Original subtitles

This season's going to be different.

We've got battle on two different fronts right now, one in Fairbanks, one in the

Klondike.

In just nine seasons, 27 -year -old Parker Schnabel has built one of the

successful gold mining operations in the Klondike.

But faced with tight regulations, skyrocketing fuel prices, and a world on

edge of a recession,

His future in the Yukon is now unclear.

The truth is the ground that we've been mining is not going to just last

forever.

There's serious concern about the future of the company and for us to be able to

keep mining at the scale we are at.

But the young mine boss isn't throwing in the towel.

To keep his dream alive, Parker's expanding his empire with a new mine.

in his home state of Alaska.

So we're going to have a very big, busy season in the Yukon, you know, and we're

also going to be setting up this operation in Fairbank.

To fund Alaska, his Yukon operation is already up and running, bringing in gold

earlier than ever before.

That's kind of exciting, you know? I'm actually really looking forward to that.

Last season, Parker struck a deal with landowner John Reeves.

That's 100 ounces.

To mine 100 feet deep, gold -rich ground near Fairbanks, Alaska.

Dude, you hit a nut.

To tackle the deep ground, Parker's investing nearly $1 million.

Look at that.

On a state -of -the -art, custom -built mobile wash plant for the clay -packed

Alaskan ground.

We better get on building as we go on.

I have a lot riding on this.

This new wash plant is the heart of the new operation in Fairbanks.

And the new plant we're building gives any clay or anything like that a chance

to break up when it's like lots of water and velocity and lots of material flow.

But, you know, there's a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it.

Parker wants to be mining Alaskan gold in a month's time.

Yep, yep, yep.

So he's checking in on the plant's progress with designer Jeff Tunnell.

How goes it, man?

Good, how are you? Good.

How's things been?

Good. Yeah, you too.

What country is this one going to?

This one's headed to Peru.

So, making sure everything's with it. I've got the fluth runs and all that out

in the yard.

Just a smaller version of your plant.

Is this our screen deck?

Nope.

That one's a little small. He'd be pretty mad at the throughput.

Whose plant's this?

This one's stock.

This one's meant for overseas.

It doesn't have a lot of the options that you're looking for.

All right. Well, so do we have a full -size wash plant?

No.

That won't be here for a bit.

Really?

Everything right now is so hard to get.

Well, that's not good.

Where does that leave us for, like, a delivery date?

I had to guess right now.

It's going to be close to the end of August.

It's just lead times on everything.

Yeah.

I don't know what to do if we don't have a wash plant until August.

Because John Reeves, our landlord in Fairbanks, I keep telling him, like,

worry, we just ordered a badass wash plant that's going to be there for the

season. No.

I've wrapped myself into quite the...

Sandwich. After months spent searching for the perfect plant to methodically

tackle his Alaska claim, Parker must now rethink everything.

Keep me in the loop if anything changes.

I will do, man.

Looks like Fairbanks from day one.

I'm not happy.

Nobody's happy.

We live in a pretty remote place with pretty remote access to our plant.

Definitely not an easy mine site to mine.

On the outer edge of the Klondike, junior year mine boss, Green Beret medic

Lewis, fights for his own gold mining dream.

Do or die.

My house is on the line. My family's lives are on the line.

We're here to live the dream. We're here to get purpose and we're here to...

find gold fred's gambling on ground at the remote california creek delivering

500 ounces nearly five times what he mined last year

but last week what that fred was

dealt a near fatal blow our entire claim is under ice an ice sheet 30

feet thick stands between him and his gold -rich pay dirt.

What the hell are we going to do, man?

Mother Nature really dealt us a hand this year.

It's just going to be another battle for us.

We're just going to have to work our balls off until we get to where we need

be.

Fred clears a fresh layer of snow that's stopping him from getting vital

machinery from up at base camp down to the claim.

I've never seen this much snow in my life.

Right now, it's me and JB. We're busting our balls here.

We're going to have to clear this snow manually, foot by foot, until we get to

the claim.

But help is on the way.

After a four -day drive from Washington State, Fred's 22 -year -old stepson,

Christopher Parker, and old buddy, sniper Stuart McKenzie, are finally

I cannot believe we...

Back here already.

It really feels like we just left.

The amount of stuff that we had to deal with with the thaw last year, it's going

to be times ten.

Are we even going to be able to get down to the cliff?

I don't know. We'll see how much Fred's gotten done.

Adapt and overcome, right?

A lot of adapting to do.

Thanks, Fred.

Yeah.

Oh, hot dog.

Stuart and Chris are here.

How much do you want to bet he's going to play us to work?

What's up, guys? How was your trip?

Good, man.

Guess what we're doing.

What's going on?

Work. Well, we're setting the goal for 500 ounces this year.

Oh, holy.

Awesome. So it's going to be a battle, guys.

I got some bad news. There's glacier -sized ice covering the entire claim.

Oh, my God.

It's going to be the biggest challenge we've faced as a team.

Yeah.

So we're not waiting on Mother Nature. Okay. We're taking the two pieces of

equipment we have and just going for it.

That's our mission.

To get their share of 500 ounces, the Lewis crew must first clear snow

and ice from a treacherous four -mile.

downhill mountain dirt track, plagued by dangerous bends, just to get to their

claim.

Just finished driving 2 ,000 -something miles to already being put back to work

and building roads.

Kind of sucks.

The team takes shifts to clear the road.

In the dozer, Stuart punches a trail through the snow.

While Chris follows in the 220 excavator, scraping up the ice beneath.

Hey, Christopher.

You're doing great, but there's a way a lot faster than this. You don't even

have to scrape ever.

Oh, yeah. It's easier. So just hop out real quick.

I don't know what was wrong with the way I was doing it.

I was trying to get...

the, like, all of, like, the surface snow, the surface ice off, so that later

when it starts to warm up and everything starts to really melt, we won't be

dealing with a flood.

But Fred Savat, I got to do it the way he tells me to.

That is my life for the next four months.

That's just the way it is.

Christopher is stepping up this year. He's telling me he wants to be in more

a leadership role. Right now he's just a young buck.

Doesn't have a lot of experience in life. Doesn't have a lot of experience

leadership. But I see the potential there.

It's getting more dangerous. It's cold.

I'm having a hard time controlling it.

I mean, this is just... I can't even go straight.

