13x16 - Gremlins

[bunniefuu]

I've been nervous
about not being able
to salvage the season

because there's so many
things that could go wrong,

that would impact
my entire life.

[Fred over radio]

[Buzz over radio]

[narrator] Deep in
the Yukon wilderness,

mine boss Fred Lewis has
been battling the elements,

equipment failures and wash
plant shutdowns all season.

[over radio]

Stefan quit on us, man.

[narrator] Now, he's a man
down after brother-in-arms,

Stefan Generally walked
out on the crew.

[over radio]

It's tough for me as a friend,
you know, because I really
respect the guy,

but it's really hard to take.

I can't win, man.
I can't find people that
actually understand hard work

and wanna change their lives
at the same time, you know.

[narrator] More than halfway
through the season,

Fred's only banked 72
ounces of gold, well short
of his 500 ounce goal.

And with winter
fast approaching,
if he's to survive,

Fred needs to start
getting big gold
out of the Freedom Cut.

That 500-ounce goal
is kind of getting
harder and harder.

This has been probably one
of the biggest battles of
my life, my team's life.

Fred, I've got something
you're gonna wanna see.

Some pretty
interesting [bleep].

Hey, Fred, man.

Ooh, what's this?

It's a little freaking course.

[narrator] 11 weeks ago,

Oh, wow.

[narrator] Fred discovered
a gold-rich quartz vein
alongside California Creek.

That tells us there's
a vein carrying gold

running up the middle
of our [bleep] plain.

[narrator] Buzz's discovery
in the Freedom Cut

could be the jolt Fred's
been praying for.

Dude, we've been chasing this
quartz all [bleep] season,

and I think this is what
we were looking for
the whole time.

There's gold in this rock,

and if there's gold in
the rock, there's
gold in the ground.

Let's just load it all up,

and keep chasing it.

Right now, the name of
the game is to pull as much
pay to the plant as possible,

while chasing that
freaking quartz payload.

With some luck and some hard
work, we can still do this.

We've got the rock chopper
up and running for
the first time in a long time.

We're firing on all cylinders.

Hey guys, I've got
a load of pay I'm
dropping off at the plant,

that should keep
you guys running.

Let's keep get that wash
plant up, and get that gold.

- Christopher, Christopher.
- [Christopher] What?

- All right, you ready
to fire the pump up?
- [Christopher] Yes, sir.

- All right,
so pumps coming on.
- [Christopher] Roger that.

[JB over radio]

Turn it off. It didn't work.

What just happened?

[over radio]

Oh, man, one thing
or another, man.

Any time that plant's down,
is uh, you know,

time we're not finding gold,
so we have to figure it out.

[JB makes disgusted noise]

- Another one broke, eh?
- Yep.

Yeah. They're getting
chewed through.
I'm not sure how.

- Is there, like, any way
we can, like, bush fix this?
- No.

And now what's really bad is
we don't have any more.
That's the last one.

First thing I've gotta do
is find belts.

The auto parts in
Dawson were out.

I bought everything they had,
you know, so we're not
getting them locally.

[narrator] The only available
belts are 350 miles away,
in Fairbanks, Alaska.

[JB] I have to go to Alaska
to get these two belts,

it's something I'm not
real happy about.

I mean, it's a long,
long trip.

Six hours, one direction.

Just to pick up
a couple of belts.

But we've gotta have them
if we wanna keep running.

JB's gonna be at least
two days, maybe even three,
to go get these parts.

And that's two or three
days of sluicing
that we're gonna lose.

That's two or three day's
worth of gold we're not
gonna have in our pan.

We gotta get [beep] moving.

This is our last season here,
so we're just really trying to
get as many ounces as we can.

Every grain of dirt
right now counts.

We are out of pay
on the Bear Cut.

This is the last scoop.

Another cut done.

How's it going, Chris?

Hey, Mitchell. Just waiting
for the thing to run out
and we'll shut her down.

Man, the Bear Cut has been
a huge cut, but we're
to the end of it right here.

Yeah, no kidding.
You got through that
pretty quick, man.

- Yeah, so now we gotta get
that Runway Cut opened up.
- How's that coming along?

Ah, we've still got a lot of
overburden on the Runway,

so we don't have any pay dirt
ready for Big Red right now.

- We're looking at least
two weeks downtime, minimum.
- Wow.

- That's not good.
- No, not by any means.

[narrator] 28-year-old
Parker Schnabel
is stretched thin,

running two mines
in different countries.

[Parker] The last two weeks
I've been in Alaska.

You know, we had a rough
ten days start up,

and now it's starting
to smooth out.

We've got a plant
running over there.
There's gold coming in.

