Gold Rush: Dave Turin's Lost Mine

1 00:00:03,570 --> 00:00:07,570 I think what most people think of when they hear the term "lost mines" 2 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:10,300 is an old shaft, a hole in the ground. 3 00:00:10,340 --> 00:00:12,810 It's mysterious. It's scary, you know, 4 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,140 as a kid, you always wanted to go into those and look. 5 00:00:18,750 --> 00:00:23,220 [narrator] Gold has captured the hearts and minds of people for centuries, 6 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:27,790 bringing incredible wealth to some 7 00:00:27,820 --> 00:00:29,720 and disaster to others. 8 00:00:31,860 --> 00:00:34,630 Today, legendary miner Dave Turin... 9 00:00:34,660 --> 00:00:36,360 [Dave] This is a pretty good pan. I like it. 10 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:39,600 I think this is the best pan I've seen. 11 00:00:39,630 --> 00:00:42,100 [narrator] ... accelerates his own quest for riches... 12 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:44,570 There's gold everywhere on this planet. 13 00:00:44,610 --> 00:00:47,470 The trick is to find it where you can make some money. 14 00:00:47,510 --> 00:00:49,840 -Oh -Oh, look at that. 15 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:54,280 ...exploring the untapped potential of abandoned hard rock mines... 16 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:57,920 The best thing about hard rock mining is that the majority of the gold 17 00:00:57,950 --> 00:01:00,050 left on this planet is underground. 18 00:01:00,090 --> 00:01:01,890 ...in spite of the dangers. 19 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:04,020 The disadvantage to underground mining 20 00:01:04,060 --> 00:01:06,660 and hard rock mining is that it's dangerous... 21 00:01:07,830 --> 00:01:08,900 Whoa! 22 00:01:08,930 --> 00:01:10,000 ...somewhat scary... 23 00:01:10,030 --> 00:01:13,270 It's really [bleep] here. Scares the hell out you. 24 00:01:13,300 --> 00:01:17,100 [narrator] Now Dave discovers a groundbreaking new mining process... 25 00:01:17,140 --> 00:01:20,110 - It's amazing. - It is. It's been an absolutely amazing journey. 26 00:01:20,140 --> 00:01:22,780 ...that could change the future for him... 27 00:01:22,810 --> 00:01:25,210 Oh my gosh. You know how revolutionary that is? 28 00:01:25,250 --> 00:01:26,650 ...his crew... 29 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:29,350 This could totally push Team Turin where we need to be. 30 00:01:29,380 --> 00:01:31,390 ...and mining forever. 31 00:01:31,420 --> 00:01:34,720 Nice! Really nice! Look at that. 32 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:42,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 33 00:01:50,510 --> 00:01:53,270 We're placer miners. I've developed a good team, 34 00:01:53,310 --> 00:01:56,010 but I think the future is in hard rock. 35 00:01:57,510 --> 00:02:00,710 The thing that I like about hard rock mining is the adventure. 36 00:02:00,750 --> 00:02:05,890 It's the unknown, you know, when you go into the center of the earth, 37 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:07,720 it's a spooky, scary place, 38 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:11,660 but there's 50,000 tons of gold left in the ground 39 00:02:11,690 --> 00:02:16,800 worth three and half trillion dollars, and I just need a fraction of that. 40 00:02:16,830 --> 00:02:22,000 So to me, the future of mining for gold is hard rock mining. 41 00:02:27,340 --> 00:02:31,110 People that came out to the gold rush that came across the Mississippi 42 00:02:31,150 --> 00:02:33,610 over the Colorado Rockies into California, 43 00:02:33,650 --> 00:02:35,120 they were all regular people. 44 00:02:35,150 --> 00:02:38,320 They were all searching for that American dream. 45 00:02:41,460 --> 00:02:45,890 [narrator] By the mid 1850s, more than 300,000 immigrants 46 00:02:45,930 --> 00:02:49,230 arrive in the West, and the thirst for gold means 47 00:02:49,260 --> 00:02:52,100 the population triples in just ten years. 48 00:02:53,540 --> 00:02:56,740 [Dave] So the first hard rock miners really were placer miners. 49 00:02:56,770 --> 00:02:59,440 They would go look in the stream beds. 50 00:02:59,470 --> 00:03:02,740 That's how you actually look for the source of the gold. 51 00:03:02,780 --> 00:03:04,980 And so they would go up and they'd see where 52 00:03:05,010 --> 00:03:07,480 that stream was coming from and the source of the gold. 53 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:10,520 They might chip out some quartz and look for the visible gold, 54 00:03:10,550 --> 00:03:14,050 And then they'd start tunneling in. 55 00:03:14,090 --> 00:03:17,720 [narrator] Miners soon realized that the visible veins of quartz 56 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:21,860 lead to untold riches hidden deep within the hard rock. 57 00:03:21,900 --> 00:03:27,170 All they had was picks and shovels, and they'd just knock it out. 58 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:29,500 And then if they found that visible gold, 59 00:03:29,540 --> 00:03:34,210 they'd crush it down, and then typically they'd pan it out and find that gold. 60 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:38,550 [narrator] At the peak of the rush in 1852 61 00:03:38,580 --> 00:03:43,250 81 million dollars of gold is pulled from the ground. 62 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:48,390 [Dave] The real guys that were in search of gold, they kept going, 63 00:03:48,420 --> 00:03:53,130 and a lot of those evolved into hard rock mining because they were the tougher ones. 64 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:55,430 They were the ones that kept looking and searching, 65 00:03:55,460 --> 00:03:59,500 and they had to fight, the American wilderness. 66 00:03:59,530 --> 00:04:02,200 Hard rock miners are hard people. 67 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:07,140 [narrator] And now, 170 years later, 68 00:04:07,180 --> 00:04:09,540 Dave wants to join these hard rock legends of the past. 69 00:04:09,580 --> 00:04:11,280 Yeah, I've been looking at hard rock mining 70 00:04:11,310 --> 00:04:14,280 for a couple years, uh, started in Montana... 71 00:04:15,450 --> 00:04:16,850 Whoa! 72 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:18,290 I've been to Nevada. 73 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:19,590 Been to Alaska. 74 00:04:19,620 --> 00:04:21,860 This is the biggest tunnel I've ever seen. 75 00:04:21,890 --> 00:04:25,660 Transitioning into hard rock mining is not going to be easy. 76 00:04:25,690 --> 00:04:27,660 Right now, I'm just getting these guys 77 00:04:27,700 --> 00:04:29,800 used to being good placer miners. 78 00:04:29,830 --> 00:04:33,830 So for me and my crew to transition to hard rock mining, 79 00:04:33,870 --> 00:04:36,870 it's going to be a difficult, long road. 80 00:04:36,900 --> 00:04:39,540 You know, by the time you do the exploration, 81 00:04:39,570 --> 00:04:43,740 making those tunnels safe and then setting up a mill and a plant 82 00:04:43,780 --> 00:04:47,610 to extract the gold out of the ore, that's a long process 83 00:04:47,650 --> 00:04:49,720 and it's very, very expensive. 84 00:04:49,750 --> 00:04:52,890 But I think there's a heck of an opportunity, and I think 85 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,760 that's the evolution of my crew is that we're going to keep looking, 86 00:04:56,790 --> 00:05:00,230 and one of these days we're going to find one that we're going to hit it big on. 87 00:05:00,260 --> 00:05:04,970 If we hit this, could it change our lives? 