Original subtitles

We're having the safety meeting today

because we're about to head into an extremely hostile environment.

We really need to just talk through when [bleep] goes bad.

Yeah. Yeah.

Peru has a lot of mining districts,

and in a lot of areas, fairly limited development

of that industry.

And the safety factor is uncontrollable.

We need to just remain calm.

Madre de Dios is always really hostile.

Sometimes there's violence and illegal mining.

It seems like the right place to be,

but there's a big safety factor in there too.

We have to be paying attention.

Yeah, I mean, we just have to be careful and try to plan

as much as we can. Got you.

But the main goal of this trip is to

go where people either have barely gone

or haven't been before.

I'm guessing that it's gonna be fairly brutal,

but it's just so different than

anything I've ever seen before.

Pretty narrow road, isn't it?

Yeah.

What's going on here?

Look at that. Jeez.

Far out.

Parker Schnabel and his crew

are travelling Peru on a hunt for virgin ground

that he could mine this offseason.

We're getting on the boat.

No, [bleep] way.

You are [bleep] me.

They got a loading ramp out for us and everything.

How is that wood gonna take the weight of this car?

[bleep].

Let's hope it's safe.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

, no.

That was fun.

I'm really hoping to assess mining operations

or pieces of ground that are less developed,

less explored, and is going to give us better chances

of finding, like, real opportunities for investment

or ground that is economical to mine

that nobody is mining.

And I'm confident in making those decisions

and saying yes or no quickly and moving on to other things.

If there's enough gold, I'll mine anywhere.

Wicked.

Onwards.

Into the jungle.

Madre de Dios.

My contact in here recommended me to

contact the Amarakaeri.

The Amarakaeri, they are the biggest community

around here. Right.

They are all only like 1,000 people or something like that.

After finding good ground

in the rainforest near Quince Mil,

Parker's heading deeper into the jungle

to the Madre de Dios mining district,

where he'll prospect untapped virgin ground

in the Amarakaeri Reserve.

It's pretty well-known that there's illegal miners

around especially in the jungles,

especially Madre de Dios.

Yeah. - Because the soil is so rich in gold,

and the problem is that the jungle is so big

and is so hard to get... To have access to it

that it's really hard to control that.

Yeah, like, it's almost impossible to police.

There is some extremely unique mining culture in Peru,

and I really want to check that out.

Obviously there's a lot of gold down here,

and that's always intrigued me.

Legend has it that the jungles of Madre de Dios

are home to Paititi,

the Inca's lost city of gold...

...rumored to be the hiding place of untold riches.

To this day, Paititi is still

one of the most coveted lost treasures on Earth.

So do we think probably this was jungle at some point?

Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

Now Madre de Dios is Peru's biggest

placer gold-producing region

with $600 million of gold discovered here every year.

It's currently home to over 46,000

informal and illegal miners

who make up a quarter of the district's population.

This feels like we're in the desert.

It's so crazy how quickly it went from, like,

such thick jungle to this.

Here's some mining.

Ooh.

I was wondering if those piles were from mining

or from gravel operations.

Oh, they've even got machines over there.

There's a wash plant running. Oh, yeah.

Right in the middle of the river.

Should we go see if they're finding any gold?

We need to be careful.

We're up for danger.

I mean, you might not be.

Your job is to not let us be up for danger.

It feels very exposed here.

I'll not lift the camera...

Yeah. ...until you say--

Maybe, maybe. I'll just have it around my neck.

Hola! This is a bit dangerous.

I don't like really doing this. Hola.

Just approaching random miners and... Amigo.

Como estas?

Not very much gold. No?

No. no.

Ah, yeah. The guys who use machinery,

they get way more gold than that.

Time to go.

Ooh.

Oh, it's [bleep] in!

Oh, my God.

Keep going, keep going!

hell, man!

Oh, [bleep]!

Yes, there you are!

Did someone get wet?

Only a little bit.

Hola.

Que tal? - Que tal?

So the Amar... Amarakaeri...

- Amarakaeri, yes. - Amarakaeri.

They are the people that we're gonna be meeting?

Yes.

Did you hear that?

What?

What is it? - He said, "Parker."

How do these people know about gold rush?

They have satellite... Oh.

