14x12 - Money Pit Payday

[bunniefuu]

I can also try
and pushing on it, Jordy,

if you don't want to pull.

Yeah.

It's a monumental day

for 28-year-old
Parker Schnabel.

After throwing
everything he's got

at stripping Dominion Creek's


his crew are on the brink
of sluicing.

I can't go anymore this way.

And Parker...

...will see if his
$15 million gamble

is a bonanza or a bust.

Our deck rail's
gonna catch,

just go three inches or so.

Try that.

But first,
wash plant, Big Red,
must be moved 15 miles

to the Money Pit.

Gotta get Big Red
up to Dominion.

It's gonna be running

hopefully by the end
of the week.

Running out of days
of the season

and we still have a lot
of ground to get through.

So, you know,
that's a lot of pressure

put on the crew this year.

And even more pressure
on Parker.

Tyson, just a bit.

Nailed it.

Let's go.

Have fun, Jordy.

You know,
we're almost at the point

where basically every penny
that we've ever made mining

is now back in the ground.

And the stripping

and the equipments
and whatnot,

you know, we can't afford
anything to go wrong now.

Halfway through
the season,

Parker has hauled in
just 1,274 ounces

of his 5,000-ounce target.

Right now,
we're very spread out

and working
in three different areas.

It's definitely
causing a fair bit
of issues, um...

but...

we're here now
and we just have to suck it up
and deal with it.

Parker's put
nearly everything

into opening Dominion

and is stretched to the limit

with skeleton teams
working his other two claims.

One crew brings in gold
from the El Dorado Cut

at Ken and Stewart's.

While another strips ground
at Australia Creek.

But the key
to his make or break season

is seeing a return on his
Dominion Creek purchase.

We're very close

to being ready to sluice
here at Dominion.

Um, we'll see
if the Money Pit is, uh...

You don't name that
because it has
lots of money in it

or because it's gonna cost us
lots of money.

They're just coming in now.

With Big Red
now at the Money Pit,

foreman Mitch Blaschke
needs to move

the 50-ton wash plant
onto the pad.

Are you ready
to get your baby in place?

Yeah, I'm ready
to see this thing
wash some rocks, man.

It's been sitting
way too long.

You just kind of
want to guide me here.

I'll try
and swing it out a ways

and then cut her back.

But this is really
soft on the edge, so.

Right now,
I'm trying to get Big Red

up this ramp here,
but the one side of it

is wanting to dig in
really harder

and that's making
the wash plant

wanna lean here a bit.

It's all about
just getting the plant

onto some firm ground here.

You don't want it
to be uneven here

because that's when
it starts tipping.

Well now,
it's up to the wash plant

where it's level
is where it's gonna sit.

You feel
like a pirate up there,

just in the lookout
with your range finder there?

-Land, ahoy!

Hopefully, there's some
gold ahoy out there.

We've got the shaker deck
in place, now it's time
for the sluice run.

So we're gonna grab
those couple conveyors

and hopefully have
the Money Pit

actually making
some money here.

We'll just get you right up
against that guardrail there.

Good, stop.

I feel good how it's all
come together though.

-I mean, didn't take much...
-Yeah.

...to get it all back looking
like a wash plant again.

Well,
there's a lot of stress
and I mask a lot of that,

but it affects me
just like anybody else.

Because I've already got
three-quarters
of a million dollars invested

just in running costs.

And it's, uh...

We're sure as
don't have three-quarters

of a million dollars
of gold yet.


at Duncan Creek,

Rick Ness
is making a comeback.

But so far,

he only has 203 ounces

of his 1,000-ounce target.

And the one cut he has open,
the Bacon Strip,

is running lean on gold
and is almost tapped out.

Uh, right now,
I mean, the crew's running

the Bacon Strip,
but, you know,

they are gonna
fast run out, so.

We need to have this dirt
from the...

From the Bench Cut
at the plant ready to run.

And, um, if I don't get
this done in time,

then we're gonna be sitting
without running the plant

and that's just
not acceptable.

You know, it's a short season,

we gotta be getting gold
every day.

On a one-man
mission,

Rick is stripping
the Bench Cut

in the hopes of finding
better pay,

leaving his crew
to sluice the Bacon Strip.

From up here, I could just
barely see the plant.

And I definitely can't be
in two places at once.

So, it's...

You know, it's time to start
putting a little faith
in this crew

and see how they handle it.

You know, I've told Buzz
he's in charge down there.

Just keep that plant running
no matter what.

Um, I got
complete faith in him.

If he could prove himself,

I'm thinking
about making him my foreman.

