14x22 - The Money Pit Fights Back

[bunniefuu]

You got a copy, Mitch?

I need you
to come here urgently.

We have a problem.

Woah!

Stuck in there, I bet.

I'll jump in there real quick
and see if I can get it out.

Training up Tatiana
in the excavator.

She's been trying to work on
getting this ditch cleaned out.

And, she just got a little
too close to the edge here.

And it's very soft.

You get out here on the edge,

and it'll just suck you
right in.

Come on, baby.

Come on. There we go.
There we go.

Third climb.

Did that without pulling
ourselves back in.

All right.

That was a close one.

Yeah, that edge, you know,
it's just silt in that ditch.

- Yeah.
- And it's pretty deep right there, so.

- Okay?
- Yeah, just as you're doing it,

um, keep yourself back here.

Like, this is all solid.

We had the dozer out on it.

- Yeah. Good lesson.
- Well.

- Okay, thank you.
- Yeah. Have a good one.

This is the cost
of training people.

Mistakes happen.

It's the end of the season.

It's starting to get a bit cold.

The time's running out.

Parker Schnabel is hurtling towards
the end of his first season mining,

his new colossal
Dominion Creek claim.

So, we massively have
to step up our mining rate.

Right now, we have six
years left on the licenses.

The only way to really do that

is to really aggressively
go after the stripping.

To stay one step ahead,

Parker has a crew
stripping a new cut

so that he'll be ready
to sluice in the spring.

But he still wants to smash
through his $7000 ounce gold

and see just how much
the money pit can deliver.

I want as much gold to go
in our pockets as possible.

I don't wanna strip
in an inefficient way

Mitch is hungry for people

up with Rocksand
sluicing in the money pit.

And I don't wanna
give 'em to 'em,

because I don't wanna rob
the stripping crew of people.

People will always want
more people at a wash plant.

But you are screwing
your future self.

And I don't like
screwing future self.

Except when I'm drinking.

Foreman Mitch Blaschke

still has 10 acres of the
money pit left to sluice out,

but only three crew to run it.

Working with Mitch,
Sandy Dubois,

feeding Parker's only
running wash plant, Rocksand,

and clearing tailings.

Mitch got me to take over
for Tatiana,

so Tatiana could get some
well-deserved hoe time.

And yeah, I'll just be
running the plant for now.

Six hundred feet away,

Tatiana Costa is learning
to work the excavator.

By clearing the settling
pond's drainage ditch.

So, the silt that comes
from the fine tailing,

plugs the ditch.

This could cause a huge flood

and it would be game over
for the rest of the season.

Are you in here, Mitch?

Yeah, go ahead.

Whenever you have a minute,

if you can come here just to make
sure I'm taking the right amount.

Yeah, I'll be there in five.

All right, thank you.

Just heading back out
to the cut,

gonna check in with Tatiana.

You know, she got hung
up in that ditch earlier.

We got her out of there.

Hopefully, she's got that
water flowing nice by now.

Why is the water so high
down here?

What is going on?

Culvert pipe blew out.

I should've been more specific
about all that water.

When you release it and
you got that much hell back,

you gotta, like,
let it go gently.

- - It blew out our dam.
- We need to go deal with it.

So, right now,
our water blew out.

The basket's almost
exposed here.

If we lose too much of this,
the pond's gonna go dry

and the plant's
gonna have to get shut down.

Move these cars!

Get this outta the way.
Outta the way.

Move your car.

Or I'm gonna move it
with the loader.

Rocksand draws water
from connected ponds.

When the drainage ditch
in the settling pond

became blocked
with silty tailings,

the water level started rising.

Tatiana cleared the silt,

but released the
built-up water too quickly,

causing a torrent
to rush downstream

blowing out the berm and culvert

that kept the pond system
at the correct water level.

The water level is now
dropping in the intake pond

and threatens to expose
the pump's hose,

which could cut off
the water supply

and force Rocksand to shut down.

Hey, Sandy,
you got a copy, Sandy?

Yeah, I got a copy.

Hey, just keep an
eye on that wash plant.

Our water table's dropping here.

Just be ready
to hit that, off button

in case we need
to shut her down.

Yeah, sounds good.

You know,
I had Tatiana working on

getting this ditch,
cleared out here.

That culvert pipe was holding
our water table in our pond system

at the appropriate level.

But we just had way more water
trapped on the other side,

and now we got,
some serious washout going on.

So, we're gonna have to
plug this thing off here,

just get it fixed up.

This water's just leaving
rapidly.

I got Tatiana in the loader,

She's rifling material
over here as fast as could be.

But right now, it's all about
stopping the water flow.

If the water doesn't circulate,

then there'll be no water
to the pump,

which would be a big problem.

Mitch, I could just start to see

the top of the basket
over there.

If it runs outta water,

you're gonna have
a massive pile-up.

If we don't get this thing
plugged off

and get out water table
back rising,

we could lose, you know, a
good section of sluice in here.

All right, we've got the,
water plugged here.

Roger that.

That should, eliminate
any more leaving our pond.

The berm finally plugged
and water safely contained,

Rocksand is still bringing in
the gold.

You're training new people.

You got to, be there
to watch what they're doing

and, you know, I wasn't here,
keeping an eye on this, and...

You know, it went from
digging this thing out,

everything's good to,
complete disaster

in just a matter of moments.

Fortunately, this is something
that we got fixed here

before there was
too much carnage.

But we still got a lot of
dirt left to get through here

before the season's over.

Finally have Monster Red
up and running.

This is, like,
the last big push for us.

Two cups of coffee this morning,

I'm on top of my.

We are buzzing.

Pulling pay out of Rally Valley,

hopefully we got enough
outta here,

hopefully that pile's
big enough.

Hopefully the weather
doesn't set in,

and hopefully there's
enough gold in that pile.

I guess only time will tell, right?

We're near
the end of the season.

We're definitely running behind.

I mean, winter's here.
You can feel it.

It's in the air.

At Duncan Creek,

Rick Ness's comeback season
is hanging by a thread.

If this doesn't work this year,

if I don't get this 1000 ounces,

I don't have the capital
to come back again, so.

You know, I'm,
I wanna leave here

knowing that I left
nothing on the table.

Rick is still 300 short
of 1000 ounce gold,

which he needs to cover costs,

give his crew a gold bonus,

and fun next season.

We've got a lot of time
to make up for,

a lot of gold to get.

You know, it took longer
than it should've

to get all that pay
out of Rally Valley.

But now we've got a huge
stockpile sitting up on the pad

and all we got to do is get
it run through Monster Red.

We have to run it
as hard as we can all day.

I mean, 350 yards an hour
plus no stopping for nothing.

That is what is gonna get us
to our 1000 ounces.

Rick's crew are finally sluicing.

Rally Valley's
nugget-rich pay dirt.

Two years ago,

it brought in
more than 180 ounces per week.

Nearly double their best
weekly haul this year.

Now, in his first week
running non-stop,

Rick needs it
to deliver big again.

The team's keeping it together.

There's been a few hiccups,
nothing major.

Overall, best team
I've ever had by far.

And, um, without them,

I wouldn't be anywhere near
where we're at right now.

What the? There's hardly any
water going through the plant.

Ryan, cut the power.

There's gotta be something
wrong with the pump.

No, no.

That thing is puking
so much smoke.

Dammit!

Bunch of leaves clogging up
in the suction line.

Before,
that was always submerged.

That's a big hole.

That's a big one.

Look at how far
it's pinched though too.

Actually,
you can see through it, dude.

That, those popped through.

That's unbelievable.

That thing is puking
so much smoke.

At Duncan Creek...

That's a big hole.

That's unbelievable.

Monster Red's pump
is out of action.

I, I'm concerned that the
suction line is compromised,

because it's,
it's squished flat.

That happened because the,
the suction box got, got clogged.

It wasn't very deep enough,

so it's covered in leaves.

So it's, the pump
is trying to suck water,

and there's nothing
getting through,

so it collapsed
that suction line, so.

We're gonna give it a shot.

Throw in some clamps
around each side,

just to try and squeeze it open.

I was just worried
about the thing collapsing.

That's all I,
that's all you know.

Doesn't have to be perfect,
just to hold it open.

The pump's suction basket
was too close to the surface,

allowing floating debris
to block it.

With no water,
the pump created a vacuum,

collapsing the heavy-duty
wired pipe.

To fix it,

Rick plans to seal the hole
with a rubber patch,

use clamps on each side of the
collapsed section to squeeze it back open

and act as a brace,

allowing water to pump through
once again.

We have to try these ones
around it, so.

- Putting a Band-Aid on a g*nsh*t wound here.
- Pretty much.

They're on.

There we go.

- You got it.
- There it is.

- Looks good?
- Drop it.

As long as that's under water,
then we're, we will be fine.

- Okay.
- Okay.

Yeah, let's just try to get
that buried down farther.

We're gonna drop it.

Right now, Buzz is just drain...

Digging the sump out so he
can try to bury that thing deeper.

Potentially, we could be
losing nine, 10 ounces an hour,

and then, that's not
acceptable right now.

We need all run time
when we get here at the end.

I'm getting annoyed here.

It's cost us three hours now.

And it's probably the last
good day we're gonna get, so.

Perfect.

Good.

Looks good to me.
Let's fire it up.

Ready?

Buzz, you got it.

Pump fixed,

Rick fires up Monster Red
to get back on the gold.

Obviously, we've got water.

So, let's turn the thing on.

Hopefully,
the problem has been solved.

Let's fire this thing back up,

we don't have any more time
to keep around.

Well, it's always
the little problems.

At least it's running right now.

It's the best we can hope for.

Hopefully, it stays that way.

King of chaos, Tony Beets,

is fighting to salvage
his season

in a bid to break even.

Tony's son Mike is running
the trommel at Paradise Hill,

while his Indian River crew
run Sir Sluice-A-Lot.

But he's been dealt
a devastating blow.

His dredge master
had to depart unexpectedly,

leaving Tony with just two
running wash plants.

Tony is still 450 ounces short
of his new 2500 ounce target.

But the king has a plan to
dial up his gold production.

Resurrect his Kiwi plant,

and get back to running
three wash plants.

Last year,

Tony leased out his Kiwi plant.

Now, it's back at Indian River,

and he's banking on it
delivering the gold he needs.

We gonna start up
the New Zealand plant,

so that we got the three,
plants going.

So, that's pretty good
for the end of the season.

Now, Tony and his crew must
get the Kiwi's trommel turning.

All right,
let's see what happens.

It's the first rock and a fade that
goes into the Kiwi plant this season.

At the Indian River,

Tony's resurrected Kiwi plant
has shut down

seconds after firing up.

Tony has, shut it off.

The chain is hooking on
to the, the gear.

Almost has nothing anymore.

You see that over here?

I felt that,
a lot of slag in it.

And the gear is worn out
a little bit.

And I don't know how I...

So, it hooks.

Normally,
it'll release the chain.

But because it's where,

it's, it's moving
under the chain,

and it takes the chain with it.

So, it takes the chain up
a little bit,

and then it release
and then it's...

Then you can hear it rattling.

That's what the sound I heard.

The sprocket on the trommel's
drive wheel is badly worn.

And Tony has no spares.

We had three plants running
for 10 minutes, so.

That's progress, yeah.

Do you want me to do
anything about the gear that I...

To grind it down a little bit.

Because now, that's what it's

hooks onto it.

Yeah.

All right. Yeah.

The Kiwi plant's trommel
is turned by a drive chain.

But it keeps slipping
on the sprocket.

To fix it,

Len will take out two links
from the chain to tighten it.

Then, sharpen the sprocket's
teeth to keep the chain hooked on,

and get the trommel
turning again.

I took the chain off.

Now we're gonna grind
this one a little bit

so it's hooking on to the chain.

Connect the chain again
with the master link.

And then, should be good.

Yeah.

Maybe it's not a perfect fit,

but, I think it will do
for the coming week.

Sprocket teeth sharpened,
chain tightened,

Tony can fire the Kiwi plant
back up.

Tony has
three plants running again.

And he's one step closer
to hitting 2500 ounces.

So, this pipe here,
what we're gonna do is,

just popped it in half here

and we're gonna use it
side by side,

so we'll have twice
as much flow here.

After the catastrophic blowout

in the money pit,

Mitch has fixed the berm,

but still needs
to replace the culvert.

To double the drainage capacity,

he's broken the pipe in two.

By having these side by side,

it's gonna give us
twice as much pipe here

in case something
like that happens again.

We'll have a lot better shot
of draining.

Someone in the Dominion cut, copy.

Anyone in the cut, copy.

I need help now.

Yeah, Jordy, I'll be down
at the Dominion cut

in about four or five minutes.

Not four
or five minutes. Get here now.

I'll be right down.

I don't know what the going on.

Jordy sounds desperate.

Holy.

Jordy's truck is
buried in the washout.

We gotta get him
out of there now.

Nah, stay here.

Half a mile
downstream of the money pit,

the water that washed out

the berm has also wiped out
the only access road.

Holy. You're in there good.

, man. It's eroding quick.

All right. Just hang on,
buddy. I'll grab a chain.

Holy, this water's cold.

Hey, just hooking you up now.

Holy. He is stuck in there.

Come on, buddy. Come on.

There we go.

- Thank you very...
- Good timing, buddy.

Good timing.

Timing always, always good.

First, when I first dropped,

the water was under the door.

And as it's eroding and dropping

and obviously the urgency was

- heightening in my voice.
- Yeah.

"Four or five minutes? No!"

"Get the down here now!"

Yeah, good timing.

Yeah, that was
a good sight to see

the old shaker come
over the hill.

I'm going back to the yard.

Thank you.

What's up, buddy?

Woo!

Jordy was.

Nosedove right
into the hole here.

- Why?
- It's like, I don't even think

his tires were touching.

- He was sitting on the bumper.
- Just laying frame?

Yeah, dude.

Well, we'll just build the road

right back in where it was.

- Yeah.
- I mean, this was all working before,

but this needs a lot
of material and quick.

So I think the best thing is

r*fle a couple of loads in here.

- It'll seal it right up.
- Sounds good.

Mitch will fix the road

using Roxanne's coarse tailings.

Hey, Tatiana,
watch your route downstream.

Just start tuning up
the road down there.

No worries. I'll give it a go.

I'll go slowly
so I don't get stuck.

I'm just going
to build up this road

with these coarse tailings.

The road's our only
access point in and out.

There's always something
that's gonna

throw a wrench in the program.

And, you know, sure enough,

normally when
one thing goes bad,

well, that's when a bunch
of things want to go bad.

You all looking good down there?

Yeah, we should be good.

It's ready to go.

Well, I think we're all good.

This is all going down, like...

- Looks like everything got fixed up downstream, so.
- Yeah.

I should have made it more clear

that, you know,
how to control that water.

- Yeah.
- But...

Just another day,

but definitely a close one here.

Just really happy we were able
to keep the plant running.

Now Mitch
and Tatiana can get back

to mining out the money pit.

You know, the whole idea here
in mining is

always balancing the chaos.

You've always got to be
one step ahead.

I just want to try

and get this cut finished,
hopefully,

without any more grief
and problems.

But there's still so much work
that has to be done.

But right now,
we just got to focus

on what we have
in front of us here.

And that's a lot of pay dirt

and some cold weather
headed our way.

On a mission

to keep three plants running

through the end of the season,

Tony's fired up his kiwi plant.

With the season nearly over,

Tony wants operator Eric

to squeeze as much gold

out of the plant as he can.

The chain broke.

Tony put a little bit more
pay dirt in it,

and then it had to work
a little bit harder.

Yes, and more gold.

Then we had a problem.

Tony's plan to run
the Kiwi plant has failed,

leaving him
with just two wash plants.

The pressure's on to keep

this wash plant running

while the other guys are

hauling pay out at Rally Valley.

At Duncan Creek,

Rick Ness' operator,
Trey Charlie, is

feeding Monster Red flat out,

hoping for a big score

in the first full week

at Rally Valley.

We don't have much time.


to get us through that dirt

and hopefully hit
our 1,000-ounce goal.

Ooh, that...

Something doesn't
look right here.

Hey, Buzz, do you have
a copy, Buzz?

Hey, Buzz, shut it off.

That's impact plate.

Yeah.

Go for Rick.

For the love of.

The freeze could
be here tomorrow,

so pressure's on right now.

With time running
out on the season,

Rick must get
Monster Red up and running

if he's to have any chance

of hitting his 1,000-ounce goal.

The plate's
completely destroyed.

Fallen off. Half of it, I think,

just went down
into the tailings.

There ain't no way
we can run pay through that.

Those rocks will destroy that

if we don't fix that.

Lord.

Monster Red has
a solid iron punch plate

to absorb the full force
of big impacts

from heavy rocks

before they hit
the plastic screens

on the shaker deck.

Running the plant
at max capacity

has destroyed the plate,

leaving the screens vulnerable

to catastrophic damage.

Ryan must remove

the remainder
of the smashed plate,

replace it with a new one,

bolt and weld it into position,

then fire back up

and get on the gold.

Just going to go
over here to the scrap yard

and see if we can't find
a whole new plate.

We need to find one
that's 48 inches by 70 inches.

It needs to at least
be a half inch thick.

So see if we can't
come up with something.

This would be perfect, but

not big enough.



Width-wise, though, 'cause
we could put a few together...

Yep.

Man, I know I saw some more
of this laying around somewhere.

Where the was I looking?

It's exactly what I need.

Don't even have to cut it.

So the ones with the holes,

instead of having a solid piece,

if we go ahead and put
a punch plate in there,

we're actually
still protecting the plant

from the heavy rocks falling in,

but we're actually washing

all the good fine down in it

right then and there. So...

Um

I think that would work
way better

than putting
a solid piece in there.

You're going to have to try
to pull it towards you.

With the damaged plate removed,

Rick brings in the replacement.

So right now, I'm
just trying to concentrate

and make sure that,

A, I keep these guys safe,

and...

B, I don't hit
anything out here.

Watch that railing.

Nope.

I'm good.

Look how close he is to that.

Look at that.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

Looks good.

She done?

Does that mean
we can start her up?

You guys are good.

And you welded the top edge?

A, nice.

Do you want the honors?

Let's fire this thing up.

Monster Red is
back up and running

in under three hours,

giving Rick and his crew
a fighting chance

at a big payday.

We're in business.

Back in business!

Well, I hear
we got a big surprise.

Yep, it's waiting
for you up on that hill.

Well, let's see what you got.

Mitch, his wife Haley,

and daughter Mia are

expecting a new addition
to their family.

Expecting
the old gender reveal here.

Hey, I need you
to jump up in there...

- Yeah.
- And dump the bucket.

Okay? Like you're
loading a truck.

Okay. So, if it's pink,

that means it's going
to be a sister.

If it's blue, that means
it's going to be a brother.

- Watch dad, okay?
- Yeah.

You ready for this?

Are you so excited?

Yeah.

Here we go.

We're going to find out
what we're having,

boy or girl. What do we got?

All right.

You're having a baby brother!

- Wow.
- Look at that!

How about that?

You're gonna have
a little brother.

Yeah.

Look at that.

Are we guessing tonight again?

Maybe more than 100?

I'd say 116.89.

I'm going to go with 115.9, Bob.



At the end

of his first full week running

at Rally Valley,

Rick's about to find out

if it's still packed with gold.

We had
two major shutdowns this week,

so we did not get

a full week's sluicing time.

But we did get a good gold haul.

From our last cleanup,

you know, we were
at just shy of,



So to hit our target,

we need 150 ounces a week

to get to 1,000.

So I don't know
if we got it this week,

but it's going to be close.

You ready to count her?

Yeah, I'll count her.

All right.

Here we go.

Ten, 20.













- 124.27.
- Yeah.

My gosh.

Worth nearly $250,000,

their biggest gold weigh
of the season.

Little shy of that 150 gold,

but we get rid of that downtime,

we know the gold's there.

That brings us to 823.95.

If Rally Valley can
keep delivering big gold,

Rick will still be in with
a shot

of hitting his goal

and coming back next season.

- Yeah.
- It was so close.

We're there. We're there.

That number makes
you really want to push

as hard as we can.

- Well, good.
- So close.

- That's what's good.
- We're right there, man.

- Right there.
- I know. That's what it's going to take, you know?

If we just... everybody keeps
their head on a swivel,

keeps their eyes open,

and we get
solid sluice time next week,

I think we're going to get it.

Well, the deeper we go
into Rally Valley,

the richer it's supposed
to be, right?

- Yeah.
- Yep.

Just keep stacking
and keep feeding.

I'll work harder
to see more of this.

You guys know where we're at.

We're almost at the end.

If we stick it out
for one more week,

give it everything we got,
the gold's there,

we just got to get it run
through the wash plants,

we're going to be victorious.

Right?

You guys in it?

Hammer down.

Good. Cause, yeah,
it's going to take all we got

for the next week here.

- Let's do it.
- Let's do it.

- Let's go.
- Let's go.

- Thanks again, guys.
- Yep.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm
definitely feeling the pressure.

So we're so close to the end,

but we're also so close

to finishing
this comeback season.

We're gonna need a solid week.

- Hi, guys.
- Hello.

How did things go
on the Indian River?

It was nice to see
the kiwi plant up and running.

How did it go with the trommel?

Did you sluice all week?

Yeah, day shift only.
Sluiced all week.

Quiet.

Kept going.

Nothing exciting happened?

Just the way I like it.

The Beets family still need

over 450 ounces

to hit their goal of 2,500.

With the dredge down

and Tony back to running
just two wash plants,

any gold the kiwi plant caught
could be vital.

Why don't we weigh the kiwi?

Two, three, four,

five, six, seven, eight.



That's not terrible?

No, it's actually pretty good.

So we're weighing
sluice-a-lot now.

Fifty. 60.70.80.







We're weighing the trommel now.













Over $700,000
brings Tony's season total

to 2,405 ounces.

- The weather is turning.
- - Sure as is.

We have
a little bit of time left

to do some more sluicing.

- Okay.
- You don't want to be rude?

- That is rude.
- Since when?

Manners.

Are you dying?

How you been, T?

You get in on any
of the excitement this week,

or you just chugging along?

So, just getting sluice
for tore apart,

reclaiming
Australia Creek, but...

Could have used you here.
We were spread a little thin,

and we had a little chaos
down at the money pit.

- Yeah, I'll be out there tomorrow morning.
- Awesome.

Thank you
for limping yourself along.

No worries.

But the good thing is,

while all this has
been going on,

the stripping's going well.

So we will be able
to start sluicing early?

Well, don't get crazy.

You want to see
how we're doing down here?

Let's check it out, do it.

With all your little exciting...

Yeah, how did Rocksanne do?

Plant kept running,
that was the important part.

To reach their


Parker needs
wash plant Rocksanne

to produce
over 500 ounces of gold.

All right, here we go.
Rocksanne for the week.

We got 50.

We got 80, 100.











- Holy cow.
- Keep going.

I thought those things didn't
hold that much.

Nice.

It's 370.175.

Rocksanne.

Worth nearly $750,000.

Our season total,



So we're about 175 away
from 7,000.

You guys are doing a great job
keeping that thing running.

The recovery rate's good.

It looks like it's picking up.

We should have
a real strong finish.

Unless something, the bed,

we should make it.

At this time of year,
there's no sure things.

- Hopefully, we can stay running.
- Yeah.

Other than that,
weather's coming quick.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- All right, you guys.
- All right.

- Thanks, Chris.
- You bet.

I'm continually amazed
by the results here.

We're in striking distance

of 7,000 ounces, which is

I'd have never thought that
going into this year.

You know, it's unbelievable.

It's been an insane season
of spending money, basically.

That's been my theme.

Hopefully we can keep
the house of cards standing.