13x19 - Big Toys, Big Problems

[bunniefuu]

[Tony Beets speaking]

[Nicolas over radio]

[narrator] King of
the Klondike, Tony Beets,

is making a major pivot.

After banking 2,870 ounces

from two of the deepest cuts
ever on Paradise Hill,

he's moving on,

hoping there's
still enough time

to hit a record-setting


[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Based on youngest
son Mike's recommendation,

Tony's moving everything
to the Eighty Pup Cut,

where in the past,

they've hit gold rich
White Channel pay.

But it's no sure thing.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] I came up with a plan.

We're, uh, hauling pay
from Eighty Pup right now.

[narrator] To increase
his chances of finding
the best pay,

Mike wants to run all
the 10 acres by the end
of the season.

This material we're
loading is, uh, sandy-ish,

so it goes through really,
really, really fast,

so it makes it really hard
to keep our stockpile.

If it goes through fast,
you get more gold, quicker.

[Megan Gaudet] Okay, yep,
keep backing it up.

Go a little bit straighter.

Perfect. Okay, you can
dump it right there.

Oh [bleep], there's no
water at the plant!

[Mike] Shut down the plant.

I ain't gettin' no water.

- [man speaking]
- [Mike speaking]

Not enough water.
It's like trying to eat
dry rye bread,

with only a
shot glass of water.

Yeah, when it
clogs up like that,

stop, 'cause
nothing's happening.

So every minute we're down,
we're losing gold.

Mikey Beets has headed down

to see if he can check
on what's going on with
the pump down below.

So hopefully we can
get it cleared up,

and figure out what's
wrong with the pump
and get up and going.

[Mike] There's no reason
for it not to be giving
us enough water,

so it means that [bleep]
pump is worn out.

Probably have to go
and get a new one.

[Mike] Tony Beets,
do you copy? Tony Beets?

Hey, Dad. The pump's,
uh, she ain't pumpin',

there ain't nothin' else
but it to be [bleep].

[Mike speaking]

[narrator] The Beets'


has lost all water pressure.

With winter threatening to
shut him down in just weeks,

Tony springs into action.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Tony's new
pump is a beast.

Using a massive


it can deliver
pressures of 250 PSI,

and pump an extra 2,000
gallons of water a minute.

Something went wrong
with the old pump, so, uh,

they shut down, so we are
gonna keep working to get
this pump together.

All right, now we
have to add the other
chains, I guess.

So the new pump,
we've gotta place that
on the engine,

have to make it line up,

it's a little
precise, but, uh,

we'll hang it
above that first,

and then, uh,
see how it looks.

[narrator] To get it running,

they need to modify
an old housing unit,

so that the new pump lines up
precisely with the engine.

Tony plans to cut
a hole in the base,

then use a crane
to hang the pump in
the correct position.

And finally, weld a new beam
and steel plate to secure it.

[Tony speaking]

- Yep!
- [Tony speaking]

[narrator] Until cousin
Mike and Len

get the new pump hooked up,

the Beets are shut down.

[Tony speaking]

[horn blaring]

[Fred Lewis] Look at
that bucket!

- Holy...
- [loud hissing]

Well, I said we needed
something bigger.

And we got something bigger.

[narrator] At
California Creek,

third season mine
boss Fred Lewis

is taking delivery of a piece
of game-changing equipment...

This is something
a guy can smile about.

[narrator] ...that he's
gambling will propel him
to his 500-ounce goal.

[grunts]

[Fred] Well,
I made a decision,

if we're gonna go all-in,

we need a big machine
that we can rely on.

Or we're never
gonna hit that goal.

[narrator] Three-quarters
of the way in,

Fred's season is finally
on the upswing.

He's banked 111 ounces,

more than his entire
haul last year.

Now, he's investing
his slim profits

on a lease for
a 460 excavator,

a 51-ton dirt mover
with a 5-yard bucket.

That deck is huge,
compared to the other one!

[Fred] Everything about
this thing is huge!

- [laughing]
- [Fred] I love it.

Man, look at all
the grease points!

Holy!

[Fred] So our biggest
problem right now,

the equipment we have,

is not up to the task of what
we're trying to make it do.

You know, right now,
the 250 extract system
is so [bleep] up,

all it can do
is feed our plant,

which puts a lot more
stress on the 220.

[narrator] Fred's 250
excavator track is bust,

leaving it stuck
feeding the plant.

The smaller 220 must dig

for pay dirt in
the Freedom Cut,

and clear waste tailings,

but it can't keep up,
forcing shut downs.

The bigger, more powerful 460
will take over digging pay,

and keep the pay pile high,
and the gold coming in.

All right,
well, it's official,
we've upped our game,


and then hopefully get
some pay dug up.

[Buzz Legault]
There it [bleep] goes!
That's the shiz-nit!

[chuckling]

Whoo-hoo!

He looks like little a kid
in a candy store, man!

[chuckling]

This is what mining's all
about here in [bleep] Yukon.

In comparison, our 250,

it takes about three
and a half minutes

to load a 30-ton rock truck.

This thing here?

It would probably take
a minute and a half,

just like a champion.

Hey, Buzz. I'm just
actually freaking excited

that we got the 460.

[over radio] And finally,
we're able to move the amount
of dirt that we need to.

[Buzz on radio] The plant
just needs to [bleep] run.

[narrator] The 460
excavator fills the rock
truck in half the time,

doubling the gold rich pay
to the wash plant.

[Buzz] This is gonna
make things happen.

It's amazing, you know,
what a 5-yard bucket
will do, bro.

[Buzz] It's absolutely running
circles around the 220.

It's a big gamble
getting it here,

we really don't have
the money to cover it,

but hopefully,
the work it's gonna do

is gonna pay for that gamble.

[Buzz speaking]

Doesn't sound good.
Sounds like swinging issues.

[bleep]

This sucks.

Hey, JB, man. I got some,
uh, issues here at the 460,

I need you to come over here
and give me a hand

so we can assess
the situation.

See what the hell
is wrong with this thing.

[JB speaking over radio]

[bleep] man, this machine
is supposed to be our
amazing game-changer.

[bleep], that pisses me off.

- [JB] Did you break it again?
- [Buzz chuckles]

[JB] It's making noise,
or something?

Horrible noise, it's horrible.

I need you to jump up there,
if we can swing it?

- All right.
- Okay? And check
this [bleep] out.

What do you want
me to do, just kinda
turn it nice and slow?

- [Buzz] Yes.
- [JB] Yeah?

- [Buzz] Yeah,
just take it easy.
- [JB] All right.

- [JB] Sounds good.
- [Buzz] See what it says.

[narrator] If it can't spin,

the 460 excavator is useless.

[rumbling]

[JB] Great, that don't
sound good at all.

- [JB chuckling]
- [Buzz] Oh, man.

[JB] Holy smokes.

The swing transmission
on the fuel tank side.

[JB] You can feel,
you've narrowed it down,
which one it was?

[Buzz] Yeah, you can feel it,
man. It's horrible.

[JB] Wow.

Holy cow.

[narrator] The 460 excavator
has two swing transmissions.

They connect to a ring
under the turret

to spin it 360 degrees.

One transmission has broken.

It needs to be hoisted out
and a new one slotted in.

[JB] We know we
gotta replace that.

[Buzz] Who knows how
long we'll have to wait
for parts on that?

[Fred] What's up?

Why do you guys look mopey?

It's always one thing
or another, isn't it?

All right, lay it on me.

[Buzz] The 460
[bleep] swing motor.

Swing transmissions...

[Fred] The transmission is,
you can hear the gears
in there?

They're grinding, and...

- [Buzz] It's a major...
- [exhales]

- So she's down down down?
- [Buzz] Down down.

- We just [bleep] got it.
- [Buzz] I know.

Swing motor... swing motor
is what, uh, helps
the turret move.

With that down,
we can't use it.

We can't do anything with it,

and that task is way too big
of a task for my guys,

so I'm gonna have
to call a mechanic,

which is gonna
cost more money.

But, uh, I feel like we're
over-committed at this point,

and we gotta bite
the b*llet, get it fixed.

Big problem right now
is we're running out of pay,

but we're gonna
have to shut down.

[Brandon Clayton]
It's starting to get cold
in the morning,

so we're starting
to get into fall.

And, uh, we don't have
a whole lot of time left.

