Gold Rush (2018) s05e01 Episode Script
New Blood
I am not mining with the Hoffmans any more.
It was a tough decision.
I love Todd.
But I can't spend another year of my life working for him.
I need to be with a crew who can get some serious gold.
This is my chance at a new beginning.
Right here under this glacier is a great big pile of gold.
All we got to do is dig it up.
I had a dream of going to the jungle.
And what that dream brought was a lot of pain and heartbreak.
The amount of money we lost, and what we went through, that damn near destroyed me.
It was embarrassing and demoralising.
I never ever want to be a part of something like that again.
And I won't.
I won't do it.
Last season was a huge success.
We found a lot of gold.
We made a lot of money.
A thousand ounces in our first year in the Klondike is a damn good achievement.
Last year was the training year.
It's time to take the training wheels off.
This season, everything has changed.
We're not miners any more.
Let's tear this thing up.
New claims.
Carmacks is open for business.
New miners.
And new ways to pull gold out of the ground.
Bigger, badder machines.
Big dreams.
I'm setting a 2,000 ounce goal.
Big decisions.
I'm out, Todd.
Dude, I'm out.
I do not want to do this, Dad.
Just don't quit! And the biggest gold they've ever mined.
It's the biggest nugget I've ever dug up.
In a high mountain pass just west of Carmacks in the Yukon, a new gold mining crew kicks off their season.
Dave Turin has left his old friend Todd Hoffman to mine with two legends.
Freddy and Derek Dodge.
Their ground, an extraordinary nugget-rich valley.
Glad you're here with us, Dave.
It's nice to have you on the team.
Hopefully we can come together as a team and kick some ass.
I would suggest we get in our machines and rip and tear.
All right, let's rip the hell out of this thing.
The Dodge brothers' Carmacks claim is just 3km from the top of the mountain.
Close to the source of the gold.
In an area that was missed during the gold rush.
It's thought to contain some of the best gold deposits in the Yukon.
Last year, the Hoffmans considered mining Carmacks.
You guys are after some big nuggets, huh? Like how big? How big? About that big.
Oh! That's what I call a big nugget.
But when Todd decided to head to South America instead, the Dodge brothers mined the claim.
Look at that one! Some beautiful gold here.
The results were remarkable.
This is just some of the big stuff.
Dave jumped at the chance to get a piece of the Carmacks action.
I can't wait till I see gold.
Freddy and Derek have been doing this creek.
They are getting big gold and a lot of it.
I'm kind of known as the gold guy.
Derek has been a prospector for many, many years.
Dave, he's one of the best people I've ever seen on heavy equipment.
We put together one hell of a team.
If the gold's in the ground, we will succeed.
The nuggets at Carmacks are buried beneath the ice.
Dave and the Dodge brothers could wait for the frozen river to thaw.
But they have a plan that should put them weeks ahead of the game.
They'll build an ice dam upstream to create a massive build-up of water.
When the dam is full, Derek will release 900,000 litres of water into the valley below.
The surge should clear enough snow and ice for the crew to start mining.
But Dave has to build the dam from below.
Manoeuvring his excavator on ice.
I've never worked on ice before.
Makes me a little nervous.
This is a 105,000lb machine.
And it's not designed to be run on snow and ice.
Come on, get up.
There we go.
There we go.
Oh, that's good.
After half an hour, the dam starts to take shape.
I got a lot of ice sitting in here right now.
The pond's filling up faster than I thought.
We're going to have to hurry.
I'm going to cut it loose.
It's going to go big.
Hang on.
Let me get out of here.
Whoa! 900,000 litres of water threaten to breach the dam with Dave directly in its path.
Whoa! Easy there! We're about to lose it.
Come on, baby.
Get up the hill.
I can't be waiting.
Got to hurry.
This dam is going to break on its own.
That ought to be enough.
With Dave out of harm's way, Derek now needs to get over the ice wall to push it from behind.
OK, I'm going to back up here and break this thing loose.
Ready.
Guys, this dam is full.
It can break any minute.
Watch out, Derek! You're slipping! Derek is stuck.
If the dam blows before the D8 gets over the wall, the dozer and Derek will be swept along with 900,000 litres of water, down the mountain and over the waterfall.
Whoa! (BLEEP)! Whoa! Come on, girl.
Get it up here! It's going to go any second, guys.
I can't stop it.
We got to go.
Come on, you old cow.
Get the heck up the hill here! Derek, it's going to go any time.
Careful.
There we go.
Whoo! Derek breaks through the five-metre wall.
Let's give it hell.
There it goes! Look at that stuff go down the creek, man! Got ice flowing now! Nice! That'll clear it out! All the water and ice from above cleared down to the bottom of the mountain.
It's exactly what we want.
It's working perfect.
In just a morning's work, the water has cleared most of the ice covering their Carmacks gold.
Tore the heck out of it! We're good, huh? Down to the gravel.
There's gold right where we're standing here now.
There's pockets in here that are going to be amazing.
It's going to be a great season.
Carmacks is open for business.
Last year, in his first Klondike season, 19-year-old Parker Schnabel mined a staggering 1,029 ounces of gold.
Worth $1.
4 million.
Last season, by every measure that I know, it was a huge success for us.
We did over 1,000 ounces on low-grade ground.
Tony told me that if I did well last year, he'd give me a better ground.
I'm here to get it.
Parker has travelled almost 5,000km to Arizona for a face to face meeting with his claim owner Tony Beets at his winter home.
Hey, Tony.
Long time, no see.
Like we said last year, that was a bit of a training ground.
But this season, I'm prepared to throw everything we made last year into it.
But that means, obviously, we need better ground.
No, no, no.
I thought I could expect it because - No.
This last season, I thought that we showed you can give me ground that is economical to mine.
No.
I expected this to go differently.
It's quite obvious to me you're leasing me ground that you would never touch.
Obviously there's no negotiating here.
You make it hard to be happy.
(BLEEP)! (BLEEP)! If Tony wants me to mine his (BLEEP) ground, then I don't even know if I want to go back to the Klondike.
Sandy, Oregon.
After epic failure in the jungles of Guyana, the Hoffman crew has disbanded.
The guys have had no choice but to do what they can to make ends meet.
Since I've been home, I'm trying to get any odd job I can find.
I got bills to pay.
Andy Spinks has resorted to working at his family's nursery.
I've spent a lot of years trying to help Todd.
It's a big commitment.
It hasn't really paid off.
And the future is no brighter for Kevin Hiatt.
Now I'm dealing with other people's garbage.
But it's a paying job.
At least I'm going to make some money.
That's what I have to do.
But Todd refuses to let the Hoffmans' dream die.
He calls his crew together for the first time since South America.
I'm nervous.
I've got all my guys coming over.
We're going to have a frank talk.
I'm going to ask my team to go north one more time.
Will they come with me? I don't know.
Hey, guys.
Come on in.
Have a seat.
Thanks for coming.
I appreciate it.
I'm not happy that you guys are struggling because of my decisions.
That's not funny to me.
What the hell were we doing in Guyana? We knew nothing about diamonds.
We knew nothing about the country.
We should never left the Klondike.
Guys, I want to go back to the Klondike.
And finish what we started.
If we can find some good land, put the equipment back together, and let's go.
You don't have land? I don't have anything.
He's done it before.
He can do it again.
You have to take a chance.
Who's with me? I'm out, Todd.
I'm out.
I'm out.
All of you guys? Thurber, you've been with me for four frickin' years.
I can't go unless you have land.
I don't have land.
Dude, I'm out.
That hurts.
Never expected that.
Did you? No.
After his disastrous meeting with Tony Beets, Parker is back home in Alaska.
Tony Beets isn't the only option for me this year.
My other option is to stay here and mine Big Nugget.
That's kind of tempting.
Considering the attitude Tony has about things.
To decide on his next move, Parker heads to see his mining mentor, 94-year-old grandpa John.
Hey, Grandpa! Oh, hello.
How are you doing? I'm doing fine.
I'm doing better now that you're here! It's nice to see you.
I just went to Arizona and met with Tony.
Tony is basically offering me the same ground that we mined last year.
I'm not sure what to do.
And you resent it somewhat, I gather.
If Tony wants me to keep my (BLEEP) ground, I might as well go back to Big Nugget and be my own boss.
You know? It's obvious we're dealing in emotions rather than economics.
What kind of future is there here? There isn't much, Parker, I will have to admit.
You can maybe have a few years, but then you go to go somewhere.
If I am going to give you my true advice, I would say this.
I think you should go up there and open up the ground that Tony's got.
And earn enough to buy your own claim.
I would get out from under Tony.
The fact that you have owned Big Nugget has always given you the freedom to do whatever you want.
That's correct.
You're right.
Buying ground starts to look like a better idea.
It's a risk and a challenge.
Anybody that backs away from a challenge, in my opinion, will never get too far.
Thanks, Grandpa.
I look forward to seeing you up north this summer.
I will look forward to coming.
I have every bit of confidence you are going to come out a winner.
My grandpa is right.
I need to buy my own ground and get out from under Tony.
A decent claim is going to cost at least 2,000 ounces.
Trying to find 1,000 last year damn near killed us.
But I'm going to pile every cent we made last year back into it.
And buy my own ground and be my own boss.
In the Yukon, at Clear Creek, Tony Beets takes two expert machinists, Mike Krishner and Jerry Rhodes, to his latest purchase.
Are you nuts? Huge.
What the (BLEEP) did you do? Dredges are floating gold factories.
They were first used in the Klondike over 100 years ago.
For half a century, they dominated the gold mining landscape.
They slowly dug their way through the valleys in ponds they created themselves.
Leaving vast lines of tailings in their wake.
In a single day, the biggest dredges could process a staggering 14,500 yards of paydirt.
Producing nearly a million dollars in gold.
Dredges combine all the processes of gold mining in one floating machine.
A bucket line at the front digs the paydirt.
An onboard washplant washes the dirt.
Gold then collects in the sluices.
And finally, tailings spit out of the back.
But no-one has run a dredge in the Klondike for over a quarter of a century.
This thing is older than we are, Tony.
How do we know anything will work? To get this 75-year-old dredge back up and running, Tony will have to break it down into thousands of pieces.
Transport it 250km.
And hope he can get it to work after putting it all back together.
Without Jerry and Mike's mechanical expertise, Tony has no chance of pulling off this epic feat of engineering.
You've bitten off an awful lot here.
You expect us to move this thing? Oh, wow.
It looks really nice! But it hasn't run.
