All language subtitles for Gold Rush - Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan - S04E03 - Bust or Gold Boom WEBDL-1080p.mkv

It's a tough way
to make a living, sure,

but I just love
being out here.

No traffic, there's
no people to deal with.

Just a matter of
finding the gold
so you can make it worthwhile.

But we're pretty much
out of money.

I owe my partner $500,000.

The gold's just not there.

Right now,
I'm rapidly panicking.

We're trying to find
a new spot to mine.

That's just devastating.

His stress levels are high.

I mean, I know him.
I raised him right?

It's like, I can
see it in his face.

He's got a financial partner
that wants to see results.

And his family's
relying on him to succeed.

We really need
Freddy and Juan
to come in here.

We have major problems
with that wash plant.

Hopper jams up, like,
five times an hour everyday.

And if they could solve
any of these issues for us,
it could make the difference.

Let's make some gold, guys.

Freddy Dodge...

There's no guarantees
in gold, buddy.

...and Juan Ibarra...

All right, well,
let's do it, huh?

...have mastered
the art of getting gold

out of the ground.

Look at that.

In the most
rugged places on earth.

I'm feeling
a little sick Freddy.

Now they rescue
struggling miners...

Ooh, that's not good.

...who risked it all
to be rich.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Shut it down!

But are about to
lose everything.

Eyeballs.

To revive these failing mines,

Freddy and Juan engineer
the impossible.

I've never heard of
an under sluice before.

Deliver some hard truths...

This material
you're digging,

now it's totally worthless.

...and track down the gold.

That's what dreams
are made of, right there.

But if they don't
at least double
the miner's gold recovery,

they won't take a dime
in return.

It's like ten times
the amount of gold.
That's awesome.

Freddy and Juan
are in the foothills of
the Cariboo mountain range

in British Columbia,
answering an SOS

from miner Anthony Moth.

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

- How're you doing?
- Good. I'm Anthony.

- I'm Juan.
- Juan, nice to meet you.

- Freddy.
- Freddy, good to meet ya.

- Hey, guys.
- That's my dad, John.

- John, pleasure, sir.
- John.

- Good to meet you, John.
- Good to meet you.

So are you here
for the whole summer?

Yeah, just here to kinda
help Anthony out
a little bit.

I'm free labor,
so I'm not too bad
with a machine.

I've had some problems
in the past

and I just give my dad
a text or a call and he
usually comes right up.

Did it again this year.

Yeah, I live in
southern Vancouver island.

Yeah, it's good
to have him around.

Since I moved away,
I don't get to see him
as much now, so.

Yeah.

Well, I hope he doesn't
have to fire you if you're
working for free.

Two years ago,
Anthony ditched his day job
in construction

and moved to
the Cariboo region
with his wife Liya

and young son Theo.

Here, he bought
a 900 acre gold claim

to pursue a passion
he developed in his 20s.

I love going out panning,
just finding a few colors
with my dog.

So I built my own washplant
and started mining.

I learnt a lot,
found some gold.

And when I thought that
I could actually make money
doing my dream,

I just had to go for it.

We started
a whole new life.

But it's very difficult.

We have constant breakdowns,
and the gold just keeps
disappearing on us here.

And, you know,
we can only continue

for another few weeks before
we run out of our money.

So I gotta make this work
'cause otherwise,

I don't know what we'll do.

How long have you guys
been mining out here?

Uh, I came out here
last year.

We bought the claim in June
and I got my trommel
all set up

and we started mining
in July.

And we're hoping this year's
gonna be the year,

but it's just not going good.

Last year we did 120 oz.

We had a whole
bunch of ground,

so we went in there
and it's just gone.

And nothing got left there.
It appears like

it's all fine silts and stuff.

- We'll have to look at it.
- Yeah.

Big claim here.
There could be some
better ground, I don't know.

So what's your goal
for this year then?

Uh, at least 300 minimum.

We're kinda shooting
for four ounces a day.

So how much gold
have you got so far
this season?

We've been here
for just about six weeks now.

We pulled out 35 oz.

You're just having
problems with pay,

or running, or...

We have constant breakdowns.

He's getting to be
a good mechanic.

- Yeah.
- Constantly fixing stuff.