88 00:05:07,770 --> 00:05:10,600 [narrator] Today, as Team Turin mines for gold 89 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:12,210 in Lynx Creek, Arizona, 90 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:14,740 Dave and Casey head 50 miles away 91 00:05:14,780 --> 00:05:16,840 to the lost mine of Rich Hill, 92 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:19,550 home to legendary placer deposits. 93 00:05:19,580 --> 00:05:23,550 But it's an unexpected hard rock opportunity at the mine 94 00:05:23,580 --> 00:05:27,650 that could take his underground ambition to a whole new level. 95 00:05:29,290 --> 00:05:34,530 So we're getting close, going to a place called Rich Hill Mine, 96 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:36,030 and Casey's the one that found it. 97 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:39,430 There's a couple guys up there. 98 00:05:39,470 --> 00:05:42,740 It sounds like they're making some money, so we'd like to see if we can get in on it. 99 00:05:48,910 --> 00:05:50,910 Good to see you. 100 00:05:50,950 --> 00:05:52,260 We're in the middle of nowhere. 101 00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:54,010 Dave, I've found us a great property. 102 00:05:54,050 --> 00:05:56,220 Rich Hill. 1860s. 103 00:05:56,250 --> 00:05:58,850 There was a Union troop army that had a big storm 104 00:05:58,890 --> 00:06:00,750 and the animals went on the hill. 105 00:06:00,790 --> 00:06:02,960 Soldiers went up there and started picking up gold. 106 00:06:02,990 --> 00:06:07,630 - They were able to pick up potato-sized nuggets. - Potato-sized nuggets? 107 00:06:07,660 --> 00:06:09,260 That's the kind of place I want, Casey. 108 00:06:09,300 --> 00:06:11,100 I want to just be able to walk around, 109 00:06:11,130 --> 00:06:14,200 just pick up nuggets and put 'em in like a Easter basket or something. 110 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:15,240 Is that what they did? 111 00:06:17,370 --> 00:06:20,510 [narrator] In 1863, while on a prospecting trip 112 00:06:20,540 --> 00:06:23,680 in the Bradshaw Mountains, Captain Pauline Weaver 113 00:06:23,710 --> 00:06:28,350 discovers Arizona's richest source of placer gold at Rich Hill, 114 00:06:28,380 --> 00:06:31,420 starting a gold rush of epic proportions. 115 00:06:31,450 --> 00:06:35,660 At its peak in the 1880s, the area produces 116 00:06:35,690 --> 00:06:41,330 384 ounces of gold a week, over $730,000 in today's money. 117 00:06:42,460 --> 00:06:44,900 So these two brothers John and Andy I met, 118 00:06:44,930 --> 00:06:48,670 these guys have got some great ideas about mining. 119 00:06:48,700 --> 00:06:50,740 Not sure, but you got to see it for yourself. 120 00:06:50,770 --> 00:06:52,270 - You ready to go? - Yeah, I'm ready. 121 00:06:52,310 --> 00:06:54,310 - All right, you lead the way. - All right, let's go. 122 00:06:59,750 --> 00:07:02,380 You know, sometimes Casey has crazy ideas, 123 00:07:02,420 --> 00:07:05,950 and when he told me about Rich Hill, I was a little bit skeptical. 124 00:07:05,990 --> 00:07:09,290 Uh, lead me down the Golden Road. 125 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:11,590 Show me the gold, Casey, Show me the gold. 126 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:14,960 I like the way it looks, man. 127 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,100 It looks like there's tailing piles all over that mountain. 128 00:07:18,130 --> 00:07:21,170 I see great evidence of mining. That gets me excited, 129 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:23,140 because I know that there's gold there 130 00:07:23,170 --> 00:07:26,610 for men to put in that much effort to move that much dirt. 131 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:27,970 There's gold in the ground. 132 00:07:32,650 --> 00:07:36,820 [narrator] First step: Dave and Casey explore the 1000-acre claim 133 00:07:36,850 --> 00:07:39,320 on the hunt for placer gold deposits 134 00:07:39,350 --> 00:07:41,660 missed by the old miners. 135 00:07:41,690 --> 00:07:44,060 Casey and I are gonna go decode the land. 136 00:07:44,090 --> 00:07:46,730 You know, we'll get up high, start at the top, 137 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:49,660 kinda work our way down some of these ravines. 138 00:07:49,700 --> 00:07:52,330 The water will re-concentrate the gold 139 00:07:52,370 --> 00:07:54,840 so hopefully we can find some gold in some of these streams. 140 00:07:54,870 --> 00:07:57,800 See if it's worth, you know, bringing equipment up here in placer mining. 141 00:08:02,180 --> 00:08:03,180 Casey. 142 00:08:04,310 --> 00:08:06,910 This is what I'm looking for, it's been untouched. 143 00:08:06,950 --> 00:08:08,720 Nobody's been in this little valley. 144 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:11,050 It's all virgin ground. 145 00:08:16,860 --> 00:08:20,890 All right, I got my sample, so I'll go pan it. 146 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:27,300 Doing a proper prospect is key to any successful mining adventure. 147 00:08:27,340 --> 00:08:31,570 You have to put in the time to do a proper prospect. 148 00:08:31,610 --> 00:08:34,610 The thing I like about prospecting is it's so basic. 149 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:36,540 It's so historical. 150 00:08:36,580 --> 00:08:41,280 It's what everybody in history has done. 151 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:42,520 This is a pretty good pan. 152 00:08:42,550 --> 00:08:47,620 I like it. I think, uh, this is the best pan I've seen. 153 00:08:47,660 --> 00:08:49,860 Casey, it looks to me like a pretty good spot. 154 00:08:49,890 --> 00:08:54,260 I got about, you know, eight decent-sized colors and some real fine stuff. 155 00:08:54,300 --> 00:08:55,560 So I like it. 156 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:00,370 So this could be Team Turn's next place to mine. 157 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:02,500 We could hit it big right here. 158 00:09:02,540 --> 00:09:05,740 But it's so difficult to set up 159 00:09:05,770 --> 00:09:08,680 a placer mining operation in the middle of the desert. 160 00:09:09,580 --> 00:09:10,880 This is getting expensive. 161 00:09:10,910 --> 00:09:13,780 I mean, you start looking at, you know, to get the equipment. 162 00:09:13,810 --> 00:09:16,580 - I know. - The other thing that's going to be a bigger cost 163 00:09:16,620 --> 00:09:19,490 is just trying to move our material. 164 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:20,750 That's gonna be tough. 165 00:09:20,790 --> 00:09:23,360 Well, the way I'm seeing it, we're going to need about 166 00:09:23,390 --> 00:09:27,030 $300, 000 before we even start sluicing. 167 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:30,300 I think it's going to be $20 to $30 a yard. 168 00:09:31,500 --> 00:09:32,870 If we don't see $20 a yard, 169 00:09:32,900 --> 00:09:34,100 I don't think we can do it. 170 00:09:34,140 --> 00:09:36,140 It's just so far out here. 171 00:09:36,170 --> 00:09:38,570 Big rocks, the big boulders. 172 00:09:38,610 --> 00:09:39,610 Yeah. 173 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:44,880 [narrator] To get a read on the value of the land, 174 00:09:44,910 --> 00:09:47,750 Dave and Casey must now run a yard of pay dirt 175 00:09:47,780 --> 00:09:51,180 through a miniature wash plant called a highbanker. 176 00:09:51,220 --> 00:09:53,650 We gotta make a decision on what ground we're gonna mine. 177 00:09:53,690 --> 00:09:56,820 And is it the right ground? Just cause we see a whole bunch of gold in here, 178 00:09:56,860 --> 00:09:59,090 did we prospect it right? Did we check everything? 