I missed the boat.
If I'd have bought
this place five years ago,
you'd have taken it all.
You must've spent
some time in one of these.
I'm probably
missing something.
After buying
Dominion Creek,
Parker Schnabel is now
one of the Klondike's
biggest land owners
and has equipment for sale.
Here you go, Tony,
buy this thing.
His first
prospective customer,
his old landlord.
Yeah, it's been good.
Thanks, Tony.
Right.
Yeah, it's... it's, uh,
been quite the journey.
But I... I can sincerely say
I wouldn't have been
able to do this
if you wouldn't have
given me a shot
when we first showed up here.
But I do mean that.
And I know you and I
have fought...
I remember our fights.
Well, I appreciate that.
Well, that's one thing this
is we don't see each other
much anymore.
I'm not 22.
I'm 29.
Do you wanna look at
that other one just in case?
We're just over
halfway through this season.
The end is gonna be here
sooner than we know it.
And certainly sooner
than we want it to.
After dumping
all his money
into buying new ground
at Dominion Creek,
Parker Schnabel is finally
gaining momentum.
So far, he has mined
over 2,800 ounces,
more than half
of his 5,000 ounce
break-even target.
But he's not
out of the woods yet.
After shutting down one claim,
he's still running
an operation
at Dominion Creek.
And now, he's opening
a brand new one
at Australia Creek.
Impossible to say
what we're gonna find
for gold up there right now,
but... I fear we won't
get Australia Creek done
if we don't
really kick it in the a*s
and get a plant
up and running now.
I'm definitely nervous
'cause it's just a totally
unproven creek.
I mean, there's drilling
with gold with it, but...
nobody's ever had
a washplant up there. Ever.
Over a century ago,
when miners flooded
the Klondike looking for gold,
they skipped over
a vast block of ground.
Australia Creek
has never been mined...
until now.
Parker has opened
a 11-acre cut.
After stripping it
down to pay,
he's ready to bring in
Washplant Sluicifer
and find out
if there's any gold.
Well, buddy,
this is our new home.
-Sounds good, Mitch.
- Let's do 'er.
Look at that speed.
First, the team
puts the finishing touches
to the new pad
for the big move.
We got, uh,
three rock... Ooh...
three rock trucks going.
We got Mitch in the excavator
loading us up.
He got a pretty good
flow going.
To get sluicing
at Australia Creek,
Parker needs to haul his
from its current location
along seven miles
of narrow dirt road...
across a risky creek...
to be up and running
at Australia
by the end of the day.
Oh, here we go.
We have the washplant to move,
the SuperStacker, the feeder.
We really need
a solid road in here.
And the grader
is only gonna help that.
So, getting Sluicifer up here
is gonna be interesting.
Hopefully it's worth
the hassle.
Hopefully there's lots
of gold up here.
There's only one way
to find out.
Australia Creek
is very remote.
There hasn't been
anybody up here
doing what we're doing.
At the end of the day,
you know,
it's a roll of the dice
and it's a gamble.
Parker's definitely
the captain of the ship,
but, uh, if it sinks, man,
we're all going to be
going down with him.
Holy
this road.
It does sway pretty good
on these bumps.
You feel that?
On the road
to Australia Creek,
mechanic Jordan Sands
hustles $600,000 washplant,
Sluicifer, to its new home.
Australia Creek,
it's not a mined area.
If all the gold's there,
then who cares, right?
But, man, if we do all this
and it doesn't pay,
it'll be a literal
waste of time.
Go ahead, Mitch.
Yeah, 10-4, brother.
Right now
we got Jordan coming in
and he's got the shaker deck
for Sluicifer.
Now, what we're worried
about here is just the trailer
being able to get through
the creek crossing.
Once we get
on that side of it,
the road's not very good.
So we got
the dozer warming up.
We're gonna grab it.
Just in case we get hung up,
we can give him a push.
Let's do it.
Come on, go,
go, go, go.
Come on, Jordy.
Aw, she come up
real nice.
Oh, yeah,
like a dream.
We're just giving Jordan
a little push-start here.
Come on, come on.
It's looking good.
Yeah, buddy,
we're around the corner
and through the creek.
That's what we
were looking for there.
All right.
Your task is done, sir.
Before
they can fire up,
the crew must
attach the sluices
and the washplant's 53-foot,
custom-built conveyor...
Looks really good.
...then pull
the entire washplant
to the top of the pad.
This is, uh,
one small drag for Sluicifer,
but one giant step
here for Australia Creek.
Never before has there been
a washplant like this
up on Australia Creek mining.
Hopefully, we find some gold.
It's a bit like driving
a boat, pulling this thing.
And you have to
anticipate your turns and...
Well, there is no reverse
on this washplant.
Tyson's doing
a great job here.
Well, this
is the tricky part coming up.
Just a little bit off
to your left hand, Tyson.
Yeah, we're just
getting to
spin the plant around.
We want
the widest possible arc.
And we only have
so much space up here.
Think happy thoughts here.
Tyson's pretty close
to the edge there.
I'm stressed
right the out, bro.
You gotta get out of my face.
Whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa!
Whoa, hold up!
Hey!
Hey, whoa, whoa,
hold up there! Hold up!
-Spin your tracks
towards the plant now.
- Whoa! Easy, easy.
That edge is soft, buddy.
Bring yourself back this way.
That's good.
Oh, yeah.
This thing looks
pretty darn nice.
Whoo-hoo!
And, like,
you look at this cut...
-Do we have a name?
-We don't have a name yet.
We're in Australia Creek
and we've got
the boomerang-shaped cut here.
Should we call this
the boomerang cut?
I like the sound of that.
Well, hopefully
it doesn't come back
and hit us on the a*s.
Let's do 'er.
Here we go!
Sand it, man, let's go!
The first scoop of pay
into Sluicifer
at Australia Creek.
Well, she's running now,
so let the games begin.
How's it going?
You guys have been busy.
You did a great job
of getting this place
established and setting it up.
And I thank you for it.
And it was, uh, something
that really made me nervous.
-Interesting project.
-Yeah.
I hope there's
some gold in here.
Hopefully.
