Original subtitles

[Dan] AK-47s are out.

Must be a pretty serious place if they need this many cops.

[Parker] As of right now, in the Yukon,

if we can't find a way to find more ground, then it's on a downhill slope.

So we need to find somewhere else.

This is [bleep] Wild West right here.

[Parker] But you can't do it remotely.

You have to put your boots on the ground.

You have to meet the people that are mining them.

[speaking in Spanish]

Oh, I can't [bleep] breathe.

I don't want you to panic.

I can't talk so much. I have no oxygen.

You're at 65. That ain't great.

You need to go?

[Dan] Okay. Let's go.

[Tyler] Parker's taken a really bad turn.

Diego's pretty concerned, and if our doctor's concerned, you know it's not good.

[retches]

All right, buddy.

[Parker] There's nothing [bleep] left.

- [Diego speaking] - [Parker retches]

[Parker] Stop.

[Diego] This is real.

[bleep]

[Parker speaking]

[Diego] If he doesn't improve, I'm making the call.

The trip is over.

[thermometer beeping]

[Diego] You're getting a fever now.

That's how you're feeling? Body aches and stuff?

Okay. Get some rest, okay?

[narrator] High in the Peruvian Andes...

Right old pickle, mate.

[narrator] ...28-year-old Parker Schnabel is battling altitude sickness.

If I was not able to canalize a vein, we were... I mean, we were going to hospital,

but thankfully, his vital signs start going up.

See how he is tomorrow.

- [Diego] How are you feeling? - [Parker] Um...

Yeah, I feel better. [sniffs]

Heavy yesterday, man. [bleep] die yesterday.

[Diego] This is 37.4

So you're normal right now.

- I'm sore. My body hurts. - [Dan] You will be, mate.

I bet you feel a bit beaten up, dude.

We need to work out what our next move is.

- Okay. - [Dan] Yeah.

- That was [bleep] hard. - [Diego] Yeah.

There was a couple of moments there, I was like,

"That's it. This is done. This is over."

Oh, my [bleep] God.

[Dan] It's hard to imagine us carrying on

when you're seeing him like that.

[Diego] I think he's getting better.

But I need to assess him before making the call that he can continue.

If we left now, we would be leaving South America

without any real options.

We're nowhere near done.

I mean, I would be [bleep] gutted if this was the end.

[Tyler] Speaking of the devil...

- [Diego] Hi. - [Tyler] Hello.

[Dan] Ah, he's risen from the dead.

- [Tyler] How you doing? - I'm doing better.

[Diego] I was worried.

I was worried about myself.

[Diego] You look better than before.

[Parker] Yeah, I feel better.

- Well, that's good. - [Tyler] That's good to hear.

- [sighs] - [Dan] The big question is...

What now?

[Dan] Do you wanna carry on?

Yeah. [bleep], yeah.

Good man.

Let's keep going.

Where to?

Well, we gotta work that out.

- Shall we have a look at the map? - Yeah.

[narrator] On a mission to find virgin ground with big potential,

Parker and his team have spent three weeks

traveling through Peru's jungles,

ending up at the most extreme mine on Earth,

the 17,000 foot high La Rinconada.

After Parker felt ill, they retreated to the town of Putina.

Now with only a month left on the prospect,

the team needs to make up for lost time.

[Diego] Rinconada is around here.

- [Parker] I kind of want to go to Bolivia. - [Tyler] Bolivia?

[Parker] There's a lot of mining there.

My gut's telling me to do it.

All the successful miners I know, they trust their gut.

So the other side of Rinconada is the Bolivian border.

- [Dan] Yeah. - [Diego] This is right behind the mountain.

We share that mountain with Bolivia.

[Tyler] Ah. Looking at this map, it makes so much sense.

Just because there's a border just there doesn't mean the gold stops.

[Dan] Maybe that's it.

I mean, I've always wanted to go to Bolivia.

[Parker] Let's do it.

