Gold Rush (2018) s05e06 Episode Script
Cursed Cut
'Up in the Klondike, Parker Schnabel is in a world of trouble.
' 'A flooded cut' That's supposed to be dry.
'.
.
a waterlogged pump' The thing was completely underwater? '.
.
and a severed pipe are drowning his hopes of a 2,000-ounce season.
' This could be last nail in the coffin.
'Dave Turin is done taking orders from Todd Hoffman.
' We either go big or go home.
'But straight away, working as partners creates conflict' Dave's wrong on that cut.
'.
.
pushing his equipment, his sanity .
.
and his new partnership to the limit.
' I came into this as partners.
I think we're wasting our time.
'In an attempt to get his ancient dredge catching gold, Tony Beets puts his daughter to work.
' OK.
'20-year-old Monica moves the longest part of his massive machine.
' 'But she's in over her head and Tony's million-dollar gamble hangs in the balance.
' Whoa! You're into the bank.
Stop.
'A third of the way through the season, Parker Schnabel has mined 263 ounces of gold, worth $316,000, barely an eighth of what he needs to hit his 2,000-ounce gold.
' What the? 'The last thing he needs now is another setback.
' (GROANS) That's all supposed to be dry.
The water's supposed to be over there.
'Overnight, the dam between Parker's tailings pond and his cut washed away.
' 'All his pay dirt is flooded.
' What we were going to haul as pay today is buried.
What a (BLEEP) way to start a morning.
The only thing that made this work was that it was simple, and this is actually extensive and complicated and a massive pain in my ass.
'Parker's string of bad luck is taking a toll on his men' I don't know what I mean, everything can go wrong! '.
.
his machines' It's not good.
Hey! '.
.
and even his 14-week-old puppy Dozer.
' (DOG BARKS) What? Dude, I think this place is cursed.
No kidding.
'Dave, one of Parker's operators, believes these setbacks are no coincidence.
' Back in the '80s, there was a husband and wife mining out on this corner and she was fooling around and trying to take off with his gold and he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.
Some people say they've seen her ghost.
'Parker's cursed cut has another surprise in store.
' What happened here? 'His pay dirt isn't the only thing that was submerged when the dam burst.
' What happened? Flood in the pump? The thing was underwater? Right to the picking eye.
Where's the hoses? Got ripped off.
A bit lower down, Mike.
(DIALOGUE BLEEPED) That's what we needed this morning.
It came in pretty quick, so it pushed it 50 feet.
Gees! But it ripped that suction hose off.
Do you know if it was running? We're not sure, but it had that flow switch on so there's a good chance it was.
We're looking at the engine being full of water.
We won't be able to turn it.
That'll bend the push rods.
That could mean busted cylinders.
We need that pump in the cut so We're going to have to tear the engine down, drain the water.
Well, let's tear it apart and see what you can do.
Without this, we're not sluicing.
We'll get right on it.
Do what you can, I guess.
'Without a pump, Parker's mine is at a standstill.
' Joke! This cut's going to be the death of this place.
'16 kilometres away at McKinnon Creek, Dave Turin is back with the Hoffman crew.
' I'm here to move dirt, get the guys motivated and get a lot of gold.
'This season, Dave's not a hired hand.
' 'He's invested half a million dollars in equipment to become a 50-50 partner with Todd.
' Todd and I are partners, but I'm the guy running the mining and I'm making the decisions and that's how it's going to be.
'As head of all mining operations, Dave's first task is to assess the crew's work in the cut.
' Hey, Logan! Hey! How's it going? Good.
How's the plant running? The shifts have been sporadic.
Nobody knows when they're working.
This many guys, we need to be running more dirt.
Yeah.
Hey, Jack.
How's it going? Slow.
Yeah.
I'm glad you're here cos It's nice to be here.
.
.
they won't listen to me.
It looks a little chaotic but we'll figure it out.
Yeah.
The crew is kinda scattered.
It's kind of chaos here.
They're just not getting it done.
'Dave identifies some basic problems.
'He's ready to make big changes.
' Tell me what you're thinking, man.
We need to open some new cuts.
We're mining there because it's convenient.
I've been looking at these maps.
I think the good gold's down here by these spots.
There's 27 dollars a yard.
At this end, it goes clear up to 31 dollars a yard.
I think we get started opening up this huge cut and work our way towards this big gold.
I don't wanna strip off the top layer and not get to the pay dirt because it's frozen.
I brought the equipment.
We've got men that want to work.
We're going to put in the hours.
That ground is where it's going to happen.
You're serious about that? Dead serious.
It's 20 hours a day.
We either go big or we might as well go home.
OK.
You're a partner now, Dave.
It's on you.
'Dave's master plan is for the crew to finish up running for dirt in the old cut, while he goes on ahead in his dozer to investigate where the drill map shows the best gold.
' This is what I've been dreaming about.
The good thing is, I'm mining it my way.
I'm hoping and praying I'm not one of those guys that come to the Klondike and lose a bunch of money.
'32 kilometres north, the Beets family basecamp' 'For nearly two months, Tony Beets has been dismantling a gold-mining dredge that hasn't run for 27 years.
' 'His mission - to get it up and running by the end of the season.
' Thank you, guys.
'Tony is way behind schedule.
' You're late.
'Time is running out.
' Good for you.
Where are we at with the dredge? You're supposed to have it out by now.
It's, like, 90 feet long.
That five feet's going to make a difference! OK.
I don't like it but I'll try.
No, there is no try, there is only do or do not.
For God's sake, Kevin! I hate you! OK.
I'll do my best.
'The conveyor is the longest part of the 64-metre dredge.
' 'It carries tailings out of the wash plant and dumps them behind a self-contained gold-catching machine.
' 'Without a working conveyor, the dredge can't shift tailings and will never catch gold.
' 'Monica and Doug, the articulated lorry driver, have to transport the 75-year-old conveyor 138 kilometres to Paradise Hill without damaging it.
