13x21 - Trial by Parker

[bunniefuu]

Right now, we are in a w*r
for gold.

We came here
with big aspirations
of financial freedom

but gold has not been as good
as we had hoped.

[narrator]
In the Yukon backcountry,

mine boss Fred Lewis
is struggling to figure out
how things have gone so wrong.

With just weeks left
of the season,

he's only pulled in


well short
of his 500 ounce goal.

Winter's coming way faster
than we had hoped

and, uh, we're in
a crunch for time.

It's just not going
as planned.

In order to make this work,
we're going to have to push
every second of every day.

We've got to get enough gold
to at least pay
for all these bills

to keep us going next season
and to pad the guys' pockets

'cause no one's
going to come back
if they're not getting gold.

[narrator]
To make his season a success,

Fred needs at least


But plagued
by faulty equipment
and shutdowns,

he's averaging just 15.

In a desperate bid
to up his gold,

he's calling in a favor
from one of the Klondike's
big g*ns.

[Fred]
I just got a call from Parker.

He's passing by our mine site
on his way
to his Alaska claims.

I asked him
to come and check out
the operation.

[Parker]
So I've been splitting my time
between the Yukon and Alaska.

More in Alaska than here.

And the traveling
is getting to me.

You know,
I've been back and forth
like a [bleep] yo-yo.

Here in Alaska, we've sunk
a lot of money into it

and I don't know
how I feel about it.

The ground is difficult.
I'm just having
a lot of problems.

Fred's mine site here
is just on the way between
Fairbanks and Dawson.

And he asked me to pop in
and said he needed
some advice on something.

Good to see what he needs
and see what's going on.

Last time I saw him,
he pretty much told me
to go [bleep] myself, but...

it's always good
to get a guy like that's
opinion.

He knows a lot about mining.

And, uh, you never know
what he could see.

- How's it going?
- Good. How are you doing?

- Good to see you.
- Glad you came, man.

Well, this is it, man.

The big thing for us right now
is we're kind of chasing
this quartz vein.

It's funny, actually.

From Papua New Guinea,
remember how we saw them
pounding with the pipe and...

Uh-huh.

I actually built one of those
to test the quartz,

'cause I was like,
"I'm not going to chase quartz
if there's no gold in it."

- And there were some flakes.
- Huh.

Gold seems to be better
on that line.

Off to the sides, it's kind of
like, eh, 0.5, 0.4.

- The biggest we've had--
- What do you mean
"0.5 or 0.4"?


Half an ounce 100.

So what do you need help with?
What's your issue?

Biggest thing
is my wash plant.

If we don't feed it
exactly right,
it doesn't work right.

What do you mean
"it doesn't work right"?

- If they overfeed
the wash plant half a scoop...
- What happens?

It overflows the sluice boxes
right away.

So we're just stuck,
basically, feeding one bucket
every two minutes.

So what is that, like,
a one and a half yard bucket?

Two.

Well, it's supposed
to be a two.

We're barely getting
any gold at all in the bogs.

Hmm.

If you need to pull
the rock like that
out of your sluice box,

like, you've got
a tiny little flake of gold
fighting a rock that size.

Okay.

Nothing's coming off
your top deck.

There's no [bleep] point
having it, really, is there?

Well, depends.

How long have you been
running like that?

- The whole season.
- All year.

We're in scramble mode now.

Just trying to make it last
the rest of the season.

Did you only get
one set of screens?

Yeah.

- For the whole season?
- Yeah.

Okay, well,
that's a [bleep] up, bud.

Well, I'm learning now.
That's why you're here.

You know, I didn't think
it would wear out this fast.

We've gone through
this summer.

Whoo. Okay.

[narrator] Three weeks ago...

It's got a lot
of large material
going down the sluice run.

...Parker's crew discovered
the same problem
on their plant, Big Red.

We've got a bad screen here.

Normally, shaker deck screens
separate large rocks

from the finer,
gold-rich material.

But when worn away
through months of running,

the large rocks fall down
into the sluice runs

where they block
the flow of water

preventing the riffles
from catching gold

and sending it off the end
of the sluice runs.

