Afrikaans
Akan
Albanian
Amharic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bemba
Bengali
Bihari
Bosnian
Breton
Bulgarian
Cambodian
Catalan
Cebuano
Cherokee
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Esperanto
Estonian
Ewe
Faroese
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Ga
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Guarani
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Interlingua
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Kinyarwanda
Kirundi
Kongo
Korean
Krio (Sierra Leone)
Kurdish
Kurdish (Soranî)
Kyrgyz
Laothian
Latin
Latvian
Lingala
Lithuanian
Lozi
Luganda
Luo
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mauritian Creole
Moldavian
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Montenegrin
Nepali
Nigerian Pidgin
Northern Sotho
Norwegian
Norwegian (Nynorsk)
Occitan
Oriya
Oromo
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Punjabi
Quechua
Romanian
Romansh
Runyakitara
Russian
Samoan
Scots Gaelic
Serbian
Serbo-Croatian
Sesotho
Setswana
Seychellois Creole
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhalese
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Spanish (Latin American)
Sundanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Tatar
Telugu
Thai
Tigrinya
Tonga
Tshiluba
Tumbuka
Turkish
Turkmen
Twi
Uighur
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Wolof
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
The Ugon River is huge.
Nearly 2 ,000 miles long.
And for six months of the year, it's frozen salt.
When it starts to crack, that's the thing.
You know, it's time to get going.
The gold rush starts again.
There's a warm for ground in the Yukon.
All the good ground's tied up.
That's why we're digging deeper than ever.
We're hunting for ground.
As soon as you start getting desperate, people can smell it on you.
And that.
Take turns.
We need talent.
We got to trust something and we got to trust somebody.
I'm 38 years in the game and I've never seen anything like this.
I'm making this my year.
Let's crank it up.
This ain't like any other season.
Sometimes we have to force our way through something. That's just what
going to have to do.
Out on the Indian River, Parker, Tony, those guys are battling for the last
of good ground.
I seen that coming, and I got the hell out of there.
I'm doubling down, and I'm going for 2 ,000 ounces.
Bigger the better.
That thing's massive.
I've got no proof.
But I'm coming out fighting.
Oh, shit. What I've been waiting for. Next level.
For me right now, the mining is more than just gold.
Oh, yeah!
Woo -hoo -hoo!
Two queens were raised.
We're leaving the stars.
I'm on a mission to make a better life for my all -veteran crew.
It's about living the American dream.
You guys made it! How's it going?
Good, how you been?
It's a treasure hunt. Who doesn't love a treasure hunt?
Everybody that's looking for grounds competition, right?
Finally, it's losing gold.
This right here is what it's all about.
I will not fail again.
Me and the kids will be here in a bit, so I'll just tell them what my plan is
for this year.
Condike legend Tony Beef, once a farmer in the Netherlands, now heads up a gold
mining dynasty.
At an age when many will be thinking of retirement, Tony's planning his next big
move.
Hey, guys.
Right now, I think that this gold price is up to date. Now is the time to get
excited. Before it turns 65, I'm planning on making it my biggest season
Make some real money.
Well, I'm never surprised by your plans anymore, though. Like I said, we just
spent $5 million worth on equipment.
We're going to come back here with three times more iron than we left with.
So I wouldn't see a big problem running 9 ,000 ounces.
They think it is well within our reach.
We're going to have to hit the ground running.
We are definitely going to go flat out for a while.
Oh yeah. So let's just go out and let's go
do it.
For nearly 40 years, Tony has been snatching up gold -rich ground in the
Now, With gold prices holding at historic highs, he's looking for a
payday.
To get his $16 million payout, Tony's reopening his Indian River operations,
where he hopes to find 5 ,000 ounces of gold.
And 40 miles north, he's banking on his Paradise Hill claims to deliver the
other 4 ,000 ounces.
Right now in New York, there's a lot of people looking for ground.
At least we're fortunate that we have plenty of it.
But there's one huge problem.
We still don't have a water license in the Indian River.
As long as we get it in the next three, four weeks, that's good.
Just concentrate on the hill and run as much material as we can and get as much
gold out of here as we can.
Mike, Mike, Mike, do you copy?
Yo, hey, get six trucks, get a 950 P -11, have them follow you so nobody gets
lost, and let's go to the Nugget Captain, and we'll start stripping down
Okay? Let's be going.
In order to get 9 ,000 ounces, I mean, we need more equipment and bigger.
Okay, three rock trucks behind the excavator, three rock trucks behind the
and let's go, go, go.
Leading the charge to put the first dirt of the season at Paradise Hill.
A brand new massive 850 horsepower C11 Dozer.
Capable of shifting 45 yards of dirt in a single putt.
And a 100 ton 950 excavator.
The biggest in the Yukon.
Tony's first target on the hill is an 8 -acre cut he discovered 30 years ago,
filled with large gold nuggets.
We need to move a massive draft ton of dirt this year. It's going to be totally
cold.
Gold is high right now, so strike while the iron is hot.
This thing pushes a nice load of dirt, you know.
I might have to get one more, huh?
When Tony discovered this prime piece of land, he didn't have equipment big
enough to get down to the pay layer, 18 feet below the surface.
Even last year, it would have taken him at least three weeks to get to the pay.
But with his new machinery on site, Tony wants it done in just five days.
When I had the kids on the dozer and the excavator, I don't have to be here.
With all these years working together, you kind of think together too, you
As the Beats race to transform the family's future, daughter Monica has the
biggest role of all.
Now Monica is, of course, pregnant.
So it would be kind of nice to have a granddaughter.
Minnie's all excited anyway.
My father likes to pretend he's not excited, but he is very much excited.
Shouting can look so scary and intimidating.
It'll just melt for dogs and kids.
Three generations mining for gold there, that'd be pretty cool.
What I'd really like to do is get as much gold out of the ground, get as much
money in my pocket as I can.
I mean, that will be pretty nice for the future generations.
You got no mystery in there all day. Oh, I'm getting all musty, all right.
You can always make more money, but you only got one family.
Yeah, you know, I'm happy to be back up here, though.
It's been brutally cold, but it's just finally starting to warm up.
In just eight seasons in the Klondike, Parker Snavel has gone from teenage
mining prodigy to one of the region's top producers.
But after clocking up record gold totals year after year,
the seasoned 26 -year -old is now at a crossroads.
I don't know where we're going to be mining.
This year, we're just eating all the reserves faster than ever.
Last season, Parker mined a record $14 million in gold.
But he chewed through so much ground, he's now running out.
And the future of his operation is in jeopardy, forcing him into survival
And with gold prices going up, it's a terrible time to be.
Looking for ground. My landowners are in complete right now.
Parker had planned to expand into new ground in Alaska.
How's it going?
Good. How are you doing?
I have about 3 ,000 acres.
So you want to do a little drilling on one of the blocks? I'd love to.
