Original subtitles

The race is on to find gold in the Alaskan wilderness.

The race is on to find gold in the Alaskan wilderness.

This is the best country in the world.

After six weeks, the team runs dirt for the first time.

We got gold.

Gold out of our mine.

We are (bleep).

And the Hoffmans come face to face with tragedy.

-We need help. -Shana?

And the Hoffmans come face to face with tragedy.

If she quits breathing

And her heart stops.

There's nothing those doctors can do.

A fly buzzes by.

It's 6 am

Todd Hoffman is trying to rouse his crew of gold miners.

Let's go guys.

Good morning.

Go guys.

How ya doing.

Get 'er together man. Get some coffee. Let's go.

Jim's asleep. Greg just got out of the shower. We're getting gold.

That's it.

That's my commitment. We're gonna have gold coming out of that jig today.

Todd and his crew arrived at Porcupine Creek 6 weeks ago.

They finally got their wash plant assembled. And they built a pond for the 100,000 gallons of water they'll need every day.

The final step will be when we're actually running.

So far, it's cost them 180 thousand dollars on equipment and running costs.

And every day puts them another thousand bucks deeper into the red.

They must star finding gold, and soon.

We're bleeding dry.

After months of preparation, they're finally ready to run dirt.

All they need is to pump water from the intake pond up to the wash plant.

Our water is gonna come up through the pump

Out that manifold there, down these red lines

And each red line is a one inch water line, to

four water bars up on the shaker.

I got one water bar to the jig. One going to the second sluice.

Water flows to every part of the wash plant to recover gold.

It washes away the lighter dirt and leaves the heavier gold behind.

They only have one pump big enough for the wash plant, and it's not working right.

Look at the air coming out of that.

There's our problem.

It starts sucking air right there.

Dave Turin runs a quarry back in Oregon. And he's here to help Todd get the wash plant running.

A little bit of air just screws these things. They start sucking air. Its like sucking water through a straw and you got a hole in the straw and you can't suck it up.

The right way to do it is take that thing off, flip it over upside down, dry it out and weld it.

-We gotta get the water out first. -Okay. Let's do that.

Dave Turin and Jim Thurber dry and clean the area that needs to be welded.

Stick welding uses up to 600 amps of electrical current. More than enough to kill a man.

And particularly dangerous in these wet conditions.

Team mechanic, James Harness, steps up to fix the problem.

It's good.

Get this baby back together and start rocking.

Make sure the excess comes off.

If the weld holds the pump should be able to feed thousands of gallons of water a minute to the wash plant.

Ready dudes.

Clear.

If they get water out of the spray bars, they'll know that they're in business.

Wow.

-I think we're okay. I think we got it. -Is the bottom turned on?

-I don't know. I think Dave got it. -Wooh!

-Are we ready to turn stuff on? -Blowing water everywhere.

Pumps are running, We're ready to go.

Run some rock through here and get some gold.

Just before they can start mining..

Hey.

Todd spots a stranger on the claim.

They have no choice but to shut everything down.

I saw him heading down by the river.

The stranger is a government inspector investigating water use at the mine.

-We need to fix this. -Okay -We need to close this off.

This here, right here, needs a berm. -Okay.

-So this is completely blocked. -Okay.

To get enough water to mine, the team dug a channel connecting the creek to their holding pond.

But it's in breach of fish and game regulations.

-This part right here needs to be returned to it's original condition. -Okay.

This channel they've excavated here in the stream bank is a violation. Um.

If they don't get it sorted out, there's potential to shut this whole operation down.

Porcupine Creek is a breeding ground for salmon.

Todd and his miners have come up against the Alaskan fishing industry, worth over two billion dollars a year.

The salmon fishery in Alaska is very important. Huge commercial fishing and recreational fishing.

And we want to make sure that these type of activities don't impact habitat.

Fish and game is worried that young fish could swim into the holding pond from the creek. And be sucked up into the wash plant.