King of the Klondike,
Tony Beets,
is fighting through
his worst season ever.
Breakdowns
and shutdowns
have brought
the Dutchman's operation
to its knees.
To try and hit
his 6,000 ounce goal,
Tony has been
bouncing furiously
between his Indian River
operation
and Paradise Hill claim,
but only has 462 ounces
to show for it.
The biggest thorn
in Tony's side
is the Paradise Hill trommel
that's still not running.
After months of repairs
the family called in
eldest son, Kevin,
to finally get it going.
One leak
before Kevin's return...
...Tony
and youngest son, Mike,
replaced a drive ring
on the trommel.
But when
Kevin arrived
and fired it up...
Stop. Stop pressing
the button.
...he discovered
their rushed job
was a disaster.
It's not sitting right
on the rollers,
I don't think, Tony.
Your outer ring
is not lined up
with the inner trommel.
It's closer to one side
than on the other.
Not aligned essentially.
It's very frustrating
to show up,
to find out that they
up the ring.
Yeah.
It's depressing as .
So, we gotta redo it...
and fix it.
We are going to have to
pull this ring off...
a foot or so that way...
and re-fix up
all of these wedges.
The washplant's
trommel is rotated by rollers
that drive two outer rings
held in place by wedges.
But the axis of the rotation
is not straight,
so the ring wobbles,
stopping it
from moving effectively.
To fix the problem,
Kevin plans to lift
the barrel off the rollers,
remove most of the wedges
and adjust their size,
so the ring is correctly
aligned on the trommel,
then lower the barrel back
on to the rollers,
so it rotates smoothly.
Yeah. Watch out.
Gonna lift the trommel
a little bit
with a 50-ton crane,
so we got room
between the ring
and the rollers
to loosen a little bit,
so we can adjust a little bit.
We only got to lift it
a quarter inch.
That should be enough.
That should be good.
Okay, Len, a little bit up.
-A little bit up.
Unnecessarily taut. Okay Len,
down, Len, nice and down,
please.
Are we clear
on our rollers at all?
I think we're good.
We're gonna leave
four of these wedges on.
That's gonna hold it in place.
That allows us to...
reposition things.
-Shut the up, Mike.
It's a never ending
list of .
And if I don't stay focused,
I'll get dragged into every
single hiccup on-site.
'Cause then... there's a lot
of hiccups.
There we go.
Bring it down.
Get ready with Len.
And I'm gonna keep
spinning the trommel around
and he's gonna take
some more measurements.
The ring,
back on the rollers.
Len measures the gap
between it and the barrel
which should be the same
all the way around.
One spot is good,
but it's a little bit off
on the other spots.
We gotta lift it
back up again,
but it turns out
we're just half off...
half-an-inch?
The ring
is still not aligned
and must be adjusted again.
I'll push this forward
and that should
shove everything
-thataway as she drops.
- Yeah.
-Down?
- I think so. Yeah.
It should roll
slightly towards you.
- Right.
- I'm good over here.
I got about half...
half-an-inch.
-We got about an inch
on our side now, so...
- Okay.
-Pretty close.
- Yeah, that should
be fine I think. Yeah.
It doesn't gotta be perfect,
but it's gotta be close.
Ring
finally aligned,
Kevin's team can weld
the wedges back in
to keep it all in place.
Uh... well, we're...
pretty close.
We'll take it
for a spin.
Yes. Yes.
So the plant
is pretty much put together.
We have our ring
where we think we want it.
We'll see it back down
on the rollers,
turn it on and hopefully,
she spins true.
And if there's no bounce
or shakes, happy.
So fingers crossed.
All right, everybody ready?
Firing up in three, two, one.
And this is a very
critical moment.
It's a moment
of truth for Tony Beets.
Have Kevin's repairs finally
got the trommel
running smoothly?
It sounds a lot
better already.
What are you thinking?
Righto.
Over halfway
through the season,
Tony is one step closer
to getting on the gold.
You only get one chance
at a comeback.
Is Rally Valley...
a guarantee of success?
No, but nothing out here is.
All I know is it's our
best shot.
And that's what I'm going for.
In the mountains
above Keno,
Rick Ness
is in a gambling mood.
With only a couple of months
left in the season,
he's banked just
less than half
of what he needs this year.
My ma always knew
I was a risk taker.
It was... It's always been
all or nothing with me.
I like to think
she's right here with me
right now saying,
"He knows where
the gold is
and he's going for it."
I think she's right on
board with me.
After selling
his mom's old house
to fund his return,
Rick's been stuck in a rut
mining hand to mouth.
Now, he's got his eyes
on a big score.
I spent two years.
We were having
We pulled 1,400 ounces of gold
out of that hole.
I mean, it was tough
getting to it.
moving dirt.
Two years ago...
By the time we're done here,
it's gonna be
one hell of a valley.
...Rick staked
his season
on the deepest cut
he'd ever mined.
- Whoa.
- wow.
That is almost 400 ounces.
Delivering over
two million dollars in gold
-in just five weeks.
- yeah!
Oh, no!
But Rick's
Rally Valley dream...
Buddy,
the wall's caving in.
...crumbled.
This cut right here
is done for the year.
I saw what... what was here
and, you know...
But not being capable
of coming back
that next year to do it,
it's just...
It... It was tough.
I have another chance
to do this and I'm not gonna
screw it up this time,
that's for damn sure.
There's still
some rocks falling in.
There's just...
I don't think
it's gonna get any better.
It's time to put my ba*ls
on the table
and see who's with me.
What's up, guys?
Why the
are we down here?
What's your plan?
I wanna be more
than just hit our goal.
I wanna smash it.
I know that...
that to do that,
we gotta go to Rally Valley.
Why are we leaving
the bench cut?
'Cause we need
more gold.
It's pretty good
over there, man.
Definitely put
good gold in the box, right?
I think... I...
It is pretty good over there,
I know.
But...
You know, right now,
we're lookin' at
about 60 ounce a week
off the bench cut.
And...
Like, if we keep up
that pace...
if everything went right,
we'd might limp
across the finish line
at a 1,000 ounces.
