15x18 - Another Man's Treasure

[bunniefuu]

Everyone has been working
nonstop here busting their asses,

trying to move this overburden.

I mean, we've made a lot of progress,

but we've got a long way
to go here in Vegas valley.

And that is, no small
project to try and do,

especially this late in the year.

It's the start of fall.

And in what could be Rick ness's
last ever season at Duncan creek,

he's on a do-or-die mission to
hit a potential $2 million payday.

We gotta make this
place work like clockwork.

We gotta be as efficient as we can.

We'll get down to this
pay as fast as we can

if we're gonna have any
chance of sluicing again this year.

But to get the gold,

Rick's had to spend
the entire crew's profits.

All that gold bonus
right now is being spent

instead of going in our pockets.

So if we don't hit that goal
at the end of the season,

that doesn't just ruin Rick,
I mean, that ruins us all.

We've just been, you know,
pretty much spending money,

and we're going to be spending money

until we get finally down to the pay.

So it's definitely a big gamble over here.

Earlier this season...

Make sure you get every last bit.

Rick hit a 900-ounce jackpot

mining out the rally valley pit.

Three hundred and
ninety two point one three.

- Awesome.
- Jeez, Louise, man.

Three weeks ago, he went
on a high-stake treasure hunt...

The channel from rally valley
comes all the way down the valley.

Chasing the same
nugget-rich pay channel

at the bottom of the


The drill holes are showing
between 200 and $250,000 a day.

To get to the gold,

Rick's crew has dug
down nearly 100 feet,

but they've still got more than 60
feet to go before they hit pay dirt.

With no gold coming in, the
pressure is on to ramp it up.

- It's a big project.
- There's a lot of dirt to move,

but you know, there's only so much
time left, only so many hours of the day.

And we're running three trucks right now.

I do have a fourth truck, and
that's what we need to get this done.

I'm kind of maxed out
with people right now.

Ryan, my mechanic's running the truck.

Jason and Heather from the
office, they're all running trucks.

So really, I'm gonna
have to get another person.

- Yo.
- Yo.

I think it's time to park this thing and,

maybe get a truck and
help those guys out.

I mean, Bailey's sitting in that 750.

You know, there's three
trucks running right now.

That 750 is more than
capable of loading four trucks.

So if you can get in that fourth truck,

keep that one excavator
going, I think that's the best bet.

I know you don't like it, but
that's the game now, right?

You know, get in the truck.

Thanks, bud. Get in the truck.

Everybody wants that job
on the top, the excavator,

because it's the most,
you know, it's prestigious,

and that's kind of where
buzz is at right now.

Buzz doesn't feel like he should be,

you know, in a truck or
you know what I mean?

But that's just not how it works here.

Everybody's gonna wear a lot of hats.

Buzz in the fourth rock truck

allows Rick to shift an extra


And he should now be on track
to hit pay in less than two weeks.

Hey, buzz.

- How's the new truck working out for you?
- Doing good?

You're doing such a
great job over there, man.

Hopefully it gets a little bit faster here,

but, you know, right now it's all on me.

I like the responsibility and the pressure.

You know, it's... it's nice.

- [Hey, buzz, you got a copy?
- You got a bleep] Ton

of black smoke. You
better get that looked at.

That's pretty black.

Sounds like.

All right. Let's get it shut off.

Don't get a load or don't do any of that.

We'll end up melting this engine down.

My biggest fear is that
we've got a locked-up turbo.

The turbo should be
able to spin freely by hand.

And I can't even get it to spin.

So, yeah, that's... That's
what I was afraid of.

When it's not feeding air to the engine,

the engine's running on pure fuel only,

and that's why we had
black smoke coming out.

Buzz probably stuck a rock
in here and sabotaged it.

I don't blame him. Rock trucks suck.

To get buzz back on the road,

mechanic Ryan Kent
replaces the broken turbo

with a $4,500 spare.

