Gold Rush (2018) s05e07 Episode Script
Goldzilla
After almost half a season rebuilding from the ashes, The Hoffmans have a shot at real gold.
Yeah! We got ourselves a tiger by the tail.
But trouble with a Little Red I can't run any faster, I'm trying.
.
.
forces Todd and Dave to gamble on a deal Todd's life savings, my life savings.
.
.
For one of the biggest wash plants in the Klondike.
Oh, this thing is huge.
Parker Schnabel's 2,000 ounce season goal is in huge trouble.
Why around here does it always have to be worst case scenario? And he is in the doghouse with his parents.
How are you running your business? Money is coming in and going out - Money doesn't come in, no money comes in.
But when he hits an unexpected gold pocket .
.
he faces a choice that could make or break his season.
I don't know what to do.
Tony Beets's dredge should have been dismantled weeks ago.
Now he's pushing his men and machines .
.
to breaking point.
Risking the dredge's most important part - its control centre.
Jerry! Tony, it is going to rip the building apart.
At McKinnon Creek, way up north, in the Klondike.
Put a bucket in, Jack.
All eight members of the Hoffman crew are now back and mining gold rich paydirt in Todd's new higher cut.
These guys are machines.
Andy is kicking ass, the guys are bringing paydirt.
Everything is running good.
We got ourselves a tiger by the tail, let me tell you.
Andy Spinks loads rock trucks.
I am loading dirt out as fast as I can load it, so you can't ask for anything better.
Logan and Kevin haul dirt to the plant.
OK, Logan, let's just keep piling it right there.
And Jack loads paydirt into their wash plant, Little Red.
For a while I was starving for pay, now I am being buried in pay.
Right there, drop it.
With the new equipment that bought Dave a 50% share of the Hoffman operation, the crew has stripped and stockpiled over 25,000 yards of paydirt in just seven days.
Yeah, Dad, keep going quick.
Faster! Straight back, good job.
What the frick? Woah! Holy! Thurber, what's going on? We've got fines coming out of the tail end.
This is what has your gold.
It cannot come out the waste end.
Some of that should be going down the sluice.
We are just shoving too much through, you know.
Jack is feeding too much dirt into Little Red's trommel.
Inside the plant, water jets blast fine gold rich material off the rocks and into the gold catching sluices.
But if too much paydirt is fed into the trommel, the water jets can't wash off all the gold.
As a result gold bearing fine material pours out the back of the plant with the course tailings.
Fine material in the tailings pile means the Hoffmans are losing gold.
It was puking out both ends up there.
You've got to slow him down, I can see that.
He's got to find a happy medium.
Jack, slow down, slow down.
Todd, I am getting a little (BLEEP).
You tell me to speed up, and then you tell me to slow down.
Now, what do you want? Nice and easy, Dad.
Slowly drops them in.
This little plant just can't run fast enough.
It is doing its dangdest but it just can only do so many yards.
So it is falling behind.
Andy keeps loading us.
Where are we going to put it? I don't know.
Just keep stacking it, I guess.
I have no other solution right now.
I can't run any faster, man, I am trying.
Andy is bringing us four times what we can run in one day.
And then it is starting to stack up.
We have got two more rock trucks coming down the road right now.
This ain't working.
Dad is holding us back.
I know.
The maximum we'll be able to push through this year, if we don't break down, is 100,000 yards.
That is going to give us 600oz, 700oz.
That is not going to cut it.
I know.
The Hoffmans need to mine at least 800oz of gold just to break even.
They have to find a way to speed up their operation.
What do you want to do, man? What shall we do? I don't know.
16km east, Parker Schnabel is almost halfway through his season but nowhere near his 2,000oz, $2.
4 million goal.
Right now, we're way behind.
2,000oz is 100oz a week and we just plain are not doing 100oz a week.
That is because this swamp cutting (BLEEP).
It's starting to get a little bit depressing, you know.
We've been running the last few weeks.
We're not even really keeping our heads above water.
We've done everything we can here.
The plant is running 24/7 and the gold is not in the ground.
So, you look at it on paper and you say "Well, why are you there?" To hit 2,000oz, Parker needed 500oz from the swamp cut in the last five weeks.
But marginal paydirt has only delivered 232.
Parker urgently needs better ground.
Right now I'm heading to the far cut with Gene.
I'm gonna take the excavator down and dig some test holes and see if it looks any more promising.
Last season the far cut yielded $200,000 worth of gold in just four days.
Look at that.
But at the beginning of this season, Parker and Rick hit rock hard permafrost.
That's never been thawed in the last however many thousands of years.
Parker's second season in the Klondike now hangs on whether or not the midsummer sun has thawed the far cut permafrost.
This is good to see.
Yeah, so this stuff has finally thawed out a bit, which is good.
Now we just need to make sure there's some gold here, so I'm gonna do some panning.
I mean, this cut was our best cut all last year.
We need good ground right now, and that's a nice pan.
15, 16, 17 flakes.
That tells me we're in the money.
I'm gonna show Gene.
That's a pretty damn good pan.
Looks pretty good.
Back open for business? Yeah.
Let's do it.
To return to the far cut, Parker will have to split his Scribner Creek operation in two.
At the swamp cut, Chris Doumitt will run the last of the paydirt through the wash plant, while the dozer, excavators and rock trucks head over 1km north to the far cut, to begin splitting the remaining over burden.
Having a 2,000oz goal this year means it's absolutely essential that we have the far cut stripped and ready to rock and roll by the time we get done on the swamp cut, because we don't have a day to lose sluicing.
Alright, let's do it.
Dammit.
This is justsoup.
You see those seams of ice in there? Yeah.
That's why this is all turning to (BLEEP).
Yeah.
It's disgusting.
The melting permafrost has turned what should be their best ground into unmineable muck.
All that water right in front of me, that's all just stuff that is melting out of the permafrost.
And it just makes everything it touches just turn right into this black death.
Goo.
(BLEEP) (BLEEP) Hey, can someone come and give me a hand? I think I'm stuck.
Yeah, buddy, I'll be right there.
One of our rock trucks just got stuck and this is just something we can't afford to have .
.
have go down on us.
We're just trying to get this cut organised.
It's just (BLEEP).
This mud's killing us.
So, the trucks are wallowing in the mud.
Dozer's getting stuck everywhere.
It's a mess.
Right, I almost lost this cut once.
Can't afford to do that again.
Why around here does it always have to be worst case scenario? .
.
Told Hoffman has defied the odds and rebuilt his operation from the ground up.
Now, to hit his 8000oz breakeven point, worth nearly $1 million, Todd needs to make his wash plant run more paydirt.
What's going on, Todd? Hey, buddy.
He's meeting Freddy Dodge, the man who designed Little Red.
It is good to see you, first off.
Yeah, no kidding man.
Been a long time, man.
Yeah, no kidding.
I got a question for you.
You know, Little Red, we are probably getting 60 yards an hour, 70 yards an hour - I need more production out of it.
I need to get to about 120, maybe 130 yards an hour, if possible.
That's not going to happen.
