Original subtitles

Hey, guys, meet me over at camp. I need to talk to you real quick.

Right on, right on.

We are halfway through the season.

This has been a struggle every single day.

It was a learning year. It was a setup year.

And it was basically a starting point.

We got a long ways to go,

but these guys, there is no quit in them

for all the type of people that continued to move forward.

My commitment to them is to keep them on the gold.

No matter how far we have come we can always go further.

Hi, what's going on?

Let's be real.

The gold that we are making, I am disappointed.

I have been talking to Lance. He wants to see if he can help.

You would be mad at me if I didn't bring this to you.

We found another prospect.

It's in one of the best gold mining districts in Alaska.

I think we got to go look.

I am going to be leaving for a couple of days.

If I have come to Alaska and there is not enough gold, that's failure.

I am going to keep looking.

No matter how hard we mine,

I need to have a plan B.

Dave and I pondered, we are late in the season.

We don't want to get production down here.

But you guys are going to have to take it up when he leaves.

Lance and Dave going out to chase gold just baffled me.

We got to focus on this gold mine right here.

I think you better figure out one site before you move on to the others.

If you spread yourself out too thin, you might collapse real quick.

- Morning. - Morning, morning.

It's another balmy 50 degrees and rainy

here in beautiful Valdez.

Snow on the mountains a month early.

As the Alaskan winter closes in, Shelly heads back to the lower 48.

Going home for a bit to see family. Really looking forward to it.

And with Dave and Lance offsite on a prospect,

it is on second-in-command Jason Sanchez to lead the team.

Hey, Morgan, today I got to do the gold room,

that puts you in the excavator.

Y'all just haul the out of it.

Try and bury these guys if you can.

Dave is off on that prospect and, I mean, I hope he does well,

but you know where we are at.

Yeah, we got to stay focused here and up production.

As long as the pay keeps coming, we'll keep running fast.

We'll all keep up. No problem.

Dave's put out a challenge to us.

We set our goal to 450 ounces.

I think that's the only way we are going to be able to do it

is running the yard, is it right?

It's a volume-based property.

The more I can get to the plant,

the better are our odds of making a good gold total.

All in!

It is a big week. We got a challenge put in front of us

and I never backed down from one.

Snow's coming. It is getting colder. We got a tall order put in that

450 ounces in that box.

For any chance of hitting its target, the short-handed crew

must process 20% more paydirt.

Side wing is on.

Running more pay on this low-value ground

is the only way to increase gold returns.

We are going to have to up production.

That's the only way we are going to get 40 ounces a week.

All right, Chris, we are done.

Ten four!

While Shelly is away, Jason must play.

Shelly is gone today.

She going to be gone most of this week visiting family.

I can fill in for her at least. I'll be in here during the week.

Then back down in the excavator as soon as I get it done.

And then back up here the next morning and so on and so forth.

It is wild this year that Dave puts so much of his personal money into this operation.

To then just go, "Here you go, Jason. Make me my money back."

I mean, pressure, yes.

But obviously, I must have earned it or Dave wouldn't have done it.

We are going to run some massive volume, recover the gold

and turn low-grade into a good return.

All right, man. First load of the day.

Whoo!

Tough running this fast.

But you know what? Go big or go home. That's the only way to go.

You have to set something to push and drive yourself.

I mean, you have to.

And if we walk away this season with 450

then I will be extremely proud of this team

and what we have accomplished will be impressive. Really.

And we are gonna.

So many stories of the old timers was they found it,

they mined it but they were constantly looking out

is there was something better out there? Is there something better out there?

- That's what we are doing. - Yup.

We know that that glacier was to get us back into Alaska

and so we could start mining up here again

and we have to expand.

The gold that we are making this season does not justify the expenses.

So, this could be a future place to mine.

Dave and Lance travel seven hours, 180 miles northwest

to the Yentna-Cache Creek mining district,

responsible for, in today's money, over $360 million in gold

and on to the historic town of Stevensville.

So who are we meeting out here?

A gal named Michele and a guy named Steve

and Michele is a second-generation miner...

These are the people that I love to mine with or for

or if they are land owners, they're miners.

The key is to go out here, see if it has enough potential...

Yeah, let's just go meet him, throw a pan in the ground.

- Get a feel for the land, the people. - Okay.

