13x12 - Pain Under Pressure

[bunniefuu]

*GOLD RUSH [2010]*
Season 13 Episode 12

Episode Title: "FUBAR"
Aired on: [font color=#00ffff]December 16, 2022.

[Parker Schnabel] So, today's
a pretty big day.

We've finally got some boots
on the ground here in Alaska

and some mining equipment,
here,

and we're gonna go see
if we can find some gold.

[Narrator]
Nine years after leaving...

...27-year-old Parker Schnabel is
back in his home state of Alaska,

finally ready to fire up
his new operation.

[Parker] It's been two years
in the making.

For me, the big driver of this

is really trying to find the next
spot to bring a big operation in.

It is about showing that, okay,
there is, you know, another...

...10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000 or
whatever-thousand ounces to do, here.

[Narrator] Parker struck
a deal to mine 3,000 acres

of historically gold-rich ground


that he's hoping will net


[Parker] The one guy that I
hired should be here already.

- [Tyler Mahoney] Is that Mark? Yeah, okay.
- [Parker] Yeah.

[Parker]
Hopefully, that's him.

[Narrator] Australian miner Tyler
Mahoney will help run the operation.

- [Tyler] Hello!
- [Mark Forrs] Hey, how's it going?

You must be Tyler.
Nice to meet you, I'm Mark.

Nice to meet you, Mark.

[Narrator] ...alongside
foreman Mark Forrs.

- How you doing?
- Good.

All right, well, let's get in there and,
and see if the gears are ready to work.

- [Mark] Sounds good, all right.
- [Tyler] Sounds like a plan.

[Mark] Let's do it.
Let's go do it.

[gate groaning]

[Tyler] Hey,
that's a good start.

[Parker] Yeah, we got a dozer.

[Parker] Nice looking gear.

Very new.

[Tyler]
Lots of tailings everywhere.

[Parker] Yeah, there was
two dredges on this creek.

[Tyler] Oh, wow.

[Parker] This is it.

[Parker] It doesn't look like
much right now. Just a lotta trees.

[Parker] We did a bunch a pans
in these drift tailings.

I was thinking to start with, we would
just start hauling these back to the yard.

And when the plant gets there, then
we'll have a stockpile of pay ready to go.

Seems like it'd be easy mining
to start off with.

[Narrator] Parker believes
the virgin ground on his claim

could hold upwards
of 2,000 ounces.

But with half the season
already gone,

first, he's going after
the easy pickings.

The old timers
excavated shafts

through concrete-like
permafrost up to 100 feet deep

until hitting pay dirt
above bedrock.

Then, they drift mined
horizontally

and hauled out the seam
of gold back to the surface,

where they washed the pay dirt
through primitive sluice boxes

and dumped their tailings.

Earlier in the season,
test pans revealed...

Oh, yeah.

...that the old timers'
tailings are rich in gold.

This is like the best pan
I've ever panned.

A lotta times with
tailings, if you see birch

trees growing out of
it, they've got roots,

there's gravel,
there could be gold.

[Narrator] Parker's plan?

Dig out and run
the shallow leftover tailings.

This did get underground mined
pretty hard.

So it's gonna be a mess
down at the bottom, but like...

Do you think we'll find, like,
some shafts and stuff like that?

And drifts. And maybe even
some rooms.

- Oh.
- That are all roomed out.

And they'll be all
full of mud.

[Mark] All right. We're going to
get this stacked up over in our yard.

[Narrator] Experienced operator
and Alaskan local Mark Forrs

clears the trees
to expose the tailings.

This stuff's just sitting on
top. You scrape the trees off,

and it's pretty much ready
to put in the plant,

so, pretty cheap to mine.

I grew up on a homestead
out in, uh, McGrath.

So I'm used to remote living.

With gold mining,
it's out in the woods,

kind of off the grid
a little bit, which I like.

It's a little bit challenging,

because in finding
these old shafts,

there's a lot of mudholes around
here you can bury your dozer in,

and so we're carefully trying
to find the edge of these tailings.

[Parker]
So, we've got Mark on board.

He's the only person that's
coming here other than Tyler

that I have even spoken to.

