[dramatic instrumental music]

Voila!

So, we got the pin back in.

So, now, I'm just gonna roll the stick in

so that I can weld this while I'm standing.

Welding a little tab on there won't be nearly as strong as something on the back side.

So, by welding a big piece of steel on the backside,

the pin can't go that way and the pin can't go this way.

Problem solved.

So, yeah, the best thing to do is just smack a big slab of steel on there,

weld it up nice and solid.

And we'll grease the ever living piss out of this thing,

and then send it back to work.

We'll just use the thickest piece possible.

Thicker equals stronger.

[intriguing instrumental music]

We have a bit of dissimilar metal

with the pin versus just the mild steel.

But that won't make a difference right now.

I know that I can weld this solid enough to the pin that it ain't going anywhere.

Retainer is welded on.

Now, I'm just running it a little bit to make sure that nothing's binding up.

Seems like everything is going smooth.

So, Mitch is rolling up right now.

Perfect timing.

Oh, it's moving!

Oh, yeah.

-How's it going, buddy? -[Taylor] Good, bro. Just in time.

-Are we ready to go back to work? -Yes, sir.

She can spin. She can twist.

-She can't come out either side. -[Mitch] Perfect.

Well, we'll get her back in action here and start hauling some pay dirt.

Been [bleep] happening all day. Hopefully, this is the last of it.

-All right, buddy. -Thanks, man.

[sweeping instrumental music]

Right now, we're at Rocksand, just doing a cleanup here,

And it's one of those things that, when we're short on people,

everybody's just gotta jump in to get the job done.

[narrator] As the shift nears its end,

it's all hands on deck for a cleanup at Rocksand in the Long Cut.

Real important here that the cleanup gets done,

the gold gets down there so it can be processed.

And that's when we get to see our end result.

And all the hard work we've been doing,

hopefully, pays off with what's in there.

[narrator] Mitch needs to get the cleanup done quickly

so Rocksand can fire back up for the night shift.

Right now, we got Justin in here helping.

He's normally running the loader, running the wash plant.

We've got Nikki out here helping.

She's normally at camp, helping in the kitchen.

We've got Tatiana, who's been not only out here

doing the cleanup on the plant, going back, helping Chris,

and then also jumping in a loader wherever else is needed.

You've been very busy this season, Tatiana,

with three wash plants most of the year.

Oh, yeah. We had six... averaging six cleanups a week

when the three plants are running.

So, yeah, it's been busy.

[narrator] With the season's end in sight and the Long Cut nearly mined out,

each cleanup becomes more critical than the last.

[Mitch] So, you can see here, we've got the gold laying on the steel here.

So, what we're gonna do here is put everything into one tank,

and then we're gonna send all this material to the cleanup room.

And they're gonna process it and we'll see what we got here.

[man] I'll pull this out if you want to grab the excavator,

-put it on this truck. -Yeah.

[soft instrumental music]

Right now, we're just lifting the concentrate tank away from the wash plant.

[narrator] All the gold concentrate from Rocksand

is transferred to the metal tank,

making it the most important element of the cleanup.

Last thing you wanna do is dump this tub out. This has all the gold in it.

That wouldn't make anybody very happy around here.

So, we wanna be careful getting this on the truck.

We got Chris out here picking it up.

He's gonna take it back and start the cleanup.

Right there. Perfect.

And right there, we have, you know, a week's worth of stripping ground, sluicing.

We're gonna go see what we got.

[dramatic instrumental music]

Right now, we're just heading down to check in with Alec and Liam,

and see how the rebuild on Slucifer is going.

[narrator] A stalwart of Parker's operation for eight years,

producing 28,000 ounces of gold,

this season, wash plant Slucifer

is sidelined for extensive repairs.

[Mitch] How's the rebuild going?

Checking on stuff and things.

So, what do you got left on the big rebuild here, Alec?

[Alec] This bearing on this side, and then hang the counterweights

and motor pulley sheave on the other side.

Put the side protectors in on the bottom deck.

We got the top ones in this morning.

And then, really, the shakers all good to be put back together.

So, we are looking pretty good to have it all wrapped up by the end of the season then?

Looking in good shape for next year.

