We're two weeks in, and we
haven't mined an ounce of gold.
Narrator:
on this "gold rush"...
♪♪
Hey, bud, I'm already having
problems with this dozer.
She's toast.
[Bleep].
This is [bleep] ridiculous.
Hey, guys,
I'm gonna shut it down.
I call this the wake-up call.
There's not one person here
that wants to sit on their ass.
This is how
it's gonna be all year.
What the [bleep] would I expect
but, for them to bail?
♪♪
[ Loud thud ]
♪♪
I don't know how I'm gonna have
a mining season this year.
You've gotta go mine somewhere,
so where do you go mine?
Parker: the cluster cut
sure proved up to her name.
[ Grinding ]
Mitch, this [bleep] thing's
on fire.
♪♪
We're in trouble.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Parker: I don't know how
I'm gonna have
A mining season this year.
Tony has caused enough problems
to the point where
Our only option is
to remove all our equipment
From the ground that...
From the ground
that I [bleep] own.
And I'm driving home
to see my folks
And see what...
See what my mom and dad
have to say.
Narrator:
two weeks into the season,
Parker schnabel is facing
a critical shortfall
After being forced to put
his mining operation on hold.
Parker: you know, one thing
that I do know is that
Got a lot of bills to pay.
Spent a lot of money
this winter,
Spent a lot of
money this spring,
And, um...
We're gonna be broke in a hurry
If we don't figure
something out.
Come on! Come on!
Nancy:
[ gasps ] hi, buddy!
[ Laughs ] hi, honey!
[ Speaks indistinctly ]
Did you sleep on the way?
I was a little worried.
-Oh, yeah. Hey, dad.
-Hey, parker.
-How you doing fella?
-Good. How are you?
-Nice to see ya.
-Dozer, come here.
Real pleasure.
Nancy: so, parker, I've heard
things aren't going so well.
Yeah, and now they're
going worse.
Tony is giving ya a lot
of grief? What's going on?
Yeah, so, I mean,
it all started with him
Blowing up at me last week.
♪♪
Narrator: parker started
the season trying to mine
His own ground
for the first time
And open the cluster cut.
Narrator: but he failed to get
tony beets' permission
To access water,
to and from the indian river.
This mining season's gonna end
before it started.
♪♪
Yeah, since then,
tony's refused to talk to me,
And it led me into a situation
where I've --
I've told the mining inspectors
that either an agreement
Will be in place
or I'll leave,
And I've gotta
honor that, right?
At this point in time,
because of tony's actions,
I don't see any feasible way
to make that work.
The ground that we bought...
[ Sighs ]
Like...
I really don't know
where this all heads.
Look at it from cash flow,
You'll have no crew to do
anything if you don't
Give 'em -- if you don't
pay their payroll, you know?
What this all leads to is,
what do I have to do
To keep our business,
to survive?
Like, we're in trouble.
Right?
I mean, is he just being
this way because he can?
'Cause he wants
to mess with you,
What's his end game?
I really think this was all
malicious on tony's part
To get me right back
to his ground
And keep paying him
royalties.
And he needs the money.
Is there any other ground
anywhere that you know
That you can mine?
The problem with that is,
this time of year,
If anybody you approach, they
know that you're desperate.
You're desperate, so...
And if there's one thing
that I've learned up there...
Yeah, it's
don't be desperate.
...it's that moves that
are made in desperation...
-Don't work out.
-...are just terrible.
I mean, you've gotta
go mine somewhere,
So where do you go mine?
Um...
The only thing feasible
right now
Would be...
Um....
Going back to leasing
from tony beets.
♪♪
Going back to the last cut,
where we left off last year.
What I'm really having
trouble with,
What I don't think
I could do,
Is go mine his ground
and pay him royalties every week
After all that he's done
to you this season.
I mean, he has totally
ruined your season.
From a personal standpoint,
yeah, it makes me disgusted
But it's the only
feasible move to survive.
It is the time to put money
in the bank as soon as we can.
-Thanks, mom.
-[ Nancy speaks indistinctly ]
Narrator: instead of mining
his own ground,
Royalty free, parker will
once again lease from tony
And pay a royalty
that last year totaled
Over $1.3 million.
