Gold Rush (2018) s05e11 Episode Script
Ship of Fools
All clear! NARRATOR: Up north in the Klondike Do not dump that dirt.
.
.
the Hoffman crew is at breaking point.
I say we stop.
That is the dumbest thing we've ever done.
Dave Turin has to find richer ground Something's gonna have to change.
.
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or their season could come to a grinding halt.
We're talking about leaving and going home.
Tony Beets works overtime to assemble the dredge's steel skeleton .
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but the damaged sluice boxes .
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frustrate his crew.
I don't think this thing's ever gonna catch gold.
(TONY SPEAKS) And Tony has to fight (TONY SPEAKS) .
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to keep his dream alive.
(TONY SPEAKS) Parker Schnabel PARKER: What's for sale? .
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begins the hunt for his own Klondike claim.
What kind of price would you be looking for? .
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but good ground doesn't come cheap.
$3 million.
Wow.
Back at Scribner Creek, Parker opens up a new cut Welcome to Fantasy Land.
.
.
and puts his crew in a world of hurt.
I'm sick of this (BLEEP).
Think about what the hell you're doing.
Hey, Gene! At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew is over halfway through the mining season.
But with just 258oz of gold, worth over $300,000, they are just a quarter of the way to their 1,000-ounce goal.
THURBER: If it was easy, everyone would be up here doing it.
It's not just a guessing game or luck.
There is someorganised chaos to all this, believe it or not.
This season, Dave Turin and Todd Hoffman are equal partners, but Dave is in charge of mining operations.
He has the crew running dirt worth just $4 a yard .
.
not enough to even cover their running costs.
DAVE: Nobody's making any money yet.
And obviously, we wanna turn the corner and start making a profit and getting a return on our investment.
My guys are down.
Everybody's bummed out, including me.
At the worst possible time, claim owner Peter Tallman shows up to check on the Hoffmans' progress.
How's it going, Todd? How ya making out? Moving some dirt.
Yeah, I can see that.
But, uh, the end result to get gold isn'tisn't there.
We're at four bucks a yard.
And, uh Four bucks? Nobodynobody runs $4 a yard.
There's more gold in my driveway.
We should be a lot farther along than we are now.
This isn't gonna make either of us any money at all.
We need to see some gold.
We're stuffing the dirt through the plant as fast as we can go.
Todd, there'sthere's gold everywhere in the Klondike.
Very few places you can make money at it.
Here is one of 'em.
If I'm not seeing $10 a yard, you're going broke.
OK.
All right.
Good to see ya.
Yep.
Good luck.
Todd has to give Peter a 20% cut of the Hoffman crew's gold.
If they can't get onto good ground, no-one will make any money.
I'll take the heat when it comes to being in the furnace with the landowner, but privately .
.
Dave better figure this out and figure it out fast.
Dave, you got a sec? DAVE: Yeah.
Here's the deal.
Peter just showed up.
And, uh .
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he's super-disappointed.
We gotta get 10 bucks a yard.
I don't know what we're supposed to do.
I can't If you don't figure something out, we're gonna be packing up and leaving.
You wanna be a partner? You wanna be the mining expert? You better dig us out of this hole.
If you can think of something, Dave, and save our bacon, you better start thinking now.
Give me some time.
I'll figure something out.
8km east, at Eureka Creek .
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Tony Beets is in a race against time.
He's on a mission to resurrect his 75-year-old million-dollar dredge by the end of the season.
Just like the old-timers did a century ago, Tony is dead-set on catching Klondike gold in the dredge's sluice boxes.
But he's way behind schedule.
He's got less than two months till the brutal Yukon winter will shut him down.
We have to do this in the right order .
.
because that thing come apart in a sequence, and it's gonna have to go back together that way.
His crew has assembled the pontoons, or hull.
Their plan this week: rebuild the 68-tonne steel skeleton, then weld the sluice boxes in place.
Let's put some bolts in.
The dredge's superstructure consists of 150 I-beams connected by 5,000 bolts.
The massive steel skeleton supports all the dredge's gold-catching equipment.
(TONY SPEAKS) It's gonna take everybody working together here to make it go smooth, I think.
(TONY SPEAKS) This is how we get stuff done in the Beets family.
We tend tohit it with a hammer.
Oh, and swear at it a lot.
OK, Mike.
You're welcome.
(LAUGHS) Tony heads back to his Paradise Hill mine, leaving his dredge crew to finish the day's work.
Let's get the bolts in here.
It's in there.
Monica, wanna throw me some more bolts? I need bolts.
You think there's more in the container? I can go look.
I can go do that.
Hey, Mike, Jerry, can't find any.
I got three.
That's all you could find, was three bolts? That's all I could find.
There's gotta be more over there.
They're all empty boxes.
(TOOL CLATTERS) That's (BLEEP).
Check myself.
There isn't any.
Yeah, you better get on the phone with Tony.
Where are we gonna find 2,000 bolts in the Yukon this afternoon? You're not.
The crew torched off thousands of bolts to dismantle the dredge.
Tony ordered replacements, but not enough.
Well, you know, it's getting a little ridiculous.
That's just the way it's been going.
Just five hours in, the crew has no choice but to call it a day.
We're done.
East at Scribner Creek .
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Parker Schnabel's crew has hit its stride.
They've been mining for three months now and have already passed last year's total of 1,029oz of gold, worth well over $1 million.
MAN: You know, we're over halfway through the season.
You know, we're looking pretty good for reaching Parker's goal.
But, you know, if we wanna see that 2,000oz, we got a lot of dirt left to move here.
At the start of the season, Parker's grandpa suggested he buy his own claim.
Now, with Grandpa John visiting, Parker wants advice on the claim he's been eyeing.
You know, the truth is I've been looking around and talking to people quite a bit about ground, and there's not much up here.
Oh.
Pretty well all occupied.
Yeah, no kidding.
They're heading to Last Chance Creek, a claim near Bonanza Creek, where the gold rush began in 1896.
In its first year, Bonanza produced 125,000oz of gold, which today would be worth $150 million.
A century later, this area still contains some of the richest ground.
This mine belongs to claim owner Lee Ohlmick.
Hey, Parker, you made it.
Hey, Lee.
Oh, nice.
How are you doing? Good.
You brought your grandpa with you? This is my grandpa.
Parker said he was gonna bring y'all.
That's great.
Super.
I'm glad that I'm here.
But anyway, while he was here, I wanted to come up and maybe take a look at your ground.
We can go in my truck, if you like.
The guys are up there working, but I can show you around.
23 years I've been here, at this spot.
Here's our sluice plant.
How long have you had that plant, Lee? 20 years.
And it hasn't worn out yet? What are you What's for sale? This is the main parcel, or the main portion, that a person would be concentrating on, from here up, that mile-and-a-half.
OK.
Well, how wide is this valley? It's 100ft mining width, about.
Mm-hm.
I see.
And how thick is your pay layer? Well, probably 8-foot sluice section.
Yeah.