I think so many people don't realize

just how abrasive the rock and sand is.

But this thing, when you need to get through a lot of dirt in a hurry,

-it'll do it. -[Alec] Yeah.

You guys stay after it. We'll get this ready for some more gold.

-Sounds good. -All right. Have a good one.

[dramatic instrumental music]

[Mitch] Right now, we're just headed down to the gold room to have a check in

on the cleanup from Rocksand with Chris,

see if he's got any results for us yet.

And this is gonna let us know how that ground's looking that we're currently sluicing,

and we can make adjustments if necessary.

Let's go see what's up with Chris here.

[narrator] Schnabel claim foreman Mitch Blaschke

has battled breakdowns, plant shutdowns,

and operator errors all day.

Now, after a cleanup at Rocksand,

it's time to see if he succeeded in keeping the gold coming in.

[Mitch] So, right now, we're down here at the gold room.

Now, we have the old gold room that we had

when we were mining down on Tony's ground,

and we also have the gold room here

that was on the property when Parker bought Dominion.

Now, Chris has so much going on and so many processes,

he actually uses both of these buildings to get this gold cleaned.

Chris!

[Chris] Hey, Mitchell!

[dramatic instrumental music]

So, we're in the original gold room here of Dominion.

And, you know, Chris has totally revamped all this.

He's brought in our stuff.

This is a trommel that's made by the same company

that made Rocksand and made Slucifer.

This machine here was built by MSI.

So, this is Freddy Dodge, going way back to the Hoffmans,

is where this all started from.

So, you know, Chris uses different processes,

depending on how the gold is.

But right now, we're washing everything out of the tank.

This is right from the wash plant

into the clean up trommel here.

And this is gonna get the gold concentrated for him here pretty quickly

From there, he just keeps refining it.

Depending on how the gold looks, what type it is,

might send it through this, it might go right over to the next gold room.

But Chris has an awesome system here.

He's perfected it over the years,

and certainly knows how to get that gold clean.

[upbeat instrumental music]

Any gold in it?

[Chris] Looks like a good one.

Yeah.

If I let it run like this,

do you see where it's starting to expose itself

-on the sides now? -[Mitch] Oh, yeah.

So, we're seeing gold all throughout this material here,

not just sitting on top.

But, as Chris is washing it down, you know, we're seeing that gold

working its way down into the cleanup trommel.

That's what it's all about. This is what we're here to do.

All the work, all the dirt that gets moved,

all the hours of the wash plant running,

it all is about, you know, what is inside this tote right here.

-[Chris] Lots of gold in it. -[Mitch] Yup. All right

Cool, man. Have a good one.

[narrator] With gold in the box, it's time to celebrate,

Yukon style.

[Mitch] Well, about time to go have some fun?

[Taylor] Yeah, what are we doing?

[Mitch] You got the paintball gun?

Yeah, we got the paintball guns!

-Bust 'em out. -Just got a fresh batch of balls. So, yeah...

[all laughing]

We always keep our balls fresh here in the yard, and today is no different.

The guys up here like having a little bit of fun at the end of the day

with a little paintball action.

Any moving targets are good. Anyone in high vis is a target.

Just kidding.

-Yeah, we're gonna hit the hob, eh? -[Tyler] Go for it.

[Taylor] Oh, yeah.

So, when you come down to the yard and you notice that there's, like,

all these splotches on the equipment or the trailers,

that's the mechanics taking out a little aggression at the end of the day.

Have a go, Mitch.

-So, shoot for the hub on the right one? -[Taylor] Yeah. Shoot the hub.

All right.

-Oi! -[Tyler] Oh, yeah.

-There you go. -[Tyler] Guy's a natural.

I'm gonna hit the right tire.

-[gun rattles] -Oh!

-[Mitch] Oh, no! -Oh, what a buzzkill!

-I'm out of CO2. -[Mitch laughing]

[sweeping instrumental music]

You know, and that wraps up a day on the mine site here.

You know, it takes everybody we've got on this team

to move the amount of dirt that we do in a season

and get the gold that we've got by the end of the year.

So, next, we're gonna go grab some dinner, take a shower, go to bed.

Wake up and do it all over again.

[sweeping instrumental music]