Original subtitles

They're on the way. They're on the way.

King of the Klondike, Tony Beets, is scrambling to

make up for lost time.

Two weeks into the season, he's yet to fire up

a wash plant and has zero gold in the bank.

Tony has spent the spring getting down to pay in

two-thirds of the 60-acre Midas Cut, his largest ever.

He wants to build a massive stockpile of pay so that when

he fires up at the end of the week,

he can run 24/7.

To get it done, Tony's throwing everything

and everyone at the problem.

Tony seems to have a fire in his belly.

He's feeling really stressed about how much we still have to

get out of the cut. We're not slewing gold yet.

I can understand where he's coming from

with his frustration, but, uh...

you know, we gotta make the best of it.

We got Tony and Eagan working side-by-side in the cut

right now, loading up all the trucks,

and we're trying to get a furious pace going.

We're not wasting any time here,

rock truck's got to be on the ball.

Well, my first impression up here of Tony

was that he's a hard ass.

I'm out here for an experience.

I think this is a good opportunity to prove myself

a little bit.

I didn't spend 1,100 [bleep] dollars

to come up here and get fired right away.

Eagan's my friend, went to school with him and he said,

"Come work here," so I did.

You guys have to be parallel with our tracks.

Parallel with our tracks,

facing straight towards the dump underneath the bucket.

Yow!

Go ahead, go ahead.

I'm checking on my brother if he's doing OK.

OK.

That's the one that was going empty that way?

OK, I got him, yeah.

OK.

If you don't have your radio on and you don't want

to listen, well, you might as well go home.

I, uh...

kind of messed up a little bit down there.

A little mass confusion, lots of things going on.

Told to go home for the day.

It was pretty harsh.

I'm not used to the circumstances.

200 miles south...

I'm up here to be mining and I'm not mining.

We got a stop-work order on us and it's just,

the mine's sitting there.

I mean, haven't even sunk a bucket into the ground yet,

let alone an ounce of gold.

At the Yukon capital, Whitehorse,

eight-year mine boss Rick Ness is looking for answers.

Instead of mining right now,

I'm here in Whitehorse to figure out my health.

There's something wrong with me.

Like, I have no energy. Everything just hurts.

I'm here to get the results of a sleep study.

I'm nervous about it.

Two weeks ago...

I do have some bad news, though.

We cannot mine until we employ an engineer on this site.

Zero dirt moving.

[bleep] [bleep]

...Rick was shut down until he employs an engineer

to plan a safe way to mine

Duncan Creek's high-walled pits.

We need to figure out how we're gonna survive.

Yeah.

Rick is also battling chronic health issues.

Honestly, I think you should go get checked out.

How'd it go?

He thinks it might be sleep apnea.

The sleep apnea's kicking my ass.

Now, Rick's about to get the results

from his sleep study.

That's some scary [bleep].

Um, yeah, that's a...

That's a bit more serious than I thought it was gonna be.

Severe sleep apnea is when you have--

you stop breathing...

more than about 35 times per hour.

On average, I stopped breathing 89 times per hour.

This whole time right here,

this big chunk of time, my oxygen saturation

was below 60, it was 54%.

And at nowhere on this graph am I really

at a level where I'm supposed to be.

All these real big dips are like...

dial 911-style emergencies.

Um...

So this was a lot more serious than I [bleep] thought.

I probably haven't gotten a night's sleep in years.

I have a very large neck, and apparently that is...

People with large necks have problems with sleeping.

Because there's just too much

weight there.

The reality is that I could have died like any day.

It definitely feels like there's a whole lot more on

the line this year than just gold.

I don't-- uh...

I'm gonna call Zee and tell him.

- Hello. - Hey buddy.

- Hey. - How you doing?

Good.

I'm in Whitehorse.

Oh, really? And?

The doctor said, "Quite honestly, I don't know

"how you're functioning and upright

and talking to me right now."

- Shut up. - Yeah.

- They got a plan? - Yeah.

Yeah, but I got a CPAP machine.

Like, I need help with my breathing, because she said,

"You're not getting any rest, you're..."

Like, my REM sleep is like non-existent, like 5%.

