Gold Rush (2018) s05e09 Episode Script
Colossal Clean Up
NARRATOR: Up in the Klondike Fire it up.
Let's go get some gold! I like it, Jack! .
.
the Hoffman crew fires up their biggest wash plant yet.
They don't call her Monster Red for nothing.
But they quickly learn that to process three times the paydirt Keep that pay running.
We're digging as fast as we can.
.
.
they'll need to feed the monster more water than they can supply.
Dammit.
Shut it down.
We better figure it out quick.
Over at Scribner Creek Oh, what the hell? We got a problem.
.
.
Parker discovers that he's losing thousands in gold every week.
It's obvious we are (BLEEP) away money.
But he acts fast What do you think? Looks fancy.
.
.
ramping up his wash plant That prewash looks like a war zone up there.
.
.
and gets the best clean-up of his career.
That's the biggest clean-out we've ever had.
And Tony Beets and crew risk life and limb (MONICA SQUEALS) .
.
to get their 75-year-old gold-catching dredge on a convoy Cut it, cut it, cut it! .
.
to its new home.
At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew is at a crossroads.
Last year when we were in the jungle getting our ass kicked, we all felt like zeroes.
This year, I think we're coming out of a hole.
Almost halfway through the season, the crew has only 136oz of gold, worth just $160,000.
But they've taken a drastic step to upgrade their operation.
People think that we're gonna fail this year, but you know what? They have no idea what's coming at 'em.
Time to make this bad boy spit out some gold.
Guys, let's bring it in.
JACK: Let's do it.
(WHOOPING) This is a new beginning.
Fire it up! Let it clear.
Hit the screen, Dave.
To save their season they've traded up from Little Red to one of the biggest wash plants in the Klondike, Monster Red.
Put the water at 3,000 gallons a minute and let's rock and roll.
Let's go get some gold! Ah! Power! That's 200kW, buddy.
Clear! Feel it rumbling in the ground like a train going by.
Here comes the first bucket of dirt.
My dad's putting her in right now.
This nine-metre-tall beast can run 300 yards of paydirt an hour, three times what Little Red could handle.
300 yards an hour right now.
Once you throw a bucket in, you gotta get another bucket, bam, bam.
It's so hard to keep up with this plant.
They don't call her Monster Red for nothing.
Keep that pay running.
ANDY: We need to get 4,000 yards every day trucked to the wash plant.
Right now the trucks are running, we got paydirt, everything's good.
This is awesome.
We've never been this big.
We started off the season with nothing.
Now we got the best wash plant in the Klondike, and let me tell you, there's a lot of little tricks to this plant.
We got an electric variable-speed hopper feeder, electronic grizzly bars, 62-foot conveyor.
This is a 20-foot shaker deck.
That's personally-made - it's all custom.
200kW generator powering the whole thing, and here's the sweet part .
.
these are our sluice-boxes.
We got four main runs.
I got a nugget-trap run on the far side, there.
This plant is good to sluice 10 million yards of material before you even gotta look at it.
It feels like I got a foothold in the Klondike this time, and you ain't gonna be able to peel me out of here very easy.
Well, that doesn't look good.
Oh, that's not good.
We're running out of water.
After running dirt for just four hours, the water level in the intake pond is so low the pump is sucking in air.
Monster Red demands 11,000 litres of water every minute.
Yeah, we got a problem.
Not enough water in the intake pond.
But then you go over here and there's all this water in the tailing pond.
We don't know why we're running out of water.
Should go in a circle, but we better figure it out, figure it out quick.
The intake pond supplies the water for the wash plant, which washes the rocks, runs down the sluices and flows out into the tailings pond.
The dirty water then circulates through a buried pipe called a culvert into two settling ponds.
It returns to the intake pond cleaner and ready to run through the wash plant again.
Todd to Dave.
We're almost out of water in the intake pond.
(ON RADIO) You're fricking kidding me! I don't think the water's flowing around fast enough.
How bad is it? It's bad.
We're gonna have to shut the plant down in a minute if we don't hurry up and get something going here.
I'm gonna take the excavator down and see if I can get more water flowing around.
All right.
Todd to Dave.
I see what the problem is.
The pump is sucking up water faster than the culvert is actually letting it through.
Todd's water recycling system was designed for his old, smaller wash plant.
Monster Red demands four times the water.
It's sucking the intake pond dry before it has time to refill.
I'm gonna try to cut a ditch to get as much water as I can through.
Hopefully, that takes care of it.
Todd's convinced the culvert to the settling ponds is too small to allow enough water to pass through.
His plan: dig a channel alongside the culvert to increase the volume of water through to the intake pond.
But he has just minutes before the pump runs dry.
Finally.
Todd to Dave.
Did I make it in time? No, it's too late.
Todd's fix is too little, too late.
The intake pond is already too low.
I'm just worried about all the sticks.
I think it's gonna plug up our suction line.
I think we ought to shut down.
Well, we didn't make it.
We're gonna shut down.
We ran a good five hours, but we just ran out of water.
Shut it down.
Dammit.
We're gonna shut it down for a bit.
MAN ON RADIO: OK.
To shut down on your very first day, that's not a very good deal.
16km east at Scribner Creek, 19-year-old Parker Schnabel is back mining the Far Cut, the ground that gave him 148oz - worth over $200,000 - in just four days at the end of last season.
We're finally in the far cut.
Been waiting all spring for this.
It's time to make up for lost ground here.
This cut is promising.
Every pan that's come out of it has been looking better and better.
With 678oz banked, worth $813,000, Parker still has a fighting chance of hitting his 2,000oz, $2.
4-million season goal.
Oh, what the hell? Hey, Parker, you on here? PARKER: Yeah, go ahead.
We got a problem.
You ought to get here and look at it as quick as you can.
Yeah, I'll be right there.
What's up, Gene? Uh, we got a problem with the coarse tailings here.
It's got a lot of dirt.
That's where the gold's at, so Right.
You know, that side's clean, that side's dirty.
I'd sure hate to think that (BLEEP) away a bunch of gold out here in this stuff.
Tailings are discarded out of the back of the wash plant.