There's so much unexplored, untouched ground.

Has a huge amount of placer mining,

but a lot of that is small-scale,

so in terms of, like, places to make an investment,

Bolivia's the perfect place to go.

[narrator] Almost two-and-a-half times the size of the Yukon,

Bolivia stretches from the Andes in the west

to the Amazon jungle in the east.

For the last 10 years, gold miners have flocked to the country,

driving up production 900% to 45 tons a year,

worth $2.5 billion.

So, start tomorrow, fresh and early.

Bolivia-bound.

[Parker] Sounds like a plan to me.

[Tyler] I'm actually really, really happy

about the decision to go into Bolivia.

It just makes sense to follow the gold.

Like, I'm a prospector, and that's what you do.

We're going to Bolivia like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Assuming I'm alive and well in the morning.

'Cause I don't know if I'll survive around two of that [bleep], literally.

[Dan] I'll grab one of your bags, mate.

[Diego] I'm quite embarrassed.

I've never been Bolivia before, even though I'm a Peruvian.

We're gonna be able to see some cool stuff. I hope so.

Okay. Let's go, guys.

Let's go to Bolivia.

[narrator] South of La Rinconada

is the Bolivian mining town of Puyo Puyo.

It's just 40 miles from Putina,

but to get there, the crew must drive 300 miles around Lake Titicaca,

cross the border at Kasani, then head eight hours north-east.

[Parker] Lake Titicaca!

[Dan] Biggest, highest lake in the whole of South America.

[Parker] Of all the places that we've been,

Bolivia probably is the one with the most potential.

Any money that I spend in Bolivia goes way further than most places in the world,

especially North America.

For what it costs me to move, you know, 500,000 yards in Alaska,

I can move two-and-a-half million here 'cause fuel's so cheap.

It's exciting to see potential like that.

[Tyler] So, I've done a little bit of research

- about where we're going. - [Dan] Mmm.

[Tyler] They've been mining in Bolivia since the Incans.

So there's still a mix of the hard rock and alluvial mining,

- from what I can gather. - [Parker] I'm excited.

- Following the Incans. - [Diego] Uh-huh.

So, after they entered into Bolivia territory,

they were able to expand all the way south.

[narrator] As the Incans grew their empire,

they followed the gold south into present-day Bolivia

and down to Chile and Argentina,

where they found 181 tons of precious metal, worth $9 billion today.

[Dan] Can't be far from the border now, eh?

[Diego] I don't think so. I think we're really close.

[Dan] It's gotta be the gateway to Bolivia.

[Diego] Uh, I guess I will park here.

[narrator] Unable to travel across with their rented car, the crew leave it in Peru...

Buenos tardes, amigos.

[speaking in Spanish]

[Dan] Gracias.

[narrator] ...walk the 160-yard strip through no man's land...

[Dan] Bolivia-bound. Ready? Let's go.

[narrator] ...to get to Bolivia.

[Dan] Not your usual border crossing, is it?

Look! Look at that!

Check it out!

We're in.

Welcome to Bolivia.

[laughs]

[all exclaiming]

[Diego speaking in Spanish]

- Si. Buenos tardes. - [speaking other language]

Buenos tardes.

- Buenos tardes. - [speaking other language]

[narrator] Diego has arranged for the team to pick up a new car.

[speaking in Spanish]

Muchas gracias, senor.

What, team?

Peru is amazing, but I really feel like

we are moving into probably one of the most exciting parts of the trip

because we don't exactly know where we're gonna end up or what there is there.

[narrator] Hoping the big gold they found in La Rinconada continues south,

the team head eight hours across the vast Altiplano plateau...

[Dan] Jheeze. It just feels so out there, doesn't it?

[narrator] ...to the frontier town of Puyo Puyo...

...located on the same gold-rich quartz veins that feed La Rinconada.

Over thousands of years, the veins have eroded,

washing gold onto the high planes of the Altiplano.

