Original subtitles

Mud Mountain's where the bulk of our money was spent this season,

and that's where hopefully the bulk of the gold's gonna come from.

27-year-old mine boss Parker Schnabel

has gambled over $4 million to get to pay at Mud Mountain.

Now, with just a month to go before the Yukon winter shuts him down,

he's counting on the deepest cut he's ever mined

paying out big.

The first couple cleanups went bad.

At only an ounce or two an hour, it's definitely not looking too promising yet.

It's not producing like it should be.

You're always wondering, you know,

is it gonna sluice as well as it drilled?

You know, are we gonna see some awesome cleanups here?

Now that we're mining it, well, it's mining pretty average.

So, it's definitely disappointing.

Have we figured out where any of the gold is yet?

The strange thing is here, you look at it

and it doesn't even look, like, really awesome-looking...

- No, nothing in here... - ...pay.

- ...has been awesome-looking. - Yeah.

And I just want to pick nuggets out of the *bleep* bank!

- Out of the hill? - Is that too much to ask?

- Now, his is pretty much all bedrock, huh? - Yeah.

Might find some gold in the bedrock.

If that's where we're at then I think we should probably just do it.

I really don't want to be sending bedrock up to the wash plant there

'cause we're trying to keep that thing in one piece.

Yeah, I get that, but for me,

it's just making sure that we get as much gold out of the ground as we can.

I'm just curious how diggable it is.

In the rest of the valley,

when we get into this and it's hard.

There's one way to find out and that's with a big old wash plant.

Copy that.

To find the super-rich material

the drill tests indicate is here,

Parker decides to go even deeper

and run the bedrock beneath the pay layer.

Hate running bedrock, whether there's lots of gold in it or not, whatever,

like, we're committed to doing it and we've got to get it finished.

Right now, it looks like it's all about

getting this bedrock here out of Mud Mountain, get it up to Big Red.

If this is what Parker wants to do,

risking tearing things up and breaking*bleep*,

this is what we're gonna, you know, send through our wash plants here.

Rookie miner Justin Fraser feeds Big Red.

Justin, you got a copy?

Yeah, go ahead, Mitch.

Hey, man, we got some real chunky bedrock here coming out of Mud Mountain,

you know, there's a good chance there's some good gold in here.

Copy that, I'll throw her in.

Whoa!

Gonna have to hop in there and clean it out a bit.

Material we're running out of Mud Mountain,

is plugging her up, but we gotta catch it right away,

or if the rock jams up, it can hit the belt, then we'll have a real disaster.

After an hour of downtime, Justin fires up Big Red again

and crosses his fingers it's worth the struggle.

Let's hope this works.

*bleep*

Tony Beets is chasing a 4,500-ounce target

mining Paradise Hill's wall cut.

*bleep*

But with only a month left in the season,

he has just 2,600 ounces of gold.

We're at the end of the season,

we're gonna try to sluice as much as possible.

Right now, we're not gonna waste time

trying to*bleep* around with another cut. We're still sluicing.

We're gonna have to run this material as efficiently as possible,

it's all we can hope for.

After missing out on an Indian River water license,

Tony's got a plan for a quick cash infusion.

*bleep*

Three years ago, Tony bought the Jasmine B and the Kid Commando

to haul Dredge 2 from Thistle Creek 150 miles away.

Now, he needs to drag the larger one, the Jasmine B,

out of the river to deliver to his buyer.

*bleep*

*bleep*

To remove the Jasmine B,

Tony must first move a paddle-wheeler out of the way,

push the Jasmine B back into the river

and remove the steel skids it's resting on,

before winching the Jasmine B onto the river bank, ready for transport.

All without putting a scratch on any of the boats.

Tony has pulled all his best operators off the mine site

to try and get the job done in just two days.

Monica!

Uh... Uh, you gotta turn.

- *bleep* - Other way, other way.

Oh, my *bleep*.

*bleep*

Yes.

You think we're ready?

Fire it up!

Tony only had time to bring two loaders down from Paradise Hill.

He's counting on them having enough power

to push the 100-ton Jasmine B off the slipway.

*bleep*

Now, Tony needs the loaders

to drag the steel skids it was resting on out of the way.

Youngest son, Mike, is back in the cab.

Guys, Mike and I are almost-- I think we are touching.

Holy *bleep*.

*bleep*

*bleep*

*bleep*

At the Yukon River,

Tony Beets is battling to drag a 100-foot steel skid out of the way

so he can complete the million-dollar sale of his riverboat fleet.

*bleep*

Tony brings in two Kenworths

and the Oshkosh tank transporter.

Their winches have a combined pulling power of over 100 tons.

*bleep*

Not running one of those winches, are you?

*bleep*

- Yes. - Yes.

*bleep*

Yes.

*bleep*

*bleep*

Yeah.

Let's do this!

Let's crank it up!

Steady now!

*bleep* beautiful!

Huh? Yeah, I figured that one was solid.

*bleep*

*bleep*

*bleep*

We've only got a few short weeks left.

You know, winter's coming, and up here,

man, it can sneak up on you way before you even know it.

In the mountains above Keno,

Rick Ness is pushing for a 2,000-ounce season

to take him into the Yukon mining big leagues.

But he's less than halfway to his target and winter is closing in fast.

You know, we've still got 1,200 ounces to go to hit our 2,000-ounce goal,

but we've got this big beautiful wash plant

finally back up and running after two years.

We're just about at that high-grade pay that we're looking for.

That's the stuff we're gonna need.

Rick's invested almost $1 million

digging down 90 feet in Rally Valley.

Drill results indicate they should be approaching the richest material,

paying out 3 ounces per 100 yards,

and potentially worth $5 million.

But first, they have to sluice the low-grade pay dirt above it.

We're gonna have to crank this plant up to 300 yards an hour,

and just slam dirt through that wash plant till it freezes.

It's time to see what that thing can really do.

At their current pace, Rick's team hope

to get down to the rich pay layer in a matter of days.

We're not even halfway to our 2,000-ounce goal yet.

And, you know, literally running out of time.

We need a high-volume plant which Monster Red is absolutely built for.

I mean, 300 yards an hour is *bleep* crazy.

Veteran operator, Chris Kruse, digs out pay.

We got this slick new setup, this hopper feeder.

Crank the plant back up to 300 yards per hour, boom.

It is just chowing through pay dirt.

Like, I think our chances are improving again to 2,000 ounces.

At their current pace, Rick's team are hoping

to find the rich pay layer in a matter of days.

Operator Kyle Lawson feeds the plant.

Almost down to this good pay.

Brennan is digging down.

The other guys are hauling it so...

Just a matter of time.

So all hands on deck. Just trying to get down to the good stuff.

Oh, what the *bleep* we got going on here?

Oh, *bleep*.

Hey, Rick. You got a copy?

Yeah, go for Rick.

Looks like we got rocks rolling back down this conveyor.

That ain't good, buddy. Yeah, I'll be right there.

Yeah, this ain't *bleep* good.

I mean, this is... This is gonna be a problem.

Right, Kyle? I mean, the rocks bouncing like that?

If they bounce they can take out rollers, and if they come all the way back

they're gonna smash right into the *bleep* head drum.

Yeah. Can't have that.

If that keeps happening, we're gonna have damage

and that damage is gonna equal downtime and we just can't *bleep* have it.

The rocks that we have here, they're so round they just wanna roll.

*bleep*, I don't know what to do.

Without a mechanic, the only thing I can think of right now

is to call the company I bought it from.

Keep it running for now. Keep an eye on it.

If it starts getting outta control, I don't...

- We may have to shut down. - Okay.

Yeah, it *bleep* kills me to do this,

but until we get a solution for these rocks rolling...

Gonna have to keep it at about 200 yards an hour.

Hopefully we figure this out quick though, because...

Clock's ticking.

Hey, Barry. Rick Ness here.

I've got rocks rolling back on that elevator conveyer.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. No, that'd be great. Like, how soon could you guys be here?

All right.

All right, thanks a lot.

All right. Bye, Barry.

Until the hopper manufacturer can reach lower Duncan Creek,

a two-day drive away, Monster Red is stuck

running just 200 yards an hour.

And Rick is stuck on his lower-grade pay.

They're gonna get in the truck right now, come out to site, and help me deal with this.

And then hopefully they get here with their solutions

and get running 300 yards an hour.

*bleep*

*bleep*

*bleep*

At the Yukon River...

*bleep*

Tony Beets is back

to haul a million dollars' worth of boats onto trailers,

ready for collection by his buyer.

We are trying to get Jasmine a little bit more out of the water.

We got the 500 Kenworth over here with the winch on the back.

So we put that against the bank,

and then we winch Jasmine onto the beach as far as possible.

Mine is not pulling anymore.

*bleep*

Tony's winch tractors are slipping on the riverbank's soft sand.

Jasmine is a little bit too heavy to keep the 500 Kenworths in place.

So we are dragging the Kenworths into the river

instead of the other way around, how it should be.

Jump in the loader. Maybe we don't need it, jump in the loader.

Eh?

*bleep*

*bleep*

*bleep*

*bleep*

*bleep*

*bleep*

eh?

*bleep*

*bleep*

*bleep*

It's gnarly bedrock that we're pulling out.

It's definitely not easy on our equipment.

It's banging and crashing hard on the shaker deck.

At Mud Mountain, Parker Schnabel's running bedrock

hoping it holds the $8 million in gold

the drill results indicate is here.

- How's things here? - She's pretty full.

Yeah, and with that bedrock it packs worse too, huh?

- Yeah. - Keep going.

All this big bedrock is not easy on the whole wash plant.

We can't really afford any more repercussions or downtime.

Had way too much of it.

Damn.

- Whoa! Holy *bleep*!

Whoa!

What the *bleep* is going on here?

Well, as you can see, this motor's jumping all over the place.

The reason for that,

this right here. This is a tensioner.

This keeps this motor isolated.

And you can see it's broke.

All the vibration and the rattling and energy

that gets transferred through these machines,

running bedrock takes a toll on them.

Mud Mountain is refusing to give up its bedrock gold without a fight.

What do you think, Ty? Can we just-- Can we pull this thing down?

Is that bolt gonna be long enough?

Yeah? Get this thing going again.

Perfect.

You're gonna have to pull this back into place,

reweld this, see if we can get it fixed.

Oh, man. She looks like it's been broke for a while.

Must just have been rattling around in there and finally let loose.

At Parker Schnabel's claim,

Mud Mountain bedrock has broken Big Red.

So there's a bolt that runs through here.

You can see it's just ripped its way out,

and you can see it's kinda rusty on this side,

so it must have been cracked for a bit here.

But it finally broke all the way.

With this not attached here...

That motor can just jump around, do whatever it wants.

A bolt holding the tensioner,

which isolates the motor from the shaker deck,

has broken loose from the steel plate it sits on.

Mitch's fix, hoist the motor back into position.

Realign the tensioner bolt,

and weld it back into the plate.

Gotta get the motor back in place, so the belts stay on there,

they stay tight, the shaker deck shakes,

and this motor isn't jumping all over the place.

So right now, we just gotta get this back into position.

Once we do that, then we can weld it up.

So we gotta get that bolt lined right back up where it was there.

Then we can polish it up and throw a weld on it.

So right now, we've got the shaker motor back in place.

We've got the tensioner bolt put back where it needs to be.

We're gonna weld this thing back up.

Once we do that, we'll take the clamps off.

You know, Big Red's taken a lot of abuse this season and we gotta keep it going.

Once we do this, we can fire back up.

And hopefully we can get through this pay dirt here from Mud Mountain

before we have any more problems.

Watch your eyes.

Time to see if Tyson's weld holds.

30 seconds or 30 feet, that's my warranty.

Man, I think that's solid. Let's get her fired back up.

- Sounds good. - Let's try her out.

Hopefully, when we hit the switch,

this shaker deck will shake like it's supposed to.

Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!

Crank it up!

We finally got Monster Red up and running.

But we cannot run at full capacity.

Rick Ness is in a race to reach 2,000 ounces,

chasing the richest pay of the season.

But Monster Red's speed has been reduced

from 300 to 200 yards of dirt per hour.

And if the ground is as good as drilling showed,

he could be missing out on thousands in gold.

Having problems with the feed conveyor, so I've had to dial it back

and if I have to run like that for the rest of the season, I'm*bleep*.

'Cause we got a lot of yardage to run through, so...

I did call the company, and they are gonna send some guys up here to fix it.

And I just really hope they have a solution and a quick one.

We got this high-earnings plant and to be running

what we're running through it, it's...

It's not gonna get us anywhere close.

We might as well have just kept running Rocky.

- How's it going? - Hey, Scott.

Scott, nice to meet you. Rick.

- Hello, Rick. Barry Proctor. - Barry, nice to meet you.

- You're the one I've been talking to. - You have.

- Right on. - How are things going?

You know, I cranked it up. Obviously, it can handle it.

But the problem is that we've got some impossibly round rock here.

And, at that speed, I'm getting them tumbling back

down the conveyor like I told you.

- Okay, we got basketballs coming backwards? - Exactly.

I've got the ground open, and I need to crank this thing up

as high as I can go for the rest of the season.

I'm running out of time.

How fast are you running the plant right now?

Right now, we're at about 200 yards an hour.

And where would you like to get to?

I wanna get it to 300 yards an hour.

- Okay, well, we can help you with that. - Okay.

We'll just draw it out here for an example.

So what I'd like to do is build a set of fingers.

As the rock comes back down, it can't get through the fingers.

I see.

Barry Proctor and Scott Ezekiel will build a finger trap.

A frame constructed with eight metal fingers hung from a horizontal beam.

The fingers let pay dirt and rocks pass through.

But any rocks rolling down the conveyor...

Are caught and then carried up to the plant.

Nice.

That seems like a great solution.

But the major question I always have to ask, though, is how long is it gonna take?

We're probably looking at four or five hours.

So we gotta shut down for four or five hours, huh?

I just need you to completely stop for...

maybe 15, 20 minutes?

So we can bolt it on.

- Oh, that's it? - That's it.

Oh, I love that.

- Okay. It sounds good. - Awesome.

- Thanks, Rick. - Thanks, guys.

Barry and Scott will have to construct

Rick's finger trap entirely out of salvaged scraps from his boneyard.

Well, looks like good little scavenger piles.

Oh, yeah, this'll work.

So we need something like 4-inch square tubing, HSS,

some flat bar, or some channel.

There we go.

That's gonna do the trick, right there.

After four hours...

Watch your hands. Just dump it.

- ...the finger trap is complete. - Yep.

Shut it down!

Heads up! Here it comes, Scott.

Right on. Looks good!

It looks good!

Wrap her up, and let's start putting some rock to her.

Fire it up!

Cranking it back up to 300 yards an hour.

The new finger trap is ready to be tested.

Boo-yah!

Yee-haw!

Hello, Rick.

Well, we got you up to your 300 yards an hour.

No *bleep*.

You don't have any rocks rolling back anymore.

Yeah, that's simple, effective.

There's no way for rocks to get through that.

I *bleep* love it!

Yeah, it turned out good.

Monster Red is back

to running 300 yards of dirt an hour,

and Rick is back in the race to get down to the high-grade pay.

I can't thank you guys enough.

- Well, thank you. - Yep.

Thanks again, guys.

Everyone's pretty stoked.

We're not running at 200 anymore.

We're back up, and running at full.

It's a good feeling.

Got that plant cranked back up

to 300 yards an hour, and it's time to rock and roll

and see what this deep ground's gonna have in it.

Get some gold!

At Mud Mountain,

Mitch and gold expert Chris Doumitt

are pulling the mats,

after a week running the cut's bedrock.

Hopefully, there's some gold in there!

Well, right now we're just starting to clean up here on Big Red.

How's it look, Chris?

Hey, Mitch. Looking good, man.

- Looking really good. - Yeah?

I mean, we've already pulled

four to six feet of bedrock out in spots.

Yeah, it's like...

It's a lot of bedrock.

But you know, that's what I think the most exciting part

about all this is, every time you turn off the wash plant,

- and you come up here and have a look... - Yeah.

...you never know what you're gonna find!

So every time you open this thing up, and start cleaning these mats,

- it's like a Christmas morning. - Exactly.

You never know.

You might get a pair of socks, or you might get a bicycle, right?

- Or you might get some coal. - Yeah!

All right. We'll catch you later, Mitch!

Cool. Have a good one!

At Paradise Hill,

Tony has been running White Channel pay from the wall cut all week.

- You're related to all them. I'm sorry!

- Excuse me?

So, how did things go this week?

*bleep*

Well, once we got the loaders over there, got the winch tractors.

- And everything else. - Well, I mean,

if Mike would have stopped hitting me with his loader,

- it would have been fine.

Was that before or after you hit me with yours?

Anyways, it's too bad the buyer

pulled out of buying the barges.

*bleep*

Yeah.

Doesn't always pay, does it?

Well, now you know for next time.

I counted last, so who's counting now?

I'm busy.

To hit his 4,500-ounce season goal,

each week Tony needs 370 ounces.

10.

20.

30.

60.

100.

130.

190.

250.

292.84.

Worth over half a million dollars

and their highest haul of the season.

But over 70 ounces short of what they need

in a week that he also lost a million-dollar deal for his fleet of boats.

That is so true.

*bleep*

Anyways, it's time for everybody to go back to work.

Yep.

Go for it, Mike!

- I'm going. - Easy with that.

- Bye!

Bye!

Just bugger off.

*bleep*

- Anyways,

your granddaughter agrees with you.

*bleep*

- Ah!

No phones at the dinner table.

Okay.

At lower Duncan,

the Ness crew are about to find out

if they've hit high-grade pay, in the Rally Valley.

Guys, it's been *bleep* a little scary about

how quick the leaves started turning yellow, eh?

Oh, yeah, it just happened overnight, almost.

*bleep*, it's getting chilly

- in the morning, too. - Yep.

And the days have gotten short like that, fast.

At least we're all on the same level,

to be working here with this guy.

- What the hell is wrong with us? - Yeah.

- Yeah, exactly.

- We're friends first. - Mmm!

- We're all here because we're not-- - Holy *bleep*!

- Oh, sorry, yeah.

- Damn!

- Nice! - Did you hear that?

Yes, sir.

Is that lead?

Uh...

- Yes, we're lead miners. - Whoo!

That is actually gold.

Lots of gold.

- That sounded... - That sounded heavy.

- Totes heavy. - Yeah.

It was going pretty good all week,

you know, at 200 yards an hour,

and then I had to get greedy and turn it up to 300.

I know where you learned that trick from.

- But it's got the capacity. - Yeah.

- You know what I mean? - Oh, for sure.

The rocks here are so round, though, you know,

they just started rolling back like that.

We weren't running at max capacity for the whole week.

- So... - Mmm-hmm.

...a couple days we had to dial it back

to 200 yards an hour, but...

You know, we did get a full week,

10 hours a day, sluicing. That's 70 hours.

Should we see what we got?

- *bleep*, yeah. - Yeah.

- For sure. - Enough jibber-jabber, let's *bleep*

get a taste of what we got going on.

Rick Ness' massive gamble on Rally Valley

has yet to pay off.

His weekly average this season is just 59 ounces.

I gotta be honest with you. I know that this is more than 130 ounces

and that's all my scale goes up to.

I'm just gonna...

I'll dump out 100 first, and then switch pans, I guess.

- I like that problem. - Right?

Nate, you want to count it, buddy?

Oh, yeah. You betcha.

10.

20.

30.

80.

90.

100.

100 plus...

40

50.

70.

80.

If I'm not mistaken, that's 580 ounces!

181.17.

Rick's biggest-ever gold weigh, worth $325,000.

- 181 ounces, boys.

- Yeah. - And then, that was for 70 hours?

Yeah. I mean, that's 300 grand in a week.

That's one of the biggest gold weighs we've had.

- Oh, absolutely. - Oh, yeah.

So that puts us at just over 1,000 ounces.

*bleep*, yeah.

Monster gold dumpster,

300 yards an hour,

and we get to that good pay?

We're gonna get it.

Thanks again. You guys are awesome.

You betcha. Thank you.

I'm gonna have to leave my beer behind to carry two pans.

- That sucks. - Aw, poor you.

- Sounds like a real bad problem to have.

- Sure as hell does. - Yeah, I'll clean up after you.

Ohhh!

Well, that was quite a week!

Good week, yeah.

Well, you tell if it's a good week.

We're out there ripping pay dirt, so...

If Doumitt's leading with saying it's a good week,

then it was actually a good week.

It was a good week.

For one of you.

I remember running a plant.

I hated it when I saw a truck coming with that blocky stuff.

- It's nothing but a pain in the butt.

Chris'd get on the radio, "Send it back."

- Yeah! - "Send it back."

- Send it back, yeah!

Just send that one right over the edge with tailings.

Good thing those days are long behind you, Chris.

Yeah!

How's it going down there at, uh, Ken's?

Oh, good. Just chugging away.

I'd say we're about halfway through the Bad Cut right now, but...

Well, I think we ought to throw Sluicifer on there,

and see how the Bad Cut's turning out.

- Yeah, let's do it. - Ready?

Why do you want to do the bad stuff first?

When you were a kid, and people asked you,

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

would you pick the good news or the bad news?

Bad news.

- Mmm-hmm. - Here we go. Bad Cut.

Let's do her.

Last week at the Bad Cut,

Sluicifer delivered 192 ounces of gold...

60.

80.

100.

110.

112.85.

There you go. Living up to its name.

- That's not that bad. - No.

...worth over $200,000.

- Yeah. - Yeah. It's not as good as the first cleanup, but...

- Which is odd, 'cause normally the first one... - Yeah.

- Yeah. - ...isn't very good, but...

But coming from you, I expect things to be backwards.

- You know?

Next, time to find out

if Parker's gamble running the bedrock

was the right call.

All the fun stuff. Blocky bedrock.

- You ready? - Yeah, we know. Do it!

*bleep* see what we got here!

Okay, let me read it out.

So far, Big Red's best gold weigh

from Mud Mountain...

30.

...has been just 190 ounces.

150.

180.

200.

230, 250.

- Keep going. - 300.

350.

399.65.

Keep her coming!

So this is on top of 300 and change.

We got another 50.

Another 70.

Another 84.45.

You must know what those add up to.

484.1 ounces.

- No way! - Yeah.

Worth a massive $870,000.

And finally, a change of fortune at Mud Mountain.

Sweet! Man, that was definitely

worth the struggle, right there.

Is that sweet or what?

That's gotta be the best cleanup Big Red's ever had!

Yeah. Yeah, it is.

For the week, you guys.

This is pretty sweet. It's 596.95 ounces.

- Almost a 600-ounce week.

Is that our best week this year?

Oh, by far. Yeah, by far.

In total, the Schnabel crew

has brought in over a million dollars in gold this week.

It gives us a season total of 5,230 ounces,

30.5 ounces.

The numbers are climbing really quick, eh?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Oh, yeah, with weeks like this.

I mean, yeah, but the way it drilled, like, really...

It' supposed to have a *bleep*-ton of gold in it.

So we're definitely behind what the drilling was showing, but...

It's just nuts to do that much gold in a week

and still be behind, but if it's gonna keep doing this.

then it shouldn't take long to catch up.

- Yeah. - But, yeah, that's a big "if."

- Yeah. - Let's do it.

- Let's shake them up! - Sounds good.

All righty!

- Well, thanks, guys. - Catch you guys later! Later!

Thank you both.

- Any time. - All three of you.

Chris, nice job cleaning the stuff.

Oh, thanks, Parker.

Yeah, it's really nice.