We all know
everything is not
gonna go right.
I also appreciate you guys
would like to leave
with bunch of gold
in your pockets too.
I mean, the year
that we dug this hole...
we were doing
-Wow.
-So we only need
a couple of those
to get to our goal.
First we gotta deal
with all the
that fell off that wall
-over the last two seasons.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
Is it the...
It is the safe thing?
No, you're right. It's not.
It might not be the safe move.
But...
I know what's in the bottom
of this .
I mean, first job is
to deal with all this water.
We gotta get the pump in
and get this water out.
This is our future right here.
This is.
I mean, this channel is what
we're gonna make our money on.
So...
Who's with me?
, yeah.
You're the boss.
Point us in the direction.
Hell yeah, dude.
All right.
Let's get out of here.
- Cool,
let's make it happen.
-All right.
There are, like,
some obvious safety concerns
about the whole thing.
But you know what?
I'm ready to be out here
and pull out all
of the good gold
and end the season
with just a huge bang.
I know that Rick
has mined off Rally Valley.
He's had very good
success there but...
hop on to this bench cut.
Just gotta keep
the gold flowin' in here.
This is the
that's keepin' us
in the runnin' right now.
To keep gold
coming in,
Rick plans to keep
half of his crew
running pay
from the bench cut.
We have been on decent gold
in the bench cut.
But I think
everybody understands
that we need a lot more
gold
for to make this work
and they're trustin' me
that the gold is
in Rally Valley.
So everybody's on board.
They all know
who we're up against.
It ain't gonna be easy.
But we're all in for it.
Rick's
Rally Valley bonanza...
lies under 40 feet of water.
To get on the gold,
his crew need to get pumping.
A mile from the bench cut,
on the other side of the creek
at Rally Valley,
Rick will lower a two ton pump
into the 100 foot deep cut.
Pump out 9 million
gallons of water
and lower the pump
as the water level goes down.
Until he uncovers
of nugget rich pay
at the bottom.
Go for Rick.
Hey, uh, Buzz and I
got everything hooked up.
Looks good.
Got the, uh,
suction tube ready.
You ready for us back down?
buddy,
back her down here.
-I'm right in the spot.
- It's heavy
but we'll do it.
To pump out
Rally Valley...
Oh, boy.
...Rick's rented
a 125 horsepower pump
capable of shifting
of water an hour.
Oh, he's slidin'.
Turn your wheels deep.
Holy .
And done.
Got it.
Now we just need
to get our 45 on.
Get our suction hose
right now.
Find out if
this thing's full of nuggets
like Rick says it is.
You want it up
or on the side?
Ah, she's going.
That looks level
right there, eh?
Looks pretty good.
Let's fire it up.
There it goes.
It's drainin'.
Unbelievable.
We've crossed
the first hurdle.
We've got the pump in.
We've got the water drainin'.
Hopefully,
we did four days here
we're truckin'
pay out of that.
We're just much closer
to gold right now,
that's all I can say.
In less
than a week,
Rick should be back
on the best pay dirt
he's ever mined.
Oh, baby.
We got a water feature.
-Wow, yeah!
Things are going
real smooth out here
in Australia Creek today.
Gettin' the second half
of this cut ready to sluice.
Parker's crew
are sluicing pay
from his new mine site
at Australia Creek.
Sluicifer is chowing through
this material very quickly.
He sunk
a quarter million dollars
into the lease
on this unproven ground.
We spent a lot of time
a lot of money out here.
The last thing you wanna do
is turn off the wash plant
and not see any gold.
Four miles
up the valley,
a Dominion Creek...
So now the next problem is...
we needed
a year's worth of ground
and we ended up
with ten years
worth of ground.
We spent a lot of money.
But we've got in
a lot of gear
and we're way better off
just getting rid
of everything.
So it's all getting sold.
To offset the cost
of this claim at Dominion...
Parker has put the word out
that he is looking
to sell old equipment.
And he may have
his first buyer.
Howdy.
How you guys doin'?
-Good.
-Very good.
-Good to see you, Brian.
-You betcha.
-Gage.
-Gage.
-I'm Bryce.
-Bryce.
Brian McGaughan
and his sons Gage and Bryce
are a family of miners
who came to the Klondike
eight years ago...
and run a small mine site
next to Parker's old claim.
Are you winning?
Are we winning?
It's all...
That's all relative, isn't it?
-Yeah.
What do you
got goin' on?
I hear you might
have some gear for sale.
- What're
you lookin' for?
- Trucks.
We've got trucks.
-Let's go look at 'em.
- Sure.
So
the biggest problem
we're gonna have
and before we start
getting into them,
is, like...
these trucks are worth
quite a bit of money.
I'm probably in the...
because that's
what they're worth.
I just wanna
preface it with that
because I've had a bunch
of people come over here
and say,
"I need a rock truck."
And I spend an hour
showing them around
and then they're like, "Well,
I'll give you 50 grand",
and I'm like, "Get out of...
Like, don't waste my time."
-But--
-Well, for us, it depends
on the components
and if they're tight.
-I mean...
-Yeah, take 'em
for a rip.
-We don't...
-They all...
They should all be...
They should all
be runnin' and usable.
But, yeah, 20,000 hours.
It's probably one
with a new motor, I would bet.
You guys have
a quick look at 'em.
I'll be back in ten minutes.
Oh, the one thing I know
about Parker, he's, uh...
He doesn't give away
anything for free.
He's not dickin' around.
He's a really
tough negotiator.
But, then you buy
some gear from him...
and I think he could,
you know, maybe give
us some ground.
The McGaughans
aren't just
scouting rock trucks,
they're on the hunt for ground
with their eye on a piece
of Dominion Creek.
Yeah, maybe he'll
kick in a lease
if we're running his trucks
on his lease property,
maybe we get a deal.
Okay, well...
Fire this
thing up, Bryce.
Let's see if the gears shift.
They shift nice.
Brakes work great.
-That's the transbrake.
-Transmission brake works too.
We didn't jab me the ear.
See, it's not
makin' noise and...
And there's zero shakes,
everything's tight.
Did you feel that?
It's not going in reverse.
It seems to work
when you just play
with it a little bit.
, I mean...
But... Okay.
I don't know...
We're talkin' 100 grand, guys.
Yeah.
So...
It just always
comes down to that...
where we can...
meet...
on price for a couple.
Oh, I'm not, like...
There's no bulk...
Bulk discounts.
-Well, okay--
-I'm really not in a rush
to sell anything.
-So I'm just, like,
I'm not gonna take...
-No, I... I...
Well, that's
what I told the boys.
I said--
I'm not gonna
take lowball offers.
Like, I have all this
sitting
all over the place.
I'll do these two for 220.
That... That's... Yeah.
I guess we'll have
to talk about it.
And then the other thing is
we're looking at, um, ground.
You know, we're just
runnin' out of pay...
and we just want
somethin' longer term.
How's your season
goin' though?
-Come over sometime and...
- Yeah,
-I should stop in.
- ...have some beer.
So if we pick up
a couple trucks,
we're first on your list,
maybe give us some ground?
Oh, it's gonna take
a lot more than that.
I'm immune
to your sweet talk, Brian.
No, the problem for me
with leasing ground is...
I'm not opposed to running
a bigger operation.
And so, like, there's not
gonna be too much ground.
But there's a lot of leverage
in having small operations
around us because...
A lot of times for us
to go and do
a half a million
square feet somewhere
is just not really worth it.
But that's
a really good season
for a lot of people.
-We're not into having
a massive operation either.
-Right.
So it's kinda perfect for us.
And so...
when are you available
to come and check out
what we're doin' over there?
We've... We're just
in the middle
of a bunch of moves and stuff.
Once some
of that settles down,
I can come up, yeah.
I'd like to come see
what you're doing.
- Okay.
-All right, perfect.
-Thanks, Parker. Okay.
-No worries. All right.
Nice to finally meet Parker.
I've heard lots about him.
He's exactly how I expected
and very straight
to the point.
He knows what he wants
for the trucks.
It's his rules,
it's his trucks, so...
Not much bargaining going on.
Yeah, he doesn't mess around.
He's a busy guy,
so it makes sense.
Uh, he's been doing this
for a long time, so...
When you're dealin'
with a guy like Parker,
you definitely wanna
show 'em what you can do.
You wanna treat him properly.
He definitely likes
to have respect.
If we can get him on our site,
I think he could
maybe give us some ground.
Yeah, you have
long enough hose.
After three months
of repairs,
Tony's trommel
is just a day away
from running pay dirt
from his super pit.
Before his family
can start sluicing,
Tony has
to test run the trommel's
to make sure
it can supply water
to the plant.
Ah, I'm thinkin'
it'd be really nice to
get this all done.
And that there'll be
no more surprises.
Hopefully,
nothing more breaks.
Why are you not catching?
It's workin' hard right now
gettin' that water goin'.
At Paradise Hill,
Tony's trommel pump
is running.
But something's gone haywire,
creating a blockage
in the pipeline.
This is kind of
a big pain in the butt.
'Cause, like...
We can't
sluice without water
and I was told
this was all ready to go.
Nope.
It's incredibly frustrating
where somebody
just didn't think ahead.
Before Kevin
can replace
the faulty check valve,
he has to drain the water
from the system.
Ooh...
Here we go!
There we go.
Makes you wanna pee,
doesn't it?
So...
-are we free and clear?
- Take it out.
There we go.
You notice...
Gotta use a pry bar...
versus this one.
Boom.
Bong.
This is not exactly
a surprise.
This happens
almost every time
we go to try
and fire up something...
that's new.
There's a couple of things
that could've been done
to avoid this.
We would've
figured out what size
that check valve was,
how much pressure was needed,
and decide really quick,
would work,
would not work.
Or they could've tested it
when we had
the water hooked up last week.
There's a reason we left.
Okay.
To reach
Tony's wash plant,
the pump
has to push the water
nearly half a mile uphill
at 1,500 gallons a minute.
Obviously, the pressure's
on right now.
Uh, everybody's feelin' it.
You know, we're just
giving' it hell
on the bench cut,
trying to finish this off
so that we get everything
moved over Rally Valley.
At Duncan Creek,
Rick is pumping water
out of Rally Valley,
and to keep gold coming in,
running bench cut pay
through his wash plant, Rocky.
Enough dirt up there to...
To really get
a nice, big stockpile,
now that we have three
rock trucks hauling.
And once
we run out of pay,
we know we could have a lot of
dirt down here to run still.
Still getting gold.
Foreman
Buzz Legault needs
the gold more than ever
after his wife was diagnosed
with cancer
earlier in the year.
Buzz loads
Morgan and Ryan's
rock trucks with pay dirt
to haul 1,500 feet
to the wash plant.
Buzz's loading the
out of the truck.
It has been pouring down rain.
It's rutting up pretty bad.
Still trying to drive over
and keep it smashed down.
We're just sliding
all over the place.
The narrow road
is barely wide enough
and there's
a sheer drop to one side.
Am I gonna go off the cliff?
I don't know.
Put my seat belt on
and hope for the best.
We're trying to stay
away from the edge over there.
It's just like driving on ice.
With all these
deep a*s trucks
and sliding back and forth,
the road's slimy as .
I just pulled over
and try to give Ryan
as much clearance as possible.
Oh .
Oh, boy!
Oh, no. Nope, nope.
He's going sideways.
Come on!
It is definitely greasy.
Stop overloading.
Just gonna try
to get her straighter
and crawl it up here.
Hey, Buzz, we need you to
calm it down a bit
on the amount of,
amount of dirt in there.
And today
it's going to be too much.
We're so deep
into these ruts right now,
I'll end up
breaking something.
sake.
We're gonna have to
fix these roads.
I'm stuck.
Tired
of getting stuck,
Ryan hops in the 480 excavator
to try
and smooth out the road.
Well, is he stuck
or is he trying to fix
the road? I don't know.
Jeez!
He's gonna k*ll it.
sake!
Get this
thing out of here.
- What?
- Don't use
this thing.
- Yeah, I know.
I know.
I've said it
times today.
We are loading way too
heavy.
-And I told ...
-I will fix it.
Get this
thing off the road.
Well then
we got us what?
All we're doing is
tearing up!
I've said five
times today,
stop overloading
the trucks.
I love Buzz to death,
he's extremely smart
but I've said it
ten times
in the last two weeks,
he's gotta stop
doing this .
Is he stuck or is he--
What's going on?
So do you need to get up there
and give a push or no?
-Okay.
All right, all right.
Well, we can all calm down.
Let's just
get through the day.
- What's going on?
- I just .
I know. I know.
It's stupid to tear
up.
We're overloaded.
He also has a lot of
personal stuff going on
-that is coming out onto us.
-I understand. I understand.
Hey guys, shut that
plant down.
Everybody else,
meet me down by the plant.
All right, these, I mean,
I don't know what the
is going on with these guys.
Sounds like everybody's
arguing.
Just need to get 'em together
and tell everybody to
chill the out.
Hey Trey, you wanna
hit the water for him
so he can get down here?
What the hell
is going on here?
I mean, this morning,
we were a well-oiled machine,
now this afternoon,
all I hear is people chirping
at each other
like a bunch of pheasants.
What the is going on?
Literally, all we're
trying to do is just
throw some rock down.
It's so soft up there
from all the rain
and the trucks are sinking.
Freakin' just ran over there
stop him
'cause it looked like
throwing dirt hole
and you know
what that does, right?
-Yeah.
-The black top
in soft spots, it's no good.
I got a lot
riding on this.
I've dealt
with this in the past,
you know,
with crew members on my team
and there's a reason
that they're not back here.
You guys are all here because
we all want
the same thing
and I want you guys
all going home,
you know, paid and paid well.
I'm sure whatever
the this was,
we can get past it, right?
You guys stick together
and do, do things the way
we've been doing it
we're all
gonna be winners, for sure
and I want you guys
back next year.
And any little
squabbles,
well, as long as we
squash 'em quick,
and as long as
at the end of the day
we stay friends,
then we can still, we can
still work with each other.
Today is water
under the bridge.
So let's put it outside
where it belongs.
Let's push 'em
out there, lighten the loads.
Should we get back
to work for now
and beer later.
All right, get that
flag going again.
Sounds good.
We've all had bad days
and I think today
was that bad day
and we all just
took it out on each other.
Problem solved, moved on.
Water under the bridge.
Buzz has got
a lot going on right now.
You know, of course
I'm worried about him.
He's put everything
he's got into this, you know,
into this season
and to making this a success.
I think everybody
does understand
what's at stake, so...
I don't think anybody's
gonna hold it against him.
You know, all I can do
is be here to support him.
I, I just wanna make sure
that, you know, he's okay.
This is it.
While the crews
work on Dominion
and Australia Creek,
Parker and Mitch
are on a recon mission.
Oh, looks like he got to
pick a couple of rock cuts.
Couple 40s there.
After local miner,
Brian McCaughan
approached him
for ground to lease,
Parker wants to kick the tires
under Brian's operation
to make sure
he's the real deal.
How's it going, boys?
-Good. How are you?
-Good.
-How's it going?
-Good. How are you?
-I'm good.
-Nice to see you.
-I've met you
a couple of times but...
-We've, Yeah, we've met last--
-Yeah.
-Was it last year
that I was up here?
Brian's wife,
Sharon McCaughan,
manages the mine.
You talked to Parker
about the rock trucks?
Yeah, just can't take
that expense on right now.
Well, it's, it's... Yeah.
We're limping through
with our three we've got.
- Okay.
- So...
How many guys do you have?
- Um...
- Not enough
most days.
-Yeah.
Most of our good people,
it's just like,
friends of friends.
Yeah, yeah.
Us too.
Yeah, family
and friends is still the best.
I avoid family.
Well, too close. Yeah.
That's the issue
we have here.
Yeah. So you wanna--
Do you have time to
show us around a little bit?
See what's going on?
How long
have you been out here?
This is our
fifth season here.
What do you pay on
royalties here?
And
what's the purity?
-So you get half an ounce
for every ounce you find.
-It's brutal. It's brutal.
It's not an easy gig
but we manage
to make money here, so...
We're up on
that bench up there.
That was, that was
a gift of this season, man.
We pulled
Four feet of overburden,
completely thawed.
-Nice.
-Wow.
Is there
a lot more ground here?
No. We're coming to an end.
Do you think you'll
pull out this year or next?
I'm looking for something
for this spring.
Gotcha.
What about ground,
you're thinking,
you might have any side,
side creeks with smaller cuts?
Um, maybe.
But I'll let you know
if there's something that
we drill up in the spring
and if anything hits that,
that you-- That I think
might be a good fit for you,
-I can let you know.
-Sure.
All right.
We better get back to work.
- Okay.
- Okay, guys.
-Nice to see you guys.
-Have a good one.
-Yeah. See you again.
- Keep in touch
over the winter.
I'll let you know
what's going on with ground.
- Sounds good, man,
-Hope you get some, uh,
get a break.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
And I'm a paper person
so when you decide
on something,
-can you loop me in?
- Oh, you're the one
I actually need to talk to.
-Exactly!
-Okay.
Could you
loop me in on that?
Thank you.
Yeah, so it was
nice to have Parker out.
You know,
little bit of added pressure.
I know that if can, you know,
perform, reach our goals,
you know, there's
a really good chance he,
you know,
he's gonna look at using us.
It's pretty much
a simple deal.
If you perform,
people will talk to you.
If you don't perform,
nobody wants to talk to you.
So, it's up to us to do it.
You know,
I think we can handle it.
Hammer down and get 'er done.
It's been a lot more fighting
than it needed to be
but hopefully today
the trommel's gonna run
and they'll
finally be sluicing.
At Paradise Hill
the Beets family gather
for a day they weren't sure
would ever come.
After months
of fixes and a big move,
the trommel is finally
ready to run pay dirt.
Righto.
Yeah. Best of luck, folks.
Fingers crossed.
For seven weeks
Tony has been stockpiling pay
from his 18 acre super pit.
Now he can finally
get back on the gold.
Now we'll push some buttons,
fingers crossed.
Don't panic, don't panic,
don't panic. Let's go.
Mike to Tony.
No water.
There's no water
going through these!
What do they mean
there's no water?
Don't, don't,
don't do this.
- sakes.
-Don't.
Do they need
a grown up over there?
'Cause the water
comes up through here...
What's going on, Tony?
What's going on?
When Mike
tried to direct the water
into the wash plant
to start sluicing,
it cut out.
To figure out what's going on
Tony and Mike
head down to the pump.
Shall we get everything else
rolling just to see?
Righto.
I have no idea why the pump
would have stopped pumping.
In the mean run,
I still want to fire up
he conveyor and the feeder
just so we can see
they can move.
Hey, Tony.
You got a copy, Tony?
Works better when he answers.
I just
popped another belt.
The boat--
Belt is smoking.
'Cause they got no grip.
They're sliding there.
They end up creating
friction
and it melts
and burns them. Wow.
Just look. You can
literally see the heat
coming off of 'em.
Four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten.
Out of ten belts we have two.
A fault
on the pump's drive wheels
is causing
the belts to burn up
and it won't work
without them.
Yeah.
Hey, Tony. Hey, Tony?
Hey, Tony. Hey, Tony?
How's it going?
How's it going?
Does that mean
they have water?
Until you find out
what's causing it.
There's few things piss me off
as much as hurry up and wait.
Fine. Yeah.
So, what's happening?
Am I coming down
to the pump with a truck?
What's going on, folks?
Hopefully
it's just these belts.
'Cause I went to,
you know, expl*si*n.
But the way
things have been going. So...
All right.
That kinda sucks.
-I mean, we could've test run
that a while ago.
Again, we could've
test fired it.
Okay.
Yeah. I don't think
we wanna take much
more of this .
It's just so disorganized
and it's so frustrating.
Oh, it's not just
the current situation
but let's start off with that.
We're supposed to have
this up and running
but because of
he's forgotten
or didn't
put people on,
or just didn't
bother doing,
we've wasted so much time.
I think it's been
almost 10 months
since the trommel's run.
And it's very frustrating
to have Tony come in
at the last minute all...
Like he did a lot of
work to get this going.
If he would just make
a decision and stick to it,
it's way easier.
Doing it with Tony,
there's hollering,
there's screaming,
there's yelling,
there's pry bars,
there's four
people around,
plus the three
that are actually working.
It doesn't run well
when he's around, honestly.
It's like I'm running around
in a circle without my head.
It's really hard
to be motivated
when you're not getting it
back from the boss.
I think Tony, this year,
well, how to phrase this?
He's more tired this year.
He said so himself.
He has to
do more things himself.
He has to do
a lot more of the planning
and the scheming
and the thinking.
'Cause I don't think
he quite realized
how much of that
me and Faith took on.
We kept
the thing going.
This year, we're not here.
is not being tracked.
is missing.
It's cluster .
But he's pushing
Like, there is a point where
you gotta take a step back
'cause you cannot
do it anymore.
This is a multi-million
dollar operation.
We should act like it.
The future
of the family business
I think is, eh,
not looking great
if he doesn't
let us take over.
Because as it stands,
he's kinda running it
into the ground.
Well, this pump's
certainly doing its job.
We're all the way
down the suction cage.
Rick's been
pumping water from
Rally Valley
for almost a week,
but still needs to remove more
before he reaches
the gold pay gravels.
And who knows
what we're gonna find
at the bottom of this?
It's been... Basically,
it's been a huge pool of water
for two years, so...
Yeah, I don't know.
Maybe there's a car
down there.
Maybe there's a live
woolly mammoth. Who knows?
Hopefully, there's a bunch
of gold.
Not just a bunch of trash.
Overnight, it looks like
we got rid of a good 12 feet
of water.
Every time we do that
we've gotta lower the level
of the pump,
which means we've gotta move
a, you know,
pretty substantial
amount of dirt.
It all takes time, you know?
Time's just a ticking.
And the quicker
we get it done,
the quicker we get moving
to Rally Valley.
Now, I'm right up against
this high wall, right where
I don't wanna be.
You know, I do have
a ditch dug up there
with a little barrier wall
that should keep the rocks
from coming any farther,
but it's still... it's, uh...
it's still not a great place
to be.
Moving the pump
is a three-man job,
so Buzz and Ryan jump in
to help.
I'm just moving the pump
out of the way right now
so we can dig this out.
We've only got so much
suction line.
So we need to get the pump
back down to the water level.
Whoa!
Now, we just set it up
and we can get pumping again.
Where we're digging right now
is about... What?
Uh, the water level
was up here
and, now, it's...
we're about 16 feet.
We still got a good, uh...
We got maybe 12-15 feet
of water to get out of here.
I'm getting into
some gnarly here
that is full of boulders
and extremely hard.
That's generally the
we're looking for.
Rick's
already found
round river rocks
and could have hit pay
way earlier
than he was expecting.
It's a good sign.
It's a really good sign.
I'm thinking
we're probably getting close
to that pay layer.
So, I don' t know,
you wanna just...
Maybe we just do a couple
of pans on it
and see maybe, instead of
dumping it off the edge,
we just start stockpiling it,
if there's gold in it.
You can fill a couple
of these, I'll fill
this bucket with water.
All right. Sounds good.
And I'm seeing
a color change, too,
so I'm wondering
if we're kinda getting into
the pay layer.
This all I get?
- A lot of heavy
in there.
- Yeah.
That's gold
right there.
I got one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven,
probably ten, twelve colors
in here.
And I did a pretty sloppy job,
if I'm being honest.
Might have lost some.
I mean, at this point,
we're hauling it
out of the hole anyway,
might as well
start running it.
We'll definitely get some gold
out of it.
That was a really good pan.
- No reason
not to stockpile it.
-Exactly.
If we can't get it
all the way in this year,
it'll be waiting next.
-Oh, we're gonna get it in.
I know it's just a gold pan,
but that's, you know,
the first gold we're gonna see
out of Rally Valley
this year, so...
I'm excited about it.
And we gotta get some trucks
down there and start
stockpiling this pay.
Despite
hitting pay dirt,
Rick's still swinging
for the fences.
We are gonna get to
the bottom,
I don't care what happens.
'Cause I gotta know
what's down there.
You know, I've been told
that there's three, four,
five-ounce nuggets.
And man, I want that.
That's gonna be
one hell of a way
to end the season.
There we go.
Over
at Australia Creek,
Paker's crew have been running
for three days,
and everyone's eager
to find out
if the virgin ground will pay.
We're not gonna know
what's in this ground
until we get it through
a wash plant.
So, you know,
there's some potential
for going bust.
You wanna shut 'em down?
Hey, Sandy, that'll be
your last bucket there.
We're
setting up for the first
cleanup of the season
on Australia Creek.
First cleanups, typically,
are not very good.
It's ditch dirt,
gravel and stuff, so...
not a lot of high hopes
from either Parker or Mitch
or Tyson,
but we'll get this thing
broken down,
get it cleaned up
down the gold room,
and see what we have.
Chris,
do you wanna come see?
What?
Are you serious?
Holy cow!
We're over here.
At Australia Creek,
Chris Doumitt calls in Parker
for a look
at the virgin ground's
first gold.
- Hey, Chris.
- Hey, Parker.
Coarse gold.
Yeah, real coarse.
I like that.
You see that up there
in the corner?
Just a big puddle of gold
on the edge there.
That's really cool.
Seeing this
right off the bat,
I bet we might find
some really nice ones.
Oh, yeah.
As we get down deep.
- Thank
there's not nothing.
- Oh, yeah.
-I think this run
was mostly ditches, wasn't it?
-Yeah.
Ditch and gravel.
If that's a sign
of what's to come,
then we're in the right spot.
I almost pulled out
of this place
when we bought Dominion.
Okay, I gotta get
that corner, Parker.
I'm gonna
get out of your way.
Do you need help
with anything?
- No, I got it.
- All right.
I'm gonna go show Mitch.
I think this first cleanup
at Australia Creek has been
a huge surprise for everyone.
Parker reminded me
of a kid in a candy store
with free reign.
He was picking up
little nuggets everywhere
like candy off the shelf.
So I know he's happy.
We'll get it down
to the gold room
and here, in a few hours,
we'll know what we got.
But this was a shock.
It really was.
Mitch!
-Those are the ones
I could get my hands on.
-Holy smokes!
Right?
Dude, that's crazy.
We've never seen anything
like that.
That's, like, two
or three ounces right there.
- Dude, that's wild.
- Yeah.
There was at least double that
and I just, like, oh,
and missed it.
- Wow.
-Yeah.
- Was that
in the main, then?
-In the main.
And Freya said
that the sides looked good.
- Well,
cool, man.
-Yeah.
I just wanted to tell you
because I know
we're all, like...
- Yeah.
-"What are we doing here?"
- 100%.
-So, this is what
we're doing here.
- That's sweet.
-Yeah, that's sick.
Yeah. Cool, man.
What a great feeling.
So awesome to see.
You know, we've mined
a lot of ground
and we've never seen anything
like that.
So, things are looking good
up here at Australia Creek.
-Holy
- Right?
- Dude!
- No .
- Seriously?
- Yeah.
And you guys are running,
like, the junk, aren't you?
Yeah.
So we're moving up here?
We just bought...
We just bought ten years
worth of ground.
-No, we're not moving
up here.
If that stuff
keeps coming in, man...
No, I'm, like,
so relieved.
- Those are huge.
-Yeah.
'Cause I thought
we were doing all this
for nothing.
- That's so cool.
-Thanks for taking care
of things down here.
No worries. Have fun, man.
Australia Creek.
Wouldn't have thought
it would be anything
like that.
And I think we were all
starting to question it,
just because we have
so much going on.
And the gold's coming in good
at Dominion.
And so, it's, like,
well, we don't need
the headache.
But, you know,
if it's gonna pay good,
and this is a good sign
that it's going to,
then it's worth being up here.
We won't know until Chris
gets the cleanup done.
That being said,
this first run,
anywhere near an ounce
an hour, and I'd be stoked.
You guys
almost done packing or what?
- Just lie
to me, Kevin.
At Paradise Hill,
Tony's trommel
is at a standstill,
despite Kevin's attempts
to get it up and running.
Frustrated with his father,
Kevin's decided to leave.
- How do you guys
feel? Excited to go home?
-Very.
-Over everything?
-Very over things.
It just...
Kind of a piss off, eh?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Feeling like
you're not listened to.
- See.
-Like what you have to say
doesn't matter.
Yup.
And it's really hard to get
a word in edgewise
when the only response is,
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, anyways."
Makes it really hard
to even try.
It is frustrating.
Mmm-hmm.
Seems like there's been
a lot of half measures
this year.
The more I look around,
it's like things are getting
half done.
It's been
very frantic.
At least if we were here,
then someone could have been
very aggressively,
"No, we can't.
We need that here!
Don't send that yet!
We still need it over here."
Well, you gotta plan
for the...
He doesn't listen
to anybody, Kevin.
I know. This is why
we do it and we just don't
tell him most of the time.
I mean, the amount of
we get fixed when he's not
paying attention.
- Hmm.
-And now, there's...
Like, nobody with
the knowledge base.
I could go on.
Love you. Let me know
what's going on.
We'll text you.
- Yo.
- Yeah.
Are you packing?
Packing it up, yeah.
Honestly, I think,
as it stands,
we're probably not gonna be
coming back this year or next.
It's just...
too much fighting against...
we're too much spinning
our tracks.
See, see...
See.
Unfortunately, the problem is,
I honestly don't think
I can trust that you'll keep
your hands out of it.
'Cause you wanna
get away from us, right?
I don't mind
working here.
It's just, you guys make it
more work than it needs to be.
Eh, give it another thought,
will ya?
He says he's gonna stay away,
so you have to keep
that promise, because...
We enjoy working here.
You can't meddle in
what they're doing.
I need a hug.
I don't do handshakes
with you guys.
It's good seeing you.
You guys need to
write to us.
Yeah? Don't you?
You guys need to write to us.
We're working on it.
We'll see you guys later?
Me and Faith are gonna think
a little bit more
about the idea of Scribner
but I severely don't think
that's happening.
I've been doing this
since I was 12, 13 years old.
I've got a pretty good
handle on the whole operation,
'cause, like, ...
Just tried to have
a normal conversation
and he seems to be...
very combative.
Unnecessarily so, so...
'Cause we all know
he's not gonna keep
his fingers out of the pie.
Why would I wanna come back
to a place like that?
Depressing.
We're not leaving very happy.
Like, we came all the way up,
the whole purpose of the trip,
still not even
running.
Yeah. Not very cheerful.
At the McCaughans'
Eureka Creek claim,
their biggest discovery
wasn't gold.
I was on night shift
and I heard
on the radio, Travis,
he was going, "I found
a corpse! I found a corpse!
I found a body!"
So I ran over there,
and Travis was like,
"I'm not sure what this is."
Then I saw the trunk
and I was like, "Oh, yeah,
that's a mammoth."
And then we just hauled it
up here, put it in a bucket
with a bunch of ice.
Yeah, it was an exciting day,
that's for sure.
I've heard stories of people
in Alaska
finding them and selling them
for quite a bit.
-Yeah...
- It's okay,
you can tell 'em.
I got offered two million
after I gave it
to the government.
It's blessed our site.
We've had really good years
and karma,
blessings, whatever
you wanna call it.
It's really good.
Luck of the Irish.
So I'm stoked to finally
be moving towards
Rally Valley
and actually getting in there.
Rick has run
the bench cut all week,
and now it's time to see
if it's paying out enough
to fund
his Rally Valley comeback.
Up for driving up the hill
to the bench. I like going up.
High and dry
Gold's good.
None of us have
actually seen what's come
out of Rally Valley.
We've definitely seen
what's coming off
the bench, though.
-What's up, dudes?
- Yo.
- Look at it.
-Yeah... Oh!
- That sounded heavy.
- Sounded like
it landed rough.
Oh, yeah. What feels
even better is making
the moves
to get into Rally Valley.
How do you guys
actually feel about that?
Think about the money
that we're spending
trying to get that water out.
Yeah, that's true.
There is a lot of
water in there.
It is taking a while
to deal with it
because that's where
the best gold is.
Didn't do a business
just to squeak by. I mean,
let's hit it.
Exactly. Disputes aside,
little team meetings aside,
we did have a good run
this week, so let's weigh up
this jar of gold
from the bench cut.
All right. Bench cut gold,
one of the last ones
here. Ready?
Last week,
the bench cut delivered
Whoa! Ten, twelve,
fifteen, twenty,
-Yeah.
-58, 59, 60, 62, 63...
- yeah.
- Nice.
Worth
over $130,000,
taking Rick's season total
to 385 ounces.
- yeah.
-That's the best one
this year.
-The hits keep coming.
-We're leaving it.
We'll go somewhere else.
- you,
bench cut!
- damn it!
No, I mean,
that's a hell of a gold weigh
for the week, you guys.
-That's amazing.
-That looks nice.
It looks nice, right?
Now, the numbers are growing
and, like, now the numbers
are starting to match
our work.
You know what I mean?
And I knew that was coming.
- That's a pile of gold.
- It is.
That's the
payoff, right?
Like, it's all coming together
right now.
Even if it's a bad day,
if we still put gold
in the box,
or we do something
that gets us closer to having
gold in the box,
-it's still a good day.
- Oh, yeah.
And now that we're going
into Rally Valley,
that's the profit.
That puts us all
going home with gold
in our pockets, so...
You guys are the best.
Thanks for all
the work.
Let's finish strong.
- Give me your hand.
After a week
sluicing Dominion,
and an early cleanup
from Australia Creek...
- Hey, youngster.
-Hi.
...Parker's
about to find out
if his gamble to expand
his empire will pay off.
Good job, guys.
Yeah, it was impressive
how fast it moved from Ken's
up to Australia
and got put together.
What happened
with Big Red this week?
Red and the Money Pit,
it's chugging right along.
-Do you wanna see how it did?
- Let's check it out.
So far,
the Money Pit is averaging
Okay, which one's that?
That's this one.
Money Pit, here we go.
Big Red!
How'd she do this week?
Is that all you got in there?
There's 100.
- But we have
this little beast, too.
- Yeah.
I was gonna say.
- But there's another
three hundy on the dot.
-So now you got 462.35
off of Big Red.
Worth nearly
a million dollars.
-That's more like it.
-I mean, that plant just did
almost 1,000 ounces
-in two weeks.
- Yeah.
I figure, at this rate, we can
come close to keeping up
what you're spending.
-Wow. I don't think
there's ever a hope of that.
Okay.
Show us the nuggets!
From Sluicifer's
three-day run
at Australia Creek,
Parker wants over 70 ounces.
No matter what gold
is in there,
I wanna say it now
in case it's a dud,
the transition,
you guys nailed.
You ready?
Here we go.
First cleanup
at Australia Creek.
Look at the chunks!
- But...
- Ooh!
...we have an extra...
- That's pretty cool.
- 6.8.
For the first
Australia cleanup, it's 122.9.
Delivering
a combined 1.1 million
this week,
and bringing Parker's
season total to 3,407 ounces.
-Sweet.
- It's some of
the biggest nuggets
-we've ever found.
- Look at that thing.
- Right?
- Wow.
So what's the biggest one
weigh, Doumitt? Do you know?
-Half an ounce.
- Half ounce?
This one?
That's crazy.
- There's definitely
some gold up there.
- Dude, that's wild.
-You all good, Doumitt?
- All good.
Well done, young man.
Well done. You too, Mitch.
- Thanks, guys.
- Later, man.
This first Australia Creek
gold weigh, I'm just really
relieved that...
it's not a total bust.
The nuggets are cool.
We'll see what happens.
But, a big weight
off my shoulders
that we're not gonna get
skunked for sure.
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14x15 - Succession
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Reality based series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Reality based series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska.