Narrator:
guyana, south america.
Come on, baby.
Narrator:
weeks behind schedule,
Todd hoffman's crew discovers
their claim is a bust...
This ground's not virgin ground.
Is this worth it?
Are we wasting our time?
...and the pressure
leads to drastic action.
I'm done.
This is like a train wreck.
Narrator: in alaska...
Ah.
Narrator:
...after three long years,
The dakota boys finally reach
the bottom of the glory hole...
We're digging the bottom
of the waterfall.
There's gonna be a giant pot
of gold at the bottom.
Narrator:
but their most critical
piece of equipment fails...
[Bleep]
...right when they need it most.
[Bleep]
this is pretty [bleep] bad.
At scribner creek
in the klondike,
Parker faces a mutiny...
If you want to rally them up
and come after me,
You go ahead
and do that.
End of conversation.
...forcing him to turn to the
one person he trusts most --
Grandpa.
It's rough.
Don't give up.
Give me a hug.
-- Captions by vitac --
www.vitac.com
Captions paid for by
discovery communications
Narrator:
for the last eight weeks,
Todd hoffman and his crew
have fought a losing battle
Against torrential rains
On their new gold claim
deep in the jungle.
Nearly two months
into their mining season,
They still haven't found
a single ounce of gold.
Turin: we're in the jungle,
we're mining...
It's great
to be working on a crew
That just doesn't give up.
Narrator:
on top of everything,
The crew's working
without todd and jack hoffman.
Last week, they left guyana
to spend time with their family,
Leaving dave turin
with a massive challenge.
Dave, you're in charge.
I need you to have 20 ounces
while I'm gone.
You know I'm running
out of money.
All right, man.
Good luck, dave.
See ya.
See ya, buddy.
Now dave and the crew
have only one week
To get todd's gold.
[ Engine turns over ]
Turin:
todd wanted us to get 20 ounces,
And that's
exactly what we're gonna do.
Narrator:
just days ago,
They finally set up
their trommel at patience creek.
With the ground here
said to be worth $30 a yard,
Three times
what they had in the klondike,
The crew believes
they can make up for lost time.
Turin: we got good ground.
There was good gold in it.
What I've got to do is run some
material through this plant.
Narrator: dave now needs to haul
pay dirt 50 yards from the pit
To their jungle trommel...
But to get there,
they face a steep incline
That the rains
have turned into mud.
So what we're trying to do
today, the rain finally let up.
We got pay dirt to haul off,
So we're getting ready
to fire up the wash plant.
Hopefully the road'll hold up.
Okay, moment of truth.
Here we go.
Let's hope and pray we can get
a few loads out of here today,
Try to get this thing done.
Oh, that's not good.
I'm already spinning.
Come on, baby.
Come on.
Dang it.
Come on.
Come on, come on.
Come on.
Come on, baby.
Come on, get up there.
This isn't gonna work.
Man, there's just too much mud.
Narrator:
all season, the hoffman crew
Has been beaten down
by the hostile jungle.
We've come down here
with our big american equipment.
Maybe we've brought bear g*ns
to a bb-g*n fight.
I don't know.
This stinking hill
is just falling apart.
The road's just a mess,
And when we said we were
gonna bring the american dream
To guyana,
I don't think we quite knew
what we were getting into.
Narrator: if they can't get
pay dirt to the trommel,
They won't get a single ounce
of gold.
Our options are
that we quit for the day,
Or we just push the truck
up the hill
So we can get this done.
Narrator:
this time last year,
The hoffman crew had pulled
over 30 ounces of gold
From the ground,
worth more than $48,000.
There we go.
Andy's giving me a little boost.
Narrator: this season,
They turned their back on
the permafrost of the klondike,
Hoping for an easy payday
down in south america,
But so far,
They have no gold and can't even
get pay dirt to their plant.
Turin: come on, come on,
come on, little yellow truck.
It takes two vehicles to get
one load of dirt out of here.
This is just ridiculous.
Come on, andy.