Everything right there looks good.

Done, clean, fluids changed.

It's unfortunate for you.

You get to haul slop.

Fire it up.

All right. Well, good enough for me.

After just four hours downtime,

Ryan's quick fix has buzz back
in the race to hit Vegas valley pay.

And you're back.

It's nice, man. We've
got four trucks going.

Hopefully, it's working good.

Time is really not our friend this season.

It's been a rough one
as far as gold goes.

But it could be a lot worse.

Record-high gold
prices are saving our a*s.

One hundred miles east,

Parker schnabel is battling to
save his season from disaster.

His ambitious plan to hit
big gold at dominion creek

severely misfired,

and Parker's been pivoting ever since.

We really need three plants running.

You know, we've got big red and
Roxanne running right now on dominion,

but you know, like just gold total wise,

our only hope of getting ahead this fall

is going to be to keep three
plants running as long as we can.

To turn his fortunes around,

Parker gambled $2.


ground at sulphur creek,

hoping for a quick 1000-ounce score.

So far, it's delivered nearly 400,

but had to be shut down for two weeks

while the crew stockpiled more pay.

Bob hasn't been able to stay running,

mainly because it's just hungry.

Two hundred and thirty
yard an hour wash plant.

But they got the pay pile stacked back up

and we can fire the plant
back up and get running again.

And hopefully Damien
can make that happen.

To help bail him out,

Parker needs sulphur creek's plant boss,
Damien browne to deliver 600 more ounces

by the end of the season.

So how are things going?

Pretty good.

You have a hoe operator
and two truck drivers.

It's just like smaller crew.
It's spread so thin already.

- Yep.
- You know.

That plant is very hungry.

But if you can keep the pay pile built up,

you might be able to keep it going, right?

- Yeah.
- You'll be fine.

And just try to keep
the wash plant running.

- It's that easy.
- Yeah.

We have pay up, and get Bob
fired up and get some pay into him.

Well, let's fire it up.

Just gonna have to go down and pump.

I just gotta get loads
of water jetting out.

You can't exactly expect us to
bloody run that through a wash plant.

Sean, do you copy, Sean?

Yeah, go ahead.

Can you come over and
meet me by the pond?

Yeah, 10-4, buddy.
I'll be over in a couple.

Cheers, mate.

What's going on, buddy?

So, as you can see,
we're fighting here with this

flowing in from our ditch.

The previous owners used
this pond as a waste dump,

and now we're paying the consequences.

We're going to have to come up
with some sort of a solution to stop this.

It's just absolute dirt.

You can't exactly expect us to
bloody run that through a wash plant.

At sulphur creek, the intake
pond feeding wash plant Bob

is filled with junk.

Damien can't fire up until
he has a clean water source.

What do we think about a culvert?

Put it below the water level
and then sticks stay on top

and everything just goes
underneath through it.

It's a day's work just to get that done.

I was kind of thinking build
some sort of a beaver dam.

Stop all this floating on top,

and the water should
flow in underneath it.

We've got quite a few
nice spruce trees up there.

Look like they'd float pretty good.

That should slow it down
quite a bit, I would think.

That's a bloody good idea. I like it.

To stop junk from floating
into the plant's water supply,

Damien's creating a
makeshift dam of trees,

then will clear the debris
from the smaller pond.

This is a real bush fix.

We'll find out pretty damn
soon if it's gonna work.

And, hopefully, I'm not the
laughing stock of the Yukon.

If his bush fix works,

Damien will have saved
hours of downtime and lost gold.

I'm just crossing my fingers right now

we can fire Bob back up again.

Let's hope now that
that's the last of our issues.

I think if this doesn't work.

Parker's gonna be pissed with me.

Whoa! Far out.

The water is looking
pretty good right now.

Whoo!

I'm damn happy with that.

King of the klondike, Tony beets,

is looking to finish the season strong.

He's mined over 3,800 ounces,

but has hobbled with just one
wash plant sluicing for gold.

To get back on track,

Tony wants a second wash
plant up and running fast.

And he's looking to his
daughter to take on the challenge.

Three weeks ago,

daughter Monica tried to kick
start her own operation at paradise.

You told me this cut
was going to be mine.

And mine the three-acre hester cut,

a pocket of virgin ground Tony believed
was missed by the old timer's dredges.

But an unexpected
discovery in the super pit

diverted Tony's resources
and torpedoed her dreams.

But I'm feeling a little shafted.

Hey, I've been expecting you.

It's been like a nonstop issue.

Everything to do with this hester cut

being just sort of pushed down the list.

Yeah.

Done deal.

Sounds like a plan.
I'm happy to get it going.

I'm really glad to see
it's finally happening.

It took long enough.

Nice to see that the guys showed up.

Without a crew of her own,

Monica needs her brother Mike and
his crew to get her pump into position.

See, we've got a ramp down here.

We'll put the pump down right in there.

I'll drive it in myself 'cause
that's a little bit tricky ground.

And if you're willing to do it, be
my guest. Thank you very much.

You are a good brother.

I'm always happy to give my
sister a helping hand whenever I can.

She wants to have a
look at what's in this cut.

So, first step, a long time
coming, but it's finally happening.

To drain the hester cut,

Mike is bringing in one of Tony's
famous Frankenstein machines.

This monster has been brought to life,

fusing the body of a 65-year-old
pipe layer with a 30-year-old pump.

Mike will drive it down to the cut,

use its 20-foot-long boom to extend out,

lower its six-inch submersible
pump into the deep water

and directly suck out


- revealing the hester cut's.
- Gold-rich pay,

the guys are getting things going.

We can just lay the hoses out.

Hopefully, very soon
we'll be pumping water

water and it'll be all hunky dory.

To remove the water,

Monica needs to pump it 150
yards away into an old settling pond

on the other side of the access road.

Stick it in.

There you go.

Hey. Hey. We did it.

They'll have that hooked up in no time.

And then we'll start it up.

- So...
- We are going to start it up.

We're gonna start it up, yeah.

Last step, attach the lay flat to the pump.

You are gonna be the
bane of my existence.

This ain't gonna line up the way I want.

Because me, apparently.

The final clasp that holds the
pipe onto the pump isn't closing.

So if you look, it's stuck like so.

So they're just trying to use brute
force to push it closed so it holds.

Sometimes it's just a pain in
the a*s and it doesn't want to go.

More push out, yeah.

That's what they're just arguing with.

She's not budging.

Yeah, we have to get it.

- Eventually, she'll catch.
- There we go.

It's never coming off.

That was a pain in
the a*s. I'm finally done.

Next step is to put the
submersible pump in.

- You ready?
- Yep.

That doesn't sound very happy.

Whoo!

Good to start the engine.

Now we'll let it warm up for a second.

And we can hopefully
start drying this cut.

Pull the lever.

- Whoo.
- -With the hester cut draining,

Monica is one step closer

to getting her own piece
of the beets family empire.

It's really nice to see
the pump up and running.

Hopefully only be a couple of
days before that hole's pumped out.

So we can start moving some dirt.

I'm excited to see what's
gonna come out of this hester cut.

It's only been a couple of days

since we've had the fourth truck.

And they moved a lot of dirt.

There's a payoff here if we can get to it.

Rick ness's crew is running four
trucks to get down to a gold bonanza

at the bottom of the


We've got a small crew.
But we've got to work hard.

And we got to work tight
together to make this happen.

Hey, you know, it's definitely a little bit
busier now with four trucks going here.

But this is what we've got to do

to get to the pay and get that gold.

His small crew stretched to the limit,

Rick's asked foreman buzz to drive
truck and haul 90 loads every day.

Buzz is in a rock truck right
now, and he's not happy about it.

But if a small team's gonna work,

everybody's got to be willing to sacrifice

doing that they don't want to do.

And that's just how it's gonna be.

If you b*tch about it, you
might as well just go home.

I feel like buzz would
prefer not being in a truck,

but being in an
excavator or working on it.

Getting the plant ready to move.

But he's got to be in a truck right now.

I mean, the goal is 1,500 ounces,

and we're not going to get there if
no one wants to get into a rock truck.

Really missing that loader
grading this road down a little bit.

It's rough on me. I can only
imagine it's rough on the truck.

Yeah, rough roads, not fun.

I just ripped a hole in my pants.

That's how rough the roads are.

The four rock trucks
constantly hauling waste

have beaten up the


Rick, do you have a copy?

Yep, go for Rick.

This road is so bumpy. My phone
is like, "are you in an emergency?

Why are you shaking so hard?"

Copy that. Rick for buzz.

To fix the uneven section of road,

buzz gets back into an excavator
and lays down course rocks,

but is still not happy.

Hey, buzz, you got a copy?

Buzz must have fell asleep.

Used to be last year it was just like,

"well, he goes out to work 4:30
in the morning every morning,"

so I guess it's okay if he takes a
nap during the middle of the day.

But let me find out he's just
sleeping out there anyways

and now he's not even going out early.

So now he's been
sleeping during the day.

I don't really know what to do about it.

I just keep sitting around hoping
that he's gonna shape up, but,

it kind of isn't happening.

Why the does he not know

that he can't sleep on the job?

Hey, buzz!

For the love of, hey, stop sleeping in the.

You know, everybody else is tired,

but everybody else is, you know,

out here in a machine doing their jobs,

and we got you sleeping
machine right in everybody's face.

Like, what kind of
message does that send?

They're gonna listen to a guy
that sleeps on a machine all day.

I think every ounce of gold
Parker can get this year he needs it.

I think the wash plants are
going to be shaking right up

until they can't shake no more.

Damien and his crew

have been sluicing for three days

and are hopeful it will deliver
big gold by the end of the week.

Bob is so bloody hungry.

Like, I didn't think we were going

to get through this
ground as quick as we are.

We just really need to
keep hammering hard at it.

Operator Jacob mcclure
is feeding the wash plant,

while Damien is in the
only excavator on site

loading pay dirt for his
crew to haul to the pay pile.

Yeah, it's nice having
the plant back going,

getting sluicing again to
keep the money coming in.

There is good gold here.

The truck should have six-wheel drive,

but she's only down to two-wheel.

There's been so much mud in the wet time
of the season, it makes it real difficult.

But for now, it's just a matter of us

getting that pay stockpiled so
we can keep this thing running.

Piece of. Come on, man.

Let's go. Come on.

We're gonna have to get a pull out.

Damien, you got a copy, buddy?

Yeah, go ahead.

I've got a little issue here.

Kind of buried the back end of this truck.

Gonna need a little tug.

Hang on. Okay, I'll run over.

Yeah, he's just gonna have to
grab me right by the front of the box.

He's just gonna have to
give me a little pull here,

and I'm just gonna have to put my
foot into her and work on my way out.

All right.

Come on. Come on. There we go.

Me.

Like, that's a big a*s crack.

I can get my knife straight through it.

I mean, man, we cannot run it like this,

otherwise, this whole copper
is gonna rip clean off the bucket.

Pulling the 45-ton truck out of the mud

has cracked the top plate of the bucket.

We have to shut this 480
down. We can't run it like this.

I mean, Parker's gonna be pissed.

It's just after 4:00 in the morning now.

We cannot justify having an
excavator down for any time at all

because it's hard keeping
up with that wash plant.

Damien browne's only
excavator at sulphur creek

is down with a broken bucket.

He's driven 25 miles to
Parker's dominion lay-down yard

on the hunt for a replacement.

Because there's so
many buckets around here,

I'm not 100% sure which is the right one.

I'm pretty sure this one is the same.

I bloody really hope it is.

We're just really needing to get
this bucket back. Over to sulphur

and get this hoe back up and running.

With the few people and
the equipment that we have,

it's getting stressful.

Yeah, 10-4. And I'm
getting kind of concerned.

Home sweet home.

Hopefully, this bucket is
the right one for this coupler

because if it's not, yeah,
it's a massive kick in the nuts.

That had me worried there for a moment.

Yeah.

Boom.

Yeah, boys.

It's time to get some gold back to Parker.

A new bucket fitted to the 480,

Damien avoids shutting
down wash plant Bob

and gets back to building up the pay pile.

It's awesome that Damien
worked so hard to pull through

and managed to come
up with that bucket

and get us going first
thing in the morning like that.

Now we're back to hauling pay.

Yeah, we finally got a
bucket on this machine,

and we're building up the stockpile again,

and the plant still has pay in front of it.

So that's all that really matters.

On a mission to ramp
up gold production,

Tony beets has son Mike
running his trommel at full throttle.

And after four days of draining,

he's hoping to get the first pay

out of daughter Monica's hester cut.

Yeah.

Sure.

Nice.

And no.

Well, it still looks pretty wet to me.

The hester cut was
previously stripped down to pay,

but the banks have caved in
and turned it into a swampy mess.

We really should've pulled
everything out in the spring,

but, you know, should
have, could have, would have.

Yes, sir.

On the hillside of the hester cut,

the banks are super
saturated with water,

causing the soil to liquefy and
collapse into the cut covering the pay.

To hold back the mudslides,

the beets must haul in coarse rocks

from a nearby pile of old
tailings to sure up the bank.

The tailings will also
act as a French drain,

allowing excess water
to flow into the cut,

which will then need pumping
out once everything has settled.

If we don't push some
of these ceilings in

the hillside is going
to fall in pretty soon.

How's your end going?

Yeah, totally.

To get more tailings to stop the
landslide from covering even more pay,

Monica switches to an
excavator and loads a rock truck.

Whoa!

Get it over there.

All right.

Well, I see a lot of gravel down here.

Hopefully the hillside
won't fall down anymore.

The waterlogged hill is
still too dangerous to mine.

Until it dries out, Monica's
plans are put on hold once again.

It's never ending.

I don't know if the hester
cut will get started ever.

Hello, baby.

I love you.

Mwah.

After nearly five months away,

Damien's wife, Pascal, and son, Malachi,

have traveled all the way
from Ireland to see him.

- We're going in the rock truck.
- Whoo-hoo.

Whoo.

Broom, broom, broom,
broom, broom, broom.

Say bye bye to mommy.

Wow! Look at the loader.

It feels amazing to see
Malachi with his dad.

Driving around in the trucks
'cause he loves machinery.

Where?

There's mama?

I'm sure he won't want to get out of it.

Beginning this season. I know I
had the best crew out here to start it,

and I got to figure out
a way to end it that way.

At Vegas valley, Rick's crew
have been running four trucks,

and now have less than 20
feet to dig before they hit pay,

but it hasn't been clear sailing.

Buzz doesn't feel like
he should be in a truck.

And you can tell he's doing
it with a chip on his shoulder

and he's doing the bare
minimum and everybody can see it.

And that's the problem.

Rick for buzz.

Come and meet me down
by the side of the road.

The reason I wanted to talk to you

I mean, just, yeah.

You know, everybody else is tired,

but, we got you sleeping on a
machine right in everybody's face.

Like, it's not fair to everybody
else. I mean, it really isn't.

And it's, you know, it's a problem.

You know, all season hasn't felt like

you've really wanted to
be as involved as last year.

So...

Well, talk to me.

I know. Yeah, I know that.

I didn't kick you out of that to be.

I kicked you out of that
because I needed you.

I need you doing more than one thing.

I keep Bailey in there because
Bailey is not able to do other things.

Look at how many people we have here.

There's not a 100-person crew here.

I mean, if I've got to fill in,
I'm gonna go sit in the truck.

You're not the senior operator.

You're not the guy on this crew.

You're gonna jump in where you fit in

or you're gonna go the home.

It's just how it is, so...

Yeah. I.

I mean, I.

I didn't see that.

Sorry,

I

I need you.

These guys need your help.

I mean, I want you
to be part of this team.

You're a big part of this team.

- I made that clear last year, you know.
- Okay.

And, I mean, I said it a
lot last year and I meant it.

You know, like, this is
the best team I've ever had.

But I don't want to lose anybody.

Well, you're at the top of the heap.

If you're sticking around, are we good?

We're on the same page.

It's the only way it's gonna work.

Honestly?

All right.

I ain't getting up at 4:00 in the morning

when you're due to
have a meeting with you.

So you can off with that.

If you want me to send you
flowers, I ain't doing that either.

Give me a hug.

- All right, pal. Good talk.
- Yeah.

I'll give you another... I'll
give you another hug at dinner.

It's good to clear the air with buzz.

I think the air is clear. I
mean, it is on my part.

Do I think he got everything
off his chest? I'm not sure.

He sounded like he wanted to
get pretty animated about his role,

you know, and the trucks
and all that, and I get it.

But, you know, that's my decision.

We're a small crew and everybody
needs to get in where they fit in

on that day, and if he's got a
problem with that going forward, well,

that will be a problem, but if
he doesn't, I think we're good.

Hi, guys. Hello.

Okay, what's happening?

So, Mike, how's everything
with that trommel going?

Yeah, ran pretty good. Seven days.

Sure would be nice to start
washing some rocks out at hester.

I mean, we do have issues
down there at the moment, but...

Yeah.

Yeah.

Should we, see what
Mike brought in this week?

To stay on track for Tony's


his only running wash plant
needs to deliver at least 200 ounces.

One hundred, 110, 120,






Worth over $800,000.

Bringing the season
total to 4,159 ounces.

He can do that again.

Well, I hope to be doing that weekly.

If you got your plants going,
you'd be doing that, too.

- Okay.
- Don't kick me out. I'll leave.

Yeah.

Take your with you, man.

- Bye, everybody.
- Bye.

Can't I do both?

Bosco.

Hey, pup.

Looking for snacks.

All season, Parker's dominion operation

has struggled to bring in the gold.

But with sulphur back online,

Parker is hoping for a big haul.

By the sounds of it Damien had
a hell of a week over at sulphur.

Man, I really liked his idea there
for his Yukon water filtration system.

Yeah, a couple of trees goes a long way.

And red's chugging along?

Yep, still in the red
gravels in their happy place.

All right. Speaking of red, let's do red.

Before Parker's decision
to run red gravel pay,

the bridge cut was averaging
just 75 ounces a week.

We got 10, 20, 40,



We're gonna break 100. One hundred.





Yeah, well done.

- Nice work. Red gravel's paying off.
- Yeah.

It still sucks, but
it's better than it was.

All right, Mitchell.

Roxanne, here we go.

Roxanne's nearing
the end of the long cut

and last week delivered
just over 200 ounces.

Twenty, 30,





On the nose.

Yeah, not in the place we thought
we'd be this part of the season.

And mister Bob here.

With the gold on
dominion coming up short,

it's up to sulphur to pick up the slack.

All right, here we go.

Twenty, 40, 60, 70,





Worth over $440,000.

But at least there's gold coming in.

Yeah.

Could be better but it
could also be a lot worse.

Yeah.

For the week we had 418.5 ounces.

Our season total, 4,593.9

- bosco likes it. He's celebrating.
- Yeah.

Keep them running,
guys. Keep them running.

All right.

- Right on.
- Thank you, guys.

- Thank you.
- We'll go keep some plants running.

Good luck.