It is just not designed for it.
You are trying to haul a massive load in a Volkswagen by trying to do that.
That was built for the jungle, so we could get around the jungle.
I know.
We need a new wash plant.
You've got one option, I've got a plant sitting on trucks two miles out of town right now.
Oh, really? Yes.
Will it do 150 yards an hour? Should run over 200 yards an hour, Todd.
Kidding me? No, it is high league stuff.
It is a big plant.
I've got to be honest, money is short right now and I probably can't afford it, but I'd love to take a look.
Have a look at it and see what you think.
The only thing is I got a guy right now that wants it in the States so I have to know within 48 hours.
Tell me what you think.
Will do.
See you later, Todd.
See you.
Todd picks up Jack and Dave and heads straight to see Freddy's wash plant.
Is this it? (BLEEP) Oh, this thing is huge.
Three decks.
You're kidding.
No.
It's got all the sluices, check this out.
Man, it is all set up.
This is a monster.
You know, Todd, this would do it.
If you could do this thing, man, this is it.
I don't know what Freddy's asking for it, but I don't think we can afford it.
We're tapped out.
Yeah, I don't know.
We may be dreaming on this one.
Give him a call, see what Freddy says.
I'll see what he'll do.
(MOBILE PHONE) Hello? Hey, Freddie, we are standing over here at the plant.
What is the price on that? It'll cost you 300oz, Todd.
I need 100oz up front, and 200oz at the end of the season.
I don't have 100, Freddy, right now, I've got 40.
Todd, I can't just give it to you.
That is the best I can do.
I need 100oz in the next 48 hours or it's on a truck headed south.
Alright, I'll call you in two days.
He said, bottom line, his hard costs on this plant are 300.
He'll take 100 down in 48 hours and in 90 days he wants the other 200.
We got 40 in the bank, we got some in the sluice, right now.
That means 60oz? This cleanup is going to be a big deal.
There is no time to run more dirt.
If there is not already 60oz in the sluicebox, they won't make the 100oz down payment.
You better be praying for a miracle, buddy.
60km south .
.
Parker's got visitors.
How are you? Good.
His mum, Nancy, and dad, Roger, have come to check on progress.
Your place looks completely different, honey.
Yeah.
Completely.
Yeah.
It's really kind of beautiful.
But Nancy hasn't driven 1,000km to admire the view.
She manages Parker's money.
And it is time for a reality check.
I'm very concerned about your finances.
This is a $10,000 bill.
Mm-hm? I gotta pay it.
Pay it, yeah? OK, so I keep pulling money out, but I am not seeing any money in.
With all due respect, how are you running your business, as far as do you have a statement of cashflow - where your money is coming in, going out? Money doesn't come in, Roger.
There is no money coming in.
It has been a bit depressing lately because we have sunk over 100 grand into the far cut.
We are having a real issue with stripping and it is starting to hurt us, where, we are falling behind.
We need another dozer, basically.
How much are we talking for a dozer? It's 300,000.
Jeez! I mean, if there were a cheaper option than this, trust me, I'd be going there.
I'm sorry.
You don't have the money to buy a new dozer.
I understand that, but with one dozer we are done September 1 and I can guarantee you that I will not have any money in the bank September 1.
If you need a new dozer, you'll have to take out a loan.
Last year none of the banks would finance me.
I know, I just tried to get you a Visa card and they rejected you.
Because he is too young, or what? I don't know, I guess he has no money.
What about if I Cos we paid outright for that excavator and the other dozer and the wash plant, so there's three pieces of equipment as collateral for one.
Using his machinery as collateral is a major gamble.
If he can't mine enough gold to pay off the loan this season, he'll lose it all.
I wish that we didn't have to spend that kind of money, but I'll start the loan.
I'll start the loan, that's the best I can do for you.
Thank you, Mom.
You bet, honey.
You know, I came up here concerned about getting his bills paid, and now I'm walking away going to the bank for a $300,000 loan.
To go to this extreme, to borrow that money and to get this dozer he has GOT to make it count.
80km north .
.
Tony Beets is trying to resurrect a piece of history.
If he succeeds, he will have the only working gold dredge in North America.
He planned to have to dredge broken down and over to his claim weeks ago.
But his crew is only halfway through taking the 64m monster apart.
Tony's next big move is the most challenging yet.
Dismantling the wheelhouse.
The wheelhouse is like the bridge on a ship.
It's the dredge's nerve centre.
From here, the dredge master uses a system of levers to control every part of the gold catching vessel.
I'd like to take it off piece by piece and nothing be damaged.
We'll need the controls in the wheelhouse.
The wheelhouse wasn't designed to come off in one piece.
Mike and Jerry are concerned that the 75 year old cabin isn't strong enough to survive the lift.
It's risky, we don't know how the structure is up there on the roof.
Yeah, well just make it fricking happen, Jerry.
One thing's for sure, talking about it ain't going to get it, so let's do it.
Tony's always in a hurry and on these types of lifts you've just got to take your time.
All the control levers of the whole dredge are in that wheelhouse and if we drop that wheelhouse and it damages all those levers I don't know that it'd take to put it back together.
Yeah, pretty frustrated.
Tony makes a decision, it's pretty final.
I mean it is He's the Viking, and this is his ship.
You know, you cannot have three captains on one ship.
They've got to remember when I'm here I call the shots.
If I decide to burn it halfway up in the air, then I'll burn it.
If I gave a (BLEEP) for everybody's idea how long do you think it would take? Tony asks his daughter, Monica, and son, Kevin, to remove the bolts that attach the wheelhouse to the dredge.
The wheelhouse is attached at all these floor rafters.
OK.
So, we've got to get these bolts out here.
Up to the sixth one there? Yep.
OK.
Uh-huh.
We should have that Jerry, it's nuts and bolts, it's pretty hard to mess up.
Right.
Just make sure you've got them all.
When the bolts are out, we'll sling it up and see if we can lift it off.
Sounds like a plan.
You've got your digits in my way.
How would you like me to lift that thing up? They're (BLEEP) everywhere.
They're just endless.
Mike and Jerry reluctantly rig the wheelhouse to the crane.
We'll use those six footers, huh, Mike? Overkill, but that'll work.
The wheelhouse probably I'm guessing weighs 8,000lbs, so we'll be plenty safe.
Yeah.
It's pretty important.
We drop that and We will be rebuilding from scratch.
Just putting the slings in.
Tony plans to remove the wheelhouse in one lift, by attaching the crane to two thin steel roof beams.
Hopefully the rafters are strong enough to pick the whole thing off in one piece.
If they don't hold, Tony will rip apart the nerve centre of his million dollar dredge.
You can come down now, Mike.
You're clear to come off.
10/4.
So, Mike, ready to go? I think it's ready.
Good enough.
Jerry, give it a pull.
Let's see what happens.
Just yank on that beam a bit, would you? JERRY! Tony, we're gonna rip the building apart.
.
.
At Clear Creek What's happening, Jerry? .
.
The wheelhouse of Tony Beets' 75 year old gold dredge is stuck mid lift.
I'm pulling about 12,000lbs and the building don't weigh that much, so something is still bolted together.
Jerry is pulling almost twice the weight of the 3.
5t wheelhouse.
And it still won't break free.
The most critical part of the dredge is under extreme tension.
We don't want to destroy the wheelhouse pulling on it.
OK, let's quit that.
I'll go back in there and check it out.
They must have left something behind, something somewhere.
We are trying to save time and if we end up yanking the wheelhouse apart we didn't save a thing by doing that.
Find them yet, Kevin? There's got to be some bolts hidden somewhere.
Have you checked behind that fricking board over there? No, not yet.
Give me that hammer.
Oh, see, Kevin? Right in the corner.
That's the hidden ones.
Didn't see the last four bolts, I guess, if those are the last four.
I'd just like to point out Kevin's already taken the blame for this.
He said he double checked it.
He didn't find them.
I was just pulling the nuts off.
It was him who was looking for 'em, not me.
(GROANS) She's full of (BLEEP).
She should've checked as well.
OK.
Give it anotherup.
This much, thataway.
Someone needs to come in and see if it'll let me pull any more than that.
OK, Mike, come and have a look.
They're free and clear there, they're not moving too far here.
Are those hanging in there? Somebody missed a bolt.
There they go.
Did we find a missing bolt? That's it.
Jerry, we're free and clear everywhere.
We'll go and give it a try.
Are you clear, Mike? Yeah.
Yeah? OK, whenever you're ready.
Tony says to lift.
A little bit more.
I don't think he can go.
Go ahead, one more.
Hey, Mike, we're still hooked somewhere.
What's happening? Hm.
OK, you're through that.
And that one's free from there, but, oh OK, we're up against that diagonal with the next floor joist.
When the dredge was built, the wheelhouse wasn't designed to come off in one piece.
Now three of its steel floor joists are caught beneath one of the dredge's main structural beams.
Need to cut all them good floor joists Cutting the joists means more work when they rebuild the dredge.
But Tony is a man on a mission.
He is determined to get the wheelhouse off today.
He's just cutting off a little bit more on that piece so it clears the I beam that it's going up next to.
OK.
She's free.
OK, give it another lift there, Mike.
OK, give us a little bit of lift there.
She's free.
Wooh! Four hours after starting the process, the wheelhouse is finally free.
There you go, you pain in the ass.
It's down.
Wheelhouse in one piece.
The old girl looks different, huh? 80km south .
.
Parker's mum, Nancy, has come through with the $300,000 loan.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that looks amazing.
And his gigantic new dozer has arrived.
Nice looking dozer, huh? Yeah, it's like Christmas.
It's beautiful.
It's a 700 horsepower, 77t monster.
Little scary.
It's one thing writing a cheque, it's another thing it showing up.
Shall we put her together? The sooner we get her put together, the sooner we get stripping.
Mechanic Mitch Blaschke helps Gene and Parker get the dozer up and running.
Oh-hoh.
Never seen one of those work before.
Wow.
Gene's gonna love that.
You should come feel this air conditioning.
Just another few feet.
Turn that way a little bit.
Easy, mate.
Right, shut it off and then get these cleaned off, and then run a tap through all them.
As soon as we get this thing finished up you gonna head down town with it and try and pick up some chicks? Yeah.
Yeah, that's what I need.
That's what I'd do.
I was wondering what my problem was, you know.
It's because I'm not driving a (BLEEP) new dozer around town.
On their date you could bring them up here and have them run the other one.
(LAUGHS) A romantic couple's getaway.
Yeah, exactly.
But they would be running the old one, cos I'm not gonna let 'em run this.
(LAUGHS) Alright, ready to rock.
Last up You'll have to turn this way a little bit.
.
.
Attach the 6m, 13t blade.
Parker's just pulling the dozer up into place, we've gotta attach the blade arms to the dozer itself.
Once we do that hook up the cylinders and hydraulic lines and we're ready to go push some dirt.
Hang on.
OK, that's good.
Drive this in.
Your scratching my paint! You ready, Gene? OK, go start it up.
So, ready to go for a test drive.
To work we go.
Oh, nice and quiet in here.
It's way better than the other one.
Two dozers gives Parker the power to move a staggering 30,000 yards of dirt a day and clear the mud laden far cut before it becomes unworkable.
But the new dozer will also add $8,000 a week to their fuel bill.
It's a big gamble, but we've got it here now, we've gotta make it work.
If he wants the 2,000oz he's gotta open the ground up, get the pay to the plant.
How does it feel? Beautiful.
I bet you're the only 19 year old in the world with two D10s.
Never thought I'd see this day.
McKinnon Creek, the Klondike.
The Hoffmans are halfway through a critical gold clean up.
Is it ready yet? No, not done yet.
I'll call you, don't worry.
To make the 100oz down payment on Freddy Dodge's massive wash plant, they need 60oz of gold, to add to the 40 they've already banked.
In this area on Indian River, you have got to move the yards.
That plant, that would fricking do it.
That would change our world right now.
Is it dry? No, it's not.
You've gotta quit bugging me, man.
It'll get done when it's done.
I know, I know Dad, I know.
Alright.
We've got a lot riding on this one though.
Well, yeah, I know that.
I'm not stupid, you know.
I know.
If I don't have the 100oz for Freddy I probably wouldn't even call him, I'd probably let it go because he told me what he needs to get out of it and as a friend, you know, I could probably try to bend the rules but you don't do that when you care about somebody, you know.
I would just take it as a sign that we're done.
We OK? OK man, it's dry.
Cool.
Weigh her up.
Hey, Dave, can you meet me down in the gold room here? We've got a tally on this gold.
The best clean-up the Hoffmans have had the entire season Hey, guys.
Come here.
Hey.
.
.
was 38 ounces.
Worth $45,000.
Now, they need almost double that.
Oh, Lord, help us out.
Come on.
Come on, baby.
Yes! Yeah.
64oz.
Worth over $76,000.
Their biggest clean-up to date gives them enough gold to make a down payment on Freddy's game-changing wash plant.
I don't even know what to say.
That is the best wash plant I've ever seen roll through the Klondike and now we are going to own it.
16km east Parker has gambled $300,000 on a new dozer to strip what he hopes will be his richest ground.
With twice the horsepower, his crew is almost down to paydirt.
The far cut is just about open for business.
All I am waiting for is that wash plant to show up on that mountain behind me.
The plan is to shut down the low paying swamp cut and move the wash plant up to the far cut.
First there is one final clean-up to run.
This is from the swamp cut and you see that? It is pretty good, but I don't think it is good enough.
But the gold table tells a different story.
It's loaded, look at that.
Gold falling off the table.
Oh, (BLEEP).
Normally we don't have these kind of problems, normally we see not enough gold, but it's a (BLEEP) ton of gold.
Man, that looks pretty nice.
I'm not going to say a number until I weigh it up with Tony, but this is one of the best clean-ups we've had, that's for damn sure.
We've got an interesting situation here.
What's that? If this keeps up Then what do we do? We were trying to move out of there in two days.
Do you keep opening up ground there? Your ultimate goal is 2,000oz, right? Yeah.
If this is gonna get us there, what have we got to lose? We're set up and running.
Just keep hammering away.
Why run away from something good? I don't know, it's It wasn't paying good, Gene.
I love seeing this kind of gold, I just .
.
wasn't expecting out of this cut.
As Parker weighs his options, claim owner, Tony Beets, arrives for his cut of the gold.
Hey, Tony.
Yeah, not bad.
No, that's still from the swamp cut.
Woah.
We've cleaned up what he had there, andit's kind of got us in a bit of a tizzy.
No kidding.
There's 75.
There's 100.
Good.
150.
170.
Jeez.
182 right on the button.
Parker has gone from a 42oz, $50,000 clean-up last week, to his best clean-up of the season.
182oz.
Worth almost $220,000.
Yeah, but now I'm not sure what to do.
We bought the other dozer, we've got the far cut about ready.
Gold hotspots are found in ancient river beds.
These rivers carried fine particles of gold that gathered around the inside bends, leaving gold rich deposits.
As rivers changed course, these hotspots became buried under dry land.
There is no way to tell if the swamp cut Parker's been planning to abandon has any more hotspots.
Should we keep chasing it? Right.
OK, let's get you your cut.
Your cut's 27.
3.
Parker faces a decision that could make or break his season.
Things to do, places to go.
Stay in the swamp cut to hunt for more gold rich hotspots, or move over to the far cut, that saved his season last year.
Do we go to the far cut, forget that we just did some of the best gold we have ever had? What if we had two more weeks like that? At the same time, it could drop back down to half that, like it was before.
Where do you win? I don't know what to do.
Todd and Dave have made a 100oz down payment on one of the Klondike's biggest wash plants.
How're you doing? I'm Todd.
Now they need to get it 64km to their claim.
We have got some roads that are steep, washboardy, and the worst part is we have got to cross two rivers.
Let's just take it slow, man.
Sounds like a plan.
Yep.
Let's do this, you guys.
OK.
Alright, let's go.
.
.
The Hoffmans' new 45t wash plant is en route to McKinnon Creek.
Take her wide to the left here.
Strapped to four massive trucks.
I'm nervous this morning.
We've got a lot riding on this.
It's probably Todd's life savings, my life savings.
We can't afford any mistakes now.
To me right now the biggest obstacle is getting across these rivers.
Jeez! The Indian River, 61km into the journey.
You ever taken your semi through the river? No.
Looks kinda deep.
To get to their claim, the convoy must cross.
But it's risky.
If there is a hole and we hit it we topple over, the truck's in the water.
That's my livelihood.
Not only is your machine in the water, my truck is and I am done.
Yeah.
Yeah, and mine's heavy on that left side.
I'll flip over.
We have no other choice.
I have no way to unload you.
OK, so really there is really nowhere to go, but forward.
And I need one of you guys to try it first.
Who's willing? I'm gonna try it.
And if you try it Then I'll try it.
We'll follow.
Alright.
Alright, good, man, let's go.
Good luck, Doug.
Thanks Dave, I'm gonna need it.
Real slow, real slow.
If the water is too deep or the riverbed too soft, these 30t trucks could get stranded in the middle.
There's water just to the bottom of the fuel tank, Abe.
Woah, woah, come on, go, go, go! You're good, you're good.
Nice job, wooh! Easy, Mike.
Slow down, buddy.
Yeah, way to go, boys! OK, Dave, here's Terry and he's got a bumper that is real low, OK? OK, here we go, nice and slow now.
As well as low bumpers, Terry's truck is heavier on one side.
Easy, Terry.
Easy, Terry.
He has to take the crossing slowly.
You're good.
You've got three or four inches, give her hell.
Hang on, hang on, hang on, you are dragging in the back.
Hang on.
Hold up, Terry, we're dragging.
OK, just hold on for just a minute Terry, just hang on.
Hey.
I don't know, Terry, what do you think? Your back bumper is hitting and I can't see what's down there.
I'm spun out here, Dave, I'm spun out.
We'll give her a whizbang.
Can you hurry it up a little bit? Yeah, yeah, we've got it.
Hey, Dave, how bad is it? Pretty bad.
His back bumper, there's so much overhang he's hung up on the rocks.
We are going to try to air up the bags.
We'll give it a whizbang here and see.
Terry's truck has an air suspension system that keeps his heavy loads level using airbags.
If he inflates both airbags to full capacity, they should lift the back of the truck off the rocks.
You're good, perfect.
Alright, we're going to try to back up.
Go, go, go, go.
Wooh, keep it running, Terry.
Keep it running, Terry, keep going.
Go on, baby, go.
Go hard now.
Dang it.
Oh, he can't get any traction.
You want to hook on with a pickup, Terry? Sounds like a plan.
I'm going to hook up my pickup, put in four-wheel drive and hope I can pull him up that hill.
I'll watch you, Dave.
Dave's 3.
5t pickup attempts to pull 30t of heavy metal.
Let's go.
Easy! Easy! Come on, get up there.
Come on, girl.
Yeah! We did it.
Well, I'm glad you could do it.
I thought you'd never get it to move.
Don't have any other choice, do we? No, sir.
Just get her done.
Thank you, Dave.
OK, come on through.
Last truck.
I think this is easier on the bumps.
The last one was the lowest one and our most awkward load.
That's why we couldn't get it out of there.
So, I think this one is going to come through pretty easy.
You're good, you're good.
Nice job, Jack.
We did it.
That's the last truck.
Now it's just headed to camp.
It has taken six hours to cover just 64km.
But the convoy finally arrives at McKinnon Creek.
(LAUGHS) That took a little longer than I thought.
Yeah.
Good job.
Oh, my God.
Hey, guys, what do you think? It's going to take us the season to put this together.
No it's not, you've got two days, Kevin.
I'm going to name this plant right now.
I'm going to call it Monster Red.
Because this thing can take all the paydirt that you guys are capable of stripping and getting to it.
We can do it, though.
Huh? Yep.
Let's get these guys unloaded.
Now comes the hard work.
And hopefully we'll come out of here with a pile of gold.
On the next Gold Rush - Go, go, go.
It's time for Tony Beets to go big.
Right there.
Or go home.
We're cutting it pretty tight.
He moves the last two vital mechanisms of the dredge.
Let's just yank the (BLEEP) out! Keep her flat out, go.
And incredibly his 75 year old dredge produces its first gold nugget.
There's a picker.
At least the dredge found some gold.
Todd Hoffman and Dave Turin finally have the massive wash plant they need to redeem themselves.
(CREAKING) One of the most efficient plants in the Klondike.
But with big gold in reach I don't like this.
Stop! Stop! They take their eye off the ball.
(BLEEP) Dave, shut it down.
Parker Schnabel rolls the dice.
We need a decision.
Abandoning the ground that just produced a $200,000 clean-up.
Let's get out of here.
His foreman, Gene, thinks he's made a big mistake.
Bunch of (BLEEP)! Only the next clean-up can prove who's right and who's wrong.
What have you got?
Yeah! We got ourselves a tiger by the tail.
But trouble with a Little Red I can't run any faster, I'm trying.
.
.
forces Todd and Dave to gamble on a deal Todd's life savings, my life savings.
.
.
For one of the biggest wash plants in the Klondike.
Oh, this thing is huge.
Parker Schnabel's 2,000 ounce season goal is in huge trouble.
Why around here does it always have to be worst case scenario? And he is in the doghouse with his parents.
How are you running your business? Money is coming in and going out - Money doesn't come in, no money comes in.
But when he hits an unexpected gold pocket .
.
he faces a choice that could make or break his season.
I don't know what to do.
Tony Beets's dredge should have been dismantled weeks ago.
Now he's pushing his men and machines .
.
to breaking point.
Risking the dredge's most important part - its control centre.
Jerry! Tony, it is going to rip the building apart.
At McKinnon Creek, way up north, in the Klondike.
Put a bucket in, Jack.
All eight members of the Hoffman crew are now back and mining gold rich paydirt in Todd's new higher cut.
These guys are machines.
Andy is kicking ass, the guys are bringing paydirt.
Everything is running good.
We got ourselves a tiger by the tail, let me tell you.
Andy Spinks loads rock trucks.
I am loading dirt out as fast as I can load it, so you can't ask for anything better.
Logan and Kevin haul dirt to the plant.
OK, Logan, let's just keep piling it right there.
And Jack loads paydirt into their wash plant, Little Red.
For a while I was starving for pay, now I am being buried in pay.
Right there, drop it.
With the new equipment that bought Dave a 50% share of the Hoffman operation, the crew has stripped and stockpiled over 25,000 yards of paydirt in just seven days.
Yeah, Dad, keep going quick.
Faster! Straight back, good job.
What the frick? Woah! Holy! Thurber, what's going on? We've got fines coming out of the tail end.
This is what has your gold.
It cannot come out the waste end.
Some of that should be going down the sluice.
We are just shoving too much through, you know.
Jack is feeding too much dirt into Little Red's trommel.
Inside the plant, water jets blast fine gold rich material off the rocks and into the gold catching sluices.
But if too much paydirt is fed into the trommel, the water jets can't wash off all the gold.
As a result gold bearing fine material pours out the back of the plant with the course tailings.
Fine material in the tailings pile means the Hoffmans are losing gold.
It was puking out both ends up there.
You've got to slow him down, I can see that.
He's got to find a happy medium.
Jack, slow down, slow down.
Todd, I am getting a little (BLEEP).
You tell me to speed up, and then you tell me to slow down.
Now, what do you want? Nice and easy, Dad.
Slowly drops them in.
This little plant just can't run fast enough.
It is doing its dangdest but it just can only do so many yards.
So it is falling behind.
Andy keeps loading us.
Where are we going to put it? I don't know.
Just keep stacking it, I guess.
I have no other solution right now.
I can't run any faster, man, I am trying.
Andy is bringing us four times what we can run in one day.
And then it is starting to stack up.
We have got two more rock trucks coming down the road right now.
This ain't working.
Dad is holding us back.
I know.
The maximum we'll be able to push through this year, if we don't break down, is 100,000 yards.
That is going to give us 600oz, 700oz.
That is not going to cut it.
I know.
The Hoffmans need to mine at least 800oz of gold just to break even.
They have to find a way to speed up their operation.
What do you want to do, man? What shall we do? I don't know.
16km east, Parker Schnabel is almost halfway through his season but nowhere near his 2,000oz, $2.
4 million goal.
Right now, we're way behind.
2,000oz is 100oz a week and we just plain are not doing 100oz a week.
That is because this swamp cutting (BLEEP).
It's starting to get a little bit depressing, you know.
We've been running the last few weeks.
We're not even really keeping our heads above water.
We've done everything we can here.
The plant is running 24/7 and the gold is not in the ground.
So, you look at it on paper and you say "Well, why are you there?" To hit 2,000oz, Parker needed 500oz from the swamp cut in the last five weeks.
But marginal paydirt has only delivered 232.
Parker urgently needs better ground.
Right now I'm heading to the far cut with Gene.
I'm gonna take the excavator down and dig some test holes and see if it looks any more promising.
Last season the far cut yielded $200,000 worth of gold in just four days.
Look at that.
But at the beginning of this season, Parker and Rick hit rock hard permafrost.
That's never been thawed in the last however many thousands of years.
Parker's second season in the Klondike now hangs on whether or not the midsummer sun has thawed the far cut permafrost.
This is good to see.
Yeah, so this stuff has finally thawed out a bit, which is good.
Now we just need to make sure there's some gold here, so I'm gonna do some panning.
I mean, this cut was our best cut all last year.
We need good ground right now, and that's a nice pan.
15, 16, 17 flakes.
That tells me we're in the money.
I'm gonna show Gene.
That's a pretty damn good pan.
Looks pretty good.
Back open for business? Yeah.
Let's do it.
To return to the far cut, Parker will have to split his Scribner Creek operation in two.
At the swamp cut, Chris Doumitt will run the last of the paydirt through the wash plant, while the dozer, excavators and rock trucks head over 1km north to the far cut, to begin splitting the remaining over burden.
Having a 2,000oz goal this year means it's absolutely essential that we have the far cut stripped and ready to rock and roll by the time we get done on the swamp cut, because we don't have a day to lose sluicing.
Alright, let's do it.
Dammit.
This is justsoup.
You see those seams of ice in there? Yeah.
That's why this is all turning to (BLEEP).
Yeah.
It's disgusting.
The melting permafrost has turned what should be their best ground into unmineable muck.
All that water right in front of me, that's all just stuff that is melting out of the permafrost.
And it just makes everything it touches just turn right into this black death.
Goo.
(BLEEP) (BLEEP) Hey, can someone come and give me a hand? I think I'm stuck.
Yeah, buddy, I'll be right there.
One of our rock trucks just got stuck and this is just something we can't afford to have .
.
have go down on us.
We're just trying to get this cut organised.
It's just (BLEEP).
This mud's killing us.
So, the trucks are wallowing in the mud.
Dozer's getting stuck everywhere.
It's a mess.
Right, I almost lost this cut once.
Can't afford to do that again.
Why around here does it always have to be worst case scenario? .
.
Told Hoffman has defied the odds and rebuilt his operation from the ground up.
Now, to hit his 8000oz breakeven point, worth nearly $1 million, Todd needs to make his wash plant run more paydirt.
What's going on, Todd? Hey, buddy.
He's meeting Freddy Dodge, the man who designed Little Red.
It is good to see you, first off.
Yeah, no kidding man.
Been a long time, man.
Yeah, no kidding.
I got a question for you.
You know, Little Red, we are probably getting 60 yards an hour, 70 yards an hour - I need more production out of it.
I need to get to about 120, maybe 130 yards an hour, if possible.
That's not going to happen.
It is just not designed for it.
You are trying to haul a massive load in a Volkswagen by trying to do that.
That was built for the jungle, so we could get around the jungle.
I know.
We need a new wash plant.
You've got one option, I've got a plant sitting on trucks two miles out of town right now.
Oh, really? Yes.
Will it do 150 yards an hour? Should run over 200 yards an hour, Todd.
Kidding me? No, it is high league stuff.
It is a big plant.
I've got to be honest, money is short right now and I probably can't afford it, but I'd love to take a look.
Have a look at it and see what you think.
The only thing is I got a guy right now that wants it in the States so I have to know within 48 hours.
Tell me what you think.
Will do.
See you later, Todd.
See you.
Todd picks up Jack and Dave and heads straight to see Freddy's wash plant.
Is this it? (BLEEP) Oh, this thing is huge.
Three decks.
You're kidding.
No.
It's got all the sluices, check this out.
Man, it is all set up.
This is a monster.
You know, Todd, this would do it.
If you could do this thing, man, this is it.
I don't know what Freddy's asking for it, but I don't think we can afford it.
We're tapped out.
Yeah, I don't know.
We may be dreaming on this one.
Give him a call, see what Freddy says.
I'll see what he'll do.
(MOBILE PHONE) Hello? Hey, Freddie, we are standing over here at the plant.
What is the price on that? It'll cost you 300oz, Todd.
I need 100oz up front, and 200oz at the end of the season.
I don't have 100, Freddy, right now, I've got 40.
Todd, I can't just give it to you.
That is the best I can do.
I need 100oz in the next 48 hours or it's on a truck headed south.
Alright, I'll call you in two days.
He said, bottom line, his hard costs on this plant are 300.
He'll take 100 down in 48 hours and in 90 days he wants the other 200.
We got 40 in the bank, we got some in the sluice, right now.
That means 60oz? This cleanup is going to be a big deal.
There is no time to run more dirt.
If there is not already 60oz in the sluicebox, they won't make the 100oz down payment.
You better be praying for a miracle, buddy.
60km south .
.
Parker's got visitors.
How are you? Good.
His mum, Nancy, and dad, Roger, have come to check on progress.
Your place looks completely different, honey.
Yeah.
Completely.
Yeah.
It's really kind of beautiful.
But Nancy hasn't driven 1,000km to admire the view.
She manages Parker's money.
And it is time for a reality check.
I'm very concerned about your finances.
This is a $10,000 bill.
Mm-hm? I gotta pay it.
Pay it, yeah? OK, so I keep pulling money out, but I am not seeing any money in.
With all due respect, how are you running your business, as far as do you have a statement of cashflow - where your money is coming in, going out? Money doesn't come in, Roger.
There is no money coming in.
It has been a bit depressing lately because we have sunk over 100 grand into the far cut.
We are having a real issue with stripping and it is starting to hurt us, where, we are falling behind.
We need another dozer, basically.
How much are we talking for a dozer? It's 300,000.
Jeez! I mean, if there were a cheaper option than this, trust me, I'd be going there.
I'm sorry.
You don't have the money to buy a new dozer.
I understand that, but with one dozer we are done September 1 and I can guarantee you that I will not have any money in the bank September 1.
If you need a new dozer, you'll have to take out a loan.
Last year none of the banks would finance me.
I know, I just tried to get you a Visa card and they rejected you.
Because he is too young, or what? I don't know, I guess he has no money.
What about if I Cos we paid outright for that excavator and the other dozer and the wash plant, so there's three pieces of equipment as collateral for one.
Using his machinery as collateral is a major gamble.
If he can't mine enough gold to pay off the loan this season, he'll lose it all.
I wish that we didn't have to spend that kind of money, but I'll start the loan.
I'll start the loan, that's the best I can do for you.
Thank you, Mom.
You bet, honey.
You know, I came up here concerned about getting his bills paid, and now I'm walking away going to the bank for a $300,000 loan.
To go to this extreme, to borrow that money and to get this dozer he has GOT to make it count.
80km north .
.
Tony Beets is trying to resurrect a piece of history.
If he succeeds, he will have the only working gold dredge in North America.
He planned to have to dredge broken down and over to his claim weeks ago.
But his crew is only halfway through taking the 64m monster apart.
Tony's next big move is the most challenging yet.
Dismantling the wheelhouse.
The wheelhouse is like the bridge on a ship.
It's the dredge's nerve centre.
From here, the dredge master uses a system of levers to control every part of the gold catching vessel.
I'd like to take it off piece by piece and nothing be damaged.
We'll need the controls in the wheelhouse.
The wheelhouse wasn't designed to come off in one piece.
Mike and Jerry are concerned that the 75 year old cabin isn't strong enough to survive the lift.
It's risky, we don't know how the structure is up there on the roof.
Yeah, well just make it fricking happen, Jerry.
One thing's for sure, talking about it ain't going to get it, so let's do it.
Tony's always in a hurry and on these types of lifts you've just got to take your time.
All the control levers of the whole dredge are in that wheelhouse and if we drop that wheelhouse and it damages all those levers I don't know that it'd take to put it back together.
Yeah, pretty frustrated.
Tony makes a decision, it's pretty final.
I mean it is He's the Viking, and this is his ship.
You know, you cannot have three captains on one ship.
They've got to remember when I'm here I call the shots.
If I decide to burn it halfway up in the air, then I'll burn it.
If I gave a (BLEEP) for everybody's idea how long do you think it would take? Tony asks his daughter, Monica, and son, Kevin, to remove the bolts that attach the wheelhouse to the dredge.
The wheelhouse is attached at all these floor rafters.
OK.
So, we've got to get these bolts out here.
Up to the sixth one there? Yep.
OK.
Uh-huh.
We should have that Jerry, it's nuts and bolts, it's pretty hard to mess up.
Right.
Just make sure you've got them all.
When the bolts are out, we'll sling it up and see if we can lift it off.
Sounds like a plan.
You've got your digits in my way.
How would you like me to lift that thing up? They're (BLEEP) everywhere.
They're just endless.
Mike and Jerry reluctantly rig the wheelhouse to the crane.
We'll use those six footers, huh, Mike? Overkill, but that'll work.
The wheelhouse probably I'm guessing weighs 8,000lbs, so we'll be plenty safe.
Yeah.
It's pretty important.
We drop that and We will be rebuilding from scratch.
Just putting the slings in.
Tony plans to remove the wheelhouse in one lift, by attaching the crane to two thin steel roof beams.
Hopefully the rafters are strong enough to pick the whole thing off in one piece.
If they don't hold, Tony will rip apart the nerve centre of his million dollar dredge.
You can come down now, Mike.
You're clear to come off.
10/4.
So, Mike, ready to go? I think it's ready.
Good enough.
Jerry, give it a pull.
Let's see what happens.
Just yank on that beam a bit, would you? JERRY! Tony, we're gonna rip the building apart.
.
.
At Clear Creek What's happening, Jerry? .
.
The wheelhouse of Tony Beets' 75 year old gold dredge is stuck mid lift.
I'm pulling about 12,000lbs and the building don't weigh that much, so something is still bolted together.
Jerry is pulling almost twice the weight of the 3.
5t wheelhouse.
And it still won't break free.
The most critical part of the dredge is under extreme tension.
We don't want to destroy the wheelhouse pulling on it.
OK, let's quit that.
I'll go back in there and check it out.
They must have left something behind, something somewhere.
We are trying to save time and if we end up yanking the wheelhouse apart we didn't save a thing by doing that.
Find them yet, Kevin? There's got to be some bolts hidden somewhere.
Have you checked behind that fricking board over there? No, not yet.
Give me that hammer.
Oh, see, Kevin? Right in the corner.
That's the hidden ones.
Didn't see the last four bolts, I guess, if those are the last four.
I'd just like to point out Kevin's already taken the blame for this.
He said he double checked it.
He didn't find them.
I was just pulling the nuts off.
It was him who was looking for 'em, not me.
(GROANS) She's full of (BLEEP).
She should've checked as well.
OK.
Give it anotherup.
This much, thataway.
Someone needs to come in and see if it'll let me pull any more than that.
OK, Mike, come and have a look.
They're free and clear there, they're not moving too far here.
Are those hanging in there? Somebody missed a bolt.
There they go.
Did we find a missing bolt? That's it.
Jerry, we're free and clear everywhere.
We'll go and give it a try.
Are you clear, Mike? Yeah.
Yeah? OK, whenever you're ready.
Tony says to lift.
A little bit more.
I don't think he can go.
Go ahead, one more.
Hey, Mike, we're still hooked somewhere.
What's happening? Hm.
OK, you're through that.
And that one's free from there, but, oh OK, we're up against that diagonal with the next floor joist.
When the dredge was built, the wheelhouse wasn't designed to come off in one piece.
Now three of its steel floor joists are caught beneath one of the dredge's main structural beams.
Need to cut all them good floor joists Cutting the joists means more work when they rebuild the dredge.
But Tony is a man on a mission.
He is determined to get the wheelhouse off today.
He's just cutting off a little bit more on that piece so it clears the I beam that it's going up next to.
OK.
She's free.
OK, give it another lift there, Mike.
OK, give us a little bit of lift there.
She's free.
Wooh! Four hours after starting the process, the wheelhouse is finally free.
There you go, you pain in the ass.
It's down.
Wheelhouse in one piece.
The old girl looks different, huh? 80km south .
.
Parker's mum, Nancy, has come through with the $300,000 loan.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that looks amazing.
And his gigantic new dozer has arrived.
Nice looking dozer, huh? Yeah, it's like Christmas.
It's beautiful.
It's a 700 horsepower, 77t monster.
Little scary.
It's one thing writing a cheque, it's another thing it showing up.
Shall we put her together? The sooner we get her put together, the sooner we get stripping.
Mechanic Mitch Blaschke helps Gene and Parker get the dozer up and running.
Oh-hoh.
Never seen one of those work before.
Wow.
Gene's gonna love that.
You should come feel this air conditioning.
Just another few feet.
Turn that way a little bit.
Easy, mate.
Right, shut it off and then get these cleaned off, and then run a tap through all them.
As soon as we get this thing finished up you gonna head down town with it and try and pick up some chicks? Yeah.
Yeah, that's what I need.
That's what I'd do.
I was wondering what my problem was, you know.
It's because I'm not driving a (BLEEP) new dozer around town.
On their date you could bring them up here and have them run the other one.
(LAUGHS) A romantic couple's getaway.
Yeah, exactly.
But they would be running the old one, cos I'm not gonna let 'em run this.
(LAUGHS) Alright, ready to rock.
Last up You'll have to turn this way a little bit.
.
.
Attach the 6m, 13t blade.
Parker's just pulling the dozer up into place, we've gotta attach the blade arms to the dozer itself.
Once we do that hook up the cylinders and hydraulic lines and we're ready to go push some dirt.
Hang on.
OK, that's good.
Drive this in.
Your scratching my paint! You ready, Gene? OK, go start it up.
So, ready to go for a test drive.
To work we go.
Oh, nice and quiet in here.
It's way better than the other one.
Two dozers gives Parker the power to move a staggering 30,000 yards of dirt a day and clear the mud laden far cut before it becomes unworkable.
But the new dozer will also add $8,000 a week to their fuel bill.
It's a big gamble, but we've got it here now, we've gotta make it work.
If he wants the 2,000oz he's gotta open the ground up, get the pay to the plant.
How does it feel? Beautiful.
I bet you're the only 19 year old in the world with two D10s.
Never thought I'd see this day.
McKinnon Creek, the Klondike.
The Hoffmans are halfway through a critical gold clean up.
Is it ready yet? No, not done yet.
I'll call you, don't worry.
To make the 100oz down payment on Freddy Dodge's massive wash plant, they need 60oz of gold, to add to the 40 they've already banked.
In this area on Indian River, you have got to move the yards.
That plant, that would fricking do it.
That would change our world right now.
Is it dry? No, it's not.
You've gotta quit bugging me, man.
It'll get done when it's done.
I know, I know Dad, I know.
Alright.
We've got a lot riding on this one though.
Well, yeah, I know that.
I'm not stupid, you know.
I know.
If I don't have the 100oz for Freddy I probably wouldn't even call him, I'd probably let it go because he told me what he needs to get out of it and as a friend, you know, I could probably try to bend the rules but you don't do that when you care about somebody, you know.
I would just take it as a sign that we're done.
We OK? OK man, it's dry.
Cool.
Weigh her up.
Hey, Dave, can you meet me down in the gold room here? We've got a tally on this gold.
The best clean-up the Hoffmans have had the entire season Hey, guys.
Come here.
Hey.
.
.
was 38 ounces.
Worth $45,000.
Now, they need almost double that.
Oh, Lord, help us out.
Come on.
Come on, baby.
Yes! Yeah.
64oz.
Worth over $76,000.
Their biggest clean-up to date gives them enough gold to make a down payment on Freddy's game-changing wash plant.
I don't even know what to say.
That is the best wash plant I've ever seen roll through the Klondike and now we are going to own it.
16km east Parker has gambled $300,000 on a new dozer to strip what he hopes will be his richest ground.
With twice the horsepower, his crew is almost down to paydirt.
The far cut is just about open for business.
All I am waiting for is that wash plant to show up on that mountain behind me.
The plan is to shut down the low paying swamp cut and move the wash plant up to the far cut.
First there is one final clean-up to run.
This is from the swamp cut and you see that? It is pretty good, but I don't think it is good enough.
But the gold table tells a different story.
It's loaded, look at that.
Gold falling off the table.
Oh, (BLEEP).
Normally we don't have these kind of problems, normally we see not enough gold, but it's a (BLEEP) ton of gold.
Man, that looks pretty nice.
I'm not going to say a number until I weigh it up with Tony, but this is one of the best clean-ups we've had, that's for damn sure.
We've got an interesting situation here.
What's that? If this keeps up Then what do we do? We were trying to move out of there in two days.
Do you keep opening up ground there? Your ultimate goal is 2,000oz, right? Yeah.
If this is gonna get us there, what have we got to lose? We're set up and running.
Just keep hammering away.
Why run away from something good? I don't know, it's It wasn't paying good, Gene.
I love seeing this kind of gold, I just .
.
wasn't expecting out of this cut.
As Parker weighs his options, claim owner, Tony Beets, arrives for his cut of the gold.
Hey, Tony.
Yeah, not bad.
No, that's still from the swamp cut.
Woah.
We've cleaned up what he had there, andit's kind of got us in a bit of a tizzy.
No kidding.
There's 75.
There's 100.
Good.
150.
170.
Jeez.
182 right on the button.
Parker has gone from a 42oz, $50,000 clean-up last week, to his best clean-up of the season.
182oz.
Worth almost $220,000.
Yeah, but now I'm not sure what to do.
We bought the other dozer, we've got the far cut about ready.
Gold hotspots are found in ancient river beds.
These rivers carried fine particles of gold that gathered around the inside bends, leaving gold rich deposits.
As rivers changed course, these hotspots became buried under dry land.
There is no way to tell if the swamp cut Parker's been planning to abandon has any more hotspots.
Should we keep chasing it? Right.
OK, let's get you your cut.
Your cut's 27.
3.
Parker faces a decision that could make or break his season.
Things to do, places to go.
Stay in the swamp cut to hunt for more gold rich hotspots, or move over to the far cut, that saved his season last year.
Do we go to the far cut, forget that we just did some of the best gold we have ever had? What if we had two more weeks like that? At the same time, it could drop back down to half that, like it was before.
Where do you win? I don't know what to do.
Todd and Dave have made a 100oz down payment on one of the Klondike's biggest wash plants.
How're you doing? I'm Todd.
Now they need to get it 64km to their claim.
We have got some roads that are steep, washboardy, and the worst part is we have got to cross two rivers.
Let's just take it slow, man.
Sounds like a plan.
Yep.
Let's do this, you guys.
OK.
Alright, let's go.
.
.
The Hoffmans' new 45t wash plant is en route to McKinnon Creek.
Take her wide to the left here.
Strapped to four massive trucks.
I'm nervous this morning.
We've got a lot riding on this.
It's probably Todd's life savings, my life savings.
We can't afford any mistakes now.
To me right now the biggest obstacle is getting across these rivers.
Jeez! The Indian River, 61km into the journey.
You ever taken your semi through the river? No.
Looks kinda deep.
To get to their claim, the convoy must cross.
But it's risky.
If there is a hole and we hit it we topple over, the truck's in the water.
That's my livelihood.
Not only is your machine in the water, my truck is and I am done.
Yeah.
Yeah, and mine's heavy on that left side.
I'll flip over.
We have no other choice.
I have no way to unload you.
OK, so really there is really nowhere to go, but forward.
And I need one of you guys to try it first.
Who's willing? I'm gonna try it.
And if you try it Then I'll try it.
We'll follow.
Alright.
Alright, good, man, let's go.
Good luck, Doug.
Thanks Dave, I'm gonna need it.
Real slow, real slow.
If the water is too deep or the riverbed too soft, these 30t trucks could get stranded in the middle.
There's water just to the bottom of the fuel tank, Abe.
Woah, woah, come on, go, go, go! You're good, you're good.
Nice job, wooh! Easy, Mike.
Slow down, buddy.
Yeah, way to go, boys! OK, Dave, here's Terry and he's got a bumper that is real low, OK? OK, here we go, nice and slow now.
As well as low bumpers, Terry's truck is heavier on one side.
Easy, Terry.
Easy, Terry.
He has to take the crossing slowly.
You're good.
You've got three or four inches, give her hell.
Hang on, hang on, hang on, you are dragging in the back.
Hang on.
Hold up, Terry, we're dragging.
OK, just hold on for just a minute Terry, just hang on.
Hey.
I don't know, Terry, what do you think? Your back bumper is hitting and I can't see what's down there.
I'm spun out here, Dave, I'm spun out.
We'll give her a whizbang.
Can you hurry it up a little bit? Yeah, yeah, we've got it.
Hey, Dave, how bad is it? Pretty bad.
His back bumper, there's so much overhang he's hung up on the rocks.
We are going to try to air up the bags.
We'll give it a whizbang here and see.
Terry's truck has an air suspension system that keeps his heavy loads level using airbags.
If he inflates both airbags to full capacity, they should lift the back of the truck off the rocks.
You're good, perfect.
Alright, we're going to try to back up.
Go, go, go, go.
Wooh, keep it running, Terry.
Keep it running, Terry, keep going.
Go on, baby, go.
Go hard now.
Dang it.
Oh, he can't get any traction.
You want to hook on with a pickup, Terry? Sounds like a plan.
I'm going to hook up my pickup, put in four-wheel drive and hope I can pull him up that hill.
I'll watch you, Dave.
Dave's 3.
5t pickup attempts to pull 30t of heavy metal.
Let's go.
Easy! Easy! Come on, get up there.
Come on, girl.
Yeah! We did it.
Well, I'm glad you could do it.
I thought you'd never get it to move.
Don't have any other choice, do we? No, sir.
Just get her done.
Thank you, Dave.
OK, come on through.
Last truck.
I think this is easier on the bumps.
The last one was the lowest one and our most awkward load.
That's why we couldn't get it out of there.
So, I think this one is going to come through pretty easy.
You're good, you're good.
Nice job, Jack.
We did it.
That's the last truck.
Now it's just headed to camp.
It has taken six hours to cover just 64km.
But the convoy finally arrives at McKinnon Creek.
(LAUGHS) That took a little longer than I thought.
Yeah.
Good job.
Oh, my God.
Hey, guys, what do you think? It's going to take us the season to put this together.
No it's not, you've got two days, Kevin.
I'm going to name this plant right now.
I'm going to call it Monster Red.
Because this thing can take all the paydirt that you guys are capable of stripping and getting to it.
We can do it, though.
Huh? Yep.
Let's get these guys unloaded.
Now comes the hard work.
And hopefully we'll come out of here with a pile of gold.
On the next Gold Rush - Go, go, go.
It's time for Tony Beets to go big.
Right there.
Or go home.
We're cutting it pretty tight.
He moves the last two vital mechanisms of the dredge.
Let's just yank the (BLEEP) out! Keep her flat out, go.
And incredibly his 75 year old dredge produces its first gold nugget.
There's a picker.
At least the dredge found some gold.
Todd Hoffman and Dave Turin finally have the massive wash plant they need to redeem themselves.
(CREAKING) One of the most efficient plants in the Klondike.
But with big gold in reach I don't like this.
Stop! Stop! They take their eye off the ball.
(BLEEP) Dave, shut it down.
Parker Schnabel rolls the dice.
We need a decision.
Abandoning the ground that just produced a $200,000 clean-up.
Let's get out of here.
His foreman, Gene, thinks he's made a big mistake.
Bunch of (BLEEP)! Only the next clean-up can prove who's right and who's wrong.
What have you got?