So if you take a mile-and-a-half of ground that's 100ft wide and 8ft deep, in the ground So, without fluff, that's just over 230,000 yards.
Lee has drill results showing his ground is worth $26 a yard, meaning his claim could still contain upwards of $6 million in gold.
And I guess, with a mile-and-a-half to go, uh, there's enough quality in there to last a few seasons.
Mm-hm.
What kind of price would you be looking for for this? Well, if I really wanted (CHUCKLES) to get fishing badly this year and asked what I thought was fair market value, I think Scary number, but, uh .
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probably be better than $3 million.
Wow.
Yeah.
(EXHALES SHARPLY) Lee, thank you for showing me around.
You're welcome, Parker.
You've given me a lot to think about.
Oh, yeah.
Well, take your time.
We're not going anywhere.
We're just here.
Right on.
We're just sluicing.
And thanks for bringing Gramps out.
A real pleasure meeting your dad your grandpa.
He looks so young, I thought he was your dad, but it's your grandpa.
I almost forgot.
One day I'm gonna ask you what happened to the rest of that guy.
That's a sawmill memory.
Oh, was it? OK, yeah.
I've still got mine, but I got a lot of injuries.
I got too close to my work.
OK.
(LAUGHS) Got too close to your work.
Right on.
So that's what happens.
Good thing I wasn't standing close or I might have had a real problem.
(LAUGHS) You're lucky it was only your finger.
I know, yeah.
Lee, you've got a great place here.
Yeah.
I'd love to have a Schnabel sign on it.
Yeah, perfect.
Adios, you guys.
Happy trails, eh? Thanks, Lee.
Bye-bye.
I'll see you, now.
There goes a legend .
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and a new legend, a young legend in the making.
.
.
At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew is running paydirt worth only $4 a yard.
Dave's called back the owner of the claim, Peter Tallman, to find out why the drill maps indicate the ground should be worth three times that.
I was wondering if maybe you could shed some light on the geology, maybe help me with where to mine.
I'm at the end of my rope.
Peter runs the company that owns the McKinnon Creek claim, but he's also one of the Yukon's top geologists.
Well, it's not in my interest to have you mining $4 a yard for the rest of the summer, cos that's money coming out of my pocket.
Exactly.
So, yeah, the sooner we get you sorted, the better.
We based our mine plan on the drill holes.
But when I run it in the sluice box, it's just not there.
The drill data doesn't give you depth to gold, really.
Right.
It just tells you there's a lot of gold somewhere in the column.
And what you've thoroughly proven is that all your gold is down below.
I've been doing this wrong from the beginning? Don't mine this.
All right.
You'll go bust doing that.
Others have, too.
Stop.
OK.
Peel it and let's both get onto the good stuff, which is down below your feet.
Oh.
Down below this is it's a white channel gravel.
And there's a lot of it there.
And when we get to the white-channel stuff, the difference is dramatic.
And you're not to it yet.
So you're telling me that I should just get rid of this top gravel and then just mine the white channel? Simply? Yes.
All right.
If the Hoffmans strip away the low-yield paydirt they've been running .
.
they'll hit a layer of white-channel paydirt that may hold a higher concentration of gold.
So far, they've spent the summer up to date mining the wrong material.
But they're so close.
They're almost down to the best stuff.
Hey, Todd.
Hey.
What did you guys find out? Anything? We have a problem.
Oh, you're kidding.
But it's a really good problem.
Really? I think that the gold in the gravels is deeper.
The problem is you're just gonna have to make the cut bigger and deeper.
Wow.
Like, if I was expecting, say .
.
3ft to 6ft of pay, how much pay do you think How deep is the pay, the good pay, in that cut? It's better than 10ft.
In one spot, I know for sure it's better than 20ft.
What? You're telling me you think that we could have sections of this cut that are 20ft of good pay.
Yeah.
Wow.
We're gonna have to put it in gear.
I just find this stuff.
Your job is to mine it.
(LAUGHING) Yeah.
Off you go.
The crew has been working themselves to the bone, running 3,000 yards of dirt a day, worth just $12,000 - barely enough to pay for their fuel.
Mine boss Dave Turin makes a radical decision.
Well, we're shutting down.
Can't afford to run this stuff.
(MACHINERY SHUTS DOWN) I gotta stop those trucks.
Kevin, do not run that dirt.
TODD: What the heck? I'm shutting it down, Todd.
We need to talk.
I say we stop.
Why? No more sluicing $4 a yard.
We're not hauling this stuff any more.
We're gonna just dump it on the side and get rid of it.
Oh, boy.
Peter says there's white channel in that pit, and that's what we're looking for.
And that's where we're gonna start making pay.
We just gotta get down to it and get rid of that brown, crappy gravel.
This is a difficult decision, but I cannot see any other way.
Andy, how long it'll take to get that dirt off of there? ANDY: Three days.
It's gonna hurt, feeling like I'm dumping gold off that cliff.
We need to get rid of that stuff.
We need to get down.
I disagree.
It'll cost us money to get rid of it.
So why not run it? It's quick.
It's from there to there.
We get rid of it.
I just want you to know what I think.
OK.
I heard it.
It's a tough decision for all of us.
I'm with Dave.
But if we don't get to $10 a yard, we're gonna have a situation that's way beyond anything having to do with bringing home money.
We're talking about leaving and going home early.
OK? That's the situation.
Come on, Kevin.
What do you think? It doesn't sound like I have a choice.
You know what? Life isn't fair.
You're right.
With Monster Red shut down, the crew is divided.
They'll be throwing gold away in the hope of finding richer ground.
Well, that makes me nervous.
I don't wanna separate this team.
I didn't come here to to cause a rift with the team.
So, half the guys are disagreeing with me.
That's hard.
I don't I don't I love these guys.
I came here to help lead 'em.
And so this is a tough decision.
I'm pretty nervous now.
Holy moly.
16km east, Parker Schnabel has put his search for a new claim on the back burner.
To hit his 2,000-ounce, $2.
4 million goal, he'll have to open up a second cut.
Before Grandpa John's visit comes to an end, Parker asks his advice.
PARKER: Our biggest struggle .
.
is keeping ground open out ahead of us.
Yeah, with the volume that you're running through that plant, I see that.
Right.
Yep.
We run a lot of yardage.
You know, we've ran over 130,000 yards this season.
And it's halfway through, huh? Yeah.
That's a lot of It leaves us in a position where we're trying to figure out what we're gonna do for the rest of the season.
I mean, our two options for better ground are .
.
either Fantasy Land or this berm we've got up here that they pushed up on upstream of us.
My gut's leaning towards Fantasy Land.
And last season, you know, you suggested going across the creek.
And that's what really shot us up and gave us a shot at 1,000oz last year.
Well, you're on the road to doing it, so I guess you'll be rewarded.
I'd say find better ground.
That's what I would do.
Let's hope it's there Right.
.
.
waiting for you to cash out.
(CHUCKLES) Before Parker can cross the creek to open up the new cut, he takes his grandpa to the airport for his flight home to Haines.
All right, Grandpa.
Have a good flight.
Well, Parker, it's been a great week and I wanna thank you for all the hospitality and the privilege of coming up and sharing your 20th birthday with you, and I'll sure as hell work hard to be able to come back and see your 21st.
I hope you're there.
Well, goodbye, Parker.
Bye, Grandpa.
Oh, take care.
Bye-bye.
My grandpa's never steered me on the wrong direction.
And it was his idea last year to go to Fantasy Land.
And I don't see why, uh .
.
why it won't make us some money and get us to our goal this year.
You know, my grandpa is the reason this is all happening.
He taught me how to deal with people.
He taught me how to deal with equipment, deal with breakdowns.
You know, he he set me up for all this.
And Well, it's amazing.
He's an amazing guy.
It's great to be able to spend a couple of days with him because, you know, it'll really help bring everything together.
You know, we've got a tough second half coming up.
You know, as far ahead as we are .
.
it's really not that far ahead.
And I'm pretty set on 2,000oz at the end of the season in front of my own chunk of ground this fall.
.
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At McKinnon Creek, mine boss Dave Turin has stuck his neck out.
To turn the Hoffmans' season around, he's shut down Monster Red to dig deeper for richer paydirt.
But after two days, there's still no sign of white-channel gold.
This is a big decision that I've made here, removing this brown.
It's not a real popular decision.
Some of the guys think I'm making a mistake.
So there's a lot riding on it.
To get down to the white channel, Kevin and Logan dump 900 yards of paydirt every hour, and every yard contains $4 of gold.
We're dumping $36,000 over that cliff a day.
LOGAN: All we're doing is just throwing gold right off the back of this cliff.
This is a cliff that we made by dumping overburden, not pay.
Now we're actually dumping pay off it, and I think that is the dumbest thing we've ever done.
To make matters worse, they're burning around $10,000 of fuel a day.
With the wash plant shut down, Dave is taking a risk that has to pay off.
Name of this game is put gold in your pockets, and you'll put gold in your pockets when you're sluicing.
DAVE: The guys are getting kinda demoralised.
Morale is down.
They're frustrated because we're not sluicing, and all they can see is money going out.
I just hope we make it through.
By tomorrow, hopefully we're sluicing again.
We can start generating some capital and start paying the bills again.
TODD: Dave's feeling the pressure now.
It's easy to want to be the quarterback.
It's not easy when you're not throwing, uh .
.
you're not throwing receptions.
Finally, Dave makes a breakthrough.
Well, that's looking pretty good.
I'm seeing some white gravel, grey gravel.
It's pretty bright.
I think I'm there.
I think this is it.
I think I'm at the gravel.
Well, Peter said I'd hit mud.
And then, beneath that, I should hit this white channel.
See how white this quartz is? It's exactly what we're looking for.
This is a great sign.
I'm right at the top of the white channel.
I'll grab a pan and take a look at it.
Hopefully, there's a lot of gold in it.
If Dave doesn't get good colours, his decision to stop running Monster Red will have cost them tens of thousands for nothing.
Dave's authority as a mine boss depends on this one pan.
So, we're close.
White quartz.
So that's what I've got.
I'm really close.
(OVER RADIO) Hey, Todd.
This is Dave.
Todd, you got a copy? Yeah, Dave.
I got a copy.
Hey, I just hit some grey gravel.
I just panned it.
I think we're there.
You know, we can't do this again.
You've gotta be sure, Dave.
You've gotta be sure.
I'll show you for yourself, Todd.
This is a good pan.
You can look for yourself.
Todd, check this out, buddy.
This is a great pan.
Right at the top.
Holy snikeys.
(GRUNTS) Now, that's what I'm talking about.
Yeah! Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
26 colours are a sure sign that Dave has hit the top of the white channel.
Do you think that's the layer that we have to start at? That's where we're starting.
I can see it's different.
So, why don't we But is it good enough for us to just go and run it? I don't know.
Let's do 1,000 yards.
Let's run 1,000 yards through the plant.
All the mats.
I'll go for that.
And let's just see what it is.
All right.
OK, let's do this.
Let's do this, Dave.
Dave radios the good news to the crew.
All right.
It's about time, huh? Let's start sluicing.
What do you guys think? Kevin, you ready to go haul some dirt? KEVIN: Yeah.
We are.
We're finally running, huh? This is what we're here to do, is sluice and get some gold.
Thurber, fire it up.
THURBER: (OVER RADIO) Let's go.
The white-channel test will take the crew four hours.
Only then will Dave know if his decision will appease their claim owner and restore the faith of his men.
(CLATTER) All clear! (AIR HORN BLARES) 8:00am, Dawson City Airport.
Tony Beets has called in a favour from his hardware supplier in Vancouver.
Work on the dredge has been at a standstill for two days.
Now his dredge crew can attempt to make up for lost time.
At Eureka Creek, the crew are ready to bolt their million-dollar dredge back together.
They're now about to attach the all-important steel sluice boxes.
Doing good.
Keep 'em going.
Keep 'em going.
Ah, the sluice boxes finally showed up here.
Can you go any further back? Cool.
Hey, Jerry.
Can you come look at this? What do you see, Kevin? I'm just looking how bent it is.
Are the brackets gonna fit? Is that supposed to be straight? I just don't know how they'll ever put the sluice runs together, as bent up as that is.
These sluice boxes, they really need to be straightened flat.
You got humps in there, and the water speeds up over that, it's gonna take gold out with it when it goes over that.
So you gotta make sure they're pretty flat.
They damaged it pretty good.
Hey, Tony.
Mike here.
Hey, we got a problem.
These sluice boxes, we're ready to put 'em in, but they're pretty bent up.
They got pretty messed up when they got trucked here.
We should be repairing them on the ground before they ever go in.
All right.
Well, thanks, Tony.
We'll talk to you later.
Bye.
Tony said, "Put 'em in," so that's what we'll do, and then let somebody else struggle with it that has to weld 'em.
Come on.
First bolts are going in place now.
So we about got this one.
Second sluice box coming in.
This one isn't damaged quite as bad, but it's still got its, uh, issues with it.
That's about as good as we're gonna get.
We got a two-inch gap, but it's not gonna go together very nice.
It looks like (BLEEP), but it's in.
Hey, Mike.
Want to come have a look? What do you got? You tell me.
This piece has gotta come out there straight up.
Entire corner, there, is out of alignment.
Whole run of the back is bent down.
Gotta pull that back up.
Somebody's gonna spend a lot of time repairing all this.
That's the way it is.
I don't think this thing's ever gonna catch gold.
8km east, at Scribner Creek .
.
Parker Schnabel's crew works hard to feed their wash plant 140 yards of paydirt an hour.
We're sluicing so much dirt.
I don't know.
I like it.
They're running dirt from the Far Cut.
At this rate, they'll finish the cut in just two weeks.
PARKER: Right now, we are still sluicing the Far Cut.
We're close to being done down there, but, uh, you know, we've always gotta be one step ahead of the plan.
To stay ahead of the game, Parker's pulled some of his crew off the Far Cut to strip the next cut across the creek - Fantasy Land, where he mined over 300oz of gold last season.
My grandpa just came to visit, and, you know, he suggested to come back over here to Fantasy Land.
There was a bunch of good ground that we left last year, and, uh, why not go where we know it is? GENE: Well, we started this cut last year, and it ran pretty decent.
Just weren't able to finish it.
So I wanna finish it this year.
Nothing's a sure bet, but we've found a lot of gold all around this cut.
And I know it's not doing us any good covered under 30ft of mud.
Parker avoided this ground last year because previous miners dumped thousands of yards of overburden here.
To get down to pay, the crew has to first clear a 9m mountain of mud.
DAVE KROEKER: It's a real challenge, dealing with this mud, and really (BLEEP) you off in a day.
You know, all you do is push mud, and fighting it every inch of the way.
But the overburden is so soft the dozers keep getting stuck.
Damn.
Hey, Gene.
We can just get the corner of the blade and give it a little prop, see if you can get him to spin out of there.
(HORN HONKS) Can you lift yourself up? There's not too many guys that are better at dealing with situations like this than Gene.
Lift up your blade! He's lifting your front end up and sinking the back! Come on.
That's enough.
That's the stuff.
Let's crank it up, boys.
Yeah.
Clear your tracks out.
Both D10s can now get back to work trying to shift the mountain of dirt.
Up here, once you go down, it's gonna cost a lot of money.
It shuts the other machines down to try and dig one out.
So you gotta do the best you can to stay on top of it and not get stuck.
But just two hours later, Gene gets another SOS call.
This is (BLEEP).
This is a waste of time.
This time, he needs the 44-tonne 460 excavator to pull out the 25-tonne rock truck.
Come on.
OK, OK.
Stand back.
Let's get to work.
I'm sick of this (BLEEP).
I hope Gene is not too pissed off because he's always angry, eh? (LAUGHS) Just gotta think about it.
If it's all muddy, you start to back into the hole, and your back wheels sink, don't keep backing in.
Don't back all the way till the front bumper's in it.
Just gotta think.
Don't Think about what the hell you're doing.
That's all.
Parker and his crew clear Fantasy Land without a break.
By the end of a long, hard day, they've stripped less than a metre off one section.
There is still over 8m of overburden to go.
At this rate, it'll take two weeks to reach paydirt.
Welcome to Fantasy Land.
It's deep.
There's some gravel down there somewhere.
Yeah, it's that's a long ways down.
(BOTH CHUCKLE) When you can't see the top of the 10, and all of a sudden, it appears out from, uh, from the dip Yeah, it makes me a little nervous just cos you're looking at how much time you get into something, and then what we get out of it as pay.
It's a little scary.
Yeah.
Hopefully, Fantasy Land's as good as it was last year for you.
Yeah, no kidding.
We need it.
We just spent a month stripping two weeks', three weeks' worth of pay, and then we're in trouble.
I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't go somewhere where they didn't stack a bunch of mud on top of it.
.
.
6:00am at Eureka Creek.
Mark Favron, a local welder, arrives at the dredge to get his first look at Tony Beets' 75-year-old steel sluice boxes.
FAVRON: Holy (BLEEP).
This isn't the way I would have done it.
I think a lot of this steel is pretty tired.
It's been moved and banged around.
If he gets any gold out of this, it'll be amazing, cos everything's not straight.
Nothing good about it as far as I can tell.
So, here's my gap and I wanna lay this flat bar across the gap .
.
and then I'll weld it on both sides.
There are huge gaps in the two 4.
5m sluice boxes, and at least half the steel is bent.
Mark's been slowed down by the last owner's botched repairs.
I'm looking at this lace that we have to seal up again and they've had issues here with it before.
They couldn't get it welded properly, so they had to use a lot of silicone.
Well, you can't weld silicone, and you'd almost be better off to start off with new materials.
To catch gold, the sluices must be smooth, at the perfect angle and watertight.
Not bad, I guess.
As you can see, she's wore out pretty bad.
We've had to do some major surgery.
It's not the way I'm used to doing things.
OK.
Some of those patches don't look the best.
Will they be watertight? (TONY SPEAKS) I don't think they'll hold water for you, Tony.
OK.
I hope you do.
(TONY SPEAKS) Yeah, Dad? We're gonna pump some water through there, make sure there's no leaks.
So hopefully my dad's not just, you know, blowing smoke up his ass.
(TONY SPEAKS) Go! Do it! Come on! Hey, Tony.
It looks pretty good.
It's not leaking.
Yes.
That's it.
After weeks of setbacks, Tony's one step closer to bringing his 75-year-old gold dredge back to life.
(TONY SPEAKING) Over at McKinnon Creek .
.
claim owner Peter Tallman is back to see if the Hoffmans have hit $10 a yard.
Hey, Todd.
How are you? Well, I'm nervous.
You know what? If we don't get at least 10 bucks a yard, there's really no point in us staying, really.
All right, Dad.
Pour the gold.
For Todd and Dave to make a profit this season, their 1,000-yard test of white-channel paydirt has to produce at least 8oz of gold, worth over $9,000.
(EXHALES SHARPLY) TODD: Come on.
Guys, we only needed 8.
We got 9.
14.
Yes.
Huh? All right.
Good job, guys.
Good job.
9.
1oz.
That's about $11 a yard, OK? That's about three times better than the brown dirt we were running.
With the white channel paying out $11 a yard, the Hoffmans could average 160oz a week, worth almost $200,000.
They could now hit 1,000oz, or $1.
2 million in gold, before the Yukon winter hits.
Question is, Peter, are you and I good? Are we all good? We're good.
All right.
I've seen the cut from the last time I was in.
It looks great, and you've got the proof in the jar to show it.
It feels like it the first time that, you know, we know for a fact we got gold in our paydirt.
We're gonna take off.
Dave, you're doing a great job.
Just wanna let you know that.
Well, thanks, Todd.
Everybody's behind you, OK? Thanks.
We're on the gold now.
Let's do it.
Hey, guys.
Let's bring it in, just to see if we can finish this strong.
Come on, bring it in.
On the next Gold Rush We gotta haul ass.
.
.
Tony demands that Parker dig deeper into bedrock .
.
costing Parker in damage to his equipment DOUMITT: That one's broken.
And I'm the one that loses (BLEEP) money, Tony.
.
.
and in lost gold.
Tony Beets just cost me 25,000 bucks.
At McKinnon Creek Something's wrong.
.
.
Todd and Dave are in deep trouble.
TODD: I'm not failing again this year.
They disagree on the solution If we don't get that higher cut stripped, we ain't gonna make it.
.
.
but end up with the best clean-up of the season.
Moment of truth.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) And just when Tony Beets begins to make real progress, dropping in his 75-year-old trommel That thing is gonna wash rocks, huh? .
.
his wife Minnie suddenly steps in, stealing half of his crew.
I know the dredge is important to you, but this is priority.
Out!
.
.
the Hoffman crew is at breaking point.
I say we stop.
That is the dumbest thing we've ever done.
Dave Turin has to find richer ground Something's gonna have to change.
.
.
or their season could come to a grinding halt.
We're talking about leaving and going home.
Tony Beets works overtime to assemble the dredge's steel skeleton .
.
but the damaged sluice boxes .
.
frustrate his crew.
I don't think this thing's ever gonna catch gold.
(TONY SPEAKS) And Tony has to fight (TONY SPEAKS) .
.
to keep his dream alive.
(TONY SPEAKS) Parker Schnabel PARKER: What's for sale? .
.
begins the hunt for his own Klondike claim.
What kind of price would you be looking for? .
.
but good ground doesn't come cheap.
$3 million.
Wow.
Back at Scribner Creek, Parker opens up a new cut Welcome to Fantasy Land.
.
.
and puts his crew in a world of hurt.
I'm sick of this (BLEEP).
Think about what the hell you're doing.
Hey, Gene! At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew is over halfway through the mining season.
But with just 258oz of gold, worth over $300,000, they are just a quarter of the way to their 1,000-ounce goal.
THURBER: If it was easy, everyone would be up here doing it.
It's not just a guessing game or luck.
There is someorganised chaos to all this, believe it or not.
This season, Dave Turin and Todd Hoffman are equal partners, but Dave is in charge of mining operations.
He has the crew running dirt worth just $4 a yard .
.
not enough to even cover their running costs.
DAVE: Nobody's making any money yet.
And obviously, we wanna turn the corner and start making a profit and getting a return on our investment.
My guys are down.
Everybody's bummed out, including me.
At the worst possible time, claim owner Peter Tallman shows up to check on the Hoffmans' progress.
How's it going, Todd? How ya making out? Moving some dirt.
Yeah, I can see that.
But, uh, the end result to get gold isn'tisn't there.
We're at four bucks a yard.
And, uh Four bucks? Nobodynobody runs $4 a yard.
There's more gold in my driveway.
We should be a lot farther along than we are now.
This isn't gonna make either of us any money at all.
We need to see some gold.
We're stuffing the dirt through the plant as fast as we can go.
Todd, there'sthere's gold everywhere in the Klondike.
Very few places you can make money at it.
Here is one of 'em.
If I'm not seeing $10 a yard, you're going broke.
OK.
All right.
Good to see ya.
Yep.
Good luck.
Todd has to give Peter a 20% cut of the Hoffman crew's gold.
If they can't get onto good ground, no-one will make any money.
I'll take the heat when it comes to being in the furnace with the landowner, but privately .
.
Dave better figure this out and figure it out fast.
Dave, you got a sec? DAVE: Yeah.
Here's the deal.
Peter just showed up.
And, uh .
.
he's super-disappointed.
We gotta get 10 bucks a yard.
I don't know what we're supposed to do.
I can't If you don't figure something out, we're gonna be packing up and leaving.
You wanna be a partner? You wanna be the mining expert? You better dig us out of this hole.
If you can think of something, Dave, and save our bacon, you better start thinking now.
Give me some time.
I'll figure something out.
8km east, at Eureka Creek .
.
Tony Beets is in a race against time.
He's on a mission to resurrect his 75-year-old million-dollar dredge by the end of the season.
Just like the old-timers did a century ago, Tony is dead-set on catching Klondike gold in the dredge's sluice boxes.
But he's way behind schedule.
He's got less than two months till the brutal Yukon winter will shut him down.
We have to do this in the right order .
.
because that thing come apart in a sequence, and it's gonna have to go back together that way.
His crew has assembled the pontoons, or hull.
Their plan this week: rebuild the 68-tonne steel skeleton, then weld the sluice boxes in place.
Let's put some bolts in.
The dredge's superstructure consists of 150 I-beams connected by 5,000 bolts.
The massive steel skeleton supports all the dredge's gold-catching equipment.
(TONY SPEAKS) It's gonna take everybody working together here to make it go smooth, I think.
(TONY SPEAKS) This is how we get stuff done in the Beets family.
We tend tohit it with a hammer.
Oh, and swear at it a lot.
OK, Mike.
You're welcome.
(LAUGHS) Tony heads back to his Paradise Hill mine, leaving his dredge crew to finish the day's work.
Let's get the bolts in here.
It's in there.
Monica, wanna throw me some more bolts? I need bolts.
You think there's more in the container? I can go look.
I can go do that.
Hey, Mike, Jerry, can't find any.
I got three.
That's all you could find, was three bolts? That's all I could find.
There's gotta be more over there.
They're all empty boxes.
(TOOL CLATTERS) That's (BLEEP).
Check myself.
There isn't any.
Yeah, you better get on the phone with Tony.
Where are we gonna find 2,000 bolts in the Yukon this afternoon? You're not.
The crew torched off thousands of bolts to dismantle the dredge.
Tony ordered replacements, but not enough.
Well, you know, it's getting a little ridiculous.
That's just the way it's been going.
Just five hours in, the crew has no choice but to call it a day.
We're done.
East at Scribner Creek .
.
Parker Schnabel's crew has hit its stride.
They've been mining for three months now and have already passed last year's total of 1,029oz of gold, worth well over $1 million.
MAN: You know, we're over halfway through the season.
You know, we're looking pretty good for reaching Parker's goal.
But, you know, if we wanna see that 2,000oz, we got a lot of dirt left to move here.
At the start of the season, Parker's grandpa suggested he buy his own claim.
Now, with Grandpa John visiting, Parker wants advice on the claim he's been eyeing.
You know, the truth is I've been looking around and talking to people quite a bit about ground, and there's not much up here.
Oh.
Pretty well all occupied.
Yeah, no kidding.
They're heading to Last Chance Creek, a claim near Bonanza Creek, where the gold rush began in 1896.
In its first year, Bonanza produced 125,000oz of gold, which today would be worth $150 million.
A century later, this area still contains some of the richest ground.
This mine belongs to claim owner Lee Ohlmick.
Hey, Parker, you made it.
Hey, Lee.
Oh, nice.
How are you doing? Good.
You brought your grandpa with you? This is my grandpa.
Parker said he was gonna bring y'all.
That's great.
Super.
I'm glad that I'm here.
But anyway, while he was here, I wanted to come up and maybe take a look at your ground.
We can go in my truck, if you like.
The guys are up there working, but I can show you around.
23 years I've been here, at this spot.
Here's our sluice plant.
How long have you had that plant, Lee? 20 years.
And it hasn't worn out yet? What are you What's for sale? This is the main parcel, or the main portion, that a person would be concentrating on, from here up, that mile-and-a-half.
OK.
Well, how wide is this valley? It's 100ft mining width, about.
Mm-hm.
I see.
And how thick is your pay layer? Well, probably 8-foot sluice section.
Yeah.
So if you take a mile-and-a-half of ground that's 100ft wide and 8ft deep, in the ground So, without fluff, that's just over 230,000 yards.
Lee has drill results showing his ground is worth $26 a yard, meaning his claim could still contain upwards of $6 million in gold.
And I guess, with a mile-and-a-half to go, uh, there's enough quality in there to last a few seasons.
Mm-hm.
What kind of price would you be looking for for this? Well, if I really wanted (CHUCKLES) to get fishing badly this year and asked what I thought was fair market value, I think Scary number, but, uh .
.
probably be better than $3 million.
Wow.
Yeah.
(EXHALES SHARPLY) Lee, thank you for showing me around.
You're welcome, Parker.
You've given me a lot to think about.
Oh, yeah.
Well, take your time.
We're not going anywhere.
We're just here.
Right on.
We're just sluicing.
And thanks for bringing Gramps out.
A real pleasure meeting your dad your grandpa.
He looks so young, I thought he was your dad, but it's your grandpa.
I almost forgot.
One day I'm gonna ask you what happened to the rest of that guy.
That's a sawmill memory.
Oh, was it? OK, yeah.
I've still got mine, but I got a lot of injuries.
I got too close to my work.
OK.
(LAUGHS) Got too close to your work.
Right on.
So that's what happens.
Good thing I wasn't standing close or I might have had a real problem.
(LAUGHS) You're lucky it was only your finger.
I know, yeah.
Lee, you've got a great place here.
Yeah.
I'd love to have a Schnabel sign on it.
Yeah, perfect.
Adios, you guys.
Happy trails, eh? Thanks, Lee.
Bye-bye.
I'll see you, now.
There goes a legend .
.
and a new legend, a young legend in the making.
.
.
At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew is running paydirt worth only $4 a yard.
Dave's called back the owner of the claim, Peter Tallman, to find out why the drill maps indicate the ground should be worth three times that.
I was wondering if maybe you could shed some light on the geology, maybe help me with where to mine.
I'm at the end of my rope.
Peter runs the company that owns the McKinnon Creek claim, but he's also one of the Yukon's top geologists.
Well, it's not in my interest to have you mining $4 a yard for the rest of the summer, cos that's money coming out of my pocket.
Exactly.
So, yeah, the sooner we get you sorted, the better.
We based our mine plan on the drill holes.
But when I run it in the sluice box, it's just not there.
The drill data doesn't give you depth to gold, really.
Right.
It just tells you there's a lot of gold somewhere in the column.
And what you've thoroughly proven is that all your gold is down below.
I've been doing this wrong from the beginning? Don't mine this.
All right.
You'll go bust doing that.
Others have, too.
Stop.
OK.
Peel it and let's both get onto the good stuff, which is down below your feet.
Oh.
Down below this is it's a white channel gravel.
And there's a lot of it there.
And when we get to the white-channel stuff, the difference is dramatic.
And you're not to it yet.
So you're telling me that I should just get rid of this top gravel and then just mine the white channel? Simply? Yes.
All right.
If the Hoffmans strip away the low-yield paydirt they've been running .
.
they'll hit a layer of white-channel paydirt that may hold a higher concentration of gold.
So far, they've spent the summer up to date mining the wrong material.
But they're so close.
They're almost down to the best stuff.
Hey, Todd.
Hey.
What did you guys find out? Anything? We have a problem.
Oh, you're kidding.
But it's a really good problem.
Really? I think that the gold in the gravels is deeper.
The problem is you're just gonna have to make the cut bigger and deeper.
Wow.
Like, if I was expecting, say .
.
3ft to 6ft of pay, how much pay do you think How deep is the pay, the good pay, in that cut? It's better than 10ft.
In one spot, I know for sure it's better than 20ft.
What? You're telling me you think that we could have sections of this cut that are 20ft of good pay.
Yeah.
Wow.
We're gonna have to put it in gear.
I just find this stuff.
Your job is to mine it.
(LAUGHING) Yeah.
Off you go.
The crew has been working themselves to the bone, running 3,000 yards of dirt a day, worth just $12,000 - barely enough to pay for their fuel.
Mine boss Dave Turin makes a radical decision.
Well, we're shutting down.
Can't afford to run this stuff.
(MACHINERY SHUTS DOWN) I gotta stop those trucks.
Kevin, do not run that dirt.
TODD: What the heck? I'm shutting it down, Todd.
We need to talk.
I say we stop.
Why? No more sluicing $4 a yard.
We're not hauling this stuff any more.
We're gonna just dump it on the side and get rid of it.
Oh, boy.
Peter says there's white channel in that pit, and that's what we're looking for.
And that's where we're gonna start making pay.
We just gotta get down to it and get rid of that brown, crappy gravel.
This is a difficult decision, but I cannot see any other way.
Andy, how long it'll take to get that dirt off of there? ANDY: Three days.
It's gonna hurt, feeling like I'm dumping gold off that cliff.
We need to get rid of that stuff.
We need to get down.
I disagree.
It'll cost us money to get rid of it.
So why not run it? It's quick.
It's from there to there.
We get rid of it.
I just want you to know what I think.
OK.
I heard it.
It's a tough decision for all of us.
I'm with Dave.
But if we don't get to $10 a yard, we're gonna have a situation that's way beyond anything having to do with bringing home money.
We're talking about leaving and going home early.
OK? That's the situation.
Come on, Kevin.
What do you think? It doesn't sound like I have a choice.
You know what? Life isn't fair.
You're right.
With Monster Red shut down, the crew is divided.
They'll be throwing gold away in the hope of finding richer ground.
Well, that makes me nervous.
I don't wanna separate this team.
I didn't come here to to cause a rift with the team.
So, half the guys are disagreeing with me.
That's hard.
I don't I don't I love these guys.
I came here to help lead 'em.
And so this is a tough decision.
I'm pretty nervous now.
Holy moly.
16km east, Parker Schnabel has put his search for a new claim on the back burner.
To hit his 2,000-ounce, $2.
4 million goal, he'll have to open up a second cut.
Before Grandpa John's visit comes to an end, Parker asks his advice.
PARKER: Our biggest struggle .
.
is keeping ground open out ahead of us.
Yeah, with the volume that you're running through that plant, I see that.
Right.
Yep.
We run a lot of yardage.
You know, we've ran over 130,000 yards this season.
And it's halfway through, huh? Yeah.
That's a lot of It leaves us in a position where we're trying to figure out what we're gonna do for the rest of the season.
I mean, our two options for better ground are .
.
either Fantasy Land or this berm we've got up here that they pushed up on upstream of us.
My gut's leaning towards Fantasy Land.
And last season, you know, you suggested going across the creek.
And that's what really shot us up and gave us a shot at 1,000oz last year.
Well, you're on the road to doing it, so I guess you'll be rewarded.
I'd say find better ground.
That's what I would do.
Let's hope it's there Right.
.
.
waiting for you to cash out.
(CHUCKLES) Before Parker can cross the creek to open up the new cut, he takes his grandpa to the airport for his flight home to Haines.
All right, Grandpa.
Have a good flight.
Well, Parker, it's been a great week and I wanna thank you for all the hospitality and the privilege of coming up and sharing your 20th birthday with you, and I'll sure as hell work hard to be able to come back and see your 21st.
I hope you're there.
Well, goodbye, Parker.
Bye, Grandpa.
Oh, take care.
Bye-bye.
My grandpa's never steered me on the wrong direction.
And it was his idea last year to go to Fantasy Land.
And I don't see why, uh .
.
why it won't make us some money and get us to our goal this year.
You know, my grandpa is the reason this is all happening.
He taught me how to deal with people.
He taught me how to deal with equipment, deal with breakdowns.
You know, he he set me up for all this.
And Well, it's amazing.
He's an amazing guy.
It's great to be able to spend a couple of days with him because, you know, it'll really help bring everything together.
You know, we've got a tough second half coming up.
You know, as far ahead as we are .
.
it's really not that far ahead.
And I'm pretty set on 2,000oz at the end of the season in front of my own chunk of ground this fall.
.
.
At McKinnon Creek, mine boss Dave Turin has stuck his neck out.
To turn the Hoffmans' season around, he's shut down Monster Red to dig deeper for richer paydirt.
But after two days, there's still no sign of white-channel gold.
This is a big decision that I've made here, removing this brown.
It's not a real popular decision.
Some of the guys think I'm making a mistake.
So there's a lot riding on it.
To get down to the white channel, Kevin and Logan dump 900 yards of paydirt every hour, and every yard contains $4 of gold.
We're dumping $36,000 over that cliff a day.
LOGAN: All we're doing is just throwing gold right off the back of this cliff.
This is a cliff that we made by dumping overburden, not pay.
Now we're actually dumping pay off it, and I think that is the dumbest thing we've ever done.
To make matters worse, they're burning around $10,000 of fuel a day.
With the wash plant shut down, Dave is taking a risk that has to pay off.
Name of this game is put gold in your pockets, and you'll put gold in your pockets when you're sluicing.
DAVE: The guys are getting kinda demoralised.
Morale is down.
They're frustrated because we're not sluicing, and all they can see is money going out.
I just hope we make it through.
By tomorrow, hopefully we're sluicing again.
We can start generating some capital and start paying the bills again.
TODD: Dave's feeling the pressure now.
It's easy to want to be the quarterback.
It's not easy when you're not throwing, uh .
.
you're not throwing receptions.
Finally, Dave makes a breakthrough.
Well, that's looking pretty good.
I'm seeing some white gravel, grey gravel.
It's pretty bright.
I think I'm there.
I think this is it.
I think I'm at the gravel.
Well, Peter said I'd hit mud.
And then, beneath that, I should hit this white channel.
See how white this quartz is? It's exactly what we're looking for.
This is a great sign.
I'm right at the top of the white channel.
I'll grab a pan and take a look at it.
Hopefully, there's a lot of gold in it.
If Dave doesn't get good colours, his decision to stop running Monster Red will have cost them tens of thousands for nothing.
Dave's authority as a mine boss depends on this one pan.
So, we're close.
White quartz.
So that's what I've got.
I'm really close.
(OVER RADIO) Hey, Todd.
This is Dave.
Todd, you got a copy? Yeah, Dave.
I got a copy.
Hey, I just hit some grey gravel.
I just panned it.
I think we're there.
You know, we can't do this again.
You've gotta be sure, Dave.
You've gotta be sure.
I'll show you for yourself, Todd.
This is a good pan.
You can look for yourself.
Todd, check this out, buddy.
This is a great pan.
Right at the top.
Holy snikeys.
(GRUNTS) Now, that's what I'm talking about.
Yeah! Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
26 colours are a sure sign that Dave has hit the top of the white channel.
Do you think that's the layer that we have to start at? That's where we're starting.
I can see it's different.
So, why don't we But is it good enough for us to just go and run it? I don't know.
Let's do 1,000 yards.
Let's run 1,000 yards through the plant.
All the mats.
I'll go for that.
And let's just see what it is.
All right.
OK, let's do this.
Let's do this, Dave.
Dave radios the good news to the crew.
All right.
It's about time, huh? Let's start sluicing.
What do you guys think? Kevin, you ready to go haul some dirt? KEVIN: Yeah.
We are.
We're finally running, huh? This is what we're here to do, is sluice and get some gold.
Thurber, fire it up.
THURBER: (OVER RADIO) Let's go.
The white-channel test will take the crew four hours.
Only then will Dave know if his decision will appease their claim owner and restore the faith of his men.
(CLATTER) All clear! (AIR HORN BLARES) 8:00am, Dawson City Airport.
Tony Beets has called in a favour from his hardware supplier in Vancouver.
Work on the dredge has been at a standstill for two days.
Now his dredge crew can attempt to make up for lost time.
At Eureka Creek, the crew are ready to bolt their million-dollar dredge back together.
They're now about to attach the all-important steel sluice boxes.
Doing good.
Keep 'em going.
Keep 'em going.
Ah, the sluice boxes finally showed up here.
Can you go any further back? Cool.
Hey, Jerry.
Can you come look at this? What do you see, Kevin? I'm just looking how bent it is.
Are the brackets gonna fit? Is that supposed to be straight? I just don't know how they'll ever put the sluice runs together, as bent up as that is.
These sluice boxes, they really need to be straightened flat.
You got humps in there, and the water speeds up over that, it's gonna take gold out with it when it goes over that.
So you gotta make sure they're pretty flat.
They damaged it pretty good.
Hey, Tony.
Mike here.
Hey, we got a problem.
These sluice boxes, we're ready to put 'em in, but they're pretty bent up.
They got pretty messed up when they got trucked here.
We should be repairing them on the ground before they ever go in.
All right.
Well, thanks, Tony.
We'll talk to you later.
Bye.
Tony said, "Put 'em in," so that's what we'll do, and then let somebody else struggle with it that has to weld 'em.
Come on.
First bolts are going in place now.
So we about got this one.
Second sluice box coming in.
This one isn't damaged quite as bad, but it's still got its, uh, issues with it.
That's about as good as we're gonna get.
We got a two-inch gap, but it's not gonna go together very nice.
It looks like (BLEEP), but it's in.
Hey, Mike.
Want to come have a look? What do you got? You tell me.
This piece has gotta come out there straight up.
Entire corner, there, is out of alignment.
Whole run of the back is bent down.
Gotta pull that back up.
Somebody's gonna spend a lot of time repairing all this.
That's the way it is.
I don't think this thing's ever gonna catch gold.
8km east, at Scribner Creek .
.
Parker Schnabel's crew works hard to feed their wash plant 140 yards of paydirt an hour.
We're sluicing so much dirt.
I don't know.
I like it.
They're running dirt from the Far Cut.
At this rate, they'll finish the cut in just two weeks.
PARKER: Right now, we are still sluicing the Far Cut.
We're close to being done down there, but, uh, you know, we've always gotta be one step ahead of the plan.
To stay ahead of the game, Parker's pulled some of his crew off the Far Cut to strip the next cut across the creek - Fantasy Land, where he mined over 300oz of gold last season.
My grandpa just came to visit, and, you know, he suggested to come back over here to Fantasy Land.
There was a bunch of good ground that we left last year, and, uh, why not go where we know it is? GENE: Well, we started this cut last year, and it ran pretty decent.
Just weren't able to finish it.
So I wanna finish it this year.
Nothing's a sure bet, but we've found a lot of gold all around this cut.
And I know it's not doing us any good covered under 30ft of mud.
Parker avoided this ground last year because previous miners dumped thousands of yards of overburden here.
To get down to pay, the crew has to first clear a 9m mountain of mud.
DAVE KROEKER: It's a real challenge, dealing with this mud, and really (BLEEP) you off in a day.
You know, all you do is push mud, and fighting it every inch of the way.
But the overburden is so soft the dozers keep getting stuck.
Damn.
Hey, Gene.
We can just get the corner of the blade and give it a little prop, see if you can get him to spin out of there.
(HORN HONKS) Can you lift yourself up? There's not too many guys that are better at dealing with situations like this than Gene.
Lift up your blade! He's lifting your front end up and sinking the back! Come on.
That's enough.
That's the stuff.
Let's crank it up, boys.
Yeah.
Clear your tracks out.
Both D10s can now get back to work trying to shift the mountain of dirt.
Up here, once you go down, it's gonna cost a lot of money.
It shuts the other machines down to try and dig one out.
So you gotta do the best you can to stay on top of it and not get stuck.
But just two hours later, Gene gets another SOS call.
This is (BLEEP).
This is a waste of time.
This time, he needs the 44-tonne 460 excavator to pull out the 25-tonne rock truck.
Come on.
OK, OK.
Stand back.
Let's get to work.
I'm sick of this (BLEEP).
I hope Gene is not too pissed off because he's always angry, eh? (LAUGHS) Just gotta think about it.
If it's all muddy, you start to back into the hole, and your back wheels sink, don't keep backing in.
Don't back all the way till the front bumper's in it.
Just gotta think.
Don't Think about what the hell you're doing.
That's all.
Parker and his crew clear Fantasy Land without a break.
By the end of a long, hard day, they've stripped less than a metre off one section.
There is still over 8m of overburden to go.
At this rate, it'll take two weeks to reach paydirt.
Welcome to Fantasy Land.
It's deep.
There's some gravel down there somewhere.
Yeah, it's that's a long ways down.
(BOTH CHUCKLE) When you can't see the top of the 10, and all of a sudden, it appears out from, uh, from the dip Yeah, it makes me a little nervous just cos you're looking at how much time you get into something, and then what we get out of it as pay.
It's a little scary.
Yeah.
Hopefully, Fantasy Land's as good as it was last year for you.
Yeah, no kidding.
We need it.
We just spent a month stripping two weeks', three weeks' worth of pay, and then we're in trouble.
I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't go somewhere where they didn't stack a bunch of mud on top of it.
.
.
6:00am at Eureka Creek.
Mark Favron, a local welder, arrives at the dredge to get his first look at Tony Beets' 75-year-old steel sluice boxes.
FAVRON: Holy (BLEEP).
This isn't the way I would have done it.
I think a lot of this steel is pretty tired.
It's been moved and banged around.
If he gets any gold out of this, it'll be amazing, cos everything's not straight.
Nothing good about it as far as I can tell.
So, here's my gap and I wanna lay this flat bar across the gap .
.
and then I'll weld it on both sides.
There are huge gaps in the two 4.
5m sluice boxes, and at least half the steel is bent.
Mark's been slowed down by the last owner's botched repairs.
I'm looking at this lace that we have to seal up again and they've had issues here with it before.
They couldn't get it welded properly, so they had to use a lot of silicone.
Well, you can't weld silicone, and you'd almost be better off to start off with new materials.
To catch gold, the sluices must be smooth, at the perfect angle and watertight.
Not bad, I guess.
As you can see, she's wore out pretty bad.
We've had to do some major surgery.
It's not the way I'm used to doing things.
OK.
Some of those patches don't look the best.
Will they be watertight? (TONY SPEAKS) I don't think they'll hold water for you, Tony.
OK.
I hope you do.
(TONY SPEAKS) Yeah, Dad? We're gonna pump some water through there, make sure there's no leaks.
So hopefully my dad's not just, you know, blowing smoke up his ass.
(TONY SPEAKS) Go! Do it! Come on! Hey, Tony.
It looks pretty good.
It's not leaking.
Yes.
That's it.
After weeks of setbacks, Tony's one step closer to bringing his 75-year-old gold dredge back to life.
(TONY SPEAKING) Over at McKinnon Creek .
.
claim owner Peter Tallman is back to see if the Hoffmans have hit $10 a yard.
Hey, Todd.
How are you? Well, I'm nervous.
You know what? If we don't get at least 10 bucks a yard, there's really no point in us staying, really.
All right, Dad.
Pour the gold.
For Todd and Dave to make a profit this season, their 1,000-yard test of white-channel paydirt has to produce at least 8oz of gold, worth over $9,000.
(EXHALES SHARPLY) TODD: Come on.
Guys, we only needed 8.
We got 9.
14.
Yes.
Huh? All right.
Good job, guys.
Good job.
9.
1oz.
That's about $11 a yard, OK? That's about three times better than the brown dirt we were running.
With the white channel paying out $11 a yard, the Hoffmans could average 160oz a week, worth almost $200,000.
They could now hit 1,000oz, or $1.
2 million in gold, before the Yukon winter hits.
Question is, Peter, are you and I good? Are we all good? We're good.
All right.
I've seen the cut from the last time I was in.
It looks great, and you've got the proof in the jar to show it.
It feels like it the first time that, you know, we know for a fact we got gold in our paydirt.
We're gonna take off.
Dave, you're doing a great job.
Just wanna let you know that.
Well, thanks, Todd.
Everybody's behind you, OK? Thanks.
We're on the gold now.
Let's do it.
Hey, guys.
Let's bring it in, just to see if we can finish this strong.
Come on, bring it in.
On the next Gold Rush We gotta haul ass.
.
.
Tony demands that Parker dig deeper into bedrock .
.
costing Parker in damage to his equipment DOUMITT: That one's broken.
And I'm the one that loses (BLEEP) money, Tony.
.
.
and in lost gold.
Tony Beets just cost me 25,000 bucks.
At McKinnon Creek Something's wrong.
.
.
Todd and Dave are in deep trouble.
TODD: I'm not failing again this year.
They disagree on the solution If we don't get that higher cut stripped, we ain't gonna make it.
.
.
but end up with the best clean-up of the season.
Moment of truth.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) And just when Tony Beets begins to make real progress, dropping in his 75-year-old trommel That thing is gonna wash rocks, huh? .
.
his wife Minnie suddenly steps in, stealing half of his crew.
I know the dredge is important to you, but this is priority.
Out!