Original subtitles

Over 15 years, the miners of Gold Rush have discovered

gold all over the world.

There's some gold right there.

Now, on the ultimate guide to where to find gold.

Here we go. Every gold miner is looking for stuff like this.

Oh my God.

The miners follow a trail.

From the Earth's core.

I think the gold's over there.

To the ocean floor.

From Papua New Guinea's fiery volcanoes.

To the alluvial plains of the Klondike.

We reveal where the gold is.

Well, let's see what we're going to find down here.

Boom! Look at that.

How it got there. Telling you, Dustin, that's where the gold's at.

And how to find it. People search their whole lives for this.

Fire it up.

Woo! Here we go.

In the Yukon.

For six short months, the hunt for gold is a frenzy to strike it rich.

Get that gold!

But this rare, precious metal has been mined for over 6 ,000 years.

Have a look at the size of that, mate. Jeez.

And in that time, more than 170 ,000 tons has been discovered.

It's the backbone of the world's economy and is used in nearly every piece of

modern technology.

But its journey to your phone began billions of years ago.

The Earth's gold formed when a gigantic star exploded.

Four and a half billion years ago, dust and debris of the dead star combined

together to form the Earth.

with molten minerals, iron, and gold at its core.

This hot liquid is known as magma.

When molten magma is ejected through volcanoes, it cools and hardens

into veins of quartz and gold, known as mother loads.

These are the source of gold and are found worldwide.

Over time, glaciers, Rain and rivers erode these veins, carrying gold

down the mountains and into valleys below, depositing it as it travels until

rivers finally carry any remaining gold out to sea.

Hey, let's get some gold!

There's still an estimated 50 ,000 tons left to be found.

But the hunt to find it is anything but easy.

Wow. All right, well, shall we go hike a volcano?

In 2019, Parker Schnabel goes looking for gold at its source on the slopes

of an active volcano, Mount Tverver, in Papua New Guinea.

Yeah, it's good to figure out what's going on around here.

Basically looking for any excuse to climb an active volcano?

Yeah.

Every year, this remote island nation produces over $2 .6 billion

worth of gold.

Holy cow.

Look at that.

This is awesome.

I hope you've got your, like, learning cap on.

Papua New Guinea is located in a region known as the Ring of Fire and has

more than 60 volcanoes, the most in the southwest Pacific.

When tectonic plates covering the Earth's surface collide, earthquakes

mineral -rich magma up through the Earth's crust.

The magma crystallizes, becoming a silica -rich fluid.

that pushes through cracks and forms veins of quartz and gold.

Mining these is known as hard rock mining.

Wow. Oh my God, that's huge.

Three years later, still searching for a mother load, Parker and his team travel

to the other side of the Ring of Fire, to La Rinconada in Peru.

Located over 16 ,700 feet above sea level, this remote mining town

produces almost 80 ,000 ounces of gold a year, worth more than

$260 million.

Hola, ¿qué tal? Buenos días.

Oh, are we here?

It's definitely something out of another world.

All right.

Here we go.

Tunnel shafts are dug a mile into the mountain, where the crews search for the

motherlode veins.

Detonate this one.

To remove a five -foot square area of gold -rich ore, the crew drill a network

of 12 holes four feet into the rock.

Each hole is then filled with 190 pounds of dynamite.

Now we're going to load the holes.

We're going to blow it up.

Yeah. And when you push, you have to be very careful.

Yeah, your first mistake is your last mistake.

Boom. Three minutes to get out the front door.

You ready, Dan?

I'm ready, man.

This seems so wrong with the lighter.

What's up?

That was not that long.

We literally just got here.

That does not feel like it's a very long way away.

Once all 12 explosions detonate,

the crew

retrieve the blasted ore.

This is like the veins that they're looking for.

That's what they'll take and crush up and get gold out of.

There it is. One there and one there.

Very cool.

Awesome. Because you are new to this mine, You need to carry your oar.

That was gold, dude.

After the oar is crushed and processed, the crew are left with pure gold.

Oh, look.

Whoa.

I'm not sure I can do it as a business, but that was an experience like none

other.

Almost 17 ,000 feet.

