Original subtitles

There's definitely a lot of struggle, you know, and there's a war for ground

the Klondike, and there's some breakdowns we're fighting.

On Indian River, 26 -year -old mine boss Parker Snavel is gambling the success

of his season on a piece of ground rumored to hold at least 8 ,000 ounces

gold.

We've been on the new cut for quite some time now. It's been maybe two weeks.

But getting to the pay layer has been an expensive slog.

Parker's already spent more than $700 ,000, and he's still not on the gold.

Yeah, we really need to get a watch set running here soon.

I mean, the only ground that's close to ready is around the airstrip.

A mile west of Mud Mountain, Parker still has 21 .8 acres of the airstrip

left in reserve from last season.

But opening another cut will mean diverting resources away from Mud

including up -and -coming club boss, Tyson Lee.

Look, I really appreciate you stepping up a lot this year. I know it's going to

be a hectic season.

We're sort of handed on experience people associated with Brennan -Levin,

hope you're ready to take on a bunch more.

Oh, yeah. Good.

For right now, that means we really need to get up and going. I'd like to get

Sluiceford going if we can.

I'm hoping you can pull out of here, and probably the only spot that's anywhere

close to ready for us is down by the airstrip, huh?

Yeah, probably.

So the biggest problem is, you know,

You're going to have to take new people because the experience grew up being

here.

What about Mitch?

Do you owe Mitch for this?

Probably not until later. You're going to have to get started on it on your

I know you're going to have to get a plant pad built and start getting things

organized and just train up some new guys.

Right on.

I'll do my best. All right, you can head down there and you can take a couple of

these machines.

Thanks, man. No worries.

Parker just told me that he wants me on a mud mountain and getting the airstrip

ready, which I couldn't be happier to hear because I hate the mud. The only

thing is, I've got a dream crew to do it with, so it's going to be challenging.

With no gold coming in, Parker's entire business now

rests on one inexperienced plant boss and two rookie rock truck drivers,

Evan Kurtz.

and Justin Fraser.

The only gold I've ever mined for is the one up my nose.

Ready?

Close to break.

At the right now, I'm just sort of scouting out the spot where Lucifer's

to be sitting, losing the airstrip cut.

I think I have a spot. We're going to lay the greenhorn belt with the plan

and then we'll get to her.

First step.

They need a pad for the wash plant to sit on.

You guys can try pulling up this one tire with further away. That would be

great. Thank you.

Tyson operates a 480 excavator and loads Evan and Justin's rock trucks with

coarse tailings, which need to be stacked and leveled before the plant can

in.

Oh, this is my first time setting up a sluice plant or anything like it, so...

fall in the direction of Tyson is definitely important or else I'll just

chicken like his headset off.

This one also can go to the waste site there.

There's just this mud here and I don't want that going into our plant path.

Yeah, they got a greenhorn building this path for sluice, but there's no doubt

in my mind these greenhorns are going to be goldhorns. I think it's a recipe for

success for sure.

It's going really good so far. It's just really bumpy.

The boss is probably going to be pissed, because I don't know if you can fix it

or not.

Hey, Justin, Evan, what's going on over there? You guys got to take it easy.

You know, we can't afford any screw -ups at this time.

We've spent a million dollars stripping Mud Mountain so far, and with the first

setup of the season, you know, it's pretty crucial having things bang on.

We've got a few rock shots rolling again and all the boys are working, so that's

all good news.

We're going to be hauled to the wall.

It's time to make some money.

After two days, Evan and Justin have hauled in enough tailings for loader

operator Tatiana Costa to make a base for the wash plant.

to finish here, but it's looking good.

This is basically the icing in the cake, the last step.

I guess the plant will be the cherry on the top of the cake.

Foreman Mitch Blosky checks on Tyson's work before Sluicifer is hauled into

position.

Tyson's done a nice job here. He's got tailings down.

He's got it packed in.

We're one step closer to getting sluicing and getting some gold.

We're here early in the season and we have gold coming in. I mean that's a

start to any season.

In the mountains above Keno, Rick Ness is on the gold.

Just two weeks into the season, he's already mined 67 ounces.

He pretty much showed up, got loosening right away.

And we're not even at full capacity yet.

He's set himself a goal of 2 ,000 ounces this year, double last year's target.

But he's lacking the manpower.

To get it done.

In order to double the goal total, we have to add a few people and get some

bigger teams in here.

If we can keep the momentum and get the rest of the people here and get all the

teams up and running,

it's going to be a good year.

I would love for my first year with Rick to be his best season ever.

Brennan Walt joined Rick after leaving Parker's crew.

He's working with Rick's old buddy Chris Cruz, who's trucking pay to the wash

plant.

Up and running another day.

New recruit Nathan Thornington.

This is awesome.

Loads wash plant rocky with 100 yards of pay dirt an hour.

Being the gold in the pan makes you all giddy. It's like being a little kid in a

candy store, and it's like, holy.

With my gold care, I'm taking off to the Caribbean.

Did anybody turn any of the valves for the compressor? No.

I never touched anything.

If nobody touched anything, then it should be... Cut eight water pumps, man.

do, too. You know, it's like you got one job. Pump water. Why can't you do it?

Struggle this six years.

Joke.

It's always something.

And then on the wrong day, a little something just makes it snap.

Right now would be an optimum time to have Carl here, because I'm sure he'd

exactly what's going on and get it sorted out right away.

But we're kind of all scratching our heads right now. Let's try to figure out

what's going on.

All we can do is pull this thing apart.

We've got to start from the end and go, right?

My man.

Mommy.

The only thing it can be is an air leak somewhere. That's it.

The seal is fine.

What if we just try it one more time when he tightens it and just see if

something happens? Yeah, we'll put it back together and we'll try it.

With no clue why the pump failed, they try the old turn it off, turn it on

approach.

I'll just get it right over there.

I think the handle should be on top just so it's easier, but I don't know if

it's just down pressure at this point, but I think that might pull it tighter.

It might pull it up higher, you know what I mean?

The hose is joined to the pump by a collar with a hook and clamp.

With the clamp at the bottom, the weight of the hose allows air into the top.

