Hoffman Family Gold (2022) s02e10 Episode Script
Todd's Last Chance
1
Weather's coming. Temperature's
dropped a good ten degrees here this week.
With only three weeks left,
the Hoffmans need
their best payouts yet.
This is the biggest clean-up
of the season for me.
Over 120 ounces
of gold every week
Right now we're
firing on all cylinders.
Until the end, to
hit 1,000 ounces.
If we're gonna hit
any of our goals,
we gotta keep
the plants turning.
While hunter and
his crew scramble
to keep the black
Pearl churning.
Being down right now, it sucks.
Todd takes desperate
action to find better pay dirt.
This section right
here could be 25%,
maybe even 35% of the
total gold that we need.
Will returning to last
year's abandoned cut
steer them towards
their 1,000-ouce goal
I hate switching gears again,
but I think we
gotta take to risk.
Or will Todd's gamble
be a dead end?
This pay dirt here is the wettest,
nastiest stuff that we've ever ran.
This baby's running lean
and mean, and I am going fast.
I am running 250
yards an hour right now.
If there wasn't so
much water on it,
you'd probably see
steam coming off of it.
But I am concerned
because no matter how many yards
that we're churning through,
our clean-ups are
always a little bit less
than what they really should be.
What is this stuff, Andy?
Is this what we've been running?
Yeah.
So here's the thing,
we're working in an area
- that's not very large.
- Yeah.
So when we first started it,
we're up higher,
so it was bigger,
so I was taking
it off in layers.
Now we're going through the
layers and taking multiple layers.
Maybe we've mixed
some of the good pay
with stuff that doesn't
have any gold in it.
And maybe we've come up
with that three quarters
of an ounce a hundred
just because we've got a
layer that's not very good.
When and I pan those cuts
and you can see it
on the face of a wall,
and you get all the
brown layer, red layer,
a black layer, a grey layer,
there's certain layers
that are really rich
and there's layers that
have a piece of gold in it.
And then there's layers that
have 14 pieces of gold in it.
Right.
I think we mix those weaker
layers in with our rich layers.
Problem is when you're
taking it off the face of a wall,
- you can't pick out.
- Just pick, yeah.
You gotta take the whole thing.
- You're kind of blending it, so
- Yeah.
Three quarters of an ounce,
a hundred ain't gonna do it.
No.
- And we don't have enough time.
- No, we don't.
We gotta get the rich stuff
and we gotta run it quick.
Yeah.
When you add up
the time we have left
and our resources,
we gotta get a lot of gold
in a short amount of time.
So, we wanna try to shift
gears and see what's going on.
So, the cut from last year
out there on quartz creek,
let's just call it the lost cut.
I went back over
the drill holes,
there are three to
three-and-a-half ounces per 100.
Last year we tried to run
some pay dirt on quartz creek.
I had some really good results.
By drilling, the best
prospects I found
were on quartz creek.
That's the only place that we
have a drilled resource right now
that's ready to go.
But the weather had
other ideas on us.
What do you think, Andy?
You think this will fall out?
I don't know. We're late. I
don't know if it'll fall or not.
Kind of doubtful, but
we'll give it a try for Jason.
We just don't have
any heat. We need heat.
Just the wrong time.
That cut's been open all summer,
so I know it's got some thaw,
but with the weather changing
and how cold it's getting,
we're running out of time.
What we need is that
2 ounces a hundred
and on up.
That's gonna push
us way farther ahead.
If the drill holes are correct,
we're all gonna run at
black Pearl, holy roller.
We throw a hail
Mary at this thing.
If not, we're screwed.
If it truly is 3
ounces a hundred,
this section right
here could be 25%
maybe even 35% of our
total gold that we need.
Yeah. I think what
I'd do is I'd get in here
get the water out,
expose the ground.
I think I can do that in a day.
I hate switching gears again,
but I think we
gotta take to risk.
Run one day of
it, do a clean-up,
and then we'll find out
if this mine's like a drill.
We moved around a lot this year,
trying to find pay dirt.
We started the ancient riverbed,
then we went up to
the narrows of dahl,
and then over at north fork.
But if I'm gonna win, I
gotta take this gamble.
I gotta take Andy out
from actually getting pay dirt
and put him over here
on this little project.
Hopefully, it pans out.
- Get me a day, run it.
- Okay.
Let's do a clean-up,
and then that clean-up
will tell us the story.
You'll just have to keep
tater scratching that pay
from the narrows of dahl.
I need Andy to
focus on the lost cut.
While he's doing that,
we're gonna have tater
start pulling dirt from
the narrows of dahl,
and get that pay dirt down
to the black Pearl and hunter
because their clean-ups
were even worse than ours.
Thirty-five,
forty-four.
Clearly what we have
here is a pay dirt problem.
I need them to run the pay
dirt from the narrows of dahl.
Tater needs to
watch those layers
and only bring the good pay dirt
to the black Pearl.
- Well, I say it's worth the risk.
- For sure.
- One clean-up.
- One clean-up. We'll do it.
Yeah, everything looks all good.
Right now we're
firing on all cylinders.
This morning, we made a few
small improvements on the plant.
Changed pulled
out all the water bars,
and we got some more
rpms out of our pump,
so everything seems to
be washing a little bit better.
All right, this
looks a little better.
I'm liking how the
water bar's looking, too.
That should be way
better than before.
Yeah, that's that's
looking really good, dude.
We can shove some
more material in here now.
Let's go ahead and
And clean it fairly fast.
After several low
weigh-ins for northfork,
hunter and his crew gear up
to run better pay from
the narrows of dahl.
That's rinsing the
material a lot better.
Yeah, that's what we needed.
Just cleaning it freaking
Yeah, that's fine China
coming right out the end.
My game plan is to
just try to run richer pay.
At the end of the day, um,
we're all on the same ship,
so, you know, I'm gonna
just have to trust my dad
and run whatever
he wants to run.
Okay, let's rip it.
Let's rip it!
Here's the deal.
We've got this cut that I
gotta go deal with, the lost cut.
I need to stick down
there for a couple of days.
- All right.
- So you are gonna kind of be thrown
into the lion's
den a little bit.
I need you just to scratch
pay and load these trucks.
Stay with the
layers that we have.
I keep finding this red layer.
It always pays really good.
