Original subtitles

We're going for 2,000 ounces this year.

It's double what we did last year.

We'll be able to find ourselves a claim that we could mine this season.

Yo.

On this final episode ofWinter's Fortune...

You guys need to get out of here right now.

The mining season is fast approaching.

Fred Lewis has one remaining prospect...

The road ends here.

...to secure a mine.

I mean look at that.

We're looking at it drooling.

Oh, buddy.

Rick Ness takes delivery of a behemoth.

Carl has spent half a million dollars in one dozer.

That thing is huge.

That could make or break his gold target.

Whoa.

We got a problem over here, buddy.

And Tony Beets gets his house in order...

This is a little bit scary.

...before getting a call

that determines the fate of his season.

How are you doing in quarantine, Rick?

I'm pretty sick of it if, I'm being honest.

There's so much that we could be doing but, you know, it's part of the process.

Two weeks from the start of the mining season,

Rick Ness is in mandatory COVID quarantine.

So what's the scoop? What's, what's going on with the dozer?

You, wait, you did a deal on a dozer.

Last week Carl bought a massive 475 Komatsu dozer

worth half a million dollars without Rick's approval.

Are you serious? I mean that's, that's the whole budget, Carl.

I'm still scared of that thing,

I'm being honest with you, you know what I mean.

That's a lot more than I bargained for

and I feel like it's out of my league but...

We'll make it work, buddy, you and me.

Go big or go home.

What, what did you figure out for the process of getting that thing up here like?

No, everybody were coming up and getting it built

and, yeah, I got different regulations than you guys.

I could come in to get it assembled enough

so we can get off the truck

but I'm going to have to head off and I got surgery coming up.

Just getting a lump removed out of my chest there,

so, obviously, they just want to get rid of it make sure

there's nothing cancerous, right, so.

I mean dude.

Carl missed the end of last season due to surgery to remove lumps in his back.

With the next mining season starting in just two weeks,

Rick could be down a key man on his operation.

Have they given you any kind of an idea about downtime,

recovery time anything like that yet?

To be honest with you, Rick,

I don't know how long I'm going to be out but, you know me, right.

I'll say I'll bounce back pretty quick.

Yeah, no, I do know you and actually the, the thing I'm most worried

about is trying to keep you from coming back too soon.

You're maniac.

Well, Carl, I'm not going to see you now until after the operation

but, you know, hopefully, when I get out of quarantine,

you're going to have a nice big shiny 475 sitting there for me to jump into.

Yes, sir, man, I'll get on her, buddy.

-See you soon. - All right, later.

Purpose of this dozer this season

is to move this huge amount of dirt we have to move.

I think with what I've got here, yeah, it's a little big

but, it's going to move mountains

and it's going to get us to where we need to be this season

and we need to see all that gold in the runs

and I think this is the way we're going to get there, right so.

Carl heads to meet the 475 dozer

before its 1,500-mile convoy north.

With a mechanic's quarantine exemption,

he has less than a week to get Rick's mega machine

up and running before returning home for surgery.

- My, man. - Let's get going, buddy.

- How you doing, dude? - Good. Long time.

It's time to see you, buddy.

- It's been a while. - Yeah.

Short on manpower,

Carl has drafted in old friend Parker Schnabel's co-foreman Brennan Ruault.

I just can't get over the size of it.

It's huge.

It's the biggest and the best, right?

Yeah.

- Look at this ripper, buddy. - Holy

- That thing is huge. - Yeah, buddy.

It's 30,000 pounds right there, man.

That should get you to the gold a little bit quicker.

It would be nice to have a guy there like you to run it

I bet it would.

Yeah, man, I'd love to run this thing

maybe when we get it going, I'll go plow some stone for you.

- Yeah, dude, let's... - Try it out anyway.

I've known Brennan for like 15 years.

I got him on when I was working with Parker.

He was up there with me and he's still there, right?

So it should be nice to have a guy like him around. That's for sure.