Yeah, I mean, at the end of
the day is does kind of feel
Like tony has b*at us
into submission, you know.
It really feels like he won
And that we're
crawling back to him.
Tony is like a cockroach.
He will survive anything.
I will get tony beets back
for what he's done.
♪♪
♪♪
At this point,
we're two weeks in,
Spending hundreds
of thousands of dollars,
And I got nothing to show
for it right now.
We haven't mined
an ounce of gold.
♪♪
Narrator: at quartz creek,
new mine boss rick ness
Is attempting to open up
his first ever cut,
The freedom cut,
A piece of ground the size
of four football fields.
Rick: I've got everything
I have on the line,
But, you know, it's also
my friends as well,
And they've got wives, kids.
And if I can't start
showing them some gold,
I don't know how long they can
afford to stick around.
All I've got is a dog to feed.
[ Scoffs ] it's not really
the same, you know.
I left my wife
and my 8-year-old son
To come up here.
And we gotta get some gold
in our hands.
Rick:
our major problem right now
Is that we don't have a dozer
to get through this permafrost.
It's just this time
a year up here, man,
There's just none available.
Everybody's using their stuff.
♪♪
Narrator: last week,
rick hired
Sheamus christie's
monster 475 dozer.
It got him down
to frozen gravel.
But at $10,000 a day,
he couldn't afford to keep it.
So he swapped it out
For a 700 excavator
operated by terry,
The only member of his crew
with mining experience.
Hey, terry, you gotta copy?
Terry: yeah. Go.
-How's it going, buddy?
-This stuff is so frozen,
You know, I'm really laboring
over here to get a bucketful.
The 700 here is
not going to do it.
We're not digging
frozen gravel out.
We're about to be
at a standstill
Unless I can find
an affordable dozer.
♪♪
Narrator:
rick calls in an old friend...
What's going on, buddy?
...parker's mechanic
from three years ago.
-Good to see you man.
-Good to see ya.
Rick: been a while. Dude,
your timing is impeccable, man.
-Yeah?
-I [bleep] need you here.
Been scary running without
a mechanic.
Yeah, you been
pretty lucky, right?
Now that I'm here, everything's
gonna break down, so...
Yeah. Our biggest problem
right now
Is we're just about
grinding to a halt
Because we've got
no thawed material to move.
-Okay.
-Nothing.
I been stripping ground
with this monster 475
That sheamus owns.
-Yep.
But, dude, 10 grand a day
it's costing me.
[ Speaks indistinctly ]
So you're looking to get
yourself a cheap dozer then?
Yeah. We getting
desperate here.
So on my way in here,
I seen a 275
On the side of the road.
So if you're looking
for something like that...
It's kind of a junker,
but I don't think
It's been run
in quite a while.
It doesn't have a blade on it,
you know, and I don't even know
If it's even gonna
fire up.
I hate to...
-Put me right to work?
Put you right to work,
but, [bleep], I need to,
Put you right to work.
-Okay, I can do that buddy.
-Okay.
It's not a problem. It's just
get down to it, right?
All right.
I tell you what, you're showing
up at just the right time.
Rick: man, am I glad to
have carl back, just in time.
If he can get that 275 going,
we're back in business.
♪♪
Carl: what I think
we're gonna do is
We're just gonna
grab with the loader,
Drive it in, hook it up.
I think we'll do
one arm at a time.
Narrator: carl's plan --
Have ryan raise
the blade arm socket
So that rick can drive the 275
into position
With its ball mount.
Rick: sheamus has said that
if we put it together
And get it fired up,
That we can use it,
so that's awesome.
[ Engine revs ]
♪♪
So I want you to lift it up.
♪♪
Go ahead with it.
♪♪
Back up a bit, rick.
Just try a little bit.
[ Clank ]
Good.
[ Clank ]
Carl: we're fighting
how he's angled.
Rick: you know,
it's kind of tough,
Lining it up with
the equipment we have,
But carl knows
what he's doing, so...
-Can you drive forward at all?
-Oh, you want forward?
Just come forward a bit.
[ Thud ]
back up just a pair.
[ Thud ]
-there you go.
Oh, we got one started. It'll
be a lot easier now, right?
