Original subtitles

up in the frozen north.

The race is on to find going.

Oh, whoa.

I'm employed and deep in death.

The Hoffman crew puts everything they have

into their second mining season.

If we don't make it this summer, we're done.

Almost three months ago, they came to the conduct

and set up a new mining operation at Quartz Creek.

Good luck there.

They've spent weeks digging down to pay grab.

That's a good longer right there, man.

I'm done.

And thousands of dollars getting their wash plant

dialed in.

Guys, we're done.

Or just start, but we're done.

Yeah!

Good luck.

Over halfway through the season, the Hoffman crew

is finally on the goal.

To reach their goal of 100 ounces,

the crew pushes the limit.

Holy shit.

Easy Jack. Easy Jack.

Watch that.

600 miles south at Porcupine Creek

the Dakota boys change their tactics.

Peace is these hungry.

And see instant results.

Call you a little flick right here

to think upon the dead.

Holy cow.

And at Big Nugging,

teenage miner Parker Schnabel

does the work of two men.

Oh, travel.

Hi.

Until his mom shows up on the claim.

Don't you ever treat me like that.

You think I can't shut this down?

You're wrong.

At Court's Creek, up in the Clondite.

The Hoffman crew is 83 days into a week.

The Hoffman crew is 83 days

into a 150 day mining season.

We're in the phase now.

We're like he's running and he's

efficiently get our goal.

Right out.

That looks awesome.

We're not leaving here without a hundred ounces.

Time for our team to dig deep.

Even if we go to sleep in the cab,

we're going to run some down there.

I think we could take it up a major and all.

The crew spent weeks and thousands of dollars

setting up their wash plate.

Turn it down and figure out what we've got.

They've lifted it by three feet.

Got rid of the hydraulic ruffles

and replaced it with smooth spots.

The modifications finally brought them gold.

All malls for our team.

But to make this season a success,

they need a hundred ounces

or 25 times what they now have.

We're going to make it or break it.

The crew calls in a gold mining expert

to make sure the wash plate is catching

every flake of gold.

That's Fred Dodd.

These are mining.

It's salt.

Yeah.

Do we really?

How you doing?

Good.

How you doing?

Before something breaks.

I'm going to have you look at this.

We've got a lot of work down

since Fred last was here to coach us.

And I've been looking forward to his return.

First off, Fred inspects the slew spots.

It's more water.

And low right now.

Way low.

And it's water for sure.

They've never tuned at 300 gallon a minute.

Fred spots a major problem.

Whole ripples packed in.

Wow.

The gold is supposed to collect in the ripples.

But if they're full of dirt,

the gold washes right out of the slew spots

onto the ground.

It's catching gold, but we're probably

to split and load off the end as well.

But what do we want to do?

We want to get more pitch for more water.

Because right now we're plugged up for losing gold.

Right.

If we're throwing gold out of the slew,

it's not going to be sick for my stomach.

Our boxes.

Yang will need to be changed a little bit.

And we'd juice it up with the water.

The first thing the Huffman crew has to do.

Is set the slew spots?

Is that a steeper angle?

It's our simplest plan now is to raise the front

of the box a couple inches.

Then we'll go ahead and fire some water up.

Take a peek.

Let's get the plant going.

Watch it.

He's a man.

He says it needs to change.

We're changing it.

There's no question.

Just don't one side at a time.

Then we'll level off this side.

Using the bucket of the 2208 excavator,

they start by lifting the slew spots.

Oh, you can throw some water under there.

Yeah.

Good day.

Go to the other side.

Come down hard.

OK, it should settle down about level there.

They increase the angle of the slew from 15 to 25 degrees.

Good.

Yeah, like that.

Now they need to do a test run to determine if they're catching more gold.

Fred wants to run 1,000 yards and check out the changes.

Looks like it might be a long night.

See if we can get 1,000 yards in and do another clean out in the morning.

Bye.

We'll fire up.

We made all the right moves.

We've taken his advice.

Maybe we're going to up our catch.

We're going to go up.

Take where throw a little wide on water.

At the intake pump, the pump runs at a steady 1500 RPM.

Let me go up about 50 RPM.

Let me go up.

