14x08 - Last Ditch Gold

[bunniefuu]

Parker, you got a copy?
Parker?

Yeah. Go ahead.

We mined out
the Unforgiven cut so fast,

so we're gonna shut
the plant down.

All right.

I'll let Chris know
and he can head down
for a cleanup.

Copy that.

Parker Schnabel is in a hole.

Two months into the season,

he's brought in
just 400 ounces,

worth around $800,000.

And now, his only
gold-producing wash plant

is shut down.

So the pit Tyson's in
right now

should've lasted
two to three weeks.

What was it, a week?

Like, just flew through it.

So, yeah, we're back
to having no money coming in,

which is not very good.

Parker has spent
nearly everything he has

on his new $15 million
Dominion Creek claim.

And he's spending more

every day
to get down to gold.

With no other cuts
ready to run,

the chances of going bust

are at an all-time high.

We'll clear everything out.

See if we have
any gold in here.

Gold recovery
expert, Chris Doumitt,

pulls the gold-catching mats
from Sluicifer.

Hi, Doumitt.

Hey, T.

How is Parker doing?

Well, kid's
under a lot of stress.

And he... He's just...

It's a lot of mental stress.

The kid's never had debt
like this, right?

I doubt most people

will ever have debt
like he has right now.

In the spring,
we're spending, what,

a million dollars a week?

And how much
have we brought in?

-That's, uh...
-Yeah.

You know, they gotta start
calling in those debts

and we gotta get some gold
to fulfill those debts.

If we don't pay the bills,
we lose what we've got,

and what we got invested
into it.

So, that's kind of riding
on his mind, too.

Yeah, for sure.

I have a dream of sluicing
a thawed cut one day.

Wow.

I dream of a beach
in the Bahamas,

but if you wanna sluice
thawed ground...

You gotta raise
your standards, son.

-All righty. See ya.
-Good to see ya.

Ten miles away,

Parker rolls up
on foreman Mitch Blaschke,

who's stripping
their first cut

at Dominion Creek,

the Money Pit.

What's happening?

How's your levels?

Oh, not too bad.

How do you feel
about this level

you're cutting to
in that ditch?

I mean, it feels like pay.

Okay, I have a thought.

Let's hear it.

Because this is all
pretty well dried out,

so you could probably sluice
your ditch, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Desperate to get
gold coming in,

Parker now wants to sluice
the ditches.

Over the last six weeks,

Parker's crew has stripped


down to frozen pay.

Around the edge of the cut,

they've dug ditches
from melt water

from the thawing pay gravels
to drain into.

Most of the cut
is still frozen.

But there's a small amount
of thawed pay dirt

deep in the ditches

that's ready to run
through a wash plant.

What plan are you thinking?

That one that's here.

Probably.

Little son
of the Sluicifer there?

Son of Sluicifer?

We gotta
get a name for it.

It's hard when it's
just like,

"That... Which one?
That wash plant."

The Macon SD-600,
you mean?

Yes, that one.
Exactly.

The nearly-new wash plant

was included in the deal

when Parker bought Dominion.

All that needs to happen
to that plant

where it sits
is the water line hooked up.

And the suction
thrown in the creek.

And we could,
like, do it for a bit.

All right.

Sounds good.

Well, we've decided
we need to fire up

Sluicifer's twin here.

Now, we're just making sure
that we've got it all ready

to start running.

We've gotta start pulling
the ditching out

and we can start
making some money.

It's gotta come
from somewhere

and, well, hopefully,
this plant's gonna catch us
some gold.

Big day for us here.

Finally sending some pay
to a wash plant.

Emma, won't you come over here
to the 480?

Copy that, Mitch.

We're on our way
to start hauling some pay.

All right.
This is it right here.

This scoop makes
the first truckload of pay

heading to a wash plant
at Dominion.

Let's do this.

Woo-hoo!

There's so much
riding on this here.

This is gonna tell us
all about this ground

that Parker bought,

and what's really in it.

We're just gonna fire this
plant up and see if it works.

We got water, which is good.

And we got a screen
that shakes, which is good.

Now just see if we can
add some dirt to it.

Now...

almost $18 million
in the hole,

Parker's finally running
pay dirt at Dominion.

Hopefully, there's
lots of gold in it.

Hey, Morgan,

how's that stockpile
looking over there?

Hey, man,

the stockpile's
getting pretty small.

Uh-oh.


of the Klondike gold fields,

Rick Ness and his crew
are on the brink

of running out of his only
source of money.

With the stockpile
for the pay getting low,

you know, we're gonna be
completely out.

And if we run out
without a plan,

that means the plant's off
and we're not running,

and that means less gold.

After taking a year off

that left him nearly broke,

Rick first sluiced easy
to hit stockpiled pay dirt.

But now, it's nearly gone.

He needs to figure out
his next move,

or his dreams of a comeback

are dead in the water.

What we really need to do
is up production

and find some new ground.

So, right now, I'm heading
over to look at Rally Valley.

Can't stare at it every day
as I go by,

but, you know,
I'm getting a little anxious
to get back in there.

Two seasons ago...

This is one
of the scariest things
I've ever done.

Rick removed
over a million yards of dirt

to hit a gold bonanza
in Rally Valley.

Oh, wow.

In just six weeks,

it paid out
over 1,100 ounces.

Awesome.

But the 190-foot deep pit...

Ooh, .

...became too dangerous
to mine.

that
wall's caving in.

This season,

Rick is determined

to finish what he started.

Honestly, I kind of thought

that we'd be in better shape
by now this time of year.

I thought it would be really
pretty much ready to go.

There's rock coming down,

that's not fully stable yet.

I can't afford
to put people in here
right now

because someone
will get hurt or worse.

You know, and I'm not gonna
put anybody in my crew

in that kind of position.

And not all the gold
in the world's worth that.

I mean, the water's
another story.

I mean,
we were probably
about 50 feet

below that water level.

So, I've gotta pump
all that water out,

but, you know, there's no
sense even doing that

until it's safe
to get in there.

And it's still not safe.

It's unfinished business
in a way that, you know,

I sunk a ton of money
into this

and I want what's out of it.

You know, I want the gold
at the bottom,

you know,
that's what I want.

I want that for myself
and I want that for my crew.

We gotta keep gold
coming in somehow.

Rick desperately needs

an alternative site to mine.

Heading upstream,

this is where my little
wash plant's set up.

Rocky's down here.

We were running that
in the last year.

I was up here
in the beginning
of the season,

and we left the cut
to start on Rally Valley.

And so,
I just wanna kind of...

look it over
and see where we're at.

We gotta cross the river
to get down here

and with the spring,

the way it was, there was
just way too much water,

so I'm hoping
it's not too deep.

We're gonna find out.

From Rally Valley,

Rick's heading past
his wash plant, Monster Red,

a mile north past
his second wash plant, Rocky,

towards an old pre-stripped
cut called the Bacon Strip.

But to reach it, he has to
drive through Duncan Creek

which so far has been
too dangerous to cross.

I have no idea
how deep it is.

All right.

Uh-oh.

Well, that happening.

Definitely will need a bigger
machine to get through here.

So, I am pulling
from the very last
of this stockpile.

We've been working
on this pile for a long time.

That's the last bucket.

It is time to shut down
and do a cleanup.

Stockpiled pay finished,

Rick is under
even more pressure

to find a new spot
to mine.

Hopefully,
Rick has more pay.

That's it.

Rick Ness's crew

are out of stockpiled
pay dirt,

and his only potential gold

lies on the other side
of a deep creek.

Now that I'm down here,
I'm dying to see

what that cut looks like.

I'm just worried
about anything

on the front of the truck.

I don't wanna run the grille
under there or something.

If Rick floods the engine,

it could cost him hundreds
of thousands to replace.

Yeah, .

I feel that front end
setting down already.

Yeah, that's not
what I really want.

Well, that ain't
the smoothest, but...

we made it.

There's a lot more here than
I thought there was, actually.

There's a lot here.

From this edge,
all the way here,

and it goes clear up
all the way up

and around the corner
where it crosses the creek.

There's a lot here.

I mean, it could pay
a few bills and more.

Give me the money I need
to get back into Rally Valley

and start tackling that.

Making decisions out here,
mobilize all our equipment,

it costs a lot of money,

so we'll pull 500 yards
out of here, test it,

get five ounces of gold
out of it,

I'm gonna call it good enough.
We'll move everything down.

Before Rick commits
to running the Bacon Strip,

he plans to truck pay dirt
back to Monster Red

to do a 500-yard bulk test.

If he doesn't get five ounces
from the test,

Rick will be back
to square one.

I'm really hoping
this works out.



Klondike legend Tony Beets

is in deep trouble.

His Paradise Hill operation

is down
with a broken trommel.

His Indian River claim
is at a standstill.

And two months in,

he's still not mined
any gold.

Now, he's on a call

that will make
or break his season.

Last week...

...Indian River
was shut down

by mining authorities...

...stopping Tony
from getting on the gold.

Tony's mistake

meant he can
only sluice one acre

rather than the 15 acres
he planned,

putting his Indian River
dreams on hold.

Hello?

Wow, really?

I know.

That's bloody awesome.

Tony's been given a lifeline.

The authorities have decided
he can sluice

the 15 acres
he'd previously opened,

but he's not allowed
to strip any new ground.

Go ahead. Go ahead, Tony.

beautiful.

First step,
get his shaker deck plant

up and running.

Under his restricted license,

Tony can only sluice
the 15 acres he's opened

by recycling his water.

His plan, draw a clean water

from his pumping pond

through a 600-foot pipe
to the shaker deck

and discharge
all the waste water

from the plant
into his settling pond

where the dirt
will sink to the bottom,

leaving the water clean.

At the far end of the pond,

another pump will then
recycle the clean water

back into the pumping pond

where the whole process
will start again.

So, we wanna be
as fast as possible

as this is one of the last
things required

before we can
start sluicing,

is getting the pipeline
in place

so we have water
at the plant.

So, the faster Mike is,

the faster we'll be sluicing.

It's a
scorcher today.

It's sluicing season.

If you have sweat
running down your,

you should be sluicing.
If you're not,

you really are
just late.

We should have been sluicing
two months ago.

Here we go.
First bucket of the season.

Eight weeks
into the season...

...and for the first
time in four years,

the Beets
are finally sluicing

Indian River pay dirt.

For sakes!

The tailings
diverter has broken off

and landed
in the sluice box,

stopping the riffles
from catching gold.

Just minutes into his first
run of the season,

Tony is shut down

and still making no money.

Well, right now,
we're working our way

around the edge
of the Money Pit cut

and that's allowing us
to send some pay dirt

to a wash plant

and get some
ditches in here,

which is definitely a good
thing on both accounts.

In a desperate move
to keep money coming in,

and find out how rich
his new Dominion claim is,

Parker has tasked Mitch

with sluicing thawed pay dirt
from the Money Pit's ditches.

We've washed a lot of rocks
in the Yukon

and, you know,
seen a lot of cleanups,

but probably none as important
as this one here.

This is gonna let us know
what this ground

that Parker bought
is all about.

And I gotta say,

I think everybody around here
is holding their breath

to see what this first one
is here.

Parker's new wash plant

has been running
for two days.

I'm feeding it
with an excavator.

Sandy's bringing the pay

from the cuts in Dominion,

and this comes
all from the ditches.

And we have Emma
doing tailings.

So, basically,
girl power today.

I think we got ourselves here
the dream team, ladies.

Yeah, we're definitely
the dream team.

You know what's up.

Oh, .

It looks like we're losing
a lot of water.

It looks really bad.
We might have to shut it off.

Let's shut her down.

Might go find help.

So, we had to shut down
the plant

because the pump
lost water pressure.

That's not a good scenario.

Low water pressure

means the plant can't wash
gold from the pay dirt.

No gold means no money
coming in for Parker.

We're not
sluicing gold

and that's a big issue
for us right now.

It's down
to mechanics, Liam Pukila

and Tyler Jankowski,

to get the pump
up and running.

-Even on like that angle
where the pipe is...
-Yeah.

...that looks
like a crack right there.

-I don't know.
-Yeah.

I need a canoe to get out
there to get my hand over it.

So, we got no way of picking
up the suction line.

You gotta crawl
down the pipe

to feed the crack
where the air's coming in

with silicone.

I don't know
if it's gonna work or not.

A crack in the intake hose

is sucking air into the pump

causing an air lock
and a loss of pressure.

To fix it,

Liam will seal the crack
with silicone

and hope it will do the job.

That's
definitely a crack.

You want your silicone?

Yeah, pass me
some right stuff, I guess.

You ready?

Whoo.

There's a crack

right there
that's pulling air in as well.

This isn't even bush fix.

This is a pipe dream.

Is that enough water?

That looks like enough water.

Hey, Tatiana...

pump's back
and sealed together.

We got water flowing.

Awesome. Roger that.
That's great news.

I'm glad to see
the pump's working again.

Let's just get sluicing
and try to catch up.

Never a dull moment
when you're sluicing.

Parker's only
working wash plant

back up and running.

He'll soon find out

if his $15 million
Dominion gamble

will pay out the big gold
he desperately needs.

It's nice to finally
be back running again.

We've been having
a lot of problems

with the pump
and the water,

so hopefully,
this is... This is it.

And no more
pump breaks

or water breaks.

So, fingers crossed.

Tony Beets'
Indian River operation

is shut down
after the tailings diverter

on Monica's wash plant
broke off.

Now, in the race

to get his first gold
of the season,

the king is taking matters
into his own hands.

It sucks when somebody
doesn't do the one job

that they had properly.

And then,
we have up like this.

We don't have
that many welders on-site

and none in the Indian
right now.

So, it's Tony who's gotta fix
the up

and that probably makes him
more pissed off

than the
in the first place.

As of right now,
we have no plants running.

This late in the game,
it's kind of .

In classic Yukon fashion,

we have blistering heat

and rainstorms

pretty much
back to back nonstop.

So, aces.

Yeah.

We'll have to start
sometime.

Better late than never.

Okay. Let's go.

Two months in,

Tony's finally on track

to see his first gold
of the season.

The king of the Klondike
is back in business.

Oh.

It's crunch time
for Rick Ness.

He's getting ready
to run a 500-yard bulk test

to see if the Bacon Strip
holds enough gold

to keep his comeback
season alive.

What the is that?

Hey, Buzz, you got copy?

Yeah. Go ahead.

Hey, man.
I got some...

I got some oil
on the track in the 700.

So, there must be a leak
underneath it somewhere.

I'll be right there.

This thing's leaking somewhere
underneath, hydraulic oil.

-What's going on, Buzz?
-Hey, Rick, man.

It's not an easy one to spot.

I got it.

-Got it?
- Yeah.

It's this guy right here.

- It's on the stick.
-On the stick.

We don't have any lines
hooked that got raised.

, and that needs
to be fixed

before we can even use it
on anything.

You'll just cut
the broken part
of the hose out,

then we're gonna use this

to hook the hose
back together.

The 700 excavator's arm

has three main parts,

the boom, the stick,
and the bucket.

The hydraulic hose that
supplies the stick cylinder

with hydraulic fluid
is leaking

and the stick
is unable to move.

Without a replacement,

Buzz plans to cut out

the part of the hose
with the leak,

then use a metal hose link

to join the two ends
back together,

removing the leak
and allowing the stick

to move again.

Here's gotta hold 1,450 PSI.

So, let's hope this holds.

Buzz,
you got it fixed?

-I believe so.
-Yeah?

I'll let you fire it up
and try it out.

Well, it looks good to me.
I mean, that'll be...

It's kind of
a temporary fix, but--

Yeah.

I love it.

,
I'll start it up, bud.

-I'm not scared.

You trust in your work?

Any leaks?

Not yet.

- Yeah.
-She'll hold.

Nice job.

-Thanks, Buzz.
- Yeah.

Rick sends the first load

of the Bacon Strip
test pay

to Monster Red.

And with the creek's
water level down,

it's smooth running
back to the plant.

We're hoping
for five ounces of gold,

which would mean
we can get about an ounce
per hundred yards.

That means it'll be worth
our time to mine it.

We're gonna see how rich
this ground actually is.

The rest of the season
depends on this test.

There's a lot
riding on this.

Come on,
baby girl.

-You wanna pour it
into this?
- Yeah.

-Okay.
- Why not?

Don't touch nothing.

It's the moment of
truth for the Beets family.

Later than ever before,

they're about to see their
first gold of the season

and the first
from Indian River

in four years.

Well, then I'll be
in the summit all day.

It's nice to be back
in the Indian River
and sluicing

'cause that's, what,

five years we've been
waiting for that?

So, this is,
say, 22 hours?







Running Monica's


for 22 hours

should deliver
around 60 ounces.









Worth over $120,000.

Not bad.

It's chunky.

The Beets
are finally on the gold.

It's a drop
in the bucket, but--

Well, let it be more,
many more drops.

Coming up,

Parker gets his first taste
of Dominion gold.

Did the Money Pit
hold up to its name?

Here we go.



And has Rick got enough gold

to keep his season alive?

Are you ready?

We're just,
uh, setting the box in here

so we could get this
sluice box cleaned up.

At Duncan Creek,

Rick's crew pulled
the mats

on the 500-yard
Bacon Strip test.

So, in such a big box
like this,

it sure
is hard to tell

if there's gonna be
five ounces or not.

Yeah.

And what happens
if it's not five ounces?

Don't say that.

Well...

No. I... Honestly,

I don't really wanna think
about that.

I'm really hoping that it is.

If it's under that, it's gonna
be a tough decision.

If it's close, it's gonna be
a tough decision.

If it's not even... If it's
not even in the ballpark,

well then
we can't go down there.

Right.

So, I'm really hoping
this works out.

Yeah. Me too.

-Hello.
- Hey.

Perfect timing.

They're all done?

Found the last little bits.

Rick Ness
has two critical gold weighs.

One from the leftover pay
pile he's finally finished,

and the other,

the results
of the Bacon Strip test.

This is from the pay piles.

Okay.

And then,
this one is our test run.

-Ooh.
- Mmm-hmm.

It feels right.

It's gonna be close, eh.

Let's see what the last
of the stockpiles

had to offer there.

To cover his running costs,

Rick needs
at least ten ounces.

Let's see what we get.



Ooh, 11...



for a partial week.

I'll take it.

Worth almost $25,000.

That puts us at like 123.6?

Sounds about right.

Let's pay the bills.

I'm just happy
to be moving on, you know.

So, I'm more concerned
about that 500-yard test.

I'm hoping for five ounces.

You know,
if it's close even,

you know,
that'll get us there.

If it's not, you know,
I don't really know what to do

'cause Rally Valley's
not ready to go to yet.

So, where we go next
rests on this.

If the Bacon Strip
test fails to deliver,

Rick will be back
to square one.

Are you ready?









Are you gonna call
that close enough?

-That's really close.
-Yeah.

Actually, I'm... I was...

I was pretty nervous about it.
I didn't... I didn't...

That's close to what
I thought it was gonna be.

I mean, five...

Almost five ounces
out of 500 yards,

I could pull
the trigger out of that.

Rick lives
to fight another day.

He now needs to move
his entire operation

down to the Bacon Strip

and bring in the gold to keep
his comeback on track.

-Well, I'm happy. I'm--
- Yeah.

I mean, I'm ready
to start moving stuff.

I am too.

Excellent job
cleaning the gold.

Oh, why,
thank you, sir.

I'll probably see you
up there for dinner.

We'll tell everybody else
we're going mining

on the Bacon Strip.

-Good news.
- All right.

-Bye.
- See ya.

Well, I have my thoughts
on the Bacon Strip

whether or not
it'd be good enough,

but I don't need
thoughts anymore.

I know what's in there,
you know.

We got almost
five ounces

out of 500 yards.

That tells me
it's good enough to mine.

We picked up
another 12 ounces

out of the last
in the stockpile.

So, you know,
one represents an end.

One represents
the beginning

and we're off
towards 1,000 ounces.

Parker's crew
also have two gold weighs
this week.

The last gold
from the Unforgiven cut

and his first gold
from Dominion Creek.

Your truck door sounds
like something's dying.

Right.

-What up?
-Hey, Mitchell.

-How you doin'?
-How's it going? Good.

Got some gold
out of that new wash plant.

Yeah.
How about that?

Just gotta come up
with a name for it.

Yeah.

Hey, Parker.

-Hey, man.
-Hi.

Talking about the new plant.

We've been
trying to come up
with a good name

for Sluicifer's twin there.

So, we were thinking like,

do you just give it
a person's name?

And so, we came up with...

Doumitt and I came up
with Bob, right?

Call it Bob.

I like Bob.

I haven't been
too worried about it

'cause I think
we might sell it.

Part of the whole idea
of buying this place

was we'd be able to recoup
some of the purchase price

by selling stuff
and we have yet to do that.

That plant's actually worth
like a million bucks.

-At one time?
-No, right now.

-Really?
- Yeah.

It has 1,000 hours on it.

Sell it.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying.
That's what I just said.

Good idea, Chris.

So, with that, Tyson,

you ground to this
Unforgiven cut really fast.

Definitely caught
everyone off guard

how fast we sluiced
that out.

Wanna see how we did?

Parker wants
at least 500 ounces

from the now mined out
Unforgiven cut.

To hit that target,

he needs 120 ounces.









Worth $60,000.

The grand total
out of that cut

was 408.95 ounces.

That ain't good.

So, we finally got
some Dominion gold going.

How about those ditches do?

Did the Money Pit
hold up to its name?

I think we ran 100 hours.

On the Indian River,
if we ran 100 hours

of ditching, we'd get, what,


Yeah.

Here we go.











Nice.

Worth over a
quarter of a million dollars.

Not bad out of the ditches.

Yeah, a lot better
than I thought it'd be.

-First gold
from Dominion there.
- Yeah.

That's not bad
for the time
that the plant had

-the issues with the water.
- Yeah.

On ditch dirt, it's some
of the best we've had.

Just think what happens when
we get into real pay dirt.

-Thanks, guys.
- Yup, later.

To get like


it's actually really good.

Yeah. So,
hopefully, that means

the ground's gonna keep up
like that and, um...

it should...

only get better in theory.