They should have all the gold-rich paydirt washed off.
If they're not clean, Parker's losing gold.
Well, what do you want to do, Gene? I think we should run a test, you know.
Clean the box out, run 1,200 yards and then we'll know, I mean If you're wrong, we're losing a shift of sluicing.
If I'm right, we can figure out how we can get some more gold.
What's the tipping point as far as doing something about it? You can't try to catch every last flake.
Well, I realise we can't catch every flake, but maybe it's, you know, an ounce.
If we're losing more than an ounce a day, better change something, and maybe I'm wrong, but I just I don't like not knowing.
I'm not too excited about the idea of losing a day of sluicing.
No, only I just I'm sorry it's gonna slow down the plant, but I think it's a smart decision.
My opinion.
All right, let's do it.
Shut it down! You happy? He doesn't want to stop the plant.
I understand that, but I don't wanna lose gold either.
If there's no gold, we lost a shift.
If there is gold, we've been losing gold.
I don't like lose-lose situations.
To find out if they're losing gold, the crew installs clean mats.
Then they run 1,200 yards of old tailings back through the wash plant.
Parker hopes that at the end of the day the sluice-box will be empty.
If it isn't, they've been losing gold.
There we go.
That's the last bucket of our 1,200-yard test.
Let's go see what's in the box.
Hopefully, there's nothing.
So, right now I'm just jigging the concentrate from our tailings run.
First time I've ever sluiced tailings.
Yeah, I'm not really sure how to feel about it.
Interesting.
Parker weighs the gold on the back of his ATV.
If there's anything more than an ounce, he's got a real problem.
Five point one six.
Seven.
That's half an ounce an hour.
That'll be six or seven grand a day.
There's no point in running pay until we fix the problem.
No.
Five ounces, worth about $6,000, is a quarter of Parker's daily gold haul.
If he can't figure out how to keep the paydirt from sticking to the rocks, he'll lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Well, we have to have a plan and figure it out.
(SIGHS) It doesn't (BLEEP) me off that it happened, it (BLEEP) that we didn't catch it sooner.
At least we didn't run the whole Far Cut and have it all that way, so Film it, Ed, don't ask us what we're gonna do.
Cos we don't know what we're gonna do, Ed.
.
.
At Scribner Creek, Parker's discovered that his wash plant isn't washing all of the paydirt off the rocks.
He's losing about $6,000 of gold every day.
(DOZER BARKING) Shut up.
Until he finds a fix, he's shut his wash plant down.
Well, we're trying to make the solution in the prewash, because there's not much you can do once the rock hits the screen.
So what we're gonna try to do is put a spray bar in here to spray on the rocks and pound it with water.
The tailings coming out of Big Red are covered in gold-bearing paydirt.
Parker's plan is to install another spray bar in the prewash, the first stage of the wash plant.
The extra water should loosen the paydirt from the rocks so that all the gold ends up in the sluices .
.
not in the tailings.
Ordering a custom-made spray bar would delay production for weeks.
So they're going to attempt a bush fix.
To find the parts they need, they're scavenging the scrap metal and junked machines of the Little Blue bone yard.
We're making use of discarded pieces cos that's all we have.
There's no place close by to go buy anything, so gotta try and pick through the junk to fix things.
It's just how it is.
Parker's relying on Gene's resourcefulness to get them back in the game.
We're building another spray bar on the prewash so that we get more water there to wash the rocks better.
Just trying to round up the parts we need to do it.
So, water volume's gonna be the biggest problem.
Yep.
Cos we need the pressure as well.
Yep.
So, we got 32ft.
That's long enough.
Yup.
To help construct the spray bar, Gene calls in mechanic Mike Beaudry.
That's the best four-inch we got? That's all we got.
Doing our part, recycling.
Recycling.
Nothing goes to waste in the Yukon.
Let's get the water on and the plant going again.
Hopefully, this works.
Fire it up.
Whoo, that's it! Holy (BLEEP).
Now we're getting somewhere.
We're good to go.
How's it looking down there, dude? They're still dirty, huh? Still not getting 100% clean.
The spray bar isn't enough.
Parker and crew are still losing thousands a day.
I don't want to go and have you (BLEEP) away some money or Well, the problem is that we are (BLEEP) away money.
(BLEEP) North at Clear Creek, Tony Beets has spent the last 11 weeks dismantling his 75-year-old gold-mining relic.
He's finally down to the last few pieces.
Starting in 1901, dredges transformed gold mining in the Klondike.
One dredge took 800oz, now worth almost $1 million, in a single day.
Tony is dead set on reviving the old mining method.
He's vowed to have this dredge up and running this season, but he's already three weeks behind schedule.
With his stacker, gantry, ladder and superstructure removed, all that's left is the hull.
It's made up of 19 five-tonne steel boxes called pontoons.
They're held together by around 5,000 rusted bolts that would take weeks to remove.
Do you know how many bolts are holding 'em together? Tony's plan: remove just enough bolts to lift the pontoons in four massive sections.
By getting them out faster, they should keep alive their chance of running this year.
To remove the bolts, Tony and his crew climb into the hull, where no-one's been in almost 30 years.
Hey! That's done.
Ready to be moved.
MONICA: Oh.
One of the more efficient ways of removing a trailer from a trailer.
Well, how the hell else you gonna do it? OK, are you ready? Hook it up.
Are you ready to go, Mike? Give it some pull.
Keep putting a little more tension on it.
I don't see anything happening.
With the muck underneath this thing, it creates a lot of suction and the thing is stuck down pretty good.
Just lift it up, don't quit, pull the (BLEEP) thing.
Whoa, it looks like you're gonna rip the plates off 'em.
Ease off on it.
Listen.
Lift the damned thing up.
Go on.
That's it.
We got it.
It's clear.
Back it up, back it up, back it up.
(THUD) It's done.
One down, three to go.
Lift it up.
That's it.
Once they've broken 30 years of suction Down, down.
.
.
the next two pontoon sections Go, go, go! .
.
come out easily.
We're gonna take that one next.
Keep going.
And they are immediately trucked over to the rest of the dismantled dredge at Paradise Hill.
Only one section left to lift.