179 00:10:00,930 --> 00:10:05,770 Everywhere I go placer mining, I'm usually the fourth or fifth miner there. 180 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:07,130 It's all picked over. 181 00:10:07,170 --> 00:10:09,240 You really have to do your research 182 00:10:09,270 --> 00:10:12,140 to find little slivers that they all missed. 183 00:10:12,810 --> 00:10:14,170 Okay, fresh water. 184 00:10:16,980 --> 00:10:18,010 So it's encouraging. 185 00:10:18,050 --> 00:10:19,150 Seeing gold here. 186 00:10:20,850 --> 00:10:21,850 Will there be enough? 187 00:10:24,390 --> 00:10:25,390 [narrator] Coming up... 188 00:10:26,850 --> 00:10:29,360 Dave digs deeper into hard rock... 189 00:10:29,390 --> 00:10:32,790 So this is the gold bearing veins here. 190 00:10:32,830 --> 00:10:35,900 ...and Rich Hill reveals its secrets. 191 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:37,930 Nice. 192 00:10:37,970 --> 00:10:39,900 Look at that. Look how bright it is. 193 00:10:45,410 --> 00:10:47,440 - Well, let's weigh it up, see what we got. - Okay. 194 00:10:50,340 --> 00:10:51,750 I like that sound. 195 00:10:51,780 --> 00:10:53,050 Tink! Tink! Tink! 196 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:54,950 [narrator] Legendary miner Dave Turin 197 00:10:54,980 --> 00:10:58,690 is on a placer prospect at Rich Hill Mine, Arizona. 198 00:10:59,590 --> 00:11:01,720 Yep, it's clicking. Its tinking. 199 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:04,120 [narrator] To determine if the ground is minable, 200 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:07,730 Dave needs to see at least $20 of gold per yard. 201 00:11:10,330 --> 00:11:11,500 [bleep] 202 00:11:12,130 --> 00:11:14,770 0.41 grams of gold. 203 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:17,700 It gives us $15 dollars and 80 cents a yard. I 204 00:11:17,740 --> 00:11:19,610 About a little over 4 bucks, 205 00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:22,010 four and a half bucks short, five bucks short. 206 00:11:24,650 --> 00:11:26,580 That's not gonna work. 207 00:11:26,610 --> 00:11:28,750 You know what? I'm a little bit disappointed. 208 00:11:28,780 --> 00:11:31,020 I would have been happy to see 25, 209 00:11:31,050 --> 00:11:34,890 $30 a yard, but it's about 15, 210 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:36,460 and that isn't going to quite make it. 211 00:11:37,860 --> 00:11:39,160 Well, that's our test. 212 00:11:39,190 --> 00:11:42,300 That's how we know whether a placer miner can make any money. 213 00:11:43,500 --> 00:11:46,170 I'm wondering, how did those brothers pay the bills? 214 00:11:48,770 --> 00:11:50,540 [narrator] Their prospect a bust, 215 00:11:50,570 --> 00:11:55,110 Dave and Casey head to deliver the news to mine owners, the Ullary brothers. 216 00:12:02,250 --> 00:12:05,020 [Dave] So that bulk test was kind of disappointing. 217 00:12:05,050 --> 00:12:08,090 And so in my head, I'm thinking to myself, 218 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:10,920 how are those brothers staying alive? 219 00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:13,930 They've got quite a set-up, and if they're struggling 220 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:17,160 on the placer side, how is it that they've got a mine 221 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:18,800 and it's operating and functioning? 222 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:22,370 Hey, Dave. 223 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:23,770 Quite the operation, isn't it? 224 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:26,140 Yeah. Lot bigger than you probably expected. 225 00:12:26,170 --> 00:12:27,170 No kidding. 226 00:12:29,140 --> 00:12:31,310 I was impressed, and it was intriguing. 227 00:12:31,350 --> 00:12:35,250 And I was very interested in figuring out what they have and how they do this. 228 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:40,220 Dave, John and Andy Ullary. 229 00:12:40,290 --> 00:12:43,120 - Hi, Andy. Hi, John. - Casey, good to see you. 230 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:45,730 You guys got quite an operation going here. 231 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:48,030 You're not placer mining, right? 232 00:12:48,060 --> 00:12:49,930 Are you hard rock? 233 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:52,730 It is. We're in an area that needs to be mined 234 00:12:52,770 --> 00:12:54,700 more of a hybrid direction. 235 00:12:54,740 --> 00:12:59,040 More of a way in which you can capture all that gold. 236 00:12:59,070 --> 00:13:02,740 You can't capture that small gold on a sluice. 237 00:13:02,780 --> 00:13:05,080 You have to do a different process on it. 238 00:13:05,110 --> 00:13:09,520 The rock here, when crushed down, has gold in it. 239 00:13:09,550 --> 00:13:12,150 So we've put together the plant here behind us. 240 00:13:15,490 --> 00:13:17,320 [Dave] And you're making money? 241 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:20,560 - We're pouring gold bars. - You're pouring gold bars? 242 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,330 [Dave] So now it's starting to click. 243 00:13:24,370 --> 00:13:27,800 I'm going, "Oh, they're crushing the gold out." 244 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,000 Same thing they do with hard rock. 245 00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:34,040 These guys have a hybrid mine, which really, I've seen evidence 246 00:13:34,070 --> 00:13:37,080 of that same thing in Nixon Fork in Alaska. 247 00:13:41,620 --> 00:13:46,120 [narrator] Last season, Dave's hard rock mission took him to Nixon Fork, 248 00:13:46,150 --> 00:13:49,560 a hybrid mine deep in the remote Alaskan wilderness, 249 00:13:52,060 --> 00:13:54,460 Nixon Fork had hard rock mining. 250 00:13:54,500 --> 00:13:58,930 But right next door in this creek, there's placer 251 00:13:58,970 --> 00:14:00,570 and the old timers hit the placer. 252 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:02,600 And guess what? As they were doing the placer, 253 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:05,470 they looked at that mine and go, "I'll bet you there's hard rock there." 254 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:10,010 So Nixon Fork started in 1917. 255 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:12,680 They've taken over seven tons of gold out of there. 256 00:14:13,610 --> 00:14:15,580 I mean millions and millions 257 00:14:15,620 --> 00:14:17,120 and millions of dollars worth of gold. 258 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:20,690 [narrator] To get the hard rock gold, 259 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:24,260 the old timers burrowed into either side of the mountain, 260 00:14:24,290 --> 00:14:27,360 creating two tunnels called Mystery and Crystal. 261 00:14:28,300 --> 00:14:30,760 Owner Blane's reports suggest 262 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:34,570 that between the two tunnels lies a motherlode of gold 263 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:36,970 that could hold us much as a million ounces. 264 00:14:39,310 --> 00:14:40,810 This is the Crystal Mine. 265 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:44,940 This one has several miles of underground workings. 266 00:14:44,980 --> 00:14:47,010 This is the biggest tunnel I've ever seen. 267 00:14:47,050 --> 00:14:50,680 As we're walking in, the water that was dripping off the top 268 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:55,220 formed these beautiful ice stalagmites coming up from the ground 269 00:14:55,260 --> 00:14:57,660 with the light bouncing off of them. 270 00:14:57,690 --> 00:15:00,560 It was just like a fairyland. It was amazing. 