09x09 - Megamorphosis

[bunniefuu]

♪♪

I threw out a 6,000 ounce goal
at the start of this season,

And, what, here we are halfway

Through the season with
less than a thousand.

♪♪

Tony decides
he's gonna get 6,000 ounces

And or, I guess mine more
gold than us this year.

Well, [bleep] that.

We've never failed
a season goal yet

And we're not about
to start right now.

♪♪

♪♪

I was nervous coming
into this season,

But I had no idea
how tough it was gonna be

Running my own operation.

I've got everything
I own on the line,

And I talked my friends
into giving up their jobs

On the promise that
we'd find gold.

And now everything that can
go wrong has gone wrong.

My dad told me I'd go broke
and lose my friends this season.

If I don't get a thousand
ounces of gold, he'll be right.

♪♪

♪♪

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

♪♪

♪♪

It's a long road
to 6,000 ounces.

We have to have both these
wash plants running 24/7.

I sure as hell don't
want to get beat

By that tony beets this year.

♪♪

Narrator: parker is finally
running on all cylinders.

To reach his season goal,

He needs over $390,000
in gold every week.

Big red is sluicing
200 yards an hour.

A mile across the cut,

Sluicifer is chowing
through another 250.

♪♪

With a nice big pile
of pay like this,

I think we can get there.

Let's make some money.

Narrator: on the other side
of sluicifer's pad,

Mechanic chad spots
water spilling

Out of the diverter trough.

♪♪

These are just old rubber mats
we're using to divert the water

But clearly that's
not gonna work.

♪♪

Stay out of the way.

♪♪

Whoa!

Jump back!

Holy [bleep].

♪♪

The water from
the sluice runs is really

Starting to route away.

All this water
just trying to wash

Itself right down the hill.

♪♪

If we don't get this
tightened up here,

Sluicifer will end up
tipping down into the pond.

Narrator: mitch widens
the channel to avoid a disaster.

♪♪

Mitch: what I'm gonna do here
is dig the material out,

Try and slow down this
water a little bit.

When it's in
a really tight channel,

The water moves really fast.

Hopefully, we'll slow
down the erosion.

♪♪

♪♪

Not good.

If we don't figure
this out real quick,

That chute's gonna go

And that sluicifer's gonna
end up down there with it.

Narrator:
chad has lost the battle.

3,500 Gallons of water a minute
are undermining sluicifer,

Parker's $600,000
prize possession.

It's like pissing in the wind.

We're gonna have to
shut this thing down.

Parker, you got copy?

Is he not on the radio
in there or what?

[ Bleep ] [ bleep ]

♪♪

That chute's [bleep]
straight outta there

And it's starting to
undermine the plant.

I'm gonna have to
shut her down.

You've gotta be
[bleep] kidding.

♪♪

Wow.
We had two plants running,

But I guess now
we're back to one.

[ Groans ]

Can I swing it?

Why wouldn't you guys
have shut down sooner?

It really didn't
look bad until about

The last two minutes, man.

Like, that chute,
everything was holding up

Pretty good.
-What, and even,

Chad, like when you came down,
there was no sense of urgency.

I told you straight up,

I said we gotta shut
this thing down.

You walked down.

You know, it wasn't
an emergency.

Well, I did run down.

But, I mean, we're gonna
spend all [bleep] day

Getting back where we
were this morning, right?

♪♪

[Bleep] unbelievable.

I'm just done taking
his [bleep] bull [bleep].

It's a [bleep] embarrassment.

♪♪

♪♪

Me and my crew have been
working our ba*ls off out here

And I'm the one that talked
'em into quitting their jobs

'Cause I told 'em we were
gonna get a bunch of gold.

This is getting stressful.
[ Sighs ]

We should be getting
way more gold

Than we are right now,
way more.

Narrator: to hit his 1,000
ounce, $1.2 million goal,

Rick should have
around 350 ounces,

But he's only mined 210,

Worth just $250,000.

To get back on track,
he needs to pull

$63,000 Of gold out of
the ground every week

Until the freeze shuts him down.

How's that gold looking,
karla?

It's not looking as healthy
as the last cleanup.

Narrator: rick's landlord,
sheamus christie,

Gave him a drill map that
indicates there should be

At least a thousand ounces
of gold in the ground.

♪♪

But it doesn't fit
with his results.

I've been running these
averages of what we're doing,

And they're not even coming
close to the drill results.

Like, not even, like half.

Yikes.

Yeah.

We're way the [bleep] off.

Way off.

It's [bleep] scary, because
I brought all you guys up here

Based, loosely, on this.

Maybe this is something you
need to talk to sheamus about.

I suppose I better
just step up

To the mantle piece
and go find sheamus.

-Good luck.
-Thanks.

Everything I'm doing is
based on sheamus's drill maps

And if there's only 500 ounces

And not a thousand like
there's suppose to be,

[Bleep] I'm gonna go
[bleep] broke next week.

-Hey, rick.
-Hey, you got a second to chat?

-Yeah.
-Inside advice or I don't know.

I don't know what
I'm looking for,

But we've been running enough
to kinda get some averages,

Um, based on
the drill holes here,

And man,
it's not even close.

♪♪

We're basically getting half.

Like, as far as I can see,

It's, like, half an ounce
per hundred right now.

Well, I figured there should be

At least a thousand
ounces in that piece, easy.

And these drills,
I mean, this is stuff

We drilled 10 years ago.

It's not like it's anything
that's been changed.

Yeah.

-Yeah.
-But I'm freaking out.

Well, you know,
without going down

And having a look, you know,

Look at what you've been
mining, look at where you are.

-Yeah.
-Have a look at the box.

You know, all those things
are gonna contribute to it.

Yeah.

I don't know what's up.
Something's going wrong.

The sluice box
isn't catching it.

I mean, the gold is
definitely there.

♪♪

You're definitely
losing gold, rick.

I mean,
these riffles don't work

When they're buried in
two inches of material.

That material has
to contact those

Riffles and get in that vortex.
-Yeah.

Narrator:
as water carries the concentrate

Down through the sluice box,

The heavy gold gets caught in

The expanded metal riffles.

If the riffles fill with dirt

The gold will wash straight
out into the tailings.

But these riffles up here,
they're not doing [bleep].

Easiest way to find
out is just go pan

Some of the tailings,
see what's there.

I'm afraid to
[bleep] do that now.

♪♪

Narrator: if sheamus finds gold
in the waste tailings,

It means the wash plant
is at fault

And rick's wrong to
doubt the ground.

I mean,
I hope we haven't been

Chucking gold off
the end of that sluice box,

But in a way, it'd be good
to know and so we can fix it.

If it's the ground,
there's nothing we can do, so.

♪♪

I don't see any in there.
Do you see any?

♪♪

Yeah, I don't know,
I ain't seeing it.

I thought we'd see
gold in there, right?

I thought we'd see something.

I hate to say it,
but I was actually

Hoping to see gold in that pan.
-Yeah, so was i.

[ Bleep ]

I don't know what
the [bleep] to do now.

I can't [bleep]
believe I invested

Everything I have
into this ground

And now I find out it's just not

Gonna have the amount
of gold I need.

Sheamus:
I feel really bad for rick.

Those drill results have
always come good for us.

In mining, you just never know.
You're always taking a chance.

It's always a risk.

Narrator:
rick needs a thousand ounces,

Worth $1.2 million

To break even and pay his guys.

At 500 ounces,
they're all going broke.

Rick: [bleep] me.

[ Sighs ]

It ain't even worth
[bleep] half of

What it's supposed
to have in it. Not even half.

It's a giant [bleep]
waste of time.

Waste of my time
and my [bleep] guys' time.

That was the [bleep] promise.

The gold in the [bleep] ground.

Just go there and get it.

And it's not.

[ Bleep ]

♪♪

[ Horn honks ]

Narrator:
up ahead, a sneak look...

Oh, [bleep]!

Narrator: ...at how the second
half of this season unfolds.

Man: whoa!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Sluicifer's trying
to fall off the bank.

This is all...

[ Machine grinding ]

...pretty [bleep].

Narrator:
sluicifer's pad has washed away

And the wash plant
is now teetering

On the edge of disaster.

Down below,
brennan is rebuilding the pad

With the tailings
that just collapsed.

We're trying to get
this coarse tailings

Laid on thick up top and
armor it like we normally do.

Hopefully, this bank
holds up this time.

Parker: I mean, the big problem
is just that it's a steep bank

And there's nothing to
bind the material together.

Narrator: parker has to keep
sluicifer running

If he's to hit his
$7.2 million goal.

He has a radical plan
to shore up the bank fast.

♪♪

I think if we have
some trees in there,

It'll just give it
something to bind up to.

♪♪

Hopefully, all these
trees will kind of

Lock in together
like a beaver dam

And keep [bleep]
from washing away.

That's what I'm thinking,
anyway.

♪♪

I think parker's
taken a few lessons

From watching
the beavers around here.

It works for them, why
shouldn't it work for us, right?

It's probably a good
think I did this

Because, now, it's me
that's stuck to it.

I've no one to be mad at now.

Narrator:
after a six-hour shutdown,

Costing $14,000 in lost gold...

Let's try this again.

[ Engine starts ]

Narrator:
...parker can finally get

Sluicifer back up and running.

♪♪

♪♪

Well, that's the first time
I've ever used logs

For trying to
hold our bank up but...

-Looks good.
-Hey, it seems to be working.

♪♪

So, this bank, I mean,
if it'll hold up for 24 hours,

It'll hold up for
24 days I would think.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Sighs ] got my dad coming in,
visiting for the first time,

And all the [bleep]
hitting the fan. Unreal.

Ben: we've all left good jobs
to be up here

And we don't have the option of
having an unsuccessful season.

Narrator:
rick's ground is only delivering

Half the amount
of gold he needs.

[ Engine revs ]

Rick: the worst thing
about this is my dad

Always thought I was crazy for

Trying to start an operation
like this from scratch.

Whoo.

So what happens if it fails?

Could be the end for you,
I mean, financially.

-Yeah.
-Done.

Yeah.

♪♪

-Dad.
-Hey.

-How's it going?
-Good to see you.

-You, too, man.
-We made it, well.

-How was the trip in?
-Man, I am beat.

It was a long-a*s
freaking trip, man.

It's not an easy
travel up here, man.

It's yeah, it's two days,
solid at airports.

Yeah. So, how's it going?

Eh, it's going.

If you're not too beat,

Maybe you drop your
bag and go take a look.

I gotta get
a couple hours' sleep.

Oh, I got you
a trailer over here.

All right, cool.

Narrator:
after a two-hour nap,

Big rick,
the owner of a successful

Construction company,

Is ready to inspect his
son's mining operation.

Guys, my dad's here.

[ Cheering ]
-hi, big rick.

-How's it going?
-Welcome.

[ Laughs ]

So that's the cut.

Holy cow, that's impressive.

I laid it out according
to the drill results,

You know, with
a give or take there,

But as far as what we're
getting for numbers right now,

It's coming up half
as good it says,

As the drilling
report's saying, right?

Ground isn't worth a [bleep].

So the answer is to double
your production, then.

I'm, like,
I'm at capacity right now.

I don't have the people.

Well, I'm here to help you.

Let's run another shift.

Get some more gold coming in.

♪♪

You gonna run night shift?

Whatever it takes,
I'm here to help.

Yeah, I mean, I'm game if
you're willing to let us do it.

All right, all right.

♪♪

I appreciate you doing this,
by the way.

It ain't much of a vacation.

I'll let you know
in the morning.

I hope rick really
appreciates, you know,

That his dad took his vacation
to come here and help us out.

♪♪

Narrator: as the crew's shift
comes to an end at 7:00 p.m.,

Big rick starts
the first ever night shift

To run twice the amount of dirt

And compensate for
the lack of gold so far.

-You good?
-Yep. I'm good.

All right, I'll see you
in the morning.

Thanks.

Running twice the dirt by
working overnight

And might be the only thing that
keeps us from going broke.

Narrator: big rick has
38 years in construction

And gave his son
his first break.

He grew up, you know, always
being around heavy equipment

And, you know,
the family business.

I mean, we gave him a few
opportunities when he was little

To run the equipment
and play with it a little.

Been a really
tough year for rick

This year with his mother dying

And all the other things
going on in his life,

And to try to put this
whole thing together.

You know, obviously,
I think, you know,

Rick is taking
a humongous risk here.

This is a crazy pipe dream.

I'm not gonna let my son fail.

We're gonna get every
ounce of gold out of thing

And we're gonna work 24/7.

♪♪

Night shift sucks
and that's a fact.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: tony has flown over
a hundred miles

From eureka to
remote thistle creek.

His mission --

Remove the heart of his
72-year-old dredge, the trommel.

Tony has spent two years

And well over $1 million
to get to this point.

Mike: it should all come undone
if cody does his job right.

-Sounds good.
-Okay.

Narrator:
the back of the 35-foot trommel

Is still trapped inside
the steel superstructure.

Tony's plan,
have welder cody attach

Four d-rings onto
the 13-ton drum,

A pair for each crane.

They'll then raise
the trommel before booming it

Horizontally till
it's free of the structure.

They can then swing it
safely down to the ground.

[ Thud ]

♪♪

Well, it's a tricky move
here to do with two cranes.

I've never done anything
like this before.

Cody: pretty much everything's
cut off the trommel.

They appear to be free
and we just, pretty much,

Just gotta hook on
to it with the crane,

Do a lift, and then
she should come free.

Narrator: the pressure is on
crane operators mike beets...

-Hey!
-Sorry.

Narrator: ...and mike scriba.

It's a big challenge,
but we'll get her.

♪♪

♪♪

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator:
tony's attempting to remove

The 13-ton trommel
from dredge two.

♪♪

Almost halfway
through the season,

Tony has just a quarter of
his 6,000-ounce,

$7.2 million target.

He can't afford any delays.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[ Metal clangs ]

Narrator: craning the trommel up
while it was snagged

On the superstructure
ripped off a d-ring.

To avoid having two cranes
working against each other,

Tony will risk having son,
mike, take the full load

Of the 13-ton trommel
on a single crane.

I should be able to
pick it straight up.

♪♪

Narrator: the trommel now has
a 100-mile journey

Down the yukon river
to eureka creek.

♪♪

Parker:
yo, yeah, yeah, what's up?

Oh, [bleep], that's not good.

Get outta here, I gotta
put some [bleep] pants on.

Come on.

Oh, [bleep] sake.

Night shift usually
doesn't wake anybody up

Unless it's
a complete emergency.

♪♪

Holy [bleep].

That is not good.

Narrator: three days ago,

The pad beneath
sluicifer collapsed.

Parker reinforced the banks
with trees and fine tailings.

♪♪

So this bank, I mean,
if it'll hold up

For 24 hours, it'll hold up
for 24 days I would think.

♪♪

Narrator:
but his beaver dam fix

Has catastrophically failed,
leaving sluicifer,

And his entire season
hanging in the balance.

♪♪

[Bleep] me.

And I'm gonna do
myself a [bleep] favor

And stand under the [bleep].

♪♪

[ Bleep ]

Aah!

♪♪

Narrator:
a small leak from the sluices

Put the diverter trough
out of alignment.

Then, 210,000 gallons
of water an hour

Began eroding the bank,

Washing away
the pad that sluicifer sits on,

Leaving the $600,000
wash plant teetering

On the edge.

It's, uh, definitely
doesn't look good.

We've never had this happen
in our history of mining,

But we have now.

What is the plan here,

Just so I'm
on the same page with you.

We're gonna, we're just
trying to get it back this way

As straight as possible,

Turn it, we're gonna
take it down here

To the wide spot and get
in here and dig this out.

Get it fixed, bring it
back down was the plan.

What a [bleep] [bleep].

♪♪

♪♪

Parker: no, this is all just
a complete [bleep] disaster.

♪♪

[ Bleep ]

Narrator:
parker's beaver dam has failed.

The crew races to rescue
the 45-ton wash plant

From the edge of disaster.

This situation here pretty well
sums up our entire season.

There's no way in hell

We're getting
to 6,000 ounces,

I'll tell you that.

This sucks,
it's our weekend off.

We all are tired
and need a rest,

But now they have
to rebuild the pad,

Reset the plant and we're
just [bleep] nightmare.

Narrator: first,
brennan attempts to drag

90,000-Pound sluicifer
back from the brink.

[ Metal grinding, squeaking ]

Whoa,
let her calm down a bit.

That conveyor's going
everywhere, buddy.

There we go.

Nice and easy, just watch
when she comes down

It doesn't hit too hard.

I think you're good there.

♪♪

Parker: at least it's not
dangling off the cliff anymore.

-Time to rebuild.
-Time to rebuild.

Narrator: instead of taking
a shortcut with trees

And fine tailings,
this time,

Parker trucks in
over 2,000 tons of large rocks.

♪♪

We dug this down about
six or eight feet.

We put coarse tailings in,

Which we should've
done in the first place.

We just tried to arm
the [bleep] out of this bank.

♪♪

I think everything's
ready down there.

Now we just gotta try
and line it all back up.

Yeah.

Now don't get too
confident there.

I'm not.

Come on.

Yeah, I know. I don't want
to bust these tracks.

♪♪

Narrator: brennan now drags
sluicifer back into position on

The newly armored pad.

The tricky part about this is
when he turns sluicifer here,

We gotta line it up,
dead nuts on,

With our super stacker conveyor.

It's gotta be right.

♪♪

-You good?
-Hey!

What a heavy [bleep]
piece of [bleep].

That's probably what
your mom says about you.

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

Whoa!

We're about eight inches out!

That'll be good.

♪♪

Man, I think that
looks pretty good.

I think we're ready to
turn this thing back on,

Start making money again.

Narrator: fixing parker's
beaver dam disaster

Has cost them a day's running

And $50,000 in lost gold.

Let's see if this
shaker shakes, huh?

It's back on solid ground, so.

-All right.
-We try it again.

Fire it the [bleep] up.

Clear!

[ Machine running ]

We're back sluicing.

♪♪

♪♪

So you ready to
see a gold weigh?

We do these every week.

Yeah, I mean, we need to see
some results, here, right?

-Yeah.
-I'm up for that.

Let's do it.

Narrator: at quartz creek,
rick's dad, big rick,

Has pulled four straight
night shifts to help salvage

His son's mining operation.

-You ready for a gold weigh?
-Yeah, man.

-Carla, you got it?
-Oh, yeah.

Narrator: rick's ground is
delivering half the gold

He needs to break even.

I think we're getting
an idea that the gold,

It's not in the ground
like I thought it would be.

Narrator: his dad's solution?

Run the plant, night and day.

I wanna thank my dad,
he came in,

And it's not much of
a father/son visit

When the dad goes right to work
on nights,

But I really appreciate
you doing it.

I don't have
a problem with that,

I mean, it's whatever
it takes, right?

I mean, I was just trying
to help you guys out.

I appreciate you having me up.
Thank you, bud.

Yeah, thank you.

Whoo-hoo.
One for big rick!

-[ Laughs ]
-excellent.

Well, let's see
what you got, man.

-All right.
-Holy cow.

-Nice.
-Nice work, carla.

-Gold looks great.
-Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Narrator: to get back on track,

Rick needs 52 ounces every week
till the end of the season.

♪♪

There's 10...

20, 30, 40,

50, 60, 70.
-Oh, yeah, there you go.

-80, 90.
-All right.

There's 100.
We broke 100, boys.

That's awesome. [ Chuckles ]

106.96.

-Wow, man.
-Yeah!

Sweet!

Narrator:
worth almost $130,000,

A massive 50%
increase on last week.

So, it's just, running
that night shift, man,

We picked up that much more?

That's got to be it.

That's the only thing
that changed, right?

-Yeah, big rick, thank you!
-All right, big rick, yeah!

Yee-hee-hoo!

Thanks a lot.
I appreciate that.

Rick: it just gives me hope.

But running night shift,
and doubling production,

That just means we're gonna
run out of stripped ground

Really quick.

But right now,
we're back on track, guys.

Yeah.

And this is the best
one that we've done.

All: yay!

Narrator: almost halfway through
his first season,

Rick has just over $380,000
worth of the gold he needs

To break even, and leave
the klondike a success.

Lock that up good.

♪♪

♪♪

We got an old chunk
off the dredge,

Clamped the device,

And then we got the torch
in there.

Narrator: after two months
at thistle creek,

Welder, cody hunter is
an off-grid gourmet expert.

I like using hard hats.

We get a whole pepper,
juicy pepper.

Fresh chives that we picked
straight out of the garden.

Love cooking.
Cooking's awesome.

[ Laughs ]

Well, sometimes that happens,
you know,

You get bad quality cookware,
you see.

We might have a little
bit of trouble here.

It's a possibility that
we could burn a hole in the pan.

The omelet's gonna be
[bleep] done.

Just about perfect, I think.

♪♪

Good.

It doesn't get any
better than that.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: tony is now one step
closer to getting

Dredge two rebuilt,
and catching gold.

♪♪

With dredge one down, the only
gold coming in this week,

Is from monica's wash plan.

Yeah, that dredge is down.

Mm-hmm.
Well, would be nice.

Well, one can hold.

Narrator:
to hit his 6,000-ounce,

$7.2 million goal,

Tony needs 305 ounces

Worth over $360,000 every week.

20, 30,

40, 50, 60,

70, 80...

90...

110, 120, 137...

138.08.

Narrator: worth just $165,000

Not even half of what he needs.

Still, that's quite
a ways to go, guys.

Yeah, we're here more,
maybe we could.

Yeah.

So, I told lisa 1,558 roughly.

So what do you say?

Should we pack it up
and then get back at it?

Well, we can't make
any money sitting here.

Nope.

Narrator: almost halfway
through the season,

Tony only has a quarter
of his 6,000-ounce goal.

♪♪

Landlords, tony and minnie,

Check up on parker,
to collect their mid-season

Royalty payment.

Well, his truck is here,
so he probably here.

Hey!

Good, let me throw
some shoes on here.

How are you guys doing?

Found some more gold.

Um, I think chris is down
there cleaning gold right now.

Let's go see what he's got.

Narrator: like tony,
parker has a 6,000-ounce,

$7.2 million season goal.

Both miners are determined to
get more gold than the other.

Tony's been ahead all season,

And is still 446 ounces,

Worth over $535,000,

Ahead of parker.

Oh, we had a good week.
We really did.

-Yeah?
-Yeah.

So both plants
performed really well,

After all the disasters
we been going through.

So you wanna throw
some gold on the scale,

See what we got?
You want big red?

30...

60...

Got the 100.

150...

200...

205.6.

-Really?
-Really?

That's a good week.

Narrator: to catch up with
tony's 1,558 ounces,

Parker now needs sluicifer
to deliver 240 ounces.

All right,
here's sluicifer.

♪♪

75...

150...

220...

-250...
-Yeah.

264 1/2.

That's a really good week.

-So your season total is?
-What's that?

-1,580 Or something?
-1,582?

1,582.

So, you're 24 ounces
ahead of us.

Oh, boy.

Whoa!

Narrator:
for the first time this season,

Parker edges ahead
of his rival, tony.

That we will.

So it looks like we owe
you guys 136.8 ounces.

Ouch.

Good to see you guys.

Thanks for taking
all my [bleep] money.

♪♪

Yeah, I mean, it sucks
having to pay tony royalties,

But I mean, it does feel good
to take the lead right now.

After all the [bleep]
he's given us this season,

Be really nice to kick his a*s.

[ Horn honks ]

Narrator: still to come,
on this season

Of "gold rush"...
-Whoa!

Ta-da!

We've got a goal to hit.

I wanna do better my
first year in the klondike,

Than parker did.

Aah! [Bleep]!

I mean, mother nature's
closing in on us,

And closing in on us fast.

-Whoa!
-I love that sound.

Ready!

I'd love for our season
to end with some gold

Out of our own ground.

This is our future and that
future has to start now.

Uh-oh.

Yee-haw!

-Get out of there!
-Got a boat accident.

We have a serious injury.

We need a helicopter
out here immediately.

Holy [bleep]! Look at that!

I left a [bleep]
torch on the felt.

Plant's on fire!

Record breaking royalty
payments over $1 million.