We gotta make
every second count.

[narrator] At California
Creek, 23-year-old
Brandon Clayton

and his 21-year-old
brother Brady,

are fighting for survival.

Three-quarters of the way
through their season,

they've mined just


If we're gonna try
and get 500 ounces,

we need to run consistent,

so we can't keep
having breakdowns.

[narrator] The brothers' dozer
suffered a catastrophic

breakdown a few weeks ago,

leaving their dream
of mining the gold-rich
Golden Acres

hanging by a thread.

[Brady] The dozer's probably
done for the season.

So now we're gonna have
to pick up the slack with
the other machines.

They're gonna have
to do double time.

We're running out
of time to get gold

and to get the debt off
of our parent's backs.

[narrator] Brady and Brandon's
hopes for 500 ounces

now rest on the Gauntlet Cut,

where the last clean-up
delivered 20 ounces,

their best haul of the season.

[Warren Binnie] This season,
uh, we've had to invest

quite a bit of, uh,
time and money

into getting to Golden Acres.

The best way we
know how to, uh,

cover those costs
is to pull more gold.

[narrator] Operator Warren
Binnie digs pay in the cut.

Brandon trucks it
almost half a mile

upstream to the wash plant.

[Brady] Looks like
it's running good, so,

I'm happy.

[narrator] And Brady
monitors the conveyor belt

while local hire Dale Penney

loads the gold-rich
pay into dirt devil.

This is my first
season mining.

I love every part about it,

uh, just keeps
you on your toes.

[loud clunking]

[Brady] Ah, [bleep].
Shut her down!

What the [bleep]
is going on here?

Dale! Why the [bleep]
did it go slack?

[Dale] Problem's back here.

[Brady] There is way
too much slack in it.

It's, like, look
at this [bleep].

[Brady exhales]

[Brady] Oh, nice [bleep].
Muddier than hell.

[Brady exhales]

[Brady] Oh, no, I see
what it is, [bleep].

- [Brady] Yeah,
the belt's broke.
- [Dale] Is it?

- [Brady] Yep.
- [Dale] Where?

[bleep]

[Brady] We're gonna have
to pull this feeder off.

- No.
- [Brady] Yeah.

The shield guard that
protects the tail pulley

kind of collapsed on itself,
pinched the belt,

and then once you
started turning it,

it just [bleep] ripped it.

So that [bleep] blows,

because now we have to
take the whole feeder off,

to get at that end,
to straighten it all out,

and then re-belt it.

Which is just more down time.

And really kind of a kick
in the [bleep] teeth.

[narrator] The tail
of the conveyor has
an impact shield,

to protect the pulley
from heavy rocks.

But the steel shield
has caved in,

ripping the belt.

To fix it, the Clayton crew

need to lift up
the 2-ton hopper,

remove the damaged shield,

staple the belt back together,

construct a new shield,

and put it back in place.

Right now, they're
hooking up the cables.

I'll pick it up,
and we'll swing it off,

so we can, uh,
get at that tail pulley.

It literally broke in
the worst spot possible.

This is gonna take
all [bleep] day,

so we lose a day of washing.

[Brandon] Okay,
it's going that way.

Okay, I'm gonna drop it!

[Brady] All right!
Come this way a bit more!

Okay, let it down slow!

That's good.

- That's good. That'll work.
- [Warren] Yeah.

[Brady] Well, he might as well
finish ripping this [bleep]
shield right off.

Watch yourself.
He's gonna rip it off.

So, this is that shield
that goes on the end
of the tail pulley,

This right here
is the reason that, uh,
our belt was broke. So...

Brady is currently building
a new, uh, guard to go around
that tail pulley.

I got it all cut,
so it's more of a matter
of me just welding it in.

And it's actually
thicker steel,

so if any bigger rocks
or anything kinda pound on it,

it shouldn't cave in
and, uh...
which will actually...

that won't happen ever again,
fingers crossed.

[narrator] While Brady welds
the 1-inch thick steel
to make the new shield,

Brandon staples the torn belt
back together.

The next step
is to drill holes
and put these clips in.

One end of the belt
will go here

and the other end will go here
and we'll suck them tight.

And, uh, there'll be
about 30 of these
along that belt

that will hold
that belt together.

So, we've had belt trouble
before in the past,

so I've known to always
keep these on hand

because it can
save your a*s. So...

Our season depends
on this surgery
that we're doing right now.

[drill whirring]

We just put the last couple
of staples in the belt,

and then slap this on,
and, uh, we should be
back in business.

[Dale] Last one, fellows.

[Brady] That's as far
as it's gonna go.

[Brandon] Okay.
I'll put some dirt
on top of it then

and we'll go from there.

Yeah, we got the belt
put back together.

I've got the shield belt.

We got the feeder on.

The plant's all set up.

Just gotta hook up the hoses,

and we should be back up
and running in no time, yeah.

We need that gold.

Beautiful.

[narrator] The breakdown
has cost the Claytons
six hours of sluice time.

They're finally back
to running Gauntlet-cut pay

and chasing
their 500-ounce gold.

[Brandon]
It's on that guide there,
so that's good.

Should be good.

[Warren] Awesome.

[Brandon] Well,
I'm happy with the fix,
it's working good.

You know, I love to see
that devil logo spinning.

That means
that we're washing rocks

and we're getting gold
in our box.

[narrator] But the next day...

[Warren] Holy [bleep]!

[narrator]
...disaster strikes.

What the [bleep]?

[bleep]!

Oh, man!

We took a [bleep]-kicking
on that storm last night.

Our whole cut is flooded.

I still had [bleep] pay
to pull out of there.

Oh, man. [bleep] me!

Where the [bleep] is the pump?

Oh, man, that [bleep] pump.

And our pump's under water.

It's really [bleep]
not, not good.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Klondike kingpin
Tony Beets

has been shut down
for two days

waiting for a new water pump
to be put together

so that he can chase
more White Channel pay
in the 80 Pup cut.

[Tony speaking]

So, we want to do this right
because without these pumps,
no sluicing,

and without sluicing, no gold.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Tony must now
transport the new 11-ton
megapump to the sluice pond.

- [Kevin] Yeah.
- [Tony speaking]

Yeah.

[Kevin] [bleep], yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin speaking]

[Tony speaking]

- [Mike] Okay.
- [Kevin] No. Easy, easy, easy.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Beautiful.

[Tony speaking]

[horn blaring]

[narrator] Half a mile
down the hill...

...it's all hands on deck
to fire up the pump

and get back
to washing pay dirt.

This is how we're gonna
hook up our pump
to our sluice pond.

It's always nice to see it

that it goes to the place
where it should be.

But, uh, it's not running yet.

[Tony speaking]

One, two, three, four.

[machine whirring]

[Kevin] What's that?

[Kevin] This is gonna
be oil-operated.

I think we need to put air
through the system.

[narrator] The pump's engine
is failing to turn over.

[Len] Everybody ready.
Three, two, one, kaboom.

[narrator] To kickstart,
Tony sprays ether
into the air intake

of the 700-horse power engine.

[Len] It won't start.

[narrator] At Paradise Hill,

Tony needs his new
super-charged pump
to send water to the trommel.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] But he can't
fire it up.

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin] Use this for boost?

[Tony speaking]

We're giving it
additional power
to help it turn over.

It didn't quite sound like
it had enough juice last time,

and we wanna be [bleep] sure
that it's gonna go this time.

So... So we got the air,
a new starter, new power,

someone on the pump.

It's gonna [bleep] up.

[narrator] Kevin's plan,
give the pump a jumpstart
with the pipe layer.

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin] I think so, yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[engine stuttering]

[engine revving]

[Kevin] Sounds way nicer
than the other one.

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin] Oh, at least.

[narrator] The new pump
sends 1,500 gallons of water
a minute

half a mile up the hill
to the trommel.

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin speaking]

[Monica speaking]

[narrator] After three days
shut down,

the Beets now need
the 80 Pup cut to pay up big
to make up for lost time.

Money's going out,
nothing's coming in.
It's not [bleep] good.

Without that 460,
we're not gonna hit our goal.

We gotta get that
[bleep] fixed
right [bleep] now.

[narrator] Fred's wash plant
is shut down

after his new


leaving his small


to keep pay flowing
to the plant.

More money down the drain
on this 460.

Right now, if we can't
get that machine fixed
as soon as [bleep] possible,

we're gonna be in big trouble.

[narrator] To get it
back running,

Fred's spending more money
on a new swing transmission

and a specialist mechanic
to fix it.

- [John] How's it going?
- [Sam] What's going on?

[John] Oh, not much, you?

Man, it's good to see you.

Uh, I imagine you've probably
got some parts for us.

[Sam] Got a swing transmission
for you.

Earlier, we actually
removed the transmission

to reveal the gearing
in there.

We are just cleaning it out.

We gotta repack it
with grease down in there,

put that other transmission
back in.

- [Sam speaking]
- [John] Yeah.

[narrator] A new
swing transmission
weighs 450 pounds

and must be fitted precisely.

[Sam] So what I'm gonna
need you to do

- is to get in and start it
and really carefully turn it.
- [John] Yeah.

- Which way, left?
- Right.

Okay.

It in?

[laughing]

- That looks pretty good,
I think.
- [John] Yeah.

So, we got this
transmission motor back in.

Getting it bolted down now,
and, uh...

...hook the lines up,
a little bit of oil,

and, uh,
we'll be ready to roll.

[Fred] How's it looking?

Are we good to go?

[Sam] Yes, you are, yep.

[Fred] Boom, that's all
I needed to hear.

Hey, how's it feel
in there, Buzz?
Is it running pretty well?

[Buzz] Looks like a champion.

[Fred] Why don't you
give me a little spin.
Just prove that it spins.

That's what I'm talking about.
[laughing]

Man, it's good seeing
that 460 running right now.

It's been quite a problem
for us getting it up
and running.

We're following
that quartz vein
that's rich in gold,

and we can't break into it
with a 220 or the 250.

That 460s gonna
make short work of that

and get all that rich pay
to our plant.

[narrator]
and plant running,

Fred desperately needs it
to start paying for itself.

Hey, Buzz, let's start ripping
that bedrock, brother.

[horn beeping]

Oh, what the [bleep]?

[sighs] [bleep]!

Broke the bucket.

[bleep]!

Bedrock.

Look at that. [bleep] hell!

Oh, what the [bleep]?

[sighs] [bleep]!

Broke the bucket.

[bleep]!

Bedrock.

Look at that. [bleep] hell!

[narrator] The Lewis crew's
newly-leased excavator is down
for the second time this week.

[John] We can't dig
without that.

We can't do [bleep]
with it now, not like that.

So the welds just broke, huh?

[Buzz speaking]

Holy crap.

Doesn't help
that we're digging bedrock.

You don't have anything
capable of doing hard rock.

Gold, it's in the bedrock.

[narrator] The 460
is Fred's only machine

tough enough to dig
into the potentially
gold-rich, hard bedrock.

Without a working bucket,

there's no way to find out
if they're sitting
on a big payday.

[Fred] Let's get
the bucket [bleep] fixed.

We gotta fix that [bleep]
so it doesn't happen again.

Gonna do some cutting
and grinding, welding.

Have to use the force
of the bucket to push
everything back into place.

Now, we're running.

Oh, it looks pretty good.

Now, I'll get it up top
and get her back to work.

It's looking beautiful, buddy.

[bleep] game time.

[narrator] The 460 is back
digging bedrock

following the gold rich
quartz rich vein

that Fred hopes will deliver
the massive payday

he so desperately needs.

It's the first time I've been
able to watch the entire
mine site running.

We've got the 460
finally in action,
pulling dirt.

Plant is running like
a charm, and we're pulling
pay as we speak.

So couldn't be any happier.

[narrator] Across the creak,

neighbors, the Claytons,
are also on a desperate hunt
for gold.

Their Gauntlet Cut paydirt
is under four feet of water.

My road took an absolute
beating in that storm.

There's a lot of water
left in it, I gotta divert
all that back.

All the berms are washed
right out.

Ah, we're gonna have
to build everything back up.

This is a lot of work.

[narrator] Overnight,

heavy rain has caused
the creak to burst its banks,

and wash away the Claytons'
bermed road.

To make matters worse,

their only water pump
is stranded in flood water.

Brady, do you copy?

[Brady on radio]
Yeah, go ahead, Warren.

The whole [bleep] cut
is flooded.

From left to right.

Pump is under water.

[Brady]
[bleep] me.

Um, can you get
that pump out there?

I'll get her.

[Brady] 'Cause Shane'll
probably have to work on it

and drain all
that water out of it.

Okay, I'll bring that pump
up right now.

[narrator] While Warren
retrieves the pump...

That's good there, dump it.

[narrator] ...Brandon and Brady
race to fix the berms

and the road as quickly
as possible.

[Brady] What we're doing is

Bran's loading himself
with some tailings

and I'm spreading them out.

[narrator] To stop water
from flooding into the cut,

the Claytons must build up
the berm with rocky tailings

before reinforcing the road

so it can support
heavy equipment.

[Brady] Yeah, it's not
what we planned,

but it's kinda what
we gotta do.

[Brandon] Once Shane fixes
the water pump,

then we can put back down
on the gauntlet,

start pumping again
and get the water out a bit.

- Is she okay?
- There's a real good chance
it isn't gonna start here.

[narrator] Clayton family
mechanic Shane Colliou

has been fixing gear
for 34 years.

Okay, I'm just going to give
her a whirl here,
see what happens.

See if it'll start up.

[engine sputtering]

- Come on.
- [engine sputtering]

- [sputtering stops]
- [Shane] Maybe the fuel tank
should be drained.

See if one of them
will fit under there.

Yeah, you can see
there's a bit of water in it.

- [Warren] You can tell that?
- [Shane] Yeah.

Doesn't look great.

- Okay, you ready?
- Yeah.

We're gonna put in fresh fuel
and she should fire.

[engine sputtering]

[engine stabilizing]

[engine running]

Shane got
the water pump fixed,

so all we gotta do now
is get in here,
and start pumping.

[narrator]
The 48-horsepower pump

drains 2,000 gallons of water
a minute from the gauntlet cut

while the brothers finish
rebuilding the road.

[Brady] So we've got to build
up our road a bit higher.

Just put it there,
I'll spread that out.
There's kind of a hole there.

I think the road's
good enough.

I can actually go back
to normal, start pulling pay.

[narrator] Road complete,
the Claytons are back

hauling gauntlet pay
to the plant.

Hopefully we can keep
the loads coming
so we can keep it running.

[engine starts]

[Brady] So we built our
devil from scratch.

Dad always wanted
to build his own plant,

and one day he came home

with this big a*s [bleep]
propane tank on a trailer.

And he's like handed
us a torch and said,
"Start cutting."

And probably about 90%
of it is actually scrap metal

that we had just laying
around int he yard
or that we found whenever.

So we built it every winter
for four years.

I'm proud of how well it works

and I know my dad is too.

Just sucks that he's never
actually been up here
to see it,

so we're hoping
to work our a*s off
so he's able come up

and see what he dreamt of.

Dirt Devil likes to run dirt,
so we're happy.

I don't understand how
every piece of equipment
we have breaks.

I swear this place is cursed.

The thing is,
it's not just us.

- Uh.
- You know,
look at our neighbors.

- Mmm-hmm.
- Dropping [bleep]
left, right and center.

[crew member 1]
I don't think that's due
to a curse though,

that's just how
the Claytons are.

They just constantly
break [bleep].

[all laugh]

- Uh, what's up, bruv?
- What's up, [bleep]?

- Hey.
- How are you doing?

[Fred sighs]

- Tired, how about you guys?
- Tired.

- Yeah, a little bit.
- We're all quiet.

[Fred] Yeah,
I'm feeling it too.

- It was a tough week.
- [crew member 2] Yeah.

[narrator] This week
Fred went all in
on a 460 excavator

to dig deep into what he hopes
is gold rich bedrock.

To pay it off,
he needs to improve

on his 16 ounce
a week average.

[Fred] All right, guys.

- You ready?
- Drumroll.

One, two...

Three, four, five.

Six.

[sighs]



[narrator] Worth $12,000,

it brings their season total
to 118 ounces.

Way short of what he needs.

- [Fred] Well, I don't know
what to say, guys.
- Well.

I think that's one
of our worst gold weighs
up in the Yukon.

No [bleep] sense.

[sighs]

Honestly, this doesn't pay
the fuel we ran last week.

[crew member 3] Yeah.

That's disheartening.

I wish I could've given
you guys better news.

We hit a dry spot
and we had a bad week.

Both at the same time.

We just can't let this
happen again.

We gotta keep that 460
running and we gotta put
your harvester.

We can't survive on this
at all.

Now let's just get back
to work and fight it.

Make this gold back up
because that's the only way
we're gonna make it.

Let's just make
the next one better.

All right, I'll see you guys
down there.

- [crew member 3] All right.
- [crew member 2] Yep.

[Fred] You know,
we got that 460.

We put the money
into it, we took a gamble

to get the extra yards,
to get the extra gold,

and it totally backfired
on us, we had
two major breaks.

And the worst gold count
we've had all season.

Five hundred ounces
isn't even close,

and, uh,

it's just can't keep
going like this.

They can't.

[narrator] Neighbors,
the Claytons,

want to beat the Lewis crew
to 500 ounces,

but they're 40 ounces behind.

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

- Good, you?
- Good, good.

Ready for another
week's weigh?

Well, my hopes
aren't very high,

but we'll see what we did.

Everything that could go wrong
went wrong.

It was like dominos.

Like once one fell,
then all of them
[bleep] toppled over.

I'm just happy we got around
to running it this week

- with all that breakdown.
- [Brandon] Yeah.

You know the last
couple of weeks,

we had breakdowns
and we cleared 20 ounces.

So even though we had
breakdown this week,

maybe we're still gonna clear


- All right.
- [Warren] Yeah, let's see it.

[Brady] Yeah,
can't see why not.

[Brandon]
Let's weigh her up, boys.

Warren, you're counting.

Okay.

One, two, three, five.

Six.

Eight, nine, ten.

Eleven, 11.2...

Thirteen, 13-and-a-half.

[narrator]
Worth almost $23,000.

Bringing the Clayton's total
to 93 ounces.

But still behind Fred.

- [Brandon] It's okay,
but not--
- [Warren] Satisfactory.

Satisfactory.

I mean, it's more than 10,


- [Brandon] Yeah.
- And all the [bleep]
we dealt with.

Thirteen's all right.

- [Warren] Yeah.
- I mean, all in all,
we had a pretty [bleep] week.

But us as a team,
we stepped up.

- So--
- It just kind of shows
what we're capable of.

Yeah, that's right.

[Brandon] You know, we still
have the other half
of the gauntlet.

It seems to be paying okay.

I think we just gotta keep
powering through it.

And hopefully get
a better week next week.

You know, we got a lot
of dirt to run, so,

so let's [bleep]
next week hard.

- [Brady] Sounds good.
- [Warren] Hell yeah.

- Let's do it, guys.
- Awesome, guys.

[exclaims]

[Monica] So you guys, 80 Pup.

Where is, is that where
you're getting all
your pay from now?

It's definitely different
looking gold.

Which are these stuff?

[Tony speaking]

And once we got it
fired up, it seemed
to work pretty well.

Yeah.

So, with that being said
can we see how much
we did get

for the four days.

[imitates expl*si*n]

[narrator] To stay
on track for 5,000 ounces,

Tony needs 400 ounces a week.

- Everybody ready?
Three, two, one, let's go.
- Yeah.

Twenty.

Forty, eighty.

Hundred, 120.

Hundred-seventy, 180.

Two-hundred.

Two-forty.

Two-sixty, 270.

Two-eighty, 290.



[narrator] Worth $495,000,

it brings their season total
to over 3,000 ounces.

Now, that's pretty good
for four days.

If the Beets crew can run
the 80 Pup white
channel pay 24/7,

they could bank
over 500 ounces a week.

Well, I'd be interested to see
what else is going to come
out of that.

[Minnie] Cool.

Well, when you're a goldminer,
expect the unexpected.

- Well, we'll see.
- Right?

Let's go!

- [Tony speaking indistinctly]
- Oh, man.

[vocalizes] Bum, bum,
bum, bum.

Anyway, that was pretty good
with the other two cuts
being done.

It's nice to have this job
left for the rest
of the season.

- Right?
- [Minnie] Well, Mike's doing
a good job, so...

It gives me more free time.

- The more he does,
the better it--
- The more bored you get?

The more bored I get,
but that's okay.