Push.
Whoo!
Spinks:
there we go, there we go.
This is one of
the most difficult places
I've ever worked.
I've never had to work this hard
to get yards
Through a wash plant.
Turin: there's a lot of things
going against us right now.
We need some good luck.
We need a break.
We need things to go our way.
Narrator:
north, in the klondike,
At scribner creek,
Parker schnabel
Is a third of the way through
The 150-day
klondike mining season.
Parker:
the plant's running good.
I think we've got pay.
I'm pretty happy about the way
things are going here.
Narrator: so far, he's mined
51 ounces of gold,
Worth around $70,000.
Steve's running pay dirt
At 70 yards an hour
through little blue.
Robbins: the plant is running
really nice. We're loving it.
The crew is just pumped
that we're getting gold.
We do keep kind
of getting lucky,
And we keep finding some thawed
ground to keep us going.
You know, it's really nice to be
able to find some thawed ground.
[ Crunch ]
[Bleep]
Holy [bleep]
Can't dig through it
for [bleep]
Narrator:
for the past month, parker's
been running thawed pay dirt
From an old river channel
that tony beets led him to.
But now
parker has a real problem.
Is this frozen?
Yeah.
Underneath it, too?
[Bleep]
They're out of thawed pay
and have hit permafrost.
Remsburg:
it's not thawed.
It's hard as a rock,
And frozen solid, top to bottom.
Parker:
it's all frozen,
And this is all we have,
is this 10 feet that was thawed,
Where we thought
we would have 50,
So, uh, basically the only real
option is to rip it, really.
Narrator: thawed ground
is soft and easy to dig,
But it's rare in the klondike.
This far north,
Almost all the ground
is rock-hard permafrost
That has to be ripped
with a 170,000-pound dozer.
The stripped dirt
is then left for days to thaw
Before it can be run.
Ness:
they're running it pretty hard,
So it's been a while
since we've hauled some pay
Over to the plant.
You know, we're dealing
with a frozen cut here,
So we're gonna be out soon.
Parker: we need thawed pay,
but we got a small crew
And we don't have
enough people to do everything,
So when we're stripping,
we're not hauling pay.
When we're hauling pay,
we're not stripping,
And it's --
it's tough to keep up.
Robbins: and cut.
Anybody in the cut
over there, man.
You guys need to get me
some pay dirt coming.
It's getting really short
over here.
Parker:
the plant is out of materials.
Steve just called on the radio,
And so we're not sure
what to do now.
We don't have any pay thawed
to get over to him,
So we are kind of [bleep]
Are you gonna be able
to make it through the day?
With what I have?
Yeah.
No.
[Bleep]
We're out of pay.
[Bleep]
Narrator:
parker's crew is focused
on ripping frozen ground,
And eight hours into the shift,
The wash plant
runs out of stockpiled pay dirt.
Robbins:
shut it down.
Narrator:
the mine comes to a standstill.
Robbins: we have nothing
to run through blue,
We have nothing
to run through the sluices,
And, uh, we won't be making
any gold.
Narrator: parker calls
an emergency meeting.
So, uh, I just wanted
to give you guys an update.
We're out of thawed pay, but,
uh, the plant has to run.
We have to get pay
to it, right?
And so, you know, we're gonna
have to start stepping it up.
We're gonna have to start
working longer hours,
So I have to ask more
out of everybody that's here.
Why are you here, rick?
To make money.
What about you, greg?
To help see you
succeed up here.
Gene, what about you?
I'm here
to find some gold.
We're gonna
make this happen.
If we just get behind this,
We have a plan,
it'll pay off in the end.
Right on.
It's gonna take a lot
of hard work,
And the dirt is not gonna put
itself through that wash plant.
Narrator:
at porcupine creek in alaska,
The dakota boys
are in the glory hole,
Digging the last few feet
down to bedrock.
Ah.
Fred: I'm digging literally
on bedrock right now.
Tough digging, it is.
Man:
fred's digging the plunge pool,
And he's digging right
into it right now.