(BLEEP)! Look at this! You make it sound pretty easy.
Tony, we want this to happen for you.
But you got a few obstacles that you're not looking at.
It might be different if this ran last season.
But it's been sitting 30 years.
We're in.
Yeah.
Perfect.
What do you think, Mike? I don't know.
What have we got ourselves into here? April in Dawson City.
It's minus three degrees Celsius.
And still a week before the start of the mining season.
But once again, Parker Schnabel and Rick Ness are back at Scribner Creek early.
To make enough money to buy his own land by the end of the season, Parker needs to get his operation up and running as soon as possible.
It's good to be back, Rick.
Yeah.
Before they can do anything, Parker and Rick need to find out if their equipment has survived the minus 46 degree winter winds.
Gene is showing up here in less than ten days.
So if there's any surprises, we need to know about it.
We're pretty damn early, but I'd rather deal with this now than in a month.
Because we will be one of the first ones sluicing.
Then we get to find some gold.
The key to opening ground early in the season is Parker's 30-year-old D10 dozer.
If we can get this dozer going, then we can start stripping.
And that's why we're here.
(ENGINE FAILS) Come on.
(FAILS) Come on, you (BLEEP).
(STARTS) Ha ha! That's a good start.
Parker and Rick immediately start clearing overburden in the far cut.
Ground so rich that in the final four days of last season, they mined 148 ounces of gold from it.
Worth $200,000.
Yee-ha! Parker rips through the ice with the D10 ripper.
Rick follows behind in the excavator.
This is the first cut of the new season.
Starting where Parker and I left off in October last year.
It's going to be (BLEEP) awesome.
Feels good to be back in the saddle.
I'm happy with how things are going.
Rick is pretty gung-ho to get going.
We know that there's gold where we're stripping.
We've got a big advantage over last year, having a year under our belt.
What the (BLEEP)? What the (BLEEP) is going on with this steering? (BLEEP)! Rick, can you come over here? Something's going on with this (BLEEP) dozer.
(BLEEP)! The pin for the stabiliser bar is backed out.
Oh, no.
Almost completely.
(BLEEP)! The right-hand track is bowing in and out.
Making the dozer impossible to steer.
Underneath, an idler arm is designed to keep the track in line by locking it to the body.
But the pin has slipped out.
And the idler arm is no longer connected to the track.
With the weight of the dozer on the tracks, there's no way to line up the two pinholes.
How are we going to get that thing lined back up? If I can see that from outside the track and you put some pressure on the blade, and lift the machine a little, it might line back up.
Maybe I can pound that sucker back in place.
Just drive it right back in? Yeah.
Rick's plan is to use the blade to take the weight off the front of the dozer, releasing the pressure on the tracks, bringing the pinholes back into alignment.
Rick will then try to drive the pin back in by hand from under the 57 tonne dozer.
That puts you under there with all the pressure on those cylinders.
Yeah.
No other option right now.
All right, let's try it.
Bring it down just a little bit.
That's pretty close right there.
Pretty close? See if it will go in? Yeah, but be careful.
I can't get any leverage for my back.
I don't know if I can pound this in.
We need to get it going or else we can't strip.
That's the whole reason we're up here.
It's got to go in about six more inches.
Parker edges the dozer blade down to better line up the holes.
Can you pound it in? I think it's starting to move.
Whoo! (BLEEP) pin! Nice swinging, John Henry! Got it, buddy.
Back in business.
Good job, man.
All right, back to stripping.
We'll get back to it.
Let's get some (BLEEP) dirt moved.
225km south at Carmacks, the Dodge brothers and Dave Turin are about to move their washplant into position so they can start sluicing.
Hey, Dave.
What's up? What's the plan? It will take all of us to do it.
Get this into place and washing rocks by the end of the week.
I'll stay on the ground.
You guys are the best operators.
Be careful.
You see how steep this is? Let's do this! The plan is for Derek to drag their 20 tonne derocker up the steep, muddy track and down the creek bed into its final position using the D8 dozer.
Ready, guys? Ready! Let's do it.
Looking good, Freddy! Is it going to go on? We're good, we're good.
He's slipping a little bit.
That's a lot of weight.
A lot of weight.
It's a tough creek.
This is not easy mining.
This road scares me a little bit.
It's soft.
It's black mud that melted out.
We cannot drop one of these.
We can't make any mistakes right now.
It's going to get a bit steeper here in a few yards.
Made it up, Dave! All right! They've reached the top.
One step closer to mining, buddy! Now they must descend into the creek bed.
We're ready to hook the excavator up for the downhill part.
That could be the scary part.
We definitely don't want this 20 tonne machine sliding into the back of that dozer.
I'll go get the 400.
In case the derocker slides out of control.
they attach the excavator to act as a brake.
As Derek is pulling, I got to put just the amount of tension to hold it back so it doesn't slide down into him.
This takes a great amount of teamwork here.
This is a big deal here.
It's the heart of the operation, this derocker.
Without it, with these big-ass boulders here, we're done.
We don't want to screw this up.
Let's get her done, Derek! OK! Looks good.
It's not an easy corner.
Come on, Derek.
Easy there! Easy! Derek, you're going to pull me down that hill.
This corner is turning into a pain in the ass.
Nice and easy.
Nice and easy.
Easy, Derek.
Whoa! Derek, easy! I'm going downhill! Hey! All right, take it easy now.
Derek, Dave, I'm going to get to the high side in case this thing slips off the bank.
Freddy guides the convoy along the edge of a six-metre drop.
How are we looking, Freddy? Do I need to keep more tension up? Try to pick this up and spin it this way! It's stuck on the side hill.
I don't like this.
I'm on a piece of ice.
And I'm clear off to the edge.
And it's a bad angle.
Ho! Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're on a glacier right there, Dave.
Come on, baby.
Get into place.
Let's try to get it over a little bit here if you can with this end, Dave.
Come up, Dave! Dave, come up.
Hold it there, guys.
Let's have a look at it.
Derek, it's perfect side to side.
Perfect.
Good job.
The derocker is in place.
One down, one to go.
Some sluices, some water, and we'll be making gold! Nice job.
Pleasure working with you guys.
Perfect.
Ready to get some gold.
Jack and Todd Hoffman have been abandoned by their crew.
But father and son are refusing to quit.
Let's tarp it, get the pump, and go.
I've decided to go north.
But I tell you what, that decision didn't come easy.
I don't have a claim.
I don't have enough equipment.
I've never been this unprepared for anything in my life.
We may not have land and it's just the two of us, but we are father and son.
And together, we can conquer the world.
Ready? Yep.
For the last four years, they've headed off to mine with a crew, a claim, and a plan.
I think we got everything.
We're ready to go.
This time, they have nothing.
Love you guys.
Love you, honey.
I'm praying for you.
Will you say a little prayer for us? You bet.
Lord, help us find a place to mine.
Give us the strength and give us the courage to go forward.
Amen.
All right, guys.
Love you.
Bye-bye.
Once again, Todd and Jack make the 3,000km journey north to the Klondike.
If they can't somehow turn things around, it could be their last.
The scary part for me is it all comes down to land.
Gold is where you find it.
You got to get a good claim.
It's going to work out.
Greg is going to have something for us.
He always has in the past.
The Hoffmans have arranged to meet the man who gave them their first break in the Klondike three years ago.
Greg McNeil.
Hey, Greg.
Hey, Todd.
Hey, Jack.
How are you? Doing all right.
Why I wanted to meet with you is I was hoping you had some land for us.
Remember the ground I leased before? I need that land again, Greg.
There's no way possible.
I don't have anything.
This is our last shot, Greg.
That's out of the question.
And to be honest, after last season, I just don't know what stock in you is worth this year.
I don't know who, up here, is going to lease you guys any ground.
It is what it is.
Best of luck to you.
You're going to need it.
Take care.
That didn't go so good.
Todd, it's not the fight that the dog's in.
It's the fight that's in the dog.
We will find a place.
If we can't find a decent claim, I do not want to do this, Dad.
I don't know if I can take another failure like that.
It's going to happen, Todd.
Just don't quit.
Just two hours south of Dawson at Scribner Creek, Parker and Rick have spent the last week struggling on their own to remove four metres of overburden.
Rick and I are trying to get this cut sorted.
It's a long push.
And that dozer is expensive to run.
Parker's foreman, Gene Cheeseman, is due to arrive any minute with their new mechanic.
Gene's definitely the key to this season if we're going to do the big numbers.
He knows how to move dirt.
And that's what we need to do.
How's it going? Good.
How are you doing? Good.
How was the trip up? Not too bad.
Brought a mechanic, I guess.
How are you doing? Mitch, how are you doing? Not too bad.
For two seasons, Mitch Blaschke was Todd Hoffman's mechanic.
This year, he's defected to Parker's crew.
I'm glad you're both here.
This time last year, we were sluicing four days from now.
And we're nowhere near that right now.
I hope that we can step that up.
Let's get going on it.
Sounds good.
I'm tired of working on uneducated guesses.
So I came over here.
Where they seem to plan things out a bit better.
So I'm looking forward to a good season.
Whatever it takes to get the job done and get some gold in the box.
I hope Mitch hasn't lost his work ethic working for Todd Hoffman.
If something's broke down, Mitch is going to stay here till he fixes it.
Or he gets in a service truck and drives back to Oregon.
Gene heads straight to the cut to check on Parker's progress.
I want to check what Parker and Rick have been doing for the last bit they've been here.
Get organised, get a plan.
Get the ground running.
He's not impressed.
You want to get 2,000 ounces, you got to speed it up here.
What do you mean? Pushing with one Cat is not going to get it opened up fast enough.
We need to get the trucks out here and get to hauling the stuff.
But the roads are so (BLEEP) with ice and mud.
Nobody's hauling anything out here.
I don't know how to get the trucks out here.
I know what you're saying.
Pushing will work.
But it will take a lot longer.
Trucks are going to speed up the process.
Move twice as much and burn less fuel.
Get the trucks here.
Do whatever it takes.
225km south of Dawson City at Carmacks, just a week into the mining season, Derek, Freddy, and Dave are finally ready to run dirt on their mountain claim.
That thick patch of ice has gone.
Let's get to sluicing.
Make some gold.
Joining them is Derek's wife Irene.
Got to put some pay in this box, Irene.
So let her rip.
Will do.
I've been waiting so long to get this show going.
Irene feeds the derocker that washes the gold and dirt off rocks and boulders.
There's our first bucket.