[narrator] In the Yukon,
his crew are racing to mine
out the massive

air strip claim before
the water license expires
at the end of the season.

[Parker] We have to get
all of this mined this year.

So it's basically
use it or lose it.

And it's important that
we get everything

that we have left to mine
this year stripped and on pay.

Half a million of square feet
of what we have left
is not stripped.

And this is pretty late
in the year to be stripping.

[narrator] Parker's crew
have already mined out

forty eight of his 90 acres
at the airstrip.

The Keyhole, Easy Street,
and Bear Cuts.

Now they're running paydirt
through Sluicifer from
the 18 acre Payback Cut,

and continue to strip the last
and largest of them all.
The 24 acre Runway Cut.

They need to get
at least five acres
down to pay this week,

before they can fire
Big Red back up.

[Parker] So Big Red
will sit until all
the stripping's done.

We really can't afford
the time, but, um,

it's just gonna mean sluicing
later in the year.

[narrator] Down to just
one wash plant,

it's all hands on deck
at the Runway Cut, until
it's completely stripped.

Except for one crew member.

[Tyson] So right now
I'm in the Payback Cut.

You know, there's a lot to do.

And I'm pretty much
over here on my own.

So, trying to keep
the wash plant going.

[narrator] While Sluicifer
plant boss Tyson Lee

digs out Payback Cut pay dirt
in the 750 excavator...

You know, it's just a struggle
trying to keep ahead.

[narrator] Parker in the D-11,
and foreman Mitch Blaschke
in the 700,

strip overburden
in the Runway Cut.

This is probably the most
behind we've ever been,

in opening a cut
and having things ready.

We've got so much on our plate
and you know, here we are just
trying to get through it all,

and trying to do it
before the snow flies.

[hissing noise]

And... what the? Holy [bleep].

Whoa! Whoa! [bleep]

There's only one thing
that smells like that,
and that is coolant.

[hissing from engine]

That is not good.

Looks like we just blew
our radiator here,

and it's blown right on
the exhaust manifold.

Not what we need right now.

Yo, Taylor,
you got a copy, man?

[over radio]

Hey buddy, you wanna
make your way over to
the seven-hundy here?

It looks like
it lost the radiator.

We've got a whole bunch
of coolant spewing out
right on the exhaust.

[over radio]

I mean, the biggest thing
here is just the lead time
on getting parts.

[over radio]

To lose something like
the radiator in this 700,

when we've got
all this dirt to move,

I need another big
excavator over here.

Um, I'm not sure where
I'm gonna get one of those
from right now.

Hey!

- How's it going, Mitch?
- Oh, we've had better days.

- What's going on?
- Oh, the 700
just blew the rad.

- Oh, really?
- Yeah, like, bad.

The problem is,
we're in the middle of
all that mud right now.

- Yeah.
- And without a big excavator,

there's no way we've got
a fighting chance
of getting through it.

I know you're doing
everything you can
to keep up with Sluicifer,

but, man, we really
need the 750.

Well, it sucks, 'cause,
you know, we have, like,
no payout right now.

So, the 750 is kind of key
to this operation right now.

I know, and that's gonna
leave you with a 480.

As soon as Taylor gets
the 700 back up and going,

- you can have this thing back.
- Right.

But, man, for right now,
I hate to do it,

but we've really got no other
option down there but to
repo the old 750 from you.

Right.

I'll get it back to you
as soon as I can.

[narrator] Losing
the 750 leaves Tyson
with just the 480,

reducing the amount of pay
he can send to Sluicifer.

Sadly, I'm gonna have to
turn Sluicifer down.

You know, with only
the 480 digging pay,

we're gonna get to the point
where we're out of pay,

we have nothing to run.

You know, a lower feed rate
means less gold coming in,

but it's better than having
no gold coming in and having
to shut the plant down.

[narrator] With Sluicifer
dialed down and Big Red
shut down,

the chances of mining out
all 90 acres are
slimmer than ever.

You've gotta pick your battles
and well, we lost this one.

[Dave Turin] There's
some big changes
ahead for this season.

I'm officially retiring from
mining and um, I'm gonna
try and sell these claims.

[narrator] At Glacier Creek,
Dave Turin is on a mission

to sell his one million dollar
turnkey mining operation.

[Dave] I can't do this
forever. I've been
doing it a long time.

I want to enjoy my grandkids,
my kids, hang out,

do whatever, go camping,
and hunting,

and fishing and stuff.

Hopefully it all works out.

[narrator] Dave hopes to prove
to potential buyers Nathan
Clarke and Jason Sanchez

there's years of mining
and a possible $10 million
of gold in the ground.

Nathan and Jason, myself,
we did a prospect with
The Beatles, found $20 a yard.

That's good ground.

Hopefully it's good enough
for those guys to buy it.

We've set a goal of 30 ounces.

If we pull 30 ounces
out of here, it will prove
there's a lot of gold here.

And everybody's
walking out of here

with gold in their pockets,
which is a good thing.

So, it's one last hurrah
for Team Turin.

I still can't believe
we're actually gonna
make a run at it.

- I'm excited.
- I'm excited too.

[narrator] Since
the early 1900s,

miners have been flocking to
the area around Glacier Creek

with the dream
of striking it rich.

Over the years, the ground's
delivered a fortune...

nearly 150,000 ounces of gold.

Today, worth around


- [Dave] Morning, guys.
- [Nate] Morning!

[Dave] So here's
what I'm thinking.

Because we don't
have a rock truck,
there's just three of us,

if we, uh, we need to
move this plant, this sluice
closer to the pay.

Yeah, I agree.

[narrator] Last week,

I'll pick the spot, landowner.

Okay. Mine boss.

[laughs]

[narrator] Team Turin punched
three test holes downstream

from last season's
Sunlight Cut.

Twenty dollars,
eighty cents a yard.

I really think we should
fire The Eagle up.

[narrator] Now they plan
to move Dave's $500,000
mobile wash plant, The Eagle,

half a mile downstream
to the best test hole where
they will open up a new cut.

[Dave] We're calling it
The Three Amigos Cut.

So why don't you guys
grab the excavator,
start lifting this sluice.

I'll start on all the tailings
so that we can get
this thing up and out of here.

- You good?
- Let's get to it.

What I will miss, for real,
is missing mining
with the guys.

That's the hard part.

See what that'll do.

[Dave] We all want to be
a part of a really good team.

Swinging right.

[Dave] You know, this is
my top team right here.

And when you think
about it ending, that's hard.

We all built this together.

Yeah, it's sentimental.

- All right, you're
done with me.
- I'm ready to walk.

All right. Let's, uh,
get this over there.

- I'm gonna start
finishing up the pad.
- Okay.

[narrator] The 34-ton Eagle
rides on tracks and is driven
by remote control,

making it faster and easier
to move than most wash plants.

Okay, we ready?

[over radio]

Get her walked out of here.

Here we go!

[Jason] Looking good, Nate.
Looking good, buddy.

Man, you act like
you've done this before!

So I gotta make sure to get
the pad ready for The Eagle,
and it's gotta be level.

Hopefully they get that thing
over here, 'cause I'm gonna
be ready here in a little bit.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, Nate. Whoa. Whoa.

You keep going,
that tube's gonna end up
smacking the ground.

We're only inches above.

Well, the clear problem is,
the blue tube hangs
down too low.

We can't raise it up anymore.
It's raised up all the way.

It's just how the hill is.

All of our material goes
down that pipe, so we
can't damage it at all.

It's the only tube we've got,

so we can't bend it,
damage it, it might
damage the whole Eagle.

[narrator] The vital


feeds screened pay dirt
from the shaker decks
into the sluice runs.

You wanna get some material,
and just add up to the tracks,
so the tracks are going up?

Make it less of a slope,
get the tracks on it,
get the front end up.

We'll be okay.

Dude, do you just
wanna back her up?

I'll get that 980,
and grab us some tails.

[Jason] So what we're
trying to do is

build up a pad here,
that will elevate the tracks

in a manner that will
bring that tube up.

Well, we'll give her a shot
and see what she does.

- You ready?
- All right. Come on, Nate.

Easy. Easy now.

Go ahead and kick her
to the right.

Straight ahead. Let me get
up ahead of you again.

Seems to be going
actually pretty smooth
after we did that material.

Straighten her out.
We're smooth sailing,
now, my man.

The pad looks pretty level.
And I've got a pretty good
slope for the sluice box.

So now it's time
to move The Eagle in.

- [Nate] Try that right there.
- [Jason] That looks
pretty good.

- Do you love it?
- [Nate] Yeah, I like it. Good.

Eagle's set. Sluice box's set.

All we've got left is
to start getting some dirt!

All right, here we go.

[Jason] He started
right back at it.

We're digging, we're
throwing dirt. Pullin' gold.

- [Nate] All right, Dave,
I'm gonna turn it on.
- Okay, turn it on.

[engine starts up]

He's alive, Dave. He's alive!

Let's turn some water on
and run some dirt.

[narrator] Team Turin
are once again running
Alaskan gold-rich pay dirt.

[Dave] I think those
two guys, out of all the guys
I've ever mined with,

they get it. And that's
why they're here.

I've given them an offer
that I don't think they'll get

anywhere else
in their lifetime.

Both of them are ready
for that challenge.

I think right now,
I wanna say we're really,
like, paving the way through.

[narrator] Fred Lewis's
wash plant Sergeant Sluice
is at a standstill,

waiting on a replacement belt
for the shaker deck's motor.

It almost feels like
mowing the lawn
with a pair of scissors.

[Stuart] I know we've had,
kind of, a ton of problems,

but, I mean, every piece
of equipment we get,

you know, we have to put
massive TLC into it
to get it up and running.

[over radio] Hey Fred,
where are you at?

JB, is that you?

Yeah man, I'm back.
I'm coming in hot.

That's freaking record time,
man. Did you get the belts?

[over radio]

[JB] We basically just
get a hold of her right there,
and I'll spin the wheel.

[wheel squeals as turned]

Here we go. Come on, man.

[high pitched squeal]

There we go. Yep, Yep.
There it goes. There it goes.

All right, let it go.
Oh, yeah, there's one.

Now we've gotta...

You're gonna have to
spin it down there again.

There we go, there we go.
We got it.

Okay. We're on.
Straight. Tight.

[chuckles]

- You ready to fire it up
and see what it does?
- Yeah.

[engine starts]

[Fred] Old Sarge
is running smooth.

We've got Buzz up clearing
and stripping land.

I'm gonna maintain tailings
and pull in more pay
to keep the plant feeding.

We're on the gold now.

[JB] [beep]! What is going on?

Doggone belt came off again.

Why now?

[Fred] The amount
of breakdowns that we've had,
I mean it goes on and on.

[over radio]

Oh man, it's unbelievable.

[JB] Something's
obviously wrong.

I gotta get up there,
and see what's going on
with these pulleys

Try to use my detective work
and see what's going on.

My best guess is that it's
gotta be this pulley system.

The small pulley up here
on the electric motor

runs the larger pulley
on the bottom.

My guess is they're,
uh, either not aligned,
or they've got misaligned.

I think I found the culprit.

The, uh, the top pulley
has been moving back
and forth on this shaft,

causing it to walk out
and walk back in slightly.

I can see the marks
on the shaft here.

And that would definitely
cause our, uh, our
belt-breaking issues.

Man, I can't believe it,
such an easy fix.

I, I'll put a new, uh,
cone in there and a spacer,
and, uh, tighten it down and

this, this thing
should be fixed.

[narrator] Sergeant Sluice's
shaker deck is powered
by an electric motor

that drives a rubber belt.

JB thinks the motor's
pulley wheel is misaligned

with the shaker's bigger wheel
and is moving in and out,

causing the belt to snap...

- [snapping]
- ...and the deck to stop.

JB's plan?

Add a spacer
to the motor's drive shaft

to prevent the lateral
movement of the belt.

He hopes this will stop
the wear and tear on the belt

and get Sergeant Spruce
up and running again.

The true test is going to be,
will this belt hold up?

[engine starts]

That's what we wanted!

[Fred] That wash plant's the
heartbeat of this operation.
If it's not shaking,

we're never gonna
reach our goal.

We've got so much
on the line right now

and that American Dream
is never gonna happen

without a guy like JB
to fix this [bleep]
so, now we're up and running.

[Parker] Um, right now,
we're just stripping
the runway.

Seems like pretty deep mud.

You know, I think
that's probably a good 20 feet
of mud in here and,

it's a bit late in the year
to be opening up

a ground that has


Smooth loadin' that out,

and we have nowhere
to push it to, so it's
all getting loaded out.

I won't say going fine
but it's going.

[narrator]
Parker Schnabel's crew

is rushing to strip the 24
acre Runway Cut down to pay

so they can start feeding
wash plant Big Red.

I've got Big Red
sitting on that
hillside over there,

waiting to wash rocks.

If we had pay dirt right now,
it'd be up and running.

I know it's really put Tyson
in a tough spot here
taking the 750,

but it's so important
that we get this ground
opened up.

If not, we're gonna leave
a lot of gold in the ground.

[narrator] With Mitch's 700
Excavator still in for repair,

Tyson is stuck
in the smaller 480.

Struggling to dig enough pay
to feed Sluicifer.

[Tyson] Had to dial down
Sluicifer's feed rate
a little.

And hopefully I don't have to
dial it down any more.

But at the rate things
are going, I might have to
make that adjustment.

And, you know,
sadly, getting
Big Red going,

it's taken priority
over keeping Sluicifer fed.

Taylor, I hope you got
some good news for me, man.

[Taylor] Hey, buddy.

- How's it going?
- [Mitch] Oh, well you tell me.

- I see we got some parts here.
- Uh... We do indeed.

The rad's dropped in,
she's ready to go.

- All right, sounds good,
buddy, appreciate it, thanks!
- All right, catch you later.

Hey, Tyson, Tyson,
you got a copy?

[Tyson over radio]

Hey, buddy, I got a present
for you if you wanna meet me,
uh, over by Sluicifer.

[over radio]
Sound's good, man.
I'm on my way.

When you said you had
a present for me,
I'm glad it's not the EC20.

Nah, man.
We treated her good.
It moved a lot of mud,

it really helped out.
So now we can get
some pay up here

and crank this baby back up.

Well, I'll go turn it up
and then light the fire
under Froggy and my own a*s.

All right, buddy. Now you
at least got some muscle
down here for digging this.

- Sounds good, thanks, Mitch.
- Yeah, no worries,
man, thanks.

[Tyson] So you know,
I just got the 750 back,
which is,

the best news I've had
all week. That means I can
turn this wash plant back up.

And we can get back
to running 220 yards an hour.

So it's time I get us back

to getting some serious pay
through this plant and getting
some serious gold.

[narrator] Parker's only
working wash plant is
finally back sluicing

at max capacity.

[engine shutting off]

It looks like
the Super Stacker's off.

Last year it was
playing these games,

and it seemed to have
just stopped.

Oh, "Feeder Fault."

RPM 0.

And now our...

feeder doesn't wanna start.

It's got some gremlins in it.

- [engine turns on]
- Oh, here we go, it's fixed.

Didn't do [bleep] at all
but it's working now,
so we'll roll with it.

It's something we're gonna
have to keep an eye on
is that Super Stacker.

Yeah, Alec,
you got a copy, Alec?

[Alec over radio]

[thumping and clanking]

[engine shutting down]

This, uh, conveyor system
is playing some pretty intense
games right now.

At first it was
the Super Stacker

then our belt feeder
wouldn't start for us.

And now the end delivery
conveyor is shutting down.

We gotta get to
the bottom of these
electrical demons here.

Uh, just got a radio call
that we're having

some issues here
with the conveyors.

They're wanting to shut off
on their own.

So we gotta take a look at it,
see what's going on.

[narrator]
At Parker's Yukon claim,

electrical gremlins
are plaguing Sluicifer's
Super Stacker.

- What went on at first?
Did this stop? Or...
- Just this belt

- right here stopped.
- But the top kept going?

Oh, yeah. It's had
a couple times
where you hit "Go,"

and then it'll run for four
seconds or something
and then turn off.

And it's also
cutting out randomly.

It's got no noise or anything
coming from the gearbox.

You know, looking over
all the rollers here,

don't see anything jammed up.

If the problem's consistent,

you could isolate the problem.

But when it quits working
and then it starts back up

and everything looks good
and checks out good,

it makes it real tough.

[narrator] Every hour
Sluicifer's down...

costs Parker almost $4,000
in lost gold production.

And with Big Red
also out of action,

he's making no money.

[Alec] I'm wonderin'
if maybe there's some

tired contactors
in the panel there.

It certainly could be that
the contactors are getting
shot in it.

[narrator] Contactors are
heavy-duty switches

that prevent surges
frying the electrics.

[Alec] So we're looking to see
if we've got some of the right
goodies here.

It's heavy enough.
Feels expensive.

Could be this guy, right here.

Visually, the face plates
look a little bit different.

But this is not
a direct replacement part

to that old contactor there.

Like, physically it will fit,
and we can join up
some of the wires

and it might go,
but it'd be nice to have

the exact unit
that came out of it,

which that new one is not.

[Mitch] It looks like we have
part of what we need,

but, unfortunately,
not all of it.

So, in the meantime,

let's just, uh,

try and kind of...
Maybe we can
blow this thing out.

I mean, all the dust,
all the dirt,

you look at all that sand
and everything in there.

Oh, yeah, we've got a bit.

[Mitch] It doesn't take much
in there for those contactors

to get some contamination.
They're not gonna wanna
bite in good.

- [air hissing]
- [Mitch] Oh, yeah, you see
that dust coming out of there?

See, Alec, back in my day,
when you had, like,
a video game that

- didn't wanna work,
you just had to go like...
- Okay.

- [blows air] ...and then
it's good to go, you know.
- [air hissing]

Well...

- looks a lot better
than it did.
- [Alec] Yeah, it's all right.

- [Mitch] Give that a try, buddy.
- Fire up the video game again.

Obviously, we're out here
in the sand and the dirt
and the elements so,

uh, not the best thing for it.

And, you know, all it takes,

little bit of junk here
for things to not start
working right.

This'll be like taking your
laptop outside and, uh,

you know, leaving it out
in the weather
for a few weeks.

Rain, dirt, crud, everything.

Well, that old piece
is reinstalled.
We've blown out, uh,

the dust and hopefully
the gremlins along with it.

Wanna go fire up the generator
and see what she says?

[Sluicifer turning on]

Oh!

Things are workin' again.

[Sluicifer whirring]

Uh, you know, I think
there's definitely probably
still some gremlins

in this thing but it's, uh,
firing up. It's working.

And as long as
these belts keep spinning,

that's all we can ask for
right now.

[Dave]
We're back in the saddle.

Team Turin all in.

[narrator] At Glacier Creek,

Dave Turin is running nearly
two hundred yards an hour

through his wash plant,
the Eagle.

[Dave] This could be
the best run of my life.

Couldn't have done it
with a better group of guys.

[narrator]
In the Three Amigos Cut,

Jason stockpiles pay dirt.

I'm very, very happy
to be back at it.

Wingin' and singin'!

Gonna be diggin'
and washing here in a minute.

[narrator] Ready for Nathan
to haul it to the wash plant
in the loader.

- [engine clicking]
- [Nate] Better than nothing.

- Come on, baby.
Don't fail me now.
- [loader beeps]

She don't, don't
wanna turn over.

Hey, Dave, I'll probably
need you to come
over here in a second,

uh, ol' Betty don't wanna
start up.

[Dave cursing over radio]

What's up, Nate?

- She is clicking, that's it.
- [Dave] Oh, no.

- Yeah.
- [Dave] Have you checked
the batteries?

No, I haven't checked
the batteries yet.

- You want me try to
turn it over then?
- [Nate] If you don't mind.

Okay.

- [Nate] Go ahead.
- [Dave] All, right, clear!

[Nate] Yeah.

[engine clicking and beeping]

I got just clicking.

But it ain't,
ain't driving at all.

- [loader beeps]
- [Dave curses]

No good. [bleep]
No good at all.

It's either batteries,
or it's the starter.

[Nate] So we got 26 volts, 25.

- So the batteries are okay.
- But that's exactly
where it should be.

Yeah. [indistinct] [bleep]

I mean, I don't mind
putting money out
for a starter.

We're gonna have to
put a starter in it anyway
to move it, so...

[Nate] I don't wanna
tell you... I mean, yeah,
we could probably

get a starter
by the time frame.

[Dave] See how long it's
gonna take to get a starter.

And without this machine
hauling pay,

we get nothing.
We might as well
just pack it up and go home.

I'm, uh, looking for a starter
for a 980G, uh, CAT.

[man on phone] All right,
let me, uh, look that up
in our inventory.

Okay.

- [man clicks tongue]
I got one in Juneau.
- Oh, [bleep].

How long until we get that?

[man] I could probably get you
something in a week.
Maybe two.

Okay, um...

- Nothing sooner?
- [man] No,

I'm afraid.
That's the only one
around anyway.

Okay. That's fine.
Alright, yeah, let's go ahead
and get it rolling this way.

Um, we gotta, we gotta
get on there one way
or another.

- [man clicks tongue]
All right.
- All right, thanks, Chad.

[sighs and curses]

Hi, Dave.

Got bad news.

That starter,

no bueno.

What?

[Nate] They said it's
over a week out.
It's in Juneau.

Well, week's way too long.
I don't wanna sit around
and do nothing for a week.

Um... [bleep]

If we can't find a starter,
I gotta find a loader
or somethin'.

Let me talk to Shelly.

- We'll see if she can come up something.
- [Nate] Cool.

And that goes to show you,
it doesn't matter if it's
three guys, eight guys,

when a piece of equipment
goes down...

it shuts
an entire operation down.

[Shelly over radio]
Shelly to Dave.

[Dave over radio]
Go ahead, Shelly.

[Shelly] Hey, Dave, would you
meet me by the bridge?

I have something
I wanna show you.

- [Dave] Okay,
I'll be right there.
- Okay.

[Nate] I just wanna get going.
I just wanna fire up and go.

We got some of this
maintenance crap
taken care of.

- Without a loader, Nate,
we aint' doin' [bleep].
- [Nate] Nope.

[horn honking]

- [Nate] Well, well.
- [Jason] Where in the world
did he come up with that?

[Dave] Check it out, boys.

[Jason] You never cease
to amaze me, Dave.

[Nate] That's awesome.

Shelly found it, you know.
There's a guy in town,
local guy,

said we could, you know,
rent it for a while.

But we gotta get sluicing.
That's gonna cost us
some money.

It's not free.

So you run that,
I'll bring the little
excavator up here

and we're off and going.

- [Nate] That'll work.
- All right, let's do it, guys.

[engine turning over]

So, here we go.
We're back in business.

I like it. Here we go.

You know, who knows
how this is gonna end.

But as long as we can
prove this ground,

then Jason and Nathan,
you never know.

They might be the new owners.

- Not bad for first run.
- No, sir.

[Dave] Nice little
chunk there.

We got gold in the box.
It's always a good thing
to see.

[narrator] At Glacier Creek,

Team Turin pulls the mats...

Getting up.

...after nearly
three days running.

The Three Amigos Cut,
three days, three guys,
and we got gold.

Let's just hope
it isn't three ounces.

[all laughing]

I'm enjoying myself.
This is the most fun
I've had mining.

All I gotta do is sit there
and run that plant,

you guys are digging pay,
hauling it up.

- And I think we just found
an employee.
- [all laughing]

- No stress, no responsibility,
just run that son [bleeping].
- On it.

[all continue laughing]

[Nate] I love it. I love it.

- You're ready to retire?
All right.
- I'm ready to retire. Yes.

Hey, guys, come on in.

Let's weigh it up.

[narrator] Dave Turin
gathers his crew

for the first gold weigh
of the season.

Well, Shelly,
can you do the honors?

- [Shelly] Okay.
- The first gold weigh
of the year

and let's see
how many ounces we get.

We've set a goal of 30 ounces.

I was hopin' for 10 ounces
today. I'll count.

All right, here we go.

[Dave] There's a half.

There's one.

Two.

There's three.

There's four.

Come on.

We got five.

Come on.

Five point five eight.

[narrator]
Worth nearly $10,000.

We ran about 1,400 yards.
That's not the best,

but we know top gravels
aren't the best.

- [Jason] You're right.
- We know that.

But we didn't have time
to do a lot of strippin'
either.

- Right.
- [Dave] So we're just, like,

- we gotta move it and run it.
- [Jason] Run it.

Hey, the good news is...

- we're down to deeper gravels.
- [Nate] Yup.

I mean at the end there,

you were startin' to
hit those big rocks.

- That's where
the gold's livin'.
- Yeah.

[Dave] So the next one
will be better.

Oh, I'm sorry, you guys,
that's $10,000 top gravels.

- For two and a half
[bleep] days.
- [Shelly] Yeah.

- I'll take it.
- [Shelly] Yup.

- Yeah.
- [Shelly] Yeah, it works.

It works.

We're just getting down
to actually see
where the good pay is.

- Let's do it.
- [Dave] Good job, guys.

Let's get some more gold.

[Jason] You know,
Nate's crazy idea to,

"Let's fire her up and run,
three guys and a gal..."

it paid off.

It's gonna give us some
results to really base our

buying or not buying
decision now.

[Dave] All right,
let's do it. All in?

Three amigos, all in.
One, two, three.

[all] All in!

[Dave] And we're
having fun with it.

I just love these guys.

I love the opportunity
to mine with 'em
one last time.

Thirty ounces is the goal

and we're gonna do it
in the Three Amigos Cut.

[JB] What a week, eh?

- Oh.
- All the time.

If it's not one thing,
it's the other.

What are you guys guessin'?

I've been disappointed
so many times,
I'm just gonna go for,

twelve, 11 ounces.

What's up, guys?

Um, I guess
it was a tough week.

I mean, we had
the trip to Alaska,
which was, like,

basically two days
we weren't doing anything

'cause we
couldn't have our belts.

And, uh, then we had to fix
the plant, so it's been
hindering us a little bit.

But i feel like the wash plant
right now is ready.

We just have to keep that
yardage going.

[JB] Uh, half-week running?
Right?

- Yeah. Pretty much.
- Yeah, there's also...
We lost some days.

And what do we need
to pay the bills?

- We need 11 ounces.
- 11 ounces
to pay the bills, okay.



I don't know. I'm not gonna
give you guys any clues.

I am gonna tell you
the gold is getting chunkier.

And it's starting to get me
a little excited.

Who wants to count it?

- I think I am today.
- [Fred] You're doing it?

- Yeah, yeah.
- [Fred] All right, JB.

- I get the honors.
- All right. You ready?

Yeah, I'm ready.

[Fred] All right, JB.
Here we go, here we go.

[JB] There's one, two

three, four, five, six,

seven, eight, nine, ten,

eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,

- fifteen, sixteen, seventeen...
- [bleeping]

...eighteen, come on, twenty!

No way! Twenty-freaking-one!

- [all cheering]
- Holy [bleep].

- Are you kidding me!
- [bleeping]

- Finally.
- Holy [bleep]!

[narrator] Worth over $35,000.

This week's weigh in
is the most they've ever
mined as a solo crew

and proof the Freedom Cut
can pay out.

You know, this right here
represents the best [bleep]
clean up we've ever had

as a, as a mine team.

So what that tells me
is we're on the path.

Can't even imagine.
Think about how much
gold we would be getting

if we hit that seam
and we keep following it

and we can get our yardage.

I, uh, you know I...
It was looking like
it was gonna be

another bad clean up but,
I mean, our hard work, dedication,

it is finally
coming to fruition
and you can see it.

[Fred] To me, the gold
is in the ground.

We're gonna, we're gonna
work as hard as we
possibly can.

The rest of the season
we're gonna [bleep] push
knowing that it's there.

[Fred] Put the hours in.

- Put that [bleep]
through the plant...
- Easily.

- ...and we're gonna go home
with actual bonus this year.
- It's crazy.

I put a lot of equity
into this season.

From my house,
from my [bleep] everything.

Before this gold weigh,
I was freaking
the [bleep] out.

- Yeah. Yeah.
- This gives me confidence
that we can do that.

We need to hit
that 500 ounces.

But I think
we can do that now.

I know we can do that,
if we get workin'.

Yup.

- So...
- So, why are we
sitting around?

- Yeah.
- It's a good [bleep] question,
Buzz.

That's a good
[bleep] question.

- Get back to work.
- You guys get back to work.

[all chuckling]

Love you guys, but, uh,
don't wanna see you
the rest of the day.

- Yup.
- Yes.

- [Chris] Hey, Mitchell.
- [Mitch] What's happenin', man?

How you doing, buddy?

Hope you don't mind me
not standing up.

But it's nice and warm
right here.

[narrator] At Indian River,

wash plant Big Red
barely ran half a day
before running out of pay.

So it's down to Sluicifer
to keep the Schnabel Crew

in the game and on the gold.

- How's it going, guys?
- Hey, chief.

- Oh, she's going, man!
- [Tyson] Oh, it's been
a week, man.

You know how the coolest thing
having turned Sluicifer down,

but definitely we weren't
gonna get through that mud
with, uh, 480, no way.

- Yeah, no...
- [Chris] I'm glad you guys
didn't get in a punchin'...

pushing, fighting,
arguing mode over
who gets what, it--

- It just got repossessed.
- [chuckles] Yeah.

Temporarily. Well I'm glad
it helped you out.

- [Parker] Hey there, youngster.
- [Tyson] Hi.

- How you doin'?
- Good.

- How are you guys?
- Uh, 700 blew the rod,
but we got her back together.

Well, you know when
the 750 left, I had to turn
the plant down a little bit

just to, kinda, keep up
'cause the 480
isn't able to dig.

Oh, to get enough pay up.

Yeah, it was a struggle.
Hopefully we don't notice it
too much right now.

We definitely lost some

some, uh, yardage for sure
this week.

- Yeah.
- You are holding it
like it has some weight to it.

- Well, I'm old.
- He's tryna trick 'ya!

- I'm old and weak.
- Five ounces.

[narrator] Last week,
running two wash plants,

delivered a combined total
of 457 ounces.

- You ready, T?
- Okay, I see zero.

- That's a good place to start.
- [Tyson chuckles] Yeah.

Hopefully that's not
where it finishes.

Twenty.

Forty.

Sixty.

- We get a lot of tip
on that thing.
- [Tyson] Eighty.

A hundred.

One twenty, 140, 150, 170,

oh, 200,



[narrator]
Worth over $350,000.

- [Tyson] It's not bad.
- That's not bad.

If we run comparisons...

last season at this time
we had 4,251 ounces.

- This season,
we have 4,984 ounces.
- [Mitch] That ain't bad.

We're just a hair shy
of 5,000.

We'll work all week.
Try and, uh, get rid
of that overburden.

Maybe we'll have
two plants running but

we got a lot of work
ahead of us so,

uh, no guarantees there,
but we'll do
everything we can.

Yeah, I'll try to give you
guys some buffer

- but this whole season
is working with none, right?
- [Tyson] Yeah, for sure.

Like, everyday we don't have
two plants running is another,

you know, day
that we're staying.

That's what Mitch
and I talked about
the first day we get here.

- [laughing]
- [Mitch] Yeah.

- Go, go, go.
- Whereas I'm, like,
no, no, no.

Don't, don't worry about it.

- Cool.
- [bottles clinking]

Cheers, folks.

Cheers, guys.

Five thousand next week?

See you guys at dinner.