Original subtitles

[Parker] We're off to a bit of a rocky start.

There's a lot of frozen pay, lot of confusing gravel.

It's gonna be a steep learning curve.

[narrator] Gold miner Parker Schnabel's plans

for a record-breaking season are in trouble.

Three weeks in, he's mined just 36 ounces of his 10,000-ounce target.

[Parker] I mean, the numbers are terrible.

That's a bit scary.

Long road to 10,000.

Most of the company is just stripping at the bridge cut.

It's gonna be a lot of stripping there.

Lots of work to do, not a whole lot of time to do it in.

[narrator] To catch up, Parker has split his crew.

Half for stripping the bridge cut,

but won't be down to pay dirt for weeks.

The other half are working the long cut,

which has delivered problem after problem.

Parker's only source of pay dirt being run through wash plant Roxanne

is from the ditches surrounding the long cut,

and that's about to run out.

Mitch is hopefully gonna get a handle on the long cut

and then just start hammering payout.

We have a lot of ounces due every week,

and we've got a lot of bills to pay.

So we'll give her the old college try.

Come on.

So the big battle of the long cut here is we gotta chase the pay.

But as you can see here, the ground's still frozen.

[narrator] Mitch has stripped 4 acres of the long cut down to frozen pay,

which needs to thaw before it can be sluiced.

And now, there's another problem.

As I'm working my way up here, we started losing pay dirt.

Now what I'm seeing is a bunch of material

that looks like it needs to be going to a waste site.

And so it's really tough to tell exactly where we're at in this cut.

[narrator] Mitch has uncovered 4 acres of frozen pay in the 20-acre long cut,

but he's now hit overburden that shouldn't be there.

Mitch believes the gold pay layer

has dropped in the rest of the cut,

sinking lower as the heavy gold settles on the Earth's bedrock.

If the pay layer has dropped too deep,

the frozen dirt won't fall in time to mine this season.

A disaster for Parker.

Are we 25 feet off? Are we 15 feet off?

And really, we need to make sure that we have, you know,

absolutely no more than about 15 feet of waste left,

because if it's thicker than that,

it's just not gonna thaw in time.

[Parker] What are you thinking?

We had really good-looking material and we had bedrock.

But further we work our way upstream,

we've lost pay, we've lost bedrock.

And the problem is everything is frozen up here,

so I'm trying to dig down to see where we're at and I can't get down.

So we might be 8 inches, we might be 18 feet.

We could be a long ways away here.

[bleep] That's not good.

And you can't dig any holes to find anything else...

[Mitch] And I can't dig any holes.

[Parker] Okay, so the best thing to do

is just have the driller come in here and just drill a couple holes.

[Mitch] Dude, that'd be awesome.

Because then you'll know exactly where you're at.

'Cause if there's 25 feet left, we have problems.

If there's like 15 or 10, then we're okay.

Well, we need some X-ray vision here, and that's gonna be it.

[narrator] At the cost of $20,000 a day,

Parker calls in the sonic drill

to test how deep the long cut's pay layer is.

[Parker] Some of this gravel doesn't thaw very fast,

and if it's like 20 feet or more that we have to thaw,

it's very difficult.

Sometimes you have to spend some money, like drilling or whatever, to be efficient.

[Mitch] It'd be nice to dig a hole through this,

but pretty tough when it's all frozen.

But that drill doesn't have any trouble getting through it.

[Tyson] Yeah, definitely.

Here comes the first sample now.

Hopefully that's bedrock right there. I mean, that would be awesome.

[narrator] If the drilling reveals the pay is more than 20 feet down,

it may not thaw in time to be sluiced this season.

[Mitch] Well, how'd we do?

The deepest was 16.5 feet.

-That was the deepest? -[Layton] Deepest.

So from 15 was the shallowest to 16.5.

-Oh, wow. So very consistent then. -[Layton] Yeah.

[Parker] What did you find?

[Mitch] 15 foot to bedrock.

Oh, money! 15 feet. [bleep] yeah.

If it's 15 feet the whole way, that's good.

I was really worried it was gonna be 20 or 25.

[narrator] With the depth of pay layer located,

Mitch can get back to work, clearing the 15 foot of waste

on top of the pay in the long cut.

You know, there's still a lot of work

that needs to happen out here in the long cut.