Unventilated mine site, all by hand. Yeah, I think the most hardcore people

we've ever met. Yeah, I reckon.

Still to come. The claim starts right here. The crew find gold as it journeys

away from the mother lode.

The big gold that we're looking for is going to be up to one of these

tributaries.

That's it!

I got some gold!

Holy cow.

On this guide to finding gold, we followed its journey from the Earth's

quartz veins deep inside mountains.

Your first mistake is your last mistake.

Boom.

If miners can't access the gold -rich veins, they must follow gold's journey

as it travels away from the mother lobe.

And the closer you are to the source, the richer the ground should be.

Tell me again where we're going.

A place called Keno City.

In 2018, Rick Ness searches for a fortune in gold high up in the

Yukon Mountains.

I did okay last year, and it was all right. And, like, that's just not good

enough. You know what I mean? Like, I want something better than okay.

He's on the hunt for the region's legendary big nuggets.

Howdy, fellas.

Hi there.

Interesting place you got here.

Thank you.

It's beautiful, that's for sure.

Yeah. The claims on Rick's potential new mine site lay close.

to a massive mother load.

Basically, Mount Hinton is the mountain at the very top of our claims. And it's

a known gold source for this entire area.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, a giant glacier eroded Mount Hinton's

exposed gold veins, plucking up debris and large gold nuggets.

The ice sheet bulldozed down the mountain.

carrying the gold with it.

When the ice melted, it deposited pockets of coarse gold in the valley

Wow.

Holy... No way.

What the hell?

Oh... Any geologist will tell you by looking at some of that that we're not

far from the source.

Some of it might not have moved 50 feet.

Each of these nuggets is worth upwards of $20 ,000.

This is just part of our collection. They're probably twice as good when you

down there.

No, that's... I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't either.

Like, finding that in a sluice box, like, that'll drive a guy nuts.

So now that you've got my interest.

Let's find some nuggets!

In the hopes of catching Mount Hinton's nuggets, Rick sets up what's called a

placer mining operation.

Let's go!

First,

he must dig out the glacial deposit of gold -bearing dirt.

We're making money.

We are making money.

Then, use a wash plant and water to separate the heavier gold from the waste

dirt.

I'm a little bit happy.

Just shut her down.

What do you think?

It looks really good.

Oh, my God.

Look at this. It's sitting in this loop.

Holy ****, dude. I can't believe that, dude. Wow, look at... That's the

nugget I've ever felt. People search their whole life for this type of

Big smile on your face. No, you don't even know.

This is like what dreams are made of.

What? I know.

Holy.

Yeah.

Christmas came early.

That's like an ounce right there.

That's a beauty. Like, that's worth some serious money.

This here is one of the reasons I'm here.

It's coming from right there, Mount Hinton.

That's the source of all this big gold.

As far as I know, that's bigger than anything Parker or Tony has pulled out

the ground.

I'm here to hunt for these, and that's the first of many.

The awesome power of glaciers played a crucial role in the distribution of gold

across the legendary Yukon territories and beyond.

In 2016, a Huffman crew are trying to find their own glacial deposits of gold

in Colorado's Rocky Mountains.

The Huffman's claim is littered with huge boulders.

I got one down here that's even bigger than that.

Big rocks can mean bigger and more gold. It's a good sign.

But at the same time, those big -ass rocks slow us way down.

Thousands of years ago, a massive glacier deposited these monster boulders

gold -rich dirt across the claim.

Then, meltwater washed down dirt and gold, leaving behind valuable pockets

of gold under the boulders.

Come on.

Come on.

Before they can get to the gold, the crew have to clear the boulder.

At this point, Todd, I am frustrated with this. I cannot get these boulders

What do you want to do, Freddy? I mean... Fireworks.

Make big rocks into small rocks.

Yeah, let's frickin' blow them up.

Freddy calls in Master Blaster, Mark Mayer.

I love my job.

Where else in the world do you get to go blow things up on somebody else's

property, make a mess, and let them clean it up?

To blast a 20 ,000 -pound boulder, Mark will use a stick and a half of dynamite.

The energy equivalent of this is on the order of about 100 million horsepower.

Finish her up with sand.

That'll do.

Let's get out of here.

The detonator box is wired and ready to fire.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three,

two, one.

Blasting. Fire in the hole.

Ten, nine.

In the playbook on where to find gold.

The Huffmans are chasing glacial gold deposits trapped under monster boulders.

Fire in the hole.

Bye -bye boulders. I love blasting.

Mark, kick ass, man.

Look at that.

No more big boulders.

That'll work. That I can move.

Good job, Mark.

My pleasure.

Bring it in.

Andy, get the excavator. Let's go.

That's all I needed, just a little bit of help.

Because it is loaded with gold.

The pockets of gold found underneath the glacial boulders deliver the Hoffmans

their best haul of the season.

105 .2.

Proving. that big boulders really can mean big gold. That's a hell of a lot of

gold in a short period of time.

This is just fantastic.

I love it.

Glaciers are nature's conveyors, slowly moving gold from the motherlode down the

mountain.

But when these enormous bodies of ice melt, they turn into fast -flowing

that can rapidly carry gold on the next leg of its journey.

She's angry today!

It's not safe out here. We're in a danger zone.

Raging whitewater creeks are some of the most inaccessible and dangerous places

to hunt for gold in the world.

Holy cow!

And it takes a special breed of miner to take them on.

So, there's four claims that I'd like to go look at right now. They're over the

top of the mountains, zero access, middle of nowhere.

It's pretty steep.

Yeah, it does look steep, but it's all this good gold in it.

Daredevil gold miner Dustin Hurt is searching for gold in the nugget -rich

creeks of Alaska's Chilkat Mountains.

What do you think?

There's a lot of exposed water once you get out of that.

It's workable.

Gold has been brought down these mountains by slow -moving glaciers.

These then melt, forming fast -flowing creeks that can erode even more gold

from exposed motherlode veins, rapidly carrying it downstream and

depositing it in plunge pools at the bottom of waterfalls.

Big gold nugget can be found sitting on the surface or just below the riverbed.

Here's the deal.

You get a dredge.

All right.

You're going to find gold.

Dredge. Find gold.

All right, guys. Going in the water.

Diver Carlos Menor must brave the whitewater using a hose to suck up pay

sending it to a floating dredge where riffles in the sluice run will catch the

gold.

We just got to keep an eye on the watch on that one rock right there. I don't

like that.

The more he comes into the weir, the steeper the wall gets, the more chance

some of these rocks falling in on top of him. So if they move, I'll get them out

of the way.

We do not want to crush the divers.

Keep your spot.

Good time to double down and check the box, huh?

I'm just curious.

Did he get all the...

That's at least four ounces.

That's the biggest nugget in Gold Rush history right there.

Prized for its rarity and collectability, this 5 .8 -ounce nugget

than its weight in gold.

Valued at over $25 ,000.

Holy thinking moldy, man.

See the size of that nugget?

These remote mountain plunge pools may still hold thousands of ounces of

undiscovered treasures, but gold's journey doesn't stop there.

When gold -bearing creeks discharge into rivers, the gold moves further

downstream, spreading out into the valleys below.

No matter what has to happen down here, I'm getting gold out of Indian River.

Nowhere is there a better example of this than the legendary Klondike in the

northwest of Canada.

Here, multiple ancient rivers converge to concentrate gold deposits, creating

one of the richest regions in the world, where placer crew like Parker Schnabel

and Tony Beetz recover thousands of ounces every year.

Keep her going, keep her going.

Hold on with it.

I'll take it.

Thousands of years ago, a river flowed through Parker and Tony's claims,

depositing ground -down fine gold on the riverbed.

Over time, this was covered up by organic layers of dirt known as

trapping the gold below.

We got loads of dirt above, and we don't live very long without it.

Recovering tiny flakes of gold.

buried under thousands of tons of worthless dirt is no easy task, and

crew must read the ground for clues on where to find it.

At the rate we're going, we will not make it. We don't have the ground that's

providing the amount of gold we need to reach our goal.

In 2013, a young parker... is mining an ancient riverbed on Scribner Creek,

a tributary of the Indian River. But he's struggling to find good gold.

This ground we're on isn't quite doing what we need.

The valley comes up this way and then it bends down and makes a big turn in

here. We're mining up on the outside of the turn, but... Heavy material is

deposited on the inside of the turn.

We could have the best wash plant in the world, but wash plant doesn't make

gold. Good ground does.

When fast -flowing water carrying gold hits the inside bend of a river,

it flows, causing the heavy gold to sink and settle on the creek

bed.

We're not very far away from where...

We're sluicing right now, but, you know, that small of a distance can make a lot

of difference in the gold.

To mine across the creek, Parker will have to abandon the ground he's worked

season.

It's a high -risk plan, and he needs his foreman Gene Cheeseman to buy in on his

hunch. I think the gold's over there.

You know, my honest opinion about it, I think, you know, we need to stick over

here. It's just we need to find some better ground, so... I think that's...

Fantasyland, Parker.

Yeah, well, we've got to do something, and Fantasyland might just be our next

cut, because if there's good gold over there, I'm not afraid to move this whole

show over there.

I hope your fantasies come true, then.

This is what I was looking for.

As we reveal the secrets...

On where to find gold, Parker Schnabel is on the hunt for a new pay streak.

I'm going to grab a pan and do a test here and see what it looks like.

He's trying to prove his hunch that the inside bend of an ancient river holds

gold that will lead to a monster payday.

Oh, God.

That flake in here is probably the biggest one I've panned out.

I mean, this is promising, though. It's not too often that you can come over

into a completely new area and within two hours have a bunch of gold in your

pan.

Nice little flake popped out. It's never happened to me before.

All right, Gene, have fun mining with the crew. I'm picking gold.

Parker decides to move his operation to the inside bend of the river.

This is the first scoop of our 1 ,000 -yard task.

Hope it's lucky.

And it pays out big.

75, 85.

Delivering almost 500 ounces of gold in just four weeks.

The gold mining prodigy shows how reading the lay of the land can lead to

score.

And it's a skill every miner must have as they track the ancient path of gold.

Let's see what we got in here.

2023.

Rick Ness.

is attempting to decode the ground of its Duncan Creek claim.

What I'm looking for here is a bench up top where the creek ran at one time.

Thousands of years ago, a glacial river carrying fine gold ran through Rick's

claim. Over time, it eroded the ground, cutting a valley and leaving gold

deposits on higher ground known as benches.

Troy Taylor, whose family mined this before I did, they had really good luck

here. They spent a day mining in this one particular spot and hit 400 houses.

There's no reason that there couldn't be another one of them days up here.

So I am excited about this spot, this area.

Hey, Troy.

Hey, Rick.

How you doing?

I'm definitely on bedrock, but...

I don't see a whole lot of gravel.

Yeah, it doesn't look too good, eh? No.

I think we may be just a little too low.

This is where we were mining. Just over there, there's a nice bedrock channel.

Yeah. And it's at a higher elevation.

So this is the section you guys did? Yeah.

This is where we had 450 -ounce cleanup.

Yeah. Follow this as far as you can.

Yeah. All right, thanks, bud.

Potential gold deposits on this kind of ground.

rest beneath multiple layers of dirt.

The first and thickest is the worthless overburden.

The second is the rocky material known as gravel.

Finally, the pay layer that sits on top of hard bedrock.

Gold is concentrated between the bottom six inches of gravel and the top six

inches of bedrock.

I'm going to grab a pan and take it down a creek with me. See what we got in

here.

You always wait for that one time you pull a pan and the whole bottom's

in gold.

It's never happened yet to me.

There's always that chance.

Hey.

Oh, you got some dirt?

Hey, bud.

That would be nice to get some gold in here.

Any colors?

Yeah, what's in it? Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold.

That's awesome.

We're in a spot to go for gold. I think this might be it.

Rick runs the pay dirt from the bench.

And it delivered.

62 .46.

35 .46 ounces.

Yes! Almost 600 ounces. Today, worth nearly $1 .8 million.

That's a pile of gold, guys. Nice. Yeah.

From ancient riverbeds.

Gold's journey continues onwards to its final destination.

Yeah, you know how these kind of problems in the Klondike? Oh!

This is going to get interesting.

Where crew, searching for a big payday, face their most unexpected environment

yet. There's a shark above us.

Right above us. Oh, it's coming right at me.

In 2015, a creature that walked the Earth 20 ,000 years ago returned

to help the Hoffman crew find gold.

All right, no.

Oh! Jeez.

You know what they say, where there's a mammoth tusk, there's good gold.

Did Jack tell you that?

All the old miners say that. When you start finding mammoth tusks and you can

smell that stinky, rotten smell, you're going to start finding gold.

Hoping for a monster payday, they put the old -timer's legend to the test.

It's good.

How good?

236 ounces.

The old -timer said, where you find Mammoth Tough, you find Big Gold. And

know what? They were right.

That's where we're going.

For millions of years, water has transported gold from the high

So that's your pay zone, right?

Yep. To lowland valleys.

Well, let's see what we're going to find down here.

And all the way to the coast.

In 2013, a Huffman's search for gold on Chapana Beach, Chile.

Where do you want to start?

Down by the water.

Okay, let's go.

This will be a good spot to find color if the ocean brought stuff and washed it

out, brought stuff and washed it out.

It'll just tell us if there's color in it, not how much.

Let's have a look at it. All right, let's go.

It's my first time ever panning in the ocean.

What the hell is that?

Jellyfish.

Yeah, you know how these kind of problems in the Klondike are.

Oh!

This is going to get interesting.

One color. Two colors.

Where? See it? Right there. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, right here? Yeah.

There's two of them there. Well, now we know it's here, so... There's gold in

the beach.

From the beach, gold comes to its final destination.

Let's go.

We haven't done a lot of prospecting this trip, so I thought we would do a

of prospecting in the ocean.

Something you'd ever be interested in?

I mean, under the right circumstances, I suppose I'd be interested in anything.

But the thing is, there's a chance there could potentially be sharks.

Parker Schnabel's quest for gold has brought him to the coast of New

North Island.

The Coromandel mountain range is historically rich in gold.

Creeks have eroded this gold from quartz veins, discharging it into the Tairua

River.

The waterway quickly hits the coastline, dumping gold on the ocean floor.

All right.

G'day, guys. How are we? Riley, hello.

How's it going? Good to see you. Riley. Parker. Parker, good to meet you. Nice

to meet you.

There's a rich gold history around here, and why not go search where people

haven't searched before?

there is a huge gold history.

So there is every chance that we're going to be able to put a sample off the

bottom of the ocean floor, pan it, and there's some gold in it, which would be

an incredible thing.

We've got two large sharks just swimming around here, just off the stern of the

boat. Just keep your eyes open, all right?

There it is, right there, right in front of him,

right bang next to him.

Parker has collected test material from the seabed, the furthest place possible

from gold source in the mountains.

It's gone quite quiet.

Don't even... All right, here's the moment of truth.

There.

Shut up!

What is heaps there?

There is not, is it?

I guess I forgot to pick one there.

There's like seven or eight pieces there and a bunch over there.

Hang on a minute. I'm shaking.

Unreal. This is amazing.

What the?

That is awesome.

Like the whole valley was a huge gold mine for hundreds of years.

And that runs out into the very waters that we dove.

But like is that a good yield?

So if I were on our mine site and I panned that much dirt and got that much

gold, I would be like we're going to have a good week. Like that's really

Wow. This is, like, next level. This is Indiana Jones.

There's actually gold.

Quite a bit.

Like, it could work out to a grade, but it's better than anything that we've

ever mined, including the 10 -ounce -an -hour mud mountain.

This is one that'll go down in the books for me.

Well, you need to keep that spot a secret, right? Just make sure you film

sign on the way out of town that says no mining in the Coromandel. Yeah.

They keep it pretty safe. They're pretty passionate about it here.

I can assure you that gold will stay in the ocean.

That's probably where it should be protected by the sharks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

From Goldberry, Mother Lodevane.

If we do it wrong, you'll never know.

To ancient riverbeds. We're watching rocks, baby!

And even on the ocean floor.

That is the weirdest thing I've ever done.

There is still...

trillions of dollars worth of gold to be found.