Two miles from his claim, Fred hits a treacherous...

20 degree steep downhill slope.

Whoa!

Whoa!

Oh, that's not good.

Well, that was a pucker effect of 10 out of 10.

But I'm through it, and I'm seeing there's dirt road here. This is making

happy. I think Buzz and I really did push through the hardest part, and now

road's starting to open up.

Stuart!

Good work, guys.

You're making good progress, but I don't really know what is ahead of us. That's

the big problem. And I think we could fly our drone and we could at least

see if there's any drift that we know. Because if we have to push to a certain

point, we push to a certain point. But if we could drive a half a mile, that

saves us half a day. All right, you guys ready?

Feels like we're back in the stand looking for some squirters.

We're about a half a mile away right now, guys.

Okay.

Got another half a mile probably coverage, but with nine minutes on the

it's going to be cutting it close.

I'm going to try and get to about five minutes, and I'll send it home.

That hill looks really bad. No.

At this point, I don't think that road's drivable, at least on that hill. I

think we should push a little further with the dozer. Yeah, I was really

that this was going to bring us some better news, but this is actually kind

making it a little bit worse.

I got to bring it back. I got to bring it back. It's already starting to beep

me.

Well, that was a real morale booster.

Yeah, that was not what I was hoping for. That was a morale kick in the

I see it.

Watch out for the lens. No.

That would have. All right.

All right. Well,

guys. Well.

That was bad news. Keep pushing snow.

Keep pushing snow. So Buzz and I will take the next shift.

And we'll just.

We'll radio you guys when it's time for someone to come relieve us.

Hopefully we can get to that hill.

And then we can take another look.

It's a pretty.

Pretty closed -off guy, but it just seems like lately he's been a little bit

more closed off, kind of keeping more to himself.

In Wisconsin, Rick Ness's good friend Zeezer Ember hasn't heard from Rick for

weeks. I just feel like something's definitely going on.

I just, I don't know. I love the guy, and I hope he's all right. That's all I

really want.

Let's see if he's here.

Holy.

What's up, buddy?

What's up? How you doing?

Good. You're here.

Yeah, yeah.

What's going on?

Oh, lots.

Yeah? Yeah.

You all right?

Yeah, I'm okay.

There's probably a lot to tell you.

I'm working on a car. You want to just meet me at the garage? Yeah, I can meet

you there. Okay, let me put my shoes on.

I'm standing.

Check this out, though.

I had dehumidifier and everything running in the garage. Yeah.

Dehumidifier quit on me, and I didn't notice.

And I already started oxidizing.

Oh.

At least you caught it quick enough.

Yeah. Very sad. I think I can get back on top of it. Anyways.

Why are you here?

Why aren't you mining?

I'm just wondering that myself a lot, too.

I don't know, man. I just haven't been up for it.

It sounds weird.

It does?

I know it sounds weird.

Physical? Mental? What?

I got back from mining last year and I crashed hard. I always do. I put in so

many hours up there.

I spend a couple weeks and I just sleep and I catch up.

This year I just haven't been able to get out of that.

Just a funk?

I guess it's a combination.

There's seasonal affect disorder that they think I have and then just

depression.

It's tough for me to accept because I didn't grow up like that.

When do you think all the depression stuff started?

We went up, what was it, a month after your mom passed?

Did you ever really grieve for that yet?

You know, I have her house.

It's like she never left right now.

And I haven't been to the house in two years.

You know what I mean? Yeah.

I haven't been able to go up there.

Yeah. The other tough part is I know it's not just me, right? Like, there's a

lot of people pounding on me.

And everybody's...

in limbo right now wondering and i i'm counting on me like i can't i can't sit

here in my house no i would just get yourself right once you get yourself

and go ahead and go back up and just kill it keep having successful

seasons yeah well you know how to do yeah i appreciate that man all right

talk to you all right i love i love you maybe answer it yeah yeah i'm getting

better

I'm just relieved.

He's doing the steps he needs, it sounds like, to get back to old Rick. So

things are good, hopefully.

He just keeps doing what he's doing.

I am doing better, but there's just a lot of things that I don't understand

still. Whatever this is I'm going through, it's tough.

You brought up my mother passing.

I don't like talking about it because he's not wrong.

I have her house and I haven't been there in two years.

I probably need to go there and face it.

And maybe that'll help, maybe it won't.

Once again, that's the frustrating thing about it. I don't know what's causing

it. And I think that, I don't know if you ever know.

When I'm ready, I will be gold mining again. I just don't know when that is.

There's no use coming here in June and stuff.

We get there the 1st of March.

We only got so much time to mine, so get this program.

Get some gold in the box, get some money in the bank.

For over 30 years, Tony Beats has reigned as the undisputed king of the

Klondike.

But with red tape blocking him from mining his Indian River claims, he's

on Paradise Hill.

This year we have no end here ever, by the looks of it. So what we want to do

open up as much ground here as possible.

Kevin and Mike have stepped up this year. Mike is taking care of most of the

stripping and footing.

And then Kevin is looking after the mechanical end of the company.

To hit his 5 ,000 -ounce goal, Tony's chasing the elusive gold -rich white

channel pay layer in two of the deepest cuts he's ever mined.

First, the nine -acre, 130 -foot -deep cold cut, where he's down to pay dirt.

We spent give or take two million by stripping the cold cut.

Took us a couple of weeks to get down to pay dirt, but now that we are there,

let's fire up the sluice box as quick as we can.

The crew stockpile pay dirt.

Ready for youngest son Mike to start sluicing by the end of the day.

I want to get sluicing, because you've got to remember, if we're not sluicing,

all we're doing is spending.

It gets very expensive not to sluice.

Eldest son, 34 -year -old Kevin, who's fixed equipment since childhood,

the 30 -year -old trommel for its first fire -up of the season.

Glenn is on his way to finish up his checks, and then at that point...

Fire up the pump at full speed.

We're pretty much ready to go.

To wash precious gold out of the dirt, they need to feed the plant with 1 ,500

gallons of water a minute.

A 900 -horsepower pump propels water from the intake pond half a mile uphill

to the wash plant.

It's snowing at night, huh?

Yeah. It's losing in the snow.

You see that, Mike?

That's how cold it was.

There's still ice on the pond.

We're going to have to thaw out the pipe because usually we've got a chunk of

ice in the pipe.

