Original subtitles

That's like halfway through the season.

Things in the Klondike are going pretty well.

Left the place in good hands, I think.

The problem is that we're running out of ground to mine.

27 -year -old Parker Schnabel has left his crew mining Klondike gold while he

heads to Alaska.

I started my life here.

And my goal is...

to see if there's a lot better ground out there that we could be mining.

With a war for ground raging in the Klondike, Parker needs to land a new

to secure his mining future.

How do you make that transition from mining in one place to the next?

It's really difficult, and it's a thing that a lot of miners get wrong.

do it too soon and you're spreading way thin and if you do it too late then

everybody knows you're desperate and as soon as people in business know you're

desperate here parker's on his way to meet one of alaska's biggest

private landowners the legendary john reeves john's definitely one of those

that money talks in both blocks right and um

I'm trying not to be a fool, but I'm going to always try to tie up more

than we can handle.

Hopefully I can use a little persuasion and keep him from kicking us out of the

deal before we really get a chance to get in there.

Last season. As far as deals go, we're really looking for large blocks of

ground. Parker made a handshake deal.

to mine on 3 ,000 acres of John's ground.

I think it's probably time for us to have a chat with these guys out of here.

Yeah? Yeah. Yeah, let's go. Get out of here, Dave.

But the pandemic closed the border.

Now, he must convince the landowning giant to give him another shot.

And this time, a handshake may not be enough.

So let's see if John and Drew are here.

See what we can work out.

Hello? Come on in. Hey, Drew.

How you doing?

Doing well.

Good to see you.

Drew Langley is John's son -in -law and right -hand man.

I just got a hold of John. He's on his way. Oh, sweet. He'll be here shortly.

Right on.

Hey, Parker.

Hi, John. How are you?

Long time no see, dude. It has been a while.

Good, how you been? Good to see you.

I've been good.

Good. Yeah.

Been good. We've been busy.

Yeah, you're supposed to be mining up here.

I know.

This summer. I know.

It's August.

Yeah. It's been on the back of my mind that, or the front of my mind, I should

say, that we didn't make it over here and get set up.

You know, like you said, it's August now, and that's why I'm here, is just to

sit down with you guys and talk about that.

where we left off last year and kind of trying to pick things back up if we

still can.

You know, you've got some excuses for not coming over, and a lot of them I can

identify with. The world's been kind of crazy the last year and a half.

So, you know, I just couldn't swing, like, getting a whole other operation

at this point.

with what's going on in the world and what's going on with us.

But at the same time, I don't want to miss out on what's a really good

opportunity with you guys.

You know, Parker, 35 % of all the gold that came out of Fairbanks came out of

that ground.

So it's not what they took, but it's what they left.

John owns 20 ,000 acres of historically rich claims.

Parker's convinced this land could be key to his gold mining future.

So, Parker, what do you want to do?

Last year when we were talking and we did a little bit of drilling out there,

like, we definitely hit some interesting stuff, and I was hoping to finish

proving that up so we can get, like, a pit defined and, like, ready to be mined

for the spring is really what I'd like to do.

And I know that it's a big block of ground to keep tied up, and so I'm

to do, you know, within reason what it takes to tie that up.

You can tie it up, but I'm not going to just let you tie it up on a six -pack.

I figured that this conversation... If you have something that you want to

me to tie it up, I'm all ears.

You guys need royalties.

So as a sign of good faith on my end, I'm just going to bring you some

royalties in advance if that works for you.

And it'll just go discount towards future production. And if we never

it's yours to keep.

I'm interested.

So I brought that.

I don't drink whiskey, dude. I'm a tequila man.

It's not a bottle of whiskey, John.

Have a look.

Yeah. You're going to want to look inside the bag.

Nice.

What do you got in there?

That's 100 ounces, like advance payment.

Parker's deposit is worth $180 ,000.

What do you think, Drew?

Looks pretty good to me.

Okay, let's weld it. But we expect you to be mining, because if you don't show

up next year and you're not mining, that's mine and won't go against any

royalties. Okay.

Well, it's nothing like a little pressure.

Good seeing you again, dude. Good to see you, too. See you next time. All right.

Well, I think that went pretty good.

Like, we got a deal on some ground.

I'm 100 ounces poorer, but we've got a very productive creek to go explore.

I have a lot of respect for Parker for showing up like he did today.

He's put enough of a down payment.

on his future for me to rely on our future.

The guy knows what he's doing, and he's a young guy.

And there's not a lot of young guys with nuts that big.

Parker secured the ground, but it's a huge gamble.

He still doesn't know if the old -timers left any gold.

And, of course, I'm going to hope that we come up with tons and tons of gold,

but we'll just see.

We better get a drill turn in.

I will admit I'm behind this here. I'm down on people, but I know for a fact

that this is going to work.

Rick Ness is out to prove he has what it takes to hit it big.

Once Parker's foreman, he's been on a roller coaster ride the first three

seasons, running his own operation.

We're going deep, so much deeper than I've ever gone before.

He's made the biggest gamble of his life, opening a cut 190 feet deep.

Rally Valley could hold $5 million in gold, but it'll only pay out.

if his eight -man crew can get down to pay dirt before winter.

We've got less than two months left of the season, and it's going to cost a ton

of money.

I mean, last year, the deep cut, that was about, you know, 60, 65 feet deep.

This is well over double that to get down to pay.

This is the biggest risk I've ever taken.

It's going to be September before we start running paint.

Yeah. We get a month to run it. We're going to be real lucky. We got a 2 ,000

-ounce roll this year.

That's everything we had to get 1 ,000 ounces last year with our little plant.

We need the big guns, though. You know, Monster Resident has to go back into

action this year.

To chew through the Rally Valley pay in record time, Rick will swap out his 100

-yard -an -hour wash plant for Monster Red.

This half -million -dollar plant.

can run dirt three times as fast.

It needed a lot of work, so that's part of it, but the other part is getting in

here and finding the space.

So it's quite a big undertaking with the small crew here.

Hey, Rick. Get on down here, buddy.

Want me to get out of there for a minute? Oh, thanks.

So a little take -up today, a little change -up, and I want to be prepared

when we hit pay.

and we got to go get Monster Red.

That does mean we'll have to shut down Rocky. Are you serious?

We're going to have to stop sleuthing. All right. We're all going to go up

and get it.

I'm going to haul an excavator up there, and it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

I mean, it's not that far, but the road's stuck.

Right. Brennan, so I got to put you in charge of this cut?

Sounds good, buddy. All right. Get at it. Yep.

Well, this decision I know wasn't easy. I'm glad it wasn't one I had to make.

There just better be a bunch.

gold in that pay if we're going to stop solution right now shutting down rocky

means cutting his only income i'm going to just hit the water yeah

i

got

quite a bit of work cut out for me you know i gotta get overburden off I'm

to have to figure out where we want to plan.

Brennan leads the huge tripping effort in the deepest cut he's ever mined.

Rick's taking the right approach to this right now with making sure we got a

good plan together. I think that's great that he's on top of it like that.

I'm going to swing her out.

Get her strapped down, and we'll head over to Upper Duncan and get Monster Red

loaded up on this trailer. We'll be right back.

From Upper Duncan Creek, Rick must haul the plant down 1 ,000 feet of elevation

over eight miles of mountain spread, through thick forests,

over a river crossing, and along a 200 -foot ravine.

I like a challenge.

Oh joy, oh joy.

Not

good.

This part is always a good one.

I was going to just keep on driving and wait for you guys by the watch plant. I

really wish I would have now.

Figured we'd unload the excavator just to give them a better shot.

How am I looking on the other side?

Looks good over here.

Duncan Creek.

We just tried to offload the hull off the trailer and split off a little bit.

Rick Ness' Lowboy is stuck on a slick mountain road.

This is what it is.

Yeah, I got it. Because this is right on the ground, so.

I just don't know what that's going to do to this trailer.

We figured we'd unload the excavator just to give him a better shot, and the

whole thing slid off the trailer.

If Rick's not careful, the 58 -ton 480 excavator could destroy the

trailer.

Yeah, you're almost on the ground.

I'm just worried about setting up.

The other side's pretty much right on, so you know. You're about at the point

where it's going to go do this, so.

Good. You ready? Good. About time.

I'll swing it around then.

Back up.

Just come straight back.

Right there. Spin it around.

The 480 is safe, but the trailer is still stuck.

I'm just going to start to tow up and...

He used the boom and the stick to kind of push us along.

The back end of his trailer is buried in the mud, so he's going to try and get

us out of here.

That's enough excitement for today.

We haven't even gotten there yet.

I think we've probably got two miles to go.

Well, that was supposed to be the damn easy part. I hope the trip over here is

an indication of how the trip back is going to be.

Well, I've about had it for today. I don't know about you.

This road, hopefully it dries out a little bit overnight.

Yeah, we'll just call it for today, come back to it tomorrow.

I'm happy with that. All right.

It was hard enough getting this 480 up here. I don't know how we're going to

the wash plant down to Lower Duncan.

It's going to be a nightmare.

I mean, pretty lately.

King of the Klondike, Tony Beetz, is fighting back.

We, however, are not dead in the water.

You know, after spending all this money, we better get to 4 ,500 ounces.

Now that's to cover our investment.

Tony gambled on mining gold -rich ground on Indian River.

He spent $5 million on new equipment.

and hired extra crew.

But it was a rare error of judgment.

With us not getting our license in the Indian River, having all the equipment,

having all these people, my ass is on the point.

Last week, Tony started his fight back by opening the new 25 -acre wall cut.

It's nugget -rich white -channel pay.

could hold $3 million in gold, the key to saving his season.

We've been doing way more here than we did before.

So we're running out. We better start opening up some new ground.

The weather has been pretty lately.

Looked all right and dry yesterday, but now after the rain all night, it'll be

interesting to see what it looks like this morning.

Is it?

No. What?

Oh, man, there's way too much water down there.

That's a mess like everything else, I guess.

You buy it so wet, you can't do nothing with it.

You get rain on like we had, that stuff just basically turns to soup. If we

bring this material right now to the plant, it will be so soupy we can barely

keep it in a truck, never mind putting it on the feeder or putting it on the

belt.

At the trommel, Kevin has a stockpile of dry white channel pay to feed the

plant.

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

But it will run out in days.

Tony needs to get dry pay for the plant fast, or his operation will shut down.

So let's put a drain in there.

Ruby D copy, Ruby D copy.

Can you bring over two excavators, please? Bring over two excavators to the

behind the tunnel.

You have to get all of this water out of our cuts, otherwise our trucks are

going to get stuck and we're just going to have an all -around bad time.

Weather is always your biggest factor.

Every minute, every hour is valuable.

There's nothing worse than getting flooded cuts.

And of course, you know, right now in our most fruitful time, really, is when

decides to downpour.

Because we got a lake sitting there right now, so we need a good drain that

carries us through to the rest of the season and beyond.

But even if, you know, we're going to let this water go, it's not the last

rainstorm we're going to have, of course.

Well, moment of truth again, here we go.

Look at that water go.

At Paradise Hill.

I'll bet you we'll be watching the road out because the culvert on the other end

is not big enough.

Tony B, seasoned, rides on a culvert under an access road to his wash plant

holding.

If the

road is taken out, his wash plant will be inaccessible.

Be interesting to see if we got enough space there to hold it back.

And the grass is moving, so it's on its way.

There she comes.

And that can aim to be a bunch of sticks in it, plucking culvert, and then

that's the end of that.

See them sticks?

You... Oh, there he goes, you see?

Oh, we may even do okay.

Well, this is good enough for me.

I'm actually happy that it's coming in slower than I thought.

That's why we don't have a mess. The roads will stay in.

Something positive today, anyway.

Ladies and gentlemen, later.

The culvert seems to be holding.

Now Tony needs to get new dry pay to the plant before the stockpile runs out.

So we've been at Sluice in a couple weeks. I think we're doing pretty well

now. We're beating our season total from last year on every gold way, which is

fantastic.

Fred Lewis has come out swinging.

After a long hunt for ground in the Klondike, the Special Forces medic is

finally on the go.

And one step closer to his dream of a mining future for his band of military

vets.

If I can give my guys a new sense of purpose and something that they are

to continue to do for the rest of their lives, or even for long enough to make

them happy, then we've succeeded.

Back to work.

To cover his costs and give his crew a gold bonus, Fred needs at least 100

ounces.

That means 10 ounces a week to the end of the season.

Today I'm doubling up.

I get to drive the rock truck and the excavator today.

He's counting on his crew to keep the wash plant fed.

with 30 yards of pay dirt an hour.

Recon scout sniper Stuart McKenzie digs pay.

Fred's son Christopher trucks it to the pay pile, where Kara Lewis feeds the

wash plant.

I think it's really, really important for everybody to know every single job

the mine site, just in case you have to fill in for something.

All right, Clint.

What's up, Fred?

We're having a bottleneck over at the wash plant. You know, I've got JB doing

double duty, pulling tailings with the excavator and doing the rock truck.

So I'm thinking plopping you in the rock truck down there. How do you feel about

that?

I've never driven anything like that before, but I'll give it a go. Sound

Yeah, I'm good with that. You good with that?

If you need anything else, ask me. Cool, dude. We'll see you. Later.

Clint Janulis is Fred's newest recruit.

He's a Green Beret Special Forces medic, and he has a degree in geology, but

he's never worked on a mine.

I've known Clint since 2006, quite a long time.

We served together. We are both Special Forces medics. The last time I saw Clint

was in Iraq.

It was almost 15 years ago, and in combat.

Green Beret mechanic J .B. Mayer teaches Clint some rock truck basics.

See that thing right there? Yeah, I see that thing.

Put your foot on it.

Not the other foot.

See all the lights come on? Everything's locked in. That's six -wheel drive.

That's locked in.

So he's always had that desire to serve and desire to help veterans that I'm

looking for.

He doesn't know anything about gold mining.

But outside of that, he's a hell of a hard worker, and I know I can trust him.

He's got my back 100%, and I'd take a bullet for him too, so...

JB loads overburden for Clint to take

to the dumpster.

I'm a little bit nervous about planting the rock truck.

He's extremely intelligent, but...

As long as he stays slow and steady, it'll be okay.

It's like a mix between driving an RV and driving

a regular truck.

It doesn't turn the way you think it does, so it takes some getting used to.

I just hope he picks it up pretty quick.

Oh, he's really at an angle.

I can't.

You need to go back.

Stop. Stop.

Don't even try and wiggle it out. It's so deep back there.

Can I try once?

I got a little bit. I just don't want to.

I don't want it to get worse.

No, no, no.

All right.

I'm going to go get the 250.

Good idea.

This isn't the first time Clint has made a rookie mistake.

What happened?

He's stuck good.

He's so buried.

And he just keeps digging it worse and worse.

And I told him, don't do it anymore. And he's like, just let me try one more

time. I'm like, it's getting worse every time.

Yeah. All right.

Yeah, I'll get up there. Okay.

Non -rock truck driving.

I'm like, I just got done saying, too, I'm like, I really think that Clint just

needs to be in the rock truck and focus on that, and then this happens, and I'm

like. First load of the day.

What the hell?

All right.

Clint came here. He's trying, but one disaster after another.

You can see the other side of that thing. It's parked next to the ramp that

built for him to drive up. You can clearly see the difference of what the

looks like and the mush around it.

I'm going to sign.

This cost us quite a bit of time.

And to be honest, this cost us gold because we aren't running yardage with

truck, right? And I think Clint's a little out of his element.

I think there's something up.

We'll give him time to adjust, but right now, he's going to have to step it up.

You're a millionaire.

You just have to get it out of the ground.

You just have to get it out of the miners.

In Fairbanks, Alaska, Parker Schnabel has brought in his drilling buddy, Liam

Ferguson.

Mine the miners, Parker. It's the oldest trick in the book.

It really is.

Parker's dropped $180 ,000 in gold.

for the right to 3 ,000 acres of historically lucrative ground.

Like what happens when you show up to the gold fields and all the good stuff's

been staked, you go and open a brothel or like a bar or like a laundry place.

a drilling company. Or a drilling company.

And it went pretty good, right? Yeah.

Parker wants Liam to test drill two areas of John Reeves' land,

Cleary Creek and Little Eldorado Creek.

The ground has been mined since the early 1900s.

So back in October of 1940, F .E. Company had an option on

this block of ground at the mouth of Little Eldorado.

Before they paid for it, they went and drilled it. And the best...

Block has had

60 ,000 ounces.

Worth today, over $100 million.

The allure of 60 ,000 ounces.

Parker's gambling, the old -timers have left enough gold in Little El Dorado for

a monster payday that will secure his future.

You bring your boots today? Uh -huh.

Walking from here? Yeah.

Come on.

Let's go see if we can find a mine site.

Well, to me, this road is going to it.

So I'm guessing it's somewhere over here.

Oh yeah, this is totally the portal.

Liam's found the entrance to a mine abandoned 30 years ago.

Open it up.

It's open.

Can you walk in it? Totally can.

Let's go.

Let's go to the bottom.

That's going to be sketchy.

It's caving in. Even the steel pipes caving in.

You don't think it's open?

Just go for a swim.

Dude, I am not going anywhere. It's water. You can't see. This is how every

horror movie starts.

That went pretty far down.

It splashed out dirt, though.

This is cool.

Yeah.

Let's go get a drill in here.

Let's get rich.

Or you're going to get rich no matter what.

Let's spend some money.

Let's mine some miners.

Liam's just bought a second brand new million dollar sonic drill.

It can reach a thousand feet, enough to hit this plane's deep bedrock.

Yo, Parker, what do you think of the new rig?

They already got it all dirty.

Yeah.

The crew are drilling test holes in a line across Little El Dorado. Each day

drilling costs Parker $20 ,000.

You may as well just light my money on fire.

We can do that, too.

Holy crap!

What's going on?

Guess you just hit a shaft.

A coal mine shaft.

Oh, it's just like, that's where it just dropped? Yeah, it just dropped. From

the 1920s, old -timers dug tunnels known as drift mines on the hunt

for pastry, leaving the ground honeycombed with a network of shafts.

Parker's looking for an area of virgin ground.

So, all the ones on this line have been like this?

Yeah, we've hit a few shafts.

Let's see if anything caps.

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah, a little Eldorado was a tough one to drill.

A lot of shafting, a lot of water, and it's extremely deep.

Liam and I are both used to mining with lots of margin for error.

and that dwindles with deeper ground. Even if there is 60 ,000 ounces here, or

there was 60 ,000 ounces here, spending that kind of money before

you get down there is dangerous.

High risk.

After eight hours running the samples, Liam's found no significant gold.

Now, for the last and deepest test hold.

It just comes down to how good those guys were.

I just hope they were a bunch of drunks.

Oh, there's some gold in there.

I'm going to take it in the light where I can see.

Would that be really good if we were on the Indian River and it was 20 or 30

feet deep?

180, I don't quite think so.

It looks like those guys that went in there, they went down and hit Little El

Dorado pretty hard. So I'd probably say that a significant portion of the gold

there is cleaned out to about 70 to 80%. And then obviously it's not there

because you can't find it.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks, dude.

See you, Parker.

After his 100 -ounce down payment, plus drilling costs, Parker's $200 ,000 in

the hole.

This little Eldorado stuff is frustrating.

So, it's basically another strikeout for the time being.

Parker has just one more piece of land to drill at Cleary Creek.

Get this plant loaded up and get the hell out of here. Got a lot of work to

down on Lower Duncan. I don't need to be around up here anymore.

Rick Nest is in a race to haul his $500 ,000 monster red wash plant eight miles

down to Lower Duncan Creek.

Am I good?

Yeah, you're good, man. Yep. Where he's gambling on his deepest cut ever.

We're hooking a machine on the east corner.

Just so it's more of an even pull.

Let's go.

Rick in the 480 and Kyle in a loader are cabled up to the 50 -ton walk plane.

Damn it. What was that?

Broke it, didn't it?

Yeah.

Because you gave it a jerk?

Yeah.

Just not detained, but easy fix.

Try to be a little more gentle.

Try not to jerk it, ya jerk!

You can't be serious.

Guess that stain's a real piece of shit.

We just needed to move it out of that little hole it was in so it would be

easier to load it on the flat deck.

It's not designed to be moved with that shaker on there. Not altogether.

Monster Red's 9 .5 -ton shaker deck sits atop a 26 -foot frame.

The thing about Monster Red is the shaker deck literally just sits on the

springs that it shakes around on.

So we've got to get that secured to the frame here so it isn't able to bounce

around or tilt off of the frame and make it extra top -heavy. So that's our

first step here. Hold up!

Hold up.

We're doing all four corners? Yeah.

That should accomplish everything, right?

Yeah, we don't want it to go this way either because it'll just tear those

things in half.

I'm not unhappy to see this thing get the hell out of here. I'm done with this

place.

We're all done with this place.

Because I'm sure this thing's going to be very top heavy.

So it's going to be hairy.

Let's do her.

Let's get her.

Where's the stunner?

That was impressive.

It's a road all the way home. I'll be relieved at the end of the day if this

thing's in one piece on my site.

You chained the out of it, right?

Oh,

look at that.

I wish this side -by -side had a mirror. It's starting to hurt my neck looking

back at you guys.

You don't have to do that.

I want to be able to see if you guys hopped.

Oh, yeah.

It looks pretty cool, though. I've got to be honest.

The road is only just wide enough for the plan.

I don't know if you guys noticed, but there's a left -hand turn up here.

No!

Oh, my God!

No!

He painted his ass!

That was a tight one.

That's about as sketchy as I've seen yet today.

We need feed up.

All right, I'm going to quit looking back. Here we go.

I like that glove.

Not going to lie, it's pretty damn sweet.

Monster Red's coming to its new home.

I think we're pretty smooth sailing from here on out. I'm not too worried about

any of it, I don't think.

Yeah, for sure.

That's pretty neat. That was one of the scariest things I've seen is being

behind that thing going down the road.

It looked like it wanted to tip over.

I don't know how it does it. I really, like, when it goes, like, two feet

center, why isn't it tipping over? Yeah. Instead of Monster Red, I think we're

going to rename it the Monster Gold Dumpster.

It just rolls off the tongue. It does.

It's got a nice ring to it. Rick's Monster Gold Dumpster.

At California Creek, crew member Clint Janula has got another rock truck stuck.

I don't know what his problem is, whether he's just not capable of

heavy equipment. He's never done anything like this before.

But he definitely can't afford to be stopping and recovering vehicles and

repairs because he can't drive or operate a rock truck.

He could have rolled off that cliff.

Then we got major injury, you know. I mean, the fact of the matter is he's

taking all of you guys at risk. If he had rolled down that hill into the wash

plant or into the excavator and hurt one of you guys.

After the rock truck accident, Clint left the mine site.

And today, he hasn't shown up for work.

I tried for 30 minutes to get Clint out of bed this morning.

30. to get him out of bed, and he would not wake up.

If Clint's having problems, and if he's not willing to show up for work, and if

he's just not even communicating with me, I don't know what we can do to

facilitate him anymore.

At this point, I honestly don't know how to react.

He's a really good friend of mine. I've known him forever, but there's something

going on here, and at this point, it's holding us back.

Fred and Clint served together as Green Beret medics in Iraq in 2008.

That was an ugly tour.

Our graduating medical class lost a lot of guys that tour. I mean a lot.

This class leader died.

We lost a bunch of buddies.

Sometimes that... All

right,

Clint.

The team has had a talk.

Yeah.

And then I guess we kind of need to know where you're at.

I'm good.

No, you're not.

You're not. You're not, bud.

You're not.

Clint, I'm going to be honest with you. I haven't felt from you since the day

you got here that you were in the right mindset.

All right.

I'm terrible at the rock truck.

I can't see behind me. Clint, we don't need excuses.

Your work ethic is good. You mean well, but you're very not concentrated on

tasks. You're not falling into the team like you should. We love you like a

brother. This may not be your time to be here.

All right, how about I... I'll make a proposition.

Okay. Give me a shot. I can be a part of this team that contributes in a way

that's different. I can solve problems on the fly.

I can make push fixes.

I can do like that.

Okay, Clint, I can do one thing for you.

I will have a meeting with the team without you there. Sure. No offense.

Yeah. I'm away from cameras if you... And we'll all talk about this.

and we'll see if what we think as a team moving forward is the best option.

Okay. I'll give you that.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

Can you guys back off a little bit? Give us a little bit.

Over here, guys.

Fred puts it to a vote on whether Clint should stay or leave the mine.

I knew coming into this that...

Hiring guys that have been to combat, hiring guys that have been through some

pretty horrible ordeals would come with baggage.

There just has to be a line that's drawn between are you able to do this or are

you not? And I think that's the tough thing we have to figure out.

At California Creek, Fred Lewis' crew has held a secret vote.

on whether to let team member Clint stay on the claim.

In all honesty, I can give a... If Clint and Fred have known each other forever,

he needs to deal with it like a boss and not like a friend.

Clint!

Hey, what's going on, guys?

How you doing, man?

I'm doing okay.

All right.

First, off the bat, I want to point something out, Clint.

Honestly, when I hired you, I didn't know you were going through these

which makes me realize we don't showcase.

That's it. Yeah.

Hide it. Hide it. Only us know what those tours were like and what it does

to your mind because it literally changes your brain day in, day out,

you're going to die every day.

I look at our wall of medics we graduated in the medical course.

There's a wall every medic that's died in combat our class our graduating class

Slaughtered I mean just on that there's 40 % to almost 40 % our class is dead

Those skeletons those demons whatever you want to

call it is put in the closet and locked away right and like it is always going

to be with you

What we do, right? That's part of the problem, man. Nobody helped me. Nobody

helped Stuart. We got... When I had my problems, man, and, like,

when I first started doing pills, I mean, it ended up with, like, needle in

arm. You know what I mean? Like, when I say, like, I was an opiate addict, I was

a heroin addict. Yeah, that's... Wow.

To be honest, I'll be completely honest with you. I overdosed on morphine.

So I was laying in bed and thinking my last breath was coming, literally.

And that was my epiphany. I got lucky, man.

So we had our meeting.

We had a vote.

It wasn't unanimous.

But what it boils down to is basically we've got your back.

Overwhelmingly, we just don't want to let you go. You don't have to worry

being alone. You don't have to worry about no one understanding you.

You're home.

And we're going to keep you here because you belong here.

I appreciate it. And I think the best bet would be to stay away from alcohol.

We'll help you get through this as much as we possibly can, but obviously most

of it's on you.

I'm sorry. I love you. I love you too.

That was a tough conversation, but honestly it felt like a burden off my

shoulders. It really was.

It's one thing to say that you're supporting each other. It could just be

service. But these guys showed that they actually were.

Well, come in.

I hate having to do this type of confrontation, but I think it went

really well.

I don't want Clint to leave. I want Clint to stay here. I know what pain

going through.

The gold is important, and the gold is what we're here for, but nothing is more

important than watching your brother's backs, and that's what we're doing right

now.

After the cut was flooded, Tony's almost out of stockpiled pay dirt.

His

crew are

frantically racing to get pay from the recently drained cut to the wash plant,

but are now fighting overnight rain.

This season, we haven't had a whole lot of problems with the trauma.

There's a blessing and a curse because in the sense that we haven't had any

breakdowns, we've been running really tight and steady, and now we're actually

facing running out of pay. We get this cut extended as quick as possible, and

there's actually some good pay, and we're not wasting any more time.

You got 40 people on the payroll.

Got a fuel truck coming in every day.

You're going to have to do what I'm doing.

We got to get stripping to have some spots ready.

so we can keep on going.

We're a seasonal operation.

Every day counts.

Easier said than done because I keep sliding away from it every time I try to

hook it.

We got too much rain.

That's all mud.

This rain is not helping anything right now.

Nightmare.

Tony beats you copy Tony beats I'm stuck D11 is

stuck Since it rains hard and so

much it makes me sometimes just dig itself in

The rain makes everything slick.

It turned everything to sloth.

We're going to have these two little 349s going to be digging all the way

it to make sure that it has as less resistance as possible.

Well, we've got a classic case of permafrost thawing at one spot and not

everywhere around it.

Mike just went a little far this morning.

That thing falls and then goes down.

He got $3 million stuck in the mud, right?

The entire cut is cut down while Tony tries to free the 115 -ton D

-11.

We'll get the thing out.

We got a cable coming. We're going to hook up.

That's a two -inch cable.

Try to unhook the cable behind it.

Anyway, the boys are trying to get that cable on.

Those things are ignorant as hell. They won't bend. They won't go nowhere.

You pretty much have to line it up perfectly.

Otherwise, you won't get it on.

This duck hole's in an hour and a half now.

I'd rather it be... I want it to be running.

Stop around.

Hold the damn thing up.

Whoa!

Tony B is trying to rescue his stricken $3 million dozer.

Get that out of the way.

Okay, ladder down, ladder down. Straighten down.

More, more, more, more. Hold it. Turn the ground.

More, more, more, more.

Perfect, leave it right there.

Okay, gentlemen, hook her onto that excavator. I thought there was a hook in

that.

Then we're going to hook the cable to the 950.

Then the 950, you give it a full straight back.

The 600 horsepower 950 is Tony's next most powerful machine.

Mike, you're going to be the D11.

So we'll see how this goes.

They'll have the 950 hooked up right now.

And now we'll see if we can pull it out of there.

Because basically these cats are sitting in a bowl of jelly. That's how you got

to look at them.

Lisa, back it up. Back it up, Mike. Get one of those things out of the way.

The Beats are back on the gold and trucking the season -saving white

pay to the wash plant.

Last stock, though, was a pain in the ass. Got it out.

Cleared out the wet spot. Now I'm back in action over here.

Did you just call me a pile?

On Indian River, Parker Schnabel has taken a massive gamble.

In the war for ground, he sunk over $3 million into the deepest cut he's ever

mined.

Foreman Mitch Blaschke is in charge and tasked with bringing in the gold at the

Yukon operation while Parker searches for new ground in Alaska.

Going out looking for ground is a lot like going out trying to buy a used car.

And just like there's lots of shady car salesmen, well, there's lots of shady

landowners. And you've got to be smart.

I've worked for the Hoffmans for a couple of years.

And Todd believed what people told him when it came to ground.

And definitely,

it's not something you want to do.

Over at the promised land, Tyson Lee runs Lucifer in the good cut.

peaceful down here right now. Nothing goes wrong. That'll be a success in my

eyes. While Mitch calls time on the airstrip before moving to Mud Mountain.

All right, yes, there it is right there. That's what we've been waiting for.

That is the last tater.

Throw that in. We'll see that old big red odd here.

All right, this is our last piece of tater that I thought to Mud Mountain,

Let's go.

At Mud Mountain, 82 -year -old miner Ken Tatlow... Some people think I'm crazy.

You're too old to be doing this.

Well, they might be too old to do it, but I'm not.

...is almost down to pay.

The load I've got in front of me now, you can see quite a bit of gravel.

So we're close to being done.

Yeah, Ken, this is Chris. What's up?

Hey, Chris.

I'm on gravel, so if you have time, I'd like you to come down and we'll do some

test finding and see if there's any gold here.

Yeah, I'll meet you down at Mud Mountain.

I'll do the panning and just let him point.

Hey, old -timer.

How are you, young fella?

I hope I'm as tough as that old dog when I'm his age, if I make it to his age.

How you doing, old dog? I'm doing good, good. How are you? Good, good.

All right, will you point your finger and we'll dig up some dirt?

It's taken 15 weeks to strip over a million yards of overburden from Mud

Mountain.

Almost enough to fill the whole Empire State Building.

Parker is chasing an 8 ,000 -ounce pastry, which could be worth over $14

million.

Well, now we could try one here.

Well, let's give this a try.

Well, look at the concentration here.

If there's gold here, we're going to get it.

Yeah, we'd be the first ones.

Well, Chris, have you seen the drill record?

I really don't trust drill reports.

We've had outstanding drill reports and lousy cuts.

We've had lousy panning and outstanding cuts.

You know, it's just, gold is where you find it.

You see anything in there? No.

Boy, there's nothing there, Ken.

Well, this could make a person pretty nervous.

For the money we have invested in this place? Oh, for sure.

Not even a fly speck.

Might be doing a lot of stripping for nothing.

We've been panning and panning.

Mitch and Tyson and I have been down here. Parker's been down here. I've been

down here by myself.

We're panning.

Nothing. I don't know, Ken.

I just don't think we've hit the channel.

No.

Yeah, so we'll see.

Thank you, Chris.

I've got to get back to work and move some dirt.

We'll see you at dinner. Yep.

You know, Ken, he knows his stuff.

I thought for sure we were just going to find buckets of gold.

So yes, it's very disappointing.

It's getting a point where it's getting kind of scary.

Moving literally a mountain of mud and not a flake of gold to show for it.

But there's still a glimmer of hope.

You know, if we can hit that channel, that gold channel, there's still a

it's going to be totally outstanding.

Obviously, Clint being one of my best friends, I'm not just going to kick him

the curb and tell him to fix it. That's not how this works.

At California Creek, Fred Lewis and his crew have given crew member Clint a

chance at redemption.

Is this put up or shut up? Are we actually here to do what we said we're

do?

But he's been demoted to water monitoring duty until he proves he can

focused.

Fred asked me to check our silt readings coming out of this middle pot.

This is important because if we release too much silt downstream because we're

not managing our water effectively, we can get shut down, and they will.

The silt level must stay below 1 milliliter per liter.

Anything above that risks getting them shut down.

We are almost at 0 .5, so that means...

We're getting real close to losing control of our pond system.

What's up, man?

Probably still have a tad better sediment level.

We're still below the legal limit. But that's too close. We want to be like 0

.2, 0 .1.

So what's the solution?

This thing is too narrow and too shallow. So I think we've got to move

to the newer pond.

But I think this newer pond needs dug out deeper. We need a big, deep pit. And

just move the pump to there in its own hole that's not picking up the sediment

and re -washing it.

Fred's water system has three settling ponds.

Silty water from the wash plant drains through the ponds where the silt

gradually settles, running clean water back into the river.

Clint. wants to dig out the lower pond to make it deeper and let more silt

settle.

Then he'll move the pump from the middle to the lower pond.

The water will be less filthy, better for the wash plant, and better for the

river.

To move the pump, they have to shut down the plant.

All right, JB. All right, you ready to do this?

If you're belaying me, man, you're a water rescue guy, yeah?

I'm belaying.

All right. The problem is there's a giant box that covers the intake valve

this pump and the chain that lifts it. It's about one foot high. It's about

foot below water. There's no way to get it without going into the freaking

water. And since it was kind of my good idea, I'm basically the guy that has to

do it. I can't ask the other guys to do it.

Our ponds on our roads at night actually have ice on them when we come down here

in the morning.

So we're going to definitely have a safety line hooked on.

At two degrees above freezing, Lynch has 15 minutes before hypothermia

sets in.

I got your safety. Yeah. And pull me out in case I just thermal shock myself

into a heart attack. Sounds good. All right, let's go make it happen. You

No.

We know it has to be done. There's really no other easy way but to do it

way. Get them in, get to the chain, and get it hooked, and get them out.

Yep.

Local operator Buzz Legault stands by in the excavator.

Hey, Buzz, you ready?

Ready when you are.

All right, guys. I'll ask you to hold tension as you are now. Yep.

On belay?

On belay. All right. Out.

All right.

Keep going.

Keep going.

Give me about two feet.

You'll be getting close to the box right there.

Oh, my.

Wow.

All right.

All right. I can feel it. I can feel it.

Got it. You got the take.

Ho, ho.

Buzz, bring your box it over, buddy.

Down, down, down.

Perfect.

Yeah, my system's shutting down. Yeah, I know. We need to get you out.

Oh, it's not sitting.

JB, can you go grab another chain?

Man, I'm telling you. I'm with two hooks on it.

Holy hell.

JV, any way you think you can make that land in there without hitting me in the

face?

Trying to get it so it don't slip off when we lift.

Full tension up.

Up, bud!

I don't think my brain's working real good right now.

Some of the first signs of hypothermia are confusion and loss of coordination.

Are you okay, Clint?

Clint's been in the water for 11 minutes.

Four more, and he could start to lose consciousness.

Hook it on the chain.

All right, now grab the other hook and hook it on that chain as well.

You'll need both hooks.

All right, so you're good then. Yeah?

Let's try that then.

You ready?

You're getting freaking awful pink.

Want me to pull you?

All right,

lift up.

Yeah, yeah, you're getting awful pink.

All right, we're good, we're good, we're good. It'll work, it'll work.

Hopefully he doesn't step down.

We can at least get it to the side.

I got it, I got it.

All right, let's go.

You going down or you just got to set it down?

I'm getting in the short.

It was a success.

I was the last guy here. I'm the greenest greenhorn on the team. I've

my crank a couple times. The way of just stepping up and telling the team I'm

here for them. They were here for me.

I'm here for them.

We're back up and running.

That was a good job, man.

Let's get you some coffee, man. I got a thermos over there.

I think that's over.

I was down in the cut area running that 475, and I watched that plant go, why is

this like fixed on the bed? For the life of me, I don't know why that thing

didn't tip over.

So top -heavy.

Rick Ness' monster red wash plant is at Rally Valley, ready for repairs.

But before they can start running it, Rick must get down 100 more feet to pay.

I'm not going to lie, it's going to be tough to run a plant like that with an

eight -person crew.

We are digging a big hole to justify having that plant here.

Right? Because that's what it's going to take. And the amount of work that we

have to get done with eight people is...

It's going to seem insurmountable for a while.

It's over a million yards of dirt that we've got to move just to get there.

Anything resembling something that we can put through that wash plant.

At this point, just hoping to sluice. Yeah, exactly.

Are we going to be having to run 24 hours?

No more days off.

No, no more days off. What are those?

Whatever it takes.

Appreciate that.

We'll make it work.

Oh, yeah, I guess it's just time to go full throttle.

I'm in. Go get some beer, and then I'll full throttle.

Then I'll do my best for you.

Sure, I don't sleep much, so I may as well work, man. So let's go.

You got a skeleton crew with Skeletor on it! No way!

Shooter!

What's

happening,

man? Oh, I just wanted to touch base with you and give you an update of what

we've got going on over here. Yeah, what are you finding?

We started drilling on Little El Dorado Creek and it's like 180 feet deep.

That's a long ways down there.

If it's going to be that deep, it needs to be super rich.

So we're going to try some more things over here as far as exploring some more

area, I think. Well, we're still plugging away over here and just getting

ready to move Big Red over to Mud Mountain.

Well, it sounds like I don't need to be in too much of a rush. You guys have it

under control, huh?

Man, it's been going really good. Everybody's been working so good

doing everything we can to just keep the ball rolling and keep the watch plants

running and dirt moving, man. Sweet.

It's good to hear.

Thanks for holding down the fort, Mitch.

No problem, man. You guys have fun over there and find us some gold, man.

You guys ready for this? Si, senor.

At California Creek, Fred's wash plant, The Vindication, has run for most of the

week.

All right, let's weigh some gold. I hope it's more than last time. Clint, you

want to call it off?

Start pouring.

To hit his 100 -ounce goal, Fred needs 10 ounces of wheat.

One, two, three, four.

Come on.

Come on.

5, 6, 7, 8,

9, .57.

Worth over $17 ,000.

That's an improvement.

Hey, that's more than last time. Yeah.

Hey,

that's more than last time. We gained it. We are learning.

Yeah, so we should be proud of that. And our numbers are showing it.

Fred's season total so far is 29 .17 ounces, almost five times his

first season, and worth over $52 ,000.

I feel like we're refining. We're getting better, so I'm excited.

We just need to keep pushing like this, and the numbers will keep going up. I

like it, man. Let's get back to work. I'll hook this up, and I'll see you guys

over there. Sounds good.

I'm really happy to be here, to be part of this team. I had a rough start.

And they showed me they were committed to me, to the team.

And so I felt this week was a great opportunity to clear my head, step up,

show the team I'm going to work as hard as any of them.

You know, Clint, having these issues really kind of threw a monkey wrench

everything, but we decided to stick with them. It's what the Misfits are all

about. This is our mission, and this is why we're here. So this is going to

equal more gold and more life's health at this point.

The Beats family gather to weigh the first of the wall -cut white channel

Oh, my goodness.

Want to see how many troy ounces the child is?

Yeah, I want to see how much that kid weighs in gold.

But first, Mike's built some scales for baby Jasmine.

Still not moving.

Look at that.

Oh, something's moving.

Something's moving.

Oh, now it's too much weight. Now it's too heavy.

How's that?

Do I run my hands up? Yeah.

Wow, look at that.

Oh, we need a trailer.

We need it.

Monica,

are you ready?

Seven, nine, 20, 30.

$140 ,000.

$150 ,000.

Wow.

$153 ,600.

Worth $276 ,000.

You are priceless.

There we go. So it's going to be weak, huh?

Water. Water. No kidding, right?

I mean, all of them cuts are just soaked.

Yeah. Well, you got the duct.

Yeah, we'll read that.

There's enough dry stuff that you can pick it and mix it with a bit of the wet

stuff.

Y 'all ready?

So far this season, Tony has mined 1 ,815 ounces.

only 40 % of his 4 ,500 -ounce goal.

60, 70, 80, 90.

Tony needs his new White Channel pastry to be delivering 237 ounces every

week. 180, 190, 210,

14, 20, 224 .82.

Worth over $404 ,000.

Just die of a quarter thousand ounces, though.

Sorry. No, in the end, that's okay. It's just to be pretty steady anyway, if

you'd like.

What's up?

Hey, how you doing, buddy?

Good. Hey, how you doing, dog?

Pretty good. How are you yourself doing?

Hanging in there. See if that well -oiled machine pays off.

At the Promised Land last week, Lucifer got 152 ounces.

I'll tell you what, you're a two -fifter this week.

There you go. Ready? You're hanging on that thing tight. There's got to be a

in there.

10.

40.

60. 100.

120.

140. Keep it going. 190.

Holy.

220.

240. Still got some in there. 260, 270, 293 .7.

Worth over $500 ,000.

Well done. There we go.

Nice week down there.

Almost 300 ounces, huh?

Well, we had quite the week. We finished up everything at the airstrip.

Let's see what we got here.

20, 50, 70, 100, 120.

180. Keep her going, keep her going.

202 .1.

Yeah.

Worth over $360 ,000.

Bringing the airstrip's final total to 2 ,874 ounces.

Worth over $5 million.

I think Park will be pretty proud, you guys, because for the week.

We ended up with 495 .8 ounces, almost a 500 -ounce week.

Taking Parker to a season total of over 3 ,700 ounces, worth more

than $6 .5 million.

And Mud Mountain's patiently waiting. Mud Mountain is ready. It's probably the

highest risk we have ever taken since I've been with Parker.

We'll see what happens here.

All right.

It's either going to be Mud Mountain or Dud Mountain. It's time to find out.

Thanks too much. All right, man.

See you, man. Good job, T. Good job. All right. Have a good one, buddy. Yeah,

you too, man.