Think about it this way.

If you put this thing on, and all of a sudden,

like you're feeling like 15 years younger,

imagine how [bleep] great that's gonna be.

I think you're right, man. [bleep] about to change.

You'd be amazed at what sleep does, dude.

Everything's going to come easier now.

- You know what I mean? - I'll be all right.

- I'm gonna be all right for sure. - Yeah, you're gonna kill it.

I don't know what would happen if you wouldn't have came to Arizona this year

and, you know, got my ass up and got me up here either.

You know what I mean? Like, so, dude, I...

Thank you.

Honestly, I mean it.

- I was worried, worried, so... - Yeah.

Nowhere to go but up.

Yeah, just keep me posted.

You know I'm always here. Just give me a call, so...

- Same, same. - All right, sounds good.

- We'll talk to you. - All right, buddy.

- Later. - All right, bye-bye.

All right.

I feel better already. Zee always cheers me up.

The mine's sitting there, we got a stop-work order on us,

but I'm ready to [bleep] fight.

I know the pathway out, I know I got to stick with it.

Like this [bleep] literally could turn my life around.

With mining season going away right now,

I can't fail this year.

I can't have a flop of a season and expect to come

back here. It just doesn't work that way.

After years of refusing to go to the doctors,

Rick Ness finally knows why he hasn't been sleeping,

severe sleep apnea.

I'm so sick of

not having energy, not having the ability to concentrate,

not functioning.

I got to do something fast.

I've got a CPAP machine to help me sleep.

It's a little machine,

and everything I need fits in this case.

That's it. That's the machine.

And from everything I'm told, it's gonna make a huge

difference, and if that gets me back on my feet and gets me

some traction, that's all I want is a little bit,

just a little [bleep] jump-start.

It seems pretty simple.

Plug it in.

Strap this around your head, and this little thing

sits on your nose, goes your nostrils, and...

I guess forces air in.

For me, I was shutting my eyes, falling asleep,

and that was it.

And like hours, for hours and hours and hours.

And so, what do you mean I have a problem with my sleep?

You know, I sleep a lot.

I can't sleep enough, and I sleep all the time.

But I can sleep for four days

and it feels like I haven't slept at all.

Unbeknownst to me, I was fighting for breath all night.

I mean, I stopped breathing 89 times an hour.

It got to the point it got so bad that, yeah, I'd go to bed in my bed,

I'd wake up sitting on the couch in my living room

because my body was just...

fighting to survive, and it was like the only way I could

breathe is sitting up.

It's just, yeah, it happens in your sleep and you don't get

any oxygen, you don't-- you just don't get any--

you don't go into that deep level of sleep

that you actually need, you know?

You stay in that just barely unconscious level that

does you no good.

And then you thrash and your heart races all night

and, yeah, instead of getting rest,

your body's running, you know,

on overdrive, and you don't even know it, so...

That's some scary [bleep], now that I've learned it and...

I've got to put an end to that.

It's pretty, yeah, not a whole lot to it.

Should we turn this thing on, see what happens?

Can't even feel it's on. Oh [bleep], what's that?

Oh.

It was fine until I opened my mouth, and then all the air

blows through out your mouth. What the [bleep]?

When you breathe, air travels through your throat,

down your windpipe, and into your lungs.

The narrowest part of the airway

is at the back of the throat.

When you're awake, muscles keep it open.

But during sleep, those muscles relax.

For Rick, the airway closes completely, blocking airflow to

his lungs and causing him to wake.

As he wakes, the muscles reopen his airway, allowing him to

breathe before the cycle repeats.

Rick's CPAP machine delivers air pressure to keep his airway

open throughout the night, helping him breathe normally

and get a better night's sleep.

Don't try to talk with it on.

That makes sense. Wow, that's [bleep] bizarre!

Dan, it's OK.

I just keep my mouth shut.

Get up here!

All right. Get out of here.

Let's get some sleep.

That chaos is creeping up on us.

We have two plants running now.

Gets pretty chaotic around here.

While Rick struggles to start his season,

Parker Schnabel is on the gold.

But not nearly as much as he wants.

So far, he's brought in just 400 ounces

towards his massive 13,000 ounce goal.

We don't really have any spare people, so...

Right now, I'm just helping do some ditching.

Definitely takes a village, that's for sure.

We just got Big Red up and going

with the wash plant a week... on schedule.

Hopefully, we'll have Bob running next.

Two down, two to go.

To bring in more gold, Parker is going to add

a third wash plant on his Dominion Creek claim.

Half a mile from his camp, at the Airstrip Cut,

he has Golden Goose sluicing top gravels.

Four miles away,

running old stockpiled low-grade pay, Big Red.

Now, Parker wants to move wash plant Bob from the yard

two miles to his biggest cut, the Bridge Cut,

and fire up his third wash plant

by the end of the week.

So we've had four or five mechanics basically just

working on wash plant stuff.

Feeders, conveyors, plants, pre-washes,

build a new pre-wash for Bob.

Making sure that that sluicing fleet is ready for us to throw

another two million yards of dirt at him.

I think we're gonna cut it a little close

with this pre-wash for Bob,

but Tyson's so itchy to get

wash plants fired up.

Well seasoned on the chaos at this point.

So far, everything's working pretty well.

At this time of year, we have plans and we try to

stick to them.

A wash plant a week is a tall order and I'm definitely

feeling it, but you know.

The boys in the wash plant yard better get Bob

finished up quick.

For the third week in a row, Foreman Tyson Lee needs to get

another plant running.

Bob's place is the Bridge Cut.

It has a nice home in there, so that's the plant we need

and we need it as soon as possible.

- How's it going guys? - What's up, Buttercup?

I really need Bob in the Bridge Cut.

We gotta get that plant in there up and running.

We can start to pay off some of these purchases Parker's made

over the winter.

OK, so that pre-wash is off

and we got that all tore apart.

So what is the timeline?

In a couple days.

What are you thinking, Justin?

It'll be tight.

But... we can buzz through it,

and we should be able to make something happen.

You definitely owe us for this one.

- All righty, thanks guys. - See ya.

- All right, see ya, Tyson. - See ya.

The fire's been lit

and they're on it.

I'm just coming down into the Bridge Cut.

Gonna see how it's looking.

There's a lot of work to be done in two days for myself,

like them, so I don't think any of us are gonna be getting

much sleep here anytime soon.

Tyson, you got a copy, Tyson?

Yep, go ahead.

I'm gonna need you to come down and check out Big Red.

I think the pay must be frozen.

It's really just [bleep] with things here.

I'm spinning out on all the time.

I'll be there shortly.

That's not good.

Instead of getting the next cut ready for sluicing,

Tyson now has to figure out how to keep Big Red going.

We trucked this stuff here last year,

and it sat all winter.

The coldest winter in 50 years.

If the loaders can't dig the pay,

then we can't run a wash plant.

Let's see how bad it is, Jordan.

Come on baby, [bleep]. Come on, come on.

Come on!

Man, there's no point in doing this.

This is [bleep]. Let's stop.

Big Red's getting shut down.

You know, Parker's putting a lot of pressure on this here

to keep wash plants going, get them fired up early,

but with the frozen pay at Big Red,

things aren't looking good so far.

Having Big Red down sucks.

Every minute it's down, we're losing money.

We need to get some other pay coming here fast.

Foreman Tyson Lee is trying to get wash plant Big Red

back up and running.

I'm gonna go see if there's a dozer I can jump in,

get up here, push all the top of it,

and rip it up and see if we can keep this wash plant going.

Just trying to work off the thawed layer on top

and then get it down to frost, and hopefully it thaws.

Trying to get the wash plant some pay that it can feed

and the loaders some pay that it can dig.

The Golden Mile's huge pile of pay has sat all winter.

The outside is thawing, but the center is frozen solid,

making it difficult to break up and sluice.

Tyson will use a D-11 dozer to push off the pay that's already

thawed on top of the pile, exposing the frozen pay

underneath to the sun.

While the center thaws, the loader will take

the thawed pay that's been pushed off the top

and feed it into Big Red.

Hopefully, this is the last issue for a while up here,

because in the meantime I got to be setting Bob up

in the Bridge Cut and we're not getting any headway

on getting our third wash plant going.

That looks good.

Is that a little easier to scoop into there, Jordan?

Much, much easier.

I didn't have to fight that one.

Perfect.

We'll just eat the outside of the doughnut

till the middle is thawed.

What do you say we fire Big Red back up

and keep her running? - Copy that.

Thank you, Tyson.

OK, fire it up here.

Ready for pay, Jordan.

After three hours downtime,

Tyson has Big Red back on the gold.

There's two wash plants back up and running,

but Parker wanted one a week, so I got to get a third one

going or I'm up [bleep] creek.

Tony's back in the cut,

it's always more chaotic and stressful.

We're missing a bunch of people.

He's already sent someone home. It's a [bleep] show.

Tony is more extreme

because of the delay sluicing.

Yeah, it's a little bit of an issue.

At the Midas Cut, Tony Beets is struggling to get his crew

to build a pay pile and fire up his first plant.

To speed things up, he's called in daughter Monica.

Tony needs someone who can load trucks, load trucks, load trucks.

It has been a few years since I have run excavator,

but just like riding a bike, you don't forget.

Usually they leave me in the gold room,

but there's no gold coming in, so...

Tony's on a bit of a tear because he just makes

everybody frantic.

Another one bites the dust.

So if people aren't listening, he sends them home for the day

so they listen better tomorrow.

This is the second person today.

I think they're probably a little stressed.

But you know what?

If there's anybody who's gonna make you move faster,

it's gonna be Tony Beets.

Ugh.

Tony has times when Tony is angrier than is warranted.

It's not OK to be a [bleep] about it.

They don't deserve somebody getting mad at them.

They deserve to learn how to do their job.

I think we need more rock truck drivers.

Shouldn't have sent that guy home.

I've got like one more chance here to prove myself today.

Hopefully I stay out of [bleep] and keep my nose clean,

listen well and pick up on everything.

Just so worried [bleep] up again.

Earlier in the week, Tony benched rock truck driver

Tim Meisner. Now, he's on thin ice.

I feel like Tony made an example out of me,

just to the others, keep 'em in line.

Honestly, I think he comes across as kind of an asshole,

but aren't most employers?

Nick, do you copy? Nick, I need help please.

As quick as you can.

We have a flipped rock truck here.

I'm on my way.

This is bad.

Some idiot drove off the dike.

He's been on the [bleep] rock truck for a week now,

and he still doesn't know how to drive.

19-year-old Xander Lewis drove his truck into a ditch,

blocking the only road to the stockpile,

bringing everything to a halt.

To clear the road, Nick uses a dozer to winch it out.

OK, guys, slowly.

Andrew, start pulling.

, let her roll, yeah.

Let her go. There we go.

Go, go, go. Perfect, perfect.

Yeah, we're good.

We're good. Perfect.

Road cleared,

Nick now has a tough call to make.

OK, you get in.

On Tony Beets' claim,

another rock truck driver has bit the dust.

So I came out here looking for some fresh opportunities.

Boy, was I sorely mistaken because this place is ran

like a [bleep] house.

I wasn't one of the people that made the cut.

So that's how it's gonna be.

This job,

It's cruel, harsh, and unforgiving

at most points in time.

So this would be the 16th or 17th guy fired this season,

and yeah, so go for a drive, you know?

Persistent problems with crew have left Tony's hopes of

sluicing by the end of the week in jeopardy.

These are the last few pieces for Bob.

We're all pretty excited after building this pre-wash

to get it on here and see how it's gonna work.

In Parker's wash plant yard, his mechanics are rushing to

get wash plant Bob on the road to the Bridge Cut so they can

get a third plant running and increase their gold haul.

Bob was run pretty hard last year, so there was a lot

going on with this project.

Once Justin gets this welded up, then we'll be able to put

our new pre-wash on that we built for Bob.

All right, that's the last one.

The most stressful point of this

is getting this in the air and getting it straight.

Tyson's looking for it already, of course, so you got to get

this thing on here.

- OK, everybody's clear? - Yeah.

I'm not liking this.

55 feet of crane out and 15,000 pounds hanging.

So critical not to do the wrong move here.

So we're gonna have to swing this way, buddy.

OK.

- Walk our way in? - Yeah.

Watch your fingers, my friend.

A little more.

OK.

Pins are in now. There we go.

That went very well.

- Great job, guys. - Good job, guys.

Good job.

Ready to call Tyson and tell him to come start

putting dirt through it.

Parker wanted a plant a week, so this is the next one.

Hopefully by the end of the week, we got that third

wash plant going.

Tighten up to the ramp a bit.

We've got to pull this onto the truck deck,

which is falling apart slowly on us.

The plant is just as wide as the truck deck itself.

Everything's all steel on steel, so it can be quite

slippery if things get out of hand.

A little more, a little more, a little more, and stop there.

Sounds like we got something loose back here.

Something loose?

Yeah, like a wheel set on the Daytons maybe.

Have you seen what we're [bleep] working with here, man?

You can't be that fussy.

No [bleep] we got something loose.

We have no [bleep] deck.

We got a lot of projects going on.

One of them for the spring was to refurbish

the truck deck here. We haven't had time for it.

We gotta get sluicing.

We'll see what the [bleep] happens.

Ho!

Holy, [bleep] this thing's wobbling bad, man!

Maybe pull it just a bit further and then start

doing a pivot.

Bob weighs around 90,000 pounds and if it falls off,

we're gonna be in trouble here.

Just want to make sure we're taking our time,

doing it once, doing it right.

Liam, if you want to come this way now, please.

A little bit, Liam. Keep coming, keep coming.

Keep coming, keep coming. And stop.

We're on.

We're on our way to the Bridge Cut.

Once we get to the Bridge Cut,

we can start assembling. She'll be off to the races.

All right, next step, get this thing unloaded and get Bob

put together so we can get her to work.

First up,

attach the 53-foot-long tailings conveyor

to Bob's shaker deck.

Can you lift up anymore, Alec?

Walk forward a little bit. That's good.

Keep swinging.

Yes, all right. Nobody move.

Moment of victory.

Got Bob all built up and we're going to just drag it around

and try and spin it.

We don't have much room up here,

so we're gonna want to be careful.

Next, Tyson uses a 480 excavator to drag the plant

to the edge of a 60-foot-high pad.

Hey Tyson, spin your tracks to your passenger side.

Well, this edge is very soft,

so we don't want to get Bob too close to it.

If we start to go over, there'll be no turning back.

Well, [bleep] yeah, that's her in place.

- Nice work, gentlemen. - Good job, guys.

Yeah. Let's go fire her up.

We're about to get up and running here.

Go ahead, start feeding.

So now that we got Bob up and going,

we have three running wash plants at Dominion.

Hopefully a lot of gold coming in.

Let's go [bleep] do something, huh?

After a week of finally getting some sleep,

Rick Ness is up early.

- Morning. - Howdy.

Morning.

- Unexpected. - Yeah.

I mean, good unexpected.

- That's refreshing. - Uh-huh.

Well, good unexpected for me too.

Did you get some sleep? Some good rest?

- Yeah. - Yeah, I actually got

a full night's sleep with it.

- Nice. - Excellent.

- I'm glad it's working for you. - Yep.

I'm just still a little late here, but I can,

I think I can make this work.

- Some good news. Good-- good progress. - Yeah.

You know, for a long time, the last few years, every time

I wake up, I feel like I got hit by a train.

And knowing that I can actually

get good sleep, so it's a relief.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah, I mean, it's gonna,

obviously it's gonna take a while, but I do,

I do honestly feel I can swing

things in the right direction here.

I start being up on time,

having energy, and then getting out there

and getting [bleep] done. - That's good.

I can stop throwing out your breakfasts.

Yeah, I can eat breakfast when it's fresh.

Well, it'll be good. Get you rested up.

See you out there a little more.

We're gonna have to start building up a crew here soon.

Yeah, but we need the engineer to visit first.

- Yeah. - And get us the go ahead.

But yeah, you're right.

We need to get some people here and get ready for that.

We got mining to do and running out of [bleep] time, right?

- Let's do it. - [bleep]

All right.

All right, see you in a bit, guys.

- See you in a bit. - Clink.

It was good to see Rick come in this morning.

It looks like he's got some rest finally.

It's a good step forward, and yeah, it's exciting.

So let's start mining.

It's definitely been frustrating.

I know he's dealing with health stuff while the rest of us

have to prioritize the mine.

It's a lot, so it's really encouraging and great to see

him up and awake and ready to go.

I don't feel like my entire life's changed,

but I feel better. I feel like I've got some energy

and I feel like, you know, I've got the answers.

Time to get mining.

After a week of chaos, Tony Beets has a pile

of pay dirt and is ready to fire up for the first time.

And Tony's making it a family affair.

A month and 10 days.

Whoo-hoo!

Kind of nice to get some money out of here.

The whole family is here.

So as soon as we have the water, we're going to push

some buttons and wash some gold.

Now it looks like you're getting water.

There it is.

There we go.

It's working! We're going for it!

It's really good.

No, no, no, no.

Yep.

Yep, yep.

The race to 13,000 ounces and beating Parker is on.

Well, it's always nice to be sluicing.

There's nothing worse than when everything's sitting still.

So this is [bleep] beautiful to see.

The way Tony spends money,

it's always good to get some in.

- What's up, Chris? - Hey, how's it going?

- Good, how are you? - Good.

- Hey, hey. - Yo.

Oh yeah, there's gold all

in the fridge. In the seal of the fridge.

Sick.

Is there really?

Gonna burn this building down when we're done

and sluice the ashes. - There's gold everywhere.

Yeah.

Chris is blind and deaf, so what do you expect?

My eyesight might be going, but at least I can't hear.

That's what I just said.

Yeah, that's why I kind of--

kind of pieced that one together, yeah.

Good thing my hearing aids don't get in the way of

my glasses, otherwise I'd never find my teeth.

Other than that...

Well, you're a busy guy now with three wash plants.

Yeah.

Do you want to see how the wash plants are doing?

Let's check it out.

First up, Big Red at the Golden Mile,

sluicing stockpiled pay

that Parker would usually throw away.

Here we go, Big Red.

Last week, it delivered 48 ounces.

Got 10, 20, 35.

43.30.

- That's [bleep]. - That's really [bleep].

Painful.

Next, the Golden Goose running top gravels

at the Airstrip Cut.

All righty, at 20, 60,

80, 100, 120,

130, 144 even.

- Spot on. - Better.

So Bob didn't have a full week on it, so you got to give

a little bit of credit there.

Finally, Bob at the Bridge Cut, which fired up

for the first time this week.

10, 20, 40,

45.5.

- Well, it beat Big Red. - Yeah.

How far we've fallen.

So last week we had 211.4 ounces.

This week it's 232.8.

Worth $1.1 million.

- It's a season total of 589.7. - Jeez.

We are so far behind.

We're not doing real well so far this year.

We're slipping behind, way behind from last year.

- We need to do like 700 ounces a week to hit 13, right? - Yeah.

- Yes. - And what did we do, 200?

200, almost 300.

So now we're basically 400

behind, so now we have to add that.

Well, we're behind from the last two [bleep] weeks.

It's a rough start.

Hopefully, we can get past some of this gravel

and get Roxanne going.

Yeah, I mean, the only saving grace for any of those three

cleanups, we haven't cleaned a square foot of bedrock yet.

But, you know, the comparison to last year is

definitely rough. - You're on some good ground.

We just got to get to it.

All right, so you're gonna get Roxanne going?

- That's the plan. - We need it.

And you're gonna stop running [bleep] stuff?

Eventually.

Do you want to win the battle or win the war?

- Yeah, exactly. - Exactly.

So I think this might

hurt right now a little bit, but big picture wise...

Yeah, we'll get there.

It's just painful when you get in here and you're like, oh,

we need six, 700 ounces a week and we're doing 200.

But in the long run, it makes the project find more gold as

a total, but your weekly gold totals might be

a bit less and that's...

frustrating.