The narrows of dahl has
five different layers of dirt.
In order to reach the
gold Ridge pay dirt,
tater must first dig
through a black topsoil layer
and two Clay
Ridge, brown layers.
Below those lies the gold
in a red layer and
a grey or rich layer.
Digging for pay requires
experience and a keen eye.
Don't get too far ahead of
yourself. You got a question, call me.
I'll come back down here.
All right.
Usually you get dropped
into something like this
after a couple
years of moving dirt
and hauling pay and
everything, you kind of learn it.
But we just don't
have that luxury.
Just take your time,
slow and steady, I
think you'll be okay.
- All right.
- Okay?
I'll do my best.
You can do this. I know you can.
So, just take your
time, though, okay?
- No problem.
- Call me if you need me.
- All right, I'm out.
- Good luck over there.
Yeah.
I'm a little nervous,
I'll be honest with you.
It's a big responsibility.
You know, Todd really
went out on a limb this year
with the equipment,
with fuel, with everything.
So I wanna come
up with a lot of gold
to make sure that
he doesn't go broke
and keep him in the black.
The gold is in the ground.
We just gotta dig and get it out.
I don't mind the work, but I'm not
gonna lie, these 16, 17-hour days,
they're getting to me.
Once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Every year.
We're running out of time.
Winter's coming.
We just gotta keep going,
keep grinding, no matter what.
Hey, sparky, the water stopped.
Sparky, do you copy?
I was feeding the plant,
everything was going great,
and then I go to
dump another scoop,
and I realize the water's off.
So, you know, I
had to shut it down.
Being down right now, it sucks.
And we gotta get up and
running as soon as possible.
So, I put cub up
in the black Pearl.
Then I hear on the radio
that the water shut off,
so our pump's full
idle, it's like dead,
which I don't have
another one, obviously.
We'll just figure out a
solution and work through it.
With the black
Pearl unable to run,
cub goes to work
helping tater stack pay
from the narrows of dahl.
Biggest part about this
is I hope I don't
make any mistakes.
If I throw away pay
dirt, that costs money.
And if I send the
wrong dirt, we run dirt
that doesn't have
anything in it,
that's a whole
other problem, so
Yeah.
There's so many different
colors and types of material here.
It's really not easy. Andy
makes it look pretty easy.
He's good. Man is good.
I hope I can do it half as
good and quick as he can.
Over at the lost cut
Andy begins
prepping the pay dirt.
His first step is dewatering it
with the barco pump.
Unless the water's
moving, it's an insulator.
It doesn't thaw out.
It'll stay frozen.
It'll never thaw.
You will have a muddy mess
because every time it rains,
just slops more material down.
You want to keep
the water flowing.
What I need is some
sunshine and some heat.
This gas-powered pump
can move up to
750 gallons a minute,
dispersing into
a nearby reserve.
But the pump alone isn't enough.
So, Andy will use the long neck
to dig 6-foot ditches
for the water to flow into,
which, in turn, will lower
the overall water level
and expose more ground
to the heat of the sun.
As much I wanted to
start digging the payout,
first thing you do is
you get your ditches right
and you get your pump
going, get rid of all the water.
Just keep the pump
running, keep the water going.
It's mother nature that we're
gonna fight against today
and we'll see who wins.
That's all we can do.
So I got a call that the
black Pearl was down
due to the water pump failed.
Looks like we got
a bad alternator
because the battery
is completely dead.
If the alternator's not
charging the battery
and the battery goes dead,
it shuts off, shuts
the pump down.
The alternator is a machine
connected to the
motor by a drive belt.
As it rotates, it converts
mechanical energy
into electrical energy,
which maintains
the batter's charge
and allows the pump
to continue running.
We'll probably start this
back up with another battery,
then go get a battery charger
and send it here with a generator.
I don't know if that's
gonna fit in there.
Close enough.
So we're gonna run jumper cables
from the barco to your battery,
so the barco's gonna be
charging your battery all the time
until we source
another alternator.
The alternator's the problem.
I figured. Do we have
another one like this here?
I think I have one more,
but I gotta go find it.
But if you wanna
get up and running,
you're able to now.
- All right, thank you.
- You're welcome.
I'm hoping that Randy
can find another alternator
off another pump or
something in the camp.
I wish we weren't having
these little tiny issues,
but everything
we're using is old,
everything has
a lot of wear on it.
Everything takes a
long time out here.
Even just losing half
an hour is a lot of money,
so there's a lot of factors
working against us.
Okay, alternator
went out on the pump.
They're putting cables
from the barco onto ours
so it's charging the
battery all the time.
Randy's gonna see if he
can get another alternator
off another pump.
So we're back up
and running right now.
We should be at full
water here in a second.
We're band-aiding it for now,
but it got us up and running.
It wasn't catastrophic,
but time is money,
so hopefully tonight
when we shut down for good,
we can get a more
permanent fix on that thing.
Okay.
With the majority of the
water drained from the lost cut,
Andy begins loading
rock trucks with pay.
I've never seen ground
that has so much ice in it.
Welcome to
When you move
it, move it real slow.
You know, this cut has a lot
more water than what we're used to,
and what we're getting into,
there's ice lenses going through it.
So as soon as you
expose it to the air,
turns instantly to water.
So, we got a lot of water.
But that's good. It's
melting. That's what I want.
It just makes a mess, though.
If this cut comes in anywhere
near 3 ounces a hundred,
that's gonna save our season.
Everything looks good right now.
Hopefully it stays running
until we can get a more
permanent fix on that thing.
While hunter and
cub take advantage
of the temporary battery
power running the water pump
to push narrows
of dahl pay dirt
Has it got a Built on it?
- We can take the pulley off.
- We can change it, yeah.
Ron and Randy
scour old equipment
in hopes of finding
an alternator matching
the exact model they need
to permanently fix the pump.
That orange pump
over here is the one
- It's got a John deere engine on it.
- Yeah.
And I took the alternator off
of it for the camp generator.
- This one's identical.
- Is it?
Yeah.
- Okay, this will fit.
- Yeah.
There she be.
Black Pearl is
built like a tank.
That thing is so
heavy and so strong
that nothing's
really gonna affect it.
What's gonna affect it is
the little things around it.
And that's what happened
today. An alternator failure.
Okay, you want me
to rip into that, then?
