11x04 - Breaking the Piggy Bank

[bunniefuu]

Don't stop for nobody.

Narrator:
On this "gold rush"...

...Driven by
soaring gold prices,

Tony beets searches
for buried treasure.

Fire that
[bleep] thing up.

Narrator:
On his road to redemption,

Rick ness battles to hit
a major milestone.

I'm just going
to say it right now.

We're going for


Holy [bleep]
shut her down, mark,

Shut her down.

Oh, that was [bleep] brutal.
I almost lost everything.

Narrator:
And parker schnabel's race
to build a w*r chest...

[bleep]
[bleep] [bleep]

...Pushes the crew's limits...

-Holy [bleep]
-well, this kind of sucks.

That's a $10,000 [bleep].

Narrator:
...And could break the scales.

Parker:
That's a hell of a week.

♪♪

--[font color="#ffff00"] Captions by vitac[/font] --
[font color="#00ffff"] www.Vitac.Com[/font]

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

Narrator:
After two disastrous seasons,
the king of the klondike,

Tony beets, is looking to make
a comeback.

Narrator: Nine weeks
into his season,

Tony's fixed the trommel
and is running

Mega cut pay dirt, which he
believes will deliver his


but he's not stopping there.

Narrator:


The potential new ground is at
the heart of paradise hill.

Narrator: To search
for the buried pay streak,

Tony brings
in the 460 excavator.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator:
To get to the pay, tony will
have to move a mountain.

When he opened his first cut on
paradise hill 30 years ago,

He had to pile the worthless
overburden

On top of virgin ground.

Since then, he's mined
around the waste side,

Piling 50,000 yards
of overburden,

Enough to fill 15 olympic
swimming pools

On top of what could be
a massive layer

Of gold-rich pay dirt.

Narrator: Tony's looking
for the virgin ground

Indicated by lighter
colored gold-rich gravels

That should be
beneath the overburden.

♪♪

Narrator:
Tony's hit a pay streak,

But to find out
how much gold it contains,

He must remove


Narrator: If tony's right, this
piggy bank, buried for 30 years,

Could be worth over $1 million.

Monica: Sure do, sure do.

Okay, I will be there shortly.

Hey, what'd you find?

You guys put all this overburden
here, what, 30 years ago?

You don't remember
what it looks like?

Okay. Are you sure
it's gonna pay out?

It cost a bit to
put a d-10 in there

For a couple of days, though.

I know fuel's low right now,
but it still adds up.

All right.

Narrator: Two weeks ago...

Tony gambled
on monica's hunker cut...

...9.92.
-...But struck out.

Now, he's rolling the dice
again.

Moving the overburden

Will cost over $100,000,
and failure will set him back

By at least a week.
With the shortened season,

It's time he can't
afford to lose.

Monica:
We've got a good 30 feet,
maybe 40 feet of overburden

That needs to come off.

Tony seems convinced that
there's going to be a lot

Of pay here, but I don't [bleep]
think so. We'll see.

♪♪

♪♪

You know, we got
a pretty late start this season

Because of the whole covid
thing.

Narrator:
Despite losing four weeks
at the start of the season,


big plans to expand his mining

Empire beyond the yukon.

Even with the late start
we've got this season,

Hopefully we can find
more ground in alaska.

You know, it takes a lot
of money to find more ground.

The gold price
is getting better,

Which is really good.
The best chance that

We've got at finding more ground
is just to, you know,

Take advantage of the high
gold prices, make some money,

And even with a late start
we've gotten this season,

Hopefully we can do that.

Narrator: To build up the w*r
chest he needs to expand,

Parker split his crew in half
to run two massive wash plants.

Mitch:
How'd you sleep last night
with that rainstorm?

Man, I slept pretty good.
-Made me sleep like a baby.

Hey, let me tell you
something as a new father,

The whole sleeping like a baby
thing -- complete lie.

That means you woke up like
at least three or four times.

[ chuckles ]
I can't imagine.