We're sluicing and making gold! Whoo-hoo! Dave strips the land further down the claim.
We're on good ground and we're going to get some good gold this year.
If we keep running at this rate, Derek, it's going to be a good year.
Irene's feeding good.
We've got about double our production so far by the way it's looking here.
What the hell is that? That's all we need.
Hey, Derek.
We got a part here in the tailings.
I don't know what it's off of.
What does it look like? Yellow.
It's a seal off of something.
I don't know what.
I'm coming to check it out.
It's piling up at the top.
It's not feeding right either.
(BLEEP)! Shut it down! Shut it down! It's not looking good under there.
Got a tyre in there not supposed to be laying on the floor, Freddy.
We got some issues here.
The axle's either come out or broken or done something.
I think we're screwed.
The deck of the derocker moves up and down on a bed of truck wheels.
Directly beneath where the rocks are loaded, one of the wheels has sheared off its axel.
Hooking a chain up to pull the derocker's deck back so we can get inside and get it fixed.
There's one hell of a weight here we're trying to pull uphill.
Rock, steel, and fighting gravity.
Here we go.
Before they can fix the wheel, they have to remove the rocks and the deck that weigh over 4.
5 tonnes.
(BLEEP)! I'll try to get this up higher over the top of the blade.
Try it again! Come on, chain.
That'll work, Derek! Doesn't look good, does it? Let's get with it and make some gold this afternoon.
All yours, Derek! We'll replace this axle now and put a new seal in.
And get rolling again here.
Oops.
We got one of these rollers put back together.
The Dodge brothers are a dream team.
They know what they're doing.
They know how to fix their equipment.
With the Hoffmans in Guyana, that would have taken us weeks.
We're getting our tyres in place and we'll roll the deck back over.
We'll be ready to rock and roll again.
Let's fire it up.
Try her out.
See what happens.
We got a load up.
Put your thumb in, girl.
OK.
Looking good.
In just three hours, Freddy and Derek have fixed the derocker and are back washing rocks.
Carmacks is back on track to be the first mine to strike gold this season.
Good job, Derek.
Works, yeah.
Excellent.
(HOWLING) 3AM, just outside Dawson City.
Parker and Rick are taking matters into their own hands.
If no-one else will drive their rock trucks to Scribner Creek, they will.
These trucks are ready to rock and roll? Yeah, the trucks are ready but this road is still a nightmare.
We need these rock trucks onsite as soon as we can.
Yeah, I get it.
Get ground stripped.
We need to get that plant up and running.
To avoid slipping on the muddy roads, their plan is to drive at night when the ground freezes up.
It did freeze pretty good overnight at least.
Let's do it, Rick.
Sounds good, buddy.
Try and keep it rubber side down and get there in one piece.
They'll have to hurry to cover the 88km back to the claim before the sun rises and the icy road starts to melt.
In May, this far north, night lasts less than five hours.
How's that truck running, Rick? Truck's running smooth, Parker.
This road's good so far.
Dude, these things have some balls.
Yeah, I'm pretty impressed so far.
Negotiating the ice slows progress.
Pick up the pace.
Ohh! As dawn breaks, Parker and Rick still have 16km to go.
As soon as the sun rises, the ice begins to melt.
And the roads deteriorate fast.
It's not starting to look so good, is it? I knew these roads were going to get bad, dude.
This ain't good.
This part of the road is washed right out.
Yeah, it is.
Pretty jacked.
This is all turning to mud.
I think we're going to slide on any and all of it.
Oh, (BLEEP)! (BLEEP)! (BLEEP)! Just 8km from Scribner Creek, after an overnight drive from Dawson, Rick Ness has crashed his rock truck.
(BLEEP)! What the (BLEEP)?! I told you this was going to happen! Told me what was going to happen? You were going to drive off the (BLEEP) road? The roads are (BLEEP)! That's (BLEEP).
You did a good number on that one.
It's (BLEEP).
Need to get a chain and (BLEEP) pull it out.
We don't have a whole lot of room.
I can't pull you on this side.
If you come this way at all, we'll tip the tractor over.
(BLEEP) way to start a season.
Parker has to somehow pull Rick's truck out of the ditch.
But just to the right of the truck is a steep slope that drops off 6m into a creek.
We need to watch for that (BLEEP) ditch.
There's still a good chance that tractor goes over in it.
And then we are hooped.
(BLEEP).
Ready, Rick? Let's give it a whirl.
It's pulling me into the (BLEEP) ditch.
(BLEEP)! If this starts to go over, kill the motor.
Roger that.
Oh, (BLEEP).
Watch that front end.
Thank (BLEEP)! I'm sorry.
Thanks, dude.
Don't thank me.
We're not too far from the mine now.
Let's take it easy.
There's no use leaving them beside the road.
Especially with the mess we made.
After five gruelling hours, Parker and Rick finally arrive on the claim with the rock trucks they need to have any shot at a 2,000 ounce, $2.
4 million season.
We did it.
What a (BLEEP) trip! I didn't think getting rock trucks to a mine site would be that bad.
It should not be that hard.
At Clear Creek, Tony Beets' machinists Mike and Jerry have spent the last two days working on a plan to dismantle the dredge.
We'll make this P2.
Painstakingly marking every piece of the 60m gold-catching vessel.
Let's see here.
This will be diagonal eight, right? Tony and his Dawson crew, including his daughter Monica and son Kevin, arrive at the dredge.
This looks like a big job, Tony.
We got a plan? Is it safe? We're washing the porcupine (BLEEP) out.
It's buried in porcupine (BLEEP) and gravel.
You got to be able to find the bolts.
Is that the way you got to do it? The crew follows Tony's lead.
Taking the siding off the 75-year-old dredge by any means necessary.
Tony's way of doing things is weird and odd.
But do what you got to do to get it done.
Tony, you're destroying the (BLEEP) dredge! In Dawson City, with the mining season already underway, Todd Hoffman is desperate to find a claim.
Todd, is that Marshall Mintz? Yeah.
Are you kidding, after Guyana? Wait, wait, wait.
Let's go in there and hear him out.
Oh, jeez, Todd! Let's see what he's got to say.
Marshall Mintz brokered the Hoffmans' deal for a claim down in Guyana last season.
A deal that nearly bankrupted them.
Good to see you.
Good to see you, man.
Remember my dad? All right, Jack.
Good to see you.
How are you doing, Marshall? I'm doing OK, Todd.
How about you? Well To be honest with you, not very good.
We cannot find any ground.
I'd certainly like to help you out after what you went through in the jungle.
Going to the jungle wasn't a good move for us.
Here we are in the Klondike.
Now we're moving forward.
You're late, I'll tell you that.
I I have one lead.
This is a piece of property called the McKinnon Creek.
It's not all that far from where you guys had some success on the Indian river a couple years ago.
No kidding.
Do you know anything about it? The guy running it is Peter Tallman of Klondike Gold Corp.
OK.
I've known Peter for maybe 15 years.
And if he says there's gold there, there's gold there.
Heard this stuff before.
What do you think? Why are they not mining it right now? I think they went bust.
What happened? I don't know why those people are gone.
But they're gone.
Here's what worries me.
If it was really good, why hasn't it been taken by now? I think you got to take a look yourself.
Get out there with a gold pan.
You know how bad I want to believe in this right now? I don't have another lead.
When can we get out there and take a look? We can just take a drive out there.
Yeah, I'll do it.
All right, Marshall.
Let's take a look.
At Scribner Creek, the last of Parker's team arrives.
Two trusty veterans are back for a second season.
Greg Remsburg to operate equipment.
And Chris Doumitt to run the washplant.
Last year was a pretty overwhelming success.
This year, we're dumping all that money back into the place.
So we're going all-out this season.
And I'm setting a 2,000 ounce goal for us.
It's going to take a lot of effort on our part.
We're going to work long days.
It's going to be a bit of a grind this year.
Mitch, your two-ounce season is going to be a long ways in the past by the end of this year.
No kidding.
It's going to take a lot of hard work.
Move a lot of dirt.
But it's why I came back.
I know we can do better than last year.
We've got good equipment, a good washplant.
I look forward to seeing what we can do with it.
Shall we get to it? Yeah.
It's good to be back in the Yukon.
It was a rough year last year.
But we got 1,000 ounces.
It's going to be a struggle to get 2,000 ounces.
It's going to take us into the winter.
But so what? Parker's talking about 2,000 ounces.
That's going to be a challenge, no doubt about that.
I can't do it standing here talking, so I got to go to work.
The team kicks into gear.
To increase production this season, Parker has brought in a massive 70-tonne excavator to load his rock trucks.
I really think this is going to speed things up big time.
I'm loading these trucks in about 30 seconds apiece rather than a minute and a half.
So far, it's off to a good start, I'd say.
After six days of hauling paydirt out of the far cut, Parker's crew is ahead of schedule.
And ready to fire up Big Red for the first time this season.
Let's crank her up.
That sounds sweet.
This whole system is just purring.
We got a truckful of gold, delivering it to the plant.
This is the first one.
We got a high total to achieve this year.
It's going to take thousands of loads just like this one.
Just two weeks after arriving in the Klondike, Parker is washing rocks.
The kind of yards we have to run, we don't have time to waste.
The rocks just need to go through this.
And hopefully, there's some gold in it.
Within hours of firing up the washplant, Tony Beets arrives unannounced.
What are you doing, Tony? That's between you and him.
RADIO: Parker, you better get up here.
Tony just shut us down.
What the (BLEEP)? In the new Scribner Creek contract, Tony insisted on a cause requiring Parker to install hydraulic riffles.
A water sluicing system that should catch more gold.
(BLEEP)! Parker has ignored the clause, and Tony.
What's the problem? What are you talking about? Yeah.
You just show up in the spring and shut us down? Tony, we just (BLEEP) started sluicing.
Really? That's (BLEEP), Tony.
Whatever, Tony.
(BLEEP) that! We made a big effort to get sluicing this early.
And Any head-start we had is gone now.
After six days of running dirt, the Dodge brothers and Dave Turin are ready for their first clean-up of the season.
We're going to be shutting the pump down here in just a second.
The mountains around their Carmacks claim are laden with coarse gold.
The biggest nuggets should sit on bedrock.
But so far, they've only run surface dirt through the washplant.
OK, Freddy, Dave, let's gather up at the box.
See what we got for today.
Hopefully, it will be good.
Roger that, Derek.
Meet you at the sluice box.
First clean-up at Carmacks.
It's been over a year since I've seen gold in a sluice box.