You're gonna
go forward with it.
♪♪
[ Clank ]
-rick: yeehaw!
Yeah, you're good for now.
I'll put these caps on
And hook up the lines.
Yeah, shut her down.
♪♪
It's good
to have you back.
♪♪
Okay, this thing's ready
to work the cut.
Narrator: the 275 resurrected,
rick can rip through
The frozen gravel and get down
to gold rich pay dirt.
We needed this dozer, like,
four days ago.
This can't happen soon enough.
Rick: I know the guys
have been getting frustrated
'Cause we haven't had
anything here to rip ground.
I think them just seeing
this thing out here, working,
Is gonna make everybody
breathe a little easier.
♪♪
Terry: we're that much closer
to pay dirt.
Every single bucketload that
I'm putting in those trucks
Is money in my bank account
And will help pay my mortgage
and feed my kids.
♪♪
-Narrator: up ahead...
-Finally! It's coming together.
-Yeah!
-[ Growls ]
That makes me a very happy guy.
Parker:
[bleep], that's smoke.
Mitch, this [bleep] thing's
on fire.
So we must be kicking
parker's ass.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: on the yukon river,
two hours from dawson city,
Len hoekstra and mike beets
are barging the first pontoons
From dredge two.
♪♪
There are
really quite a few
Nasty little sandbars
here, isn't there?
Yeah.
'Cause you can [bleep]
see that little [bleep]
Right there, can't you?
Just about popping out
of the water.
Narrator: early in the season,
water levels are so low,
The jasmine bis forced
to navigate shallow channels
Between sandbars.
Oh, you see that
brown streak right?
Yeah.
Narrator: en route, they'll pass
by the indian river,
Which leads to tony's claims,
but is too small to navigate.
Instead, they'll head
to dawson city,
Where tony can truck
the pontoons
Down to eureka creek.
♪♪
[ Thud ]
Len: [bleep].
♪♪
♪♪
Here, I'll take over.
♪♪
♪♪
How's she looking, len?
♪♪
♪♪
Gonna put it underneath
the v train near the pontoons.
It's gonna be the first of many,
many, many, many trips.
♪♪
Narrator: the pontoons set off
on the 60 mile journey
To eureka creek.
Narrator: to fix the props,
mike beets will use
The two hydraulic wenches
on the oshkoshto drag
The 60-ton jasmine b
out of the water.
Yeah.
♪♪
♪♪
[ Creaking, whirring ]
♪♪
Mike: what?!
♪♪
[ Cracking ]
[ Crash ]
♪♪
[ Snaps ]
Narrator: tony's plan?
Use two loaders and new chains
To spread the load.
Shorter? Or is that good?
[ Whirring ]
[ Whirring ]
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
I mean, we moved
a lot of dirt in here,
But none of that matters now.
Narrator:
back in the klondike,
Parker comes to terms
with abandoning
His own ground, the cluster cut.
Parker: last year, I paid
over a half a million bucks
For this ground, and this year,
we've put that much again
Into it stripping.
I mean, we may as well
just lit a million bucks
On fire at this point.
♪♪
So, we've got an issue here.
We've been given an order
to stop discharging
Or intaking water from
tony's ground, immediately.
He's called the mining
inspectors on us.
He's pretty well, ruined any
chance of us mining down here.
I can deal with
a pissed off tony beets.
I'm not about to deal with
a pissed off mining inspector.
So as far as where
this leads us,
We still have our lease up
with him on the last cut.
♪♪
I hate to say this,
but we're gonna come back
To the last cut
and mine that this season.
♪♪
No way, I can't believe that
We've got to pay royalties
again, though.
It's -- I'm not doing this
Because its
the good option here.
No,
I understand that though.
It's the only legal option
we have.
Every fourth [bleep]
scoop goes to him,
Like, this is getting
out of control.
Messed up as that is,
you know, we still have
To have a mining season.
So we want to pull
all the gear out then
From down by tony's and get
everything back to big red?
Or what's the plan?
Yeah, we'll start
bringing stuff up.
Thanks, guys.
Unbelievable.
Parker: the cluster cut sure
proved up to her name.
Narrator: parker pulls
all his heavy equipment
From his cluster cut
back to tony's last cut.
The fuel bill alone
for the 4-mile journey
Will be over $2,000.
Well, it looks like
tony's won this battle
But the w*r's not over yet.
♪♪
It just blows my [bleep] mind,
But there's nothing
that we can do
And it's not like he's gonna
play ball with us.
♪♪
Everything I've got pretty,
for the most part,
Is tied up in these machines
and that ground.
In this season,
we've bought two d10s.
This one I'm driving was
1.5 million bucks.
The other one was $1 million.
And we still don't have
an ounce of gold
To show for any of this.
And we're way behind schedule
and $3 million in the hole.
I'm pretty just disgusted
with the whole situation.
♪♪
[ Clacking ]
[ Sputtering ]
what the [bleep] is that?
[Bleep] smoke or steam?
[Bleep]. That's [bleep] smoke.
Mitch, this [bleep] thing's
on fire.
♪♪
[ Coughs ]
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: parker's moving
his mining equipment
Back to the last cut.
Mitch, this [bleep] thing's
on fire.
Narrator: but his brand-new
$1.5 million d10
Is pouring smoke.
Parker:
[bleep] thing's on fire!
[Bleep]!
Do you have any water?
Yeah. There's a crick
right over here.
♪♪
Parker: it must not be
oil or anything
'Cause it would've lit up
further than that by now.
Oh, yeah, it's down there.
Get another one.
♪♪
Mitch!
♪♪
[ Water pouring ]
What the [bleep]?
Like we need this [bleep]
right now.
There's a bunch of moss
in here,
Got up against the engine.
Oh, [bleep].
Seriously?
But that makes sense.
That's the [bleep]
we're moving right now,
Is that top couple feet
is like that,
Or I guess we were.
Just need to get it all
out of here.
Man, if that would've
burnt through an oil line,
This thing would have been
up in smoke in no time.
We almost just watched
a million and a half bucks
Burn to the ground.
You know the scary part?
-What's that?
[Bleep] thing's
not insured.
You might want to call
and put some insurance on it.
I'm that serious. I'm an idiot.
Well, let's get this thing
out of the road.
-All right, thanks, mitch.
-Yep.
Mitch: so what do you think,
we'll just try and get it back
To big red and then we'll
pull the pans on it,
Clean it out?
If that's what you think
we should do.
Well, let's hope
it [bleep] starts.
[ Engine starts ]
♪♪
That's the first time
I've ever been
In a dozer
that's caught on fire.
At this point with what's
happened this year,
This dozer is the most
valuable thing I've got.
Need this machine to work.
♪♪
Narrator: two hours later,
Parker's finally back,
ready to mine the last cut.
But his season is now
three weeks behind schedule.
♪♪
Parker: hello, everybody.
Well, guys, I'm sorry to bring
you back here to the last cut.
We're standing on
tony beet's ground yet again.
We're way behind,
but I promise, you guys,
At some point, we will
start finding some gold.
We will get loaders,
feeding wash plants,
And there will be gold
in the slough spots.
Mitch: copy that.
Thanks, guys.
Go for it!
♪♪
Parker: and we are back
on tony's ground this year,
Leasing ground from him,
And the only good thing
about that
Is where we left off last year
in the last cut
Was the best ground
that we've ever mined.
If that continues, we could
have a really good season
Despite how far behind we are.
♪♪
♪♪
[Upbeat music]
Rick: this thing is basically
a sign of progress
A sign of getting back going,
A sign of everything
coming together.
Narrator: rick is back on track
in the freedom cut.
His bargain basement dozer
is ripping permafrost
So his greenhorn crew
can get down to gold rich pay.
Terry: this is a great day,
Getting all the machines
in place that we need,
Gets my blood pumping,
And I start thinking
about that, you know,
We're that much closer
to pay dirt.
Zee: it's about time, eh?
If I wasn't
stuck in this rock truck,
I'd be doing cartwheels
right now.
Terry: yeah, my heart's about
to b*at out of my chest.
Can't wait.
♪♪
♪♪
[ Alarm beeping ]
[Bleep].
♪♪
Yeah, carl, you there?
You bet.
Hey, man, I'm already
having problems
With this dozer.
-10-4, Man.
Ugh. I hope it's nothing major.
-She hot?
-It cooled right down.
I happen to look at it.
-Yep.
And I was in the red here
and right when I --
That's transmission then.
Yeah, and I was in
the red, and then,
As soon as I looked at it,
the [bleep] alarm went off.
We'll check the transmission
for you.
Carl: transmissions getting
hot like that
Usually means your torque's
slipping, right?
See that? Throw that in the back
of the truck there for now.
The other one out.
We're going to cut this apart,
She's not good
if there's metal in it.
Narrator:
removing the transmission
To find out the cause
of the overheating
Would take an entire day,
Carl's bush fix alternative --
pull the filter.
If he finds small metal filings,
He'll know the gears
inside the transmission
Are grinding together.
-There's a bunch of garbage in.
-Rick: yeah.
Carl: transmission's
eating itself.
She's toast.
Holy [bleep]
no, there's no way to fix this.
Yeah.
Holy smokes, eh.
It's everywhere.
I don't even know what to say
about what's next.
Pretty [bleep]
without a dozer.
This is a total load
of bull [bleep] right here.
This is the last bit of ripped
and stripped ground
That we got to haul out that
I'm sitting on right here.
Hey, guys,
I'm gonna shut it down.
[ Thud ]
Dude, what the [bleep]?
♪♪
Rick: everything's frozen, man,
and without a ripper,
We can't do anything.
Here we are yet again,
struggling to find work.
Narrator: until he finds
a reliable dozer,
Rick's entire operation
is shut down.
Terry pulls the crew
out of the cut.
♪♪
-Rick: hey.
-What's up?
We hit a wall, man.
We're just...
I can't think of anything
else to keep these guys busy
And I need some direction.
-Okay.
Well, I mean,
we're pretty much...
Pretty much out of thawed
[bleep] to move, aren't we?
Absolutely out.
And there's -- I'm just
out of ideas.
-Yeah.
-So...
And, yeah, I'm scratching
my [bleep] head,
Trying to come up
with a plan. Too,
Because without
a ripping machine,
We're pretty much sh*t
right now.
There's certainly a lack
of planning on my part.
There's not one person here
that wants to sit on their ass.
You know, we're all counting
on getting paid here.
If that doesn't happen,
why would I stay?
I'm done with
[bleep] around here.
Yeah.
♪♪
I brought my friends
all the way up here
They came up here to work,
And they came up
here to find gold
And if they start thinking
that things aren't gonna change,
Then what [bleep] would expect
but for them to bail
Before they get in too deep,
you know?
It's...it's how it is.
So, I gotta get [bleep]
figured out fast!
Find me a dozer, ruby.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: two years after
tony beets pledged
To relocate dredge two
from thistle creek,
The first pontoons arrive
at his eureka creek mine site.
Narrator:
tony has prepared a dry dock
On some of his best ground,
Where he will
assemble the pontoons.
And eventually,
the entire dredge
Before filling it with water
and starting to mine gold.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Kevin: first two, yeah.
It's a good start.
Now I'm looking forward
to finally
Starting to put
this thing together.
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: rick ness'
brand-new operation
Is at a standstill.
He's got no dozer,
And the crew is
spinning their wheels.
So this is
a 1948 harley-davidson
Super cool bike.
But should start. Agreed?
-It should start and go to high.
-I still gotta get gas in it.
Ben: yeah, rick's stressed
beyond belief
He definitely needs
to move forward.
If he can't start digging gold
out of the ground, we're done.
[ Engine starts ]
♪♪
Old ben,
he's gonna be happy now.
Gonna take his babe for a ride.
♪♪
Narrator:
morale is at rock bottom.
Rick over radio:
hey, carl.
Can you get the whole crew
down at the cut?
Yeah. Good.
♪♪
Is that rick
standing next to a dozer?
-Ohh.
-Are you serious?
-Yeah, man!
-[ Laughs ]
-Rick!
-[ Laughs ]
-Whoa!
-Yeah!
Rick: booyah.
We've got some horsepower.
-Hell, yeah!
-About time!
Rick: I know, buddy.
We got some horsepower!
This d9n is pretty much
the only one
Available in the yukon.
And surprisingly affordable
The 475 was almost
10 grand a day,
This thing is less
than 100 bucks an hour
Yeah!
Well, it just came off
a different job
At another mine nearby,
I heard that they might
be getting done with it,
So I went to talk to the owner,
and we agreed on a price, man.
It's go a new tooth on
the back, ready to [bleep] rip.
Finally! It's coming together!
All: [ laughter ] yeah!
Get to work! Get to work!
♪♪
Yeah, we finally got
a working dozer, here.
♪♪
The freedom cut --
We gotta get it open.
We gotta get it thawed.
♪♪
Every scoop I take,
I'm getting 3 feet deeper
To hitting that pay dirt.
That makes me a very happy guy.
Now it's time to rock-n-roll.
♪♪
♪♪
Doumit: summer's here, so with
20 hours of daylight
And after a 12 hour day,
we got time to do a little r&r.
We're going fishing.
This is actually a pond
we created five years ago
One of people's
biggest concerns,
They think we don't reclamation
all summer long.
There's ducks and geese on it.
There's fish in here.
Now we get to reap some of
the benefits of the reclamation
They get to go
fishing after work.
♪♪
Oh, there he is! There he is!
All right, settle down now.
I'm not gonna pick him up
Cause I don't wanna
get my hands on him,
So I'm just gonna release him
real easy right here.
Go on. Look, we did that.
It worked.
They're almost like
fresh water barracuda
We just ripped the dickens
out of that
It probably wasn't a whole
lot of fun for the fish
But I had a blast
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: at eureka,
as four more pontoons arrive
Dredge two is taking shape,
And dredge one has been
running pay dirt all week.
♪♪
Monica: hey, guys!
-Party people.
Narrator: tony's doubling down
And has set a 6,000-ounce
season gold.
[ Chuckles ] you ask him.
It's chewing away. Yeah,
little bit of down time
But nothing terrible
in nature.
No? Good.
Yeah.
Who's counting
Narrator: to stay on track,
tony needs 260 ounces a week
That's 20, 30.
You've got 40
You've got 50, 60.
You've got 70.
80, 90,
00:37:55,724 --> 00:37:57,551
110, 120,
130, 140...
140.80.
$170,000 Dollars worth of gold,
But 120 ounces short
of what they need.
I know we're early days,
But you got that
6,000-ounce goal.
When are we gonna get
more plants running?
When is my plant gonna
be up and running?
-Hopefully soon.
-That'd be good, though.
-So...mom?
-Yes?
With the new 140,
what's our new total?
369.9
Narrator:
worth over $440,000 dollars
Towards tony's $7.2 million
season gold.
So we must be
kicking parker's ass.
♪♪
♪♪
Parker:
we're back at tony's mercy,
And I'm not very happy about it.
♪♪
All this effort
to get out from under him,
And here we are,
back under his thumb
Narrator:
three weeks behind schedule
And back where they started
Parker's crew is in
a race against time
To start producing gold
and save their season.
All the difficulties
getting started
This time of the year
in the last cut is just...
The sun's out,
it's getting really warm.
It's ripping mud this late
And really turns everything
to slop very fast,
So just more [bleep] we have
to deal with
That slows us down.
Parker: this time last year,
we probably had 1,000 ounces
And we're still sitting
on a big fat zero
We're having a tough go of it.
Narrator: and once again,
Parker will be paying
his landlord a royalty
That last year cost him
over $1.3 million.
Parker:
we're back at tony's mercy
And I'm not very happy about it.
Tony has the cards.
It's tony beets.
♪♪
Narrator: on the next
"gold rush"...
What the [bleep]?
Let me get this straight.
You want 100 ounces, like, now?
Hey! Shut it down!
A deal is a deal, right?
Like a chronic disease,
I can't shake this [bleep] guy.
I'm not gonna
let your guys down.
I will have a wash right here.
-Lots of big drama.
-Oh, [bleep].
-It's a monster.
-I got 100
-190 or nothing, mate.
[ Groans ]
I need you over at
the dredge in five seconds
If the bucket's full,
don't break [bleep].
[ Loud crash ]
-what the [bleep]?!
09x02 - Smoked Out
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Reality based series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Reality based series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska.