Original subtitles

[Parker] Every season is, you know, a big push to

find more gold and mine more ground

and beat last season.

[narrator] 27- year old Parker Schnabel is in a race

to deliver on the biggest gamble of his career.

Mud Mountain.

[Parker] We're still behind.

But the gold from Mud Mountain, it's picked up and

the piece that's left is the center of the cut,

that's where the best drilling was.

[narrator] Parker has dropped five million to get to pay dirt.

So far, he's only found three million in gold.

But it's starting to pay out.

[Mitch] Last week, every time we shut down Big Red here,

it looked really, really good in the runs.

There's so much gold in 'em.

You know, we've got lots going on here, at the end of the season.

We've got Big Red on Mud Mountain.

We've got Sluicifer on Ken's ground.

Things were motoring along pretty nice.

[Justin] Everyone's stretched pretty thin. Long hours, long days.

Yeah, just want to get the rest of this cut done.

[narrator] With winter right around the corner,

Mitch has called in reinforcements to make the final push.

Office manger, Nona Loveless.

[Justin] What's up?

[Nona] Not much. Mitch just wants me to come help with the tailings.

Just clean tailings for a bit, so, I'm going to do that and then...

I'm not going to be here long, maybe an hour or so.

- Okay, wicked, thanks. - Okay, sweet. Thanks.

[Nona] Yeah, I've been running dozers for quite a few years. [chuckles]

I'm gonna do my walkaround, check the oil and if she's good to go,

then I will jump on it.

All is good.

[bulldozer engine starting]

[Nona] I love the office work but I like getting out of the office.

I love the machines but I don't know if I could do it

12 hours a day, seven days a week, so.

I got the best of both worlds, don't I? [chuckles]

Tailings is not forgiving like natural earth is.

It's very soft underneath so, you've just got to take it off, skin it.

Just got to take a little bit off at a time.

[loud crash]

Oh, my goodness. *bleep* What have I done?

*bleep*

Holy *bleep*!

[Nona]

I *bleep* up! I broke the water line.

[Justin] Are you kidding me?

Hey, Mitch, you got a copy?

[Mitch over walkie-talkie] Mitch here.

I *bleep* up big time. I don't even know what to say, uh...

I just broke the water line but the whole system, won't everything come off?

[Nona grunts]

*bleep*

Holy *bleep*!

You can see here, the dozer snagged this,

ripped the pipeline right in half. When this pulled,

it ripped everything from the wash plant loose.

[sighs]

Not only did the pipeline get ripped,

that half out there broke the whole manifold off the wash plant.

This is what supplies water to the plant up to the pre-wash as our bypass.

This is bad as bad as it could be right now.

Well, it uh... ripped this pipe clean off.

She gone.

[narrator] The pipeline from the pump

is connected to the plant with a 90 degree manifold.

[Jordan] Well, we're just lifting this out to see what we can salvage off of it.

[Mitch] The biggest problem we have here is this 90 is broken.

We've got, you know, a few spares here and there

but I'm pretty sure we don't have a spare 90 kicking around.

We're just going to have to put a flange right on here.

And bolt this right up to the top.

We can get away with not having the bypass.

What that means though, is when we start this thing up,

we're just going to have to turn on the pump and throw dirt at it.

[narrator] The 90 degree manifold that attaches the bypass in the water supply

to the wash plant is broken.

[loud thud]

So, Mitch will have to remove the bypass that regulates the flow of water,

strip the hoses from the manifold and reconnect them straight to the plant.

This down and dirty fix could lead to excess water pressure

and flush gold right out the sluice runs.

[Mitch] This isn't ideal

but it's the end of the season and our wash plant just got mangled.

So, we gotta do whatever we can to make it work.

[Jordan] Nice and easy.

[chainsaw whirring]

Whoo!

[narrator] After cutting out the ripped section...

- [Justin] There you go. That's what we need. Right there. - [Mitch] Right there.

[narrator] ...they fuse the pipe back together.

[Mitch] Pull hat back to there.

It's like magic! It's all back together again.

[narrator] Next, Mitch brings in flexible hose

to make then bend from the water supply the wash plant.

[Mitch] We're going to have at least a 8 inch lay flat

to get us from here straight down and over to our waterline.

There it is. Right there.

Start some hardware.

