Original subtitles

We're about a month behind where we'd wanted to be.

We thought we'd already be sluicing by now,

but delays, delays, breakdowns, breakdowns.

So the faster we can get this pay out,

the faster we can set the plant up and get running.

First-year mine boss Kevin beets

is falling way behind schedule.

Nine weeks into his first season,

he hasn't mined an ounce of gold.

But that is about to change.

The crew down in the cut has hit pay finally,

so that's a big plus.

But is frozen,

so all the pay has gotta come out to get that.

By the time it's all out, though,

he's gonna have a mountain.

Eager to get gold coming in,

Kevin wants to dig out all the frozen pay

from 3 acres of the lynx cut by the end of the week, stockpile it,

then let the sun thaw it before sluicing.

There's just one problem.

To dig out the frozen pay quickly

requires a big dozer to rip the ground.

And Kevin's d10 is still out of action

after blowing its transmission a month ago.

Breakdowns kill us every single time.

And it's very frustrating.

Cause I don't know the

I'm gonna push out, you guys,

and you guys can head back to the back...

For sakes.

With no dozer, foreman Brennan ruault

is forced to break up the frozen pay

with an excavator's smaller, less powerful ripper blade.

It just balls to the wall the whole time here

because we're already a month behind on everything.

Definitely not been a smooth spring,

that's for sure.

Operator Matt kiefer

loads the ripped pay dirt into rock trucks to haul to the stockpile,

but progress is slow.

I mean,

the original plan was to have the cut completely stripped by now,

so I'm definitely a little stressed about it.

We're doing as much as we can,

but it's just... Making deadlines is tough

with a small crew and old equipment.

And... off, you.

If someone comes on the radio again, I'm done for the day.

I swear to.

There's definitely a lot on my shoulders right now.

There's all these million things to think about, you know,

and that's where I put a lot of pressure on myself.

There's all that huge... how the off you.

You wanna get that radio?

Brennan's a little stressed.

He really wants us to hit our target and our gold total.

We spent over a million bucks, so we're starting to feel the pressure.

Kevin, do you copy? Kevin?

Go for Kevin.

Hey, Tony and minnie are here.

I will be right there.

Tony and minnie have arrived.

I don't even wanna imagine what they want.

Kevin leases the ground on scribner creek from dad, Tony,

owing Tony 10% of all the gold he mines,

and he's late with his first payment.

We were just kind of figuring how you guys were doing.

Yeah, been better.

We're spending a lot of money day and day.

Our piggy bank is dwindling, so to speak.

Hopefully we get some gold coming in pretty quick.

Still got some permafrost.

With the d10 down, we're really in desperate need of a dozer,

something we can rip with.

I think so, if you don't mind, yeah.

Very much so.

Yeah, so...

We really need to get sluicing.

You're gonna give him the 11?

Tony's $4 million, 115-ton d11

is one of the biggest, most powerful dozers in the klondike,

and will supercharge Kevin's battle to stockpile pay dirt.

But you have to make sure it's only Brennan on it

because I don't want anyone else on it.

No, it's only him.

Really appreciate it, thank you.

- Yeah. - Never-ending.

- All right, we'll see you guys. - -Okay.

That went pretty good.

Yeah, that was a very nice visit.

I'm really happy that Tony is lending us the d11.

That is gonna make such a world of difference for us.

Yeah, that's nice.

We hope so.

Yeah.

I'll Polish the scales.

No, I wouldn't do that to my own kid.

No, I wouldn't.

Well, that's why I'm in charge of that part.

Whoo!

This thing is sick.

Yeah, what a game changer.

Time to destroy some ground around here.

You compensating for something with that thing?

Well, guys, with this dozer here,

I think we'll get this cut opened up,

so this is a huge win.

Unlike his son, Kevin,

Tony beets is ahead of schedule.

At paradise hill, his youngest son, Mike,

has finally fired up the trommel.