He's a good worker and he knows what he's doing, right, so.

Move your from here.

- I'm going to get my hands dirty. - I know.

You're going to have to get your nails done after this.

Anything I can do to help a good friend of mine...

Boy, some mechanic you are.

I know.

He's got a lot on his plate.

You know, he's got a major surgery coming up here in the next few weeks,

so if I can help take some stress off his plate

by helping him put this big beast together,

makes me happy, makes him happy, and we'll get the job done.

Let's go.

Weighing in at 120 tons

the immense dozer has been broken down

and loaded onto five flatbed trucks for its two-day journey to Keno.

It's going to be a game changer.

See you guys in the Yukon.

This season with ambitions of a 16.2 million dollar gold total,

Tony Beets is doubling down.

Water license permitting,

he plans to reopen his Indian River claim

and run it alongside his thousand acres at Paradise Hill.

Over the winter, Tony's been on a massive shopping spree.

What about if you set it at four million

and try to stay below?

He spent 1.4 million dollars on a colossal 950 excavator...

...and 3.5 million dollars on a giant D11 Dozer.

But he's not done yet.

Hi. What's up?

That's good.

Five rock trucks, costing 1.5 million dollars

are being delivered to Dawson City.

Why? You're slightly over budget.

Slightly means like 2.4.

Yeah.

Bringing Tony's total spend

to 6.4 million Canadian dollars,

over 5 million U.S. dollars.

You know what I always say? I don't need that much.

Oh, I'm just need shampoo in both places.

My biggest fear is that the license won't pull through

and the equipment will be sitting there,

so you have one job is making all that back.

I'm not the one spending money, it's all you, dude, it's all you.

Lord.

Tony picks up the final pieces in his strategic spending spree.

Dingus.

Five new rock trucks brings the size of Tony's fleet to 24.

Together they can carry over 800 tons of dirt.

Heave-ho

You know what makes sense?

The one with your face on it doesn't want to start in the cold.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Or work in the cold. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Try it.

Go.

Try it again.

All right.

The rock trucks travel 19 miles

from Dawson City to Tony's Paradise Hill mine.

It's kind of nice.

T Beets got these five rock trucks,

which I think if we get out to the Indian it'll really help...

get T Beets to those 9,000 ounces.

The highway is nice and dry but the hill is a little bit slick.

Before they reach their new home

a last hurdle for the 1.5 million dollar rock trucks

is a 20-degree slope up to the mine site.

You know, it's been plowed

but where it's been plowed and everybody's been running on it,

the road's heated up and then frozen again so it might be a little iffy.

Tony Beets is attempting to convoy

his five newly purchased rock trucks up to Paradise Hill.

But even with the support of the D6 dozer,

the melting snow and black ice

has turned the hill into a giant rock truck slip and slide.

Tony re-plows the road.

And then takes control of the convoy.

All right. We have to get to work, buddy.

Are you going to help me?

With the start of the mining season fast approaching,

Khara Lewis is chasing down leads on a claim for the Lewis crew to mine this year.

This is a step I skipped last year

because I wasn't involved in this process at all.

I want to support Fred.

I want to support his dreams but it's a do or die right now.

It's either we find the mine or not;

and not only are we losing last year's money

but if we don't find the right spot

that means Fred's dream of what we're planning to do

and helping other veterans like that dies too.

So far Fred has prospected three mines.

One, two, that is not going to pay your bills.

Almost out of time and money...

That's what I got.

...and with competition for ground higher than ever before,

the Lewis crew have secured one last shot to find a mine in the Lower 48.

All right. Where the hell are we going, babe?

The one we're going to today is a two-million-dollar spot.

- Holy crap. - Okay.

Khara has found a potential property deep in the Arizona desert.

Kyle, you still behind us?

- Yeah, I'm coming. - You enjoying this scenery?

Wondering at which point we run into Speedy Gonzales and Road Runner.

It looks just like Looney Tunes.

I have a lot of hopes for this place.