...internet, and they watch the show. Oh.

Yeah, they do.

I think these dudes are beeping their horns.

They're trying to get past I think.

There's heaps of them.

There's two more on your right. Wait,

they're stopping.

Man.

What's going on?

Diego.

Buenas?

You're looking for Parker?

They want to show you how they work.

Oh, they're gold miners.

They're gold miners. Got you.

Have they seen us on TV?

Illegal mine site. It's informal mining.

Got you.

I think given the variety of environments

that we're gonna see

in Peru,

it's definitely gonna be very brutal.

There's a lot of illegal mining around.

It's not out of sight, out of mind.

I definitely want to go check it out.

Is it close by?

Can we... - Yeah, it's close by.

Can we follow them in the car?

No?

Only motor, on the bike.

- Motorbike. - I don't know about that.

Only two, only two can go with them.

Not telling me why, but he's just saying only motorbike.

Are you guys all right with waiting?

Yeah, I don't mind waiting as long as you guys feel safe.

You got your inReach and stuff?

Yeah, I've got my inReach.

- And radio? - Yeah.

- You're cool with this. - Yeah, I'm totally cool with it. Yeah.

Split up, but we need a plan. So we'll meet back here.

Yeah, three hours.

Three hours. All right. Yeah, that's fine.

- This could be interesting, yeah. - Could be really good.

Okay.

Three hours.

Dan, three hours.

Three hours.

See you.

I don't know about this.

It's not, like, the ideal place to be hanging around.

Yeah, everybody knows Parker and the filming crew's here,

- so... - Mmm-hmm.

...the word spread really, really fast.

Maybe they spotted us when we stopped in the...

After crossing the river.

Dan, there's one bad

up here looking at us.

I know, I saw him.

I want to explain to you guys

before we do it on camera.

No location will be given,

that they are free to cover their... Their faces.

They said earlier...

...that they're not supposed to be doing this, right?

Mmm-hmm. Why is that?

Is this area not supposed to be mined,

or what's the reason?

Uh, it's because the government doesn't support them,

give them permits and all that,

uh, but they need to come

because they need to support their family.

There's no other way,

And they built this themselves?

Si. Yeah.

You guys built this yourself. Wow.

Yeah. Wow.

Oh, look, floating wash plant all made of wood.

That is incredible.

In Madre de Dios,

Parker and Danny are visiting an informal mine

where a six-man crew run 24-hour shifts,

producing on average one ounce of gold per day.

This is all water powered.

So they use water to suck up material...

...and pump it up to the sluice box.

This plant is sunk in the ground 20 feet down.

So they can pretty much do anything up here,

and the sluice box will stay exactly where it is.

After felling the trees,

the miners use a hand-built suction dredge,

which acts like an underwater vacuum,

to reach the gold-rich gravels at the bottom.

The pay is sucked up and pumped over a series of several screens

into a sluice box to catch the gold.

You ever seen anything like this?

Not really like this.

I think your sluice box is a little too wide.

Cut it down to, like, a third of a meter,

and it will increase the water flow,

and it might increase your recovery rate.

So much room for an accident.

Did you guys build this?

Everything... Wow.

...by hand. Wow.

Yeah, they designed it and they made it

by their own hands.

They have a brake caliper off a car,

the chain off of a bike...

...hooked up to that extra pully off the motor.

Oh, that's a diff out of a vehicle.

Yeah, uh, Toyota, Toyota, Toyota.

You can see the brand here.

Right. So they can go

down to 20 or 30 meters,

but it becomes very difficult

because of the water filtration.

Right, is there issues with, like, the government or police showing up?

Uh, yeah. They do have problems

with the government and police. Right.

And they just blow it up.

The government does? - Yeah.

If they catch them? - Yeah.

Wow, that's pretty hardcore. Yeah.

In 2019, in an attempt to curb

the unchecked destruction of the jungle,

the Peruvian government ordered

a military-led clampdown on illegal operations

with prison sentences of up to 8 years for miners.

The truth is, you know,

these guys are a few pieces of paper away

from just providing for their families.

They're just doing what they have to do to put food on the table.

And these guys are hard workers.

You know, everything is manual labor.

But there's a lot of bad sides of it,

like unpoliced destruction of the jungle,

and I'll avoid that at all costs.

But I'm sure that Tyler and Diego are wondering where we are,

so we should probably try to get back to them.

Hey, guys.

Can we thumb a lift?

Yeah, jump in.

How did it go? Really good.

Yeah. - Really interesting.

It's just, like, they're just earning their crust

- exactly like everybody else. - Yeah.

Diego, the Amarakaeri people, do they speak Spanish?

Or are we-- Yes.

Okay. Lots of them speak Spanish.

Back en route, the team are two miles

to their destination of the Amarakaeri reserve.

Do they have any, like, special rights to mine?

Yeah, that land belongs to them.

Oh, right.

Really interesting people,

they strongly want to protect the forest

because they actually depend on the land.

This tribal land is home to the Arakmbut tribe

who lived in complete isolation

from the outside world until first contact in 1957.

Today, the Arakmbut are self-sustaining,

mining their gold-rich ancestral lands

to support their community.

This is a really beautiful place.

Any experience I ever had of going this far

away from kind of cities,

there's always an element of you have to earn the trust.

Yeah, as long as you follow the rules,

then we'll get into their,

you know, trust zone.

There it is.

Okay.

Parker and the team

must first visit the village elder,

72-year-old chief Andres Moqui.

They used to live upriver,

but it was hard to get in contact with the white people.

So when he was a kid, no white men?

No.

Kayneri?

Diego...

- Oh, man. - Just checked something off my bucket list,

I've always wanted to meet somebody

that grew up uncontacted by the outside world.

- Amazing. - It's hard to do.

- Yeah. - It's a place that's super untouched,

um, not a lot of outsiders get invited into the Amarakaeri.

This is what they do whenever they have visitors.

Got you.

The Kayneri family,

father, Luis, and sons, Omar and Bonaire,

were taught to mine by their ancestors.

They go to the river beach, and they start just moving the sand.

They have, like, a moveable wash plant.

Got you. - And that's how they collect their...

Right. - They get their gold.

Where's the river?

That's where we want to go.

It's close to here.

The Kayneris make their living

mining on the Rio Colorado

and are looking for investment to increase their operation.

Look at this place.

This is unbelievable.

I feel like this is our most...

...out there we've ever been mining.

Oh, my [bleep]. Definitely for me.

We've come to South America

to find some kind of business opportunity for Parker

He know exactly what he's doing,

and he's at a place where he's ready to expand.

That's why it's so important to meet new people

and talk to the locals

'cause they know the ground better than anyone else,

they know the gold better than anyone else.

We need to be working with them

and learn from them as much as we can.

They want to test the soil

to see if there's still some gold in it.

Got you.

The old shovel pan.

Prospectors will pan in anything.

You give them a shovel, a bathtub, a gold pan,

doesn't matter.

The Kayneri family seems very excited to have us here

and show us what they're doing and how they do things.

This is beautiful country,

and I'm just trying to figure out

a little bit more about the ground here.

Finding a piece of ground in the middle of nowhere

in the jungle that's really good,

that would be more rewarding than just some investment

in an existing mine site.

It's not easy to find it. No.

Oh, wow.

That's pretty rich ground.

Oh, yeah. Ah, si.

That's incredible.

That's just a shovelful off the beach.

This beach must me rammo with this stuff.

Bueno. Si, bueno.

That's a really, really good start for us.

This is obviously a very gold-rich area.

This beach has gold in it.

I mean, one shovelful

and then just panning it off in the river,

and then there it is.

Perfect.

Can you ask if that's normal,

or is that a lot more than they usually find?

This is normal for them. Wow.

Tomorrow he's talking about going upriver to another place.

Here is more like dust, like gold sand.

But upriver, there's more, like, nuggets.

Got you, that's where we want to go.

Si.

They're super friendly, very welcoming,

and it seems like the land of plenty.

Like, lots of animals, lots of wildlife,

and obviously a lot of gold.

As far as a place to prospect,

like, when you can just pick a shovel full of dirt up

off a river bank and find 30 or 40 colors,

what an awesome place to be.

I don't think I've ever seen that before.

It'd be such a shame to not, you know,

do some prospecting and check out what's here,

and, you know, see what they want to do.

That's what we're here to find out.

- Salud! - Salud!

- Salud! - Senor, Parker.

Salud.

Yeah, it's really cool being here.

I guess, really the only question I've got is, like,

do they want a bigger operation

with, like, more people?

Yeah, they would like to scale up their operation

and have more people working,

but for that, they need-- Investment and on and on, yeah. Okay.

We're leaving at 5:00 AM

in the boats up the river to this place.

Yeah.

We better get to bed if it's a 5:00 AM wakeup. Yes.

Hey there, buddy. How'd you sleep?

I did pretty well. - Sleep good?

Yeah. Want some coffee?

Yeah, I'd love some actually.

Cheers, dude.

The cockerel was another level.

Hey, Parker.

You all right?

With that outside my tent.

Am I worse than the cockerel?

I can smell that through the tent.

That's amazing.

Um, let's get you a cup of coffee

just 'cause we don't want to leave these guys waiting.

Okay.

Buenos dias.

Buenos dias! Let's go mining.

Oh! Here we go!

On the hunt for virgin ground to mine this season,

Parker and his team are leaving

on a two day trip with the Kayneri family...

How lucky are we? Look at this.

...prospecting for gold five miles up the river.

What is that?

Tapir.

Oh, yeah.

Oh! Holy [bleep], that's awesome.

Oh, it's scared!

Oh, it's so close.

How big was it?

Huge.

It wouldn't be hard to keep this place a secret.

Yeah, three hours upriver.

This is virgin ground for sure.

The Kayneris are showing Parker

their most prized ancestral grounds

in the hopes he will consider investing

in their small-scale operation.

I just want to see gold all over the place.

It's very cool. We're, like, properly in the middle of nowhere though.

What's happening?

Wow, that is a sharp machete.

Oh, yes. Here we go.

I'm pretty excited.

Yeah, like, definitely an area with a lot of gold in it

and, um, excited to kinda see what's here

and how they mine and get to know them

and their culture a bit more.

Where to?

Ah, there you go.

They say there's floods and after every flood,

there's a ton of gold.

That means there's a [bleep] ton

somewhere upstream.

It has to be coming from somewhere

that's very rich.

It's our conveyer belt. Very smart.

Our ropes.

There's the ropes. - Yeah.

It's pretty satisfying.

It's so interesting they use what they have around them to mine.

They're using vines as rope,

and bamboo as their makeshift sluice holder.

I'm really excited to see how the sluice box does

and how much gold they get in a day out of it.

Let's see if it holds. Yeah.

We got a sluice box.

Okay.

We're stripping now, Dan.

Oh, what I'd give for an excavator right now.

I'd give my left nut for an excavator.

Normally, we're looking for, like, the lowest level of gravel,

and here it's, like, it's still that kind of flood gold

that we're looking for, like, the higher gravel.

During the rainy season,

gold eroded from the motherload in the Andes

washes down the swollen Amazon River

and its tributaries.

As it hits the slower moving bends of the river,

the heavy gold is deposited on sand bars...

...meaning this area could hold

unlimited potential for millions of dollars of gold every season.

Oh, [bleep].

Uh-oh. Got a spillage.

We got a production line.

Diego's up there being the excavator,

Danny and Parker are acting like the dump trucks

putting all the pay dirt onto our sluice box.

I'm doing a bit of classifying,

just making sure the big rocks go out into the oversized.

Luis uses his hand, and we just scrape the oversized

into these tailings piles here.

Like, I bet their recovery rate

is probably over 80%. if I had to guess.

They're gonna burn $10 worth of fuel today.

The rest is sweat equity.

So, yeah, you could scale it up,

like, a mini excavator would do great in this.

Get a bigger pump and some expanded metal,

and you could triple or quadruple your production

or more than that, but depends on how much gold's here.

I'm amazed at the pans we had further downstream.

We've spent millions of dollars

stripping to get to ground like that.

And they're just scooping it up off the side of the river bank.

Crazy.

Tyler, were you counting wheelbarrows?

So that's 20 wheelbarrow buckets,

we've done just under two yards.

That's based on two cubic feet in one of these?

Correct. So it's a yard an hour.

We're done. Yeah.

Cool.

Yep. Clean up time.

Ah, oh, yeah.

On the river banks of Rio Colorado,

Parker and his team are prospecting for gold

on the ancestral lands of the Arakmbut tribe.

Wow, there you go.

Oh, yeah. You can see it all the way along the top there.

It's a really promising area.

The next step is, you know, a very thorough

vetting process of the area,

the social impacts, the environmental impacts,

the, you know, what it takes to do something responsibly.

Because that's my number one goal

is, you know, we have to be responsible.

The sun drops fast, doesn't it?

Yeah, so quickly.

Hey!

Good English!

Gracias, muchachos. Buenas noches.

Buenas noches, amigos.

What you got?

That is [bleep] hard core.

Oh, my god. Holy [bleep].

Is that a baddie?

I mean, I wouldn't want to [bleep] with it.

Oh, mate.

Ew.

There are a lotta eyeballs staring back at us right now.

If there's this much gold just on the beaches,

you would think there has to be some sort of, like, awfully good...

...place that it's coming from.

In theory, it should get, like, coarser and more gold thing upstream.

Can you ask him that?

Do you think we could go check that out?

Like, you and Tyler could stay here,

and Danny and I could go with Omar.

Are you okay with us leaving you

with the shovel and the wheelbarrow?

We're in the middle of a jungle, the middle of nowhere.

So it's kinda difficult and a little dangerous to go there.

Yeah, we'll be fine.

Can we go now? We'll be okay.

- Now? - Do you trust your Spanish well enough to...

Yeah. Si, me hablas...

...poco de espanol, si.

Yeah, we'll... we'll get by.

All right. Let's do it.

What's going on?

Uh, Dan and I are gonna go for an adventure with Omar.

So you and Diego...

...can stay here, if that's all right?

Like, the gold's so fine up here.

That means there's a ton somewhere upstream.

I think Parker's feeling a lot of pressure to find the next big step.

But it's at a point now that that might not be possible in the Yukon,

so I think he's feeling all of that weight.

Let's go. - Let's do it, Dan.

Bye, guys.

There's actually a really good story

about how they found the Yukon.

And it was done by people jumping out of boats

and panning rivers.

And then suddenly, by one of the creaks, they found it.

They followed it.

And they found the motherload.

You know, and it's kinda the only way that you can go about it.

It all comes down to a man with a pan in a boat.

That's us on our own.

Determined to find bigger gold

by getting closer to the source...

What if he's never driven one of these before?

I was just thinking that.

He's only 23.

I wouldn't have trusted 23-year-old myself on this river.

...Parker, Danny and Omar head two hours upriver.

I totally understand why he wants to go to other places to try and find some gold.

But they haven't been in the jungle before,

and I think that group only should be splitting if it's necessary.

Yeah, it's not my favorite decision for... for sure.

Here's a little stream.

Yeah, we can check this one out.

Wow.

Capybara. Ooh, yeah.

Big one. Big fat one.

Dos... Dos chispas.

Oh, yeah. Oh!

Just tiny little guys.

If what the guy just said is true and the gold gets bigger further upstream.

That would indicate it's breaking off from somewhere around here.

Yeah, I mean the more gold travels the finer it gets, right?

Most of it ends up dissolved in the ocean.

Wanna try a bit further upstream? Yeah.

Or keep goin'.

Do you like the look of this, Parker?

It's just very different from where we were before.

You know, it's like a lot of clay and whatnot.

This has been here a really long time too.

See how the rocks are just falling apart?

Yeah. There's your quartz.

Quartz and gold generally live together. Yeah.

I'm wanna show that to Omar.

Cool, yeah, in... in Ingles, is quartz.

Quartz. Quartz. Si, si.

And mass quartz.

Mass oro.

Ah, si.

Parker's theory?

If every pan contains more gold,

they could be getting closer to a large deposit.

Would you reckon this is not a good spot?

We're finding more.

More in there.

So if every pan is a little bit better, we're on the right track.

Yeah, man.

Probably the area with the most potential that I've ever seen.

There's a lot of gold around.

All the indicators are there that there's major deposits somewhere in this area.

Let's keep goin'.

Downriver, Tyler and Diego have processed another two yards of dirt.

It will be really interested once we weigh it

and compare it to the yardage removed to figure out how rich the ground is.

It's been really interesting to know their ways,

to learn from them.

But it is actually really physical.

You have to be just shoveling and carrying all the weight into the wash plant.

Nice!

And with two guys left,

the workload is way higher.

So, yeah, I'm tired.

Uh, I'm hungry.

I hope they're safe and they don't do nothing crazy.

But I'm starting to get a little worried now.

Parker! What're you doing?

We're gonna do a pan in that bank.

No, I think we should go.

What? I think we should go now.

We got time for one pan, don't we?

Okay. - One more!

Always one more.

After three hours of prospecting,

Parker, Danny and Omar have walked over half a mile upstream.

We got half an hour before we wanna leave.

We don't leave any later than 5.

There's a whole bunch of flower gold in there that you can hardly even see.

So, it's most of the money we make is on that size gold.

Is that right? Yeah.

How many pounds would you have to have...

...like the one that you've just seen?

Well, then thing to do is to find an area

where you're getting, like, the best pans.

And then, really, you need to, like, dig

a test pit and check the layers, you know?

Yeah. This would be good dredging ground.

Find ground that's got gold in it, where that ground is

is the million dollar question.

A month or something doing this, you'd probably find

some really, really good ground out here.

Let's go! Si? Si. Si.

Better get going.

Look how far we walked.

Yeah.

The shadows are getting long, Dan.

Yup.

Boat looks a bit low on the water.

Oh, [bleep].

Oh...

Omar, can't...

He's saying there's a hole in the boat, it needs to be fixed.

But even if we bail it all out,

we can't drive down the river in it.

Are you sure that's what he said?

Absolutely.

My Spanish is not fantastic, but it's [bleep] good enough to understand that.

So we're staying here and that's that.

Strong river currents, hidden rocks,

and jungle predators,

make the river too dangerous to navigate at night.

I'm not staying here tonight, Dan.

We have to. - I'm not. I'm not.

Easy. Hey. - I'm not staying here.

You're not allowed on the river at night.

These guys will not drive in the river at night.

It's too dangerous.

They only see them, they didn't used to trade with them.

Oro?

Their ancestors when they tried to touch the gold, the Inca gold...

...as soon as they touch it a thunder would come.

And smash the ground.

That sun's pretty much gone down.

Are you worried about the boys?

Yeah, it's getting late.

And we're losing light already.

Parker, Danny and Omar have failed

to return from prospecting upriver.

I don't know what we could do, it's not like we can go find 'em

I don't even know where they went.

What do we do if they're not back before dark?

I guess we'll have to camp here and then try and find them in the morning.

What? We just let... let them go?

I mean, we shouldn't travel by night.

It's dangerous.

There's no visibility for navigating.

We'll try to find them tomorrow morning, really early.

We're just so far from help.

- They don't have any supplies. - Nothing?

What the are we gonna eat around here?

Omar has line.

Okay? Si.

Anzuelo.

Without bait, you can't catch jack[bleep].

Three miles upriver...

Ah! He got an old, manky fish.

...Danny, Parker and local Omar

prepare for a night in the bush.

If I had to guess, he came very prepared.

Omar knows rivers really, really well.

He's spent... He's... He's grown up in them, around them, on them.

And he's obviously a very safe pair of hands.

Right, right, right.

This is the real jungle now.

Are you gonna have a go at fishing? If that's okay?

Found ourselves in a bit of a sticky situation.

The most important thing now is that we just look after ourselves.

I think I got a fish on.

Holy [bleep]. You got a light over there?

No, it's dead. It's dead?

The fish is dead?

No, the light's dead!

Oh, you... is it a big one?

Dude! Ooh!

I need a light.

Get over here!

Mate!

What the [bleep]?

Oh, that's beautiful.

Oh, yeah!

That is amazing.

Look at that.

So happy right now.

How's that?

Good.

Ooh.

Perfecto.

Oh, man.

Exactly the right amount of wood.

It's still leaking there. Hm.

Parker, Omar and Danny must fix their leaking boat

if they want a chance of making it back to camp.

There's another one.

Should we just go try and find them now.

We can't wait any longer.

Yeah, no. We should go right now.