And on Indian river, Tony's nephew, cousin Mike,

is sluicing with the shaker deck and sluice-a-lot.

Together, they've banked 2,131 ounces,

but Tony is hungry for more.

To haul in 369 ounces by the end of the week

and hit half his 5,000-ounce season goal,

Tony needs both Mikes on their a game.

Running two plants, it comes with two times the trouble,

but I see it as a challenge

so I could see myself being a miner like Tony.

I work good under pressure.

I'm hoping this plant holds up.

It's older than I am, unfortunately,

but with that comes complications.

Feeding the 30-year-old shaker deck,

new loader operator Jacob Moore.

It's been a little frustrating,

and the plant keeps having issues.

We're getting some rock drilled up on the grizzlies now.

You got a copy?

Go ahead.

You wanna open the grizzlies?

Yeah, I'll open them up.

Anything happening, Jacob?

Are the grizzlies opening up?

Not that I reckon.

Hydraulics aren't working.

Pump is.

- Hey, Jacob. - I'm gonna shut it down.

We don't have time for that.

So, yeah, we're gonna have to order a new pump.

That will probably take a couple of weeks.

We can't wait for that, so we'll take that thing out of the way

and feed directly onto the conveyor belt.

It's not ideal,

you risk putting in big rocks that can jam up,

but we can't wait for parts and all that bull.

The shaker deck has two conveyor belts.

The first has grizzly bars that stop large rocks

entering the wash plant and causing damage.

But the hydraulic pump that lifts these bars to clear the rocks has failed,

shutting the plant down.

To get it running again, Mike will raise the grizzlies' conveyor out of the way

and use an excavator to feed rocky pay

directly onto the wash plant's second conveyor.

It's a bit of a high risk, high reward plan.

It has been sitting here for long enough now,

may as well get it going any way we can.

I'm gonna lift it as high as I can

and out of the way of the excavator.

There we go.

So firing this plant up, see what she does with this setup.

Hopefully, it's good because it's a simple way,

and, yeah, at least we're running.

There's multiple things that I have to watch for.

Honestly, I have all these windows

and doors open right now because I really need

to be able to hear everything.

To carefully feed the pay dirt directly onto the conveyor,

cousin Mike's called in veteran operator Ruby Mahoney.

So we are taking a huge risk right now,

just bare feeding it on to the belt.

We're in the Indian river, the bedrock and the rocks are really thin,

but they're really big and really sharp,

and they're just belt eaters, man.

The hydraulic pump is.

We're feeding with an excavator

directly onto the conveyor belt.

- No. - It's in the belt...

The belt, the belt.

Now we might be.

At Indian river, the beets' shaker deck is shut down

after cousin Mike's plan to feed the conveyor directly backfired.

Because we don't use the feeder right now,

rocks fall off to the side onto the bottom

and then jam back in there.

The jam has ripped the conveyor's belt,

putting the shaker out of action

until the grizzly bars and the belt can be repaired.

No, it's pretty now.

We're behind on a lot of fronts,

both just ground on pay and gold in the box.

I have no interest in running out of money or anything like that,

and so we need to get more gold coming in.

29-year-old Parker schnabel is struggling.

Nine weeks into the season,

Parker has spent $2.5 million chasing dominion creek gold,

but so far, he's only brought in just over a million dollars' worth.

Roxanne's been on ground that's not that good

in the long cut.

Big red's been just running top gravel in the bridge cut.

But Damien's got in the Indian river,

down at Ken and Stuart's, very close,

and he's just about ready to sluice now,

so we need to get Bob down there and fired up.

It should be around 900 ounces in three weeks.

To dig himself out of his dominion creek hole,

Parker's going to do something he's never done before:

Run three wash plants simultaneously.

He's sending a third wash plant and additional crew

to raid the piggy bank at Ken and Stuart's on Indian river,

hoping to score $2.5 million in just three weeks.

So, you know, when we have three wash plants running,

that's what it's gonna be all about.