And you know, right now we know

there's a lot of material that's got to get out of this cut.

It is doable to get it mined this season,

but we've got to do things right here.

So we're down, but we're not out.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] 10 miles southwest at Indian River,

King of the Klondike, Tony Beets, has hit the ground running,

banking a record 849 ounces of gold in just three weeks.

[Tony speaking]

Chelsea, how much pay dirt you got up there?

Still got a pretty good mountain here,

and the trucks are still hauling to me.

[narrator] Off limits for years,

Tony's Indian River claim

offers some of the most consistent gold yields in the Klondike.

But right now, he only has one plant banking gold

from the comeback cut, Sluice-a-lot.

To keep up momentum, he wants his second wash plant,

the Shaker Deck, back up and running

to chew through as much ground as possible.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Last week, Tony's two-plant plan hit a stumbling block

when his 30-year-old Shaker Deck shook itself to pieces.

[Tony speaking]

Haul her down.

[narrator] Tony's plan? Remove the 7 ton broken screen deck,

then armor up the new screen deck with steel plates.

Next, haul the 50-ton plant 200 feet to a new pay pile,

then place the new reinforced screen deck back on the plant

and finally add a conveyor ready for fire up.

[Michael] So we're getting rid of the whole shaker deck here

'cause we have a brand new one sitting in the yard.

[narrator] Tony tasks his nephew, Cousin Mike,

to get the Shaker Deck running by the end of the week.

First up, remove the old broken screen deck.

That's one job done. On to the next one.

[narrator] Next, Tony's crew reinforce the new screen deck and hopper with steel plates.

Tony changed the plan that we put a steel plate

1-inch thick for protecting the new polydeck,

and then we can put it on the Shaker Deck plant,

and then we got two plants going, hopefully.

That's the goal.

[narrator] Before fitting the new screen,

Cousin Mike hauls the plant 200 feet to the other side of the pay pile.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] This year, with eldest son Kevin

no longer working for the family business,

Tony's promoted Cousin Mike to Indian River Foreman.

So Kevin is not here, that makes a spot for me.

Now I got this responsibility. I hope I'll do a good job this year.

For me, it's a big challenge.

And yeah, if Kevin would have been here,

maybe I wouldn't have that opportunity.

[Tony speaking]

[Michael] All right.

Conveyor belt showed up from Paradise Hill.

'Cause that's got to go in front of the plant.

Darren, do you copy? Stop it.

Stop. Darren, stop it.

I don't think it hurt anything, but...

[Michael] We'll see.

Tony, do you copy? Tony?

[Tony speaking]

[Michael] Could you come to the screen deck?

We have some damage here.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] At Indian River, the conveyor has smashed into the hopper feeder

on rookie foreman Cousin Mike's watch.

[Michael] We got some damage here on the end I have to weld.

So yeah, that will slow us down a couple of hours.

[Michael] And I'm the only welder here right now.

Okay.

So now they are [bleep] around.

I just wanna make a plan, stick to the plan, and get it done.

[Tony speaking]

Let's do the thing, chicken wings.

[narrator] 3 miles east at Scribner Creek,

after 22 years of working for Tony,

Kevin Beets is now his own mine boss.

Hi, everybody.

[narrator] Today, he and partner, Faith,

are calling their first crew meeting with their new recruits.

So we're starting a new mine,

and I'm really hoping to run it a little bit different

than what we've had to deal with in the past.

You don't gotta like it, but I really don't want you to [bleep] dread it.

And we have Brennan who will be overseeing the cut.

And Hunter and Chase, you guys will be running the rock truck.

And Matt, you'll be running the excavator, loading the truck.

And if you guys do see something that looks off, let me know.

[Faith] We don't have spares,

so it's not like we can just throw you in different rock trucks.

So please take care of your equipment.

Our goal this year is 1,000 ounces.

A thousand ounces.

All right, well, we all got [bleep] to do and dirt to move, so let's go.

[Hunter] I am so excited to get started mining.

Get to see our piece of land, get to do some work.

Like, honestly...

I gotta go! I gotta go do some work.

Go move some dirt.

Roger that, boss.

Exciting.

These are the first bits of iron to go down to the cut

to get started on stripping.

So at least we're finally making progress.

On my way!

Hopefully, I don't get lost.

Joking. [chuckles]

This is what I thought being a mine boss would be like.

It's the exact same as [bleep] Tony's.

I just don't have anybody I gotta go double check with.

[narrator] Kevin's tasked the team

with stripping the first three acres of his Links cut

down to pay dirt by the end of the week

using old equipment he borrowed from Dad Tony.

I was hoping we'd get a little bit more reliable equipment.

We've had a lot of delays and we really can't afford too many more at this point.

We really need to get sluicing as soon as possible.

Then we can see some gold.

We have a lot to do with our first season

with green people,

and, you know, I want to get as much gold as possible

by the time the snow starts flying.

[narrator] In charge of the cut in the 700 excavator,

Foreman Brennan Ruault.

When that call came in Kevin and Faith asked

if I would like to be the foreman.

You know, it lifted my spirits up.

I wanna move up the ladder, and they seemed right on board

with offering me that opportunity.

[narrator] Working alongside Brennan in the 480,

Operator Matt Kiefer.

[Matt] We've been trying to do this for years,

come up and work with Brennan.

He basically gave us a call and was like,

"Hey, would you like to come up?"

Yeah, it's just awesome to be moving dirt again.

Hopefully there's a boatload of gold underneath this.

[Hunter] Frick yeah, I'm in the rock truck working my butt off.

[narrator] Trucking the waste overburden out of the cut,

gold mining rookie, Hunter Canning.

[Hunter] Well, it was a fricking cool opportunity

that landed in my hands.

When Faith and Kevin find your TikTok,

and all of a sudden you're in the Yukon.

And now everybody's like, "You're crazy, you left your government job."

But I'm pretty used to this environment.

I'm building my house in the woods, so this is perfect.

My truck is having a hard time already backing up this.

Man, I can't get up this hill.

I'm spinning out. Like, I can't get up this hill whatsoever.

I'm gonna burn it.

Come on, you dirty [bleep].

[bleep] me sideways!

Oh, [bleep].

I think I hear something.

Matt, you got a copy?

Hey, I hear some air leaking noises

from underneath the truck here.

My diff lock's not working.

We're gonna have to call Kevin.

Hopefully it's not a really bad fix.

[narrator] The diff or differential lock locks the axles

so the truck's wheels turn at the same speed,

improving traction in muddy conditions.

[Kevin] No, a lot of this is just Tony's not fixing it.

So when it finally gets to me and it grenades, it's now my problem.

[Hunter] So it's Tony's sloppy seconds?

Not even sloppy seconds. [bleep] from the trash.

We have some lines that have busted, so it's a nice quick fix.

[narrator] Airlines send pressurized air to the diff lock,

switching it on and off.

To engage the diff lock, Kevin replaces the broken hose.

[Kevin] Luckily, this one is a quick fix,

but this is just Tony's not [bleep] doing [bleep].

So that's not frustrating in the least.

[Kevin] All right, when you're ready, Hunter.

[engine starts]

[Matt] Put it all the way down.

Job is done.

Finito. Back to moving dirt.

[Hunter] Yeah, buddy.

[Kevin] I know Tony didn't want to give me, like, his best equipment,

but this is a little ridiculous.

Not a great start to my morning. Not at all.

We've hired the drillers to know exactly where bedrock is.

But the first hole was 15 feet to bedrock,

which is good in terms of how much waste we still have in the cut.

[narrator] After finding the pay layer in the long cut,

Parker's crew is back to clearing the remaining 16 acres of overburden

to get to pay.

[Mitch] Now after having the drilling done out here,

it looks like we've got about 15 to 16 feet to bedrock,

and that means that we still have

several feet of waste here that needs to leave.

[narrator] To speed up removing the excess overburden,

Mitch has brought in the 150-foot-long super conveyor

to take it out of the cut.

[Mitch] This conveyor is getting rid of the dirt

as fast as I can scoop it up and dump it in here.

It is working very well.

Oh, [bleep].

Oh, why are you piling up?

Oh, you gotta be kidding me.

[chuckles nervously]

Hey, Bill, you got a copy?

[Bill] Yeah, go ahead, Mitch.

Hey, man, I need you to get down here to long cut as soon as you can.

The excavator conveyor just broke the hopper.

[Bill] Yeah, 10-4.

[Mitch] Right now, the dirt from the hopper

can't get on the main belt to get out of the cut.

And what that means is this conveyor is not moving any more dirt right now, so...

It was going good till it wasn't.

[Bill] Let's have a look here and see what we can find.

[narrator] At Dominion Creek, Parker's super conveyor is broken,

bringing his plan to get the long cut's remaining 16 acres down to pay

to a standstill.

So, motor's intact,

but holy [bleep].

It snapped the shaft right off. Wow.

It's been through some abuse.

Yeah, the sprockets are cooked as well.

You can see now it's a lot bigger job.

Which is a no bueno rubber ducky.

Well, we may as well get right at it, 'cause I know they need this thing.

Whoo!

[narrator] The custom built super conveyor's hopper belt is turned by a drive shaft.

As the driveshaft rotates, it turns the sprockets,

which connect to the chains that drive the motion of the belt

inside the hopper feeder.

The drive shaft has snapped,

which has cracked both of the sprockets

and disengaged one of the chains.

Bill must replace the broken shaft,

fit new perfectly-aligned sprockets and reconnect the chains.34

Now, it's shaft time.

Slide it in.

Okay. Just tap your coupler where the shaft is going in.

[Liam] Okay.

Harder.

[Liam] There you go.

[Bill] How does that look? Pretty good?

[Liam] Looks real good.

[Bill] We'll put our sprockets on.

If I don't get this exact center,

the chain is gonna run crooked.

We're gonna end up breaking another shaft or something else.

It's all riding on, uh, me getting this right here.

So, Liam, I'm gonna run this tape across.

[Liam] Yup.

And you should be able to put the inside of your sprocket right up against my tape.

[Liam] I'm ready. Where do you like it?

Right there.

We are bang on.

[Liam] Wow. Lock it.

[Bill] We'll take that win.

And let's get this chain in here.

[narrator] Bill and Liam reattach the chain

that connects the drive shaft to the belt.

[Bill] I think we've got to go one over, one under.

Oh, gentlemen.

Hey. How are you doing?

[Parker] Nice, Liam.

Butterfingers.

I have that effect on some people.

-Everything was so tight. -What happened?

[Bill] The shaft snapped right off.

[Parker] Oof.

[Bill] So we put a new shaft in.

Dude, those things have some power, huh?

-[Bill] Yeah. -That's crazy.

-[Bill] We just gotta get this little bit. -[Parker] Right.

We need this thing in the pit,

so thank you guys for doing this.

-[Liam] No worries. -[Bill] Oh, yeah.

Damn!

[Bill] Let's fire this [bleep] up.

[engine whirring]

Here we go. Try it out.

Oh, look at that.

It's working!

Yeah!

[Liam] Wow, look at the roll on that.

[Bill] Look at it go.

That's a thing of beauty right there.

[narrator] After six hours, the super conveyor is back,

removing the long cut's overburden.

[Mitch] That was definitely a big break there on that super conveyor.

And I'm glad Bill's got her back up and going.

That means we can finally get the rest of this cut down to pay here.

And that's a damn good feeling

after all the work that's gone into it.

A gorgeous day in the Yukon.

[narrator] Ten miles south, at Indian River,

Tony Beets' wash plant Sluice-a-lot is running full throttle.

While rookie foreman Cousin Mike races to fix

Tony's second wash plant, the Shaker Deck.

[Michael] The truck driver, he drove the conveyor belt

into the feeder that was sitting there.

So, uh, that wasn't very good.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Repairs to the Shaker's hopper feeder complete,

Cousin Mike now needs to install

the new reinforced screen deck,

followed by the spray bar deck,

and finally, the conveyors.

[narrator] Youngest son, Mike,

is Tony's heavy-equipment specialist.

-[Mike] Hey, cousin. -Favorite cousin.

-How's it going? -[Mike] Good. Yourself?

[Michael] Yeah, not too bad.

Trying to figure out how to put the Shaker back together.

[Mike] It's generally pretty easy

-once you get the [bleep] on the springs. -[Michael] Yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Mike lowers the 30-foot-long screen deck onto eight springs.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony straining]

[Tony speaking]

[Tony straining]

-That way? -[Tony speaking]

[narrator] The deck won't slot on to the springs.

[Tony speaking]

[Michael] That's one.

-Yeah, we're in. -[Tony speaking]

[narrator] After two days of moving equipment,

fixes and reassembling the Shaker Deck,

Cousin Mike is finally ready to fire up the second plant.

[Michael] All right.

Now, let's see if everything works.

Shaker Deck runs very smooth.

The belt conveyor seems to work fine.

It looks good enough to run some dirt on it.

-[Ruby] Good? -Yeah.

Okay, open it up.

[Michael] Let's see what she does now.

[Ruby] It's coming.

[Michael] Oh, I don't see any water yet.

[water gushing]

[Michael] There's our water.

[Ruby] Michael.

Michael, you gotta slow it down.

What the hell is going on?

[Michael] I have to have a look at what the water is doing.

Shut it off. Shut the plant off.

[Michael] Shut it off. Shut the plant off.

[narrator] At Indian River, Tony's push to get two plants running...

...is not going to plan.

[Tony speaking]

[Michael] Uh, we weld the one-inch thick plate of steel in there.

The water was hitting the plate of steel,

so water everywhere.

There has to be some welding.

But I'm the only welder right now,

and I have lots of things to do beside it.

[Tony speaking]

[Michael] Yeah.

[narrator] The steel plates Tony had his crew weld on the plant

are diverting the water

before it can wash the gold from the dirt,

rendering the plant useless until Cousin Mike can fix it.

I've been doing all kinds of things,

but the plant is still not going.

Starting to get pissed off.

Gold mining is just, uh, right up my alley.

I like it. I like it a lot, so...

[narrator] Over on Kevin Beets' claim,

his crew is rushing to get down to pay dirt in the lynx cut

before the end of the week.

I wouldn't mind catching some gold and bringing some back.

It's a bit of a dream of mine.

So, I want to move out of my parents' basement at some point, so...

[narrator] New hire Chase Dreger

worked at a gravel pit before responding to Kevin's job posting.

[Chase] Oh, [bleep]. Something doesn't feel right with this truck.

Hey, Kevin, you got a copy?

[Kevin on walkie-talkie] Go for Kevin.

[Chase] Something's not right with my truck.

[Kevin] All right. See if you can limp that thing up to the yard.

I'll meet you up there.

[bleep] All right.

[Chase] What a start.

Finally get going, and I'm already broken down.

[narrator] Another rock truck breakdown

is bad news for Kevin's stripping plan.

[Kevin] Ah!

Oh, that's not good.

I think I found part of the problem.

[sighs]

This piece is [bleep] chewed up.

Not great.

It's part of the rocker arm assembly.

Also, there's supposed to be a nut on the top of this.

Where did it go?

[narrator] The broken rocker arm

will prevent the engine's valves

from opening and closing at the right time

and shut it down.

With a spare part, it's a quick fix.

But a missing nut is a much bigger problem.

If the nut got into the wrong spot,

in between one of these things that move,

pretty big engine failure possibility.

I don't think it's going to get up and running right away.

I'm very certain of that.

[narrator] Kevin is down to just one rock truck

hauling dirt in the lynx cut.

I'm starting to get extremely frustrated, you know, looking around.

Matt's got his [bleep] bucket in the air

half the day, waiting for these rock trucks.

Uh, breakdown after breakdown after breakdown,

and, uh, this is killing us.

Hey, Kevin, buddy, you mind coming down to the cut here?

Can do. I'll, uh, wander over.

Yeah. Thanks, man.

How's she going?

All these breakdowns are killing us.

-Yes. -[Brennan] I need another truck.

I can't have him sit there, not doing nothing.

Like, 1,000 ounces is a big goal,

and it just keeps getting farther away at this point.

[Kevin] Case in [bleep] point, isn't it?

He's doing a lot more of that than loading it seems like right now.

[Kevin] Well, I can't rely on Tony for any equipment

because that keeps biting me in the butt.

[Brennan] So do you have a line on anything for us here, buddy?

Um, well, we talked to Parker

-because he did have that lineup of rock trucks. -Right.

And he mentioned that those were for sale.

We've got to spend money to make money.

And I might as well at this point be spending it on my own [bleep].

At least that way, at the end of the day, it's still mine.

I get to keep it.

We definitely need a new truck.

I'm spending quite a bit of cash right now,

and there's nothing coming in yet.

The piggy bank is gonna run dry soon

if I keep going at this pace.

So that is starting to get to me a little bit.

[narrator] Six miles north of Kevin's claim

is his only hope of a working rock truck,

neighbor Parker Schnabel.

How much are you hoping to spend on the rock truck?

Hundred grand.

That's, kind of, like, what I'm hoping to get away with.

I was hoping we would have some gold coming in by now.

Paying from the savings is kind of scary.

I'm hoping that Parker will allow us deferred payment.

[Kevin] Let's, uh, look at some trucks.

Come on, let's go.

[Kevin] The engine's quite clean on this one.

I wonder if it's new.

[narrator] Parker's trucks are old A40s,

able to haul 40-ton loads.

A new model costs $300,000.

[Kevin] I'm looking for anything that will tell me

that there is major issues.

So, like, a little bit, of leaky stuff,

like, that's, that's normal.

Manufacturing year, 2003.

For 2024, that makes 21 years.

It's old enough to drink.

Major components look to be in good condition.

Yeah, compared to Tony's machines,

I have a bit more faith in these ones

to run without needing aggressive work right off the bat.

And since these are a bit older,

maybe we can get a better deal.

-Hey, Parker. -[Parker] Hello.

You're here for a rock truck?

[Kevin] Here for a rock truck. Hopefully, yeah.

[Parker] You can definitely buy the--

[Kevin] I've been looking at that one the hardest.

Tires might need air and stuff.

Price is the same.

Hundred?

-And ten. -110.

Mm-hm.

-Go 105? -[Parker] I don't haggle.

Buy it or don't buy it. I don't really care.

Feel free to fire it up. Go through it. Whatever.

I'll go find you some air.

It's a little more than I wanted to pay, but it's here.

And it's hard to negotiate from a position

of well, we really [bleep] need something.

[Parker] You should be doing this [bleep], not me, Kevin.

You're the mechanic.

-Don't blow yourself up. -[Kevin] Definitely won't.

[Faith] Do you think there's some wiggle room in pricing with Parker?

[Kevin] He's kind of got all the bargaining power right now...

-[Faith] Yeah. -...and he knows it.

[Parker] You got it all aired up?

[Kevin] Got it all aired up.

-110 then? -[Parker] What?

110?

Are you ready to commit?

Are you okay to have a payment later in the season?

Is that good for you?

I don't need to get paid right away,

but I can't have you back out.

That's the only thing.

-You're paying whether it falls apart... -[Kevin] Oh, yeah.

...and is useless or whatever.

-It's all good. -[Parker] Okay.

-So you're taking it? -[Kevin] I'm taking it.

-[Parker] 110? -[Kevin] 110.

All right. Congratulations.

Now just watch, it's not going to fire up for us.

[exhales deeply]

Ka-boom.

[engine whirring]

It lives.

[Faith] The only saving grace for us

is literally having to pay it later.

But that later date has an end date.

So if we don't get gold in the box soon, it's gonna bite us.

[Kevin] I hope it works out.

Let's get it back to camp and find out.

[narrator] With the new truck,

Kevin has a shot of getting down to pay soon.

[Kevin] It just sounds really nice, honestly.

Like, you can hear that, like...

Sounds nice.

Yeah, I think this really, kind of, shows

that I can make my own deals.

I don't have to always rely on Tony.

Stepping out on our own,

that is part of being the boss of a company.

[Michael] When I started here, I got a service truck,

and all the tools that were in it were yellow.

So I am going to spray my tools all yellow.

So then I will know who to shoot

when, uh, they take my tools.

My first week, Tony put me on a dozer

because my dad used to do it,

and he wanted to try me out, and it turned out good.

But at Indian River this year,

Tony wants me to take care of the plants and all the people.

Did I think in the beginning

that I would be where I am now?

No.

But, uh, here, when you work hard for Tony, you can grow.

It gets appreciated.

And I really like that.

So the goal this year is, uh, to get some gold, of course,

keep equipment running.

And for that, I need my tools.

So I hope no one will take my tools.

They better don't take my tools.

[Kevin] I'd definitely say I'm happy with this.

[narrator] Kevin Beets has dropped $110,000 on a 21-year-old rock truck.

What is this?

Look at our shiny new whip.

Not that shiny, but it's new to us.

New-ish. Yeah.

Forty ton, too. That's awesome.

Well, I wasn't expecting you guys

to go and come back the same day with the truck.

Well, we kind of got to if we want to get the cuts down to pay.

Right on, guys. I'm happy.

This is great because I'm sick of watching Matt

sit there with his [bleep] boom in the air.

I'll tell you that. Awesome.

High five. Appreciate it.

Whoo!

-Hoorah! Hoorah! -Hoorah!

[narrator] Kevin's new A40 gets his stripping operation back up to speed.

But after another week of delays,

his crew have missed the deadline for hitting pay.

We wanted to get sluicing end of the month.

So the sooner we hit pay, the sooner we approach that goal.

Further behind than I would have liked.

But we're just going to keep on plugging away,

and, hopefully, we'll [bleep] get it.

Well, not hopefully, we're gonna [bleep] get it.

[Minnie] Hey, guys.

-[Tony speaking] -[Monica] Hello.

[narrator] Despite failing to get the Shaker Deck

running on the Indian River,

Tony's Sluice-a-lot plant ran non-stop for a week.

[Minnie] Well, I hope you can count that high.

He only has ten fingers.

Uh, so we've got Sluice-a-lot, but not the Shaker Deck.

Ruby told me there was a bit of excitement with the water.

Anyways, I think we've got lots of gold here that should be weighed up.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] The Beets need 150 ounces

to break 1,000 for the season so far.

[Mike] 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80.

130, 140, 150, 160.

200, 210, 220, 230, 240, 250.

255.38.

[narrator] Worth nearly $640,000.

The Beets season total is now 1,105 ounces.

-Yeah, it's decent. -[Monica bleep] Yeah.

I want to get my plant going right away as soon as possible, too.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Ah, you know.

-Don't ask questions, Dad. -[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Yeah.

-[Tony speaking] -[Minnie] My back hurts.

Make like a tree and get out here.

Well, if we keep on going like this, babe,

we might get to 5,000 and a bit.

[Mitch] Well, I mean, hey, we spent some money this week on some drilling...

-[Chris] Yeah. -...but it was well worth it,

to find out where that ground was.

[narrator] It's been another a bad week for Parker's crew.

The long cut has four acres of frozen pay

that needs to thaw before it can be sluiced

and another 16 acres that needs 15 feet of overburden removed.

Fifteen feet is a [bleep] lot of dirt.

Every foot is, like, 80,000 yards.

-Seriously. -[Tyson] Really.

The pit's that big, yeah.

[Tyson] And it's frozen, too.

-Just to add a little insult to injury. -Right. Yeah.

Just need a lot of gold to pay for all that.

Yeah, yeah.

[Tyson] Did we find any this week, Doumitt?

[Chris] All I can say is it's better than last week.

That doesn't take much.

[narrator] Parker's crew has finished sluicing the long cut's ditch pay,

which, last week, delivered just 30 ounces.

[Chris] Mitch, you've, kind of, been busting your butt here.

-Why don't you weigh the baby out? -All right.

Here we go.

There's ten.

There's 20.

There's 30, 40, 50, 60,

70, 80, 90.

99.45.

[narrator] Just shy of a quarter of a million dollars.

-99.45? -[Chris] Yeah.

-You didn't have another-- -[Chris] I was digging around everywhere,

trying to come up with another half ounce just to--

You didn't have a half ounce of gold anywhere in here?

[Chris] Could have got us into triple digits.

Come on, Chris.

That's a lot of sluicing for, you know, under 100.

[Chris] But it was a huge boost to our season total.

We are now up to 135.85 ounces.

-Oh, we'll be at 10,000 next week. -[Chris] Yeah.

[Mitch] Well, it's going in the right direction.

But, man, I mean, that's like the old days.

I remember when, you know, it was a fight to get to 1,000.

And man, it looks like we're, uh...

-[Chris] It looks like it is again. -Yeah.

It's going to be a tough one, but we'll get through it.

It's just gonna be a while.

-All right. Thanks, guys. -[Mitch] All right. Yup.

Have a good one.

[Parker] Remember, triple-- Triple it next week.

The long cut, it's going to make this season a little bit difficult.

It's just deep.

And these problems we're having with frost and whatnot

are gonna tip the scales into it losing money.

We'll get through it.

Yeah. We'll survive one way or another.