13x03 - Golden Acres Prospect

[bunniefuu]

[tense music playing]

[country music playing]

[Parker] Come on, dude,
don't do this.

Dozer, pick it up.

Everybody's waiting. Get it.

Get the toy. Get your toy.

Get in.

All right. Let's go.

[narrator] Twenty-seven-year-old
mine boss, Parker Schnabel,

is facing the toughest season
of his life.

In the Klondike,
he's chasing a 10,000 ounce,

$18 million payday

that comes with
an expiration date.

[Parker] Because our license
is expiring,

we have a very real
deadline here

where this all
has to be done.

We got started sluicing early

and that's super important
this year.

Like, it's a big year
of sluicing

more than ever before.

The big push right now
is keep the plants running

and stripping crew stay
out ahead of them.

[narrator] Parker needs
the Klondike

to start paying out big
right away.

In just a few short weeks,

he plans to open
another plant in Alaska,

a move that will stretch him
to the limit

but could deliver
a massive payday.

Every year, we're pushing it,

but this year,
there's no wiggle room in it,

so we can't afford anything that
keeps us down for too long.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] Parker's original


on the airstrip
has doubled to 90

since his deal
with Tony Beets.

The first section to be mined

is the 14-acre Keyhole Cut

where Parker's crew
are already down the pay

and sluicing the gold
rich material

through Big Red
at 200 yards an hour.

[Mitch] Let's get some gold.

[machine whirring]

[Mitch] You know, we've been making
really good progress with the Keyhole Cut.

Right now, I'm loading trucks.

Justin's up running
the wash plant

while Tyson's trying to send
some pay dirt up to Big Red,

so he can keep it running.

Garf, get in.

You know, we have a lot
of ground to go through this year

and really not that much time.

You know, it's twice the amount
of ground we mined last year.

And right now, we only have
one wash plant running

and it's probably gonna stay
that way for quite some time.

[bleep] it's frozen
[bleep] stiff.

This is not good running
into permafrost here in the cut

that we wanna be sluicing.

The only thing we can do
is send the pay to Big Red

and hopefully it thaws before
Big Red runs out of pay.

[narrator] After one of
the harshest winters on record,

the Schnabel crew
is battling permafrost

in the pay layer.

Yeah. Big Red's a...

She's a hungry [bleep]
but frozen pay dirt

doesn't really mesh
along with Big Red.

They don't get
along very well together.

[metal creaking]

[Justin] Oh, we might have
a jam up in the feeder.

[narrator] Frozen
for thousands of years,

the permafrost pay dirt

is starting to
jam up the hopper.

[Justin] It looks all right
for now.

Just like that,
feeder is clear.

Back to sluicing.

I see some frozen chunks
of pay up by the plant.

And it sounds like
Justin and Tyson

are having a real hard time
with the frozen material.

It's just been a really
cold spring and that's...

You know, it's bound
to come with issues.

Get out and stretch your legs.

[narrator] In addition to
slowing down the operation,

frozen chunks of pay dirt
running through the plant aren't melting,

leaving gold
trapped inside the tailings.

[Parker] Hey, man.

I was just coming to talk
to you about this exact problem.

[Mitch] It's called permafrost
for a reason, right?

Because it's permanently frozen.

I mean, it would help us a lot

if it was more than like 35
degrees for at least like four hours.

We need some warm weather

trying to keep
up with stripping

and sluicing at the same time.

And then that's
the problem is that

we're using a lot
of our manpower right now

to just try to keep
the plant fed.

I really feel like
we should shut the plant down.

[tense music playing]

And just focus on thaw
and stripping.

But the thing is,
with this much area,

if we shut the plant down,
I don't know

if we'll be able
to get through it all

by the end of the year.

But we're just gonna
fight it all season

if we don't put our foot
on the brakes

with the sluicing and focus
on our stripping, you know.

We're never gonna get
to the point

where we're just digging nice,
clean thawed pay.

So let's go ahead
and just shut it down.

It's a gamble that
we're just gonna have to take.

Yeah.

We'll fire back up when
the sun decides that it's summertime.

And make the best use
to everybody that we free up.

Well, I'll go up there
and shut it down now

and we'll just start
working on

getting everything
taken care of down here.

- All right. Thanks, Mitch.
- All right. Yup.

[Parker] So it's not really
something that I like to do.

Our rule is always that like
once we start sluicing,

we are running 24/7.

But given the price of fuel
and where things are at,

we're much better off
shutting it down for a while.

[narrator] Parker's gambling
that shutting down Big Red

will focus his crew
on getting more ground stripped

and exposed to the sun,
so that it can thaw.

We're really just hoping
the weather warms up for us,

so we can get this ground
thawing out

because right now, we're not making
any money, we're just spending it.

[tense music playing]

[country music playing]

[chainsaw whirring]

[Fred] Really gonna treat
your poor chainsaw like this?

It's ice.

Long as there's no rocks
in here, I'll be okay.

[narrator] Far from the big
Klondike mining operation,

ex-Green Beret
medic Fred Lewis

is battling 30 feet of ice

that's holding
his pay dirt hostage.

We're using our pumps, spraying water
onto this ice to melt it faster.

Everything we've done
to this point

really hasn't done much
to dent it.

[chainsaw whirring]

If we're going to wait
for this to melt,

it may not even melt
the whole year.

You know, I promised my guys
a 500 ounce season.

We need to be mining now.

[narrator] Only a few
hundred yards away,

the Clayton brothers
are also chasing the dream.

Twenty-three-year-old
Brandon,

one of the youngest
mine bosses in the Yukon.

Hey, Brady.

[narrator] And his 20-year-old
brother...

- Yeah.
- I got a map of our claims here.

Are hunting for untouched
virgin ground.

Let's go see if we can put
a mining plan together for the season.

[narrator] Brady
has a hockey scholarship,

but is dedicating
his summer vacation

to helping the family
get back on its feet.

[Brandon] I think
if we have any shot

in getting to our 500 ounce
season goal,

we got to find
some good ground and quick.

[narrator] The Clayton
brothers need to mine

500 ounces of gold

to help pay off
a crippling family debt.

So last year, we stripped this

and ran about 20,000 yards,

averaged 1.5 ounces.

Right.

And I'm thinking it
was getting better down here

because there's two creeks
that joined,

so I think
for our plan this year,

we should look at spots
where creeks join together.

There is another one
just downstream here that,

see it,
looks like it's coming in.

[Brady] Mmm-hmm.

So we should
poke around and...

Take the excavator
and poke some holes?

Yeah. Do some panning.

Yeah. I like the sounds
of that.

[Brandon] Okay.
Well, let's go do her...

Yeah. Little treasure hunt.

[narrator] The source
of the California Creek gold

is the Sixty mile Pika fault.

Over thousands of years,

flowing water eroded gold
from the fault,

taking it downstream.

Last season, the Claytons mined
out the junction of two creeks

where the water current
slowed,

allowing the heavy gold
to sink

and be caught
by natural riffles.

Working on the same theory,

Brady has identified
another junction

half a mile downstream,

where he's hoping
the same process

has deposited more gold

and will deliver
a monster payday.

[dramatic music playing]

With the goal that
we're sh**ting for this year,

we need a lot of ground,
a lot of area.

We got bills to pay.

We got to help
our family out,

so if we don't find anything,

we might as well [bleep]
go home.

[Brady] What are you thinking?

[Brandon] Where we're starting
to get wide here.

Yeah.

So the water
would've slowed down

and if it carried gold,
it would've just deposited it.

So let's dig a hole
right in this ground here,

throw that over, get me
the gravel and I'll pan it.

All right. Sounds good.

This is kind of...
kind of a do or die

for not even our season,
but for our family.

[Brandon] Okay, Brady,
I'm gonna get in that hole

and grab some gravel here.

[Brady] All right.
Sounds good.

[dramatic music playing]

We got a lot riding
on this pan,

we need to see
some serious gold.

If we think
we're getting 500 ounces,

this has to be the pan
to do it.

[tense music playing]

Holy [bleep] dude,
look at this.

One, two, three.

[Brandon] That's pretty
[bleep] good right there.

[Brady] Look at how big
these things are.

Six, seven.

There's probably 15 colors
in this pan.

Yeah. It's pretty
[bleep] good.

Wow.

If this pan represents
this whole claim--

We're [bleep] set.

[Brandon] We got to get
a better view.

There's so much ground
here to move.

This is insane.

This is what we need to get
to our 500 ounce season goal,

- right here.
- Yup.

And, man,
if it pans like this,

- this is Golden Acres.
- Yeah.

[bleep] Brady,
this is something

we're gonna have
to write home about.

- [Brady] Yeah.
- [Brandon] Dad's gonna be stoked.

We just need to get down here.

[Brandon] We got to get here.

[narrator] But there's one
massive problem...

[tense music playing]

their wash plant, Dirt Devil

is a half mile upstream
from Golden Acres.

[Brandon] With fuel prices,
we definitely don't

wanna haul from down here
up in there.

Let's have a look and see

if we can get the trommel
through there or not.

Here, we got a road here
so we could easily drag it

- right beside the creek.
- [Brady] Mmm-hmm.

It's just this part here
is what worries me.

Anything past this
is not stripped,

it's narrow as[bleep].

[narrator] Halfway between
Golden Acres and Dirt Devil,

the creek narrows

and is surrounded
on either side

by steep, rugged terrain.

For us to even think about
getting it there,

- we can't pull it on the mud...
- Mmm-hmm.

because it'll just get stuck.

Can't drag it
through the creek.

Building a road down here
would cost $50,000 in fuel.

We definitely can't afford
to spend $50,000.

And that's just...

- Not even--
- not happening.

At the end of the day,

our goal is to
clear up our debts.

[narrator] The family's debt
means Brandon and Brady

have almost no capital
to fund their mining season.

Last thing we wanna do
is let you down.

[narrator] And the last
of their cash...

What the heck
is going on here?

[man] That's bad.

was spent repairing
their dozer.

[Brandon] We need that CAT
to be stripping.

I can't even run dirt.

We're down before
we even started.

[tense music playing]

[Brady] Kicked us in the nuts.

If we can't figure
anything out,

our season is over
before we start it

and we might as well pack
our campers up and go home.

[tense music playing]

[tense music playing]

[country music playing]

What have you been up
to today, Len?

I don't have a [bleep] clue.

[laughter]

I can break something for you
and you can fix it.

Oh, yes.
You're good in that, so.

I am... I am good
at that, yeah.

[Tony speaking]

- Go. Bye. See you later.
- Here we go.

[narrator] King of
the Klondike, Tony Beets,

has gambled his season

on a high stakes
treasure hunt

at Paradise Hill.

The fabled white channel pay
runs through the claim,

and if he can stay on it,

he could be
in for a big payday.

[Tony speaking]

[tense music playing]

[narrator] In the 9-acre
Cold Cut,

Tony's crew have
already stripped

almost half of the cut
down to pay.

100 yards to the north,

Tony wants to open up
the 6-acre Blue Cut

to double his chances.

But to reach the white
channel gold,

his crew must first

dig through 100 feet
of overburden.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] Tony wants
his oldest son Mike

to get it done
in just six days.

I took a breath to try to talk
while I was drinking,

didn't work quite so well.

You dink.

We were throwing
everything we can

to get all this dirt moved

before air comes up
too much of a pain in the a*s

to move with trucks
and we're gonna end up

having to do more expensive
[bleep] around.

We're gonna have to hurry up
with everything

to stay ahead of the tractors
and excavators.

[narrator] Mike Beets
and cousin Mike

rip and pile up worthless
non-gold-bearing earth

known as overburden
with two dozers.

Excavators then load
the rock trucks

that haul the dirt
up to the dump sites.

[Megan] [bleep] move, man.

Go.

[Ruby] You're way
too close to me.

There's always the beginning
of the year hiccups

that always happens.

You know, if it didn't happen,

I mean, it wouldn't be
gold mining.

Oh [bleep].

[tense music playing]

[Mike] What's going on here?

Mike, need a copy.

What's wrong with that dozer?

I've got a leak.

[Mike] Holy [bleep] me.

Kevin, do you copy, Kevin?

[Kevin] Go for Kevin.

Hey, Kevin,
the D10L is leaking.

So I'm gonna send him down
to the lower yard.

You wouldn't mind checking
it out for me, please?

[Kevin] Be right on my way.

Okay. Thank you.

[Michael] We really can't deal
with this right now.

We just need to get this thing
fixed as fast as possible

and start ripping again.

[narrator] Mike continues
in the D11.

But without the D10's
ripping power,

he has no chance
of getting down to pay

by the end of the week.

The D10 down,

I have a lot less ability to
get stuff done as fast as I want.

Very, very, very,
very problematic.

[dramatic music playing]

We've had to shut
the plant down

and we're just
super shorthanded.

And one of our best
dozer operators

is sat in the office
and we need him.

[narrator] With all
his pay dirt frozen,

Parker Schnabel shut down

his only operational
wash plant

and changed course.

While the sun thaws the pay,

he's opening even more ground

betting that
high temperatures

will melt it all

and give him
a massive pay pile to run.

Hey, boss, are you super busy?

A little. Yeah.
Can't you tell?

[Parker] Yeah, I know.

We're having
a pretty rough time

out in the pit with frost

and just fighting things
down there.

I was wondering
if you can come out

of retirement for us
for a little bit.

You have probably more
experience in a dozer

than just about anybody
on this mine site.

So I was hoping to...
I was hoping to try to use

some of your expertise
out there.

- [Nona] Okay.
- Is that okay?

Do you know how long...
how long I'll be out there for?

Like, how many days?

[Parker] Probably a week.

Okay.

That's fine. Yeah.

I can do that
for you for sure.

- Okay.
Thanks. I appreciate it. - [Nona] Yeah.

- Thank you, girls.
- [Nona] Okay. Thanks, Parker.

Okay, we can do that.

[dramatic music playing]

Right now, we're just
throwing everybody we can

at these cuts
to get them caught up

and ready to go
and because, like,

where we're at right now,
there's, you know,

12 feet of gravel
that needs to thaw.

[narrator] The frozen pay
won't thaw

unless it's broken up
and exposed to sunlight.

We've got to do this
as fast as we can here

to get this ground exposed.

This is what it's gonna take.

I mean, everybody's
got to step up

because we just have too
much ground to get through

if we don't have everybody
pitching in.

[dramatic music playing]

This gold mining
gets in your veins,

gets in your blood.

[narrator] Office manager
Nona Loveless

uses the 73-ton D10 dozer

to rip through
the permafrost.

[Nona speaking]

Some of this...
some of this material is...

Was permafrost

and that stuff to rip
is a real challenge.

It's expensive,
it's hard on the equipment.

I am in a tough spot right now

trying to get this done
but it'll come, we'll get her.

Holy. Come on.

That doesn't seem
to be wanting to come out.

Whoa.

What the heck.

What... Oh, my [bleep].

What the hell is this?

Are you kidding me?

That hull is lifted
off the blade.

This is not what we need
for another machine to be down.

We get nowhere, nowhere today.

Hey, Jordan, you got a copy?

You're not gonna believe it, the blade
is peeling up, just come and get it.

Thank you.

[dramatic music playing]

This is really thin
and it wore the welds off,

so you have to take
all these pieces off

and then put the new pieces in
that we have.

What's going on, man? Why are
you pulling that thing out of here?

Oh, the skin is peeling
right off.

Obviously that frozen [bleep] just grabbed
the bottom and peeled it up.

[Mitch] Oh, no way.

It's crazy how
abrasive that stuff is

to wear the steel
down that hard.

[Jordan] Yeah, I didn't think it
was gonna go away that quick.

Well, yeah, the sooner
we can get her back in action

the better off we're gonna be.

[Jordan] Yeah.

Yeah, kind of [bleep]
timing but...

[Mitch] Yeah,
couldn't be any worse.

Wasting a lot of money here.

[tense music playing]

[country music playing]

[Mitch] Man,
fighting that frost is just...

It's a never ending
battle here.

[narrator] Parker Schnabel
and his crew

are racing to get
ground ripped and thawed

so they can get back
to running pay,

but they're down a dozer.

Even Nona is one of the best
past hitters that we've got.

So, at a time like this,

her skills are needed.

[Ty] This is[bleep].

[bleep].

Boys are asking for this.

They got a lot
of frozen ground,

Big Red is down right now.

[narrator]
Back at Parker's yard,

mechanic Ty Smith

and specialist welder
Dan Colen

are fighting to get
the D10 back in action.

[Ty] Our blade skins
are ripping apart.

Dan's giving us a hand here.

He's cutting everything apart.

We'll get the new skin
put on here

and then this D10 can go
back to pushing some mud

and we can keep
opening up ground.

[Dan] We're getting this done
as fast as we can.

We need this machine running.

[Ty] It would be nice
to get this thing back out

in the cut
and ripping some dirt.

[Dan]
Right oh, yeah, she's solid.

Sweet. We'll get
the truck ready

and get this thing down there.

[Nona] Mitch, you got a copy?

Go for Mitch.

[Nona] Blade's fixed,
we're back in business.

[Mitch] Yeah! Let's do it.

[Nona] Ty got this done.

And now we can get back
on track

and try to get
Big Red fired up

and we are running
out of time.

[dramatic music playing]

As soon as we have enough pay
dirt, we're gonna fire Big Red up.

We can get ahead of it
a little bit

and hopefully Mother Nature
works with us.

We can get this thing
rolling again.

The Yukon and Mother Nature
working with us

don't belong
in the same sentence.

[laughing]

[narrator] With Nona and
their dozer back in the game,

the crew can rip for the next


[Mitch] So we've been
stockpiling pay dirt

ever since
we shut the plant down.

You know, the decision
to shut down

Big Red this week,
definitely something

I'm, you know,
not a huge fan of

but Parker made the decision

to focus on stripping ground.

We can definitely use
this warm weather

that we're getting today here

to help some
of this pay thaw out.

Yeah, it looks good.

We definitely got enough dirt to
fire the wash plant back up.

[rock music playing]

Well, man, you know, at least
it's not snowing today, so.

- [Parker] Right on.
- Hey, Justin, you got a copy?

Go ahead.

Hey, man, let's... We're
gonna fire this thing back up.

Let's get back to washing
some rocks here.

Sure thing, Mitch,
show time, let's go,

let's feed this beast.

You wanna do
the honors, Mitch?

Let's do it, man, here we go.

- Yeah!
- There we go.

[Mitch]
Get it, Justin, let's do it.

There it is,
Big Red is back running.

Hopefully, we got a lot
of gold in that sluice box

the end of the week here.

[dramatic music playing]

You know, originally
we were gonna move the plant.

Turns out, it's a bit
more challenging

than we anticipated.

[narrator] On the westernmost
frontier of the Yukon,

the Clayton brothers
are out of luck

and out of cash.

They need to build a road
to the hotspot

they found at Golden Acres,

but it'll cost $50,000.

At the rate we're going,
we're [bleep] not gonna make

our goal and one thing we're
gonna lose the [bleep] so.

- Yeah.
- I ain't losing.

[Warren] But what the [bleep]
are we gonna do?

[narrator] Operator
Warren Binnie has traveled

from Grande Prairie
in Alberta

to join the Clayton brothers
this season.

You know, we've invested
enough just getting up here

and getting started
all the repairs

for the transmission
on the dozer, the torque,

you know,
we need to try something.

[Brady] Well, what
are we gonna do then?

Why don't we test up top
upstream of it?

Like, just haul like a couple
hundred yards or something?

Yeah, say do 200 yards,

if we have enough up there

then see if we can get
some money to...

From there to go down
to Golden Acres.

[Warren] I like it.

You know, it's a shot
in the dark,

but it's worth the shot,
I think, we're here.

- Right.
- You know, we're a team, guys.

We don't give up.

Then, let's give it a go.

We'll get Dirt Devil running,

we'll wash 200 yards.

We'll see how
much gold is there.

[bleep] yeah, guys.
Let's do it.

Let's [bleep] kick
some [bleep] a*s, guys.

Hell yeah.

[narrator] Brady's plan,
mine a strip of land

just a hundred yards upstream
from their wash plant.

He's hoping there's just
enough gold in the ground

to finance their road

and get them
to a gold bonanza

at Golden Acres.

[Brandon] Pretty exciting.
You know, we're gonna start

running our first
bit of dirt this season.

I'm gonna take
the top gravels off.

And we're gonna go


We'll take the bottom five

and then we're not
diluting our pay stream.

[narrator]
Brandon thinks the best gold

lies at the bottom
of the pay layer.

Okay. Brady, this is gonna be
our first little test here.

Let's get it
to the Dirt Devil.

[bleep] yeah,
I like the sounds of that.

[dramatic music playing]

It feels good to be back
in the machine.

Not usually rock truck,
but I don't mind

running these things.
They are fun.

Beats the hell out of fixing

[bleep] I can tell you that.

The gravel looks good.

But we tried in upper vents
last year downstream

and it didn't pay
worth a [bleep]

so, uh...

I'm hoping
that's not the case here.

[dramatic music playing]

[Brandon] Yeah. I'm definitely
depending on this.

If this doesn't pan out

like how I want it,

I don't know
what the [bleep] is next.

[Brady]
Dirt Devil looks good, eh?

[Brandon] Yeah.
It's good to be down here.

Just she's got
a little rust on her

and probably should
throw some rocks

and water in there soon

and make her sparkle.

[narrator] The Clayton
brothers are doing

a test run of pay dirt
from a site

close to their wash plant.

I think we're gonna run

our 200 yard test here,

then we'll figure out

if we can make money
on it or not.

- Okay, well, let's do her, guys.
- Well, pitter-patter.

- Let's go fire her up.
- Let's do it.

[narrator] They need this test

to deliver an ounce of gold

to prove the ground
will deliver the cash

to get them to Golden Acres.

All right, boys, this is it.

This is the first start
of Dirt Devil of the season.

So let's start her up
and spin her over.

[Brady] She'll go. She'll go.

There she goes.

Okay, feed her.

[Brandon] Yeah.
That's looking good, Warren.



I don't know what [bleep]
motivates me more,

seeing him sluice

or just having a really
big task over there

on our claim, but right now,

this is kind of
pissing me off.

[narrator]
Fred has bet Brandon

he'll mine more gold
this season,

but right now,
he's on the back foot.

The ice we have over there

and all the problems we have,
he could be a [bleep] month

ahead of us right now.

We're still gonna beat
his a*s.

You know
what I'm saying? Right?

We're still gonna beat
his a*s.

[Fred] Let's quit moping.
Let's get back to work.

Use this as fuel.

[Brandon] What do you think?
Is it gonna be good?

[Brady] I think
it's gonna be good, boss.

[laughing]

It's a pain in the a*s
having only one CAT to rip.

[narrator] Trusted by
his dad to run the claim,

Mike Beets is down a dozer.

Without it, he has no hope
of getting down

to pay in the Blue Cut

by the end of the week.

Hopefully, my brother
who's fixing the D10

gets it done quick

so I can get that dozer
back in here

to give me a hand
and finish all this ripping,

because I, am somewhat
falling behind on that.

Something's up with the 10 L,

so I'm gonna go check in
with Cousin Mike

and see what it is.

Whatcha break?

Cylinder here.

I looked behind me
and I saw oil

dripping out really quick.

Inside the cylinder,
the rod piece coming out,

there's a seal around that.

And that is... Well [bleep]

it looks like I'm stuck
doing a cylinder swap.

And of course, this happens
at the best [bleep] time

where, you know,
we really need it.

So we got to get
this machine, the D10 L,

back up and running
ASA [bleep] P.

So I gotta go sign

so I can find a [bleep]
cylinder or two.

Hey, Cody, got a copy, Cody?

[Cody speaking]

We have a D10 hydraulic leak,

so now we need a new cylinder,

and you know
where that's hiding?

[Cody speaking]

- Cool.
- [narrator] First up,

Kevin removes the broken
hydraulic cylinder.

If we come to the front
of our cylinder,

we have our ram here.

And what keeps her
on the inside

is this here seal.

And right here you can
see you got a [bleep] hole.

It's not gonna hold
the oil in.

Because that's what
holds in all the pressure.

Meaning, when you engage
the hydraulics

and that isn't working,

you can get
like a 20-foot spray.

It's important to not run it
when it's doing that.

This will be the new one
to go in.

[narrator] Repairing the seal

will take hours,

but Kevin has a faster plan.

Swap out the broken cylinder

with an old spare
bought at auction.

[Kevin] This one was something

I believe we picked up
in D.C.,

it can be as much
as 10 years ago,

but we never tested
any of these either.

For all we know,
these cylinders

are gonna leak as well.

If she's not quite well,
that's okay.

I can work with that.

Thank you. [grunts]

Can I have a hammer,
s'il vous plait?

- [Mike] Does this one work?
- [Kevin] [grunts] Thank you.

Can I get you on this side?
Tell me how lined up I am.

Maybe like two millimeters up.

[narrator] If the bracket
isn't lined up precisely,

there's no way the steel pin
will go through.

[hammering]

- [Kevin] Oh, like butter.
- [Mike] Perfect.

[narrator] Next...

[Kevin] Come on. Come on.

[narrator] He must attach

the other end to the ripper.

[Kevin] Okay.

Like, if there's one thing
we're good at,

it's making [bleep] work
with what we [bleep] got.

- She's in?
- [Mike] Yeah.

[Kevin] Okay. Let me
put the lines on.

Well, I'm gonna get
my [bleep] out of the way,

so to speak, Mike's
gonna lift the ripper up,

[bleep] flip
that back and forth.

Force the air out,

see if it's gonna fail
on us or not.

And we'll go from there.

[tense music playing]

[machine revving]

[Kevin]
Here's the moment of truth.

Let's see what she does.

Whole thing all the way up.

Just putting it
under a bit of load.

It's not going on one side,
which is good.

Both sides look to be activating.

You know, it all looks good.

[Tony speaking]

- [Kevin] Got it in.
- [Tony speaking]

Oh, yeah.

[narrator]
With the dozer repaired,

Cousin Mike is back
in the game

with a fighting chance
of getting the Blue Cut

down to pay by the end
of the week.

[Parker] Doumitt
to the rescue, buddy.

[Chris laughs]

[narrator] To get back
on track

and run more pay,

Parker's pulled gold
recovery expert Chris Doumitt

out of the Gold Room
and into a loader.

[Chris] I remember
when Big Red was born.

I put the first scoop of dirt
through Big Red,

ran it for the Hoffmans
for a while

until my back got so screwed
up, I couldn't do it anymore.

So Red and I go back
a long ways.

We're both old and rusty.

We're gonna have
a little competition

and see which one
can last the longest.

[laughs]

[Brandon]
If this doesn't pay out,

I think we're running
out of options.

I don't know
what else we got.

We need to get to Golden Acres

and we need to find something

to fund getting there.

[narrator]
The Clayton brothers

are betting their season

on testing 200 yards of dirt.

[Brandon] We'd like
to see three-quarters

of an ounce per hundred.

We can do half ounce
a hundred,

but it would
make things tight.

I can't see anything yet.

[narrator] They need to find
at least an ounce of gold

to prove the ground
is rich enough

to finance their road
to Golden Acres.

[Brady] Usually you could see
something by now

with all, um,
in this one, right?

Right here?

[laughter]

[machine revving]

[narrator] The highbanker
sluices the concentrated pay

washing away dirt

to leave the heavy
gold in the riffles.

[Brandon] Oh, my gut
is telling me it's not bad.

My gut... My gut is telling me

I shouldn't be too worried.

Well, there is gold in there.

Brady, we're seeing gold
after the first pail,

so that's a start.

Yeah, it's coming.

It's looking up.

Well, it's hard to see, but
you can see gold in those...

Right in these pockets here.

There's a few flakes
there, hey?

Yeah, it's a...

There is some gold there,
that's for sure.

[Brandon] Okay, boys,
this is the moment of truth.

Let's see what we got.
Let's put it on the scale

and see what it tells us.

[narrator] To prove
the ground is rich enough

to finance the road
to Golden Acres,

Brandon needs at least
an ounce of gold.

...3 of an ounce.

[narrator]
Worth less than $600.

Instead of providing
the $50,000 he needs,

Brandon would end up
losing money

running this low grade pay.

[Brandon] And we...
Not even a half ounce.

Man, it kind of looked like
an ounce

like, closer
to an ounce but...

Well, we know that's not
work... Gonna work, is it?

Nope. That [bleep] sucks.

Kind of a kick in the nuts.

That's not gonna work
for the season, so...


of an ounce...

tough.

Well, back to the
drawing board.

Let's go see
what we can figure out.

Yep.

[Warren]
Let's get out of here.

[dramatic music playing]

[Brandon] We need
to pay the bills

and, uh, help our family out
with the debt back home.

So, just trying
to think on what we can do

or how we can make
some money this season.

I'm kind of
just lost for words.

[acoustic music playing]

[Mike] We need to get as much
stripping done as we can.

[narrator] At Paradise Hill,

with just hours
before the end of the week,

Mike's stripping crew
is battling

to get down to pay
in the Blue Cut.

Right now, we're trying
to open up ground

as quickly as possible.

It's kind of just
all hands on deck right now

and we're all just trying to
work together in this chaos.

[Michael] Oh, sweet.

Hey, Mike, do you copy?

I think we're hitting pay
here in the Blue Cut.

[Mike] [bleep]
you still look ugly.

I know. It runs in the family.

[grunts] Can't deny that.

What? Is that actually pay?

Looks like it does, too.

Actually,
that is pay from there.

Yeah, that [bleep] is pay.

It's like you see over here.

Lots and lots
of [bleep] quartz.

Big quartz.
Like, look at that.

That's just...
Look at all that rock.

[narrator] Gold is often found
with the mineral,

quartz.

So that's how you tell
that's [bleep] pay.

I wanna start sluicing
all [bleep]

I wanna [bleep]
start sluicing.

[baby crying]

What? Hi, baby.

[man speaking]

- Hola, everybody.
- [woman] Hello.

[narrator] The Beets family
gather to find out

if Tony's hunt for the
elusive white channel gold

has paid off this week.

How did we do this week?

[Mike] Oh, not too bad.

Sluiced for seven days,
more or less.

[Tony speaking]

- [Mike] Everybody ready?
- [woman] Yup.

- [Tony speaking]
- [Mike] And go.

[narrator] Tony needs at least


to reach his season goal.

[Mike] 100, 110, 120,











[narrator]
Worth over $360,000.

[Minnie] No.

[woman] Bye, guys.

[acoustic music playing]

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

- [man] Hey, Doumitt.
- [Mitch] How you going, man?

Oh, not too bad.

[Parker] What up? What up?

[narrator] The Schnabel crew
are finally

back running
after shutting down

because of frozen pay.

So we had a short run.
Obviously we spent some time

with Big Red down. But I mean,

we did get some thawed pay
dirt up to the plant.

- Yup.
- We got it through it.

How much gold was in it?

All right, Doumitt,
let's see this.

Come on. Short week.

- [Chris] Short week.
- [Mitch] Did we break a hundred?

[Mitch] Oh,
it's gonna be tight.

[Chris] Forty, fifty,

sixty,

eighty,

a hundred, one-twenty,

one-thirty, one-forty,
one-fifty.



[narrator]
Worth over $290,000.

[Mitch] Not bad
for a short week.

[Chris] No.

For the week,
we got the 163 and a half

and the season total
is 525.65.

It's not bad.

[Mitch] When you look
at how early we started.

- Well, yeah, it's early-- - [Mitch]
We knew we were gonna fight frost.

You know, I'm not surprised
we had to shut the plant down,

but still don't like it,

because with how much dirt
we have to get through,

we need that thing
running every day we can.

Judging by the way things
are going,

you better order
the cold weather gear.

- [Mitch] Yeah.
- And be here late.

[Chris] Sluicing till
November, Mitch.

Oh. Yeah. I'm getting

my Christmas tree
ornament set up.

Send me a text on
how you did, will you?

[laughter]

- Cheers.
- Cheers.

- [Parker] Thanks, Chris.
- Yup.

- [Mitch] Later.
- See you, Doumitt.

[Chris] Okay.

[Parker] You know,
everybody's doing good.

Equipment's staying together
for the most part.

Cold's still coming in.

It's a little sad
when you can pull in,

like, a quarter million
dollars' worth of gold

and still not make money, though.