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(Transcrito por TurboScribe.ai. Atualize para Ilimitado para remover esta mensagem.) Last year, we acquired an 80-acre claim up here on this Sinker Creek, but it's been pretty

catastrophic getting started.

If you're not mechanically inclined, do not get into the mining operation.

Watch yourself!

On this episode of Mine Rescue...

There's no material.

Multiple problems with what he's putting through there.

The livelihood of a greenhorn miner and his family is on the line.

We got our work cut out for us for sure.

I just want things to be better.

When Gold Beaver strikes again...

When I was a little kid, I saw my dad getting really addicted to the gold.

I need to bury that negative hatchet that's been in my life for so many years.

On the brink of disaster, Freddy digs deep.

This is pure crap for gold.

But he's testing like never before.

Keep going!

I've never been in this situation.

I really don't know what to say right now.

Pretty rugged country in here, won't it?

Yeah, it is.

We definitely aren't getting our trucks in.

Not without destroying them.

You've got to be pretty committed to make this trip every day, Freddy.

That's not the end of the world, but I think we can see it.

Southwest Idaho.

In the untamed and historically gold-rich foothills of the Oahe Mountains,

Freddy and Juan get an urgent SOS from rookie miner Brett Allen,

who has staked his livelihood on his first claim.

This one's definitely different.

They had an auto body business that they had hard times with.

He's taking what he's got left and throwing it into this gold mine.

But he's quite a greenhorn. He doesn't really know the gold industry well.

Really, this is kind of a rescue where not only is it a rescue,

but we're kind of starting from ground zero.

Yeah.

This is a great opportunity to help somebody right at the beginning of their gold mining career.

How we doing?

We hope we're at the right mine.

I'm assuming we are. How you doing?

Freddy, welcome to the Allen Mine.

Juan, how was your travels?

We weren't getting our trucks in here, that's for darn sure.

How long have you been mining in here exactly?

Last year we came in, did some testing up in here with some smaller equipment,

and we just got running about three weeks ago.

So, who do you have recruited?

I got my wife, Michelle, and then I got my son, Joshua,

and then I got daughter, Chelsea, coming up here in the next couple of days.

When I was eight, nine years old, my dad bought a claim about six or seven miles from here.

The first time I ever saw the gold show up in the pan, I was addicted.

Man, it's an addiction that you never forget.

When we were kids, it was really a great experience.

As I got older, I saw my dad getting really addicted to the gold.

Growing up, there's some bittersweet moments between Brett's dad and him.

Seeing it starting to take the money away from the family,

watching a constant feud between my mother and father over gold.

Brett's dad mined these mountains in the 80s, but never made it rich.

I said, I'm done with this, and didn't want to be a part of it anymore.

So, I started the auto body business with my wife, Michelle, back in 2004.

Brett ran the auto body business for 20 years,

until it fell on hard times, bringing back thoughts of gold.

So, the business back home, it just kept draining us dry.

I knew I needed to move on to something different.

I thought, going back to work for somebody else didn't settle good with me,

and so I'm like, okay, why not give it an opportunity?

I do believe Brett has a gold fever, but I try not to mention that to him.

He always dreams big, and I like that, but sometimes I have to rope him back down.

Okay, this is what we can do, this is maybe what we can't do.

My dad didn't teach me geology and how all that works, so I have absolutely no clue.

He wants to not make the same mistakes his dad did.

I need to find a way to bury that negative hatchet that's been in my life for so many years.

What do you have invested in this so far?

So far, we've got about $45,000, $50,000.

Okay.

Have you been able to recover any gold?

Yeah, I mean, it's not as much as I would like to see, obviously.

Never is.

In the three weeks, we've gotten about close to five grams.

How many yards have you ran?

Ran 130 yards so far in the last three weeks.

And you've only got five grams?

Yeah.

That's not real great.

No, not at all.

What do you need a day to survive in here?

Well, we're hoping we can survive with about a half ounce a day.

Hopefully, this will rescue us.

A lot of people go gold mining because they want less stress and end up with more stress.

Right.

Yeah.

I think the hardest lesson to learn with running the business and knowing how to shut it down

is the walking around feeling like you failed your family.

So, I don't want to do that again.

I got to do this right.

This is make or break for us, for sure.

So, we're reaching out to you guys to help us get started on that right foot the first time.

And we won't pull any punches.

If we think there's not enough gold here, then we'll tell you right off.

It's going to be kind of a new one for Freddie and I because typically we come into a situation

where people have been mining there for years or at least a couple months.

So, this is pretty much a fresh startup.

It is.

Well, we want to do a test run.

We want to watch you guys operate your plant.

Right.

Sounds like a plan.

Yeah, sounds great.

Well, excellent.

Let's go for it.

This is my son, Josh.

I'm Josh.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

So, what do you do here, Josh?

That's pretty much the ground guy.

I just watch over and make sure everything's good.

Well, fire it up.

Let's do it.

First bucket, Lorne.

The four-hour test begins as Brett feeds dirt into his hopper.

Aided by vibration, it drops through grizzly bars, which should sieve out any large rocks

and waste material.

The pay is then washed by the spinning 12-foot trommel before running into the six-foot sluice

where the gold is caught.

Look at all the organics on this spray bar.

Yeah.

Trying to get the rocks out of the grizzly with the weeds.

So far, there's been a lot of downtime because you have to keep on jumping out of the excavator

to clear the grizzly.

Binding it up.

Watch yourself.

These tough times recently have made it hard for us to get out of that hole that we're

in right now.

And I just want to see my parents smile more and things to be better.

He's not hopping very hard right now.

Yeah, I was thinking that too.

The hopper's vibrator isn't strong enough to shake the pay into the wash plant.

He's got such a small water system here.

It's selting up pretty good.

When you get thick water, you lose fine gold.

Let's take a look at the box, Fred.

There's no material.

But there's no material going through.

I'm going to look at what he's digging.

Yeah.

Get my granny glasses on.

Right now, the material he's running, it's no wonder he's only got, you know, five grams

of gold out of 130 yards.

Because this is pure crap for gold right here.

That slip rock could have been coming over the top of this for years.

Oh, it has been, yeah.

Thousands of years.

The material being processed is mostly soil that's slipped down off the mountainside.

What he's doing is he's doing a test for us that really isn't a test.

I mean, I'd go to a playground sand and get as much gold as he'll probably get out of this stuff.

Let's end it right now.

Hey, Brent!

Last bucket!

Freddy calls time on the four-hour test after just two hours.

You see anything, 1-0?

Nothing to speak of, no.

Yeah, I kind of figured.

We've got a lot of problems going on.

You know, luckily, you're only three weeks into it, so it's not like you've spent a year

out here doing the same way, right?

You know, we can correct it early on.

You guys get her cleaned up, we'll meet you in the morning, huh?

You know, I was feeling confident in the beginning, but after the test run today,

I'm really nervous about what Freddy and Juan are going to have to say.

We're going to take this all back and get it washed up and see what comes out of it.

My first impression of this family is they need to get gold,

because they're in a tough place right now.

Brett's running material that he should not be running,

and it's multiple problems with what he's putting through there.

Number one, I don't believe there's very much gold in it.

Number two, it's full of silt, and the sluice is plugged up.

We got our work cut out for us for sure.

You know, watching him dig some payout and everything else,

you can just tell by what he's doing that it's just an experience.

I'm hoping that Freddy and I can get enough done here,

because, you know, honestly, from what he tells us,

he's got all his eggs in this basket.

This is his last chance.

You got a second, Brett?

Yep.

Coming up.

See those rounded gravels in the wall?

Perfect material.

Everything you'd look for in a gold mine.

That's amazing.

Well, guys, here it is.

This is what we have.

Ooh.

Well, let's see what it is.

I knew the gold ray was going to be bad,

but, honestly, I didn't think it'd be that bad.

That's not even a hundredth of an ounce.

Between $20 and $30 worth of gold.

Well, you need help, that's for sure.

No pulling any punches, but you were making about

every mistake out there that you could make.

Okay.

You're a businessman, so a gold mine is a business.

You know, you can't let it be emotional.

A full week's mining would cost Brett's operation

nearly $1,000 in fuel alone.

But the pay in yesterday's test

would mean a loss of over $200 every week.

At the end of the day, it has to be financially feasible.

It's gut-wrenching,

standing there with my wife and my son.

Want to make sure that you've got their backs

and not failing them in chasing a pipe dream.

It makes me feel like that

what we're doing is wasting our time,

and I don't want to have my dad go through that.

I'm a little nervous about the whole situation

because you can't just learn how to mine overnight.

Brett has a little experience when he was a kid,

but that didn't prepare him for where he is right now.

How's it going, guys?

How you guys doing?

Hey.

We came up with some ideas.

It's going to be some tough love along the way here

showing you some of this stuff

that we think you were doing incorrectly.

Not everything is pay.

You know, just because you might find traces of gold in it

doesn't mean it's pay.

One of the big things that we really want to do

is teach you go in there, get all the overburden off,

and then we get down to the pay layer.

Another thing, we watched you outside multiple times

with a crowbar cleaning those grizzly bars out, right?

What we want to do is we want to build a set of lifter bars,

like grizzlies, but they actually go underneath

and they actually hydraulically lift up

and they'll push everything out of the grizzlies.

No way.

That's a cool idea.

Fantastic.

And we want to add more shake to your eccentric.

It needs to be, you know, fairly violent all the time.

And we only ran two hours, right?

Your water was almost to the point

where you needed to shut down.

So we want to put a silt dam in it

to make that silt drop out before it gets to your pump.

That makes a good point there.

To eliminate the organic material in rocks

that clog Brett's hopper,

Juan will build a one-of-a-kind hydraulic rake system

to help clear this waste material from the grizzly bars.

To increase vibration on the shaker deck,

new weights will be added to the eccentric

to boost the flow of pay.

And a silt dam will be installed to reduce soil

suspended in the water Brett uses to process pay.

And most urgently,

Freddy will take Brett on a prospect of the clean

to identify better pay.

So we figured out rough numbers

and it's going to be around $4,000

for the parts, the steel.

That's just the materials, right?

And then, not now,

but if you guys get back to the point

where you're actually making money,

it's being successful,

what we would like to see a year from now

is an ounce apiece.

Well, to me, I think it's worth the investment

to start off right.

Okay.

We genuinely want to help you guys.

Yeah.

Because, you know, at the end of the day,

it is your last chance, right?

You're talking about this is the Hail Mary.

You want to go in there and do the best you can

for you and your family.

And we want the same.

Right, right.

Well, we'll get out there.

You guys are good?

Sounds like a plan.

We're so excited to see the outcome of this.

The biggest thing in my past was

watching my father gamble too many things.

So we're very concerned about

what we're getting engaged into.

But we believe in the long run,

it's going to be worth it.

I'd like to continue the gold mining as a family.

Obviously, our time is money.

I'm hoping it'll be a good outcome.

Why don't we pull Brett's hopper off

and take it up top?

Yeah.

And then get in there and start prospecting.

Freddie and Juan's first task for the day,

remove the hopper and transport it

300 feet up out of the creek.

We're going to put the hopper on that little trailer

and we're going to tow it up

to where our trailers and trucks are.

That way we can fabricate everything

that we need on it up top.

Tapper up, Brett.

Up a little bit.

A little bit of pressure on there still.

Careful.

Because when that comes out,

it's going to want to twist.

A teeny bit up.

Are we clear?

Coming up easy, Juan.

You want to tack with it?

Yeah.

Hey.

Hey!

You walking up on me and sneaking me,

you little weasel, you.

Yeah, that's what I do.

How's everything going?

Hey, everyone.

This is Chelsa, Juan.

Fred's down there cranking away.

There's your brother over there.

What's up, dork?

Look who just showed up.

Hello.

Hello.

What's up, dude?

Hi.

What you doing?

Having fun yet?

Yeah.

Chelsa, bless her heart,

she's trying to hustle back home herself

to get ready for her wedding.

It's coming up in a week.

Dad gets to see daughter get married.

Very excited.

My thoughts on my dad,

seeing him go from doing something he's done

for as long as I've been alive, 28 years,

and seeing him do something massively different

is a little concerning.

I've heard him talk about his dad

and the experiences he had growing up.

So it surprised me when he was like,

I'm going to go dig in the dirt.

And I'm like, okay, why?

But I think ultimately it is financial and emotional.

I just hope he's seeing everything properly.

Watch your hands.

Yeah, we're good.

It went all right.

So far, so good,

but we haven't got it out of here yet.

Freddy and Juan must now transport

the 1,500-pound load through the creek

and up the six miles of rugged terrain

using only the ATV.

You guys want to go ahead of us

and just kind of follow my pace?

We'll make it happen, guys.

All right.

Let's do it.

There's one street crossing

that's got me concerned down here.

Ah, stupid.

I'll push out the winch.

Off-grid on the Idaho claim

of greenhorn miner Brett Allen.

Must be bound.

Freddy and Juan face their first challenge,

transporting the hopper uphill

to their service trucks.

I'd go up another 10 feet.

That way you're not on a hill.

Okay.

So I'm going to be on the left.

I'm going to be in low gear.

Okay.

Juan, turn the wheels that way a little.

On your call, 1-0.

Go!

Go ahead.

Go!

Yeah, there we go.

See rocks and the steepness of the entry and exit

make it a little bit tough with that weight.

It's always nice to have backup.

Made it.

Good driving.

Thank you, sir.

I'm going to go back down to the mine.

With the hopper safely delivered...

Yeah, I'm going to get going up here.

...Freddy heads back down to the mine site with Brett

to inspect the cut,

while Juan jumps into the hopper upgrade with Josh.

Are you going to be able to help me for the day?

Yeah, yeah.

Perfect.

Well, I got a couple things I need you to do.

I'm really hoping that Freddy comes up with something

because, honestly, without Better Ground,

all this is for naught.

Put the hook on.

Okay, that's good.

In the first test run,

organic material and rocks

repeatedly block up Brett's hopper.

What we're going to do, Josh,

we're going to cut all the grizzlies out.

Okay.

We're going to put all new ones in

and then we'll actually start building

the fingers that go in between them

to be able to clear them out.

Yeah.

Juan first cuts out the grizzlies.

Okay, your time to shine.

Before Josh smooths the old welds.

Now, let's say we do find some decent ground.

Do you want to stay out here with your dad

and run this place?

Yeah.

We were looking for a fresh start from our business,

so, yeah, it's just not working for us.

We like to work for ourselves and as a family.

Yeah.

That's really what my dad wants to do.

You got to do a little bit of everything

if you want to mine.

Yeah, you guys are teaching those valuable tools to us.

Hopefully, you take it to heart

and just keep on expanding on that

because you'll need it.

Before you set up,

you always figure your cut out.

Six miles upstream from the mine site,

Freddy and Brett work the cut.

The pressure is on to find good ground.

Otherwise, the fixes will count for nothing.

I can tell you came in here and set your plant up

and then started digging.

Correct.

100%.

Another important thing,

you spent all that time digging that

and sluicing that, right?

That's sandy stuff.

It's garbage.

We only found maybe two or three colors

in the sandy material.

That's nothing.

I know people get excited when they see gold,

especially when they're new to mining

and they don't know that

they're throwing away $10 to make 10 cents.

One rule of thumb in modern mining for gold

is move it once, sometimes make money.

Move it twice, you may break even.

Move it three times, you go broke fast.

With my dad, I remember

he'd just dig hole after hole after hole.

I never really understood his management

and why he did what he did.

Freddy's explaining that to me

and the reason why we're doing it.

It would have been nice to have learned that

when I was a kid, for sure,

but inexperience is a game killer.

What we want to do is dig as deep as we can.

Once we dig down, then I want to start testing that.

I don't want to be chasing a pipe dream.

So being able to get in and assess and validate

that we've got a valuable claim,

that's important to us.

Since 1863,

more than 1 million ounces of gold

was pulled out of these hills,

worth nearly $5 billion at today's prices.

To have a chance of finding any gold

the old timers missed,

Freddy must first dig out the worthless overburden.

That's a lot.

She wants to dig in that dirt.

You can't dig in the dirt, that's their job.

Hey, I got her.

You got a second, Brett?

Yep.

You can see there's those three boulders.

You can see those rounded gravels in the wall?

Seeing it, yeah.

That's what we're looking for.

Perfect shingle-compacted material,

everything you'd look for in a gold mine.

Wow. That's amazing.

That's what we want to see,

that stuff that's been reworked by the stream system.

Keeps going. Got it.

It's really good.

Filmed pretty good.

Freddy said, when you see big rocks like that,

they usually assign us some big gold.

I'm really excited.

That's given me my confidence back.

Perfect.

High above the creek.

So right now I'm just test-fitting it.

Juan fabricates the rake

for his one-of-a-kind hydraulic grizzly system.

This rod's actually going to go

towards the bottom of the pan,

and the cylinder's going to be underneath the pan.

So as the cylinder extends,

it'll push this rod forward,

push the rakes forward,

and get all that material off the hopper.

The hydraulic cylinder

will generate 10,000 pounds worth of force

and push clear any waste material

blocking up the grizzlies.

All right.

Well, let's clean these up.

You can drill this one out

since you're the master driller now.

Yep, that'll work.

All right, pull it towards you.

You know, it's tough, though.

You go from a business that you know

to a business that you really don't know.

And honestly, I'm not trying to discourage you,

but mining's a hard business to be in.

I just want to see this site really work out.

It doesn't have necessarily to do

with how hard you work.

You can work your butt off,

but if there's no gold in the ground,

it's all for naught, right?

Yeah, you're wasting your time.

Yeah, so hopefully Freddie's able

to find something decent out there for you guys.

I got the cylinder all done.

Now I'm gonna get it mounted

so that's ready to go.

I'm gonna go grab a gold pan,

and I want to pan some of this

and see if we see any color in it.

Down in the creek,

Freddie tests the promising-looking pay

he's just uncovered in Brett's cut.

So we're gonna take little bits

randomly from throughout the pile.

A moment of truth, guys.

Let's see if we get some color.

I hope so.

I really do.

You see all those rounded rocks?

So these have traveled quite some distance.

At the Allen Mine,

Freddie evaluates the freshly uncovered pay.

Two little bitty colors.

This time,

you go grab a pan,

do some random stuff.

It doesn't mean it's not in that pile,

but it's damn sure

it wasn't in the pan.

I'd like to have seen 20 colors

in that pan, or 30.

Test pan two.

Two colors.

Very small, yeah.

Let's try one more pan, Michelle?

Okay, well, this pan's pretty heavy.

There you go.

Let's see what we got.

Maybe a third pan's a charm, huh?

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing in there, Brett.

There's a lot of challenges

to mining in a tight valley.

It isn't like we have a thousand acre

property here to prospect.

We're basically on a postage stamp.

We don't have time to move your whole

plant, assembly, ponds,

everything while we're here.

And test some other areas on your ground

from, let's say, 30 feet

farther over.

So let's just keep our fingers crossed

because we have thousands of pans

of material sitting there right now.

So we got a true test we can do.

There should be gold there.

We got rounded rocks.

We got big boulders.

We got all the tell-tale signs

that if there is gold in the deposit,

that's where it'd be.

The only thing that's missing is the gold.

Right. Where's the gold?

I've never been in this situation

with the miners we've helped before.

We dug down to bedrock.

The material looked great.

Phenomenal. Better than I thought it would, actually.

I didn't see much gold.

I thought we'd see a lot.