It's pretty exciting for us.
We worked really hard
to get down to this.
Narrator:
over three long seasons,
They've dug
more than 100 feet down
To get to the bottom
of the glory hole.
Fred:
the way it was going,
I didn't think I was ever, ever
gonna see the end of this thing.
Narrator: the dakota boys
are digging at the site
Of an ancient waterfall.
They are hoping
that over thousands of years,
The plunge pool at the bottom
Has trapped a massive pile
of coarse gold.
If they are right,
They are looking
at a million-dollar payday.
We're digging the bottom
of the waterfall.
Whoo!
There's gonna be a giant pot
of gold at the bottom.
Fred:
this'll be our final push.
We're trying to excavate as much
material as we possibly can.
It is looking good.
Looking very good.
I'm betting
it's got a lot of gold in it.
You know, the deeper you get
into one of these plunge pools,
Potentially the more gold
you're gonna find.
Narrator: dustin takes over,
desperate to get down to gold.
He risks digging blind
in 20 feet of water.
Dustin: I know
there's bedrock down there
'Cause I'm pulling it up,
But I can't see
anything down there.
It's got a shelf
And I can't figure out
what the hell the shelf is.
And if these walls
would hold, so would we.
[Bleep]
I need a cleanup crew.
I got a busted hose.
It's pretty [bleep] bad.
Narrator:
dawn in the klondike.
Determined to reach
his 800-ounce,
Million-dollar-season gold,
Parker's been running his crew
through the night.
We have a lot of deadlines,
so the plant's got to run.
Narrator: it's 9:00 a.m.,
And he's still
pushing them hard.
Robbins: we are kind of under
the g*n here a little bit
To get some more pay exposed.
I guess it is getting
a little frantic around here.
All these friggin' machines
working
Right on top of each other,
Trying to get
this ground to thaw.
Right here is 10 feet
of frozen gravel.
Got to get it opened up.
I mean, that's just
a real pain in the a*s.
Guess gene's is getting
a little impatient.
Getting a little reckless.
Narrator:
after 20 hours straight,
the crew is losing focus.
Get out of the way
so I can [bleep] move here.
Gene's starting to, uh,
disregard the trucks
And hitting 'em
with the 'dozer.
Remsburg:
people get short-tempered
When they don't eat
and they don't sleep,
When they're overworked
or tired.
I don't want to be the guy
that gets taken out
By someone
falling asleep at the wheel.
Nobody does.
Narrator: parker's big push
is affecting morale.
Remsburg: when we start getting
treated like robots,
Don't expect much more
than a machine would give you.
Doing this kind of work,
It's just a [bleep] job,
you know.
I didn't come here
for a [bleep] job.
I came to make some gold.
Remsburg:
so far, none of us have seen
any of the fruits of our labor.
If you want to build a team,
you got to give them purpose.
You better show them the gold.
Narrator:
too exhausted to continue,
steve calls it quits.
Driving that loader
up that ramp
And almost falling asleep
is not a good thing.
I mean, I had to jump
out of the cab a couple times
Just to wake myself up.
That's exhaustion.
I couldn't hardly see the back
of the rock truck.
That's exhaustion.
My eyes were crossing.
Parker: 20 minutes
before quitting time,
And everybody's standing around.
I've seen crews fired for that.
Narrator:
greg and rick have had enough.
I'm flat-out exhausted,
And I know it's getting
to the point of being dangerous.
I mean,
morale is at an all-time low.
Yeah.
I want to see the suggestion
of a gold-share
Because I've got
to have motivation,
And it's [bleep]
not to have that.
It sucks that we've got
to fight for it.
Something's got to give, and I
think we all agree on that.
You know,
I hate to push a mutiny,
But I think we got to bind
together
And stand
against this insanity.
Yeah, I agree.
It's for the team.
It's actually
in parker's best interest.
He just
doesn't realize it.
I agree.
We're dealing with a child.
All right.
Thanks, man.
