Original subtitles

Narrator: On this "gold rush"...

...With the end of the mining season approaching...

...Tony beets spends money to make money.

Kevin: I think this looks [bleep] nice.

Three miles of virgin ground.

Narrator: As he picks up momentum...

[bleep] damn it.

...Parker schnabel looks for new opportunities.

Oh, [bleep].

I think that's pretty good.

[ whines ]

heading off into the mountains again.

Narrator: And rick ness goes on one last hunt for nuggets.

This could be the difference between me

going home broke or not.

Booyah, now we're getting somewhere.

[ laughter ]

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

♪

[ horn blares ]

♪

[ horn blares ]

klondike legend tony beets is taking delivery

of a mammoth 40-foot trommel...

...The basis of a monster new wash plant

tony is counting on to turbocharge his mining empire.

Advertise your product or brand here contact www.OpenSubtitles.org today

Three weeks ago, despite sitting on gold-rich ground,

eldest son, kevin,

shut down his mining operation at the mega cut for the season

when he found his wash plant couldn't run the ground.

Just...It's been a [bleep] this year for me.

Narrator: To tap into the full potential of the mega cut next season,

tony has put down $75,000 on a new trommel for son kevin.

I think this looks nice.

It looks [bleep] solid.

Narrator: But tony's decision comes at a cost.

He has to shut down all operations at paradise

to have enough manpower to unload the beast.

Monica: Mike and I have shut down to help him,

and so we can, you know,

get him kind of set up for next year, which will be awesome.

Tony: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Kevin: Oh, [bleep].

We don't want to [bleep] before we get going.

That would suck.

[bleep] beautiful, I like it.

No, the move went real good, golden.

Narrator: To feed kevin's new trommel, tony is resurrecting a giant.

A two-story high, 25-ton hopper feeder.

The hopper is lying on its side, buried in the ground.

If he leaves it here, it'll freeze into the dirt

and cost time and money to dig it out next season,

so tony decides to haul it out while the ground is still soft.

[ engine revs, metal creaks ]

♪

mike's 700-horsepower d10 is rated to pull 135 tons.

[bleep] [bleep] [bleep]

damn, this thing is so [bleep] annoying.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. [bleep].

Holy [bleep].

Narrator: If tony can't get the hopper out before winter hits,

it'll be frozen in,

leaving his plans for next season in ruins.

♪

♪

rick jr.: This season has been tough.

There's no other way to put it.

As a team, we are committed to sticking together

and finishing this season out.

Narrator: At duncan creek, rick ness is fighting for his mining future.

Rick jr.: We've come to terms with the fact

that we're not going to hit our 2,000-ounce goal.

I mean, it's just not possible right now

with the dirt that we've been running.

That's all I've got.

Narrator: Twenty weeks into the season,

rick's crew has produced just 352 ounces of gold,

leaving him almost 150 short of break-even.

Rick jr.: But if we can at least get to that 500-ounce break-even point,

I can keep the dream alive for another year,

and my guys can go home with some gold in their pockets.

My dad is arriving today,

and I'm going to have to talk to dean and stuart.

I want to maybe find us some better ground

and see if we can come up with something.

Narrator: At the start of the season, landlords dean

and stuart gray convinced rick

to mine duncan creek with the promise of big gold.

Wow.

Holy [bleep].

[ laughing ] no way.

Narrator: But rick has yet to find any monster nuggets.

Hey, guys.

Narrator: And rick sr. Has returned to duncan creek

concerned for his son's season.

When we first got here and I saw what could be possible here,

I was very excited about it.

I mean, I was super excited

about getting some of those nuggets, out.

I was like a kid going up there in the excavator,

and then sunk the bucket in the ground,

and then it was just bad.

It's all frozen.

I really just wasn't expecting that,

and somehow I got to find out if the gold is there.

It's there.

What if it isn't?

I don't want him to, you know,

spend everything he's got and go bankrupt.

What can you offer that would give him

a better guarantee that it's there?

I don't think there's anything we can do.

Nobody did it for me.

Nobody did it for us.

But it's your ground.

He's paying you guys, so that 15 percent royalty benefits you.

I'm not a gold-miner.

I'm just here to observe and use the best common sense

I can to help point him in the right direction. Alright?

So I'm just looking for the best options for him to succeed.

Is there something you can say, that you can give him?

Well, we're probably very similar in ages,

and you've been knocked down and had your pocket emptied

a couple times, just like I have.

Yep.

Well, you know, we can work a little harder

at working together.

Your success is ours, and if you're game,

there is other options.

Yep.

So basically, you've eliminated this valley for this season.

The frost is too thick.

Can't get through it. -Yeah.

There is another valley that I've dug test holes in,

just in this tributary here, and it hasn't been frozen,

and this is where I would target for your next test hole.

So that's the last viable target for this season?

Definitely.

Okay.

Well, we can certainly give that a shot.

I think it's worth a shot.

Yep.

Narrator: One mile south of rick's claim,

he's already tested a series of holes,

but they were all frozen.

Now the grays have sent him further up the mountain,

to a tributary closer to the mother lode at mount hinton

because the south-facing slope gets full sun.

The pay dirt should be thawed.

Rick jr.: Let's go.

Narrator: With no time to waste,

rick heads out to prospect the new lead.

Rick jr.: Well, should we see if it's frozen?

-Yep, might as well. -Let's do it.

We're going to know real quick if it's frozen or not.

♪

now this test hole could change the end of this season, right,

if it comes out on a positive note.

Well, right off the bat, this ground is not frozen,

so that's something.

At least I've got a spot to dig,

and I'm going to dig a hole, and see what's down there.

Now we're just looking for coarse gravels

that could be the pay layer,

but we're still not very deep yet either,

so there's a least 20 foot of [bleep] on top of it.

Rick jr.: This is frustrating.

There's still no gravel in it.

♪

I think we're right into the bedrock, gene.

-Is it bedrock? -Yep. But it's clean.

There's nothing in it. You know what I mean?

So you're getting bedrock, no gravels, huh?

Yep, no gravel.

Narrator: Rick has got down to bedrock

without finding any gold-rich gravel.

The target is a bust.

Yeah, there's nothing.

Hold on.

♪

[bleep].

This isn't just undisturbed ground.

What we're standing on is some berms

that were pushed up here with the dozer.

Somebody was here with a piece of equipment.

Oh, well.

You know, it was probably 30 years ago that they did this.

Wouldn't have been the grays, but...

No.

[bleep] this place.

♪

♪

right now, the mining is going pretty good.

Like, the season is going good, and hopefully that'll continue.

Narrator: Parker schnabel is racing to mine out

his 115-acre claim before the end of the season.

Parker: The crater cut is almost done,

and then we'll just get set up in death valley.

Narrator: His wash plants, slucifer and big red

are sluicing at a combined 500 yards an hour,

but there's a problem on the horizon.

We've got a big issue with where we're going to be in the future.

Like, we're running out of ground, and that's a problem.

Narrator: Next season, parker faces having no ground to mine.

Hey, guys.

I'm pretty nervous about just keeping ground ahead of us,

and I hate to say this, but we we're even looking at

what options we've got back with tony.

♪

I don't like what prospects are out there.

Mitch: [bleep] no.

But, man, I'd start looking for something for next year

because we're going to need it.

I'm looking at options, but they're slim, you know?

Ground is getting scarce, and what's left is not pretty.

Narrator: Closest to home, beyond the last cut

is a 70-acre claim adjacent

to the indian river available to lease.

I really hate to be at that point

where we're looking at coming back

and paying more royalties to tony,

but it would be a lot worse to not be mining.

I've just asked my friend liam who owns a drill to come up,

and he's going to test this ground for us.

Here is the drill. Look at that thing.

Yeah.

Narrator: Drilling experts liam ferguson and jake jacobs

have brought in the tsi 150c, the next-generation sonic drill.

♪

it's expensive, you know?

Like, almost $20,000 a day for this thing,

but it's well worth it.

It's sweet.

And it's the best you can get for plaster,

and it's cool how it makes a lot of noise and vibrates, so...

Narrator: Traditional auger drills use a corkscrew bit

to collect dirt samples,

but this can mix material from different layers,

giving inaccurate test results.

A sonic drill contains spinning weights in the head,

vibrating the hollow shaft 150 times a second.

When the drill touches the ground,

the vibrations allow the bit to bore straight through the dirt

and collect a clean core sample.

[ whirring ]

♪

I know to you guys this is just another day of drilling,

but this is [bleep] cool.

Liam: Right now, we have a full core sample of the ground below us.

It's kind of like sticking a straw into, like,

a milkshake, putting your thumb on it and pulling it out.

So now what?

We'll pack up and go and wash them,

and then we'll probably know within a day

if it's worth mining.

Sweet.

Alright.

I think that we'll have good results from the sense

that they'll all be accurate,

but if this ground is not minable,

I don't know what the future of the company looks like.

♪

♪

-what's up? -Hey, guys.

How's it going? -Good, how are you?

-Oh, I'm not too bad. -Did you find us some gold?

I found some gold.

As you can see, this is the gold we got from each hole.

Narrator: For the ground to be profitable,

parker needs at least 0.02 ounces per square foot.

Parker: [bleep] damn it.

It's a pretty bad mine,

0.0018 ounces per square foot.

It's tough.

Well, you'd probably lose money on a cut like that.

[bleep].

We're back to square one.

Alright. -Alright.

-Thanks, man. -Yeah, thank you.

Have a good trip home. I'm going to take these.

I'm guessing they're all mine. -Don't lose them.

-I'll try not to. -Take care.

It's great to have, like, that drill here and have that process

and have results that you know are accurate,

but it definitely would've been nice if they were better,

but hopefully we'll find some ground somewhere.

♪

♪

narrator: Tony beets is investing

in a monster wash plant for next season,

but to get it ready, he's had to shut down his entire operation.

Before he can get back up and running,

he needs to haul a 25-ton hopper feeder

out of the ground before winter hits,

and it's frozen in place.

Tony's plan?

Send in son mike in the 700 excavator

to lift the hopper from the uphill position

and lower it slowly onto its side.

Daughter monica in the d10 dozer will pull from below,

which should free it from the ground

it's currently stuck in, so she can store it for winter.

Man: Let's make it happen then, folks.

Mike: So now we got a d10 hooked up to the other side

to give it a bit of a pull,

and hopefully I can let her down safely.

Yep.

♪

really don't want that [bleep] feeder come down towards me.

Oh [bleep] [bleep] [bleep].

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. [bleep].

♪

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Narrator: At paradise hill...

Monica: Stop. [bleep] me.

Narrator: ...The beets are struggling to haul out

a monster 25-ton hopper feeder vital

to tony's new game-changing wash plant for next season.

Monica: That looks pretty [bleep] dangerous.

She's heavier than she looks.

Narrator: To add lifting power, mike moves his 700 excavator closer.

♪

[ metal grinding, creaking ]

♪

it's terrifying to see a giant hopper

start to fall towards you.

♪

whoa.

[ clank! ]

narrator: Mike has pulled a 2-inch-thick steel d-ring clean off.

Now it's all on monica.

[ engine groans ]

♪

♪

overall, that didn't go too bad.

It's going to sit perfectly fine here.

It's not going to freeze in that bad.

It'll be fine.

Narrator: The hopper feeder is ready for action next spring

when tony will use it to feed his monster trommel.

Kevin should then be able to run up to 350 yards an hour

and make up for this season's lost time

by tapping into the mega cut's estimated

$10 million of unclaimed gold.

♪

♪

parker: Getting carsick back there?

What's wrong, fred?

With the crater cut almost mined out,

parker schnabel has abandoned further expensive drill-testing

to find new ground to mine next season,

so he's heading 12 miles further south to the black hills.

So, parker, what's the deal with black hills?

Like, why are we going there?

One thing I do know is that one of the biggest wash plants

that's been built was built for this creek.

Four hundred yards an hour, it's a massive plant,

but the big thing is it's a big block of ground.

Whether we can make a deal happen

has yet to be figured out.

Oh, my [bleep].

Wow.

Look at this place.

That's beautiful.

Oh, yeah.

Brennan: Untouched territory.

End of the freaking road.

And it's a couple miles, I think 3 miles of virgin ground

from here downstream.

Narrator: The black hills were first staked in the 1880s

by a group of scandinavian miners

from minnesota known as the monitors.

Mining continued into the 20th century,

pulling out tens of thousands of ounces of gold.

If we can start finding some gold here and it's minable,

[bleep] there's years of mining here.

Mm-hmm.

Piles of ground and the nice part -- no neighbors.

-Yeah. -Yeah, I like that.

I'd like to try to find a spot maybe in the corner

down there against the cut face

or something where we can do a little bit of testing.

It'll be all ours if we can find some gold.

Alright. Let's get started.

Let's do it.

Narrator: Parker has brought a small excavator

and a mini trommel to test the ground.

Brennan: Fred, look out, timber.

-We good? -Yep.

Dozer, where's the gold?

Do you say here, dozer?

Dozer says here.

Get this ground opened up, and see if we can find some pay.

Okay.

Narrator: It takes brennan an hour to dig out a pile of pay.

We need something to pay off

because none of us know where we're going next season.

All the stuff getting to it sure does look nice.

Finding some bedrock?

Found you some dirt to wash at least.

Alright. Let's get started.

Everybody clear!

Parker and his junk again. [ laughs ]

[bleep] damn it.

Why can't you have that much energy at work, yeah?

[bleep]. You go.

I don't have any energy.

Whoa.

Are you [bleep] kidding me?

-First tilt. -Whoo-hoo.

Give me that stuff, yeah.

The trommel is working.

Rocks on the top, pay dirt on the bottom.

Alright. I think we're good.

[ trommel powers off ]

fred: It looks good, right, like, the type of dirt?

We won't know until we pan it.

You guys get the fire set up, and I'll pan this stuff.

So this pan is just to see if there's some gold

and some future for us here.

Narrator: After drawing a blank at the indian river,

parker's hopes for next season now rest on this pan.

Now let me show you what we've got.

-Alright. -So does it have gold in it?

Oh, [bleep], okay.

-Fine stuff, huh? -Yeah.

Holy.

Wow, incredible.

There's, like, 15 to 25 colors there.

I think that's pretty good because it was only 1/2 yard,

that one.

Narrator: After two more pans with similar results,

parker has a big decision to make on his next season.

At the end of the day, the tests here, for me, they're promising.

We're finding gold.

We're finding pay.

There's a huge pile of mining and history on this creek.

Tens of thousands of ounces have come out of here before,

and there's miles of it that haven't been mined

that's available to us right now.

♪

♪

zee: This is the time of year we want to do a little bit extra.

Whatever you can do to try and get, you know,

an extra bucket or two an hour or something like that.

Narrator: Twenty weeks into the season at duncan creek,

rick ness' team continues the push to break even.

Further up the valley,

rick is determined to find better ground.

So far, this treasure hunt is not really yielding

any treasure, but I'm not giving up.

I mean, there's got to be ground here with gold in it somewhere.

Narrator: After his landlords' last target failed to deliver,

rick is taking matters into his own hands

and following his instincts to find gold-rich ground

and save his season.

Rick jr.: It's time to find us some real good ground

and give us a real good end to our season.

♪

narrator: Rick sr. And gene take the atv to try and catch up with him.

I don't know why he's going over there.

Man: We got some pretty major challenges here

in coming up into the valley.

Like, there's a lot of,

like, really big boulders, lot of water.

♪

♪

♪

there's a hole in the ground.

Man #2: Yeah, it's looking good from here.

That last bucket come out pretty clean without

a bunch of [bleep] flopping on it?

Yeah.

It's gravel, so, you know.

Might as well test it.

-Huh? -Pan it.

Oh, pan it, yeah.

♪

♪

it's the first place that we've been able to really test.

So there's a lot riding on this.

This pan right here could be the difference

between me going home broke or not.

This is definitely not the big gold

that I was looking for, but that's more like it.

That's pretty [bleep] awesome.

Look at that.

Well, it's nice to see there's some colors in the pan,

but [bleep] the reality of it is it's probably 1/2 mile of road

to build to get up here.

Rick sr.: To build a road just to get in here with a rock truck

could take a week or 2 to get a good, solid foundation down.

Rick jr.: Well, there's gold there, but...

I don't know.

The real kick in the ass for the end of the season

would be us to start building this [bleep] road,

have the weather come in, freeze us out

after we sunk a bunch of money into infrastructure

and didn't get anything out of it.

How many risks do you take in one season

on if there's enough or not?

[ inhales/exhales sharply ]

I don't know. Where do you go from here?

We just keep running what we're running right now,

and hopefully, I mean, we're just about to the bottom of it.

See if it gets real good.

If it doesn't, [bleep] I don't know.

Close up shop.

♪

narrator: Down the valley in the gold room,

karla is cleaning up a week's worth of running.

Karla: Yeah, it's looking like the gold just isn't what we expected.

Rick cannot come out of a season again

without making money, you know?

This could be his last year mining ever

if he doesn't put some bank away.

I just want rick to break even.

That's, like, all I can ask for.

♪

rick jr.: What's up, guys?

I really want to thank you right off the bat

for taking care of things

while I was out there looking for ground.

Narrator: For rick to break even and send his crew home

with gold for the winter,

he needs to hit at least 50 ounces a week.

So far, he's averaged just 18.

You know, we're still on that high-grade.

You know, hopefully it's holding up.

Oh. She looks pretty good.

Here we go.

We got 10. And we got 20.

I'll speed it up a bit, 30.

Going past 40.

-Oh, yeah. -Going over 50.

Rick jr.: Going over 60.

Karla: Yes.

Alright. -Alright.

-Sixty-three point four one. -Yes.

-Whoo-hoo. -That's nice.

Narrator: Rick's biggest weekly total of the season,

worth nearly $90,000.

Rick: Bingo.

We are continuing that upward trend.

-Yeah, buddy, y'all like it? -Yes, sir.

Hopefully we will... We can keep this trend going.

Yep.

Pound it hard.

Pound it hard. Aw, yeah.

One, two, three, rally.

♪

-well, freddy? -Let's do it.

I'm ready for bed, to be honest. Me too.

Narrator: After a long day of prospecting, brennan and fred

prepare for a night in the yukon wilderness.

Fred: Parker, we've got a tent here.

-Well, good. -Come party.

Yeah, I'll sleep in my truck.

You're not going to come out here?

You know how [bleep] cold it's going to be in there?

-Oh. -We have a woobie.

It's going to be warm. -That is, like, for plus 30.

-Yeah. -This is for three people.

Each get a corner.

Fred: Dozer, want to come in?

Oh, look at this woobie.

[ laughs ]

see, dozer does not like being in there, fred.

Aw.

-Good night, fred. -Night.

-Night. -I'm sleeping in my truck.

It's going to idle all night long.

We have heat when you need it. -Yeah, yeah.

♪

♪

you all set?

Narrator: At duncan creek, it's time for rick sr. To head home.

Ready to rock.

Well, it's always good having you here, dad.

I appreciate it.

Well, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you having me up.

I don't know how much pay is left in that hole there,

but we're going to be here running it until it's gone.

Hopefully there will be some better pay for you

and get you through the end of the season, right?

That's the hope. Alright.

Love you, dad. Love you too, son.

Alright. Get home safe.

Take care. Yep.

Rick has always kind of been a risk-taker, you know,

and his entire adult life he's made me nervous

with some of the directions he's turned,

and I got to be honest.

I'm just always, like,

worried about a disastrous financial situation, you know?

Crossing our fingers that they're going to finish out

the season really strong.

♪

♪

narrator: Back from his prospecting trip in the black hills,

parker is ready to weigh the last of the gold

from the crater cut.

Things went alright here?

Mitch: Yeah, ran good. Kind of missed out.

I didn't get to on the field trip.

[ laughter ]

well, did you guys find any ground out there?

Out at black hills, it's better prospects and better owners,

but whether there's a deal to be made

I've yet to find out.

Well, we're going to need something quick because,

I mean, we got through all of the rest of the crater

cut today, so, I mean, we've got death valley

and the red zone left, and that's it, man.

Okay.

We will find something, but for now,

we need some money to make that happen,

and you got the money, chris?

Oh, we're going to get a little bit here.

[ chuckling ]

this is red.

Big red just been chugging right along.

Narrator: This year, big read has averaged 216 ounces a week.

Forty, 70, 100, 30, 40, 50, 156.2.

Worth $219,000, but 28 percent down.

-It's not too bad. -Yeah.

I mean, it's nothing special, so it's certainly not great.

Chris: Here's slucifer.

Narrator: Slucifer has averaged 245 ounces a week.

Eighty, 90, 120, 150, 180,

228.5.

Narrator: Also down seven percent.

It gives us 384 ounces for the week.

Parker: We're not going the right direction, chris.

Oh, I know, but we're going in a direction.

What happened to our almost 500-ounce weeks?

[ chuckles ] well, you know, the ground is what it is, right?

Yep, bummer.

Are we at 6,000?

Well, we're bumping right up against it: 5,971 ounces.

Fifty-nine seventy-one.

The crater cut was nothing special.

But, like, overall, we're still doing great.

-Mm-hmm. -Which is really nice.

We got time left and almost 6,000 ounces,

so can't complain about that.

No complaints there.

Narrator: Worth nearly $8.5 million,

just $600,000 short of last season's total,

vital funds towards parker's search for new ground.

And for the most part, it seems like everybody

is still having fun, which is good.

-Mm-hmm. -Oh, yeah. -Yeah.

Gold-wise, it was a [bleep] week.

The exploration side of things, you know, it's really difficult,

but ultimately we will find someplace to mine,

and I've just got to balance,

you know, making sure we have home for next year

with finishing this year strong, and we're almost at 6,000.

♪

narrator: On the next "gold rush"...

...As the mining season comes to a close...

-Whoa. -...Parker...

-Slow the [bleep] down. -...Rick...

Hope for the best.

Narrator: ...And tony...

Tony: For [bleep] sake, you guys break the [bleep].

Narrator: ...Risk it all...

Brennan: Watch out.

Sorry, get the [bleep] out of the way.

Narrator: ...To hit their goals.

There's lots of gold up here.

It's just...You just find it.

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