How's it looking, you guys? What have we got? Oh, there we go.
I'm picking out gold nuggets left and right.
I've never seen gold like this before.
Look there.
Big nuggety Carmacks gold.
That's why we mine.
Right there, boys.
First gold nugget! First clean-up of the year.
There will be more in there.
We'll know in a few hours.
Having already pulled a fistful of nuggets, they head to the gold room to separate the concentrate.
Here we go.
It's good to be back in the gold room.
That's my favourite place.
The gold room tells you what all your hard work is giving you.
Either it's been worthwhile or it hasn't been worthwhile.
Last scoop.
If Dave and the Dodge brothers can get more than $15 a yard from the top layer of paydirt, they can cash in big time.
All the way down to the nuggets at bedrock.
17 ounces would be a good start for top stuff.
Here we go.
There's five.
20.
Whoo! No way.
27.
47.
27.
48.
That works.
That's huge! Exactly ten ounces more than you were hoping for.
For top stuff, that's damn good, eh? When we get to the bottom, there's going to be some goodies coming.
The crew's impressive first haul, 27 ounces of nuggety gold, is worth $32,000.
The top layer is paying a massive $27 a yard.
The dirt that lies beneath could be worth millions.
We could maybe get up towards that thousand ounces.
If we walk out of here with a thousand ounces, there will be a lot of happy creatures leaving this creek.
Could be a hell of a year.
Us old guys still know a bit.
(LAUGHTER) At Scribner Creek, Gene has spent the last two days in his workshop fabricating new hydraulic riffles.
The crew can now install them in Big Red.
Welcome to the 21st century.
Out with the old, in with the new.
We're going to get this done.
Tony has shut us down until we get hydraulic riffles on our box.
And Gene's fabbed these up.
Hopefully, they're going to work.
In Parker's original sluice box, the water washed away the lighter material.
Allowing the heavier gold to sink to the bottom.
But worthless black sand also clogged up the riffles.
Tony has insisted on hydraulic riffles that use jets of water to agitate the concentrate.
Sending the useless black sand out while still allowing the precious gold to settle in the riffles.
Here's a perfect example of why we want to use these hydraulic riffles.
We're eight feet down the sluice and there's a band of gold right at the bottom.
Hydraulic riffles trap the gold better.
We won't be doing as many clean-ups.
Longer run-time.
We will see if it works.
Chris, what do you reckon this shut-down costs us? 20 ounces? Yeah.
Well, we'll get the (BLEEP) things in and make the Viking happy.
There you go.
And get back to it.
Last one.
Only one thing left to do.
Turn on the water.
Now we're ready to go.
Just need to start running again.
It was pretty annoying, but we're back up and running.
Hopefully those riffles work well.
We're running dirt.
To make up for lost time, Parker gets his entire crew digging, hauling, and running as much paydirt as possible.
A 2,000 ounce goal this season is going to take a lot of work.
But it's going to be bad-ass when we get there.
Everybody is pumped up and ready to go now.
A good clean-up would really help carry us into the season.
Every hour that we're not making use of this, an hour wasted.
We're not getting this time back.
After three days of running hard, Chris Doumitt begins the first Scribner Creek clean-up of the season.
I'm real curious what it looks like.
How it works out.
There's gold in there.
Ooh, a pile of gold right there.
Gold all lined up in there.
There's gold along here.
They might be a lot of work, but maybe these riffles are working.
Parker threw down 2,000 ounces this year.
I thought 1,000 was difficult.
We're going to need really good clean-ups every time.
This being the first one could tell us if we're starting out on a good season or not.
Tony Beets arrives at Parker's claim for the big weigh-in.
Hey, Tony.
Hi, Parker.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They seem to work fine.
Caught most of this stuff.
It's a decent (BLEEP) whack of gold there.
This is ready to be weighed up.
The Klondike season is about 20 weeks long.
For Parker to have any chance of buying his own Klondike claim by the end of the season, he needs 100 ounces, worth $120,000, each and every week.
Let's see what this is.
Seven, eight, nine.
Two, three, four.
Seven, eight, nine.
72.
73.
I was hoping for better.
But we're trying to do a 2,000 ounce season.
We're way ahead of where we were last year.
But we need to be even further ahead.
Yeah, but it could be better.
Despite a massive 73 ounces, worth $90,000, after just three days of running, Parker is not satisfied.
And he still has to pay Tony his 15% cut.
Thank you, Tony.
See you then.
It's not a bad start.
Last season, it would have been great.
This season, we're not trying to do 1,000 ounces.
We're trying to do 2,000.
Every week from here on out that we don't do over 100 ounces a week, we're falling behind.
To put it bluntly, this week, we fell behind.
56km south of Dawson City, Todd and Jack Hoffman are on their way to the abandoned McKinnon mine.
Their one and only lead this season.
It's pretty desolate out here.
Look at all this crap around here.
Jeez! Let's go find out if this is for real.
I'm not going to hold my breath.
Peter Tallman, CEO of the company that owns the land, had agreed to show them around the 350 acre claim.
How are you doing, Marshall? How's things? Good.
This is Todd Hoffman.
Peter Tallman.
Nice to meet you.
So this is the claim, huh? It's a good one.
You're going to like it.
I hope so.
Come up and have a look.
OK.
Wow.
You already got a washplant up here.
It's the guys' that had the claim last year.
They pushed a lot of dirt.
It didn't work out for them.
They're gone.
What happened to these guys that were in here last year? They went bust.
Why? Is it because of the gold? There's a lot of gold here.
A lot of gold.
They went bust.
They didn't have a plan.
The whole claim is a mile and a half long.
They've only tampered with a little bit.
And left a lot still sitting there.
Somebody is going to make a lot of money.
The claim is going to be leased some time in the next week.
There's a lot of interest in it.
If me and my dad pan gold right over here, I'm going to walk back here and see if I can cut a deal.
I know you're going to find gold.
I hope you're right.
We need it.
Dad, let's take a peek.
OK.
Marshall? Are they for real? They're a little scaled-down, but they know how to mine.
They need a break.
Look over here, Dad.
There's some ground ready to go over here.
That's stripped, OK? And that took them time and money.
That would put us ahead.
If there's gold in this cut, we got something.
Let's go pan that.
Just scoop out anywhere, Dad.
If there's gold in Jack's test pan, McKinnon Creek's stripped ground could allow the Hoffmans to make up for lost time.
And save them thousands in start-up costs.
Dad, do you see anything? There's some gold.
It's right up in the top.
Look at that.
There's gold right there.
Look at that, Dad.
It's freakin' awesome.
This is a lot of frickin' gold.
This is it.
We could roll that trommel in here and be mining in the first week.
You understand? Probably maybe 80 or 90 ounces already stripped.
That can get us right out of the hole.
Right off the bat.
That would be an awesome start.
We'll take their paydirt and make it ours.
I'll go and see if we can negotiate.
Jack and Todd have found gold in ground that's ready to be run.
But to secure this land, they'll have to cut a deal with Peter Tallman.
Well? See anything you like? We looked around and found gold.
You were right.
Not surprised.
I know there's gold there.
There's a big difference between having gold in your pan and trying to process 200,000 to 300,000 yards of it.
That's tough.
So what's your deal on this land? What kind of deal would you make us? Straight up, 20% of production.
Ooh.
The Hoffmans paid just 10% the last time they were in the Klondike.
Not even thinking about negotiating.
It's worth it.
We got to talk.
Yeah.
Mind if we take a minute and talk about it? Not at all.
I don't know.
What do you think? Everybody else charges ten around here.
He's wanting double.
You know what? I think there's probably enough if we do the volume.
All right.
Let's go talk to him.
I tell you what, Peter.
Last time I leased a claim up here, it was 10%.
That's pretty standard out here.
But that was a good gold pan.
And I'd like to offer you 15%.
20%.
Like I said, it's not negotiable.
There is good gold here.
You know it.
I know it.
I tell you what.
If I could use the camp and some of the pumps, I would go the 20% if you could throw those types of things in and give us a leg-up.
What do you think? All right.
Use the equipment.
I'll let you use the camp.
Except this.
I think we got a deal.
One more thing though.
You've had difficulties before.
I want a minimum of 100 ounces of gold paid to me, regardless of what you get.
Come in and you don't produce anything, you're still paying.
I tell you what, I'm going to agree to that.
My dad is going to chew my ear off all the way home.
But I'm going to do it.
I'm going to step out on a limb.
Let's do it.
Got yourself a deal.
Deal.
Congratulations.
Welcome to McKinnon Creek.
Good luck.
Todd Hoffman has a claim.
But before he can mine, he already owes 100 ounces of gold.
Worth $120,000.
What do you think, Dad? Well, I think that's a tough deal.
But that's what it is.
You know what, Dad? We got gold in the pan.
You know what that is? That's hope.
One week ago, we weren't even going to be frickin' mining.
But here we are.
It's a brand new start.
Let's get our stuff and get started, huh? Yeah, let's go kick some ass.
Let's go give her hell.
Todd and Jack Hoffman lost everything last season in the jungles of Guyana.
But with their new claim, McKinnon Creek, they have a fighting chance at redemption.
In an all-new season of Gold Rush Stand by! .
.
Parker Schnabel has to man up 2,000 ounces is a hell of a lot of gold to find.
.
.
to win his independence from Tony Beets.
(BLEEP) it! The 19-year-old is hard on himself Get out of my (BLEEP) way! .
.
and his crew.
You won't get the answer you want.
Either walk out of here or run 24/7.
On an audacious quest This isn't working.
.
.
to hit 2,000 ounces That's a tonne of gold.
.
.
Parker goes for broke (BLEEP) damn it! .
.
to secure his future in the Klondike.
I need to buy my own ground and be my own boss.
Tony Beets .
.
struggles to resurrect his 75-year-old gold-catching dredge.
But finding the time Tony, are you there? .
.
the cash I need money.
.
.
and the patience Get the (BLEEP) .
.
just might prove too much for the Viking to handle.
That was ridiculous.
And Todd Hoffman We got a lot of work to do.
.
.
finds himself back at square one.
This right here represents survival.
Once again, he battles rejection I need you back over here.
Can't do it.
I need you.
I'm not interested.
I'm happy here.
.
.
defeat You can't just quit! I'm sorry, but we're done.
.
.
and his own father Stop! Get out of the way! You can just suck eggs.
.
.
in an all-out fight Let's just give her hell.
Turn it off! .
.
to salvage his dignity I got to get us running again.
.
.
and his mining career.
