Original subtitles

The season right now is just flying by,

and we're so far behind.

I've been struggling with my health, trying to get

my sleep apnea under control.

We've had a stop-work order on us.

We can't touch any high walls,

but we did get the go-ahead to start mining.

Five weeks into the season,

Rick Ness has been thrown a lifeline.

After authorities banned him from mining

his hazardous high-wall pits,

he finally has permission to mine shallow ground,

if he can find it.

We're running out of time, and we've already sluiced

last year's stockpile.

We were hoping for around 100 ounces out of it,

and it gave us a little over 30,

which kind of sucks. Now we need more.

There's a piece of ground down at the bottom of my claims

that I've been holding on to that...

I know is shallow.

- Good to see ya! - Good, yeah, it's been a while.

Yeah, no kidding.

When's the last time you were down here?

God, I don't even know.

I think it was when I was showing you around years ago.

Didn't you call it, like the retirement plan

- or something? - Yeah, easy money here.

- Easy money, yeah. - Yeah.

Just to be clear, our deal is

- 10% for 100-ounce minimum. - Yeah.

For six years, Rick's been acquiring land

owned by Troy Taylor...

I think we can manage it.

Thanks a lot, Troy.

Eventually, buying 1,700 acres of Duncan Creek ground

for $1.4 million.

Got some gold for ya.

Well, there's 250 ounces.

Figured I'd come and make the final payment and be done.

When that ground proved out, Rick continued to put his faith

in Troy's local knowledge...

Well, what was the gold like?

- I mean, is it decent or? - The gold is good here.

There's about five feet of muck and sand.

Eventually buying another 1,600 acres at Lightning Creek.

Troy, he always seems to have the answers when I don't.

Now Rick's hoping Troy has another honey hole

up his sleeve.

I hope you got good boots,

because it's pretty gnarly down there.

Serious bushwhacking.

Troy believes their best shot lies in a 32-acre chunk of land

two miles south of Rick's main operation.

We should be able to find a trail that I made.

Oh, jeez.

You can see the sample pile.

And yeah, about 20 or 30 years of vegetation.

I'm just surprised it's still visible.

See the size of the boulders though?

Like we see boulders, we get encouraged by that.

Kind of see what we're dealing with here.

This is one of our test holes we did right over there.

We're talking three-to six-feet maximum.

It's mine able ground from what I remember.

We were panning, just my father and I, and we were getting

black sand and some gold.

So, that could be, like, a game-changer down here.

Yep.

Well, we should be able to tell once the bigger boulders

are popping up.

Yeah.

Well, just come get me if you have any more questions.

I will. Thanks again, Troy.

Talk to you later.

Water-worn boulders are a promising sign that this area

could be rich with gold.

Over 150,000 years ago, a giant glacier eroded gold

from the Mount Hinton motherlode.

The massive ice sheet ground its way down the mountain,

past Rally Valley and Vegas Valley,

ripping up everything in its path.

When the ice melted,

boulders and other heavy materials settled,

potentially leaving pockets of gold scattered downstream.

And Rick hopes it's shallow and rich enough to mine.

Troy left a pile of dirt out of his sample hole,

so I'm gonna use it to...

double-check his results, why not?

All right, let's get this to the river.

My feet are gonna get wet. No getting around that.

I really just like to see some gold in here.

I mean, I don't really know what...

won't make me happy.

This is a five or six, you know, good-sized pieces

you can pick out and count, and then a bunch of fine powder

along the edge.

But that's just one pan, and that adds up fast.

As far as I'm concerned, that is a good pan.

That spot's mine able, no doubt.

Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot.

100 miles west...

Klondike Kingpin Tony Beets' season is finally

picking up steam.

In the Midas Cut, after a late start,

wash plant Sluice-A-Lot has produced 800 ounces of gold

towards Tony's 13,000-ounce target.

And last week, he fired up his second wash plant,

Find-A-Lot.

Hey, Len, we leave it like this, OK?

Yeah.

I think we're pushing quite a bit of yardage through

- there already. - Yes, all right.

For the rest of the week, younger brother Nick Beets

needs to keep both wash plants running if Tony has any chance

of hitting his biggest gold haul of the season.

We're doing good, the rocks are coming out clean.

- Yeah. - The belt is always full.

Overseeing Find-A-Lot is Nick's second-in-command,

Irishman Andrew Moran.

This loader is like literally

the worst loader we have on site.

I'm not too sure why they have me doing it with this one.

In her first year on the Beets claim,

operator Jasmine Gatensby

has been tasked with loading pay dirt.

Jasmine, Jasmine, Jasmine.

Go ahead.

There's no dirt in the plant, put dirt in the box.

What the is going on with this clutch brake?

This loader is a piece of.

This loader is a piece of.

Jasmine, do you copy? Jasmine?

The pay is getting caught up on the grizzly.

I don't know if you can hear me or not.

Wait, I don't understand.

Me.

Put dirt in the box.

Jasmine.

Oh my, man.

Put dirt in the box.

Off, Irish!

Hey, you want to do something

with her attitude in there?

Shouting and roaring back at me, the stupid.

- Put dirt in the box. - What's wrong?

I'm telling her to put dirt in the box,

and she's screaming and roaring out the cabin.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hey, have a look.

Too many rocks stuck in the grizzly.

So, the material didn't fall through.

That's OK, Jasmine.

I'll try to lift the grizzly now.

So it should be lifting it up right now, right?

Yes, correct.

I think there is too much weight on there now.

Find-A-Lot's grizzly bars are blocked,

backing up the pay dirt

and stopping it reaching the plant.

Just shut her down, shut her down.

Look, the size of the rocks.

A lot of these rocks still should be able to run

through the plant.

- Them grizzlies are way too close together. - All right.

You know, so I think what we should do,

it's a job I know, but you know, we have to create

- some more room in between the grizzlies. - Yeah.

Find-A-Lot's hydraulic grizzly bars protect the plant

from being damaged by large rocks.

But the bars are trapping too much material,

overloading the hydraulics and choking off

the supply of pay.

Nick plans to widen the gaps to let mid-sized rocks through,

reducing the load on the system.

The dangerous larger rocks will be held back and cleared by

the hydraulics, allowing Find-A-Lot to fire up

and get back on the gold.

Well, that's stupid.

Like if we do widen it, then there is a chance that

one, like those big ones that got caught in that chute

- the other day. - Yeah.

They're like that thin, but they're that big.

- Yeah, yeah. - You know what I mean?

OK, get going.

All these big rocks here,

if a big enough one goes in there,

it's gonna shake the out of shaker deck,

and then we have to replace screens, we're gonna have to

replace the shaker deck if it comes to it.

But I just work here,

I don't make the calls, so I don't...

Andrew, Jasmine can go back there

- and you guys work on this? - Yeah.

- Yeah? - Hell.

Hey!

Listen, that kind of attitude,

- I don't like that. - What, I don't have...

If you don't like to be in here,

then you might as well off.

So, please try to put some effort in there...

OK.

And behave yourself.

It's my fault. Everything's always my fault.

Keep my mouth shut and keep working.

It's not our call at the end of the day.

If Andrew doesn't agree with me, well,

too bad for him. Him.

You know, I'm in charge right now while Tony is not here,

so they better listen to me.

If they don't like it, well, you know, 'em.

They can go.

You think you can slide them by hand?

- Oh, there you go. - There we go.

You had your breakfast this morning?

Yes.

At the Midas Cut, wash plant Find-A-Lot is shut down

with problems with its hopper feeder.

With Tony absent, his brother Nick has made

a bold call.

Len and Andrew are moving the grizzly bars more apart,

and then that lets room bigger rocks, but still,

we catch the biggest rocks that we don't want in there.

I hope this works out.

- How you making out, Len? - Good.

- Yeah. - Only I need a couple of bolts.

Now it's time to see if Nick's grizzly bar gamble

will pay off.