That sticks in the water all winter.

The pipe that links the intake pond to the pump is iced up.

I might as well get a steamer truck over there, huh?

Lend me a copy, lend me a copy.

Yes, I do.

Over nearly 40 years of mining, Tony has collected a machine for every problem.

This custom -built steam truck heats up water to over 100 degrees and fires it

out as a 2 ,000 PSI jet of hot steam.

All we're doing, we'll just have to shove these in the pipe to steam it up.

We'll shove them all in until we get to the other end.

So this year, Tony talked a lot about stepping back, giving me and Mike more

responsibility.

Don't do them too tight, huh?

But it's hard for him. He's just so used to being in charge.

He just can't keep his fingers off the pie.

Any more after work? Well, we got them all together now.

Fire it up.

See how far in we can go. I'm almost positive we're going to make it all the

to the end there.

We're going to give that a try.

All set.

In she goes.

Down, Kevin, yeah?

We hit something.

Just three feet in, the steamer rod is blocked.

I don't think it's just the well holding it back.

There's no way that it's nice in a thing this far.

We'll throw the hose off.

All right. You can have a straight look in.

Pull it up. Thanks.

It's nice doing that.

Is there more in there?

Oh, yeah.

There it is.

Now that one's solid.

The ice in the pipe stretches

30 feet, all the way from the intake pond to the pump.

It will take days to thaw, and every hour the trommel is down costs Tony $3

,000.

That means there's no sluicing today or tomorrow?

Well, I've got no other choice but up. We're not going to be washing rocks now,

are we, right?

I just worry every year when you guys go up there on the roads, top of the world

highway, it makes my stomach turn. So I just want everybody to be careful and

watch out for each other. We know we're going a long ways away from home.

23 -year -old Brandon Clayton and his 20 -year -old brother Brady are part of a

new generation of young miners preparing for a make -or -break season in the

Yukon.

You guys are leaving tomorrow.

What's your plan?

Well, we're going for 500 ounces of gold this season, but fuel is through the

roof, so I think we just got to figure out what's economically viable and if

goes well and get some pay to the plant and hopefully start washing within a

week. You got to get ground strip quick, stream for sure, and then you just give

her help.

and the rest of the family, the financial stakes couldn't be higher.

At the end of the day, our goal is to clear up our debts, and that means all

us work.

In 2014, when oil tanked, bills were big and stacking up, and everybody's

battling their own battles, I guess we lost ours. We ended up going broke and

had to restart.

The family's construction business relies heavily on the

Albertan oil industry.

So when oil prices plummeted in 2014, they were pushed into crippling debt.

Very much into machinery, sitting there wanting to drive the tractor.

Now, using decommissioned equipment from their business, Brandon and Brady are

gambling the little money they have.

to claw back the millions they owe by mining for gold.

This is my passion.

I love gold mining.

Absolutely love it.

I think mine and my brother's worth ethic came from my dad, and we're just

to carry it on and help out our family business.

Brady and I have a pretty good relationship. He does complain a little

I give him the jobs, but they've got to be done, and he knows that, so he goes

and gets them done.

Taking orders from my brother.

Obviously, brothers, we butt heads sometimes.

He's shown me everything that I know up there.

He is the boss, so got to respect that.

The brothers have been fixing heavy machinery since they were kids,

they will need in the remote Yukon.

We're hoping to hit her good this season. We're going to work her ass off.

We're coming up to this season with bigger equipment, more equipment, and

manpower.

Last season, Brandon and Brady joined forces with second -year miner Fred

We'll pull from my area, your area, just get dirt around this season. And we can

just split the goal 50 -50.

We got a deal. I'm down with it.

Agreeing to share their home -built wash plant, the Dirt Devil, in exchange for

pay, led to the Claytons' best season ever.

38 .66.

Pretty good for you as well, right? Yeah, I'm happy with that, yeah.

This year they plan to mine Solo to increase profit and pay off their family

debt faster.

Yeah, the last thing we want to do is let you down, so we're going to do

everything we can to keep that going strong.

You don't have to worry about ever letting me down.

I'm pretty proud of you guys, so I know it's tough slugging up here.

And I know you guys work hard, so you don't have to worry about ever letting

down. You do your best, and that's all we can ask for.

Delayed by two weeks fixing faulty equipment, the brothers are finally

make the three -day drive to the Yukon.

You know, the pressure's already on. We should be in the Yukon at California

Creek running gold by now, and we're not, so we've got to hustle it up.

It's very humbling to hear that your kids are invested as much as they are.

They could go on and do whatever they want because they're very talented

in many areas.

They just want to contribute and do it all together.

Yukon, here we come. Let's go get some gold.

I just landed here in Fairbanks.

We've got a mountain to do in the Yukon still, so it's a lot to juggle, you

know?

Nearly three weeks into the season, Parker has left his crew running his

mine to make a start on his new operation in Alaska.

Anytime you start getting very spread out, it's pretty high risk.

If I can't figure out how to get something to work in two different

Frank shouldn't be doing that.

To make matters worse, a four -month delay on his new wash plant, designed to

tackle Alaska's deep, clay -riddled ground, has left Parker's plans shot to

pieces.

Now he must face up to legendary Alaskan landowner, John Reeves.

So basically, I don't know how big of a season we're going to be able to have

here because by the time the new plant for Fairbanks is built, most of the

season is going to be gone.

And John really wants us to be doing at least 1 ,000 ounces a year.

That might prove problematic.

Worst case scenario, things could get a little bit nasty.

Hi. Hi. How are you? Good. How are you? Welcome to Fairbanks. Hey, John.

Welcome back, dude.

Hi, Drew.

Good to see you. Good to see you, too. Have a seat. Oh, thanks.

John's daughter, Elora, works for the family business with her husband, Drew.

So what's new?

Well, down the barrel of our main permit in the Yukon is expiring at the end of

this mining season.

So we have to have that whole block of ground mined and reclaimed by the

end of the season. But we're just flammed over there.

I understand you're a busy guy.

And you got some big operations going. And this is going to be another big

operation. So what's your plan, dude?

I wish I had some good news about this whole operation right now, but I don't.

We spent a good chunk of the winter designing a plant. We're trying to find

to buy. By the time we hold the trigger on it, the lead time puts us into the,

like, back third of the season.

So you're not thinking you're going to get your plan up here until, what, late

in the summer?

Yeah, right now it's looking like we're going to miss at least two -thirds of

the season.

Yeah, so I don't know what that means for our deal, you know?

Our deal's our deal.

He gave me an advance minimum royalty, which covers this season.

If you say, I'm not going out there, you lost it.

All right.

There is a little bit of a gold rush going on, and with things happening in

economy, a lot of people go to gold as a hedge. So we've got a lot of miners,

and there is a lot of outside interest.

I'm still committed to the project.

I'm still committed to the ground, and we'll make it work. One way or another,

we'll make it work.

Right now, I don't know what that looks like.

It's a tricky business that you're in.

What would help, Delora and Jordan have been out there prospecting for quite a

few years, maybe 10 years.

We're at a stage now where I could definitely use all the help we can get.

You might need to get creative.

We kind of know some spots that are pretty good.

So there might be something that can keep you afloat, you know, while you're

waiting for your pretty machine. On Cleary Creek.

On Cleary Creek, some old drift mines.

Maybe I'll have to twist your arm and try to get your secret spots figured

Can I show them where there's some gold out there on top?

Yeah. Thanks, guys.

I'll be back soon, hopefully.

And we'll put a plan together and we'll start whaling some dirt out there and

finding some gold.

All right. All right, dude.

Thank you.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Appreciate it. I'll show you around.

All right, man. Looking forward to it.

If Parker is to have a successful season, he now needs to come up with a

mining plan.

Overall, that seemed to go pretty well. You know, it seems like John and Drew

and Elora all understand that we're really under the gun. We're fighting a

battle on all fronts.

We're fighting, you know, just supply chain issues.

The big thing is just I do want to get this project going and make it happen.

Tony Beetz is desperate to start sluicing, but he needs water, and the

the pump is blocked with ice.

Veteran miner Len Hoekstra has spent a day clearing ice from the top half of

pipe. closest to the pump.

When

testing

the lower end of the pipe through an access vent, Tony comes up against more

ice. It could take Len another 12 hours to steam the bottom of the pipe out.

This downtime will cost Tony $36 ,000 in wages, fuel, and gold he

can't yet mine.

We'll make it all work somehow.

Well, once we get the water to go through it by itself, then that will cut

last of the ice out. All we need is a little hole to get started, and then

bingo, we would be in business.

Mike D. Garvey, Michael B. Z. Garvey. Can you come to the pump?

Okay.

Tony's plan, open a channel to the river and fill the pond.

15 feet more water will increase the pressure on the ice in the pipe by seven

pounds per square inch, which should be enough to force out the frozen blockage.

If that worked, we're in business.

We have a bunch of pay ready.

So that thing, before we can get solutions to make our pump get going.

The Beats family races to get onto some gold.

But first, to send water to the wash plant, they need their frozen pipes

of ice.

Here we have water.

As you can see, we've got a full pipe of water, meaning all the ice has been

blown out.

How's that look?

Beautiful. So we're all ready to fire up?

Yeah, everything up top should be good to go.

It's pretty cold though, huh?

Yes, and I don't think the preheat works on this one, Harold.

Okay. So what would you like to do? Would you like to close it up and put

heat in it?

Might as well.

Because you know as well as I do, when that thing is cold, it's just horrible

trying to get it going. Yes.

No, that sounds pretty rough. So why don't I bring in that heater vent? Yeah.

We'll hook it up. We'll close it up.

and then we'll let it sit there for an hour and be nicely heated up.

To get the pump running, Tony needs another essential piece of kit.

The heater truck blasts hot air to warm up any cold mechanical equipment to

ensure a smooth start -up.

Well, it is still pulled out, so it is nice to heat up the whole engine because

then it starts up so much smoother.

Because most of you are aware on an engine, it's pretty much in the first 30

seconds to a minute.

Because it bangs and it clangs.

This way, this may start up nice and smooth.

Once we get this thing running for half an hour, we are ready to pump water up

the hill.

Then we should be ready to flush.

Oh, there she goes. Bingo.

Okay,

let's see if them things are on.

makes my wife happy to get the wash plan going the girl is a lot easier to

handle when i bring in money instead of taking it all out okay three two one

boom

Perfect. Running.

A day behind schedule, the water pump is up and running.

So Tony's finally ready to get his 30 -year -old trommel turning.

Overall, so far, it looks pretty good, I think.

Let's make some money.

Get fired up.

Okay, open it up, go in here, water.

Mike, who's locked everything on?

Okay, Peter, Mike, fire to Peter.

Hey, Mike.

Peter, oh.

You got it already?

Okay,

we'll be dropping the fucking ball then.

After two weeks mining.

Tony's finally running the Cold Cut's gold -rich white channel pay.

The first step on the long road to his 5 ,000 -ounce goal.

It's all been good. I get back up and going.

I mean, after all this tripping and spending money, as nice as it got

can get some of your money back, right?

We're stoked to be here, but we need to hit the ground running.

After a three -day, 1 ,700 -mile drive, 23 -year -old mine boss Brandon

Clayton and his brother Brady finally arrive in Dawson City.

We're already late.

We're going to have a tough time trying to make our 500 -ounce season goal

already.

My brother and I want to help out with the family debt, and we want to get that

paid off.

We're on our way to check out our equipment right now. It's not all winter

We've got to get things on the go and as quick as we can to get out to

California Creek and start washing dirt.

The Clayton brothers left their vital D8 dozer locked up in town in the off

-season.

Let's see how she starts.

Wow, look at that. Not bad at all.

Is that all winter?

She's parted right out.

Not bad.

What the heck's going on here?

That didn't seem right.

She doesn't want to move in first.

There's something wrong, eh?

It's holding itself.

I'll go find Shane.

Okay. Shane!

What's happening, Brandon?

Crew member mechanic Shane Collew works for the family construction business.

So when I put it in gear, it's like slipping almost. It's not moving.

But at second gear, it works just fine.

Nothing's wrong.

But first gear, it just doesn't.

Something's not clicking right.

We'll pull the filters and take them out, tear them apart, and see if we can

find anything inside. Okay.

Shane has a quick test to find out if the cogs in the transmission are

Any filing we find in here would be we've got something coming apart inside

transmission. That's why we don't have first gear possibly.

Metal filings in the gearbox come from the gear cogs grinding abnormally.

Can you grab this, Brandon?

A surefire sign that the transmission is damaged.

Look at the crap in here.

That's bad.

Holy.

Yeah, I think you got a lot of metal filings.

We need that cap to be stripping. I can't even run dirt.

Putting new filters in ain't going to help it.

Got to get a transmission up here.

A transmission?

Oh, yeah. Holy.

We're down before we even started.

We were hoping to be washing dirt in a week, but realistically that is not

happening anymore.

I don't know what to do. We'll have to see how quick we can get a transmission

and see what it's worth, too.

We don't have a whole lot of money.

Hello? Yeah, where's Dad?

Well, I don't know where he disappeared to. He might be downstairs because we're

out of water.

Oh. Okay.

Yeah,

Dad.

We just got up here, and we're actually going through the equipment, and we

started the dozer up.

Shane wanted to look at the filters, so we pulled them apart, and they're full

of filings and dirt, so it's gone. We kind of need a transmission,

unfortunately.

I don't know how much it's going to cost, but don't really have a choice,

unfortunately.

We can't do anything without that dozer.

Okay,

awesome. Thank you. I love you, so let me know what you can find.

It feels like we're coming here with our hands tied behind our backs and just

getting punched in the face.

It's not the way to start a season.

Already over two weeks behind schedule, Fred's entire claim, including last

year's cuts, is buried under a thick block of ice.

Until it's melted, Fred can't mine for gold.

As the leader, I brought these guys here for success, to find gold, and to bring

that home to their families. And now we're going to have to fight to even get

started.

Wow, look at that. There's no break. It's all the way.

Getting 500 ounces was already a tall order, but now it's going to be a

monumental task.

Our entire infrastructure is gone.

All right, guys.

If we don't break this ice up, we're going to be sitting here losing money.

ice has to go. The only goal, guys, my overall plan is to find a section of

water that's deep enough to put the pump in, pump the water back up over the

ice. That should facilitate the melt faster.

Our overall objective is to get to our gear, get that water pump running, and

just brush water over the top of the ice as much as possible.

Without access there, we can't do any of it. So this is exactly how we're going

to do it. I'm going to bring the excavator down here, and I'll walk up on

ice slowly, try and break the ice with the bucket.

If that works great, we can just start peeling it up and move through pretty

quickly.

Fred's plan.

Use his 24 -ton excavator.

to cut a path through the side of the glacier all the way to an access road on

the other side.

Next, haul his six -inch pump into position at the top of his claim and

creek water on top of the ice to help it melt and wash away.

One false move and Fred could fall through the ice.

Constantly we have to be testing this ice, and you guys have to have your eyes

on it. Because if it starts shifting, I need to know immediately.

You know, I really trust Fred. I trust his ability. I trust what he's capable

doing on the excavator. But, you know, there's no amount of gold that is going

to be worth Fred getting injured.

Somebody's got to do it, and I don't want anybody else doing it, so...

I am a little nervous about this, not gonna lie.

Ex -recon sniper Stuart and Fred's stepson Christopher act as spotters.

Looking for signs of any weak points in the ice.

Oh, that broke.

What's the ice doing now?

Is it holding me?

Feels fine.

You're good, man. Ice is good. It ain't moving. It ain't cracking nothing.

I'm going to try. I'm going to go a little bit forward.

Walk aboard.

Line your tracks up right there, and you should be good.

Oh.

Oh. Oh, nice.

Hold.

I thought the wind just, like, came up and just hit me.

Crazy.

I'm going to turn around.

to kind of scrape, let the sun weaken it.

And now I'm coming back at it a second time and it is coming up a little

Yeah, it's melting.

There's water underneath this ice.

And now that we've melted it, it's starting to break through.

Figured we could just scrape across the top and drive, but now I've got to go

through this water hole to get over here to drain it.

Way more complicated than I thought.

If Fred loses his only operational excavator, his season will be over

it's even started.

Get up, get up, get up, get up.

Come on!

You may be winning this battle, but we're going to win this war.

Good job, man.

Woo -wee!

Fred is in touching distance of dry land.

Golly, this is nothing I want to be doing right now.

It's a big crack in front of me. Don't even know if it's safe.

Okay, well, I'm back.

Jeez Louise.

I'm just going to go to land.

Whoa, I'm sliding. I'm sliding.

Woo!

Golly, that was not fun.

That's about as good as I'm going to get it.

Oh, dude.

Oh,

you're alive.

Yeah. Good job, bro. That was nerve -wracking, dude.

Good job.

Path complete.

Fred is one step closer to clearing the ice and getting on the gold.

We know now that we can drive over it. Yeah. I see it draining. I see it not

getting any lower.

We're going to have to come back tomorrow.

Having spent $2 million stripping the 130 -foot -deep cold cut,

Tony Beats is finally running the pay dirt he hopes will deliver half of his 5

,000 -ounce season goal.

Yep, send me what you got and I'll slam her through.

On the pay pile, high school friends Ruby and Megan work in tandem to feed

trommel 200 yards an hour.

So one of the hard things about managing the pay pile is having to deal with

rock chunks.

So you try to smash it up as much as you can, but you're also busy trying to

keep up with everybody.

Hopefully these big frozen chunks won't last for too long and we can get some

good gold out of this stuff.

Kind of put the nightmare squad back together for a little bit.

We should do like a bucket wave at each other.

We could do that.

I want to make sure everything runs smooth and that they put enough

material on that feeder.

Worst thing is if they browned up there.

They looked at that thing going off the boat.

Pay attention to them, would you please?

I'd rather learn how to beat it than get something like that off the hull.

You got to sort it before you do it. I got no time for that crap.

Is that a second chunk?

There wasn't enough. This is a steak.

This season,

Tony's looking to 31 -year -old son Mike to step up and run the crew.

Make sure that everything runs smoothly, right? When I'm gone, it's nice that

they don't have no problems.

Okay. See you guys in New York.

I'm watching the feeder and the conveyor to see if any big, big, big chunks have

to worry about going to pop out.

The whole operator's supposed to watch them.

But I understand why she misses something sometimes, because they are

just frozen chunks of paint.

Danny Impostor will tell the difference.

Watch out!

A chunk of frozen pay dirt has jammed the top of the feed conveyor, forcing

to shut down.

He's got to watch a little bit more carefully for them. All he wants is for

things to go through.

At the other end of the conveyor, the frozen pay has clogged the hopper

It's a shame I don't smoke anymore. I really want to do it right now. Jesus

Christ.

trying to break it up and trying to get it out and hopefully the belt moves.

It is moving.

Let's try bumping it. See if we can get it in the move.

So everybody off the conveyor, super play.

To dislodge the blockage, Kevin plans to bump it by surging the belt.

When it's really bound up and you just press play, the belt's going to either

spin and get stuck.

And it's just not going to go. You bump it, short little boom. So strong pull

stop. Strong pull stop.

Get a little bit of a roll back and then boom.

And a boom.

It's definitely frustrating whenever we're down.

We give or take lose about $25 a minute whenever this thing is down.

Pardon me?

I think it's $50 these days. It's $50 these days. Okay.

So, yeah, we're losing $50 a minute with plant being down. Right now it doesn't

seem like we're having a whole lot of luck.

Hey guys!

Mike and Kevin have got the wash plant back up and running.

Tony's taking a bit more of a step back.

So there's a lot more pressure on me and Mike this year. We spent a lot of money

getting new equipment so we could strip that cold cut.

So me and Mike are going to have to hit it hard to keep the struggle going.

All the times going up to the Yukon, never made it into Alaska.

It's your first time? Yeah.

You going to give me the grand tour?

Yeah, I have a pilot there.

20 miles north of Fairbanks, Parker Schnabel must rethink his entire Alaskan

mining plan.

To help, he's brought in his trusted right -hand man, Mitch Plaschke.

So what led you to this place and all the places you've looked for ground?

It's deeper but much richer, which is not always a good trade -off, as

we well know.

Last year, Parker drilled test holes through deep clay -packed ground and hit

pay streak four times richer than his Yukon claims.

But a four -month delay to the wash plant he designed for this ground means

digging deep is not an option.

How are you?

This is Mitch. Nice to meet you.

I'm really just trying to get Mitch's head wrapped around all of this right

He's a tough sell, so I might need your guys' help.

Claim owner John Reeves' daughter, Elora, and husband, Drew, think there

be a way to salvage his season on this historic ground.

There's a lot of gold to be found out here, so I'll show you, you know, where

I've had success.

You can go right up here to this one.

So is that the conveyor you want me to use here, or what?

So they had it.

Is it on train tracks?

Yeah.

When you look at the overall design, I mean, it's got impact rollers on the

bottom end of it.

The way the wiper is on the lower section there, it's actually...

Pretty darn similar. Yeah, considering it was from, like, what, the early 50s?

I don't know when they built it, but they definitely used it between 52 to

Gotcha. Pretty crazy just walking around here and seeing this. I mean, an old

conveyor in the woods here.

It's very similar to our conveyors, even though this one's probably 70 years

older. No way, it's on tracks?

Yeah.

Dude,

that is sick.

It looks like it's built on an old tank.

Mitch's fascination with old -timer workings could also help the treasure

You know, seeing this size of equipment out here, how complex it is, how well

this is all put together, it definitely concerns me on, well, if they did this

good of a job here, how good of a job did they do in the cut? What did they

actually leave behind? We're here to try and find anything they left.

But looking at this, it looks like they really have it together.

What do you got over here, old dredge buckets?

Like a piece of punch plate out of the trommel here?

And this almost looks like an old section of trommel screen.

I wonder.

That thing's really small, though. Yeah, so that's what I'm thinking, right?

Yeah, I mean, we're running half -inch bottom deck on Big Red. This is a lot

tighter than that, obviously.

The more we know about what they did and how they did it, I think the more it's

going to help us out. Yeah, for sure.

And it means any gold bigger than that.

They left behind for y 'all.

Exactly. Yeah.

Elora leads them further into the claim to prospect an area first mined in the

early 1900s.

Nothing in that one.

This would be all drift tailings, right?

Yep. All this area is drift tailings. And we've punched several holes.

And just because you don't find gold in one pan doesn't mean you won't in the

next. We're used to not finding gold panning.

It's easy to do.

So all of this was brought up through shafts? Yeah, before the dredges came

through, they drift mined this whole area.

So there's a layer where there's going to be gold. So they would channel down,

get underneath, get down to the pay layer. They'd have a shaft, exactly.

The old -timers excavated shafts through concrete -like permafrost up to 100

feet deep until hitting pay dirt above bedrock.

Then they drift mined horizontally and hauled out the seam of gold back to the

surface, where they washed the pay dirt through primitive sluice boxes,

leaving some of the gold in their tailings. They left some in this. This

be pretty easy pickings. It's sitting up here on the top, but...

Yeah, so this would have been put here 100 years ago and just ran through some

super crude sluice box.

Yeah.

All right, Elora, it's your turn to show us where the gold is. I'm not getting

the job done.

All right, you can see that pile over there.

A lot of times with tailings, if you see birch trees growing out of it, they've

got roots, there's gravel, there could be gold.

Go find it, Nugget.

This is our spot.

Mitch, you want to give it a go?

There we go.

Let's see what's in it. All right.

If the old -timers have left gold behind in the tailings, it could be a game

-changer. Quick and easy ground for Parker to mine when his wash plant

arrives. I think you're going to want to see this.

See, this is why I get so frustrated with panning, is I just, like, pan duds

over the place.

Well, you're going to want to definitely take a look at this.

It's already peeking on the side.

This is like the best pan I've ever had.

Oh, yeah.

That's insane.

Yeah, there's some gold there.

That's very good.

Lake, I'm shook.

Not only have the old -timers left them fine gold.

Their sluices missed sizable chunks that Parker can mine right away with any

wash plant.

That's wild.

There's a spark. We're on the board, Mitch.

Well, that's an awesome pan.

If we're going to be mining here, we're going to have to move all this stuff

anyway. So it only makes sense to slam it through the plant.

Yeah, I like it. I mean, if you can sluice it, you don't have to strip it. I

feel really confident that we can have a successful seize out here.

We have a lot of work ahead of us and we're already behind the eight ball.

23 -year -old Brandon Clayton is stuck in Dawson until he can fix his D8 dozer

and haul it up to California Creek to start mining.

Ta -da!

His dad has sourced him a second -hand refurbished transmission.

Unable to pay for a workshop and a team of specialist mechanics, they'll attempt

to replace it in the yard.

with mechanic Shane.

We can't really afford that new tran either, and it definitely wasn't easy on

the pocket, so we just got to make sure this one works and we don't wreck it.

We'll slide the ripper off so we can get at that transmission to get it taken

out. How are we making out, Shane?

Not very good.

The pins aren't being as agreeable as we'd like them to be. The bottom ones

very sticky.

We're not winning.

So we're going to try maybe these middle pins. Okay. I think I had Brady weld a

piece of chain on to that bolt, and I think we'll see if we can pull on these

middle pins, and maybe it'll make the bottom ones a little easier. Okay. Well,

definitely didn't need this, did we?

No.

Brandon must first take out the DH bolts on the one -ton ripper and remove it.

then carefully remove the old transmission box using a forklift before

installing the new transmission.

At $50 ,000, any mistake could cost them their season.

Basically an extension for the hammer.

Yeah, it'll help us get that pin out.

We're using more time than we want.

Nothing ever goes easy up here. You always got to have a backup plan for

backup plan.

Your welds are probably going to break. Probably.

You're going to have to make a longer one.

Okay, go make a longer one.

What? Fine. No, you don't have any. You're hitting the rail more than you

the bar.

I'm waving it. Well, you can't hold it. You're hitting the, look it.

We're hitting the seal. We're going to put the seal.

Thank God he's exhaustion and I'm getting angry.

Let's hope this doesn't break now.

Brandon now uses a forklift to haul out the broken one -ton transmission.

See what it does here?

Oh, there we go.

Just go back slow.

Going straight up.

Backwards a bit?

Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There.

Ta -da!

Kind of a risky situation doing this job outdoors.

Typically, it would be done in a shop.

We currently have a $50 ,000 transmission suspended in the air here,

got to be very delicate that we don't hit any bumps.

We definitely don't want to get it dirty or break the housing.

She's there.

It's home.

Transplant complete.

Now they need to check if the new transmission will allow Brandon to

first to second gear.

All right, here we go.

We'll try second now.

Oh, boy.

All good?

Everything's good. It's instant.

First gear's instant.

Second's instant.

Awesome. That's excellent.

Good job, kid.

Good job, guys.

Yes. We're back to mining, boys.

Our season's back on track.

How's it look?

At California Creek, a quarter -mile -long, 30 -foot -thick ice sheet

blocks Fred Lewis from mining his claim.

He's cut a path across the ice to reach vital equipment on the other side of the

creek.

You know, there's just never a time in my life I see something as impossible.

Improbable? Definitely.

Impossible? Never.

This is just the latest challenge for Fred and Stuart, who served on tours in

Iraq and Afghanistan.

There's multiple times where I'd be like, but I've broken both my legs,

You're like, so?

Well, you know, I took a round to the helmet in Afghanistan and ended up

out I had a bruise on my brain.

The biggest compliment I ever get is when people tell me I don't look

It's also an insult because there's no such thing as a disabled look.

That whole stigma of there being no visible disabilities needs to go away.

Like, I'm sorry you can't see the bruises on my brain. I'm sorry.

I wish there was a sign on my head that said, hey, his brain's bruised. But when

I introduced myself before gold mining, I had a really hard time.

People would say, what do you do? And I would say, I'm a disabled veteran.

And that got to the point where that was how I identified myself. Now when

people ask me what I do, I say I'm a gold miner.

After cutting a path through the ice, Fred leads his crew to the six -inch

which he plans to use to melt the ice holding their claim and pay dirt

We got her.

The next stage

of the plan, get the pump set and ready to shoot water.

All right, I don't trust this chain very well.

Okay, lifting.

I'm going to swing it around. Everybody clear?

We dropped this pump, guys. We are done.

I'm going forward.

Careful, careful.

All right, Christopher, chalk the wheel behind it.

Fred, you're good.

Let's get those hoses down there and get them hooked up.

Oh.

If one of us falls, then we're not coming out.

Pick up on it a little bit, Fred. Let's do the intake while we're waiting for

the rope. Look out, Christopher.

That's deep.

We're taking our main pump, and we're going to turn it into a fire hose to run

water on top of this site.

I thought this was the most dangerous part, but it's really not.

I'm going to tie a rope to myself and try and get up over here because our

need to be going that way.

Not exactly the best place to be, but there's no other way to get up here. So

once I have a rope on me, if I fall, they can at least pull me back.

Fred, am I cleared to back up?

Once I get up there, I'm not really concerned because it's about 20 feet

But like we're saying the whole time, you look under here, there's some

crevasses and caves.

It could be unsafe, so I'll get a rope tied to me, and hopefully they can pull

me back like a fish if I fall. What I'm thinking is we tie one, like see you

guys, you go tether, and then somebody kind of go down a little bit, so in case

you do go through, you have one more opportunity to grab a rope before you go

the snow tunnel.

If you go underneath, they're going to have to let go of you, otherwise they're

going to drown you.

and you're going to have to shoot out through, and then that will be your last

chance to grab a hold.

Sounds like fun.

I'm just saying, yeah. I don't know if the snow tunnel looks like it goes

through, but we don't know how big it is, so you could very well get stuck

there.

Christopher, I'm going to hand you this. You're going to basically feed it to me

as I go, because if I fall, you don't want any tension, right?

Don't keep it tight where you're pulling me, but at the same time, don't give me

a lot of lead.

Yeah. And I double knotted it so it's not slipping through fingers.

Yeah, that's good. All right.

All right. Well, hey, Fred.

Good luck. We got this. We got this. See you on the other side.

Kind of feels like right before a halo jump in the military. You're all amped

to do it. You can't wait. Then the door opens and you're like, what am I going

to do now?

Fred will be tethered to Chris for support.

But if Fred falls in and is dragged under the glacier at speed.

Chris must release him in the hope his father is flushed quickly out the other

side. So you have just this part around, and then you've got... It's like a

brake. You've got this, and if you have to let go, you just let go. And then

there's not an extra tail, because if there's a tail, it could catch you and

then pull you in.

So just use that as your guideline, and it's going to be a little complicated.

Obviously, if you feel a lot of pressure, if it starts pulling you, you

let go of me, right?

I don't think it's as dangerous.

Famous last words, Christopher.

That's what everybody that died doing anything extreme did.

What's the worst that could happen?

Drowning.

Hyperthermia. Oh, yeah. This is like your biggest fear. Yeah. Drowning. Yeah.

Love you, son.

Fred's first challenge.

Clear a crevasse that could plunge him straight into the freezing water.

Slack.

I'm jumping.

Chris, you got me?

It's a big hole up here. Is there?

I think it might be like top melt, but there's a big hole with a bunch of water

in it.

I can't pull it, guys. You're going to have to help.

Go. Hold.

There we go.

I'm just going to jump onto the bank.

It's only like a four -foot gap.

With the hose in place, it's time to see if Fred's desperate plan will work.

Fire it up.

Oh, here it comes.

Here it comes.

We got water.

We got water going all the way down this channel.

Right where we want it, actually.

Definitely eating through the snow already.

I'm happy he made it. He's safe.

Brent, it's cutting through right through. It's cutting it through.

It's cutting right through it. It's cutting right through it.

Already about a foot.

First success of the season.

God, that ice kicked our asses.

I think that's a huge victory, guys. We probably saved ourselves a week of

floosing here. Yeah, I'm excited, man. Keep pushing, not waiting on our asses,

and we'll be mining before we know it.

Off the mine, we're going to go see what we got going on over there. Apparently,

there's a lot of ice still.

Three weeks into his season,

Brandon Clayton finally makes it to his remote claim on the outer edge of the

Klondike.

We're already late with the transmission, so we need Mother Nature

right now.

Okay.

Let's have a peek -see.

We might be looking for some conveyor rollers.

Looks like they're all gone.

That's a big cough.

Obviously, there's a lot of ice over there, and it's built to creek up, and

took out our conveyor pad, tipped it over. We lost a bunch of rollers, so

going to have to fix all that now.

That'll set us back a bit.

But the valley itself looks pretty good.

Dirt Devil is standing as strong as she could on her post.

I'm sure we'll be washing within a week.

We'll go look over Fred's side there.

See what it looks like.

Oh yeah, Fred.

Yeah, he's gone a while.

He ain't washing for a month.

He's in a lot worse shape than I am.

That's for damn sure.

Hey, Fred.

What's up?

How's it going?

How you doing, neighbor? Not too bad, you?

Good to see you again. You too.

You ready to rumble? You betcha.

So how long until you think you're going to be sluicing?

I'm hoping within a week.

Rap, I thought you had a big piece of ice last season, but we've got like 30

feet thick ice now. Yeah, we traded.

It's crazy.

We're in a bad spot right now.

So what's your season goal this year, buddy? Well, I think me and the team are

shooting for 500.

That's what we're in for. Are you really? Yeah, exactly what we're in for.

think we can do it, too.

What about a good old US v. Canada wager here?

Yeah. How about a case of whiskey?

A case of whiskey? Whoever makes the most.

Yeah, a case of whiskey. Down. Deal. I like this. We'll talk soon. Good luck.

I'll be mine before Fred.

100%. He might have been here earlier, but he definitely has the...

And the stick.

Yeah.

So, Joe's on him. I'm really taking home the win.

Hi, honey. It's me, Joe.

Nom, nom.

Hi, guys.

Long time no see.

I'll start the first one of the season.

That'll be good, huh?

At least we have something to weigh.

On the beat's claim, it's time for the family's first Goldway of the season.

So, how are things?

Pretty good, I think. And we only shoot daytime, right?

Yeah, no night here. It's a little dark.

Three full days, I think.

But did we spend this year anything to get going?

Two, two and a half? No, a couple million.

A couple million bucks?

If you spend, spend, spend, and nothing comes in, and your piggy bank gets

smaller and smaller, I like to replenish it.

Oh, yeah, it can't all just be going out.

No.

Let's see the money we're going to get back, at least the start of it. I think

you guys should weigh it up, see at least what we got in them three days.

Having spent $2 million getting down to pay,

Tony hopes the cold cut will deliver more gold than last season's first week

running. 80 ounces.

Everybody ready? Ready?

Let's do the thing.

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40,

50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75,

80. 85, 90, 95 .3 for three

days, see?

Worth over $170 ,000.

If the Cold Cut's White Channel Pastry continues to deliver, it could easily

make up half of his 5 ,000 -ounce season goal.

There you are, there you are, there you are, yeah.

While Mitch and Parker are gone, I'm in charge of basically the Yukon operation,

keeping Big Red going, making sure we're still moving lots of overburdened

gravel. I want to show them that they can spend as much time as they want in

Alaska or need to, and not be concerned about things over here.

At the airstrip, veteran operator Tyson Lee has been in charge of running Big

Red all week, while Parker and Mitch prepared for their new Alaskan

Welcome home.

How was Alaska?

Interesting. Welcome back.

There's some drift tailings from like the early 1900s. There's quite a bit of

tailing there.

That kind.

I bet all of 50 ,000 yards anyway.

Really? But the tailings, I mean, they're already piled, right?

You're not...

Remove an overburden. Yeah, there's no stripping. We have to show John that

we're serious about mining over there. We have to go get some dirt moves and

him some royalties or else he's going to just get out of there.

We did move some dirt while you guys were gone. Yeah, good. Things went

good. We got some gold away.

Good. Okay, Tyson.

Here's your week, buddy.

Big red right there, man. That's yours.

Ready? Oh, yeah.

Parker expects Big Red at the airstrip to produce around 1 .8 ounces per hour.

This week it ran for 90 hours, so should deliver around 160 ounces.

60, 70, 90, 100,

130, 190, 200.

224 .35.

That's not bad. Not bad.

Nicely done.

Worth $400 ,000.

And, I mean, you got to think about it, too. Big Red's just flogging along.

That must be like two and a half ounces an hour, huh? Yeah.

Yeah, that's not bad.

I'm glad you guys had a successful trip, a safe trip. More importantly, I'm glad

this place is running good. Yeah.

Nicely done.

Need a hand, Dumit?

I got her. Thank you. Don't worry.

Looking nice as always.

Oh, thank you, man.

It's really nice knowing Mitch and Parker can leave and everything's still

moving the way it should. You know, that's what we do out here. We find gold

we move dirt, and hopefully there's a lot more to come.

The trip to Alaska was good. It was productive.

There's so much to do.

So I'm glad this place is running fine without us.

That's important.

Makes me feel better about being able to be gone. And then see how far we can

spread ourselves out without things falling apart.

Should be interesting.