15x12 - The King's Mistake

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] King
of the Klondike,

Tony Beets' fastest ever
start to a season
is starting to stall.

[narrator] Tony's
early blitz has pulled in


but it's wreaked havoc
on his two Indian River
wash plants.

The Shaker Deck
needs major repairs,

and now Sluice-A-Lot
is also down for maintenance,

leaving only one claim
bringing in the gold.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] 40 miles
north at Paradise Hill.

[Mike] Rock truck drivers,
rock truck drivers.

I have Troy watering the road
so you don't dust each other
out.

[narrator] The pressure
is on Tony's youngest son,
Mike,

to keep their only running
wash plant sluicing.

[Mike] I do enjoy
being in charge.

I'm not trying to do
what my dad wants,

I'm trying to do it
the way I want.

Sometimes you just
need someone to make
a decision.

Do it. Don't [bleep]
um and er.

Don't get stuck in limbo,
make a decision.

It's very simple like that.

[narrator] Mike is running
the super pit's gold-rich
white channel pay dirt

through Tony's
main moneymaker,

the 35-year-old trommel.

[Mike] What's going on?

Uh...

I don't like the sound
of that generator.

Do you think we might have
another one?

[man speaking]

I doubt it.

The transfer pump
on the generator is [bleep].

It means
my generator is surging

'cause it's not getting
enough consistent fuel.

It causes a lot of issues
down the line.

It could fry electronics,
it could force something
to accidentally shut off.

It can do a whole
whack load of [bleep]
that's just not [bleep] nice.

[narrator] If the generator
sends too much power
to the trommel...

[Mike] Shut it off!

[narrator] ...it could
blow the motors
that spin the trommel,

shutting it down for weeks.

In five to ten minutes,
I'm gonna let you know
if we're working today or not.

It's just not...
Yeah, I'm gonna call.

[Tony speaking]

Oh, my generator's surging.

The transfer pump
is not working very well.

[Tony speaking]

Exactly what I thought,

cause that's just asking
for [bleep] trouble.

I'm just letting you know,

but I might be sending
my guys home.

[Tony speaking]

Okay, then I'll
talk to you later, Dad.

-[Tony speaking]
-Okay, bye.

[scoffs]

Boys and girls, gather around!

Close it up,
we're not sluicing today.

All right, we're gonna be
hauling pay today.

We're gonna be stacking it,

and we're gonna go
have a nice, lovely day
of moving pay.

[narrator] Mike sends
his entire crew

to the super pit
half a mile away...

Pull ahead,
come straight back.

[narrator] ...to dig out
pay dirt, haul it back
to stockpile near the trommel,

ready to run
once the surging generator
has been fixed.

[Braeden] Yeah, this ground
right now is a bit soft,

but I think
it's still workable.

[Mike] It's very frustrating.

All my stuff is real old.

It's been old and decrepit
from when I was young,

so now it's
real old and decrepit.

I got the only plant
that was running,

so I'd better
get this [bleep] going again

'cause otherwise we ain't
making no [bleep] money.

Oh, my [bleep] generator's
decided

it doesn't wanna exist
no more.

[Tony speaking]

I'd greatly appreciate it

'cause I ain't got nothing
here working that I know of.

[Mike] Perfect.

They're working

in the cuts for now,

hauling pay and maybe
a bit of stripping.

[Mike] Oh, I know.

[Trevor over radio] Tony,
you got a copy, Tony?
[imperceptible]

[Trevor] The excavator
in the super pit's stuck.

[Trevor] The one Braeden's in.

[Braeden] I was trying
to clear out some
of the black muck

on top of the pay.

There was
a bit of a soft spot,

and the front
of my track sank.

I am now stuck.

[bleep]

[narrator] 21-year-old
Braeden Miller has sunk
his 48-ton excavator,

bringing Mike's stripping
operation to a halt.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] 'Cause
people don't listen.

You should've felt
it was too soft the moment
you got over there.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Hey, Dad, if I dig out
a bit more over there,

do you think you'd be
able to spin this way?

'Cause then I can grab ya.

[man speaking]

[Mike] Maybe.

[Tony speaking]

That's a pain in the a*s,
but we got it done.
That's all that matters.

[Mike] On the bright side,
at least we managed

to get 'em out
pretty successfully.

[Tony speaking]

Oof, put your biceps away.

[Kevin] Someone's gotta have
g*ns on site.

Okay.

Beautiful, baby. Yes.

[narrator] 40 miles south,

it's a monumental day
for Tony's eldest son, Kevin.

[Brennan] That's
working beautiful.

[narrator] After months
of breakdowns, fights,
and delays,

Kevin's finally ready
to fire up his wash plant...

Boom!

[narrator] ...and catch
his first gold as his own
mine boss.

[Kevin] I didn't
start my summer
with a wash plant ready to go,

so it's only natural
that we're a little slower
getting going.

Who do you think
set up all the plants?

Who do you think
set up Mike's plant?

You think set up
Monica's plant?

Yeah, it wasn't them,
it was me.

The only difference, really,
at the end of the day now

is that I get to keep
all the shiny yellow [bleep]

as opposed to handing it off
to somebody else.

Little bit, little bit.

Little bit.

Slide horizontally, 4 inches.

Oh, right there.
That looks pretty deadly.

[bleep] deadly, Cousin!

So far, this year,
it has really felt, like,
problem after [bleep] problem,

but we've been making it work.

We got our
super stacker in place,

we have the feeder
and water lines.

The goal is definitely
to get running.

The bills are piling up
and we gotta get
some gold in the box.

It's about [bleep] time.

[narrator] Chasing
an ambitious


Kevin has got his wash plant
all set up.

And a mountain
of Lynx Cut pay
ready to run.

All he needs now is power.

[Kevin] We're gonna
be bringing in
a new power source

that, to my knowledge,
nobody else in the Yukon
is using.

Tony's not using it,
Parker's not using it.

Nobody is, so I'm excited
for that to show up.

[narrator] Kevin's
investing over $100,000
of his life savings

on a new generator
fueled by two 1,000-gallon
liquid propane tanks.

[Kevin] We have this lovely


that will run everything
that we need to run.
It's gonna be nice.

The big benefit
for propane is it burns
cleaner than diesel.

So right off the bat,
it's better
for the environment

and, well, it's cheaper.

Diesel these days
is expensive.

On the other side,
liquid propane
is much more flammable.

We do not need
a ka-boom on site.

[Len] Let's go to your plant.

[narrator] Hauling in
the propane tanks,
Beets veteran, Len Hoekstra.

[Len] Yeah,
I have a little bit
of hard time to get in.

The moment
I straight out my truck
with my hood,

I will be in the bushes.

[Kevin] So right now,
this approach is not exactly
in a good spot.

Whichever direction
Len keeps coming from
he ends up jackknife,

so trailer, truck,
and pushing into trees
and into dirt piles.

[Len] [bleep].
This is not good.

I got a little bit problem.

Back, I try it again.

We need a little bit more room
over there.

Let me try.

There, now he's got
a chance.

[Len] Perfect.

Not a lot of room,
but we got it.

Pretty [bleep] good though.

The branches
are in the way now.

[Kevin] Oh, it looks
really [bleep] good.

[Faith] Oh, yeah.
It looks real nice, honestly.

Well, now hopefully
it'll fire up and actually
get first test run.

[Brennan] Once we get
the water running,

we'll throw a load
of dirt through,
and that'll be your test run.

Let's just hope it all
goes off without a hitch.

It's time to make up
for lost time

from now until
the snow flies.

-[Hunter] Seven!
-[Brennan] Are you
still at seven?

-[Hunter] Yep.
-[Brennan] Okay.

Now this is the power cable
for the actual wash plant
itself.

Let's plug the wires in
and get them going.

I really hope it goes well,
after all the nights and days
that have gone into this.

So my fingers are crossed,
my toes are crossed.

If I could,
I'd cross my tongue.



It's good to press
the "On" button finally.

[generator powering up]

-[rapid beeping]
-Oh, natural gas pressure,
low.

Probably needs
some time to warm up.

-[Brennan] Hey,
I feel way better.
-Yay!

-Everybody clear?
-[Faith] Yeah.

Screen deck.
Three months in the making.

Three, two, one.

-[screen deck powering up]
-[Kevin exclaiming]

Holy [bleep], that's violent.

[Brennan] Whoo! Yeah!

That scared me for a sec.

A little terrifying.

-[Brennan] Want me to hit
the water now, Kev?
-[Kevin] Yeah.

All right, I'm gonna
open her up!

There we go.

[Kevin] Looking pretty good.

We're spending so much time
making sure that everything's
gonna run

before we put actual pay
through the plant.

It's a lot more work,
but we're gonna save time
down the line.

Do we run the loader?

Yeah, I'll throw him
in the truck.

Go on, bud. Go on.

Put the dirt in the hopper
and hopefully I don't
bump the hopper.

[Kevin] First load, in we go.

[Brennan laughing]
Thumbs up, Kev.
[bleep] beautiful.

This is rolling
and the dirt's going up.

[narrator] Three months
into the season,

the first-time mine boss
is finally running pay dirt.

We really want to do
something different than Tony,

we don't wanna be
as [bleep] chaotic.

We wanna do it once
and do it right
and just be done with it.

So that's how
we're gonna [bleep] run it.

[Brennan] [bleep] a bunch
of it's falling off,
you better hit stop.

It's all falling off
before the pre-wash.

[Kevin groans] [bleep].

-[wash plant powers down]
-[Kevin exclaims]

We didn't have a lot
of water up there, you think?

I don't know.

[narrator] Just moments
after Kevin's first ever
fire-up as mine boss,

his wash plant
is already shut down.

I'm trying to see
what is causing it
to build up in the back there.

The conveyor belt,
it looked like
it was spinning fast,

and down below,
it's just not going
far enough into the pre-wash,

so the water
isn't taking it away.

[Kevin] I think
we're too far back.

Do you think that the conveyor
is too far back, though?

[Kevin] I think so.

I'm betting if we
dropped it in a bit higher,
we'd be doing good.

Conveyor wasn't putting
the dirt far enough ahead
in the pre-wash,

causing it to pile up.

So right now we're
putting it in position,
raising it up,

and in a sec,
we'll send it out.

And then we'll play and see
how far the dirt gets down.

[Brennan] Yeah, have to go up
a few more inches there, Kev.

Well, keep going
a little more, a little more.

Let's try that.

So it's sitting a bit higher.

That gives it more room
to throw the dirt.

This is just so that
the material actually falls
where the water is.

That's going to help
force everything
into the shaker deck itself.

[Brennan] I just hope that
when it fires up,

there is no [bleep]
pissing around anymore
after this.

This [bleep] thing should be
washing rocks by now.

Hey, Brennan, got a copy?

I'm clear.

Screen deck is coming on.
Watch yours.

So now hopefully it'll
actually get to sluicing,
finally.

I'm gonna turn on
the conveyor,

we're gonna see
how the dirt [bleep] falls.

[Brennan] Here we go!

Dead center of whirl plane.

Oh, that's
pretty good. [bleep]

[Brennan] [bleep] yeah!

[Kevin] Let there be gold.

Exciting day.
This is a long time coming.

[Kevin exclaiming] Feels good
to see it [bleep] running.

[Brennan] Looking good.

[Kevin] Looking good.

Sounds like great news so far.

[Brennan] It's looking
really nice, Kev.

So excited, bud.

-Yes, finally!
-[Kevin laughing]

I'm currently
[bleep] relieved.

I'll give you a hug
for this one.

Nice work keeping her going.

[bleep] finally.

Time to rest those old bones
for a few days, eh?

[Kevin] Tell me about it.

It's a relief to actually
get to this point.

It's a good feeling.

Yeah, overall,
I think it's a pretty good
[bleep] day.

[Rick] Rally Valley
was the best pay
that we've ever run.

We just did 900 ounces
in three weeks.

That's no small feat.

[narrator] Duncan Creek's
new landowner, Rick Ness,

hit the jackpot
in Rally Valley.

Now that it's mined out,
he's on the hunt for his next
mammoth payday.

[Rick] We own this ground now,
and there's a ton of it.

I know the gold's here,
we all know the gold's here.

We just gotta figure out
where the right spot is.

[narrator] To keep
the gold rolling in,

last week, Rick opened up
the new Crew Cut,

but so far,
it's looking bleak.

We went from 400 ounces
in a week to 10.

But Buzz is convinced
that he can find some better
gold over there.

He knows what he's doing,
so I'm gonna give him
one more week.

[narrator] Foreman
Buzz Legault

believes he's hit
a richer pay streak
in the Crew Cut.

[Bailey] Yeah,
just another day here
at Rocky, you know,

everything seems like
it's running pretty smoothly
here.

[narrator] 700 feet away,
Operator Bailey Carten

feeds 100 yards-an-hour
of Crew Cut pay
through wash plant Rocky,

while Kyle Lawson,
clears the waste tailings.

[Bailey] Pay pile's kind of
building up a little bit.

Hopefully, you know,
this cleanup's gonna look

a little bit better
than the last one.

Just gets us closer and closer
to that 1,500-ounce goal.

[Kyle] My number one priority
right now,

keeping these
tailings down for Bailey.

We're spending all this money
on fuel right now,
running this ground.

Hopefully it pays off.

[engine roaring]

[Kyle] Ah, [bleep].

Truck can't go forward or...

Um, the parking brake's
not coming off.

It won't let us drive
this machine right now.

Wonder what the [bleep]
Kyle's doing.

He's been
sitting there for a while.

[Kyle] I'm gonna
have to call Ryan,
get him down here.

Hey, Ryan, I can't
get this parking brake
to come off.

Yeah.

Um...

Okay.

So Ryan's gonna
bring me the other loader.

And hopefully we can
figure this out quick.

Couldn't have parked it
in a worse spot.

If they keep building up
and we don't have a loader,
we're gonna have to shut down.

[Bailey] You know,
we've got a half an hour

before the tails completely
get built up too quick.

And we'll have
to shut down the plant.

[narrator] At Duncan Creek,

a broken loader
is threatening to shut down

the Ness Crew's
only running wash plant.

[Ryan] Heading down
to Rocky right now.

Kyle, uh, he's got
a battery light on.

The parking brake switch
won't come off.

It could be
AC compressor locked up,

it could be
alternator locked up.

I got to take it apart
and figure it out.

But he's parked right
in front of the plant,

so kind of a [bleep] spot
for him to be.

[Kyle] I wonder
if something got wet.

[Ryan]
It's fired up right now.

But it's throwing
a bunch of electrical codes.

Won't let him
come out of park.

[bleep] brakes.

It's part of it.

Just blew a belt.

Blew an accessory drive belt.

This belt basically goes
around the air compressor.

Goes around the alternator,

which is
the most important thing.

When that alternator
is not turning,

batteries aren't charging.

[bleep] starts acting weird
on that, uh, loader, so...

[Kyle] Do we have extras?

[Ryan] Oh, I know
we don't have one.

[Kyle on radio]
Bailey, you got a copy?

We're gonna have
to shut the plant off.

[Bailey] Shut her down.

[Kyle] Shut her down, baby.

[wash plant turns off]

I just heard
on the radio Bailey saying,
"Shut the wash plant down."

So, I'm heading
down there right now to see
what the [bleep] is going on.

And if the plant's
not running,

we're not getting any gold.

Hey, Rick.

[Rick] What's this?

-Right in front
of the [bleep] plant?
-[Ryan] Yeah.

Um, problem is
there's no air in the tank,

and parking brake,
air powered.

So to release
that parking brake,

we need to have
air in it, so...

-[Rick] You got a plan?
-[Ryan] I've got
a little adaptor.

I'll force air through here,
out of my tank, into there,
build up enough air pressure.

Uh, should be able
to release the brakes

and at least get us over here
by the fuel truck.

Yeah, right now,
any kind of downtime

is going
to put us behind, right?

So we need to get
this loader fired up,

and we need
to get out of the way.

[narrator] Rick's 220 loader
is stuck in park.

It's accessory drive belt
transmits drive energy

to the alternator
and air compressor.

But it snapped.

With no belt,
the air compressor
won't work,

and the parking brakes
locked on.

Ryan's quick fix,

use his truck's
air compressor

to disengage
the parking brakes.

Move the stricken loader
away from the plant,

then bring in
the spare loader

to clear the tailings pile.

Once the brakes release,

-you'll hear
the air dryer go off.
-Yeah.

[Ryan mimics air whizzing]
Just take it easy

-because we're gonna
leave that hood open.
-[Kyle] Yeah.

[Ryan] Now, just crank it
and pump the gas out.

[engine whirring]

[Rick] Do that right now.

[Ryan] I'll hand you
this hose here in a second.

-About ready.
-[Rick] Lift that bucket up.

[air hissing]

[Rick] Go ahead. Good.

-You guys ready?
-Let's do it.

[Rick]
All right, let's do it.

No, that's it.
That's all we had
to do right there.

Just get the [bleep] thing
out of the way

so we can
get back to sluicing.

We'll worry about
fixing it later.

[wash plant whirring]

Well, at least
we got Rocky running.

The plant's going.

Uh, luckily, Rick's got
the second loader over there.

We never really used it
at all last year.

Uh, this year,
it's unbelievably
coming in handy.

[bleep]

Kyle, that is [bleep] deep.

Can you see
how deep that hole is?

-[loader clanging]
-Oh!

Oh, [bleep].

For [bleep] sake.

Lost the tilt link.
[bleep] clean break.

[narrator] Rick's
spare loader's tilt link
has snapped in half.

With no loader
to clear tailings,

Rick's only source
of gold production

must once again shut down.

[bleep] wild to see that
break like that.

Just had the other loader
go down with something simple
and then no linkage here.

That's not something
simple to replace.

-And we don't have [bleep].
-Yeah.

[Ryan]
So we're kind of [bleep].

I'll get Steve
to drive forward.

I'll hook it up,
you swing it over.

-I will.
-Okay.

[narrator]
The Beets' only moneymaker
is at a standstill

after Mike's
generator broke down.

Now, his cousin, Mike,
is helping him swap it out

for another old genset
from the Indian River.

It's busy.
Just arrived here.

And, uh, we'll bring in
the generator,

and then this plant
will be back to sluicing.

[Mike]
So we're gonna get this one
all set up, all hooked up.

We should be able
to start sluicing
either tonight or tomorrow.

Give it a little bit more.

Pull it this way.
See if it'll stay straight.

Take them off, please.

[man] She's pretty low.

[Mike]
Just topping off the oil.

Now we're gonna fire it up
and run with it, so...

[wash plant whirring]

Are you ready?

Yeah, I'm ready.
Let's go.

[man]
What the [bleep] is that?

[Mike] Hold it. Stop feeding.
Stop feeding.

Trevor, you go off
the water again.

I'm gonna shut it off.

I don't like how the belt's
[bleep] dropping dirt.

The belt's not sitting
in the right place.

It leaves a massive gap
for dirt to fall out.

It's got to come about
two more inches this way.

Otherwise,
I'll need a guy over there
shoveling [bleep] all day.

And he'd have a hard
[bleep] time keeping up.

Might want to shut it down
just to fix it.

But the problem is,
I want to also run the sluice.

Why are you tracking over
all of a sudden?

You were good for a while.

There's a bolt
on the other side.

You might have
to loosen some more.

[man] Okay.

[Mike] You're good to stop.

We're gonna see if he can,
uh, adjust it on his end.

[narrator] To recenter
the conveyor belt,

Mike tries to adjust
the rods that align
the belt's guide roller.

There's a lot of squealing
so bad right now.

And where is it squealing?

There's a lot of dust
coming down, too.

I swear, every [bleep] time
we get sluicing,

some new [bleep] shows up.

Hey, Braeden, can you go
shut off the conveyor?

Shut off the conveyor.

Shut it off!

It looks like the conveyor
is sitting like this.

[Mike] Can you go get
my level, please?

[narrator] At Paradise Hill,
the trommel's conveyor belt
is running crooked...

How does that
look to you, man?

...shutting down Tony's
only working wash plant.

[Michael]
Now, you have a half inch

that has to go up
on your side.

[Mike] One of you hop up top,
find somewhere flat

and tell me how off it is.

[Braeden]
This side has to come up,

like, a quarter inch
or something.

-[Mike] That side?
-[Braeden] Yeah.

My conveyor is all [bleep]
twisted out of shape.

And no matter how much
I try to adjust it,

I can't get her to [bleep]
move the way I want.

My brother did a [bleep] job
setting it up.

I'm just trying to fix it.

[narrator] Last season...

Yes, that's good.
That's far enough.

...Mike's brother, Kevin...

[Kevin] Yeah,
just hit the piping now.

Let's see what that does.

...bush fixed
the worn out conveyor...

The issue is
when these holes line up,
these don't line up.

...cutting the struts
from their cross-beams...

[Kevin] Ow, ow, ow, ow!

...to realign
the conveyor belt.

Oh, perfect.

I think we're pretty happy
right there.

[narrator] But it looks
as if Kevin's fix

has created another problem.

[Mike] My rollers
are not sitting right.

-[Michael]
That roller underneath?
-[Mike] Yeah.

This roller right there.

We got to figure out a way
to force that belt
back that way.

And if that
requires taking out this,
we'll take this out.

[narrator] The 35-year-old
trommel's conveyor belt

runs on guide rollers
mounted on a frame,

allowing it
to move smoothly.

Kevin's previous fix
twisted the frame,

causing one of the rollers
to lie crooked.

Pushing the belt off center,
spilling gold-bearing pay
over the side.

Mike's quick fix,

simply remove
the crooked roller

and let the belt
hang more freely.

If it works,
the belt should recenter
on the twisted frame

and not lose any gold.

[grunting]

No, grab the canned one.

Swing over, hook.
Swing over, hook.

That way it lifts the belt

because that's how
we got it on the first time.

No.

It's got to go up
because we're trying
to pull the thing up.

I keep my mouth shut.

This is not my, uh...

My business.

[Mike] Here.
Take that chain off now.

Take that off for now.

Bring it up again.

Put it over this side.

But the last time I did this,
it took us five minutes.

It seems to take longer
when I explain [bleep].

Yeah, just keep
tightening it.

Lift it.
Let that sucker out.

[man] Oh, [bleep].

[Mike] Watch fingers.

[man] Got it.

The whole [bleep] thing's
got to get pulled out
and reset up.

That's going to be
a couple of weeks of work,
where we--

Where we want
to just sluice.

[Michael] Looks like you got
the same problem as us.

Never enough time
to do it right.

[Mike] Can you start
the belt, please?

You can already see it
starting to track over again.

I got two inches simply
from taking that roller out.

Let's start her up.

Looks good to me.

Do you want
to do the honors?

You haven't done it
in a while.

[Michael] Sure. Yeah.

I have hardly any pay

falling off
the conveyor belt anymore.

Now, it's perfect.

It's looking good now.

So I'm just gonna have them
keep running it.

[Ryan] Got to grab
this 460 real quick.

Bailey's running the plant.
Tailings are piling up.

And our only loader
broke a tilt linkage.

So right now,
we're down two loaders.

And, unfortunately,
this is what we've got to use.

The only thing we've got
running right now is Rocky.

And, you know, for us to hit
that season goal,

it's absolutely crucial for us
to keep Rocky rolling.

Unfortunately,
using two pieces of equipment

to haul tailings out
instead of one.

[narrator] To get Rocky
back sluicing for gold,

Ryan's taking
the 460 excavator
and a rock truck

out of the crew cut
for Kyle to run both

and do the job
of one loader.

[Kyle] Now we've got
our excavator up here

and a rock truck
self-loading,

so we can keep
running at least.

But definitely, uh,
need those loaders fixed
sooner than later.

[Bailey] It definitely sucks
to be using two machines,

you know, instead of one.

It's a lot more,
uh, fuel costing.

It takes a lot longer
to do now.

A lot of money
is going out just to run
this little plant here.

What the [bleep]
is going on here?

What's going on?

-[Ryan] Yo.
-[Rick] Holy [bleep].

Yeah.

[Rick] What happened here?

[Ryan] Um, we've lost
a, uh, tilt linkage.

I've never seen
one of those snap like that.

[Ryan] Then we got
to looking closer.

All these welds are broke
all the way around this thing.

I'd say this old girl's
had a hard life.

She's been completely
welded right there
in the center section.

[Rick] Holy [bleep].

This thing
was broken before.

They did
a good job of hiding it
when I looked at it.

[Ryan] Obviously, this one's
gonna need some love,

need some welding,
need some time.

Other one's down.

It's got
a locked-up compressor,
which threw a belt.

So why don't we just rip off
the belt [bleep] that we need

to complete
that one over there.

That will at least free up
the 460 and the rock truck.

We can get done
with using two.

Yeah. I mean,
I hate robbing parts,
but you're right.

I mean, this thing's
gonna be down for a while.

All right.
How long is it gonna take?

Hour, hour and a half.

-Sweet. That's a good plan.
-All right. Let's go.

So we got everything
ripped off the, uh--

The 220 loader that had
the broken linkage on it.

We're gonna transfer
that compressor belt
over onto this one.

Let's see if we can
knock this out here
pretty quick.

This is our air compressor.

This supplies air to the tanks
to release the brakes.

This is what caused
our belt to melt.

And it is locked up
and no good.

Now on with the new.

New used.

All right,
compressor's mounted.

Everything's back together.

It's time
to put the belts on.

Looks good.

All right.
This should be everything.

[Kyle] See if it'll start?

[Ryan] Yeah. Go ahead.

[engine whirring]

Make sure that belt
is right in the grooves
it needs to be in.

None of them are walking.
Everything looks good.

That's it.
[bleep] send it out.

[narrator]
Loader back in the game,

Rick's crew
are back to full strength,
chasing crew-cut gold.

[Ryan] It's nice to have
one machine going again.

It sucks we had to rob parts
from one from another.

But at least we're not using
two machines to haul tailings.

[Kevin] Thank you. Yeah.

[Kevin] Not quite.

Thirty-six.

[Kevin] Do you remember
what you had for breakfast
this morning?

[Minnie] He was
a 36-year-old Romeo.

[Minnie] Okay.

Oh, not [bleep] bad.

-I got like--
-[Minnie] I guess I was
coming for birthday cake,

but you don't have
any here, I assume.

Then again, I keep forgetting
it's my [bleep] birthday.

-[Tony speaking]
-[Kevin] Oh, not too bad.

-We're finally sluicing.
-[Tony speaking]

-Oh, exciting.
-[Tony] Oh, is it
time already?

[Tony speaking]

-Yeah.
-[Minnie] So--

That's on the [bleep]
wish list down the line.

Let's go.
He has to go to work.

[Kevin] All right.
Thank you for the visit.

Well, I would have liked
birthday cake really.

[Kevin] Me as well.

[Tony speaking]

-[Minnie] Kevin,
talk to you later.
-Have a good one.

[man] Is there
gold in there?

[Faith] Yeah, it looks like
there's gold.

[man] Oh, wow. Wow.

[woman] Looks like a nugget.

[Faith] One of the fruits
of your labor.

-[woman] Yeah?
-[Faith] Yeah.

[woman] Can I make
an earring out of it?

No. It's my earring.

[chuckles]
"It's my earring"?

I think that's the biggest
piece I've ever seen.

[narrator] After 12 weeks
of hard work,

it's Kevin's
first chance to see

if his gamble
to strike out on his own

will pay off.

[Kevin] Nice yellow pad.

So I'll pan this

so we have a better idea
of what's in it.

Here we go.

[Brennan] When you look
through the--

Look through here
at the mats right now,

you can see gold
very clear.

Getting a little late
starting sluicing

is not gonna be
the end of the world

as long as
the gold stays good,
and it looks like it.

Like, look at that
pocket right there.

That's what we want to see.

If we can make up
for the lost time there
this spring,

that's all
that's going to matter

to, uh, hit our


and that's what
I want to see.

Too much gold
in that bucket, Kevin.

-It's heavy.
-[Kevin] Nice.

Not half bad.

We can pay some
[bleep] bills with this.

If everything else
is half this good,

we should have
a very good first gold weigh.

The next step is, uh,
put everything back together

and, uh, sluice
some [bleep] more.

Get some more
of this [bleep].

-[woman] Oh, is it--
-Oh, [bleep]!

-[woman] Stop it.
-[Faith chuckles]

[Kevin] Full steam ahead
till the end of season.

Time to get some
[bleep] gold finally.

[bleep] yeah.

What happened
to those loaders this week?

-Kyle broke them both.
-Oh, [bleep].

That's a hell
of a fire you built.

Yeah.
You like that, eh?

-It's working just as good
as both our loaders.
-[Rick grunts]

[narrator]
Despite the loader problems,

Rick's crew managed
to run crew-cut pay
for nearly a full week.

Now, Rick wants to see
if Buzz was able to find
a good pay streak.

We didn't have
much downtime,

but, yeah, the cost
went up obviously.

Uh, I think 40 to 50 ounces
a week is what we need.

All right,
let's weigh this up.

All right. Here we go.
Let's get it done.

Two, three four, five,
six, seven eight, nine.

Not even ten.



[narrator]
Worth just over $23,000.

Well, that's
[bleep] horrible.

Horrible.

[Rick] I'll take
the blame for that.

That's on me.

Did that cover
the parts, Jason?

[Jason] Not even close.

If we didn't have those good
cleanups at the start,

and that's what
we were getting,

we'd be going home
right now.

[Rick] I think
we'd already be home.

You know, we mined
a lot of that ground.

Some of it was good,
some of it leaned out.

This was a lean spot.

You know. it was
a shot and a miss.

So, nowadays,
everything is [bleep]
hit and miss, right?

[Rick] Crew cut's
obviously over.

-[Buzz] Yeah.
-Um, we got to find
some better ground,

and we got
to find it fast.

-So what's your plan?
-[Rick sighs]

I mean, there's
endless ground here.

I just gotta find
the right piece, right?

That puts us at, like, nine--
Just shy of 950.

But we do still have


I'm not really sure
where it's gonna come from.

At least we have that 900

-until we find actually
that good ground.
-Yeah. Yeah.

Ideally, I want to be
back at Monster Red,

back in Rally Valley.

Unfortunately,
that's not the world
we live in right now, so...

We've got time
left in the season.

But I mean, you guys
know as well as I do

it's going to start
going fast, so...

[Buzz] We spent a lot of time
out there at the crew cut.

It was a bust.

It is what it is.

We'll move on to bigger
and better things next time.

[Rick] It's a bad week.

We took
a couple of stumbles.

Um, we've still got time.

But if I'm being honest,
I'm starting to feel
the pressure.

You know, we need good ground,
and we need it now.

Hello.

Hi, guys.

[Monica] How are you?

[Minnie] What's been
happening in the Indian?

[Tony speaking]

We had some generator issues
early in the week,

so that, kind of, shut us down
for a day or two.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Yep.

It should be enough
to pay for your bills.

It's definitely not mine.

Oh, you don't
have to worry, Dad.

I got this.

[narrator] To be on track
for his 5,000-ounce target,

Tony needs


[Mike] 40, 50, 60,










[narrator]
Worth over $800,000.

Bringing Tony's season total
to almost 3,000 ounces.

[Minnie] That's not bad
for five days.

[Tony speaking]

You've done good.

[Minnie] Thanks, guys.

[Monica] Okay.

[Tony speaking]

It would. Some things are just
out of your control, too.

-Yeah, yeah.
-Things break down
and parts.

-It'll be--
-I mean, it's not as simple
as it used to be, that's all.

[Tony] Anyway, we'll get
all three of them running.

That 5,000 ounces
will come from somewhere.

You're gonna
go back to work, too,

so get the hell
out of here.

[Tony] Sure.