What if we can come back from the ashes and kick some ass this year?
It was a tough decision.
I love Todd.
But I can't spend another year of my life working for him.
I need to be with a crew who can get some serious gold.
This is my chance at a new beginning.
Right here under this glacier is a great big pile of gold.
All we got to do is dig it up.
I had a dream of going to the jungle.
And what that dream brought was a lot of pain and heartbreak.
The amount of money we lost, and what we went through, that damn near destroyed me.
It was embarrassing and demoralising.
I never ever want to be a part of something like that again.
And I won't.
I won't do it.
Last season was a huge success.
We found a lot of gold.
We made a lot of money.
A thousand ounces in our first year in the Klondike is a damn good achievement.
Last year was the training year.
It's time to take the training wheels off.
This season, everything has changed.
We're not miners any more.
Let's tear this thing up.
New claims.
Carmacks is open for business.
New miners.
And new ways to pull gold out of the ground.
Bigger, badder machines.
Big dreams.
I'm setting a 2,000 ounce goal.
Big decisions.
I'm out, Todd.
Dude, I'm out.
I do not want to do this, Dad.
Just don't quit! And the biggest gold they've ever mined.
It's the biggest nugget I've ever dug up.
In a high mountain pass just west of Carmacks in the Yukon, a new gold mining crew kicks off their season.
Dave Turin has left his old friend Todd Hoffman to mine with two legends.
Freddy and Derek Dodge.
Their ground, an extraordinary nugget-rich valley.
Glad you're here with us, Dave.
It's nice to have you on the team.
Hopefully we can come together as a team and kick some ass.
I would suggest we get in our machines and rip and tear.
All right, let's rip the hell out of this thing.
The Dodge brothers' Carmacks claim is just 3km from the top of the mountain.
Close to the source of the gold.
In an area that was missed during the gold rush.
It's thought to contain some of the best gold deposits in the Yukon.
Last year, the Hoffmans considered mining Carmacks.
You guys are after some big nuggets, huh? Like how big? How big? About that big.
Oh! That's what I call a big nugget.
But when Todd decided to head to South America instead, the Dodge brothers mined the claim.
Look at that one! Some beautiful gold here.
The results were remarkable.
This is just some of the big stuff.
Dave jumped at the chance to get a piece of the Carmacks action.
I can't wait till I see gold.
Freddy and Derek have been doing this creek.
They are getting big gold and a lot of it.
I'm kind of known as the gold guy.
Derek has been a prospector for many, many years.
Dave, he's one of the best people I've ever seen on heavy equipment.
We put together one hell of a team.
If the gold's in the ground, we will succeed.
The nuggets at Carmacks are buried beneath the ice.
Dave and the Dodge brothers could wait for the frozen river to thaw.
But they have a plan that should put them weeks ahead of the game.
They'll build an ice dam upstream to create a massive build-up of water.
When the dam is full, Derek will release 900,000 litres of water into the valley below.
The surge should clear enough snow and ice for the crew to start mining.
But Dave has to build the dam from below.
Manoeuvring his excavator on ice.
I've never worked on ice before.
Makes me a little nervous.
This is a 105,000lb machine.
And it's not designed to be run on snow and ice.
Come on, get up.
There we go.
There we go.
Oh, that's good.
After half an hour, the dam starts to take shape.
I got a lot of ice sitting in here right now.
The pond's filling up faster than I thought.
We're going to have to hurry.
I'm going to cut it loose.
It's going to go big.
Hang on.
Let me get out of here.
Whoa! 900,000 litres of water threaten to breach the dam with Dave directly in its path.
Whoa! Easy there! We're about to lose it.
Come on, baby.
Get up the hill.
I can't be waiting.
Got to hurry.
This dam is going to break on its own.
That ought to be enough.
With Dave out of harm's way, Derek now needs to get over the ice wall to push it from behind.
OK, I'm going to back up here and break this thing loose.
Ready.
Guys, this dam is full.
It can break any minute.
Watch out, Derek! You're slipping! Derek is stuck.
If the dam blows before the D8 gets over the wall, the dozer and Derek will be swept along with 900,000 litres of water, down the mountain and over the waterfall.
Whoa! (BLEEP)! Whoa! Come on, girl.
Get it up here! It's going to go any second, guys.
I can't stop it.
We got to go.
Come on, you old cow.
Get the heck up the hill here! Derek, it's going to go any time.
Careful.
There we go.
Whoo! Derek breaks through the five-metre wall.
Let's give it hell.
There it goes! Look at that stuff go down the creek, man! Got ice flowing now! Nice! That'll clear it out! All the water and ice from above cleared down to the bottom of the mountain.
It's exactly what we want.
It's working perfect.
In just a morning's work, the water has cleared most of the ice covering their Carmacks gold.
Tore the heck out of it! We're good, huh? Down to the gravel.
There's gold right where we're standing here now.
There's pockets in here that are going to be amazing.
It's going to be a great season.
Carmacks is open for business.
Last year, in his first Klondike season, 19-year-old Parker Schnabel mined a staggering 1,029 ounces of gold.
Worth $1.
4 million.
Last season, by every measure that I know, it was a huge success for us.
We did over 1,000 ounces on low-grade ground.
Tony told me that if I did well last year, he'd give me a better ground.
I'm here to get it.
Parker has travelled almost 5,000km to Arizona for a face to face meeting with his claim owner Tony Beets at his winter home.
Hey, Tony.
Long time, no see.
Like we said last year, that was a bit of a training ground.
But this season, I'm prepared to throw everything we made last year into it.
But that means, obviously, we need better ground.
No, no, no.
I thought I could expect it because - No.
This last season, I thought that we showed you can give me ground that is economical to mine.
No.
I expected this to go differently.
It's quite obvious to me you're leasing me ground that you would never touch.
Obviously there's no negotiating here.
You make it hard to be happy.
(BLEEP)! (BLEEP)! If Tony wants me to mine his (BLEEP) ground, then I don't even know if I want to go back to the Klondike.
Sandy, Oregon.
After epic failure in the jungles of Guyana, the Hoffman crew has disbanded.
The guys have had no choice but to do what they can to make ends meet.
Since I've been home, I'm trying to get any odd job I can find.
I got bills to pay.
Andy Spinks has resorted to working at his family's nursery.
I've spent a lot of years trying to help Todd.
It's a big commitment.
It hasn't really paid off.
And the future is no brighter for Kevin Hiatt.
Now I'm dealing with other people's garbage.
But it's a paying job.
At least I'm going to make some money.
That's what I have to do.
But Todd refuses to let the Hoffmans' dream die.
He calls his crew together for the first time since South America.
I'm nervous.
I've got all my guys coming over.
We're going to have a frank talk.
I'm going to ask my team to go north one more time.
Will they come with me? I don't know.
Hey, guys.
Come on in.
Have a seat.
Thanks for coming.
I appreciate it.
I'm not happy that you guys are struggling because of my decisions.
That's not funny to me.
What the hell were we doing in Guyana? We knew nothing about diamonds.
We knew nothing about the country.
We should never left the Klondike.
Guys, I want to go back to the Klondike.
And finish what we started.
If we can find some good land, put the equipment back together, and let's go.
You don't have land? I don't have anything.
He's done it before.
He can do it again.
You have to take a chance.
Who's with me? I'm out, Todd.
I'm out.
I'm out.
All of you guys? Thurber, you've been with me for four frickin' years.
I can't go unless you have land.
I don't have land.
Dude, I'm out.
That hurts.
Never expected that.
Did you? No.
After his disastrous meeting with Tony Beets, Parker is back home in Alaska.
Tony Beets isn't the only option for me this year.
My other option is to stay here and mine Big Nugget.
That's kind of tempting.
Considering the attitude Tony has about things.
To decide on his next move, Parker heads to see his mining mentor, 94-year-old grandpa John.
Hey, Grandpa! Oh, hello.
How are you doing? I'm doing fine.
I'm doing better now that you're here! It's nice to see you.
I just went to Arizona and met with Tony.
Tony is basically offering me the same ground that we mined last year.
I'm not sure what to do.
And you resent it somewhat, I gather.
If Tony wants me to keep my (BLEEP) ground, I might as well go back to Big Nugget and be my own boss.
You know? It's obvious we're dealing in emotions rather than economics.
What kind of future is there here? There isn't much, Parker, I will have to admit.
You can maybe have a few years, but then you go to go somewhere.
If I am going to give you my true advice, I would say this.
I think you should go up there and open up the ground that Tony's got.
And earn enough to buy your own claim.
I would get out from under Tony.
The fact that you have owned Big Nugget has always given you the freedom to do whatever you want.
That's correct.
You're right.
Buying ground starts to look like a better idea.
It's a risk and a challenge.
Anybody that backs away from a challenge, in my opinion, will never get too far.
Thanks, Grandpa.
I look forward to seeing you up north this summer.
I will look forward to coming.
I have every bit of confidence you are going to come out a winner.
My grandpa is right.
I need to buy my own ground and get out from under Tony.
A decent claim is going to cost at least 2,000 ounces.
Trying to find 1,000 last year damn near killed us.
But I'm going to pile every cent we made last year back into it.
And buy my own ground and be my own boss.
In the Yukon, at Clear Creek, Tony Beets takes two expert machinists, Mike Krishner and Jerry Rhodes, to his latest purchase.
Are you nuts? Huge.
What the (BLEEP) did you do? Dredges are floating gold factories.
They were first used in the Klondike over 100 years ago.
For half a century, they dominated the gold mining landscape.
They slowly dug their way through the valleys in ponds they created themselves.
Leaving vast lines of tailings in their wake.
In a single day, the biggest dredges could process a staggering 14,500 yards of paydirt.
Producing nearly a million dollars in gold.
Dredges combine all the processes of gold mining in one floating machine.
A bucket line at the front digs the paydirt.
An onboard washplant washes the dirt.
Gold then collects in the sluices.
And finally, tailings spit out of the back.
But no-one has run a dredge in the Klondike for over a quarter of a century.
This thing is older than we are, Tony.
How do we know anything will work? To get this 75-year-old dredge back up and running, Tony will have to break it down into thousands of pieces.
Transport it 250km.
And hope he can get it to work after putting it all back together.
Without Jerry and Mike's mechanical expertise, Tony has no chance of pulling off this epic feat of engineering.
You've bitten off an awful lot here.
You expect us to move this thing? Oh, wow.
It looks really nice! But it hasn't run.
(BLEEP)! Look at this! You make it sound pretty easy.
Tony, we want this to happen for you.
But you got a few obstacles that you're not looking at.
It might be different if this ran last season.
But it's been sitting 30 years.
We're in.
Yeah.
Perfect.
What do you think, Mike? I don't know.
What have we got ourselves into here? April in Dawson City.
It's minus three degrees Celsius.
And still a week before the start of the mining season.
But once again, Parker Schnabel and Rick Ness are back at Scribner Creek early.
To make enough money to buy his own land by the end of the season, Parker needs to get his operation up and running as soon as possible.
It's good to be back, Rick.
Yeah.
Before they can do anything, Parker and Rick need to find out if their equipment has survived the minus 46 degree winter winds.
Gene is showing up here in less than ten days.
So if there's any surprises, we need to know about it.
We're pretty damn early, but I'd rather deal with this now than in a month.
Because we will be one of the first ones sluicing.
Then we get to find some gold.
The key to opening ground early in the season is Parker's 30-year-old D10 dozer.
If we can get this dozer going, then we can start stripping.
And that's why we're here.
(ENGINE FAILS) Come on.
(FAILS) Come on, you (BLEEP).
(STARTS) Ha ha! That's a good start.
Parker and Rick immediately start clearing overburden in the far cut.
Ground so rich that in the final four days of last season, they mined 148 ounces of gold from it.
Worth $200,000.
Yee-ha! Parker rips through the ice with the D10 ripper.
Rick follows behind in the excavator.
This is the first cut of the new season.
Starting where Parker and I left off in October last year.
It's going to be (BLEEP) awesome.
Feels good to be back in the saddle.
I'm happy with how things are going.
Rick is pretty gung-ho to get going.
We know that there's gold where we're stripping.
We've got a big advantage over last year, having a year under our belt.
What the (BLEEP)? What the (BLEEP) is going on with this steering? (BLEEP)! Rick, can you come over here? Something's going on with this (BLEEP) dozer.
(BLEEP)! The pin for the stabiliser bar is backed out.
Oh, no.
Almost completely.
(BLEEP)! The right-hand track is bowing in and out.
Making the dozer impossible to steer.
Underneath, an idler arm is designed to keep the track in line by locking it to the body.
But the pin has slipped out.
And the idler arm is no longer connected to the track.
With the weight of the dozer on the tracks, there's no way to line up the two pinholes.
How are we going to get that thing lined back up? If I can see that from outside the track and you put some pressure on the blade, and lift the machine a little, it might line back up.
Maybe I can pound that sucker back in place.
Just drive it right back in? Yeah.
Rick's plan is to use the blade to take the weight off the front of the dozer, releasing the pressure on the tracks, bringing the pinholes back into alignment.
Rick will then try to drive the pin back in by hand from under the 57 tonne dozer.
That puts you under there with all the pressure on those cylinders.
Yeah.
No other option right now.
All right, let's try it.
Bring it down just a little bit.
That's pretty close right there.
Pretty close? See if it will go in? Yeah, but be careful.
I can't get any leverage for my back.
I don't know if I can pound this in.
We need to get it going or else we can't strip.
That's the whole reason we're up here.
It's got to go in about six more inches.
Parker edges the dozer blade down to better line up the holes.
Can you pound it in? I think it's starting to move.
Whoo! (BLEEP) pin! Nice swinging, John Henry! Got it, buddy.
Back in business.
Good job, man.
All right, back to stripping.
We'll get back to it.
Let's get some (BLEEP) dirt moved.
225km south at Carmacks, the Dodge brothers and Dave Turin are about to move their washplant into position so they can start sluicing.
Hey, Dave.
What's up? What's the plan? It will take all of us to do it.
Get this into place and washing rocks by the end of the week.
I'll stay on the ground.
You guys are the best operators.
Be careful.
You see how steep this is? Let's do this! The plan is for Derek to drag their 20 tonne derocker up the steep, muddy track and down the creek bed into its final position using the D8 dozer.
Ready, guys? Ready! Let's do it.
Looking good, Freddy! Is it going to go on? We're good, we're good.
He's slipping a little bit.
That's a lot of weight.
A lot of weight.
It's a tough creek.
This is not easy mining.
This road scares me a little bit.
It's soft.
It's black mud that melted out.
We cannot drop one of these.
We can't make any mistakes right now.
It's going to get a bit steeper here in a few yards.
Made it up, Dave! All right! They've reached the top.
One step closer to mining, buddy! Now they must descend into the creek bed.
We're ready to hook the excavator up for the downhill part.
That could be the scary part.
We definitely don't want this 20 tonne machine sliding into the back of that dozer.
I'll go get the 400.
In case the derocker slides out of control.
they attach the excavator to act as a brake.
As Derek is pulling, I got to put just the amount of tension to hold it back so it doesn't slide down into him.
This takes a great amount of teamwork here.
This is a big deal here.
It's the heart of the operation, this derocker.
Without it, with these big-ass boulders here, we're done.
We don't want to screw this up.
Let's get her done, Derek! OK! Looks good.
It's not an easy corner.
Come on, Derek.
Easy there! Easy! Derek, you're going to pull me down that hill.
This corner is turning into a pain in the ass.
Nice and easy.
Nice and easy.
Easy, Derek.
Whoa! Derek, easy! I'm going downhill! Hey! All right, take it easy now.
Derek, Dave, I'm going to get to the high side in case this thing slips off the bank.
Freddy guides the convoy along the edge of a six-metre drop.
How are we looking, Freddy? Do I need to keep more tension up? Try to pick this up and spin it this way! It's stuck on the side hill.
I don't like this.
I'm on a piece of ice.
And I'm clear off to the edge.
And it's a bad angle.
Ho! Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're on a glacier right there, Dave.
Come on, baby.
Get into place.
Let's try to get it over a little bit here if you can with this end, Dave.
Come up, Dave! Dave, come up.
Hold it there, guys.
Let's have a look at it.
Derek, it's perfect side to side.
Perfect.
Good job.
The derocker is in place.
One down, one to go.
Some sluices, some water, and we'll be making gold! Nice job.
Pleasure working with you guys.
Perfect.
Ready to get some gold.
Jack and Todd Hoffman have been abandoned by their crew.
But father and son are refusing to quit.
Let's tarp it, get the pump, and go.
I've decided to go north.
But I tell you what, that decision didn't come easy.
I don't have a claim.
I don't have enough equipment.
I've never been this unprepared for anything in my life.
We may not have land and it's just the two of us, but we are father and son.
And together, we can conquer the world.
Ready? Yep.
For the last four years, they've headed off to mine with a crew, a claim, and a plan.
I think we got everything.
We're ready to go.
This time, they have nothing.
Love you guys.
Love you, honey.
I'm praying for you.
Will you say a little prayer for us? You bet.
Lord, help us find a place to mine.
Give us the strength and give us the courage to go forward.
Amen.
All right, guys.
Love you.
Bye-bye.
Once again, Todd and Jack make the 3,000km journey north to the Klondike.
If they can't somehow turn things around, it could be their last.
The scary part for me is it all comes down to land.
Gold is where you find it.
You got to get a good claim.
It's going to work out.
Greg is going to have something for us.
He always has in the past.
The Hoffmans have arranged to meet the man who gave them their first break in the Klondike three years ago.
Greg McNeil.
Hey, Greg.
Hey, Todd.
Hey, Jack.
How are you? Doing all right.
Why I wanted to meet with you is I was hoping you had some land for us.
Remember the ground I leased before? I need that land again, Greg.
There's no way possible.
I don't have anything.
This is our last shot, Greg.
That's out of the question.
And to be honest, after last season, I just don't know what stock in you is worth this year.
I don't know who, up here, is going to lease you guys any ground.
It is what it is.
Best of luck to you.
You're going to need it.
Take care.
That didn't go so good.
Todd, it's not the fight that the dog's in.
It's the fight that's in the dog.
We will find a place.
If we can't find a decent claim, I do not want to do this, Dad.
I don't know if I can take another failure like that.
It's going to happen, Todd.
Just don't quit.
Just two hours south of Dawson at Scribner Creek, Parker and Rick have spent the last week struggling on their own to remove four metres of overburden.
Rick and I are trying to get this cut sorted.
It's a long push.
And that dozer is expensive to run.
Parker's foreman, Gene Cheeseman, is due to arrive any minute with their new mechanic.
Gene's definitely the key to this season if we're going to do the big numbers.
He knows how to move dirt.
And that's what we need to do.
How's it going? Good.
How are you doing? Good.
How was the trip up? Not too bad.
Brought a mechanic, I guess.
How are you doing? Mitch, how are you doing? Not too bad.
For two seasons, Mitch Blaschke was Todd Hoffman's mechanic.
This year, he's defected to Parker's crew.
I'm glad you're both here.
This time last year, we were sluicing four days from now.
And we're nowhere near that right now.
I hope that we can step that up.
Let's get going on it.
Sounds good.
I'm tired of working on uneducated guesses.
So I came over here.
Where they seem to plan things out a bit better.
So I'm looking forward to a good season.
Whatever it takes to get the job done and get some gold in the box.
I hope Mitch hasn't lost his work ethic working for Todd Hoffman.
If something's broke down, Mitch is going to stay here till he fixes it.
Or he gets in a service truck and drives back to Oregon.
Gene heads straight to the cut to check on Parker's progress.
I want to check what Parker and Rick have been doing for the last bit they've been here.
Get organised, get a plan.
Get the ground running.
He's not impressed.
You want to get 2,000 ounces, you got to speed it up here.
What do you mean? Pushing with one Cat is not going to get it opened up fast enough.
We need to get the trucks out here and get to hauling the stuff.
But the roads are so (BLEEP) with ice and mud.
Nobody's hauling anything out here.
I don't know how to get the trucks out here.
I know what you're saying.
Pushing will work.
But it will take a lot longer.
Trucks are going to speed up the process.
Move twice as much and burn less fuel.
Get the trucks here.
Do whatever it takes.
225km south of Dawson City at Carmacks, just a week into the mining season, Derek, Freddy, and Dave are finally ready to run dirt on their mountain claim.
That thick patch of ice has gone.
Let's get to sluicing.
Make some gold.
Joining them is Derek's wife Irene.
Got to put some pay in this box, Irene.
So let her rip.
Will do.
I've been waiting so long to get this show going.
Irene feeds the derocker that washes the gold and dirt off rocks and boulders.
There's our first bucket.
We're sluicing and making gold! Whoo-hoo! Dave strips the land further down the claim.
We're on good ground and we're going to get some good gold this year.
If we keep running at this rate, Derek, it's going to be a good year.
Irene's feeding good.
We've got about double our production so far by the way it's looking here.
What the hell is that? That's all we need.
Hey, Derek.
We got a part here in the tailings.
I don't know what it's off of.
What does it look like? Yellow.
It's a seal off of something.
I don't know what.
I'm coming to check it out.
It's piling up at the top.
It's not feeding right either.
(BLEEP)! Shut it down! Shut it down! It's not looking good under there.
Got a tyre in there not supposed to be laying on the floor, Freddy.
We got some issues here.
The axle's either come out or broken or done something.
I think we're screwed.
The deck of the derocker moves up and down on a bed of truck wheels.
Directly beneath where the rocks are loaded, one of the wheels has sheared off its axel.
Hooking a chain up to pull the derocker's deck back so we can get inside and get it fixed.
There's one hell of a weight here we're trying to pull uphill.
Rock, steel, and fighting gravity.
Here we go.
Before they can fix the wheel, they have to remove the rocks and the deck that weigh over 4.
5 tonnes.
(BLEEP)! I'll try to get this up higher over the top of the blade.
Try it again! Come on, chain.
That'll work, Derek! Doesn't look good, does it? Let's get with it and make some gold this afternoon.
All yours, Derek! We'll replace this axle now and put a new seal in.
And get rolling again here.
Oops.
We got one of these rollers put back together.
The Dodge brothers are a dream team.
They know what they're doing.
They know how to fix their equipment.
With the Hoffmans in Guyana, that would have taken us weeks.
We're getting our tyres in place and we'll roll the deck back over.
We'll be ready to rock and roll again.
Let's fire it up.
Try her out.
See what happens.
We got a load up.
Put your thumb in, girl.
OK.
Looking good.
In just three hours, Freddy and Derek have fixed the derocker and are back washing rocks.
Carmacks is back on track to be the first mine to strike gold this season.
Good job, Derek.
Works, yeah.
Excellent.
(HOWLING) 3AM, just outside Dawson City.
Parker and Rick are taking matters into their own hands.
If no-one else will drive their rock trucks to Scribner Creek, they will.
These trucks are ready to rock and roll? Yeah, the trucks are ready but this road is still a nightmare.
We need these rock trucks onsite as soon as we can.
Yeah, I get it.
Get ground stripped.
We need to get that plant up and running.
To avoid slipping on the muddy roads, their plan is to drive at night when the ground freezes up.
It did freeze pretty good overnight at least.
Let's do it, Rick.
Sounds good, buddy.
Try and keep it rubber side down and get there in one piece.
They'll have to hurry to cover the 88km back to the claim before the sun rises and the icy road starts to melt.
In May, this far north, night lasts less than five hours.
How's that truck running, Rick? Truck's running smooth, Parker.
This road's good so far.
Dude, these things have some balls.
Yeah, I'm pretty impressed so far.
Negotiating the ice slows progress.
Pick up the pace.
Ohh! As dawn breaks, Parker and Rick still have 16km to go.
As soon as the sun rises, the ice begins to melt.
And the roads deteriorate fast.
It's not starting to look so good, is it? I knew these roads were going to get bad, dude.
This ain't good.
This part of the road is washed right out.
Yeah, it is.
Pretty jacked.
This is all turning to mud.
I think we're going to slide on any and all of it.
Oh, (BLEEP)! (BLEEP)! (BLEEP)! Just 8km from Scribner Creek, after an overnight drive from Dawson, Rick Ness has crashed his rock truck.
(BLEEP)! What the (BLEEP)?! I told you this was going to happen! Told me what was going to happen? You were going to drive off the (BLEEP) road? The roads are (BLEEP)! That's (BLEEP).
You did a good number on that one.
It's (BLEEP).
Need to get a chain and (BLEEP) pull it out.
We don't have a whole lot of room.
I can't pull you on this side.
If you come this way at all, we'll tip the tractor over.
(BLEEP) way to start a season.
Parker has to somehow pull Rick's truck out of the ditch.
But just to the right of the truck is a steep slope that drops off 6m into a creek.
We need to watch for that (BLEEP) ditch.
There's still a good chance that tractor goes over in it.
And then we are hooped.
(BLEEP).
Ready, Rick? Let's give it a whirl.
It's pulling me into the (BLEEP) ditch.
(BLEEP)! If this starts to go over, kill the motor.
Roger that.
Oh, (BLEEP).
Watch that front end.
Thank (BLEEP)! I'm sorry.
Thanks, dude.
Don't thank me.
We're not too far from the mine now.
Let's take it easy.
There's no use leaving them beside the road.
Especially with the mess we made.
After five gruelling hours, Parker and Rick finally arrive on the claim with the rock trucks they need to have any shot at a 2,000 ounce, $2.
4 million season.
We did it.
What a (BLEEP) trip! I didn't think getting rock trucks to a mine site would be that bad.
It should not be that hard.
At Clear Creek, Tony Beets' machinists Mike and Jerry have spent the last two days working on a plan to dismantle the dredge.
We'll make this P2.
Painstakingly marking every piece of the 60m gold-catching vessel.
Let's see here.
This will be diagonal eight, right? Tony and his Dawson crew, including his daughter Monica and son Kevin, arrive at the dredge.
This looks like a big job, Tony.
We got a plan? Is it safe? We're washing the porcupine (BLEEP) out.
It's buried in porcupine (BLEEP) and gravel.
You got to be able to find the bolts.
Is that the way you got to do it? The crew follows Tony's lead.
Taking the siding off the 75-year-old dredge by any means necessary.
Tony's way of doing things is weird and odd.
But do what you got to do to get it done.
Tony, you're destroying the (BLEEP) dredge! In Dawson City, with the mining season already underway, Todd Hoffman is desperate to find a claim.
Todd, is that Marshall Mintz? Yeah.
Are you kidding, after Guyana? Wait, wait, wait.
Let's go in there and hear him out.
Oh, jeez, Todd! Let's see what he's got to say.
Marshall Mintz brokered the Hoffmans' deal for a claim down in Guyana last season.
A deal that nearly bankrupted them.
Good to see you.
Good to see you, man.
Remember my dad? All right, Jack.
Good to see you.
How are you doing, Marshall? I'm doing OK, Todd.
How about you? Well To be honest with you, not very good.
We cannot find any ground.
I'd certainly like to help you out after what you went through in the jungle.
Going to the jungle wasn't a good move for us.
Here we are in the Klondike.
Now we're moving forward.
You're late, I'll tell you that.
I I have one lead.
This is a piece of property called the McKinnon Creek.
It's not all that far from where you guys had some success on the Indian river a couple years ago.
No kidding.
Do you know anything about it? The guy running it is Peter Tallman of Klondike Gold Corp.
OK.
I've known Peter for maybe 15 years.
And if he says there's gold there, there's gold there.
Heard this stuff before.
What do you think? Why are they not mining it right now? I think they went bust.
What happened? I don't know why those people are gone.
But they're gone.
Here's what worries me.
If it was really good, why hasn't it been taken by now? I think you got to take a look yourself.
Get out there with a gold pan.
You know how bad I want to believe in this right now? I don't have another lead.
When can we get out there and take a look? We can just take a drive out there.
Yeah, I'll do it.
All right, Marshall.
Let's take a look.
At Scribner Creek, the last of Parker's team arrives.
Two trusty veterans are back for a second season.
Greg Remsburg to operate equipment.
And Chris Doumitt to run the washplant.
Last year was a pretty overwhelming success.
This year, we're dumping all that money back into the place.
So we're going all-out this season.
And I'm setting a 2,000 ounce goal for us.
It's going to take a lot of effort on our part.
We're going to work long days.
It's going to be a bit of a grind this year.
Mitch, your two-ounce season is going to be a long ways in the past by the end of this year.
No kidding.
It's going to take a lot of hard work.
Move a lot of dirt.
But it's why I came back.
I know we can do better than last year.
We've got good equipment, a good washplant.
I look forward to seeing what we can do with it.
Shall we get to it? Yeah.
It's good to be back in the Yukon.
It was a rough year last year.
But we got 1,000 ounces.
It's going to be a struggle to get 2,000 ounces.
It's going to take us into the winter.
But so what? Parker's talking about 2,000 ounces.
That's going to be a challenge, no doubt about that.
I can't do it standing here talking, so I got to go to work.
The team kicks into gear.
To increase production this season, Parker has brought in a massive 70-tonne excavator to load his rock trucks.
I really think this is going to speed things up big time.
I'm loading these trucks in about 30 seconds apiece rather than a minute and a half.
So far, it's off to a good start, I'd say.
After six days of hauling paydirt out of the far cut, Parker's crew is ahead of schedule.
And ready to fire up Big Red for the first time this season.
Let's crank her up.
That sounds sweet.
This whole system is just purring.
We got a truckful of gold, delivering it to the plant.
This is the first one.
We got a high total to achieve this year.
It's going to take thousands of loads just like this one.
Just two weeks after arriving in the Klondike, Parker is washing rocks.
The kind of yards we have to run, we don't have time to waste.
The rocks just need to go through this.
And hopefully, there's some gold in it.
Within hours of firing up the washplant, Tony Beets arrives unannounced.
What are you doing, Tony? That's between you and him.
RADIO: Parker, you better get up here.
Tony just shut us down.
What the (BLEEP)? In the new Scribner Creek contract, Tony insisted on a cause requiring Parker to install hydraulic riffles.
A water sluicing system that should catch more gold.
(BLEEP)! Parker has ignored the clause, and Tony.
What's the problem? What are you talking about? Yeah.
You just show up in the spring and shut us down? Tony, we just (BLEEP) started sluicing.
Really? That's (BLEEP), Tony.
Whatever, Tony.
(BLEEP) that! We made a big effort to get sluicing this early.
And Any head-start we had is gone now.
After six days of running dirt, the Dodge brothers and Dave Turin are ready for their first clean-up of the season.
We're going to be shutting the pump down here in just a second.
The mountains around their Carmacks claim are laden with coarse gold.
The biggest nuggets should sit on bedrock.
But so far, they've only run surface dirt through the washplant.
OK, Freddy, Dave, let's gather up at the box.
See what we got for today.
Hopefully, it will be good.
Roger that, Derek.
Meet you at the sluice box.
First clean-up at Carmacks.
It's been over a year since I've seen gold in a sluice box.
How's it looking, you guys? What have we got? Oh, there we go.
I'm picking out gold nuggets left and right.
I've never seen gold like this before.
Look there.
Big nuggety Carmacks gold.
That's why we mine.
Right there, boys.
First gold nugget! First clean-up of the year.
There will be more in there.
We'll know in a few hours.
Having already pulled a fistful of nuggets, they head to the gold room to separate the concentrate.
Here we go.
It's good to be back in the gold room.
That's my favourite place.
The gold room tells you what all your hard work is giving you.
Either it's been worthwhile or it hasn't been worthwhile.
Last scoop.
If Dave and the Dodge brothers can get more than $15 a yard from the top layer of paydirt, they can cash in big time.
All the way down to the nuggets at bedrock.
17 ounces would be a good start for top stuff.
Here we go.
There's five.
20.
Whoo! No way.
27.
47.
27.
48.
That works.
That's huge! Exactly ten ounces more than you were hoping for.
For top stuff, that's damn good, eh? When we get to the bottom, there's going to be some goodies coming.
The crew's impressive first haul, 27 ounces of nuggety gold, is worth $32,000.
The top layer is paying a massive $27 a yard.
The dirt that lies beneath could be worth millions.
We could maybe get up towards that thousand ounces.
If we walk out of here with a thousand ounces, there will be a lot of happy creatures leaving this creek.
Could be a hell of a year.
Us old guys still know a bit.
(LAUGHTER) At Scribner Creek, Gene has spent the last two days in his workshop fabricating new hydraulic riffles.
The crew can now install them in Big Red.
Welcome to the 21st century.
Out with the old, in with the new.
We're going to get this done.
Tony has shut us down until we get hydraulic riffles on our box.
And Gene's fabbed these up.
Hopefully, they're going to work.
In Parker's original sluice box, the water washed away the lighter material.
Allowing the heavier gold to sink to the bottom.
But worthless black sand also clogged up the riffles.
Tony has insisted on hydraulic riffles that use jets of water to agitate the concentrate.
Sending the useless black sand out while still allowing the precious gold to settle in the riffles.
Here's a perfect example of why we want to use these hydraulic riffles.
We're eight feet down the sluice and there's a band of gold right at the bottom.
Hydraulic riffles trap the gold better.
We won't be doing as many clean-ups.
Longer run-time.
We will see if it works.
Chris, what do you reckon this shut-down costs us? 20 ounces? Yeah.
Well, we'll get the (BLEEP) things in and make the Viking happy.
There you go.
And get back to it.
Last one.
Only one thing left to do.
Turn on the water.
Now we're ready to go.
Just need to start running again.
It was pretty annoying, but we're back up and running.
Hopefully those riffles work well.
We're running dirt.
To make up for lost time, Parker gets his entire crew digging, hauling, and running as much paydirt as possible.
A 2,000 ounce goal this season is going to take a lot of work.
But it's going to be bad-ass when we get there.
Everybody is pumped up and ready to go now.
A good clean-up would really help carry us into the season.
Every hour that we're not making use of this, an hour wasted.
We're not getting this time back.
After three days of running hard, Chris Doumitt begins the first Scribner Creek clean-up of the season.
I'm real curious what it looks like.
How it works out.
There's gold in there.
Ooh, a pile of gold right there.
Gold all lined up in there.
There's gold along here.
They might be a lot of work, but maybe these riffles are working.
Parker threw down 2,000 ounces this year.
I thought 1,000 was difficult.
We're going to need really good clean-ups every time.
This being the first one could tell us if we're starting out on a good season or not.
Tony Beets arrives at Parker's claim for the big weigh-in.
Hey, Tony.
Hi, Parker.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They seem to work fine.
Caught most of this stuff.
It's a decent (BLEEP) whack of gold there.
This is ready to be weighed up.
The Klondike season is about 20 weeks long.
For Parker to have any chance of buying his own Klondike claim by the end of the season, he needs 100 ounces, worth $120,000, each and every week.
Let's see what this is.
Seven, eight, nine.
Two, three, four.
Seven, eight, nine.
72.
73.
I was hoping for better.
But we're trying to do a 2,000 ounce season.
We're way ahead of where we were last year.
But we need to be even further ahead.
Yeah, but it could be better.
Despite a massive 73 ounces, worth $90,000, after just three days of running, Parker is not satisfied.
And he still has to pay Tony his 15% cut.
Thank you, Tony.
See you then.
It's not a bad start.
Last season, it would have been great.
This season, we're not trying to do 1,000 ounces.
We're trying to do 2,000.
Every week from here on out that we don't do over 100 ounces a week, we're falling behind.
To put it bluntly, this week, we fell behind.
56km south of Dawson City, Todd and Jack Hoffman are on their way to the abandoned McKinnon mine.
Their one and only lead this season.
It's pretty desolate out here.
Look at all this crap around here.
Jeez! Let's go find out if this is for real.
I'm not going to hold my breath.
Peter Tallman, CEO of the company that owns the land, had agreed to show them around the 350 acre claim.
How are you doing, Marshall? How's things? Good.
This is Todd Hoffman.
Peter Tallman.
Nice to meet you.
So this is the claim, huh? It's a good one.
You're going to like it.
I hope so.
Come up and have a look.
OK.
Wow.
You already got a washplant up here.
It's the guys' that had the claim last year.
They pushed a lot of dirt.
It didn't work out for them.
They're gone.
What happened to these guys that were in here last year? They went bust.
Why? Is it because of the gold? There's a lot of gold here.
A lot of gold.
They went bust.
They didn't have a plan.
The whole claim is a mile and a half long.
They've only tampered with a little bit.
And left a lot still sitting there.
Somebody is going to make a lot of money.
The claim is going to be leased some time in the next week.
There's a lot of interest in it.
If me and my dad pan gold right over here, I'm going to walk back here and see if I can cut a deal.
I know you're going to find gold.
I hope you're right.
We need it.
Dad, let's take a peek.
OK.
Marshall? Are they for real? They're a little scaled-down, but they know how to mine.
They need a break.
Look over here, Dad.
There's some ground ready to go over here.
That's stripped, OK? And that took them time and money.
That would put us ahead.
If there's gold in this cut, we got something.
Let's go pan that.
Just scoop out anywhere, Dad.
If there's gold in Jack's test pan, McKinnon Creek's stripped ground could allow the Hoffmans to make up for lost time.
And save them thousands in start-up costs.
Dad, do you see anything? There's some gold.
It's right up in the top.
Look at that.
There's gold right there.
Look at that, Dad.
It's freakin' awesome.
This is a lot of frickin' gold.
This is it.
We could roll that trommel in here and be mining in the first week.
You understand? Probably maybe 80 or 90 ounces already stripped.
That can get us right out of the hole.
Right off the bat.
That would be an awesome start.
We'll take their paydirt and make it ours.
I'll go and see if we can negotiate.
Jack and Todd have found gold in ground that's ready to be run.
But to secure this land, they'll have to cut a deal with Peter Tallman.
Well? See anything you like? We looked around and found gold.
You were right.
Not surprised.
I know there's gold there.
There's a big difference between having gold in your pan and trying to process 200,000 to 300,000 yards of it.
That's tough.
So what's your deal on this land? What kind of deal would you make us? Straight up, 20% of production.
Ooh.
The Hoffmans paid just 10% the last time they were in the Klondike.
Not even thinking about negotiating.
It's worth it.
We got to talk.
Yeah.
Mind if we take a minute and talk about it? Not at all.
I don't know.
What do you think? Everybody else charges ten around here.
He's wanting double.
You know what? I think there's probably enough if we do the volume.
All right.
Let's go talk to him.
I tell you what, Peter.
Last time I leased a claim up here, it was 10%.
That's pretty standard out here.
But that was a good gold pan.
And I'd like to offer you 15%.
20%.
Like I said, it's not negotiable.
There is good gold here.
You know it.
I know it.
I tell you what.
If I could use the camp and some of the pumps, I would go the 20% if you could throw those types of things in and give us a leg-up.
What do you think? All right.
Use the equipment.
I'll let you use the camp.
Except this.
I think we got a deal.
One more thing though.
You've had difficulties before.
I want a minimum of 100 ounces of gold paid to me, regardless of what you get.
Come in and you don't produce anything, you're still paying.
I tell you what, I'm going to agree to that.
My dad is going to chew my ear off all the way home.
But I'm going to do it.
I'm going to step out on a limb.
Let's do it.
Got yourself a deal.
Deal.
Congratulations.
Welcome to McKinnon Creek.
Good luck.
Todd Hoffman has a claim.
But before he can mine, he already owes 100 ounces of gold.
Worth $120,000.
What do you think, Dad? Well, I think that's a tough deal.
But that's what it is.
You know what, Dad? We got gold in the pan.
You know what that is? That's hope.
One week ago, we weren't even going to be frickin' mining.
But here we are.
It's a brand new start.
Let's get our stuff and get started, huh? Yeah, let's go kick some ass.
Let's go give her hell.
Todd and Jack Hoffman lost everything last season in the jungles of Guyana.
But with their new claim, McKinnon Creek, they have a fighting chance at redemption.
In an all-new season of Gold Rush Stand by! .
.
Parker Schnabel has to man up 2,000 ounces is a hell of a lot of gold to find.
.
.
to win his independence from Tony Beets.
(BLEEP) it! The 19-year-old is hard on himself Get out of my (BLEEP) way! .
.
and his crew.
You won't get the answer you want.
Either walk out of here or run 24/7.
On an audacious quest This isn't working.
.
.
to hit 2,000 ounces That's a tonne of gold.
.
.
Parker goes for broke (BLEEP) damn it! .
.
to secure his future in the Klondike.
I need to buy my own ground and be my own boss.
Tony Beets .
.
struggles to resurrect his 75-year-old gold-catching dredge.
But finding the time Tony, are you there? .
.
the cash I need money.
.
.
and the patience Get the (BLEEP) .
.
just might prove too much for the Viking to handle.
That was ridiculous.
And Todd Hoffman We got a lot of work to do.
.
.
finds himself back at square one.
This right here represents survival.
Once again, he battles rejection I need you back over here.
Can't do it.
I need you.
I'm not interested.
I'm happy here.
.
.
defeat You can't just quit! I'm sorry, but we're done.
.
.
and his own father Stop! Get out of the way! You can just suck eggs.
.
.
in an all-out fight Let's just give her hell.
Turn it off! .
.
to salvage his dignity I got to get us running again.
.
.
and his mining career.
What if we can come back from the ashes and kick some ass this year?