Original subtitles

[nature sounds]

[rumbling]

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] In his race to 6,500 ounces,

Klondike kingpin Tony Beets is off to a quick start.

His early-bird cut at Indian River

has already delivered 417 ounces

worth one and a half million dollars.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike over radio] Go ahead.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] There's a lot of water coming into the cut.

[Tony speaking]

[water splashing]

[engine stops]

[Tony speaking]

[Tony speaking]

[Mike over radio] Go ahead, Tony.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike over radio] OK, copy that.

At Indian River, the 13-acre Early Bird Cut sits

next to two connected settling ponds.

These hold all the dirty sluice water

from washplant Sluice-a-lot

discharged at 3,300 gallons a minute.

But a beaver has plugged the culvert

connecting the two ponds.

Unable to drain into the second pond, the first pond is quickly

filled up and burst its banks.

Water is now flooding into Tony's only gold-producing cut.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] OK.

[Tony speaking]

[whirring]

[Tony speaking]

-[Mike grunts] -[water sloshing]

[Mike speaking]

[water sloshing]

[suspenseful music plays]

To access and clear the culvert, Tony will first

need to get rid of the water.

[Tony speaking]

[splashing]

[engine starts]

[Mike] Yeah, move to Parker or something.

[all laughing]

[Tony speaking]

[engine winds down]

[Kevin] First nuggie of the year. That's great.

Well, this is a [bleep] encouraging cleanup.

Just like his father Tony, eldest son Kevin Beets

is already turning dirt into dollars.

[Kevin] Boing, boing, boing.

Only one week into his second season as mine boss,

he's already banked 57 ounces of his new 2,000-ounce target.

[Kevin] We started sluicing so early,

'cause last year we left ourselves

a good little piggy bank.

Because the gold price being as high as she is, now there's

extra incentive to have money coming in from the get-go.

It is unfortunate that Brennan is gone.

We relied on him quite heavily for keeping the cut in line,

but we will make it work somehow.

All right, guys. We had a very good start,

but as you know, Brennan is not coming back this year,

so I'll be down here in the cut

a bit more often to provide more guidance and direction.

So, Kayden, you can be feeding the plant.

Rick on tailings again.

Chelsea, Ayla, and Tyler will get the rock trucks going

to get a bit of stripping happening.

Any comments, questions, or concerns?

My only concern would be about wet pay

and our potential jam-up.

Well, we really don't have the time

to let it dry right now.

Have to try and shove it through and see what it does.

[Kayden] OK.

[Kevin] So, let us get to getting and get some gold.

Kayden's concerns about the wet pay,

weighed against getting going,

I think it is worth rolling the dice and just dealing

with any issues as they arise.

[Kayden] I think that Kevin's decision to run the wet pay is gonna

bite us in the ass in the long run.

As spring temperatures begin to rise, Kevin's thawing

pay pile is becoming sloppy.

[Kayden] [bleep] wet pay keeps skipping the belt.

And proving problematic for 23-year-old local mechanic

and operator, Kayden Foote.

[Kayden] The pay is so wet, the belt slips on it.

It just doesn't pick it up.

I don't know why he's choosing to do this,

but it's making my patience run thin.

Poor planning causes piss-poor production,

which leads to piss-poor results.

[rumbling stops]

Oh, [bleep], [bleep], [bleep].

This [bleep] wet pay, man.

[ominous music plays]

[engine winds down]

[Kayden] Hey, Kevin. Got a copy, Kevin?

[Kevin] Go for Kevin.

[Kayden] The roller on the feeder,

the drive wheel was spinning, but the belt wasn't.

It's soaking wet. So I shut everything down.

[Kevin] OK...

[Kayden] See that? Wet [bleep] mud!

Can't [bleep] run that.

Jams up the feeder, creates the drive belt

to just spin.

Endless [bleep] problems.

Can't run wet [bleep] soup.

I just dumped a bucket in when it stopped.

[Kevin] Got ya.

[Kayden] But it was, like, soaking wet.

[Kevin] Yeah.

[Kayden] If we spread the material, it would dry out

within a day or two.

[clicking tongue]

It's better than fighting constant shutdowns.

[Kevin] Uh, no.

A lot of that is just feeding it in less quickly,

and there will be less [bleep].

We just have to make it work.

Clean out the wheel.

And after that, we'll get back to sluicing.

[Kayden] Your call, boss.

[scoffs]

The wet pay is slopping over the side of the hopper feeder's

first conveyor belt

onto its drive wheel below,

making it too slippery to grip and push the heavy dirt

up the conveyor belt...

stopping it from feeding pay onto the second conveyor

and into the washplant.

Kevin's quick fix?

Use 4,000 pounds per square inch of high-pressure hot water

to blast away the mud.

Then fire up the plant and feed the pay at a slower rate.

[engine starts]

[Kayden] I really miss working with Brennan.

He's my friend. He was super nice, supportive.

And with Kevin, I feel like I'm disrespected.

Whenever I bring something to his attention,

nothing ever happens.

He hired me on as a mechanic,

and now I'm stuck doing this [bleep].

[water gushing]

Like, why are we [bleep] struggling like this?

It's really pissing me off.

[moose groaning]

[Rick] It's been a tough start to the season,

with the whole Duncan Creek water license thing,

it's like beating a dead horse.

Gold prices are great right now, and I have to make a move

on this Lightning Creek option.

It's either, you know, move on, or, you know,

sit here and cry about it, which we're not gonna do.

44-year-old mine boss,

Rick Ness, is in survival mode.

With red tape preventing him from running a stockpile

of gold on his own claim, he has just one choice,

go back to leasing ground from his old landlord.

It's Troy Taylor's ground, so I'm gonna talk to Troy

right now and see if we can come up with a deal.

Quite honestly, I need it.

I can't afford to not get gold this year.

If Rick can cut a deal for the ground at Lightning Creek,

he'll once again pay Troy a percentage

on any gold he mines.

-[Rick] Troy. -[Troy] Hey, Rick.

[Rick] How you doing, man?

[Troy] Come on in.

What's happening out there?

[Rick] Oh, no, no.

-I'm here to make a deal. -Yeah, let's talk.

What are you thinking?

I mean, I guess we're gonna talk about royalties.

I'm looking for 10%.

Yeah, well...

Things have changed.

[Rick] Uh, so what were you thinking?

[Troy] The royalty is 20%, Rick.

[somber music plays]

[Rick] Holy [bleep], Troy, I mean, that's a lot of money.

I'd be taking all the risk from you,

and you'd be making more.

What if -- what if we said 15?

[Troy] I get that, but it's less royalty.

You know how it is with water licenses in demand.

There is a lot of people more than ever showing interest

right now. -Yeah.

[Troy] So...

Yeah, you're right about that, but how many of these people

have you worked with?

These people can promise you 20%.

Well, what are they gonna actually put in your hand?

We've been working together for, you know,

six years now, and if I say I can put good gold in your hand,

that's what you're gonna get.

[Troy] I don't know.

Yeah, I know what you can do.

So I'm OK with 15%.

[Rick] I think we got a good deal.

[Rick] All right, Troy.

Rick must pay Troy 5% more royalties than he used to

and owes him $350,000

no matter what kind of gold he finds.

But he finally has ground for this season.

We got a spot to go mining.

I didn't get the 20%, but I've got a minimum

100 ounces, and I'm gonna be involved on a regular basis

up there, so it's good.

At the end of the day, is this the deal that I wanted to make?

No, of course I wanted to be mining my own ground,

but you know what?

We've got the deal made to be able to mine

on Lightning Creek, so time to get on some gold.

100 miles away...

[Parker] Your timing is perfect, because I'm in the middle

of going through hiring right now.

And having people that have some experience up here

is a huge benefit.

Like, I have a spot for you 100%.

All right, well...

-Welcome aboard. -[Kayden] Thank you very much.

Look forward to working with you.

[Parker] Yeah, no, it'll be good.

When you get here, we'll take you on a tour

and wash some rocks. -[Kayden] Awesome.

All right. Thanks, man.

-[Kayden] Have a great day. -See you soon.

Awesome!

Hired [chuckles].

Parker Schnabel is at it again.

Having already poached Kevin's foreman, Brennan Rualt,

he's now hiring Kevin's key operator and mechanic,

Kayden Foote.

[Parker] Kayden's gonna be a great addition to the place.

When it comes to poaching people,

everybody's trying to do it.

So I just don't know, am I the worst offender

or am I just the most successful at it?

Right?

[Kayden] Got the job.

Feels great.

In my eyes, he's the king of the Klondike.

But the most nerve-wracking part is gonna be when I tell

Kevin and Faith I'm leaving.

That's the one thing I'm dreading, is that conversation.

[tense music plays]

[Kayden] I want to talk to you and Faith.

[Kevin] OK.

Really quick, because I do have to run.

What's up?

[Kayden] So, I just...

it's a sad, hard thing for me.

I mean, it's -- I'm just trying to do what I think is right.

And so, I got a job offer from Parker

that I couldn't turn down.

But it's a [bleep] thing,

it really is. -Mm-hmm.

[Kayden] But I just... I have to...

move over. -Yeah, yeah.

Uh...

[Kayden] It was definitely a tense and stressful conversation.

I'm feeling a little upset, but I'm also excited

for my future.

Ugh, [bleep].

It's a bit of a shock.

I did not really expect him to...vamoose.

Between Brennan and Kayden, like,

it's gonna make the 2,000-ounce goal

a lot more [bleep] work.

[sighs sharply]

Things are going all right.

Gold prices are up a thousand bucks an ounce.

Dominion has a lot of sluicing that needs to get done.

It's time to make hay while the sun shines.

Gold mining mogul Parker Schnabel

is gunning for a record-breaking season.

To cash in on the sky-high gold price,

he's chasing a massive 10,000 ounce,

$35 million prize.

A big key to hitting our goal this year is gonna be just

getting plants running early as we can

and keeping them running.

People need to understand what the...

responsibilities and expectations are.

And, you know, they need to be met.

To hit his ambitious target, Parker's tasked

his two lieutenants

with sluicing more paydirt than ever before.

At Sulphur Creek, Mitch Blaschke is stripping

a two-acre cut, hunting pockets of gold left behind

by old-timers.

You know, this cut is almost half a mile long.

It's just a lot on everybody's plate each day.

But we're making good progress here at Sulphur.

At Parker's main operation on Dominion,

Tyson Lee is in charge of two enormous cuts...

the 114-acre Bridge Cut,

where washplant Bob is already sluicing,

and the new 52-acre Golden Mile,

where drill results to indicate the cut could hold

up to $12 million in gold.

[Parker] We're gonna run four plants this year.

There's a lot of work to do to get to that point.

Last week, Tyson got Bob fired up in the Bridge Cut.

Now it's a matter of getting Sluicifer set up

in Golden Mile.

Alec and Liam have done the complete rebuild

on the plant, so we'll see if we can resurrect her.

Right now, I'm getting pulled in polar opposite

directions with Bob and Sluicifer.

Parker wants Sluicifer running by the end of the week.

There's a lot going on and not much time to do it in.

To help Tyson get Sluicifer running,

Parker's throwing him the newest recruit...

-[Tyson] Hello. -[Kayden] Hello.

...Kevin Beet's former operator, Kayden.

-[Tyson] How's it going? -[Kayden] I'm good.

[Tyson] So we gotta get Sluicifer's water recirculation

system going. -[Kayden] OK.

[Tyson] So we need to have these culverts in, road activated

by the end of the day, so we can get Sluicifer in, have two

washplants running on Dominion, and keep Parker happy.

Absolutely. Sounds like a plan.

Thanks, Tyson.

In the Bridge Cut,

washplant Bob has been running for a week,

bringing in 126 ounces in gold.

Now, one and a half miles north, Tyson must get

the Golden Mile producing too.

First, Tyson needs Kayden to dig up the only access road

to the cut and install a set of culverts for sluice water

to pass through.

Once complete, Tyson will move Sluicifer from Parker's yard

three miles to the Golden Mile Cut and fire up the plant

for the first time in two years.

[rumbling]

[Kayden] Today's my first day working for Parker.

That's a pretty big responsibility that Tyson

has given me. I just can't [bleep] up.

I'm working in this really fine wet material

that's just like quicksand.

So you just gotta be very cautious or that will sink you.

Just a little love tap, get her level.

Gentle, gentle.

Oh, no, [bleep]!

I think I'm sinking.

[rattling heavily]

No.

She's in there.

I can't get out of this.

[sighs] [bleep].

Hey, Tyson, got a copy? Tyson?

[Tyson over radio] Yeah, go ahead.

[Kayden] Yeah, I [bleep] up.

I sunk the 480.

I'm gonna need your help with another hoe

to get this thing out.

It's buried in there, like top of the track frames.

I'll be there as soon as possible.

Hopefully, this excavator isn't very stuck,

because I got better [bleep] to be doing.

Never sunk a hoe before.

I'm sorry.

It's the first hoe I've ever sunk.

Let me just get in here for a sec and...

see what we can do.

Without this road being reactivated,

we can't get Sluicifer up and running.

So I've got to get this thing out.

[rattling]

Sure did a number on that one.

I hope this isn't what gets me fired.

Right now, we're just seeing if it can lift itself.

It seems to be able to. That's a good sign.

[rumbling]

[Kayden] Looks like he got her.

[Tyson] Everyone has first-day nerves, but, you know, hopefully,

this is a lesson learned for Kayden, you know?

-All good. -[Kayden] Thank you so much.

-I'll get that culvert in. -[Tyson] No worries, dude.

[Kayden] Tyson's a really great guy.

I'm happy that he got it out,

but at the same time, I'm annoyed that he was able

to do it, and I couldn't.

That definitely makes me feel like

I always have more to learn.

I'm about to throw our culvert in.

-[heavy thud] -And, pow!

Just like that, baby!

Now, time to do a little bit of backfilling.

Clean up the road.

Good enough.

Tyson can now move Sluicifer into the Golden Mile

and will soon find out how much his new cut will pay out.

[Tyson] One step in the right direction.

Now let's take her home.

Let's try and get some dirt going through her by the end

of the week for Parker.

[birds chirping]

[Rick] We've got a deal on Lightning Creek.

Troy drove a hard bargain.

Is it a risk? Absolutely.

But with the gold prices right now,

now's the time to strike.

Time is of the essence.

In the mountains above Keno, Rick Ness is back in the game,

having secured a lease on Lightning Creek.

[Rick] Now we just gotta get the gold.

Today, we're gonna start moving the gear down there,

get our excavators down there, our trucks, and hopefully,

by the end of the day, we're breaking dirt

at Lightning Creek, and that's all that matters.

Going on here?

Who we got here?

Who's that?

Rick's best friend...

Oh, Zee!

...Zee Zaremba and a new recruit have arrived.

[Rick] Good to see you, buddy.

-Ahh! -[dog barking]

-How you doing? I'm Rick. -Hey, I'm Kai.

[Rick] Kai.

[Zee] This is the one I was telling you about.

To bolster Rick's skeleton crew, Zee has brought along

new recruit, Kai Shallcross.

Have you ever run a six-wheel-drive

off-road truck? -No, I haven't.

I think the biggest piece of equipment I've driven

is probably like a mini-excavator.

[Rick] Uh...Let's start.

Good kid?

[Zee] Yeah, good kid.

[Rick] I say let's get to Lightning Creek

and get to mining.

-All right, I'm ready. -Sick.

[Zee] All right, let's go.

-[Rick] Let's go! -[Kai] Copy that.

To get on the gold, Rick needs to move his fleet of big iron

from Duncan Creek, eight miles northwest,

to his new, leased 1,600-acre claim at Lightning Creek,

where he hopes to pick up the trail of gold

near its source at Mount Hinton.

[epic music plays]

Finally gonna be able to go move some dirt, eh?

Yeah, we got some gold in the box.

1800 ounces, boys.

[Zee] It's good to see Rick going gung-ho as always.

I mean, every season, it seems like there's a new hurdle

for him, but he overcomes it.

Either he's really good at what he does, or luck,

or a little bit of both.

Four hours later...

Hey, Rick, are we there yet?

[Rick] Yeah, we're here.

[Kai] Awesome.

[Rick] Well, we're at Lightning Creek.

Let's talk about a plan here.

So we've got, yeah, a lot to figure out, but I don't think

it's gonna be that technically difficult.

It's supposed to be 12 to 15 feet of pay...

-For five feet. -...with five feet of overburden on top of it.

-But I think that we're up for it. -Yeah.

I don't know what you guys think.

Yeah, absolutely.

You got a name picked out for this spot yet?

Well, from above, it actually looks a bit like a diamond,

so I was thinking of "Diamond Cut."

There's some stuff to figure out yet, I'm not gonna lie,

but this is the year to swing for the fences.

So I'd say, let's get down here and start slinging dirt.

-Great. -All right, sounds good.

Rick's first targeting a two-acre area

Troy began stripping last season.

Everyone's been sitting around, and this is what

they've been waiting for. Time to go.

And he'll have to navigate Keno's notoriously spotty

ground on a new claim.

We don't have the best situation to deal with here.

We got a short season to kind of figure out where the gold is.

We need to get over 100 ounces a week.

Can we pull it from this valley?

It could be spotty, and if we dig the wrong spot,

we may not find gold at all.

And if we dig the right spot, we might hit it, you know?

So it's exciting and nauseating at the same time.

[Alec] It's a monumental day out here.

We're gonna get Sluicifer set up on Dominion

for the first time.

[Tyson] It's about time we knock the rust off her

and get her back to work.

At Parker's Schnabel's...

[Tyson] Wanna jump in the loader and line up?

...Tyson and his crew are ready to move washplant Sluicifer

to the Golden Mile.

This plant was the plant I learned on,

and it's the plant that's gonna

make us a lot of money this year.

Yo, Alec! Is everyone clear?

[Alec] Yeah.

[machines creaking, rumbling]

You know, Sluicifer is my baby girl,

and I'm dragging her home.

Let's go!

We've got some work to do, girl!

[Alec] Good there.

Tailings conveyor...

[Alec] Yeah, Tyson, walk forwards.

...and sluice runs mounted...

[Alec] There we go.

All right, we're gonna pull Sluicifer up the hill.

...Tyson pulls the fully-assembled 45-ton beast

100 feet onto the pad.

I just got to spin Sluicifer into place.

Come on! Let's go!

[Alec] You got about five feet now.

[Tyson] That's pretty much there.

Guys, we really killed it here.

We got Sluicifer up to the Golden Mile.

-Let's get her done. -[Alec] Yeah, definitely.

Nice work!

[energetic music plays]

[Liam] And stop there.

Two years since she last washed rocks, Sluicifer is

ready to catch an estimated 3,500 ounces buried

in the Golden Mile.

This is the first time that Sluicifer's fired up

on Dominion, so that's cool.

Some of that ground is looking really good.

Let's hope it mines that way.

Who wants to do the honors?

You press the conveyor, you press the shaker.

Ready?

Let's go!

[machinery roaring]

Hey, Sandy, start feeding. Make this one count.

[Sandy] Whoo!

[thrilling music plays]

This is a moment I never thought would happen.

Sluicifer's firing back up on Dominion.

First time of the season.

-How's she running? -Pretty darn smooth.

[Parker] Well, hopefully it stays that way.

-Good job with the setup, dude. -[Tyson] Thanks, man.

I got to go. See you guys.

-Good job! -[Alec] Thank you.

-You guys are [bleep] killing it! -Whoo!

[Tyson] Nice work, guys.

Yay!

Washplant number two up and running.

Two down, two to go.

We got the two main ones running,

that's what matters.

Hopefully we find some gold.

[Tatiana] So I just arrived here at Sluicifer,

so we're doing the first cleanup since 2023.

I heard there might be a lot of gold in the runs,

but we're about to find out.

Parker's trusted washplant, Sluicifer, has been running

Golden Mile pay for 24 hours.

[Chris] Hey there, young man.

-[Parker] Hey, Chris. -[Chris] How's it going?

I've got a lot of good memories right here.

[Chris] Yeah, when we had that 400-ouncer in here,

that was awesome.

That was so fun.

[Parker] I was talking to my dad yesterday,

I was telling him everything that we've got going on,

and he's like, "My, is Chris gonna be able to keep up

in that gold room of his?"

And I'm like, "I hope not."

[Chris laughs] Yeah.

No, I'm gonna fight you tooth-and-nail.

I'm gonna push you guys hard.

[lively music plays]

-[Minnie] Hi, guys. -[Mike and Monica] Hello.

So how are you doing on the Hill, Mike?

[Mike] I have a ton I gotta strip,

so I've got a lot to do.

How's it going out here?

[Mike] Pretty good.

[Ruby] I hear you guys are having a little bit of trouble

with the beavers. -[Mike] Well, yeah.

-[Mike] Yeah. -So what do you think?

Should we weigh some gold?

-[Tony speaking] -Cool.

Despite the beavers shutting down their only working

washplant for half a day, Tony expects the Indian River's

Early Bird Cut to deliver around 250 ounces.

[Ruby] 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50...

80...

120, 150, 180, 190, 200...

[tapping softly]

214.6.

It's below target,

but still worth almost

three quarters of a million dollars,

And brings the Beets total to 632 ounces,

nearly a tenth of Tony's season goal.

That's not bad.

[Tony speaking]

Keep it up. I kind of like that.

Don't come back with anything less.

[Minnie] Not bad at all.

[Tony speaking]

[Minnie] OK, you guys all should go back to work.

-[Ruby] See you. -[Monica] See you later.

At Scribner, Kevin Beets has visitors

for his second gold weigh of the season.

-[Faith] Hi, family. -[Ruby] How are you?

How's your season going so far, guys?

[Kevin] Long, tired.

Having lost two key crew members in two weeks,

Kevin's about to find out if it's damaged his chances

of hitting his 2,000-ounce target.

[Ruby] Well, we drove by and you guys are sluicing.

[Kevin and Faith] Yeah.

[Faith] We unfortunately lost Kayden.

-[Kevin] Yeah. -Really?

That kind of sucks.

I thought he was quite happy here.

Some things didn't quite work out,

so he moved over to Parker's.

[Tony chuckles]

-Such a caring man. -[all laugh]

[Kevin] At least on the bright side,

we have some gold to weigh up.

[Tony speaking]

Kevin spent a week sluicing wet pay

from his stockpiled piggy bank.

To stay on target,

he needs 88 ounces a week...

[Kevin] One, five, ten...

24, 34, 44, 46...

48.46.

...worth $170,000.

Just over 100 ounces for the season so far.

I mean, obviously, we'd like to see some bigger numbers,

so we'll do what we can.

Anyways, we should all get back to work.

[Tony speaking]

You know what, Faith? It works really well.

[Ruby] Bye, guys. See you.

[Tony speaking]

[Faith] It was lovely to see everyone.

It was great.

It'd be nice to have a bit more on the scale next time,

but it'll come with time. We'll get there.

[bird chirping]

[Mitch] Oh, yeah.

[Parker] Are you gonna behave?

Looks like he's in a behaving mood.

What's up, buddy?

After getting Sluicifer up and running,

Parker's hoping for a big uptick in gold.

You had quite a week, it sounds like.

[Tyson] Yeah.

Yeah, well, you hired on Kayden.

Yeah.

One of Kevin's old employees, right?

[Parker] Yeah.

So is Kevin even gonna have a crew left by the time

when we're done here?

[Brennan] I worked with him last year.

He's a good kid. Like, he's a hard worker.

So we got two plants going.

-You want to see how we're doing? -[Parker] Yeah,

[Chris] You wanna read this one out?

[Tyson] Here we go. This one's Bob.

Last week, Bob delivered 126 ounces.

Parker's hoping it's picked up the pace.

[Tyson] We got... 10, 20, 40, 60...

80, 100, 120, 140, 150...

161.8.

You're not really racing out of the [bleep] starting gate.

But it puts us a lot better shape

than where we were last year.

I got Sluice.

Finally got Sluice up and running.

[Tyson] Yeah, first time on Dominion. Let's see how it did.

Running the Golden Mile for three days,

this is Parker's first chance

to see how the new cut will pay out.

So there's definitely some rich ground over there.

[Brennan] I'm excited for that.

[Tyson] Here we go!

10, 20, 50, 70...

100, 110...

112.1!

-[Brennan] Nice! -Not bad.

[Brennan] Not bad at all.

For the week, we got 273.9 ounces...

...worth just under a million dollars.

For the season, it's 399.7.

[Parker] Still a long ways to go.

And you guys will have a third one fired up this week,

probably, huh? -Uh, maybe two weeks.

We better get on and find some more gold, Tyson,

to keep us rolling. -[all laugh]

Yeah, you guys better start

pulling your [bleep] weight around here.

[Tyson] You know, it's great to have two washplants running

on Dominion, but we really need a third.

Then we can really start

getting some good numbers coming in.