Yeah, oh, Fred wants to run at 1, 5, 5, 0.

Let's try it all out far.

Still use another 150 gallons a minute.

Red urges Todd to crank the water flow to the max.

More water.

Now nearly 3,000 gallons of water run through the slouchboxes every minute.

Just as the water flow is starting to look right.

Good floor.

Look at that.

We lost our water.

Got it.

Got it.

Cut it down.

45 minutes into their test.

Todd has to shut off the pump.

I turned around and bam, the water's off.

Just that quick.

So this whole thing.

That's thick with material.

We run out of water.

Breaking joke.

Around the water intake pipe is a screen to keep out floating debris.

It's completely clogged up with mud.

The Huffman crew had hoped to run 1,000 yards of dirt through their new and improved sluces.

But after just 75 yards, they are once again dead in the water.

You know what to hex?

You know what we do.

Down at the big nugget mine in southeast Alaska.

Great.

17-year-old Parker Shnubble is on the hunt for a new dig site.

He needs gold and quickly to keep his family mine from going under.

We're looking for a tree that's cut off and like as a...

...as a boundary marker.

Years ago, Parker's 91-year-old grandfather John Shnubble marked the boundary of this claim.

It's in the massive broken fallen Chris Cross trees.

Parker hopes this ancient forest has never been mine.

But before he can dig, he has to find out where his claim stops and the others begin.

We're right here.

This is the line that we're interested in here.

I'll be able to dig right up 10 feet within our line.

If you take gold from someone else's land, they'll probably sue you.

Some blue ribbon, we're probably close.

Oh, see, here's the...

There's the marker.

It does say J.S.

Our land?

Somebody else's land.

Parker's search for virgin ground has him to the edge of his claim.

Okay, so now we should know where the gold is.

Well, you never know where the gold is.

See, dig it out of the ground.

Two and a half months ago, Parker took over the big nugget mine from his grandpa.

He ran stockpile dirt that brought him 10 ounces of gold worth about $16,000.

This is our first full week of running and we're definitely making money.

He then spent four weeks trying to find new gold bearing dirt.

How deep are these digs?

He failed.

We're in more than a few flakes.

Parker has found a disappointing 18.7 ounces of gold in his first season as the boss of Big Nugget.

He needs four times that to save the mine.

Pretty piss poor.

Parker is now digging the virgin ground between his lines property line,

and a spot his grandfather calls Emerson Trinch.

I'm not afraid because I don't have much time and I have a lot of work to do.

The plant hasn't been running, hasn't been running, and we're losing money, can't know if it's fixed.

Parker has to pay $1,000 in wages and fuel every day.

He needs to turn this dirt into gold fast.

This is my fourth load in what? 20 minutes?

Load the truck, grab it over the plant, dump it.

17-year-old Parker has been operating both the excavator and the dumb truck single hand.

With the wash plant now running, he jumps into a third machine.

A loader twice as old as he is.

One hour in, a hydraulic hose in the loader blows.

It can just be a loose fitting, but I'm doubt it.

Without the loader, he can't feed the wash plant.

We're shutting down.

It's like having a breakdown at a time like this.

You can bet you can't just use some duct tape or something.

Parker's day is lost.

He falls another $1,000 behind.

Up ahead.

He's a jack, he's a jack.

The huffman's 400 excavator goes down in the creek.

Whoa, holy crap.

Dakota Fred goes rude.

Not the plan was to finish over there.

And Parker picks a fight he can't win.

I can shut this down.

At Quartz Creek, the Huffman's wash plant is shut down.

Their water intake is clogged with mud.

Jim Thurber has to clear the screen before they can test their modified

sluice boxes.

I really don't want to help in there.

Camp 12, go through your machine with that.

Like putting.

We've got to have good water to wash.

We've got to fix this issue here.

Water is the lifeblood of the wash plant.

Due to environmental regulations, the Huffman's can't extract water from the creek.

They were forced to come up with an alternative supply.

What we're trying to do is re-circulating our own water.

Giving it about an hour, we're at the time to come around,

settle out some of the still to come around using it again.

The Huffman's dug two pounds.

Waste water, thick with silt flows out of the wash plant

and collects in a settling pond where the silt slowly falls to the bottom.

Cleaner surface water then flows back to the intake pond

to be reused in the wash plant.

But now, because there is a lot more water being pumped through the plant,

the silt is making its way around to the intake pond,

eventually clogging the screen.

We've got our settling pond that's full of silt.

Our return canal to the intake pond is probably full of silt.

The intake pond is full of silt.

The pump filter is full of silt.

And yeah, I mean, it's the tail's wagging the dog right now.

Dave Turin, the newest member of the Huffman crew,

has a radical plan to supply the wash plant with the clean water it needs.

What we're going to do is we've got real clean water in our pet

where we're mining.

We've got its real clean water.

The problem is quartz Creek runs right through the clean

separating the clean water in the pit from the intake pond.

We're going to cut three trees, about 30 footers.

We're going to put them in there and build a little bridge for this type.

Get it up over the crack and we'll have clean water here about five minutes

and we'll be able to run again.

Dave's plan to carry the clean water from the pit across the creek

means building a bridge to support the hose which will fill the intake pond with clean water.

Greg jumps into the 400 to cut down the right trees.

Next, he lays the trees across the creek.

Deep down in the river, to a deep hole, he's scared of the

water.

You'll be able to keep going and try to pull myself out.

Come on.

Let's go.

Nice.

Oh yeah.

And then it's down good.

I don't know what the noise is.

The 400's struggles, but Greg is able to put the trees in place.

Now he just needs to get the 400 out of the creek.

Oh man.

The left track locks up.

Not good.

Not good.

I've got no drive in my left track right now.

And I've just hoping it re-engaged.

What's going on, Dave?

It's locked up solid.

No.

Can't get it out of the creek.

They won't even budge, Todd.

And it's going to click, click, click.

So it's done.

The 400 is Jack's Pride and Joy.

Just can't take it when it's running at white open and stuff.

You've got to be careful with these things.

Let me try it.

Okay.

Good Lord.

And the DA pull it out.

The DA is the only piece of equipment they have with enough power.

Let me try to get it far.

Hold it back up.

I'm a Jack.

Jack.

Easy, Jack.

Easy, Jack.

You've got to bend the tank.

Easy.

Go and pull.

Come on.

Come on.

Hang on.

Okay, hold on Jack.

If they can't get the 400 out, they can't mind.

And if they can't mind soon, there is no chance of getting their 100-ounce goal.

It's locked up, solid.

At Quartz Creek, the left track of Jack's beloved 400 is locked up.

And it's stuck in the creek.

The only way to get it out is if Dave can get the two vehicles in line.

Hold on, Jack.

Sit down and swing your carriage over.

There you go, Jack.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

Good.

Let's go.

Oh.

Holy crap.

Dave and Jack finally get the 400's tracks facing the right way.

Then they try the D8 one more time.

What's the ripper down and all try it?

Good.

This time, the 400 and the D8 are lined up.

They get the 400 to dry ground, but the left track is still lost.

It's a major catastrophe.

We can't be without it.

We need it.

This thing is really, it's a critical piece of equipment for us.

Down at Porcupine Creek in southeast Alaska.

Dakota Fred and his son Dustin welcome a new member of their crew.

Hey, Fred, what's up, dude?

Truck driver and family friend Darren Zook is back.

But, damn you showed up.

What's up, dude?

How are you doing, man?

You can see a barrel.

So how long are you here for?

It's September 15th.

There you go.

That's a bit of a day.

I'm looking forward to that.

I just hope you don't think you're on vacation.

This is a work in a fucking place.

Yeah.

Dakota Fred sunk his life savings into Porcupine Creek.

Then, lost his home to historic flooding in North Dakota.

Holy cow.

It's a great day.

Desperate for gold.

Fred dug dirt from a wide area around the Huffman's old glory hole.

Be dead plant, be dead plant, be dead plant.

Fred's plan paid off in just one week.

The father and son team recovered over $30,000 in gold.

More than the Huffman's made all of last years.

Yeah.

18.9 ounces in seven days.

That's the work.

These, these are hungry.

The fish says he's hungry.

The Dakota boys are on track to hit Fred's goal of 100 ounces.

Worth around $160,000.

But Dustin thinks he has a way to pull in even more gold.

In some days, we get great gold.

In some days, we get very bad gold, like really, like slam pickings.

We don't know where it's coming from, because we dig in so many places.

For the past two months, the Dakota boys have been digging dirt from two areas.

One close to the wash plant, the other on the far side of the glory hole.

One side of the other, one's creating big flakes, and the other one's doing super small.

Dustin is dead set on determining where the big flakes are coming from.

For one whole day, he insists that Fred digs exclusively on the side of the pit,

closest to the wash plant.

If we just process that dirt, we run it today.

We find out where all our golds from.

Get the most for our dig, you know?

Beager to meet or beat his 100 ounce gold, Fred agrees to his son's plan.

He's been Dustin summoning gold, shoot there.

As long as the system keeps going, I'll be happy.

That's a good stop there.

I was thinking, going great right now.

That's better to do than a wash dog rocks.

But just two hours in, Fred deviates from the plan and drives over to the far side of the pit.

Yeah.

What now?

Thought the plan was to finish over there.

We agreed today that we'd stay over there the entire day.

So I wanted a little break from that.

Our whole plan was to find out what was in that rock and what is in this rock.

And now we messed that up.

Gee, I made a mistake.

We'll never know if we keep doing this. We'll never ever know.

The big nugget mine is at a standstill.

Parker's loader has blown a hydraulic hose.

He's no closer to running his first test dirt from the virgin ground up at Emerson trench.

Where does this have a breakdown that happens?

It's a horrible time.

I'm screwed.

Parker's dead, Rodgers Schnubble, takes charge of fixing the hose.

Hey Parker?

Yes sir.

I can't unhook this because dirt's going to give him a hydraulic system.

I'll tell you you clean it out.

We're gonna clean it out on his way.

Shoot it the right spot.

He's always knows what to do and what needs to be done.

I don't.

I just let him do it his way.

And I'll just get tools he needs.

Oh, instead of your way.

I do brawl.

Parker's in luck.

There's a spare hose in the shed.

Wait, that's it.

I'm happy.

With the future of the mine hanging in the balance,

Parker now wants to run the wash plant for a full 10 hour day

to test the dirt from his new dick site.

That's not over yet.

Now we have to work a little harder.

Oh, this brings much dirt as I can with the plant.

Parker gets his grandpa John to continue feeding the wash plant.

He hurries back up to Emerson Trich.

I'm going so fast because I need to feed the plant.

Because we're running 10 hours today.

I don't want my grandpa to have to work as asshole.

And another one down.

Another one down.

Another one bites the dust.

The coffee's wearing off.

And fuck this thing.

After a tough session in the loaded,

Parker's 91-year-old grandpa calls it a day.

Parker now operates the loader,

as well as the excavator and the dump truck.

Oh, fuck.

Oh, trouble.

Oh, geez.

Unannounced.

Parker's mom Nancy shows up at the mine.

Hi.

What's up?

You just came to say hi.

He's looking at the job.

I'm doing the pan today.

What?

Hold on, hold on.

I'm like doing stuff.

I know you're doing stuff.

The rumor on the street is you're kind of wearing yourself out.

Parker?

What?

I'm fine.

Parker may be running a gold mine, but to his mom,

he's still just a 17-year-old kid.

I'm concerned about him right now.

Is he okay?

Is he safe?

Is he too tired?

Is he not eating?

So we'll see how far that conversation gets.

The thing about gold mining is you can work.

You can work 24-7.

And if you don't, if there's not gold in the dirt,

there's no gold, you can't get any.

Don't be a jerk.

I'm serious.

I am concerned about you.

And I'm telling you, I'm fine.

And I'm serious, Parker.

I take you home.

Good luck.

Don't do that.

Parker fails to realize the biggest threat to his mining season.

Might just be his mom.

What are you waiting for?

Don't you, ever.

Don't you, ever.

Treat me like that.

What kind of crap are you talking about?

What's it I do?

First of all, you just acted.

Boy, that I'm here.

No, hi, mom.

How are you?

Nothing.

I get the the so-one, 17-year-old.

What the fuck?

Will you stop swearing?

Here we are.

Let you up here.

All the time doing all this stuff.

You don't think that I worry about you constantly.

You were working 14-hour days.

I don't want to force you nowadays.

Well, you said you did it on Facebook.

Don't leave.

If you tell yourself, we will not be able to live with ourselves.

You know, there's a cost to us.

I mean, your mother.

You give me that kind of crap.

You think I can't shut this down?

You're wrong.

You're wrong.

I can shut this down.

I'm going to go talk to John.

Well, that went well.

Robert is really capable.

He can do a lot of stuff.

But he's 17, and I and his mother.

I mean more respect from him.

I can take him home.

And I don't think he thinks I would really do that.

But I would.

That quartz creek.

The Huffman crew's trusty 400 excavator is crippled.

No 400 means no digging.

And no gold.

Todd, you sure you want to be a gold liar?

Days like this.

You should just stay home.

Yeah.

The left track is locked up.

Inside the final drive, there are broken parts

in parts, jammed between the cops.

Nick, I'm losing.

No.

The other way?

Opposite.

OK.

Oh.

OK.

And she didn't have enough oil, probably in there.

And that's what happened.

But anytime you open up your machine,

and you see rust, probably been without oil for a long time.

Out in the climb deck, replacement parts are expensive,

and could take weeks to locate.

We took all the gears out of the final drive.

I put the plate back on, sealed it in every day,

and so moisture won't get in.

The final drive is still broken.

But at least now, the track can move freely.

I got one track that drives.

So the bucket has to help pull the 400 anywhere it wants to go.

We're down, but we're not out.

We can keep loosened.

Over in the pit, the crew is about to find out

if Dave Turin's plan for a clean water supply will work.

They're going to pump water from the pit

across the bridge over the creek to replenish the intake pump.

Fire it up.

Here's the work and good.

That clean water that's coming out of our cut over there,

we're pumping into here.

Our water's nice and clean on this side.

So we'll see.

A fresh supply of water in the intake pump

should stop the screen from clogging up.

But at 7 p.m.

with their season slipping away,

the crew has only one option.

Here's a deal.

I'm ready to run if you guys want to continue to run.

Yeah, we can.

Why don't we just double shift it?

Okay.

In 12 weeks, the Huffman crew has found just four

ounces of gold worth of pathetic $6,400.

They now have less than nine weeks

to find over $150,000.

The money they need for each guy to turn a profit.

That's just keep running and now,

do whatever we have to do to get it done.

It's still light this far north,

but eventually,

mining consultant Fred Dodge decides to call it.

I don't know what's about midnight, I guess,

but I want the water clear out and see what it looks like in the morning.

The next morning, the crew runs a test to find out if their

modified sluices are catching more gold.

Fred Dodge feeds the jig with gold rich material.

We only got about 360 yards to their plan,

but it's enough to do a test.

Yeah, I'm kind of nervous about our clean out,

but you know, what can I do?

Did you see him start to catch you all better?

Did he feel like it was catching a little bit better?

Well, it took me a bit because your replant

weren't locking to the point they were

a previous one.

So this will be a good test.

Yeah.

Hopefully, we gained a 3% to 5%

maybe 10% over the summer and it's a lot of gold.

For the Huffman crew, recovering extra gold

could be the difference between boom or bust.

The key is how much gold we're catching, you know,

if there's just not gold there,

I'll probably have to sell equipment,

free group, getting it faster,

and then try again on another free.

I have no idea how this is going to happen.

Down at Porcupine Creek,

the Dakota boys shut down their DRocker.

The boys are going to clean out up here a little minor one.

Just to get my little looks, see what's going on.

Dustin is ready to test his theory

that the near side of the pit contains the best gold.

Now we pick out the flakes.

That's a flake right there.

That's what I came back here for.

Another pound of that.

There you have it, pound of flake in, have you?

I have to find a nugget.

You know, I have to pick them out down there.

I'll pick them out of there.

I mean, you guys, they're falling through

a little flake straight here that pulled out of there.

Just a little tiny f***ing one.

On a daddy.

Holy cow.

That's awesome.

That's a big one.

Right.

Awesome.

Dustin's theory is spot on.

Today was the proof.

We only dug here pretty much,

and that's where it came from.

All right.

Pick us spot.

Stay there.

I want to know where it's at.

It's a big day for the Dakota boys.

They now know the best gold comes from the sign of the pit,

nearest the wash plant.

Yeah.

Everything is in place.

There should be no reason.

We can't reach our goal of.

We don't want to try to get at least a hundred ounces this year.

We'll see what happens in the end.

In 1898, three prospectors discovered gold at Porcupine Creek.

Within two years, there were 200 residents, four saloons, a general store, and a brothel.

Porcupines produced around 88,000 ounces of gold.

Today worth $141 million.

At the big nugget mind.

Parker Shnovel is about to find out if the dirt from his new dick site contains any gold.

If gone pretty good.

I'm feeling positive about the dirt from Emerson and Trent.

Whoa.

This is indeed a surprise.

Parker's mom Nancy is worried that her son is cracking under the pressure, and she's

ready to shut him down.

His stress doubt is not getting the gold.

He's not sleeping well.

You know, it feels a little weird.

Oh, that's...

Unfortunately.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's not fine in the big gold, like he wanted it.

But you see...

I've heard about that for him.

Feeling he's got to him, and he has days that he's a little despondent, and in days

and he feels optimistic.

And we have to learn in life that we sometimes have to have disappointment along with happiness.

You remind him of that.

Parker will come out of the line.

Yeah.

Parker is very resilient.

Oh, here he is.

Parker arrives with a test pan from his new dig at Emerson Trent.

Parker is going to...

Oh, what are you doing with all of that?

Well...

Wow.

You think I've made up for it?

I think you have.

Yeah.

Let's call it that.

Hug it out.

Not really.

Yeah, you do.

If we got an ounce here, we got probably another half ounce in the jig and in the little

sluice.

Parker's got gold.

But with only 60 days left, he needs at least one ounce in his test pan.

To be sure he can get his season back on track.

It's nice to see some gold.

All right.

I'm going to go weigh it.

There we go.

Being good.

That's an ounce in a quarter.

Plus, you know, really, it'll come out soon.

Right a bit more than that.

With gold still sitting in his wash plan,

Parker should get about two ounces from the tester.

Emerson Trent just may save big nugget mine.

We're on our own.

Hopefully we can keep it out.

Up at Quartz Creek, the Hoffman crew is about to find out if Fred Dodgers modifications

to the wash plan have improved efficiency.

They're putting their gold bearing concentrate through the gold table.

So we water up.

No, no, no.

Water pulsing on the vibrating table causes black sand to wash away.

And leaves heavier gold to collect in a channel.

Definitely a string of gold going there.

That's why we're all here is for the gold.

We need it.

They're ambitious gold of 100 ounces this season.

Means they must extract about $4 of gold from every yard of paygrabble.

To know they are headed in the right direction,

they need close to an ounce of gold in this test.

Now it's in three corners, guys.

Pretty good.

That better than I thought.

Who?

That's better.

We've gone from 328.

It still gives a yard to $5.90.

Awesome.

So we've just about doubled it.

Guys, that's pretty good.

That's a half ounce an ounce.

That's better.

All right, that's good.

The modified sluice are now catching nearly twice as much gold.

They can now expect almost five ounces a day.

The Hoffman crew is on track to end the season,

with a staggering 300 ounces of gold worth nearly half a million dollars.

We're pretty dang close on this setup right here.

She ain't pretty.

She's kicking some ass right now.

Against all odds, the Hoffman crew has turned their second mining season around.

We've been through a lot to get to this point.

All our boxes are catching gold.

I mean, I'm just super proud of where we're at.

We're burning daylight.

So, day we put this flag up.

Yep.

We're trusting God.

And we trust in our family.

And hate to say we trust in gold.

I'm Crystal Doyle executive producer Gold Rush.

This time on the Gold Rush after show.

Parker, you're a big bad miner.

And mom shows up.

Really?

Thanks to it.

Work out too well.

We actually have your mom here.

Parker, we'd love to make this a little even more uncomfortable.

Thank you for coming.

Watch the Gold Rush after show at Discovery.com.

slash Gold Rush after show.