[laughs]

Oh, yeah! It's heavy.

[Jordan] Just push up. Push.

[Mitch] That looks good. That'll work.

Here we go!

- All right, let's fire it up. - Yeah!

[narrator] Without a bypass,

Mitch is relying on the pump to maintain the right water pressure.

[Mitch] There it is.

Here she comes!

Here we go!

[narrator] After four hours, costing them $30,000 in lost gold

they're finally back to sluicing.

[Nona] Tailings is kind of a tricky one.

I got butterflies in my tummy just from...

thinking about what happened now that I'm here again.

[Mitch] We're just real fortunate we had enough stuff

here to patch Big Red back together.

It might not be as good as what it was,

but it'll still catch some gold here. We'll get this thing finished up.

[Mitch] Time to get some more gold.

We're still in September here, you know.

Close to the end. We got snow overnight.

It's just not looking like it wants to give up.

[narrator] In the mountains above Keno,

winter has fired it's first warning shot.

[Rick] It's a pretty sad sight.

This wash plant should be cranking out gold this time of year,

instead it's sitting there covered in snow.

[narrator] Last week, Rick's second wash plant, Rocky,

helped him to his best ever gold weigh.

[Rick] We can unthaw the runs, you know, get the water moving,

as soon as you stop, this happens again.

It freezes, then you start the process over again

and pretty soon, it takes longer and longer.

It's not worth your time.

Yesterday was the last time Rocky ran for the year.

We're going to have to focus all of our efforts on Monster Red.

You know, when I decided to go out on my own, and go gold mining for myself,

um, that was a big risk, you know.

There was some people that, you know,

they didn't think I'd make it through my first season.

But, you know, I'm still here. You know, they were wrong.

[narrator] Now, in his third season away from The Klondike,

Rick Ness has finally found Keno's big gold

and dropped a quarter million dollar deposit to buy his claims outright.

But with the end of his mining season looming,

Rick still needs 550 ounces to hit his 2,000-ounce target.

[Rick Senior] Rick's always been a risk-taker,

a gambler, so to speak.

For me to watch him go through life that way is...

Gives me a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of stress.

I mean, it doesn't always come out good for him. I know he's had struggles in the past but

for the most part, he's done very well for himself and continues to.

And I'm certainly going to always be there for him if I can be.

[narrator] Like Parker, Rick is also battling the deepest ground of his career.

And the deeper he goes, the better the gold.

[Brennan] We're finally getting down to the really good stuff.

It's looking a lot better, this layer that I'm digging now.

Here we are. It's snowed in.

But we gotta hit our 2,000 ounce minimum goal.

I do not want to walk away from here failing, so,

we can't just pull out of here early 'cause of a little bit of snow.

But uh, you can see the water I'm dealing with

because we did finally find the water cable.

And man, there is a lot of groundwater coming out.

I didn't think it was going to be this bad but...

I want to send a bunch of dry pay up to that plant

and out it through the plant.

And not have to resort to sending wet pay up, that needs time to dry because

at the end of the day, we want to sluice this stuff today.

We know we're running out of time here, so...

I hope uh, there's a solution sooner than later.

[Brennan] Rick, you got a copy?

[Rick] Yeah, go for Rick.

[Brennan] Hey, buddy, you mind coming down

and taking a look at this water I'm dealing with?

All right, I'll be right down.

[Brennan] Okay, buddy, thanks.

- [Rick] There's a lot of water here, huh? - [Brennan] Yeah, so.

[Brennan] I don't know, like, is it worth me even sluicing *bleep* right now

- or just wait for it to dry out? - [Rick] No, no, it's not.

No, we're going to need to get a pump in here right away

if we're going to get this pay out.

[narrator] After digging for 10 weeks,

Rick's crew are 170 feet down in the Rally Valley

and have just hit the water table,

a layer of water just above impermeable bed rock.

Right where all the gold-rich pay dirt sits.

To drain the cut and get the dry pay,

they'll install a pump to pull all the water out of the pit.

[Rick] I gotta get a pump down there, ASAP.

[narrator] Rick is relying on 20-year-old pump

that hasn't run for three years.

[Rick] This pump right here is uh... Don't look like much but

it's exactly what we need to get the water out of the cut.