Hello!

- Hello. Hi. - Hello.

Claim owner Michele Stevens and local miner Steve Sneed

have prospected on this land for over 30 years.

So is this pretty big nuggety country?

Yeah, actually, I do have some nuggets to show you.

This one Steve mined for me.

- Nice. - There are still good spots here...

- Yeah. Yeah. - ...but, you know, you got to work for them.

- This is quite a place you got here. - Thank you.

- How many acres do you have? - About 4,000.

- That's huge. - You don't come across that very often.

4,000 acres is almost like where do you start?

I believe that all my claims are good.

- Okay. - I think there is gold everywhere on them,

but I would definitely suggest my upper leases.

Famous for its rich placer deposits,

Stevensville's mining history dates back to 1905.

Since then, miners have successfully extracted gold in this surrounding region

in today's money, worth over $360 million.

But mining was limited in the 1980s.

In a long running dispute with the state of Alaska

after a 30-year legal battle, Michele finally won back the right to mine her land.

Tell me a little bit about your journey of keeping these claims and stuff.

These claims belonged to my predecessor which was Maxine Jacobson.

Maxine was in court for 15 years and then

when Maxine brought me in, I was in court for 18 years.

- And I promised I would tap a ground mine. - Okay.

But that's impressive that you took it upon yourself to fight the government

to keep this as a mining district

and you put your word on it and you followed through on that.

So, what are some of the values you have seen up here?

The best couple of ridges that I worked with had 200-ounce week.

- Wow. - In the...

- In the canyon. - In the canyon here. Yeah.

Could you show us some of that ground?

I'll take you right to it.

- Okay. Let's go. - Let's do it.

It was a good meeting, but I have been down this road before.

We need to go do some hand prospecting

see if there is some gold and then we will see.

I am looking for a plan B.

Stevensville is a big property. Maybe, it could be our future.

Let's pump it up little by little and go from there.

One hundred eighty miles southeast, as the Eagle's mechanic,

Nate must lead the charge toward increased production.

You know, we are way behind right now. We got to get 40 ounces a week.

We got to start doing something.

Plan is I want more volume

but with that, we're pushing the Eagle in the sluice box out of their comfort zone.

Things are stressed. I don't want them to pop.

Yeah, copy.

- Go ahead, Nater. - I think I'll turn it up some, see where we are at

and we will turn it up little by little and see what she holds.

As long as you are comfortable with the box, brother,

push it to the max and then, back it off one click.

I like challenges. So, let's really ramp it up.

Although it can run over 200 yards of dirt per hour,

the Eagle's wings are clipped by its sluices, designed for the smaller roach,

so the crew is yet to unleash its true power.

This box I wouldn't think would handle more than 150,

but hell's only way to find out. Let's do it.

We are running about 160 yards an hour.

See how it runs for a little bit, man the tails,

make sure we're not loosing it, blowing out the end.

I say we go, you know, find out what our max on the box is.

We don't have much longer. Getting better gold is what we need to be concerned with.

After an hour running at 160 yards,

Nate pans the tailings to check if gold is being pushed out of the sluices.

Now if we are gonna hit our goals, we gotta have nothing in the pan

because if we do, we got a problem

and we have to make adjustments for it.

It's like two little microns. I mean, microns.

I mean, it's so small, you can't even see it.

Not worth worrying about.

So what this is showing me that we can actually probably turn up some more.

You know, went from basically 140 to 160.

I think we will turn up some more.

Hey, Chris, you got copy?

Dude, I see two little little little microns, dude.

I think we can probably do another 10%, maybe 180 yards.

Yeah, ten four. All right, buddy, we'll turn it up some more.

Feels decent. Doesn't feel too bad.

I think we'll let it run there for a while.

You know, I think, we are finally hitting our stride now.

Everything is moving good. Dirt's good.

Everything is kind of just setting in.

- Coming up... - Hey, look at this.

...Dave closes in on Alaska Plan B.

Well, if they put this much effort into mining here

and there is this much evidence. There is gold.

There is no doubt about it.

Deep in the Alaskan wilderness...

Probably the most I got to run this excavator in a long time.

...the six-man crew goes all in for a record-breaking gold week.

If we can just keep everything going, everything consistent,

I think 40 ounces is very doable.

Here you go, Rick, I am doing the best I can right now.

Putting as much gold in the box as we can.

It looks good.

Nate turns the Eagle up to 180 yards an hour,

its fastest speed of the season yet.

I really think this box will hold more material.

I think we should turn it up again.

I mean, if it's not packing up,

it feels good.

I mean, I could feel the carpet start to feel good.

I really think we should turn it up some more.

I think Chris would be all about it.

I know he is always about running faster as well, as long as the box can handle it.

- Hey, Chris. - What's going on?

I know you are doing damn good up there.

You think you can hang in there, can't you?

Yeah, I'm good, man.

If the box is good, let's find out where it's not. Let's up this puppy. Let's go.

Nate pushes the Eagle once again to 190 yards per hour.

Pretty happy with it. Chris is doing well.

We're doing good. Right now, we're rocking and rolling.

Keep this up, it will be good.

Ooh, watch out!

Chris, stop!

Off the line.

Shut it down!

I split a hydraulic line.

The Eagle's shaker deck is powered by a hydraulic motor

which causes the screens to vibrate, allowing the gold to fall through

and larger material to slide off.

Revving the Eagle to near its maximum speed increases vibration

on the shaker deck to breaking point

and blows one of the hydraulic lines that feeds the motor.

The operational pressure drops and the Eagle is left lifeless.

Jason, you got copy?

Go ahead, Nater.

All right. We had the hydraulic line blow on the Eagle.

You know, it's a volume game.

But I'm a little worried that we're pushing the Eagle too hard.

Especially with those screens.

And right now Dave's away. So the buck falls on me.

I'm just gonna turn on idle.

Not turn the...

shaker deck on.

See if I see it dripping.

I ought to see where it's leaking at.

I seen it leaking at the hose there.

So we're gonna take this line off, right here.

We're gonna shove some rags in it

so we don't get oil all everywhere.

And hopefully the roach line is the same one.

If not, we have to see if we can get a hose made in town.

Last time I had to order parts, it was three days.

Rather anxious, you know, this is our season.

So,

there's the prospect.

In my opinion, that is the best prospect

in the whole drainage right there.

Okay, we wanna go to the left.

Dave and Lance travel with local miner, Steve Sneed,

to a 4,000-acre property,

a potential lifetime investment.

Whenever I go on these prospects, I really like to

learn from people that have mined it before.

Like, a guy like Steve, if he's mined it and prospected it,

I can use his knowledge, his wisdom,

and then, it saves me steps, which allows me to get back to the, you know, mining.

Wow, there's so much ground here.

- It's a big chunk of ground. - Big, big proposition, yeah!

Yeah, this, this is one of the biggest I've ever looked at.

Yeah.

Found some good pans up on that bench.

That's one of the targets, you would say...

- I would definitely say... - That bench.

...there's a channel up there. Good channel.

Two old-timers put in a hand trench up there,

took 1200 ounces out of 250 by eight foot wide.

- 1200 ounces? - Yeah.

- Out of hand working? - Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah. Hot stuff! - Wow!

Yeah, there's some gold here. No doubt.

Claim owner Michele owns land across Stevensville

and totals over 4,000 acres.

Dave leans on Steve's local expertise to investigate a bench

where the old-timers previously mined.

If Dave pans good gold in this area,

it could lead to an investment and equipment for a full bulk sample.

Let's see. Let's go over here.

And you gotta be in the big rock to get the gold.

Oh!

There's the rock. It come right out of there.

So you get the big rocks, bigger coarser gold.

Definitely.

Steve's looking for big rocks.

So he's looking for that

that interface between big rocks

and that bedrock, and that's where he finds his gold.

Somewhere and try to find...

some big rock and get under 'em.

Glacier washed,

polished that.

This is kind of a glacial till.

He's looking at three concentrated areas.

So. There's some gold here.

The last Ice Age, large glaciers grow and move across the Alaskan interior,

eroding mountain ranges and creating valleys.

As the glaciers slowly retreat,

large rocks, sediment and minerals

known as glacial till deposit in the valleys.

As minerals wash down the mountains and through the valleys,

concentrated pockets of gold become trapped beneath the rocks.

Right down in there, about as deep as you can dig.

This excavator's not going that quick.

You know when... when my workers grunt that hard,

it's like, "I need a day off!"

"I need a day off!"

One more, good.

Looks like he's done this before, a time or two.

Man, there's some amazing rocks in here,

- some real conglomerate stuff. - Yeah.

Did you get any color?

Nothing in this.

- Nothing? - Nothing.

One little speck right there.

No, but it's... we gotta get deeper.

We're not finding great gold,

but we gotta keep moving, it's a big property.

We're gonna move up into the hills.

Do some more hand-prospecting, see what we find.

200 yards further...

We gotta be right on the contact.

'Cause you don't hit the contact, we're not going to do any good.

...Dave pulls another pan.

Oh, that's warm.

- I didn't expect that. - Is it?

This one's only got a couple of little tiny

flecks of gold.

This is not that impressive.

How much money is it gonna cost me to get it out of the ground?

How much money is it gonna cost me to wash it?

How much money is it gonna cost me to sluice it?

Those are all the things that click off in a miner's mind.

As a class reminder,

you're not just looking for gold, you're looking at... for clues.

How much black sand is in here?

You know how... how dirty is this clay,

how sticky is the clay?

If there's $30 a yard in the ground, it might cost you

$28.50 to get it out of the ground.

You're not making any money.

Back in Glacier Creek...

I hope we can, get a hose off the roach that'll work.

Nate must devise a quick fix for the Eagle's damaged hose.

- Broken one. - That's the broken one.

You know, the roach is close to the same thing.

They have the same kind of fittings, that's the important thing.

If I can find a hose off the roach that'll work, we're gonna use it. So...

go to the roach and see what I can find.

Close.

A little shorter, though.

It looks a little shorter, that's my only concern, if it'll reach.

It's the right length.

I don't know. It's gonna be close. I'm just gonna go up and try.

It's a little short. I don't know if it's gonna reach it or not.

We'll find out. It's pretty damn close though, dude.

I mean, it looks close to being the same.

Might not have as much bend in it.

But if I get us by until we get one made...

Yep.

Chris, I think its gonna work out pretty good, dude.

It's gonna be a little bit off but you know what,

it'll be all right.

Thank God we had roach.

Oh, I'm telling you!

This one's gonna work until we get

one fixed.

Right now, it's time to break records.

We gotta make up time now. We lost a little bit there.

So, we'll try this, make sure it works.

Yeah, it's got the flex it needs for the vibration.

I think it'll be all right.

until we get one made, but...

it'll get us going.

That's all it's about, running!

A breakdown, it happens...

just gotta cover that day, hope you can fix something.

But, you know what, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Short of shut down, you know, about 30 minutes, change the hose out.

Luckily the roach is the same size we needed, so...

back in business, we gotta make up time now.

It's a good thing we turned up.

All right, Chris. Go ahead, buddy.

High in the Chugach Mountains...

Oh,

Here it comes.

Since nightfall, the temperature in the cut

still hovers just above freezing.

Look at there. Snow's coming down.

You know, I woke up this morning,

and it was a heck of a lot darker than it has been. You know, we're losing light.

And to top it off, when the light does come out,

you look up on the mountains and there's snow.

The last couple of mornings, the snow has been dropping a little lower and lower,

getting closer to us.

Winter's only about 1,000 feet above us right now.

Gotta fire it up.

Shake it, babe!

Oh, it's for sure coming down on us, boys.

I mean, it's gained another 200-300 feet,

since yesterday, coming down the mountain and, uh, I give us about a week

before we need to really start thinking about moving our campers elsewhere.

Got water.

I'm ready to go home. But, uh,

I don't wanna go because of the damn snow,

I wanna go because we hit our goal.

That!

That's a ticking time bomb.

Hope we can hang on just long enough.

Halfway to its 450-ounce target

the team has turned up the plant to a season-best speed.

We got pay in front of us, running 190 yards an hour,

I'm happy. All I want is pay.

I like a challenge. That's how you make your money in production mining,

There's not gonna be, you know, hitting that... that big score,

that big hit, that pocket.

Gonna take through put, so you better put it through.

If we got any chance of hitting that goal,

this is the way to do it. It's the only way we can do it.

We gotta up production and, number one goal,

is to get more material through this plant and that's what we're gonna do.

But ultimately, the most important thing is keeping that plant fed.