So I think what the plan should be is we just head upstream really slowly.

And just, like, look through the off creaks

and we'll just take our time

and hopefully they're on the side of the river somewhere.

Yeah, sounds good.

I'm really worried about them.

I can't believe they spent the night out there.

Yeah.

There's a boat coming.

Is that them?

I think that's Danny at the front.

Well, the good thing is that they're... they're fine.

- And they're here. - Yeah.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

You guys all right? Yeah.

All good, all good. What happened?

We went off, we were prospecting down the river,

and then we-- We came back and the boat was sunk.

Boat was full of water.

You guys should have had a sat phone on you, we were really worried.

But you're... you're okay, guys.

That's good. Yeah, we're good.

So I think the plan is jump on the boats with them

and then through the way up when we were to their house.

Think it's fair to say that the, uh, the jungle has, um...

...given us a bit of a beating.

But this is a place which has more potential

than anywhere we've ever been on Parker's Trail.

So we're gonna go back, see how this little test has gone.

And off the back of that

I think a decision will be made whether or not we do something about it.

Well done, everyone.

Good job, guys.

Successful mission.

Well done, team.

I'm really excited to weigh it up.

and work out just how much gold is in this are,

and how rich the ground is.

Let's see what this cleanup has in it.

Okay, so what's happening here?

So you're gonna separate the gold?

Right.

While the mining is sustainable,

the Kayneri's use mercury to catch the fine gold.

Mercury is attracted to gold.

And it'll take all those tiny little flakes of gold

and turn that into one ball that's easily recoverable.

That's extremely toxic. Yeah.

The main risky way of intoxication with mercury,

first is ingestion, second is inhalation, and three is skin contact.

It all comes at a price.

If you start diving down the chain of any industry

you'll find stuff like that.

I went to med school.

So I usually relate a lot of the stuff

I've seen or learned with medical.

So I know mercury intoxication is quite severe

and it's something I cannot take out of my mind.

How are we gonna burn it?

They're going over there. Okay.

Cool.

The gold is cleaned by burning away the mercury residue.

But the fumes from the smoke carries huge health risks.

This is my first time seeing this.

Yeah. - And I'm just trying to make the... the right questions

to get the right answers, you know?

Yeah, definitely.

- Yeah. - It... It's not easy.

Mmm. - Yeah.

Oh! Oh, I like this scale.

That's cool.

Father, Luis, weighs up the gold from their 4 yard test.

Cuanto? - Un gramo.

One gram.

Very good. Cool!

That's impressive gold for a thing off the river bank.

At 0.03 of an ounce, worth $51,

the Kayneri family get almost as much gold per yard

as Parker would in the Yukon, but using low-tech machinery with minimal running cost.

You mind asking them

if they, um, think that ground that we mined

is quite rich or it about normal or?

Yeah, that's average, yeah. Wow.

It'd be interesting to spend some weeks here

and dive in that further and push further into the jungle.

But on these trips we've seen all sorts of mining impacts.

And I'm always a little hesitant in, like, properly untouched areas,

because, you know, it's untouched jungle.

I never wanna be labelled as, like, a jungle destroyer.

And with what we've seen so far

it's not good enough to justify the amount of investment.

You can't move the amount of yardage Parker's after

without using huge machinery.

The Kayneri family don't like to do mining that impacts the environment

in big ways.

But it's been great to see their whole process though.

Like, start to finish, it's been pretty special.

Muchas gracias.

Danny!

Thanks, man.

Yeah! Thanks.

There're so many more...

...gold areas to explore.

Peru is huge and I wanna see a lot of it.

I know there's a lot of larger scale mining in the country,

and so we should try to get into those areas...

...because we can make a bigger investment in a big operation.

Like... I'd like to have a lot of those options laid out in front of us.

So we'll keep goin'.

Oh, AK-47s are out.

Must be a serious place if we need this many cops.

Next time...

If anything goes wrong underground here, you're dead.

Arriba, arriba, arriba, arriba.

Vamos nosotros. Vamos, vamos.

Vamonos, vamonos, vamonos.

This is the Wild West right here.

Here it is. Oh, wow!

Think of all the gold.

He's not good at all.

I'm genuinely scared.

If he doesn't improve the trip is over.