Yeah, you rip into that and I'll
I'll get back to trucking.
It's just timing.
We're out of it.
We don't have any more
time. We have to stay running.
This alternator will be a real
good donor candidate for us.
They're both John deere,
and the mounting
appears to be the same.
There we go.
That's the last
one in captivity,
so better not
lose it or break it.
All there. Okay, let's go.
That is really wet.
Back at the holy roller,
Todd continues to run
the 650-yard test pay
from the lost cut.
This pay dirt
here is the wettest,
nastiest stuff that
we've ever ran.
Just running out of the bucket,
man. It's like wet concrete.
It kind of reminds me
of something that my
grandma used to make
for dinner.
It wasn't good then
and it ain't good now.
Because that cut
was done at the wrong
time, it's really, really wet,
so our pay dirt is just
saturated with water.
What we need is at least 2
ounces a hundred to hit our goal.
Hey, framer, test the water.
I gotta go through check
gauges right now, and all that.
Yes.
I'm just checking on
the plant right now.
We're running the lost cut dirt,
the first of the lost
cut dirt right now.
And just making sure
everything's running properly
so we get a proper test on this.
It's our last little
push right now
before the weather kicks us out,
so we wanna make sure
it's a perfect run.
All right.
We really need to know
how much gold is in this pay.
Hopefully before we're
out of here, we hit 1,000,
but I don't know.
You know, this is gold mining,
so you never really know.
Literally, the mine depends on
this sticky, nasty pay dirt.
We're on pretty good ground.
Todd decided to pivot
over to the lost cut.
This late in the
season, it could be a
It could be a
really risky venture.
We're taking resources
from no pay dirt.
It's gonna be a little
hectic and stressful.
The weather's changing. Days
are gonna get shorter and colder.
So we really, really
gotta pay attention
to what we're doing
and not mess things up.
But I really think
Todd and Andy,
they wouldn't take a risk if there
wasn't a pretty good chance of success.
Really hoping that I can
knock this one out of the park.
Hopefully it doesn't go wrong.
Yesterday we found an
alternator up here at the pad.
Never throw anything away.
He was running the
pump late last night,
and I told him, I
said, "you know what?
We'll just put it
in in the morning."
So, today we're gonna
put that alternator in,
test it, make sure
that it's working.
It even has the
right pulley on it.
I don't even have to
change the pulley over.
Weather's coming. Temperature's
dropped a good ten degrees here this week,
and we're gonna get
shoved out any day now.
Here we go.
So it's vitally important that
the black Pearl stays running
at all costs.
Come on.
You're already in there.
If we're gonna hit
any of our goals,
we gotta keep
the plants turning.
There we go.
Am I gonna miss these days
where I have to come out here
and put together in the middle of
the snow and the rain and the ice?
Not so much.
Got this new
alternator on there.
- Just wanna test fire it.
- Yeah.
Here we go.
So far so good.
So it's actually
sending voltage.
Let's go take that
battery cable off
and see if it's
actually working.
There it is.
We took the cable off.
It's still running.
Therefore the
alternator's working
because you've eliminated
all the voltage from the battery.
So now you're You're golden.
You're putting out voltage.
So now with a generator and a
battery charger and four other batteries,
you're actually
You should be able to run
all day without any issues.
Awesome. Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you.
This is a huge help.
Yeah, no kidding.
Got it all fixed.
But that doesn't mean that
there won't be something else.
Okay, I guess we'll
fire her up then.
- You can run it now.
- Let's do it.
There's just so many thousand
things that can go wrong,
and they do.
We cannot afford
to be down anymore.
I say let's set the bypass.
Now we're idling down the pump.
Take it down to about
800 rpm, let it cool down.
That barco has been
hammering all day.
Shut the trommel down.
After running exactly
650 yards of the lost cut
Big moment.
The team is ready to find out
if their pivot to new pay
dirt was a wise decision.
You see anything good in here?
Yeah.
There's yellow stuff in there.
All kinds of gold in there.
So about ready to pull
mats for the lost cut.
And I know it's a small test,
but to me, this is the biggest
clean-up of the season.
- There was?
- Yeah.
This has gotta be good gold
or we're in deep,
deep trouble as a mine.
Dude, everything is looking
pretty good over here.
It's looking pretty good.
And keep 'em running, baby.
Copy.
This morning we got
the new part put on.
So far so good.
Sluice box looks good,
pump looks good,
so just keeping a little bit of
a closer eye on things today.
Cleaning out really good.
It's one of those
things, it's like, say,
you get a new car
and it never breaks down.
You know, after
the first breakdown,
you don't you
know, you don't trust it
the way you did,
you know, initially.
I don't wanna push
this plant to its limit,
I don't want it to break
down this season,
but either way, we
need to get the yardage
or we're not gonna get to 1,000.
We don't know how
much time we have left.
You know, we're at the
mercy of the elements here,
so I'd rather leave
here sooner than later.
It's looking pretty good.
We're gonna check
out competitor's box,
see if we're packing up.
That feels It
looks pretty good.
I don't see any
major leaks, so
Just checking in
on the competitor,
see what we're
dealing with right now.
And it's looking not too shabby.
Maybe could be a little
better, but that's my opinion.
If their pay turns out to be
more potent than expected,
everybody wins.
We're a competition,
but if their lost cut
ends up being more,
that's more than better, okay?
You know, I'm
hearing over the radio
that my grandpa's testing out
some of the concentrate that
the holy roller ran from the lost cut.
And I'm hoping that it's hotter
than the last stuff
we were running.
So, we'll see.
That's lost cut
they ran 650 yards.
So that would mean if we
got 6-and-a-half ounces,
you're doing good.
If you get 12 ounces,
you're doing really good.
You know? And if
you get more than 12,
you're doing exceptional.
So, yeah, it needs
to be screened, yeah?
All right.
Running out of time.
It's starting to get cold.
Things are gonna
keep falling out.
So what we're doing
is jumping to another spot.
Sometimes that'll
bit you in the butt,
but it's not desperation,
but it's the final
hour, if you might say.
That's pretty nice
gold right there.
Yeah, I'll take that any day.
So, all hands on deck.
No sleep. Work, work.
So it's just the way it is.
Gosh, that looks good, though.
- Okay, let's go weigh it.
- Okay.
The lost cut has to be good.
It looks promising.
But again, that
scale does not lie.
We'll weigh it up and
that will tell us what we got,
and hopefully it's good.
See what Todd's got here.
15.15 ounces.
That's fantastic.
Todd's made a wise decision
and he has to make this work.
Todd, we got 15.15 ounces.
2.4 ounces per 100.
The lost cut weighed out
at 2.4 ounces per 100 yards.
So actually, I'm
very excited about it.
There's a real chance
we're gonna hit 1,000.
We're gonna run this lost cut
till all the pay freezes up on us.
Over at the narrows of dahl,
tater continuous stacking
pay for the black Pearl.
How many did we haul yesterday?
Ten
Right now I got a lot
of emotions going on.
It's always been a dream of
mine to come up here and do this.
Now I'm actually pulling
the gold out of the ground,
it kind of feels good.
Feels good to have the trust.
I can call myself a gold miner.
I'm really excited.
When we run this dirt, we'll
know if I made a mistake or not.
This sluice box
is either gonna be
yellow or barren.
If it's yellow,
man, I'm gonna be, jumping.
You'll see me doing, like,
jumping Jacks and cartwheels.
It would be great.
And if it's barren,
it falls all on me.
There's a lot of pressure.
Hopefully it doesn't go wrong.
With the lost cut coming
in at 2.4 ounces per 100,
this, I believe, is good news,
and this is actually gonna turn
our season in the right direction.
Go ahead and bring
it down to half idle.
Bring it down to half.
Now, hunter and his
crew are ready to pull
the black Pearl's
mats for the week
and get their first glimpse at
how much gold they could have
from the narrows of dahl.
Let's just get into
it, rinse all these
and we'll have a
fresh box for tomorrow.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Let's rip it up.
It's gonna be a fat
clean-up. I'm feeling it, dude.
- Look at that.
- Yeah, that's Bro.
Have you checked this line out?
Despite the blown alternator
that threatened a long shutdown,
the black Pearl was
able to continue running,
thanks to a band-aid fix
and some resourcefulness
on Randy and Ron's part.
It's a fix that could make all
the difference in the gold room.
That's the money.
- That's what we love to see.
- It goes all the way down.
Look. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Yup, we're loaded.
We got a whole
gold colony right here.
You wanna go eat, cub,
and him cover you, or what?
No we're gonna eat
when we shut down.
One of the things
I miss the most
is being able to just
drive and go get food.
Sometimes we gotta
eat just pop tarts.
That's how it is.
I we need to eat more.
Sucks these things are
gone in, like, two bites.
You can't eat parts of trees,
forage for mushrooms.
I wanna eat a
big piece of steak.
Right now I'm
gonna eat some pie,
get some coffee and
get out of here, okay?
Hey, Jack, you gotta
see this. Come here.
Look at all that gold in there.
Yeah. Okay.
We've got tater's dirt
from the narrows of dahl,
you know, he's
been digging that.
And hopefully it's
good, you know.
I we gotta have some
good days, you know?
And hopefully
this is one of them.
So here's where our
concentrate comes out
of the duplex jig.
There's,
probably about $30,000
worth of gold in this one bucket.
Pretty cool.
I think tater did a good job.
Now the narrows of dahl is
It's good.
It's just not good
enough for me.
If you only have this
material to run, run it.
But if you have
the lost cut material,
run that, that's
your best material.
Be smart, you know.
Time is of the
essence, you know.
And and.
I probably know that
better than anybody.
The reason that I know it is
because I'm gonna be 77 this year.
My time's running out, you know.
And I wanna get a lot of gold.
Guys, this was a big week.
What's in the lost
cut, that's the future.
Yeah.
In order to stay on track to
hit their 1,000-ounce goal,
the Hoffmans need
a combined total
of at least 121
ounces this week.
How about you guys?
No major issues and
just running consistently.
But there is gold
in it, you know?
Every day we shut down,
there was gold in the box, so
Either you're
really tired, Jack,
or that looks pretty heavy
Set that down again.
I wanna hear that.
Wow, that is Well
That sounded
heavier, I don't know.
Sounded pretty heavy.
All right, 101 last week.
They're the winners.
They go first.
Okay, you're gonna
count it out, spark.
I got you.
Let's see how tater did.
Five, ten,
15, 20,
25, 30,
35,
40,
45,
46.1.
- So, we did better than last week.
- Nice.
I mean, it's 80 grand. I
mean, I'm happy with it.
Awesome.
- Tater, I just wanna say thank you.
- Yeah, you're welcome, man.
Tater really came in clutch
and helped us to get gold.
Like, at the end of the day, we
wanted to have a competition,
but it's like we're all
on the same team.
Okay, what do we got?
Okay, go for it.
In order to hit their weekly
target of 121 ounces,
Todd needs their
gold-rich lost cut
to bring in at least 75 ounces.
- Hey, Jack.
- Yeah.
We'll need the big one.
- Now we're talking.
- Now we're talking.
All right.
Fifteen, 20, 25,
30, 35,
40, 45, 50, 55,
60, 65, 70,
75,
78, 79,
79.9.
- Now we're talking.
- There we go. Yeah.
That's what, $135,000?
- That's pretty good. Just us.
- Yeah.
Okay, what is that?
How many ounces?
For the week, it's 126.
Boom. We hit that 121 level.
Right.
Okay. Now what's our total?
Her grand total is 762 Dude.
All right.
This week, the Hoffmans produced
a total of 126 ounces of gold,
bringing their
running tally up to 762.
The Hoffmans now need
238 more ounces of gold
to reach their season
goal of 1,000 ounces.
We're close to getting
our goal of 1,000.
It's hard to believe.
You're a sweet man.
We love you.
Don't cry on camera.
It's real.
It's super hard out here.
I know we're all tired,
we're all worn down,
but none of us are gonna
leave until we get 1,000 ounces.
So however we gotta do it,
if I gotta keep getting
40-ounce clean-ups,
well, that's what we're gonna do
because we're already close.
- I agree.
- Really close.
We're gonna run the
wheels off that black Pearl.
I don't care if we gotta
burn body fat for fuel,
we're gonna do it.
Good.
Everybody else
feel that same way?
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
We got a big week.
Let's tackle this next week.
Let's do another one like this.
Okay.
All right, guys, let's go.
Weather's coming. Temperature's
dropped a good ten degrees here this week.
With only three weeks left,
the Hoffmans need
their best payouts yet.
This is the biggest clean-up
of the season for me.
Over 120 ounces
of gold every week
Right now we're
firing on all cylinders.
Until the end, to
hit 1,000 ounces.
If we're gonna hit
any of our goals,
we gotta keep
the plants turning.
While hunter and
his crew scramble
to keep the black
Pearl churning.
Being down right now, it sucks.
Todd takes desperate
action to find better pay dirt.
This section right
here could be 25%,
maybe even 35% of the
total gold that we need.
Will returning to last
year's abandoned cut
steer them towards
their 1,000-ouce goal
I hate switching gears again,
but I think we
gotta take to risk.
Or will Todd's gamble
be a dead end?
This pay dirt here is the wettest,
nastiest stuff that we've ever ran.
This baby's running lean
and mean, and I am going fast.
I am running 250
yards an hour right now.
If there wasn't so
much water on it,
you'd probably see
steam coming off of it.
But I am concerned
because no matter how many yards
that we're churning through,
our clean-ups are
always a little bit less
than what they really should be.
What is this stuff, Andy?
Is this what we've been running?
Yeah.
So here's the thing,
we're working in an area
- that's not very large.
- Yeah.
So when we first started it,
we're up higher,
so it was bigger,
so I was taking
it off in layers.
Now we're going through the
layers and taking multiple layers.
Maybe we've mixed
some of the good pay
with stuff that doesn't
have any gold in it.
And maybe we've come up
with that three quarters
of an ounce a hundred
just because we've got a
layer that's not very good.
When and I pan those cuts
and you can see it
on the face of a wall,
and you get all the
brown layer, red layer,
a black layer, a grey layer,
there's certain layers
that are really rich
and there's layers that
have a piece of gold in it.
And then there's layers that
have 14 pieces of gold in it.
Right.
I think we mix those weaker
layers in with our rich layers.
Problem is when you're
taking it off the face of a wall,
- you can't pick out.
- Just pick, yeah.
You gotta take the whole thing.
- You're kind of blending it, so
- Yeah.
Three quarters of an ounce,
a hundred ain't gonna do it.
No.
- And we don't have enough time.
- No, we don't.
We gotta get the rich stuff
and we gotta run it quick.
Yeah.
When you add up
the time we have left
and our resources,
we gotta get a lot of gold
in a short amount of time.
So, we wanna try to shift
gears and see what's going on.
So, the cut from last year
out there on quartz creek,
let's just call it the lost cut.
I went back over
the drill holes,
there are three to
three-and-a-half ounces per 100.
Last year we tried to run
some pay dirt on quartz creek.
I had some really good results.
By drilling, the best
prospects I found
were on quartz creek.
That's the only place that we
have a drilled resource right now
that's ready to go.
But the weather had
other ideas on us.
What do you think, Andy?
You think this will fall out?
I don't know. We're late. I
don't know if it'll fall or not.
Kind of doubtful, but
we'll give it a try for Jason.
We just don't have
any heat. We need heat.
Just the wrong time.
That cut's been open all summer,
so I know it's got some thaw,
but with the weather changing
and how cold it's getting,
we're running out of time.
What we need is that
2 ounces a hundred
and on up.
That's gonna push
us way farther ahead.
If the drill holes are correct,
we're all gonna run at
black Pearl, holy roller.
We throw a hail
Mary at this thing.
If not, we're screwed.
If it truly is 3
ounces a hundred,
this section right
here could be 25%
maybe even 35% of our
total gold that we need.
Yeah. I think what
I'd do is I'd get in here
get the water out,
expose the ground.
I think I can do that in a day.
I hate switching gears again,
but I think we
gotta take to risk.
Run one day of
it, do a clean-up,
and then we'll find out
if this mine's like a drill.
We moved around a lot this year,
trying to find pay dirt.
We started the ancient riverbed,
then we went up to
the narrows of dahl,
and then over at north fork.
But if I'm gonna win, I
gotta take this gamble.
I gotta take Andy out
from actually getting pay dirt
and put him over here
on this little project.
Hopefully, it pans out.
- Get me a day, run it.
- Okay.
Let's do a clean-up,
and then that clean-up
will tell us the story.
You'll just have to keep
tater scratching that pay
from the narrows of dahl.
I need Andy to
focus on the lost cut.
While he's doing that,
we're gonna have tater
start pulling dirt from
the narrows of dahl,
and get that pay dirt down
to the black Pearl and hunter
because their clean-ups
were even worse than ours.
Thirty-five,
forty-four.
Clearly what we have
here is a pay dirt problem.
I need them to run the pay
dirt from the narrows of dahl.
Tater needs to
watch those layers
and only bring the good pay dirt
to the black Pearl.
- Well, I say it's worth the risk.
- For sure.
- One clean-up.
- One clean-up. We'll do it.
Yeah, everything looks all good.
Right now we're
firing on all cylinders.
This morning, we made a few
small improvements on the plant.
Changed pulled
out all the water bars,
and we got some more
rpms out of our pump,
so everything seems to
be washing a little bit better.
All right, this
looks a little better.
I'm liking how the
water bar's looking, too.
That should be way
better than before.
Yeah, that's that's
looking really good, dude.
We can shove some
more material in here now.
Let's go ahead and
And clean it fairly fast.
After several low
weigh-ins for northfork,
hunter and his crew gear up
to run better pay from
the narrows of dahl.
That's rinsing the
material a lot better.
Yeah, that's what we needed.
Just cleaning it freaking
Yeah, that's fine China
coming right out the end.
My game plan is to
just try to run richer pay.
At the end of the day, um,
we're all on the same ship,
so, you know, I'm gonna
just have to trust my dad
and run whatever
he wants to run.
Okay, let's rip it.
Let's rip it!
Here's the deal.
We've got this cut that I
gotta go deal with, the lost cut.
I need to stick down
there for a couple of days.
- All right.
- So you are gonna kind of be thrown
into the lion's
den a little bit.
I need you just to scratch
pay and load these trucks.
Stay with the
layers that we have.
I keep finding this red layer.
It always pays really good.
The narrows of dahl has
five different layers of dirt.
In order to reach the
gold Ridge pay dirt,
tater must first dig
through a black topsoil layer
and two Clay
Ridge, brown layers.
Below those lies the gold
in a red layer and
a grey or rich layer.
Digging for pay requires
experience and a keen eye.
Don't get too far ahead of
yourself. You got a question, call me.
I'll come back down here.
All right.
Usually you get dropped
into something like this
after a couple
years of moving dirt
and hauling pay and
everything, you kind of learn it.
But we just don't
have that luxury.
Just take your time,
slow and steady, I
think you'll be okay.
- All right.
- Okay?
I'll do my best.
You can do this. I know you can.
So, just take your
time, though, okay?
- No problem.
- Call me if you need me.
- All right, I'm out.
- Good luck over there.
Yeah.
I'm a little nervous,
I'll be honest with you.
It's a big responsibility.
You know, Todd really
went out on a limb this year
with the equipment,
with fuel, with everything.
So I wanna come
up with a lot of gold
to make sure that
he doesn't go broke
and keep him in the black.
The gold is in the ground.
We just gotta dig and get it out.
I don't mind the work, but I'm not
gonna lie, these 16, 17-hour days,
they're getting to me.
Once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Every year.
We're running out of time.
Winter's coming.
We just gotta keep going,
keep grinding, no matter what.
Hey, sparky, the water stopped.
Sparky, do you copy?
I was feeding the plant,
everything was going great,
and then I go to
dump another scoop,
and I realize the water's off.
So, you know, I
had to shut it down.
Being down right now, it sucks.
And we gotta get up and
running as soon as possible.
So, I put cub up
in the black Pearl.
Then I hear on the radio
that the water shut off,
so our pump's full
idle, it's like dead,
which I don't have
another one, obviously.
We'll just figure out a
solution and work through it.
With the black
Pearl unable to run,
cub goes to work
helping tater stack pay
from the narrows of dahl.
Biggest part about this
is I hope I don't
make any mistakes.
If I throw away pay
dirt, that costs money.
And if I send the
wrong dirt, we run dirt
that doesn't have
anything in it,
that's a whole
other problem, so
Yeah.
There's so many different
colors and types of material here.
It's really not easy. Andy
makes it look pretty easy.
He's good. Man is good.
I hope I can do it half as
good and quick as he can.
Over at the lost cut
Andy begins
prepping the pay dirt.
His first step is dewatering it
with the barco pump.
Unless the water's
moving, it's an insulator.
It doesn't thaw out.
It'll stay frozen.
It'll never thaw.
You will have a muddy mess
because every time it rains,
just slops more material down.
You want to keep
the water flowing.
What I need is some
sunshine and some heat.
This gas-powered pump
can move up to
750 gallons a minute,
dispersing into
a nearby reserve.
But the pump alone isn't enough.
So, Andy will use the long neck
to dig 6-foot ditches
for the water to flow into,
which, in turn, will lower
the overall water level
and expose more ground
to the heat of the sun.
As much I wanted to
start digging the payout,
first thing you do is
you get your ditches right
and you get your pump
going, get rid of all the water.
Just keep the pump
running, keep the water going.
It's mother nature that we're
gonna fight against today
and we'll see who wins.
That's all we can do.
So I got a call that the
black Pearl was down
due to the water pump failed.
Looks like we got
a bad alternator
because the battery
is completely dead.
If the alternator's not
charging the battery
and the battery goes dead,
it shuts off, shuts
the pump down.
The alternator is a machine
connected to the
motor by a drive belt.
As it rotates, it converts
mechanical energy
into electrical energy,
which maintains
the batter's charge
and allows the pump
to continue running.
We'll probably start this
back up with another battery,
then go get a battery charger
and send it here with a generator.
I don't know if that's
gonna fit in there.
Close enough.
So we're gonna run jumper cables
from the barco to your battery,
so the barco's gonna be
charging your battery all the time
until we source
another alternator.
The alternator's the problem.
I figured. Do we have
another one like this here?
I think I have one more,
but I gotta go find it.
But if you wanna
get up and running,
you're able to now.
- All right, thank you.
- You're welcome.
I'm hoping that Randy
can find another alternator
off another pump or
something in the camp.
I wish we weren't having
these little tiny issues,
but everything
we're using is old,
everything has
a lot of wear on it.
Everything takes a
long time out here.
Even just losing half
an hour is a lot of money,
so there's a lot of factors
working against us.
Okay, alternator
went out on the pump.
They're putting cables
from the barco onto ours
so it's charging the
battery all the time.
Randy's gonna see if he
can get another alternator
off another pump.
So we're back up
and running right now.
We should be at full
water here in a second.
We're band-aiding it for now,
but it got us up and running.
It wasn't catastrophic,
but time is money,
so hopefully tonight
when we shut down for good,
we can get a more
permanent fix on that thing.
Okay.
With the majority of the
water drained from the lost cut,
Andy begins loading
rock trucks with pay.
I've never seen ground
that has so much ice in it.
Welcome to
When you move
it, move it real slow.
You know, this cut has a lot
more water than what we're used to,
and what we're getting into,
there's ice lenses going through it.
So as soon as you
expose it to the air,
turns instantly to water.
So, we got a lot of water.
But that's good. It's
melting. That's what I want.
It just makes a mess, though.
If this cut comes in anywhere
near 3 ounces a hundred,
that's gonna save our season.
Everything looks good right now.
Hopefully it stays running
until we can get a more
permanent fix on that thing.
While hunter and
cub take advantage
of the temporary battery
power running the water pump
to push narrows
of dahl pay dirt
Has it got a Built on it?
- We can take the pulley off.
- We can change it, yeah.
Ron and Randy
scour old equipment
in hopes of finding
an alternator matching
the exact model they need
to permanently fix the pump.
That orange pump
over here is the one
- It's got a John deere engine on it.
- Yeah.
And I took the alternator off
of it for the camp generator.
- This one's identical.
- Is it?
Yeah.
- Okay, this will fit.
- Yeah.
There she be.
Black Pearl is
built like a tank.
That thing is so
heavy and so strong
that nothing's
really gonna affect it.
What's gonna affect it is
the little things around it.
And that's what happened
today. An alternator failure.
Okay, you want me
to rip into that, then?
Yeah, you rip into that and I'll
I'll get back to trucking.
It's just timing.
We're out of it.
We don't have any more
time. We have to stay running.
This alternator will be a real
good donor candidate for us.
They're both John deere,
and the mounting
appears to be the same.
There we go.
That's the last
one in captivity,
so better not
lose it or break it.
All there. Okay, let's go.
That is really wet.
Back at the holy roller,
Todd continues to run
the 650-yard test pay
from the lost cut.
This pay dirt
here is the wettest,
nastiest stuff that
we've ever ran.
Just running out of the bucket,
man. It's like wet concrete.
It kind of reminds me
of something that my
grandma used to make
for dinner.
It wasn't good then
and it ain't good now.
Because that cut
was done at the wrong
time, it's really, really wet,
so our pay dirt is just
saturated with water.
What we need is at least 2
ounces a hundred to hit our goal.
Hey, framer, test the water.
I gotta go through check
gauges right now, and all that.
Yes.
I'm just checking on
the plant right now.
We're running the lost cut dirt,
the first of the lost
cut dirt right now.
And just making sure
everything's running properly
so we get a proper test on this.
It's our last little
push right now
before the weather kicks us out,
so we wanna make sure
it's a perfect run.
All right.
We really need to know
how much gold is in this pay.
Hopefully before we're
out of here, we hit 1,000,
but I don't know.
You know, this is gold mining,
so you never really know.
Literally, the mine depends on
this sticky, nasty pay dirt.
We're on pretty good ground.
Todd decided to pivot
over to the lost cut.
This late in the
season, it could be a
It could be a
really risky venture.
We're taking resources
from no pay dirt.
It's gonna be a little
hectic and stressful.
The weather's changing. Days
are gonna get shorter and colder.
So we really, really
gotta pay attention
to what we're doing
and not mess things up.
But I really think
Todd and Andy,
they wouldn't take a risk if there
wasn't a pretty good chance of success.
Really hoping that I can
knock this one out of the park.
Hopefully it doesn't go wrong.
Yesterday we found an
alternator up here at the pad.
Never throw anything away.
He was running the
pump late last night,
and I told him, I
said, "you know what?
We'll just put it
in in the morning."
So, today we're gonna
put that alternator in,
test it, make sure
that it's working.
It even has the
right pulley on it.
I don't even have to
change the pulley over.
Weather's coming. Temperature's
dropped a good ten degrees here this week,
and we're gonna get
shoved out any day now.
Here we go.
So it's vitally important that
the black Pearl stays running
at all costs.
Come on.
You're already in there.
If we're gonna hit
any of our goals,
we gotta keep
the plants turning.
There we go.
Am I gonna miss these days
where I have to come out here
and put together in the middle of
the snow and the rain and the ice?
Not so much.
Got this new
alternator on there.
- Just wanna test fire it.
- Yeah.
Here we go.
So far so good.
So it's actually
sending voltage.
Let's go take that
battery cable off
and see if it's
actually working.
There it is.
We took the cable off.
It's still running.
Therefore the
alternator's working
because you've eliminated
all the voltage from the battery.
So now you're You're golden.
You're putting out voltage.
So now with a generator and a
battery charger and four other batteries,
you're actually
You should be able to run
all day without any issues.
Awesome. Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you.
This is a huge help.
Yeah, no kidding.
Got it all fixed.
But that doesn't mean that
there won't be something else.
Okay, I guess we'll
fire her up then.
- You can run it now.
- Let's do it.
There's just so many thousand
things that can go wrong,
and they do.
We cannot afford
to be down anymore.
I say let's set the bypass.
Now we're idling down the pump.
Take it down to about
800 rpm, let it cool down.
That barco has been
hammering all day.
Shut the trommel down.
After running exactly
650 yards of the lost cut
Big moment.
The team is ready to find out
if their pivot to new pay
dirt was a wise decision.
You see anything good in here?
Yeah.
There's yellow stuff in there.
All kinds of gold in there.
So about ready to pull
mats for the lost cut.
And I know it's a small test,
but to me, this is the biggest
clean-up of the season.
- There was?
- Yeah.
This has gotta be good gold
or we're in deep,
deep trouble as a mine.
Dude, everything is looking
pretty good over here.
It's looking pretty good.
And keep 'em running, baby.
Copy.
This morning we got
the new part put on.
So far so good.
Sluice box looks good,
pump looks good,
so just keeping a little bit of
a closer eye on things today.
Cleaning out really good.
It's one of those
things, it's like, say,
you get a new car
and it never breaks down.
You know, after
the first breakdown,
you don't you
know, you don't trust it
the way you did,
you know, initially.
I don't wanna push
this plant to its limit,
I don't want it to break
down this season,
but either way, we
need to get the yardage
or we're not gonna get to 1,000.
We don't know how
much time we have left.
You know, we're at the
mercy of the elements here,
so I'd rather leave
here sooner than later.
It's looking pretty good.
We're gonna check
out competitor's box,
see if we're packing up.
That feels It
looks pretty good.
I don't see any
major leaks, so
Just checking in
on the competitor,
see what we're
dealing with right now.
And it's looking not too shabby.
Maybe could be a little
better, but that's my opinion.
If their pay turns out to be
more potent than expected,
everybody wins.
We're a competition,
but if their lost cut
ends up being more,
that's more than better, okay?
You know, I'm
hearing over the radio
that my grandpa's testing out
some of the concentrate that
the holy roller ran from the lost cut.
And I'm hoping that it's hotter
than the last stuff
we were running.
So, we'll see.
That's lost cut
they ran 650 yards.
So that would mean if we
got 6-and-a-half ounces,
you're doing good.
If you get 12 ounces,
you're doing really good.
You know? And if
you get more than 12,
you're doing exceptional.
So, yeah, it needs
to be screened, yeah?
All right.
Running out of time.
It's starting to get cold.
Things are gonna
keep falling out.
So what we're doing
is jumping to another spot.
Sometimes that'll
bit you in the butt,
but it's not desperation,
but it's the final
hour, if you might say.
That's pretty nice
gold right there.
Yeah, I'll take that any day.
So, all hands on deck.
No sleep. Work, work.
So it's just the way it is.
Gosh, that looks good, though.
- Okay, let's go weigh it.
- Okay.
The lost cut has to be good.
It looks promising.
But again, that
scale does not lie.
We'll weigh it up and
that will tell us what we got,
and hopefully it's good.
See what Todd's got here.
15.15 ounces.
That's fantastic.
Todd's made a wise decision
and he has to make this work.
Todd, we got 15.15 ounces.
2.4 ounces per 100.
The lost cut weighed out
at 2.4 ounces per 100 yards.
So actually, I'm
very excited about it.
There's a real chance
we're gonna hit 1,000.
We're gonna run this lost cut
till all the pay freezes up on us.
Over at the narrows of dahl,
tater continuous stacking
pay for the black Pearl.
How many did we haul yesterday?
Ten
Right now I got a lot
of emotions going on.
It's always been a dream of
mine to come up here and do this.
Now I'm actually pulling
the gold out of the ground,
it kind of feels good.
Feels good to have the trust.
I can call myself a gold miner.
I'm really excited.
When we run this dirt, we'll
know if I made a mistake or not.
This sluice box
is either gonna be
yellow or barren.
If it's yellow,
man, I'm gonna be, jumping.
You'll see me doing, like,
jumping Jacks and cartwheels.
It would be great.
And if it's barren,
it falls all on me.
There's a lot of pressure.
Hopefully it doesn't go wrong.
With the lost cut coming
in at 2.4 ounces per 100,
this, I believe, is good news,
and this is actually gonna turn
our season in the right direction.
Go ahead and bring
it down to half idle.
Bring it down to half.
Now, hunter and his
crew are ready to pull
the black Pearl's
mats for the week
and get their first glimpse at
how much gold they could have
from the narrows of dahl.
Let's just get into
it, rinse all these
and we'll have a
fresh box for tomorrow.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Let's rip it up.
It's gonna be a fat
clean-up. I'm feeling it, dude.
- Look at that.
- Yeah, that's Bro.
Have you checked this line out?
Despite the blown alternator
that threatened a long shutdown,
the black Pearl was
able to continue running,
thanks to a band-aid fix
and some resourcefulness
on Randy and Ron's part.
It's a fix that could make all
the difference in the gold room.
That's the money.
- That's what we love to see.
- It goes all the way down.
Look. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Yup, we're loaded.
We got a whole
gold colony right here.
You wanna go eat, cub,
and him cover you, or what?
No we're gonna eat
when we shut down.
One of the things
I miss the most
is being able to just
drive and go get food.
Sometimes we gotta
eat just pop tarts.
That's how it is.
I we need to eat more.
Sucks these things are
gone in, like, two bites.
You can't eat parts of trees,
forage for mushrooms.
I wanna eat a
big piece of steak.
Right now I'm
gonna eat some pie,
get some coffee and
get out of here, okay?
Hey, Jack, you gotta
see this. Come here.
Look at all that gold in there.
Yeah. Okay.
We've got tater's dirt
from the narrows of dahl,
you know, he's
been digging that.
And hopefully it's
good, you know.
I we gotta have some
good days, you know?
And hopefully
this is one of them.
So here's where our
concentrate comes out
of the duplex jig.
There's,
probably about $30,000
worth of gold in this one bucket.
Pretty cool.
I think tater did a good job.
Now the narrows of dahl is
It's good.
It's just not good
enough for me.
If you only have this
material to run, run it.
But if you have
the lost cut material,
run that, that's
your best material.
Be smart, you know.
Time is of the
essence, you know.
And and.
I probably know that
better than anybody.
The reason that I know it is
because I'm gonna be 77 this year.
My time's running out, you know.
And I wanna get a lot of gold.
Guys, this was a big week.
What's in the lost
cut, that's the future.
Yeah.
In order to stay on track to
hit their 1,000-ounce goal,
the Hoffmans need
a combined total
of at least 121
ounces this week.
How about you guys?
No major issues and
just running consistently.
But there is gold
in it, you know?
Every day we shut down,
there was gold in the box, so
Either you're
really tired, Jack,
or that looks pretty heavy
Set that down again.
I wanna hear that.
Wow, that is Well
That sounded
heavier, I don't know.
Sounded pretty heavy.
All right, 101 last week.
They're the winners.
They go first.
Okay, you're gonna
count it out, spark.
I got you.
Let's see how tater did.
Five, ten,
15, 20,
25, 30,
35,
40,
45,
46.1.
- So, we did better than last week.
- Nice.
I mean, it's 80 grand. I
mean, I'm happy with it.
Awesome.
- Tater, I just wanna say thank you.
- Yeah, you're welcome, man.
Tater really came in clutch
and helped us to get gold.
Like, at the end of the day, we
wanted to have a competition,
but it's like we're all
on the same team.
Okay, what do we got?
Okay, go for it.
In order to hit their weekly
target of 121 ounces,
Todd needs their
gold-rich lost cut
to bring in at least 75 ounces.
- Hey, Jack.
- Yeah.
We'll need the big one.
- Now we're talking.
- Now we're talking.
All right.
Fifteen, 20, 25,
30, 35,
40, 45, 50, 55,
60, 65, 70,
75,
78, 79,
79.9.
- Now we're talking.
- There we go. Yeah.
That's what, $135,000?
- That's pretty good. Just us.
- Yeah.
Okay, what is that?
How many ounces?
For the week, it's 126.
Boom. We hit that 121 level.
Right.
Okay. Now what's our total?
Her grand total is 762 Dude.
All right.
This week, the Hoffmans produced
a total of 126 ounces of gold,
bringing their
running tally up to 762.
The Hoffmans now need
238 more ounces of gold
to reach their season
goal of 1,000 ounces.
We're close to getting
our goal of 1,000.
It's hard to believe.
You're a sweet man.
We love you.
Don't cry on camera.
It's real.
It's super hard out here.
I know we're all tired,
we're all worn down,
but none of us are gonna
leave until we get 1,000 ounces.
So however we gotta do it,
if I gotta keep getting
40-ounce clean-ups,
well, that's what we're gonna do
because we're already close.
- I agree.
- Really close.
We're gonna run the
wheels off that black Pearl.
I don't care if we gotta
burn body fat for fuel,
we're gonna do it.
Good.
Everybody else
feel that same way?
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
We got a big week.
Let's tackle this next week.
Let's do another one like this.
Okay.
All right, guys, let's go.