So therefore,

it's a fun dance.

It's a good thing I like to dance.

Rick's in a rhythm.

Andrew's in a rhythm.

My rhythm goes around theirs as well.

Got a bearing out.

We got a problem, boys.

I think we're gonna have to go right up the

ravine here.

180 miles northwest,

Dave, Lance and local miner Steve Sneed hunt for gold

in a 4,000-acre claim

at Stevensville, a site stuck in legal limbo for over 30 years.

So, this property's pretty amazing because

typically, it would have been mined.

But, this thing's been in litigation for 35 years.

Right now, whoever buys this ground is gonna mine it.

Having struck out on the higher benches,

Dave moves onto the grass plains further down the valley.

This is, uh... this is old school right here.

- All riveted. - It's all riveted.

Look at that.

This is a water giant.

I mean, this is what, almost 80 years old?

When they mined, they didn't use pumps.

They moved everything with hydraulic giants.

- Wow. - Yeah.

So this bank is basically worked by a water cannon.

Then they spray it down the hillside.

It concentrates it at the bottom

and then they do their sluicing down at the bottom.

Exactly.

Adopted in the 1850s, during the California Gold Rush,

hydraulic mining uses pressurized water

fired at the hillside to wash gold rich pay into sluices.

These water cannons were able to blast

185,000 cubic feet of water

in an hour.

Fact that they went through the effort to dig in a ditch five miles long,

laying all this pipe, hydrauling it down,

there's gold in this bench.

The hydraulic line leads them to a gully

where Dave hopes the old-timers mined rich deposits of gold.

Let's go do some panning.

I like the way this... I know this is flushed out, but all this white

quartz, as that quartz erodes,

it's constantly depositing the gold.

They're taking all this water, washing it down, the gold stays,

when it flattens out, and so what they've done is concentrate it,

that's what hydraulic mining is.

One, two, three,

four, five...

Ten colors probably, three or four micros.

It ain't bad.

And the old-timers, look they've put this

put this much effort into...

mining here,

and there's this much evidence,

there's gold here, there's no doubt about it.

Coming up...

40 ounces a week is where we're trying to

at least get close to, right?

- Yeah. - I am nervous.

No "ifs" or "buts" about it.

It scares the out of me

because that's my family's gold.

In the mountains outside Valdez...

Hey, Chris, to let you know

we're going to shut down for just a minute.

Just got a bearing out.

It is what it is on this one, buddy.

Nate identifies a failing bearing

on the Eagle's conveyor.

If it's not replaced, the belt won't run.

Halting the entire operation.

We were doing our check while doing walk around and...

there's something wrong so we gotta fix it.

We had a bearing go on the roach last year

so I ordered a couple of bearings for it.

Um, you know, they just go out.

You know, it's just part of it.

Nate's plan? Turn to the roach

for spares once again

and hope the bearings are the same size.

Just burn out, you know, it just...

how it is, I mean, it's got grease all the way to there

so it's grease in it, you know, it's...

one of those things, just goes out.

So, we got the bearing here

and it is gonna be the same one, that's the good thing.

Go ahead and push up on it.

There you go, hold it right there.

So, Andrew's seeing the very, very basics of everything.

You know, it's always good to teach somebody, I mean,

somebody showed me things at one time

and then I had to figure things out on my own.

If you can get some of the basics in,

it'll help somebody out in the future.

Nate, to this team, is huge.

A crew is only as good as their mechanic, really.

He does a good job.

Okay, buddy, let's just pump it over.

- All right. - So we're about done.

Hey, Andrew, why don't you start it up

and turn on the conveyor and let it--

let's let it run for just a little bit.

- All right, you... - Make sure everything looks okay.

Just at low RPMs?

- Yeah. - 'Kay.

Okay, we're back on here.

Time to shake and bake again.

You know, it's not clog it up and going.

Luckily, I had a bearing in my truck

from the roach from last year.

We had one go down so I ordered both styles.

Right to the top, same shaft,

same diameter bearing,

worked out good.

The Eagle is back in action.

so the crew pushes to break its single-day record

of 294 loads.

With only a few hours left,

the team must process more buckets of dirt,

than ever before.

We got three more hours,

I'm at 218 right here.

We'll have it turned up all day, so, uh,

if it's possible,

I think we'll hit 300.

Far as Dave wanting to...

branch out and have multiple properties,

why don't we do prospecting here?

Uh, if this is our hub, let's treat it as such.

Let's get as much knowledge as we can

about this ground and mine it right.

To, uh, you know,

maximize the opportunity

to take home as much gold as possible.

While the front end continues

to deliver the 40 ton hauls,

Chris steps on the gas.

I had about 15 seconds to spare

Now, looks like I've got about...

five seconds to spare.

There's not much room for error, but...

I don't plan on having any errors.

And I like having to be on my toes

and go, go, go.

Chris Taylor's kicking ass, I mean...

Huh, I don't know how he even has time

for bathroom break, but he does.

You know, it's amazing to see Chris putting through a

outstanding number of buckets.

And at the same time, we got Rick,

making record haul numbers, too.

We're always pushing, always striving.

See where those big rocks are in place.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

That's where we wanna be digging.

In the wilderness,

just outside Denali National Park,

Dave and business partner, Lance,

continue their mission to find good ground.

- We're going all the way top? - Why not?

You can see pieces of the old hydraulic mining

and that's what they did up here.

The old-timers couldn't get all their equipment up here

so they used water.

And it gives us potential areas to prospect

and potential areas to mine.

If Dave and Lance purchase this property

from claim owner, Michele,

it would be the biggest stake of their entire career.

But first, Dave must use the old-timers' hydraulic pipes

as clues to the location of hidden

or undiscovered gold.

So, this came from...

this probably came from the source of the gold.

Obviously, it's been moved,

washed through a glacier and water.

These are the quartz veining

structures that carry the gold.

Under all these big rocks,

like, right here,

he's gonna be looking for the gold,

and coarse gold.

We're looking, we're prospecting

and we're going on a journey to find,

you know, amazing gold like the old-timers did.

He carried a decomposed corpse.

There's some of that conglomerate. Look at where the...

It's breaking up pretty easy.

- There's a piece right there already. - Yeah.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

You got six good-size colors

and there's probably another...

ten smaller colors.

So, yeah, that's a good pan.

With over 15 colors found at the surface,

Dave believes there could be substantially more

just above bedrock.

This is definitely a possibility

there's a lot of work to do,

there'd be a lot of studies to do

before you do something like this, but,

I believe this is, you know, a future for...

for what we do around here.

It's enough for us to come back.

Maybe get an excavator in here, dig some holes.

- Test it. - We gotta go make a lot of calls.

The next step would be bulk sampling.

- Yeah, yeah, you got to. - Okay.

- Yeah. - I wanna see it mined

and I wanna see you guys make it.

- All right. - Okay.

- Thanks, Steve. - You betcha.

Now that we're getting gold in pan,

we're starting to figure the ground out.

Now it takes full prospect,

which is bulk sampling.

There's a lot going for it.

The fact that, you know, we found gold,

it's got great history, great landowners.

We got a lot of work to do in a really short time.

We do.

So, we've done our hand panning,

it looks pretty good

and now we gotta bring in the beetle.

We bring in the beetle, we do a good bulk sample

and then we really know.

What makes Alaska so hard

is the lack of ability to get parts and equipment.

It's a little bit different way of taking care of things.

There's a lot of, call 'em "Alaska bush fix."

This is not a repair, this is straight up mono rigging.

It's not doing it right, it's doing it...

just to get by.

As long as we're back up and running, that's what matters.

We're gonna have to do something,

we can't wait for the part to get here.

Another bush fix.

So, we're gonna do what we can do.

You gotta do what you gotta do in the field, to make it work.

It's not perfect right now but we're getting by and...

it's running and we're still getting gold.

You know, it's an Alaska bush fix.

You need somebody that has that bush fix mentality.

Nate has become a very good bush fix mechanic.

This right here was actually fixed right.

This was a genuine...

repair, for once.

At Glacier Creek...

We're doing a rotation every 13 seconds.

We were doing a rotation every 15 so,

we're on track to definitely beat a record.

Chris is seven buckets away

from breaking a team Turin record

of 294 loads in a day.

I'm not gonna tell ya, we'll be right at 300.

I mean, we'll be right at it.

We're getting it through, we're running the volume.

Things are going pretty good.

Well, this is our 51st load today, I guess that's uh,

putting to shame Dave's record of 58, isn't it?

Good job, buddy. You've been hauling some pay

all day, way to go, buddy.

All right.

Let's go ahead and shut her down, Chris.

Uh, we'll call it a day.

No, not right now, I got one more.

I mean, 300 loads.

We're breaking records.

Man, that's pretty damn good.

Hell yeah, Chris, good job, buddy, well done.

300. We get 300 a day, how about that?

Heck of a job, Chris.

We're all breaking records here. You know, Rick is 61.

Chris now put a 300th scoop in.

Oh, that's a record for team Turin.

We ain't never had that much material before.

It's a good day.

Yeah, kill it, KC, kill it.

- Whoo! - Shut down.

After a record-breaking day...

Let her down.

- Here we go. - Look at the box.

...the crew gathers for the weekly mat pull.

There's definitely gold in here.

But, that's... look at the particle size.

Some fine

That's some fine

- The box is doing right. - It's so fine.

- The ground is hot. - Yeah, I know.

I know we can do it,

but ship it and send it.

There's been many people fooled by looking in a box.

We're running different types of material,

different levels of pay

and so, you don't know.

I always say,

until it goes across the table and it's weighed,

then we'll see.

Well, this season, we got...

new ground and a new state that we've never been to.

It's not the same as the lower 48,

we are learning that every day.

We're getting down lower and lower in the cottonwood cut.

What if that gold doesn't start paying out?

This is towards the end of the season.

We gotta figure out how to make it work.

Hey, guys.

What's up, guys?

Well, guys, we're still pushing for that 450.

That 40 ounces a week is where we're trying to...

- At least get close to, right? - Yeah.

It sucks when Dave's away, it always does.

But we did pretty damn good, I think.

- I think so. - We set records still.

- Yeah. - You ran up,

- you know, 180 yards an hour. - Yeah.

And that's a lot, that's the most material we ever ran.

Oh, by far.

Chris is doing a hell of a job out there, you know,

he's non-stop turning the burning.

- Thirty loads an hour. - Oh,

You know, Rick, you as well, hauling records?

I mean, you're, you know, 95 years old.

- All right, you all ready? - Here we go.

- Let's see what we go. - Here we go.

One.

Eight. Twelve.

Fourteen.

Nineteen. Twenty.

- Three, four. - Come on, 40.

- Come on, 40. - Twenty five.

- - 25.

What is that, Morgan?

Plus or minus $48,000.

- I know. I know. - 25 ounces.

I know it's not what we want.

Uh, you know, one of the...

hardest things for me to accept is the fact that...

Chris just ran 300 buckets in a shift,

the Eagle's also running

and eating more of the pay than it ever had.

And we're still catching that gold?

Something's gotta change.

We're doing our absolute best.

If it's not in the ground at that point,

it's just not in the ground.

If we fail to hit our 450-ounce goal,

it will not be for a lack of effort.

This 25.55, that puts us

at a season total of 267.55?

So, we're looking at like,

over 50 ounces next week just to get back on track

for that 450-ounce goal.

This property might just be a show.

Honestly.

I am nervous.

No "ifs" or "buts" about it.

It scares the out of me

because that's my family's gold.

Next week, we'll make it up.

- Guarantee, guaranteed. - Oh, yeah.

Optimism, that's good, Rick.

The gold will be closer to the bedrock.

And I foresee a lot more pay.

It could possibly be a tough week, but we'll handle it.

It is what it is.

We need to scratch every bit of damn gold

we can off this property

and Dave's now prospecting,

it's gonna possibly find some great ground

like we've been looking for.

The gold will show, it will be a little better,

everybody'll be fine.

It's not the end of the world.

I mean, here's to giving it whatever it takes

just to make it happen, right, guys?

- All in. - All in!

On the next episode...

I tested positive for COVID.

Ooh, God.

Dave leaves Team Turin a man down.

Dave is fit as a fiddle.

But with COVID, it doesn't matter.

Nate is brought to the brink.

I'm gonna be the panner/prospector/digger right now.

like, being all that.

Finally burning crap though.

Smells like it, too.

And the crew fall apart.

That is really bad.

We can't keep doing this.

We're probably losing more than we're putting in.