Now Fred's plant
is losing gold, too.

Do you think it's worth
looking for new screens
this late in the season?

No, you won't get them
in time.

I'm trying to think
of what you can do now.

We don't have anything
that'll fit.

I honestly didn't know.

I didn't know screens wore out
that [bleep] that fast.

I don't know why
I didn't know it,
but I didn't.

I need to look into
finding a way to [bleep]
get new screens.

I'd like to get a chance
to come out and visit you,

but I don't think I can leave.

- Yeah, no. You don't have
time for that.
- [laughs]

You're very busy.

All right, I gotta run.

- Yeah, dude.
Thanks for coming, man.
- Good to see you. No worries.

- Really nice seeing you.
- Take care.

You too.

[Parker]
It's really, really easy

to go and pick apart
somebody's operation.

Um, you know.
There was some points
in the last couple of months

where if you showed up
in Fairbanks at our mine site,

you could be like,
"Holy [bleep],

these guys have no clue
what they're doing."

He's out here trying to do it.

I guess that's worth something.

But anyways, like,
your whole season revolves
around your plant, right?

Like, you've got to
take care of it.

And that's...

Like, they haven't
taken care of their plant.

Fred's going to be
in a tough spot
for the rest of the year.

[Fred] You know,
it's hard as a goldminer

hearing from another goldminer
that you[bleep] up.

But at the same time,

if you don't learn from
those mistakes and fix them,

you're always going to be
a[bleep] goldminer.

The screens are [bleep]

and absolutely ridiculous.

It's something
we've got to fix.

Shut it down.

[narrator] Fred can't afford
to keep running

with the wash plant
losing gold,

so once again, shuts down.

Buzz!

Yeah?

You just missed Parker.
He was talking about the plant
and showing me the problems.

- He said our screen's [bleep].
- Yeah.

And that's what's causing us
pretty much all the problems.

[narrator] Buzz Legault
built Sergeant Sluice

with Fred in his yard
at the start of the season.

Okay.

But if we can get
those screens working,

probably bump the yardage up.

Let's get it fixed.
Let's get the plant running.

[narrator]
To get the operation
back up and running,

Buzz must travel 100 miles
to his home in McQuesten.

It's an 8-hour round trip
with no guarantee
that the screens will work.

The clock is ticking.

It's only a matter of time

before that plant
is down permanently

because of the screens.

[Fred] I'm hoping
that this gamble pays off.

If he can get
those screens that we need

and he can get back here
in time and get it fixed,

get it running more pay
and catching more gold.

[Mitch Blaschke]
If we don't get this dirt

through our wash plants
this season,

well, we certainly
won't be seeing
any of the gold out of it.

Parker's not wanting
to leave anything behind.

He's really wanting
to sluice all of it.

[narrator]
At Parker Schnabel's
Yukon operation,

his right hand man,
Mitch Blaschke, is trying
to achieve the impossible.

Mine out a record-breaking
in just one season.

It starts getting scary
when you think about

how much we've got
to sluice here,

and how close
to the end of the season
we are.

[narrator] Parker's crew
has already sluiced out


hauling in nearly


Now, Sluicifer is two-thirds
of the way through
the Payback Cut

while Big Red has just started
to churn through the massive


[Mitch] This is a giant cut.

We're taking over twice
the amount of material

that we'd normally be sending
to the wash plant.

Really hard on Big Red.

[Liam Pukila]
We're down here in Runway Cut.

It is kind of split
half and half wet and dry.

[narrator] Feeding pay dirt
to Big Red is new hire,


[Liam] This rainy weather
that we've had

and these foggy mornings
aren't doing us any favors

in drying out our material, either,

so we're just working with
what we've got right now.

Hey, Mitch. These grizzly bars
are acting up

and they're sitting sideways.

You think you can come
take a look?

[Mitch over comms] Yeah, man.
I'll be right there.

Oh, [bleep].

Hey, man. No more dirt.
No more dirt.