271 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:02,960 It's pretty amazing. 272 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,800 But the scary part is when you get under there, 273 00:15:06,830 --> 00:15:09,900 those walls get closer and they start to settle in. 274 00:15:09,940 --> 00:15:11,840 There's an old mining hole here. 275 00:15:11,870 --> 00:15:13,010 Just avoid it, please. 276 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:16,180 - Hey! - Get out from under that. I need you back. 277 00:15:17,850 --> 00:15:20,380 Right now, back. She's still loose right there. 278 00:15:20,410 --> 00:15:24,820 Whoa! Son of a gun. Whoa! 279 00:15:24,850 --> 00:15:28,120 [bleep] There it is, there it is. 280 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:31,220 [narrator] To test the amount of gold left in the mine, 281 00:15:31,260 --> 00:15:34,130 Dave hunts out gold bearing quartz veins. 282 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:37,860 You know they're getting a lot of gold when they build their tunnels this big. 283 00:15:37,900 --> 00:15:42,400 There it is. That's solid, and it's okay, 284 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:44,540 so we're trying to get some good samples. 285 00:15:47,980 --> 00:15:50,740 That's a good... That's a good rock there. Make sure you get that. 286 00:15:50,780 --> 00:15:52,750 - Beautiful. - Got our sample. 287 00:15:52,810 --> 00:15:54,850 - All right. - I think we should take it to the assay lab 288 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:56,080 and we'll put it in the furnace. 289 00:16:00,020 --> 00:16:01,250 [Dave] It's impressive. 290 00:16:01,290 --> 00:16:03,460 There's a lot of gold taken out, and I believe there's 291 00:16:03,490 --> 00:16:06,090 a lot of gold left in. Proof's in the bag. 292 00:16:06,130 --> 00:16:07,560 We'll find out what's in there. 293 00:16:08,700 --> 00:16:12,000 At Nixon Fork you've gotta crush that rock, 294 00:16:12,030 --> 00:16:18,340 and to get the gold out of it, it's a very complicated, uh, chemical process. 295 00:16:18,370 --> 00:16:19,370 Abracadabra! 296 00:16:20,070 --> 00:16:21,570 It was pretty crazy. 297 00:16:21,610 --> 00:16:27,350 I felt like I was in, like, Merlin the Wizard's crazy laboratory. 298 00:16:28,850 --> 00:16:32,490 [narrator] Blane mixes the crushed ore with a chemical mix 299 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:35,360 known as a flux and heats the sample. 300 00:16:36,460 --> 00:16:38,460 [Dave] So what's the temperature of your oven? 301 00:16:38,490 --> 00:16:40,830 Right now we're sitting at 2050 degrees Fahrenheit. 302 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:46,400 [Dave] It's very intensive, and I don't know much about that. 303 00:16:46,430 --> 00:16:50,340 It's not like placer mining, where you just use water and gravity 304 00:16:50,370 --> 00:16:51,770 and get the free gold. 305 00:16:51,810 --> 00:16:53,340 So this is a complicated process. 306 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:57,710 [narrator] After an hour of intense heat... 307 00:16:57,750 --> 00:16:59,380 - [Blane] Are we ready? - [Dave] Let's do it! 308 00:17:00,050 --> 00:17:01,710 [Dave] Wow. 309 00:17:01,750 --> 00:17:05,920 [narrator] The rock and chemical mix melt away, leaving behind pure gold. 310 00:17:05,950 --> 00:17:07,090 [Dave] Oh, there it is right there. 311 00:17:07,890 --> 00:17:09,360 - Oh, that's better. - Yeah. 312 00:17:10,420 --> 00:17:12,090 [both] Oh! 313 00:17:12,130 --> 00:17:16,360 Look at that! I like that one! Look at that. 314 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:18,300 There we go. That's what we're looking for. 315 00:17:18,330 --> 00:17:20,100 One baby's a pretty good size. 316 00:17:20,130 --> 00:17:21,970 Look at how bright that gold is, though. 317 00:17:23,470 --> 00:17:26,110 Oh! Whoo! That's nearly a gram. 318 00:17:26,140 --> 00:17:28,040 Almost a gram out of that? 319 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:32,210 - Out of that. - That little bit of ore. 320 00:17:32,250 --> 00:17:35,520 So with that sample right there, for each ton of ore 321 00:17:35,550 --> 00:17:39,650 today's gold price is $1991 per ton. 322 00:17:39,690 --> 00:17:42,020 - Whoo! - There we go. 323 00:17:42,060 --> 00:17:46,160 I placer mine and hope to get $20 a ton. 324 00:17:46,190 --> 00:17:48,330 So that's obvious. 325 00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:54,070 That's a door straight into hard rock mining, and now it's opening to me. 326 00:17:54,100 --> 00:17:57,670 That was a lot of gold, and, uh, it's really gonna give me 327 00:17:57,700 --> 00:17:59,140 something to think about. 328 00:18:00,910 --> 00:18:03,680 So Blane showed me how to fire assay. 329 00:18:03,710 --> 00:18:06,050 And that's not how you get gold out. 330 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:08,820 That's way too expensive, takes a lot of energy to melt that out. 331 00:18:08,850 --> 00:18:11,520 So what Blane is using most of the time 332 00:18:11,550 --> 00:18:14,490 is a chemical process called cyanide leaching. 333 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:17,920 [narrator] When cyanide is introduced first 334 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:22,560 in America in 1891, it sparks a second gold rush 335 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:27,430 with the ability to extract gold from rock that had previously been impossible. 336 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:33,810 Cyanide binds to the gold ions making them soluble in water, 337 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,280 allowing them to separate from the rock. 338 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:40,650 Cyanide is a dangerous chemical 339 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:44,520 if it's not handled properly. What can happen is it could spill out. 340 00:18:44,550 --> 00:18:46,150 Many times that has happened. 341 00:18:46,190 --> 00:18:49,420 But when it first comes out, it's kind of nasty. 342 00:18:49,460 --> 00:18:54,030 It'll kill birds and animals, and... Look, you just gotta be careful with cyanide. 343 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,200 So as I came up here, I saw a crusher. 344 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:06,670 So you're crushing the rock, liberating the gold. 345 00:19:06,710 --> 00:19:09,410 How are you capturing the gold after you crush it? 346 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:12,110 John was able to put together the leach that we have. 347 00:19:12,150 --> 00:19:13,510 - So you're leaching it? - We're leaching it. 348 00:19:13,550 --> 00:19:16,680 - Using cyanide? - No, sir, we are not. No, sir, we are not. 349 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,590 You leach, but without cyanide. 350 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:25,590 - That is correct. - I've never heard of that. 351 00:19:25,630 --> 00:19:28,390 We were in for permitting to do cyanide. 352 00:19:28,430 --> 00:19:30,900 And it's a very long, drawn-out process. 353 00:19:30,930 --> 00:19:33,000 But we just hate what it does to the environment. 354 00:19:33,030 --> 00:19:37,370 So John can leach out the gold and then add one more chemical to the leach, 355 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:41,070 and it brings it back to a Ph of seven and just cleans it right up. 356 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:46,410 I'm like, "No way." If that was the case, 357 00:19:46,450 --> 00:19:48,310 why isn't everybody using it, right? 358 00:19:48,350 --> 00:19:49,920 That's revolutionary. 359 00:19:49,950 --> 00:19:52,120 That could change the mining world. 360 00:19:52,150 --> 00:19:55,250 That could flip mining upside down. 361 00:20:01,330 --> 00:20:06,200 [narrator] Dave Turin is on the hunt for hard rock secrets at Rich Hill, Arizona. 362 00:20:06,230 --> 00:20:09,540 Mine owners John and Andy Ullary have just revealed 363 00:20:09,570 --> 00:20:13,740 their cyanide-free method of extracting gold from hard rock. 364 00:20:13,770 --> 00:20:17,780 For these guys to find a way to leach not using cyanide, 365 00:20:17,810 --> 00:20:20,280 using something that's biodegradable, that's amazing. 366 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:28,490 [narrator] But before Dave sees the process, he first wants to investigate the rock. 367 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:34,160 So the Ullary brothers and their process is revolutionary. 368 00:20:34,860 --> 00:20:36,330 It blew my mind. 369 00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:38,460 If those guys were telling me the truth, 370 00:20:38,500 --> 00:20:41,130 I want to see proof, and I want to know more about it. 371 00:20:41,170 --> 00:20:42,940 Well, I'm anxious to see what's here. 372 00:20:42,970 --> 00:20:45,100 I love looking at the land. 373 00:20:45,140 --> 00:20:46,810 You guys have a cut bank or something 374 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:50,010 - that we could kind of look at decode? - We do. 375 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,850 - Let's go take a look. - I'm all about that. 376 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:05,730 So here's bedrock, right? 377 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,290 - Yes, sir. - Well, you got a heck of a seam right here. 378 00:21:08,330 --> 00:21:10,060 Look at that. Look at that. 379 00:21:10,100 --> 00:21:14,000 You're finding free gold, probably, in this, as your placer, right? 380 00:21:14,030 --> 00:21:17,140 But you're also finding gold in these kind of rocks. 381 00:21:17,170 --> 00:21:21,040 What we found is the granite rock here, 382 00:21:21,070 --> 00:21:24,680 when crushed down, has chunkier gold in it. 383 00:21:24,710 --> 00:21:27,150 What made you guys look in the granite? 384 00:21:27,180 --> 00:21:30,180 Because my thoughts is that the quartz 385 00:21:30,220 --> 00:21:33,190 in between the granite is where the gold is. 386 00:21:33,220 --> 00:21:37,560 Now you're saying this granite, the parent rock 387 00:21:37,590 --> 00:21:39,960 the parent ore is carrying gold? 388 00:21:40,690 --> 00:21:42,060 We tested it. 389 00:21:42,100 --> 00:21:44,460 It had to have formed inside that 390 00:21:44,500 --> 00:21:47,870 at a different timeframe than the vein 391 00:21:47,900 --> 00:21:50,640 or the other placerable material that's here. 392 00:21:52,510 --> 00:21:56,210 Most placer miners would have taken the gold and then left. 393 00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:57,740 But these guys figured out a way 394 00:21:57,780 --> 00:21:59,550 to get more value out of their land. 395 00:22:00,980 --> 00:22:05,620 This is really like trying to understand geology by... 396 00:22:05,650 --> 00:22:07,850 It's almost like drinking out of a firehose. 397 00:22:09,190 --> 00:22:12,190 There's that much volume of information, 398 00:22:12,230 --> 00:22:14,030 and I can't digest it all. 399 00:22:15,630 --> 00:22:17,530 [narrator] Millions of years ago, 400 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,600 Rich Hill is formed when thick volcanic magma 401 00:22:20,630 --> 00:22:23,540 slowly cools deep underground. 402 00:22:23,570 --> 00:22:26,440 Pressurized boiling water from the earth's core 403 00:22:26,470 --> 00:22:29,780 distributes gold and other minerals in quartz, 404 00:22:29,810 --> 00:22:31,810 but also in the surrounding rock, 405 00:22:31,850 --> 00:22:34,950 and slowly crystallizes into granite. 406 00:22:34,980 --> 00:22:39,590 Over time, seismic activity brings this rock to the surface 407 00:22:39,620 --> 00:22:43,190 and produces the large boulders which now carpet the land. 408 00:22:45,590 --> 00:22:47,990 Typically, granite doesn't carry gold. 409 00:22:48,030 --> 00:22:52,100 But you're telling me that some of these granite boulders have gold? 410 00:22:52,130 --> 00:22:55,530 - Yeah. - That's highly unusual, right? 411 00:22:55,570 --> 00:22:56,640 - Yes. - Right. 412 00:22:59,710 --> 00:23:03,510 When the Ullary brothers told me that they can get gold out of granite, 413 00:23:03,540 --> 00:23:05,040 I'm like, "What?" 414 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:09,950 It's new to me because I've always chased quartz veins. 415 00:23:09,980 --> 00:23:14,220 [narrator] Dave's hunt for gold-rich quartz veins begins one year ago 416 00:23:14,250 --> 00:23:17,320 when he heads deep underground in Montana's Miller Mountain. 417 00:23:18,730 --> 00:23:21,040 [Dave] Going to Miller Mountain was pretty amazing. 418 00:23:21,060 --> 00:23:24,560 I had never really gone underground into tunnels, 419 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:28,530 and so it was somewhat daunting, and I mean, in some ways 420 00:23:28,570 --> 00:23:29,640 it was kind of terrifying. 421 00:23:35,910 --> 00:23:37,180 Watch your head, guys. 422 00:23:40,780 --> 00:23:42,150 [Dave] Oh, my gosh! 423 00:23:44,620 --> 00:23:49,290 Un-freaking-believable. It's a whole different world. 424 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,360 As we traveled in, I'm thinking, "What kind of guy would do this?" 425 00:23:52,390 --> 00:23:57,460 And what was his motivation to live such a dangerous, scary life? 426 00:23:59,470 --> 00:24:06,170 One rock falls... he's there, buried alive and nobody would know. 427 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:13,050 Show me the sign. "Danger. Drowning hazard." 428 00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:20,220 [narrator] Over millions of years, molten minerals move 429 00:24:20,250 --> 00:24:23,090 through the mountain and deposit quartz. 430 00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:26,760 The old timers chase these gold-rich veins. 431 00:24:26,790 --> 00:24:29,530 Now Dave looks for unmined quartz 432 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:31,600 the original miners left behind, 433 00:24:31,630 --> 00:24:35,030 hoping it still contains millions of dollars of gold. 434 00:24:39,610 --> 00:24:44,080 I didn't think I was claustrophobic, but I got claustrophobic. 435 00:24:44,110 --> 00:24:45,480 I don't know. It was scary. 436 00:24:49,220 --> 00:24:50,850 Okay? [bleep] 437 00:24:52,290 --> 00:24:54,450 [Dave] Trying to get up this one spot, 438 00:24:54,490 --> 00:24:58,260 "your brain saying, "Got million pounds of rock above your head. 439 00:24:58,290 --> 00:25:00,030 You're in a confined space." 440 00:25:02,430 --> 00:25:04,630 And then you start to panic. 441 00:25:04,660 --> 00:25:06,900 [bleeping] 442 00:25:06,930 --> 00:25:11,940 If you don't... You know, a lot of times, if you don't try something, 443 00:25:11,970 --> 00:25:14,140 if you don't overcome your fears, 444 00:25:14,170 --> 00:25:16,740 you don't know what you're capable of. 445 00:25:18,450 --> 00:25:20,780 [narrator] A quarter of a mile underground, 446 00:25:20,810 --> 00:25:25,050 Dave finally reaches the end of the old timers' tunnels... 447 00:25:25,090 --> 00:25:28,350 and untapped gold-rich quartz veins. 448 00:25:28,390 --> 00:25:29,690 See that quartz right there? 449 00:25:31,190 --> 00:25:34,130 - They were chasing a vein. - Holy crap. Look at this. 450 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:38,630 There should be gold in this. 451 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:43,540 So this is the gold-bearing veins here. 452 00:25:43,570 --> 00:25:45,910 So they only took as much as they had to. 453 00:25:45,940 --> 00:25:46,940 That's correct. 454 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:53,810 So that was the first time I'd ever been that close and personal to an old time miner. 455 00:25:53,850 --> 00:25:58,180 Because I was right there on my elbows and my knees 456 00:25:58,220 --> 00:26:00,950 and chipping away with a little tiny light. 457 00:26:00,990 --> 00:26:03,420 His chip marks are still there. 458 00:26:06,390 --> 00:26:07,930 We heading out? 459 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:09,230 Okay. 460 00:26:09,260 --> 00:26:10,260 Alright. 461 00:26:14,570 --> 00:26:16,270 All right, you guys, here we go. 462 00:26:16,300 --> 00:26:19,070 All right! Sunshine! Whoo! 463 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:26,110 [Dave] That was crazy. At first underground scared the hell out of me. 464 00:26:26,150 --> 00:26:28,410 I gotta hand it to the old timers. 465 00:26:28,450 --> 00:26:31,350 Takes a special guy to crawl underground and do that kind of work. 466 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:43,130 It was fun to, you know, to do my first hard rock mining, 467 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,700 but in the end, it didn't work for us. 468 00:26:47,430 --> 00:26:50,640 I'd say that's a little less than a quarter of a gram of gold. 469 00:26:52,140 --> 00:26:55,240 Opening a hard rock mine is very, very expensive. 470 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:58,580 I could go placer mining for half a million dollars. 471 00:26:58,610 --> 00:27:00,910 And to open up a hard rock mine, 472 00:27:00,980 --> 00:27:02,110 it's ten times that. 473 00:27:02,150 --> 00:27:05,080 Probably five million dollars. 474 00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:08,520 Yeah, if you want to go into hard rock mining, you better have a lot of money 475 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:13,690 or a lot of investors. It's so expensive because you're tunneling in. 476 00:27:13,730 --> 00:27:16,700 But Andy and John are above ground, 477 00:27:16,730 --> 00:27:20,570 so it's kind of a revolutionary way to hard rock mine. 478 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:22,840 They got to be making money because they've got 479 00:27:22,870 --> 00:27:24,800 a lot of money invested in there. 480 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:27,440 Will it change the face of mining in America? 481 00:27:28,740 --> 00:27:32,410 For the world maybe? I don't know. I need to find out. 482 00:27:34,510 --> 00:27:38,150 [narrator] Coming up, Dave takes it to the next level... 483 00:27:38,180 --> 00:27:40,450 The big boulders concentrate the gold. 484 00:27:40,490 --> 00:27:42,720 So this is a good spot to look. 485 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:45,360 ...and uncovers Rich Hill's secrets. 486 00:27:45,390 --> 00:27:47,090 - Show me your gold. - Let's go. 487 00:27:47,130 --> 00:27:48,560 Show me your gold, John. 488 00:27:58,370 --> 00:28:02,740 [narrator] In Rich Hill, Arizona, mine owners John and Andy Ullary 489 00:28:02,780 --> 00:28:06,380 have revealed a secret that could change the future of mining. 490 00:28:06,410 --> 00:28:10,450 What John and Andy have is no cyanide, and they're leaching, 491 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:12,550 so it's completely environmentally safe. 492 00:28:12,590 --> 00:28:15,390 The odds of finding something like that? Unbelievable. 493 00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:18,020 Look, these guys are pioneers. 494 00:28:18,060 --> 00:28:23,540 They are pioneering a new way to leach gold out of ore. 495 00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,870 I was impressed because they're making money. 496 00:28:30,970 --> 00:28:33,470 [narrator] For hundreds of years, the hunt for gold 497 00:28:33,510 --> 00:28:37,080 sees men push the boundaries of engineering to the limit. 498 00:28:37,110 --> 00:28:39,680 [Dave] Necessity is the mother of invention. 499 00:28:39,710 --> 00:28:42,920 I don't know if it makes you smarter, but it makes you more creative 500 00:28:42,950 --> 00:28:44,980 because you're going to starve to death 501 00:28:45,020 --> 00:28:48,130 if you don't find that gold, and you know the gold's there, 502 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:49,690 so you try different methods. 503 00:28:51,860 --> 00:28:53,490 [narrator] For hard rock miners, 504 00:28:53,530 --> 00:28:58,360 what starts with picks and shovels to crack open the rocks and hunt for gold 505 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,270 takes a leap forward with the onset of steam 506 00:29:01,300 --> 00:29:05,440 and air-powered drilling and advancements in explosives. 507 00:29:05,470 --> 00:29:08,470 And now tunnels can be made longer and deeper 508 00:29:08,510 --> 00:29:11,880 as they chase new gold-bearing veins. 509 00:29:11,910 --> 00:29:14,550 In the 1900s, we started to develop 510 00:29:14,580 --> 00:29:17,480 a lot better techniques of hard rock mining. 511 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,150 The invention of dynamite, because in the past 512 00:29:20,190 --> 00:29:22,790 they were using black powder, which was pretty unstable, 513 00:29:22,820 --> 00:29:26,630 very dangerous. Dynamite, much more stable. 514 00:29:26,660 --> 00:29:30,100 You could put it where you want it, and you could light a fuse 515 00:29:30,130 --> 00:29:36,000 or ignite it when you wanted it to ignite, which really changed hard rock mining. 516 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:39,610 Now those guys could blast out a ton of rock in say, 517 00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,240 an hour after drilling the holes. 518 00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:45,640 Now they're moving... Literally, they're moving mountains. 519 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:49,850 In 2019, I go visit Lovitt Mine, 520 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,790 which was incredible to see the advances. 521 00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:59,190 [narrator] High in the northern cascade mountains, 522 00:29:59,230 --> 00:30:04,230 Washington State's Lovitt Mine has stood abandoned for over 50 years. 523 00:30:06,870 --> 00:30:11,340 What was so incredible was to see how big they could make some of these mines 524 00:30:11,370 --> 00:30:16,040 and some of these tunnels, over 12 miles of tunnel in this mountain. 525 00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:20,380 [narrator] Lovitt Mine is a feat of old timer engineering expertise. 526 00:30:20,410 --> 00:30:23,720 With ten levels of tunnels bored deep into the mountain, 527 00:30:23,750 --> 00:30:26,750 the lowest at 700 feet above sea level, 528 00:30:26,790 --> 00:30:29,690 the highest 1700 feet. 529 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,360 Today, the middle level is where it is believed 530 00:30:32,390 --> 00:30:35,430 the best gold still waits to be found. 531 00:30:38,100 --> 00:30:39,600 What year were you mining here? 532 00:30:39,630 --> 00:30:45,040 1962, 1967 when it closed up. 533 00:30:45,070 --> 00:30:46,410 Wow. You were here. 534 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,510 You're part of the old fixture. 535 00:30:48,540 --> 00:30:50,880 - [Dave] Wow. That's quite the history. - Yeah. 536 00:30:50,910 --> 00:30:54,810 You know, I suppose when you do the same job as somebody else, 537 00:30:54,850 --> 00:30:58,050 for many years, you have some things in common. 538 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:01,550 And Jim was a great guy, and we just connected. 539 00:31:01,590 --> 00:31:03,790 I mean, we're both miners. We both worked the ground. 540 00:31:03,820 --> 00:31:05,220 We've gotten gold. 541 00:31:05,260 --> 00:31:08,230 And it was just a lot of fun because he was, you know, 542 00:31:08,260 --> 00:31:11,460 an old timer shared stories. 543 00:31:11,500 --> 00:31:12,560 It was pretty cool. 544 00:31:16,340 --> 00:31:17,400 Open it up, Jim. 545 00:31:18,300 --> 00:31:20,610 - Okay. - There you go. 546 00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:23,140 [Dave] Ooh! This is a little scary. 547 00:31:24,210 --> 00:31:26,580 Look at the size of that rock that they left there. 548 00:31:26,610 --> 00:31:28,380 [man] That's a big no-no, Dave. 549 00:31:28,410 --> 00:31:30,780 They should have never left a belly like that. 550 00:31:30,820 --> 00:31:34,490 So I've got an engineering background and I understand physics. 551 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:38,690 When you're underground, you've got a million tons above you. 552 00:31:38,730 --> 00:31:42,060 And I also know that if there's nothing supporting that, 553 00:31:42,130 --> 00:31:43,900 that gravity will take over. 554 00:31:43,930 --> 00:31:45,930 So as I looked out into some of these rooms, 555 00:31:45,970 --> 00:31:49,130 I'm thinking to myself, "That doesn't look very structurally sound." 556 00:31:52,370 --> 00:31:59,140 So I was a little bit scared, a little bit tense and anxious about, uh, 557 00:31:59,180 --> 00:32:01,750 some of the big voids in that mountain. 558 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:07,990 [bleep] 559 00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:15,330 [bleep] 560 00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:29,210 - Looks to me like this just fell out. - Yep. 561 00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:38,320 [Dave] So inside Lovitt mine, it was almost like a honeycomb. 562 00:32:38,350 --> 00:32:43,260 There wasn't enough support, and all of a sudden, it just let loose and caved in. 563 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,760 Oh my goodness. Look over here. It's just fell out. 564 00:32:51,970 --> 00:32:54,970 Oh yeah, okay. This makes sense. 565 00:32:56,940 --> 00:33:00,870 You can only mine it so long, the structure starts falling apart. 566 00:33:00,910 --> 00:33:04,210 It starts imploding. Collapsing on itself. 567 00:33:05,550 --> 00:33:06,880 Yeah, this is a little spooky. 568 00:33:10,550 --> 00:33:12,720 In the end, it would just cost too much money. 569 00:33:12,750 --> 00:33:15,150 The dangers, the risks 570 00:33:15,190 --> 00:33:19,490 and the amount of money that it costs to rehabilitate all those tunnels... 571 00:33:19,530 --> 00:33:21,660 It didn't match the gold that we saw in the pan. 572 00:33:25,870 --> 00:33:28,400 Through the years of chasing these lost abandoned mines, 573 00:33:28,430 --> 00:33:31,640 I've seen how technology has advanced us 574 00:33:31,670 --> 00:33:33,370 and what it's done is that 575 00:33:33,410 --> 00:33:37,540 it allows us to go deeper and longer and find more gold, right? 576 00:33:37,580 --> 00:33:40,910 But it also lends itself to hazard. 577 00:33:40,950 --> 00:33:45,080 Look at the Lovitt mine. Because they went deeper and they got more ore out, 578 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,050 it became very dangerous. 579 00:33:53,230 --> 00:33:57,760 The next evolution has to include environmentally safe things, 580 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,370 taking care of the land, putting the land back. 581 00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:05,400 And I wonder if Andy and John is the next step. 582 00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:07,640 The next big step that takes mining, 583 00:34:07,670 --> 00:34:10,680 not only safe, but it's green. 584 00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:12,810 Look at the size of those. 585 00:34:12,850 --> 00:34:14,410 You guys got some big boulders here. 586 00:34:14,450 --> 00:34:16,350 - Yes, sir, we do. - Is that why you got big excavators? 587 00:34:16,380 --> 00:34:18,480 That is why we have a big excavator. 588 00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:21,350 I really want to go see Andy and John's plant 589 00:34:21,390 --> 00:34:23,990 and see how it works and functions. 590 00:34:24,020 --> 00:34:27,490 How about if Casey and I just prospect and we find 591 00:34:27,530 --> 00:34:29,960 a good yard of dirt, what we think's good yard? 592 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,300 Run it through your leaching process. 593 00:34:32,330 --> 00:34:35,230 I would love to see how much gold you're getting with your process. 594 00:34:35,870 --> 00:34:37,100 We'll show you. 595 00:34:37,140 --> 00:34:38,240 We'll take that challenge on. 596 00:34:39,870 --> 00:34:42,870 [narrator] Coming up, the Ullary brothers reveal... 597 00:34:42,910 --> 00:34:45,610 Basically, you make flour, rock flour. 598 00:34:45,650 --> 00:34:48,250 [narrator] ...their revolutionary leaching process. 599 00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:49,610 Nice. 600 00:34:49,650 --> 00:34:50,820 Really nice. 601 00:34:50,850 --> 00:34:51,920 Look at that. 602 00:34:57,420 --> 00:35:00,390 There are so many dangers and risks in underground mining. 603 00:35:00,430 --> 00:35:03,460 You've got this steel poker that you poke the rock 604 00:35:03,500 --> 00:35:06,470 and it's called sounding, and it makes a "ting." 605 00:35:07,830 --> 00:35:09,600 That means it's solid rock. 606 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:13,040 If you go and you just hit it and it goes "thud," 607 00:35:14,170 --> 00:35:15,740 it means there's air behind that piece of rock 608 00:35:15,780 --> 00:35:18,840 and you have to knock it off because that's a dangerous piece of rock. 609 00:35:19,950 --> 00:35:21,980 Woah! 610 00:35:22,010 --> 00:35:24,150 That right there could have been a serious headache. 611 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:34,130 [narrator] Lost mine hunter Dave Turin is on a hard rock mining mission... 612 00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:35,830 I see some sunshine! 613 00:35:35,860 --> 00:35:38,100 [narrator] ...and after a bust placer prospect... 614 00:35:38,900 --> 00:35:41,130 Sluicing, you need clean water. 615 00:35:41,170 --> 00:35:43,500 Well, look where we're at. In the middle of the desert. 616 00:35:43,540 --> 00:35:46,570 [narrator] ...Dave finds that the real gold at Rich Hill... 617 00:35:46,610 --> 00:35:49,610 - We're pouring gold bars. - You're pouring gold bars? 618 00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,840 [narrator] ...is a revolutionary hard rock process... 619 00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:56,580 So you're telling me you have a cyanide-less way 620 00:35:56,620 --> 00:35:59,650 - to leach gold, without cyanide? - Exactly. 621 00:35:59,690 --> 00:36:03,790 [narrator] ...with the potential to change his life and mining forever. 622 00:36:06,390 --> 00:36:08,460 [Dave] So Casey and I are gonna go find some ground. 623 00:36:08,490 --> 00:36:12,860 I want the Ullary brothers to crush it and run it through their leach process. 624 00:36:12,900 --> 00:36:16,330 I'm really interested in seeing their whole process 625 00:36:16,370 --> 00:36:18,870 to see, you know, if it is valid? 