Narrator: In the last cut,
co-foreman mining veterans

Mitch blaschke
and brennan ruault
run wash plant big red.

We had some rain last night,

So we're just hoping that we can
keep up with big red.

Narrator: Four miles west,
loader operator

Aaron bo feeds wash plant
sluicifer.

He's in a race to finish the pay
in time to move the plant.

Just feeding the plant.

I'm trying to finish up
sluicing this egg

So we could
get into our next cut,

Get back to getting that gold.

Narrator:
The wash plant move is part of
parker's radical new plan

To make up for lost time
by pushing his crew

To move the plants
faster and more often.

-What's up, boss?
-Um, yeah.

So, this week we're going
to move the plant.

Last week, mitch and brennan
struggled to move big red...

-Whoa!
-It's going over.

-Oh, [bleep]
-what are you doing

In there, man?

Narrator:
...And ended up costing parker

$200,000 in lost gold.
-That was terrible.

Narrator:
Now the pressure's on aaron
to make sure sluicifer's

Move doesn't go the same way.

Shane is gonna move this plant
whenever he's ready,

And he ain't waiting for you.
-Yeah.

But the timing should
work out alright.

Parker: When you run this
[bleep],

You gotta -- you're gonna have
to stand there and babysit it,

But it's just this spot
so far.

This wet pay is [bleep]
disgusting, though.

Every day, you see like
all four seasons.

We've been seeing a lot of rain,

Which always a concern.
Wet pay, never good, never good.

It always causes problems.

Narrator:
Aaron bo joined parker's crew in


Yeah, let's get
that stuff up to the plant.

Since then, he's proved himself
as a loader operator.

It's just me over here
at big red today.

It's just me
on my lonesome.

Now he's responsible
for running parker's

Most productive wash plant ever.

Aaron:
When I heard that the yukon
had named gold mining

An essential service,
I was real happy about that.

I mean, every day
I just think about how fortunate

I am to have a job.

♪♪

♪♪

[bleep]

♪♪

♪♪

Oh, [bleep]
[bleep] [bleep]

♪♪

[bleep]
oh, no! No!

[bleep]

♪♪

Aaron: You know, I put some
wet material on the belt,

And I noticed that it was all
spilling over the sides there.

Narrator: On indian river,
parker schnabel

Is a month behind schedule,
and his wash plant sluicifer

Is jammed with wet pay.
-I tried to run back

And shut this thing down
as quick as possible,

But I just couldn't
do it fast enough.

Narrator:
Aaron has loaded the hopper
with wet pay dirt,

Which slid down
the slick rubber belt,

Clogged the rollers,
and jammed the conveyor.

♪♪

Aaron:
This is the lesson I've learned
the hard way before.

I guess I was just thinking
about some days off

Instead of focusing on what
I should have been focused on.

Narrator:
Aaron must finish sluicing in
time for the plant to be moved.

This shutdown is costing
valuable time

And over $5,000 an hour
in lost gold.

Aaron: J.M., he's supposed to
take over the plant

For the second half of the day
here.

And this is how he gets started
with his training on the plant.

First lesson --
what not to do.

[ both laugh ]

♪♪

I just cost the boss
about 5 grand.

Oh, okay. We got everything
away from the rollers.

Best case scenario,
everything fires up.

All right.
Moment of truth.

[ motor starts ]

♪♪

Pretty happy to see it --
our plant up and running now.

Sometimes things go wrong
on the mine.

Sometimes
it's somebody's fault.

This time
it was definitely mine.

♪♪

So should we send aaron
through the wash plant?

-[ laughs ]
-[bleep] guy.

I mean, the conveyors are
great until that happens.

Till something
happens, yeah.

Parker:
When you're running soupy
[bleep],you have to sit there

And babysit the plant, and not
be at the other end of the cut

When everything [bleep] up.

Narrator: Parker's back
on track to finish running pay,

But now his crew has even
less time to move the plant,

And he's lost two hours --
valuable sluicing.

I mean, telling me you screwed
up doesn't change

That it's a $10,000 [bleep].

♪♪

♪♪

Rick:
These last couple of years
have been rough

Just breaking even.

I've got to make money this
year,

Otherwise, I'm not gonna be able
to keep gold mining.

Narrator: Rick ness is in the
last chance saloon.

After two years
struggling to turn a profit,

He has to make money
this season,

But he's already two months
late getting started.

Rick:
So, troy said I want my minimum
royalty in the first month.

That's 100 ounces by next week.

Narrator: Rick must deliver


To claim owner troy taylor
by the end of the month

As a guarantee for this season,
or he'll be shut down.

There's only five of us
on the crew,

So I really need
everyone to step up

If we're gonna get as much gold
as possible.

Narrator: So far, he's only
mined 66 ounces of gold.

Sit.
You stay right there.

The late start
and short season mean

Rick needs to motivate his crew
to make every second count.

Look at this.
This is starting to look like

We've got a team here.
[ chuckles ]

You know
I've been struggling a bit

For the last couple of years,
kind of, on where I belong.

I did not set a very
good example last year.

I've pretty much come to terms
with the fact

That I don't belong in an office
at all.

We knew that. We knew that
from the beginning.

-Well, why didn't you tell me?
-I told you. I told you.

Well, we need you in the field.
-Yeah.

I should have been out in
the field a lot more last year,

And I'll rectify that this year.
And that being said,

We all need to tighten up.
I'm just gonna say it right now,

We're going for 1,000 ounces
this year.

I know we've got
a short amount of time,

But if we just work and pound
it out together,

I think we can get it.

Let's do this. We good?
-Go, team.

-All right.
-Let's do it.

Narrator: Rick's plan --

First mine the shallow ground.
That will deliver fast gold

At a high profit in order to pay

Troy his 100 ounces.

With gold banked, he'll then
move to deeper ground,

Which is harder to mine,
but where tests show

There's more gold.

-Mark, you ready to fire up?
-I'm ready.

[ motor starts ]

♪♪

Narrator: New arrival mark
doverspike feeds the wash plant

With gold-rich pay
from the stockpile.

This is my first time
mining on this scale.

There is some pressure here.
I have 20 seconds between loads,

So it demands
your full attention all day.

Narrator: Rick's 700 excavator,
used to dig out

Pay dirt, is down with a blown
hydraulic hose.

Mechanic carl rosk
needs to fix it before

The stockpile of pay runs out,

Or they'll have to
shut down the plant.

Carl: I picked this hose up
on my way up,

And we're gonna feed this
through here right now

And hopefully have this thing up
and running

So the boys can put it to work.

[ dog barks ]

Perfect timing, buddy.
-Yeah?

Gotta run
this line up properly.

-Well, what do you need from me?
-If you could pass it up

Through, just hard for me
to run it up there

And grab it the same time.

-This end?
-Yes, sir.

Just give me a second,
then feed that out in there.

And all right.
There you go.

I'll put it together.
-Awesome.

Yeah, now we're ready
for hydraulic fluid.

It's like two stories
to get up on this thing.

Sure is nice having you
out here, rick.

Yeah, well, I don't know why it
took me two years to figure out

That I'm better off
in the field than the office.

But that's my plan, right?
I have the most experience,

And that means I need
to be out there doing the work

And directing the work.
So I'm gonna

Be out in the field
the whole time this year.

Things are sure different
than last year.

Stepping up and being
the foreman, it's huge, man.

Well, once this hydraulic
oil's in here, you can just

Button it up and --
-yep.

-We'll be back up and running.
-I'll put these covers back on

And put the fan on there
and we'll rock.

All right.

Put this back.

Oh, yeah. Back in business.
You're good to go.

Narrator: Rick gets back
to the cut to send fresh

Pay dirt to the plant.

Chris: So I did some math
and ran the numbers.

When we run two rock trucks,

The pay pile gets bigger
twice as fast.

Karla:
Well, I thought we hauled a*s
with just the three of us,

But sure feels nice to have
some extra hands on board.

This crew seems pretty good.

Everyone is tight, respectful.
Great place to work.

Carl: This year, man,
already a huge change.

Rick's stepping up and, you
know, being the foreman

Is huge for us, right?

Narrator:
Rick's back in the game

With a chance
of getting the 100 ounces

He owes claim owner troy.

Ooh-eee!

Rick: Yeah, it's great to have
carl back.

He got the 700
running right away.

It's my main production
machine.

Now we can really get the dirt
moving, get the gold coming in.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Ruby and I
are up here on this hillside

Pushing it flat.

Narrator: On paradise hill,
tony beets' daughter,

Monica, is on the hunt for gold

To take advantage
of rocketing gold prices.

Tony's gambled
three days of fuel

And crew to dig out a pay streak
he buried 30 years ago

And what he's calling
"the piggy bank cut."

Two biggest expenses in a mining
camp are fuel and people.

Ruby's on the
excavator to feel the edge out,

And I'm pushing
the overburden over.

Narrator:
of the waste site,

Childhood friend
ruby mahoney loads rock trucks.

There's a lot of work
that has to be done here,

So I really hope this is worth
going after.

Me and monica grew up
together in dawson city,

And we became
really good friends.

I distinctively remember

This hill being here back
when I was a kid.

I used to come out and visit her
and do everything dirty

Yukon minor children do.
You know,

I got to play on this ground
beside my friend for years,

And now I get to work beside
my friend on this ground.

It's pretty neat.

♪♪

Huh, looks awfully
white over there.

Tony. Do you copy, tony?

I seem to have found
a little bit of a white layer.

Doesn't seem to be
much of it there.

I don't know if tony's
gonna want to keep going,

Or if he's gonna want
to pull the plug.

Narrator:
Monica has hit virgin ground,

But the pay layer
is only 10-feet wide.

Do you want to just
keep digging down

And hope it's there,
or...

Okay.

Narrator: Despite the smaller
than expected pay streak,

Tony's in too deep now

And can only wait
for the material to be sluiced

And weighed to see
if his gamble pays off.

Monica:
I mean, we seem to have spent
a [bleep] ton of money

To get in here with all the
man-hours and all the fuel cost.

I don't know if tony just didn't
remember how little was there

Or what the [bleep]'s going on,
but doesn't look so hot to me.

There we go. There's the first
rock chunk of faith.

I really hope this is worth it.

♪♪

Parker: Like 5 feet.

That's good

Narrator:
In the promised land,
parker's crew

Is half a day
behind schedule after

Aaron bo jams sluicifer's
hopper.

Now, they have only
six hours to move the wash plant

To its new pad,
a job that normally takes 12.

Don't stop for nobody.

Narrator:
Parker has a new strategy

To move his wash plants
every time

They run out of pay to save fuel
and speed up his operation.

Not many people get to work
with their kids.

It's been a -- it's been
a good experience.

Narrator: He's put
father and son mechanics

Shane and ty smith
in charge of the move.

We've been working together
for the last four years.

Pretty much every single day,

We're up here.
[bleep] sucks some days,

But most the time,
it's pretty good.

Aww. That's only
for the cameras.

Yeah, you guys don't see what
happens at home.

They're getting confused.
[ laughs ]

Ty: Whoa!
You're doing a great job.

[ chuckles ]

♪♪

Ty: Oh, yeah,
look at her go.

♪♪

Whoo-hoo!
[ laughs ]

That guy's nuts.

Like, only he would like
a 100,000 pound wash plant

Sliding down a hill
at him and think it's funny.

Oh, it's looking good so far.
Pull that thing up on the hill,

And we can start putting the
rest of the plant back together.

♪♪

Shane: Looks crooked.

Well, this is
kind of sucks.

There's one pontoon dug
in pretty good.

We can level it
with leveling jacks,

But it takes at least
six hours to do.

I don't want to be
captain obvious.

Shane has [bleep] up
is what's happened.

And now he's trying
to figure out how to fix it.

When you level out this plant,
you got to get the sluice runs

And the plant level
all in one.

And the sluice
runs have to be perfectly level.

There's just no room
to do nothing.

I'm tempted to pull
it back this way,

And then just carve
this out again.

Yeah, let's do that.

Narrator: While pulling
sluicifer onto its new pad,

One of the pontoons dug in,
making the wash plant uneven.

Now, shane wants to pull
sluicifer back down the ramp,

Use the excavator
to level and firm up the pad,

And drag the wash plant back
into position.

It's the only way --
cowboy way, redneck way.

We're gonna pull it
back over the hill

A little bit here,
and then fix up the pad.

Keep an eye on my boom.

Ty: Shaner, keep
your bucket flat,

So if you have to move
that, you can.

♪♪

Hey, shaner,
watch your boom.

♪♪

Shaner, it's coming.

Shaner!

Whoa!

♪♪

Ty:
Shaner, it's coming.

Shaner!

Whoa!

Holy [bleep]
take 'er easy, buddy.

Okay, you're good enough.
-Good?

Ty: Good enough.

Narrator:
Parker has charged shane
and ty with getting wash plant

Sluicifer onto a new pad
before the night shift starts

In just three hours.

That's a little
closer than

It needed to be, but
we're still in one piece.

We're right where
we need to be.

Narrator:
The plant out of his way,
shane levels the pad.

Just flat dug in a little
bit on the one side.

I'm gonna throw
some material in here

And just pad it up a bit
and pull it back on again.

It'll do it.
We'll give her a try.

Pull up here, and
I think we'll get it this time.

We'll just leave it
like this -- speed sluicing.

♪♪

-[bleep] you're a wild man.
-Yeah, baby. [ chuckles ]

Throw the level on that thing.
-Looks pretty level.

Ty: Check her out, cowboy.

-Nice. Looks good. Nice.
-Nice.

What's next, shaner?
Pipeline, stackers?

Yeah.

Narrator:
With the shaker deck level,

Shane and ty bring
in the rest of the pieces

Just before parker returns
to check on progress.

-She happy there?
-She's sitting pretty.

You guys did a really good
job on this thing.

Shane:
It was a battle.

Yeah. Let's see
if this thing will start up.

♪♪

Oh, yeah!

Narrator: Moving sluicifer
took the entire day shift.

Yeah, we got a plant moved
and running.

Takes a little bit longer
to move.

Shaner knows what he's doing.

So I don't worry about things
getting screwed up.

It was just a lot of b.S.
To move.

The next one should
go smoother than that.

Well, that's running fine.

♪♪

♪♪

Rick:
Last year was [bleep] brutal.

That was almost the end
of my career right there.

I had more people on the crew,
and we were working just as hard

But the ground sucked and almost
lost everything.

Narrator:
At duncan creek, rick ness is
leading the charge

Towards his


Rick: This year I'm trying to
stay realistic --

Keep costs down,
send out the crew.

I have 100-hours-plus a week.
I don't take days off,

And I expect
that out of my crew, too.

Narrator:
And he's pushing his crew hard

To make up
for last year's failure.

There's no doubt it takes
a special kind of person

To be able to work like this.

It's a [bleep] lifestyle
that ain't for everybody.

But, you know, one summer
can change your entire life.

That's all there
is to it.

Narrator:
Last week, rick brought on
carl's friend mark.

And the pressure
is on the newest team member

To keep the wash plant fed.

Yeah, so, you know
coming into this season,

It was nice to finally
get under way and head north.

I do a lot of amateur
mining back home.

I have a sluice box
that's like 3-feet long,

And my hoe is a shovel.
This is just bigger.

♪♪

♪♪

Holy [bleep]
mark! Whoa!

Shut her down, mark.
Shut her down!

♪♪

Narrator:
The hose that supplies water to
the wash plant has blown.

-Not good.
-Working with junk, man.

Narrator: Without water,
rick's operation is shut down.

Mark:
Hey, rick. Rick, you got a copy?
We need you down here.

We had to shut down the wash
plant, the lay flat broke.

Rick: All right.
I'm on my way.

Here's the split --
about 16 inches.

This stuff's a little old,
so I'm not surprised.

-This is what happens.
-Like that whole seam,

It's gonna rip it --
down the whole pipe.

We're gonna need another
coupler or something.

Narrator:
Every hour they're shut down

Costs rick in precious lost
gold.

-I just grabbed some [bleep].
-Okay.

Rick: There's
one connector in here.

Perfect.

That lay-flat pipe after time

While it's pressurized
and it's vibrating,

It just splitting open,
and then we lose all pressure.

Tried to put something in there
to keep it from ripping again.

Narrator:
Mark prepares a coupler
to patch the leak.

Mark:
I'm just prepping these surfaces
with this wire brush

It gets corroded.

I'm sure this -- this was
zinc-plated at one time,

But it's not anymore. Check
it for cracks, hook her up,

See if she works.

Carl: You know,
I don't know what time it is,

But we're probably a half
an hour 40 minutes behind

Schedule, right, which isn't
ideal, but it is what it is.

We'll get this thing
hopefully up and running

And hopefully we don't have any
more [bleep] like this, right?

-Good enough.
-Fire it up,

See what it looks like.
-Yeah,

Let's get
this thing running again.

Fire that [bleep] thing up.
-Yep.

♪♪

We're gonna have
to live with that.

It's like we know what
we're doing here.

Narrator:
The hose repaired, the nest crew
gets back to mining.

Get that hose swinging!

The crew's pushing to hit
rick's 1,000-ounce goal

And earn themselves
a goal bonus.

Mark: You know, it does --
the pressure's on all of us.

I'm gonna give it my all
and see if we can do this.

Narrator:
In just two days, rick will
clean the mats and discover

If he's hit the 100 ounces
he owes his landlord,

And if he's into profit yet.
-Already got holes everywhere,

But a $2 fix, it'll get us
through another week probably.

I'm gonna go get some gold
out of the ground.

And start making money
one scoop of the time.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: At the end of the
week, rick and his crew clean up

The sluices,
ready for their gold weigh.

I wonder if anybody adopted
kitten rick yesterday.

Some humane society posted an ad
they were trying

To get rid of these kittens, and
one of them's name was parker,

One of them was tony beets,
and one of them was rick ness.

If I had
an online dating profile,

That cat's description was it.

It said, "it's a little grumpy
from living in the wild,

But you can hold it easily."

[ laughter ]

♪♪

Rick: There's one.
It ain't much of a nugget,

But it is the first
one of the year,

So I'll probably
have to pocket it.

Carry it around for good luck.

-[ chuckles ] see that?
-Holy [bleep]

♪♪

♪♪

-What's up, guys?
-Ricky!

-Can you grab that?
-Yeah.

-You know, not too bad.
-Let me in.

Narrator:
At lower duncan creek,

Rick's crew gathers
for the weekly gold weigh.

Oh, now down to business.

First week gone by with full
crew here.

I'm happy with it.
We did work.

Well this week,
you know together, you know,

We did face some downtime
at the plant.

You know, that's stupid lay-flat
hose, I mean, what a joke.

We're dealing
with a budget here.

But you know as well
as anybody else,

Any kind of downtime
is gonna show up

In the gold pan
at the end the week, right?

-Yes, sir.
-That's mining, so...

No one said it'd be easy.

No. Anyways, should we see
what we're here for?

-Yeah.
-I'm kind of excited about this.

Rick: All right, you guys ready
for this? Let's dump it out.

All right. Come on. Now.
Come on.

Narrator:
Rick needs 34 ounces to hit the


He owes the claim owner.

Karla: 9, 10, 12...




-That's kick-a*s.

Karla: 41.30.

Narrator: Worth $72,000,
giving rick enough gold to pay

The royalty, avoid losing his
claim, and going into profit.

-That's unreal.
-That's awesome.

Staying consistent, too.
-That's with downtime, right?

You take that downtime away,

And that's not far off from
where we were last week.

-Yeah, exactly. I like that.
-So that's consistent.

That's consistent.

That means we're in
good ground for once.

Ain't no joke.
There's gold in this ground.

We're over 100 ounces.
-Wow.

That's the other thing,
with this late start,

I made a deal with troy,
and he said

He wanted the minimum royalty
right up front.

So, that's 100 ounces, and...
-There goes our gold.

That's -- that's due
by next week, but we got it.

Our minimum
royalty's out of the way.

-The rest is ours.
-The rest is ours.

Sounds good to me
after a week here.

-Hell yeah.
-Yeah, buddy.

All right.
Get some sleep.

We got a lot more to do.
Eat, sleep, mine.

Eat, sleep, mine.

♪♪

Narrator:
By the end of the week,

Tony's completely
mined out the piggy bank cut.

♪♪

Okay, let's go.

The beets family meet to find
out if tony's gamble paid off.

What's been
happening this week?

So you've got for four rock
trucks, two hoes,

Cat day and night.
It's a lot.

Minnie: The cost of getting down
there was pretty high.

-And then you had myself.
-That's expensive.

Let's do this thing.

Narrator: Tony needs 85 ounces
to cover his cost.






Narrator:
Worth almost $185,000.

So, and you made about
$185,000 on gold, so.

You covered your a*s.

Narrator:
Tony's profit on the piggy bank
is just $35,000.

Monica: You know,
you were all set

And sure that you were going
to make millions there.

You think you know
what's under the ground.

Minnie:
That's right.

♪♪

♪♪

Parker:
Sorry, I was late.

Narrator: At the end
of a grueling week,

It's time to find out
if parker's new strategy

Of fast and furious
plant moves has paid off.

I heard aaron had quite
the incident down there.

Yeah, he got a little
carried away with some wet pay,

But it's all good.
We got it all sorted out.

Got him back up running.

That move went
pretty good, though,

Really.
-Yeah.

I actually got sluicifer
to run down the hill.

It was kind of cool.
-Did it like slide down?

Oh, yeah,
it was coming quick.

-That's awesome.
-Big red was steady.

We had a lot of run time.
No real issues.

You ready to weigh
up some gold?

-Yes, sir.
-You ready?

Parker:
Let her rip.

Narrator: First up, big red.
With no shutdowns,

It's been running pay
from the last cut

At 220 yards an hour.
-280, 300, 320,



Narrator: Worth $625,000 -- big
red's most profitable week ever.

That's a hell of a week.

Well, shane,
you're the hero.

You ready?
-Sure.

Narrator: Between a conveyor jam
and the move to a new cut,

Sluicifer was down
for a whole day.




-whoo.

Narrator:
Worth $590,000.

-Good week.
-Where we at, chris?

Okay. So for the week,
we got 694 ounces.

-Oh, man.
-Sweet, huh?

For the season,
it puts us at 1,674 ounces.

Narrator: Rocketing gold prices
mean parker's crew has mined

Over $1.2 million worth of gold
in just one week --

That puts us definitely getting
rolling on the right track now.

Thank you guys
for keeping these plants going.

I know it's --
I know it's not easy,

Especially when people stop
thinking for about 30 seconds.

It doesn't even take that long
for [bleep] to hit the fan,

I know, but I appreciate
you guys being patient

With everybody here.
All right. Thanks, guys.

Have a good night.

Narrator:
On the next "gold rush"...

[ thud ]

What the [bleep]

So something
is [bleep] in there.

Man:
We don't have enough people.

We're trying to find somebody
that can help you guys out.

Oh, [bleep]

If we could get this thing up
to 125 yards an hour,

That's a quarter million dollars
a month.

Man: It's a little scary here.
I'm hearing some metal breaking.

Holy [bleep]