We've got to
shut it down here.

That thing's ready
just to peel right off there.

Now we've got to
shut the plant down.

Our grizzly bars are the
only thing that protect it.

And, uh, well,
they're about ready to leave
that hopper feeder.

Yeah, we've got
a major problem there.

Hey, Ty, you got a copy, Ty?

[Ty over comms]
Yeah, go for it. Ty.

Hey, man. I need you down here
at Big Red right away.

We've got some big issues
with our grizzly bars.

[narrator] On the Runway Cut,

Mitch has been forced
to shut down Big Red.

Last thing we want to do
is have these grizzly bars
snap off.

It's our only protection
to keep all the big rocks

from going through
our wash plant.

I've got Ty on his way
down here right now.

See what we can do
to get them fixed.

[narrator] The grizzly bars
on the hopper feeder

are too beat-up
to continue operating.

Oh, yeah.

Buddy, she's busted up
pretty good.

Yeah, looks like we've
ripped some stuff apart.



- She be broke.
- Yeah.

[Ty]
Pretty crazy the punishment
this thing's been through.

I mean, you look at
all those big rocks getting
dropped on it 24 hours a day,

and eventually,
something had to give.

Yeah.

We'll just have to see
what we can do to get it
pulled back down,

weld it back up,

plate it up
however we can here.

I'll do what we can.

[narrator]
The hydraulic grizzly bars
stop large boulders

from getting into
and damaging the wash plant.

But after five months'
heavy use,

the frame holding the bars
has bent out of shape

and a hinge has ripped off
the hopper.

The quick fix?
Bend the frame back down

and reattach the hinge bracket
to the wash plant.

Then weld a plate on
to try and hold it in place.

Mitch is just hoping
that I fix this in time.

It's just going to take
as long as it's going to take.

- We've just got to get her
through the year, eh?
- Oh, yeah.

Already starting to fix
[bleep] junk.

[Alec Kelly] The grizzly bars,
they're bent up.

So we're trying to use
our hydraulic cylinder
to pull it down,

just so it's a little
straighter before
we weld it up.

[Ty laughing]

Yeah, so that has
some crunch to it.

[Ty] She don't like that.

We don't have the time
to fix it properly right now.

We're just trying
to limp this thing through
the rest of the season

and we'll fix it properly
next year.

It's not going to be perfect.

[narrator]
With Big Red shut down,

gold recovery expert
Chris Doumitt

grabs the opportunity
to pull the mats.

- [Mitch] Chris,
what's happening, my man?
- Hey.

How's it going, Mitchell?

Those grizzly bars,
they're taking a beating, man.

I don't know how much more
they've got left in them.

Yeah.

We gonna have to just try
and slow it down a little bit.

Will that allow you time
to get through

all the material we have
to get through, though?

Slowing it down?

- Oh, well, that's--
- This time of year?

Can Sluicifer help out?

I mean...

- I'd think.
- ...we'd have to truck it.

Yeah.

If we're going to
slow this thing down,

that would help
get through this.

I mean, we don't like
trucking pay,

but we've got a lot of
new truckdrivers.

They're going to have to be
clipping along to keep up

so we can keep everything else
motoring at the same time.

Well, you either truck it
or you leave it behind.

[Ty] This is definitely
not ideal.

[narrator] After six hours...

Job done.

It ain't pretty.

[narrator] Ty has finished
repairing Big Red's
grizzly bars.

We're firing up.

[Liam] Should be good
for the rest of the year.

We hope.

[Mitch] We've got to make
a change here.

So the only thing we can do
to really make that work,

probably slow
the feed rate down.

We're going to send
some of this material
to Sluicifer

and run that wash plant
at max capacity.

[Chris] He's kind of
in a tough spot.

Running some of that material
down to Sluicifer,

it's expensive,
it's time-consuming,
it's hard on people.

But if we don't sluice it,
we lose it.

So right now, it looks like
that's our only option.

[Tony Beets speaking]

[narrator]
The King of the Klondike,
Tony Beets, is under the g*n.

With only weeks to go
in the season,

he's still
nearly 1,500 ounces short
of his 5,000 ounce goal.

[narrator]
As an insurance policy,

Tony's leased out
his Hunker Creek cut
to the Winchester crew,

who he hopes will bring in
more gold.

Oh, for [bleep] sakes, Butch.

[narrator]
Running the operation...

[bleep]

...is mine boss Jason Fraser.

[Jason] What do you think?

[Jason]
Just water, water, water.

Do you even see
the 4-inch pump?

Water, man.

[Jason] The 4-inch pump
[bleep] the bed.

Well, it's the game, right?

[narrator] Tony's attempts
to mine the Hunker Cut...

[Monica] Uh-oh.

[bleep]

...have been plagued
by flood...

...after flood.

Should have named it
the Cursed Cut,
not the Hunker Cut.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Now the curse
has struck again.

[narrator] Tony stands to make
$100,000 from his share
of their 200 ounce goal.

But so far, they've brought in
just 47 ounces.

[Jason] We've got
significant investment
in this whole operation.

Blood, sweat and tears.

It's days that we won't
see the family or the kids.

You'll spend your summer here

so you can spend
your winter at home
and play Mr. Mom.

And it's kind of a shortchange
if you end up going home

to try and recoup what you
should have made here.

I like to think that
the years of work and toil

will be fruitful in the end.

It's good.

- Put it there?
- Try it there.

[narrator] The crew
start priming
their new 6-inch pump.

I'm [bleep] stoked, man.

It will move 1,600 gallons
of water a minute,

three times more than their
old 4-inch pump.

It's what we need.
I mean, look at the water.

The water's climbing
as we speak.

Get at her, buddy.

[engine starts]

[engine dies]

[engine starts]

[engine dies]

What the [bleep]?

Holy [bleep].

There's, uh...

There's ball bearings
off the, uh...

These are air-cooled engines.

So when it runs,
this continually cools
the engine.

- [bleep] cursed cut all right.
- Yeah.

[narrator] On starting up,
the borrowed pump
has blown a bearing,

shredding the cooling fan.

[Jason] Start a bucket chain
or something, here.

This is [bleep] unbelievable.

[Fred] Parker told us
we need to get better screens.

With the screens we have,
we're just pissing gold
out the end of our sluice.

[narrator]
At California Creek,

Fred Lewis' operation
is shut down yet again.

He needs a new set
of shaker deck screens

to save his season.

Buzz, he went to McQuesten
where he has a bunch of stuff.

Hopefully he found
the right screens
to fit the wash plant.

Been waiting to see him
coming up the road

just so I can know
those screens are here,

because downtime is definitely
our enemy at this point.

[Stuart]
I'm surprised these screens
lasted as long as they did.

Janky. Look at that.
It ripped all the way across.
Look at this.

Look at this one right here.

It's split almost
all the way across.

- Buzz!
- Buzz!

Wow, these look, uh,
I mean, they were...

Are those screens?

Oh, look at this.

[Buzz] I think these
will do the trick.

This is definitely better
than what we had.

We'll put the other one
on top underneath.

The new screens
have these hooking devices
on the ends.

They hook onto the brackets
and keep them from sliding.

We're going to tighten them in
real tight,

and hopefully
they'll be good to go
for the rest of the season.

[narrator]
The replacement screens
were being used as fencing

and need bush-fixing
to fit the plant.

[Fred] Not as nimble as
I used to be.

First, Fred lays down rubber
on the shaker deck frame
where the screens will sit.

Go a little farther up.

Keep hitting it a little
closer to where it split.

There you go.

Sucks being a leprechaun, eh?

[narrator] Next, JB and Stuart
fit the new screens in place,

hooking them into brackets
to secure them.

[Stuart] They're from
a different wash plant,

so these things are not
really meant for this.

So we'll have to see.

Just a [bleep] job.
[bleep] weather. [laughs]

You know, the only thing
you can do is laugh.

You know, what's just so crazy

is the Yukon just does not
give you anything.

You've got to [bleep]
for every [bleep] thing.

These guys
are working their asses off.

It's just making us
want the gold more.

[JB] Screens are done! Ha!

We're done!

It's a miserable [bleep] job.
It's a miserable [bleep] day.

I'm just happy it's done.

This, in the long run,
is going to probably
save our season.

[narrator]
After two days shut down,
Buzz's refurbished screens

could be the lifesaver
Fred's crew desperately needs.

If Sergeant Sluice
can now run flat-out
for the rest of the season,

they have a shot of turning
their fortunes around.

We'll get this thing fired up
and let's see what it does.

Without these new screens,

we'd probably be limping by
and probably be losing
a lot of gold.

So I take the advice
and the friendship from Parker

to help me get this thing
going right,

and now it's running.
We're going to get back to it.

[Mitch] It's been
the most brutal season
we've ever had.

You can see this material
that we're sending
to the wash plants right now.

A lot of big, blocky stuff.

It certainly did some abuse
to Big Red.

[narrator] Parker's foreman,
Mitch Blaschke,

is battling to mine out
the 90-acre airstrip
by the end of the season.

[Mitch] We just had to make
a really big decision.

To take some of the pressure
off of Big Red,

we have to turn
the feed rate down on it

and send some of this dirt
down to Sluicifer.

[narrator]
On the receiving end
of the extra paydirt,

Sluicifer's plant boss,
Tyson Lee.

[Tyson] There's a lot going on
around right now.

We have rock trucks
going everywhere hauling pay,

we have loaders
going everywhere,

excavators swinging,

dozers pushing.

It's the final crunch
to the end of the season,

so everyone's trying
to be on their A game here

and trying to get as much done
in as little time as possible

before we get frozen out.

Today, we're hauling pay
from the Runway Cut
over to Sluicifer.

And the pressure's on.

We've got to get
this dirt moved,
keep Sluicifer running here.

[narrator] It's 22-year-old
rock truck driver Joe Floria's
first season

gold mining in the Yukon.

[Joe] Been up here
running rock truck

for about
month and a half now.

I'm hoping to be
an excavator operator
next season.

Working at this mine is great.

It's a fun time.
Everybody works hard.

Normally try and keep
the runs, uh,
five-minute turnarounds.

Keep the trucks going
nonstop all day.

Got to do what we've got to do
to get the pay to Sluicifer, here.

So, just going to
work through it.

No lunchbreak.
That's all right.

- [crashing]
- Oh, [bleep].

Hey! [bleep]!

Tyson, Tyson. Get down here.

We've got a rock truck,
it looks like
it's in the pond.

[bleep]

[bleep]

Tyson, Tyson.

We've got a rock truck,
it looks like
it's in the pond.

[narrator]
A Yukon rookie has driven his


and almost
into the tailings pond.

I just got too close
to the soft edge
and it sucked me right in.

Yeah.

It's scary.

If I was fully loaded,
the truck would have
rolled into the pond

and I would have went
for a swim.

We'll get her pulled out here
before it's too late.

[bleep]

- It's barely hanging on there, so...
- [Tyson] Yeah.

We're going to have to be
really careful here.

The last thing we want
is this thing to roll over
on us

and end up
down in the drink, there.

[narrator] Mitch and Tyson
attach lifelines
to two excavators

to save the million dollar
rock truck.

[Mitch] We've got it rigged
on the high side
on the front and back.

What we'll try and do here
is just pull it over
a little bit if we can.

If it's too heavy,
we're going to have to
try and roll it back

and bring it out
the same way it went in.

Nice and easy, here.

Come on, baby.

Tyson, just hold there.

Come on.

There we go.

Well, we should be good
to drive home from there,
I think, Mitch.

I like it, man.
That was a pretty good day
of fishing.

- How are you?
- Good.

- You all right?
- Yeah.

Yeah, just try and slow down
a little.

Yeah.

[Tyson] It could have ended
a lot worse than it did.

[Joe] It was a close call.

Really lucky
that that happened
on the way back to get loaded.

Definitely could have been
way worse.

[Mitch] That was about
as close as you can get.

A lot of new people here
this year.

You know, and you've got guys
that are new

and they're, you know,
checking everything out,
learning everything

and everybody here
is pushing it

trying to get as much
of this material moved
as fast as we can

and, you know,
it's all good until it isn't.

That almost was, uh, real bad.

I know.

But it's my [bleep] problem.

I don't, but I've got
lots of [bleep] water.

[narrator] Mine boss
Jason Fraser is stuck
between a rock and Tony Beets.

The pump Tony loaned him
is busted.

Without a new one,
his season is over.

Yeah.

We'll make the best of it.
Thanks, man.

[Jason] I think he's
definitely helped us out here.

[Tony speaking]

It's all yours.

[narrator]
With their first and second
pumps both broken...

[bleep]

...the Winchester crew
are hoping
the third time's a charm.

Whoa. Whoa.

Put her down.

There we go.

[engine starting]

[engine dies]

[engine struggling]

[engine starts and dies]

[bleep]

[engine starts]

[Jason] Excellent, man.

That means
this cut's going to be dry.

[narrator]
The new 6-inch pump
now working,

Jason and Butch
fire up the wash plant.

[Jason] That's it.

[Butch speaking]

Ready to run it?

[narrator] After a shutdown
and two lost days sluicing,

the Winchester crew
are back chasing
their 200 ounce target.

Sluice, sluice
and sluice some more.

Yeah.

[narrator]
Tony Beets is in Dawson City
on a rescue mission

to help out an old friend,

tourist paddleboat owner,
Brad Whitelaw.

[Tony speaking]

This water came up so fast
this morning

that the trailer tires
were underwater.

[horn tooting]

The longer it sits underwater,
it will just get stuck
in a water hole.

[Brad]
I sure appreciate it, Tony.

Time to pull the mats
and see what kind of
gold we got.

This is our first mat-pull
since we changed over
the screens

from what Parker suggested
us to do.

What the screens did
was separate the material better.

And we could see that
in the sluice run.

Could see that
in our feed rate.

[narrator] After swapping out
an old set of screens,

third-year mine boss
Fred Lewis' crew

ran more dirt this week
than ever before.

Now, Fred's hoping
it results in double
his average gold haul.

[Fred] Moment of truth.

How are they looking?

Um...

[Stuart]
I'm seeing like just, like,

really, really fine like--
like powder, but...

We're on bedrock.

- We should be seeing chunks.
- Yeah, I know.

I'm not seeing anything.

- It's freaking me out.
- Yeah, it really is me too.

[Stuart] With the modification
that we made,

we were expecting
a little bit more
than what we have,

so it's, uh,
this is not optimal.

[Fred]
This isn't a screen problem.

This is a ground problem.

It's part of mining
in a valley
that nobody has drilled

and nobody has
any data on. It's...

Gold goes where it goes,
not where you're going, so...

[dog barks]

He's feeling it.

[narrator] With just


time is quickly running out
for Fred to hit his goal.

I know you guys
have been feeling
the same thing.



probably isn't going to happen
at this point.

I don't want you guys
pushing out here

for a goal
that we can't reach.

We're going to lower it
to 200.

But understand
that 200 is not a gimme.

We're still looking like
we may even
fall short of that

if we don't pick it up,
get this plant running.

Keep the [bleep]
pay coming to it.

Let's fight hard
this rest of the season.

[narrator] If they can pull in


before winter
freezes them out,

Fred will break even

and still be able
to send his guys home
with gold in their pockets.

[Christopher Parker]
It does suck. We, uh...

We've just been suffering
constant breakdowns,

just constant mishaps.

And there's not really
a whole lot
you can do about it

except to just buckle down
and keep on grinding.

[JB] It's not a big
surprise to me, really.

We may not even reach 200.

And we don't have long here.

I mean,
winter's setting in quickly.

[Stuart] If we don't hit
the 200, or at least close to,

I mean, I can't see Fred
feasibly wanting to, uh,
come back and do this again.

So a lot's riding on it.

And that's in the back
of everyone's heads right now.

They might not, you know,
show it,

but I guaran-[bleep]-tee you
they're thinking it.

[Fred] We fought
so much this season.


a lot of gold.

It still gets our company
right where it needs to be,

but it's also going to be
really hard to hit.

[Jason] Your boots dry yet?

I bet.

[crew laughing]

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] So far,
the Winchester crew has mined
just 47 ounces of gold,

averaging eight ounces a week.

Tony's hoping
the gold they've mined
from the last four weeks

will show a big increase.

[Jason] Hey, guys.

How are you?

[Minnie grunts]

[Jason] There we go.

[Minnie] Nice chair.

- [Butch] Good.
- Well, you know...

[Jason] Slightly.

The third pump's
doing well, man.

We're happy.

We seem to be.

So, shall we weigh some gold?

I think we should weigh
some gold.

[narrator] To hit their
season target of 200 ounces...

Five...

...the Winchester crew
are aiming for 50.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Forty.

- Keep going.
- Forty-five.

Fifty.

Fifty-five.



[narrator] Worth $100,000,

bringing their total
to 106 ounces.

Well, now that we've got
the water issues
under control,

hopefully it'll be
smooth sailing for
the time that we have left.

[narrator] The Winchesters
still have a shot

of hitting
their 200 ounce target.

But to do it,
they need to double
what they've mined so far.

Super.

- Maybe next time.
- [Butch laughs]
"Maybe next time."

- [Minnie] Yeah,
I would too, actually.
- Yeah.

- Thanks, guys.
- Thank you.

[Butch] Thanks, Minnie.

[Chris] Hey, there, youngster.

Hey, guys.

So how have you guys been?

- Good, man.
- Things going okay?

It was an interesting week.
We had a rock truck
almost land on the water.

He was driving down the road
trying to eat a sandwich
or whatever,

and he's like,
"Bam, next thing I know,
I was off the road."

I'm like, "Well, at least,

thank you you didn't tell me
that you saw a moose

and you swerved off the road
like so many other people do.

Like, at least you're honest.
There's a lot to be said
for that."

People don't realize
that they're driving around
in a big machine, you know?

It's like
those trucks are not small.

- Yeah.
- Exactly.

Overall, it's going okay, though?

- Yeah, we're gaining on it.
- Good.

You want to see?

[Mitch] Well, the gold shows.

[narrator] So far,
Parker's Yukon crew
have mined 60 acres,

delivering 5,372 ounces.

[Mitch] So this is Big Red
and down on the runway.

Now, the crew are eager to see
how much Big Red can add
to the total,

despite running
at a reduced speed.

[Mitch] Seventy, eighty...

Hundred, 130, 160, 170...

Two hundred. 220. 250. 270.



- Not bad.
- Not a bad run.

- That's good.
- [Chris] Not bad at all.

- [Mitch]
Especially turned down.
- [Ty] Yeah.

I like seeing that.

But anyway, come here, T.
This was Sluicifer.

[Tyson]
Let's see what she did.

Forty, 80, 120, 160,

two hundred, 220, 260, 280,

three hundred...

- [Mitch] There we go.
- ...320, 330...



[Chris] I think we're on
some hard ground.

[narrator]
Sending the extra pay
from Big Red to Sluicifer

has paid off,
giving a combined total
of 620 ounces,

worth $1 million.

That gives us a season total
of 5,991.

That's a hell of a cleanup
there and, um...

thank you, guys,
for taking care of this place

and letting me roam.

Thank you for trusting us.



No, you guys are doing
a great job.

Well, speaking of doing
a good job...

[Mitch laughs] We'd better
get back out there again.

Go wash me some rocks,
will you?

We'll go wash some rocks.

Just remind your drivers.

Rubber side down
and keep it
between the lines, right?

- All right.
- Cool.

All righty. I'll bag it up.

- Thanks, guys.
- Yep. Later.

- Good to see you.
- You too, man.

Thanks, Chris.

Yeah, no worries.