Original subtitles

I just got back from Alaska, and that went decent here

in the Klondike. Mud Mountain, we did our first cleanup there, and it was not

great. Life is good.

Mining wonder kid, Parker Schnabel, started the season on the back foot.

With good ground hard to find, Parker took on Mud Mountain, a 60 -foot deep

that could hold 8 ,000 ounces of gold.

But with winter just weeks away, it's only delivered 165.

At only an ounce or two an hour, it's definitely not looking too promising

So it better pick up, because we spent a lot of money stripping that.

Foreman Mitch Blasby.

He's in charge of running Mud Mountain pay through what plant?

Big Red.

Mud Mountain is the deepest cut that we've done so far to date, and we've put

lot of money and time into it.

We're going to need to have consistently good cleanups here and some really good

ones to pay for this.

Even though Big Red's not doing great, Lucifer continues to do all right at

and Stewart, and they're just about done with the good cuts.

We're about to go to the bad part.

I hope Ken's wrong about that, because if that's the good stuff, then the bad

stuff's going to be really bad.

At the promised land, Parker opened up three courts, totaling 90 acres.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

After eight weeks mining, the good court has been exhausted.

Lucifer will now be moved 170 yards to the bad cut, which earned its name from

poor prospect, before finishing the season at the ugly cut.

How's it going, man? Good, how are you? Good, thanks.

We called.

We've got a lot of ground to get through in a pretty short amount of time down

there at County Stewards.

And we're a bit behind.

you're going to be down there on your own because everybody else has spread

really thin.

Yeah.

Just hammer out the yardage as soon as you're fired up and rolling.

For sure.

I'll do my best.

All right. Thanks, Keith.

Thanks, man.

Lucifer is a plant that requires a lot of maintenance, and it definitely

like running in the cold weather. So the harder we hammer it now, Hopefully the

sooner we're done and the less bad weather we have to fight.

So hopefully Tyson can get her done.

We can keep Lucifer running in the bad cut here 24 hours a day. I envision it

will take three weeks to get the bad cut through Lucifer, the gold in the jar,

and then we can move to the ugly.

There we go.

Lucifer's ready to move to the bag cut.

Do you want to spot any frogs?

Yep.

Pull, baby, pull.

With all the bigger machines working at Mud Mountain, Tyson must move the plant

with the 480 excavator.

But less power means less control.

You know, I could definitely do it with a bigger machine, but right now we need

to make it work with what we got.

As you can tell, I'm having to slowly inch it up here.

Hey, hey, hey, hey! Whoa!

You really are at the edge there, eh?

Out of space on the pod, Tyson must trust in balance.

Gravity. Watch glad we'll hold ya.

We're about to find out.

Blunt in place. We only want to go over this way, mister.

Tyson brings in the 53 -foot feed conveyor.

Lucifer's in place. The super tractor's in place.

Six hours after leaving the good code, Tyson and his three -man crew are ready

to start processing the bad code.

Great, let's watch the rock.

You ready, Frog?

I think I am.

Okay, go on, throw the first scoop in there.

Just throw to you the first scoop.

Here we go.

Now we're in the bag, Pat.

Hopefully she can go back to what she does best, catch gold and wash her off.

Last week was pretty dismal. We pulled six ounces of gold. That is a horrible

pull.

That's nowhere near what we need to be pulling.

At California Creek, 40 miles west of Dawson City, Special Forces medic Fred

Lewis had jumbled his entire life savings on mining for Yukon gold.

I have to come out of the Yukon with 100 ounces of gold to be successful.

Bottom line.

At this point, we're not on track to make that goal, and that scares the crap

out of me.

Three quarters of the way through the season, Fred's crew of military vets

banked just 45 ounces of gold.

What more?

The claim owners will be demanding their first royalty payment.

I'm going to go pay my royalties to Central and York this week.

If we can't pick it up, they're not going to be impressed by us and they're

going to want us mining on their claims.

There can't be any more mistakes.

On site, Infantry Scout Sniper Stuart McKenzie runs pay to the wash plant.

Green Beret Rick Duggler loads the pay into the plant.

of gold that we've pulled so far.

I mean, it is not what I thought we would have had by this time frame.

Most everybody is just to the point where they're just saying, you know

just don't care anymore.

A lot of us are pretty...

down right now our goals weigh in haven't really been awesome so i don't

we're gonna hit our goal and i think everyone kind of is also thinking the

thing and the only one right now that is currently having hopes and dreams is

red

It's been raining since 9 o 'clock last night and it has not stopped. This is

the least amount of rain we've had in almost 12 hours.

Water level is so high.

You can see this creek is at capacity. If it wasn't for all the berms that we

constructed, this creek would be everywhere and flooded.

My major concern is losing a major wall on one of our retaining ponds. If that

were to happen, all the sediment would rush into the creek and we would for

get a call from...

The environmental police.

The team have built a system of berms to funnel water from the creek into poor

settling ponds.

But heavy rainfall and runoff from the hill has raised the water level and

eroded the berms.

If they don't rebuild them, sediment from the settling ponds will flood into

creek.

Yeah, that creek can't take much more of this.

We probably haven't even seen the worst of the water coming off the mountain.

The disaster waiting to happen.

If the creek is contaminated, Fred will be put down and his season will be over.

Well, as soon as the next shift change gets here, which is any minute,

We're going to have to be on creek maintenance and salvage this cut.

We're going to have to shut down.

We don't make it right.

We're just screwing ourselves over. It doesn't do us any good to cry about it.

We just need to get it fixed as soon as we can to get back up and running.

All right.

This is not what we want to be doing.

Season's getting short.

Brad and Matthews, both is excavated.

Holy crap.

to heighten 1500 yards of berms to save the pond.

So has no choice but to shut down the plant.

I'm on my way right now to fix up a bunch of these berms that I've reached.

have to get fixed before we can start anything.

If this water gets into our ponds, our wash ponds, our settling ponds, all of

those, it causes those to actually breach back into the natural stream.

If the water board were to come out here, we could actually shut down.

Our ponds are pretty much the most important part of the mine.

Without water being held properly and within regulation, we can get shut down

pretty quick.

And right now we're sacrificing our time to run pay and we're building up these

berms because this could be a far bigger problem just to get worse than it is

right now.

It's hard not to get upset. It sucks.

The season's only going to get shorter and shorter every single day, and we

can't afford to be shut down like this.

Rick Nurse is in a race to hit 2 ,000 ounces of gold from the deepest cut he's

ever mined.

We need to stockpile all this pay that's coming out of the Rally Valley.

Reports had suggested the pay they were chasing was a further 30 feet down.

But in a rare turn of good luck, it seems Rick has hit an unexpected score.

If he can run this nugget -rich pay before winter sets in, they could smash

their season goal.

and haul in a possible 3 ,000 ounces worth over $5 million.

We're just going to have to fire up the watch plant and start pounding yardage

through it.

It's cut back.

Here's a nice feed off night shift. I'm kind of torn. I don't know if I'm happy

to have you back or not. I know.

By the end of the day, you'll probably not.

This thing sounds like it's just going to disintegrate when you pull up.

What a beauty. There's a lot of miles on it.

What do you got in store for us now?

Got to get Monster Red up and running.

Yeah, for sure.

I want this thing built in 48 hours, and by the end of day two, I want it maxed

out, running all that pay out of Raleigh Valley.

So we're going to be running around like our pants are on fire for the rest of

the year.

Nothing new.

We're going to keep the plant simple, no tailings conveyor, no big long feed

conveyor, nothing like that. So I've got this massive Elrish feeder.

It's capable of like 800 tons an hour.

It's literally twice the size of the one that we had last year. That's sweet.

It's going to give us everything we need to be over 300 yards an hour

legitimately.

Right, we've got a lot of work to do. Yeah, we do. Right.

Right now, I'm just prepping the spot for where we're going to put the lock

plant.

We're going to have to

slap

that thing together as quick as we can.

In the off -season, I do need to go bigger.

You know, there's no doubt about it.

Rick spent over $100 ,000 fabricating new parts to catch Duncan

Creek's monster nugget.

I'm pretty sure that we lost a good -sized nugget last year.

These upgrades will allow Monster Red to handle the brutal rocky ground that

destroyed it two seasons ago.

Rick's crew must now rebuild Monster Red.

This time, with the tools to take on the rocky, nugget -rich Rally Valley.

First up is the new discharge booth.

Oh! Nailed it.

You guys do another shackle so it's sitting straight?

Right there.

Yeah, buddy.

This is the final piece of the puzzle, too.

Our little discharge setup.

Monster Red's old discharge chute had a metal plate on the outside to guide

tailings away from the plants.

The new design has rubber flaps, making it quicker and easier to clear rock

jams.

A piece that me and Carl built while we were out in Colorado this winter.

And I'll be honest, I'm kind of excited to see something I build be put in a

chute.

You ready to yank this in place?

Yeah, just got to put the straps on the bucket here and we'll be ready.

Okay,

man, she's all hooked up, ready to roll.

I'm going to yank her then.

right in the ground.

Our tables are short and that chute's sticking out in a way that won't allow

to get any real lift on it.

All I need to do is get it up.

Get it to ride up on top again.

The heavy new chute is stopping rig from getting enough lift on the tow.

We're going to re -rig around that beam.

And that's part of the frame, so that should be strong enough.

All I need is to get it up, riding up on top of this hurricane, rather than

digging in.

Monsterette is a half a million dollar plant.

I'll kill everybody if this thing breaks.

Like, there's no one getting out of here alive.

I'll dig a giant hole, I'll bury it, and I'll bury everybody on site with it.

Okay, it goes straight up!

Oh! Whoa, whoa, whoa!

front frame in there.

No, really?

So I can just that cross piece.

Let me... What if we just try and hook that one outside strap?

You know what I mean? And then you might be able to just pull it up on the

ground here?

Yeah.

To avoid any more damage, Brennan replaces the strap with a single cable

attached to the base.

I think if we get the two hooked up, it'll be done, okay?

Let's go hook the other one up.

There you go.

Watch that suit.

No, you're good.

That's probably about where you want it.

get the sluice rims hooked up here. We're going to walk into the wash clamp.

Looking good.

This is the last sluice box that's got to get put in place. This is the nugget

sluice. We've never actually used this on the plant before.

These things are all set. They're in place.

Well done, boys.

With just the new hopper feeder to attach, Monster Red will be ready to run

richest pay dirt.

It's never mind.

I'm so excited. Now we've got to get Monster Red running. Doing that, we

be able to smash 2 ,000 ounces.

Still plugging away. You know, he's doing a good job of keeping plants

Plant moves used to just be a nightmare, it seems like.

But now they're getting them done pretty often and pretty quick.

Parker Snavel has tossed Lucifer front for Tyson Lee with keeping the gold

coming in at the vodka.

At full power, Lucifer runs 240 yards of dirt an hour, weighing in

at over 650 ,000 pounds.

Fresh metal's got sharp edges, eh?

This crop piece here, like, this is where they were catching?

Yeah, right here as well.

Yeah. Let's just tune all the edges down.

Well, because we armored up the chute, all the rocks are just kind of coming

down and getting caught like that.

And then they build up and they build up and they'll build up into the shaker

deck and the shaker deck will power down because it's got too much weight in it.

This is definitely a little bit of a hiccup right here. Did not expect this

all.

The edges are a little too sharp. The rocks are getting caught.

We'll figure out if doubling the edge like Nick's doing is going to solve the

problem or not.

I almost burnt this grinder out.

I did not expect that at all. That's hot right there.

We're turning our back on.

Ready for water?

We'll figure out what the bagshot has in store for us.

A California quake.

A battle rages on.

Everything's going wrong. It could go wrong right now.

It's days before his first royalty fees are due.

Fred Lewis risked shutdown unless he contained the torrent of water ravaging

mine site.

We're having to shut down our watch plant and divert to creek control to

our sperm from breaking.

It's a mess.

Drop it off.

Yeah.

Right now it actually is the really bad cliche race against time.

All of this sperm is waterlogged.

And if we lose this, and we lose that dam, we lose that dam.

So losing this could be a big nightmare.

Hey Zebra, you copy on this?

World's a frickin' pin, man.

God, man.

What's happened here is the rail here, about an inch and a half diameter pin

that goes through there, they can break internally.

Yeah, we got to get this done quick.

Yep. Man, oh, man. This sucks.

With JB and Buzz now offline, Fred takes over reinforcing the burns in the one

working excavator.

It just never stops.

Those tracks are the bane of my existence.

This is costing us money.

Costing us money right now, and, uh, it's expensive now.

Buzz, hopefully you can get it fixed quick.

In such a remote location, ordering a new pen could take weeks.

But every hour the 250 is down makes a catastrophic flood ever more likely.

So JB and Buzz rush to salvage and repurpose a pen from a neighbor's

place where excavators are laid to rest.

Back to work.

Well, this one's got a bushing or something.

Whoa!

Look at that.

An inch and a half. Ready for power.

Watch your eyes.

This is the pin we actually need.

They're pressed in.

So they're in there pretty tight.

We're going to attempt to cut the rail itself off the pin.

One side.

Looks good. Other than just being rusty, it looks like a new pit.

Fingers crossed it fits.

Back at the claim, the water is rising faster than bread can plug the gaps.

This is definitely an area of concern.

I feel like I'm a medic again, plugging holes after combat.

There it is.

So the true test is, is this thing going to work?

Oh, yeah. Look at that.

She's going to go in there nice.

Yep. And then in the receiving end, yeah.

All right, we just got one more to take out and let's put it back together.

Yeah. We got lucky.

It could have been a week, two weeks before we get a pin, you know, dipped up

here.

We'll load this sucker up.

We'll get back to work, man. We're done.

With both excavations back at work, Fred's crew can finally raise the berms

six feet needed to stop the silt -heavy water flooding into the creek.

Well, that's sealed up.

I think we've got these berms situated for about the highest our water is ever

going to be all season.

And now I'm walking the excavator back over and get them back to feeding the

plants. It's time to make some money.

It's time we got to get this thing rolling, man. We're ready to roll.

You ready for the pump, JB?

Yep, roger that, Clint. Thanks.

All right, I'm turning around.

Fixing the burn has cost Fred four valuable days of cruising time.

and has just two days left to catch enough gold to pay his landlords.

All this stuff is going to make it tough to pay this cruelty.

Time to start making money.

It's crunch time right now.

The leaves have all changed already.

We are running out of time quick.

Rick Nurse is bringing Wash Plants Monster Red back to life.

In a mission to start running the Nugget Rick Rally Valley Pay Dirt, all that's

missing is the final piece of the jigsaw.

A new 66 foot long hopper feeder.

I want to get up here too.

Capable of moving 400 yards of dirt an hour.

Allowing Rick to run Monster Red four times faster than his old watch plant.

Capable of keeping up with Monster Red and then some.

That's a piece of equipment that I can grow into.

Huge.

Let's get this done.

These things are made to be moved with a, you know, a semi -tractor, which I

don't have. And so, using a chain and an excavator just makes me nervous.

Safety as...

You're

gonna have to lift that conveyor with the loader.

They must lift the feed conveyor on the hopper to ensure it perfectly aligns as

it slowly in toward Big Red.

Don't it up, Kyle.

I'm on it.

Keep going.

Yeah.

It looks good, doesn't it? It does.

It made me think, like, all we've been doing is putting money at, throwing

at this thing for, what, the last couple of years. It's just kind of been a big

dumpster for money.

And so I kind of thought I'd rename it the Monster Gold Dumpster.

Yeah. But anyways, it's ready to roll.

And we've got a huge amount of pay to run through it.

So let's fire it up. See what Rally Valley has to offer, right? Hell yeah.

Go time.

Two years after being destroyed, Monster Red is alive and

ready to run hundreds of yards of Raleigh Valley, Goldrich Pager.

You know, this is the moment we've been waiting for the whole season to get this

watch plant set up down here and start making us the real money.

Rick Next is now one step closer to 2 ,000 ounces and joining the big league.

It's all coming together.

It's been a stressful month, not soothing, but all that's about to

This week has been one of those weeks.

Cara just laughs.

It's frustrating.

Yeah.

After one of his toughest weeks ever working on the mine, Fred's wife Cara

to return home due to other job commitments, leaving Fred, a crew

How many days or hours were we running?

Um, you know, totally, I'd say for the whole week we only ran three half days.

Yeah. Really?

Just because of all the problems and everything that went down.

JB, I think it's to your honor this time. All right.

And one.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Come on. Five.

5 .6.

For the week, this doesn't cover our fuel bill.

We're going negative.

We obviously need way more than this.

So, you know, this is what we get when we run that much. So we need to make

every chance we get, we're running.

I'll get this to Jorg, and I'll deal with that.

And see what's going on on New York State.

Yeah. All right. Get back at it. Back to work.

We need four times this every week.

Hello?

With his season total at 52 .46 ounces, Fred owes this week's entire gold hold.

All right, there's your cut. Hopefully bigger next time. Yeah.

The ground is good, but the amount of gold for the amount of time is not that.

The season could be done very soon.

Stadler and I will come up and have a look at your operation and see what

doing there. We need you to lose more.

All right.

If they want to continue next year, we need to find a solution to scale up the

operation to the goal that they lose more material.

We'll go up and have a look at that.

Lucifer all moved over.

Yeah, she's in the bad cut, and hopefully it's not bad.

So all in all, I mean, you know, we washed a lot of rock. Yeah. How did it

How did it go? Well, you want to check it out?

There you go, big red right there. You ready?

Parker gambled $4 million on Mud Mountain in the hope of pulling out 8

ounces. Let's see what we got here.

20. He needs it to deliver 400 ounces a week just to recover his investment.

170, 180, 190 .45.

Worth $343 ,000.

So Mud Mountain again is a little bit of a disappointment.

Next up, Futaba, after its move to the bad cut.

Here we go. Let's see it.

10.

40.

80.

100.

120.

140.

170. 180.

192 .05.

$346 ,000.

The bad Kurt has delivered more gold than Mud Mountain, despite less run

That's really good for a first clean, huh? That is.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Really good. Yeah.

Probably one of the best, really. Yeah. And you've been doing a great job down

there. Thanks, Pete.

For the week, you guys, we got 382 and a half out.

With the money that Parker spent, we need a lot more gold than that.

All righty.

Well, thanks, Dumit. All right.

Yeah.

Catch you guys later.

Then Mitch back to dud mount.

You all right there, Nate? Oh, yeah. Okay.

He looks like Harry off of Home Alone there, and he touches the electrician.

He's grumpy.

I know.

Don't poke the bear.

Don't poke the bear.

You guys killed it. I mean, that's a big plant set up.

There's a lot of people there. You know, you guys did a great job. I really

thank you for, you know. all piling in and making it happen.

Obviously, with plant moves and setting up and all that stuff, you know, that

takes time, and we only have a couple days to run.

And we haven't really seen much gold for how many weeks now? Yeah.

So far this season, Rick averaged three -quarters of an ounce an hour, with

Monster Red running triple the amount of Rich Raleigh Valley pay dirt.

They're hoping for a big score.

Two days running, 20 hours, what does it give us?

5, 10, 20, 30,

over 40.

Yeah, yeah, over 40.

43 .53.

Yeah. My man.

If the 100 -foot deep pay layer continues to deliver like this, Rick

his best season ever.

Hey, buddy.

That adds up.

Well, now we just need to keep doing that 24 hours a day. We need to do

than that. The pay at the bottom can be better than that.

I need 2 ,000 ounces. Sorry.