We can't work underwater,

and that's where-- that's where the good pay that we've been chasing is.

Let's uh, get this pump here and uh, it'll keep this water drained out of our cut.

[Rick] Easy!

Ooh.

Holy *bleep*!

That's the spot where I want to put my pump.

This is kind of *bleep* spooky, not knowing...

what the floor looks like under here.

- [loud splash] - *bleep*

[groans] *bleep* *bleep*

[narrator] On Duncan Creek,

Rick Ness is on the best pay he's ever mined.

But the cut is flooded.

*bleep*

[Rick] Ah! I knew I was going to get in there.

Especially since it's underwater,

I can't see where the *bleep* boulders are.

[man] Which way you want it facing?

Yep. Stop here.

Nailed it!

This thing doesn't need to be flat, right?

[Rick] So, suction line and some layflat, we'll be in business

but I've got to get this water out of here tonight.

Um, because we need to be hauling pay out here in the morning.

[narrator] After six hours, setting the pump,

suction line and discharge hose,

the entire success of Rick's season now depends on a 20-year-old pump.

[Rick] This is uh, it's too late in the season for *bleep* not to work.

I really need this pump to uh, prime right away and start *bleep* doing its job.

Stay here late, get it done.

[pump starting]

[Rick] There she goes.

What do you know? A pump that works.

*bleep* me. That's all I needed.

[narrator] With temperatures expected to drop ten below,

Rick's hoping the pump can drain the cut before the water freezes.

Well, that's that. We're pumping water.

By morning time, cut should be nice and dry.

Bingo-Bango. Just what we needed.

[narrator] 100 miles west of Keno,

the King of the Klondike, Tony Beets is still 900 ounces shy of his season goal.

With the big freeze about to hit,

and Mike's trommel producing just 300 ounces a week,

Tony is about to do the unthinkable.

[narrator] The New Zealand plant is 100 yard per hour trommel

sitting on a stockpile of good pay beside Hunker Creek.

It could hold the key to Tony's season.

But over the last two seasons,

the Hunker Cut has been an absolute disaster.

I think the chain just *bleep* broke.

[narrator] Frozen pay...

[woman] Shouldn't have this big of rocks in here.

[narrator] ...mechanical failure...

It must be a hole.

[narrator] ...and flooding have sent Tony packing multiple times.

[Kevin] No! What the *bleep*?

[narrator] Just 17 weeks ago,

when Tony tried his luck once more...

Holy *bleep*!

[narrator] ...the Kiwi plant's main generator seized.

[Kevin] The engine is *bleep* *bleep*.

[narrator] And Tony was defeated once again.

*bleep* damn cursed cut.

[narrator] Now, Tony's rebuilt the motor on the generator

and the cut has dried out.

He's determined to reverse the curse.

[narrator] To get the operation running, Tony send youngest son, Mike

to set up the water supply.

[Mike] 'Cause my dad wants to get some more sluicing done before the end here

because he wants more gold.

And since we can't go to the Indian,

this one of the only other places we can go to at the moment.

So, I'm just making sure to start getting stuff ready.

Look at that!

That *bleep* thing is stuffed.

That thing's full of dirt. I'm gonna pull it up and see how much.

You like breathing, right?

So, imagine I were to shove your nose and your mouth just full of *bleep*,

makes it harder to breathe.

Well, the pump likes having water flow through it.

So, it's full of *bleep*. It don't like that.

*bleep* thing is broken.

Whole thing is going to have to get fixed.

[narrator] The screen that protects the water intake is plugged solid.

[Mike] I think someone is going to have to fix that.

[narrator] But that's not all.

[Mike] I just dug out your thing, and I tried-- I pulled out the uh,

suction because it was *bleep* chuck full of mud.

Your hose is broken and the suction screen's *bleep*.

Just letting you know that you're going to need--

If you want to get this thing started up today,

it's going to be a little bit of work before you get her going.

[Tony] Oi-oi-oi.

[Mike] Chuck-full, obviously.

[man] Oh, wow. Yeah.

[Mike grunts, chuckles]

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Mike loads the intake hose

and 220 excavator onto the Oshkosh and hauls them to the yard.

[Mike] The Oshkosh, it just *bleep* died.

[Mike] The Oshkosh, it just *bleep* died.