You got all that

gold weigh at the end of the week

and we should have, you know, a good result

from each one of those wash plants.

It's gonna be a hell of a lot of gold.

It's gonna put a lot of stress on everybody,

but it's the only hope I see for getting

anywhere close to 10,000 ounces this season,

that's for damn sure.

At dominion creek,

Parker already has wash plant Roxanne

running pay dirt from the long cut.

A mile and a half away,

big red is churning through the top gravels in the bridge cut.

Now Parker plans to fire up the 45-ton shaker deck called Bob.

From his dominion yard, his crew will haul it 12 miles

down narrow, winding dirt tracks

through a 25-foot-wide creek,

to its new home, at Damien's cut on Ken and Stuart's ground.

- Hey, tup! - Yo!

So today we're gonna move Bob down to Ken's.

There's a lot of moving pieces,

a lot of parts, a lot can go wrong.

Let's just get the heart of the beast loaded up and get her chained down.

Copy that.

To help transport Bob,

Tyson Lee has brought in his mentor and haulage expert, Mike tupper...

Yeah, let her rip, tys.

Who's previously trucked a similar plant to Ken and Stuart's.

Up a bit, tys.

Hopefully, it doesn't fall off.

If it falls off, we've got problems.

Lift.

Come in a bit and lift.

Done.

Now for the hard part, we gotta try and spin it.

Okay, watch out, guys.

All right, pull it. We don't have much to play with here.

Yep, stop it there. Go to the front, pull that corner, we're done.

That's it. Disconnect.

Tupper can now haul out... We're on the road.

With Tyson scouting ahead in a pilot truck.

We're ready to roll. Get in.

Are you ready, tup? Let's do this.

Let's get down there in one piece.

Copy that. Here we go, liftoff.

No! We're trimming trees...

Oops.

So right now we're coming up to the creek crossing.

That looks deep.

Hey, tupper, just try and get through this.

We have no equipment around to pull us out.

If we get stuck, we're on our own.

All righty, tupper, here we go.

These creek crossings are so unpredictable.

All righty, I'm through. You're next.

It was a little soft there and a little rough, so just slow and steady.

All right.

Yeah!

Well, here we are, tupper. Ken and Stuart's.

Here's Damien.

- ' Sup, fellas! - -We got you a wash plant.

If you wouldn't mind rattling your excavator up there

so we can get Bob unloaded, get it put together before the day's out.

Yeah, man.

There it goes.

Yeah, send it!

That looks like about as good as she's gonna get.

Everything's looking good.

Once we hit this button, there should be nothing stopping us.

How are you feeling to start feeding, Brendan?

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's such a nice feeling, firing it up now.

Should it all go well,

we shouldn't have to shut it down again until the first clean up.

So now that we have three wash plants going,

that means we're gonna have a fighting chance

of getting 10,000 ounces this year.

Somebody make a deal with the devil for that thing?

Stole it from Parker when he was sleeping, actually.

Just don't break this one, too, buddy.

I mean, you've been hard on dozers this year.

Kevin beets' crew is finally on a roll.

Tony's loaned Kevin a d11 dozer

while he fixes their busted d10,

turbocharging his mission to stockpile and thaw out the lynx cut's frozen pay.

That was awesome of Tony to do,

to help us out fixing the dozer

and giving us one of the biggest machines we could get out here.

This bad boy came in and cleaned house immediately for us,

so I honestly feel like we are back on track now because of the 11.

With the clock ticking

before the d11 needs to be returned at the end of the week,

Brennan rips and piles pay dirt for Matt to load into trucks

operated by chase dreger and hunter canning.

We're hauling pay right now, so that is lovely to be doing.

We got a stockpile over in the corner over there

we're just hauling to.

It's pretty small, so we need to get to work.

Hey, chase, you might wanna check something.

There's like a big puddle on the driver's side where you were sitting.

Okay, I'll hop out and have a look here.

Yeah, something's definitely pissing out, that's for sure.

Shut her off and walk over and let Kevin know.

Yeah, copy that.

- Sakes. - What a pile of.

Kevin already has two rock trucks in for repair.

Now he's getting down to his last working truck.

Having just me on the rock trucks,

I'm having to rush around cause I'm the only one

and Matt's there waiting for me

with the bucket up in the air.

Well, that's great.

Only having one rock truck going is almost not worth it.

The only reason it's still going is that I hope I can get this fixed.

I'm gonna get you to fire this up.

Okay, copy that.

Okay, shut it off.

We have a blown hydraulic line.

Basically, you turn the truck on,

and with the hose being broken, it goes...

You can't really operate like that.

The hydraulic line carries pressurized oil

to activate the truck's brakes.

But the line on chase's truck has ripped open, risking a brake failure.

To fix it, Kevin must replace the hose and refill the line.

Yeah, see, that's pretty. Okay.

I feel the clock ticking way too much, you know, and it's...

Hopefully Kevin can get that thing fixed up right away here

so we can get that stockpile of pay finished.

One end is successfully attached.

Thank you.

Don't be like that, come on.

There you go.

Now I'm gonna put in the wet brake oil.

This is very much a job I wish somebody else would be able to do.

I, for some reason, didn't hire any other mechanics.

Quickly fire it up. I gotta make sure that nothing is leaking

and if this doesn't work out, then we're.

Interesting.

I'm guessing no one's seeing oil spurt everywhere,

so it must be good.

Successful job.

Kev did a wicked job on this truck,

so it's all fixed up and ready to go.

We've got them running again.

So now that we keep stockpiling,

if the crew hits it hard, I think we can do it.

It's just a race to get this little bit of the cut finished up

and off to the races we go.

To hit 2,500 ounces, half his season target,

king of the klondike Tony beets is chasing a 369-ounce week.

But the shaker deck is down

after a botched quick fix by cousin Mike.

Now the pressure is on sluice-a-lot at Indian river,

and the paradise hill trommel, run by son Mike to make up the shortfall.

My cousin, he's not a dummy.

He's just gotta learn how to think

of what you're trying to do with the equipment,

and that comes with experience.

So like I said, give him enough time,

he'll be just like my dad.

And just like I'll be just like my dad,

and just like my brother will be just like my dad.

You know, master of all, or was it.

Jack of all, master of none. That's the saying.

Fire this up.

Okay, firing it up!

That looks pretty good.

I have to go check.

I like working for Mike.

He's doing an extremely good job.

And I'm happy to be a part of his team.

Loader operator Clinton mcharg

clears tailings from the rear of the trommel.

So far, we've been able to keep Mike happy

and the plant running.

No..

Shut it off!

Why the is it all of sudden doing this?

I have not a clue.

I'm just having them think here.

At paradise hill, Mike has shut down the trommel

after water and gold-rich pay began splashing out of the prewash.

I need that leak fixed

because right now, not only does it create a giant mess throughout my entire yard,

but it's gonna wash away my gold,

which is a bigger problem.

I see why.

I have a rubber to prevent splash back inside the trommel here,

and it fell off.

Get that welder over here, weld that on

so you can put the rubber back on.

Take it off, weld it flat.

Paydirt enters the trommel in the prewash,

where it mixes with water before traveling down the drum.

A rubber mat should stop it from splashing out,

but the mat has detached due to a broken bolt,

allowing water and gold-rich pay to spill to the ground.

To fix it, Mike wants steel bars welded to the prewash

and the mat reattached with a row of bolts.

It's all good to go.

Do the water. The water.

That's better, I can live with this.

I don't care about a little water,

I don't care about a little bit of mud.

So long as it's not bucketfuls, this is fine.

After a series of unfortunate events,

I have it finally back and going again.

In a desperate bid for more gold,

Parker is running three wash plants for the first time ever.

At dominion, Mitch is overseeing Roxanne in the long cut.

You know, we've been struggling all week here,

just trying to keep up with Roxanne.

It's a very hungry wash plant.

And Tyson is looking after big red in the bridge cut.

We just got a lot of work to do this year, still.

Just gotta try and do our best to get as much gold as we can.

Ten miles southwest at Ken and Stuart's,

Damien and his small crew are sluicing with wash plant Bob,

aiming to deliver Parker 300 ounces by the end of the week.

Parker's expectations are pretty high right now.

The wash plant is up and running,

and for the next couple of weeks,

the people here and the equipment here

is not going to get much of a break.

Hey, Damien, we've got a rip in the belt.

Man, there's a big rip in the belt.

What the is going on here?

Piece of.

We gotta get help down here.

Look at the plant, see what we've got.

Man. That is a sizable rip.

How far does this...

It spread a lot more than...

So one of those flexcos that was holding the patch in place seems to have let go

and got caught on one of the scrapers or whatever,

and just peeled the strip right out of our belt.

Small rips in a belt

are patched up with metal fasteners called flexcos.

But a fastener fixed to this belt has come loose

and caught on the end of the conveyor,

tearing out a long, thin strip.

The ripped section must be replaced before Bob can run again.

We've got bill looking for a 48-inch belt right now.

See if we even have any.

- If we don't, then... - We're screwed.

I mean, we haven't even been running down here at Ken's for a week.

So, I mean, we've just got to get this up and running as fast as we can.

That's the last thing we need right now.

Mechanics Liam pukila and Justin driessen

head back to dominion to see if they can scavenge a replacement belt.

Yeah, that looks like a 48.

Looking like it's in well and good enough shape for what we gotta do.

It's better than what we got.

To get the belt free from the conveyor,

the crew must cut the belt and remove a metal guard.

We're gonna just take that guard off real quick,

hook it up in the back of the truck

and we'll head out to the Indian.

This is gonna be on Bob tonight.

Okay, let's cut her.

Watch your head.

To repair Bob's belt,

the crew first remove the ripped section,

then replace it with a new section from the scavenged belt.

Forty-and-a-half plus 276.

If we get this up in place

cause we'll be able to hold it here with the come-alongs.

Holes are drilled. Just lining it up,

and this girl will be spinning in t-minus no time here.

There we go. Okay.

Good job, guys.

Now is the moment of truth.

See if it all fires back up and start getting some rocks washed.

Now we have the conveyor fixed and Bob is back up and running.

Bill, Liam, and Justin managed to get it done.

I don't know how they managed to swing it, but they pulled it off.

With three wash plants running,

this could be the week Parker's fortunes

finally take a turn for the better.

It's just try and keep it running for 24 hours

and keep gold coming in the box.

I'm taking the d11 back to Tony's right now.

It's super sad to see this monster leave.

It's the end of the week

and time for Brennan to give back the d11 dozer...

Why are you taking my baby from me?

I brought you another one.

In exchange for the repaired d10.

I'm gonna miss it. It sure helped us out a lot.

It was a blessing to have. Appreciate it.

- All right. - You treat it good.

I will, I promise.

Thanks, Ruby, have a good day.

- See you. - See ya.

I feel like I jumped into a freaking car

after getting out of that d11, when I ride this.

But, again, super thankful that Tony's able to help us out this much.

This is the last little sliver of the lynx cut.

Hasn't come easy, that's for sure.

Kevin's crew have been digging out and stockpiling frozen pay

so they can get it thawed and start sluicing.

- Howdy. - -What's going on, buddy?

Did we make you a big enough piggy bank to get started?

I hope so, holy.

I know. I hope there's gold in it.

Me, too.

It's hard to not get excited because of that pile.

Brennan just showed me his giant pile of pay, which is pretty nice.

It is one of our first big wins this season,

which is again really nice.

But we are still quite a ways behind, and we got a long way to go.

So our next step, move the plant in place

and we can get sluicing.

