All language subtitles for Gold.Rush.Mine.Rescue.with.Freddy.and.Juan.S06E06.Its.a.Hard-Rock.Life.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeG

If we're not making money,
we're losing everything

within the next week or two.

On this episode of "mine rescue"...

my main lode mine is
about 2,500 yards up,

but we're having issues
with liberating all the gold out.

A one-of-a-kind hard rock operation...

Unfortunately, we're
not running this right now.

Is dead in the water.

This is kind of what we
were planning on working on.

As the miner's future
hangs in the balance.

We're running a placer
operation down below.

I'm about 90% sure that this is tailings.

Not one speck in that.

I mean, I'm really concerned now.

Yeah, me too.

Freddy and Juan must
think outside the box...

I got well over 180 grand invested in this.

We have nothing left.

To get the gold.

Well, let's see what it shoots.

- Wow.
- Holy cow.

Cute, little roadrunner, Freddy.

There's been a lot of history in this area.

Gold built the state of California.

That's why California is
here, is because of gold.

You can see some old hard
rock shafts on the mountains here,

Juan, on the hills.

Yeah, I've seen a couple of them already.

Little outcroppings where
they've done some works.

This miner's a gentleman named Jeff.

He's a hard rock guy,
and the way he talked,

he's struggling pretty bad.

75 miles east of the pacific
coast in southern California,

the runnells' mine sits
within a diverse, mountainous,

desert region.

From the 1870s, this area was renowned

for its rich underground gold.

The nearby good hope shaft
produced over $310 million

in today's money.

And this same good hope
vein runs through miner.

Jeff runnells' small, 20-acre claim.

- Jeff, I assume?
- Yeah, Freddy.

- Nice to meet you, sir.
- Yeah, you too, sir.

- How you doing, Jeff? Juan.
- How you doing, Juan?

So this your hard rock operation?

This is the hard rock operation.

My main lode mine is
about 2,500 yards up.

But unfortunately,
since I last spoke to you,

things have changed dramatically.

We're currently not
running this right now.

This is kind of what we
were planning on working on.

Are you not mining
anymore, or what's going on?

Well, I ran out of money for this up here.

- Ok.
- So we had to shift gears,

another operation down below,
and we're running a little bit

of placer.

I was seeing gold, and
it was quick and easy.

So that's why we moved down there.

Ok, hard rock mining is very expensive.

It is. It is.

How much do you have
invested in all your workings here

and all your equipment?

- About $183,000 last year.
- Yeah.

- Just last year?
- Just the last year.

I'm broke, like, literally
broke, I have nothing left.

We're grasping at straws right now.

If we don't start making
a profit in the next couple

of weeks, this is all getting
packed up put in storage.

I guess that changes
a little bit, you know?

- Yeah.
- We came here thinking we're

gonna work on this plant.

Are you getting decent recovery out

- of the placer plant right now?
- No.

We're not retaining the
gold that I've been seeing

in the samples.

Do you have any gold we can see then?

I do have a little bit of gold.

So this is about the
average size of the placer.

- That's big.
- It's pretty gold.

- That's for darn sure.
- Yeah, it's nice.

- Real wiry.
- So you're mainly

wanting us to help you down there then?

- It's a placer gold, right?
- At this point, yeah.

This is the focus because this is where

we're gonna gain the fastest capital.

Well, you know, right now, I
think I want to go down there

and look at your placer
plant that is running...

Yeah.

And then we can come up with
a game plan of what we can do.

Sure.

I served in the army from '95 until '06.

After several tours overseas,
I sustained multiple injuries,

and then that ultimately
led to spinal cord surgeries,

and I was discharged.

The goal of prospecting was
physical therapy to help me get

out and walking around and,
you know, moving to get everything

back to somewhat normal.

Over the years, gold fever set in,

and Jeff decided to risk
everything to pursue his dream

of mining full-time...

Got the cavalry, all the kids, plus roxy.

Moving his partner, roxy,
and their seven kids to

a house on a rented gold claim.

We moved out here,
and I started prospecting

for hard rock.

I put my entire savings into this,

and financially it just strapped me.

So, I got to make this work.

This is Steve, one of my
dad's real longtime surf buddies.

He's my second man. I
mean, he's my everything.

How you doing, Steve? I'm Juan.