[narrator] At Paradise Hill,

Mike's military tank transporter has fallen victim

to the curse of the Hunker Cut.

[grunts]

[narrator] Tony calls in the 520 horsepowered D-10 dozer

to pull the 20-ton truck and it's 36-ton payload to the yard.

- [Mike] It is in neutral. - [man] All right.

[Kevin] Oh, it's coming out of our hose.

[Kevin] Mike was coming up the hill, uh...

he had low power so he was going to shift to lower gears

and he stopped. And it died.

[narrator] A leak in the cooling system caused the engine to overheat

and a safety system shut it down.

[Mike] What can you do? We're going to lose

a day's sluicing which is kind of a pain in the ass.

All you can*bleep* do is fix it 'cause we ain't got much*bleep* time.

Just another delay trying to the Kiwi going.

Cursed cut strikes again!

[Parker] I saw what happened at Big Red with the pipeline.

And I know Nona's kicking herself pretty good but

we all make mistakes. I know I've done it before.

Almost that exact thing.

[narrator] At Mud Mountain,

Parker is in a race to extract every ounce of gold

through Big Red before winter shuts him down.

But right now, he's stepped into his D-11 dozer

to deal with a more pressing issue.

[Parker] It's a tough balancing act because

we're behind on gold and we want to get gold out of the ground but

if we don't do reclamation, we're just screwing our future

because we won't have a future.

[narrator] Before this season ends,

Parker must reclaim his mined out ground to recreate

the natural habitat of ponds and earth where plants and animals will return.

[Parker] You know, as big of a push we're making for gold here,

from a long time view of things,

reclamation's way more important.

There's two ponds right here that,

as long as we slope the banks in good,

and have good vegetation around, they're going to be wetlands

and they'll have birds and ducks and swans.

So, stabilizing creek beds and water flow is a big part of it and then,

of course, putting organics over top that let it regrow.

[Parker] We'll leave this place looking really good.

We're not just here to take the money and run.

[narrator] At the other side of the cut, rookie miner, Justin Fraser

is still running Mud Mountain pay dirt through Big Red.

[Justin] We gotta get as much as we can through Big Red here.

If we get this plant turned up anymore,

I don't know if it's uh, going to be able to keep up.

[Justin] The plant! The plant!

[Mitch] Holy *bleep*!

Gonna shut off. Gonna shut off.

Kill the water!

*bleep* *bleep*

Ah, we got to shut the pump off but the plant is solid with dirt.

[Mitch] Oh, wow.

You probably got two feet of material in that thing.

[narrator] Water and pay dirt are funneled through the distribution box

which distributes the mixture evenly across four sluice runs.

In an effort to up their production,

Justin has overloaded the plant, blocking the distribution box

backing up Big Red.

We're going to have to shovel all that out.

That's why all this water's bailing out the end.

- [man] Pure sacrifice right there. - [Justin] What a good boy.

[Justin] Should've just given you the rain gear.

- Then we can just turn the water on. - [man] That would be the best.

[Mitch laughs]

[Mitch] At least it's not like fertilizer and you're standing in poop.

You're such a glass-half-full kind of guy. That's what I love about you.

[laughs] Just try and get the hole opened up there.

Could be worse.

- [Justin] Yeah. - [Mitch] Could be a heck of a lot better too, but...

[grunts]

I think we'll throw a little bit more water at it here. Let's get this thing flowing.

[machine starting]

[Justin] Water's moving.

It has to work. [chuckles]

Oh, yeah!

Doesn't look to be pouring out any of our joints.

- Oh, yeah, there we go! - Yeah!

Nice job!

Do you feel like you just dug your way out of jail there or what?

Honestly, it reminds me of the time I did.

[all laughing]

[Mitch] All righty, then.

We got our water back on, we're gonna go ahead and

flip the switch here and get the shaker deck shaking.

We're going to throw some material on Big Red here, see what it wants to do.

Here we go!

[machine starts]

[Justin] Best part about working here is...

Guys that have nothing to do with the plant or anything like that

all come together to make *bleep* happen and

I don't know, that's the only reason that we're running right now

is 'cause everyone works together and...

I just-- I don't know. This place is pretty wicked.

[Brennan] Un *bleep* believable.

This is lame.

[narrator] At Rally Valley,

the high-grade pay Rick is relying on to save his season,

is still under six feet of water.

[Brennan] You know, uh, we're finally down to the good pay.

Rick got us a pump.

Told us that this cut was gonna be bone dry.

Got here in the morning, flooded right out again.

And, uh, you know, just one step ahead, ten steps behind.

And it's getting really *bleep* frustrating.

[narrator] Rick's six inch pump

is no match for the 6,000 gallons of ground water,

bleeding into the cut every minute.

- The water didn't really move. - Yeah.

[Rick sighs deeply]

*bleep*

[Brennan] You know, that six inch just could not keep up

for how much volume of water we have here.

And it's a pile of*bleep* and barely works.

The Taylors have a *bleep* ten inch.

- [Brennan] Do they? - Sitting up there.

- [Brennan] Oh, really. - [Rick] Yeah.

For what I remember, there's nothing wrong with it.

- It just hasn't run in a couple of years, so... - [Brennan] Yeah.

[engine whirring]

[narrator] Rick heads to the lay down yard

he shares with landlord, Troy Taylor.

[Rick] The six inch pump, just did not have

enough jam to get the water out of the cut.

And I need that *bleep* water out of there now.

I mean, there's a nice ten inch pump here.

You know, it's got everything we need

and more to get that water out of there, but it ain't mine.

It's the Taylors'.

And I can't *bleep* get a hold of Troy to see if I can use it.

His *bleep* phone just keeps going to voicemail.

So, I don't have another *bleep* choice.

I mean, we have to get the water out of there.

Screw it. I'm just gonna use it.

Let's go.

[machinery whirring]

[narrator] Troy's pump has a capacity of 8,000 gallons a minute.

More than triple the flow rate of Rick's.

[Brennan] We're going to, hopefully have this ten inch fired up here

within the next, you know, 20 minutes, half hour.

You know, after, uh, switching crews this season,

I would really like my first season with Rick be his best season.

It's just a personal goal that I've had all year.

- [horn beeps] - [Brennan] Just watch yourself!

[clatters]

[Chris] Perfect. Nailed it.

[narrator] All that's left is to plumb up the hoses.

[Rick] Dude, we kinda need to spin this a bit more.

I think that we should leave it right there.

- [Chris] Yeah. - Everything reaches.

I say drop it down. We'll unhook this for now.

[Rick] Is there a loop on the side there? Something to hook to?

[horn beeps]

- [Brennan] What the *bleep* are you doing? - [Nathan] What?

This is like watching grass grow.

- [Chris] Hey, nobody's amused by your bull *bleep*. - [laughs]

- [Rick] There you go. Nice catch. - [Chris laughs]

[Rick] It's*bleep* snowing right now.

I don't know how much time we have left,

but I do know that the time we do have left,

needs to be spent running this good pay.

And, the only thing standing in our way right now is this *bleep* water.

We got this ten inch in here.

Hopefully it's got the jam we need to get this thing, uh, dried out.

[buzzing]

I think she's on there.

[Chris] Fire it up.

[engine starts]

[pump whirring]

[Brennan] Whoa-ho!

Yeah, boy!

[Brennan] *bleep* I love the sound of those old gas.

[narrator] Powered by a massive 465 horsepower dozer engine...

*bleep* yeah!

[pump whirring]

[narrator] ...this ten inch pump can empty an Olympic swimming pool

in just 70 minutes.

You can see the water moving from all the way over there already.

- See that? - [Nathan] Yeah.

Oh, yeah, you can already see it.

[Rick] Well, this pump...

Man, it should work, and if it does,

we'll be able to come in here in the morning,

and finally start getting this good pay out of here, you know.

All we've been worried about for the last couple of days, is water.

And, uh, we need to be worried about the gold, so...

Fingers crossed morning comes, gold's coming out of here.

[pump whirring]

[Rick] Oh, yeah, it did its job.

Sometimes you just need bigger equipment.

It's definitely dried out a good six feet of this pay layer.

So that's good.

Next step is, uh, get the trucks rolling.

And, uh, start bringing pay to the plant.

[Brennan] We're finally back on track, you know?

We're back to digging this good pay.

Long as the pump keeps working,

and the weather holds up,

I don't see why we won't get to our target.

And that's the only thing that matters.

[Rick] We don't have much time left.

And we still got a lot of ounces to bank to get to 2,000, so...

Just keep up with this pump.

Keep hauling this stuff, and we should get where we need to be.

[clanging]

Firing up the Kiwi hasn't gone worth a *bleep*. Let's be honest.

So, slowly but steadily, we'll make it work.

[narrator] On Paradise Hill,

the Beets are fighting to get their second wash plant,

the Kiwi up and running in the cursed Hunker Cut.

So far, a plugged screen,

broken intake hose,

and sudden engine failure,

have stopped them from firing up the plant.

We got a lot of rocks.

and I was too lazy to get the steam cleaner here.

So I do it this way.

[narrator] Kevin makes up a new coupler

to reattach the screen's cage to the hose.

[Kevin] We got the new coupler on.

That is perfect.

Now we've just gotta go back down to the Kiwi plant,

plug everything together, we can finally start sluicing down there.

[narrator] Down at the cursed Hunker Cut...

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] ...it's time to put it all back together, again...

[Kevin grunts]

[narrator] ...and pray it all works.

[metal clanking]

[Tony] One, two, three, six.

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin] Come on!

[engine misfiring]

[Tony speaking]

[engine misfiring]

[Kevin] Yeah, no juice.

No sparks, means no power.

So, we're just gonna take this *bleep* battery out momentarily,

put a bigger *bleep* in there, and zoom, zoom, zoom, bang, bang, bang.

- [Ruby] Okay. - It's awkward as *bleep* otherwise.

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin] There you go.

Now we can *bleep* do something.

She gonna turn over?

[engine firing]

This cursed cut.

Oh, *bleep*, this cursed cut has been nothing but problems.

But now we're up and running, so...

[chuckles] Hopefully the cursed cut can give us a little bit of a break.

[narrator] With the curse of the Hunker Cut lifted,

Tony now has two wash plants

sluicing gold-rich pay dirt at a combined 450 yards per hour,

giving him a fighting chance of hitting his 4,500 ounce season goal.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony groans]

*bleep*

[narrator] On Paradise Hill,

an overnight cold snap froze Mike's trommel,

just in time for the cleanup.

[Mike] They're *bleep* frozen.

[Mike yells]

Hopefully, this cleanup has lots of gold in it.

The more gold, the more money,

the more profit, the more, uh,

the more the company expands, the longer we last.

Oh, *bleep* me!

Hey, Nick.

That's a nice one.

Hey, boys, all done.

Let's get her up there for jigging.

You and Ruby can start, uh, jigging.

Nobody likes cleanups, ever.

Especially not when everything's frozen.

*bleep* kidding. No *bleep* kidding.

[Monica] Hey, guys

[Tony speaking]

[Mike groans]

[baby crying]

[Monica] It is obviously getting cold out.

Little girl's got warm blankets,

instead of just the muslins.

[Tony speaking]

On a sunny day that was slightly brisk,

you're like, "Doesn't she have a hat?

She's gonna get cold."

Like, come on, man. [chuckles]

You can't have it both ways.

Well, we're all wondering about that, Tony. [chuckles]

[all laugh]

Uh, how was this week?

So, the trommel was running all week

- while all this other stuff went on? - Yep.

That thing is nice and dependable, isn't it?

[Tony speaking]

And I love dependable.

Not me.

[Tony chuckles]

[Minnie] I think we should do the Kiwi first.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Tony is still 900 ounces short

of his 4,500 ounce season goal.

[Minnie] Look, there's some chunkies in there.

[Faith] 20, 30,

40, 60.

63.25.

[Tony speaking]

Nice little hole you found.

[Faith] Okay. Let's do Mike's trommel.

100.

150.

200.

260.

297.03.

[narrator] For a total of 360.28 ounces,

worth almost $650,000,

bringing their season total to 3,988 ounces,

over 500 ounces shy.

We're getting pretty close.

I mean, that's quite a bit more than we've been getting.

[Tony speaking]

[Minnie] Don't count it until--

[Tony speaking]

All right.

[Kevin] Or we'll just keep going until we do.

[Minnie] You have fun with that.

We will be in Mexico.

[laughs]

Just the people I wanted to see.

How she going, Ricky?

Not too bad.

Oh! That's heavy.

You think it's heavier than last week?