Buzz Legault
joined Rick's team

just eight weeks ago.

He quickly proved himself

and now Rick's
testing him out as foreman.

Um, we're just gonna fire up
the generator here.

Yeah, we're hoping
we got a full day

of sluicing in here today.

Operator,
Trey Charlie,

and camp cook, Travis Kinakin,

fire up wash plant Rocky.

Oh, I can smell some
burning wire or something.

Like, there's a...
Can you smell that?

Oh, yeah,
I could smell that.

Doesn't smell too nice.

Do you idle this thing up yet?

No, I haven't.

Something's,
something's .

See if she'll fire up.

Got nothing.

She's not working,
but do you smell that?
I'll go get Buzz.

Hey, I fired up
with the generator,

flipped the breaker,
hit the button, and nothing,

and you could smell,
like, you know,

really strong burning wire.

Buzz believes Trey
forgot to idle the generator

that powers the wash plant
in his rush to fire up Rocky.

Hey, I think
he had the generator running
when I got here.

I don't know
if he tried to start it
before I got here or not.

I don't know what happened
before I got here, but...

Yeah.

.

King of the Klondike,
Tony Beets,

is fighting a w*r
on two fronts.

At Paradise Hill,
he's eager to sluice

the stripped super pit,

but first, he needs to build
a new wash plant pad
for his trommel.

Twelve weeks in,

Tony's chaotic start

has banked him only 343 ounces

of his 6,000 ounce gold.


at Indian River,

daughter, Monica,
wages another battle

keeping the family's
only moneymaker,

the shaker deck, running.

It's nice to be sluicing

because we're actually
making steps

towards the 6,000-ounce goal
versus just doing nothing.

I mean,
if Tony does wanna reach

this 6,000-ounce goal,

we need more than
one plant going,

'cause this is the latest
we've ever gone.

Uh, in my 20-ish years
of working here,

just started sluicing.

Keep going the loader,
get a scoop ready.

Sounds good.

Right now,
I'm just kind of working

on moving the dirt
that's over here

to the other side,

just so that I have
a nice area to turn around

and back up after I dump it
into the hopper.

New Beets hire,
Chelsea March,

loads pay dirt
into the wash plant.

I worked in civil construction
for a bit

and I worked in a mine
in Alberta,

so I'm kind of
familiar with it.

Yeah.

As a woman,
it's a little bit harder

to get into
equipment typically.

It's just a nice step
forward for sure.

It's really cool
to see a bunch of women

running the .

Clearing
the waste tailings

away from the wash plant,

Leonard Parker,
also new to the Beets crew.

Hey Chelsea,
how's it going?

Yeah,
things are going really well.

That's good.
Tony and Monica
will both be happy.

Lots of running time.
Lots of sluicing.

Yeah, dawg.

I just looked in there today

and we got
quite a bit of gold.

Yeah. Monica showed me
a few pieces there earlier.

She's pretty, uh,
pretty full in there.

Hey, Chelsea,

there's two pieces
of screen come out.

Shut it down. Shut it down.

.

Copy, Monica. Copy, Monica.

Shutting the plant down.
We had a up.

Hmm.

Great.

Evan, do you copy? Evan?

If all the rocks,
bigger ones,

are falling down
onto our little screens,

which are gonna put a hole
in our little screens,

then we have a big problem.

So Evan,
we'll get a chunk of steel?

Put a piece
of punch plate over it.

-Yeah.
-Maybe some rubber.

Yeah.

Get her through
until the pieces are here.

Monica's 50-ton
shaker deck

uses vibrating plastic screens

to filter gold from the dirt.

But a large rock has smashed
into the top deck,

breaking off
two screen panels,

allowing rocks to fall through

and clog up the plant,

stopping gold
reaching the sluice runs.

Monica's quick fix?

Bolt a scrap piece
of punch plate

to cover the hole

and get back
on the gold, fast.

Those look a little
up, eh?

Yeah.

I'm gonna get underneath
the lower deck.

- Okay.
- Mmm-hmm.

And put these bolts up through

because I gotta hook these
under the frame rail.

I'll screw them on
for you.

We can do it.

I'm a strong
independent woman anyway.

How's Evan gonna get in here?

It's not
what we wanna do

at any point in the season,

especially
this late in the game.

Here we are shutting down
because of a breakdown.

Luckily, between Leonard
and Chelsea and Evan
and myself,

we should be able
to get it fixed,

but it's not what I need
and not what I want.

That one's in
an inconvenient spot, Leonard.

This will have to do
until they get

some proper poly decking.

So he's gonna pop some holes
into the steel,

bolt the steel and the rubber
down to this plate.

To protect
the punch plate and bolts,

Monica covers it
with rubber matting

to cushion
the impact of the rocks.

Well, that was just
a band-aid,

but hopefully
it'll last.

At least
we can start it up now.

And, uh...

hopefully, hopefully it works.

At Duncan Creek,

Rick's wash plant, Rocky,
is at a standstill.

Buzz Legault,
on trial to be foreman,

troubleshoots the issue.

Desperate to get back
to finding gold.

-Buzz, what's going on?

What a stupid .

I mean, that's why
you're in charge down here.
I know it ain't you.

I mean,
I don't know what you gotta do
if you gotta tell everybody

to just keep
their hands off,

they don't know
what's going on.

You know, I'm up there

trying to strip
more ground for us to run

and we'll never get into it

if we don't get
the plant running.

All right. Thanks.
Get her going.

-Thanks, bud.

No luck?

As the generator
wasn't idled up,

it's now malfunctioning,
outputting too much power,

causing the circuit breaker
to trip.

On top
of the issues
with the wash plant,

Buzz is also struggling
on the home front.

Earlier this year,
he and his wife, Susi,

were given devastating news.

Buzz is going
through some heavy
right now.

You know, I think he knows
that I know...

You know, I know a bit
about what he's going through

and, you know, I...

It's, you know, ,
it's a tough thing, man.

I really feel for the guy,
let's put it that way.

I wanna make sure
that he knows

how much I appreciate him
for everything he's done here

and make sure
that he goes home,

you know,
as successful as he can be,

and ready to deal with,
you know, whatever may come.

Buzz,
grabs a spare generator.

Hopefully, this will
solve our problems.

Hopefully.

At Rick's other
wash plant, Monster Red.

All right. Let's go.

To swap out
with Rocky's faulty one.

Come on, baby.

.

You know, I've gotta
stay ahead of the game,
I gotta be up here stripping.

You know,
I can't be everywhere at once,

but I need everything
to go smoothly.

So hopefully, Buzz gets
that generator fixed quick

and gets the plant running.

At Duncan Creek,

Rick Ness
is stripping the Bench Cut.

But down at the Bacon Strip...

His wash plant,
Rocky, is still down

with a mysterious
electrical problem.

All right.
So what's the plan, boss?

After ruling out
the generator,

Buzz is still looking
for answers.

Okay. Just checking.

The switch gear
and fuses

sit between the generator
and Rocky,

protecting the wash plant
from electrical surges.

Buzz decides to bypass
the switch

by connecting the generator
directly to Rocky's fuses.

If his gamble works,

electricity should be sent
directly to Rocky

and power the motor
that drives the wash plant.

Buzz is working
his magic right now.

And hopefully...

what he's doing works out.

You ready to fire up
this generator or what?

Come on, baby.

yeah!

yeah. Woo.

-Way to go, buddy.

We knew it.

It feels great.

I just...
I feel awesome.

Buzz worked his magic.

It's time to sluice.

I'm very relieved.

Buzz is finally
back on the gold

and still has a shot
of promotion to foreman.

We know there's still
a lot of work
to be done at Big Red.

So we really need
to get out there

and getting the radial stacker

and getting the feeder
and getting the pipeline,

and there's tons of stuff
that needs to get done.

And it's all gotta get done
in the next 24 hours.

Parker's crew
is racing to get Big Red
fired up

and finally sluicing
Dominion's Money Pit,

and start seeing a return

on the claim's $15 million
price tag.

It's all good,
wheel chocks out.

First, the 100-foot
long radial stacker,

which moves dirt up
to the plant,

is moved into position.

We're going to attempt
to push it up our hill here.

Should be interesting.
Let's see how it goes.

Oh, she's coming up
the hill here.

She's at the bottom.

Swing left, swing left,
swing left.

Yeah, we're really
narrow here.

All right. Your axles are up.

That's pretty good
right there.

I'll put the park brake on.

Next, Big Red's


So right now,
we're just lining up

our hopper feeder
to our radial stacker.

You can see how our lineup's
pretty straight.

Best try that there.

Bring this in to the right
just a little bit.

The radial stacker
is betting on the money

to the pre-wash of Big Red.

So this is another
crucial point.

The more precise we get
with our setup,

the more hassle-free it'll be.

Whatcha thinking?

Nice setup.

- Thanks, man.
- Yeah, looks good.

- It's getting there.
- It looks good.

You guys nailed
it on that one.

That's sweet.

We've got Big Red
almost ready to fire up here.

We got the conveyors in,
we've got the sluice box in,

we've got power.

The only thing left here

is hooking up
our water supply.

Once we do that,
we're gonna be able
to flash this plant up

and hopefully we see
a lot of gold

by the end of the week.

I'm gonna drag this pipe
to ol' trusty Big Red there.

Using an excavator,
mechanic Alec Kelly

hauls the 400-foot long pipe
to Big Red's pan.

I'm just easing this pipeline
off the bank here.

It's still got
some water in it,

which makes it a bit heavier.

You're gonna
have some trouble

getting over this high bank.

Just keep an eye on that post

it's rubbing up against.

Yeah, it looks good.

Trying to work quickly,

but very gingerly
at the same time.

Oh, my .

Our pipeline broke at a fuse,
so we gotta re-fuse it

and put her back together
and then be back on track.

Want more?

At Dominion Creek

in the race to get
Big Red sluicing,

Parker's crew has broken
the vital pipeline.

Might have some room
to move it back

if you clamp it down
with the hydraulic.

Is that enough
or you want more?

I've never wanted
less in my life.

We're just gonna be
joining these two pieces
of pipe together,

uh, we gotta cut up
the faces first,

make them nice and smooth
and then we'll just...

melt them together.

I'll grab the hot plate
and plug it in.

Okay.

- Hi, Ty.
- Hi.

Are you guys winning?

Coming in hot, Ty.

Watch yourself,
Tyrone.

We need to heat
the pipe up

for a certain amount of time

and then we'll take
the hot plate out

and we'll use...

Using pressure
to push them together.

So, like, 20 minutes

until this is ready
to be drugged.

Yeah.

All righty.

Perfection.

Holy .

I think it had
a little too much.

As long as she holds.

The repaired pipe

can now finish its journey
to Big Red.

All the things we do
to get sluicing, eh?

Oh, yeah,
it's all these little

that really
makes it operational.

So here we go.

We're all set
to start sluicing...

and then we'll add some water
and add some dirt.

First fire up of Big Red
of the season.

Now,
we're getting somewhere.

After nearly
three months

and over $20 million,

Parker is finally sluicing,

and will find out
just how good the ground is
at Dominion Creek.

It's so nice to have Big Red
finally fired up

and seeing this pay dirt
going up these conveyers

through this wash plant.

And if there's any gold
out here in the Money Pit,

guaranteed this wash pile
will find it.

Everything's running
pretty good,

so hopefully it stays
this way, eh?

Yeah.
I know Monica's doing

a k*ller job
running this place.

The Beets family's
only gold-catching wash plant

is back up and running

after Monica's bush fix
of the screen deck.

Yeah.
She's been all over it.

She's, uh, kind of a boss
around here.

Yeah.
No, she's great.

Yeah. It's pretty badass.

It's not.

Here's your first
Christmas present.

Yeah.

Steel's bent and half
your plastic decking is gone.

Yeah. Pretty much .

Monica's bush fix
has failed

and once again
there are holes
in the screen deck.

Yeah.

Until replacement
screens arrive,

Tony is forced to shut down
his Indian River operation

and once again no gold
is coming in.

So what do you thinking
about the 6,000 ounce gold?

Because I don't
see it happening.

Before relocating
to Paradise Hill,

Monica and Ruby clean up
the shaker deck's final gold.

Plant's down,
you guys know this.

Sucks to be us,

but, uh, we got gold
in the box.

And, uh, Chelsea
if you whip that up,

you can see,
nice little pocket,

nice little pocket,
nice little pocket.

- Yeah.
- Yup.

We got
gold, so...

It's just gotta
come out. All right.

I think Tony better
really double down

on making sure the hill
gets going quickly,

because we are nowhere near
his 6,000 ounce goal.

Uh, we have a super
short season,

so this is, like,
the worst honestly.

Took us a long time
to get going

and now we're down again.

We're kind of

because this was
the only plant

that was bringing in gold.

This is...
Yeah, this is just .

Little cozy little fire
you got here.

Yeah. It's toasty.

Hmm.

On the Ness claim,

Buzz is still recovering

after his trial run
as foreman.

What happened
to the generator?

Did it run out of fuel?
Did it...

-What?
-It just up.

Ask the guys that were there.

It's, uh, it's just...

It was a situation,

but we got it figured out.

Yeah.

It is what it is.

Yeah. Let's just weigh
this up.

Ooh, let's weigh some gold.

Rick's bacon
strip cut is lean ground,

averaging just 30 ounces
a week.

Bacon Strip's
what we got.

We're gonna be finished
with it soon,

so let's see what
it gave us this week.









Despite
the setbacks,

Buzz delivered over
$50,000 worth of gold.

Definitely better
than a kick in the a*s.

flipped out,
you fixed it,

you kept things going
and, um, you know,

that's the kind of
we need out here.

Put you in charge,
hits the fan,

even if it's not your fault,

you keep things rolling,
and you did.

So, you're foreman
if you want the job.

Ooh.

- yeah. Thank you
very much, man.
- You got the job.

- Good job.
- I appreciate that.

Buzz-a-roo.

no problem.

- Thanks, buddy.
- Good job, man.

Foreman Buzz.

We got
a long ways to go.

We're gonna keep that going,

but, uh, we gotta get on
some better ground.

- Yeah.
- So hopefully
there's something up

on that bench, I don't know.
I think there's...

I think there's
opportunity there,

but it's a matter of just
getting up there

and uncovering it.

I need a thousand ounces
this year to
make everything work.

You know, and all you guys
will walk away from here

with good gold bonuses
because I want...

I want every one of you back.

Buzz, you're way overdue.

And obviously
there's more reason
for that than ever this year.

And I wanna make sure
you walk out of here

with a meaningful
amount of gold,
know what I mean?

I want this to mean something.

If we don't hit
a thousand ounces,

there's no place
to come back to.

You know? We're gonna
do better, so...

You're my boy, Blue,
come on now.

We got this, bud, we got this.

- Hey, guys.
-Hi.

After a rough week
on the Indian River...

Hey, it's good
to have you back here.

-I mean, not really.
- I know.

I'm here, that means
something's wrong there.

The Beets family
gather to weigh the gold

from Monica's wash plant,
their only money maker.

Basically what you do
is you do one step forward

and you do five backwards?

-More, like, 12.
-More, like, one step forward

and then you hit that snake
and you go all the way

-back down the board.
- Hmm.

How is the plant
coming along?

It's been ridiculous.

Give the man a pat
on the shoulder.

Good job, dad. Good job.

You must be
so proud of yourself.

It is, it's--

-Well, we haven't... It's...

I can't remember, not ever.

I think we should weigh it up.

And you're counting.

Tony has less than


to hit his 6,000 ounce gold.

He now needs over 450 a week
for the rest of the season.



Worth over
$230,000.

- Yeah.
- Yup.

I think you probably
go get some people

and trucks out of the Indian.

You guys are gonna focus
on the tunnel here.

- Yup.
-In other words.

Get out.

You too, you know.

For the first time
this season,

Parker is running
two wash plants.

Sluicifer at the El Dorado cut

and Big Red at
Dominion Creek's Money Pit.

It's nice to have Big Red
back in action,

it's produced a lot of gold
over the years

and hopefully it does
the same thing here.

We should try
to figure out

what it's done per ounces.

I'm sure I could figure it out
and take some time,

but it must be 25,000, 30,000.

-Oh, yeah.
-You know, hopefully
this ground is good.

It just depends on how thick
the pay is gonna be here.

Well, you gotta answer
that question, Chris.

Is there any gold in it?

Two hander and a grunt.

-Or I'm just a .

To his 5,000
down season target,

Parker needs to average
over 300 ounces a week.

First up, Sluicifer,
which ran for seven days.

Can you see
the scale?

- Oh, yeah.
-40, 60,



- And my patience
is out.
- 200.

I can tell.



-Atta baby.
- Ooh.

Worth over
$500,000.

It's not bad.

That's not bad.

Next,
the moment of truth.

Big Red ran Money Pit pay dirt

for less than two days.

All right. First run
on Big Red of the season here.

What do we got?

Based on estimates
from the drill tests...

That's 20, 30, 40, 50.

...it should
deliver over 70 ounces.



Nice.

Worth over
$230,000.

It's nearly double
the projections.

Bringing their season total
to 1,643 ounces.

So not a bad little, uh,
startup for Big Red.

-Yeah.
-Get a full run on there,

that thing'll look good.

How many hours was that?

Forty-four hours on Big Red

-for, uh, hundred, almost...
-So it's, like,

um, almost three ounces
an hour.



That's pretty impressive.

Uh, you know, we went
from a 200 ounce a week

to almost a 400 ounce a week.

Parker's gamble
looks like it might pay off,

but only a full week
of sluicing will tell.

When you get
the two plants running,

that I think is the key
to hitting our goal, 5,000.

Still got a long way to go.

Yeah.

We're not even halfway.

An awful long ways from there.

we're not
in good shape.