- Hey, Juan, how are you?
- Freddy.

- Good to meet you, you too.
- Nice to meet you, Steve.

- This is the plant?
- Yeah, this is the wash plant.

So what kind of gold,
like on your last cleanup?

The initial test that Steve
and I did, it was showing

really good gold.

The last cleanup we did, it
was the eight-hour run that was

- 1.14 grams for an eight-hour run.
- For an eight-hour run?

- Right.
- Ok, so we're losing gold somewhere.

- That's not good.
- No.

It could be a material too, though.

Yeah, could be the material.

Jeff's gamble is mining
the gullies on his claim for

placer gold using a wash plant
cobbled together from pieces

he already had on site.

So what we like to do is
we want to do a four-hour

- test run.
- Ok.

And Freddy and I, we're
just gonna stand back,

watch your guys' process,
and then we'll go from there.

Awesome. Let's wash some gravel.

Do it.

We got here this morning,
expected to be working

on a hard rock.

And, you know, got thrown
a curveball right off the bat.

I understand where he's
going with it, because he doesn't

have the resources left
to run the hard rock stuff.

It costs a lot more money to run that.

With a placer operation,
probably every stream

in California has potential to
have some amount of gold in it.

But that doesn't mean there's
good enough gold everywhere

to make money.

First bucket, Juan.

Pay dirt is tipped into
a homemade hopper

where plastic pipe offcuts wash
the material across a screen.

Operator Steve uses an old
plank of wood to shake the pay

out into the sluices below.

You know, I've been with
Jeff since he got this place

up and running.

We've worked through thick
and thin, from inside to out.

It would be devastating
for this to go away.

- What are you doing, puppy?
- Hey, pup pup!

I came here to help him.

And if we fail, then I'm kind of a failure.

So hopefully Freddy and Juan
can help get us through this

dire situation.

You know, just starting out,
that hopper that he repurposed

with that little grizzly on
there, it's a bottleneck.

They've only been
running a few minutes,

and it's already plugged up.

There's already a laundry
list of things that we could do.

Take some test pans. Go to the pay pile.

I'm gonna take a look at the sluice box.

See you in a bit, buddy.

I can actually feel down
there, the riffle itself is above

the mat and it's allowing
that material just to blow out

of the riffle. So, half of that box

is not doing anything.

With Jeff and Steve earning
so little from their last run,

Freddy checks the
quality of their pay dirt.

We're just gonna take a
little from here and take

handfuls from all over
this pile for this next pan.

That way you aren't
getting all your material

from the same spot.

This ought to be fun.

Not one speck in that.

See, there's no gold in there.

Nothing.

So, that's a bad sign.

What even makes
this more disheartening

is Jeff's on his last legs here.

You know, without getting on
to some gold and recovering it,

you know, he's pretty
much out of business.

What you got there?

Well, I pan in the pay
pile that he's feeding

through the plant. Nothing.

I even had my grandpa glasses on.

Nothing even resembles gold in that one.

Right now, he's just
wasting money, Juan.

Yeah, I think you shut him down, Fred.

- I think so, too.
- Honestly.

- Hey, Jeff.
- Yeah?

We're at two hours right
now. Let's shut it down.

All right.

And the reason why...

I've been panning all over the place.

I haven't found one single
color out of this material,

- not one.
- Really?

Not one.

You're wasting money
on gas, diesel, labor.

Still think you need to clean this up.

- Yeah.
- Right?

- And have a look at it.
- Right.

Because who knows, you
may have had one bucket

in there that had some gold in it.

- Right.
- Right?

All right, well, I'll get this box cleaned up

and see what it, see what it does.

Thank you, sir, sorry for
being a bearer of bad news.

That's all good. Thanks.

Weighing the gold from the test run

will give Freddy and
Juan a larger-scale sample

of Jeff's placer pay dirt.

Well, it's been kind of a weird day,

that's for dang sure.

He's no longer running
the hard rock operation.

And come to find out that
the placer mine may not be

viable either.

So basically right now,
we're at this property's mercy,

you know?

- That's really all I can say.
- Now I'm nervous.

Now I'm pretty nervous.

Either we're gonna get gold,

and we're gonna succeed,
or the next week that runs by,

we gotta pack up and I gotta leave.

And that'll be it for this.

Ok, a pan and a bowl. All
right, you want pancakes?

- Yeah, please.
- You want to do just plain,

and then you guys
can top it how you want?

- Yeah.
- All right.

Ahead of miner Jeff's first
gold weigh, it's breakfast time

in the runnells' household.

That test run was horrible.

- Yeah.
- Like, worst I've ever seen.

I'm just, I'm hoping that
they can find a way to

- fix it, you know?
- Yeah.

Roxy's my fiancée of five years now.

Between the two of us, we
have seven kids together,

ranging from 19 down to six.

You can use maple syrup instead.

She's absolutely my rock.

She dove into this

just head first and has been
supporting me the entire time.

I would describe Jeff as
my best friend, first of all.

And it's been his dream for a long time.

Being able to build something
that's ours and his and that's

something we can
leave behind for the kids,

and it just means a lot.

- You want eggs, Ella?
- Yes, please.

Yeah. You want a little plate?

Financially, right now, we
sunk everything we have

into this. Him, me, Steve.

I mean, we're all in it.

We're a team, and...

We're gonna keep going
because we don't quit,

certainly not.

Sorry.

It is a very real situation.

A very, very real situation.
If this doesn't work, then...

We're all back to square one.

- Morning.
- Good morning.

- How's it going?
- Good morning, Jeff.

With a looming deadline that
could shut down his mining

aspirations, Jeff braces
for the placer gold weigh.

You probably didn't sleep
last night thinking about it.

- No, not at all.
- It's your gold.

Dump her in there and
let's see what you got, sir.

All right.

- Less than a gram.
- Yeah.

Doesn't look like much.

Oof.

- Half a gram for two hours.
- Yeah.

That's actually probably
$20 worth of gold.

With the black sand, yeah.

If we're gonna keep on running this,

then you're just working to lose money.

- Yeah.
- That's what you're doing.

- Big time.
- Right.

The two-hour test run cost $150 in fuel,

meaning running the
wash plant has put Jeff

$130 out of pocket.

In a full day's run, the
Max he could make on

the material he's running is $80.

You know, either way,
it's very unsustainable.

You know that as well.

Yeah, I got kids I got to feed.

That don't do it.

No, you're actually taking
food out of their mouth

to mine right now.

Can't be doing that. You
know, I think the biggest thing

that we're gonna have
to do here is prospecting.

There's only one way to
find out if there's enough gold

- in there and let's get after it.
- Ok.

It don't look good.

Doesn't look good on me, it
doesn't look good on Steve.

Freddy and Juan, they're our last hope.

I mean, this is it.

Well, right now, there's really no point for

Juan and myself to start a
game plan or doing any fixes until

we find out if there's
gold left in the ground.

We got to prospect the rest of
Jeff's land and see if we can't

turn around the situation here.

Just trying to read a few things here.

Yeah, for sure.

This doesn't look natural to me.

I'm about 90% sure that this is tailings.

I'm guessing 1800s.

Tailings, old waste piles
from previous placer mining,

means Jeff's spring beds
or draws have been almost

entirely mined out.

I mean, I'm really concerned now.

Yeah, me too.

You got some placer,
but it's super low-grade.

Figure, well, $5 a yard
on this, if we run 80 yards,

and then we can
make that difference up.

Doesn't matter, though,
because it's still not

- even close to being enough.
- It's not enough.

You know, a little tough
love, you're gonna have to get

the gold fever out of the equation

because numbers are numbers.

Jeff thinks that, you
know, a few dollars worth

of gold per yard is gonna
get him by, which is wrong.

You know, the price of fuel,
the price of parts, so forth.

You're still going broke, right?

- This is done.
- Dead in the water?

Yep.

Basically, you know, the placer's gone.

And what placer he has
left that he, like we ran in that

first test, worthless.

Need to get with Juan,
put our heads together,

and see where we go from here.

Awesome. Thank you.

- That looks really good.
- Gracias.

- De nada.
- Gracias, muy am able.

What scares me is he thinks
his money is with the placer,

but the placer is completely worthless.

We're kind of in a tight spot here.

Yeah, and we only
have so many days here.

Well, why don't we prospect
the hard rock as well?

Because that's his dream, right?

And if there's gold,
maybe we can figure a way

to be able to do it and get the gold out

without breaking the bank.

I think that's a good idea, Juan.

I might call a friend of
mine and bring him in.

He's got some technology
that might be very helpful.

Ok.

I'm gonna run up to his hard rock mill.

Let's really figure out what's
there and see what we can do to

- make some improvements on it.
- Let's do it, buddy.

- Let's do it.
- You want to know something?

This is flipping hot for a gringo.

A little rough?

Coming up...

This whole mountain range produced

millions of dollars of gold.

Let's see what it shoots, Dave.

Wow.

- How's it going, Dave?
- Hey, Fred, how you doing?

On the runnells' claim, in the shadow of.

California's legendary good hope mine...

- Jeff, this is Dave, a friend of mine.
- Hi, nice to meet you.

We've known each other
for a couple decades now.

Freddy's hard rock expert,
Dave emslie, arrives on site to

prospect Jeff's underground shaft.

Let's have a look at the
vein structure up there.

Yeah, we'll see what we find.

Over at the hard rock mill site,

Juan turns his attention to the state

of Jeff's hard rock
plant in a hail-Mary hope,

of making the runnell's
mine fully operational again.

These hammers are way wore out.

Working properly, rocks
are fed into a hopper and then

crushed using these
steel hammers in a mill.

So, inside we've got this
rotating assembly that has

the hammers hanging onto it.

The centrifugal force pushes
those hammers out and it starts

breaking up that material
until it can finally fall

through the screen.

But if you look at these,
these are the old hammers.

You can see how wore out they are.

The material doesn't break up as quickly,

we're gonna have to do better than that.

A few thousand feet up the mountain...

Well, here it is, Dave.

Look at that. Nice.

Dave holds the key to unlocking Jeff's

hard rock gold, a
state-of-the-art, $50,000 xrf gun.

So this is an X-ray spectrometer.

It's a radioactive omitting device,

but we can take this machine,

point at a rock, pull the trigger.

It sends an X-ray out,
and what reflects back

will tell us what minerals are in the rock,

what metals are in the rock.

So, for example, if I shoot a watch...

it shows me percentage of gold,

percentage of silver, et cetera, instantly.

What normally takes 72 hours to do

can be done inside of a minute.

Lead the way, Jeff.

The whole point by bringing
Dave in is to pinpoint,

you know, the hotter spots
in that vein system up there.

Fingers crossed that we find
something that's worthwhile

for Jeff in there.

And we can save his
home and his livelihood,

but, you know, it's all a gamble.

So this is the main working area.

The main ore bodies
on the left-hand side

- stretches in.
- That's a decent size vein.

Well, I think we ought to
do a little bit of testing on it.

Let's see what it shoots, Dave.

What about this piece here?

Nothing good on that one.

How deep back does she go?

Probably about 3 or 400 feet.

The inherent problem
with hard rock is its never

consistent in veins, you
know, they pinch and they swell

and they get richer and they get poorer.

So, you can go two feet, it
will be completely different.

Try the center of the vein there.

Yeah.

We're seeing some silver, copper,

some nickel, lots of iron.

When we get some of
the base metals in there,

that's a good sign there's
gonna be gold presence as well.

That's showing about 30 grams a ton.

- 30 grams a ton.
- Yeah, that's a good sign.

30 grams translates to $3,200 a ton.

A fully functioning hard
rock operation could process

around 40 tons a day, bringing
in up to $640,000 per week.

So that's shooting about
40 grams a ton right there.

The most accurate way is
actually take a pile of dust

and see what we get on the dust.

So that's showing about
4 ounces a ton right now.

This whole mountain
range historically produced

millions of dollars of the gold.

So this main complex is
gonna be offshoots of that.

The trick is, is just
getting it out of the ground.

Right.

It's a time-consuming
and expensive process.

It is.

Blasting ore from the
rock takes investment.

Jeff doesn't have.

So for now, the gold remains
trapped in the mountain.

There's an ore pile on
the outside of the mine.

Let's look at it.

But Freddy's got one more place to test.

This is all the recent stuff
that I pulled out from the mine

- when we cleaned it out.
- Ok.

Historical is all on the right.

- That looks historical, ok.
- Yeah.

The waste tailings pile are
unprocessed from the 1800s

when old-timers blasted
then dumped lower-grade ore.

All right, well, let's take a couple samples

and see what we can get.

It's gonna be a mix of stuff.

An old ore pile was too
low-grade for the old-timers,

but at today's gold price, it
may have enough gold in it

to make it worthwhile.

This is showing 19 grams,

so half an ounce.

Wow.

So that's good.

With gold at $3,200 an ounce,
this mixed grade old-timers

waste pile could be worth millions.

You can literally just
shovel it up right now,

crush it, grind it, table it.

And who knows, once you
run this, it may bankroll you

enough that you can get
the rest of this stuff going.

- Awesome.
- You know what?

To find out there are
decent values, that's kind of

a godsend, because even
on a smaller scale I think Jeff

can get by, and he can also
go a bit larger scale once he gets

some money in his pocket,
and now, you know, I need to go

make a game plan with
Juan, get our ducks in a row,

and figure out exactly
what we need to do here.

- How you doing, Jeff?
- How's it going?

With just 48 hours to get Jeff
making enough gold to save

his family home, Freddy and Juan pivot

on an accelerated plan.

We're gonna turn this
into kind of a two-part thing.

We know you can't afford to
run your hard rock operation

right now, so we're gonna get
a small hard rock plant going.

We're gonna put a sluice box
under it where you can actually

start getting the ore, get
some money together.

Ultimately, hard rock
mining is the big boy mining.

You know, it takes a lot of
money, a lot of equipment to be

able to extract the gold.

This little plant is gonna
get some money together,

- get you back up to the mill site.
- Awesome.

Wow. That's amazing.

To set Jeff up on a ladder to
success, Freddy and Juan will

take on a two stage build.

First, they'll replace Jeff's
placer plant with a small,

low-cost hard rock plant
made from Jeff's on-site

pilot mill, or crusher.

A small sluice box will sit
underneath, custom-built

for lighter hard rock gold.

Jeff can use this setup to
work through the easy-to-reach

old timers' ore and gather
the capital he needs to fund

his main hard rock push.

Juan will then set him up
for that future by swapping out

the worn hammers on the
main hard rock plant with

custom-built, brand-new
ones that can easily

break down the ore and free the gold.

So, after hearing you have seven kids

and then you're a vet, Freddy
and I, we came to the agreement

that we want to do this, you
know, for you guys for free.

- Really?
- Yeah, pro bono.

- We really appreciate that.
- That means a lot, man.

Freddy and Juan, you
know, they know my ultimate

dream is going back to my hard
rock mine, and everything that

they're doing is gonna
put us towards that goal.

So, I'm excited to pull that
whole ore pile down and run it.

It's gonna be a huge game changer.

You know, we started with plan
a, and then we went to plan b,

and now we're on plan f.

Time to get rolling.

Got it.

In the race to save
miner Jeff runnells' home

and mining dream...

We're going to bag
this stuff up here, ok?

His partner, Steve, has enlisted local

reinforcements to help
move the old-timers' ore

down the mountain.

The old-timers left a lot behind,

so hopefully we should be able
to generate enough funds to get

the other plant up and running.

All right, we're ready.

All right, Steve, here it comes.

Down below... Let's go
measure that real quick.

It's a full team effort to create the small

hard rock plant that can
process the old-timers' ore.

So what I was thinking
here, Jeff, is we pull this off...

Ok.

This dry chute... right?

Then our sluice box is
gonna go underneath.

Jeff's repurposed mini pilot mill will crush

the rocks to powder, releasing the gold,

which will fall into Juan's
brand new sluice box below.

We're welding the top
rail for the sluice box.

You can't run before you walk.

Ultimately, this little
plant allows Jeff to be able

to get his finances together,

save his home, and
eventually get back up

on the mill site.

- It looks good, Juan.
- Thank you, Freddy.

All welded out, it's now Freddy's job

to fit out the small
plant sluice for hard rock.

I'm gonna put this as a baffle plate.

- Right.
- Here, like this.

So that water's gonna hit it.

- Ok.
- That'll spread that for us.

If we were to just shoot it in...

It would just go straight

- out the end.
- Right down the box, yeah.

Blow it out.

Gold in hard rock is lighter
and notoriously hard to catch.

By slowing and spreading the water flow,

the baffle plate will
encourage the fine gold to drop

into the box.

That'll get her.

Having these guys out
here right now, just the labor

and the cost alone was way
out of our budget to even remotely

come up with anything of
the sort, and the fact that

they're doing it pro
bono, it's just a godsend.

The small hard rock plant
should generate some income

in the short-term, but in the cut trailer.

Juan looks to Jeff's long-term future.

The hammers that Jeff
has are completely wore out,

so we're gonna build him a set.

Juan will lay the groundwork
on Jeff's main hard rock plant

by replacing the worn-down
hammers with brand-new ones

that can crush the hard
rock ore and release the gold.

Right now it's just a chunk of
steel, but once we weld the arm

onto it and drill the hole,
it's gonna be the hammer

for the hammer mill.

Part of what Freddy and I
do is give people the tools

for their future, and
that's what we're doing.

You know, we're getting
his little plant set up

so we can test, but
ultimately we're giving him

the tools that he needs
to get his big plant running

and create a future for
himself and his family.

This is a jig.

We'll put the hammer and then the arm,

and then we can drill
it and weld it all in one.

We'll have one jig to
be able to build them all,

so they're all uniform.

And so that way, in the future,

Jeff can build his own hammers as well.

A jig acts like a 3D template
for each of the 16 hammers,

giving Jeff a way to
replace his own in the future

and saving him thousands of dollars.

There you go.

On the test sluice build,
Jeff is on carpet duty.

Freddy gave me a really
good tip, and that was to singe

all the edges.

If you look right here,
when you cut it, it gets

real loose.

And what happens over
time is it starts peeling

apart and unraveling. So
what I did was I singed it

around all four edges, so
that way it'll last a lot longer.

Well, we're gonna get
our wedge system in here,

our lockdown system for these ripples.

Fingers crossed,
everything comes together

and we get back on track
and we start making money.

So, that's what it's all about.

Well, here's the test sluice.

So, it's all ready to go.

Water system's hooked up.

It's all welded out.

Beneath the baffle plate,
Freddy's placed three

different-size riffle systems to
maximize the chance to catch

the smaller, lighter, hard rock gold.

It changes the speed of
the water and the velocity,

and that also helps, you
know, drop a little more

gold out, that really fine gold.

Beautiful. Yeah, this is gorgeous.

Let's get it over there, get it set.

Ok.

That'll work.

Well, right now what
we're doing is we're putting

the test mill in place,
put the sluice under it,

and then we'll get
that all kind of dialed in,

and we should be ready to go
tomorrow morning to fire it up.

Come down a little more, Jeff.

Perfect.

Come down hard.

There we go.

Perfect, absolutely perfect.

Ahead of tomorrow's test,
Juan's pulled in a last-minute

favor to supercharge
the small hard rock plant.

I see a big boy toy.

I'm excited.

This 2900 psi mb crusher bucket
can pulverize up to seven tons

of rock an hour, making quick
work of Jeff's newly stockpiled

old-timers' ore.

I figure the smaller we
can get it now, the more of it

you can run through your little plant.

Yeah, that'll be, it'll
go through a lot easier.

Yeah.

Pre-crushing will not
only make Jeff's small

hard rock plant run
faster, it'll also leave him

a stockpile of crushed material

when Freddy and Juan have gone.

You know, Jeff's kind of in
a tight spot here, so Freddy

and I are really doing all we can to try to

leave him in a good position
to hopefully get ahead.

So tomorrow, we're
gonna fire up the smaller

hard rock plant.

After you have a horrible
test run the first time, I mean,

obviously, there's gonna
be some nervousness now.

So I'm confident in the
ore, but there's always

that nervousness.

Well, that's the last bucket,
and all we got to do is

run it now.

Pull them out.

It's the critical final day
of the runnells' rescue.

Yeah.

From that, and that's a new one.

Before running the final test,
Juan installs the hammers

on Jeff's main hard rock plant.

Jeff doesn't have the money
to be able to run that plant

right now, but he's got what
he needs as far as the parts,

so when he can afford
to actually get up here,

he can start going after
that underground gold.

So considering everything
you've been through with

hard rock mining, obviously you have

- a love for it.
- Yeah, yeah.

I mean,

I was taught growing up that
you just work, you just push

through it and do it, and
never ask for help, ever.

And so, when I

finally reached out and, to
have you guys come out, it was

a humbling experience for me.

Sometimes, you know,
regardless of how stubborn

and proud we are, you know,
sometimes we do need help.

Hopefully we were able
to get that little plant going,

get you a little bit of gold coming in.

It's kind of a catalyst to get this going.

Absolutely.

There it is.

What do you think we fire
up the generator and try it out?

Yeah. Yeah, let's fire it up.

- All right.
- Cool.

Look at that.

That's really good.

That's doing a really good
job crushing that material.

Yeah.

It's amazing what a new
set of hammers will do.

Yeah.

Well, cool, man. Let's
get back down there?

Awesome. Thank you, man.

Appreciate it.

- Fire it up?
- Yeah, let's fire it up.

Let's do it.

At the base of the mountain,
the final two-hour test run

on the old-timer's ore pile begins.

First bucket, here we go.

Let's see what this ore carries.

Jeff feeds the pre-crushed
ore into the pilot mill crusher,

where two rollers grind
it further into a fine dust.

This then falls into
Freddy's customized sluice,

where the lighter gold
should drop out into the riffles.

This pretty much is
gonna make or break us,

so it's pretty important that we get gold.

- Hey, Juan, how's the water look?
- That's good.

Ok.

Small scale right now.

Jeff needs to run that
smaller plant, make some gold,

get out of the hole that he's in.

It'll work good for him.

Yeah, there's a little
bit of gold right there.

Right there.

Yeah, let's keep going.

There's been a lot
thrown at us this week,

but we're getting it done.

- Let's mix up the last bucket.
- Last bucket, Jeff.

All right.

Fingers crossed, Juan-o?

I hope so, Freddy.

I'm curious, Juan?

Yeah, I'm a little nervous though.

- Yeah, me too.
- Well, you got the gold?

I do.

Let's weigh it up.

- Don't let it blow away.
- Yeah, right?

2.7 grams.

- That's not terrible.
- No.

What do you got there?
You think we ran two yards?

Yeah, it was right about there.

It's about five times what
we got in the first one.

A little over five times.

Yep, yep.

At this rate, Jeff and Steve
can make around 1.5 ounces

of gold a week with the
test plant, worth $5,000.

- In reality, you know, that adds up quick.
- Adds up.

Yeah, absolutely.

Sure, it's not a high production plant,

- but it's putting out gold.
- Absolutely.

$5,000 a week?

That's gonna save our house, you know.

It's gonna save me, financially.

In the short-term, if
you live lean and mean

and save your money, throw that money

into your production plant up there.

Once Jeff can get his
main plant up and running,

it can process 56 tons per day,
giving him an earning potential

of over $33,000 a week,
a number that will rise

exponentially once he can
blast the higher grade vein

from the underground shaft.

Well, we better get
on the road, gentlemen.

- It was great working with you.
- Here's your gold.

Thank you, sir.

Now it's time to just generate that capital,

get that big plant, and start cranking.

With everything that
Freddy and Juan did for us,

the dream's gonna continue,
and we're gonna push through.

We're gonna make it.

- Take care, guys.
- You too.

- I'll follow you out, buddy.
- Let's hit the road, buddy.

Got her.

Jeff was right on the
verge of shutting down.

I mean, within days or weeks.

And what we've done here
is we've given him the skills

and tools for the future.

So now he can provide for his family,

so we can ride out of
here with our heads high.

Hey, Juan and Freddy,
this is Jeff out here

in perris, California.

We're finally starting to
turn a corner right now.

We're still in the house.

We brought some of the equipment over.

Juan, the jig you made
for us was essential.

Everything's running pretty good.

Hammers are doing their hammers.

It's allowing us to
make our own hammers.

We are using the sluice.

We found a high-grade
vein that's putting out about

two ounces or more a ton.

I mean, this vein that we hit
is probably the biggest strike

that this property's ever
seen in like 100 years.

50 to 60-pound sample.

We're gonna crush it up right now.

So, the potential's great.

Now we just got to get it all out of there.

The plan now, once we build up capital,

is to bring my bigger
hard rock equipment down

that we can run the
volume, we should be doing

well over 80 grand a month.

Juan and Freddy, it's much appreciated.