' We've got to get this out today, one piece, and I want to be safe.
Nobody really knows how it's going to turn out until we get going with it! 'The conveyor hangs nine metres off the back of the trailer.
' The end's sticking out a bit far for my liking but that's how Tony wants it.
Ready? Yep.
'Ahead of them, 48 kilometres of mountainous dirt roads before they even reach the highway.
' Oh, baby! 'Monica leads to look out for any trouble.
' I'm just keeping an eye on Doug.
I just wanna make sure he's good.
Keeping watch at the back is Ryan, Tony's pilot.
' Good times.
That's if everything goes OK.
(DIALOGUE BLEEPED) I wanted to go to town tonight! 'Just an hour into the journey, they hit their first major obstacle.
' 'Doug crawls through the creek '.
.
and up the far side.
' It's definitely down into the water.
Whoa! Doug is spinning out.
Whoa! You're into the bank.
Stop.
'The bank's too steep for the nine-metre overhang.
' It's spinning.
How far are we dragging? 'Just eight kilometres into a 138-kilometre trek, Monica has run the conveyor into the creek bed.
' Let's hope it's not damaged.
(DIALOGUE BLEEPED) 'Monica Beets is transporting her father's dredge conveyor, but just eight kilometres into a 138-kilometre trek, her convoy is in deep trouble.
' 'The conveyor's nine-metre overhang has run aground in the creek.
' Doug is stuck in the creek right now.
We need him out, like, five minutes ago.
Hold onto your britches! Agh! Rocks on the road! This road is (BLEEP)! 'Monica races up the track to get her loader.
' 'Her plan - to use the power of the 18-tonne machine to pull the truck free.
' To go on the loader (GROANS) I don't care if it's set up or not, I'm just going.
Yep.
I hate this thing! Get that truck to back up.
Back up! Back up! Back up! Thank you! '20-year-old Monica grew up on her dad's Klondike claim.
' 'She's been driving a loader since she was 12.
'But until she can make it back to the creek, there's nothing the guys can do.
' Monica! Back it up.
I've got that cable, if you wanna guide me back.
Do you wanna be the eyes? Yeah.
OK.
'Monica will use the 214-horsepower loader to drag the lorry up the bank.
' Are you ready? Yeah.
Hold on.
'Despite hitting the ground, the 75-year-old dredge conveyor is in one piece.
' How's it feeling, Doug? Feeling good.
I wouldn't want the wrath of your father if something broke.
Nobody wants that.
'At Scribner Creek, Parker's crew is scrambling to rebuild the dam that keeps their tailings pond from flooding their cut.
' Hopefully, it won't flood out again.
'But with their drainage pump a casualty of the flood, the only way to drain the cut is to commandeer the pump from the wash plant.
' With that plant not running, nobody's making a nickel.
Good? Clear! Are you ready, Mike? You betcha.
Here we go! We need two pumps.
We have one.
This is a major headache.
This here is a migraine.
'Parker's operation is at a standstill.
' 'It will take two days to pump the cut dry.
' 'Gene uses the downtime to take care of his business back in Juneau, Alaska.
' I'm just getting ready to head home for a few days and pick up some parts.
I'm looking forward to getting out of here and getting home.
'Mechanic Mike starts stripping down the flooded pump.
' Worst-case scenario with the pump being flooded would be that it was running, it did .
.
get water inside.
It could be bad.
It could be really bad.
Some water for your engine! The deeper we get, the worse it's looking.
She'll be hydrolocked right now.
'If it's hydrolocked, the $40,000 pump is finished.
' 'In an engine, air and fuel are compressed by a piston before igniting.
' 'Because water is a liquid, it can't be compressed.
' 'In hydrolocking, water is sucked into the chamber.
' 'Hydrolocking can destroy the pistons and the rods.
' 'Chief mechanic Mitch suspects the pump is a goner.
' They don't normally come back to life after you drown them.
That's a $40,000 pump here.
We're pretty hooped without it.
This could be the last nail in the coffin for the swamp cut, quite honestly.
The valve drain itself looks good.
We'll just pull the push rod, check it and, fortunately, all the rods are nice and straight.
That means we didn't get any water in the compression stroke before it kicked itself off.
How's it going back on? OK.
I'm pretty happy the rods aren't bent.
(SIGHS) Well, that's a relief! Hit the trigger and see what it does.
You might wanna step back.
All clear.
We might have to get creative.
Do you reckon? Yeah.
That's the brain.
That's the brain.
It normally goes when they get wet.
What I'm trying to do is bypass all this important stuff here and just get power to the right wires on the outside of the panel.
'Mitch makes the radical decision to bypass the computer that controls the pump and hotwire the pump's engine.
' Are you ready? You betcha.
(ENGINE TURNS OVER) We've got smoke coming out of there.
Oh, yeah.
That's what we're looking for.
I think you got lucky.
It's much-needed luck, for once.
(ENGINE REVS) We'll stand here a minute and make sure it doesn't blow up, but it sounds pretty good! 'The fix just saved Parker $40,000 and precious days of gold mining.
' Wow.
Good job, guys.
I'm (BLEEP) impressed.
'At McKinnon Creek' OK, Logan, come on back.
'.
.
Dave Turin's calling the shots.
' 10-4.
'He now has the Hoffman crew working on a new cut that he hopes will deliver $30 a yard.
' 'But the ground's not giving up any gold without a fight.
' This is digging harder than anything I've ever dug.
This is not right.
'The deeper Dave digs, the tougher it gets.
' What's going on, Dave? Look at this.
Is it solid ice? This is solid fricking ice, man.
Look at this.
We know there's gold down there and gravel, but nothing about a solid stinking chunk of ice.
If we've got to deal with this all the way down, damn it! We're just Everything's frozen, you know? Dude, we're in trouble.
Where do we go from here? I think we ought to dig as trench.
Let's just see how deep this stuff is.
Let's see what we've got.
All right.
'If the ice runs all the way down to the gravel, Dave's plan to get to big gold could be dead in the water.
' Holy cow, this is weird! I'm not real sure why it's so tight.
Andy, you need to come down here and look at this.
"Be right there, Dave.
" 'Dave's used to digging permafrost, frozen dirt, but this cut has a thick layer of solid ice blocking his way to pay gravel.
' What's going on? This is ridiculous.
I've never dealt with ice like this.
Holy smokes! Look at that.
I think we've uncovered a solid ice lake.
You've got about, what, five feet of ice? I think we'll have problems.
The gold below is worth it.
We'll wear out a few ripper teeth.
I don't think this is the way to mine.
'Dave faces a dilemma - stay and fight the ice or go in search of new, easier ground.
' I say we stick with it.
Let's finish this cut.
Let's not quit now.
'Dave tells the crew to keep battling the ice, while he heads into town to buy more ripper teeth.
' 'But his business partner Todd has other plans.
' 'He calls Andy into his trailer.
What's up? I think we've got a problem.
We didn't plan for three feet of black, hard ice.
We don't have enough time to do that kind of stripping.
I think our only chance is on this hillside over here.
Dave's not going to be happy.
Plain and simple, Dave's wrong on that cut and you know it.
(SIGHS) Yeah.
'At McKinnon Creek, Dave Turin has the Hoffman crew battling through a layer of solid ice to reach pay dirt worth $30 a yard.
' 'Todd and Dave agreed that as an equal partner, Dave would run the mining operation.
' 'But behind his back, Todd is looking for easier grounds to mine.
' If my assumption is correct, I don't think that this ground on the hillside is as frozen.
We can do it with an excavator.
It'll be half as much in cost versus a dozer.
All right.
Wherever you think, man, I want you to jump in with that excavator.
See this here? It's soft.
We could probably strip twice as much ground up here than what Dave wants to do down here.
I don't think Dave is going to like the idea, but we've got to come up with another plan.
That's gravel right there! That is! That's fricking gravel and that ain't frozen.
That took me about a minute and a half.
It's all gravel right there.
I'm going to go ahead and get a pan in there.
Bingo.
Jackpot.
This doesn't even have any water in it.
It's bone dry.
There'll be a good toss right there.
Come on over here, Andy.
See that one? Yeah.
Ooh, a little chunkier piece.
There's a lot of little pieces, Andy, but what's cool is, there's two bigger chunks.
That's probably nine bucks a yard.
We'd be fools not to mine this, and I mean fools.
'At Clear Creek, Tony Beets and son Kevin dismantle their ageing gold factory.
' 'If they can get the dredge back up and running, Tony believes his million-dollar investment could produce $350,000 of gold every week.
' 'Today, they're removing the rear gantry.
' Tell me what it's like working with Tony.
You have a (BLEEP) sense of timing! Why? This is when you ask questions? Really? Got it? Yep! It's me and him doing all the danger (BLEEP).
Cos we're dumb enough to do it.
It's sad, but that makes sense, you know that.
There ya go! Such a caring soul! 'Now that the rear gantry is down, they can finally reach the giant spud.
' 'The spud anchors the dredge into the ground.
' 'When the monster mining machine is operational, the spud acts as a pivot, allowing the dredge to swing back and forth, cutting an arc through the pay dirt.
' 'Tony's spud has been stuck in the mud since the dredge last ran in 1987, a year before Kevin was even born.
' It's one of the vital parts, so we don't have the option to leave it.
We don't know if it's in the ground ten feet or 20 feet.
I'm feeling tremors in the deck.
There must be stuff deeper in than I thought and it's holding onto it.
Like when you get your boot stuck in mud, same thing.
"We're at 29,000.
" I don't want to bust that cable and everything go flying in the air! 'If Tony can't get the spud out, there's no way he'll get the dredge mining this season.
' Every 30 years or so, you really should lube your dredge! How far do you figure that thing was stuck in there? I say no more than five.
You'll be buying the beer.
No! Uh-huh.
Five feet! Yeah, it is.
I'm closer.
I win.
That is a chunk of metal, though.
Oh, yeah.
That sounds good.
'Over at Scribner Creek, Parker's crew has finally shaken off the curse of the swamp cut.
' 'They lost three days of mining, but they've pumped out the flood water and they're back moving dirt.
' What What's he done? He killed the water to the plant.
Killed it? No way! Yeah.
And now the plant's dead.
Oh, God! I'm an idiot.
What happened? I just (BLEEP) blew through the (BLEEP) pipeline.
Chris is screwed now.
As soon as the material doesn't have water flowing, it's (BLEEP).
Yeah, well, that's a proper (BLEEP).
'After only six hours of running pay dirt, Big Red is at a standstill once again.
' 'Parker accidentally tore through a buried water pipe with the ripper blade on his dozer.
' I lost water to the wash plant.
Now I know why! Ouch! There's probably easier ways for me to give you the rest of the day off! I saw water come out of the bank and I'm like, "No? No!" And then I saw a lot of water come out of the bank and I'm like (BLEEP)! Things happen, you know? Not for me.
That kinda (BLEEP) doesn't happen to me.
That's going to be a to fuse.
I don't know how to use that fusion machine.
Do you? I've watched Gene use that one! First time for everything, right? Heck of a day for this to happen without Gene here.
Actually, I'm glad.
Except, he'll find out! (LAUGHTER) If Gene watches TV, he'll find out.
Gene will probably be a little (BLEEP).
Who knows, I might get some more stuff up.
I'm not quite done in my destructive mood! Damn it.
Stupid idiot.
'To have any hope of hitting his ambitious $2.
4-million season goal, Parker's crew need to fix the pipe fast.
' 'But no-one has a clue how to use Gene's pipe-fusing machine.
' Gene's not here and he's kinda like the master of the fusing machine, so we all elected Mike to take his place.
Mike didn't know it.
Now he does.
This will be the a first time for me.
But at a time like this, you do what you've got to do to keep things rolling.
They're pulling a pipe up out of the ground so we get some slack, so we get both ends up and into the fusing machine.
We'll fuse it, fix it and put it back in the ground.
Hopefully! Now we go that way.
Perfect.
Set her down.
Ow! It bit me.
It did? I'll survive.
Gene's a professional at this and we're amateurs.
Not yet.
We'll be amateur at the end of the day, maybe! 'To fuse the pipe, they first have to shave half a centimetre off each end to even them up.
' It's working.
Even if we don't get it fused, at least one face will be flat.
Have a little faith in this operation! I do have little faith in this operation! That's not how it looks when Gene does it.
Really? Better? I don't know.
Cut it till it's one continuous curl.
Like that? Yeah.
There we go! It's cutting off a nice, clean, flat face so they butt up together.
Don't cut it all off cos we need something to meld! I know! I know! It looks good to me.
'They butt the two ends up against each other.
' I think it just rolled back on you.
Watch your fingers.
Whoa! The Three Stooges right here! 'The machine uses heat and pressure to join the ends of the pipe together.
' This thing ain't hot enough.
What's it at? 350.
What should it be at? 450.
It's set for 475.
It might just take a little longer to warm up.
If you get a cold weld, it'll just blow apart.
If the weld is too hot, same thing.
It's just not proper.
All done! If we put this back in the same place, Gene will never know.
Bury that busted pipe! I got it, Parker.
You get in the beast.
Like it never even happened! 'At McKinnon Creek, Todd Hoffman is not honouring his agreement to let Dave Turin make all the mining decisions.
' 'He's pulled the entire Hoffman crew off Dave's $30-a-yard cut to mine thawed ground worth just $9 a yard.
' If you ask for a perfect day of gold mining, today is it.
The dirt's thawed, the trucks are rolling in steady, the dirt's coming out of the ground fast.
It's exactly what we want.
It's perfect.
'Todd hasn't told Dave about the change of plan.
' Uh-oh.
This isn't going to go good.
Give us a little room.
Hey, what the hell's going on here? Well - Why are we up here? We should be down there.
Watching you strip down there, Dave, I came to the conclusion we're never going to get any gold this year, so I sent Andy up here and, guess what, we just dug all the way to gravel.
The best drill results were down there at the bottom.
I just wanna stick to our plan.
There's a reason why nobody's gone in there and got the gold out, because it's a sheet of ice.
This is a partnership.
I know.
We came into this as partners.
I call the shots on the mining.
I'm going to finish what we started.
We stuck to the jungle, too, and that didn't work out so good.
You can't strip ice, Dave! I'm telling you! You can't do it.
'After less than a week, their partnership is already falling apart.
' 'No longer a hired hand, Dave's determined to stick to his own mining strategy.
' This cut is not giving it up easy.
I'm going to get through it, though.
'He heads out to the cut on his own.
' I'm not going to give up.
We don't have a choice.
I got too much invested in this.
You've got to work through it, figure out a way to get this done.
'At Scribner Creek, it's the end of Parker's week from hell.
' 'Right on schedule, Tony Beet shows up to collect his cut.
' Hi, Tony.
Good.
How are you? I'm doing better now that this week's almost over.
It was pretty violent.
We buried a pump.
On top of that, I tore through our pipeline with our dozer.
It's like we're cursed.
I can guarantee this ain't breaking any records.
20 (LAUGHS) 30 42.
35.
Whoa.
Less than half.
Pretty disappointing.
Ah, well! 42.
35.
42.
35 6.
35.
Yeah, I mean, that's depressing.
I'm not putting a very big dent in that jar lately.
Thanks, Tony.
OK.
'Parker's cursed week brings his gold total to just 305 ounces, worth $366,000.
His 2.
4-million-dollar-season goal is looking more and more unlikely.
'At McKinnon Creek, Todd and Dave are in a standoff.
' 'Todd has the Hoffman crew mining easy, low-paying ground' '.
.
while Dave's on a one-man mission to reach the richest pay on their claim.
' I might need a miracle to get this thing done.
It's starting to kick my ass.
Right now, what I'm experiencing is, it's warm weather, this ice is melting and turning into mud and the problem is, I just can't get any traction.
'Dave's fight with a melting sheet of buried ice is turning into a muddy battle.
' Come on.
It's not working.
Come on.
Come on! 'He wrestles with his 49-tonne machine just to keep it moving.
' No! Come on! 'But he just keeps losing traction.
' Agh! 'Every time, Dave's dozer sinks into the mud.
' Damn it.
Oh, man! 'Dave's fighting a losing battle.
' This is what I was dealt.
It looks to me like six to eight feet of solid ice.
Todd wanted to go after the easy stuff, I tried to prove a point and I think I've stayed with this too long.
I can't get to the gold that's under here.
I think this cut's done.
I think it's beaten me.
'A defeated Dave retreats to the higher cut where Todd and crew have been digging pay dirt without him for four days.
' Um, I think I need to quit.
I think I let my pride get a hold of me on that cut.
You might be right.
That thing's kicking my butt.
Dude, I don't wanna be right.
I just wanna get gold.
I don't care.
We need you up here, Dave, not down there.
It's digging pretty easy, huh? It's going good.
He's opening up so much ground every day, it's nuts! We'll do it a lot faster if we get you up here with us, because with you up here, we can kick some ass, you know that.
All right, man.
Let's work together.
All right, get the dozer.
All right.
'On the next Gold Rush' How are you? '.
.
Parker's parents give him a reality check.
' We need another dozer.
You don't have the money for a dozer.
'Desperate to make up for lost time, Tony Beets puts his dredge's nerve centre in danger.
' He's going to rip the building apart.
Dude, just pour it.
'And the Hoffmans get just enough gold' Yeah! '.
.
to swing a deal for one of the biggest wash plants in the Klondike.
' Come on, girl! 'And Todd finally has a real chance at redemption.
' Now comes the hard work.
Hopefully, we'll come out with gold.
' 'A flooded cut' That's supposed to be dry.
'.
.
a waterlogged pump' The thing was completely underwater? '.
.
and a severed pipe are drowning his hopes of a 2,000-ounce season.
' This could be last nail in the coffin.
'Dave Turin is done taking orders from Todd Hoffman.
' We either go big or go home.
'But straight away, working as partners creates conflict' Dave's wrong on that cut.
'.
.
pushing his equipment, his sanity .
.
and his new partnership to the limit.
' I came into this as partners.
I think we're wasting our time.
'In an attempt to get his ancient dredge catching gold, Tony Beets puts his daughter to work.
' OK.
'20-year-old Monica moves the longest part of his massive machine.
' 'But she's in over her head and Tony's million-dollar gamble hangs in the balance.
' Whoa! You're into the bank.
Stop.
'A third of the way through the season, Parker Schnabel has mined 263 ounces of gold, worth $316,000, barely an eighth of what he needs to hit his 2,000-ounce gold.
' What the? 'The last thing he needs now is another setback.
' (GROANS) That's all supposed to be dry.
The water's supposed to be over there.
'Overnight, the dam between Parker's tailings pond and his cut washed away.
' 'All his pay dirt is flooded.
' What we were going to haul as pay today is buried.
What a (BLEEP) way to start a morning.
The only thing that made this work was that it was simple, and this is actually extensive and complicated and a massive pain in my ass.
'Parker's string of bad luck is taking a toll on his men' I don't know what I mean, everything can go wrong! '.
.
his machines' It's not good.
Hey! '.
.
and even his 14-week-old puppy Dozer.
' (DOG BARKS) What? Dude, I think this place is cursed.
No kidding.
'Dave, one of Parker's operators, believes these setbacks are no coincidence.
' Back in the '80s, there was a husband and wife mining out on this corner and she was fooling around and trying to take off with his gold and he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.
Some people say they've seen her ghost.
'Parker's cursed cut has another surprise in store.
' What happened here? 'His pay dirt isn't the only thing that was submerged when the dam burst.
' What happened? Flood in the pump? The thing was underwater? Right to the picking eye.
Where's the hoses? Got ripped off.
A bit lower down, Mike.
(DIALOGUE BLEEPED) That's what we needed this morning.
It came in pretty quick, so it pushed it 50 feet.
Gees! But it ripped that suction hose off.
Do you know if it was running? We're not sure, but it had that flow switch on so there's a good chance it was.
We're looking at the engine being full of water.
We won't be able to turn it.
That'll bend the push rods.
That could mean busted cylinders.
We need that pump in the cut so We're going to have to tear the engine down, drain the water.
Well, let's tear it apart and see what you can do.
Without this, we're not sluicing.
We'll get right on it.
Do what you can, I guess.
'Without a pump, Parker's mine is at a standstill.
' Joke! This cut's going to be the death of this place.
'16 kilometres away at McKinnon Creek, Dave Turin is back with the Hoffman crew.
' I'm here to move dirt, get the guys motivated and get a lot of gold.
'This season, Dave's not a hired hand.
' 'He's invested half a million dollars in equipment to become a 50-50 partner with Todd.
' Todd and I are partners, but I'm the guy running the mining and I'm making the decisions and that's how it's going to be.
'As head of all mining operations, Dave's first task is to assess the crew's work in the cut.
' Hey, Logan! Hey! How's it going? Good.
How's the plant running? The shifts have been sporadic.
Nobody knows when they're working.
This many guys, we need to be running more dirt.
Yeah.
Hey, Jack.
How's it going? Slow.
Yeah.
I'm glad you're here cos It's nice to be here.
.
.
they won't listen to me.
It looks a little chaotic but we'll figure it out.
Yeah.
The crew is kinda scattered.
It's kind of chaos here.
They're just not getting it done.
'Dave identifies some basic problems.
'He's ready to make big changes.
' Tell me what you're thinking, man.
We need to open some new cuts.
We're mining there because it's convenient.
I've been looking at these maps.
I think the good gold's down here by these spots.
There's 27 dollars a yard.
At this end, it goes clear up to 31 dollars a yard.
I think we get started opening up this huge cut and work our way towards this big gold.
I don't wanna strip off the top layer and not get to the pay dirt because it's frozen.
I brought the equipment.
We've got men that want to work.
We're going to put in the hours.
That ground is where it's going to happen.
You're serious about that? Dead serious.
It's 20 hours a day.
We either go big or we might as well go home.
OK.
You're a partner now, Dave.
It's on you.
'Dave's master plan is for the crew to finish up running for dirt in the old cut, while he goes on ahead in his dozer to investigate where the drill map shows the best gold.
' This is what I've been dreaming about.
The good thing is, I'm mining it my way.
I'm hoping and praying I'm not one of those guys that come to the Klondike and lose a bunch of money.
'32 kilometres north, the Beets family basecamp' 'For nearly two months, Tony Beets has been dismantling a gold-mining dredge that hasn't run for 27 years.
' 'His mission - to get it up and running by the end of the season.
' Thank you, guys.
'Tony is way behind schedule.
' You're late.
'Time is running out.
' Good for you.
Where are we at with the dredge? You're supposed to have it out by now.
It's, like, 90 feet long.
That five feet's going to make a difference! OK.
I don't like it but I'll try.
No, there is no try, there is only do or do not.
For God's sake, Kevin! I hate you! OK.
I'll do my best.
'The conveyor is the longest part of the 64-metre dredge.
' 'It carries tailings out of the wash plant and dumps them behind a self-contained gold-catching machine.
' 'Without a working conveyor, the dredge can't shift tailings and will never catch gold.
' 'Monica and Doug, the articulated lorry driver, have to transport the 75-year-old conveyor 138 kilometres to Paradise Hill without damaging it.
' We've got to get this out today, one piece, and I want to be safe.
Nobody really knows how it's going to turn out until we get going with it! 'The conveyor hangs nine metres off the back of the trailer.
' The end's sticking out a bit far for my liking but that's how Tony wants it.
Ready? Yep.
'Ahead of them, 48 kilometres of mountainous dirt roads before they even reach the highway.
' Oh, baby! 'Monica leads to look out for any trouble.
' I'm just keeping an eye on Doug.
I just wanna make sure he's good.
Keeping watch at the back is Ryan, Tony's pilot.
' Good times.
That's if everything goes OK.
(DIALOGUE BLEEPED) I wanted to go to town tonight! 'Just an hour into the journey, they hit their first major obstacle.
' 'Doug crawls through the creek '.
.
and up the far side.
' It's definitely down into the water.
Whoa! Doug is spinning out.
Whoa! You're into the bank.
Stop.
'The bank's too steep for the nine-metre overhang.
' It's spinning.
How far are we dragging? 'Just eight kilometres into a 138-kilometre trek, Monica has run the conveyor into the creek bed.
' Let's hope it's not damaged.
(DIALOGUE BLEEPED) 'Monica Beets is transporting her father's dredge conveyor, but just eight kilometres into a 138-kilometre trek, her convoy is in deep trouble.
' 'The conveyor's nine-metre overhang has run aground in the creek.
' Doug is stuck in the creek right now.
We need him out, like, five minutes ago.
Hold onto your britches! Agh! Rocks on the road! This road is (BLEEP)! 'Monica races up the track to get her loader.
' 'Her plan - to use the power of the 18-tonne machine to pull the truck free.
' To go on the loader (GROANS) I don't care if it's set up or not, I'm just going.
Yep.
I hate this thing! Get that truck to back up.
Back up! Back up! Back up! Thank you! '20-year-old Monica grew up on her dad's Klondike claim.
' 'She's been driving a loader since she was 12.
'But until she can make it back to the creek, there's nothing the guys can do.
' Monica! Back it up.
I've got that cable, if you wanna guide me back.
Do you wanna be the eyes? Yeah.
OK.
'Monica will use the 214-horsepower loader to drag the lorry up the bank.
' Are you ready? Yeah.
Hold on.
'Despite hitting the ground, the 75-year-old dredge conveyor is in one piece.
' How's it feeling, Doug? Feeling good.
I wouldn't want the wrath of your father if something broke.
Nobody wants that.
'At Scribner Creek, Parker's crew is scrambling to rebuild the dam that keeps their tailings pond from flooding their cut.
' Hopefully, it won't flood out again.
'But with their drainage pump a casualty of the flood, the only way to drain the cut is to commandeer the pump from the wash plant.
' With that plant not running, nobody's making a nickel.
Good? Clear! Are you ready, Mike? You betcha.
Here we go! We need two pumps.
We have one.
This is a major headache.
This here is a migraine.
'Parker's operation is at a standstill.
' 'It will take two days to pump the cut dry.
' 'Gene uses the downtime to take care of his business back in Juneau, Alaska.
' I'm just getting ready to head home for a few days and pick up some parts.
I'm looking forward to getting out of here and getting home.
'Mechanic Mike starts stripping down the flooded pump.
' Worst-case scenario with the pump being flooded would be that it was running, it did .
.
get water inside.
It could be bad.
It could be really bad.
Some water for your engine! The deeper we get, the worse it's looking.
She'll be hydrolocked right now.
'If it's hydrolocked, the $40,000 pump is finished.
' 'In an engine, air and fuel are compressed by a piston before igniting.
' 'Because water is a liquid, it can't be compressed.
' 'In hydrolocking, water is sucked into the chamber.
' 'Hydrolocking can destroy the pistons and the rods.
' 'Chief mechanic Mitch suspects the pump is a goner.
' They don't normally come back to life after you drown them.
That's a $40,000 pump here.
We're pretty hooped without it.
This could be the last nail in the coffin for the swamp cut, quite honestly.
The valve drain itself looks good.
We'll just pull the push rod, check it and, fortunately, all the rods are nice and straight.
That means we didn't get any water in the compression stroke before it kicked itself off.
How's it going back on? OK.
I'm pretty happy the rods aren't bent.
(SIGHS) Well, that's a relief! Hit the trigger and see what it does.
You might wanna step back.
All clear.
We might have to get creative.
Do you reckon? Yeah.
That's the brain.
That's the brain.
It normally goes when they get wet.
What I'm trying to do is bypass all this important stuff here and just get power to the right wires on the outside of the panel.
'Mitch makes the radical decision to bypass the computer that controls the pump and hotwire the pump's engine.
' Are you ready? You betcha.
(ENGINE TURNS OVER) We've got smoke coming out of there.
Oh, yeah.
That's what we're looking for.
I think you got lucky.
It's much-needed luck, for once.
(ENGINE REVS) We'll stand here a minute and make sure it doesn't blow up, but it sounds pretty good! 'The fix just saved Parker $40,000 and precious days of gold mining.
' Wow.
Good job, guys.
I'm (BLEEP) impressed.
'At McKinnon Creek' OK, Logan, come on back.
'.
.
Dave Turin's calling the shots.
' 10-4.
'He now has the Hoffman crew working on a new cut that he hopes will deliver $30 a yard.
' 'But the ground's not giving up any gold without a fight.
' This is digging harder than anything I've ever dug.
This is not right.
'The deeper Dave digs, the tougher it gets.
' What's going on, Dave? Look at this.
Is it solid ice? This is solid fricking ice, man.
Look at this.
We know there's gold down there and gravel, but nothing about a solid stinking chunk of ice.
If we've got to deal with this all the way down, damn it! We're just Everything's frozen, you know? Dude, we're in trouble.
Where do we go from here? I think we ought to dig as trench.
Let's just see how deep this stuff is.
Let's see what we've got.
All right.
'If the ice runs all the way down to the gravel, Dave's plan to get to big gold could be dead in the water.
' Holy cow, this is weird! I'm not real sure why it's so tight.
Andy, you need to come down here and look at this.
"Be right there, Dave.
" 'Dave's used to digging permafrost, frozen dirt, but this cut has a thick layer of solid ice blocking his way to pay gravel.
' What's going on? This is ridiculous.
I've never dealt with ice like this.
Holy smokes! Look at that.
I think we've uncovered a solid ice lake.
You've got about, what, five feet of ice? I think we'll have problems.
The gold below is worth it.
We'll wear out a few ripper teeth.
I don't think this is the way to mine.
'Dave faces a dilemma - stay and fight the ice or go in search of new, easier ground.
' I say we stick with it.
Let's finish this cut.
Let's not quit now.
'Dave tells the crew to keep battling the ice, while he heads into town to buy more ripper teeth.
' 'But his business partner Todd has other plans.
' 'He calls Andy into his trailer.
What's up? I think we've got a problem.
We didn't plan for three feet of black, hard ice.
We don't have enough time to do that kind of stripping.
I think our only chance is on this hillside over here.
Dave's not going to be happy.
Plain and simple, Dave's wrong on that cut and you know it.
(SIGHS) Yeah.
'At McKinnon Creek, Dave Turin has the Hoffman crew battling through a layer of solid ice to reach pay dirt worth $30 a yard.
' 'Todd and Dave agreed that as an equal partner, Dave would run the mining operation.
' 'But behind his back, Todd is looking for easier grounds to mine.
' If my assumption is correct, I don't think that this ground on the hillside is as frozen.
We can do it with an excavator.
It'll be half as much in cost versus a dozer.
All right.
Wherever you think, man, I want you to jump in with that excavator.
See this here? It's soft.
We could probably strip twice as much ground up here than what Dave wants to do down here.
I don't think Dave is going to like the idea, but we've got to come up with another plan.
That's gravel right there! That is! That's fricking gravel and that ain't frozen.
That took me about a minute and a half.
It's all gravel right there.
I'm going to go ahead and get a pan in there.
Bingo.
Jackpot.
This doesn't even have any water in it.
It's bone dry.
There'll be a good toss right there.
Come on over here, Andy.
See that one? Yeah.
Ooh, a little chunkier piece.
There's a lot of little pieces, Andy, but what's cool is, there's two bigger chunks.
That's probably nine bucks a yard.
We'd be fools not to mine this, and I mean fools.
'At Clear Creek, Tony Beets and son Kevin dismantle their ageing gold factory.
' 'If they can get the dredge back up and running, Tony believes his million-dollar investment could produce $350,000 of gold every week.
' 'Today, they're removing the rear gantry.
' Tell me what it's like working with Tony.
You have a (BLEEP) sense of timing! Why? This is when you ask questions? Really? Got it? Yep! It's me and him doing all the danger (BLEEP).
Cos we're dumb enough to do it.
It's sad, but that makes sense, you know that.
There ya go! Such a caring soul! 'Now that the rear gantry is down, they can finally reach the giant spud.
' 'The spud anchors the dredge into the ground.
' 'When the monster mining machine is operational, the spud acts as a pivot, allowing the dredge to swing back and forth, cutting an arc through the pay dirt.
' 'Tony's spud has been stuck in the mud since the dredge last ran in 1987, a year before Kevin was even born.
' It's one of the vital parts, so we don't have the option to leave it.
We don't know if it's in the ground ten feet or 20 feet.
I'm feeling tremors in the deck.
There must be stuff deeper in than I thought and it's holding onto it.
Like when you get your boot stuck in mud, same thing.
"We're at 29,000.
" I don't want to bust that cable and everything go flying in the air! 'If Tony can't get the spud out, there's no way he'll get the dredge mining this season.
' Every 30 years or so, you really should lube your dredge! How far do you figure that thing was stuck in there? I say no more than five.
You'll be buying the beer.
No! Uh-huh.
Five feet! Yeah, it is.
I'm closer.
I win.
That is a chunk of metal, though.
Oh, yeah.
That sounds good.
'Over at Scribner Creek, Parker's crew has finally shaken off the curse of the swamp cut.
' 'They lost three days of mining, but they've pumped out the flood water and they're back moving dirt.
' What What's he done? He killed the water to the plant.
Killed it? No way! Yeah.
And now the plant's dead.
Oh, God! I'm an idiot.
What happened? I just (BLEEP) blew through the (BLEEP) pipeline.
Chris is screwed now.
As soon as the material doesn't have water flowing, it's (BLEEP).
Yeah, well, that's a proper (BLEEP).
'After only six hours of running pay dirt, Big Red is at a standstill once again.
' 'Parker accidentally tore through a buried water pipe with the ripper blade on his dozer.
' I lost water to the wash plant.
Now I know why! Ouch! There's probably easier ways for me to give you the rest of the day off! I saw water come out of the bank and I'm like, "No? No!" And then I saw a lot of water come out of the bank and I'm like (BLEEP)! Things happen, you know? Not for me.
That kinda (BLEEP) doesn't happen to me.
That's going to be a to fuse.
I don't know how to use that fusion machine.
Do you? I've watched Gene use that one! First time for everything, right? Heck of a day for this to happen without Gene here.
Actually, I'm glad.
Except, he'll find out! (LAUGHTER) If Gene watches TV, he'll find out.
Gene will probably be a little (BLEEP).
Who knows, I might get some more stuff up.
I'm not quite done in my destructive mood! Damn it.
Stupid idiot.
'To have any hope of hitting his ambitious $2.
4-million season goal, Parker's crew need to fix the pipe fast.
' 'But no-one has a clue how to use Gene's pipe-fusing machine.
' Gene's not here and he's kinda like the master of the fusing machine, so we all elected Mike to take his place.
Mike didn't know it.
Now he does.
This will be the a first time for me.
But at a time like this, you do what you've got to do to keep things rolling.
They're pulling a pipe up out of the ground so we get some slack, so we get both ends up and into the fusing machine.
We'll fuse it, fix it and put it back in the ground.
Hopefully! Now we go that way.
Perfect.
Set her down.
Ow! It bit me.
It did? I'll survive.
Gene's a professional at this and we're amateurs.
Not yet.
We'll be amateur at the end of the day, maybe! 'To fuse the pipe, they first have to shave half a centimetre off each end to even them up.
' It's working.
Even if we don't get it fused, at least one face will be flat.
Have a little faith in this operation! I do have little faith in this operation! That's not how it looks when Gene does it.
Really? Better? I don't know.
Cut it till it's one continuous curl.
Like that? Yeah.
There we go! It's cutting off a nice, clean, flat face so they butt up together.
Don't cut it all off cos we need something to meld! I know! I know! It looks good to me.
'They butt the two ends up against each other.
' I think it just rolled back on you.
Watch your fingers.
Whoa! The Three Stooges right here! 'The machine uses heat and pressure to join the ends of the pipe together.
' This thing ain't hot enough.
What's it at? 350.
What should it be at? 450.
It's set for 475.
It might just take a little longer to warm up.
If you get a cold weld, it'll just blow apart.
If the weld is too hot, same thing.
It's just not proper.
All done! If we put this back in the same place, Gene will never know.
Bury that busted pipe! I got it, Parker.
You get in the beast.
Like it never even happened! 'At McKinnon Creek, Todd Hoffman is not honouring his agreement to let Dave Turin make all the mining decisions.
' 'He's pulled the entire Hoffman crew off Dave's $30-a-yard cut to mine thawed ground worth just $9 a yard.
' If you ask for a perfect day of gold mining, today is it.
The dirt's thawed, the trucks are rolling in steady, the dirt's coming out of the ground fast.
It's exactly what we want.
It's perfect.
'Todd hasn't told Dave about the change of plan.
' Uh-oh.
This isn't going to go good.
Give us a little room.
Hey, what the hell's going on here? Well - Why are we up here? We should be down there.
Watching you strip down there, Dave, I came to the conclusion we're never going to get any gold this year, so I sent Andy up here and, guess what, we just dug all the way to gravel.
The best drill results were down there at the bottom.
I just wanna stick to our plan.
There's a reason why nobody's gone in there and got the gold out, because it's a sheet of ice.
This is a partnership.
I know.
We came into this as partners.
I call the shots on the mining.
I'm going to finish what we started.
We stuck to the jungle, too, and that didn't work out so good.
You can't strip ice, Dave! I'm telling you! You can't do it.
'After less than a week, their partnership is already falling apart.
' 'No longer a hired hand, Dave's determined to stick to his own mining strategy.
' This cut is not giving it up easy.
I'm going to get through it, though.
'He heads out to the cut on his own.
' I'm not going to give up.
We don't have a choice.
I got too much invested in this.
You've got to work through it, figure out a way to get this done.
'At Scribner Creek, it's the end of Parker's week from hell.
' 'Right on schedule, Tony Beet shows up to collect his cut.
' Hi, Tony.
Good.
How are you? I'm doing better now that this week's almost over.
It was pretty violent.
We buried a pump.
On top of that, I tore through our pipeline with our dozer.
It's like we're cursed.
I can guarantee this ain't breaking any records.
20 (LAUGHS) 30 42.
35.
Whoa.
Less than half.
Pretty disappointing.
Ah, well! 42.
35.
42.
35 6.
35.
Yeah, I mean, that's depressing.
I'm not putting a very big dent in that jar lately.
Thanks, Tony.
OK.
'Parker's cursed week brings his gold total to just 305 ounces, worth $366,000.
His 2.
4-million-dollar-season goal is looking more and more unlikely.
'At McKinnon Creek, Todd and Dave are in a standoff.
' 'Todd has the Hoffman crew mining easy, low-paying ground' '.
.
while Dave's on a one-man mission to reach the richest pay on their claim.
' I might need a miracle to get this thing done.
It's starting to kick my ass.
Right now, what I'm experiencing is, it's warm weather, this ice is melting and turning into mud and the problem is, I just can't get any traction.
'Dave's fight with a melting sheet of buried ice is turning into a muddy battle.
' Come on.
It's not working.
Come on.
Come on! 'He wrestles with his 49-tonne machine just to keep it moving.
' No! Come on! 'But he just keeps losing traction.
' Agh! 'Every time, Dave's dozer sinks into the mud.
' Damn it.
Oh, man! 'Dave's fighting a losing battle.
' This is what I was dealt.
It looks to me like six to eight feet of solid ice.
Todd wanted to go after the easy stuff, I tried to prove a point and I think I've stayed with this too long.
I can't get to the gold that's under here.
I think this cut's done.
I think it's beaten me.
'A defeated Dave retreats to the higher cut where Todd and crew have been digging pay dirt without him for four days.
' Um, I think I need to quit.
I think I let my pride get a hold of me on that cut.
You might be right.
That thing's kicking my butt.
Dude, I don't wanna be right.
I just wanna get gold.
I don't care.
We need you up here, Dave, not down there.
It's digging pretty easy, huh? It's going good.
He's opening up so much ground every day, it's nuts! We'll do it a lot faster if we get you up here with us, because with you up here, we can kick some ass, you know that.
All right, man.
Let's work together.
All right, get the dozer.
All right.
'On the next Gold Rush' How are you? '.
.
Parker's parents give him a reality check.
' We need another dozer.
You don't have the money for a dozer.
'Desperate to make up for lost time, Tony Beets puts his dredge's nerve centre in danger.
' He's going to rip the building apart.
Dude, just pour it.
'And the Hoffmans get just enough gold' Yeah! '.
.
to swing a deal for one of the biggest wash plants in the Klondike.
' Come on, girl! 'And Todd finally has a real chance at redemption.
' Now comes the hard work.
Hopefully, we'll come out with gold.