Just wanted to say sorry for shouting at you earlier on.

- There's a lot going on. - It's OK.

We need to get this thing going.

- Yeah. - There was no dirt in the box, so...

- I get it, I get it. - I apologize.

- It's fine. - All right.

Yeah, you just have to admit when you're wrong,

and you have to see when you're wrong,

and Jasmine's OK, so it's all good.

You want to hear that, Nick?

- I apologized. - You apologized?

- I apologized. - Yeah.

You're an Irishman with a temper.

- Very short one, yeah. - Yeah?

So I think you did the right thing.

Yeah.

- So, we're ready to go, right? - Yeah.

OK. Fire up the plant.

I have good hope for it. We'll see how it goes.

First bucket is in there.

Material is going nicely through there now.

Yes! I knew it was going to work!

- Yes! - We made it!

All because of you, Nick! All because of you!

The grizzly bars is working a lot better now.

Yeah, I feel a little bit stupid, but it is what it is.

You have to learn from your mistakes.

So, it's all good.

I think we're doing all right.

So, soon as Tony is back, he should be

- very proud of us, right? - Do you think he will be?

- I don't know. - No, I don't think so.

I'm proud of myself and that's more important, right?

They've got a problem.

I bought a feeder and it got stuck up at Sulphur

and we've got to get it down. Can you organize that for me?

I don't know what the road's like, but it's not my problem,

it's yours now.

I want it running in a week, OK?

Buzz Legault has been hired by a new gold mine investor,

successful hard-rock miner Greg Gibson.

I'm leaving for a week.

I've got some business elsewhere.

I've picked up an awful lot of ground.

We're up at Toronto Creek, we're at Ready Bullion.

We've picked up chunks of property in the area.

When I get back, I want a stockpile

in front of it and I want to be running.

Greg and Buzz recently ran a 300-yard test

on the white channel pay in the higher-level benches,

recovering more than 2.5 ounces of gold.

The 300-yard test tells us we picked the right place.

We know that the bench is gonna pay us.

With promising test results, Greg is upping the ante,

giving Buzz the equipment he needs to ramp up production.

At the bottom of Sulphur lies Greg's stranded 15-ton feeder.

Buzz's rescue mission means hauling it 40 miles

over two mountain passes,

the highest rising more than 3,800 feet.

The treacherous route then snakes down

the narrow Hunker Road, where steep drops

and tight hairpin turns leave little room for error

before the feeder finally reaches Trail Hill.

Truck driver Steve Lafreniere

has been stuck here overnight waiting for rescue.

Basically, I can't climb the hills because all

the weight is on the back. It's lifting weight

off my drives, so I got zero traction,

so I need him to pull me up these hills.

OK, you just want to go ahead and tighten your cable there?

Yeah, copy that. Starting now.

All righty, let's go.

Little bit faster if you can.

We're at the base of the hill.

Now we'll see how good your loader can pull here.

Is it going all right back there?

Yeah, you betcha. I don't want to go any faster than that.

I think we can almost disconnect right here.

I think we're finished climbing some of these hills here.

OK.

Yeah.

What? Oh, no.

This is a major problem.

The entire conveyor's weight is now held by cables at

the top and a single bolt at the bottom.

If the bolt fails, it will all crash onto the road,

jeopardizing their season.

We couldn't just steal one of these?

Put it in there. It's about three inch.

Yeah.

Look at that, one bolt just solved

five to six hours.

You betcha.

I've got a plan together, happy about that.

It's time to go to work. It's a long time coming.

Rick Ness believes he's found the ground

that can turn his season around.

Now he's ready to make up for lost time.

Now I'm just putting together a crew.

I found a mechanic. His name is Curtis.

He's got a good reputation. He's good at what he does.

And so that's a score right there.

And I actually asked Bailey to return, too.

For the last couple years, he's worked for me.

He's good, and that's... I mean, he's really good.

As soon as he gets here,

I'll just get everyone together,

talk over the plan.

- Look at this guy. - What's going on, Ricky Bobby?

- He's already ready for work. - Hey, man.

- How you been, bud? - Good to see you.

- How you been, man? - I've been all right.

Look who I found.

A mustache.

- Taking a highway patrol job? - Yep.

Rick's small crew is starting to come together.

Longtime mine manager Jason Folster

and his wife Heather,

excavator operator Bailey Carten

and new mechanic Curtis Demeyer.

Starting to put a crew together.

Does that mean we also have ground to mine?

Yeah, we got ground to mine.

It's shallow, I mean, it's gonna be a quick strike,

low overburden, easy stripping, and you guys know we need to

- get gold coming in. - Yeah.

This ground that you're talking about, that's...

it's not stripped, there's no ponds,

no infrastructure in place yet?

- Nothing there? - No.

Troy Taylor didn't... Taylors didn't leave anything there?

No, it's completely virgin ground, there's nothing,

there's nothing there but a trail in.

But I think the payoff is our best bet.

You know with this late start that we're getting,

if this doesn't work out,

there's probably no second chance, right?

I mean, we could go home broke.

I didn't come here for nothing.

I know I just got here, but why wouldn't we just go to.

Lightning and start biting there a little bit?

I mean, yeah, there's some stripped ground.

It was decent, but...

You're just not happy with the results that we got?

Last season, Rick bought a second claim

at Lightning Creek.

That's with the gold in it.

That looks good.

That whole floor down there, that's the payday

we're looking for.

The early gold numbers weren't great.

It's a big waste of time is what that is.

- That's terrible. - Yeah.

Here we go.

But results eventually improved.

50... 50.4.

Yeah, that's not bad.

Yeah, that's way better than last time.

Yeah.

Ultimately, Rick made the decision to chase

bigger gold at Vegas Valley.

But that is not an option this season.

You know, it's reasonable last year.

It's not, you know, good as Vegas Valley or anything like

that, but plant's there, set up, ground's mostly stripped off.

Like, why wouldn't we do that?

I think we can do better, you know?

I mean, 50 ounces a week is what we got,

you know, our final week, but I don't know if we could

rely on that every week.

I have a really good feeling about this ground.

I think it's looking really good.

I think it's going to be our best option.

You had a good feeling about Lightning, too.

And we're not going back there.

Are you gonna at least do some testing down there?

You know, we gotta figure out at least if it's worth it.

You know, I did a pan there.

Troy did a bunch of test holes... just to see if

- he was, you know... - Telling the truth?

Yeah, not that I don't trust him, but...

- Yeah, yeah. - I don't really trust...

You know, you don't really trust...

Can't trust anyone.

I got a really good pan out of it.

You know, and...

I think one way or another we should definitely see

a little bit more testing or something.

Just to, you know, make all our minds at ease

knowing that it is fully worth it.

Maybe I talk to Troy about borrowing his test plant.

We haul that thing in there and do a couple

of small bulk tests in a couple spots.

I don't see any reason we can't, you know,

be producing over an ounce per hundred down there.

If you can do that, it'll save us.

We'll definitely break even and then some.

I think, yeah, I think we put money in the bank at that.

Is everybody on board with it?

But I'm convinced that this is gonna beat Lightning Creek.

This is the way to go. It is.

- Let's give her a try. - Let's do it.

Hell yeah.

When they push back, I like it

because it means they're thinking.

You know, are they questioning my judgment?

I make mistakes, I've made mistakes,

and they've seen it, so...

We're going to this new ground.

They're hesitant, but some testing will prove it

for them, and then away we go. We're on the gold then.

I know it's going to work out.

It's quite a challenge.

Tony is not here at the moment, so I'm in charge.

And yeah, I'll try to do the best I can.

At the Midas Cut, Nick is overseeing two wash plants

running at full capacity, trying to deliver

the biggest gold weigh of the season.

As soon as Tony is gone, some people think they can

relax or whatever.

So then you have to light the fire again

and get them going.

For the past day, operator Jasmine has been left

in charge of keeping Find-A-Lot fed and running.

I had a few rough days just getting to know

how everything works.

I had to learn really fast or else I don't think that

I would have made the cut.

Me and Andrew get along great.

People get flustered and scream at each other

and tell each other to off,

and then five minutes later, everything's OK.

Every time I come around, I check the hopper,

make sure there's still material coming off the end

of the conveyor belt.

I think it looks like it's getting built up.

Andrew, I'm gonna have to shut this plant down.

It was building up on the right side of the pre-wash.

So, I shut this down, shut the shaker deck off,

and then I hit the bypass.

You need a track shovel or something?

Here.

Ready to go?

All the way.

Sake.

Sake.

At the Midas Cut,

wash plant Find-A-Lot's main water intake hose

has blown loose during a start-up.

The main water pipe for our wash plant is having

a burst in because

both of our bypasses were closed, so everything built up

in here and she blew up over there.

What did you touch this one for?

- That's what Len told me to do! - No!

- Do not touch this one. - OK.

- Not this one. - OK.

Not this one.

I swear that Len told me to turn this one this way.

This is the only one that you touch.

Nick or Len, Nick or Len, do you copy, Nick or Len?

I closed the wrong valve and opened the wrong one,

but that's the one I was told to close yesterday.

- Cody, do you copy, Cody? - Copy.

Turn the pump off for Find-A-Lot,

turn the pump off.

The wash plant is down now until we get that pipe back on

and we get this problem sorted out.

What happened?

She closed both valves.

Why did she do that?

I don't know, because we didn't do

a proper shutdown with her.

- It's not fixable? - I don't think so.

- Just take it apart, yeah? - Yeah.

And I'll go see if I can find another hose, OK?

- OK. - OK, do it.

Nick plans to replace the damaged section of hose

if he can find a new one.

We don't like to have that plant stopped.

So, if the plant is stopped, we are pissed off.

Tony, me, you know, we don't like to see that.

Well, that pipe is of that flexible hose,

and luckily Tony did some shopping last winter,

so I have one, two, three laying here, so we're good.

Get somebody to help you pull it out,

- and then I go to the cut, OK? - OK.

Have this new pipe, we're gonna stick it in there.

Water is gonna go through it into there, and gold is gonna

come out, and we're all gonna be very happy.

Put it down.

All good, Len?

Yeah, we're ready to fire her up.

- We've got a beautiful new hose. - Yeah, give her.

Yeah, we have water, we have water.

Yep, fire it up again, I guess.

Try to make some money again.

Oh, we're running again.

Didn't take us too long to fix in that new hose.

I'm very happy how that turned out.

Looks good, works good, no leakage.

We're running again. So yeah, we're good.

After all, 13,000 ounces. That's all I can say.

Buzz Legault is pushing to start sluicing full throttle

for the first time this season.

His final hurdle?

Wrestle a 15-ton hopper conveyor into place

before firing up Hot Box.

To get the job done,

Buzz has two of Greg's most trusted crew,

Neil Gauthier and excavator operator.

Pat Stewart.

The moment of truth.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hold on, Pat.

You better stop.

Buzz!

It's twisting too much with that one over there.

Like, every time you lift and he lift same time,

it wants to turn this way, not this way,

because it's just nose... heavy.

Right?

I'll get the loader.

Ready, Buzz?

Up, up, up, up!

Whoa!

Hold it!

Right there! Hold it!

I don't know, come have a look, Buzz.

Good.

We got it in place. I have to hook it up now.

Yeah.

A lot more around than I wanted to do.

Well, let's get some muck going to it.

We don't have time to waste right now.

Hopefully, all the test holes that we dig, you know,

turn out really good.

And, you know, we know we're a good area

that we're going to start at.

We just want to get to the good stuff

and hammer down here.

Nearly six weeks into the season,

Rick Ness's crew is finally mining.

Excavator operator Bailey Carten

is clearing a path to a new spot

that Rick's banking can deliver big gold.

Bailey's good for the job. I'm glad to have him back.

I need good people here, and that's what I got.

I definitely can't do this alone.

It's something that I don't ever take lightly.

My decisions affect the people that work for me,

and that's important to me. I've made mistakes,

but nobody's ever gone home broke.

We got a late start.

We got a lot to do in a short amount of time

with less people, but I'll pull this off, too.

Before committing to Rick's new mining plan,

his crew want Rick to test the ground.

Every time I've worked for Rick now,

everything is just up in the air.

It's challenging knowing if the gold is going to be

there or not. So, hopefully this works out

and Rick doesn't fail us.

I don't know what the going on here,

but in these tracks, they're definitely...

there's definitely something wrong with them.

That's not looking good.

The link's ready to blow out of this.

, Rick's gonna have to come look at this.

Bailey got a hold of me and said that something wrong

with the 700, and he's got to have Curtis over there to

look at it, so I hope it's nothing major.

There's a lot riding on this ground.

Some bad news for you, man.

That pin's ready to snap.

- Track links. - Yeah.

So, what are you figuring we need to order right away?

We'll need a couple links, three pins, bushings, seals,

- a master pin. - OK.

We'll have to get a pin press put together for this.

Yeah, it ain't rolling.

Yeah. All right.

You know, we're already late in the season getting started.

And this machine, being here right now, broken down,

this is a lifeline machine.

This is going to cost us a lot of time, a lot of money,

and at the end of the day,

looking at that, this hoe's pretty much done.

Track link on the 700.

That's... what the next?

Our 750's down because the depth pump's cracked,

and I had no big machine to get started on the cut.

You know, one thing after another.

Mining.

120 miles west, former Ness foreman Buzz Legault

needs to get wash plant Hot Box up and running

before mine owner Greg returns.

Starting up the water pump.

Here we go. First bucket delivered.

On with the season.

I'll be... go to hell. Look at that.

Buzz's baby at work.

You know what? It's running and it looks good.

Isn't that something? Nice!

And there's Buzz admiring his work.

Look like an artist. You know, "Look what I did."

Buzzard! Wow, well done.

No way.

Yeah?

Wow.

Well done, Buzz. Well done.

OK, start of season.

Showtime, folks. Let's go, Buzzard.

- Those mats suck? - They're slippery.

With Tony Beets due back any time now...

You have another scraper?

Matthew is going to grab more pails now.

Daughter Monica is determined to collect

every speck of gold

and deliver the Beets family's biggest haul this year.

Do I get to keep it now that I found it?

Luck of the Irish?

- Yeah. - No.

Notice it goes in my pocket.

It was a nice little nugget that Andrew just found.

I have to call him eagle eyes if he's gonna start spotting

them out of the dirt like that.

This year, it seems like we are finding quite a few nuggets,

and it's always nice to see.

Hello.

That was a pretty good auction, wasn't it?

I was happier than a pig in.

Well, the new feeders with the grizzly bars,

they were a little bit too close together, so we had to

spread them out and take a couple out.

So after that, everything ran fine.

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That means we have gold weighs for both?

Yep.

First up is Sluice-A-Lot.

There you go, that's 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80,

90, 100, 110, 150, 160,

170, 180, 200, 230, 260, 270, 280...

Hold on.

290, 300, 310, 320, 330, 380, 400.

449.96.

- That's quite a bit, isn't it? - Pretty damn good.

Now, it's time to see how Find-A-Lot has delivered

on its first run of the season.

Ready?

20, that is 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, to 100,

170, 180, 190, 200, 210, 240,

270, 280, 290, 340...

350.50.

Five days?

- Yes. - Nothing wrong with that.

Nick has delivered the biggest gold weigh of the season,

an 800-ounce, $3.5 million payday.

Actually, you did pretty good. Nick, we'll leave again.

If that's what you can produce, yeah, bingo, we'll...

I can't wait till you leave again.

- Quiet? - Yeah, nice and quiet, right?

Yeah, it's onwards and upwards.

Yep.