Hi, guys. Hello.

- So how's everybody doing? - Peachy.

Indian river, how is the Indian river doing?

Considering that Tony isn't there,

things run pretty smoothly on the hill.

It's probably quieter.

He called, like, 20 times in, like, three hours.

I know, I get the radio on the other side.

"Call minnie, call minnie."

Or, ma, it's cause he misses you.

This week, Tony is hoping to sail past 2,500 ounces,

half his season goal.

To do it, he needs his wash plants to deliver 369 ounces.

First up, the shaker deck, which ran for just half a day.

- I'm ready. - Better go slow.

Yeah.

One, two

10, 20, 20.15.

Worth just over $50,000.

- That's it? - Not more in there?

That's not that great.

Next up...

All right, trommel, let's give it a go.

Mike's trommel at paradise hill.

- Ready, Mike? - Yes.

20, 40, 100, 140, 180, 190, 200, 220, 230

233.9.

Worth $580,000.

Yeah.

Last up is the Indian river's sluice-a-lot,

also run by cousin Mike.

- Are you ready? - Let's go.

10, 20, 60, 100, 140, 150, 180, 190,

200... 203.20.

Worth just over $500,000.

Sluice-a-lot sluice a lot or what?

It's nice to see that considering that the shaker deck was down.

Bringing the season total to 2,588 ounces,

over half Tony's season goal in just 10 weeks.

That's pretty nice.

It bodes well for us meeting our season total.

And you spend a lot of money, too.

No, that's not how that works. I like a piggy bank.

Silly man.

Well, now we got three wash plants running.

That's not the only thing running.

I'm spending more time in that truck and in sluice boxes

than I am down here.

Nice to be back down on Ken's ground, though.

- Definitely nice to have options. - -Yeah.

So you had an exciting week, Damien?

Your setup down there is probably one of the best ones I've seen.

Thank, Mr. Tyson for that.

Yeah, but it's hard for me to pay Tyson a compliment.

I understand, yeah.

- I take the abuse well around here. - Yeah.

But we do have three thermoses, so that's good.

That's all that matters.

Tyson, you ready for big red?

- I spelled it out for you, big red, okay? - Nice.

Big red's still just running gravel, so.

If we mined it the way everybody else has mined that ground,

they would have thrown that away.

As long as we're not losing money.

Here we go. 10, 20, 45, 50, 58.85.

Worth $147,000.

Well, that's not good.

This is making me think,

"you know, the Indian river wasn't so bad."

All right, let's see what we got, Roxanne for the week.

All right.

There we go. I'm liking that.

Unless you really are getting good at fooling us here.

20, 40, 50, 60, 80, 90, 110, 120, 150, 160,

185.65.

Worth $464,000.

- There we go. - Not bad at all.

I'll tell you what, you keep that up,

and that's gonna be a tremendous boost.

New guy, so this is Bob.

Ken's ground's always kind of come through in a pinch in the past.

And this year, with the gold coming in a little slow

and things at the bridge cut being frosty...

That might give us hope.

Brought in to get Parker's season back on track,

wash plant Bob is expected to bring in around 300 ounces per week,

but it only ran for two days.

You wanna read it out?

5, 10, 30, 40, 45, 50, 50

58.45.

Worth $146,000,

bringing the season total to 1,107 ounces.

That's embarrassing.

That is a lot of work for 300 ounces, though.

Yeah, we would have done that with one plant last year in the money pit.

This is bad.

Yeah, we're in trouble if we don't change something.

We've got a long row to hoe.

Well, we got three wash plants.

But we got three wash plants, yeah.

Like, three big wash plants rolling away.

And they're finding less gold than one plant was finding last year.

Insult to injury, right?

Sorry to be the Debbie downer.

I never wanna be in a position where, like, a bad season, puts us under.

Right now, dominion seems like a bad decision,

but I do feel like long-term, it's gonna work.

But, it's a long road ahead of us, still.