[Parker] Be good to start putting our ear to the ground

and try to find our prospectors.

[Tyler] Talk to locals, see what we can find.

I like that we're kind of following breadcrumbs and making it up as we go.

I think that makes it exciting.

[Dan] Let's jump out and see what's happening, shall we?

- Buenos dias. - [woman] Hola.

- [Diego] Hola. - [woman] Buenos dias.

Let's go for a wander.

These trips are really about seeing as many mining areas as we can.

We're totally shooting from the hip without much of a plan,

so hopefully that doesn't come back to bite us in the ass.

[Dan] What a cool little town.

[Tyler] We really are in the middle of nowhere right now.

Doesn't feel real.

[Parker] Look at this dude.

[narrator] After four weeks in Peru,

Parker and the team have made it to the remote highlands of Bolivia

and frontier mining town of Puyo Puyo.

[Dan] Maybe someone might know if there's a bit of mining going on.

[narrator] On a mission to find his next mining venture,

Parker's on the hunt for leads.

[Parker] I know it's an area with a lot of gold,

so I'm really looking forward to kind of getting back to kind of the roots

of what these trips are, which is, you know,

looking for gold and looking for mining operations that are off the beaten track.

I just wanna find that guy back there, see if he knows anything.

- [Dan] Okay. Well, you two, go do that. - [Parker] Diego.

Let's go cruise.

Interesting place.

Hola!

[speaking in Spanish]

[speaking other language]

[Diego speaking in Spanish]

[man] Si.

[Diego speaking]

[man speaking in Spanish]

[Diego] He's saying after this canyon, there can be source.

- Mmm-hmm. - Came to gold mine.

- Oh, wow. - Gold mine, yeah.

Yeah, I was looking at that. Like, that's all gravel up there. Hmm. Interesting.

Does he do any mining?

[Diego speaking in Spanish]

- [man speaking in Spanish] - [in English] Yeah, he pans. He's a gold miner.

Where's the secret spot?

[speaking in Spanish]

[man laughs]

[speaking in Spanish]

Ah.

[Diego] There's gold over here. All over here.

- No way. - [Diego] Uh-huh.

[man speaking in Spanish]

- We can give it a try. - [Parker] Muchas gracias.

- [Diego] Gracias. - [man speaking in English] Yeah.

[speaking in Spanish]

[narrator] At the edge of town,

Parker searches for his first signs of Bolivian gold.

[Parker] It's, like, in a place like this,

when you're just, like, panning in a creek,

you're usually kind of looking for, like, float gold.

Like, that's usually an indicator

that there's really good gold somewhere upstream.

[Diego] It is... The color of the ground is correct? Like...

[Parker] Oh, it's very muddy, which is not usually the best of signs.

- Yellow rock. - Yeah.

[Parker] There's nothing in that pan.

I mean, we should have called it in Peru.

[Diego] There's no gold.

I mean, there must be gold, but we didn't find gold, but we found this,

so I'm too happy.

- [Dan] Hey. Hola. - Hola.

[Tyler] There's Parker and Diego.

[Dan] You went panning. You went prospecting. How did that go?

- [Parker] We didn't see a flake of gold. - [Diego] No.

[Dan] Shocker. [laughs]

Let's go over there. I reckon where the lady with the hat is.

They might throw us a bone.

Como estas?

[speaking in Spanish]

[in English] It's a gold mine up there.

- [Tyler] Really? - [Dan] There you go.

[speaking in Spanish]

[Diego in English] He has to go right now. He's gonna show us.

[man speaking in Spanish]

[Dan] No way.

- Oh, wow. That's lots. - Little nuggets.

There you go, Dan.

[Dan] Oh, there you are.

[Diego] He found this gold, and he's gonna show us the...

[speaking in Spanish]

[Diego in English] He got that gold there, on the other side.

[man speaking in Spanish]

[Diego in English] Working in the Golden Eagle.