But he needs help.

[Narrator] This late in the season,
skilled operators are hard to come by.

So Tyler has been forced to recruit
the rest of their crew via social media.

[Parker] The first of Tyler's
recruits are showing up today.

So hopefully, they have a good
attitude and lots of experience,

'cause we need
those two things.

[Tyler] This
is Phill and Jarred.

[Parker] Hi. Nice to meet
you guys.

[both greeting] - [Parker]
You ready to move some dirt?

- Yeah.
- We're here, yeah.

[Parker] Okay, sweet.

[Narrator]
Parker's new recruits?


and 24-year-old Jarred Chase.

[laughing]

You guys have ran hoes before?

I have never operated one, no.
Always wanted to. Willing to learn.

[Parker] Gotcha.

[Phill Wickert] I'm just kinda
excited to learn some of this stuff.

Always wanted to be
running machines like this.

Let's run out to the cut,
and you can start digging dirt,

and you can start learning
how an excavator runs.

Over where we're working, we're
gonna have some really unstable banks.

Don't do anything sketchy when it
comes to working around the water.

Just always stay
way back from the edge.

Be ready to get in reverse
if it all starts going, right?

- Yeah.
- Correct.

It's up to you to think and not
panic if something goes wrong.

So many people wanna, like, get
excited and, like, oh, I got this stuck,

and I'm gonna get it unstuck,
and they end up, like,

making it just
ten times worse.

[Stuart McKenzie] Yeah.

So, the big thing...

...the big thing.

Don't walk in the pond.

That pond will eat you alive.

Let's go ahead and let's
take the excavator,

and we'll walk over
and find a spot for ya.

So, you can come in here
and kind of smooth this out.

And then I need a road,
and fill this pond in.

There's your chariot.
Do you know how to start it?

Turn the key, right?

- You good?
- Should be.

What's the number one rule?

- Be safe?
- [bleep] water.

- Don't go in the pond.
- Stay out of the water.

No swimming.

[Narrator] Phill has been
mining for eight years,

operating trucks and loaders.

But now,
he has to step up a level.

[Parker] So, Phill has no
excavator experience, which is...

...not great.

We'll see how it goes. Um, you know,
day one, everybody's a little jittery.

Trying to prove myself a little bit, being
kinda green at, uh, running excavator.

Well, literally, it looks like
I'm getting into the swing of it.

[laughing] If you know
what I mean.

We're just gonna remember
which stick does which maneuver.

Is there a horn on this thing?

[horn beeps]

There we go.

Parker, he has me baling dirt.

And I think Parker doesn't
know us yet, and our abilities,

so he's skeptical.

I don't feel pressured.
It's just work.

[engine strains]

[baler thuds into mud]

Uh-oh. That ain't good.

I feel like I'm sinking,
which I probably am, so...

Yeah, it looks like.

Nah. Very, very not cool.

Quit sinking.

Just quit sinking.
That's all I want you to do.

[Narrator] Less than two hours
after stepping in the cab,

Jarred has sunk the 53-ton


[bleep]

Just come up a few feet.

Yeah, I hit water right there.

Just hold the level
that we're on over there.

- I'm trying.
- Um...

Okay.

Cool.

[engine slows to a stop]

I'm nervous just without all
of the infrastructure from...

That I'm used to having.

Like, we don't even
have a mechanic.

Mitch was gonna
come over here. He's not here.

Because just I need him in,
in Dawson, running the place.

So, that leaves me with this.

So we're definitely late,
understaffed...

...and under equipped.

Sergeant Sluice is hungry.

[Fred Lewis] Right now, we've got
some pretty good gold in the pocket.

We are up and running,
all g*ns ablaze.

We set ourselves a pretty
aggressive goal, 500 ounces,

and it's definitely
not gonna come easy.

[Narrator] Combat vet
turned gold miner Fred Lewis

is chasing the dream of pulling
$1 million out of the ground.

But halfway through the season,
he's banked less than 20 ounces,

worth just $32,000.

[Fred] If we fall short
of our goal, Misfits are done.

There's no more next season,
there's no more coming back.

It's all or nothing.

[Narrator] Fred's Misfit Crew have mined
out the leftovers from last season's cut.

Now, they're finally running pay dirt
from the game-changing Freedom Cut,

which Fred believes is close
to the mother lode,

the source
of California Creek's gold.

[Fred] I'm 100% positive
there's gold in that Freedom Cut.

If we mine through it, we're
just gonna be financially free.

Well, I can feel it. But it's
gonna be a lotta work.

It looks like the pay that we're
pulling right now is very nice stuff.

[Narrator] Fred's wife Khara feeds


through wash plant
Sergeant Sluice.

As long as we keep running, as
long as I can keep this wash plant fed,

then it's looking encouraging
for sure this season.

Us being successful
is extremely important to me.

[Narrator] Trucking the pay from
the cut a quarter of a mile to the plant?

Ex-sn*per Stuart McKenzie.

[Stuart McKenzie]
I wanna provide for my family.

I wanna provide them a life that,
you know, they really, really deserve,

especially for how much stress
and just chaos I put 'em through,

with, uh, me kind of finding myself
again after coming home from Iraq.

[grinding]

Stuart, stop the truck, man. I
hear something grinding, here.

Wait, I'm gonna run in.

[brakes squealing to halt]

The whole rear end
is grinding back here.

It sounds bad. I don't see
anything external.

It's like to inside the drum,
here.

Oh, [bleep].

Something let loose.
Definitely.

We'll pull it down there, we'll
pull that cap off and see, uh,

what the heck happened
now, man.

[John "JB" Mayer]
The rock truck is a, uh...

...a major piece of equipment
when you only have one.

We can't haul pay
if it don't work.

[bleep]

[bleep]

[Buzz Legault]
Not looking good like that.

[Narrator] The oil inside the wheel
cap should be clear and free from debris.

[JB] Shut it off. Chunks of steel
coming out of the inside of that.

[Buzz] There seem to be metal...
Little metal part, particles in there.

[JB] We got some major internal
issues. That's not good at all.

We'll have to put... Take this cover
off and check all your planetary gears.

[Narrator] The six wheel drive
A35 rock truck

relies on planetary gear
systems to drive each wheel.

In the center, a sun gear interlocks
with three outer planet gears.

When the sun rotates,
it drives the planets,

which in turn rotate
the outer ring gear,

increasing torque
to the wheel.

If just one gear fails, the truck loses
its ability to take on the rugged terrain.

[Buzz] I think it's just, uh, hung up
on all the [bleeping] in there. Here.

[exclaiming]

[both] Ohh!

[JB] No. [Bleeping]
[whistling]

[bleep]

Oh, my [bleep].

I mean, that's like
scorched earth.

It's bad.

[Buzz] Here.

[exclaiming]

[both] Ohh!

[JB] No. [Bleeping]

[whistling]

[bleep]

Oh, my [bleep].

I mean, that's like
scorched earth.

Man, this is, uh, this is bad.

Without this rock truck, we're
gonna be out of pay for the wash plant

in, like, half an hour.

[Narrator] Fred Lewis' only
rock truck has ground to a halt.

Yeah, this is what we call
FUBAR.

[bleep] Up Beyond
All Recognition.

So we can't even
run the plant.

When the carrier's
almost out of pay.

[bleep] me.

Not good at all.

[Fred] That's [bleep].

[Fred] Well, right now,

as soon as I get anything that's
gonna go wrong, it's gonna go wrong.

For this rock truck, when it goes down,
everything stops, and that can't happen.

[Narrator] With no rock truck to haul
pay from the cut to the wash plant...

...Fred's hopes of hitting his


[Fred over comms] Khara.
Khara, this is Fred.

The rock truck is down
in a big way right now.

How long is it gonna be out?
How fast can you get it fixed?

Well, Buzz was saying
it could be out for a week

if we have to wait for parts
and we can't find parts.

I'm completely out of pay, just
about. I have, like, a couple scoops left,

and you're saying
I'm not getting any more pay?

That is exactly
what I'm saying.

This is getting out of
[bleep] control.

Yeah, I know, Khara. It's
stressful. I get it. It's k*lling me, too.

Well, you better come up with
like, a B and C solution,

because we don't have
another house to sell.

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

That's a lotta carbohydrates.

He's trying to get
as big as me.

[laughing]

Tony Beets speaking...

[Narrator] Halfway
through the season,

king of the Klondike Tony
Beets has mined just a quarter

of his 5,000-ounce target.

[Narrator] Last week, Tony
turbocharged his operation,

starting a night shift,
running round the clock

to haul in as much gold
as possible.

But doubling his wash plant's
run time

means doubling the water
runoff to the settling ponds.

Below Mike's trommel
sit three settling ponds

stretching
one and a half miles,

divided by two access roads.

Dirty water from the wash
plant flows into the first pond,

where the heavy silt settles.

The water then filters
through the other ponds,

where finer sediment deposits,

before the now-clean water
flows back into the creek below.

The last thing I want is the water
isn't going the way we want it.

And, uh, yeah, because
this is my responsibility...

...I want this to go smoothly
and without any problems.

[Narrator] Cousin Mike uses
dried silt already settled in pond two

to reinforce the dikes
near the access road.

Worst case would be if we are
not able to fight this water,

and it would run
over the dikes into the creek

and we would
have to stop sluicing.

Tony has us running
our asses off right now.

This is crucial. You know,
we got this dike built up.

[Narrator]
Closer to the creek,

Megan is unloading tailings
to strengthen the barrier.

We're raising up this part of the
dike just to make it a little higher.

So that it's less likely
to overflow.

[Cousin Mike]
Where I grew up...

...I lived below sea level.
There's dikes everywhere.

It's funny that, uh,
I came all the way to Canada,

and, uh, yeah, back home,
there's a lot of water management.

It's a Dutch thing
to do work like this.

Oh, [bleep]. What's going on
over here?

There's water everywhere.

The beds are breaking at,
at multiple points.

Tony, Tony, do you copy?

We've got multiple breaks in a
dike. There's water everywhere.

[Narrator] Rising water in the
ponds has washed away the road,

cutting off access
to the main dike.

It's a mess.

Tried to keep up, but, uh...

I tried to build up those dikes,
but they just keep overflowing.

Tony speaking...

[trommel powering down]

I haven't been in a rock truck
in a while.

I don't remember the last time
I was, actually.

Now, we're just hammering
some of these old drift tailings.

The nice thing about this is that
it's all here and on the surface,

it's pretty minimal cost.

[Narrator] Parker Schnabel
is finally up and running

at his Alaskan operation,

working with an unproven young
crew Tyler found through social media.

So, I saw the chance
to come up here, and, uh,

I took full advantage of it.

So, I flew into the airport,
Tyler picked me up

on a Saturday afternoon,

and, uh, we were out here
on Sunday morning having at it.

[Narrator] Latest recruit
24-year-old Michael Bodri

has four years' experience
operating on mine sites.

Parker had walked me through
my on-site part of being here.

And he said, "Well, it looks like
Mark's got some dozing work to do,

why don't we put you in the
excavator and see what you can do."

[Tyler] We are placing a lot of
faith in the miners we've hired,

which is stressing
me out a lot,

because we don't
have time here.

We've got such
a short window to mine.

[Narrator] After prepping
the site,

the greenhorns are stockpiling
the drift tailings' pay dirt in the cut,

ready for when Parker's
new wash plant arrives.

All right, guys,
we're into it this far.

What are we gonna
call this cut?

We can call it
the Old-Timers' Cut

considering that it came
from the old timers.

[Michael] It pays
a nice homage

to guys that were
way tougher than any of us

that were out here
back 100 years ago.

It does sound nice,
but Drift Cut,

'cause they were drifting it
from the bottom.

Drift Cut, that ain't too bad.
I think I can go with that.

[Narrator] While the greenhorns
pile tailings in the Drift Cut,

Parker takes Mark and Tyler to
scout the other side of the claim

where last year,

he drilled down
to a deep gold-rich pay streak

that could be 10 times richer
than his Yukon ground.

The layer that we tested
was just the bottom 4 feet.

And that's what our numbers
are based off of

- as far as gold in the ground.
- [Tyler] Okay.

There's supposed to be about


and hopefully we can do
half of it this year.

- We'll see. That's the goal anyway.
- Gotcha, yeah.

So, how much dirt is there
to move to get to that?

- Oh, 200,000 yards.
- Wow.

A big wolf track.

- What?
- Right there.

- Look, right here.
- Oh, my [bleep], it's huge.

- Look at that.
- [Tyler] That's [bleep] terrifying.

It's like the size of my hand.

Is that fresh?

That's actually terrifying.

[Narrator] Parker's plan,
open the 4-acre Wolf Cut.

He'll dig down 30 feet
through worthless overburden

to hit a 4-foot thick pastry

that he hopes holds


I'm young. I don't really
know much about this.

New adventure.

[Narrator] Parker's tasked


with opening the Wolf Cut.

[Jarod] This dirt that I'm on
it's very soft and sloughing,

so you've always gotta be
in the lookout on your rears.

Make sure your sides are good.

Whoa!

Oh, no!

Oh, [bleep].

Oh, [bleep], it's slippery.

That's not good.

[bleep]

Oh, we got a hose blown.
That's not good.

[Mark] What went wrong, man?

- [Jarod] I was trying to pick the boom up...
- [Mark] Yep.

...and it just
started spraying.

[Narrator] Jarod has blown a
hydraulic hose on the 480 excavator,

completely disabling
the boom arm.

[Mark] You weren't beating
on the ground, were you,

- with the boom?
- [Jarod] No.

Well, this kinda
screws us here.

I mean, we're gonna have to spend
the rest of the day getting this hose off,

- and get her turned off pretty quick.
- Yeah, like, extremely quick.

This is a new machine,
new hose,

so it shouldn't do that.

[Mark] I think I got
another hose here,

an older hose that might
be able to change that out.

This one looks like
it almost might work.

Hey, Jarod, let's go!

That 90's a little bit...

[Jarod] It would be nice
to make it slip in there.

[Mark] Trying to, uh, get this
done as quick as possible.

Sometimes these bush fixes
work, sometimes they don't,

so we'll see.
We'll get right on it.

[Narrator] Mark's plan,

chop the fitting
off the burst hose

and weld it
to the replacement hose.

Let me grab a tape measure,
and we'll measure...

So, we'll, uh, chop it,
and then we'll weld it.

See if it holds pressure.

[Mark] It might not
last forever,

but at least we'll get going
until we get a new hose in here.

Hopefully it holds pressure
and we can get back to work.

[Jarod] I think this
might work.

Let's go ahead
and fire this hoe up.

Everybody cross their fingers.

[engine starting]

All right, well, bush fix
seems to be workin',

so let's go put this hoe
back to work,

and make some money here.

Buzz...

...this place [bleep] sucks.

- Yeah.
- With the rock truck,

- that just [bleep] puts a nail right in the coffin.
- I know.

[Narrator] At California Creek

Fred Lewis's only
rock truck is down,

unable to truck pay
to the plant.

His operation
is at a standstill.

We've got this ground in front
of us with great gold in it,

and we can't keep equipment
going to [bleep] mine it.

[Buzz] Look at that
wash plant.

What did we design it for?

What do we put underneath it?

- Are you talking about skeds?
- Exactly.

Instead of worrying about rock
trucking the gold to the plant,

why don't we take
the plant to the gold?

Hey, now we have a whole
[bleep] ton of pay up there

that we can push up
with the dozer.

I mean, that's massive.
That's a big [bleep] move.

[Narrator] With
no other options,

Buzz wants to drag
the 14-ton wash plant

along narrow, winding
dirt roads

1,500 feet to a new pad

in the middle
of the Freedom Cut.

To keep it fed,
they'll use their dozer

to push pay dirt
directly up to the plant.

JB, Stuart, come on over.

All right.

With no rock truck,
Buzz and I had a talk.

We're gonna
do something drastic.

We're going to Freedom Cut.

[JB] Oh, yeah. Sounds good.

- All right?
- We're gonna make it happen.

I actually feel good about
this. This makes me feel good.

It's a big move.
It's a lot of work, guys.

Buzz will be
calling the shots.

- Okay, let's make this happen.
- Come on, guys

Come on back.

[JB] Oh, it's come unhooked.

All right,
let's try again.

So, JB, realistically
speaking,

this is the sergeant's
first marching orders, eh?

- [JB] Yeah, no lie.
- [Buzz laughing]

[JB] Oh, man,
she's movin' fine.

[engine churning]

Buzz speaking...

[Narrator] Buzz has hit
a steep downhill hairpin bend

with a 20-foot drop
into the creek.

Buzz speaking...

No, no, no, no, no!
Stop! Stop! Stop!

No, no, no, no, no!
Stop! Stop! Stop!

[JB] Good lord!

Realistically, the sarge can do
this basic removal. It's a lot better.

[Buzz laughing]

[Narrator] Fred Lewis
is making a bold move

to save his season.

- Come around that sketchy corner, you know...
- Whoo.

- Ah, yeah.
- We were... [mimics steering shake]

[Narrator] Unable to truck
pay dirt to the wash plant,

his crew is hauling
Sergeant Sluice

to a mountain
of gold-rich pay dirt

stockpiled
in the Freedom Cut.

Sarge here
could handle it well.

[Fred] We're just about there.

It's only about three
more feet or so, probably.

[JB] Well, that was
pretty damn good there.

[Fred] Right where
it's hittin', man.

It looks pretty level
back there.

[Buzz] Sarge is in place.

If we tie [bleep]...

[JB] That looks good to me.

[laughing]

[Fred] You sure are a genius.

[Narrator] Having already lost
two days of sluicing,

Fred and his crew race
to get the plant back together

ready to fire up ASAP.

[Fred] All right, it's our
last connection.

Everything good
over there, Buzz?

Hose is connected, brother.

[Fred] Hey, Stuart, are you
ready up there in the excavator?

Let's turn and burn.

So, right now, we're
a little bit nervous.

I'm not gonna lie.

It was a big gamble coming
up here to the Freedom Cut.

Old Sarge is finally home.

[bleep] Okay, brother.

[Fred] It looks pretty good.

Excellent.

It's perfect. There's
no problems at all.

[Narrator] With the dozer
pushing pay to the plant,

Fred's crew are back
running Freedom Cut pay dirt.

To make up for lost time,

they needed
to deliver... big.

[Fred] Man, this
is really big for us.

This mine site is 100% active.

We're doing it
with our rock trucks.

We're doing it our way with
our wash plant, with our dozer.

It's pretty friggin'
fantastic.

Tony speaking...

[Narrator] Tony Beets
has shut down his trommel.

Increased water runoff
from running the plant 24/7

has washed away the access road
to the dike that protects the creek.

Tony speaking...

Yeah, that's the least thing
we [bleep] need.

Yeah, I'm gonna have
to clean that off.

Tony speaking...

If you build over that, it's gonna
turn into a [bleep] hole anyway.

Tony speaking...

This is all the really,
really fine stuff.

So, I'm tryin' to push it
off the road here.

If all this silt gets
pushed into the creek,

the water board will shut us
right [bleep] down.

So it makes a bit of a pain
in the a*s to clean it up.

Tony speaking...

Tony speaking...

[Narrator] Mike pushes
the watery sludge

back into the settling pond,

allowing rock trucks access
to dump overburden

and build the road back up.

Tony speaking...

[crewman] It's coming down.

Tony speaking...

Tony speaking...

Tony speaking...

[Narrator] Ten hours after
the water broke through,

the access road is fixed.

Tony can now get his
rock trucks back,

building up
the all-important dikes.

Tony speaking...

Tony speaking...

Tony speaking...

[Narrator] The settling pond's
stronger dikes should mean

Tony can now run


Tony speaking...

Tony speaking...

Tony speaking...

I don't want you
to leave, honey.

I get it though, everyone
needs Mommy or Daddy,

but the team kinda
needs you too.

[woman] For now, stay optimistic
when you're in front of the crew.

[Fred] I'm not gonna lie. It's
really tough being separated.

And you know,
when I got out the army,

it was something we talked
about not doing this again.

- All that stuff...
- It sucks. It's really hard.

- [Fred] Remember that fortune...
- Ugh.

- ...favors the brave.
- I know.

[Fred] I'll carry
your bag out.

[Fred] This thing
is like 9,000 pounds.

Did you steal all the gold?

[woman] What do you mean?
There's zero gold.

What's up, slacker?

[Narrator] At California Creek

it's the moment Fred and his
crew have been battling towards,

the first gold weigh
from the Freedom Cut.

It's been an eventful
two weeks, man.

We've been moving,
moving, moving, moving.

- Ah.
- About time.

[Narrator] After just two days
of washing pay,

Fred needs to see improvement
on his season total

of just over 18 ounces.

All right, who wants
to call it out? Buzz?

Buzz.

[Buzz] One, two, three,
four, five,

six, seven, eight, nine,


...13, 14, 15,





[Narrator] Worth over $31,000,

doubling their season
gold haul

and proving that
the Freedom Cut

is some of the best ground
they've ever mined.

[Fred] This represents more
than we've mined the entire season.

So, this is two day's work.

- I'd say we're doin' better.
- Mmm-hmm.

- And we're definitely getting where we need to be.
- Yeah.

And our gold's coming in.

I mean, we know
the gold's there.

- So, we just need to keep [bleep] fightin'.
- Mmm-hmm.

I'm happy about this, guys,

- we just need to replicate it.
- Yep.

So, let's keep our
hard work goin'

and we might actually
pull this off.

Yeah... just maybe.

Hey, good work though, guys.
Well, let's get back to work.

- All right, let's do this.
- [bleep] yeah.

No, you can't touch it,
it's mine.

It's great to see gold in the
pan, you know what I mean?

It, uh, it validates
all your hard work.

It validates everything that you've,
uh, kind of been going through.

It's no easy task
getting it out of the ground,

you know, and so,
just being able to see

that amount of gold in just
two days' worth of work,

it really gives me hope.

Things are starting
to turn around for us.

Well, thank you guys
for coming.

- [Tyler] Thanks, team.
- We appreciate the opportunity.

It's been a good
first week, hey?

[Parker] So far so good.
Hopefully it keeps up this way.

I kind of didn't think we
were actually gonna get

to the point when we're here
and moving through it.

[Michael] Yeah, for hiring us
off social media.

[all laughing]

- Yeah.
- [Tyler] Yeah, now that was definitely a risk.

Like there's always a training
process with people, right?

And then it's like with more
people you're just, like...

- [Michael] More headache?
- Oh, my [bleep] don't get me started.

All right, cheers, team.

Good work
for the first week.

- All right!
- Whoo.

All right, I'm out skies.

I'm feeling good right now,
um, about everything.

I am a bit anxious.

There is a lot to do,
like a lot.

We've got a lot of dirt
to move.

We've got Mark,
which is a great start.

He seems capable.

But we've got some new miners.
We're hoping they're capable.

We're going to have to put a lot of
faith in the miners and trust them.

[Parker] So, yeah. I mean,
Jarod and Phil,

they seem all right.

Um, it's a good that
Mark's good.

You know,
he's a good operator.

We'll see if we can
make it work.

- Hi, everybody.
- Hey, guys.

- Say hello.
- How are ya?

[Minnie] I made you
some coffee.

[Narrator] On the Beets' claim

it's the second week
of running night and day.

Okay, we did four days,

so, you did a little bit more
than 90 hours of sluicing,



So then we probably should
see how much we have.

[Narrator] To hit his
5,000-ounce target...

[Minnie] Five, 10...

...Tony needs to average...

[woman] Forty, 50, 60...

...over 300 ounces a week.

A hundred, 110, 120,



- [miner] But wait, there's more.
- There's more?

[woman] 170, 180, 190, 200,





[Mike] Really not too bad
for a [bleep].

That will put us
over 1,600 ounces.

[Narrator] Running 24 hours
has paid off,

delivering Tony his biggest
gold weigh of the season.

Over $500,000.

[Tony] It makes a difference.

I mean, you're run
double the time,

you're gonna get double
your gold. It's quite simple.

We have the [bleep].
Let's get out.

Let's go.