This could create an airlock.

stopping the water flow.

So Rick will rotate the pipe 180 degrees, placing the clamp at the top to

the seal airtight.

Well, we've done everything we can here. I mean, I'm not a professional

mechanic, so if this doesn't work, I don't know, man.

We don't have another clamp.

Is it all sealed up?

We're going to fire it up, boys.

There's just a little gap in the seal, and putting the handle on top fixed it

off.

Seven hours of downtime have cost Rick five ounces in lost gold, worth over $9

,000.

I'd say we start throwing dirt at it and get gold.

I'm with you. I like the sound of that.

to get into full build our season is short up here and we got a lot of rocks

wash find some gold on top of dealing with shutdowns brennan's forced to dig

with a 480 excavator instead of rick's new and much bigger million dollar

750 which is sitting idle until a mechanic can assemble it

i hope rick has somebody lined up here But we'll have a full -time mechanic

because we just can't struggle through another month or two like this without

one.

We need this stuff put together.

Good to see you, buddy. So I'm just calling to see how your health is.

Dude, I got some real bad news, man.

What is it? I have a fan here for me health -wise, right?

Are you okay?

They need to figure out what's wrong with me, and coming up there and being

seven hours away from the nearest hospital isn't going to cut it, right?

Yeah. They don't think about going to the Yukon at this point, right?

I'm sorry, dude. I really am sorry.

No apology necessary, Carl. I mean, all the gold in the world isn't worth your

health, right, Carl? You're totally right.

Yeah.

I'm going to be sitting here hoping that you get here at some point.

The phone call away, right?

Yeah, man.

Take care of yourself, Carl.

I appreciate that, Rick. Yeah, I hope for the best of myself.

Well, put all your energy into yourself right now, and I'll talk to you soon.

I'll be in touch, buddy.

Without a mechanic, Rick is losing the headway he made Watten Gold so early,

could see his season spiral out of control.

I still gotta find somebody that can put all this together for me.

we still don't have a water license in the Indian River. And every month we're

not there, you know, then we lose big bucks.

Tony Beats is chasing a record 9 ,000 ounces of gold this season.

To meet his target, he needs his claims at Paradise Hill and Indian River to

deliver.

But two weeks in, he's only working the hill.

Mike Trommel's doing very good with the material of the nugget cut, but I

haven't a straight set in a 9 ,000 -ounce season.

So I think we'd rather start doubling up around here.

He needs 475 ounces a week to hit his target.

More than twice what he's getting with the Trommel.

With good new ground nearly impossible to come by, Tony heads back to an old,

reliable site.

We still have some pay left from last year and the old -time tailings.

So I think you're going to get Kevin on the screen deck. And then go through

there for a little bit, too.

Last season.

Fire! Let's make some money.

Tony found a pile of old -time tailings that ended up producing $620 ,000

in gold.

That was a pretty nice little piggy bank down there, I'd say.

He now plans to wring every last bit of gold out of it.

We really got to run as much material as we can.

We're going to hit 9 ,000 ounces.

And seeing as we don't know what's happening at the Indian River yet, well,

might as well run this plant while it's here.

Let's get running.

Watch your ears.

Let's do this.

You can preload that feeder a little bit.

Right now we got new folks running the equipment.

We got Megan up on the excavator. So we just have to keep an eye on it, come

down every once in a while. It makes it going right.

To hit Tony's goal, 29 -year -old Megan Gordette must

feed the plant with 200 yards of tailings per hour, 10 hours a day.

It was not gut.

The tooth just caught the grizzly.

I was just dipped down too low.

Anyway, me, Ruby, and Monica, we're all really good friends. It's cool.

No, don't... There.

Uh -oh.

Shaker deck not shaking.

Cool. All right.

See it? Right. Not spinning?

Yeah, I see that.

One of the shaker deck's two drive belts has lost tension.

and swept, causing the deck to shut down.

Well, if you're not finished, we've got to do something, so... They've just got

to tighten the belts on the screen deck all the way they slip, and then the

deck, of course, won't run.

I really don't want to put that in the yard.

We need a hammer to hit the...

Hey, I'll pull on it. No.

Hey.

Oh. Hey.

You have one left. Throw him off.

Pretty much. There we go.

Yeah, that's going to work great.

The sight is good enough.

Good enough.

After three hours.

Okay, pull on it up. Oh, attempt number two.

And over $6 ,000 in locked gold, the Gaker Deck is ready to fire up.

Let's hope we're finally up and running again.

Everybody clear?

So, we got that thing up. It seems to be doing okay.

Now that it's running.

Let it buck. Yeah, once we get out of the old -timey tailings on the top.

Guys, are you guys off to Whitehorse?

We sure are.

Going to get me back a new unloader operator?

Back at the family home, Tony's daughter Monica is headed to Whitehorse.

Hopefully everything goes well.

to give birth to her first child.

Anyway, it'd be a little girl nevertheless, I suppose.

Well, wouldn't you be surprised?

Anyway,

have a good trip, ladies.

And good luck down there.

No hugs?

Give the girl a hug.

Have to give her a hug.

When are you dirty?

Good luck down there. Bye.

Bye. Burn the place down while I'm gone.

Well, when they come back, there's going to be three of them, huh?

Take care.

Bye.

Good job.

Let's go.

You never know.

Maybe third generation gold miners, that would be kind of cool.

It's kind of important to try to keep that all together.

Family, that's the most important thing.

I mean, wouldn't it be cool if I see my granddaughter drive a loader at 23?

That means I'm 87.

Can you imagine how miserable I'd be?

Anyway,

it's all nice and dandy to have another granddaughter.

An Indian River water license would be very welcome, too.

I can't afford to fail this season, but I still don't have the ground I need.

In his first season in Oregon, ex -Special Forces medic Fred Lewis and his

of military veterans mined just six ounces of gold.

I lost a lot of money, but to me the worst part was letting my guys down.

Right now, I'm all in. I have nothing left in my life to liquidate to make

happen. This season is sink or swim.

This year, he's joining the hunt for gold -rich ground in the Yukon.

Mining in the Yukon is a lot more challenging than I thought.

With the price of gold so high, everyone's scrounging for ground, and

running out of options.

Last week, Fred turned down an offer on some ready -to -sluice ground.

He wasted a lot of time on that. All you got to do is just pick up the dirt and

throw it in the plant.

The royalty was too high.

50 % is something I can't bite on.

I've got to prove it to my team that we can make money.

Because if I fail, these guys are losing hope and a future and a purpose.

They have nothing to go back to.

Fred's now pinning his hopes on a meeting with two of Dawson's best -known

prospectors.

I've been doing some research, going a little special forces. I've been trying

to reach out, make some friends, get some information, and I've gotten intel

these two guys.

One's a German, and one is Italian.

I think one of them's a geologist.

Sandro and Jorg, they're using science, and they're finding gold that hasn't

been found before.

because it's harder to get to.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Hey, my name's Fred Lewis.

Hi, I'm Jock. Hi, Fred. Sandro. I've been looking for claims. I'm just kind

stopping by, driving through, just seeing what you guys are up to, or if

guys might have something I can look at, or... Jock Lutz and Sandro Freepsy.

run an exploration company.

They own 400 Yukon mining claims, covering 9 ,000 acres.

Have you mined before?

I mined last season in Oregon. This is only our second season as a mine team

mining. But we're basically taking the jump from the lower 48 to come up here

for some real gold.

Last season, I think, had we been on good ground, we would have done really

well, but there just wasn't any gold in the ground. So I think that if I can get

them good ground, within a few years, they could be a really good mining team.

Well, you see, it's not matter of good ground, it's matter of good miners.

So you're not experienced with the ground up here with permafrost and

No, that's going to be all new to us.

So normally we are looking for experienced miners.

The guys are...

Kind of, I guess you could call it hungry.

We will work our asses off to make something happen. And you know that it's

an easy business, right?

Yeah. It's a big challenge.

I am looking for a challenge.

That is guaranteed. The only thing that I can guarantee you as a geologist is

the challenge.

I think if you give me a chance, I know we can perform.

I just, I just, we got to learn how to gold mine.

I think you guys won't be let down.

I will run like the military.

Maybe in California Creek.

Close to the other guys, which could be helpful.

We got some place with better gold, you know that.

But it's so hard to get.

It will get broke the first week. California Creek, you can get the gold

away.

The last claim I was on, we wanted a 50 % royalty on the strip grounds.

Sounds good for us.

Yeah, so that's one thing I like to get out kind of in the beginning is what

would you guys normally ask for royalty?

We only ask straight 10%. Really?

Wow.

We can grab a chopper and go out there and have a look.

It's a very interesting comparison to the Indian River, where there's nothing

but mine sites. Out here, it's basically untapped wilderness.

California Creek is over 40 miles by road from Dawson City.

You have to really want it to come out here and get it, that's for sure.

Here we are, and you see the mined area?

Yeah, right here in front of us?

Yeah. You see?

It feels three pence.

Below us, we tasted.

We got gold.

The claim spans over 90 acres.

A lot of quartz.

Oh, yeah. Oh, again.

You don't have gold if you don't have quartz.

Okay, there we go.

We tested there.

There is gold.

It looks like it's in the same quantity that the gold that we got on the right

branch. Right.

The feeder, it should be behind this hill that we see. Okay.

This will feed both the branches.

The source of the California Creek gold is the 60 -mile peak of Fault.

Thousands of years ago, Water eroded gold from this fault, depositing it in

creek beds below.

Two of these creeks meet up on one of Sandro's claims.

The right side has already proved rich, and Sandro believes the left could also

hold millions of dollars in gold.

I think the best thing I can do right now is go get a pan in some dirt close

bedrock, and I can just meet you back at the chopper.

Right now, I'm pretty much willing to settle for anything above a half an

to 100. I think I can still turn profit on that, but with the low royalty, I can

make the money on that.

I think the first time you pan on a claim is always the worst because you

really hope you're going to see something.

Ha ha ha.

There's a nice little piece right there shining like the sun.

But if I'm seeing gold that size and vines, dandruff's not lying.

This is actually looking pretty good.

There's obviously a lot of logistics that go into play here.

Really hard to get to.

Hopefully there's some gold underneath there.

You've got to figure it out to where the gold has been trapped.

That's going to be the secret for the success.

Lucifer's wash plant pad is all set, ready to go.

At Parker Schnabel's airstrip cut, Tyson Lee and his crew of rookie miners are

doing their first ever pad build and plant move.

You know, normally we use the 700 or the 750 to move our wash plants because

they're the biggest excavators we have, but right now they're all needed in Mud

Mountain. The more I can get done now means the less pressure later because If

the plant sits here and gets worked on and is fixed, Parker's going to want it

running that day.

You know, right now, with Mud Mountain, we need all the help we can

get keeping it funded, and that's what the biggest, best walk plant we have.

It's been sitting here for seven months, so it's about time it can go to work.

With so many machines tripping Mud Mountain, the only excavator Tyson has

available is the smaller 480.

Never pulled a watch plant with the 480 before.

Too much choice, though.

Yeah,

we're setting these up, Justin, so the conveyor doesn't break on us.

When we're dragging her, we have to be really careful.

Rookie operator Justin Fraser has to guide Tyson.

as he holds the $600 ,000 wash plant into position.

What have I got to look out for here?

All those chains we put on, we want to make sure they stay tight.

The conveyor is going to want to sway a little when we're moving it.

Something looks hairy. Just stop me, and I'll get out, and we can readjust.

Do you have your radio? No first time like now.

Yeah. Yeah, good to go.

Pretty much all set to drag her.

Cool.

First time moving a plant.

How we

looking,

Justin?

So far, so good.

With only 373 horsepower, he's struggling.

The 480 has 30 % less power than the 750.

It isn't wanting to three -pull it like the 750 would, so I'm going to have to

try something here.

Whoa!

Look out, guys!

Just two steps forward, one step back with pulling Lucifer.

Bit of a fight.

I'm just trying to use the bucket as a bit of a pry bar.

I'm trying to pry myself up this hill.

How are we looking, Justin?

Well, now we're at the top of the hill. It should be smooth sailing.

I sure hope so, because we've got to get through some sooner rather than later.

So far, so good. I don't want to jinx it.

Coming up to the pad here, so I'm going to get it lined up. Go on this turn.

We're going to do it right here.

Got about a meter.

Perfect.

How'd we do?

The greenhorns did a good job.

Looks good, man.

I know that's your first plant move, but good job, man. We didn't break

anything, and that's the main thing. Thanks,

Tyson. Thank you.

The final move.

Position the 150 -foot super conveyor.

All right, now we're trying to size up the conveyor to Lucifer.

It looks like we're going to be way short here.

So here's a problem.

There's the end of the conveyor. He can't get any closer to the wash plant

he is right now.

We really don't want to pull the conveyor closer because of the ditch it

along here.

So it looks like they got a puzzle to work out here.

The drainage ditch lies between the super conveyor and the plant.

You're going to have to come up with something that can handle a fair bit of

water flow.

Obviously a culvert's best.

You think we have a culvert that's long enough?

The plan is to line the ditch with a section of drainage pipe, then cover it

with a pod of tailings so they can move the conveyor closer to the plant.

We can go to the yard and see what we have, even if you have to take a couple

culverts and put them together.

Well, sounds good. I'll go see what I can find. All right, man.

We've got one very good thing going for us right now, and that's the plants

running. Everything around that is very scary.

Rick Ness is chasing his biggest ever goal target with his smallest ever crew

and without his new monster dirt moving machine.

At the moment, I'm able to keep things going with my 480.

The plants running right now, but we're going to run out of paint.

And we're going to be dealing with a lot of overburden this year, and the

machine I'm in right now is not going to dock.

But the biggest problem that we've got right now is my 715 excavator needs to

put together fast. I mean, really fast.

Hey, Rick. You got a copy, Rick?

Yeah, go ahead, Chrissy.

That's great news. I'm going to go up there and see him right now.

Thanks. Don't do that.

Rick put out the word that he needed a mechanic in a hurry.

Oh, man, finally a mechanic here.

How's it going, Rick?

Good. What's your name?

Torsten.

You look young.

I get that a lot. Is your mom picking you up later?

Basically, pretty much.

I didn't even grow a beard yet.

I wish.

Well, I'm glad you got a sense of humor about it. I'm just busting your balls

because, honestly, I appreciate you coming because it's been tough trying to

find a mechanic this time of year. Yeah, I'm a third -year apprentice mechanic,

so almost there. So close to a mechanic.

Close to, yeah.

One more year left.

Right on.

We'll test your skills for sure. I've got some big excavators sitting in

It's not making me any money, so you can handle that.

Yep, for sure I can handle that, no problem. You look like you're ready to

Yep, good to go.

All right, man. I'll get right to it. Thanks again, buddy.

Well, I asked for a mechanic.

I got an apprentice.

We'll see what this kid's made of.

Are you pulling them right out? Yeah. Are you strong enough?

Oh, yeah. Yeah? I hope so.

Better take some protein shakes.

Eat my Wheaties, eh? Yeah, that's it.

The 20 -year -old apprentice needs to prove he can build the million -dollar

excavator.

You want me to help you lift those pins down? No, I'll be good.

Oh, I've been working on stuff since I was, I'd say, at least, like, 12 or 13

years old. Just working on stuff at home, like snowmobiles and dirt bikes

stuff.

Officially got it into the trade about three years ago, so I've got all my

schooling done. I just need to get my hours now.

You know, Torsten seems like a good kid, but at the same time, he looks like a

damn kid.

An apprentice is an apprentice, a mechanic is a mechanic.

Well, we've got to put the boom on, get the bucket on, and then widen the track.

The 750 boom, stick and bucket need to be attached.

It's also been transported with the adjustable undercarriage set to the

gauge.

To widen the track for the Duncan Creek terrain, Torsten must undo the retaining

bolts, then use the boom to prop up the excavator while he drags the tracks into

place with the 700.

if you want to walk it in a bit.

Okay.

Oh, the pins are in. Looks good.

All right, buddy, what's the next step here?

Rig that 700 up to either end of the track frame, and then we'll loosen off

bolts and then start tugging her out and see if it goes well.

It should go pretty well if you have everything rigged up good.

All right, well, that's on you, rigging it up. Yeah. Let's go in between, see

where it sticks from.

That hook would be better to have the other way. We'll flip upside down so

when the weight's on, it can't fall off. That's it.

Okay, let's get the impact out.

That

bolt's

the same size as your wrist.

Right?

Go back slowly.

The bolt holes are lined up perfect. Good job, buddy.

Yeah. Right on.

Now for the second track.

So this is the second piece of the puzzle here. Almost done.

Just got to pull this out. Hopefully it goes just as smooth as the last one.

Little bit more.

Stay good.

Now it's the moment of truth.

Time to find out if The Apprentice has got Rick's season back on track.

No, the kid, he might just be an apprentice, but he pulled it off, man.

great job.

The 750's bucket is three times bigger than the 480's.

So far, that's the first bucket with the 750, and there is no comparison with

the 480.

This thing is massive.

The bucket on this thing is just as wide as the box of this truck here.

This thing is a lot more exciting to me. This is what I've been waiting for.

This is the next level here.

Yeah!

I definitely think California Creek is going to pose some challenges.

It's definitely not the most simple mining operation we could have taken on,

Sandro and York have done drill results up and down the creek that's already

been mined and the very beginning of where we're starting.

For the most part, they averaged over an ounce a hundred.

That's enough for me right there to know that this is the right season.

Fred Lewis has found a claim he wants to lease with the royalty he can afford.

It's going to be hard to say no to this.

Now he needs to convince his investor, Carl Smith, that it's the right ground.

To be honest, I've kind of been dreading this call.

Good to see you, brother.

You bet.

Last season, Carl invested $40 ,000 into Fred's mining venture.

Let's do it. We got a deal.

This is the last goal wear of the season.

That puts our total at 6 .39.

Unlocked everything.

That means this is the end.

Fred needs to convince him to reinvest to get his money back.

Hello? Carl.

Hey, it's Fred. How's it going?

I'm doing good.

things with you, man.

I think I found a good piece of ground, Carl. I really do.

And I know you said last season it would take some convincing.

Last year was a pretty big bust.

Yeah.

It definitely was, Carl.

It definitely was.

How do I know this season is not going to be like last season?

You know, I've done a lot more homework, Carl.

I've tested the ground.

The ground tests out at about .6 to half an ounce per hundred, which isn't as

much as we wanted, but the...

Creek has another creek that runs into it, and it's being mined right now, and

they're averaging an ounce a hundred.

And those creeks run pretty much identical to each other.

So we're in a really good spot.

We're getting offered a 10 % royalty, and the gold is in the ground. So I

that's what I've got to offer Carl, and I hope it's enough for you to bite.

But I feel like we have a million chance more to succeed this season than we did

last season.

and some of my money back.

Bro, I think we can get up and running by the middle of the month, and we could

probably start getting some of your money back within a month.

How's the team looking? We would look at probably having four Green Berets, and

then the guys that are returning would return.

Well, last year was a complete joke.

But I'm ready to reinvest.

Carl, you will not regret it. I know that I let you down last season, but

season's different, brother, and I'll prove it to you.

I know it.

See you, man. Yep, later.

With Carl on board, Fred goes to negotiate a deal with the claim owners,

and Yorg.

How's it going, guys? Good, good.

How are you?

Doing good.

So as far as the contract goes, what are my obligations to fulfill for you guys?

You have to lose a minimum amount of 35 ,000 yards.

35 ,000 yards is quite a bit.

Yeah. My bare minimum I'm shooting for is 100 ounces.

Look, to do okay, you should do at least a double of that.

You should make more than 100, I owe for you.

It can be also zero.

I mean, be ready for everything. Well, it won't be zero, but there's no

guarantee. So that's the science part of the business. If there's anyone out

there who guarantees that you get this gold, that's going to be up to you.

So, yeah, let's sign the thing. Let's do it. I'm ready.

Let's hope this is the beginning of a long relationship.

Well, Fred.

Welcome to the family, man. Thank you very much.

Welcome to our ground.

And thank you, guys. I will work my butts off for you guys, I promise.

Right now, I'm pretty freaking excited.

We're officially mining.

Time to get that gold.

On Paradise Hill, Tony Beetz has started his second sleuthing operation,

squeezing every last bit of gold he can out of the tailings the old -timers left

behind.

This bigger deck could definitely use a bit of TLC.

Belt's fixed, we're firing up, which is really exciting.

I think we want to start it around 10 this morning, and we only just got

So it's been hours that we could have been losing.

Looks like the plant's shutting down again.

One thing after another, which is pretty frustrating.

There's a lot of strain on all of us. We just want to get in and get out.

What the hell is happening?

Okay, we got a new agave.

We got to replace them both.

What's going on there?

Uh, the...

Shaker deck on the top deck.

There's missing three bolts on one side, so if we don't put some in, she's going

to clog up and spawn us.

We just tightened up the belt with the shaker deck,

but I noticed some bolts were loose, so I've got to go investigate and see how

much work we're going to have to do to fix that up before we get going.

This is not good.

If you'll kindly hop over here, this thing looks like.

Here's the problem.

Here is our sheet of 4x8 punch plate.

Right now, we're supposed to hold it to the frame. As you can see, it's worn

away enough that it's tough on us.

We can't do this without that in here or else this whole sheet is going to shake

and these rocks are going to pile up and then it's not going to shake at all.

Beautiful. Well, I even have a grinder with me.

Without that piece of C -channel, there's nothing there to hold the sheet

steel in the shaker deck. So it's just going to go up on us. So until we get

that piece, we really can't go here.

There's nothing in that trailer, huh?

None of that C -channel that I need, no.

My guess is along the bank somewhere. That would be about the only other spot

can think of.

So we're down at the moment. Haven't noticed that there's something missing

the stream deck.

We think it's a piece of sea channel, so it probably got lost going into the

tailings, so we're trying to find it.

Unless they can find the two -foot section of sea channel in the 150 -ton

tailings pile.

Is this it? That's not it, no.

The plant will be shut down.

I mean, this is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Mountain goat.

So, these rocks are kicking my ass.

Now, the whole point of firing this up was to double up on the hill by turning

it into a nightmare.

What's that? That's two holes.

There's another one we found.

Yeah, that's it.

Oh, perfect.

Yeah, the rest of it's gone.

So, our battle plan is, seeing as we only got a bit more to fix here before

move it, we're just going to roughly weld it in so we can run the material

through.

The retaining bolts in the C -channel that holds the screen in place have

speared off.

So Kevin needs to weld the C -channel back into place.

We're going to run this till we've worn it out, and I think we've got our

money's worth.

So, weld, weld, weld, fix it up, that's about one.

These things give me headaches every time.

She's welded in. We'll clean up, then we'll fire it up.

It's not great, but it's better than it was. This thing is on its lap. Like, and

then some.

Like, holy.

Let's try this.

Yet again.

What are we at? I lost count.

One more time.

Cool.

Hey, Megan, we're about to fire up.

Fingers crossed they won't break down. And we can hopefully at least finish

these tailings.

That's that.

We had to do a quick bit of welding on that piece to hold it in.

It will be bolted in.

Fingers crossed. It lasts.

We are pretty early in the season. We've still got snow and ice all around us.

And we've got two sluice boxes going.

So you know what? That's off to a pretty decent start, I think.

I mean, we've been spending money like crazy so far.

So two sluices is going to help a total.

You've got to pay the bills.

All your bills early in May should come out of the ground, not out of your bank

account.

Let's finish it off.

Hopefully we're going to get some big bull down this.

Kevin's fixers are still holding.

I think we're done here.

Get it off some people.

Let's clean up the block.

The shaker deck limps over the line, running all the pay dirt.

Grab a lift.

And sluicing the last of the old -timers' tailings.

Perfect. Take it away.

Cool.

This is the final cleanup at the shaker deck for the old -timer tailings. They

are done, finished, kaput.

Thanks.

Doing the shaker deck has been a time. It was either equipment breaking or the

plant breaking.

So, I am stoked that we are done with the old -timer tailings.

Yes.

So we fired up the trigger deck to help get us to our 9 ,000 ounce total.

So hopefully it was worth all the effort to keep this whole thing going.

Hopefully.

There we go.

You have a nice little pile of yellow beer.

At least we know there's some gold in there, so that's always a positive.

Final nap.

Done.

Hey, Tony, we're all done at the shaker deck. We're about to head up.

Okay, awesome. Does it look any good?

Uh, there was some yelling in there.

All right, hold on to the shaker deck and see what it does.

Sounds like a plan.

Done with the old -time tailings, done with the shaker deck, at least for now.

Now we just got to jig it, see what we got.

At an aggressively slow speed.

At Indian River, Tyson Lee's mission to fire up Sluicifer is at a standstill

until he can install a culvert and reposition the super conveyor closer to

plant.

Stephen's just bringing the culvert down.

We're going to put it in place and then I'm going to push all that material

forward and hopefully we can have the conveyor lined up at the end of the day.

That is another day that we're getting delayed on Sluicifer.

Here he comes.

We're just busting the rocks off.

I said it was going to be falling.

Just watch yourself.

Woo!

Did you get there, eh?

It's been the most messing around I've ever done trying to get a conveyor in.

Things need to happen faster in order for us to start making any amount of

money.

Like I was thinking this conveyor would be in and set up yesterday.

Full steam forward motion.

With the super conveyor in position, Sluicifer is hooked up to the power of

water.

Ready to fire up for the first time this season.

It's definitely been a struggle without Brennan here, but we're ready to start

doing this. We've got a lot of new people here.

This is going to be their first time they've ever seen what we're actually

to do.

Stripping at Mud Mountain is costing $50 ,000 a day, so firing up Sluicifer at

the airstrip can't come soon enough.

trying to wake this old girl up. I mean, it's been sitting all winter and it's

time to make some money.

She's shaking.

Tyson, you ready at the valve?

Born ready.

Go ahead and throw us some water. We're ready.

Here we go. Let's bring it.

Start feeding, Todd.

Start feeding.

Here we go. The first tooth for Lucifer 2021.

It's nice to be watching the rocks again.

After all that money and the time spent at Mud Mountain, we definitely need some

gold to start paying off this whole operation.

But I feel we're going to crash it this year.

After months of searching, mine boss Fred Lewis has finally secured ground to

mine.

Finally. Is that a journey?

3 ,700 miles.

I'm both there. Yeah.

Last year, Fred's crew was missing one vital position, a mechanic.

So Fred's brought in a new team member.

Ex -Green Beret JB.

worked on machines in the military for over 35 years in Central America and the

Middle East.

Been shot at and blown up.

Done crazy stuff.

I retired from the military almost 16 years ago.

There's some things I miss, you know, jumping out of airplanes, but having

gold to go home with would be probably the best thing ever, no doubt.

You know, like a deployment, we're setting up a fob here, and then we're

to go and set up our base of operations.

JB's never mined gold before, but he's hoping this is the start of something

big. To be honest, it's going to be you and me, probably setting up the entire

mine site by ourselves, so that when the crew gets here, we can just hit the

mine and start mining.

Wow. And there's only going to be six, maybe seven of us.

Right, right.

So, yeah, we've got a lot of work, but I think...

I think you and I can handle it. All right. I'm looking forward to it.

All right. First things first, we're going to start punching the exploration

holes to see where we're going to put our ponds and our watch plant. All

I've got a test plant we borrowed for an ounce of gold. And I need you to pick

up that test plant and drive it down.

So right now, the mining plan is to punch three holes to determine where

going to start mining.

We're going to punch holes left and right and up at the bend.

The results are going to basically set up our mine for the entire season.

Red is digging the three holes 200 yards apart.

He'll take 100 yards of pay dirt from each to find out which part of the claim

has the best gold.

It's going to tell us where our tailings ponds need to go. It's going to tell us

where our settling ponds need to go, where our plant needs to go, and more

importantly, which dirt we're targeting.

You know, I put a lot of emphasis on, you know, putting us where we need to be

as a team on my shoulders.

This season, I've missed my daughter's graduation.

My youngest daughter started high school. I missed my wedding anniversary.

missed pretty much everything in my life to make this happen.

So, you know, the failure and success of this team is so much more important to

me having sacrificed this much to make it happen because I don't want all this

sacrifice to be for nothing.

After three hours, Fred has a sample from the first hole.

They'll use the claim owner's test plant to run it.

Fred, Fred, you got a copy?

Hey, JB, this is Fred. Got a good copy.

Hey, man, I got this dug on the sinker deck down here.

It made it down fine.

All right, up, man. Let's go.

This is it.

These tests are immensely important.

Without these results, without these numbers, we're just guessing, and I'm

guessing anymore.

With these 100 -yard samples, we're going to be able to run that material

through the plant, weigh the gold, and know exactly what we're sitting at as

as the ounce per 100 yards.

So this will be our first bucket in the Yukon. Pretty exciting.

You want to try and feed it all along it. Don't just drop it in one spot.

You'll get it, though.

A little faster.

Yeah, like that. Keep that speed.

All right, Jamie, that's 100. I'll clean this out.

I want you to come on down. We'll check it out.

Okay.

Sample one complete.

That was exciting, man.

Good job, dude.

We're officially miners, man. I know, man. It feels great.

Woo!

You know what it is?

Two green berets running a mine.

Yeah, that's crazy. How many green berets does it take to start a mine?

Two.

Let's see what we got.

I'm not seeing anything.

I was really hoping to see some color in here. All right. And I'm not.

Brad pulls the much for cleaning in preparation for the second test hole.

This second sample hole is going to give us a little bit of gold stowing in the

sluice.

I think I felt one speck. I kind of moved right in. There's another one

there. I see some little speckles in there.

If three is the same, I'm going to be severely disappointed.

But I need this one to excel.

Okay, let's shut it down and take a look.

I'm a little bit nervous right now.

If I can just see some gold in that sluice, I'll be happy.

Oh, I see one.

This is a big one.

Oh my God. Look at that, man.

Wow. Look at that. Your first piece of gold. Oh my God, man. Don't look at

Oh, man.

After seeing a little bit what we saw in the sluice box there, I'm super

excited. All right. Well, let's pull these mats.

We'll get all the concentrate together. We'll bring it up topside and we'll

paint it out. We'll cook it, dry it out, and then we can weigh it. All right. I

can't wait to see it.

So right now, we're trying to determine where the best spot to start mining is.

When we clean these mats out and pan it down, we're really going to know what we

have here.

All right, dude. So these buckets pretty much tell our season.

These test holes are going to tell us where to focus our first cut at and

to focus our first dig sites at.

Fred and JB clean the concentrate from each of the three holes to determine

where they'll mine first this season.

Let's see some color.

Let's cook it. Let's get some real numbers and then we'll know what our

All right.

Don't lose it. All right. So this is the left side of the creek. Get that in

there.

Oh, yeah. It's getting dry.

All right.

Okay, go ahead, dump her in.

All right.

0 .36.

All right.

Barely even paid for the fuel. Is that all right? Let's get that middle one.

Yep. All right, let's do the middle one. Sounds good.

You got a hold of it? Got it.

Makes me nervous a bit. I know.

0 .52.

All right. So we did go up. It's like the bare minimum.

I mean, we'd get paid, but it'd be scraping by.

So I really hope this last fan has got more.

All right, it's pretty dry.

You ready?

You got the owner.

Yeah.

0 .3, 0 .5, 0 .6, 0 .7, 0 .9.

Ah, look at that.

0 .97.

Look at that. That is what we need. I told you it looked like more.

Man, look at that.

Fred's total gold from all three test holes, 1 .85 ounces.

That's crazy. That's a third of what we did last season on three test holes that

you and I have done by ourselves.

Yeah.

This is celebration time, man.

This is a good moment. Cheers. Cheers.

Now I know exactly where the mine site is going to start, where our cut's going

to be, where our ponds are going to be, and where our plant's going to sit.

That third test, one ounce a hundred almost, is going to give my guys enough

motivation to get their asses up here and start mining.

At Duncan Creek, Rick Netter's apprentice mechanic, Torsten Petersen,

to leave.

Oh, you know, Carl being gone and everything, I've been helping Rick fill

him. But yeah, I know in the process, Rick's been trying to decide if he's

to keep me on full time or not. I'm getting pulled to go to another job.

What's up, guys?

Hey, how's it going?

I'm glad you guys got a fire going.

Rick and the rest of his crew gather for their second Goldway.

It sucks that Carl can't come up this year, right? I know.

If Carl was here, you know, the whole crew problem with the pump there for,

know, how many hours it was.

You know, he would have went through that pump before he even got out there.

know, that is going to be a problem for us, you know, until we get a mechanic.

Really, the bigger picture is just we just got to hope that he gets better,

know what I mean? Like his health is more important.

He needs to be able to not let it bother him too much.

He's done some hard living, man.

I mean, Torsten luckily came in and he was able to put our machines together.

Did a great job. He's a good kid. I mean, he's quick.

Even if he could stay, I don't know what he's going to know about wash plants

and stuff like that, you know what I mean?

Well, are you guys ready to see what we did for the week?

Let's do it.

20, 30, 40.

Last year, recovery just over 70 ounces a week.

70, 80, 90 .36.

No way.

Nice.

First week.

For one week, it's about 160 grams.

That is awesome, man. Nice.

uh cheers to that four people and a kid and a kid

the four of us putting up over 90 ounces like for what we're running man that's

amazing like that pumps me right up to see that let's talk about lean and mean

yeah if we keep doing that we'll we'll get to our 2000 ounce goal that's

let's roll well carl's not here to say it but i'll say it pretty sweet

Time is money, and the faster I can get my gang up here, the faster we can get

some gold in the sloops. So this is where the rubber meets the road.

Fred Lewis is keen to start work at California Creek.

At this point, I need my crew.

What's up, guys?

Good. Hey.

He calls his crew of combat veteran buddies to see if they're up for the

challenge of mining his new claim.

All right, guys.

Basically, I found a claim called California Creek.

It's a little bit of a challenge for us, but the gold is there, guys. And they

offered me a 10 % royalty.

I need to know really quickly where you guys are at on this.

Are you guys coming?

Stuart, what about you?

You've got equipment.

You've got the testing done. You know there's gold there.

I will come up there. I'll give you a hard yes.

So what about you, Johnny?

We had an awesome baby. I mean, she's got my genic, so you know she's

So it really sucks that I'm not going to be able to make it this year. Yeah,

Johnny, I get it. It's the right thing to do. But I just lost my marine.

Kyle, what's on your brain right now?

Dude, you know...

Right now, it's not really about me.

I've got kind of a bigger situation going on at home with my little brother.

He needs my help right now. He needs everybody's help that he can get. So the

last thing I can do is leave it to my brother right now.

Yeah. Well, listen, dude, every single one of us is your brother.

And I absolutely agree. You need to be with your brother.

in this moment, but just understand we've all got your back if you need

anything.

Stephen, are you willing to come to the Yukon?

If it were anywhere in the lower 48, I'd be on board.

When we were in Oregon, I could bring the family to come see me.

The Yukon is a hell of a lot harder, man.

So, I mean, I get it, but I think it's something if you can do it, I need you,

man.

This is more akin to a deployment than a mining season.

I'm going to have to be a hard pass on it this time.

I've done about everything I can do to set us up with something that's really

going to give us our victory.

I need all you guys, but circumstances are circumstances.

Stuart, get your bag packed.

I've got to get back to work. I've got a lot of stuff to do still.

Despite finding promising ground, Fred's a soldier without a platoon.

Well, that definitely sucks.

I've got to source new bodies.

Stefan is definitely not somebody I can replace, but you just can't replace the

master sergeant that is Stefan.

Not having him here this season is going to be a big blow.

We need that leader.

We need that organization in our team, and I need someone I can trust. And at

this time, I don't have a lot of time to figure that out.

So we're just... cutting lucifer down for the first time see all the gold

you

know parker's been pretty stressed out recently with mud mountain and

hopefully there's enough gold to make a dent in the cost of mud mountain

so that's just one handful

what we're seeing in flucifer.

It's pretty good.

Big game of catch and release, gold mining.

Fair bit of gold in here.

You know, it's definitely nice having flucifer up and running. Seeing it catch

gold again definitely puts a smile on my face.

You know, hopefully when we get all this into Dumit's lab and he

gets it weighed up and scaled up and in a jar, we'll see a smile on Parker's

face again.

Here we go. Yahoo!

This is it. First scoop of the season.

We'll find out what we got going.

One of a thousand scoops.

Look how fine all this gold is.

Look in there. Turn it out already.

So we've gone from the sluice box to the cleanup trommel to this, which is

called a duplex jig.

They have diaphragms and a screen and little steel ball bearings sitting on

of that screen.

That diaphragm pulsates the water, opening and closing those ball bearings.

When it does that, just the super heavy stuff makes it down to the ball

bearings. The lighter stuff goes up over the top.

So we're just getting it cleaner and cleaner every process.

Well, it's funny. Those guys are cleaning 230,

250 yards of dirt an hour, 22, 23 hours a day.

I clean about one yard of dirt.

Everything that they do down there gets concentrated here.

It can get spindy down here. You drop something, you spill something, you

neglect something, it can get very expensive.

Hey, Dermot. Hey, Tyson. What's up, man? Well, that's you.

Just finishing up the cleanup.

In the gold room, it's time for the Schnabel crew's first gold way of the

season.

What up, what up?

Hey, Mitch. How's it going, man? Pretty good, thanks.

I hope there's more than that.

Yeah, there is.

This is just the last of it.

Gotcha.

Hi. Hey, how's it going?

Not bad. How are you?

Good? Well, I think you did a good job down there, working with a bunch of

greenhorns and new crew.

And everything's all focused on Mud Mountain. I'm surprised you got that all

up as quickly as you did. You did a good job. Thanks, David.

Good job, guys.

Well,

it's nice that we finally have a wash plant up and running. You've been moving

lot of material, definitely spending a lot of money.

Finally got something put on a scale. Yeah, we do.

We got 70 and a half hours on this cleanup.

Yep. Is there 70?

70 and a half.

And that usually gets us 180,

sometimes 200 ounces.

So if you want, we can throw it on a scale.

And in the suspense... To match what Lucifer did at the airstrip cut

last season, Titan needs to show at least 90 ounces of gold.

70 hours of run time.

Here we go.

10, 20, 30, 40, 50,

60, 70, 84 .4.

That's it.

Worth over $150 ,000, but below the pace of last year.

Well, we've been fighting a lot of frost in there and hopefully all the good

stuff is still frozen and still in there because we've run pretty much high

gravel, high bedrock and ditching.

And that's all we've run through the plant. Cool.

I trust your guys' judgment totally.

I'm not worried.

And the gold will come.

You obviously haven't lost your touch. It looks very good. Thank you. Just wish

there was more of it, but we'll go out there and keep working on it. Yeah. How

long did it take you? Like, when you first started doing this, was it like a

of black sand? Well, I first started doing this, what, six years ago?

Yeah, we were just drunk the whole time.

You guys joining me for dinner?

Oh, yeah.

Doze it.

Hey.

Beardo. What was he doing?

Just dozing around, looking for something to eat.

With the amount of material we went through this week, we were expecting to

anywhere from 150 to 200 ounces.

And, you know, to have 84, that's not how you want to start the season off.

We've been spending a lot of money in Mud Mountain, and we're not making that

much back.

A lot of mud moving, but Mitch and Tyson, they're killing it, and the gold

come.

The cleanup wasn't too great.

at the airstrip cut with slucifer we need to start pulling more gold in

mud mountains cost a lot of money that's all i can say you know we needed more

gold and a lot faster than we're getting it

How are you guys?

Good, good, good, good.

It's time for the Beats to weigh their gold for the week.

And Monica's back with the latest addition to the family.

How's my granddaughter today?

Oh, grumpy as ever.

My baby.

Like now she's like the dog, right?

Second place, that's it.

I'm completely displaced. You fed the dog. You didn't feed me today.

She's pretty cute, though. Next generation truck driver.

Co -operator.

He's got a baby pig.

He's going to be a rich.

That's good.

That's pretty funny.

I'm glad you could make it.

Yeah.

What kind of damage did you guys do while I was away?

We tried to do as much as possible.

We ran the last bit of the old -time retailing, and that poor shaker deck has

taken itself to death.

And then I think Mike Trommel was mostly peaceful.

Trommel was all faithful. Keep going, keep going, keep going.

First, they weigh the gold from Mike Trommel.

I'll count, seeing as Mother has my baby.

Everybody ready?

10, 40.

50, 60, 90, 100, 150,

160, 170,

173 .78.

Worth over $310 ,000.

Oh, that's not bad for a dollar.

Oh, not too bad. See what went through your screen, Kevin.

Everybody ready? 3, 2, 1.

Fire in the hole.

10, 20, 30, 60,

70, 80, 81

.54.

Worth over $145 ,000.

A couple days, picked up $130 ,000.

Yes. So it was worthwhile finishing it up.

No, that's pretty good -looking stuff.

So is that it for the shaker deck?

That is for the shaker deck.

It's pretty dead where she's sitting right now, so... Well, we're done down

there. I mean, it was easy money. We didn't have to strip it. Anyhow, we had

put a box down around it, too.

So out of every ounce we had, they didn't cost us very much.

The week's total is almost $460 ,000.

More than double what they'd mined this time last year.

Okay, wrap that up? Yeah, wrap it up. Let's get out of here. I feel like we

help pay the pills here.

I can't laugh and feed her. Then she gets a milkshake.

That's for now. Let's get back out of here, guys.

Bye. See you guys later.

Anyway, they're still a long ways away from the goal of $9 ,000.

Yeah, well, you have to start somewhere, and it's usually at the bottom.

So you'll work your way up to it.

As soon as we get a license to the Indian, we'll be able to double up,

hopefully. That's good.

In the morning, you come back with the granddaughter, there you go. So I really

have nothing to complain about, do we? No, we don't.