Original subtitles

Winter is here.

And we have very limited time left now.

And we're really close to the goal, but this time of

year, everything's pretty near its breaking point.

31-year-old Parker schnabel is closing out the busiest season

of his life, running 24/7 for six months.

And it's paying off.

He's close to breaking his 10,000-ounce goal,

but is barely ahead of neighbor Tony beets.

Mitch is busy running the stripping program

in the midst of, you know, trying to keep Roxanne running

and starting our next pit on the Indian river for next year.

And then Tyson is just, you know, fighting to keep...

The three plants on dominion running.

To hit his goal this week, Parker's cranking up

his four wash plants to run even more pay dirt.

Just got to keep... keep these wash plants running.

Parker, got a copy? Parker.

Who's that?

Yeah, go ahead.

We've got a big problem with Roxanne.

Got some cracked cross tubes here.

All right. Yeah, I'll let Mitch know.

He'll come up and have a look at it with you.

Stupid plant.

- Hey, Mitch. - What's happening, man?

Just trying to figure out the best way

to get rid of this water over here.

Alec just radioed me, and there's bigger problems.

There's a bunch of cracks in the screen deck on Roxanne.

No good.

He's up there having a look at it.

And we're only like, what, 400 and change

away from hitting our goal?

So we'll just have to keep trying to babysit it through

the season and then figure out a plan.

Yeah.

On the plus side, gold has another record high today.

- That's awesome. - It's nuts.

It's totally crazy.

But yeah, let's try to keep that thing banging

if you don't mind.

All right, we'll go have a look.

Thanks, man.

Only two years old, wash plant Roxanne already has cracks in

its structural tubes.

If not fixed, they could break apart and damage the plant,

putting it out of action for the rest of the season.

How's it going, buddy?

So this whole cross tube here is compromised.

We'd be looking at maybe two days downtime to replace this

tube here and that tube there.

There's no way Parker's gonna let us turn this wash plant

off for any length of time, so probably just pop those

screens out, weld her up the best you can.

Hopefully it's got enough life left in it to get to

- the end here. - Yeah.

If you look at the gold prices right now, every one of these

mine bosses has the same mentality, dude.

Crank them up as hard as you can, get as much material

through them to get as much gold.

- Yeah, for sure. - Thanks, buddy.

Take care, Mitch.

Ok.

That's the guy right there. The one I'm after.

Let the music begin.

I love my job.

This is one of the worst cracks that I've seen on a plant that

we've actually kept running.

Crack just keeps going.

Damn it.

Are you still in there?

Hey, Matt?

Hey, I've hurt my foot pretty bad.

I'm gonna need some medical attention here.

Ok, thank you.

You all right up there, buddy?

I'm hanging in there, Matt.

Let's see that thing.

- Does that hurt pretty good? - It hurts beautifully.

Yeah, I thought so.

A 4,000 degree piece of molten metal flew into Alec's boot,

searing his flesh, causing second-degree burns.

All right, I'm gonna flush it with this and get this burn

dressing on there.

Definitely clean that out really well when you get home.

Yeah, it's melted my sock real good.

Put like antiseptic gel on it.

Well, I'll just keep working, I guess.

- Gold star for you, buddy. - Yeah, right.

- Well... - Well, that's... happy to help.

Thanks, Matt.

See ya.

There's no one else here to do this or to help me, so...

Just suck it up and keep working.

Foot patched up, Alec gets back to welding Roxanne,

and with Roxanne back on her feet,

the crew have a fighting chance

of hitting 10,000 ounces by the end of the week.

All the welding's done.

I'm just reassembling the top deck

and get ready to start sluicing here.

Firing up, Roxanne. Here we go.

Let's get sluicing.

How's your foot doing, man?

I don't feel it right now.

Whatever Matt did is really working good.

Well, man, thanks for being a trooper there and just

patching it up and buckling down and getting it finished.

What do you think, man? Will it last a week?

That's the million-dollar question right there.

No warranty, no guarantee, but fingers crossed.

Great job, buddy. We're washing rocks.

Well, here we go.

Last bucket of pay of Vegas valley.

We're finally right to the very end here.

We got the last pay out of Vegas valley.

It's not really a good thing.

This is our last chance, and we got to treat it that way.

It'll be our last chance, you know, in the Yukon ever.

While Parker chases down 10,000 ounces, Rick ness has

only just edged past 1,000.

His roller coaster ride of a season has seen him expand

his ground and become flush with claims.

But red tape and bad luck have backed him into a corner,

and his weary crew are battling to reach 1,800 ounces to earn

their bonuses and secure their future.

This has been the coldest morning we've had so far.

Had to thaw out the runs real quick before we could fire up.

Once you see that, you know that winter's coming.

Now, Rick's new Vegas valley cut has run out of pay

much quicker than he expected.

Not only is the weather starting to creep in,

but, I mean, our pay pile's dwindling fast,

and it's only a matter of time.

I mean, we're down to days and weeks now.

With just two weeks left to get over 700 ounces, Rick is

hoping for a massive final payday from Vegas valley to

take the stress off his new cut, the last chance.

The easy option right now would be to pack it up,

you know, lick our wounds, go home,

but now we've got to pivot.

We have to move on.

That's why I made the decision to, you know, open up

this new last chance cut.

I don't think anybody's that excited about opening up

a new cut this late in the season,

but we need more gold and that's where it's going to be.

At Duncan creek, Rick wants to keep following the Vegas valley

pay streak upstream and plans to move north,

opening the one-acre last chance cut.

Before stripping can begin, the area must first be drained

by digging a channel to release the water into the mined-out

Vegas valley.

While it's draining, Rick will clear a Ridge of trees

and loose rocks to make the cuts safe to work in.

Finally, Rick's crew must then dig down 40 feet to hit the top

of the gold-rich pay layer he's praying will save his season.

And he wants it all done before

the last of his stockpiled pay runs out.

- You got a copy there, Bailey? - Yeah, go ahead, Ricky.

What do you figure there?

Are you ready to cut this water through?

Yeah, I think we should be good to go.

All right, well, just make sure you take it easy.

Sounds good.

The water over there,

we got to cut it through the bank over here.

We're going to slowly just crack it down there

and let it... Let that water run out

and dry out our new cut.

There it goes.

How's she looking, bud?

Looks nice and slow to me. I like it.

All right, well, yeah, we'll just let it drain for

a bit, and then we'll get back to digging.

Sounds good, man.

Vegas valley's done, and it's very late in

the season, but we got another cut to open up, and we wanna

hit 1,800 ounces, and this is the first step.

So we're moving on.

To help him on his quest to open the last chance, Rick hops

into the rebuilt 700.

The 700's been down, you know,

the bulk of the season here.

It was our second biggest excavator.

To have it back now is a big deal, so we'll be getting

the last chance cut opened up in no time.

After the 700 broke down earlier in the year, Rick spent

50 grand on a complete engine rebuild and can finally put it

to work for the first time this season.

These trees are really close to the edge,

right at the top of the last chance cut.

And once I get these trees, you know, moved back, I'll be

feeling a hell of a lot better about Bailey being underneath,

that's where the pay is, than moving closer to the bank.

There they go, wrong way.

I enjoyed that one. Sent her over the edge.

You feel pretty tough with a chainsaw knocking trees down,

but that's nothing compared to

knocking trees down with a 70-ton excavator.

I can't have them falling down while he's trying

to get some down there.

Hooked a tree.

Damn it. I saw oil squirt, too.

Yeah.

It definitely got a hydraulic leak.

Hey, Ryan. Hey, man.

Can you meet me up by the 700? I...

I hooked a tree with the hydraulic line.

All right, thanks.

Damn it.

Just got this thing back running.

Hey, man.

What's up?

It looks like a seal. I hooked it on a tree line,

and I heard something hiss, and then I saw some

- spray, so... - At least it's not the hose.

- Yeah. - Yeah, that needs to be fixed.

Let me grab my glasses.

That's why I hate this.

Just let loose like that.

Stupid bull.

Mechanic Ryan Kent has been hit in the face with hydraulic

fluid while fixing Rick's 700 excavator.

Sorry, you got hit in the face, man.

That's fine. Let's just get it done.

Yeah, it spit that seal right out.

Yeah, you can see that it's damaged.

It's taking the coupler off that holds the hydraulic lines

right now.

You can see where the o-ring actually pushed out.

Might have already been loose, who knows?

But I know me hitting it on the tree didn't help it, so.

All right, slide it.

So there's your two different seals.

This one's just seen her days. Pull it out and then we'll just

slide it in.

Just tighten these bolts down and should be able to get it

right back in action.

Start it up.

Yeah, make sure we're not gonna leak.

Ok.

If it doesn't leak, we're in business.

Looks good.

- Good to go? - Yeah.

Nice, man.

Got no leaks.

Everything seems back to normal.

We got lucky with this one. We are back in business.

Tony, do you copy, Tony?

Could you come have a look at the corner cut with me?

Tony beets has already banked more than $35 million,

and after his bumper 1,000 ounce gold haul last week,

the king of the klondike is in striking distance

of 10,000 ounces and edging in front of Parker.

But there's a problem...

This corner cut is almost done.

So we got to figure something out

because we don't want to run out of pay.

Doesn't look like it.

Yeah, well, ok.

On the Indian river, Tony has opened up more ground

than ever before, and he's reaped the rewards.

His twin wash plants, running in the massive

corner cut, have consistently delivered huge gold weighs.

But now its pay is running out, and he has to go in search of

another rich spot.

Tony will start his treasure hunt next to some of

his richest ground of the year, the early bird cut,

where he's praying the gold-rich pay continues.

Gravels, a light brown dirt with small rocks,

are a strong indication there's good gold here.

And Tony's found some just six feet below the surface.

To strip the early bird extension quicker and avoid

shutting down a plant, Tony brings in his monster

950 excavator, capable of moving 10 tons of dirt

with every bucket.

And to shift all that dirt fast, an a40 rock truck

and his new toy, the a50, with its seven-ton increase

in payload.

Today, Tony got me in the a50 for the first time.

It's awesome, man.

Like, it just looks so futuristic, you know?

He wants us cut down to pay by the end of the week.

There's a lot of dirt in the back of the truck,

like, it's crazy.

Tony's so keen to get the dirt out of here,

he's overloading me.

It's too heavy, like, it was at 66 tons.

So, it couldn't dump.

I can't dump. It's too heavy.

Rushing to get his new cut down to pay,

Tony has overfilled Darian's 50-ton rock truck.

It's too heavy to dump. I can't dump it.

Ok.

He's a smart guy, you see. He knows all the tricks.

If Tony can get his new cut stripped and down to pay by

the end of the week,

he'll be back on track to hit 10,000 ounces.

I thought we'd have 10,000 ounces by now.

But...

It's proving to be a bit elusive.

We need to press those wash plants a hell of a lot harder.

In a herculean effort to get 430 ounces

and hit 10,000 by the end of the week,

Parker is pushing his crew and wash plants hard.

With Parker's decision to

run the absolute piss out of the wash plants

so we can hit our gold total,

I got big red running a little hot.

So it's definitely putting a lot of stress on the plants

and whatnot, but, you know, it's not my call.

I'm just here to do my job and keep Parker happy.

Belt's stuck.

Liam, Alec, you got a copy?

Yeah, go for Liam.

Hey man I'm gonna need you to come up to big red.

John, what happened?

Radial stacker quit on me, buddy.

It looks like we got a super slimy belt here.

It gives no friction to the belt, so when it makes

its way up to the head drum,

the head drum will just spin there.

Why we're getting so much mud on the inside of the conveyor?

Maybe it's just not coming in far enough.

Yeah.

We need a bit more overlap, like, from this head drum into

this rock box so the material doesn't stack up here.

Yeah.

This hopper is buried in material left and right.

So, what do you think?

We gotta move the radial stacker back?

Yeah, we have hydraulics on this.

I can just run the hydraulics a bit and sort of like

inchworm it back a bit.

How do you inchworm a radial stacker?

The stacker is gonna have to be up in the air and then,

as long as the axle end which is usually planted with those

power wheels, was free to come towards this plate...

Right.

The radial stacker would effectively move backwards.

And now it's top-heavy and unsettled.

If he wants to roll away with the conveyor up like that,

like, who's to say it's not going to fall over, too?

It's definitely risky.

Paydirt from big red's hopper conveyor is getting under

the wash plant's radial stacker

and coating the inside of its belt,

which is then traveling up to the drive pulley's head drum,

making it slip, stopping pay from being fed into the plant.

Moving the hopper feeder's conveyor forward would solve

the problem, but it would require time and an excavator

they don't have.

Alec's quick but risky fix is to inch the 120-foot radial

stacker back by three inches so it sits further underneath

the feeder conveyor, stopping the pay getting

under the belt.

First, he'll raise the top end of the radial stacker up

and use its weight to generate down force onto the axle.

Then, by lifting the axle's

gull wing brake wheels off the ground,

he hopes to inch the stacker back towards

the feeder conveyor.

But if he loses control, it could topple over

and cause a disaster.

Have you ever done this before?

This is completely experimental.

Seems like the only option we got.

- Let's give it a go. - See what happens.

All right.

Let's call that our line in the sand there, yeah.

If goes south, well, it was nice knowing you.

- Yeah, you too, buddy. - All righty.

I'm pulling up the wheels here, so maybe

stand back a little bit.

It's a little nerve-racking as soon as he lifts those

gull wings up,

there could be a possibility where it tips completely over,

so we're putting our prayers to the gods right now.

Ok, that's off.

Other side's also off.

Ok, now the exciting part.

My god. It's moving so much.

I'm raising up the radial stacker now with the gull wings

off the ground.

And these wheels are moving slowly, which is letting me

know that we are indeed tracking our progress.

My heart's in my throat right now, watching this thing move

back and forth, knowing that it could topple over.

Got like half an inch.

All right, we've got our height.

Then I'm going to lower the stacker, which should

increase the distance.

That's good.

Gull wings back on the ground here.

As for a level side to side, you figure we're pretty good?

It looks pretty good to me.

Ok, yeah, we got the weight back on the stabilizer legs.

I can roll these duallys, so I'm just gonna go say hi to

brother John and see if we've moved the amount we need to.

What did we end up getting, John?

Yeah, three, three and a half.

As long as the material doesn't pile up here,

it shouldn't get into the belt,

shouldn't with stuff up there.

- Yep. - So let's fire up.

- Nice job, guys. - Great job.

Whoo!

Throw the stacker.

Let's get it.

Whoo!

It's looking a lot better for where the material's landing.

- The plan has helped a lot. - Are we winning?

It looks like it's running really good.

Nice.

We got big red running again.

Everything's running smooth, and now the main focus is to

keep the wash plants running and hit our 10,000-ounce goal.

That's a lot of water, isn't it?

Determined to reach 10,000 ounces this week,

Tony is racing to get down to pay

in an extension to the early bird cut.

But his stripping crew have hit groundwater, flooding the cut

and making it unmineable.

Well, do we pump it, or ditch it there?

Ok.

To drain the flooded cut, Tony will dig a ditch through

the road, which lies between his new extension

and an already mined-out section of the early bird cut.

Then, install a culvert and pump that will drain

flood water from the new cut into the old cut.

Finally, rebuild the road and get his plan to hit pay dirt

by the end of the week back on track.

So, what our man Shawn is doing here now

is just a little bit of water maintenance that we got going

on over here. You know how new guys are.

You got to test them out.

He looks to be doing just fine to me.

It's my first day working for Tony beets

out in the Yukon,

and very first time ever gold mining.

Still a bit nervous, but we're getting there.

If you don't have tough skin, you're not ready

for this industry.

Shawn, Shawn, Shawn, Shawn, stop.

Look at me.

Shut her down for a minute.

Holy, what a mess.

Full of dirt.

You got to be careful digging it out of here.

You don't rip your electrical apart.

It's not good.

Shawn, you just leave this here.

Go get that 349, and you can just keep ditching with that,

and then we can get this machine fixed.

Sounds good.

Operator error right there.

You should have been able to see it in the mirror here.

Idiot.

Every minute of downtime is no good because it all equates

to lost gold.

This gonna drop.

There she goes.

Shawn's in the 349.

Hopefully he doesn't that up at all.

Here's Tony.

That panel's off the 700.

I'll get out and talk to you.

So that panel's off the 700.

That Shawn guy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, sir.

Beep-beep!

After sending rookie operator Shawn home, Tony takes over

in the 349 to finish the ditch and install the culvert.

Do you want me to grab that pump?

Ok.

In just 90 minutes, Tony has got his new cut drying out,

and he's back in the chase to catch Parker.

Well, it's definitely a big race here, trying to get down

to that pay as quick as we can, keep that plant running.

When the plant shuts down, you know, completely freeze,

and we won't be able to fire up the plant again.

Rick and his crew are battling to hit pay in their new cut,

the last chance, before the stockpile from

Vegas valley runs out, and they are forced to shut down

monster red.

Yeah, looks like we got a scoop or two left here.

It's not good.

The pay pile dwindling pretty quick here.

I don't even know if it's a pile anymore.

Bailey, you got a copy?

Go ahead for Bailey.

Hey, we're almost, -

we're getting pretty low on pay here.

You got any kind of time frame when you think

you're going to get any up to the plant?

Well, I don't know how low it is, but it's gonna be

a couple of days on my end before I can send anything.

We don't got a couple of days

left up here... we'll end up having to shut it down.

Yeah, if that's it,

you know, nothing that we can do here.

Here we go. Last bucket of pay going to the plant now.

That's it. That's all we got.

You shut it down now, there's nothing else to run.

Shut it down today and hopefully it's not for

the last time this season.

If freezing winter temperatures arrive before

they hit pay in the last chance,

monster red will be too frozen to fire up,

putting even more pressure on this week's gold weigh.

It's always impossible to tell just when we're pulling mats,

how good it's gonna be. We need it to be great.

So fingers crossed, we...

We can find greatness to save this season.

Well, Bailey's still a couple days away from pay.

If the weather decides to change and then freeze up,

we're gonna be in trouble.

We get a couple more good cleanups, and we're set.

I mean, the gold is really good right now.

We'll hit 1,800 to get out of here with these guys getting

what they earned, and us coming back next year.

Hopefully, we get a few more good days and we get to run

again, but who knows?

- Hi. - Hey, Rick, buddy.

- Yo. - Hey.

Holy, Rick, that looks like a lot of gold.

Yeah, so that's the last of the gold

from Vegas valley, though.

It's a shame we don't have any more,

but that's where we're at.

It'd be easy to go home, but, you know,

we'd be next year.

Your bonuses and the future of this company, that's basically

what we're fighting for right now.

All right, let's weigh some gold.

- Find out how we did. - Let's do it.

Last week, Rick and his crew pulled 430 ounces of gold,

their biggest haul ever.

But they are still more than 700 ounces short of the 1,800

Rick needs to pay their bonus and secure his mining future.

Ready?

Well, 200.

- Yeah. - Nice.

And we'll see what we add to that.

Here she comes. Ready?

Ok.

10, 20, 30, 35, 50, 58, 59, 69, 80, 90, 97, 98,

102.27.

Nice.

- Awesome. - 302.27.

302.27. Yep.

Nice.

- Nice number. - Sweet.

Worth $1,148,000.

So what's that? That puts us at 1,379.65.

- Making up ground quick. - Yeah.

Rick needs 420 more ounces to hit 1,800

and send everyone home with gold.

But he still hasn't hit pay in the last chance cut.

I mean, weather's changing.

Yeah.

We're down right now, not running.

You shut it down, you might never start it back up.

- Yeah. - Next week, this could be snow.

Yeah.

It's the challenges at the end of the year, man.

Yeah.

Honestly, all we need is a little luck with the weather,

because I know you can get to the bottom of that cut.

- I know we can get that pay run. - Yeah.

We just need a bit of time.

Well, I say we cheers to Bailey.

- Hell yeah. - To Bailey, yeah...

- It's all on you. - Thanks, guys.

Thanks, guys.

Well, that's another good gold weigh.

I mean, when we get the plant running, we make up

ground quick. You know, it's good ground.

We just have to fight hard to get to it, and right now

it's all in the last chance cut.

Hello.

- Hi. - Hello.

How are you guys?

That's a huge ass coffee cup.

The corner cut's getting pretty big, but it's looking

- a little empty. - Yeah, it does.

We are scratching the last bit out of it.

How's things going on the hill?

Harald literally is, like, no headache.

When I go through that thing, it's like, you lift up

the hydraulic riffle, and you just see

- gold everywhere. - Nothing wrong with that.

Trommel's been running 24/7. That plant...

- Just eats through it? - Eats it.

It's called the trom-nom-nom-nel.

Hey, Monica, should we weigh some gold?

Yes. Who wants to start counting?

The beets family need more than 700 ounces

to reach 10,000.

So, this is sluice-a-lot.

Ok.

Sluice-a-lot has been running the last of the pay

in the corner cut.

100, 130, 140, 150, 180, 190, 192.42.

It's a little bit less than the last time.

How come?

So this is for find-a-lot.

All right.

Find-a-lot has also been churning through the remaining

corner cut pay.

70, 80, 90, 110, 120, 140, 160, 180, 182.06.

Same stuff, same cut.

Tony's twin plants at Indian river bring his total

to just over 9,640 ounces.

Well, that was all the Indian river gold.

It's time for hill gold.

10, 20, 30...

Harald has been running pay from the hester cut.

100, 120, 132.6.

Less gold than last time.

We might have just ran into a patch.

It might end up just getting diluted because we're running

through whatever is there.

With three of his wash plants delivering less gold

than last week, Tony is still

more than 200 ounces short of 10,000.

- This is from the trommel? - Yep.

Nice.

All right, Mike, can you see?

Yeah, go for it.

10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90,

150, 160, 200, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260...

280, 290, 3, 310, 330, 340, 350, 370, 380, 390,

400, 410, 420, 430.

Prr-sch!

The beets family passed 10,000 ounces for the first time ever,

with a total of 10,212, worth over $38,800,000.

Yeah, that's a pretty big thing.

That's a lot of money.

Yeah, I've been running 24/7, man.

So, we did over 10,000 ounces.

We've never done so much in a season.

Yeah.

Ok.

I'ts not a bad summer?

What up?

I'm not saying it was a rough day,

but that's her second cup.

Parker and his crew have produced more than 9,500 ounces

of gold this season and need just over 430

to hit his 10,000-ounce goal.

Man, we've thrown a lot of rocks at those plants this year.

It's getting rough out there

trying to keep those plants going.

We found some big cracks in Roxanne this week.

It shows down here when

you guys have problems out there.

It's a week, is what you're saying?

If we don't hit our 10,000-ounce goal,

it's because the plant breakdowns.

I know you guys have put a lot of dirt through them, so there

is going to be wear and tear. Just got to keep them going.

We're running out of time.

We're running out of time real quick.

Yeah, it's starting to get pretty cold?

Yeah.

This, I think, would be the key week if we don't get

some good numbers.

So we can throw some gold on the scale and see how we did.

- Yeah, let's do it. - All right.

We got the bridge cut.

Here we go.

Wash plant Bob has been averaging 147 ounces a week

in the bridge cut.

120, 127.35.

Not bad. Ok, Mitchell.

Let's see what Roxanne can add to it.

We got 40... Roxanne has been sluicing pay from pit 2

at Parker's Indian river claim.

Come on, keep going.

120, 133.9.

- Nice. - There you go.

So what are we looking for here?

We need a little over, what, 200 to hit our target?

- 200, yeah. - Yeah.

So this is the golden mile. We got a couple of them here.

- Ready? - Yeah.

See how goose and big red did.

Got 40, 80, 120, 130, 140.

Don't slow down, doumitt.

There we go, 200!

Sick.

220, 258.15.

- Yeah! - Whoo!

That's awesome.

- Yeah. - Good job, guys.

For the first time ever,

Parker has hit 10,000 ounces in a season,

worth an incredible $38,341,000.

- Good job, tat. - Thank you.

Yeah, big.

I was rinsing the tank from the golden goose,

I found the weirdest thing.

The goose laid its first egg, you guys.

Exactly one ounce.

There we go.

We got our golden egg.

We're at 259.15.

That's cool. That's actually hilarious.

Nice.

Last week we had 627.25 ounces.

This week, 520.4.

For a season total of...

10,089.85 ounces.

- Sick. - Whoo!

- We did it. - Good job, guys.

And, you know, we've got a little bit of time left in

the season, so I think we should just keep sluicing.

And, you know, we had a 10,000-ounce goal last year,

too, and didn't hit it, so let's make up for a little

lost time. Keep at her.

- But thank you, guys. - Yeah.

Thank you, man.

With just one week to go, Parker now trails Tony

by 120 ounces.

I do like smashing through goals, and it's a very cool

milestone for us.

So, we'll just keep going and see what happens.