"Gold Rush" Melt Down

1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 2 00:00:19,008 --> 00:00:21,180 [Parker] Got a lot going on right now, 3 00:00:21,215 --> 00:00:25,111 and hopefully we're not biting off too much. 4 00:00:27,043 --> 00:00:29,525 [narrator] <i> Twenty-seven-year-old Parker Schnabel</i> 5 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:33,180 <i>is planning something he's never done before,</i> 6 00:00:33,215 --> 00:00:37,146 <i>run two mining operations in different countries,</i> 7 00:00:37,180 --> 00:00:41,560 <i>one in the Yukon and a new one in Alaska.</i> 8 00:00:41,594 --> 00:00:42,767 [Parker] <i>It's really dangerous</i> 9 00:00:42,801 --> 00:00:46,422 <i>having that big of a battle on two different fronts.</i> 10 00:00:46,456 --> 00:00:50,732 Getting people, getting parts is gonna be a real challenge. 11 00:00:50,767 --> 00:00:54,698 [narrator] <i>But before Parker can move resources to Alaska,</i> 12 00:00:54,732 --> 00:01:01,008 <i>he wants his Yukon crew to strip a mammoth 90 acres of ground at the Airstrip.</i> 13 00:01:02,180 --> 00:01:03,870 [Parker] <i>We have so much ground to get through</i> 14 00:01:03,905 --> 00:01:06,663 <i>that just stripping is the main issue</i> 15 00:01:07,801 --> 00:01:09,456 with just how spread out we're gonna be. 16 00:01:09,491 --> 00:01:11,043 Everybody's gonna have to step up. 17 00:01:16,249 --> 00:01:18,560 [narrator] <i>To amp up the pressure even more,</i> 18 00:01:18,594 --> 00:01:22,974 <i>Parker's water license at the Airstrip runs out at the end of this season.</i> 19 00:01:24,318 --> 00:01:26,594 <i>He needs to extract all the gold,</i> 20 00:01:26,629 --> 00:01:29,180 <i>or it will stay in the ground forever.</i> 21 00:01:31,594 --> 00:01:34,767 So we're getting really close to being done with the Keyhole Cut. 22 00:01:34,801 --> 00:01:38,043 Crew's working pretty hard to make sure that the next one is ready. 23 00:01:38,077 --> 00:01:40,180 [Tyson] Guys, we're almost there. 24 00:01:40,215 --> 00:01:44,422 [narrator] <i> Five weeks into the season, wash plant boss Tyson Lee</i> 25 00:01:44,456 --> 00:01:50,215 <i>has pulled out 975 ounces of gold from the 14-acre Keyhole Cut.</i> 26 00:01:52,870 --> 00:01:55,905 We're getting to the bitter end of the first cut of the season here. 27 00:01:55,939 --> 00:01:57,698 I'm loading up the last bit of pay. 28 00:01:59,318 --> 00:02:02,905 So these are the last few truckloads, getting it up to Big Red. 29 00:02:02,939 --> 00:02:05,146 This cut is over and done with. 30 00:02:06,180 --> 00:02:08,732 You're good. My horn is [bleep] again. 31 00:02:10,077 --> 00:02:11,560 Hey, you're good. You're loaded. 32 00:02:11,594 --> 00:02:14,008 [woman 1 speaking] 33 00:02:14,043 --> 00:02:16,215 [Tyson] Trucker go. Trucker go. 34 00:02:16,249 --> 00:02:18,732 [woman 1] I feel like I'm keeping up at the moment, which is good. 35 00:02:19,629 --> 00:02:21,249 I just hope I don't [bleep] it up. 36 00:02:23,284 --> 00:02:24,491 [woman 2 on radio] <i> You're doing great.</i> 37 00:02:25,387 --> 00:02:27,353 I think that's it. 38 00:02:31,215 --> 00:02:32,732 [woman 1 on radio] <i> Hey, Justin.</i> 39 00:02:37,387 --> 00:02:38,629 [Justin] One last bucket. 40 00:02:39,698 --> 00:02:40,905 Here we go. 41 00:02:45,387 --> 00:02:47,663 All righty, guys. Time to shut Big Red down. 42 00:02:47,698 --> 00:02:49,422 <i>The next step is Easy Street.</i> 43 00:02:51,215 --> 00:02:53,939 [narrator] <i>Just upstream from the Keyhole Cut,</i> 44 00:02:53,974 --> 00:02:56,043 <i>Parker's crew has already stripped</i> 45 00:02:56,077 --> 00:03:00,594 <i>the 11-acre Easy Street Cut down to pay dirt,</i> 46 00:03:00,629 --> 00:03:04,525 <i>ground they hope can deliver over $1 million in gold.</i> 47 00:03:07,939 --> 00:03:10,111 We're stripping down here at the Airstrip. 48 00:03:10,146 --> 00:03:12,043 Everybody's asking, "Why are we calling it Easy Street?" 49 00:03:12,077 --> 00:03:14,422 And I think it's because it's only gonna get tougher from here. 50 00:03:16,663 --> 00:03:18,663 [narrator] <i> To mine out the new cut,</i> 51 00:03:18,698 --> 00:03:23,629 <i>Parker needs Big Red moved and running pay dirt before night shift</i> 52 00:03:23,663 --> 00:03:26,387 <i>takes over in just ten hours' time.</i> 53 00:03:29,111 --> 00:03:30,801 [Parker] Hopefully, we can nail these transitions, 54 00:03:30,836 --> 00:03:33,284 like we have so much ground to get through that, 55 00:03:33,318 --> 00:03:35,629 you know, smoothly transitioning from one pit 56 00:03:35,663 --> 00:03:38,456 to the next is going to be a critical part of this. 57 00:03:38,491 --> 00:03:40,974 And we have a lot of them to do. 58 00:03:41,008 --> 00:03:44,077 If we lose a couple of days per plant move, 59 00:03:44,111 --> 00:03:47,111 it's going to throw a wrench in the works for the whole season. 60 00:03:47,146 --> 00:03:51,836 This is going to be on Tyson getting Big Red moved from the setup it's in to... 61 00:03:51,870 --> 00:03:55,939 to the next one because he needs to get comfortable doing it on his own 62 00:03:55,974 --> 00:03:58,456 because Mitch is dealing with the stripping crew. 63 00:03:58,491 --> 00:04:02,077 [Mitch] Right now it's just Tyson over there on his own 64 00:04:02,111 --> 00:04:06,180 and, you know, we're relying on him to be able to keep that plant going. 65 00:04:07,974 --> 00:04:10,353 So we're all done with Big Red here at this setup. 66 00:04:10,387 --> 00:04:13,008 We're ready to get back sluicing with the wash plant in the cut. 67 00:04:13,043 --> 00:04:15,801 Trying to do this myself. So wish me luck. 68 00:04:19,836 --> 00:04:22,456 This is the first time I've set Big Red up by myself. 69 00:04:22,491 --> 00:04:25,974 So we just want to be careful not to flip the thing over 70 00:04:27,387 --> 00:04:30,043 so it's pretty well-concreted into the ground. 71 00:04:32,111 --> 00:04:33,387 Stand back. 72 00:04:39,629 --> 00:04:40,905 Yee-haw! 73 00:04:53,456 --> 00:04:56,077 [Tyson] So this is probably the sketchiest part of the whole pole. 74 00:04:56,111 --> 00:04:58,560 There's a narrow culvert crossing in the road 75 00:04:58,594 --> 00:05:01,767 and Big Red flips over, that's game over. 76 00:05:01,801 --> 00:05:03,284 It's looking pretty tight. 77 00:05:04,905 --> 00:05:07,836 Don't know if we're gonna make or [bleep]. 78 00:05:11,525 --> 00:05:13,008 [bleep], that was tight. 79 00:05:20,077 --> 00:05:23,905 [narrator] <i>The last step, drag the plant up a steep ramp</i> 80 00:05:23,939 --> 00:05:26,215 <i>to the top of the 30-foot high pad.</i> 81 00:05:33,663 --> 00:05:34,974 [James] It's all fluff. 82 00:05:36,905 --> 00:05:38,284 The plant's dug in. 83 00:05:38,318 --> 00:05:42,111 When you're building a wash plant pad, you need compaction. 84 00:05:42,146 --> 00:05:44,215 That's what we're fighting against right now. 85 00:05:48,353 --> 00:05:50,284 The plant's not level. 86 00:05:50,318 --> 00:05:53,732 We have to level the plant before everything else is built around it. 87 00:05:56,732 --> 00:05:58,594 I just need to, like, unbury it now. 88 00:06:00,456 --> 00:06:03,284 I mean, the plant will do its thing and it'll probably settle, 89 00:06:03,318 --> 00:06:05,905 but it's more of the sluice runs with the river flowing off 90 00:06:05,939 --> 00:06:07,629 that I'm concerned about. 91 00:06:07,663 --> 00:06:11,560 [narrator] <i>Tyson now has just six hours to get the sluices,</i> 92 00:06:11,594 --> 00:06:15,422 <i>pump and generator ready to fire up for the night shift.