Narrator: with the crew
at their breaking point,
Greg confronts parker.
Parker, this schedule's
not gonna -- not gonna work.
It's k*lling us.
It's actually dangerous.
That's the hours
we're working, you know?
So if you can't handle it,
Then maybe
this isn't the place for you.
You're not considering
your crew.
I know I'm not the only one
that feels this way.
If you're not happy,
then you can leave.
The door is always open.
You haven't --
end of conversation.
You haven't --
end of conversation.
Don't talk, no.
That's why people
Don't approach you.
Okay, just leave.
If you want to rally them up
and come after me,
You go ahead and do that.
I don't give a [bleep]
Remsburg: we're working
our asses off out here.
Now, he needs to see both sides.
We're giving to him --
give, give, give --
And he takes, take, take, take.
It's time to -- it's time
to take back a little bit.
I don't give a [bleep] if he
wants to go rile things up.
That's the one thing
that'll get him sent home.
Narrator: if he can't get
his crew back in line,
Parker can say goodbye
to his 800-ounce-season gold.
You know, I get it
that they're getting burned out.
It's just, I can't deal with it.
You know, for me the pressure
is way higher,
And it's tough
not having some support.
Remsburg: we need unity in order
to be successful gold miners.
Right now, it is a team divided.
Narrator:
south, in guyana,
Dave turin and crew
are under pressure.
Todd is returning
in just three days,
And he's expecting
to see 20 ounces of gold.
We've been
working our butts off.
This jungle
just doesn't give it up easily,
But I'm feeling good.
Everything's firing
on all cylinders right now,
And it's a good feeling.
Got some good-sized rocks coming
off the tailings conveyor.
We're mining.
Narrator:
they are way behind schedule,
But tests on this ground
showed $30 a yard,
Enough gold
to easily make up for lost time.
The potential is amazing.
We could get rich
on this ground.
After six hours of running,
the guys check the sluice box.
They desperately need to see
the first gold of the season.
What do you see, andy?
I don't see anything
in here yet.
There's nothing just jumping
right out at me,
That's for sure.
See any gold, you guys?
I don't see a single speck.
Yeah, you know,
when we ran dirt in the klondike
And it was halfway decent,
You could see lines of gold
in your riffles.
I don't see
any of that here.
You know,
let's keep our heads up.
Maybe it's at the bottom
of the sluice.
I don't know. Let's run a couple
days through this plant,
Do a cleanup,
at least then we'll know.
I guess another day of running,
we'll find out, huh?
We know there's gold here.
We don't have a lot of options,
so we're gonna give it our all
And see if we can get this done,
get it accomplished,
And get the dirt
through the wash plant.
Man:
we're holding out hope.
In gold mining,
you never really know
Until you pull the mats
and do the cleanup.
Gold can fool you.
Blaschke:
it's a good day right now.
Everything's working good.
The plant's running,
So hopefully
we're producing a lot of gold.
Ridiculous.
Narrator:
suddenly, andy spots a problem.
We're finding
garbage bags in here.
Bags everywhere.
Ridiculous.
We're mining
somebody else's ground.
We came down here because
the ground was supposed to pay
Two, three, four, five times
better than in the yukon.
Right now, we haven't seen it.
We're sluicing garbage bags.
Narrator: eight weeks in,
And not only is the hoffman crew
finding no gold,
They may not even
be on virgin ground.
I think we got something
to try to figure out here, dave.
What do you mean?
There's shoes
in our tailings.
What the frick?
Here, we're running
somebody's old garbage pit,
It looks like.
It's been run
through pretty hard.
We were told that we were coming
down to mine virgin ground.
I mean,
this is ridiculous.
We got shoes in our tailings.
We got bags in our tailings.
Tarps.
We found miner's moss.
This ground's
not virgin ground.
Ah [bleep]
This is [bleep]
that's a bunch of crap.
Todd said we're gonna go to
guyana and find virgin ground,
And now we're mining
other people's dump
Is what we're doing.
Right now, all we're doing
is spending money,
And we're not putting anything
in our pockets.
Is this worth it?
Are we wasting our time?
We need to figure out
what we're doing,
How we're gonna do it,
And find the dadgum gold.
Otherwise, there's no point
in being here.
Look at this.
I thought
this was virgin ground.
This is all just tailings.
That's all we got is tailings.
My guys are about ready
to mutiny.
I really don't know what to tell
todd when he gets back.
It's the worst scenario.
It's, uh, like a dream gone bad.
Narrator: with his crew
at their breaking point,
Parker's left scribner creek
And is traveling 600 miles
south to haines, alaska.
Parker: I'm headed up to
big nugget to see my grandpa
Because I rely on grandpa
for a lot of advice.
Narrator: mining legend
john schnabel is 93 years old,
And has a staggering 65 years
experience managing crews.
John:
hello, parker.
Hey, grandpa.
Am I glad to see you.
You too.
Mm, ah.
You've been gone
since the first part of april.
Yeah, no. I haven't seen you
in a long time.
God, it's great
to see you up here.
Looks like you're doing
something up there, huh?
Well, we've been
about a week on smith creek,
And I'm optimistic that we'll be
able to find the channel.
Well, I mean,
it's great to see you
Keeping the dream
alive, you know?
John:
well, we all live with dreams.
How are things going
with you, parker?
I mean, things up there
are tough, you know?
Oh, I know.
It's a huge change,
and we've got a bigger crew,
And I'm having problems
with people,
And you know how those go.
They're pretty demanding.
[ Laughs ]
And it's just, uh...
It's rough.
Well, you have the challenge
of your crew,
A little bit hesitant to deal
with an 18-year-old man,
And, uh, I share somewhat
your concerns.
I came here when I was 19.
One of the big problems is just,
you know, motivating my crew.
A lot of them just kind of
check in and check out.
Well that's probably
the biggest problem of any job
Is to have
the crew motivated.
So you've got to establish
some confidence on their part
To work with you.
I'll tell you
what it really is,
Is the crew are attracted
By the scent
of getting paid with gold.
I hear you.
Don't give up.
I have confidence
you're gonna come out well.
Thanks.
Parker,
we're not gonna shake hands.
Give me a hug.
Parker: I got some really good
advice from my grandpa.
We've been burning the candle
at both ends
Up there in the klondike,
And, uh, it's good
to take a step back,
And I really think it'll help
get us where we want to be.
I told him anybody
that works with a mining crew
Is fascinated by the idea
of getting paid with gold.
Narrator:
across the creek at porcupine,
The dakota boys could be
just feet from bedrock gold,
But they're in trouble.
Dustin:
it's pretty [bleep] bad.
While digging
in the plunge pool,
Dustin broke the hydraulic hose
on the arm of the 290 excavator.
Fred: oh, hell, no.
I was down, and I was starting
to take this wall back.
I was coming up,
And it must have just
caught something on the edge.
You can see
where it nicked the side of it.
We just blew a hydraulic hose.
Pretty upset with this,
for me to be this close.
Seems like a bust.
Narrator: they could be just
feet from a massive payday,
But they can't mine
until they fix the hose.
This fitting
is broken right here,
But we don't have anything
that can fit this fitting.
When the excavator arm
lost hydraulic fluid,
The thumb dropped down,
closing the bucket.
Now, unable to dig,
it's useless.
Uh, get a...
We need a chain
down here right away.
We'll curl it up,
chain it up
So it don't move no more.
Watch your face.
All right, let's get the chain
around those two middle teeth
And around the boom.
Raise it up
and hold it there, yeah.
We want it
as tight as you can get it
So it doesn't leak down.
If fred can rig up a chain
to hold the thumb in place,
The bucket can still dig.
Get any more there,
mike?
That's all
you're gonna get.
We've got
a temporary repair.
We've chained this up
so we can at least continue
Operating with this machine.
There we go.
Fred's fix works,
But dustin will no longer risk
digging blind.
Dustin: I need to be
able to see what I'm doing
'Cause I popped a hose because
I hit the side of a wall.
Right now, all we're gonna
do is pump it out
And look without water.
Narrator:
fred sets up a pump
To drain the 20 feet of water
out of the glory hole.
We're gonna set
the pump right there,
And we're gonna try to see
what we're digging down there.
Mike: this pump will suck
that pool dry.
It will not take long.
Move down.
Set it down.
We're gonna pump the water
out of this hole.
We're gonna pump it out
over the top.
We hope to see about 20 feet
of this waterfall right now.
Tallis: this pump's
gonna pump out all the water
In the plunge pool.
This is really cool
and an exciting time
Because
maybe we'll see some gold.
That water's
rapidly going down.
[ Grinding ]
[Bleep] [bleep]
Narrator:
suddenly, dustin notices the
pump making a grinding sound.
Dustin:
fred, we got a problem.
Fred: what now?
We pumped actual mud
and sand through this thing.
If it didn't destroy it,
it should have.
Narrator:
at porcupine creek,
The dakota boys are draining
the bottom of the glory hole
To determine once and for all
If they're on an ancient
plunge pool full of gold,
But they've crippled their pump
by running sand through it.
Dustin:
name of the game is don't
put sand inside of your pump,
And we did.
It's just dirty.
Yeah.
Bring me a rag,
if you would.
Narrator:
it's a setback,
But if dustin can clean out
every last grain of sand,
The pump should still work.
Dustin:
that [bleep] was black.
[ Engine turns over ]
Fred:
I think it's pumping.
[Bleep]
what?
It's not gonna work.
It's not sealed.
[Bleep] [bleep]
Houston,
we have a problem.
I think we blew a seal
on this pump.
Narrator: the seal
on the cover plate is broken,
And the pump
is now leaking water.
[Bleep] [bleep]
We sucked a little too much mud
through the pump,
And the seal is gone.
Oh [bleep]
We're in a kind
of a critical situation.
We're very reliant
on that pump right now.
Dustin:
the situation is looking grim,
For us to get down
to the bottom of this thing.
Narrator: they don't have
a replacement seal,
And a new one will take up
to a week to arrive.
Jeremy attempts to clamp
it tight.
It's not gonna work.
If they can't drain
the glory hole,
They'll never find out
if there's gold on the bedrock
Only a few feet below.
Dustin:
if we don't pump, we don't work.
As an emergency measure,
We could damp between the seal
and the edge with some silicon.
That's about the only other
place it could possibly be.
All right.
This is a temporary fix,
but I hope it works.
Fire it up.
[ Engine turns over ]
It's pumping.
We got it. It's good.
It's hauling a*s now.
Hope to see the bedrock
going down over here.
It should be
coming down pretty quick.
Water's dropping fast now.
There it is.
Narrator: finally, the plunge
pool is drained enough
To continue digging.
Get the pump
out of here.
We're ready to start
digging to get it.
Yee-haw.
The dakota boys
are back on bedrock gold.
Nice-looking dirt down here.
Nice-looking dirt.
Dustin: now we're getting
somewhere. Whoo!
There's gonna be a giant pot
of gold at the bottom.
Narrator: parker schnabel is
returning to the klondike
After a trip home
to the big nugget mine.
It's not easy managing a crew.
You know,
maybe my grandpa's right
About giving them
some incentive.
We have a lot of gold to find.
I mean, 800 ounces,
And I'm not gonna do it
unless they're on my side
And they want to get it, too.
Narrator: when he left,
crew morale at scribner creek
Was at an all-time low.
Robbins: doesn't seem like much
of a team here right now.
We don't even know
what's going on.
Remsburg:
I'm at the point now
Where it's become
a production-line job.
Right now, we need to have
a little bit of hope.
How's it going?
I just want to say
That I appreciate you guys
stepping up
And, you know,
it's a pretty unappreciated job,
But that doesn't mean
That you guys
should just turn into robots.
That's how it's felt.
I know it has,
and I hate that,
So I just want you guys
to know
That you guys will be definitely
be getting cuts, you know?
You guys
will be getting gold.
I'm happy with that.
That's kind of
the motivation
That I've been looking for
personally.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Let's kick some a*s.
All right.
Ness: now this means
a little more to me, you know,
Now that I got to talk
with parker
And I'm gonna be taking
some gold for myself home.
It's nice to have
a little recognition
That there's appreciation.
You know, we've worked
our tails off here,
So it'd be nice
to leave with some gold.
Narrator:
parker's promise of a share in
the gold has reunited the crew.
Parker:
this meeting needed to happen
Because the crew
just wasn't motivated,
And when you're not motivated,
you don't want to be at work.
So, I wanted to get people
on gold shares
Because I wanted them to care
about the operation.
Narrator:
and the crew's hard work
is already starting to pay off.
They now have enough thawed
pay dirt to feed little blue.
Robbins: fire it up.
This team's kicking a*s.
The trucks
are doing really well.
They're getting full loads.
Parker: without guys like that,
we wouldn't be anywhere.
We wouldn't have 50 ounces
of gold in a jar.
Now that they know where we
stand, I expect less problems,
You know?
Narrator:
in guyana, the hoffman crew
Has only run 1,500 yards
of dirt all season.
Thurber preps the gold room
for their first cleanup.
Big day today.
Sure hope there's
some gold in this.
Despite serious doubts
about the ground
At patience creek,
Dave's hoping they can still
come up with 20 ounces of gold,
Worth $28,000.
Turin:
todd asked us to get 20 ounces.
We've put a lot
of work and effort into it.
I'm holding out.
I'm hoping that
it's gonna be good.
The hoffmans have spent
more money
Than I've made in a lifetime
just on this adventure.
It'd be great
for todd to be here
And see that first gold
to go across the table.
Our anticipations are high.
Hopefully
we'll find some gold.
Everybody'll be happy.
Here it goes.
Scoop number one.
Okay, that is it.
Table's clean.
Let's see
how much gold we got.
I'm seeing no gold.
Zip. Nada. Nothing.
Not a single piece.
There's your answer, dave.
No gold.
We're wasting time.
Patience creek has no gold.
Problem is, I don't know
where to go from here.
Spinks:
that's the big problem
'Cause it's not a matter
of just busting our a*s now
And getting to work.
We don't even know
where to go to work.
Well, guys,
Todd said he wanted 20 ounces
before he got back.
There's no chance.
Absolutely no chance.
Patience creek, as far
as I'm concerned, is dead.
It's a bust.
I'm at a loss.
I don't know where to go.
This sucks.
So much for that.
That's the
world's worst cleanup, I think,
In gold-mining history.
I know it's the worst cleanup
we've ever had in history.
Todd and dave have got
to get their heads together,
And they got to find something,
and they better do it quick,
Or we're gonna be a flat zero
for the season.
Turin: we're about
a third of the way through,
And we have no gold
to show for it,
And I really don't know
where we're going.
I don't know
where we go from here.
Narrator:
at porcupine creek,
The dakota boys take delivery
of a new piece of equipment.
Fred:
we need some help out here.
Hopefully this machine
will help us reach that goal.
Narrator: their friends, paul
and wes, known as the texans,
Have brought them a brand
new gold recovery table.
This is our new table
right now.
It's got a jig,
a sluice box,
And a shake table on it,
And hopefully it's gonna
get us a lot of gold.
This thing's supposed to save us
a lot of time in panning
And getting down
to the micron gold
That we can't get to.
Fred: if you got
a sophisticated little machine
That can pan as good or better
than you can pan,
I'd say take advantage
of it. [ Laughs ]
Narrator:
for three seasons,
The dakota boys have moved
thousands of tons of dirt
To get down to a pot of gold
at the bottom of the glory hole.
I dug through all that gravel.
All I'm bringing up
now is water.
Mike just hit bottom
of the plunge pool.