-When do you want me to close this off. Immediately? -Uh yeah. -Right now. Okay.

Will do. We'll do it right now.

Fish and Game could end our season right here.

We gotta play by their rules. They can shut us down, and it puts us in a really, a bad position cause now we don't have water.

It really friggen hurts.

I don't have a Plan B. Without water, we're screwed.

-You got any ideas? -This is a mess man. I don't know what to do.

The crew needs to come up with a way of getting water from the creek that meets Fish and Game regulations, and fast.

They hatch a plan to use an old pump head as a fish strainer.

This is perfect, for setting in a hole.

Something like this. Because you got the screening, and you can't suck up, solid underneath, we could set

We're not gonna suck any rocks up into the pump.

This screen will allow them to draw water without sucking in fish.

Now, all they have to do is persuade the man from Fish and Game.

If you guys are cool with it, we could get started.

Yup, yup. I think this will work.

-Alright man, thanks. -Alright -Appreciate it.

Very well. Give her s**t. Keep it.

Their quick fix has stopped them being shut down.

But their holding pond has already dried out.

They'll need to fill it if they're going to be mining in the morning.

This has to put a kink in our little wheel. We got to get on it though. We got to get back to work.

Stop right here.

They have just a few hours of daylight left. First the team needs to lay 80 yards of piping from the creek over the berm to the canal.

It's called lay flat pipe. It's an inexpensive way to get pipe, get it out there a ways.

Next, they use the 400 excavator to bring in the pump with the fish screen attached.

I gotta get this...hook set in the water.

The Porcupine river is fed by water from glaciers. And it's just above freezing.

Hooah!

Todd has given Realtor, Jimmy Dorsey, the job of digging out a hole for the pump head to sit in.

-This, this water is so cold. -Oh ho.

Get it right down to here Dorse.

-Be back at.. -Why don't you use the excavator?

We can't. We're not allowed to. I'll try to get you some gloves or something dude. That looks cold.

Aahaw.

The next job is to connect up the pump, which will draw water from the creek to the channel.

Seriously. This thing will pump out 450 to 500 gallons a minute...easily. So that's a lot of stinking water.

The pump is connected to the lay flat pipe running over the berm.

Doing two clamps because the pressure on this thing might be so great it'll probably rip this thing off.

Plus I don't want this thing to rip off at night.

They prime the pump, submerge the pump head, and they're ready to roll.

Turn it on too.

-I'll pull it up. -Here, go.

-Where's that pipe wrench? -Right here.

Got water, guys.

That pump's working great.

We got water.

We got water. We're mining now.

A year of preparation.

All of my money ,that I didn't have.

Everything that I could beg, borrow and steal, is right coming up.

We're gonna mine, tomorrow. We're gonna run it.

Uhhh. I don't really know what time it is.

I can't figure it out. I don't have a watch on so

Got to be after midnight.

They have just a few hours to get some well deserved rest, before they run dirt in the morning.

Up ahead:

-Yeah. -Friggen gold.

The team finally starts mining.

The wash plant grinds to a halt.

Try it on now.

This isn't easy. This is hard to figure out.

And a young life hangs in the balance.

All's I'm seeing is blood and foam coming out of her mouth.

With the water problem solved, the Hoffmans are ready to run dirt for the very first time.

Todd's been planning this moment for months.

Six inch and under rocks are gonna go onto the shaker.

Okay. The shaker has one and a half inch holes. The gold material that we're gonna deal with, is gonna fall down through those holes, and come down this bottom chute.

This trommel will be turning, Okay. Material will fall through, the holes. There's a hole in this pipe wrapped in screen.

It don't want rocks bigger than a half inch to come through this hole. I want to control the water across that jig.

Swirling around in there, there better be some gold.

The best of the league will do that all day, and if we have to, all night.

Pastor Mike Halstead has returned to the claim for the big day.

They've done a great job putting all this equipment together, but, it's hard to really think through what it's gonna do until you see what it does.

And there's no point in running, unless you're digging dirt that's rich in gold.

Twenty ounces, right there.

I've got this huge knot in my stomach. I don't sleep very long.

It's vital to see some gold today.

The pressure to find gold is mounting. Greg's wife, Sandy, and his kids are the latest family to arrive at the claim.

Every day that goes by, we're not only burning fuel for the equipment, we're burning a lot of food.

Something's gotta give. Either the kitty's gotta be replenished or it's gonna run dry. And when it runs dry, we're done. Three meals a day for 25 people.

You can do the math.

James Harness is struggling too. He has chronic back problems, and hasn't slept for nights.

It would be very easy for me to stay in bed all day.

Hard to get let these guys down.

With team morale so low, Todd calls a meeting,

Guys. Guys, listen. You've all worked your butts off. You're out of money. You're out of money. You're about ready to lose your house.

You've moved out of your house. You're bankrupt. You know. God put us all together for a friggen reason, okay.

And this summer we're gonna dig that yellow stuff out of the ground man.

Back home, people are just struggling to make a stinking living. Well, you know what we need to do? We need to start helping each other out.

I know in my heart there's gold in the ground. We just gotta get it.

Yeah, my best thoughts so I apologize, but uh..

You know, I complain a lot about the economy. And I complain about our country. But to be honest with you, this is the best country in the world.

We live in the best country in the world.

-James. Fire that up man. -Let's go. -Okay.

-Come on. Let's get it done. -Get down there. -Yeeah!

I want.. No, I want to do it. Come on. Right here.

Hey hey hey.

Lord Jesus. We just give this day to you and put your gold in the ground and put it in that sluice box in that jig. Lord Jesus, help us.

-Amen -Amen.

-Let's go guys. -Go. -Let's do this.

Running dirt through the wash plant for the first time is an important moment for everyone.

If successful, there's every chance they'll be counting gold by the end of the day.

We got gravel. Gravel.

Turn the jig on.

Alright. Start a little dirt.

Right here. Right here.

Jack dumps the first bucket of dirt into the shaker.

It separates the larger stones and they are discarded.

Finally, the miners get to see how their home built plant is working.

Need a little bar. Right across the top.

There's a little bar right here.

We need those wings, so the sluices don't get out of the drive.

Yeah.

From the shaker, the sifting material runs into a chute, where water washes it down the plant.

Chute's working good. Looks good so far.

The second bucket of dirt is dropped in.

The material works it's way through to the trommel.

Here the dirt is spun, and the smaller pieces pass through the screen down to the jig.

I'll be damned.

The last part of the wash plant is the duplex jig.

Here, two diaphragms pulsate a bed of ball bearings.

Black sand and any gold should sink down through into the bucket.

First day of mining. you know, this is fantastic.

There's a million guys who'd love to be here doing this.

Todd and Jack plan to run a hundred cubic yards today.

But by the fourth bucket, there's gravel starting to build up in the sluice boxes.

Need more water here.

It's not working on it here.

Most important of all, the jig, where the gold is collected is producing nothing.

Any coming out?

Listen. This ain't running right.

After months of preparation, and thousands of dollars, just four yards of dirt and the wash plant doesn't work.

This isn't easy. This is, this is hard to figure out.

Humans have been digging gold for over 5000 years. And it's estimated that all that gold would weigh around 182,000 tons.

but make a cube just 22 yards long. That's only 1/3 the volume of the Washington monument.

The team is running dirt for the first time.

-There's black. -I don't know if the pipe's plugged up.

But, they've hit a problem. Nothing's coming out of the duplex jig.

Anything coming out?

No. We're all plugged up.

-Shut the jam plant down. -Okay.

Our trommel works pretty good. The shaker works. You know.

All the stuff that you have to use your brain for that we set up, that I set up, doesn't work very good.

Until they fix the final stage of their wash plant, they're not going to be able to separate gold from dirt.

I'm about ready to fall over. My brain hurts, I'm fat, so everything hurts.

It's tough when you're a fat kid trying to go gold mining. You can't bend over right.

You know. Friggen ankles hurt. My knees hurt.

And I don't know what I'm. I'm gonna figure out what the frickth I'm doing. I don't know.

Hey buddy.

Across the creek, John Schnabel runs the big nugget mine.

He knows exactly how to fine tune a wash plant.

We got this last week, and we pulled it out of the jig. And the

The gold is heavy enough that it don't blow away.

Parker, his grandson, has been helping him since the age of six.

That's about a..I would judge close to a half an ounce.

Yeah. I'd say so too. A little over a bit.

480 grains in an ounce, so half an ounce will be 240.

275 grains. That's a

I was right.

Pretty close, yeah.

That's over a half ounce.

That's around 650 dollars.

The Schnabels know how much work goes into turning a claim into wash plant into profit.

I've been doing it for 25 years and it's been very difficult for most people to stay with it, and be successful and make money.

And only maybe five percent of the people who attempt it are successful.

Todd needs help to get the jig running properly.

And the Schnabels are sending their expert to bail him out.

A little embarrassing, a 15 year old kid telling you how to mine, but he's got a lot more experience than I do.

-G'day Parker. -Todd.

-How are you buddy? -Pretty good.

I want you to take a look at my jig. Something's wrong. I don't know what I'm doing with it.

-Alright. -It ain't working right.

I don't even know if it's in the right position or the right angle.

You have the ball bearings, right?

-I do. -Alright.

We'll take a look.

Water carrying dirt and gold flows from the wash plant into the top of the duplex jig.

Two diaphragms at the bottom pulsate water up through a layer of ball bearings or steel shot.

The pressure forces the shot apart. The larger waste material passes over the top of the shot.

While the heavier fine gold and black sand drops through the gaps down to the outlets.

Their home made system has to work if they're going to see gold bearing black sand out of the bottom of the jig.

-I got them both piped together -Yeah.

At the bottom of each jig -That white piece.

You know where the, where the, um, gold and black sand comes out of the bottom.

I piped them both together, with one valve. You guys have them both separately dropping into a pipe, running that pipe together and down into a sluice.

Yeah. The advantage of that is you can adjust each jig separately.

-Yeah. -And you've got more pressure on the front or the back.

-See, that's.. -Depending on how much pressure you need.

-Do it again? -Do it.

I gotta take that apart. I gotta do 'em separately.

I think so.

Their homemade system has to go, if they're going to see gold out the bottom of the jig.

And then I should put a valve on each one, huh.

I think I would.

That's what we do, and it works good.

-Alright, -Then we adjust each one separately.

See that's where I'm, That's where I screwed up. I was running them both in together.

I see gold on my fingers.

We got gold.

-You're kidding. -No. We're serious.

It's all plugged up with gold.

Dude, you are (bleep)

I think this whole pipe is just plugged up with gold.

You're kidding me.

-Lookit. Look out. -Whoa.

Ha ha ha.

They clear the blockage. But now gold's running through their fingers.

I'm going to Disneyland.

But I can't wait to pan it to see, but you know.

That's gold.

I mean it's just..

Gold fever. That's all it is.

When Dorsey and Jack got all excited when they unplugged the bottom of the jig, that's not really that big of a deal.

I saw 3 little tiny flakes, like tiny.

When you think about it, a couple hundred dollars worth of gold isn't much, compared to everything they've spent here.

You know, they need a lot of gold to, cover their costs.

Under Todd's original schedule, the team should already be getting enough gold to turn a profit.

Todd's wife Shana, and his 2 year old daughter Olivia, were supposed to arrive after the miners found gold.

But after 4 weeks, they decided to come to Alaska anyway, so the family could be together.

Starting to transform, into a home. And uh, I got my little girl. She's a wild animal. Look at her.

She's got her pyjamas on tonight, with her yellow boots.

And she's busy. Hurricane busy.

The fact that other miners have brought their families up too, is only adding to the pressure to find gold.

Early next morning, mechanic James Harness is making adjustments to the jig.

I wish I could say that everything is working perfectly, but I don't know that yet. This is all a fine tuning science.

And Jack's hard at work, stockpiling dirt he hopes will be full of gold.

Once I know that the plants running good, I'll run this.

But Todd thinks his dad is digging in the wrong place.

I want to start mining along this rock face down all the way through this. You work this rock down Dad.

-I'm gonna work this side wall. -That way.

Along that face.

I'm gonna bring the 400 down right now

And make that deep.

I'll go as deep as I possibly can. Once you hit bedrock, that's it.

I know, but when we, okay,

I'm not rolling over because I'm actually doing it for him. He's not a designer, and he's not a strategist.

My job for him, is to help him be successful.

Even though he thinks I'm just, maybe I'm just getting in his way. But I'm not.

By midday, Jack's almost ready to load the dirt into the wash plant.

That's good pay.

And Harness has nearly finished the jig.

-Todd! -What was that?

She's not breathing.

Todd.!

Go go go.

At Porcupine Creek, a young life hangs in the balance.

She was biting her tongue. I had to put a piece of wood in her, between her teeth.

Go go go.

Todd's daughter, Olivia, has had a seizure.

That road's supposed to be a 20 mph road. We did 55 down it.

I tried to get her attention. I noticed that her eyes were open, but they weren't focusing on me.

I could see her foot convulsing, and her hand, her little arm was shaking the whole time.

Olivia is transferred to an ambulance, and driven to Haines airport.

While this was all going on, she stopped breathing.

And so, uh...

So it was, it was really tough. But uh..

They got her going again.

All's I'm thinking is just hold on, hold on Olivia, just hang in there, just friggin hang in there.

Still unconscious, she is picked up by a life flight, and medi-vacced 500 miles to Anchorage Children's Hospital.

Olivia is being scanned to see if she suffered brain damage.

When your little girl is laying here, you know, having tests and um, that's, that's where the rubber hits the road. You know.

So we love our little girl, and that's what, you know. We want the best for her, but um...

Back at Porcupine Creek, mining has come to a halt.

Okay. Be good.

We're real concerned around here, because without knowing the cause of that. If it was something that

was just a part of who she is, that's, that's one thing. . But if it's something from the environment

2 and 3 and 4 year olds are susceptible to lots of things that would never bug an adult.

Everyone at the camp has a theory about what caused Olivia's seizure.

When something like that happens, you kinda go through what it could have been environmentally and,

Most definitely, I'm worried about the water.

We get it from a waterfall, coming from the top of the mountain. Some glacier's melting.

But we don't know what's up there. I mean, There could be beavers up there, or, you know, bears.

Joy's husband Dorsey, thinks the blame may lie elsewhere.

Up here in Alaska, the bugs are incredible.

They're bigger, and they're just more ferocious than anything you'll see anywhere else.

It's mid July, and Alaska's 35 different types of mosquito are competing for the miner's blood.

They just attack you, everywhere.

To combat this invasion, they use a repellent containing DEET. But DEET is a toxin.

And in large repeated doses might cause side effects, particularly in children.

I don't know what's worse. All the bites, or getting sick from all the mosquito repellent.

With the cause of Olivia's seizures still unknown, The parents are reconsidering their future at Porcupine Creek.

Joy and I had a conversation with the preacher last night and we really discussed whether this was, this was the right thing to do for our family and I think every couple needs to make that decision, and every worker here needs to make that decision.

At Anchorage, Todd receives the results of Olivia's scan to check for abnormalities or brain damage.

Hi best friend, Greg is waiting to hear the news.

We just want to get answers for what's going on with her in her little precious body.

So, it's, you know, it's out of our hands, we can't do any thing about it. Wait and trust.

The results are normal.

That's good news.

Oh.

-I'm happy for you. -Thanks for coming with us.

-Hey. -My girl's just as glad.

This ending was dramatic.

There's nothing I can say or do.

Been praying for her.

I was gonna say "You, Lord, are with us again one more time".

That's great.

I got to go back.

-I'll take care up here. -Okay. Look, see ya around.

Olivia's not suffered brain damage.

-Hi baby. -Daddy.

But she still needs intensive care.

I can't give you chocolate because we're gonna eat dinner first. 'kay.

How ya feeling?

Feeling okay?

No.

A little bit sick?

-Yeah. -Hmm 'kay.

She'll have to undergo further tests to determine the cause of the seizure.

Hopefully, we can figure out why that happened.

Maybe it's a one time deal, I don't know, but..

I dunno. We'll figure it out.

Olivia's tests results may prove that Porcupine Creek is too dangerous for the families to stay.

If something shows up then I'm done.

I'm done mining.

It's all over. My family comes first.

Over anything.

So, pack up. Dreams over.

The next day, Olivia is discharged from the hospital, and heading back to Oregon for more tests.

You ready to go home.

Take 'em home. Back down to Sandy. I'd rather be

Pretty dang close. Just for awhile until we, you know maybe, can pinpoint what went on.

Todd's search for gold will have to wait.

Back at the claim, Halstead and Dorsey are trying to track down the cause of Olivia's seizure.

Gonna check out this water., where people been getting sick. And we're not sure if it's the food or the water or..

Ah. Something blowing around in the air a bit. This is where we been getting our water from and.

There's beaver right down there.

-Ah huh. -That's only 50 feet off the road.

-That's a -There's gonna be beaver over there.

The big pond down there. So we'll see.

Beavers near a water source are a serious health risk.

Their droppings often carry the parasite, giardia lamblia.

Which causes beaver fever. This can be life threatening in infants.

So far, the entire camp has been drinking their water unboiled and unfiltered.

Not all things are as they seem.

You think, Oh, you're in Alaska. It's a fresh mountain stream. You still have to go check out the source.

We thought it would come straight out of the rock. It's coming off of a road.

Oh Jimmy. Look at that.

-What is it? -Just touch it. It's pitch.

See. There's one coming off each...Oh!

That's not pitch.

There's one coming off each one of those.

Ooh. Eh. Ah! It's like, got a skin on it. This is above the water source.

I don't like that. I've never seen anything like that.

Hold mommy's hand.

In Oregon, Shana is taking Olivia to see her pediatrition.

Olivia.

Hi guys. Hi baby. How are you?

Shana wants to find out what nearly killed her daughter.

There are some seizures associated with insect repellent. Whether that's DEET or not, who knows for sure what exactly that cause is.

The water supply definitely could be a factor. Um. So, there's some bacteria that could be in the water that are associated with seizures.

So you guys are definitely headed back up.

I don't think that we will be going back up this summer, but um..

That's probably not a bad plan.

If you're close to medical attention, then I think we just wait and you carry the emergency meds and treat her if we need to.

Doctor Frank Calcano advised us strongly to stay within 10 minutes of help for her.

I totally miss Alaska. It's so beautiful and I do really want to go back.

But it won't be till next summer.

♪ ♪Jesus loves me yes I know, for the bible tells me so♪♬

With the doctors uncertain about the cause of Olivia's seizure, the parents at the claim are still worried about safety.

There's a lot of concerns I have with a soon to be young adult. Um. So to have little ones, oh my goodness. I just couldn't do it.

Since Todd's in Oregon, it's up to Jack to get the team mining again.

This whole incident could break our spirit, you know and...I hope it hasn't. I hope it hasn't, uh, dampened your enthusiasm for, uh, our goals.

I just thank you for sticking it out. We just gotta get there and get it done.

But before they can get gold, they need fuel.

Right now, fuel's almost as precious as gold..in our camp.

We're down to our last day of fuel.

The camp is off the grid and everything runs on diesel.

The kitchen, the showers, the pumps in the wash plant, are all powered by generators.

Add on the 2 excavators and the dump truck and you're looking at 300 gallons of fuel a day.

If you can't buy fuel, you can't run. You can't run, you can't get gold. If you can't get gold you can't get money. You know. Just

It's a vicious circle.

Jack's really feeling the crunch here. This is Friday, um, my, Monday's a holiday, with the 4th of July moving to the fifth and

We've got a lot of work. If they don't get, uh, arrangements for fuel, and then, stuff's gonna start shutting down.

We gotta go.

Jack starts the 30 mile trip to Haines to try and arrange an emergency fuel delivery. He's got one hour before the gas station closes.

Jack Hoffman is racing to get fuel.

We got no fuel no running, and so, we gotta have that fuel.

If Jack can't get it delivered, there'll be no mining till after the 4th of July weekend. Three full days.

If I don't start soon, or go pretty soon, some of them might be taking off and heading for home.

Please.

He may be on time.

We need some fuel, really bad.

-But he's out of luck. -There's just no way.

I just can't physically get it out there. I'm short a driver, and it's Friday and a three day holiday.

Any way that we could pay a little more to get it through?

The earliest I could get out there is Tuesday.

Yeah. It's just costing us about, you know, God, a grand a day.

-Yeah. -To not run and we need to run.

-I can imagine. -There's just no way we can get it.

Nah.

Darn. Could I get some on, I got a hundred gallon tank. We could put that in the gen plant.

Thanks a lot man.

With no fuel delivery for three days, the crew will have to survive on what Jack can load in the back of his truck.

A hundred gallons is better than nothing, you know. This'll make it so we can run for about 45 minutes, maybe even make an hour.

At nearly 5 dollars a gallon, Jack has spent just under 500 dollars on fuel.

It's enough to sustain the camp for the next three days, and briefly run the wash plant.

I'm anxious. I wanna get going. I wanna roll.

Jack takes some dirt from the new hole he's dug. He has just 45 minutes of fuel to prove he can find gold.

They cut off the pipes clogging the jig and are putting their fix to the test.

All this diesel that we're burning is just.. We had a drip of water there. Has all the gold in it.

Everything appears to be working.

On the stroke of 45 minutes

just before the fuel runs out, Jack turns off the generator.

There's just a few ounces of material to show for it.

We're going to pan it. See if there's anything in that.

Then we'll know whether our jig's working.

Oh sweet. That's nice.

The gold in Jack's pan, is a sign that they could have hit a major deposit.

Guys. I don't know whether you think this looks like much, but it looks fantastic to me.

I don't want to get you too excited, but this time next week, we should have about 100,000 dollars worth of gold in our box.

All we have to do is keep running. This is the top of the layer of the material we been goofing around with.

This is just the very top, and it's gonna start paying off.

We could have over a million dollars by the end of the season.

That's right brother. See.

Hey. We didn't miss at all.

-Now you're crying. -Not a problem.

It's just good to see gold out of our mine, out of our dirt, through our machines.

-We might own a family farm. -That'd be nice.

Now it's been here 3 weeks for me. There is gold here.

Well it gives me a little bit more hope.

I was starting to get a little skeptical whether we were gonna get rolling and actually find any gold. It's nice to have something positive happening.

There's one more person who's yet to hear the good news.

I went ahead and ran a little bit.

(Todd) Good lord. Why'd you do that?

Well, because I wanted to see

Turn around. You're supposed to be

I wanted to see gold and we, we got gold.

-Awesome. -We got gold.

It may be a little early to start celebrating, but after all, it is Independence Day.

Woo. Yea hoo.

(Bang) Aww. Hu hu hu hew.

Get that gold out.

You did it.

Subs by Jack T