How're you financing all this?

I got my business partner.
Uh, he's investing in me here.

Is he here now?

He's not right now, no.
He's got a business
to run back home.

Right now,
I owe $500,000

just on his side of things.

And then I've got
over $100,000 invested.

All we've been doing here
is just breaking even.

My partner's just kinda
letting it ride for the next
couple of weeks

to see
what we pull outta here,

but we're not paying off
any of that debt.

Well, with fuel prices
what they are,

- steel prices.
- Yeah.

You know, parts, food.

I got the mortgage
on my house

and then I got wages.
We got a couple of guys here.

- We're paying them--
- Yeah.

Exactly.

Just doesn't end.

It's a lot of money
to make up.

I'm not 100% aware
of all the debt.

You know, I didn't think
there was as much debt,

as what
I'm hearing about now.

That weighs on a person,
you know?

I mean, stress is
a bad thing in life.

I don't like
seeing him in debt.

A big money loss,
that's really gonna
put a hurt on Anthony.

There's no question
they need the help up here.

Well, do you got
any gold you can show us?

Yeah, I got a little gold
I can show ya.

That's beautiful gold.

Nice chunky stuff too.
Yeah.

You're not catching
a lot of the fines or
do you think they're not here?

I've just been told
there's not much fine here.

Most of it has been coarse.
Yeah.

Well, there is
some fine though.

And hopefully
we can increase

the amount of that
you're getting.

Yeah, that'd be great.

We'll just need to
look at the plant now

- and watch it run, huh?
- Yeah.

We typically do
a four hour test run.

Then what we do is
we come up with a game plan.

Then after that,
we'll shut the plant down

and start working on it.

I mean, how much downtime
are you thinking though?

We don't know until
you run and we watch ya.

Okay. Well, yeah.
We gotta try and keep
that down to a minimum there.

We're spending money
everyday here, so.

Every time
we shut down, it's...

Well, let's look at it.
We'll minimize the downtime

the best we can.

- Right.
- If you guys wanna do it.

Okay.

Well, let's have
a look at it then.

- Ready Juano?
- Let's do it.

Lead the way, guys.
- Let's go.

After gold
was first discovered
in this province

in 1861, fortune seekers
from across the world

poured into the Cariboo.

Over the next ten years,
they recovered three million
ounces of gold,

worth today,
almost $6 billion.

Advances in mining methods
means a new generation
are flocking to the area

in search of gold,
the pioneers missed.

All right, let's go to work.

Firing it up.

First bucket Juan.

Starts our four hour job.

Anthony feeds pay
to the 1,800 gallon hopper.

The grizzly bars prevent
large rocks from falling in.

Pay dirt travels along
the conveyer

and through the prewash
where it's broken down

using high pressure
water jets.

Next, the 20 foot trommel
fitted with spray bars

washes gold and fine material
down into Anthony's sluice

where the gold should settle
in the riffles.

He says the grizzly's
not working either.

Right now they're using
the excavator bucket

to push the rocks off
and it's really not ideal.

Supposed to be hydraulics
dumping grizzly,

but we just can't
get them to dump properly.

It just keeps holding
all these rocks on it.

Already the hopper
is terrible, Freddy.

Right now,
it's absolutely clogged up.

Out of that bucket,
30% of it went back
into the ground right there.

Just ten minutes
into the test,

Freddy and Juan
identify a major chokepoint
in the wash plant.

So Anthony's dad
is gonna have to track
all the way around here

and then scoop that
all back up.

Once I fill the hopper,
I just gotta wait here
for it to empty out.

If it was working properly,
I'd probably have a good
ten minutes to go

and do some other jobs,
but it's having some issues
of its own.

Anthony is such a hard worker.

I wouldn't mind spending
a bit more time with Anthony

in running the equipment
and it would be nice
to be a part of that

and see the results.

At my age,
you start to realize,
time's short.

I ended up with blood cancer.

And yeah, it kinda
wakes you up a little bit.

You start realizing,
I better start doing

the type of things
I wanna do.

You just have to find a way
to keep going.

I mean, there's no quit.
There's no quit in my family.

Oy.

I got another problem now.
I got hopper jam up.

That's not very good, eh?

Look at that, Fred.

Hopper jams up, like,
five times an hour
everyday, probably.

That's not good.

That hopper's
the biggest problem
I see so far.

And out again.

That's terrible.

That hopper's absolutely
a chokepoint

- that we have to work on.
- Yeah.

At the Moth mine
in British Columbia,

it's 45 minutes into
the four hour test run

and Anthony faces
the third hopper blockage.

We gotta get through
these breakdowns
and hit our goal

or, you know, this isn't
gonna be sustainable.

I got a wife
and a baby at home

and, you know,
they're depending on me

and I'm depending on the gold.

This has definitely put some
stress on our relationship.

Everybody needs to make money
and our family's no different.

Anthony's equipment
breaking down all the time.

That's so frustrating.

And, you know,
I can see the stress

and there's a lot of people
relying on him.

I'm hoping to see him
really succeed at this

because he's got
the bug for the gold.

There are gonna be
a ton of stuff

that we're gonna
have to do here.

The spray bar's completely
missing the material.

It's not even hitting
the material.

Yeah.

Unwashed paydirt
means gold doesn't separate

from the rocks before
being discarded as tailings.

What do you think, Freddy?

Packing up down here.

I mean, he can
get away with it for now

'cause he's got coarser gold
versus fine gold going on.

I'll grab some of the pay.

If the sluice runs
are packing up,

the fine gold will have
nowhere to settle

and will be washed
into the tailings pond.

I wanna see how much
fine gold's in it

before it goes to the plant.

The gold he showed me,
there wasn't a lot of
fine gold in there.

So I wanna do some
test pans here.

Juan.

I got four pieces.

Yeah. There they are.

They are super fine, Juan.

Freddy, that's not good.
Look right here.

Holy sheesh.

- That's a lot.
- Yeah, that's a lot of gold.

So that's super fine gold,
this is super fine gold.

So they probably have
more fine gold

- than what
they think they have.
- Yeah.

The discovery
is a double blow.

Anthony is losing good gold
from both the trommel
and the sluice.

That's bad.

That could be
last bucket
right there, Freddy.

Last bucket.

Okay, we're gonna
shut her down.

We'll go down
and take a look at the box,
see what it looks like.

Seeing any gold there?

There's a bit in there,
but it doesn't look great.

Yeah.

You guys wanna
keep on cleaning this up?

We'll get it cleaned up
and see you at the scale.

All right,
sounds good.

- Thank you, sir.
- Yeah, thank you.

See you in the morning.

We can't keep doing this.
I mean, we're just

kinda paying the bills.
It's just not gonna work.

This season's our
do or die season.

I hope Freddy and Juan
can help us out.

How's it going, guys?

Hey, how's it going?

Yeah, we're ready.

Let's do it.

With gold cleaned
from yesterday's test run,

this weigh will determine
just how bad

the Moth mine recovery is.

Moment of truth, guys.

Anthony needs
20 oz per week
to pay his investor

and keep the mine
in business.

The four hour test
must produce at least
two ounces.

0.72 oz.

That's bad.

That's definitely not gonna
cut it right there, so.

This is just an example
of what we've been facing
every day this year.

It's gonna take
something different here

to make this work 'cause
we're just not doing it
right now.

I know what we can do
to the plant,

you know, it's gonna help,
but it may not be enough.

I think we need to start
thinking about ground as well.

You know, ground's gonna be
a big part of it.

Yeah. We got a lot of
ground here.

We haven't explored
much of it yet.

I just gotta keep my guys
running here though.

I can't afford to stop.

If we can build
and you can keep running,

that's the we'll do it.

Let's get back
to the truck and figure out
what we're gonna do.

We'll come back
to talk to you guys.

Thanks, guys.

There's a lot
to do here, Juan.

Well, that hopper,
it's a mess.

I think we can
come inside of here

and put a beam
all the way across.

Then the whole feeder
will be usable.

Inside the drum,
I wanna make that

spray bar adjustable.

Get a little
better clean out of it.

So they got
the sluices coming out, right?
- [Juan] Mm-hmm.

Right now, their set up
for some fine gold.

I think the bottom
of that box,
we set up specifically

for that small
super fine gold.

Yeah, I like that.

What do you think about
repairing his hydraulic
grizzly house?

I think that's
the last one we do.

- Okay.
- We got time. We'll do it.

I know they wanna keep running
while we're here.

- It's not gonna be possible.
- It's impossible.

I can't be inside of there
when they're dumping
rocks in there.

That may be a no go for him.

Who knows?
They may tell us
that they can't do it then.

We'll find out I guess.

With a clogged hopper

forcing thousands of dollars
worth of gold rich material

over the sides,

Freddy and Juan
plan a creative fix

to remove the plate
from the base

and replace it with a beam
for a more even feed

to correct the gold lost
from unwashed rocks
in the trommel.

Juan will add a one of a kind
adjustable high pressure
spray bar,

then they will add their
signature riffle system

to the sluice box,
to catch more fine gold.

But the big challenge
will be getting them
on better ground.

With limited time,
Freddy will take Anthony
on a precision prospecting

scout of his 900 acre claim.

Hey, guys.

How's it going?

We came up with
a laundry list of things
we wanna do.

- Yeah.
- That hopper's just
a massive chokepoint.

We wanna cut that bottom plate
that you guys welded in there.

We wanna pull that out,

- put a bar across
the middle of it.
- Okay.

It'll take a lot of
the weight off your belt

- and help your feed be
a lot more even on it.
- Yeah.

And then Juan wants to
work on your spray bar.

Okay.

'Cause you're not
getting as good a wash

- as you could get.
- Yeah.

And I wanna put
fine gold riffles

after seeing that fine gold.

Sure, you may not
have a lot,

- but let's catch more
of what you have.
- Sure.

But I know
you really wish to try to
keep the plant running.

I don't think
that's gonna happen.

- Yeah.
- It'd be impossible
to get in that hopper

and work on it
to be inside the trommel.

How many days
are we talking here?

Probably five.

It's gonna hurt.

A five day shut down
will cost the operation

more than $15,000.

The repairs are gonna be worth
way more than the sacrifice.

But there's a lot of material
that's gonna go into it.

- $4,800 of material alone.
- Yeah.

And what we would like to see
for our labor is 2 oz a piece.

- That's just kind of
break even for us.
- Right.

But if we don't double
the recovery,

free.

- Yeah.
- Pay the material
and that's it.

We still gotta pay our guys,
no matter what, right?

I got a business partner
and he's the one
paying these bills, so.

I'm gonna have to talk to him,
my partner

and find out if we can
shut down for that long,

Well, we'll see what happens.

Okay.

Let us know.

Anthony,
from the sounds of it,

his investor really wants him
to keep on running.

But if they'll be able to
shut the plant down,

it's gonna be for the better
of the plant

and the mine site.

But I'm just hoping that
their investor sees
the value in that as well.

If we increase it 25%,
that's still not enough.

I think you really need
to take a look around

- and go help him
with the ground.
- [Freddy] Yeah.

At the Moth mine
in British Columbia...

- Hey, guys.
- Hey.

...before Freddy and Juan
can begin the rescue,

they need the okay
to shut the operation down.

What'd your investor say?

Well, you know,
we're in a pretty bad spot
right now, so.

It's a lot of time,
a lot of money, but...

I think we're gonna
go for it.

But he's agreed to
a maximum of three days.

You know, honestly,
that's gonna be tough.

But it is what it is.

- Deal then.
- Right on.

- We'll get started.
- Okay.

We'll need your help, so.

We got a lot of things
to get done here

and not a lot of time
to do 'em.

- Sounds like a plan.
Let's get to work.
- Okay.

- All right.
- Sounds great.

Well, let's go look around.

With just three days
to get Anthony on the gold,

first order of business
for Freddy,

hunt the 900 acres site
to find better pay.

This ground's
really spotty, I think,

and, you know,
the glaciers did stuff here,

the old timers did stuff.

It's a hard situation
to read.

Yeah, definitely.

When you mine,
usually you wanna start
at the bottom.

Your best gold's
gonna be down there.

There's one thing
on this earth

that's free for us.

And that's gravity.

Yeah.

Let's take a look around
these big evergreens
over here.

A mile away
from the washplant

Freddy spots
an older patch of trees
in a valley

which could indicate
virgin ground.

It's looks like
an older forest.

It does, yeah.
I don't think
it's been disturbed.

But what's
the reason for that?

The old timers
didn't get here, or...

- Right.
Or there's nothing there.
- Exactly.

'Cause once upon a time,
there's probably
10,000 prospectors

- in this country.
- Right.

- Hmm.
- It's hard to read it.

If it hasn't been mined,
especially with
all the trees on here,

but if you find
an old river channel

that the glaciers
didn't eat up in here,

then who knows?
You know, the sky's
the limit, possibly.

Okay.

We'll go down here
and have a look at this.

There could be something
hiding in here.

This all looks
really promising.

Could be a channel,
and if it's an undisturbed
reworked channel,

it could be really good.

- Well, get a couple of pans,
take it up the hill?
- Yeah.

- Go have a look at it, huh?
- Yeah, sounds good.

Yeah, I got some color.

- You do, eh?
- Yeah.

- That's right on the top.
- Right.

Of that pay layer.

I got some
color too there, Freddy.

Yeah, you do.
That's a nice one.

I'd take some buckets
down there

and see what's in it.
You got that little test plant
or whatever it is?

A little shaker
screening plant, yeah.

You have to run it
through there and see
what you get.

Yeah.

Yeah, these pans right here,

- for being on top,
it's a damn nice color.
- Mm-hmm.

If there's that kind of gold
on the top,

what kind of gold's living
at the bottom?

Hope to find out.

The color we just seen
in the pan there,

you know,
that's the kind of thing
that makes you smile.

I'd like for him
to get a Tracko down there,

dig as deep as he can,
get a bucket of it

and see what's in it.

I'm gonna do a last cut.

Back at his cut trailer...

One last weld.

...Juan assembles
a new spray bar
for the washplant.

We just flange this,
we were gonna flange
a part of the plant

so that way when
we join 'em back together,

we have a little bit
of adjustment in 'em,

gonna allow the material
to get properly washed

and the material
that has gold

will be able to get recovered.

Well those are
pretty good looking welds.

Yeah, we'll take it back up
to the washplant,

get it installed.

Sounds good.

So how you like being out here
with your son?

- Oh, I think it's great.
- Yeah?

Yeah. I'm lucky if I can
see him once or twice a year.

Are you planning
on doing that more often,
or...

Yeah. It's kinda tough
'cause I had a little bit
of a health scare there,

so I told Anthony
we gotta start spending
some time together

'cause I'm not gonna
be around forever,
that's for sure.

I've always been
proud of Anthony.

He's always been an honest,
hardworking young man.

He's just applied himself
at everything he does.

He's a great fabricator.

He runs the crew nicely.

He's not a mean type of guy.

He's a real good dad,
a real good husband.

And he really cares.

He's definitely a mini-me.

But he's bigger
than me now.

Anthony and John are
a great father-son team

and hopefully, it's gonna be
a profitable situation

where John's gonna be
able to be out here more

and help his son
and, you know,

more importantly
than the gold,

be able to spend time together
as a family.

And, you know,
at the end of the day,

that's kind of
what's important in life.

All right, I'll get in here.
John, if you wanna
poke the bolts.

- Let's get
the top ones in first.
- Okay, Juan.

Climbing her up.

It's tightening up
a bit there.

Now we're making
some head way there.

Let's put
another one in on top.

Right there.

Perfect.

Much better angle.

- Well, good job.
- Thank you, sir.

This is gonna give you
a pretty good idea though.

Yeah.

Freddy and Anthony
have run the newly
sourced paydirt

through a small scale
test plant.

There's a nice flake.

And some fines too.

- Some nice flakes
in there, huh?
- Mm-hmm.

- And lots of really fine
colors in here, too.
- Yeah, there is.

- I like that.
- Yeah.

- It's a good looking pan.
- Nice.

You know, we won't be
able to run any of it
this week while we're here.

There's no way we could
get that opened up

- to run half a day right now.
- No.

- I mean, there's
no road to it, nothing.
- Yeah.

But that's inspiring there.

I think we're gonna
have to do some more
exploring there.

Yeah.

That forest, she's thick.

I think seismic testing

is probably the best way
to play this game here.

Okay.

Bringing a seismic crew
in here and see
what the bedrock does.

- The hope is there's
some deep channels there.
- Yeah. Yep.

Seismic testing
is a process that uses

sensors to measure
naturally occurring vibrations
in the earth.

It can determine
how deep a potential pay layer

goes to bedrock
which will help Anthony decide

if there's enough
viable ground

to open a new cut.

Well, I'm gonna get to work.

- That sounds great to me.
- See you in a bit.

- Yeah.
- Good work.

How's it going there?

- Uh, not too bad,
but not very good, really.
- Oh, yeah?

In south-east
British Columbia...

Gold's just disappeared
on us here,

so we're hoping
you can kinda help
find us something.

...miner Anthony Moth
joins geophysicist
Nicholas Gust

to seismic test a potentially
gold rich area

on the 900 acre claim.

If the survey shows
a deep channel,

it could identify months
of mineable ground
for Anthony.

So this is one of
our seismic sensors.

So these are passive
seismic instrument.

- So yeah, it's non-intrusive.
- Yeah, perfect.

What we do is
plant these into the ground

and then wait 20 minutes,
go to the next one,

- wait 20 minutes and go ahead.
- Yeah.

if it's there, we'll find it.

- I like the sounds of that.
- Yeah.

So you're gonna have
a report for us at the end?

Yeah,
I'll have it soon for ya.

- Yeah, right on.
- Right on.

- Great.
- Thank you.

Thank you.

To identify
potential pay channels,

Nicholas will test an area
spanning 335 acres.

Data from this activity
is analyzed and generated

into a topographical map
of Anthony's site.

The map will identify
the shape and varying depths

of bedrock and any ancient
pay channels,

which may contain
rich deposits of gold.

We're very hopeful
in the seismic producing

some good result that
if this ground doesn't

pull through for us
and we can't find better pay,

we might be done here.

All I got are cuts and pieces
out of that hopper.

It's the third
and final day of fixes

and Freddy is racing
to finish the washplant's
biggest chokepoint.

So we got a plate
inside of that hopper.

You know, they thought
that's what they needed,

but I kinda designed
in my head

a lifting system
to take some of the weight
off the belt.

No time like the present.

Anthony's hopper
clogs with pay.

To fix, Freddy will remove
the plate from the base

and replace it
with a load bar

to distribute material
more evenly.

I think we're good, Fred.

- Got her?
- Yeah.

This is kinda screwing you,
so we're gonna cut this out

and then I'm gonna put
tubes crossed in here,

and that'll hold
some of that material

- off the belt.
- Yeah.

Well, I'll keep
cutting her out here.

Want me to jump in with ya?

Yeah, hop in if you would.

Coming out.

Hit it.

- Proud.
- Right on.

Freddy and Juan, I mean,
they're great guys.

They're very helpful.
So hopefully they can be
the reason why

we turn this around
this year.

I'm hoping in the future,
here to make
enough money

that I could produce
a job here for my dad.

The dream all along here
was to get my dad up here

and be working together.
Think that'd be amazing.

Time is definitely limited.

I hope I can
have him around more often.

Eyeballs.

Hey, Anthony.

Yeah, it's looking good.

So you see what it does,

it'll hold
a lot of that weight

that's in the center here
off that belt

to take
the weight off that belt.

She's stitched on there
plenty good.

Yeah, it looks nice.

I got about
six more stitch welds here.

Gotta hurry
and get it done.

Right on. Well, I'm gonna
leave you to it then.

We don't have
a whole lot of time to waste,

so we gotta
get these pieces in

and get ready
for our last run.

Juan rushes to finish
Anthony's hydraulic grizzlies.

Right now they're using
the excavator bucket

to push the rocks off.

And what that was doing was
putting a lot of pressure
on these hinges

and actually ripped them
off the top of the grizzly.

And all the tabs
are broken off,

so you can't lift it up
or close it.

What we're gonna do is,
we're gonna line up
all the tabs,

re-weld everything
so that we can
put it back on the hinge

and be able to hook
the hydraulics back to it.

Oh, yeah, she's good.
She's stout.

I got it all welded
back together now.

That way we can do
our final test run.

Now we don't have to
worry about the grizzlies

breaking off the hopper
and ending up here
on the ground.

That's looking
good though, eh?

Oh, it's looking really good.

Two hours to go
until the final test run,

Anthony and John
are finishing the sluices.

These guys have done
a ton of work here,

so hopefully
it works out here.

Well, I think it's gonna work.

I mean, they've done
really good work.

And the ground
that Freddy showed us there,

I think that's
looking better too.

Yeah, hopefully,
we can find a lot of gold, eh?

Yeah.

Make some money after all, eh?

You bet.

It's been great
having my dad here.

I'd love to have him here
more in the future.

It's been tough, you know,
going months at a time
without seeing him,

especially when you first hear
that your dad's got cancer,

like, it's
the scary word, right?

You don't know
how much time they've got.

So I'm counting on the gold
and it's guys like
Freddy and Juan

who can make
a real difference.

Guys, ready
to do a test run?

Let's do it.

Firing it up!

Let's do first bucket, Fred.

Is that your timer?

There it is, first bucket.

With the time run out
on Anthony's deadline,

and no results back
from the seismic test,

the second four hour run
begins on pay from
the current cut.

Even a small increase

with prove the fixes work.

You know, it's always
kind of nerve wracking
a little bit, Fred.

We fire up a plant
that we've done
this much work to.

- But we'll see what happens.
- Play it by ear?

Yep.

It seems to be running
pretty good, Freddy.

Grizzlies are working good.

Juan re-welded the hinges
on the hydraulic grizzlies,

allowing them to
open and close.

Take a look at the spray bars.

Look how clean it is.

Yeah.
Jet's concentrated
exactly where it needs to be.

Yeah, looks good.

The spray bar wasn't
washing the material properly.

So Juan made it adjustable
to better clean the pay dirt.

Material's always getting hit.

- You get a better wash now.
- Yep.

That looks good.

I'm seeing
some stuff that I really like.

I think they're gonna solve
a lot of our problems,

but I wanna make sure
I can make this successful

and then all will be happy
and all will have work to move
forward here.

For me, this is
quite an adventure.

I mean, I've been enjoying
spending time with Anthony

and I'm looking forward to,
maybe coming up here

and doing this some more.

And these fixes
should definitely

improve his production,

get him the pay that he needs

to pay back
some of that debt.

Well, the feeder's
doing its job, Juan.

Feeder's doing good, Freddy.

In the first test,
Anthony had to unclog
the hopper multiple times.

Freddy added
a load bearing bar

for a more even feed.

And finally,
replace the sluice box

with new riffles
to catch more fine gold.

Anthony, last bucket!

There it is, Freddy.
Last bucket.

Well, let's clean it up, huh?

Ultimately, Anthony needs
all the gold he can get.

He's got
a lot of responsibility.

He's got a family,
he's got employees here,

he's got his investors.

It's a good test run,
but sometimes it comes down
to the ground.

We'll see what it looks like
tomorrow morning

when we put it on the scale.

Nice to get away real quick.

Yep.

Freddy can teach
a man to fish,

but you can't guarantee
he's gonna catch
any fish, huh?

That's right.

Or at least the tasty one.

I'm probably the world's
worst fisherman.

Oh.
Caught a bush.

How'd you do that?

Look at the size
of this thing, Fred.

Look at the size of--

Coming up...

Whoo!

That's unbelievable.

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

It's going all right.

I was just talking
with Nick there

and I got the results here.
Thought you could have
a look at it.

Sure.

In south-east
British Columbia,

at the Moth mine,
as the crew prepares

for the final weigh,
the results from
the seismic test are in.

This is our depth,
the bedrock.

Yeah, that's what
it looks like, yeah.

- It's deep there, huh?
- Yeah. Yeah.

Eighty feet.

So it's six feet deeper
than the rest of it.

And it's the same down here,
it's even deeper.

- Yeah.
- So that's good chance

it might be
a channel in there.

And it's definite,
bed rock coming up here,

bedrock coming up there.

- Right. Yeah.
- And deeper here.

With good gold
already on the surface,

a deep channel could mean
a motherlode

for Anthony's mining future.

That's exciting though,
if that's a channel there.

- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.

- Who knows what's down there.
- The old timers might've
missed it.

Yeah.

Hopefully, that is
a channel in there

or reworked one.
And it hasn't been
disturbed by the old timers.

If it's good,
it could be really good.

Moment of truth, Freddy.

Yep.

It's time to weigh the gold
from the second test run.

- Hi, gentlemen.
- Hey, guys.

Hey, how's it going?

- Well, let's weigh it up.
- Let's have a look at it.

- You ready?
- Yeah.

The first test
produced 0.72 oz.

For Anthony to start
turning a profit,

the final test must deliver
at least 2 oz.

- 0.74 oz.
- Uff.

- It's not great.
- No.

An increase of 2.7%
from the first test.

But $2,500 short
of their target.

Well, it's not the result.
I wanted to see but--

- We know the plant's
running better.
- Yeah.

- So it's
a pay issue right now.
- Yeah.

- Bad ground.
- Yeah.

I know that doesn't
feel like a win.

It doesn't feel like
a win at all,

but just look at the amount of
fines in that, Fred.

You know, we never had
that amount of fines
in the first run.

Nowhere near that.

So that tells me that,
you know, the sluices,

you know,
the fine gold riffles
are catching the fine gold

and on top of that
we're actually getting
proper clean on it.

- Yeah.
- You know, we're just not
on good ground right now,

but with these fixes
and when we get on,
I think, you know,

we know
we're gonna catch it.

- Yep. Gold's where
you find it, right?
- Yeah, exactly.

The final gold weigh,
it feels like we got
kicked in the teeth.

And we're not gonna
get paid.

You know, it was
a little bit of a gamble,

but honestly,
one thing is for sure.

In my heart,
when he gets on
that better ground,

I know that what we did here
for Anthony and his family,

um, in the long run,
it's gonna help him out
tremendously.

But do us a favor.
When you start getting
some of that better material

in the plant,
let us know how it does.

Yeah, will do.

Thanks, Freddy.

Pleasure.

John, thank you, sir.

We find some,
we'll let you know.

Yeah.

Thanks again, guys.

Thank you.

It was worth having
these guys come here.

They fixed a few major issues
we were having.

The plant's running better
and I'm hoping that

we hit some good ground
that'll pay my partner back

and I can get my dad
back up here.

I was looking
for a big win.

But like we always say,
we can't put gold
in the ground, right?

- Well?
- Let's head out.

I'll follow you out.

Hey, Freddy, hey, Juan,
how's it going, guys?

Just wanted to give you guys
an update here.

We've moved down
and started running that stuff

that Freddy and I tested.

That's the spot
that we walked down there

and we did those
couple of pans.

We've stripped a bunch of it,
we built a road in.

And it's unbelievable,
I mean,

it's better than anything
we could've hoped for.

Check that out.

Holy...

That's a lot of gold.

I'm feeling unreal.
I feel so excited.

I mean, this is
some of the best ground
I've ever seen

and it was just right here
the whole time.

We just had to find it.

Oh, look at the fine gold.

Check that out.

Those are deep.
Those are like
a half inch deep.

Careful not to
spill that one.

That's a pan of gold, eh?
Holy...

For today here,
we just did a four hour run.

Looks all right to me.

Well, it's gonna go higher.

Over ten.

Holy.

Oh!

Whoo!

We got 13.5 oz in four hours,
including the biggest nuggets
we've ever got off this claim.

We've had a 20 oz day,
we've had a lot of 7 oz days.

That's unreal.

Freddy and Juan,
I just wanna thank you guys.

With your guys fixes,
everything that
we've been fighting

is now running smoothly.

I got my business partner
off my back.

I think he can see now
that this was all worth it
in the end.

So what more
could you ask for?

That's unbelievable.

Now that we got
all these fixes done

and we're on this
amazing gold,

I think my dad can
come up here

and be a part of this with me.

And, uh,

you know, he could watch
his grandson grow up here,

mining on the claim
with all of us,

which is what we've been
kind of wanting all along.

It's so amazing that
Anthony's doing really well.

I'm very proud.

I'm very excited
to get back up there.

I mean, I'm really
looking forward to it.

You more than just changed
our plant here.

You changed
our whole operation

and you changed our future.

Again, really appreciate
you guys coming here.

Thank you, guys.