</i> 93 00:06:19,215 --> 00:06:20,594 [Parker] How's things looking? 94 00:06:20,629 --> 00:06:22,939 When are you firing up, tonight? 95 00:06:22,974 --> 00:06:24,077 Hopefully. 96 00:06:24,111 --> 00:06:25,698 I was hoping to just get it prepped behind-- 97 00:06:25,732 --> 00:06:27,629 I don't give a [bleep] how you do it. 98 00:06:27,663 --> 00:06:29,594 I just don't want to worry about it. 99 00:06:29,629 --> 00:06:31,146 I'm worried about stripping. 100 00:06:31,180 --> 00:06:32,836 That's why I haven't [bleep] been here. 101 00:06:32,870 --> 00:06:34,422 No, it's all good. 102 00:06:34,456 --> 00:06:35,663 You don't have to worry about it. 103 00:06:35,698 --> 00:06:36,974 - Thanks, man. - [Tyson] Thanks. 104 00:06:40,043 --> 00:06:42,180 We're dealing with an uncompacted pad, 105 00:06:42,215 --> 00:06:44,594 so we're gonna need good water distribution, 106 00:06:44,629 --> 00:06:46,905 and that involves having a chute. 107 00:06:46,939 --> 00:06:50,491 [narrator] <i>Two years ago when Tyson set up a wash plant...</i> 108 00:06:50,525 --> 00:06:52,767 [Parker] Where's all this water coming from? 109 00:06:52,801 --> 00:06:55,870 [narrator] <i>...water from the sluices undermined the pad...</i> 110 00:06:56,870 --> 00:06:58,594 [Parker] Holy crap! 111 00:06:58,629 --> 00:07:00,732 [narrator] <i>...and nearly toppled the wash plant.</i> 112 00:07:00,767 --> 00:07:03,767 - [Tyson] Holy [bleep]. - [Parker] Tyson! 113 00:07:03,801 --> 00:07:07,353 [narrator] <i>This time he plans to divert the water runoff</i> 114 00:07:07,387 --> 00:07:10,387 <i>with a 35-foot long steel chute.</i> 115 00:07:10,422 --> 00:07:12,180 [Tyson] We gotta get this trough 116 00:07:12,215 --> 00:07:13,870 and we gotta get it back up to Big Red 117 00:07:13,905 --> 00:07:16,456 because there's still hope of Big Red running tonight. 118 00:07:16,491 --> 00:07:18,870 Any day we're not sluicing means another day 119 00:07:18,905 --> 00:07:21,698 we have to sluice into October, November. 120 00:07:21,732 --> 00:07:26,974 [narrator] <i>It's a four-mile journey downstream to where they last used it.</i> 121 00:07:27,008 --> 00:07:29,525 Parker is really counting on me to get Big Red up and going, 122 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,387 so I'm gonna do my best to have it running by the end of the day. 123 00:07:33,629 --> 00:07:34,767 [Tyson] What the [bleep]. 124 00:07:35,836 --> 00:07:37,629 [bleep]. [bleep] you. 125 00:07:40,629 --> 00:07:42,939 This is the last thing I wanted to see right now. 126 00:07:42,974 --> 00:07:45,422 Our road's washed completely out. 127 00:07:45,456 --> 00:07:47,180 I'm gonna have to pack material in 128 00:07:47,215 --> 00:07:49,180 and get that water going through that culvert. 129 00:07:49,215 --> 00:07:51,870 It must have just been roaring through here. 130 00:07:51,905 --> 00:07:55,801 Move your bum. Go on. 131 00:07:55,836 --> 00:07:59,905 Last year we had this happen and man it took six, seven different pieces of equipment 132 00:07:59,939 --> 00:08:03,353 and people and damn near a whole day to rebuild this road. 133 00:08:03,387 --> 00:08:05,146 And that's time I don't have. 134 00:08:23,284 --> 00:08:25,456 [Fred] I could be in serious trouble. 135 00:08:25,491 --> 00:08:29,456 I've got fuel bills coming in and I only have so much money. 136 00:08:29,491 --> 00:08:32,008 So once that money runs out, 137 00:08:32,043 --> 00:08:35,353 if we don't have gold coming in, well, we're screwed. 138 00:08:35,387 --> 00:08:37,146 I mean, our house is up for grabs on this. 139 00:08:37,180 --> 00:08:38,974 We're walking a tightrope right now. 140 00:08:40,146 --> 00:08:42,732 [narrator] <i>Forty-six miles west of Dawson,</i> 141 00:08:42,767 --> 00:08:45,974 <i>in the wilderness of California Creek,</i> 142 00:08:46,008 --> 00:08:51,836 <i>combat veteran Fred Lewis is chasing a record 500-ounce season gold.</i> 143 00:08:51,870 --> 00:08:57,146 <i>But five weeks in, he's still not mined a single ounce.</i> 144 00:08:57,180 --> 00:08:58,939 [Fred] We're just trying to get the mindset running 145 00:08:58,974 --> 00:09:01,146 so money can start coming in instead of going out. 146 00:09:02,284 --> 00:09:03,353 We just got to keep pushing 147 00:09:03,387 --> 00:09:05,594 and get to where we need to be to start sluicing. 148 00:09:05,629 --> 00:09:09,767 [narrator] <i>The long, harsh winter has dealt Fred a crippling blow.</i> 149 00:09:11,767 --> 00:09:16,353 <i>A quarter-mile-long ice sheet still stands between him</i> 150 00:09:16,387 --> 00:09:18,663 <i>and his gold-rich pay dirt.</i> 151 00:09:18,698 --> 00:09:21,180 [Fred] This ice is really [bleep] everything. 152 00:09:21,215 --> 00:09:24,249 We're trying to uncover as much as we can and get this mine site moving. 153 00:09:26,974 --> 00:09:32,836 [narrator] <i>Last week, Fred resurrected an ancient 90-yard-an-hour wash plant.</i> 154 00:09:32,870 --> 00:09:34,111 [man 1] There it is. 155 00:09:36,215 --> 00:09:40,905 [narrator] <i> But it's useless until Fred can dig down to pay.</i> 156 00:09:40,939 --> 00:09:45,525 <i>And so far, his attempts to melt the ice have failed.</i> 157 00:09:47,180 --> 00:09:50,353 [Stuart] We are so far behind schedule at this moment in time, 158 00:09:50,387 --> 00:09:52,560 you know, that we don't have any time to wait. 159 00:09:52,594 --> 00:09:56,353 So we have to take action and take control of the creek. 160 00:09:58,180 --> 00:10:00,836 [Buzz] Hey, Fred, man. What's going on? 161 00:10:00,870 --> 00:10:03,905 - Well, this ice has got to go, man. - Yeah. 162 00:10:03,939 --> 00:10:06,008 We don't have any other way to do it, I think. 163 00:10:06,043 --> 00:10:07,629 But to go up there and, uh... 164 00:10:07,663 --> 00:10:10,525 and try and make the creek go back where it belongs somehow, 165 00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:13,180 and that should facilitate melting the ice on the right side. 166 00:10:13,215 --> 00:10:16,939 If we can't do that, we really don't have anything else to get it to go. 167 00:10:16,974 --> 00:10:19,560 - I feel like you've got the skill to do this. - Yeah. 168 00:10:19,594 --> 00:10:23,111 I think my best bet is for me to walk along the berm, 169 00:10:23,146 --> 00:10:26,387 as you're going up there and just spot it for you. 170 00:10:26,422 --> 00:10:29,353 - All we can do is try, right? - We can't sit here and wait. 171 00:10:29,387 --> 00:10:32,318 We got to try. Let's pound some of that ice out. 172 00:10:32,353 --> 00:10:35,629 - Okay. Let's do it. - You got me on the radio? 173 00:10:35,663 --> 00:10:38,077 - [Buzz] Yes, I do. All right - All right, I'll be on the bank. 174 00:10:41,905 --> 00:10:46,077 [narrator] <i>Fred's plan, create a 20-foot-long ice dam</i> 175 00:10:46,111 --> 00:10:51,836 <i>across the narrowest point of the creek to divert water</i> 176 00:10:51,870 --> 00:10:56,249 <i>onto the ice sheet to help melt the snow and ice</i> 177 00:10:56,284 --> 00:11:00,215 <i>covering the gold-rich pay dirt left over from last season.</i> 178 00:11:04,836 --> 00:11:07,767 [Fred] So we got to try. It's worth the risk. 179 00:11:07,801 --> 00:11:10,629 Hey, Buzz, this is probably the fastest running water 180 00:11:10,663 --> 00:11:13,836 - at this, uh, choke point. - Yeah. 181 00:11:15,836 --> 00:11:17,043 [Fred] It's just a little bit risky. 182 00:11:17,077 --> 00:11:20,353 If we, if we sink this 220, we're freaking done. 183 00:11:20,387 --> 00:11:25,284 Let's take our time and make sure nothing bad happens to it, right? 184 00:11:28,077 --> 00:11:30,008 [Fred] All right. Your tracks are about... 185 00:11:31,353 --> 00:11:33,491 Oh, man, you're almost submerged completely. 186 00:11:34,767 --> 00:11:36,318 It's not pushing you at all, is it? 187 00:11:38,215 --> 00:11:40,249 [Buzz] Take this corner a little bit. 188 00:11:46,698 --> 00:11:48,870 [Fred] Hey, Buzz, that ice is awful beautiful, 189 00:11:48,905 --> 00:11:51,008 but we're gonna have to kill it. 190 00:11:51,043 --> 00:11:52,698 Sounds like a good plan, man. 191 00:11:57,767 --> 00:12:02,732 [Fred] Oh! Wow! 192 00:12:02,767 --> 00:12:06,663 That's like 20,000 pounds of ice you just broke. 193 00:12:06,698 --> 00:12:10,525 Yeah! Come on now, it's massive. 194 00:12:16,111 --> 00:12:17,456 Whoo! 195 00:12:22,077 --> 00:12:23,905 Oh, yeah. There we go. 196 00:12:23,939 --> 00:12:26,249 You've got a little bit of ice that's holding. 197 00:12:26,284 --> 00:12:30,422 Doesn't look that way. Fingers crossed it works. 198 00:12:30,456 --> 00:12:32,353 [Buzz] We need to make an ice jam. 199 00:12:35,318 --> 00:12:36,525 [Fred] There we go. 200 00:12:37,698 --> 00:12:38,939 [Buzz] That's a lot of weight. 201 00:12:42,801 --> 00:12:44,456 [Fred] Wow. 202 00:12:44,491 --> 00:12:46,215 I got a pretty good ice jam here. 203 00:12:48,008 --> 00:12:50,353 [Fred] You know, you're actually getting close to the top of that ice. 204 00:12:50,387 --> 00:12:51,629 If you can get it over the top, 205 00:12:51,663 --> 00:12:53,767 that would actually melt it really well. 206 00:12:53,801 --> 00:12:55,215 [Buzz speaking] 207 00:12:56,422 --> 00:12:58,215 - [Fred] Just be really careful. - [Buzz] Mm-hmm. 208 00:13:01,318 --> 00:13:03,318 [Fred] Oh. Whoa, whoa, whoa. 209 00:13:05,801 --> 00:13:07,146 [bleep]. 210 00:13:12,525 --> 00:13:13,974 [Fred] There we go. 211 00:13:14,008 --> 00:13:16,215 [narrator] <i> At California Creek...</i> 212 00:13:16,249 --> 00:13:18,422 I got a pretty good ice jam here. 213 00:13:18,456 --> 00:13:21,249 [narrator] <i>...Fred Lewis is battling an ice sheet</i> 214 00:13:21,284 --> 00:13:23,249 <i>that's stopping him from mining.</i> 215 00:13:23,284 --> 00:13:26,767 [Fred] Just be really careful. Oh. Whoa, whoa, whoa. 216 00:13:29,422 --> 00:13:30,801 [bleep]. 217 00:13:33,629 --> 00:13:35,663 So there goes the ice dam. 218 00:13:35,698 --> 00:13:37,043 [Buzz] That's not feasible. 219 00:13:37,077 --> 00:13:40,215 We're gonna have to figure something else out because... 220 00:13:43,318 --> 00:13:46,732 this is definitely not going to work. 221 00:13:46,767 --> 00:13:49,249 [bleep], dude. We don't have a backup plan. 222 00:13:49,284 --> 00:13:50,663 That means we got nothing. 223 00:13:50,698 --> 00:13:51,939 Is that what you're telling me? 224 00:13:53,284 --> 00:13:54,767 Right at this point in time. 225 00:13:57,594 --> 00:13:59,215 [Fred speaking] 226 00:14:03,870 --> 00:14:06,387 [narrator] <i> If the cold spring continues,</i> 227 00:14:06,422 --> 00:14:08,939 <i>the ice may never fully melt.</i> 228 00:14:08,974 --> 00:14:12,560 <i>Destroying Fred's dream of a successful season.</i> 229 00:14:14,767 --> 00:14:16,387 [Stuart] Hey, man. 230 00:14:16,422 --> 00:14:18,284 [Fred] I don't have anything else to throw at this. 231 00:14:18,318 --> 00:14:21,077 [Stuart] I know. Sorry. Well, but it's one of those things. 232 00:14:21,111 --> 00:14:23,077 We're not gonna go home, we're not gonna quit. 233 00:14:23,111 --> 00:14:24,422 [Fred] I'm gonna run out of money. 234 00:14:25,767 --> 00:14:27,732 It's a possibility, but it's also a possibility 235 00:14:27,767 --> 00:14:31,353 that we're gonna hit the motherlode and walk out here, [bleep], 236 00:14:31,387 --> 00:14:33,525 be able to go back and buy Bentleys. You know what I'm thinking? 237 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:35,215 [Fred] And usually that is all I'm thinking about. 238 00:14:35,249 --> 00:14:38,594 But lately it just seems like, just some puppet... 239 00:14:38,629 --> 00:14:41,525 puppeteer pulling my strings and making [bleep] go wrong. 240 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:42,801 And it's like, how much can you take? 241 00:14:42,836 --> 00:14:43,905 How much can you take? 242 00:14:43,939 --> 00:14:45,491 And I just want to cut the [bleep] string. 243 00:14:45,525 --> 00:14:47,663 Yeah. I'm just at the end of my rope, man. 244 00:15:01,111 --> 00:15:03,905 [Tony speaking] 245 00:15:09,629 --> 00:15:11,974 [narrator] <i> King of the Klondike, Tony Beets,</i> 246 00:15:12,008 --> 00:15:14,732 <i>is digging deeper than ever before,</i> 247 00:15:14,767 --> 00:15:18,249 <i>opening up two monster cuts in the hunt</i> 248 00:15:18,284 --> 00:15:23,146 <i>for Paradise Hill's gold-rich White Channel pay streak.</i> 249 00:15:23,180 --> 00:15:26,663 [Tony speaking] 250 00:15:35,801 --> 00:15:37,318 [narrator] <i> But after five weeks</i> 251 00:15:37,353 --> 00:15:40,456 <i>fighting deep frozen ground in both cuts,</i> 252 00:15:40,491 --> 00:15:44,180 <i>Tony's banked less than 500 ounces,</i> 253 00:15:44,215 --> 00:15:47,836 <i>way short of the 200 ounces a week he needs.</i> 254 00:15:49,353 --> 00:15:51,801 [Mike] I'm gonna be ripping in here for a good chunk of the day, 255 00:15:51,836 --> 00:15:53,732 probably a good chunk of tomorrow, 256 00:15:53,767 --> 00:15:56,836 because it's frozen pay is just pain in the ass. 257 00:15:56,870 --> 00:15:59,146 [narrator] <i>Tony's charged youngest son, Mike,</i> 258 00:15:59,180 --> 00:16:02,560 <i>with managing the cuts and bringing in the gold.</i> 259 00:16:02,594 --> 00:16:05,353 [Tony speaking] 260 00:16:17,077 --> 00:16:19,801 [narrator] <i>Mike has already opened up nearly two-thirds</i> 261 00:16:19,836 --> 00:16:25,905 <i>of the nine-acre Cold Cut where he faces a 60-foot deep frozen pay lay.</i> 262 00:16:28,422 --> 00:16:33,180 <i>Now in the six-acre Blue Cut, he's ripping permafrost</i> 263 00:16:33,215 --> 00:16:37,180 <i>with a D11 dozer to expose it to sunlight.</i> 264 00:16:37,215 --> 00:16:42,629 <i>If it doesn't defrost in time, the stockpile of thawed pay dirt will run out,</i> 265 00:16:42,663 --> 00:16:44,663 <i>forcing them to shut down.</i> 266 00:16:46,422 --> 00:16:47,974 [Mike] Getting this all ripped up. 267 00:16:48,008 --> 00:16:52,180 Let's hope it all thaws out and we have a lot of pay ready to sluice then. 268 00:16:54,422 --> 00:16:55,594 [narrator] <i> The only other machine</i> 269 00:16:55,629 --> 00:16:57,905 in Tony's arsenal powerful enough 270 00:16:57,939 --> 00:17:05,146 <i>to dig through frozen pay, the $1.1 million 950 excavator.</i> 271 00:17:05,180 --> 00:17:07,974 With the 950 being one of the biggest earth movers 272 00:17:08,008 --> 00:17:10,629 and the biggest one Tony has, it's... 273 00:17:10,663 --> 00:17:13,215 it definitely is a lot of pressure. 274 00:17:13,249 --> 00:17:15,560 And I don't want to break it or break something with it 275 00:17:15,594 --> 00:17:19,043 because it'd be a lot of downtime. 276 00:17:19,077 --> 00:17:23,077 [narrator] <i> Mike's tasked James Rhyno, a Beet's crew veteran,</i> 277 00:17:23,111 --> 00:17:26,801 <i>with digging out the pay dirt to thaw at the pay pile.</i> 278 00:17:26,836 --> 00:17:29,146 It's pretty frosty in here this morning. 279 00:17:29,180 --> 00:17:32,284 Um, a lot of frozen ground in here. 280 00:17:35,732 --> 00:17:37,491 Driving me [bleep] crazy. 281 00:17:39,146 --> 00:17:40,594 It'd be nice to get a full bucket. 282 00:17:45,836 --> 00:17:47,629 [bleep], this ground is hard. 283 00:17:51,836 --> 00:17:54,629 Holy. Hey, Tony. You copy? 284 00:17:56,043 --> 00:17:57,836 [Tony speaking] 285 00:17:57,870 --> 00:17:59,767 Yeah. This ground is really hard. 286 00:17:59,801 --> 00:18:02,180 Um, can we come up with another plan? 287 00:18:02,215 --> 00:18:05,767 [Tony speaking] 288 00:18:05,801 --> 00:18:06,939 Okay. 289 00:18:09,180 --> 00:18:12,525 [Tony speaking] 290 00:18:21,318 --> 00:18:25,974 [narrator] <i>Tony's plan, remove the 950's 28-foot boom</i> 291 00:18:26,008 --> 00:18:28,870 <i>and replace it with a 24-foot boom.</i> 292 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:35,663 <i>The shorter arm will generate more force and concentrate digging power.</i> 293 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:39,525 We already took the stick and bucket off. 294 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,456 Now we're gonna pull the main boom pin out. 295 00:18:41,491 --> 00:18:46,146 [narrator] <i> In charge of the swap, mechanic, Sam Aftanas.</i> 296 00:18:46,180 --> 00:18:48,111 [Sam] [bleep] sakes. In the pin 297 00:18:48,146 --> 00:18:51,180 stock in here it's just being up [bleep]. 298 00:18:55,456 --> 00:18:56,974 [Tony speaking] 299 00:18:57,008 --> 00:19:01,146 [Sam] So I foresee pulling that pin out is going to be a pain in the ass. 300 00:19:01,180 --> 00:19:02,629 [Tony speaking] 301 00:19:02,663 --> 00:19:04,629 [Sam] Me. 302 00:19:04,663 --> 00:19:05,698 [Tony speaking] 303 00:19:05,732 --> 00:19:06,801 [James] Yeah. 304 00:19:06,836 --> 00:19:08,905 [Tony speaking] 305 00:19:12,111 --> 00:19:13,180 [James] Run around them? 306 00:19:13,215 --> 00:19:14,801 [Tony speaking] 307 00:19:21,870 --> 00:19:23,801 [James] It's not going to work with the slip hook, is it? 308 00:19:23,836 --> 00:19:27,146 [Tony speaking] 309 00:19:33,215 --> 00:19:37,422 [James] Fifty-four and a half. And that is five. 310 00:19:37,456 --> 00:19:39,905 [Sam] I'm hoping that pin doesn't jump out of there 311 00:19:39,939 --> 00:19:41,008 Frig. 312 00:19:41,043 --> 00:19:43,870 [Tony speaking] 313 00:19:43,905 --> 00:19:45,249 [Sam] Okay. 314 00:19:45,284 --> 00:19:46,732 [Tony speaking] 315 00:19:49,939 --> 00:19:51,353 [Sam] Oh. 316 00:20:00,146 --> 00:20:01,594 [bleep], that's sweet. 317 00:20:01,629 --> 00:20:03,525 [Tony speaking] 318 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:04,698 [Sam] Yeah, I do. 319 00:20:04,732 --> 00:20:05,905 [Tony speaking] 320 00:20:05,939 --> 00:20:06,974 [Sam] Yeah. 321 00:20:07,008 --> 00:20:09,215 [Tony speaking] 322 00:20:16,732 --> 00:20:20,043 [Tony speaking] 323 00:20:34,594 --> 00:20:37,111 [Tony speaking] 324 00:20:37,146 --> 00:20:38,215 Whoa. 325 00:20:38,249 --> 00:20:39,732 [Sam] Put some good pressure on it. 326 00:20:41,353 --> 00:20:45,870 [Tony speaking] 327 00:20:50,215 --> 00:20:54,077 [Tony speaking] 328 00:21:09,077 --> 00:21:10,767 [Sam] Okay. Yeah. 329 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:17,456 [Tony speaking] 330 00:21:19,215 --> 00:21:21,422 [Sam] Takes over when it's easy. 331 00:21:24,698 --> 00:21:26,594 All right, we're in the other side. 332 00:21:26,629 --> 00:21:28,491 [Tony speaking] 333 00:21:28,525 --> 00:21:30,318 - [James] That went really well. - [Sam] [bleep] yeah. 334 00:21:30,353 --> 00:21:31,456 [Tony speaking] 335 00:21:31,491 --> 00:21:32,594 [James] That was pretty slick. 336 00:21:32,629 --> 00:21:34,767 Good job. Whoo! 337 00:21:36,594 --> 00:21:41,146 [Tony speaking] 338 00:21:47,180 --> 00:21:50,180 I was just explaining to the boys if they ever wonder why I like working with you. 339 00:21:50,215 --> 00:21:51,732 He might be a gruff old [bleep], 340 00:21:51,767 --> 00:21:53,353 but [bleep] he knows what he's doing. 341 00:21:53,387 --> 00:21:54,629 [Sam] Yeah. 342 00:21:54,663 --> 00:21:57,043 [Tony speaking] 343 00:21:57,077 --> 00:21:58,456 [Mike] Oh, [bleep] yeah. 344 00:21:58,491 --> 00:22:00,318 Should be able to start getting full [bleep] buckets for a while. 345 00:22:00,353 --> 00:22:02,905 [Tony speaking] 346 00:22:02,939 --> 00:22:05,560 [narrator] <i>With the 950 back in the Blue Cut...</i> 347 00:22:05,594 --> 00:22:08,732 [James] My old girl, I gotta get her back in the dirt. 348 00:22:08,767 --> 00:22:11,180 [narrator] <i>...it should tear through the concrete,</i> 349 00:22:11,215 --> 00:22:15,594 hard frozen ground and keep the trommel fed with thawed pay dirt. 350 00:22:24,043 --> 00:22:25,146 Holy [bleep]. 351 00:22:25,180 --> 00:22:27,698 It does do a lot better than that long boom. 352 00:22:27,732 --> 00:22:29,594 Just tears through that frost. 353 00:22:33,767 --> 00:22:36,456 Nice, full scoops. 354 00:22:36,491 --> 00:22:39,249 It actually picks the bucket up. That is a nice change. 355 00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:42,353 It's gonna be a little bit different getting used 356 00:22:42,387 --> 00:22:43,698 to having trucks closer to you, 357 00:22:43,732 --> 00:22:45,353 'cause you're gonna have to keep them nice 358 00:22:45,387 --> 00:22:46,698 and tight to be able to reach them. 359 00:22:46,732 --> 00:22:49,387 But I like the way it digs. 360 00:22:49,422 --> 00:22:52,215 We're gonna have a lot better time keeping up with trucks 361 00:22:52,249 --> 00:22:54,318 and moving a lot more dirt with this thing. 362 00:23:09,491 --> 00:23:13,939 I'm getting a bit stressed out because we're so spread out. 363 00:23:13,974 --> 00:23:17,111 - [Mitch on radio] <i>Yeah.</i> - And this is so much to do. 364 00:23:17,146 --> 00:23:20,491 [narrator] <i>At the Airstrip, Parker is racing to mine out</i> 365 00:23:20,525 --> 00:23:24,422 <i>90 acres of ground in just one season.</i> 366 00:23:24,456 --> 00:23:26,387 With this water license expiring 367 00:23:26,422 --> 00:23:27,767 and so much ground to get through, 368 00:23:27,801 --> 00:23:29,801 we're having to really just plow hard 369 00:23:29,836 --> 00:23:33,215 into getting everything as opened up as we can. 370 00:23:33,249 --> 00:23:35,836 You know, we don't have another season after this with the water license, 371 00:23:35,870 --> 00:23:37,767 so everything has to be sluiced. 372 00:23:37,801 --> 00:23:41,560 [narrator] <i>Parker has nearly all his crew focused on stripping,</i> 373 00:23:41,594 --> 00:23:45,698 <i>leaving plant boss Tyson Lee on his own to get Big Red</i> 374 00:23:45,732 --> 00:23:49,870 <i>running before night shift takes over in three hours' time.</i> 375 00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,146 You know, we're just so strung out on guys this year 376 00:23:54,180 --> 00:23:59,318 that no one's had time to come down here and see how the roads are. 377 00:23:59,353 --> 00:24:04,215 [narrator] <i>He needs to collect a metal chute to shore up Big Red's pad,</i> 378 00:24:04,249 --> 00:24:08,456 <i>but a blown-out road has now put him behind the eight ball.</i> 379 00:24:08,491 --> 00:24:10,318 [Tyson] If these roads weren't washed out, 380 00:24:10,353 --> 00:24:12,215 Big Red would be running right now. 381 00:24:13,284 --> 00:24:15,387 This is the last scoop here. 382 00:24:15,422 --> 00:24:17,870 Is the quick bush fix good enough to get our chute? 383 00:24:17,905 --> 00:24:20,974 And hopefully, I'll come back in time and the road's still here. 384 00:24:23,836 --> 00:24:26,663 And here we are, finally at our chute. 385 00:24:26,698 --> 00:24:29,318 This thing looks like something you'd find in a scrapyard, 386 00:24:29,353 --> 00:24:33,767 but it definitely makes everything go that much smoother. 387 00:24:36,146 --> 00:24:40,905 Found our chute, and we just gotta get it upstream. 388 00:24:40,939 --> 00:24:42,387 Let's go. 389 00:24:46,491 --> 00:24:47,767 This chute's pretty wide. 390 00:24:47,801 --> 00:24:50,801 It's got to be damn near 35 feet long. 391 00:24:50,836 --> 00:24:54,939 So just having to dodge my way around trees and hills 392 00:24:56,249 --> 00:24:57,525 and don't want to catch it on an edge 393 00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,215 and have it fall out of the bucket. 394 00:24:59,249 --> 00:25:01,629 I am going very slowly through this. 395 00:25:03,146 --> 00:25:04,353 Oh... 396 00:25:05,353 --> 00:25:06,870 [bleep]. 397 00:25:11,353 --> 00:25:16,180 Here we are, at Big Red, last piece of the puzzle can be put in place. 398 00:25:27,456 --> 00:25:29,698 We just got to get this bank armored up. 399 00:25:29,732 --> 00:25:32,732 There is two metric [bleep] tons of water 400 00:25:32,767 --> 00:25:34,974 going to be flowing over these sluice runs, 401 00:25:35,008 --> 00:25:37,180 and it's metric [bleep] ton. 402 00:25:37,215 --> 00:25:40,215 It is a scientific term in the Redneck Book of Math. 403 00:25:45,870 --> 00:25:48,043 Hey, you know, Big Red's all set to go. 404 00:25:51,215 --> 00:25:53,215 First scoop of Easy Street going in. 405 00:25:53,249 --> 00:25:55,663 [Justin on radio] <i> All right, boy. Show time. Let's go.</i> 406 00:25:55,698 --> 00:25:57,318 Let's do it. 407 00:26:10,698 --> 00:26:14,249 You know, I'm really happy I can find the diverter trough and get it up here, 408 00:26:14,284 --> 00:26:17,387 because as you can tell, it's really saving our ass right now. 409 00:26:36,318 --> 00:26:39,353 I just came down here to take a look at Big Red and see how she's running. 410 00:26:49,870 --> 00:26:51,939 I see Mitch is up here doing his rounds, 411 00:26:51,974 --> 00:26:54,767 so I want to see what he thinks of my setup. 412 00:26:56,077 --> 00:26:58,180 - What's happening? - [Tyson] How's it going? 413 00:27:01,870 --> 00:27:03,180 It's looking really good. 414 00:27:05,043 --> 00:27:07,698 - [Tyson] How's our bank doing? - The bank's holding up nice. 415 00:27:07,732 --> 00:27:10,629 - Looks good. Good job, man. - Thanks, Mitch. 416 00:27:10,663 --> 00:27:13,491 [narrator] <i> Big Red is back on the gold.</i> 417 00:27:13,525 --> 00:27:18,043 <i>The race is on to mine out the Airstrip before the end of the season.</i> 418 00:27:26,801 --> 00:27:29,698 [Tony speaking] 419 00:27:35,663 --> 00:27:39,111 [narrator] <i>Tony's running 300 yards an hour of white channel</i> 420 00:27:39,146 --> 00:27:41,215 <i>pay dirt through his trommel.</i> 421 00:27:41,249 --> 00:27:42,801 <i>To keep it fed.</i> 422 00:27:42,836 --> 00:27:47,974 <i>It needs a constant flow of thawed pay dirt from the two monster cuts.</i> 423 00:27:48,008 --> 00:27:50,180 [Mike] We're running out of good thawed pay right now. 424 00:27:51,594 --> 00:27:54,111 It's this damn dozer [bleep] loading trucks like crazy, man. 425 00:27:54,146 --> 00:27:55,698 They're tearing up that dirt. 426 00:27:58,456 --> 00:28:01,801 [narrator] <i>In the Cold Cut, Ruby Mahoney is taking her</i> 427 00:28:01,836 --> 00:28:04,146 <i>first turn in the 950 excavator...</i> 428 00:28:05,318 --> 00:28:06,732 <i>A lot shorter eh?</i> 429 00:28:06,767 --> 00:28:08,318 It's so weird! 430 00:28:08,353 --> 00:28:09,974 [narrator] <i> ...with its new short boom.</i> 431 00:28:11,180 --> 00:28:14,767 [Ruby] We have a new boom from the 950. 432 00:28:14,801 --> 00:28:18,077 It's about five feet shorter than the one we had before. 433 00:28:18,111 --> 00:28:20,284 And it'll be a little bit more faster 434 00:28:20,318 --> 00:28:23,180 and a little bit more powerful what it should be. 435 00:28:28,974 --> 00:28:32,146 I don't mind driving rock truck every once in a while. 436 00:28:32,180 --> 00:28:35,180 [narrator] <i>Tony's nephew, known as Cousin Mike,</i> 437 00:28:35,215 --> 00:28:39,974 <i>is in a relationship with Ruby, who's loading his rock truck.</i> 438 00:28:40,008 --> 00:28:42,043 When I do it for too long, it gets boring, 439 00:28:42,077 --> 00:28:45,422 but I get to work with Ruby, which is nice. 440 00:28:45,456 --> 00:28:49,422 Sometimes, you just want to hang out with your girlfriend. 441 00:28:49,456 --> 00:28:54,525 [Ruby] It definitely helps that I have somebody to go home 442 00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:56,249 to at the end of the day 443 00:28:56,284 --> 00:29:01,284 that understands everything that we go through throughout the day. 444 00:29:02,663 --> 00:29:05,870 So I came to the Yukon, to mine for gold, 445 00:29:05,905 --> 00:29:08,663 and, um, I ended up finding a diamond. 446 00:29:11,939 --> 00:29:16,801 [Michael on radio] <i> So, Ruby, you have to drive forward a little bit.</i> 447 00:29:16,836 --> 00:29:19,043 [Ruby] What are we trying to accomplish here, babe? 448 00:29:20,146 --> 00:29:22,043 [Michael on radio] <i> Sorry. What was that?</i> 449 00:29:23,318 --> 00:29:25,318 Oh, [bleep]. What was that? 450 00:29:25,353 --> 00:29:27,422 [Ruby] What the [bleep]. 451 00:29:33,008 --> 00:29:34,663 Are you okay? 452 00:29:34,698 --> 00:29:37,629 [Ruby] I'm fine. I just [bleep] clipped the corner of your [bleep] truck, though. 453 00:29:37,663 --> 00:29:39,387 [Michael] Oh [bleep]. 454 00:29:39,422 --> 00:29:40,870 It doesn't look good. 455 00:29:51,077 --> 00:29:53,836 [Ruby] What are we trying to accomplish here babe? 456 00:29:53,870 --> 00:29:55,594 [Michael] <i>Sorry. What was that?</i> 457 00:29:55,629 --> 00:29:56,905 [machine crashing] 458 00:29:56,939 --> 00:29:59,111 Oh [bleep]. What was that? 459 00:29:59,146 --> 00:30:00,870 [Ruby] What the [bleep]? 460 00:30:03,249 --> 00:30:06,146 [narrator] <i>Battling to dig up frozen pay.</i> 461 00:30:06,180 --> 00:30:11,353 Ruby has crashed Tony Beets 950 excavator into a rock truck. 462 00:30:13,456 --> 00:30:15,353 [Ruby] Kevin, do you copy? Kevin? 463 00:30:15,387 --> 00:30:17,525 [Kevin] <i>Yes, Ruby. Can I help you?</i> 464 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:19,732 [Ruby] I [bleep]. 465 00:30:19,767 --> 00:30:24,043 <i>The end of my excavator clipped the corner of the rock truck,</i> 466 00:30:24,077 --> 00:30:27,146 <i>and unfortunately, I bent</i>[bleep] <i> out of the door,</i> 467 00:30:27,180 --> 00:30:29,974 <i>and I feel absolutely horrible about it.</i> 468 00:30:39,905 --> 00:30:41,215 [Kevin] No. 469 00:30:43,353 --> 00:30:45,525 So yeah she kind of [bleep]. 470 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:47,077 [narrator] <i> Back at the wash plant.</i> 471 00:30:47,111 --> 00:30:49,732 <i>The stockpile is shrinking fast.</i> 472 00:30:49,767 --> 00:30:53,111 <i>If Kevin can't get the 950 back in action,</i> 473 00:30:53,146 --> 00:30:58,353 <i>Tony could be forced to shut down, costing $3,000 an hour.</i> 474 00:30:58,387 --> 00:30:59,870 [Kevin] There we go. 475 00:31:02,836 --> 00:31:04,767 The doors in my [bleep] way. 476 00:31:04,801 --> 00:31:05,836 Meaning? 477 00:31:05,870 --> 00:31:07,111 The door's got to [bleep] go. 478 00:31:12,111 --> 00:31:13,732 That should be attached. 479 00:31:13,767 --> 00:31:16,698 Also, that should also be attached. 480 00:31:17,974 --> 00:31:19,180 It hit here. 481 00:31:19,215 --> 00:31:20,939 You can see where the paint has come off, 482 00:31:20,974 --> 00:31:22,732 causing this piece here to [bumping sound] 483 00:31:22,767 --> 00:31:25,180 Snapping all four bolts off cleanly. 484 00:31:25,215 --> 00:31:28,629 [narrator] <i>Ruby's crash has sheared off the bolts,</i> 485 00:31:28,663 --> 00:31:30,974 <i>holding the hydraulic valve body</i> 486 00:31:31,008 --> 00:31:36,594 <i>that controls all the hydraulics on the $1.1 million machine.</i> 487 00:31:36,629 --> 00:31:38,663 [Kevin] <i>Hydraulics is what drives the entire machine.</i> 488 00:31:38,698 --> 00:31:40,387 Without the hydraulic system being sealed, 489 00:31:40,422 --> 00:31:43,698 you can't fire it up in any capacity to move it or anything. 490 00:31:45,318 --> 00:31:47,249 For [bleep]. 491 00:31:47,284 --> 00:31:49,318 It is one of our biggest excavators. 492 00:31:49,353 --> 00:31:52,077 It is always important to have it [bleep] fixed. 493 00:31:52,111 --> 00:31:54,560 We don't have time for any of this downtime or [bleep]. 494 00:31:55,732 --> 00:31:57,870 [Tony speaking] 495 00:31:57,905 --> 00:31:59,732 [Kevin] This unit that I pulled off here, 496 00:31:59,767 --> 00:32:02,629 bolts are sheared off entirely. 497 00:32:02,663 --> 00:32:05,698 We got the right bolts, but longer. 498 00:32:05,732 --> 00:32:09,456 Now, we're gonna see if I'm able to modify these ones enough 499 00:32:09,491 --> 00:32:11,629 to make them work till we get the proper ones. 500 00:32:11,663 --> 00:32:13,353 [Tony speaking] 501 00:32:13,387 --> 00:32:15,146 And I know we have bolts on order, 502 00:32:15,180 --> 00:32:20,111 but we need the 950 back in production ASA [bleep] P. 503 00:32:20,146 --> 00:32:23,939 So I'll make something that'll work. 504 00:32:23,974 --> 00:32:27,629 [narrator] <i>Kevin's bush fix cut half an inch off the bolts</i> 505 00:32:27,663 --> 00:32:32,663 <i>and hope they still secure the valve body in place.</i> 506 00:32:32,698 --> 00:32:35,318 [Kevin] Essentially, it needs to be about half an inch shorter. 507 00:32:39,215 --> 00:32:41,215 That turned out pretty well. 508 00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:45,801 So. 509 00:32:50,318 --> 00:32:52,663 Yeah. Perfect for laughing. 510 00:32:52,698 --> 00:32:54,939 This is the last bolt. 511 00:32:54,974 --> 00:32:56,422 And it's just hooking up the hoses. 512 00:32:56,456 --> 00:32:59,180 And then she's [bleep] done. 513 00:32:59,215 --> 00:33:01,594 Time to fire it up. 514 00:33:01,629 --> 00:33:03,422 [engine revving] 515 00:33:08,663 --> 00:33:11,215 Doesn't look like anything's leaking. 516 00:33:11,249 --> 00:33:12,525 It's good to go back to work. 517 00:33:13,905 --> 00:33:15,974 [narrator] <i> The 950 back running.</i> 518 00:33:16,008 --> 00:33:18,318 <i>Ruby can get back to digging pay</i> 519 00:33:18,353 --> 00:33:21,284 <i>before the pay pile runs out at the trommel.</i> 520 00:33:21,318 --> 00:33:23,146 [Tony speaking] 521 00:33:37,801 --> 00:33:40,215 [Ruby] <i>I've worked for Tony for six years,</i> 522 00:33:40,249 --> 00:33:44,422 and this is my first big mistake. 523 00:33:44,456 --> 00:33:47,077 <i>You know, I try to do the best of my ability</i> 524 00:33:47,111 --> 00:33:52,111 <i>and try to pay as good as attention to everything as I can.</i> 525 00:33:52,146 --> 00:33:55,698 Probably gonna be overly cautious for the next little while. 526 00:34:08,698 --> 00:34:11,215 So right now I'm trying to break up some ice to get the creek 527 00:34:11,249 --> 00:34:13,180 diverted back to where it needs to be going. 528 00:34:14,422 --> 00:34:17,215 [narrator] <i> At California Creek, Fred Lewis's crew</i> 529 00:34:17,249 --> 00:34:20,801 <i>is still battling the quarter-mile long ice sheet</i> 530 00:34:20,836 --> 00:34:24,663 <i>that has frozen them out from mining gold.</i> 531 00:34:24,698 --> 00:34:27,284 [Christopher] <i>We're trying to get down to dirt to pull gold from,</i> 532 00:34:27,318 --> 00:34:30,525 but the ice is stopping us from getting what we need to get done. 533 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,560 [narrator] <i>Leading the charge in the 220 excavator,</i> 534 00:34:33,594 --> 00:34:36,594 <i>Fred stepson Christopher Parker.</i> 535 00:34:36,629 --> 00:34:38,663 [Christopher] <i> Once I'm done breaking up some of this ice,</i> 536 00:34:38,698 --> 00:34:40,422 <i>I can start fixing</i>[bleep]. 537 00:34:45,456 --> 00:34:48,387 Whoa! Holy [bleep]. What is that? 538 00:34:48,422 --> 00:34:51,249 It's what I think it is. 539 00:34:51,284 --> 00:34:53,870 Yo, Freddy, you need to come check this [bleep] out real quick, man. 540 00:34:57,767 --> 00:34:59,422 [Fred] What's up? 541 00:34:59,456 --> 00:35:01,456 [Christopher] Look where my bucket is. 542 00:35:01,491 --> 00:35:03,456 [Fred] What am I looking at? 543 00:35:03,491 --> 00:35:05,077 Let me go, look. 544 00:35:09,249 --> 00:35:10,491 Oh, wow. 545 00:35:12,146 --> 00:35:14,698 Quartz, quartz, quartz, quartz, quartz. 546 00:35:14,732 --> 00:35:15,939 Look, look. 547 00:35:15,974 --> 00:35:17,180 It's a vein. 548 00:35:17,215 --> 00:35:18,698 Wow. 549 00:35:18,732 --> 00:35:21,491 Give me your headset. We're gonna get Buzz over here, like, right now. 550 00:35:21,525 --> 00:35:23,008 Buzz, Buzz, this is Fred. 551 00:35:23,043 --> 00:35:24,905 I need you to come to the 220 ASAP. 552 00:35:24,939 --> 00:35:28,663 It looks like we may have found a quartz vein. 553 00:35:28,698 --> 00:35:33,767 [narrator] <i>A quartz vein indicates gold deposits could be close by.</i> 554 00:35:33,801 --> 00:35:35,525 [Fred] This is a big ass quartz vein. 555 00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:38,629 I don't know how big it is, but it goes all the way, at least to here. 556 00:35:38,663 --> 00:35:41,146 [Buzz] Yeah. It looks [bleep] good, man. 557 00:35:41,180 --> 00:35:43,525 [Fred] But look, it's also got a lot of iron in it. 558 00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:44,698 [Buzz] Yeah. 559 00:35:44,732 --> 00:35:46,353 [Fred] All that brown. All that iron. 560 00:35:46,387 --> 00:35:49,732 So that means there's a lot of heat that forced this up. 561 00:35:49,767 --> 00:35:51,525 [narrator] <i> Millions of years ago,</i> 562 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:55,249 <i>Magma containing gold forced its way up through faults</i> 563 00:35:55,284 --> 00:35:56,767 <i>in the earth's crust.</i> 564 00:35:58,215 --> 00:36:02,491 <i>It cooled and crystallized into veins of quartz and gold.</i> 565 00:36:03,594 --> 00:36:07,249 <i>If Fred's small quartz vein is gold-rich,</i> 566 00:36:07,284 --> 00:36:12,008 <i>it could mean he's on track for a big payday.</i> 567 00:36:12,043 --> 00:36:17,974 <i>And possibly even lead him to find the motherlode at California Creek.</i> 568 00:36:18,008 --> 00:36:19,939 [Fred] It doesn't look like it continues much more here. 569 00:36:19,974 --> 00:36:23,249 - It might go underneath, but it's going that way. - [Buzz] Yeah. 570 00:36:23,284 --> 00:36:25,353 [Fred] Right with this bedrock. 571 00:36:25,387 --> 00:36:27,387 What do you think, Buzz? 572 00:36:27,422 --> 00:36:29,801 We'll cut and try to pulverize some of it [bleep]. 573 00:36:29,836 --> 00:36:31,215 See what's in it. 574 00:36:31,249 --> 00:36:32,870 Do some science. 575 00:36:32,905 --> 00:36:34,525 All right, check it out. 576 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:36,767 [Fred] You and Chris wanna gather up some rock? 577 00:36:36,801 --> 00:36:38,629 Put it in his bucket. 578 00:36:38,663 --> 00:36:41,043 Good find. Hey, really good find. 579 00:36:46,836 --> 00:36:49,077 Hey, Buzz, where do you want me to take all this? 580 00:36:49,111 --> 00:36:50,698 Yeah, it's a pretty good sample there. 581 00:36:50,732 --> 00:36:51,905 Let's take that on up. 582 00:36:51,939 --> 00:36:54,077 Bring it to the Gold Room. 583 00:36:54,111 --> 00:36:55,284 Roger that. 584 00:36:57,629 --> 00:36:59,663 We're gonna accurately pull out gold. 585 00:36:59,698 --> 00:37:01,456 We don't just mine the entire creek. 586 00:37:01,491 --> 00:37:03,387 We use these signs to get us to it. 587 00:37:07,008 --> 00:37:09,663 [narrator] <i>To see if the quartz is rich in gold.</i> 588 00:37:09,698 --> 00:37:10,870 All right. Safety first. 589 00:37:10,905 --> 00:37:14,560 [narrator] <i>Fred plans to pulverize the hard rock</i> 590 00:37:14,594 --> 00:37:18,284 <i>with five-pound solid steel ball bearings.</i> 591 00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:21,387 We're gonna break up just about anything. 592 00:37:24,353 --> 00:37:26,456 - All right. You guys ready? - [Buzz] Sure. 593 00:37:26,491 --> 00:37:28,043 See how loud this is gonna be? 594 00:37:32,836 --> 00:37:34,422 [Fred speaking] 595 00:37:39,767 --> 00:37:42,318 All right, if we crush that up and there's not a worthless pile of rock 596 00:37:42,353 --> 00:37:44,387 and there's even a speck of gold, 597 00:37:44,422 --> 00:37:46,767 the pay could have a hell of a lot of gold in it. 598 00:37:54,284 --> 00:37:56,663 [Brandon] <i>We're dead in the water, so we ain't making any money.</i> 599 00:37:56,698 --> 00:37:59,422 We got a call from our good friend back home, 600 00:37:59,456 --> 00:38:03,146 and he says he needs help and he's willing to pay us cash. 601 00:38:03,180 --> 00:38:05,939 [narrator] <i> With very little money to mine,</i> 602 00:38:05,974 --> 00:38:09,422 <i>the Clayton brothers are looking for a quick cash injection.</i> 603 00:38:09,456 --> 00:38:10,767 Hi, how are you? 604 00:38:12,284 --> 00:38:14,663 - We're here to give you a hand today. - That's awesome. 605 00:38:14,698 --> 00:38:16,491 We might as well come, make money, work for yous. 606 00:38:16,525 --> 00:38:17,767 Not if I [bleep] pay you. 607 00:38:17,801 --> 00:38:18,905 [Matt] Yeah. 608 00:38:20,111 --> 00:38:21,456 [narrator] <i>Today's job.</i> 609 00:38:21,491 --> 00:38:24,905 <i>Install a new boom on a neighbor's excavator.</i> 610 00:38:24,939 --> 00:38:27,215 Does this come with limited warranty? 611 00:38:27,249 --> 00:38:29,111 Yeah. Yeah, as soon as you lift it. 612 00:38:30,594 --> 00:38:32,560 All right. Go ahead and everybody's clear. 613 00:38:38,836 --> 00:38:40,422 No! 614 00:38:43,422 --> 00:38:44,594 [Al] That's not cool. 615 00:38:46,215 --> 00:38:47,870 [man 1] Yeah. I'd lift up now. 616 00:38:49,111 --> 00:38:50,939 - [Matt] Look Square. Hey. - [man 1] Yeah. 617 00:38:50,974 --> 00:38:52,215 [Matt] Try it. 618 00:38:52,249 --> 00:38:53,594 [man 1] Okay. 619 00:38:53,629 --> 00:38:55,801 Put constant pressure on this pin. 620 00:38:55,836 --> 00:38:57,491 - [Matt] There we go. - [man 2] [bleep] yeah. 621 00:38:57,525 --> 00:38:59,836 [Matt] Okay, we got it. 622 00:38:59,870 --> 00:39:01,180 Nailed it. 623 00:39:01,215 --> 00:39:03,077 Just got the boom together. 624 00:39:03,111 --> 00:39:04,560 She's all done. 625 00:39:04,594 --> 00:39:06,870 Well, I guess I've got to give you a little money now. 626 00:39:06,905 --> 00:39:08,008 I [bleep] hate to. 627 00:39:08,043 --> 00:39:09,525 - [Matt] Oh, wow. - [Al] Here you go, Matt. 628 00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:11,525 - [Matt] Thank you, Al. - [Al] Thank you. 629 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:13,111 [Matt] I appreciate it. See ya. 630 00:39:13,146 --> 00:39:14,629 He paid us three grand. 631 00:39:14,663 --> 00:39:17,560 That three grand can go towards fuel, the groceries. 632 00:39:17,594 --> 00:39:19,146 It couldn't have worked out better. 633 00:39:31,146 --> 00:39:32,905 [narrator] <i> At California Creek,</i> 634 00:39:32,939 --> 00:39:35,698 <i>Fred Lewis has struck a vein of quartz,</i> 635 00:39:35,732 --> 00:39:38,767 <i>which he hopes will lead him to the gold.</i> 636 00:39:38,801 --> 00:39:43,801 <i>After letting the five-pound ball bearings beat up the quartz for an hour,</i> 637 00:39:43,836 --> 00:39:46,284 <i>it's time to check the material.</i> 638 00:39:46,318 --> 00:39:47,698 [Fred] Let's go do it. 639 00:39:52,939 --> 00:39:54,387 Now let's find if we got a catch. 640 00:39:54,422 --> 00:39:56,215 [Stuart] Yeah. 641 00:39:56,249 --> 00:39:58,387 Oh. 642 00:39:58,422 --> 00:40:00,215 Yeah. 643 00:40:00,249 --> 00:40:02,180 [Fred] I did a better job with my [bleep] hammer. 644 00:40:03,491 --> 00:40:05,387 You know, I was kind of hoping we pull this thing open. 645 00:40:05,422 --> 00:40:07,422 There'd be a bunch of powder in there. 646 00:40:07,456 --> 00:40:09,974 I know there are certain ways that we can do it. 647 00:40:10,008 --> 00:40:11,629 I really like what they did in Papua New Guinea. 648 00:40:11,663 --> 00:40:13,111 - It just took a long time. - [Stuart] Yeah. 649 00:40:13,146 --> 00:40:17,180 So all they did had a solid pipe inside of a pipe, the base in it. 650 00:40:17,215 --> 00:40:18,836 So you couldn't-- Nothing got out. 651 00:40:18,870 --> 00:40:21,111 - They threw the rock in there and they smashed it by hand. - Smashed it [bleep]. 652 00:40:21,146 --> 00:40:22,560 Bam, bam, bam. 653 00:40:24,456 --> 00:40:28,180 [narrator] <i>Fred's new plan to construct a low-tech rock crusher</i> 654 00:40:28,215 --> 00:40:32,077 <i>he first saw on a gold prospecting mission with Parker</i> 655 00:40:32,111 --> 00:40:34,387 <i>in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.</i> 656 00:40:36,870 --> 00:40:39,801 So we're basically gonna find like this right here. 657 00:40:39,836 --> 00:40:44,249 We're gonna find a pipe, we're gonna make it so it has a floor 658 00:40:44,284 --> 00:40:46,043 and another pipe that's gonna go inside of it 659 00:40:46,077 --> 00:40:48,146 and crush it just like a post pounder. 660 00:40:56,525 --> 00:40:57,698 [Fred] Woohoo! 661 00:40:57,732 --> 00:40:59,284 Let's go there and try this [bleep] out. 662 00:40:59,318 --> 00:41:00,732 See if we can crush this [bleep]. 663 00:41:01,870 --> 00:41:03,939 [Fred] All right, so I've only done this once. 664 00:41:03,974 --> 00:41:05,456 - [Stuart] Yeah. - [Fred] Let's start. Yeah. 665 00:41:20,525 --> 00:41:22,318 [narrator] <i> After some brute force.</i> 666 00:41:22,353 --> 00:41:25,077 <i>It's time to see if the quartz vein running</i> 667 00:41:25,111 --> 00:41:29,180 <i>through his claim is rich in gold.</i> 668 00:41:29,215 --> 00:41:34,353 <i>If it is, Fred could have hit the motherlode and the ground next to it</i> 669 00:41:34,387 --> 00:41:37,318 <i>could be the richest in California Creek.</i> 670 00:41:45,870 --> 00:41:48,387 Um. I'm seeing gold, buddy. 671 00:41:48,422 --> 00:41:50,387 [Stuart] Yeah. No, there's gold in. There's gold. 672 00:41:50,422 --> 00:41:52,284 [bleep] 673 00:41:52,318 --> 00:41:55,353 [Fred] Holy, [bleep] wow. 674 00:41:55,387 --> 00:41:56,767 - And a piece there. - [Stuart] Yeah. 675 00:41:56,801 --> 00:41:57,836 [Fred] And a piece there. 676 00:41:57,870 --> 00:41:59,180 [Stuart] A piece up top, right there. 677 00:41:59,215 --> 00:42:01,043 - [Fred] And a piece there. - [Stuart] Yeah. 678 00:42:01,077 --> 00:42:02,663 - I mean, that was a handful. - [Stuart] I know. 679 00:42:02,698 --> 00:42:05,215 [Fred] We got three colors and a lot of little fine stuff. 680 00:42:05,249 --> 00:42:07,560 It's the first goal we found this season that tells us 681 00:42:07,594 --> 00:42:10,836 there's a vein carrying gold running up the middle 682 00:42:10,870 --> 00:42:12,215 of our [bleep] claim. 683 00:42:12,249 --> 00:42:14,146 Yeah. 684 00:42:14,180 --> 00:42:15,560 I [bleep] needed this. 685 00:42:15,594 --> 00:42:17,422 - I... I'm hurting. - I know, man. 686 00:42:17,456 --> 00:42:19,284 You know, it's just [bleep]. 687 00:42:19,318 --> 00:42:20,974 That's just the way that this, you know, 688 00:42:21,008 --> 00:42:22,422 this profession is. I've noticed that. 689 00:42:22,456 --> 00:42:26,560 I mean, the highs are high and the lows are really, really low. 690 00:42:26,594 --> 00:42:27,801 You ain't lying. 691 00:42:27,836 --> 00:42:29,525 This is about the best I felt this season. 692 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:31,629 We have a source producing the gold. 693 00:42:33,284 --> 00:42:35,111 <i>The potential that there could be a quartz vein</i> 694 00:42:35,146 --> 00:42:38,939 that has gold bearing richness through it 695 00:42:38,974 --> 00:42:40,698 kind of fires us up a little bit, 696 00:42:40,732 --> 00:42:44,111 and it's just giving us a little bit more fuel to keep exploring this creek 697 00:42:44,146 --> 00:42:47,215 and find out where it is, because the source is somewhere 698 00:42:47,249 --> 00:42:49,318 and it's coming from somewhere and we're gonna find it. 699 00:43:04,387 --> 00:43:05,732 [growling] 700 00:43:05,767 --> 00:43:07,698 [Minnie] Oh, you've got the ugly face. 701 00:43:07,732 --> 00:43:09,043 [all laughing] 702 00:43:11,215 --> 00:43:15,560 [narrator] <i>After a week battling frozen ground, the Beets family gather</i> 703 00:43:15,594 --> 00:43:18,043 to find out if their hard work has paid off. 704 00:43:19,491 --> 00:43:21,353 - [woman 2] Hi, Faith. - [Tony speaking] 705 00:43:21,387 --> 00:43:23,422 - [woman 2] You took long enough. - Sorry. 706 00:43:23,456 --> 00:43:25,939 - [Tony speaking] - [Michael] Yeah. 707 00:43:25,974 --> 00:43:29,077 - [Tony speaking] - [Michael] Both cuts. 708 00:43:29,111 --> 00:43:30,767 [Tony speaking] 709 00:43:30,801 --> 00:43:32,663 Yeah. [bleep] hard too. 710 00:43:32,698 --> 00:43:34,801 [Tony speaking] 711 00:43:34,836 --> 00:43:36,905 Yeah. Well, if you didn't buy that last year, 712 00:43:36,939 --> 00:43:38,732 we'd be in big trouble this year. 713 00:43:38,767 --> 00:43:42,180 So anything else exciting happens. 714 00:43:42,215 --> 00:43:44,974 Ruby was trying to squeeze by Cousin Mike in a rock truck. 715 00:43:46,180 --> 00:43:47,698 It wasn't quite enough room. 716 00:43:49,180 --> 00:43:50,801 I bet she felt just awful. 717 00:43:50,836 --> 00:43:53,008 Oh, she did just [bleep]. 718 00:43:53,043 --> 00:43:55,077 - At least she cares. - Oh, yeah. 719 00:43:55,111 --> 00:43:56,698 [Tony speaking] 720 00:43:58,008 --> 00:44:01,663 So, with that being said, we should probably pour some gold. 721 00:44:01,698 --> 00:44:02,801 - [Tony speaking] - Yeah. 722 00:44:02,836 --> 00:44:05,249 Okay, let's do this thing, folks. 723 00:44:05,284 --> 00:44:08,836 [narrator] <i>Tony has less than 500 ounces in the bank</i> 724 00:44:08,870 --> 00:44:13,387 <i>and needs over 200 a week to hit his 5000 ounce goal.</i> 725 00:44:13,422 --> 00:44:15,387 [Kevin] Three, two, one. Let's go. 726 00:44:17,801 --> 00:44:19,043 Fifteen. 727 00:44:20,594 --> 00:44:21,974 Sixty-five. 728 00:44:22,008 --> 00:44:24,043 Seventy-five, 85. 729 00:44:26,422 --> 00:44:31,594 A hundred and twenty, 130, 140, 730 00:44:31,629 --> 00:44:33,974 150, 160. 731 00:44:36,801 --> 00:44:40,043 162.42. 732 00:44:41,629 --> 00:44:45,111 [narrator] <i> Worth nearly $300,000.</i> 733 00:44:50,249 --> 00:44:52,077 [Tony speaking] 734 00:44:57,353 --> 00:44:59,180 But you know what? It's better than nothing. 735 00:44:59,215 --> 00:45:00,870 - [Tony speaking] - [Mike] Yeah. 736 00:45:00,905 --> 00:45:02,491 [Tony speaking] 737 00:45:11,698 --> 00:45:13,422 We'll talk to you guys later. 738 00:45:36,422 --> 00:45:37,663 [Chris] Hey, T-bird. 739 00:45:37,698 --> 00:45:39,594 - [Tyson] How's it going, Doumitt? - Good. How you doing, buddy? 740 00:45:39,629 --> 00:45:41,008 Pretty good. Thanks. 741 00:45:46,939 --> 00:45:50,008 Well, we finished one, we started another. 742 00:45:50,043 --> 00:45:51,525 Thank you guys for getting that pit done. 743 00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:53,801 But it's one of many. 744 00:45:53,836 --> 00:45:55,629 [Tyson] Yeah. 745 00:45:55,663 --> 00:46:01,594 And Tyson, you got your first big experience there of moving Big Red. 746 00:46:01,629 --> 00:46:02,905 - Yeah. - New safer lot. 747 00:46:02,939 --> 00:46:05,043 But what do you think about Big Red? 748 00:46:05,077 --> 00:46:06,249 It's different. 749 00:46:06,284 --> 00:46:08,111 [Parker] It's a lot easier getting it where you want it. 750 00:46:08,146 --> 00:46:11,249 It's kind of fun, like every move having to be spot on. 751 00:46:11,284 --> 00:46:14,111 And you even had a point in the right direction the first time, huh? 752 00:46:14,146 --> 00:46:16,180 Yeah. 753 00:46:16,215 --> 00:46:17,870 Good for you, T. 754 00:46:17,905 --> 00:46:20,111 - You want to see how the Keyhole finished up? - Let's do it. 755 00:46:20,146 --> 00:46:22,491 Why we're here, Doumitt. We want to see some gold. 756 00:46:22,525 --> 00:46:24,043 Keyhole right here. 757 00:46:24,077 --> 00:46:26,111 - I'll take this one. - All right. 758 00:46:26,146 --> 00:46:29,387 So this is the last sluicing Big Red did before we moved it. 759 00:46:30,801 --> 00:46:31,974 All right. 760 00:46:33,939 --> 00:46:39,180 [Mitch] Twenty, 40, 60, 80, 761 00:46:39,215 --> 00:46:45,491 100, 120, 140, 150. 762 00:46:45,525 --> 00:46:51,387 Keep going, 174.05. 763 00:46:51,422 --> 00:46:55,594 [narrator] <i> Worth over $310,000.</i> 764 00:46:56,801 --> 00:46:58,284 That's not bad. 765 00:46:58,318 --> 00:47:00,111 I mean, when you look at the amount of runtime it had. 766 00:47:00,146 --> 00:47:01,767 [Chris] Exactly. 767 00:47:01,801 --> 00:47:04,905 So the big question, Chris, that's two days of running at the Keyhole cut, 768 00:47:04,939 --> 00:47:06,974 - finishing that off at 174. - Right. 769 00:47:07,008 --> 00:47:10,422 How did we do at Easy Street with two days of running? 770 00:47:10,456 --> 00:47:13,801 Well, there's not a lot of hours on this thing, right? 771 00:47:13,836 --> 00:47:15,180 - Yeah. - Here we go. 772 00:47:15,215 --> 00:47:16,387 - Let's do it. - Oh, no. 773 00:47:16,422 --> 00:47:19,387 - One. - He tipped a long way before anything came out. 774 00:47:20,629 --> 00:47:24,870 [Tyson] Thirty, 35, 38, 775 00:47:24,905 --> 00:47:28,422 40, 55.8. 776 00:47:28,456 --> 00:47:31,560 [narrator] <i>Another $100,000.</i> 777 00:47:34,180 --> 00:47:38,836 So for the week it's 229.85. 778 00:47:38,870 --> 00:47:43,422 And for the season, we just brought 1200 and 1204.45. 779 00:47:43,456 --> 00:47:44,525 That wasn't a bad week. 780 00:47:44,560 --> 00:47:46,318 Knowing we moved the wash plant in the middle. 781 00:47:46,353 --> 00:47:47,387 - [Mitch] Yeah. - [Parker] Yeah. 782 00:47:47,422 --> 00:47:50,387 And what, a total of four days running? 783 00:47:50,422 --> 00:47:51,870 All this going on? 784 00:47:51,905 --> 00:47:53,456 I think we did okay. I think we did good. 785 00:47:53,491 --> 00:47:54,594 [Tyson] Yeah. 786 00:47:54,629 --> 00:47:55,939 [Mitch] We got a long way to go. 787 00:47:55,974 --> 00:47:58,318 All right, Chris, thank you for that. 788 00:47:58,353 --> 00:47:59,422 [Chris] Yup. 789 00:47:59,456 --> 00:48:01,111 See you next week. Thanks, man. 790 00:48:01,146 --> 00:48:02,491 [Parker] Thanks, Chris. 790 00:48:03,305 --> 00:49:03,696 Support us and become VIP member to remove all ads from www.OpenSubtitles.org