626 00:36:26,110 --> 00:36:29,080 So what I'm doing is I'm digging under the big boulders. 627 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,020 The big boulders concentrate the gold. 628 00:36:32,050 --> 00:36:33,620 So this is a good spot to look. 629 00:36:40,660 --> 00:36:42,730 [narrator] With the yard of dirt collected, 630 00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:46,100 John and Andy are ready to give Dave a tour of their plant. 631 00:36:47,770 --> 00:36:49,870 I've been around rock crushing my whole life, 632 00:36:49,900 --> 00:36:53,910 and I was very interested in figuring out what they have and how they do this. 633 00:36:58,240 --> 00:37:02,110 Right here, Dave. We're feeding in the material in the back end of the ball mill. 634 00:37:02,150 --> 00:37:03,780 - I'll show you what's inside the ball mill. - Okay! 635 00:37:03,820 --> 00:37:06,050 So over here we have balls. 636 00:37:07,690 --> 00:37:09,850 We have about 80 tons of balls. 637 00:37:09,890 --> 00:37:12,020 You got 80 tons of these. 638 00:37:12,060 --> 00:37:14,230 So they sit there and they roll on each other? 639 00:37:14,260 --> 00:37:16,390 They just spin around in the weight, 640 00:37:16,430 --> 00:37:19,230 they just collapse on top of each other and crush the rock. 641 00:37:19,270 --> 00:37:22,230 You're crushing your rock to the size of the gold. 642 00:37:22,270 --> 00:37:25,540 - And that frees that gold out of that ore. - Exactly. 643 00:37:25,570 --> 00:37:30,510 You're basically making, like, flour. Rock flour. 644 00:37:30,540 --> 00:37:33,950 They want to get as much gold out of that ore as they possibly can. 645 00:37:35,310 --> 00:37:39,320 And then as you continue in, you see the big, huge tanks 646 00:37:39,350 --> 00:37:41,220 where they're leaching the material. 647 00:37:41,250 --> 00:37:42,990 So this is where all the magic happens? 648 00:37:43,020 --> 00:37:44,860 This is where all the magic happens right here, Dave. 649 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,760 [narrator] The rock dust is then mixed with water, 650 00:37:48,830 --> 00:37:52,760 turning it into a slurry, and the secret solution is added. 651 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:55,330 So right now, our goal in this right here 652 00:37:55,370 --> 00:37:58,070 is to allow the solution to get around all the rocks. 653 00:37:58,100 --> 00:38:01,040 You're leaching solution gets into the rocks, 654 00:38:01,070 --> 00:38:05,680 pulls the gold in the solution and then it's in that liquid form, right? 655 00:38:05,710 --> 00:38:07,350 The gold is in the liquid. 656 00:38:07,380 --> 00:38:11,650 Let me ask you something. So typically in probably... What would you say? 657 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:17,490 ...99% of gold leach processes, this is your cyanide process, correct? 658 00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:18,820 Yes, it would be. 659 00:38:20,930 --> 00:38:22,630 [narrator] Similar to cyanide, 660 00:38:22,660 --> 00:38:28,000 the Ullarys' non-toxic leach captures the gold by seeping into the rock ore. 661 00:38:28,030 --> 00:38:31,170 It binds to the tiny gold particles, 662 00:38:32,670 --> 00:38:35,510 freeing the precious metal from the rock. 663 00:38:37,140 --> 00:38:39,640 So you've eliminated the cyanide? 664 00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,710 What's in here is actually biodegradable? 665 00:38:42,750 --> 00:38:44,080 Environmentally friendly? 666 00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:46,380 - Yes, it is. It is. - It's amazing. 667 00:38:46,420 --> 00:38:49,290 I don't suppose we'd want to bathe in that, though. 668 00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:52,590 It wouldn't hurt you, but no, I wouldn't want to bathe in it. 669 00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:55,990 Well, they found a way to do it 670 00:38:56,030 --> 00:38:58,560 that's biodegradable, environmentally friendly 671 00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:03,070 and, they claim, that could do just as good as cyanide leaching. 672 00:39:03,100 --> 00:39:05,470 So that, to me, is a pioneer. 673 00:39:07,510 --> 00:39:09,310 [narrator] 24 hours later... 674 00:39:09,340 --> 00:39:11,340 The secret. No cameras allowed in here. 675 00:39:11,380 --> 00:39:12,640 This is where it all happens. 676 00:39:15,310 --> 00:39:18,380 There you go. 677 00:39:18,420 --> 00:39:22,390 [narrator] ...the gold-bearing pulp is heated to 1500 degrees 678 00:39:22,420 --> 00:39:26,360 burning off the impurities to leave pure gold. 679 00:39:26,390 --> 00:39:27,830 [Dave] You know, that's the moment of truth. 680 00:39:27,860 --> 00:39:30,500 How much gold is in that ore? 681 00:39:30,530 --> 00:39:32,630 - Let's do it. - All right, show me your gold. 682 00:39:32,670 --> 00:39:35,070 - Let's go. - Show me your gold, John. 683 00:39:39,910 --> 00:39:40,940 Well, there it is. 684 00:39:44,010 --> 00:39:46,680 Nice, really nice. 685 00:39:46,710 --> 00:39:47,750 Look at that. 686 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:50,380 Look how bright it is. 687 00:39:50,420 --> 00:39:54,720 [narrator] John's leach removes over 90% of the gold from the rock. 688 00:39:54,750 --> 00:39:59,460 Compared to Dave and Casey's $15-a-yard placer bulk test, 689 00:39:59,490 --> 00:40:03,800 John and Andy's process claims almost five times as much gold 690 00:40:03,830 --> 00:40:08,170 from the same ground, making it worth over $70 a yard. 691 00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,670 That's a lot. I didn't expect to see that much, John. 692 00:40:11,700 --> 00:40:15,670 Oh my gosh, John is amazing. He's a hard-working guy 693 00:40:15,710 --> 00:40:22,010 that's figured out a way to dissolve gold without using cyanide. 694 00:40:22,050 --> 00:40:26,680 You know how revolutionary that it is? That could change mining. 695 00:40:26,720 --> 00:40:30,490 So for me, I got to figure out what that means to me and my crew. 696 00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:33,960 We got a big boost in technology on Team Turin today. 697 00:40:33,990 --> 00:40:37,900 We just got a huge leap from being placer miners, 698 00:40:37,930 --> 00:40:41,400 to seeing that we can make a lot more money in mining than we ever knew possible. 699 00:40:45,300 --> 00:40:48,370 I've learned so much from this hard rock mining experience. 700 00:40:48,410 --> 00:40:51,610 You know, the adventure, the journey. I've learned about the history... 701 00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:53,450 [bleep] 702 00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:56,310 ...and what it allows us to do is learn from our past 703 00:40:56,350 --> 00:40:58,450 so that we don't make the same mistakes. 704 00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:02,550 You can only mine it so long. The structure starts falling apart. 705 00:41:02,590 --> 00:41:08,790 And if we do that, I think the future is really with the Ullary brothers' system. 706 00:41:08,830 --> 00:41:10,260 And we could be a big part of it. 707 00:41:10,300 --> 00:41:11,600 Using cyanide? 708 00:41:11,630 --> 00:41:13,130 No, sir. We are not. 709 00:41:13,170 --> 00:41:17,040 - We are not. - You leach but without cyanide? 710 00:41:17,070 --> 00:41:19,440 I think, after I've met the Ullary brothers 711 00:41:19,470 --> 00:41:24,110 and seen their process, I think hard rock mining and that gold, 712 00:41:24,140 --> 00:41:27,680 that vision, that dream is more clear than it's ever been, 713 00:41:27,710 --> 00:41:29,350 and I'm excited about it. 713 00:41:30,305 --> 00:42:30,207 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm