13x05 - Melt Down

[bunniefuu]

[Parker] Got a lot
going on right now,

and hopefully we're
not biting off too much.

[Narrator] {\an8}Twenty-seven-year-old
Parker Schnabel

{\an8}is planning something
he's never done before,

{\an8}run two mining operations
in different countries,

{\an8}one in the Yukon
and a new one in Alaska.

[Parker] {\an8}It's really dangero

{\an8}having that big of a battle
on two different fronts.

Getting people, getting parts
is gonna be a real challenge.

[Narrator] {\an8}But before Parke
{\an8}can move resources to Alaska

{\an8}he wants his Yukon crew to strip a
mammoth 90 acres of ground at the Airstrip.

[Parker] {\an8}We have so much
{\an8}ground to get through

{\an8}that just stripping
is the main issue

with just how spread
out we're gonna be.

Everybody's gonna
have to step up.

[Narrator] {\an8}To amp up
{\an8}the pressure even more,

{\an8}Parker's water license at the Airstrip
runs out at the end of this season.

{\an8}He needs to extract
all the gold,

{\an8}or it will stay in
the ground forever.

So we're getting really close to
being done with the Keyhole Cut.

Crew's working pretty hard to
make sure that the next one is ready.

[Tyson]
Guys, we're almost there.

[Narrator] {\an8}Five weeks into the
season, wash plant boss Tyson Lee

{\an8}has pulled out 975 ounces of
gold from the 14-acre Keyhole Cut.

We're getting to the bitter end
of the first cut of the season here.

I'm loading up
the last bit of pay.

So these are the last few
truckloads, getting it up to Big Red.

This cut is over
and done with.

You're good.
My horn is [bleep] again.

Hey, you're good.
You're loaded.

[Woman 1 speaking]

[Tyson] Trucker go.
Trucker go.

[Woman 1] I feel like I'm keeping
up at the moment, which is good.

I just hope
I don't [bleep] it up.

[Woman 2 on radio]
{\an8}You're doing great.

I think that's it.

[Woman 1 on radio]
{\an8}Hey, Justin.

[Justin] One last bucket.

Here we go.

All righty, guys.
Time to shut Big Red down.

{\an8}The next step is Easy Street

[narrator] {\an8}Just upstream
{\an8}from the Keyhole Cut,

{\an8}Parker's crew has
already stripped

{\an8}the 11-acre Easy Street Cut
down to pay dirt,

{\an8}ground they hope can delive
over $1 million in gold.

We're stripping down
here at the Airstrip.

Everybody's asking, "Why are
we calling it Easy Street?"

And I think it's because it's
only gonna get tougher from here.

[Narrator]
{\an8}To mine out the new cut,

{\an8}Parker needs Big Red moved and
running pay dirt before night shift

{\an8}takes over in just
ten hours' time.

[Parker] Hopefully,
we can nail these transitions,

like we have so much
ground to get through that,

you know, smoothly
transitioning from one pit

to the next is going to
be a critical part of this.

And we have
a lot of them to do.

If we lose a couple of
days per plant move,

it's going to throw a wrench in
the works for the whole season.

This is going to be on Tyson getting
Big Red moved from the setup it's in to...

to the next one because he needs
to get comfortable doing it on his own

because Mitch is dealing
with the stripping crew.

[Mitch] Right now it's just
Tyson over there on his own

and, you know, we're relying on
him to be able to keep that plant going.

So we're all done with
Big Red here at this setup.

We're ready to get back sluicing
with the wash plant in the cut.

Trying to do this myself.
So wish me luck.

This is the first time
I've set Big Red up by myself.

So we just want to be careful
not to flip the thing over

so it's pretty well-concreted
into the ground.

Stand back.

Yee-haw!

[Tyson] So this is probably the
sketchiest part of the whole pole.

There's a narrow culvert
crossing in the road

and Big Red flips over,
that's game over.

It's looking pretty tight.

Don't know if we're
gonna make or [bleep].

[Bleep], that was tight.

[Narrator] {\an8}The last step,
{\an8}drag the plant up a steep ra

{\an8}to the top
of the 30-foot high pad.

[James] It's all fluff.

The plant's dug in.

When you're building a wash
plant pad, you need compaction.

That's what we're fighting
against right now.

The plant's not level.

We have to level the plant before
everything else is built around it.

I just need to,
like, unbury it now.

I mean, the plant will do its
thing and it'll probably settle,

but it's more of the sluice
runs with the river flowing off

that I'm concerned about.

[Narrator] {\an8}Tyson now has jus
{\an8}six hours to get the sluices

{\an8}pump and generator ready
to fire up for the night shift.

[Parker] How's things looking?

When are you firing up,
tonight?

Hopefully.

I was hoping to just
get it prepped behind...

I don't give a [bleep]
how you do it.

I just don't want
to worry about it.

I'm worried about stripping.

That's why I haven't
[bleep] been here.

No, it's all good.

You don't have
to worry about it.

- Thanks, man.
- [Tyson] Thanks.

We're dealing with
an uncompacted pad,

so we're gonna need
good water distribution,

and that involves
having a chute.

[Narrator] {\an8}Two years ago when
Tyson set up a wash plant...

[Parker] Where's all
this water coming from?

[Narrator] {\an8}...water from the
sluices undermined the pad...

[Parker] Holy crap!

[Narrator] {\an8}...and nearly
{\an8}toppled the wash plant.

- [Tyson] Holy [bleep].
- [Parker] Tyson!

[Narrator] {\an8}This time he plan
{\an8}to divert the water runoff

{\an8}with a 35-foot
long steel chute.

[Tyson]
We gotta get this trough

and we gotta get it back up
to Big Red

because there's still hope
of Big Red running tonight.

Any day we're not
sluicing means another day

we have to sluice into
October, November.

[Narrator] {\an8}It's a four-mile journey
downstream to where they last used it.

Parker is really counting on
me to get Big Red up and going,

so I'm gonna do my best to have
it running by the end of the day.

[Tyson] What the [bleep].

[Bleep].
[bleep] you.

This is the last thing
I wanted to see right now.

Our road's washed
completely out.

I'm gonna have
to pack material in

and get that water
going through that culvert.

It must have just been
roaring through here.

Move your bum.
Go on.

Last year we had this happen and man it took
six, seven different pieces of equipment

and people and damn near a
whole day to rebuild this road.

And that's time I don't have.

[Fred]
I could be in serious trouble.

I've got fuel bills coming in
and I only have so much money.

So once that money runs out,

if we don't have gold coming
in, well, we're screwed.

I mean, our house
is up for grabs on this.

We're walking
a tightrope right now.

[Narrator] {\an8}Forty-six miles
{\an8}west of Dawson,

{\an8}in the wilderness
of California Creek,

{\an8}combat veteran Fred Lewis is
chasing a record 500-ounce season gold.

{\an8}But five weeks in, he's stil
not mined a single ounce.

[Fred] We're just trying
to get the mindset running

so money can start coming
in instead of going out.

We just got to keep pushing

and get to where we need
to be to start sluicing.

[Narrator] {\an8}The long, harsh winter
has dealt Fred a crippling blow.

{\an8}A quarter-mile-long ice shee
still stands between him

{\an8}and his gold-rich pay dirt.

[Fred] This ice is really
[bleep] everything.

We're trying to uncover as much as
we can and get this mine site moving.

[Narrator] {\an8}Last week, Fred resurrected
an ancient 90-yard-an-hour wash plant.

[Man 1] There it is.

[Narrator] {\an8}But it's useless
until Fred can dig down to pay.

{\an8}And so far, his attempts
to melt the ice have failed

[Stuart] We are so far behind
schedule at this moment in time,

you know, that we don't
have any time to wait.

So we have to take action
and take control of the creek.

[Buzz] Hey, Fred, man.
What's going on?

- Well, this ice has got to go, man.
- Yeah.

We don't have any
other way to do it, I think.

But to go up there and, uh...

and try and make the creek go
back where it belongs somehow,

and that should facilitate
melting the ice on the right side.

If we can't do that, we really don't
have anything else to get it to go.

- I feel like you've got the skill to do this.
- Yeah.

I think my best bet is for me
to walk along the berm,

as you're going up there
and just spot it for you.

- All we can do is try, right?
- We can't sit here and wait.

We got to try. Let's
pound some of that ice out.

- Okay. Let's do it.
- You got me on the radio?

-[Buzz] Yes, I do. All right
-All right, I'll be on the bank.

[Narrator] {\an8}Fred's plan,
{\an8}create a 20-foot-long ice da

{\an8}across the narrowest point
of the creek to divert wate

{\an8}onto the ice sheet to
help melt the snow and ice

{\an8}covering the gold-rich pay
dirt left over from last season.

[Fred] So we got to try.
It's worth the risk.

Hey, Buzz, this is probably
the fastest running water

- at this, uh, choke point.
- Yeah.

[Fred]
It's just a little bit risky.

If we, if we sink this 220,
we're freaking done.

Let's take our time and make sure
nothing bad happens to it, right?

[Fred] All right.
Your tracks are about...

Oh, man, you're almost
submerged completely.

It's not pushing you at all,
is it?

[Buzz] Take this
corner a little bit.

[Fred] Hey, Buzz,
that ice is awful beautiful,

but we're gonna
have to k*ll it.

Sounds like a good plan, man.

[Fred] Oh! Wow!

That's like 20,000 pounds
of ice you just broke.

Yeah!
Come on now, it's massive.

Whoo!

Oh, yeah. There we go.

You've got a little bit
of ice that's holding.

Doesn't look that way.
Fingers crossed it works.

[Buzz] We need
to make an ice jam.

[Fred] There we go.

[Buzz] That's a lot of weight.

[Fred] Wow.

I got a pretty
good ice jam here.

[Fred] You know, you're actually
getting close to the top of that ice.

If you can get it
over the top,

that would actually
melt it really well.

[Buzz speaking]

- [Fred] Just be really careful.
- [Buzz] Mm-hmm.

[Fred] Oh.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Bleep].

[Fred] There we go.

[Narrator]
{\an8}At California Creek...

I got a pretty
good ice jam here.

[Narrator] {\an8}...Fred Lewis
{\an8}is battling an ice sheet

{\an8}that's stopping him
from mining.

[Fred] Just be really careful.
Oh. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Bleep].

So there goes the ice dam.

[Buzz] That's not feasible.

We're gonna have to figure
something else out because...

this is definitely
not going to work.

[Bleep], dude.
We don't have a backup plan.

That means we got nothing.

Is that what
you're telling me?

Right at this point in time.

[Fred speaking]

[Narrator]
{\an8}If the cold spring continues

{\an8}the ice may never fully melt

{\an8}Destroying Fred's dream
of a successful season.

[Stuart] Hey, man.

[Fred] I don't have anything
else to throw at this.

[Stuart] I know. Sorry. Well,
but it's one of those things.

We're not gonna go home,
we're not gonna quit.

[Fred] I'm gonna
run out of money.

It's a possibility,
but it's also a possibility

that we're gonna hit the
motherlode and walk out here, [bleep],

be able to go back and buy
Bentleys. You know what I'm thinking?

[Fred] And usually that
is all I'm thinking about.

But lately it just seems like,
just some puppet...

puppeteer pulling my strings
and making [bleep] go wrong.

And it's like,
how much can you take?

How much can you take?

And I just want to
cut the [bleep] string.

Yeah. I'm just
at the end of my rope, man.

[Tony speaking]

[Narrator] {\an8}King of the
Klondike, Tony Beets,

{\an8}is digging deeper
than ever before,

{\an8}opening up two monster
cuts in the hunt

{\an8}for Paradise Hill's gold-ric
White Channel pay streak.

[Tony speaking]

[Narrator]
{\an8}But after five weeks

{\an8}fighting deep frozen
ground in both cuts,

{\an8}Tony's banked less
than 500 ounces,

{\an8}way short of the 200 ounces
a week he needs.

[Mike] I'm gonna be ripping in
here for a good chunk of the day,

probably a good
chunk of tomorrow,

because it's frozen pay
is just pain in the a*s.

[Narrator] {\an8}Tony's charged
{\an8}youngest son, Mike,

{\an8}with managing the cuts
and bringing in the gold.

[Tony speaking]

[Narrator] {\an8}Mike has already
{\an8}opened up nearly two-thirds

{\an8}of the nine-acre Cold Cut where he
faces a 60-foot deep frozen pay lay.

{\an8}Now in the six-acre Blue Cut
he's ripping permafrost

{\an8}with a D11 dozer to
expose it to sunlight.

{\an8}If it doesn't defrost in tim the
stockpile of thawed pay dirt will run out,

{\an8}forcing them to shut down.

[Mike]
Getting this all ripped up.

Let's hope it all thaws out and we
have a lot of pay ready to sluice then.

[Narrator]
{\an8}The only other machine

in Tony's arsenal
powerful enough

{\an8}to dig through frozen pay,
the $1.1 million 950 excavator.

With the 950 being one
of the biggest earth movers

and the biggest
one Tony has, it's...

it definitely
is a lot of pressure.

And I don't want to break it
or break something with it

because it'd be
a lot of downtime.

[Narrator] {\an8}Mike's tasked James
Rhyno, a Beet's crew veteran,

{\an8}with digging out the pay dir
to thaw at the pay pile.

It's pretty frosty in
here this morning.

Um, a lot of frozen
ground in here.

Driving me [bleep] crazy.

It'd be nice
to get a full bucket.

[Bleep], this ground is hard.

Holy. Hey, Tony. You copy?

[Tony speaking]

Yeah.
This ground is really hard.

Um, can we come up
with another plan?

[Tony speaking]

Okay.

[Tony speaking]

[Narrator] {\an8}Tony's plan,
{\an8}remove the 950's 28-foot boo

{\an8}and replace it with
a 24-foot boom.

{\an8}The shorter arm will generate more
force and concentrate digging powe

We already took the stick
and bucket off.

Now we're gonna pull
the main boom pin out.

[Narrator] {\an8}In charge of the
swap, mechanic, Sam Aftanas.

[Sam]
[bleep] sakes. In the pin

stock in here
it's just being up [bleep].

[Tony speaking]

[Sam] So I foresee pulling that pin
out is going to be a pain in the a*s.

[Tony speaking]

[Sam] Me.

[Tony speaking]

[James] Yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[James] Run around them?

[Tony speaking]

[James] It's not going to work
with the slip hook, is it?

[Tony speaking]

[James] Fifty-four and a half.
And that is five.

[Sam] I'm hoping that
pin doesn't jump out of there

Frig.

[Tony speaking]

[Sam] Okay.

[Tony speaking]

[Sam] Oh.

[Bleep], that's sweet.

[Tony speaking]

[Sam] Yeah, I do.

[Tony speaking]

[Sam] Yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony speaking]

[Tony speaking]

Whoa.

[Sam]
Put some good pressure on it.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony speaking]

[Sam] Okay. Yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[Sam]
Takes over when it's easy.

All right,
we're in the other side.

[Tony speaking]

- [James] That went really well.
- [Sam] [bleep] yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[James] That was pretty slick.

Good job. Whoo!

[Tony speaking]

I was just explaining to the boys if they
ever wonder why I like working with you.

He might be
a gruff old [bleep],

but [bleep] he knows
what he's doing.

[Sam] Yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Oh, [bleep] yeah.

Should be able to start getting
full [bleep] buckets for a while.

[Tony speaking]

[Narrator] {\an8}With the 950 bac
{\an8}in the Blue Cut...

[James] My old girl, I
gotta get her back in the dirt.

[Narrator] {\an8}...it should
{\an8}tear through the concrete,

hard frozen ground and keep the
trommel fed with thawed pay dirt.

Holy [bleep].

It does do a lot better
than that long boom.

Just tears through that frost.

Nice, full scoops.

It actually picks the bucket
up. That is a nice change.

It's gonna be a little bit
different getting used

to having trucks
closer to you,

'cause you're gonna
have to keep them nice

and tight to
be able to reach them.

But I like the way it digs.

We're gonna have a lot better
time keeping up with trucks

and moving a lot
more dirt with this thing.

I'm getting a bit stressed out
because we're so spread out.

- [Mitch on radio] {\an8}Yeah.
- And this is so much to do.

[Narrator] {\an8}At the Airstrip,
{\an8}Parker is racing to mine ou

{\an8}90 acres of ground
in just one season.

With this water license
expiring

and so much
ground to get through,

we're having to
really just plow hard

into getting everything
as opened up as we can.

You know, we don't have another
season after this with the water license,

so everything
has to be sluiced.

[Narrator] {\an8}Parker has nearly
all his crew focused on stripping,

{\an8}leaving plant boss Tyson Le
on his own to get Big Red

{\an8}running before night shift
takes over in three hours' time.

You know, we're just so
strung out on guys this year

that no one's had time to come
down here and see how the roads are.

[Narrator] {\an8}He needs to collect a
metal chute to shore up Big Red's pad,

{\an8}but a blown-out road has no
put him behind the eight bal

[Tyson] If these roads
weren't washed out,

Big Red would be
running right now.

This is the last scoop here.

Is the quick bush fix good
enough to get our chute?

And hopefully, I'll come back
in time and the road's still here.

And here we are,
finally at our chute.

This thing looks like something
you'd find in a scrapyard,

but it definitely makes
everything go that much smoother.

Found our chute, and we
just gotta get it upstream.

Let's go.

This chute's pretty wide.

It's got to be damn
near 35 feet long.

So just having to dodge
my way around trees and hills

and don't want to
catch it on an edge

and have it fall out
of the bucket.

I am going very
slowly through this.

Oh...

[bleep].

Here we are, at Big Red, last piece
of the puzzle can be put in place.

We just got to get
this bank armored up.

There is two metric
[bleep] tons of water

going to be flowing
over these sluice runs,

and it's metric [bleep] ton.

It is a scientific term
in the Redneck Book of Math.

Hey, you know,
Big Red's all set to go.

First scoop of Easy Street
going in.

[Justin on radio] {\an8}All right,
boy. Show time. Let's go.

Let's do it.

You know, I'm really happy I can find
the diverter trough and get it up here,

because as you can tell, it's
really saving our a*s right now.

I just came down here to take a look
at Big Red and see how she's running.

I see Mitch is up here
doing his rounds,

so I want to see
what he thinks of my setup.

- What's happening?
- [Tyson] How's it going?

It's looking really good.

- [Tyson] How's our bank doing?
- The bank's holding up nice.

- Looks good. Good job, man.
- Thanks, Mitch.

[Narrator]
{\an8}Big Red is back on the gold

{\an8}The race is on to mine out the
Airstrip before the end of the season.

[Tony speaking]

[Narrator] {\an8}Tony's running 300
yards an hour of white channel

{\an8}pay dirt through his trommel

{\an8}To keep it fed.

{\an8}It needs a constant flow of thawed
pay dirt from the two monster cuts.

[Mike] We're running out of
good thawed pay right now.

It's this damn dozer [bleep]
loading trucks like crazy, man.

They're tearing up that dirt.

[Narrator] {\an8}In the Cold Cut,
{\an8}Ruby Ma honey is taking her

{\an8}first turn
in the 950 excavator...

{\an8}A lot shorter eh?

It's so weird!

[Narrator]
{\an8}...with its new short boom.

[Ruby] We have
a new boom from the 950.

It's about five feet shorter
than the one we had before.

And it'll be a little bit
more faster

and a little bit more
powerful what it should be.

I don't mind driving rock
truck every once in a while.

[Narrator] {\an8}Tony's nephew,
{\an8}known as Cousin Mike,

{\an8}is in a relationship with Ruby,
who's loading his rock truck

When I do it for too long,
it gets boring,

but I get to work with Ruby,
which is nice.

Sometimes, you just want to
hang out with your girlfriend.

[Ruby] It definitely helps that
I have somebody to go home

to at the end of the day

that understands everything that
we go through throughout the day.

So I came to the Yukon,
to mine for gold,

and, um, I ended up
finding a diamond.

[Michael on radio] {\an8}So, Ruby,
you have to drive forward a little bit.

[Ruby] What are we trying
to accomplish here, babe?

[Michael on radio]
{\an8}Sorry. What was that?

Oh, [bleep]. What was that?

[Ruby] What the [bleep].

Are you okay?

[Ruby] I'm fine. I just [bleep] clipped
the corner of your [bleep] truck, though.

[Michael] Oh [bleep].

It doesn't look good.

[Ruby] What are we trying
to accomplish here babe?

[Michael] {\an8}Sorry.
{\an8}What was that?

[Machine crashing]

Oh [bleep]. What was that?

[Ruby] What the [bleep]?

[Narrator] {\an8}Battling
{\an8}to dig up frozen pay.

Ruby has crashed Tony Beets


[Ruby] Kevin, do you copy?
Kevin?

[Kevin] {\an8}Yes, Ruby.
{\an8}Can I help you?

[Ruby] I [bleep].

{\an8}The end of my excavator
clipped the corner of the rock truck,

{\an8}and unfortunately, I bent
[bleep] {\an8}out of the door,

{\an8}and I feel absolutely horrib
about it.

[Kevin] No.

So yeah she
kind of [bleep].

[Narrator]
{\an8}Back at the wash plant.

{\an8}The stockpile
is shrinking fast.

{\an8}If Kevin can't get
the 950 back in action,

{\an8}Tony could be forced to shut
down, costing $3,000 an hour.

[Kevin] There we go.

The doors in my [bleep] way.

Meaning?

The door's got to [bleep] go.

That should be attached.

Also, that should
also be attached.

It hit here.

You can see
where the paint has come off,

causing this piece here
to [bumping sound]

Snapping all four bolts
off cleanly.

[Narrator] {\an8}Ruby's crash
{\an8}has sheared off the bolts,

{\an8}holding
the hydraulic valve body

{\an8}that controls all the hydraulics
on the $1.1 million machine

[Kevin] {\an8}Hydraulics is what
drives the entire machine.

Without the hydraulic system
being sealed,

you can't fire it up in any
capacity to move it or anything.

For [bleep].

It is one of
our biggest excavators.

It is always important
to have it [bleep] fixed.

We don't have time for any
of this downtime or [bleep].

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin] This unit
that I pulled off here,

bolts are
sheared off entirely.

We got the right bolts,
but longer.

Now, we're gonna see if I'm
able to modify these ones enough

to make them work
till we get the proper ones.

[Tony speaking]

And I know we have bolts
on order,

but we need the 950 back
in production ASA [bleep] P.

So I'll make something
that'll work.

[Narrator] {\an8}Kevin's bush fix
cut half an inch off the bolts

{\an8}and hope they still secure
the valve body in place.

[Kevin] Essentially, it needs
to be about half an inch shorter.

That turned out pretty well.

So.

Yeah. Perfect for laughing.

This is the last bolt.

And it's just hooking up
the hoses.

And then she's [bleep] done.

Time to fire it up.

[Engine revving]

Doesn't look like
anything's leaking.

It's good to go back to work.

[Narrator]
{\an8}The 950 back running.

{\an8}Ruby can get back
to digging pay

{\an8}before the pay pile
runs out at the trommel.

[Tony speaking]

[Ruby] {\an8}I've worked
{\an8}for Tony for six years,

and this is
my first big mistake.

{\an8}You know, I try to do
the best of my ability

{\an8}and try to pay as good as
attention to everything as I can.

Probably gonna be overly
cautious for the next little while.

So right now I'm trying to break
up some ice to get the creek

diverted back
to where it needs to be going.

[Narrator] {\an8}At California
Creek, Fred Lewis's crew

{\an8}is still battling the
quarter-mile long ice sheet

{\an8}that has frozen them out
from mining gold.

[Christopher] {\an8}We're trying to
get down to dirt to pull gold from,

but the ice is stopping us from
getting what we need to get done.

[Narrator] {\an8}Leading the charg
{\an8}in the 220 excavator,

{\an8}Fred stepson
Christopher Parker.

[Christopher] {\an8}Once I'm done
breaking up some of this ice

{\an8}I can start fixing [blee.

Whoa! Holy [bleep].
What is that?

It's what I think it is.

Yo, Freddy, you need to come
check this [bleep] out real quick, man.

[Fred] What's up?

[Christopher]
Look where my bucket is.

[Fred] What am I looking at?

Let me go, look.

Oh, wow.

Quartz, quartz, quartz,
quartz, quartz.

Look, look.

It's a vein.

Wow.

Give me your headset. We're gonna
get Buzz over here, like, right now.

Buzz, Buzz, this is Fred.

I need you to come
to the 220 ASAP.

It looks like we may have
found a quartz vein.

[Narrator] {\an8}A quartz vein indicates
gold deposits could be close by.

[Fred] This is
a big a*s quartz vein.

I don't know how big it is, but it
goes all the way, at least to here.

[Buzz] Yeah.
It looks [bleep] good, man.

[Fred] But look, it's
also got a lot of iron in it.

[Buzz] Yeah.

[Fred] All that brown.
All that iron.

So that means there's a
lot of heat that forced this up.

[Narrator]
{\an8}Millions of years ago,

{\an8}Magma containing gold
forced its way up through faults

{\an8}in the earth's crust.

{\an8}It cooled and crystallized
into veins of quartz and gol

{\an8}If Fred's small quartz vein
is gold-rich,

{\an8}it could mean he's on track
for a big payday.

{\an8}And possibly even lead him to find
the motherlode at California Creek.

[Fred] It doesn't look like
it continues much more here.

- It might go underneath, but it's going that way.
- [Buzz] Yeah.

[Fred]
Right with this bedrock.

What do you think, Buzz?

We'll cut and try to pulverize
some of it [bleep].

See what's in it.

Do some science.

All right, check it out.

[Fred] You and Chris
wanna gather up some rock?

Put it in his bucket.

Good find.
Hey, really good find.

Hey, Buzz, where do you
want me to take all this?

Yeah, it's a pretty
good sample there.

Let's take that on up.

Bring it to the Gold Room.

Roger that.

We're gonna accurately
pull out gold.

We don't just mine
the entire creek.

We use these signs
to get us to it.

[Narrator] {\an8}To see
{\an8}if the quartz is rich in gol

All right. Safety first.

[Narrator] {\an8}Fred plans
{\an8}to pulverize the hard rock

{\an8}with five-pound solid steel
ball bearings.

We're gonna break up
just about anything.

- All right. You guys ready?
- [Buzz] Sure.

See how loud this is gonna be?

[Fred speaking]

All right, if we crush that up and
there's not a worthless pile of rock

and there's even
a speck of gold,

the pay could have
a hell of a lot of gold in it.

[Brandon] {\an8}We're dead in the
water, so we ain't making any money

We got a call from
our good friend back home,

and he says he needs help
and he's willing to pay us cash.

[Narrator] {\an8}With very
little money to mine,

{\an8}the Clayton brothers are
looking for a quick cash injection.

Hi, how are you?

- We're here to give you a hand today.
- That's awesome.

We might as well come,
make money, work for yous.

Not if I [bleep] pay you.

[Matt] Yeah.

[Narrator] {\an8}Today's job.

{\an8}Install a new boom
on a neighbor's excavator.

Does this come
with limited warranty?

Yeah. Yeah,
as soon as you lift it.

All right. Go ahead
and everybody's clear.

No!

[Al] That's not cool.

[Man 1] Yeah. I'd lift up now.

- [Matt] Look Square. Hey.
- [man 1] Yeah.

[Matt] Try it.

[Man 1] Okay.

Put constant pressure
on this pin.

- [Matt] There we go.
- [man 2] [bleep] yeah.

[Matt] Okay, we got it.

Nailed it.

Just got the boom together.

She's all done.

Well, I guess I've got to
give you a little money now.

I [bleep] hate to.

- [Matt] Oh, wow.
- [Al] Here you go, Matt.

- [Matt] Thank you, Al.
- [Al] Thank you.

[Matt] I appreciate it.
See ya.

He paid us three grand.

That three grand can go
towards fuel, the groceries.

It couldn't have
worked out better.

[Narrator]
{\an8}At California Creek,

{\an8}Fred Lewis has struck
a vein of quartz,

{\an8}which he hopes
will lead him to the gold.

{\an8}After letting the five-poun ball
bearings beat up the quartz for an hour,

{\an8}it's time
to check the material.

[Fred] Let's go do it.

Now let's find
if we got a catch.

[Stuart] Yeah.

Oh.

Yeah.

[Fred] I did a better job
with my [bleep] hammer.

You know, I was kind of hoping
we pull this thing open.

There'd be a bunch of powder
in there.

I know there are certain ways
that we can do it.

I really like what they did
in Papua New Guinea.

- It just took a long time.
- [Stuart] Yeah.

So all they did had a solid pipe
inside of a pipe, the base in it.

So you couldn't...
Nothing got out.

- They threw the rock in there and they smashed it by hand.
- Smashed it [bleep].

Bam, bam, bam.

[Narrator] {\an8}Fred's new plan to
construct a low-tech rock crusher

{\an8}he first saw on a gold
prospecting missio with Parker

{\an8}in the jungles
of Papua New Guinea.

So we're basically gonna
find like this right here.

We're gonna find a pipe, we're
gonna make it so it has a floor

and another pipe
that's gonna go inside of it

and crush it
just like a post pounder.

[Fred] Woohoo!

Let's go there
and try this [bleep] out.

See if we can
crush this [bleep].

[Fred] All right,
so I've only done this once.

- [Stuart] Yeah.
- [Fred] Let's start. Yeah.

[Narrator]
{\an8}After some brute force.

{\an8}It's time to see
if the quartz vein running

{\an8}through his claim
is rich in gold.

{\an8}If it is, Fred could have hit the
motherlode and the ground next to it

{\an8}could be the richest
in California Creek.

Um. I'm seeing gold, buddy.

[Stuart] Yeah. No,
there's gold in. There's gold.

[Bleep]

[Fred] Holy, [bleep] wow.

- And a piece there.
- [Stuart] Yeah.

[Fred] And a piece there.

[Stuart]
A piece up top, right there.

- [Fred] And a piece there.
- [Stuart] Yeah.

- I mean, that was a handful.
- [Stuart] I know.

[Fred] We got three colors
and a lot of little fine stuff.

It's the first goal we found
this season that tells us

there's a vein carrying
gold running up the middle

of our [bleep] claim.

Yeah.

I [bleep] needed this.

- I... I'm hurting.
- I know, man.

You know, it's just [bleep].

That's just the way
that this, you know,

this profession is.
I've noticed that.

I mean, the highs are high and
the lows are really, really low.

You ain't lying.

This is about the best
I felt this season.

We have
a source producing the gold.

{\an8}The potential that
there could be a quartz vei

that has gold
bearing richness through it

kind of fires us up
a little bit,

and it's just giving us a little bit
more fuel to keep exploring this creek

and find out where it is,
because the source is somewhere

and it's coming from somewhere
and we're gonna find it.

[Growling]

[Minnie] Oh, you've got
the ugly face.

[All laughing]

[Narrator] {\an8}After a week battling
frozen ground, the Beets family gather

to find out if their hard work
has paid off.

- [Woman 2] Hi, Faith.
- [Tony speaking]

- [Woman 2] You took long enough.
- Sorry.

- [Tony speaking]
- [Michael] Yeah.

- [Tony speaking]
- [Michael] Both cuts.

[Tony speaking]

Yeah. [Bleep] hard too.

[Tony speaking]

Yeah. Well, if you didn't buy
that last year,

we'd be in big trouble
this year.

So anything else
exciting happens.

Ruby was trying to squeeze
by Cousin Mike in a rock truck.

It wasn't quite enough room.

I bet she felt just awful.

Oh, she did just [bleep].

- At least she cares.
- Oh, yeah.

[Tony speaking]

So, with that being said, we
should probably pour some gold.

- [Tony speaking]
- Yeah.

Okay, let's do this thing,
folks.

[Narrator] {\an8}Tony has less
than 500 ounces in the bank

{\an8}and needs over 200 a week
to hit his 5000 ounce goal.

[Kevin] Three, two, one.
Let's go.

Fifteen.

Sixty-five.

Seventy-five, 85.

A hundred and twenty,






[Narrator]
{\an8}Worth nearly $300,000.

[Tony speaking]

But you know what?
It's better than nothing.

- [Tony speaking]
- [Mike] Yeah.

[Tony speaking]

We'll talk to you guys later.

[Chris] Hey, T-bird.

- [Tyson] How's it going, Doumitt?
- Good. How you doing, buddy?

Pretty good. Thanks.

Well, we finished one,
we started another.

Thank you guys
for getting that pit done.

But it's one of many.

[Tyson] Yeah.

And Tyson, you got your first big
experience there of moving Big Red.

- Yeah.
- New safer lot.

But what do you think
about Big Red?

It's different.

[Parker] It's a lot easier
getting it where you want it.

It's kind of fun, like every
move having to be spot on.

And you even had a point in the
right direction the first time, huh?

Yeah.

Good for you, T.

- You want to see how the Keyhole finished up?
- Let's do it.

Why we're here, Doumitt.
We want to see some gold.

Keyhole right here.

- I'll take this one.
- All right.

So this is the last sluicing
Big Red did before we moved it.

All right.

[Mitch] Twenty, 40, 60, 80,



Keep going, 174.05.

[Narrator]
{\an8}Worth over $310,000.

That's not bad.

I mean, when you look at
the amount of run time it had.

[Chris] Exactly.

So the big question, Chris, that's
two days of running at the Keyhole cut,

- finishing that off at 174.
- Right.

How did we do at Easy Street
with two days of running?

Well, there's not a lot of
hours on this thing, right?

- Yeah.
- Here we go.

- Let's do it.
- Oh, no.

- One.
- He tipped a long way before anything came out.

[Tyson] Thirty, 35, 38,



[Narrator] {\an8}Another $100,000

So for the week it's 229.85.

And for the season, we just
brought 1200 and 1204.45.

That wasn't a bad week.

Knowing we moved
the wash plant in the middle.

- [Mitch] Yeah.
- [Parker] Yeah.

And what, a total
of four days running?

All this going on?

I think we did okay.
I think we did good.

[Tyson] Yeah.

[Mitch] We got
a long way to go.

All right, Chris,
thank you for that.

[Chris] Yup.

See you next week.
Thanks, man.

[Parker] Thanks, Chris.