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(Transcrito por TurboScribe.ai. Atualize para Ilimitado para remover esta mensagem.) Troy's been bugging me about his final payment there on Lightning Creek, and I got a hundred

ounces of gold in a jar, so I'm gonna go pay it to him right now and kind of get him off my back.

44-year-old Rick Ness is betting on himself. He's purchasing his second gold mine,

Lightning Creek, expanding his Keno empire to 3,600 acres of ground.

How are you, Troy? Good. Good to see you. What's going on? Yeah, I brought you some gold. You know,

I wasn't trying to jerk you around or nothing, so there's a hundred ounces in there. I'm assuming

there's a hundred ounces in here. I'll go away as soon as you... Oh yeah, yeah, I know. I know,

yeah. Well, yeah, no, there's a hundred ounces in there, yeah, and, you know,

with today's gold prices, that's a chunk, so yeah. Yeah. It's looking good. Yeah,

this is the final payment. You're on your way, so you're off to the races, so good luck. All

right, good business as always. Okay. That's good to have that off my back. I always like paying

off debts. Lightning Creek, we haven't made it, we haven't made a payoff yet, but I know we will.

It's, it's an asset for the future and it's an option, so it's a good day. For now, Rick's new

claim is an insurance policy. For the foreseeable future, he's focusing his operation on Vegas

Valley, a spot that paid out nearly 800 ounces last year, but his water license expires in just

four months. I just really got to hope that we hit our $1,800 goal. We're running what's left

of last year's stockpile. I know there's a lot of gold there because we need a lot after I spent

all that money. Good news though is that we got the Vegas Valley water license extended this year.

It came out of nowhere, but, but I'll take it. You know, we're right back where we want to be. We

know the gold's there, but at the end of the day, it's only good till November. So we really got

to get as much gold out of, out of Vegas Valley as we can because we don't, don't know if we'll

be able to come back. Got this Vegas Valley stockpile. There's probably 300 ounces in,

in this pay pile, but we're burning through it pretty quick. Rick's crew are running a leftover

pay pile from last year and now have to get back on pay dirt at the bottom of the cut.

Well, I don't really want to shut Monster Red down now that we're getting the gold. So I'm

gonna go down and talk to Bailey. We just need to get to the bottom of Vegas Valley ASAP.

What's going on? I don't know if you've seen the pay pile, but it's going fast

and it always does. A week max is what we've got to run through the plant and it might be,

might be only five or six days. With the late start that we're getting, it's pretty important

that we keep that plan running. So, um, you know, I know, I hear that. The spring you did, you know,

you did a good job at Lightning Creek. You opened that up quick. And so I need you to do the same

thing, right? Get back into Vegas Valley, open her up and just do what you do. Is it realistic

to think that you could get pay up there before that pile's gone? I think we can do it. Build a

new road. Yeah. We should be able to for sure. That's, uh, I mean, that's, that's what I want

to hear. If we need another road, you can work on that. Yep. Okay. You got a week.

All right. Let's burn some teeth. Good man.

Last year, Rick's crew moved a mountain to open up Vegas Valley. Digging down 160 feet,

they removed more than 1 million yards of dirt before they hit pay.

Over winter, Vegas Valley flooded. Rick has drained the water, but the road into the cut

has washed away. Now to get back down to the pay layer, Bailey must build a new 500 foot road

down to the bottom of the cut and start pulling pay before Monster Red runs out of its stockpile.

To get the job done in a week, Bailey needs all three of Rick's working rock trucks.

Hey Ryan, you got a copy?

Uh, you want to come over here and take a look at this rock truck? It's, uh,

it won't even turn over. Yep. Give me a couple. I'll be over. Sounds good. Thanks.

All the lights turn on, everything, and you go to start it and it doesn't even turn over.

All right, Kai. We'll do some tests on it. We'll get it figured out.

Thanks. Ryan's here. I'm going to hop in this truck,

and while he's fixing that one, so that we can keep the trucks rolling.

Until Ryan can fix the problem, Rick's down to just two rock trucks.

You know, it's on me, but it's on the rock truck drivers, too. They got to move material

just as quick as I got to, you know, load them. Oh, for sake. Now what did you do?

Shut the truck off. Your hydraulic tank just fell off. Not a good day to be a rock truck.

After a second rock truck craps out, Bailey's left with just one truck to build the road.

I'm just sitting here burning fuel. His hopes of finishing the Vegas Valley Road before they

run out of pay are getting slimmer by the hour. Dude, that's bad. Yeah, it's bad. He's lucky

those six bolts up there are holding. Otherwise, he would have just ran the tank over and

it would have been bad. Here's your three bolts right here. Somehow, every one of those sheared

off. I don't think it's driver abuse by any means. I just think either these were coming loose,

and once one came loose, the other started moving loose. These are the original trucks I started

with about seven years ago. I don't see any damage. Tank's fine, but I don't recommend we run it.

It's just another hit. It's not good. We've got rock trucks down. We've got a hell of a lot

of dirt to move out of Vegas Valley. Hopefully, we can get it fixed quick and get back to business.

My goal this season, we're going for about six and a half thousand ounces.

Things are actually going really well. We're really banging off the hours,

and we're really running the yardage, and we're getting quite a few ounces of gold out of the

ground. Midway through his season, the king of the Klondike has already banked half his

season target, $11 million worth of gold. Indian River, we've got two boxes going,

running 24 hours a day. We are almost finished losing pay out of the river cut,

so I need the corner cut opened up. Tony's tearing through his Indian River claim,

which has delivered a thousand ounces more gold than this time last season.

To keep up momentum, he's now opening the corner cut,

which he believes holds up to $20 million worth of gold.

The corner cut in the Indian right now is a big cut. I don't think I've ever had one this big.

I bet you this thing is three full points. Right now, we're doing a lot of stripping,

and right now, it takes too long to load a truck, so we got to fix that up.

Tony's in a rush to get down to pay dirt, because at the river cut, his double wash plant setup

is churning through pay at record speed. If the river cut is done before he's pulling pay

from the corner cut, Tony will have to shut down. The speed things up down there,

now we take the biggest excavator we've got, the 950, and we bring it to the Indian River.

And with a 950, it takes less than a minute to load a rock truck. The other ones, it takes two.

Bigger hoe, double production. Pretty simple. There's just one problem. The 950 is currently

at Paradise Hill, being used by son Mike's crew. Michael D, Gabby, Michael D, Gabby.

Go ahead, go ahead. I need that bigger excavator.

That 950 is a beautiful piece of equipment. I'm actually very angry about this, because the

950 is a bulk hauler. I was hoping to get loose him, but that's not going to happen.

This is more wasted time. Mike is whining because I steal all his equipment.

I need that excavator. He's losing out on that one.

To hold the 950 40 miles from Paradise Hill to the Indian River, Tony's crew need to first remove

the boom and stick, then load them, along with the body, onto two heavy-duty lowboys.

Now we're pulling the main stick pin out, and then all the weights off that.

We'll be able to flip the boom up, swing it around, and pull the next piece.

Give her a good pull. Went out of alignment there a little bit.

Hey, no bucket. Don't do that. Just back up.

Just ask you guys to get out of the way, because it might break here.

Stand back. The excavator shifted a little bit, and that pinched on the pin.

So I think the press might be the option for this.

So I'll hang this thing from my crane, and I can pressure this up with the hydraulic pump,

and it's got quite a bit of force to help pull that pin out.

I'm not going to be irritated by it taking this long.

Nothing I can do to change that.

We've broken it loose there, where it was pinched up,

so we're just going to give it a try with the loader, speed things up.

Lift the boom out of its place, set it down, walk the 950 on a trailer, and away it goes.

When Tony's around, it definitely kicks everybody into gear.

You don't want to be standing around with your hands in your pockets when Tony's around here.

As I'm standing around with my hands in my pockets.

Looks like the boys did a good job. Now we'll load up the body, put it on the rail,

and then down the road we go.

After losing 16 tons removing the stick and boom,

the 950's body still weighs 84 tons.

A regular trailer, you just walk it on, chain it down, and away it goes.

This one you got to block up underneath the excavator,

and then lift up the trailer, and then pray that it lifts up the hull high enough to drive it.

Darren is going to take the mainframe, and I'll take this one.

Get the f***ing thing out of here.

Tony sets off first, transporting the boom and stick.

Darren follows behind with the body of the 950.

Got a little late, but that's okay.

It's not late enough, what do you say, right?

Well, we'll get it there, and then we'll put it together.

Yeah, this is the old one.

Say, Darren D, copy, Darren D, copy.

Say, Darren D, copy, Darren D, copy.

Tony Beets is hauling his 950 excavator from Paradise Hill to Indian River.

But 20 miles out, he's lost contact with driver Darren.

Sometimes you get higher up, and you're a bit more of a straight line.

Sometimes you get lucky that you can reach them.

So we're going to have a look, see what's happening.

Hey, Darren D, are you on that one? Darren D, are you on that one?

I wonder if we should ask these people to drive me down the hill,

so I can have a look at what you got.

We're going to put an airbag on the trailer.

It's not going to be an easy fix.

Let's see what he's got.

It's a suspension suit.

If we stick airbags underneath it, is it going to make a difference?

I don't think so.

Still, like, probably 40,000 kgs on the back.

What I'm thinking of doing is get somebody to start walking.

Tony's only option, walk the excavator,

which has a painfully slow top speed of 2.7 miles an hour,

the 20 miles to Indian River,

delaying his plan to get to pay in the corner cut.

Start walking.

Sometimes you just have no choice.

Tyson was going to pull a stripping crew out of the bridge cut to come do fine tannings,

and I was like, man, just throw me in a hoe and I'll buy you a couple shifts.

Parker Schnabel is back in the saddle,

with his eyes on a 10,000 lbs, $35 million prize.

I still enjoy getting in machinery, but I just don't have the time to do it anymore.

My job has changed massively,

and it's important that I do what I think is the most critical issue at hand,

and it's just that the size of the company is now,

that never is like, oh, I need to be in that piece of equipment doing that job.

Midway through the season, Parker is closing in on 5,000 lbs, half his season goal.

The biggest issue that we're going to have, I think,

which is the only thing I'm really worried about,

is having enough sluicing capacity.

There's a lot of sluicing left to do.

For the first time ever, Parker is running four wash plants,

Big Red, Slucifer, and Bob at Dominion Creek,

while Roxanne works at Ken and Stewart's on the Indian River,

where Parker needs to produce 2,000 lbs, a fifth of his season goal.

At the Indian River, there's definitely a massive amount of dirt moving that needs to happen.

If we don't focus on that, we don't meet the target.

Foreman Mitch Blaschke is away for the next two days.

So it's all on acting foreman Brennan Rule to keep the gold rolling in at Indian River.

We're trying to get him a massive pay pile,

so that way we have time to take care of other things.

So the work does never stop,

so we got to keep everything rolling down here as efficient as possible.

We just got to keep this plant running.

We've got a lot of pay to chew through here,

and as long as we keep it going,

we'll all have nice happy bonuses at the end of the year.

Why isn't that shaker deck going?

Brennan got a copy.

Hey buddy, what's going on?

Hey man, the shaker deck just stopped going.

You gotta be joking me.

Jenny's on, breaker's on.

Nothing happens.

Okay buddy, I'll get us some mechanics as quick as I can.

I do not want to see that plant down.

We have way too much ground to get through here.

The need to be down here is making a pay pile.

Brennan calls in father and son mechanics

Bill Horton and Justin Driessen to investigate the breakdown.

The overload protection is shutting it down.

Why? We're not sure yet.

So we got to just start testing wires

and find out if there's an overload on a certain wire.

A certain leg, lost the check.

We went through all the wiring.

We pulled a lot of the connections apart,

put them back together.

Okay, Jess, let's give her a whirl.

Maybe we'll put these covers back on

and we'll try some dirt through it.

Okay, ready?

Okay, yeah.

Bill tests the flow of electricity measured in amps

driving the shaker motor.

Well, right now she's shaking.

So the amperage is a little bit higher than we wanted.

We're at 42, 43 range.

We only really want to be at 35.

Right now everything is running.

I'm pretty happy right now.

So I'm just hoping this happiness can last all day.

F***, failed again.

Got water coming out of the bearing?

I think we finally found the cause of the problem.

Okay, you're good, you're good, you're good.

We have a hole right through.

Dirt's been in there quite a while.

So those bearings will be toast.

Pull up and pull this shaft out.

I'm sick.

Roxanne's shaker deck gets its rocking motion

from a rotating shaft inside a metal cylinder

with counterweights at each end.

Bearings reduce friction as the shaft spins.

Over time a rock has worked its way under a guard plate

and after years of vibrating in the same spot

the rock has worn a hole into the cylinder

letting in water and dirt

partially seizing the bearings.

To fix the problem the bearings have to be removed.

The shaft pulled out.

The hole welded shut.

The shaft reinserted and new bearings fitted

before it can be fired up and start sluicing again.

Bill and Justin begin by removing the bearings.

Glad my knee wasn't under that.

There's brass in the water.

Oh yeah, bearings are done.

You want to swing it out and I'll wind it down.

Okay.

Okay, ready?

The process is repeated on the other side.

So we got it.

Next they pull out the 2,000 pound shaft.

You're gonna pick now so go ahead.

There we go buddy.

We got a shaft out on the ground.

Every hour the plant is down.

Parker is losing over $4,000 in gold production.

We got a lot of work ahead of us right now

and we really don't have time for it.

Any downtime is gonna kill us right now you know

and that's what scared me.

Hopefully we'll have it fixed so when Mitch is back

we're running full kill.

Downtime's the biggest killer this time of year.

We're running what's left of the stockpile from last season.

It's nice that we had that but it's gonna run out soon.

Rick Ness is chasing a potential $1 million payout from a stockpile

while his crew race to get to pay at the bottom of Vegas Valley

before it runs out.

The linchpin in the plan?

Rebuilding the road that descends 50 feet into the pit.

I made a promise to Rick that I could do this road

and try to get down here as quick as we can.

I'm worried that we're not gonna make it down to pay

and you know they're gonna run out of pay before I can get there.

With just one rock truck at his disposal

Bailey's chances of getting the job done are slim.

You know right now with no trucks it's not helping us get down there.

Now it's crunch time and we need to get moving.

I don't want to fail Rick.

Kai just went to go start his truck and said everything powers up

but when he turns the ignition he's got nothing.

Mechanic Ryan has been struggling to get two downed trucks back up and running

and has finally made a breakthrough.

Basically what somebody's done here is they have spliced the igniter wires on the relay together.

Basically what that igniter wire does it sends a signal down to the relay on the starter

and tells the starter hey it's time to engage.

It looks like somebody's put in a couple splices cut the wires off

and decided that was going to be an easy fix so

what we'll do is fix their splice and see if it starts.

No big deal.

All good.

Halfway there.

We'll get the wire fixed.

This truck fires up.

Looks like we got our hands full with the next one though.

This tank right here is hydraulic and then brake fluid.

The three mounting bolts right up top have completely sheared off.

Years of abuse.

The bolts you know they'll sit there and wear and wear and wear

and eventually you hit one good bump and there's plenty of them out here

and now that tank is down so I'm gonna need to lift this up and press it in.

Try to get my main spacers and bolts put in up here that connect to the frame.

Once we get this up and in position with three bolts in.

All the other equipment is way up on the hill so

no need to bring more manpower down here.

I'll just try to wing her.

I'm the only mechanic on the crew.

It's a lot of stress.

What a brace.

I think it might work.

This one's it.

Done.

That's good.

All right that's it.

Everything's bolted down.

This truck's ready to hit back on that monster cut.

Bailey you got a copy?

Yeah.

Hey man uh good news we got that hydraulic tank remounted up

so it's gonna be another truck in your rotation.

Yeah Ryan that's great man.

I'll be able to finish this off a lot quicker now.

All three trucks now back in the field.

Bailey has a fighting chance of finishing the road.

Before the stockpiled pay runs out.

Yeah we're uh we're almost out of pay here.

Is that all the pay that's left right there that little pile?

Probably five more buckets not even.

You guys got to open your hides somewhere else or something.

You're gonna make a decision here and uh figure out what what the hell we're gonna do.

We need some pay up here pretty soon or uh we're gonna be shutting down the plant.

Bailey give us an update on what's going on down there.

This is gonna take a lot longer than expected and the truck's being uh broken down.

There's way too much work down here.

That's great that's it didn't make it.

We didn't want to have to shut it down but uh that's where we're at we're out of pay right now.

With only 190 ounces so far this year Rick's forced to shut down while the crew

continue to build the road.

Get the bypass.

And pray the stockpile pays out big enough to keep it in business.

That's not a good feeling shutting down Monster Red this time of year especially when we don't

know when the next round of pay is coming.

We got a lot of a lot of work to do to get the 1,800 ounces I'll tell you that.

So when do you think that 950 will come in have you heard yet?

Need it today.

Need it yesterday.

At Indian River Tony Beat's crew are in desperate need of the Monster 950

to help strip the corner cut.

It's been a long and slow journey to get this to the Indian River.

Into his eighth hour driving the 950 to Indian River

after the low boy carrying it broke down.

Tony's grandson.