12x17 - Bonus Gold

[bunniefuu]

It's been about pretty damn
close to three weeks going
hard here in Rally Valley.

And, uh, I'm thinking
I'm insane.

[narrator] In a bid to enter
the mining big leagues

and bank 2,000 ounces,
Rick Ness is trying a risky
new strategy.

I mean, this was a,
you know, big gamble
shutting down the wash plant

during prime time, um.

All I'm doing right now
is spending money.

I'm a few hundred thousand
dollars deep at this point.

And, uh, we haven't been
getting any gold
the whole time,

so it's just money
out the door.

[narrator] He's digging out
of worthless overburden.

Over a million cubic yards
in the hopes

of hitting the best pay dirt
he's ever mined.

It's, uh, a ton of dirt
to move,

but I do believe
that the payoff underneath
is gonna be worth it.

[narrator] The pay lane
is estimated
to be 70 feet thick

and the size
of two football fields.

We've been, uh, hauling
massive amounts of dirt
out of this, uh,

out of Rally Valley.

Night shift, day shift,
um, I'm macing 24/7
I guess you would say.

[narrator] They're down


after removing
the next 30 feet of mud.

[Rick] By the end
of this week,
we might be there.

[Chris] All we've gotta do
is get Monster Red running

and we can push that thing
over 300 yards an hour.

And we're gonna need that
because this now is a ton
of dirt to wash.

We are gonna turn
that wash plant on,

we are not gonna shut it off
because, uh, we've gotta get
a lot of material sluiced

if we're gonna hit
our 2,000 ounces.

If this doesn't work out,
I mean, we're gonna
make nothing.

Um, my guys, you know,
they're gonna lose
their bonus

and, uh, I'm gonna
be done mining.

Uh, that's how
serious this is.

Now I'm into... There's
something that seems to have
awfully big rock in it.

It's, uh, it's not something
that I was expecting. Not yet.

I mean, this seems
kind of for, like,
a boulder layer,

like, something I would expect
at the bottom.

This is weird.

[Rick on radio] Yeah, guys,
before I load anymore
of this out,

um, just chill out
for awhile.

Do we have time
to mess around right now?

I don't know
what the hell this is.

Worth looking at, though.

If I'm being honest,
it looks like a pay layer
to me.

This is what, I mean,
this is what we've been
looking for all season

in the other areas.

I mean, this looks like...

This looks like this was laid
in here by some kind
of water event.

Generally, big boulders
around here mean pay layer,
they mean gold.

But it's definitely
not where it's supposed to be.

Not according
to the drill results

and not according
to all the data I have.

We're working our way down,
and now we got
a *bleep* mystery here.

Like, but I can't
just ignore it.

I'm just gonna have
to test it off the pan
or something.

I mean, if there's gold in it,
what am I gonna do with it?

I don't have Monster Red
set up, I don't have
anything set up.

And I don't know
how much gold there is.

I don't know, whatever,
I gotta... Just gonna test it.

Then I'll know.

This is classic Duncan Creek.
Constant curveballs.

Should be enough.

[sighs] Yeah,
this is actually like a...

A really heavy pan.
It seems like there's gonna

be a lot
of heavy minerals in here.

Where there's heavy rock,
sand, and magnetite,
and hematite, stuff like that,

there's... there's
usually gold.

What the *bleep*?

There's gotta be 25,


Holy *bleep*.

That's probably the best pan
I've ever done in my life.

I was not expecting that.
That's a lot of gold
in a pan, so...

That changes everything.

[narrator] Rick has hit
pay dirt 30 feet earlier
than he expected.

We gotta run it
and get the gold out,
but it's not...

It's not that simple, I mean.

I don't have a wash plant
anywhere near here
that's set up ready to go.

Just not prepared for it.

Um.

I'm gonna have to come up
with some kind of plan.

[Rick] I need
everybody to stop
what they're doing.

Let's just meet up.
Have a quick pow wow.

Stop paying trucks for what?

Honestly, guys, I think we got
down to pay here.

You know it's those boulders
popping out, right?

So, I took a pan out of there
and probably the best *bleep*
pan I've ever done ever.

[Chris] Oh, nice.

Yeah, like, there was a ton
of *bleep* colors in it.

[man 1] I did not expect that.
That changes things.

Yeah, buddy, I like
the sound of that.

Well, at least we're going
in the right direction then.

It's tough, though, I don't
always trust pans, like,
so to be sure,

I wanna pull 1,000 yards
out of there
and I wanna run it.

Like, we're just gonna
run it through Rocky.

[narrator] Wash plant
Monster Red
is still in pieces.

Rick must haul the pay dirt
to his smaller
wash plant, Rocky,

at the other end of the claim.

[Chris] That's really far up.

Might as well run to Milwaukee
with it.

[all laughing]

I took the side by side
and I set the odometer

and if we went around,
it's actually *bleep* just
over 2.5 miles.

[Chris] Oh, wow.

But, but we can just push
across this valley right here.

-[Chris] Great.
-[Rick] That's a mile.

- Holy *bleep*.
-[man 1] That's
a big difference.

-[Rick] Yeah.
-[Chris] Bridge the gap
between that cut and Rocky.

[Rick] Yeah.

Cuts it way more than half.

[narrator] To run the pay
as fast as possible,

Rick plans to build a bridge
across the valley

and a new road
to haul pay dirt a mile
south to wash plant Rocky.

How long do you think
it'll take to build that?
It's pretty deep.

It is pretty deep,
but we've got
all that material.

Like, parked right there,
you know, if we just start
by pushing it with the dozer,

and fill in the rest
with the trucks, like, we just
all, you know, get after it.

I bet we can get it finished
this afternoon.

Well, *bleep*.
Let's get on it, then.

Well, this bridge is not
gonna build itself.

-[all laughing]
-[Rick]
*bleep* Let's do it then.

-*bleep*
-[man laughing]

I don't understand
why it's here.

We're still...

...way too high up
to be hitting pay layer.

But this... you can't
throw it away.

And, uh...

You just have to work
a little harder
and a little faster.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Tony Beets
is battling to hit
his season goal

and keep his operation afloat.

[narrator] Two-thirds
of the way through the season,

he has 2,500 ounces,
just over half what he needs.

[narrator] Tony's sluicing
gold rich pay

from the wall cut
through his only running
wash plant: Mike's trommel.

But heavy rain is flooding
the cut and soaking the pay.

[Tony speaking]

It's, uh, hard to get in
and out of the cuts
'cause it's so slippery.

It costs a lot of time,
and so it costs Tony
a lot of money.

[Tony speaking]

We're dealing with this really
soupy, muddy stuff

which needs
to be quite carefully put
through the plant.

[narrator] The wet pay
is slowing down the plant.

[Ruby] Unfortunately, it has
to run on a very slow feed
which drives me crazy.

I just want to turn
this *bleep* thing up
and sling dirt into her.

And it also needs a little bit
more time to be washed
in the trommel

so that we actually separate
the gold from this muddy
clay material

and it doesn't just get washed
out right out the back end.

[sighs]

Blah.

Hey, Ruby.
How it's going with you today?

[Ruby on radio]
Going slow, Kevin.

There better be some good
*bleep* gold today.

[Kevin laughs]

[Kevin] Let's have
a looksee today.

[Kevin exclaims]

Hey, Cody, Cody.
We're gonna have to shut down.

That kind of sucks.

Oh, that worked absolutely
like *bleep*.

[man 1] I tried shoveling,
but you can't keep up.
You can't.

[Kevin] No, not with this.
Okay.

[groans]

[narrator] Tony Beets'
mining operation has come
to a halt.

A buildup of wet pay
in the hopper feeder

has forced them to shut down
the wash plant.

[Kevin] Now the stuff
we're putting through
is real gooey

and all the stuff
that's popping up
over the back

and piling up real
[bleeping] like this pile

has got that high
in about six hours.

So let's get some folks
in here with some shovels.

Hey, Tony, yeah.
Well, this stuff
is really gooey.

You got a lot of over spill,
I had to shut her down.

[Tony speaking]

[Kevin grunts]

Yeah, oh, yeah, we don't
really got much other option
other than shoveling it out.

[grunts] He can get real fancy
with his ideas,
but you know what?

We can just *bleep* shovel it.

[Kevin grunts]

Well, with all this dirt
falling on the tail pulley,
it's gonna get buried.

That applies weight
and pressure.

Which will slow the belt down,
which will cause the pile up,

which will cause us
even more shoveling.

So when the material
drops onto the conveyer belt,

because this material
is so wet and soupy,

it's actually just sliding
right off the back
of the conveyer

and piling up
on our tail pulleys.

[Kevin] Come on.

Every minute
that this plant's down,

we're losing,
like, $25 a minute.

- That is pretty good
right there, honestly.
-[man] Yeah.

Now we got everything
shoveled out.

Hopefully it doesn't pile up
like that *bleep* again.

[grunts]

Do we got it?

Okay, now we put
our chain across.

That feels good. All right.

Let's fire her up,
so we get you boys
back on your trucks.

And out.

[narrator] After three hours,
Tony is back on the gold.

Onto the next cup of haul.

[Fred] The most important goal
I have is to give my team
a future.

[narrator] Forty miles west
of Dawson City,

at California Creek,
Fred Lewis is attempting
to turn his band

of combat veterans
into a successful
mining operation.

[Fred] We've been sluicing
a few weeks,
but we're falling short.

In order to cover the costs
for this season,

we need to get a minimum
of 100 ounces.

[narrator] So far this season,
Fred's hauled in
just 40 ounces.

[Fred] We don't have a lot
of time left in the season,

we're gonna have to figure
something out to up
our efficiency

and get to that goal.

You know, we have a lot
to do in a very little bit
of time but, you know,

that's what we do,
we made a living
out of doing the impossible.

It's a little bit
of hard work, but that's what
I came here to do.

[narrator] Fred has shut down
the wash plant to inspect
the gold catching sluice runs.

I don't know if I like
the looks of this.

This looks
like it's building up
too much.

Only one way to know.

So right now, I'm looking
at my tailings
because the, um,

the sluice just doesn't look
like it's packing right.

And I'm seeing gold
in this sluice,
which is bad.

If I'm seeing gold
that's being shot out
into my tailings pond,

that means we're losing gold.

So we're either gonna have
to fix our feed rate

or do something
about these sluices.

That's too much.

That's not good.

[Fred] We're losing gold.

[Stuart] Really? *bleep*

[Fred] It's not catching
material the right way.

Goes from 2 feet
to 4 feet, wham!

It's a lot of force
coming out,

and distribute over
a very short distance.

Right now, we need
something to take
this material gradually.

- So I'm feeling, like,
a sluice ahead.
-[Stuart] Yeah.

Feeding into these.

Now we need to add length.

I want to talk to Buzz
about it, see if he feels
the same way.

Buzz!

[narrator] Fred brings in
Buzz Legault, an experienced
Yukon miner.

I don't know as much
about welding as you do,
but do you think

if we add 6 feet onto this,
you and JB could put
something together?

- You prefound everything?
Get it all set up?
-[Fred] Yeah.

[Buzz] Once you get things
all cleaned up and pull
these sluices off,

that'll be a couple
of hours, right?

I think that's what
we have to do.

[Buzz] Let's get
this *bleep* done.

- All right, Buzz.
-[Stuart] Cool.

[narrator] With his 4-foot
sluices, Fred's losing gold

that's blowing out
into the tailings.

By adding a 6-foot extension,
the extra riffles should catch
all the gold

and stop it being lost
out the end of the sluices.

It'll be a major gamechanger

for this entire season.

We'll be able
to do more yardage.

Better recovery.

Buzz brought in, ah,
some sluice box pieces.

Now we're gonna modify
them to, ah, go
into our current sluice boxes.

These are just pieces
of it for now.

Buzz hasn't met his house.
[laughs]

He has everything known
to mankind at his house.

[JB] So we're gonna cut
that in half.

We're gonna add 6 feet
on each side.

Adding six square foot
for the gold to, basically,
travel down

and get separated
from the tailings,

so that's just more
opportunity for it to get
trapped and kept.

As opposed to getting
washed out.

[JB] It's time to unhook
the old one.

And then rehook the new one.

Everything we're working on
is heavy and not easy to move.

All right, Fred!

We are ready.

Right there.

[Fred] It's looking
good, guys.

[Buzz] Yeah, we just
got her finished up.

[Fred] Man, so this is, like,
an extra...

This should double
our yardage.

[narrator] More than doubling
the length of the sluice box,

should not only fix
the gold lost,

but also allow them
to run more pay dirt.

So 6 feet added on to this...

...could put us close
to 85 yards an hour.

I wanna get this thing
fired up and tested.

[machinery starting]

Yeah, I like it.

Now it's gonna come
through here and distribute.

The best part we know
is the riffles are working.

We wanna see
these riffles with a little
bit of bumps on 'em.

We don't want to see
a flow across with no bumps.

If we see bumps,
we're seeing the right
kind of flow.

-[JB] Okay.
-[Fred] Yeah, it looks great.

Ah, I love it.
It's feeding perfect
right down it.

Hey, I'm gonna start feeding.

I'm really excited
that this is finally
coming together.

- I think
this is a good system.
- Yeah, for sure.

-[Fred] Good job, guys.
-[JB] Thanks.

Sluice extension on that
should double the amount
of pay we can put

through that plant
and stop losing gold.

It's something we absolutely
had to do.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Torrential rain
has turned Tony Beets'
wall cut into a quagmire.

Now Tony's digging a ditch
to drain excess water
and dry out the wet pay dirt.

[Tony speaking]

[narrator] Tony will have
to wait a week for the cut
to dry out

before he can run
the pay dirt.

And the stock pile pay
at the trommel
has now run out.

[Kevin on radio]
Hey, Tony. Yup.

[Kevin] Copy that. Copy that.

[narrator] Every hour
the trommel is down

costs Tony $1,500
in lost gold production.

Oh, it's a *bleep*.
Yeah, mess.

We're running out of time
in the season as is

and by the time to wait
for *bleep* pay to dry.

[narrator] At Paradise Hill,
Tony Beets is battling
the floods.

[Kevin] Mmm-hmm.

That sounds like a plan.

[narrator] For years,
the King of the Klondike
has been stashing away

smaller pay piles
for a rainy day.

Now he wants to tap into one
that sits in between the wall
and nugget cuts.

But there's no way
to get to it.

[Kevin] How are we gonna
get in there? Do we gotta
build a road or what?

[Kevin] Mmm-hmm. Yup.

Sounds good.

[Megan] We have pay just
back here that we need
to get to.

So we're building a road
over top of all this

'cause with all the weather
we've been having,
all the rain and stuff,

it's been making
everything just slop.

[narrator] To get to the stock
pile of dried pay on top
of the hill,

Tony must build
a half mile hole road

using mud capped
with coarse tailings

to provide a solid way in
for his fleet of rock trucks.

- Can you hear me?
- Yeah, I can hear you.

So how's your day going?

Boring. Very, very boring.
How's your day going?

It's slow, you know,
going in circles.

So, is today a podcast day?
Is it a music day?
Is it an audiobook day?

Crimes of Passion day,
podcast.

Great, great.
I love it, I love it.

Yeah, what are you
listening to?

My sad, sad thoughts.

[Tony speaking]

Copy that, copy that.

[Megan] I am currently
about to feed the plant

with the first bucket
from piggybank
that Tony has sent me.

And it's very exciting.

Cause it's very nice dirt.
It's dry, it's not soup.

And it actually
goes where I want it,

it doesn't slop off
the hopper.

Rain brings
everybody down, so.

I think we're all much happier
that the plant's
up and running

and we can
actually be sluicing.

[Tony speaking]

[Chris] You know,
this valley's been separated
by this, this drain here.

We're building a bridge.

So we can get that pay
down to Rocky.

[Paul] In Rally Valley,
Rick and his crew
have paused stripping,

to build a shortcut
to his wash plant, Rocky.

We're just about done here,
so we should be able
to put it to the test.

But this is gonna slow us
to getting down to where we're
actually trying to go.

[Paul] To test run
an unexpected layer
of bonus dirt.

I wasn't prepared
for there to be a pay layer

in the middle
of all this stripping.

But, might as well sluice it
and see what's there.

The whole idea
with Rally Valley here

is to get Monster Red
up and running,

um, but the time that we,
you know, we reach
the pay layer on the bottom.

But, Monster Red's not ready.

And we are not to the bottom
but we are already
at a pay layer.

I panned it,
it seems pretty good,

but I wanna run a test on it,
on our little plant.

If I can get 1,000 yards
along this mile track

to that plant
and we run it,
and test it,

I think that there might be
gold in this layer.

But the only way
we're gonna know

is if we run it through
the plant and see
what we got, so.

I'm gonna finish this bridge,
they're gonna haul it up,
we're gonna run it,

and hopefully
we're gonna find
a lot of gold.

[Chris] I'm super excited
to see this holds in store.

I never really expected it
to be eventful,

but it's definitely got
its moments.

This is great.

But did you expect
smoke on your butts hole?

No, I never ever once thought
I'd ever get that.

Kind of a bonus for you then,
huh, bud?

Oh, you betcha.

We've been hauling a*s, bro.
Hauling a*s.

Now we're gonna haul a*s
on getting some pay
to the plant,

and then we're gonna haul a*s
on running it,

and then we're gonna haul a*s
on cleaning it up

and seeing if it's worth
running more.

And, just to clarify,
we're gonna full-a*s
the hauling a*s?

Not half-a*s the hauling a*s?

We don't half-a*s anything.

[Rick] What do you say there,
guys?
That's the last load.

Think we're ready
to rock and roll,
think this road's done.

[Paul] Now,
for the 1,000 yard test.

Krusey and Nathan
haul the pay across
the new bridge

and then a mile
to the wash plant.

[Rick] We're gonna run it
all today.

If we run 1,000 yards,
if there's at least


then that's gonna tell me
that it's worth running.

We could be looking at
striking it [beep] rich here.

-[Rick] Okay, you guys ready
to fire this thing up?
-[Chris speaking]

All right, let's do it.

We're loading the pile
with the excavator,

the bucket on it's
about a yard of dirt,

and he's dumping it
with every bucket.

Um, he's doing about


So, 10 hours we should
have our 1,000 yards run.

I'm nervous, honestly, because

if this works out
that's more of an opportunity
to get more gold this year.

But if it's not,

um, then it's just
a waste of time

and time's not on our side
right now.

[Paul] Ten hours,
and 1,000 yards of dirt later,

Rick calls time on the test.

A few pickers in there.

Man it's tough to say,
I hate guessing.

You know,
there's chunky gold in there,
there's fine gold.

Uh! There's gold in it,
so it was the right decision
to run this.

Let's get it out of the box,
get it across the table,
and see what we got.

The test cleanup is done, um,
I'm dying to see the results.

It cost me a day of stripping.

But, you know what?
If the gold is good,
I'm gonna wanna run it.

But I don't have Monster Red
setup.

[Paul] At Duncan Creek

it's time to see
if Rick's decision
to halt stripping

and run a 1,000 yard test

has paid off.

- Hey, Heather.
- Hello.

[Rick] Got it weighted up?

You're gonna weigh it up.

Oh, yeah,
you got it cleaned up, yeah.

- I don't weigh it,
that's your job.
- Yeah.

Ooh, feels kinda heavy.

Ah, boy.

This is a unique problem here.

A unique problem
for a goldminer to have,
finding bonus gold.

[Rick chuckles] Yeah.

- Well, is it enough gold,
that's the problem.
- Oh, okay.

- I know it sounds silly.
- What a terrible problem
for a goldminer.

I know.

Man, that's gonna be so close.

- It looked good.
- Yeah.

- For 1,000 yards.
- Looked pretty close
to what we've been doing.

[Paul] To be worth running
the test must deliver
at least 10 ounces.

Over 10.

Holy [beep].

It's over 14.



That's just shy
of an ounce and a half
per 100 yards.

I mean, that's just as good
as anything we've run
this year.

Yeah, it's, uh, better than
it should have been

and what was supposed to be
overburden.

- Whoo.
- So what are you gonna do?

I don't know
what I'm gonna do.

Well, we can't throw it away.

- No.
- Obviously.

But I don't see...
I don't know how
we're gonna run it.

I don't know how
we're gonna run it all.

Well, I've got a lot
of decisions to make,
so, thanks Heather.

You're welcome.

[heavy exhale] Well,

I've had worse problems,
I mean, I am holding
a pan of gold.

But, uh, at the same time,
you know, this grounds good,

but I know
what we're going for
at the bottom is better.

Um, you know,
probably twice as good.

[Paul] If Rick decides to run
this good pay dirt now,

without Monster Red,

he risks running out of time
to reach the super rich

pay layer
at the bottom of Rally Valley.

So,

I can't throw this away,
I'm not set up to run it,

I don't have
the time to run it,

I don't have
the people to run it,
I don't have...

I don't have everything, so.

I've got a lot to figure out
right now

Right now the pressure is on.
I'm firing on all cylinders,
we need 100 ounces.

[Paul] At California Creek

Fred's digging pay dirt
in the far end of the cut.

The better we get
at this equipment,
the faster we're able to move.

The faster we're able to put
pay dirt into the plant,

the more gold
we're gonna go home with.

So, efficiency,
efficiency, efficiency.

[Paul] Longer sluices
on his wash plant

mean he's supercharged
his operation to run 85 yards
an hour.

It's all about
being successful
and about being efficient.

Well, right now,
the name of the game is
get all the pay.

[Paul] Scott sn*per, Stuart,
feeds the hopper.

I do think
that what the military
provided for us

was the means to not quit.

I definitely miss home.
I miss my family, immensely.

But, uh,

right now
this is where I need to be
to secure our future.

[Paul] And Green Beret, Rick,
is on double duty
clearing tailings,

Yeah, I'm jumping
from the rock truck
to e-h* and doing a self-load.

And then turn around
and drive the truck back up,
dump it, come back down.

That plant
can take a lot of pay.

And, uh, we have been
busting our a*s
to stay up with it.

I'm jumping out now
and getting in the truck
and heading back around.

If we ever did make it rich
off gold mining,

then, uh,
we've definitely put
our dues in.

Cause this season
has been one of the most
mentally tough things

I've had to do in a very,
very long time.

[loud bang]

I've got a problem
with the plant.

- Holy [beep]
-[Christopher]
Run old man, run.

Okay, I'm shutting her down.

Holy [beep],
I can see it from here.

Tailings just got built up
too far.

Caused the extra weight
in the sluice run,
and caused it to collapse.

I was feeding,
I thought that everything
was, like, on point.

I had no idea
that that was like that.

[Rick] The new sluices

are putting
more [beep] material
into the pond now.

And it just added up.

I couldn't get it out of there
faster enough.

And it was nothing but
just try to sustain

with me driving
the rock truck also.

[Paul] Running twice
the pay dirt,

has doubled the material
flowing through
the sluice runs.

Cause the fine tailings
to quickly backup.

And break the box
off the plant.

[Rick] After it fell,
water kept flowing

and any gold

just right out the sh**t
it goes.

[JB] Yesterday,
all along that ridge,

right here where
this gap is now,

before it fell, there was just
a line of gold in there.

It was, yeah,
it was beautiful.

We could've easily lost four
or five ounces.

[Stuart] Hopefully we can
get down in there and recover.

I know not 100% lost, but,

yeah, a good percentage
is gone.

If Fred came down here
and saw this,
he would be [beep] pissed.

Tensions are high right now,
it just [beep] sucks.

To be out here...

To have, you know,
the final stretch
of the season, and then

something like this happen.

I don't know,
had I seen it
I definitely would have

adjusted.

I'm gonna try to get a hold
of Fred to let him know
what's going on.

-Fred, this is Chris.
- Go head.

Something happened
down at the mine site.

Rick and Stuart were feeding
the plant

and the sluice box, basically,
just fell down.

The person who was on tailings
wasn't cleaning up.

And the person who was feeding

didn't know
there wasn't someone
down there cleaning up.

So the small tailings
were backing up into
the sluice boxes.

And there was just
so much weight
on the sluice box

that the sluice box fell down.

So you're telling me
the wash plants currently
not in operation.

Yeah, we did lose
a bunch of gold.

I don't have [beep] time
to be over there right now,
I'm pulling pay.

That's freakin' bush league.

Make sure they clean up
everything that was split,

repurpose it,
put it back in the pile,

and fix everything they broke.

-Got it?
- Roger that.

[Fred] You know,
I totally get it,
these guys are tired.

Mistakes will happen.

But, that sluice box breaking
was a major malfunction
of communication on our team.

I have a lot of standards
for my misfits.

We need to be
better than that.

You know,
that one mistake
cost us 10 grand, easy.

I'll take full responsibility
for this.

You know, I'm the most, uh,
senior person on the crew

with the most experience
that was working.

So, it's kinda on me.

And this is a big deal.
You know what I mean?

Like, you know,
in other operations

that they're pulling
you know, a cleanout.

This would just be, you know,
pennies to them.

But, to us it's not.

[Paul] JB and Buzz
rehang the sluice box.

[Buzz] Oh, yeah,
that looks good.

[Paul] And Rick and Stuart
scoop up the tailings

which are now full of the gold
they lost.

[Rick] We're pulling
the fine tailings
from the tailings pond

and recovering them and, um,
we'll run them back through
later on.

[Fred] I've gotta let my guys
fix their own mistakes.

I'm not here to micromanage,
I'm not here to baby anyone.

I'm here to make miners
out of these guys

and when you make a mistake,
you gotta [beep]
fix it yourself.

[Paul] Four hours later,

they're ready to fire up
the wash plant, again.

Coming on!

Whoo!

[Fred] Good work, guys.

We got them fixed.

[Fred] I hope this is a lesson
to understand how much
we have to pay attention.

All right, well,
we'll adjust fire as a team,

we'll come together,
we'll have a meeting.

We'll make sure
everybody understands,
when you're up there.

- Talking to that guy.
-[Fred] And talking
to that guy.

I think right now
you guys just keep it running

and we won't make that mistake
ever again.

Yep. Feed the beast, man.
Feed the beast.

Good job.

Gotta put her high-vis on.
She's on the claim official
so, safety first.

[Paul] At California Creek

Fred Lewis is training
the newest member
of the misfits crew.

She's smelling for gold.

Where's the gold?
Where is it?

Shoeshine I want you to bark
for the positive one.

Is it this one?
Or is it this one?

Which one's positive?

Come on, Shoeshine,
I just taught you this.

- Is it red?
-[Shoeshine barks]

- Just tell me,
how proud are you of yourself?
-[Shoeshine barks]

How proud of you are yourself?
You know what negative
and positive is.

Shoeshine,
you gonna run the loader?

No. The dozer? Excavator?

All right, Shoeshine,
let's go.

You know, Shoeshine's 12.
They say you can't teach
an old dog new tricks.

- Mine's driving an excavator.
-[Shoeshine barks]

Good girl.

Where you going? Take a nap?
All right,
I'll be over here working.

[Rick] I got a lot of decision
to make.

[Paul] Rick Ness
is facing a tough call.

Run the new pay dirt
through his 100 yard an hour
wash plant, Rocky,

Or wait until he can
run it through Monster Red--

-[Rick] Hey, buddy.
-[Paul] ...three times faster.

Is Brennan here?
Oh, yeah, there he is.

[Chris] Good,
fashionably late.

- Hey, buddy.
-[Brennan] How's it going?

[Chris] Nice to see ya.

[Rick] So I'm sure you guys
are probably wondering
how it went.

[Brennan] Yeah,
what is the test.

[Rick] 14 ounces
out of 1,000 yards.

- That's 1.4 per hundo.
- That is.

[beeping]

That's north
of what we look for to run.

[Brennan] So we're gonna
run that then?

Actually, we're not.

[Brennan] That sucks.

That's better
than what we've been running
all year, though.

- I know.
- And we haven't been sluicing
for how long?

Few weeks.

Just don't make sense
to run it right now, or...

[Rick] No one wants to run
that dirt through the plant
more than I do.

But, you know what I mean,
like, I have to get
Monster Red running.

And it's gonna slow us down
if we run it.

- We're just gonna
stock pile it.
- Okay.

There's gonna be more gold
in the box

- if we stick
to the original plan.
- Yeah.

But, what we're going after
is down below, right.

And that's better.
I know it is.

We've got, what?


- Yeah, a couple lifts.
-[Rick] Yeah.

[beep] get it.

Yeah, it actually feels like
we're getting close, though.

[Rick] I know.
Let's just keep going, man.
We're so close.

- Right?
- Yep.

[Nathan] Yep,
down to the bottom.

Well, we've still got
a long ways to go,
so we should get at it.

Yeah, get the night crew,
let's go.

[Chris] That dirt's not gonna
move itself.

All right, guys.
I think, um,

this was definitely
a learning week for us.

[Paul] After a week
of operator errors
and shut downs,

the misfits are ready to weigh
the gold.

The wash plant went down,
we lost our sluices.

Um, I believe this gold weigh
is gonna reflect that.

- Okay.
- But,

I feel like the way
you guys came around that was
absolutely awesome.

- Um, by the time I came,
you guys had it fixed.
-[Stuart] Yeah.

[Fred] And I think we know now

we gotta watch those sluices,
we gotta watch
that tailings pile.

And it'll actually help us
work better as a team.

[Paul] To hit their target
of 100 ounces,

Fred's team needs
a weekly average
of around 10 ounces of gold.

[Fred] All right, Rick.
You wanna call this one out?

Uh, okay.

All right, guys.

You ready?

[Rick] One, two, three, four,

- five--
-[Fred] Come on, come on.

-[Rick] six.
-[Fred] A-ha!

-[Rick] Six.
-[Stuart] Six.

-[Rick] 6.2, on the dot.
-[Fred] On the dot.

[Paul] Worth nearly $11,000.

But way below what they need
to reach their goal.

So, guys that...

I mean, if you look
at this you can tell,

there aren't a lot
of heavies in here.

It's mostly fine,
there's some chunks.

Um, this represents
what we caught.

I think what we lost
is about 3-4 ounces.

I wouldn't say
this is a representation
of our ground, at all.

This is just
the error we made.

-[Rick] Right.
-[Fred] So.

-[Stuart] That sucks.
- I don't wanna cry about it.

Cause I still see
gold in the pan.

And I still see us mining
and we're doing pretty well.

So, we just need to not make
those mistakes again,
obviously.

And we now know
that there are consequences
to our mistakes.

Pretty [beep] big one.

Is what it is.
We're gonna make mistakes.

We're new, we're learning,
and we don't know
that wash plant.

But I think we're fighting it.

-[JB] We'll make it up.
- Yep. Yep, I feel like
we'll make it up.

Definitely.

Good to know
that I can rely on you guys

to fix problems
when I'm not there,
kinda like a test.

And you guys passed.
So, I really appreciate that.

So, you guys are k*lling it.

-[Stuart] Yeah.
- Be proud of that

On that note,
back to work, guys.

You know, right now,
I've got mixed emotions.

I'm not happy about the amount
of gold we got.

But I am ecstatic
about the team.

We lost gold, yes.

We could have lost
a hell of a lot more.

They're proving themselves
as a team.

They're proving
their learning.

And they're proving
they have massive potential
to be gold miners.

And Fred's, you know,
he's being a leader right now.

And he understand
there's just no

point in beating, you know,
a dead horse.

Or whipping us even more.
We're already pretty down
on ourselves for it.

So, we have to find more gold.

You know, we gotta
get more pay
through the plant.

Otherwise, you know,
this is all for nothing.

I'll take the loss.
We'll move forward
and we'll fix our [beep].

And won't let it happen again.

[Minnie] Hi, guys.

- Hi, family.
- How are ya?

[Tony speaking]

But wait! There's more.

[Minnie] Don't scare me,
will ya.

So, how was this week, guys?

[Minnie] Did we sluice
all week, Mike?

No, with the pay being so wet
and you can't shove it
through there.

Kinda done with rain.

How long were we down for?

[Kevin] That sounds
about right, yeah.

- Yep
-[Minnie] Anyways
and that's all piggybank gold.

Seeing as we did sluice
and we did get some gold,
maybe somebody wants to weigh.

- I think Faith should count.
-[Minnie] [chuckles] Faith.

It's fine.

[Paul] To stay on track
for his 4,500 ounces goal

Tony needs his piggybank
to deliver 237 ounces of gold.

- Ready?
-[Faith] Yep.













[Paul] Worth almost $370,000.

That's pretty good
for us being shut down
for a couple days.

That goes to show us
worth trying to get
that wet [beep] through.

[Minnie] Really,
it's still okay.

Oh, you know, arms toil,
least you know
it was worth it.

[Paul] This brings
Tony's season gold total

to 2,663 ounces.

Still got a month
and a half left, so.

- And we've been getting
fairly decent gold lately.
- Yes.

So, I think the 4,500,
it should be doable.

- Starting to look good, eh?
-[Minnie] Yeah.

- You agree?
-[baby cooing]

Okay then.

Glad you do.