But COVID restrictions meant he couldn't get crew across the border.
And that means doing a lot of hunting.
All the good grounds tied up.
And that makes me stressed out.
I always thought Tony would continue to lease this ground, but I take him
spending, like, millions and millions and millions of dollars on equipment
winter as him telling me we're not leasing you any ground.
A good friend of mine, you know, he's been here before, Liam Ferguson.
And Liam's in the area, so I might just see if he'll come over and talk to me a
little bit about it.
Liam Ferguson drills for gold all over the Klondike and knows just about every
landowner.
Hey, man.
How's it going? Good. How are you?
Not too bad.
How's your spring?
It's been going good so far. Yeah? Pretty busy.
What's up?
We're just about done, like, around our camp, and there's very few pieces of
ground left.
Well, I drilled some ground for your neighbor last fall. It turned out pretty
good. He was looking to lease it out.
And what's your opinion of it?
It's really good ground, yeah, but we've got a very clear, defined channel. The
holes range from mid -40s up to mid -60s.
The neighbor's ground sits a mile east of Parker's asterisk hut.
Liam's test results show a unique paint streak in an ancient riverbed, with five
times more gold than other claims on the Indian River.
But it's covered in a layer of sticky black glacial overburden, 60 feet thick,
deeper than any Yukon ground park has ever mined before.
It's a lot of dirt to move. We haven't mined much ground like that.
Yeah, well, I mean, I can at least tell you that the results are real and that
we're confident in what we found there.
It's up to you to work out a deal that makes it make sense to you, I guess.
It's not going to be a particularly good deal because he is a gold miner and he
knows what he's got.
Yeah.
Can you give me some resource insurance?
In case the beer has no gold in it, pull it, pull it even.
It's a rare chance to mine such a gold -rich claim, and Parker's only hope of
securing enough ground to keep his operation running.
I'm going to go see if we can make something work with him.
In this industry, as soon as you start getting desperate, people can, like,
smell it on you.
Right.
Very close to me. Desperate.
He is, you know, not too interested in being involved in TV stuff.
And I definitely won't get anywhere with him if you're with me.
His camp's just up here, so I'm booting you out here.
There's a car behind me. I'll pick you up.
All right, that's a good guy. Yeah.
Get out.
Clean.
Dr. Knavel returns from his meeting with the owner of a neighboring claim.
Right now, it's just that it's the seller's market, you know. The price of
gold's high.
He's offered it to us, not really in the most favorable of terms.
You know, I'm usually pretty open about drilling and mining and deals and
whatnot. I don't really care, but he doesn't want me.
much details on TV, so... Parker believes the nine -acre cut could hold 8
ounces of gold worth $14 million.
But to mine the 60 -foot deep cut, Parker will have to spend more than a
just getting down to pay dirt before he can find out if the ground's as rich as
he thinks.
Um, they're willing to gamble and take the grift.
We need to keep the company running.
Everything else is just stupid details.
A hundred miles east of the Indian River, Rick Ness begins his fourth year
running his own mining operation.
His first two years were rocky.
I don't know what else to do right now. I mean, it's just getting out of
control. Shut the pump off! Shut the pump off!
What did I drag all these guys into?
Cutting it down. Going home.
Simple as that.
The last season, he came back from the brink of disaster.
If we hadn't done this this year, I don't know that there would have been
another year.
This represents you guys' bonuses.
They fear he's getting a head start, arriving early at his Duncan Creek
Big, strong, handsome dozer.
And he's brought out the big guns.
I've dropped a half a million dollars on the biggest dozer money can buy.
This dozer is obnoxiously expensive.
If they could push 60 yards at a time, that's three of my 40 -ton rock trucks
once.
The 200 ,000 -pound, 900 -horsepower Komatsu makes quick work of
stripping the first section of Rick's creek cut.
We're starting this year. The gold was really good, and it was going to take us
an hour or two to strip. You know, is the cost worth it? I think we're going
prove that it is. We're going to be able to strip so far ahead so fast, it's
almost ridiculous.
The bigger, the better.
This year's all about going big.
I'm going to double what I got last year. We're going for 2 ,000 ounces.
2 ,000 ounces worth $3 .6 million would move Rick's operation to the
next level and prove that his bold decision to get out of the pond dike was
right one.
You know, having a dozer, especially a dozer this size, is kind of one of the
last pieces of the puzzle to putting, you know, the entire pack together,
a legitimate mine boss.
Makes things pretty real.
This season, Rick has also invested in a million dollar 750 excavator.
He needs all the horsepower he can get.
He started his operation with a team of hometown buddies.
But years of struggling to find gold have left him with just one.
Chris Cruz.
As good as it feels to be back up here and doing our thing.
Being gone for six months. Never easy.
Got married to my fiancée of ten years, Michelle.
Rick married Michelle and I in his backyard.
And then we went to a baseball game that night.
Pretty good day.
And I hope everything, you know, plays out the way we hope it's going through
the church. It doesn't make it that much sweeter being gone. My wife, six
months.
Good to see you, buddy.
The wash plant is right where we left it.
Yeah, it didn't move itself. No, and it's still half beaten to death.
She's looking pretty sad.
We're going to have to get this thing running because you know the name of the
game. If there ain't gold coming in, it's money going out the door.
Not a good business model.
Well, as usual, we've been plagued with problems. I mean, Carla's...
She's focusing on other things, man. So she's not coming back this year. That's
going to suck.
My little buddy around camp, Carl, he's going in for his surgery.
And his health, I mean, his health, number one.
Without mechanic Carl Rothk or Gold Room operator Carla Rahn, Rick is a miner
without a crew.
It's tough losing integral parts of the crew.
But we're going to have to figure out a way to do it because we've got 2 ,000
outfits to get this year.
There's definitely no way I can fill both of their shoes.
It would be nice to have another set of hands, though, I'll tell you that.
And I will have some help for you, I think.
So you guys can hit the ground running.
Yeah, there's a ton to do. Let's go, man.
On the road up to Duncan Creek, Rick's newest crew member.
heads towards a fresh start.
Here I am on my way back up here to the Yukon.
I just knew it was time for a change.
Whole new crew, whole new blood, and a whole new way of mining, you know.
Mining veteran Brennan Rualt has left Parker's operation.
Last year was, uh, It was pretty brutal.
Parker and I seem to not see eye to eye anymore.
It's very draining and stressful when you're angry half the time. That's no
to work, you know.
Brennan met Rick six years ago on Parker's plane when Rick was the foreman
Brennan a rookie operator.
Nice work today, boss.
You did good.
Woo!
Two seasons ago.
He would promote it to co -foreman himself.
I guess the big question is, do you bargain for that? I'll definitely step
But after a series of run -ins with Parker... I've hardly done any of this.
don't care.
You're in charge or you're not in charge.
He reached the end of his rope.
Over this.
Don't pack me. Leave right now. I don't give a... Put any of this... Right
there, I kind of knew. I was like, well, this...
I don't think it's going to go any farther for me.
This year, I just want to run some big gear, move some dirt, and, you know, go
back to having a nice, fun summer like it used to be and kill it and hopefully
find a ton of gold.
Ricky, coming to ZVD to help in the season.
How's it going, buddy?
Pretty good.
Yeah, been a few years, eh?
Man, I'm glad you're here. Yeah, me too. You know, Parker and I just seem to,
for some reason, start butting heads a little bit more in the last few years,
and it's just made it quite tough and draining at the end of the day.
Yeah, well, I certainly know that feeling.
Yeah. I know you know.
Yeah. So now we're reunited.
Yes, sir.
I can't wait to get out there and get started and start learning some new
here, man. Yeah, buddy. It's going to be fun.
I'm going to throw my boots on. Why don't you go throw your work clothes on
down there? Sounds good, bud. Thanks.
When I left Parker four years ago to go out on my own, you know, I wasn't going
to try to poach people from them or try to steal people.
But certainly with Brendan, I said, you know, if you ever need a job, obviously
you can come work for me.
And, you know, now is the time.
Oh, boy.
How's it going, buddy?
Good.
What's going on, buddy? Oh,
you look good.
Wow. You're a big crew.
Right? Yeah, huge.
I'm excited personally to start getting some gold, so let's get after it, buddy.
You know, I think he probably grew as much as he could with Parker, so in a
you know, it's like, you know, he's coming home.
So I'm glad he's here. He's going to be a good fit for us this year.
I've been through some pretty complicated scenarios in the military
life and my career was at jeopardy every single day.
And reality is, gold mining is the most difficult thing I've ever done.
But I'm not a quitter. I've never quit anything in my life.
If we can just find ground, I feel like we can succeed.
He's on a 1 ,500 -mile journey, determined to resurrect his gold -mining
I've tried to settle in with a civilian lifestyle, but a 9 -to -5 job is not in
my DNA.
I packed up all my stuff, driving up to the Yukon. I need this freedom. I need
the risk.
My mission is to find ground.
It's the only place I know where there is good gold in the ground, for a fact.
Because last season, I would...
Pretty much categorized as complete failure.
I had a window of opportunity.
I took it.
In Oregon last year, Fred and his crew of combat veterans mined just $12 ,000
worth of gold.
That puts our total at 6 .39, which is honestly embarrassing.
Fred's now headed to the Yukon.
And straight into the fiercest war for ground in decades.
Hanging his hope on a meeting with his only local continent.
Mark is the only one in this game I know that I can trust wholeheartedly. And
he's the only one I know that will give me advice.
Maybe he has somebody I can go talk to. Maybe he has ground I don't know about.
It's really the only option we have at this point. It's a Hail Mary.
But I'd rather throw a Hail Mary than lose the game.
Hello?
I'm in here.
You want a coffee?
I'm good, thanks.
So how's everything going here, man?
It's going good. We just signed a lease on a block of ground.
That is an average depth of like 50, 40 feet of mud.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Man, so you just got to go layer by layer on this, huh?
So that's a big project.
Yuck. That leads me to something I was going to ask you about because the team,
we put a lot into this off -season looking for ground, and it's just
nothing that was viable.
So this is like my last hoorah to come up here and see if I can find something.
Right. And so you're just looking for ground right now? Yeah, I don't
necessarily want to ask you for help, but I know you might know. Aren't we all
looking for ground?
It is a little conflicting for me because, like, there's a very finite
ounces of gold in the ground.
And at a certain point, everybody that's looking for ground is competition,
right?
Now I'm, like, trying to ask for a favor, but...
We look for different things, though. We don't need a big piece of property. I
think property you would probably not even look at.
So it's kind of when you might be able to point me in the right direction.
Very hard business.
And it's a difficult community to break into.
The Yukon will punch you in the face pretty hard if you're not careful.
What would you do if you were me, honestly?
I don't know.
I was in your shoes when I met Tony Beetz.
I'd probably go talk to him.
You think that would be wise, just to show up and try and get his number and
call him and see if he'll meet with me?
I could just show up and say it myself.
Yeah.
You know, if you're into it and you know what you're getting into, then
more power to you.
All right, man, I'll get out of here. I know you're busier than me, so that's
pretty busy.
But thanks, dude.
Oh, no worries. It's good to see you.
Appreciate it. No worries.
Let me know if you need anything. Yeah, you know I will.
I wasn't expecting much, but I was expecting a lot more than that.
Definitely not comfortable right now with what Parker said. It does not lead
to believe it's going to be easy.
time to eat except for at lunch. Don't have time to like barely have enough
to drink water.
Now we're in kind of a rush mode.
We're in a big push right now to get them all ready to go.
That'll allow myself and Tony to focus out on the Indians.
As Tony beats and his family wait on a water license for their Indian River
claims.
It's all hands on deck to strip the nugget put at Paradise Hill.
In record time.
Now, Ruby and I hope everybody's going to have to work extra hard to make sure
that we get the 9 ,000 ounces.
Tony needs for you. Go bigger, go home, right?
Falls to the walls all the time.
With Tony's new D11 Dozer and 950 Excavator, they've removed 80 feet of
overburden. In just four days, revealing a massive 40 -foot wall of pay dirt.
We've hit gravel and hay in the back.
Yippee -ki -yay.
Monica's school friend Ruby Mahoney pulls out the pay dirt so it can be
into Rockton.
We have to get this dirt new.
Oh, it's solid.
I'm just wasting time here. I cannot get through this.
This is just not working.
Tony, do you copy? Tony, do you copy?
Right.
This wall is completely solid.
You're out of bounds, Bill.
Can you please come and talk to me?
Stay there. I'll be right back.
Looks like there's no rock trucks running.
Costs various money.
You cannot have all the trucks and everybody sitting there and having a
time and not moving any dirt. That's not how it works.
What do you got, Ruby?
This wall is completely frozen.
It's too frozen, huh?
Yeah, it's too solid.
Yeah, I can see that.
We'll put that D -11 in it, and then we'll just rip it out.
To rip through the frozen section.
Tony's plan is to take the brand new $2 .7 million D11 dozer to the top of the
pay dirt cliff.
Then go right to the edge of the 40 -foot drop and use the 10 -ton ripper
to break up the frozen layer, allowing the excavator to get to the pay dirt
beneath.
The D11 is right.
Sometimes 10 feet thick.
Right now, this one is in my way.
Get high enough.
Sink the river in.
Pull up. Clip down.
The only way to get this glistening is to have to get everybody out there.
Because spending money is going to be making some money.
We have to force our way through something.
And then does this what you're going to have to do?
This way, this way, this way.
Tony maneuvers the 120 ton machine to the very edge of the 40 foot drop.
through the permafrost, Ruby removed the pay dirt underneath.
I ripped the top out, get the rucksack in there, and get rid of this dirt.
See what happens when I do it myself.
Tony has pay dirt ready to run a full month earlier than last year.
A vital head start, given he's chasing 9 ,000 ounces this season.
You think that kid will be as goofy as the mother?
Huh?
You're a chicken, Kevin.
You want to say that again?
No.
I'm finally almost to the cliff.
Parker's Naval Foreman, Mitch Blaschke, arrives at Scribner Creek for a
milestone season.
You know, I can't believe that this year is my 10th year of mining.
You know, I started this. I was just a young guy coming up here trying to
it out and wanted to work on stuff.
And, you know, now I'm helping run Parker's Mine Site.
first came to the Klondike as a fresh -faced mechanic for Todd Hoffman, with
gold mining experience.
For the last seven years, he's worked for Parker.
He's risen up the ranks to become Parker's most trusted
wingman.
But this year, he's without his co -foreman, Brennan Walt.
He's my go -to guy.
I mean, we're bro -men, you know. We do all this together, and we work so well
with one another.
Try and find another guy like that.
It just doesn't come around that often.
It is what it is, you know. I'm back here. I'm just going to have to try and
make the best of it.
Here we are.
Oh, she's got a golf cart.
What's happening?
What's that?
Now, see, I might go for a ride with you in that.
How you been, man? Good. How are you? Not too bad.
Good to see you.
How are you doing?
Good. I see you heard about Brennan. I talked to him just a couple weeks ago
there. Said that he wasn't going to be here this year.
I'm just that you didn't tell me until March.
You know?
And we've been working hard to get this system running good. And you take a guy
like that out of the mix.
That's all right. We'll be fine.
Yeah, we'll figure it out.
See what we can do.
What's the game plan for the season?
We picked up a new block of ground.
Go Tuesday, we had our first meeting.
And on Saturday, we signed a deal.
Oh, wow.
How deep is it?
Average is about 50.
Well, it's got a lot at the bottom. Just want to make sure we don't... Well, I
guess, yeah, I'll go get settled in.
You can film your big project here. We'll figure out a game plan.
For sure.
I'm glad you're back.
I hope you're glad to be here because we have a lot of work to do.
If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be here, right?
Whenever I say that, that usually means I don't want to be there, but I don't
want to answer the question.
And, you know, we definitely need some new dirt here, but it sounds like it's
pretty deep.
Pretty interested to go take a look at that, see what we got going on there,
just see what we're going to have to do to make this season work. And, you know,
without Brennan here, it's definitely not going to be easy.
As the lone foreman, it's Mitch's responsibility to figure out how to
new point.
Yeah, there you go, man.
How's it going, Mitch?
Oh, not too bad. Well, I see you guys found this place.
Yeah.
Tyson Lee, last year's rookie plant boss, and Gold Room expert Chris Dumit
joined Mitch at the new ground.
So, what we got here is this section of ground through these claims here. This
stuff, with the way it's drilling, if the math is right, might be 10 ounces an
hour with just one wash plant.
Seriously? Yeah.
We're talking like 8 ,000 ounces possibly then.
The only problem is 60 feet deep.
I've been doing it for 10 years now up here, and we've never gone this deep.
We're looking at a million square feet of mud to move.
So we're going to have to mine this a lot differently than we've done anything
else. We've never had to tackle a project like this.
So once we do get it opened up, we're going to gut shoot this thing right
through here. We're going to take just the best because when you're going 60
feet deep, You can't hit marginal ground. It's going to look like a
going to look like a grand canyon by the time we're done.
On more typical ground, to get down to the pay layer, they strip around 10 feet
of overburden with dozers and excavators.
But this time, they'll have to dig a narrow canyon to follow the course of
ancient riverbed and its deposits of gold.
Mitch's plan is to open a small section first.
to find out if the ground really is flush with gold.
And he wants it done in just 30 days.
Should we name it Mud Mountain?
That works, because like I say, you're going to have a mountain range by the
time we're done. It's going to be tough.
There's no part of this that's going to be easy. Not to mention that, you know,
we don't have, you know, we don't have Brennan here. We don't have, you know, a
lot of people that have a lot of experience with moving material like
mean, if we have issues with any of the machinery in this, we're going to end
up... couple hundred grand into this cut real quick yeah let's hope it pays out
i'm gonna get back to the yard because we've got a ton of gear in the yard that
needs work just lots and once breaking down out here all right let's do it boys
to dig out the first sections make this put his face in tyson lee
how's everyone doing this morning never been better that's good Parker was
saying that he wants this cut opened up by June 1st when we started it, so that
gives us 30 days. Just be careful, the roads are slick, and we've just got to
try and move as much mud as we can and try and keep the trucks from getting
stuck. Right, safely fast.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, awesome.
Let's get to work.
Tyson and his crew are facing the toughest dirt -moving operation in
mining history.
When melting snow mixes with thawing fine glacial silt, it creates a toxic
combination. A slippery surface riddled with quicksand -like holes.
Jarvis, come on.
We just got to try and move as much mud as we can.
And try and keep these trucks running.
be easy, but that's never occurred to us before.
We're gonna have three excavators swinging, five rocks, four cats ripping
pushing day and night.
Fjorton crew, parker pitch is in.
It's definitely going to be a difficult block of ground to mine. Some of the
more deep ground that's on the Indian River does have some high royalties. For
sure it's going to be a challenge.
I wouldn't be moving 60 feet of mud if I thought there wasn't a hell of a lot of
gold down here.
the second time I've been in a helicopter without a parachute jumping
If it happens, just flop your arms on the way down. They say it helps.
Rookie mine boss Fred Lewis is hitching a ride with Klondike legend Tony Beetz
in search of a new claim to mine.
You see that whole area down there?
That's all been dredged and mined.
Everything is staked and owned. And what isn't is probably not Woodwell House.
Last year, the Indian River produced over $30 million worth of gold, and the
current high gold prices make leasing good ground almost impossible.
You come up here, you think there's so much, like, hard -to -reach spots, but
I'm seeing houses up in these little valleys where people have already come
They wandered around there 100 years ago. They didn't miss much, right?
Makes me wonder how much work's going to have to go into finding something that
I can actually mine and piece it.
Well, you have to find somebody with ground that he wants to lease.
You want to get started this year, so you got to have a water license in
you got to have equipment, this, that, whatever.
We can make something like that work. It just has to fit all the molds, and
there's so many moving parts that, sourcing equipment, finding a wash
finding a gold recovery equipment, like all that.
It's not easy. Best thing you can do is go further out, away from it.
So, if you look all the way over there, There is a guy that owns some ground,
Paul Phillips of Clay Creek.
You could go and track him down. He may have something for you.
Paul, tell us how much money you got, too, right? Yeah, and I don't have a
I'd like a challenge, though.
Well, you're going to have one.
Let's discuss money.
It won't cost lots. It sounds like you had that one last year. Yeah.
What really only counts is what do you bring home in the end of the season in
your pocket clean. Right.
But if you had a small group here, how would you hit it?
I think I would see a doctor first.
Yeah. Well, after the doctor. After the doctor.
It's a high -risk game, Fred.
My advice is a lot of people are full of promises.
That doesn't mean it's going to be there.
Okay. See what that guy Paul Phillips has for you in Clare Creek. He'd be your
best bet.
I definitely want to look at it. So anyway, that's all I know. Other than
it'll be hard to find anything decent around Yukon.
It is the same here as everywhere else.
Well, right at this point, I'm beyond the point of giving up. Oh, really?
You've dug a hole deep enough, you have no choice, do you? Yeah, I've got to
keep digging deeper to get out, I think.
You know what they say, it's up to you, right?
Sure does.
Sure does.
I'll remember that.
Good.
All right. Well, I'll get out of your hair.
Appreciate it, Tony.
Let the guy try. Give him a chance.
There's nothing wrong with giving a person a chance.
But not everybody succeeds.
Is he going to cut it as a gold miner? Well, time will tell.
Brett finally has a lead on a landowner who might lease him ground.
but it's 45 miles east of the gold -rich Indian River.
I'm going to go and talk to Paul Phillips and see what he has to offer.
You know, people may think that I don't know what I'm doing or that I'm over my
head here.
You know what? I am over my head.
Went up against a lot of odds in my life. You know, just becoming a Green
the attrition rate is over 90%. So at this point...
I'm all in for gold mining, and I don't see anything that's going to stop me.
This thing's ready. Oh, it's pretty cute.
At the already -tripped creek cut, Rick Ness brings Chris Cruz and Brennan Rualt
up to speed.
Well, we're going for 2 ,000 ounces this year, so we're going to have to
seriously up our game.
I mean, the gold that we got out of this creek bed last year was good. It got us
to our goal.
That was where we found that one -and -a -half -ounce nugget at the very end, so
that's crazy.
From what we left last year in the creek cut, I figure we got 600, 700 ounces to
get started sluicing with, and that's just money in the bank.
That gets us the money we need to start stripping these deeper cuts.
It's early in the season, but we really got to get moving, so the watch plan is
where we left it last year.
Got to get moved over here. That distribution box you've been working on,
to slam that thing on. And we're ahead of the game from last year, so. We are?
Yeah, exactly.
I basically, I want to be sluiced by the end of the day.
It's kind of a time crunch thing.
Let's keep it that way.
Short on time and manpower.
Let's go, Ian.
Rip's skeleton crew must first attach the 1 .5 ton distribution box.
Why don't you guys wrap your nuggets around how we're going to get that thing
there. To help them, Rick's enlisted local heavy load truck driver, Nathan
Thornington. How's it going?
Good, buddy.
I heard you guys needed help. Oh, yeah.
How's it going, buddy? Always good to see you. Oh, buddy, you showed up just
time.
I'm really happy that we got Nathan to join our crew. I've trusted him for
to move my wash plants, my heavy equipment, so compared to that, moving
distribution box should be easy.
I've been around this sort of stuff all my life, so hopefully we can get this in
on the plant.
Rick plans to maneuver the 10 -foot box into the heart of the wash plant using
the 480 excavator, then winch it into position.
Just hook on that end.
This is like one of those bar puzzle things.
Get that out of there.
What do you mean?
Well, I'm going to tie it around there, and then I'll do one.
We can do this one off. I just don't want to put a lot of stress on this.
Yeah, because it's all going to be on here, right?
Yeah, there's a plate on the other side here.
Coming in. Coming in.
All right, we're doing a re -rig here.
And then once you get in there, just lay it down. You must be so impressed with
my first day on the job. I am. I got three guys here and half a brain between
the three of them.
The hamster's just laying down in his wheel. The hamster's laying down in his
wheel.
There's something in that.
Classic case of a square hole going into a different size square hole.
You've got to get it in just the right spot.
This excavator isn't the perfect thing to use.
Good?
Yeah!
We might be able to slide it right in.
You're just going real slow, Rick.
apartment, think of it as a real heavy couch.
Okay, come in.
Down, down, down, down.
Okay.
There we go.
Really nice to have Brennan here. You know, he does have several years of
experience now. We're not going to let him think that that gives him a free
pass. If anything, that's going to get him picked on more. Going to have to
him grounded.
Get ready with that chain. I'm going to try and lift on this end cruisy. All
right. Ready?
One, two.
Hurry up.
I've got to crank it up.
Hold on.
Easier said than done.
All right.
I blew a blood vessel in my brain.
You mean a blood vessel where your brain should be?
Good job on this.
Distribution box is hanging from the chains now. That's how it's designed.
Everything else is pretty much ready to go. Like, we get this thing over here,
plumb it in, and we're good.
Thank you.
Go.
The next task, drag the 25 -ton steel wash plant 500 yards to the creek
hut.
nerve wracking, moving a plant.
Anything else we destroy, break, or whatever, we can survive, but it's not
one machine that gets our gold, so we've got to try to take it slow and smart,
which I'm not good at either, though.
I've never showed up on the first day and been ready to sleuth. You believe
Nathan's pulling that pump and that loader with just that little ratchet
This is the sweetest fly move ever.
Yeah.
Waterline and generator hooked up.
Yay!
Here we go, man. High five.
Rich is ready to fire up for the first time this year.
For me, there's always a certain amount of excitement, but also a little bit of,
you know, anxiety, because the fuse is lit as soon as the button gets turned on
that thing, and our pants are on fire until October.
You guys ready? Is it go time? Yeah? I'm ready.
All right, let's fire this thing up.
Shake it up, brother.
Shake it up. There's some big rocks up there that are going to come out.
Get the water pumping.
Ready?
First bucket of dirt.
Let's go!
We're ahead of the game this year. I've never sluiced in May before, so it's
pretty awesome.
See if Rick wants to shoot for 2 ,000 plus ounces.
You know, we've got to make sure we get every goddamn nugget of flake and gold
out of this ground.
That's actually kind of cool to see it up and running, eh? It's actually
amazing.
Despite the bare bones crew, Rick is sluicing earlier than ever before.
You know, we haven't been here for long, and my plan is always when we get here,
We want to be loosened as quick as possible, so we are going to get gold
in right away.
I think it's amazing just the amount of dirt we've moved so far. The fact that
we took down the whole hillside is really cool.
The BQ has already leveled the first section of the pay dirt cliff.
We got some pay ready to go.
We want to get the first fire up happening ASAP.
Let's hope Malcolm makes some money.
The generator's going already, so that's warming up. All we got left to do now
is go in and fire up the pump down below and see if we can get some water up
there.
At this point, in order to get 9 ,000 ounces, we have no time.
We've got to go.
A full month earlier than last season, Tony's ready to fire up his massive 8
-foot -wide trommel and starts loosing.
His whole operation now rests on firing up one 900 -horsepower, 1 ,500
-gallon -a -minute water pump.
I'm here for
my look.
At least one of us should be good looking. Yeah.
And I will fire it right up.
Let's see if we get some gold in the box.
I put more in. I told you to check that yesterday.
What good does that do you, doesn't it?
TV stretch turnover at the generator.
Batteries are just clicking.
Anybody have the planned copy? Anybody have the planned copy?
Run my truck out there. The battery's on the 349.
To jumpstart the water pump, Tony needs an engine with a bigger battery.
Let's see if we can get the damn thing started.
So, we're going to run in the 349 and boost it off of that.
You got cables, Len?
Yes, he does.
You can hold me for a sec.
Thank you.
Did you just say?
Yeah.
Give the bill to Len on the other side.
Well, things are hooked up. Let's see if we can save him.
Sounds like me trying to get up in the morning.
Everybody clear?
We did it!
We're back in business!
We started pushing this here earlier than last year, which is great.
Now when we get the Indian River gone, we're going to run two more plants over
there, which should bring us well on our way to 9 ,000 ounces, we think.
Isn't that stuff you think of when you think of, like, the old gold rush,
coming up here in front gear and fast unknowns?
Definitely not comfortable right now with what Tony and Parker said.
I'm not expecting to walk in and just fall into something, but there's got to
something.
Special Forces Veteran Fred Lewis heads to Clear Creek.
a remote and little -known area 45 miles east of the Indian River, in a last
-ditch attempt to find ground for his crew to mine this season.
The guys I put together, you know, we're a really close team. We're brothers. So
if I'm going to drag them all up to the Yukon to mine, it's going to have to be
something that's going to put money in their pocket and pay back the debt the
company made last season.
Tony said not to make those mistakes twice.
And we're not doing that.
It's not just about fighting. It's the first chance I get.
But time is running out.
And Fred's last hope is a small -time family mine owner mentioned by Tony
Trying to find this Paul Phillips guy and hope that he has ground it, has
rights, and has permits that we can actually mine this.
Huh?
Fred Lewis!
Woo!
You said you were far out here.
Yeah, we're a ways out.
So, uh, am I catching you in a good time?
Oh, yeah, we're just starting to get stuff out of retirement for the winter.
Well, I'm really kind of cold calling you, I know.
Yeah. But, uh, Tony mentioned your name, and that was enough for me to come out
and talk to you.
Yeah. Said that you might have some ground you might be willing to lease.
We haven't really done much.
on Clear Creek because we've always had the other places to work at. We hadn't
really considered it yet, but something we'd look at for sure.
Paul Phillips and his family used to mine in the Klondike.
But this year, they've left it behind to mine out here in Clear Creek.
I've got a real small operation, so I'm really trying to find a piece of ground
that's got that open space we're looking for.
a relatively non -complex mining operation because they're not the most
experienced operators it's pretty much the team of greenhorn well this would be
some of the easiest for your team to handle until they get some experience i
would think it's quite simple the first time we washed on there i stripped for
one day with the 400 by myself and we had enough we sluiced for six weeks holy
cow it's lean ground but there's lots of it so just run it yeah
and catch the gold.
Okay. Well, I would love to see, like, how you have done it here, if you don't
mind. Sure. I'll walk down to the creek and show you where we've been anyway.
Yeah.
So this basically is borderline the creek. Yeah, the creek's right there.
Okay. So if someone were to come up in here from start to finish, how long do
you think it would take them to get into sluicing?
Maybe an hour, two hours. Are you serious? Yeah.
So it's pretty much ready to go. Like you're planning to turn the pump on.
It's definitely profitable mining.
Well, what do you think are the odds of maybe getting a test up here, just to
kind of see what we've got up here? Yeah, I don't have a problem with your
testing. Okay. That sounds good to me. That's more than a no.
Yeah.
I'll take that any day.
To make up for last season's failure, Fred needs to be sure the ground has
gold.
Okay, right on. I'll just fire this thing up. Sounds good.
I think right now the treasure hunt begins.
If it's here, we're going to find it.
I'm really looking for 10 to 15 colors. That's really going to be the target for
what I'm looking for.
A lot of fine gold. There's not any chunks in here, but... Oh, boy, I'm
some good color.
Oh, yeah.
So this is what we're looking for.
I think this pan I just did is sitting at about a little under an ounce a
hundred here because I'm not a professional. I'm learning as well.
But I'm at least at .8, which is fantastic.
By Fred's calculations, he needs at least half an ounce of gold in every
yards of dirt.
to make his season pay.
This is our second hole. It's on the left side of the valley.
I honestly don't know. Right now I'm looking at probably 0 .6, maybe 0 .7 per
hundred out of that pan.
This is exactly why we came to the Yukon. If you can find a claim with a
claim owner that has potential and hasn't been mined out, you're probably
to find gold.
I know that there's ground here. I know it's easy for me to access.
I know the gold's here.
Depending on what call I come up with for royalty, this could be workable.
At Parker's Navel's mud mounting cut.
Next truck, come back in. Right where my bucket is.
Tyson Lee is on a mission to get down to pay, so they can test what could be the
richest ground they've ever mined.
But first, he has to strip over a million cubic yards of overburden.
You know, we're a week into Mud Mountain, and we've made a hell of a
as you can tell, it's warming up, and it's definitely slowly sliding back as
mud gets ahead of us.
Thicker than regular overburden, Mud Mountain's thickly wet black mud is a
to be reckoned with.
so far we've had two rock trucks down for three days at 100 loads each a day
you know we really cannot afford breakdowns right now
due
to the mud there's this big hole so i've got to drive really slow otherwise i'm
going to slam the rock truck and it can really damage the hydraulics We're
sliding everywhere.
Although now we have a bit more space, so we can actually fit in four trucks.
We don't have much time here because of the snow melt.
All the water is coming down from the hills, so we are getting a lot of mud.
So we've got to be pretty fast here. So we're just flying here.
It's very, very difficult right now. It's tough.
It's advanced rock driving, if that's a thing.
To meet Parker's 30 -day deadline, Tyson's rock trucks need to dump at
loads of overburden a day at the waste site.
But with multiple breakdowns, he's falling further and further behind.
I'm normally a sluicer, man. I don't move much.
You know, Brennan could run any piece of equipment that was around here.
You can't replace that experience overnight.
Like anything in life, anything new is a learning curve, and this is going to be
one hell of a learning curve.
Can I steal a truck here?
Can I have one truck, please?
Hey, Jordan, I got a copy.
Yeah, man, my truck keeps going to limp mode.
It won't accelerate.
It won't really do anything in here.
Jordan Tatlow's truck is in limp mode.
A safety mechanism that slows it right down if there's a mechanical problem.
Bring it up to the mechanics up there and let them know it's their department.
One rock truck goes down, that's 100 less loads a day we're getting.
100 loads a day that we're going to have to get on a mud mountain at a later
date when it's warmer and when the mud's thicker.
Hey Mitch, you got a coffee, Mitch?
Yeah, we got another truck down here at mud mountain, one's coming your way. Oh
wonderful, just what we need.
He's already two trucks down, and now he's sending another to be fixed.
Mitch, he's in the yard right now trying to keep the mechanic going, you know,
trying to get everyone caught up, but it's just tough.
I'd say it's mud mountain one and our crew is zero.
In the yard, foreman Mitch Blackfeet is back where he started ten years ago,
wrangling broken equipment.
We're out here. doing everything we can to get these trucks fixed.
All that permafrost muck, it just keeps getting into everything.
And right now, we're not even keeping our heads above water.
Hi. What up? Are you deep in the middle of something?
What do you got going on?
Mud mountain.
Do you want to bump down there? I know we got a ton of work to do out in the
cut, but we got way more to do right here.
If we keep stopping, we're never going to get any of it done.
Okay. But we're just trying to get that crashed out and get on to the next one
here.
I know as a foreman, it's probably not the best use of my time to be in here
working on stuff.
Right now, we need to be thinking about moving dirt, not working on trucks. But
we have no other option right now. We've got to get these machines to where we
can rely on them every day. They can go out and do their job.
I can't be both places at the same time. And it seems like that's what Parker
expects every day.
Jordan's truck reaches the yard.
It's not one thing.
Around here, it's usually ten things more.
Every hour it's down makes it harder for Tyson to hit Parker's 30 -day deadline.
Whoa!
What is going on down here?
First, we have to try and get rid of the mud. We have to get to the bolt.
not what we're wanting to see down here this hydraulic pump completely encased
with this well pretty much man this stuff is like concrete here it flowed in
a liquid and let's set back up and this stuff it's brutally hard here you can
barely bust it apart the hydraulic pumps power the truck suspension brakes and
steering without them the truck is useless
Mechanic Taylor removed them to assess the damage.
We know the pump's not building pressure.
You can see damage on the plate here.
We'll take the guts out of this one and we'll have a look.
More than likely, the pistons or the flippers are toast.
You can see here, these grooves in here are why we're not building any pressure.
The oil can just go wherever it wants. It's not forced through the output.
Mud Mountain's fine black silt has worked its way inside the pump, breaking
pistons and damaging the precision -engineered plate that seals in the
fluid.
Okay, there's a curveball.
Getting a spare up to the climb could take weeks.
Man, the only other thing I'm wondering here we could do and try in the
meantime.
So if we can get this to all look like this outer portion here.
Yeah. And maybe with the new pistons here, and if we can get this flat again.
If the top plate doesn't create a seal, the pump will leak hydraulic fluid, and
it can't gain pressure.
Mitch's workaround is to remove and replace the damaged pistons.
Then take the top plate and grind out the groove.
Hoping it will then create a seal and allow the pump to gain enough pressure
power the truck.
So we've polished up this piece here.
So hopefully this will seal. This will make pressure. And if it does, the truck
will go back to work.
If not, we're going to be waiting for a new part.
Roll the dice on this thing, see if you work.
100%.
We
just got fired up, so we can work.
You ready?
Ready?
Here we go.
Come on, baby.
Did you see our pump build enough pressure to raise the machine all the
to the top?
Before we took it out, it wasn't building any pressure.
100 % lift.
There it is, honey.
How about that?
You know, we've been working on trucks all day, but this is the last one right
here, heading back out to the cut.
And everything's good to go again. Hopefully it lasts a while.
With the full fleet back in action, Tyson has a fighting sense of hitting
Parker's deadline.
Hey, Jordan. Yeah, it's good to see you're back, man. You know, we need
every truck going here at Mud Mountain we can get.
That's one step closer to getting me the hell out of the mud and back around to
Wash Blank with my hockey blade.
How's it
going,
guys?
Hey, Brett.
How you doing?
Fred Lewis's chances of finding gold this season rest on striking a deal with
Paul and Diana Phillips to mine their pre -stripped ground in Clear Creek.
How'd it go? I got all my testing done, and I'm seeing the exact type of gold
that you guys told me.
Consistence throughout the valley, like you said.
So what are you guys looking at for royalties?
Probably the easiest ground you'll ever find to mine.
Go about 50.
50 %?
I've never heard of that before.
Did a lot of time on that. All you got to do is just pick up the dirt and throw
it in the plant.
Giving up 50 % of every ounce means Fred would struggle to earn a profit.
To be able to give my guys their gold bonus at the end of the year.
So they're not working for free.
That coupled with last season's loss, I'm not sure that the 50%, well, I know
the 50 % is something I just can't, I can't bite on.
This ground here is already set up, stripped, and ready to mine.
We can't give it away, Fred. I know. We can't. And that's it right there.
But it's still...
below that line where I told myself and my entire team, I won't bite unless I
find this for you.
If I'm being painstakingly obvious, I don't feel like there's a ground that we
are going to come to that both of us are happy in.
It's just not a good option for us.
Thank you very much. Thanks, Fred.
I'll talk to you guys. Yep.
50 %?
There's no way I can make 50 % work.
What do you think?
You know, Paul, no miner has the opportunity to walk in on ground that's
stripped, ponds in place, literally bring your machines in and start
once everything's all hooked up. I mean, it's very rare. It doesn't happen that
often.
You made it sound so easy, but you know if it sounds too good to be true, it
probably is.
It really sucks because I had my hopes up.
It's not just give me some ground, let's go dig.
The very minimum is I've got to put money into the company and my guy's
or we're a failure.
I'm pretty much back to square one.
Rick Ness and his three -man crew are gunning for 2 ,000 ounces this season
banking on a fast start by sluicing creek cut pay dirt.
Shut it down!
After three days of watching rocks, it's time for the first cleanup of the
season.
I don't know why I'm so nervous.
The first one of the year.
You seem a little giddy. I am. All right, I can't talk anymore. Let's make
rain, boys.
Yeah,
look at that pile right there, Brandon.
Look at them all. Yeah, buddy.
Yeah.
Oh, there's one. Look at that, buddy.
Oh, yeah, look at that nugget right there.
Oh, buddy.
It looks really good.
Jesus.
Oh, no.
Holy.
Jesus Christ.
Does it feel like the first time again?
It does.
Look at this chunk coming out of there. It's amazing.
I'm pretty excited.
We've got a big shot for cleanup. We're going to make everybody feel pretty good
for the season and what we're having to look forward to.
I hate to make guesses, and I won't, but I will say that it looks good. It looks
really good. Like, some of the best I've seen it in that box, so.
I see some gold in that pan.
A lot of gold, actually, right? You know, the cleanup looks really good.
Yeah. Yeah, it does look good.
And actually, I mean, that being said, why don't we just wait it out? Let's do
this. Sounds good.
To hit his 2 ,000 -ounce season goal, Rick needs around 100 ounces a week. So
this three -day run needs to deliver at least 50.
5, 10, 20, 30, 40,
50,
60, 67, 50.
Buddy. Oh, man.
How does that feel, huh?
Awesome. Well, that's evidence of all our hard work right there. Yeah.
At over $120 ,000, Rick's pulled more gold in his first three days
than he did in the first three weeks last year.
Well, for now, it's the four of us. Let's just keep doing our thing. I mean,
that's a hell of a start.
In all honesty, the four of us, I mean, work really well together.
Like, I'm impressed with everybody.
That's good to hear. Yeah. You know, you stepped up this year like you always
do, get us started.
Brennan, you showed right up, jumped right in. You know, Kruzy, I mean,
everybody pulled their weight, and the results are right here.
Let's go get some dinner, some sleep, get back at it tomorrow.
Yeah, buddy. Sounds good. It's like leave time, bro.
Well,
we definitely have a good start to the season, but...
It's a long way to go to 2 ,000 ounces, so I'm not going to jump the gun and say
this is going to be easy.
But I've got the right people here with me. We did the right prep work over the
off -season and last fall, and we got a hell of a start.
Onward and upward.
This first segment is almost done. Once it's done, then we can move on to the
next piece.
Two weeks into digging at Mud Mountain, Parker Snavel's crew is 55 feet down in
the first half of the cut and working hard to hit pay dirt so they can find
just how rich the ground is.
Word on the street is that at the bottom here is roughly 8 ,000 ounces.
When Parker told me that, I said, OK, so after we've done this, we're going to
Mexico, right? Because we've hit our goal.
where we've pretty much talked what we've done every other year and like
exactly Tyson that's exactly what we're gonna do but I have a feeling that's
wishful thinking on my behalf.
Looks like there's some bedrock.
Hey Mitt, Dumit you guys got a copy?
Yeah hey Tyson what's up?
Yeah I think I hit pay gravel down at Mud Mountain you guys want to come down?
Oh man if you hit gravel in Mud Mountain it's gotta be pay.
Oh yeah it's pay.
It's been such a tough week.
We've been out here fighting, struggling to keep these rock trucks going.
Really excited to see what's at the bottom of this. 60 feet down.
We're going to go out, pan it up, and, well, hopefully the pans look as good as
the drilling.
What do you think, Chris? You ready to do this to bring gold pan?
I know all you've been seeing is nothing but mud out here. All we've been seeing
is nothing but broken machines in the yard.
So I'm ready to see some gold. How about you guys? Yeah, for sure. Let me grab a
pan. We'll go watch this stuff up.
After moving 60 feet of overburden, all Parker's hopes for the season rely on a
pay layer less than two feet thick.
Well, I'm sure glad we're looking at some gravel instead of a bunch more mud.
Definitely stinks.
Yeah.
So what we're looking at right here is our pay layer. And really, we've only
about a foot of gravel, so then we've got our bedrock here.
But all the gold should be right about there. So that's what we want across
whole cut.
Let's see what we got here.
I wasn't expecting that.
What have you got over there?
A couple flakes.
What have you got, Chris? Not a hell of a lot, though.
Not even a flake.
We're going to need to fill this part here.
Yeah.
We've definitely invested a lot of money.
Tore up a lot of machines, and what I'm seeing here looks like...
Parker's already $700 ,000 in the hole,
and the first pans of Mud Mountain are duds.
Getting in the swing of things.
What are you guys up to?
We got a little bit of a problem, I think, maybe.
What kind of problem? Well, we've been out at Mud Mountain panning. Our best
had two colors.
It doesn't make me feel good.
It makes me a bit nervous, actually.
You'd think with how concentrated the material is down there, I mean, you'd
think you'd at least see something, but...
It's not like we're just going off of a gut feeling, like Liam drilled that.
What can we do about it? Yeah, you can't. I mean, you've got the money
in it. We're going to lose it, right? There's nothing we can do about it now.
We've got to trust something and we've got to trust somebody.
You're either going to come out of this and we're all going to be smiling and
everything's going to be good or it's going to be a big learning experience.
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a pretty big gamble, especially with how deep it
is.
And if it mines the way it drilled, we're going to have a hell of a season.
And could be able to beat last year for sure.
All right. Well, we'll get it through a wash plant and see what we end up with.
Thanks, Parker. Thanks, guys.
In
the
Beach Family Gold Room.
We started sluicing everything from the nugget cut.
I don't know how much TVS was expecting, but from what I've seen, I do think
we'll have at least a little bit of gold in there.
At the end of this week, Mom and I are heading 600 kilometers away to have a
baby. We're just really not set up here in the Yukon to have babies anywhere
except for Whitehorse.
Working for my family, I'll be able to.
Bring my child in and continue working.
She'll be in a playpen over by probably the table because that's a
peaceful noise to listen to.
It is an exciting thing, but...
It's the moment of truth.
The first gold way of their ambitious 9 ,000 -ounce season.
Hi, folks.
Hi. Hey, guys.
So how's that 11 doing in the black muck there, Mike?
I think it runs basically a day and a half a tank. I see what the 11 does.
like, what?
They're moving some cherry.
Why do we have two jars?
Well, I figured it's called the nugget cut. So I kept all the nuggets out and
we'll put them on top.
How many hours did we get?
40? Roughly 40, 45.
The hook is 9 ,000 -ounce target.
Tony needs 475 ounces a week, so this two -day run should deliver 160
ounces.
Are you going to pour some gold for us?
5, 6, 14, 15, 18, 20, 25, 40, 50, 70,
80 .44.
Level of the mug is 82 .72.
Worth over $147 ,000.
It's more
than the trommel produced per hour last season, but still less than what they
need.
Only if you don't have somebody else cleaning the goals while I'm gone. At
you'll have a job when she gets back to me. Oh, yeah. She needs a job like a
hole in her head. Just put that kid on the bench and just go, keep going.
No big deal.
Well, then you're going to have to buy a playpen and maybe a mobile and maybe a
white noise machine. I need a humidifier.
We'll just have to... Clean it up and let's go to work.
Yep. I have stuff to do too, so please.
Bye.
Now, Tony can expand to the Indian River and easily double or even triple his
output.
80 ounces for like 45 hours of work isn't that bad.
So if that can keep up, hopefully we'll put a dent in this goal and not have to
put re -floor efforts down here.
The water life is, you know, as long as we get it in the next 14 days, that's
good.
We should do a boat operation up and running.
With all that, I think we should be able to reach that goal.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.