Original subtitles

We're down here these days, and it gets pretty tricky to mine. You better pay

attention, because otherwise, at the end of the day, you are not to make it.

King of the Klondike, Tony Beats, is fighting to salvage his season.

He's only got one wash plant sleuthing, and he's running out of pay dirt.

Some days we get maybe two ounces an hour, but that really ain't very much.

You got to come up with something in order to keep this plant running.

No posting, no growth, no money, right? There's not a lot of work.

It's a real bummer, because right now we have no... I have enough material to

run through a truth box.

Hoping to turn his season around, Tony Beetz has decided to dig deep at

Hell.

He's banking on his new cut, the 80 Pop, where the gold -rich pay dirt is 80

feet deep.

There we go, solid cross.

I never had a year that I had so much frozen ground.

Dead, worse than bloody concrete.

Okay, Mike D. Gobby, Mike D. Gobby. Yeah, go ahead.

Can you bring the D -11 over there, please? You got to do some ripping

Can't be there, man. Yeah, just bring it over, okay?

stuff gets frozen, like permafrost frozen, holy, is it hard.

To burp through the frozen ground and make it thaw faster, Tony's son Mike

the D -11's one -ton ripper shank more than six feet into the earth.

Okay, I'm Gavin, I'm Mike, you keep the box going for any hours of the day.

Tony, do you copy, Tony?

Up we go.

Okay, that's going, that's going, that's going.

The correctly ripped 80 -pup pay dirt is all they've got to feed the trommel.

And Tony wants it running at 200 yards an hour.

A lot of frozen chunks going up that belt.

No time whatsoever to be pulling out chunks when you're running that forward.

That was as big as a car.

Water. Amazing.

Amazing.

Now, this is the last thing we need right now. We only have the trauma

I mean, it is a big producer, but...

The big producers are producing.

A

quarter

-ton chunk of frost has jammed the belt.

Basically, the chunks are too big.

There is no reason that frost chunks a rock that big to be anywhere in the

feeder.

It's like, that's half your bucket.

This is incredibly...

frustrating the chunk is too big to shift off the conveyor by hand

How's that all look? Yeah, that might work. All right, everybody stand well

clear.

No, no, no, no, no.

Back this way.

Curl the bucket.

Okay.

Lead it straight up.

Good. Boom.

Hold it. Watch it.

Okay.

Stand back.

Yes.

Two hours of downtime has cost the Beats over $7 ,000 in lost gold.

They'll need a lot more from the 80 -po to get Tony's season on track.

We're back to making gold.

Right now there's a lot going on. We're way behind with the plants.

Gold wise, we are a bit behind where we were last year and falling further

behind.

On Indian River, Parker Snable is in survival mode.

His gamble on Mud Mountain has seen him spend $2 .5 million in stripping costs.

Now 40 feet down, and still no pay dirt in sight, he's put the operation on

hold.

I shouldn't have taken on another project this summer, probably.

And Mud Mountain is a big...

quite difficult project to have taken on, and it's going to give us a bit of

ass -kicking.

Parker now wants to double the gold coming in, and that means getting

Big Red back in action.

We're not going to have a successful season unless both Washplants do a

thousand hours of sleuthing and pee, so that's a lot.

Yeah, hey, man, we're going to have to hustle here to make all this happen. We

definitely need to get in here and make sure we get all this paydirt out. It's

going to be all hands on deck, eh?

Oh, yeah, it's going to take everybody to make this happen.

First, they have to move Lucifer off the airstrip cut.

The land leased from Tony B with one big conviction.

hangs over our head that makes it very difficult for us.

That's the fact that Tony has made a rule that each wash plant is allowed a

lower royalty rate up to 1500 ounces.

Above that, it jumps way up.

Parker's made it clear that he doesn't want to have to give Tony any more money

than possible.

So our game plan is to have Exclusifer run 1500 ounces here on the airstrip.

Then we can bring Big Red in and do 1 ,500 with it.

See you later.

Lucifer's got just one day's pay left to run.

Then they'll haul it six miles down the road to the promised land.

Right now we're heading down to Ken's Ground.

We found a lot of gold there last season.

And we've got to have two watch plants up and running if we're going to have a

good year this year.

Priority one, get down to Ken's ground. We know we're going to need a good pump

in. Start moving some water, build a pad, see what we got.

Ken's ground and as you can see the river changed directions here washed out

these culvert pipes.

Normally a culvert is one nice piece of pipe used for transferring water

underneath the roadway.

Right now what used to be a nice road now looks like a Grand Canyon.

Hey Tyson you got a copy?

Go ahead.

Yeah I'm down here where the culverts I'd say used to be. We had a big washout

down here.

Mitch Blackkey needs to figure out a fix, or Parker's plan will be dead in

water. The road's completely gone, and I'm going to start getting a game plan

together down here so we can get this thing put back together, but culverts,

it's gone.

Just to get everybody rounded up, we're going to have to get this thing tuned up

if we've got any chance of getting down to Ken's ground.

Okay, I'll get all that organized, and I'll meet you down there.

Mitch has less than one day to rebuild the road.

before Sluicifer is shut down.

So obviously this isn't going to be the easiest. This isn't just like resetting

a nice piece of pipe.

This looks like about three old pieces of maybe some old dredge pontoons. You

know, it's the Yukon. People use whatever they got around to make things

The old -timers' dredge pontoons are rusty and more than 50 years old.

Mitch has no idea if they're strong enough to be moved.

We're going to need to bring in some material here, get the culverts reset,

a road back through here.

To fix the road, Mitch will have to dig out the old culvert, flatten

the creek bed, maneuver the three pieces into the middle of the creek,

and then backfill with rocks and gravel.

Definitely not what we were expecting to do today, but, well, we're obviously

not driving down to Cairns with the road looking like this.

Here we go.

Each piece weighs five tons, and the rusty iron could break apart at any

This thing doesn't even have a bottom to it.

The last thing we want to do is bust these up. We've got nothing to replace

them.

Mitch has Tyson Lee bring hundreds of yards of tailings to build out the berm.

Tyson, I'm going to try and get you six -bedded in here if you want to just keep

bringing out the material.

I'm going to try and get the lift on this.

I'm going to set it right up against the other one and then stop it down.

We'll activate our bodies right here, just like we're fixing a wrecked car.

We've got a whole piece of conveyor we're draping over the top of this here

down the side because, well, we went Yukon shopping.

in the scrapyard, and that's all we were able to find.

The river could stop water flowing through the gaps between the pontoons,

washing away the backfill.

We're going to hopefully have a road here shortly.

I wish we had something a little bit better for this, but that's the Yukon.

just got to work with what you got here.

So hopefully it holds through, but...

There's a good chance of my not.

I knew coming in that this year was going to be tough.

But, you know, we just got to make every day count.

In the mountains above Keno, Rick Ness is trying to pull off a monster season.

We're not doing too bad. We do have 422 ounces.

But if I'm really being honest, that's a hell of a long way to go to 2 ,000

ounces.

To hit his target, Rick's churning through shallow pay dirt at the bacon

cut before he moves on to nugget Rick's deeper ground.

But so far...

Progress has been slow.

I've never been stretched so thin here, man. This is ridiculous.

You don't have a mechanic on site.

And on top of that, Kyle's sick.

And now his new rock truck driver, Leah Turnbull, is having to leave to deal

with family issues.

It's been good being up here and being in the Yukon and experiencing all that

has to offer. I got really good at driving that truck.

I kind of proved to myself that, like, I can do it.

I think I'm just ready to head out and go home and go back to my life.

I'm feeling good about my decision.

Fortunately, Rick has managed to find a new driver, and not a moment too soon.

So I've got a new guy starting today.

His name's Riley.

It's just in time because we've been short on people for a while, and a new

guy's going to be.

That's what we need at the moment.

I love this country.

The only thing is the mosquitoes are bad.

Holy smokes.

Riley has run trucks on oil pipelines, but he's never been on a gold mine

before.

I'm from a little community called Blueberry River First Nations.

It's pretty a chill place.

When I'm out here, I'm usually rodeoing, racing, tuck riding with my father.

When the season's done, I'm going hunting for moose from my girlfriend.

A moose, I kind of order a moose, right?

How's your first day going, Riley?

You liking it out here?

Absolutely like it a lot.

With a 750, Brennan Rualts can load each truck in just five scoops.

How do you like running that big old 750?

I think that's one big gal.

Yeah, no doubt.

Not too bad. Pretty nice machine.

Boy, does it make my life a lot easier having an experienced person in the

truck.

Especially a person who just showed up for the first day of work and can do

he's doing. So, very happy with that.

Just to see that rock gold would be a privilege, actually.

I'm actually very pumped right now.

What the hell?

New guys, eh?

First day on the job.

Yeah.

So, quite upsetting.

Hey, Rick, need to get down here ASAP.

Riley blew a tire, so we are down a truck right now.

Rick still doesn't have a mechanic, so he'll have to fix it himself.

I've never done a wheel and a tire. I've never seen it done.

We're having to cannibalize one truck and pull the wheels and tires together

of those, so we're just kind of winging it.

Rick uses the loader to prop up the back of Riley's 34 -ton truck.

He's tired.

Tired, eh? Yeah, it feels good to have the whole crew helping me sand my tires.

And a little embarrassed, but it happens, right?

Hey, Riley, get over here!

Come over here and work.

We're not going to be able to put it on like we took it off because you ain't

going to be able to see the holes to line them up.

They need to figure out a way to maneuver the one -ton wheel into

Go straight up!

Eighteen two -and -a -half -inch studs have to line up exactly with 18 wheel

holes.

A little more!

Someone put their hand where I can see it!

Jesus Christ!

Well, we continue to be able to move on without a mechanic,

but I think our days are numbered.

Riley, welcome to the team.

Nice job on this. We're back in business.

Good for a stay on the job.

Tired.

Now back up to three rock truck, Rick can once again run 120 yards of pay dirt

an hour, bringing him closer to mining out the bacon strip.

We'll move this dirt now.

Rock and roll.

On Paradise Hill, Tony Beats is counting on his youngest son, Mike, to keep his

trommel running 24 -7.

Family, family, family, man.

If you can't trust your family, especially if you have a good family

then who can you trust?

Hot fingers.

To check they're on track, Mike's shut down the plant for the midweek cleanup.

And we're almost done. I just got to knock a couple boards in.

We're just cleaning up and pulling out.

Well, I was waiting for somebody to knock boards in.

He won't ever give you free reign. So he's going to tell you what he wants,

you're going to do that.

You guys put that back together.

You done yet?

How about now?

Let's get fluking again.

Somebody get the water. Somebody get the water.

Kevin, do you copy?

Shut off the water. Now our run is in a ditch.

Okay.

The muts containing flying gold have worked loose.

Tony B, do you copy? Tony B.

We got maps going down the river.

Yeah,

I caught it.

Just running after math. Give me a minute.

in grease or oil, are you? Nope.

Good.

Someone didn't hit the boards in tight enough, so then the boards fall out and

everything piles up and gets pushed down.

Those are ripe.

The muts and expanded metal riffles are kept in place by boards secured with

wedges.

But the wedges in one of the rooms weren't tight enough, and the force of

water dislodged them, washing the moths and riffles out of the room.

I should have double -checked people's work. I thought they knew what they were

doing, but, you know, don't assume. It makes an ass out of you and me.

It was my time.

Get over into that run.

Sounds good, bud.

Put her in there.

Yeah, go ahead.

If he cannot be done, it'll cost nothing but money.

So get that thing on the roll, Mike. Get it going ASP, okay?

We're still putting the run together. Give us time.

Don't step on that mat.

Oh, he micromanaged out of it. You'll never run anything so long as he's the

boss, because he'll micromanage out of it.

And he's been here for 30 years, so you can't really argue with the man's

wisdom.

An hour's downtime, plus what was worked out of the mud.

has cost the beach over $4 ,000 in lost gold.

Let's get flusen again, get some money.

Ready for water, we got backup.

Any downtime is bad because you want to keep going and you've got to keep

sluicing to get that goal.

That's it. That's the last scoop.

There she goes.

Now is your 1 ,500 ounces in sluice first.

They'd be really close.

At the airstrip, makes Glaspy and his crew a racing to shut down Lucifer.

It's all part of Parker Schnabel's plan to get two wash plants on the gold.

There it is.

But avoid having to pay Tony Beats a higher rate of royalties.

Not too bad.

Breaking her down and get her moving.

Right on. Good job getting that cut done. I know it's an absolute, and we're

glad to see it done.

100%. Thank you. You guys did a good job.

Here's to Ken and Stuart.

Woo!

Get everybody on the road. All right.

Let's do it.

Let's move out of the way.

They've got just four hours until the night shift to get Sluciper moved and

running on the promised land.

And they'll have to cross a culvert made of rusting 50 -year -old dredge

pontoons.

This watch plant is big, it's heavy.

It would not be good to be fixing out this watch plant.

The combined weight of Sluciper and the low boy

It's 85 tons.

I just want to take it slow and steady.

That's a lot of leaning.

Let's go, man. Go, go, go. She's leaning hard.

When you get lined up on that culvert, man, just don't stop.

There's no way of knowing how much the newly repaired culvert can hold.

Come on, go, go, go, go.

Oh, yeah, like a dream.

Looking good, boys. We're almost there.

I love it when a plan comes together.

But they won't be walking rocks.

Keep going, keep going, almost there.

Until they put Parker's $600 ,000 wash plant back together.

That'll do it.

Watch back, here we go.

The last thing we want to do is have anything go wrong.

So we're just going to be nice and gentle with her.

And we'll get her into play.

Out of work!

They've hit their deadline.

But if Parker's going to make it out of survival mode, you'll need a big payday

from the Promised Land.

Last season, they pulled out over four and a half million dollars.

Let's see if we can get this thing washing rocks.

Sounds good. Good job.

Parker's operation is on track once again, and he's back on the gold.

Nice job there. There it is. Yeah, man, I'm stoked.

At Duncan Creek, Rick Ness is racing to get through the bacon strip pay on his

way to deeper, nugget -rich ground.

I'm pretty upset this morning.

My new guy, Riley, didn't go back up to work.

I don't really know what's going on.

I can't get a hold of him. He's not answering his phone. He's not answering

back. You know, did something happen to the guy?

Is he just late?

Is he done?

Is he not coming back? I don't know, but...

I mean, I tend to dig it personally sometimes.

And on a year like this, it's digging it extra personally.

Ripped down to just two rock trucks again.

Not enough to keep rock plant Rocky running at full capacity.

Hey, Lee?

Yeah? What are you doing? You want to come outside?

Hi, babe.

What's up?

You know Riley didn't come back?

I mean, I don't know what the hell happened. I mean, he was working on it

good in the truck, and then he just took off.

And you don't know when he's coming back? You didn't see anything? You

heard from him? No, I haven't heard anything.

Call him.

Nothing.

Sucks.

Have you put the word out yet?

Yeah, but I mean, it's a tough year for getting people.

And with the trucks stop rolling, everything stops rolling.

It's not just a bump in the road. I mean, it's a hole in the road, you know

I mean? So it's a hole I got to fill.

Yeah.

Why don't you let me give it a try?

Would you really want to do that?

To help, yeah.

Yeah? I can help you out.

You ever driven anything like that before?

No.

If you're serious, I mean, I can have you jump in with Kruze.

Definitely. Yeah? Yeah.

What if you're really good at it and then you just keep doing it?

No. We'll find a replacement.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Hey, Cruz, you got a copy?

Yeah. Well, you just volunteered to run trucks, so I'm going to have her come

down and join you and have you show her the rope. It's probably better that you

do it because that's just a test of a relationship that I don't need.

Copy that.

You ready, man? Yeah.

They look a little bigger up close, or what?

Way bigger.

I don't know if I'm ready for this.

Oh, cruisy will take good care of you.

It's all yours.

This is going to be brutal.

Am I going to survive this?

Nope. Hang on.

I'm hanging on.

I'm hanging on.

Rick's girlfriend, Lise, has never worked on a mine before.

It's really rough out here, I will say that.

Just a little rough.

Back in Wisconsin.

She worked as a nurse.

We're going to switch seats.

Okay. And you're going to drive. You're going to follow the same path that I've

been following.

Okay.

Bye.

You got a hog?

Okay. Say that we're loaded.

Drop this. All right, that's loaded.

Put the red box in the box.

Rocks in the box.

Rocks in the box.

You're going to go past there? You got a second here? Hit it.

You ready?

I'm ready.

Oh, damn.

This is crazy.

Oh. I'm going.

What do you want me to do? Floor it?

Don't hit the other truck.

Oh. Slow down.

I am slowing.

Come for it.

More gas.

More gas.

I'm giving it gas.

Stand on it. I'm standing.

Don't hit that rock.

I didn't hit it.

Are you scared?

Nope. Not at all? Nope. You have faith in me.

Still alive.

Once Lise has mastered the basics, Chris decides it's time for a more advanced

lesson.

So you have to back up and dump it. Put it in reverse.

With my foot on the brake.

Put on the brake.

Get yourself lined up.

And I'll start moving backwards.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Why did you do that?

I don't know.

Okay.

The pay pile ramp has an incline of 30 degrees.

Keep it. All right. More, more.

Don't go off that edge.

No, no. Keep going.

No, no. Turn it.

Back it up. I see him at the axle.

Keep going. A little bit more.

A little bit more.

Good. Good. Stop right there.

Pull the lever back.

All the way back. Yep.

The box is going up now.

We'll release the brake just a little bit.

Oops. Sorry, babe. Yep. Just a little bit at a time. It's an inch forward.

Nice job.

I did that.

My heart is beating so hard.

I rocked it, right?

You rocked it pretty well.

How'd she do?

She did good? Yeah.

I'm impressed.

I'm super proud of Lise. I can't say that I'm that surprised.

You took it over like a bomb.

With Leith running a truck, Rick's back on track to finish the bacon strip pay.

She's definitely one of those don't -judge -it -but -buy -it -covered

She's a Wisconsin girl, and I know that, right? She's happier in the mud and the

dirt than she looks.

We've got a little goldmine in her butt, and you never know.

Yeah, we're back to three trucks running, and that's exactly what we need

able to get ahead.

Hi, how are you? Good. How's my granddaughter today?

Delightfully.

That's good.

So what's all happening this week, guys?

That frozen pavement causing us headache on the belt.

Keeps getting piled up.

Great big chunk of frost.

Oh, you know, felt this big, it was this big.

Might have cut the McFadden in the box, I'm told.

What happened?

Someone didn't hammer the wedges in right. So the board, all the wedges

The mat, some of them went into the drain and I had to go run after it.

Don't let them do it again. I didn't. I know I had someone go by to check them

every time.

That's smart.

Anyways, can we just maybe see how much you guys got this week?

That much.

Okay. Well, maybe we should weigh that much.

So where did this gold come from?

Only 80 bucks. That's all we're working these days. Nothing else is open up yet.

So 80 pop it is.

Are you going to count? Sure. Excellent.

Everybody ready?

Put her in there, Kevin. Let's do it.

20, 30, 50, 60.

It's time for Tony Beats to find out if his gamble on frozen ground in the 80

pop cut has paid off.

So far, he's averaged 170 ounces a week.

120.

$130 ,000, $140 ,000, $150 ,000, $160 ,000, $170 ,000, $180 ,000.

$182 ,000.

Worth over $328 ,000.

So what's the season total?

$172 ,600.

Worth almost $2 .3 million.

Time for you guys to all go back to work, I think.

So why don't you promote?

Sounds like a plan. And ladies.

And ladies.

It would be nice to get a little bit more, if not double as to what we're

We'd better get something else on the go.

Better see if we can find... You're not going to get it this way, do you? No,

that's just not going to happen. It's time for you to go to work, too.

Really? What about you going to work for a change?

And I'll take care of the house.

No, we tried that before. It didn't work. It didn't work? No.

I'm a better housekeeper than you.

Okay, lady.

See you later.

Bye.

After a difficult week on the bacon strip, Rick Ness wants to know if

stayed on the goal.

We're all

fired.

Well, shall we see what all the hard work paid off with?

Yes, sure.

To hit his 2 ,000 -ounce season goal, Rick needs 105 ounces a week.

It's pretty heavy. All right. We got 5, 10, 20, 30, 40,

50, 60, 70,

80 .47.

Worth almost $145 ,000.

Nice. This brings Rick's fees in total to 502 ounces.

worth over $900 ,000.

What's wrong with that?

Yeah, I mean, $140 ,000 for a week, you know, with a small crew.

But you know what? Everybody jumped in.

Well, she nailed it on the rock truck, honestly.

I didn't know she was in there, and she backed right up that pay pile. And I

found out afterwards, and I didn't know how to feel about it. Yeah,

I'll be honest. I didn't know that was happening either.

I can still see your arm prints in the back of the seat.

I mean, I was worried about you. I was like, well, is he coming back? I mean, I

hadn't heard from you. Why didn't you call me? All the contacts were on my

phone, and a cop took my phone for an investigation, so they got me a new

Yeah. You were in the hospital?

I was in the hospital.

Yeah. Well, I mean, you're standing on two feet. You feel strong enough to

Absolutely. Yeah.

Yes, I'm willing to go back.

Okay. Yeah, I'm happy to have you back, man.

If you're ready right now, you jump in with me. We'll grab your boots.

Absolutely. Let's do this, pal.

That's a hell of a story, man. Holy... I guess as far as excuses go for

going missing for a while, that's the best one I've heard.

Hey, Mitchell. How's it going?

Oh, it is finally done.

Barkish Mabel is keen to find out if his hit is 1 ,500 -ounce target at the

airstrip.

That was quite the week.

Yeah.

It's the Yukon. No matter where you go, you're going to battle something. But at

least we got a wash plant down there.

Well, you guys, we were hoping for 1 ,500 ounces. Yeah. Let's see what we

We got the big jar out.

Let's see it.

He needs 180 ounces this week to hit his goal.

20. Any more will mean a big payday for Tony Beats.

120, 140, 150,

160. We're going to make it.

170. Let's stop right here, right? 180.

Oh, there's the 180.

200, 210, 220, 240.

260, 270, 276 .05.

Worth over $496 ,000.

Minus an $83 ,000 royalty for Tony.

Nice. Well, we got the 180.

Yeah, that's right.

So, 97 ounces over.

I'll take it.

Tony gets to make a little bit more, but hey, we made a little bit more, so

that's the way she works.

Two days, we'll have two plants running.

That brings Parker's season total to 1 ,597 ounces, worth almost $2

.9 million.

But still 900 ounces less than this time last year.

No, I know that was not the most fun situation for you guys to be in.

And I thank you for getting it done. A few days we'll have two plants running

and then it'll be real...

Fun. Yeah.

Good. Well, see you guys later, you guys. Have fun.

Later. See you guys.

At last, Parker's season is turning a corner.

Everybody did a good job. You know, it wasn't a good scenario, no matter how

played it.

And Mitch and Tyson made the most of it, which is good.

They got the job done, and it's really nice. As I give up more and more space,

they take more and more ownership over everything and just do a really good job

with it. Now it's...

A whole bunch more around the line.