It's over with.
Let's celebrate.
Whoo!
Narrator:
there is nothing more to dig.
All they can do now is hope
for a life-changing payday.
Man, I love seeing that stuff
run down that sluice box.
Okay, it's gonna
be a good cleanup.
Tallis:
it's gonna be a good cleanup.
Now we need to find
a big jar of gold.
Narrator: last season's biggest
cleanup was 28 ounces of gold,
Worth $40,000.
Guys, come on over here.
Fred brings the crew together
To reveal how much
bedrock gold they found.
I just did the cleanup.
We have dug and dug
and we're down on that bedrock.
Can't dig it no more.
So, uh, the hole
has really been, uh, tapped out.
Anyway, total on it...
...11 ounces.
Narrator: 11 ounces of gold,
worth just $15,000,
Is a major disappointment.
Hey, we've busted --
all of us -- busted our buns
Getting to the bottom of that
thing, and it just didn't work.
I had hoped we were gonna get
a little bit better.
Everybody did.
It wasn't that pot of leprechaun
gold at the bottom.
Thanks, fred.
Dustin: I've been trying to get
dirt out of that hole every day,
Forever, it feels like.
We didn't find any gold.
None in the bottom.
It's a really huge letdown.
I guess we got our answer,
though.
There's no gold down there.
Dustin:
we really were convinced that
the bottom of that waterfall
Was gonna be our salvation
of money and gold.
Fred:
it's a long way down there.
How deep is it, man?
There it goes.
Gee whiz.
Oh, look at that.
Wow.
We don't know what kind
of pressures are on the wall.
We got safety to look at.
We don't need to be having
anybody
In that bottom
of that hole anymore, not now.
We got to close
that hole up.
That is truly
heartbreaking, fred.
That overburden up there --
You know where we're gonna
have to put it.
In the bottom of the hole.
Right there.
We're gonna have to fill up
the damn waterfall
That we've been working
on for 2h years.
Tell you the truth, that's
the last thing I want to do.
Narrator:
after a trip home to oregon,
The hoffmans are back in guyana.
Todd is hoping to find 20 ounces
of patience creek gold
Waiting for him.
No matter what happens, I'm
expecting to see some good gold.
There's the loader.
What the frick
is that doing there, dad?
I don't know.
I don't get it.
Well, this ain't good.
This is weird.
I don't know what's going on.
This looks like
a frickin' ghost town.
This ain't good, dad.
Todd:
dave owes me some answers,
And let's hope
they're the right answers
'Cause this isn't funny.
We're losing money.
Hi, dave.
Dave, I was down
at patience creek.
What happened down there?
How come we're not running?
There is no gold.
Zero.
And you're telling me
You didn't even get
one ounce.
Nothing.
It took us two weeks
to run 1,500 yards.
You're telling me we frickin'
worked for two weeks,
And you didn't even
get one ounce.
We busted our a*s, todd.
That ground is [bleep]
I got guys
that are [bleep] off
Because they're busting
their a*s and getting no gold.
I've been
laying awake at night
Trying to figure out
how to do this,
And I can't compute it,
and then I've got to say,
"Get up," in the morning,
"let's go to work,"
When they don't want to go
to work 'cause there's no gold.
You know what, todd?
I'm leaving.
I'm taking my sorry,
tired a*s home.
I'm done for a while.
You're quitting?
You find me some ground
with gold,
Then we'll move mountains
for you, todd,
But right now, I'm done.
Okay, I'm out of here.
Todd:
if these guys all bail out,
It's gonna be about
a $500,000 loss for me,
And that ain't funny.
I literally have about 10 days
to find some good ground,
Or I'm probably gonna
lose my whole company.
No reason to come back if
there's no gold in the ground.
Nobody's got more into this
than me,
And nobody's got more to lose
than me in this,
And that looks bad.
It looks like
I'm about ready to lose it.
This is like a train wreck.
This is a bad train wreck.
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04x06 - Mutiny
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Reality based series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Reality based series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska.