Original subtitles

Mud Mountain is where the bulk of our money was spent this season, and that's

where hopefully the bulk of the gold is going to come from.

27 -year -old mine boss Parker Schnabel has gambled over $4 million getting down

to pay at Mud Mountain.

Now, with just a month to go before the Yukon winter shuts him down, he's

counting on the deepest cut he's ever mined.

To pay out.

The first couple cleanups were bad.

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

It's not producing like it should be.

You're always wondering, you know, is it gonna...

loose as well as it drilled, you know, are we going to see some awesome

here?

Now that we're mining it, well, it's mining pretty average, so it's

disappointing.

Have we figured out where any of the gold is yet?

The strange thing is, if you look at it, it doesn't even look like really

awesome looking.

No, nothing in here has been awesome looking.

I just want to pick nuggets out of the bank.

Is that too much to ask?

This is pretty much all bedrock, huh?

You might find some gold in the bedrock.

If that's where we're at, then I think we should probably just do it.

I really don't want to be sending bedrock up to the wash plant there

we're trying to keep that thing in one piece. Yeah, I get that, but...

For me, it's just making sure that we get as much gold out of the ground as we

can. I'm just curious how diggable it is.

In the rest of the valley, when we get into this, it's hard. There's one way to

find out, and that's with the big old wash plant.

Copy that.

Parker has run over 50 ,000 yards of pay dirt, but has yet to find the super

-rich material his testing showed was here.

I hate running bedrock.

Whether there's lots of gold in it or not, whatever, like, we're committed to

doing it, and we've got to get it finished.

Right now, it looks like it's all about getting to this bedrock here.

Out of Mud Mountain, get it up to Big Red.

If this is what Parker wants to do, risk tearing things up and breaking.

We're going to send through our wash blast here.

Rookie miner Justin Fraser feeds Big Red.

You got to copy it.

Yeah, go ahead, Mitch.

Hey, man, we got some real chunky bedrock here coming out of Mud Mountain.

know, there's a good chance there's some good gold in here.

Copy that. I'll throw her in.

in there and clean it out a bit.

We're running out of mud and mountains.

We're plugging our ups, but we've got to catch it right away. If the rock jams

up and hit the belt, then we'll have a real disaster.

The fix takes an hour, costing $4 ,000 in lost sleuthing.

I hope this works.

Yeah, just another day in paradise. I guess it was just one.

I think it's a dozen other, I suppose.

Tony Beats is chasing a 4 ,500 -ounce target, mining Paradise Hills,

Walcott. Anyway, here we are. We invested $5 million in equipment. We

don't have a license in the Indian.

Pretty much done.

So, somewhere, somehow, we're going to have to make up.

But with only a month left in the season...

He's found just 2 ,600 ounces of gold.

We're at the end of the season. We're going to try to sluice as much as

possible.

Right now, we're not going to waste time trying to round another cut. We're

still sluicing.

We're going to have to run this material as efficiently as possible. That's all

we can hope for.

After missing out on an Indian River water license,

Tony's hatched a plan to make some fast cash.

So I have a Jasmine Bee Kid Commando and the two barges sold for a million

bucks. But a million bucks is worth more in my pocket than sitting on the dock.

Three years ago, Tony bought the Jasmine Bee and the Kid Commando.

to haul dredge two from Thistle Creek, 150 miles away.

Now he needs to drag the larger of the two, the Jasmine Bee, out of the river

deliver to his buyer.

We've got Mike and Monica coming in there. We've got Len over there. We're

to have a whole bunch of people there. We'll bring the barges in the caliphate,

and we'll see if these people can straight up their finances.

As long as I get a million bucks, I'll be a happy camper.

Good old barge, I guess, the good old barge.

Well, we're going to have a look at it today and get it ready.

Basically, what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to slide it

in the water.

We'll take the big skid where it's sitting on right now, take that out so

gives us more space.

And then we're basically going to come in with the Oskars and the Fisonek, back

the boat up, throw the trailer in the water, and just put it on.

Boom, a million bucks.

However, first things first, we've got to get that paddle wheel out of there.

We'll pull it back another 40, 50 feet, which would give us enough room to

get... A truck and a trailer in here straight to suck the barge on, and then

we'll just got to go from there.

Tony has pulled all his best operators off the mine site and wants to get the

job done in just two days.

Okay, there she goes.

Give it a little push, Monica.

Keep her going. Keep her going, guys.

That's perfect. Keep her going.

Mike, steer the thing the other way.

Monica!

Go that way a little. You got to turn.

Now the other way. Go that way. Other way. Other way. Oh, my God.

Keep her coming. Keep her coming. Keep her coming.

Keep her coming. Keep her coming.

Perfect.

Yeah, that's done. That's where she stays, guys.

Tony only had time to bring two loaders down from Paradise Hill.

He's counting on them having enough power to push the 100 -ton Jasmine Bee

the slipway.

Buck it down a bit more, Kevin.

Okay, boom up, boom up.

Perfect, coming in.

Okay, Monica, bring it in a bit.

I guess you got it. That's good.

Okay, I've got to wait for the boys to be ready.

Okay, Monica, Kevin, jump in the water.

Nice and steady. Get Monica to take the lead a bit, Kevin. Okay, yellow.

Both of you, step on it.

Keep her going, keep her going, keep her going, keep her going.

Kevin, keep going, Kevin, keep going.

Keep pushing, Kevin.

Kevin, keep going.

Keep going.

Monica, keep going, keep going.

There you go, both in the water.

How does that feel, gentlemen?

Like olden days?

Is he good or what?

All right, bag it up, put it on the beach.

Now Tony needs the loaders to drag the steel skids it was resting on out of the

way.

Okay, both pull and lift and see what happens.

Youngest son Mike is back in the cab.

Keep the power on, keep the power on.

You guys lift it up high. You can lift it up as high as you can.

Higher.

Higher, higher, higher.

Gentlemen.

Leather down again one more time. Leather down one more time. Leather down

more time, guys.

That second section is absolutely stuck in the silt.

Obviously, that ain't working.

We tried it too low, and that didn't work. And we got 50 feet here, and

another 50 feet of ramp behind there, which, of course, over the years got

in the silt.

But now it doesn't want to come anymore.

We didn't have enough power now.

We're going to get a couple of instructors over there, hook them up,

see if we can pull it out that way.

Tony brings in two Kenworths and the Oshkosh tank transporter.

Their winches had a combined pulling power of over 100 tons.

Lock it up. Hold it right there. Lock it up.

Pick. Park behind that wheel.

Okay, those go behind the truck.

Okay, wind blind.

All I've got to do now is put the wind blinds on it, the three tractors, and

what that does.

Let's crank it up.

Daddy.

That's it.

Pull, pull, pull. Keep on going.

That's more like it.

You got it.

Beautiful.

Huh. Yeah, I figured that one was solid.

If you got toys, you got power, then a little bit less of a circus that way.

No wonder it was that tight. If you see the silt that we pull up.

And I think that there's two more like that on the water still.

Everybody clear?

Mike, give it a pull. Lift it up. Pull it, Mike.

There you go.

Pull it, Mike. Keep pulling. Go.

Hey, gentlemen, go.

Mike, go with it.

Mike, step on it.

Mike, grab and pull.

Grab it this way, this way, this way.

So this will be the first one out.

Then we'll drag the other one out.

Okay, let's go.

That's it.

More power.

Daddy.

That's it. We're done.

There's even more filter than I expected.

Almost like we're dredging the Yukon River, isn't it?

Because this goes to show how much silt goes down the river every day, huh?

So we'll get this all flared out of the way, and the boat will be next, I guess.

We've only got a few short weeks left.

You know, winter's coming, and up here, man, it can sneak up on you way before

you even know it.

In the mountains above Keno, Rick Ness is hoping for a 2 ,000 -ounce season

to take him into the Yukon Mining Big Leagues.

But he's less than halfway to his target, and winter is closing in fast.

We've still got 1 ,200 ounces to go to hit our 2 ,000 -ounce goal, but we've

this big, beautiful wash plant finally back up and running after two years.

We're just about at that high -grade pay that we're looking for, and that's the

stuff we're going to need.

Rick's invested almost a million dollars digging in Raleigh Valley.

Drill results indicate they should be approaching the richest material.

paying out an estimated three ounces per 100 yards and potentially worth a total

of $5 million.

But first, they have to sluice the low -grade pay dirt above it.

We're going to have to crank this plant up to 300 yards an hour and just lamp

dirt through that wash plant until it freezes.

It's time to see what that thing can really do.

At their current pace, they hope to get down to the rich pay layer.

in a matter of days we're not even halfway to our 2000 ounce bowl yet and

know literally running out of time we need a high volume plant

which monster ed is absolutely built for i mean 300 yards an hour is crazy

Veteran operator Chris Cruz digs out pay.

We got this slick new setup, this hopper feeder.

Crank the plant back up 300 yards per hour.

Boom. It is just chowing through paydirt. Like, I think our chances are

improving against the 2 ,000 ounces.

Operator Kyle Lawson feeds the plant.

Almost down to the good pace.

Running, digging down.

The other guys are hauling it, so it's just a matter of time.

So all hands on deck, just trying to get down to the good stuff.

What do we got going on here?

You got a copy?

Yeah, go for it.

Looks like we got rocks rolling back down this conveyor.

That ain't good, buddy.

Yeah, I'll be right there.

Woke up this morning and here we are. It's snow.

This kind of weather doesn't mean all the world.

But it'd be nice to get all this done.

Okay, back thing up.

Tony Beats is back at the Yukon River to haul a million dollars worth of boats

onto trailers, ready for collection by his buyer.

The land moves that thing over two feet towards the other boat.

Good. Stay right there.

We are trying to get the jasmine a little bit more out of the water.

We got a 500 can worth over here with the winds on the back.

So we put that against the bank, and then we wind the jasmine onto the beach

far as possible.

Good. You take the other one. When we get out, we go. Mike, rev it up.

You lift yours up, off you go. There you go, let's do it.

Gentlemen, give that a try.

Pull on it.

Pull, pull, pull, pull here.

Keep pulling, keep pulling, keep pulling.

Keep it coming, keep it coming. Pull on the line, line, pull on it.

Mike is not pulling anymore.

Hold it, Mike, Mike, Mike, hold it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Tony's winch tractors are slipping on the riverbank's soft sand.

So what we're going to do is we're going to bring one more dozer in, put the

blade in the ground, put a pair of snatched blocks in it, and then

should give.

Double the chain. Always double the chain. Jump in the loader. Maybe we

need to jump in the loader.

Yes.

Okay, let's try this again, guys.

Me? No, we're just in the process of getting all set up for it. Why? What do

got?

Well, think.

Got no money then, huh?

But never fail, does it?

A million bucks would be nice, but there's no use hauling it home at this

We'll just beat the thing and we'll come home.

Sound deal? Okay.

Bye. Yeah, bye.

We'll just beat them down here, and that's all of the day.

So I guess they pulled out or not. They didn't pull out. There was no money

transferred, no deed transferred.

Hold this anchor up there.

Leave it there for the winter. Come back in the spring.

We are done.

It's an early bedrock that we're pulling out. It's definitely not easy on our

equipment. It's banging and crashing hard on the shaker deck.

At Mud Mountain, Parker Schnabel is running bedrock, hoping to see signs of

$8 million worth of gold his drill tests indicated.

How's things here?

Pretty full.

And with that bedrock, it packs worth, too, huh? Yeah. Keep going.

Well, they stayed better off. It's not easy on the whole wash plant.

You can't really afford any more repercussions or downtime.

Way too much of it.

Damn.

Oh.

What's going on here?

Well, as you can see, this motor's jumping all over the place.

The reason for that, this right here, this is a tensioner. It keeps this motor

isolated, and you can see it's broke.

All the vibration and the rattling and energy that gets transferred through

these machines running bedrock takes a toll on them.

Mud Mountain is refusing to give up its bedrock gold without a fight.

We pull this thing down. Is that bolt going to be long enough?

Yeah, it might be a tough job. Yeah.

Get this thing going again.

Yeah.

I'll bring my stuff. I'll drop it in here.

Perfect.

We're going to have to pull this back into place, re -weld this, see if we can

get it fixed.

A bolt holding the tensioner, which isolates the motor from the shaker deck.

has broken loose from the steel plate it sits on.

Mitch's fix is to hoist the motor back into position, realign

the tensioner bolt, and then weld it back onto the plate.

Got to get the motor back in place so the belts stay on there, they stay

the shaker deck shakes.

And this motor isn't jumping all over the place.

So right now we've just got to get this back into position.

Once we do that then we can weld it up. So we've got to get that bolt lined

right back up where it was there.

Then we can polish it up and throw a weld on it.

So right now we've got the shaker motor back in place. We've got the tensioner

bolt put back where it needs to be. We're going to weld this thing back up.

Once we do that, we'll take the clamps off.

You know, big rods have taken a lot of abuse this season, and we've got to keep

it going.

Once we do this, we can fire back up, and hopefully we can get through this

dirt here from Mud Mountain before we have any more problems.

Watch your eyes.

Time to see if the world will hold.

30 seconds or 30 feet, that's my warranty.

Man, I think that's solid. Let's get her fired back up. Sounds good.

Let's try her out.

Hopefully, when we hit the switch, this shaker deck will shake like it's

supposed to.

We finally got Monster Red up and running, but we cannot run at full

Rick Nurse is in a race to reach 2 ,000 ounces, chasing the richest pay of the

season.

But Monster Red's speed has been reduced from 300 to 200 yards per hour.

If this ground is as good as drilling suggests...

Rick could be missing out on thousands of dollars worth of gold.

Having problems with the feed conveyor, so I've had to dial it back, and if I

have to run like that for the rest of the season, we've got a lot of yardage

run through.

So I did call into company, and they are going to send some guys up here to fix

it, and I just really hope they have a solution and a quick one.

We got this high -earning plant, and to be running what we're running through,

it's not going to get us anywhere close. We might as well have just kept running

Rocky.

How's it going?

Hey, Scott.

Scott, nice to meet you. Rick. Oh, Rick. Barry Proctor. Barry, nice to meet you.

You're the one I've been talking to. You have. Right on.

You know, I cranked it up.

Obviously, you can handle it, but the problem is we've got some possibly round

rock here, and at that speed, I'm getting them tumbling back down the

like I told you. Okay, we've got basketball coming backwards?

Exactly. I've got the ground open, and I need to crank this thing up as high as

I can go for the rest of the season. I'm running out of time.

How fast are you running the plan right now?

Right now, we're at about 200 yards an hour. Where would you like to get to?

I want to get it to 300 yards an hour. Okay, well, we can help you with that.

Okay.

We'll just draw it out here for an example.

What I'd like to do is build a set of fingers.

As the rock comes back down, it can't get through the fingers.

I see.

Barry Proctor and Scott Ezekiel will build a finger trap.

A frame with eight metal fingers hung from a horizontal beam.

The fingers will let pay dirt and rocks pass through on their way up the

conveyor.

But any rocks rolling down the conveyor will be caught and stopped.

Nice.

That seems like a great solution.

The major question I always have to ask, though, is how long it's going to take.

We're probably looking at four or five hours.

It's going to shut down for four or five hours.

I just need you to completely stop for maybe 15, 20 minutes so we can bolt it

on. Oh, that's it? That's it.

Oh, I love that.

Okay. Thanks, Rick. Thanks, guys.

Barry and Scott

will have to construct Rick's finger trap entirely out of scraps salvaged

his boneyard.

Looks like a good little scavenger pile. Oh, yeah, this will work.

We need something like a four -inch square tubing, HSS, a flat bar,

or some channels.

There we go.

That's going to do the trick right there.

After four hours... Watch your hands. Just dump it. The finger trap is

Shut it down.

Head's up. Here it comes, Scott.

Right on. Looks good.

Looks good.

Wrap her up and let's start putting some rock to her.

Fire it up.

Cranking it back up to 300 yards an hour.

Time for the test.

We got you up here at 300 yards an hour. No.

You don't have any rocks rolling back anymore?

Yeah, that's simple, effective.

There's no way for rocks to get through that.

Love it.

That turned out good.

Monster Red is back to running 300 yards of dirt an hour.

And Rick is back in with a shot at getting down to the high -grade bay.

I can't thank you guys enough.

Well, thank you. Yeah.

Thanks again, guys.

Everyone's pretty stoked.

We're not running at 200 anymore.

We're back up and running at full.

It's a good feeling.

Got that plant creek back up 300 yards an hour, and it's time to rock and roll

and see what this deep ground is going to have in it.

Let's go.

Paradise Hill.

Tony Beetz has been running white channel pay from the Walcott all week.

Yeah, I do it. Oh my, hello.

You're related to them, I'm sorry.

Excuse me.

Really? So how did things go this week?

We went with the Jasmine.

Once we got the loaders out of there, got the winch tractors.

Anyways, it's too bad the buyer pulled out of buying the barges.

Yeah, that really sucks.

I mean, here we are going through the process, yarding it out, getting it

to ship out.

And now we may as well leave the thing there, right? Yeah.

But, I mean, that goes to show you get ahead of yourself.

It doesn't always pay, does it? No, it doesn't.

Well, now you know for next time.

I counted last, so who's counting now? I'm busy.

I got it.

To hit his 4 ,500 -ounce season goal, Tony needs 370 ounces

every week.

There you go.

10, 20, 30, 60,

100, 130, 190,

250, 292 .84.

Worth over half a million dollars in their biggest haul of the season.

But over 70 ounces short of what they need.

In a week when Tony also lost a million dollar deal for his fleet of boats.

You know what? We are very fortunate to be mining on Paradise Hill.

That is so true. Because if we didn't have that property, we'd be nicely

scrounging around like everybody else.

I mean, we all know that doesn't grow on trees around here.

Anyways, it's time for everybody to go back to work. Slip that for a bit?

Yep. Okay.

Go for it, Mike.

Anytime.

Bye.

Bye. Don't go away mad, guys.

Just bugger off.

Take a hike?

On the end of the day, if we do reach our goal, then I think we did pretty

good.

We'd better start doubling up around here.

Anyways, your granddaughter agrees with you. She better.

If she wants toys and presents, she better be nice to me.

No phone from the dinner table. Okay.

At Lower Duncan Creek, Rick Ness and his crew are about to find out if they've

hit high -grade pay in Raleigh Valley.

It's been a little scary about how quick the leaves started turning yellow.

Well, yeah, it happened overnight almost.

It's getting chilly in the morning, too, and the days have gotten short like

that fast.

At least we're all on the same level.

Working here with this guy. What the hell is wrong with us? Yeah, exactly.

We're out here because we're not out there.

Oh, sorry, yeah.

Yeah, nice. Did you hear that?

Yes, sir.

Is that lead?

Yes, we're lead miners.

That is actually gold.

Lots of gold.

That sounded heavy.

Totes heavy. Yeah. It was going pretty good all week. You know, I had 200 yards

an hour. and then I had to get greedy and turn it up to 300.

I know where you learned that trick from.

But it's got the capacity, you know what I mean? Oh, for sure.

The rocks here are so round, though, you know, they just started rolling back

like that.

We weren't running at max capacity for the whole week.

So a couple days, we had to dial it back to 200 yards an hour. But, you know, we

did get a full week, 10 hours a day.

Luton, that's 70 hours.

Should we see what we got?

Yeah, for sure.

I'm going to taste what we've got going on.

Rick's massive gamble on Raleigh Valley has yet to pay off.

His weekly average this season is just 59 ounces.

I've got to be honest with you. I know that this is more than 130 ounces, and

that's all my scale goes up to.

I'm just going to dump out 100 first and then switch pans, I guess.

I like to have trouble. Right?

Nate, you want to count it, buddy? Oh, yeah, you betcha.

10, 20, 30, 80,

90,

100.

100 plus 40, 50, 70,

80. I'm not mistaken. That's 580 ounces.

180, 180.

.17. Rick's biggest ever gold weigh were $325 ,000.

181 ounces, boys.

And that was for 70 hours.

Yeah. I mean, that's 300 grand in a week. That's one of the biggest gold

we've had.

Oh, absolutely.

Oh, yeah. So that puts us at just over 1 ,000 ounces.

Yeah. Monster gold dumpster, 300 yards an hour, and we get to that good pay,

we're going to get it.

Thanks again. You guys are awesome.

I'm going to have to leave my beer behind to carry two pans. Oh, poor you.

Sounds like a real bad problem to have. Yeah, I'll clean up after you.

Well, that was quite a week. Good week, yeah.

Well, you tell if it's a good week. We're out there ripping paydirt. If

leading with saying it's a good week, then it was actually a good week.

It was a good week for one of you.

I remember running the plant.

I hated it when I saw a truck coming with that blocky stuff.

It's nothing but a pain in the butt.

Chris Gilroy, send it back. Yeah, send it back.

Just send that one right over the edge with tailings.

Good thing those days are long behind you, Chris.

Yeah. How's it going down there to Ken?

Oh, good. Just chugging away.

I'd say we're about halfway through the bad cut right now.

Well, I think we ought to throw a slucifer on there and see how the bad

turning out.

Yeah, let's do it. Why do you want to do the bad stuff first?

When you were a kid and people asked you, do you want the good news or the

news, would you pick the good news or the bad news?

Bad news.

Here we go. Bad cut.

Let's do it.

Last week at the bad cut, Sluicifer delivered 192 ounces of gold.

60, 80, 100, 110.

112 .85.

There you go, living up to its name.

That's not that bad.

Worth over $200 ,000.

It's not as good as the first clean -up, but... Which is odd, because normally

the first one isn't very good, but... Coming from you, I expect things to be

backwards.

Next,

it's time to find out if Parker Schnabel made the right call running Mud

Mountain's bedrock.

All the fun stuff. Blocking bedrock.

You ready?

Yeah, we know. Do it. Let's see what we got here. Read it out.

So far, Big Red's best gold weigh from Mud Mountain has been just

190 ounces.

150, 180,

200, 230, 250.

Keep going. 300, 350.

399 .65.

Keep her coming.

So this is on top of 300 and change.

We got another 50, another 70, another 84 .45.

You must know what those add up to.

484 .1 ounces. No way.

Finally.

A change of fortune at Mud Mountain.

Worth a massive $870 ,000.

Sweet, man. That was definitely worth the struggle right there. Is that sweet

what? That's got to be the best cleanup Big Red's ever had.

Yeah. Yeah, it is. For the week, you guys, this is pretty sweet. It's 596 .95

ounces, almost 600 ounce a week.

Is that our best week this year?

Oh, by far.

Yeah, by far.

This week in total, Parker's crew has brought in over a million dollars in

He gives us a season total of 5 ,230 ounces, 30 and a half ounces.

The numbers are climbing really quickly.

Oh, yeah, with weeks like this. I mean, yeah, but the way it drilled, like,

really, it's supposed to have a ton of gold in it.

So we're definitely behind what the drilling was showing.

Which is not to do that much gold in a week and still be behind. But if it's

going to keep doing this, then it shouldn't take long to catch up. But,

that's a big yeah.

Yeah. Let's do it.

Shake them up. All righty. Thanks, guys. Later.

Later. Thank you both.

Anytime. All three of you.

Chris, nice job cleaning this stuff. Oh, thanks, Parker.

Yeah, it's really nice.