Stop.
That's too heavy.
(BLEEP) This one weighs 10,000lb more, probably cos of that winch.
To save time, Tony's left a gigantic steel winch on the pontoon.
As a result, this section weighs almost 32 tonnes.
With the crane unable to move it, Tony tries a different approach.
He brings in operator Joe McIntyre and daughter Monica.
Do it.
(SNAP) (CLANG) (LAUGHS) You broke my new chain.
Piece of (BLEEP).
Good.
Lift it up.
It's coming.
Good.
This won't be too top-heavy.
Jerry, lift.
Now, never mind, lift it right up.
We got 12 tons Don't care, lift it up.
Watch yourself.
Don't get in between it.
Move it up a bit.
If it breaks, it'll squish you.
(THUD) They're too heavy.
MONICA: Dad! (MONICA SQUEALS) .
.
At Clear Creek .
.
Tony Beets' crew has lost control of an 18-tonne pontoon.
MAN: That's too heavy! (TONY SHOUTING) (MONICA SQUEALS) (THUD) Holy cow.
You OK? Yeah.
All right.
Actually, that was (BLEEP).
I didn't expect that at all.
MAN: Watch yourself.
Don't get in between the legs.
MAN 2: Don't get pinched.
Guys, this way.
Good.
A little more, yes.
After 11 back-breaking weeks of work shifting 320 tonnes, the last of Tony's million-dollar dredge leaves Clear Creek for its new home.
South at McKinnon Creek, Monster Red has sucked their intake pond dry.
Todd tried cutting a new channel as a quick fix, but the water shortage is still shutting them down.
We cannot keep starting and stopping.
Every hour that we're down we're not making any money.
We need a long-term fix.
We gotta get this water level up.
DAVE: Hold on, hold on.
Todd, if we raise the level it's gonna get into the miners' cut.
It's gonna flood that.
That cut's got a lot of gold in it.
If Todd raises the water level in the tailings pond, it will flood into the cut behind.
That still holds at least $50,000 in gold.
Todd and Dave, now equal partners, are left with a tough decision.
We need to be sluicing, man.
I don't wanna waste that pay.
I'll get Andy in there, we'll bust it out, and then we can flood that cut and it gives you more volume of water.
All right.
All right.
We'll go your route on this.
OK.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Get Andy on it.
All right.
Seasoned operator Andy Spinks begins loading the rock trucks.
Logan Pierce and Kevin Hiatt then stockpile the paydirt next to Monster Red.
They can't refill the water system and restart the wash plant until they get the last of the gold out of the cut.
Oh, damn.
You're fricking kidding me.
Hey, we got a lot of water seeping in here, Andy.
It's just all the ground water just seeping into this thing.
This isn't good.
You can see it's starting to fill in.
Right when he digs, boom, the water's in there.
We don't want the water to mix with our gold pay.
What it does is it sinks the gold down, and now we're chasing it down into the bedrock.
It's kind of a problem.
All right, man, we'll just haul ass.
Keep going.
Andy, you're barely staying ahead of it.
We're digging as fast as we can.
Andy, I'm telling you.
Washing the gold right down, we're gonna be chasing it forever.
The crew is coming to the end of their 12-hour shift.
But $50,000 in gold is on the line.
I know you guys been working hard.
We gotta go all night.
The guys have been pushed till midnight every night as it is.
If we don't, we'll wake up and this'll just be one big lake and we're gonna lose this cut.
That gold's gonna sink out of there and we're gonna miss this, man.
OK.
We'll get it out.
7am.
The Hoffman crew has worked through the night.
This is the last one.
They've saved at least 5,000 yards of pay, worth about $50,000.
Hey, good job, you guys.
(ALL WHOOP) Yeah! I'm proud of the whole team.
When they start seeing this gold from this pile in the box, then I think everybody's gonna start being a believer.
With their paydirt banked, the Hoffman crew can now flood the cut and raise water levels enough to keep their monster wash plant fed.
Finally, after two days down The feed conveyor's coming on.
.
.
they reboot and begin sluicing their new paydirt.
The Hoffmans are back in business.
Yeah! Look at this beast.
Won't take us long, man, and we'll be on the scoreboard big-time.
(MACHINE WHIRRING) At Scribner Creek, Parker Schnabel's discovered that his wash plant isn't cleaning all the paydirt off the rocks.
He's been losing about 30oz of gold, worth around $35,000, every week.
To solve the problem, Parker's bought the biggest wash pump he could find.
What do you think? Looks like a nice pump.
If this doesn't do the trick, I don't know what will.
Looks fancy.
It's even got a remote.
It looks like we're trying to launch a spaceship in here.
Holy (BLEEP).
The cutting-edge, computer-controlled pump, capable of moving 19,000 litres of water every minute Push that and it activates the remote.
.
.
could net Parker an extra half a million dollars in gold.
(WASH PLANT BEEPING) It won't start.
3251.
03 .
.
times five.
Check the manual.
(BLEEP) It should be something simple.
Like, this is a brand-new pump.
I don't know if we're doing something wrong.
It's a frustrating thing cos everything stops right now.
And we're pretty committed because we yanked the old one out already.
I didn't go into coach, all I did was go into engine, engine, uh (BLEEP) Engine We're all pretty old-school guys here, you know? Something's broke, you fix it.
Then here, if something's broke, it's some little sensor that's getting one extra volt.
Overwhelmed by the manual It's justall this Star Wars (BLEEP), it just .
.
Gene resorts to old-school mining intuition.
We gotta get the pump lowered.
Gene suspects that the pump is automatically shutting down because the first joint on the pipe is sucking in air.
If Parker can get the joint under water It might be a little deeper out that way.
.
.
it might just start.
I think that's as much as we got.
(BLEEP) better pump this time.
Gene was right.
The computer-controlled pump sensed air entering the pipe.
It's what it is.
Always something stupid.
I know.
We gotta break it back down to the simple (BLEEP).
Let's go see how it looks.
Yeah, it looks really good.
That prewash looks like a war zone up there.
Hey, there's a lot of water up here.
That's for damn sure.
It looks to me like it's making a hell of a difference.
Pressure-wise, we got a pressure gauge right here.
So, before we were at about 11 pounds.
Right now we're at 23.
Parker now has double the pressure and double the volume of water washing rocks.
The super-pump just might be the key to Parker's season.
So, that bedrock we're in is pretty darn clean.
Really.
Oh, wow.
All that gold that we were losing before on our coarse tailings should now be going into our sluice, so that's good.
North, a convoy of nine massive trucks has left Paradise Hill.
Each carries a vital piece of Tony Beets' 320-tonne, 75-year-old gold dredge.
(TONY BEETS SPEAKING) (ON RADIO) It's just fine.
They are less than 80km from the dredge's new home, Tony's Eureka Creek claim.
(TONY SPEAKING) At 26m, the stacker truck is the longest load in the convoy.
Driver Joe McIntyre has the hardest job bar none.
(TONY SPEAKING) Give her, give her, give her, give her, give her.
Stomp on that (BLEEP).
Step on it, step on it, step on it.
Watch out, watch out, watch out.
Cut it, cut it, cut it! Cut it! Cut it! Oh! (TONY SPEAKING) To help get the 18-tonne rig back on track, Monica brings in a loader from Paradise Hill.
(REVERSE SIGNAL BEEPING) .
.
Tony Beets is approaching Eureka Creek with a piece of gold-mining history that he plans to revive.
(TONY SPEAKING) He's invested over a million dollars and 11 long weeks of work to get the 75-year-old dredge to its new home.
(HORN HONKING) (SIGHS) Made it here in one piece.
Yep.
We did.
Everything is here! Yay! Yay! Hey, you.
Hey, Daddy.
Yeah.
In a couple of pieces.
Like, 50 million pieces.
How long is it gonna take you to put this together? One of these days it's gonna bite you in the ass, that mouth of yours.
That's OK.
Really, you better make this work because I got a lot riding on this one.
That piggy bank is sitting all over here.
(CHORTLES) Really? Well, actually, it's our ship.
I'll sail with you.
(LAUGHS) At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew has run Monster Red non-stop for the last three days.
What do you think, Andy? What do you think we got? I think if we're over 50, we're going in the right direction.
If we're under 50, I think we got some things to figure out.
It's halfway through the season.
Todd and Dave have put around a million dollars into the mine.
Now Jack's clean-up will determine whether they're on the road to redemption or failure.
I'm tired of looking bad.
We're gonna have a serious comeback and hopefully we'll put gold in everybody's pocket.
Here's Jack.
All right.
JACK: I got some good news and I got some bad news.
The good news is there isn't any bad news.
Good news: 99.
37.
(MAN WHOOPS) (ALL CHEERING) Oh, you're kidding me! With close to 100oz, worth around $120,000, in just one clean-up, Todd and his crew can finally put last year's disastrous season behind them.
ANDY: You know, it's been two years since I've seen 100oz of gold.
Tonight was a good night.
This is the first step in redeeming ourselves.
I like it, Jack.
Nice job.
Yeah.
This is where we belong.
We don't belong in the stupid jungle.
You know what? Two years ago I said I'd get 1,000oz and we only got 800oz.
This year, I want us to get 1,000oz and then I want us to keep on going.
Wow.
Do it! Yes! Over 1,000oz, here we come.
(MAN WHOOPS) JACK: We'll do it.
It's gonna happen.
At Scribner Creek, after three and a half days of sluicing with their new water pump, Parker and Gene are jigging the gold.
Well, we've fixed the problem and I'd like to thank you.
We wouldn't I know.
I probably would have ignored it had you not pushed for it, so, um Thank you.
Oh, you're welcome.
I don't want to take any credit for it, I just wanna make sure we get all the gold we can get.
So It's things like that that makes Gene worth the money I pay him.
You know? He's a high-calibre guy and he costs a lot of money but he earns it, you know, because I'm stubborn.
If Parker can beat last week's staggering gold haul of 191oz, worth $230,000, his expensive new pump will have been worth it.
With his dredge now just a few kilometres up the road, claim owner Tony Beets arrives for the big moment.
Hey, Parker.
How you doing, Tony? Yeah.
Well, we can hope.
Let's see what we've got.
It's not all gonna fit in there, Tony.
(TONY SPEAKING) Whoa! Wow! That's the biggest clean-out we've ever had.
No.
230.
45oz, worth well over a quarter of a million dollars - the biggest clean-up in Gold Rush history.
Yeah, as far as the line on this one.
Parker now has 915oz, worth over a million dollars.
With over 80 days still left to mine, he's well on his way to hitting his season goal of 2,000oz, worth 2.
4 million dollars.
In the second half of the season (CLANGING) Oh, (BLEEP).
.
.
Todd Hoffman pushes hard for his ambitious goal.
1,000 ounces, here we come.
But as he struggles to find gold-rich paydirt We'll go bankrupt if we keep going like that.
.
.
Todd faces another disastrous season.
Something's gonna have to change.
You will be packing up.
The Hoffman crew Holy (BLEEP)! We can't do this.
Someone's gonna get hurt.
.
.
are in the fight of their lives That's a bunch of (BLEEP).
.
.
to redeem themselves as gold-miners.
Moment of truth.
(ALL CHEERING) I think we got a good shot at getting 1,000oz.
Tony Beets insists he can go back in time .
.
to bring his 75-year-old dredge back to life.
But standing in his way This is priority.
.
.
his wife Minnie .
.
his men I don't think this thing's ever gonna catch gold.
.
.
his machines (MACHINE WHIRRING) Whoa! (BLEEP) And soon .
.
the Yukon winter.
(TONY SPEAKING) And with a 2,000oz season in his sights Everybody's working hard and I think we're really gonna do it.
.
.
Parker Schnabel calls in his 94-year-old grandpa Parker! You gotta try.
Don't ever give up.
.
.
to begin the hunt for his own Klondike claim.
What kind of price would you be looking for? Three million dollars.
Wow.
But just as things begin to look up Hey, Parker, happy birthday.
(ALL CHEERING) (PHONE RINGING) What's going on? .
.
disaster strikes.
Rick, what's up? Parker, he's been in an accident.
Holy (BLEEP)! Parker! Parker!
Let's go get some gold! I like it, Jack! .
.
the Hoffman crew fires up their biggest wash plant yet.
They don't call her Monster Red for nothing.
But they quickly learn that to process three times the paydirt Keep that pay running.
We're digging as fast as we can.
.
.
they'll need to feed the monster more water than they can supply.
Dammit.
Shut it down.
We better figure it out quick.
Over at Scribner Creek Oh, what the hell? We got a problem.
.
.
Parker discovers that he's losing thousands in gold every week.
It's obvious we are (BLEEP) away money.
But he acts fast What do you think? Looks fancy.
.
.
ramping up his wash plant That prewash looks like a war zone up there.
.
.
and gets the best clean-up of his career.
That's the biggest clean-out we've ever had.
And Tony Beets and crew risk life and limb (MONICA SQUEALS) .
.
to get their 75-year-old gold-catching dredge on a convoy Cut it, cut it, cut it! .
.
to its new home.
At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew is at a crossroads.
Last year when we were in the jungle getting our ass kicked, we all felt like zeroes.
This year, I think we're coming out of a hole.
Almost halfway through the season, the crew has only 136oz of gold, worth just $160,000.
But they've taken a drastic step to upgrade their operation.
People think that we're gonna fail this year, but you know what? They have no idea what's coming at 'em.
Time to make this bad boy spit out some gold.
Guys, let's bring it in.
JACK: Let's do it.
(WHOOPING) This is a new beginning.
Fire it up! Let it clear.
Hit the screen, Dave.
To save their season they've traded up from Little Red to one of the biggest wash plants in the Klondike, Monster Red.
Put the water at 3,000 gallons a minute and let's rock and roll.
Let's go get some gold! Ah! Power! That's 200kW, buddy.
Clear! Feel it rumbling in the ground like a train going by.
Here comes the first bucket of dirt.
My dad's putting her in right now.
This nine-metre-tall beast can run 300 yards of paydirt an hour, three times what Little Red could handle.
300 yards an hour right now.
Once you throw a bucket in, you gotta get another bucket, bam, bam.
It's so hard to keep up with this plant.
They don't call her Monster Red for nothing.
Keep that pay running.
ANDY: We need to get 4,000 yards every day trucked to the wash plant.
Right now the trucks are running, we got paydirt, everything's good.
This is awesome.
We've never been this big.
We started off the season with nothing.
Now we got the best wash plant in the Klondike, and let me tell you, there's a lot of little tricks to this plant.
We got an electric variable-speed hopper feeder, electronic grizzly bars, 62-foot conveyor.
This is a 20-foot shaker deck.
That's personally-made - it's all custom.
200kW generator powering the whole thing, and here's the sweet part .
.
these are our sluice-boxes.
We got four main runs.
I got a nugget-trap run on the far side, there.
This plant is good to sluice 10 million yards of material before you even gotta look at it.
It feels like I got a foothold in the Klondike this time, and you ain't gonna be able to peel me out of here very easy.
Well, that doesn't look good.
Oh, that's not good.
We're running out of water.
After running dirt for just four hours, the water level in the intake pond is so low the pump is sucking in air.
Monster Red demands 11,000 litres of water every minute.
Yeah, we got a problem.
Not enough water in the intake pond.
But then you go over here and there's all this water in the tailing pond.
We don't know why we're running out of water.
Should go in a circle, but we better figure it out, figure it out quick.
The intake pond supplies the water for the wash plant, which washes the rocks, runs down the sluices and flows out into the tailings pond.
The dirty water then circulates through a buried pipe called a culvert into two settling ponds.
It returns to the intake pond cleaner and ready to run through the wash plant again.
Todd to Dave.
We're almost out of water in the intake pond.
(ON RADIO) You're fricking kidding me! I don't think the water's flowing around fast enough.
How bad is it? It's bad.
We're gonna have to shut the plant down in a minute if we don't hurry up and get something going here.
I'm gonna take the excavator down and see if I can get more water flowing around.
All right.
Todd to Dave.
I see what the problem is.
The pump is sucking up water faster than the culvert is actually letting it through.
Todd's water recycling system was designed for his old, smaller wash plant.
Monster Red demands four times the water.
It's sucking the intake pond dry before it has time to refill.
I'm gonna try to cut a ditch to get as much water as I can through.
Hopefully, that takes care of it.
Todd's convinced the culvert to the settling ponds is too small to allow enough water to pass through.
His plan: dig a channel alongside the culvert to increase the volume of water through to the intake pond.
But he has just minutes before the pump runs dry.
Finally.
Todd to Dave.
Did I make it in time? No, it's too late.
Todd's fix is too little, too late.
The intake pond is already too low.
I'm just worried about all the sticks.
I think it's gonna plug up our suction line.
I think we ought to shut down.
Well, we didn't make it.
We're gonna shut down.
We ran a good five hours, but we just ran out of water.
Shut it down.
Dammit.
We're gonna shut it down for a bit.
MAN ON RADIO: OK.
To shut down on your very first day, that's not a very good deal.
16km east at Scribner Creek, 19-year-old Parker Schnabel is back mining the Far Cut, the ground that gave him 148oz - worth over $200,000 - in just four days at the end of last season.
We're finally in the far cut.
Been waiting all spring for this.
It's time to make up for lost ground here.
This cut is promising.
Every pan that's come out of it has been looking better and better.
With 678oz banked, worth $813,000, Parker still has a fighting chance of hitting his 2,000oz, $2.
4-million season goal.
Oh, what the hell? Hey, Parker, you on here? PARKER: Yeah, go ahead.
We got a problem.
You ought to get here and look at it as quick as you can.
Yeah, I'll be right there.
What's up, Gene? Uh, we got a problem with the coarse tailings here.
It's got a lot of dirt.
That's where the gold's at, so Right.
You know, that side's clean, that side's dirty.
I'd sure hate to think that (BLEEP) away a bunch of gold out here in this stuff.
Tailings are discarded out of the back of the wash plant.
They should have all the gold-rich paydirt washed off.
If they're not clean, Parker's losing gold.
Well, what do you want to do, Gene? I think we should run a test, you know.
Clean the box out, run 1,200 yards and then we'll know, I mean If you're wrong, we're losing a shift of sluicing.
If I'm right, we can figure out how we can get some more gold.
What's the tipping point as far as doing something about it? You can't try to catch every last flake.
Well, I realise we can't catch every flake, but maybe it's, you know, an ounce.
If we're losing more than an ounce a day, better change something, and maybe I'm wrong, but I just I don't like not knowing.
I'm not too excited about the idea of losing a day of sluicing.
No, only I just I'm sorry it's gonna slow down the plant, but I think it's a smart decision.
My opinion.
All right, let's do it.
Shut it down! You happy? He doesn't want to stop the plant.
I understand that, but I don't wanna lose gold either.
If there's no gold, we lost a shift.
If there is gold, we've been losing gold.
I don't like lose-lose situations.
To find out if they're losing gold, the crew installs clean mats.
Then they run 1,200 yards of old tailings back through the wash plant.
Parker hopes that at the end of the day the sluice-box will be empty.
If it isn't, they've been losing gold.
There we go.
That's the last bucket of our 1,200-yard test.
Let's go see what's in the box.
Hopefully, there's nothing.
So, right now I'm just jigging the concentrate from our tailings run.
First time I've ever sluiced tailings.
Yeah, I'm not really sure how to feel about it.
Interesting.
Parker weighs the gold on the back of his ATV.
If there's anything more than an ounce, he's got a real problem.
Five point one six.
Seven.
That's half an ounce an hour.
That'll be six or seven grand a day.
There's no point in running pay until we fix the problem.
No.
Five ounces, worth about $6,000, is a quarter of Parker's daily gold haul.
If he can't figure out how to keep the paydirt from sticking to the rocks, he'll lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Well, we have to have a plan and figure it out.
(SIGHS) It doesn't (BLEEP) me off that it happened, it (BLEEP) that we didn't catch it sooner.
At least we didn't run the whole Far Cut and have it all that way, so Film it, Ed, don't ask us what we're gonna do.
Cos we don't know what we're gonna do, Ed.
.
.
At Scribner Creek, Parker's discovered that his wash plant isn't washing all of the paydirt off the rocks.
He's losing about $6,000 of gold every day.
(DOZER BARKING) Shut up.
Until he finds a fix, he's shut his wash plant down.
Well, we're trying to make the solution in the prewash, because there's not much you can do once the rock hits the screen.
So what we're gonna try to do is put a spray bar in here to spray on the rocks and pound it with water.
The tailings coming out of Big Red are covered in gold-bearing paydirt.
Parker's plan is to install another spray bar in the prewash, the first stage of the wash plant.
The extra water should loosen the paydirt from the rocks so that all the gold ends up in the sluices .
.
not in the tailings.
Ordering a custom-made spray bar would delay production for weeks.
So they're going to attempt a bush fix.
To find the parts they need, they're scavenging the scrap metal and junked machines of the Little Blue bone yard.
We're making use of discarded pieces cos that's all we have.
There's no place close by to go buy anything, so gotta try and pick through the junk to fix things.
It's just how it is.
Parker's relying on Gene's resourcefulness to get them back in the game.
We're building another spray bar on the prewash so that we get more water there to wash the rocks better.
Just trying to round up the parts we need to do it.
So, water volume's gonna be the biggest problem.
Yep.
Cos we need the pressure as well.
Yep.
So, we got 32ft.
That's long enough.
Yup.
To help construct the spray bar, Gene calls in mechanic Mike Beaudry.
That's the best four-inch we got? That's all we got.
Doing our part, recycling.
Recycling.
Nothing goes to waste in the Yukon.
Let's get the water on and the plant going again.
Hopefully, this works.
Fire it up.
Whoo, that's it! Holy (BLEEP).
Now we're getting somewhere.
We're good to go.
How's it looking down there, dude? They're still dirty, huh? Still not getting 100% clean.
The spray bar isn't enough.
Parker and crew are still losing thousands a day.
I don't want to go and have you (BLEEP) away some money or Well, the problem is that we are (BLEEP) away money.
(BLEEP) North at Clear Creek, Tony Beets has spent the last 11 weeks dismantling his 75-year-old gold-mining relic.
He's finally down to the last few pieces.
Starting in 1901, dredges transformed gold mining in the Klondike.
One dredge took 800oz, now worth almost $1 million, in a single day.
Tony is dead set on reviving the old mining method.
He's vowed to have this dredge up and running this season, but he's already three weeks behind schedule.
With his stacker, gantry, ladder and superstructure removed, all that's left is the hull.
It's made up of 19 five-tonne steel boxes called pontoons.
They're held together by around 5,000 rusted bolts that would take weeks to remove.
Do you know how many bolts are holding 'em together? Tony's plan: remove just enough bolts to lift the pontoons in four massive sections.
By getting them out faster, they should keep alive their chance of running this year.
To remove the bolts, Tony and his crew climb into the hull, where no-one's been in almost 30 years.
Hey! That's done.
Ready to be moved.
MONICA: Oh.
One of the more efficient ways of removing a trailer from a trailer.
Well, how the hell else you gonna do it? OK, are you ready? Hook it up.
Are you ready to go, Mike? Give it some pull.
Keep putting a little more tension on it.
I don't see anything happening.
With the muck underneath this thing, it creates a lot of suction and the thing is stuck down pretty good.
Just lift it up, don't quit, pull the (BLEEP) thing.
Whoa, it looks like you're gonna rip the plates off 'em.
Ease off on it.
Listen.
Lift the damned thing up.
Go on.
That's it.
We got it.
It's clear.
Back it up, back it up, back it up.
(THUD) It's done.
One down, three to go.
Lift it up.
That's it.
Once they've broken 30 years of suction Down, down.
.
.
the next two pontoon sections Go, go, go! .
.
come out easily.
We're gonna take that one next.
Keep going.
And they are immediately trucked over to the rest of the dismantled dredge at Paradise Hill.
Only one section left to lift.
Stop.
That's too heavy.
(BLEEP) This one weighs 10,000lb more, probably cos of that winch.
To save time, Tony's left a gigantic steel winch on the pontoon.
As a result, this section weighs almost 32 tonnes.
With the crane unable to move it, Tony tries a different approach.
He brings in operator Joe McIntyre and daughter Monica.
Do it.
(SNAP) (CLANG) (LAUGHS) You broke my new chain.
Piece of (BLEEP).
Good.
Lift it up.
It's coming.
Good.
This won't be too top-heavy.
Jerry, lift.
Now, never mind, lift it right up.
We got 12 tons Don't care, lift it up.
Watch yourself.
Don't get in between it.
Move it up a bit.
If it breaks, it'll squish you.
(THUD) They're too heavy.
MONICA: Dad! (MONICA SQUEALS) .
.
At Clear Creek .
.
Tony Beets' crew has lost control of an 18-tonne pontoon.
MAN: That's too heavy! (TONY SHOUTING) (MONICA SQUEALS) (THUD) Holy cow.
You OK? Yeah.
All right.
Actually, that was (BLEEP).
I didn't expect that at all.
MAN: Watch yourself.
Don't get in between the legs.
MAN 2: Don't get pinched.
Guys, this way.
Good.
A little more, yes.
After 11 back-breaking weeks of work shifting 320 tonnes, the last of Tony's million-dollar dredge leaves Clear Creek for its new home.
South at McKinnon Creek, Monster Red has sucked their intake pond dry.
Todd tried cutting a new channel as a quick fix, but the water shortage is still shutting them down.
We cannot keep starting and stopping.
Every hour that we're down we're not making any money.
We need a long-term fix.
We gotta get this water level up.
DAVE: Hold on, hold on.
Todd, if we raise the level it's gonna get into the miners' cut.
It's gonna flood that.
That cut's got a lot of gold in it.
If Todd raises the water level in the tailings pond, it will flood into the cut behind.
That still holds at least $50,000 in gold.
Todd and Dave, now equal partners, are left with a tough decision.
We need to be sluicing, man.
I don't wanna waste that pay.
I'll get Andy in there, we'll bust it out, and then we can flood that cut and it gives you more volume of water.
All right.
All right.
We'll go your route on this.
OK.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Get Andy on it.
All right.
Seasoned operator Andy Spinks begins loading the rock trucks.
Logan Pierce and Kevin Hiatt then stockpile the paydirt next to Monster Red.
They can't refill the water system and restart the wash plant until they get the last of the gold out of the cut.
Oh, damn.
You're fricking kidding me.
Hey, we got a lot of water seeping in here, Andy.
It's just all the ground water just seeping into this thing.
This isn't good.
You can see it's starting to fill in.
Right when he digs, boom, the water's in there.
We don't want the water to mix with our gold pay.
What it does is it sinks the gold down, and now we're chasing it down into the bedrock.
It's kind of a problem.
All right, man, we'll just haul ass.
Keep going.
Andy, you're barely staying ahead of it.
We're digging as fast as we can.
Andy, I'm telling you.
Washing the gold right down, we're gonna be chasing it forever.
The crew is coming to the end of their 12-hour shift.
But $50,000 in gold is on the line.
I know you guys been working hard.
We gotta go all night.
The guys have been pushed till midnight every night as it is.
If we don't, we'll wake up and this'll just be one big lake and we're gonna lose this cut.
That gold's gonna sink out of there and we're gonna miss this, man.
OK.
We'll get it out.
7am.
The Hoffman crew has worked through the night.
This is the last one.
They've saved at least 5,000 yards of pay, worth about $50,000.
Hey, good job, you guys.
(ALL WHOOP) Yeah! I'm proud of the whole team.
When they start seeing this gold from this pile in the box, then I think everybody's gonna start being a believer.
With their paydirt banked, the Hoffman crew can now flood the cut and raise water levels enough to keep their monster wash plant fed.
Finally, after two days down The feed conveyor's coming on.
.
.
they reboot and begin sluicing their new paydirt.
The Hoffmans are back in business.
Yeah! Look at this beast.
Won't take us long, man, and we'll be on the scoreboard big-time.
(MACHINE WHIRRING) At Scribner Creek, Parker Schnabel's discovered that his wash plant isn't cleaning all the paydirt off the rocks.
He's been losing about 30oz of gold, worth around $35,000, every week.
To solve the problem, Parker's bought the biggest wash pump he could find.
What do you think? Looks like a nice pump.
If this doesn't do the trick, I don't know what will.
Looks fancy.
It's even got a remote.
It looks like we're trying to launch a spaceship in here.
Holy (BLEEP).
The cutting-edge, computer-controlled pump, capable of moving 19,000 litres of water every minute Push that and it activates the remote.
.
.
could net Parker an extra half a million dollars in gold.
(WASH PLANT BEEPING) It won't start.
3251.
03 .
.
times five.
Check the manual.
(BLEEP) It should be something simple.
Like, this is a brand-new pump.
I don't know if we're doing something wrong.
It's a frustrating thing cos everything stops right now.
And we're pretty committed because we yanked the old one out already.
I didn't go into coach, all I did was go into engine, engine, uh (BLEEP) Engine We're all pretty old-school guys here, you know? Something's broke, you fix it.
Then here, if something's broke, it's some little sensor that's getting one extra volt.
Overwhelmed by the manual It's justall this Star Wars (BLEEP), it just .
.
Gene resorts to old-school mining intuition.
We gotta get the pump lowered.
Gene suspects that the pump is automatically shutting down because the first joint on the pipe is sucking in air.
If Parker can get the joint under water It might be a little deeper out that way.
.
.
it might just start.
I think that's as much as we got.
(BLEEP) better pump this time.
Gene was right.
The computer-controlled pump sensed air entering the pipe.
It's what it is.
Always something stupid.
I know.
We gotta break it back down to the simple (BLEEP).
Let's go see how it looks.
Yeah, it looks really good.
That prewash looks like a war zone up there.
Hey, there's a lot of water up here.
That's for damn sure.
It looks to me like it's making a hell of a difference.
Pressure-wise, we got a pressure gauge right here.
So, before we were at about 11 pounds.
Right now we're at 23.
Parker now has double the pressure and double the volume of water washing rocks.
The super-pump just might be the key to Parker's season.
So, that bedrock we're in is pretty darn clean.
Really.
Oh, wow.
All that gold that we were losing before on our coarse tailings should now be going into our sluice, so that's good.
North, a convoy of nine massive trucks has left Paradise Hill.
Each carries a vital piece of Tony Beets' 320-tonne, 75-year-old gold dredge.
(TONY BEETS SPEAKING) (ON RADIO) It's just fine.
They are less than 80km from the dredge's new home, Tony's Eureka Creek claim.
(TONY SPEAKING) At 26m, the stacker truck is the longest load in the convoy.
Driver Joe McIntyre has the hardest job bar none.
(TONY SPEAKING) Give her, give her, give her, give her, give her.
Stomp on that (BLEEP).
Step on it, step on it, step on it.
Watch out, watch out, watch out.
Cut it, cut it, cut it! Cut it! Cut it! Oh! (TONY SPEAKING) To help get the 18-tonne rig back on track, Monica brings in a loader from Paradise Hill.
(REVERSE SIGNAL BEEPING) .
.
Tony Beets is approaching Eureka Creek with a piece of gold-mining history that he plans to revive.
(TONY SPEAKING) He's invested over a million dollars and 11 long weeks of work to get the 75-year-old dredge to its new home.
(HORN HONKING) (SIGHS) Made it here in one piece.
Yep.
We did.
Everything is here! Yay! Yay! Hey, you.
Hey, Daddy.
Yeah.
In a couple of pieces.
Like, 50 million pieces.
How long is it gonna take you to put this together? One of these days it's gonna bite you in the ass, that mouth of yours.
That's OK.
Really, you better make this work because I got a lot riding on this one.
That piggy bank is sitting all over here.
(CHORTLES) Really? Well, actually, it's our ship.
I'll sail with you.
(LAUGHS) At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew has run Monster Red non-stop for the last three days.
What do you think, Andy? What do you think we got? I think if we're over 50, we're going in the right direction.
If we're under 50, I think we got some things to figure out.
It's halfway through the season.
Todd and Dave have put around a million dollars into the mine.
Now Jack's clean-up will determine whether they're on the road to redemption or failure.
I'm tired of looking bad.
We're gonna have a serious comeback and hopefully we'll put gold in everybody's pocket.
Here's Jack.
All right.
JACK: I got some good news and I got some bad news.
The good news is there isn't any bad news.
Good news: 99.
37.
(MAN WHOOPS) (ALL CHEERING) Oh, you're kidding me! With close to 100oz, worth around $120,000, in just one clean-up, Todd and his crew can finally put last year's disastrous season behind them.
ANDY: You know, it's been two years since I've seen 100oz of gold.
Tonight was a good night.
This is the first step in redeeming ourselves.
I like it, Jack.
Nice job.
Yeah.
This is where we belong.
We don't belong in the stupid jungle.
You know what? Two years ago I said I'd get 1,000oz and we only got 800oz.
This year, I want us to get 1,000oz and then I want us to keep on going.
Wow.
Do it! Yes! Over 1,000oz, here we come.
(MAN WHOOPS) JACK: We'll do it.
It's gonna happen.
At Scribner Creek, after three and a half days of sluicing with their new water pump, Parker and Gene are jigging the gold.
Well, we've fixed the problem and I'd like to thank you.
We wouldn't I know.
I probably would have ignored it had you not pushed for it, so, um Thank you.
Oh, you're welcome.
I don't want to take any credit for it, I just wanna make sure we get all the gold we can get.
So It's things like that that makes Gene worth the money I pay him.
You know? He's a high-calibre guy and he costs a lot of money but he earns it, you know, because I'm stubborn.
If Parker can beat last week's staggering gold haul of 191oz, worth $230,000, his expensive new pump will have been worth it.
With his dredge now just a few kilometres up the road, claim owner Tony Beets arrives for the big moment.
Hey, Parker.
How you doing, Tony? Yeah.
Well, we can hope.
Let's see what we've got.
It's not all gonna fit in there, Tony.
(TONY SPEAKING) Whoa! Wow! That's the biggest clean-out we've ever had.
No.
230.
45oz, worth well over a quarter of a million dollars - the biggest clean-up in Gold Rush history.
Yeah, as far as the line on this one.
Parker now has 915oz, worth over a million dollars.
With over 80 days still left to mine, he's well on his way to hitting his season goal of 2,000oz, worth 2.
4 million dollars.
In the second half of the season (CLANGING) Oh, (BLEEP).
.
.
Todd Hoffman pushes hard for his ambitious goal.
1,000 ounces, here we come.
But as he struggles to find gold-rich paydirt We'll go bankrupt if we keep going like that.
.
.
Todd faces another disastrous season.
Something's gonna have to change.
You will be packing up.
The Hoffman crew Holy (BLEEP)! We can't do this.
Someone's gonna get hurt.
.
.
are in the fight of their lives That's a bunch of (BLEEP).
.
.
to redeem themselves as gold-miners.
Moment of truth.
(ALL CHEERING) I think we got a good shot at getting 1,000oz.
Tony Beets insists he can go back in time .
.
to bring his 75-year-old dredge back to life.
But standing in his way This is priority.
.
.
his wife Minnie .
.
his men I don't think this thing's ever gonna catch gold.
.
.
his machines (MACHINE WHIRRING) Whoa! (BLEEP) And soon .
.
the Yukon winter.
(TONY SPEAKING) And with a 2,000oz season in his sights Everybody's working hard and I think we're really gonna do it.
.
.
Parker Schnabel calls in his 94-year-old grandpa Parker! You gotta try.
Don't ever give up.
.
.
to begin the hunt for his own Klondike claim.
What kind of price would you be looking for? Three million dollars.
Wow.
But just as things begin to look up Hey, Parker, happy birthday.
(ALL CHEERING) (PHONE RINGING) What's going on? .
.
disaster strikes.
Rick, what's up? Parker, he's been in an accident.
Holy (BLEEP)! Parker! Parker!