I really want it to work and the guy I'm in contact with Glen Billeter.

- He was on Parker's team.

What are the odds either it's way coincidence or it's faked?

Glen Billeter worked for Parker Schnabel

as a gold recovery expert at Big Nugget Mine in Alaska.

That little pocket right there is loaded. Isn't it?

Bingo bango.

Oh, my gosh.

You may have just saved your bacon, Parker.

More recently, Glen has been prospecting the 100 acres

of virgin ground at Midas Creek.

- You must be Glen. - I am.

How are you?

Fred, nice to meet you finally.

- Nice to meet you, Fred. - The road ends here.

- The road ends. This is it. - Holy cow.

Come on over here. I'll show you some of the stuff that we're looking at.

- Jeez. - Wow.

That is a view.

What's the history here for gold-mining?

Well, this property here has never been mined

but in the region, there's been a lot of mining for the last 100 years.

This particular property here was owned by AT&T

- since the early 1900s... - Oh, really.

...which they had bought for the Western Union wire cable and...

So no one touched it when they owned it.

It's never ever been mined, ever.

- Wow. - The only person

that's ever done any work on this property is me.

Convinced of Midas Creek's potential,

Glen wants to purchase the property

but needs partners to run the mine.

We're able to mine all the way from the face of that plateau...

- Okay. -...all the way around the creek,

all the way up to that other plateau clear up there.

This gravel basin underneath here it's actually over 100 feet deep

and the gold that has been washing out of the mountains as it came down here,

it settled in the sand, and caught in the rocks and it accumulated.

Wow. So there must have been massive flash floods here then.

Oh, massive.

It can go all the way across this whole basin here

and be as much as 20 feet deep and 200 feet across.

Holy cow.

That's some gold movement right there.

Yeah, true.

Midas Creek centers around a gold rich basin.

Each year this basin floods with water washed down from the surrounding mountains

bringing with it fine gold that settles into 100 feet of gravels beneath.

Untouched this process has been repeating each flood season

for hundreds of thousands of years resulting in potentially gold rich pay.

There could be a hell of a deposit from over time, all the gold washing in

but it sounds like there could even be fresh gold being washed in potentially.

There, there is, potentially.

And that's the thing that's really exciting about this is

you could clean out this whole river and come back a year later

and it's all going to be filled back in again.

- Wow. - Yeah, that's pretty unique.

It is. If you guys, you know, want to mine this with me,

you're not here to, to just make a living.

- Right. - I want to make

massive amounts of gold.

- I like that. - That's what I like to hear.

- I'm okay with that. - I think we all do.

- That's great. - Yeah.

This piece of property looks fantastic.

It's a little bit secluded, a little bit hard to get to

but it has all the tell-tale signs of a great spot for gold.

The river comes right through it.

It has several bends so we're looking at it drooling.

This is some of the gold that I've gotten off of it already.

- This is from this property. - Yeah.

I mean, look at that.

- That's... - Yeah.

- That's hard to come by. - And this is really pure gold.

- It's probably like 90-91. - Yeah.

- 91-92. - Wow.

Look at that.

I got to say I think this is the first time on the trip

I've really been pretty excited.

Glen seems like a great guy.

How much yardage are we talking to get that amount of gold?

To get this somewhere between a half and a yard of material.

- Get out of here, no. - Yeah, seriously.

Oh, my God.

The amount of things he's telling us about this property

is just like if even some of it comes to fruition,

we could be finding ourselves in a pretty good spot.

That's the best pan I've ever seen in my life.

Honestly, I just want to go get my hands in the dirt

and kind of see what gold we come up with

because this place seems to have a lot of potential.

I'm excited.

- Let's do it. - Let's take it out.

Yeah, let's get some boots on the ground.

Okay. Good. I'm, I'm planning on buying the property.

I'm working on getting the finance.

We're done.

The property owner is adamant and we cannot go onto the property.

What?

You guys need to get out of here right now

and I will meet with you

as soon as I finish with the landowner.

meet you at the top.

That was a property owner calling me and he's gone nuts because you guys are out here.

I'm going to wait to talk to him.

See if maybe we can't come to some agreement.

One disappointment after another.

I had such a good feeling about this.

So let, let Glen deal with it. We'll regroup.

I think it's the best gold I've ever seen.

Would have been nice to get our hands dirty and be able to see it for ourselves.

I'm just pissed. Just want to get out of here.

I feel like I'm going to see flashing lights coming over that ridge any minute.

You got to love this springtime weather.

It's colder than balls this morning.

At Paradise Hill,

the beach crew are putting their new rock trucks through their paces.

Well, it's really nice that Tony got these new rock trucks.

This early in the season we have a lot of snow removal to do

but there's still only nine of us

even with the few people that have come on in the last couple of weeks.

So we're not making a whole lot of progress every day

but there's no point sitting around.

Tony has invested over five million dollars

in a fleet of earth-moving machines

but without people to run them they're worthless.

Beets.

How is Tony?

Hoping to pass the sniff test

and secure a job for the season

is Tony's 24-year-old nephew from The Netherlands, Mike Beets,

a former farmer just like Tony.

I've done some machine work like excavators and loaders.

But a lot smaller than here.

They did teach me something.

Not everything but...

That's what I'm counseling for.

Yep. We're going to have to find a new name though.

Sounds good.

Mike Beets heads down to the cut

to meet his namesake Mike Beets for his trial by fire.

I want to show Tony that I can do it.

I think it's nice that he trusts me enough

with this big, expensive equipment.

I don't want to mess this up.

Mike is in the D10 dozer,

stripping ground at Paradise Hill

in preparation for their upcoming 9,000-ounce season.

When it's all frozen,

you're always getting your neck cut ready.

Now it's New Mike's turn.

I started on a D9 it took me a full year of being on a D9 before I was allowed on a D10.

The D10 is just such a big machine.

It has so much power that you don't really want to put someone

who doesn't know what they're doing on it.

So why does they let me on it?

Don't take this wrong way

but we're hoping you have it in your ass like your dad did.

- Okay. - Either have or you don't.

We're hoping that runs in the family.

That's why we're giving you the chance.

- Okay. - I'll hop up the side and let you give it a try.

New Mike's challenge,

strip an 800-square-foot area of the cut

using the 85 ton D10 dozer in just one hour.

Normally, I work on a farm.

I'm used to working with tractors and that kind of equipment

but this is a really big difference working with a dozer today.

It's a lot bigger...

and a lot more powerful than the machines I'm used to.

It's totally different than anything I've ever driven.

Hard to get good, reliable people in.

That's one of those hereditary traits in our family of having a good work ethic.

So if he turns out with good at the dozer, that would be great.

We always need more dozer operators.

They're, they're hard to come by.

This is a little bit scary because I don't want to go too close to the edge.

And Tony's over there. That's a little bit scary.

Challenge complete. It's time for Tony's verdict.

Not too bad.

Well, I could use a little practice but it wasn't...

I don't think so.

I think so.

Okay.

I still got to learn a lot.

So it's pretty special that Tony gives me the opportunity to help him this season.

I know Tony's goal is to hit 9,000 ounces this year

and I am excited to be a part of his team

to accomplish that this season, we hope.

Nice and short, shorter, shorter, shorter.

Carl, hurry up.

I got to go work for Parker still.

The Ness crew's huge 475 dozer

has made it safely to Duncan Creek

accompanied by mechanic Carl Ross

and Parker's co-foreman Brennan Ruault.

We convoyed up with trucks

and here we are putting together one of the world's biggest dozers.

I mean, we've got six dozers on Parker's claim

but this thing will probably push them all right off the race site.

So whoever on Rick's crew gets to run this bad boy this year

is going to be having a smile on their face.

With the help of Carl's friend Leah,

the team have just two days to assemble the 120-ton beast

before Carl must return home for surgery.

We're going to get this track on here

and we can get this thing off blocks

and start assembling the rest of the machine, right?

The first job, attach the 36-foot tracks.

Oh, dude, that's scary.

You'll have to buck at this point.

You're good. Oh, underdog.

- You're good. yeah.

You, obviously, have the hugest window here.

I only got a couple of days to get this thing assembled before I have to get home.

So I got a lot of stuff on my plate and this is, this is huge

because if I don't get this done,

the boys can't come stripping if I'm not here, right?

So it's kind of a make or break for myself.

Hopefully, this thing is what we need this season to hit some serious numbers.

With the five-and-a-half-ton track in place,

the final link must be bolted into position.

I'm going to try my bolts. You want to grab the pad.

Why do you always give the guy with the bad back the heavy lifting.

Since when did your back get bad?

for like 25 years, man.

- From what? - Sitting on the couch.

Yeah.

Good for the back. Always use your lower back.

Yeah. I never need.

Because remember this thing can fall.

- Never late. - So nice and gentle.

Down a little bit.

Get that in there.

Well, that's the first major drop down,

getting both those tracks wrapped around.

So super happy.

It's a good feeling, right?

As far as I am concerned, we took too long

but, you know, I don't work on these things every day so.

Hey, Carl, I got a problem over here, buddy.

I can't get that grease gun on the nipple in there.

Uh-oh. This ain't good. My cannon's twisted.

That's not good.

Hey, Carl, I got a problem over here, buddy.

I can't get that grease cut on the nipple in there.

man.

In Duncan Creek, Carl Ross and Brennan Ruault

are halfway through their two-day dozer build.

Uh-oh. This ain't good. My cannon's twisted.

Each of the 475's massive tracks has a hydraulic system called a cannon

that contains a spring and grease to keep the tracks at an optimum tension.

But one of these cannons has rotated out of place

preventing grease from being added.

Without this grease the hydraulic system is stuck.

The tracks risk being too loose and slipping off.

To fix the issue, Carl needs to open up the dozer's undercarriage.

To show off the dark I really don't want to slip this track

and pull the whole idler assembly out but we're at a time crunch right now.

I really can't afford to do this but here we are.

We're doing it right, so it's tough.

Yeah.

Let's grab the big old boy here.

She's rusted on there.

Just settle down.

Have you come in and save the team.

Then Carl removes the guide plates that hold the cannon in place.

heavy.

You're like the toll bridge troll right now.

All right. Okay.

That's the end of our cannon.

It's twisted on the back of my tensioner, right,

so I'm going to try to spin it inside, put our guides back in

and, you know, hopefully that works.

Carl plans to use brute force

to rotate the cannon back into the correct position,

allowing him to get grease into the hydraulic system

and set the tension of the tracks.

Nothing, right?

here I'm going to chase.

- Just hold it here. - We can do it.

Oh, we got issues, buddy.

We got issues.

That's not good.

I don't know what we're going to do here, man.

Split the track, pull the cannon out.

That's all we can do, man.

I don't want to do it but we're going to have to like

With the cannon refusing to move,

Carl's only option is to separate the track

and take apart the 475's undercarriage.

A process that will take a full day, time Carl and Brennan don't have.

We're under, obviously, a big-time crunch

and we need to have this done before I leave, right, before I have surgery.

100% something you don't need.

So here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

Okay. So you see this tab there.

We pull this out a bit. It will spin up into there.

We don't got to pull it right out.

Let's got to pull it a bit and we'll spin it.

In a hail Mary move to spin the cannon,

Carl will attach the excavator to the undercarriage

and use its power to pull and extend it out,

leaving more room to rotate the cannon into place

and allow access to the grease valve.

Sometimes it's best just to take it right apart;

sometimes you can cheat it, right?

I'm hoping we can cheat it. Okay, buddy, nice and easy.

Good, good, yeah, we're good.

It's a risky move.

Pull too hard and the chains will break,

damaging the dozer and the excavator.

Ready.

Yeah, just a little bit, buddy.

Just watch yourself, a little more.

Hey.

Hasn't moved. You got to keep going.

I'm just hiding, okay.

Go little more.

Watch out.

Whoa!

Oh, yeah.

- Got it. - Yeah, my man.

- How was all then? - Awesome.

I'm pretty happy with that. I'm pretty happy with that.

I just really didn't want to take this all apart.

This is good that we, we know what's going on now and it's fixed right

because I thought we're going to do a little bit of a bush fix

and, at the end of the day, it's got to be fixed properly

but, in this case, it's fixed right now.

So we're good to go. So I'm happy about it, right?

Tracks tightened,

Carl and Brennan put the finishing touches

to the 475 attaching the 8-ton ripper.

Hold up.

Okay. Slow. Pretty good.

Yeah!

Then connecting the 17-foot blade.

We've got it.

We're ready to try coming ahead here just nice and easy.

Go on.

Okay. We're good.

- Just like that. - Just like that.

My man.

Finishing just within their two-day deadline.

Yeah. I want to say I want to come run it, take it for a rip.

Okay, buddy, Take her up.

Take it for a rip.

you need a crane to get up here.

I know it's pretty big, mate.

man, you need an airport to turn around.

That's sick.

- It's so big. - It's so big.

It's gonna be so good.

Someone's going to have fun this year, Carl.

Yeah, I hope so.

He's alive.

This was my baby. I'd wanted this so bad.

It just makes me sick to my stomach

thinking we could lose this when we just found it.

Welcome to gold mining.

After a promising start,

a dispute with the landowners has forced the Lewis crew

off the virgin ground of Midas Creek

before they could even begin prospecting.

This world we entered in is cut throat.

Didn't sound like Glen was very much in the giving up phase.

No, I don't think he is either.

The crew retreat to neutral ground,

while Glen attempts to resolve the issue.

I feel like hope's dying off right now.

We've been striking out everywhere we've been going for one reason or another.

So going to try to keep my fingers crossed,

keep a little bit of hope alive,

but every time we kind of get our knees taken out it takes away,

you know, the last little bit of hope we have,

which trying to hang on till the end

and right now it's not looking good, though.

This is the mine that I was so excited to get out to.

I just had a good feeling about it.

This is the place I wanted to see.

We don't have a lot of time to play with.

Or options.

We are and if we don't find an option fast,

we are not mining this year.

We can't afford to mine if we don't have options.

It is what it is.

Well, there's Glen.

Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to see the property,

not right at this moment.

The property owners won't let us over there

until I have my deposit in escrow with them to purchase the property.

I've got some work to do to get that sorted out.

You know, it's just an unfortunate turn of events.

I have to take responsibility for that.

That was my fault.

So I guess we have to part our ways today.

Well, that got ugly real fast.

We just have to keep moving forward from here.

- That's all we can do. - Yeah.

There's always hiccups in gold mining.

There are. There are.

- We're finding that. - Okay.

Glen, I really appreciate you for your time.

- Okay. - Thank you, Glen.

Hey, I look forward to seeing you soon.

Yeah.

Well, that was a really disappointing day.

I'm really sorry we weren't able to work things out,

be able to get over there and get some gold for those guys.

Very frustrating.

- Don't beat yourself up. - I'm not. I mean it sucks.

But I wouldn't give just to get an hour down there.

This was my chance to prove that I can also keep up in the prospecting game

and I've learned a lot in this last year as well

and now it's being ripped out from under me and taking it so personally.

It's hard not to.

You know why I like that though?

It just tells me you're invested.

Out of options for mining in the Lower 48, Fred's crew regroup.

That was tough.

You know what the worst part about it to me was seeing the gold.

It doesn't mean it's done.

It's not happening this season.

You know, nonetheless, man, it's like where do we go from here

because we got kicked off the property today.

We didn't really have much luck in Nevada or Lovelock.

Seems like everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

I mean, we can just give up. It sucks.

I'm really pissed.

I feel drained and upset about it but...

We got barely any money left at all.

- I know. - None of us are quitters by any means

but if, if we have to call it, you have to call it.

You can't just, we got to stop the bleeding at some point.

I mean, we can't quit.

We got the rest of the team waiting for us to give 'em the good news that we have a claim

like I feel like right now we're just hitting our stride as a team

and I feel like it's just a waste to, to not complete our mission.

So we're going to be unanimous in saying we're down but not defeated.

In the Yukon, it's not just Tony splurging on new equipment...

I want to order a stroller for you

and I need to know which one you want

because there's like 50 million choices now.

Ultra-terrain.

Does it have shocks?

It's got like really good shocks.

No, no, that's important as well.

And I got a friend, who also works at a mine.

When she had her kid, she said the only thing we couldn't do was really deep CAT tracks.

One left in stock.

Add to cart.

I really appreciate you buying the stroller.

Baby stuff is expensive.

But, you know what, that stroller should last you through a couple of them.

- No... - Good Lord.

- No, no. - How's that for pressure?

I think I'm not doing too bad

but I still need some more time to be a professional.

At Paradise Hill, with their new equipment and new operator,

the Beets crew were stripping ground ready for their 9,000-ounce season.

Before they can start work on their second 2,800-acre claim

at Indian River,

Tony needs his water license approved.

Tony gathers the family to figure out the game plan.

So what are we potentially looking at?

I know I can pull my weight. Can you?

I'll remember this. I'll wait for the phone call.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Kevin, big brother.

I broke something. I'll wait for it.

Let's do this.

Oh, look at that Duncan Creek.

Fresh out of two weeks in quarantine,

Rick Ness and Chris Kruse arrive back at Duncan Creek

for the first time this season.

yeah, right.

It's huge and it's nice.

And come face to face with their colossal new bulldozer.

I never thought in a million years I'd have something like this on my site.

Represents our future.

Six weeks ago Rick decided to double down

on his upcoming mining season.

So, what's our season goal going to be?

I'm thinking we'll double it. We'll do 2,000 ounces.

Investing over $500,000,

he has brought his old washplant Monster Red back to life.

There's a nugget. There's a nugget.

We set this up in Yukon and it gets me more of these bad boys.

It's worth its weight in gold.

And found the directional drilling technique

that will help identify the richest deposits of gold at Duncan Creek.

Yeah, baby, I like that.

The huge 475 dozer is the final piece of his off-season preparation.

With a 17-foot blade,

8-ton ripper and running at 900 horsepower,

it will cut through the tough permafrost at Duncan Creek

and help the Ness crew dig deeper than ever before.

It looks to me like it'll move a ton of dirt.

You got to give it to Carl, man,

like this thing came on what was it five trucks?

Yeah. I'm glad I wasn't involved in that

because me and him probably would have been at it.

It's going to be tough without him in the start here

but we'll just have to hammer through.

We'll get it done. We started last year just you and me.

- Well, we got a good start. - Exactly.

- Let's build around it. - All right, buddy.

Rick is ready to start his season

with one of the largest dozers in the world at his disposal...

Oh, ho, buddy.

...the gold hunt is on.

Yeah, I can feel the ground shaking behind me.

I bet your cruiser can feel it out there too.

It's cool seeing this gigantic piece of equipment here

because it really helps solidify Rick's commitment to this upcoming season.

We did work all winter long

and here we are now with this behemoth ready to move a mountain.

We've been working in the off season, getting prepared.

It feels really good going in with a solid plan.

We're going to go after some real, real deep ground.

We're going to be moving more overburden than anybody's ever moved on Gold Rush

but the reward there is, hopefully, some massive, massive gold.

There's no doubt about it. This is one hell of a machine.

We're going for 2,000 ounces this year.

Yeah, it's double of what we did last year

and I think that it's all perfectly within our reach.