[Parker] Can he show us where they're working?

[speaking in Spanish]

[Dan] Awesome.

[Diego] Jump in. Si.

[Dan] Perfecto.

Got ourselves someone to take us to the mine.

[Tyler] Win-win.

[narrator] Located two miles from Puyo Puyo,

the[speaking other language], or the Golden Eagles Mine,

is located in the lucrative La Paz mining district,

Bolivia's largest gold-producing region,

which brings in more than $1 billion a year.

That's a big mine.

[Dan] Oh, wow. Look at these sluices.

I was not expecting to see this.

[narrator] One of over 1,600 cooperative mines in Bolivia,

the 120-acre Golden Eagles Mine

was the first placer operation in the area,

established just 15 years ago.

There is some extremely unique mining culture in Bolivia.

I'm really looking forward to not only learning about that but then seeing it.

[Dan] Awesome.

[Tyler] All right. Let's jump out, hey?

[Dan] See what's happening, shall we?

[man speaking in Spanish]

[Diego in English] What are we doing here?

Uh, we're just here to see what you guys are doing, if that's all right.

[speaking in Spanish]

Okay.

He's saying that they don't know us, and they're gonna call the...

- [man speaking in Spanish] - [Diego] ...the colleagues.

[man speaking in Spanish]

They wanna gather together to see if they gonna accept our visit.

So, all of them have to decide if we're allowed here?

- Not just one person. - [Diego] No. All of them.

Okay.

[speaking in Spanish]

[Diego] So, they're saying that foreigners are not allowed in here.

- Is that what they're saying? - Yes.

[Dan] Little bit intimidating. [bleep] have we walked into?

This yes or no [bleep]

"I think they're here to steal our gold."

- [Tyler] What? - [Diego] That's what he just said.

- [Dan] Really? - [Tyler] Tell them we're not.

[Parker] Well, I mean, getting ran off a mine site

is on the bucket list for this trip.

Hopefully not with machetes.

[man speaking in Spanish]

[narrator] In the Bolivian Altiplano gold fields...

- [Dan] I'm hearing a lot of... - [Parker] Gringos?

[chuckles] I'm hearing a lot of gringos.

- Well. - [Dan] It was quite an introduction, wasn't it?

[narrator] ...Parker and his team want to assess

how good the ground is at the Golden Eagles Mine.

But first, they need to negotiate their way in.

[man speaking in Spanish]

[narrator] Like many gold mines in Bolivia,

the Golden Eagles is a cooperative,

owned in equal share by its 32 partners,

so the team's visit must be put to a vote.

- [man speaking other language] - [Diego in English] You can come.

[speaking in Spanish]

They asking why are we here.

- [Parker] I don't wanna talk business. - [Dan] No business.

[Parker] Well, if I come in and be like, "We're looking to go gold mining,"

they're gonna be like, "Get the [bleep] out."

They need to get to know us first.

We're just here to see what kind of mining they're doing.

and what the ground's like.

[man speaking in Spanish]

[Parker] I take it these guys aren't Gold Rushfans?

[Dan] Doesn't appear so. Is it worth us saying

we wanna learn from them, and maybe they could learn from us?

[Parker] 100%.

[speaking in Spanish]

[in English] They're saying it seems like we have good intentions.

But before allowing us into the mining site, they want us to work.

[Parker] Yeah, why not?

[Tyler] That'd be good, if they need some help.

[Diego speaking in Spanish]

[in English] We are welcome.

[Parker] Good.

Muchas gracias.

Blimey. An interesting way to go about your decision-making process.

[Tyler] There was a moment there where I didn't know

if we were gonna get booted straight out of here,

or if we were gonna be welcomed.

I was a bit intimidated, to be honest.

[Parker] It's good to be here. It's good to be in Bolivia.

I'm glad that we kind of, like, made that transition from Peru to here

without missing, you know, too much of a beat.

Hopefully, these guys will lighten up to us a bit more

and kind of let us see the operation and see what's going on here.

That's my main goal right now.

[in Spanish]

[Parker] Perfecto.

[narrator in English] The mine spans 120 acres

and employs 100 miners working 4-hour shifts.

With six excavators and seven rock trucks,

they run dirt from a 40-foot deep cut

through 12 wooden wash plants known as[speaks Spanish].

It's the first large placer operation Parker's seen on the trip so far.

If the mine is producing good gold, there could be an opportunity to make a deal.

'Cause we are so close to Rinconada here,

is the gold quite similar, do they know?

[speaking Spanish]

[in Spanish]

[man] Mmm... Si.

[Parker] And it looks like the ground's pretty deep.

Do they have to throw some of the material away,

or does it all go through the... [speaks Spanish]

[man in Spanish]

[in English] They believe there's more gold,

but they haven't done the geological studies for that.

They're struggling to... invest in that right now.

[in Spanish]

[man in Spanish]

[Parker in English] Half a kilo a month.

- Uh-huh. - Gotcha. Okay.

Interesting.

[ambient music playing]

It seems like there's a lot of ground here.

And they obviously move a fair bit of dirt, so...

They must be making some money, but half a kilo a month...

That's a huge negative, right?

Like, I'd hope that they're telling us a reduced number

from what it actually is. [chuckling]

Visiting gold mines and kind of figure out the ground and how they're mining...

You know, it's like, two very separate things.

Like... there's what's actually happening

and there's what somebody will say.

And normally it'll be worse than it actually is.

[music ending]

[dramatic music playing]

Oh, that looks awesome.

[in Spanish]

- [Diego in English] Do you wanna... - [Parker] Yeah!

[in Spanish]

[Diego in English] Yeah, you're-- You're jumping there.

[narrator] The wash plants recycle water from the sluice pump to clean the dirt.

Manually-operated high pressure hoses wash the pay

into a 30-inch wide sluice run,

leaving any gold in the mats at the bottom.

[in Spanish]

Oi! Take my camera.

It's like one of those games at the fun fair.

- [laughing] - [exclaiming]

What do you think about this as a-- As a method? Is it, like...

You rate it?

[Parker] Um...

You want everything to be dead consistent all the time, right?

They're manually operated, so they can't do that.

They're working with what they've got.

I wanna go look at the sluice box and whatnot.

[Dan] Yeah?

- [man] Hola. - Hola.

[exclaims] Muchas gracias.

[suspenseful music playing]

[miners speaking Spanish]

[in Spanish]

- [all laughing] - [in Spanish]

[in English] No, they're making a joke about offering some--

- Some of us... - [miners chatting in Spanish]

To the-- To the ground.

- [speaking Spanish] - [miner chuckling]

[in English] Maybe wants a... A woman.

[laughing]

- That's one way to make me feel comfortable. - Yes.

[miners laughing and chatting in Spanish]

[bleeping]

[tense music playing]

[in English] I'm sure they think it's funny, but I don't find it funny at all.

[Diego] Tyler is the only woman here.

The culture is completely different here.

It's a little stressful.

It has a... An effect on you for sure.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Dan] It's weirdly old-school, but very--

Almost like, kind of dystopian futuristic at the same time.

That part of it, I don't mind. It's just the sluice box that's the problem.

They need to add more water to these.

You have to have enough water flow going over the riffle

to create basically like a low-pressure zone

to haul out the heaviest material.

Like, they have Hungarian riffles here. They're just not even in.

[Dan] So that ain't good, is it?

And that's the difference between a 50% or 60% recovery rate

or a 90% and a 95% recovery rate, right?

But you could make some small changes, and...

bump the recovery rate up.

That's the nice thing about mining, is that...

It's a very physical thing.

I can, you know, touch and feel and see

what the ground's like and assess that without needing to be told about it.

You know? I really enjoy that.

[intense music playing]

[Dan] If you had a Big Red to sluice over here,

efficiency would go up so much.

[Parker] But would it justify that investment?

Like, in order for us to consider operating somewhere in South America,

anywhere in South America,

the ground needs to be, like, orders of magnitude

better than what we're mining right now, right?

[Dan] Totally.

If they're not pulling all of the gold out of the ground,

that's-- That's really exciting.

[Parker] There's an opportunity there,

but it depends on how much gold they're finding.

I don't really know what to think of this, but, like...

Definitely, it piques my interest.

[intense music playing]

All right. Put me to [bleep] work.

[narrator] At the Golden Eagle's mine in Bolivia...

[miner in Spanish]

[narrator in English] Parker Schnabel's loading pay

and trying to make sense of the ground.

[music continues]

[Parker] Like, they said they do...

half a kilo a month, so that math doesn't add up to me,

because half a kilo is, like...

15 ounces.

So...

Like, how can you do 15 ounces a month?

And have almost 100 people?

[Tyler] Can you ask him what he wants me to do?

Am I running tailings? Am I feeding a truck?

What-- What role?

[Diego in Spanish]

[miner in Spanish]

[in English] You can also load trucks.

It's fine.

- Perfecto.Okay. - [Diego] Yes.

That sounds like a plan.

[intense music playing]

All right. So...

- [in Spanish] - Si.

[in English] Perfect. That makes sense.

Sweet. Let's do it.

Load is like my baby. So I feel at home.

[narrator] With Tyler running the loader--

They wanna teach me how to...

[chuckles] drive a load truck right now.

So let's see how it goes.

[in Spanish]

[miner in Spanish]

[narrator in English] Dr. Diego gets his first chance to operate

on a gold mine.

[Diego] I don't know, let's see. I think I can do it.

I mean, if I can perform surgery or stuff like that,

I should be able to drive a truck.

[truck starting]

- [miner speaking Spanish] - [truck grinding]

[miner in Spanish]

[dramatic music playing]

[honking]

[chuckles]

[Tyler] So all I'm doing right now is running the fine tailings

from the sluice to Diego's rock truck.

[truck stops responding]

[Tyler fiddling with truck]

It stalled! No power!

[truck starts]

[tense music playing]

[truck stops responding]

Why does it keep turning off?

[truck starts]

I understand if I need to use the clutch,

but they're telling me not to use the clutch.

[truck stops responding]

I didn't even touch anything! It's just turning off.

- [truck starts] - [miner in Spanish]

[in English] I can't understand what you're saying.

[speaking Spanish]

[in English] Okay.

Diego, can you jump out of the truck for a second and tell him to get out

of the cab and come and actually just tell me what to do

instead of leaning over me like this?

[laughs quietly]

[miner speaking Spanish]

[Tyler in English] Instead of being a smart-ass and laughing.

[sobbing quietly]

[Dan] What's the matter?

- [Tyler crying] - [radio beeping]

It's okay. I'm just being made to feel uncomfortable at mine sites my whole life.

- I'm just over it. - [Dan] Oh, yeah, yeah...

It's okay. Just makes me feel so uncomfortable.

All this standing there, like, looking at me, like, laughing.

Even though I've mined my whole life,

we're dealing with a different culture.

And I feel that a lot. Especially as the only woman in the team.

I think I've got a lot to offer. It's just about people utilizing that.

- [Dan] You all right? - I don't wanna make a big deal out of it.

- It's okay. - No, you [bleep] should.

[exhaling audibly] It's okay.

- Cool. Let's do it. - [Dan] All right, Ty.

- Thanks, Dan. - [Dan] It's [bleep], isn't it?

- Just every [bleep] time. - [Dan] Argh.

[man speaking indistinctly over radio]

All right.

Okay. This is the hard bit.

[suspenseful music playing]

There we go! I did it.

That's what they weren't telling me to do.

They weren't telling me I could pull on the clutch.

I think these miners aren't used to maybe having outsiders around.

Made it a little bit difficult.

I just hope we get something out of here.

This will all be worth it if Parker leaves here with some valuable information.

[intense music playing]

[Parker] In the Yukon, it's like...

You load a truck like this in, like, three scoops.

I'm like, 10 into this thing.

Frustratingly slow.

- [radio beeps] - You having fun in that rock truck?

- [radio beeps] - [Diego] I'm having a blast.

[honking]

[Diego] I'm driving a several-ton rolling truck right now.

Something I've never done before.

Even though I'm not a miner, I'm feeling like one right now.

[miners yell in Spanish]

- [Tyler] Finito? Finito. - [miners yell in Spanish]

[narrator] After four hours, the president calls time on the shift.

[Tyler] How d'you go?

- Did well? - Yeah, I think so.

Yeah?

[dynamic music playing]

[narrator] It's finally time for Parker and the crew

to get their first glimpse at the gold.

[miner in Spanish]

- [Dan] Ah, yeah. - [miner 2 speaking Spanish]

[Tyler] Oh, there's a bit of gold up there.

- [Diego] Yeah, look. - [Tyler] Yeah.

[miners speaking Spanish]

- [Dan] Oh, wow. Yeah. - [Tyler] Oro.

- [Dan] There it is. - That's a good one, yeah? There's a lot, right?

More than I was expecting, actually.

Interesting when they weigh it up.

[Dan] Wow.

- Mats are pulled. - [Dan] Mats are pulled.

Oh, the riffle's gone in.

[delicate music playing]

[Tyler] We saw a little bit of gold.

It's really hard to kind of gauge if that's good or not, um...

It's gonna be really interesting when we go and do a weigh-up next.

And kind of run the numbers.

[ambient guitar music playing]

[narrator] With the day almost over...

[Tyler] Look at that view.

[narrator] The team camp 2 miles away.

[Dan] That's insane.

I don't think many people venture this far, which is, like, exciting to me.

Yeah, it's good.

I think these guys are finding at least a couple ounces a day.

- Mmm. - [Diego] Why do you think that?

Of how you saw their sluice?

[Parker] Yeah, like-- I bet that that was...

At least a half an ounce.

[Dan] So what about tomorrow?

I'm really excited to go back and see how much gold they're getting.

[Dan] Do the equation.

[Parker] If the ground's good enough, like--

It'll be a very big, potential project.

[music continues and ends]

[mellow music playing]

[in Spanish]

- [in English] Really bad? - Bad.

What!

- [in Spanish] - [Diego] First...

[in Spanish]

- [Diego speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish]

[in Spanish]

[Tyler laughing]

[man laughing]

[in Spanish]

[Dan in English] Weren't expecting that, were you? [laughs]

[suspenseful music playing]

This is proving a little bit tricky to, uh, follow what's happening here.

There are people going everywhere. I think we're in their way a little bit.

[narrator] At the Golden Eagle's cooperative in Bolivia,

Parker and the crew join the 32 mine owners for the gold weigh.

When we first turned up,

these guys said that they were taking half a kilo a month?

Yeah. Which doesn't make a lot of sense.

[narrator] Based on their own workings, the crew suspect

the true figure should be four times what they've been told.

If they're right,

it could be a lucrative investment opportunity for Parker.

[Dan] Let's have a look.

[object rattling loudly]

- [Tyler] Oh, wow. - [Dan] Oh, yes!

It's made of wood.

[narrative] The cooperative use a wooden gravimetric gold table

similar to Parker's in the Yukon.

That's cool.

- [Dan exclaims] Yeah, see! - [Tyler] Lots of oro!

Um, how many hours worth of pay is this?

[miner in Spanish]

[in English] Okay. It'd be interesting to know how much dirt can go through

a-- A chute an hour.

Then we'd be able to know grams per yards.

- We'd be able to have a met-- We'd get a metric then. - [Dan] Yeah.

All we need to know is how many dump trucks a shift.

[in Spanish]

[Tyler in English] So they're running four dump truck loads down the chute...

- per hour. - [Dan] Per hour.

[Tyler] There's about 15 yards in each dump truck.

60 ounce an hour.

Now we've got it! This is good.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] Once the 960 yards of dirt have been processed...

it's time to weigh the gold.

[Dan] Oh, my [bleep]!

- [Diego] That's good, right? - [Dan] Oh, my. Okay.

[narrator] To consider making an investment,

Parker needs to see at least 9 ounces,

or 280 grams of gold.

[Dan] The moment we've been waiting for.

- [Diego] More than 50 grams. - [Tyler] Yeah.

More than 70.

More than 80.

- More than 90. - [miner speaking Spanish]

[Tyler in English] They don't have enough weight there.

[Parker] Do they know what a match weighs?

[Diego translating in Spanish]

- [miner replying in Spanish] - [Diego in English] 0.1 gram.

- [Tyler] Ah. - 0.1.

[miner speaking Spanish]

[in English] 97.9.

[narrator] 3.2 ounces worth $5,440.

A third of what Parker hoped the mine would be making.

[Parker] Is that the standard result?

- [miner in Spanish] - [in Spanish]

- [Diego in English] It's not-- It's not bad. - [in Spanish]

- [Diego in English] And complaining is bad. - [laughs]

[Parker] Do they ever test to see if they're losing gold?

[miner in Spanish]

[Diego in English] The recovery rate is 65% to 70%.

Right. Yeah. But I would bet that if they narrowed up their sluice box a little bit

and put a couple different types of riffles in there,

they could probably get that up to at least 85%.

[translating in Spanish]

- Si. Gracias,Parker. - [Parker in English] Yeah, no worries.

- Mucho gracias. - [miner] Muchas gracias.

[miners speaking Spanish]

[Parker] Mucho gusto.

[Dan] Thanks, man.

- [Tyler] Thanks, guys. - [Dan] Okay.

[miner speaking Spanish]

[dramatic music playing]

[in English] Um, we've got all the numbers now. We know the gold weight.

We can do some math.

It might be, like, an ounce per 300 and something yards.

- [Diego] Is that... decent? - Nah, that's [bleep].

Right. Yeah. I think that they've had some really good weeks or months

over the years.

And that's been able to, like, pay for equipment and stuff like that.

[Tyler] Mmm.

- And now, they can kind of get by. - [Tyler] Yep.

[Parker] It's a shame, but...

The biggest issue is that there's, what, 32 owners here?

- Yeah, 32. - Thirty-two owners for an ounce per 200

or 300 yards of ground is not, uh-- Not what we're here for.

So we'll keep moving.

Well, good job. Good investigating, Ty.

We got there in the end.

[speaking Spanish]

[in Spanish]

[in English] Ditto.

I think this was-- It was definitely an introduction to Bolivia.

I've never seen a mine site before that has 32 owners.

But after running the numbers, I just don't think it's the place for Parker,

and I can totally understand why.

[Parker] Yeah. It has to be a tens of thousands of ounces kind of project, right?

If you're gonna go to the other side of the planet.

Yeah, when it comes to the whole cooperative model...

I'm not a very cooperative person.

So, I think I'd really struggle with that.

We'll find something.

[music ending]

[Tyler] So close to the mountains.

17,000 feet, unpressurized.

[Dan speaking indistinctly]

Oh, [bleep] hell.

[man] Next time.

[Parker] There's an 1,100-- Excavator welded to a barge.

[man cheering]

[Parker] This is, like, Star Wars mining.

[man yelling indistinctly]

[exclaims] [bleeping]

Just [bleep] spat in my face!

- [exclaims] - [man laughing]

Hey, get the [bleep] out of there!

[Parker] Really good area, really good gold.

I'm gonna find some ground down here.