- It feels like it. - Oh, boy.

[narrator] Rick's lost two days sluicing while he battled a flooded cut.

With he big freeze threatening to shut him down,

he needs the Rally Valley to deliver.

You know, we had a few setbacks this week.

- Nice. - [Rick] If there wasn't so much damn water down there,

um, you know, that six-inch pump

would have been able to handle it.

We would have been a little farther ahead than we are, but,

that 10-inch pump, like, that's certainly got the power to do it.

- Yeah. - But, uh, unfortunately that came at a price tag.

I talked to Troy,

and it turns out they didn't have a problem with it as long as I bought it.

Ooh. Wow. [chuckles]

- Oh, yeah, 40 grand for a pump. - Ouch.

- We needed it, so at least it was right on site. - Yep.

And it kept us going, and, uh,

- it's keeping our cut dry. - Yep.

- It's the price you pay, I guess, you know, but, uh... - [Brennan] Yeah.

And by the weight of this, I think it's starting to pay off.

- [Brennan] I love that. - I know.

Good stuff.

So, let's weigh it up.

This jar's already got 100 ounces in it.

Woo-hoo. I can't wait

All right. Here we go.

[narrator] To hit his 200 ounce season goal,

Rick still needs a massive 550 ounces.

[Rick] So, we got,

10, 20, 30.

50.

70.

80.

90, and *bleep* yeah, over 100.

- Go, Ricky. - Wow.

106.9

[Brennan] Oh, my *bleep*!

Nice.

S0, 106 plus 100, that's 206

[narrator] Worth $370,000.

[chuckles] *bleep*

- Wow, that's awesome. - It's amazing.

[narrator] Rick is 300 ounces shy of his season goal.

If he can keep Monster Red running,

he still has a shot at victory.

[all laugh]

[laughs]

Even though we were down for days,

the team pulled it off.

This is great. I mean, 206 ounces.

*bleep* Man, that's awesome.

If we just keep going deeper in that *bleep*, it's just gonna get better.

- That's the next challenge, right? - [Rick] Yeah.

Hopefully, that's a panful of nuggets at the bottom. [laughs]

- I can't wait for that. - [Brennan] Oh, man.

- [Parker] Hey, Mitch. - Oh-ho!

Does it feel a whole lot better in here than it does outside.

- [laughter] - [Parker] It's starting to get a little chilly out there.

[Doumitt] Maybe you're colder than the beer.

It felt good coming in here though with that stove running, man.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Doumitt's burning as much fuel as a D11.

[all laugh]

[narrator] To beat last season's gold total,

Parker needs the final weeks to go off without a hitch.

I hear Nona hooked the water line.

I was gone for

just long enough for it to go bad, you know.

It's a good thing the pipe broke when it did.

- That's all I say. - Oh, yeah.

The pipe took the brunt of the punishment.

If it didn't break there--

The next step was the sluice runs being like crumpled up and drug out

into the fine tailings.

Yeah, that was what would probably have happened next, like--

[Parker] With gold in it.

[narrator] With the season nearly over,

Parker's closing in on last year's total of 7,504 ounces.

To stay on track,

Parker needs his wash plants to bring in 420 ounces of gold per week.

First up, Sluicifer,

which has been running pay from the ugly cut.

Here we go. 10.

20.

40.

60.

80.

100.

115.4.

So it's ugly and bad.

How did we do?

Our hopes now, anyway, my... is we at least get Mud Mountain paid for,

and not take a loss.

[narrator] Parker has invested over $5 million in Mud Mountain.

He still needs 900 ounces before the cut will start to make a profit.

[Mitch] Keep her coming'. 50.

100.

150.

200.

250.

Keep going. 300.

320.

340.

368.45

[narrator] Still over 500 ounces shy of the break-even point.

So, for the week, you guys, we got 483.85 ounces.

That puts us at 7,141.7.

About 360 short of last season.

[Parker] Given the way our season has gone.

Unless there's some miracle in Mud Mountain,

we can safely say that we are a quantity mining operation,

- not quality. - [chuckles]

[Parker] *bleep* the quality.

- We will mine tons of shallow ground... - [all laugh]

- ...and if we go broke then we covered lots of area at least. - Yeah.

I totally agree.

We can go broke in one stupid *bleep* hole.

[all laugh]