14x21 - Rally Valley or Bust

[bunniefuu]

King of the klondike,

Tony beets is
running out of time.

With just weeks
left in the season,

he's still over 800 ounces off

his new 2,500-ounce target.

Last week, Tony
fired up his dredge

for the first time in
five years in his quest

to bank every possible ounce.

In charge his dredge
master, Greg Mason.

There's not a lot of dredge
masters around anymore,

and this is probably the
only bucket line dredge

in North America.

I'm sure a lot of people

never thought this
thing would run again,

but Tony is a force
to be reckoned with.

Now, in its first full
week of running,

Tony's hoping the dredge
can bring in 60 ounces.

Everything seems to
be working as it should.

I think we've got
all the kinks out of it.

Working with Greg, is
longtime beets' minor,

len hoekstra.

They're doing pretty
good if I see the bucket.

They're pretty cool.

Absolutely.

What more could you ask for?

Every time a bucket
goes by, it's a nickel.

Just consider it that way.

It's steady at an ounce an hour,

and it's very cost-effective

because you've only
got two guys running it.

You don't have rock trucks.

You don't have
excavators using fuel.

I can see all
flakes of gold in it.

It's going well,
but that's dredging.

If it goes well,
it's kind of boring.

You keep on going,
keep an eye on it.

It's really a nice system,

but you have to pay attention.

What the.

She's come off on the port side.

Tony beets, Tony
beets, do you copy?

Tony beets, Tony
beets, do you copy?

Um.

I'm gonna need some help here.

I was trying to
catch the corner.

I was deep and I couldn't
see the bucket line.

And so, it just falls off.

The dredge's 34-ton bucket line,

got caught on a Boulder,
wedged in the ground,

tearing it from the ladder.

No bucket line, no gold.

Yeah.

Tony's plan, lift
the bucket line

back into place
using a 349 excavator.

Spin the buckets toward you?

You want bucket line up?

Yeah, a little bit. And
now, you can swing it in.

Little bit more.

We're close.

Okay.

Back in the day we
used to pop these on.

I don't know what the.

Yes, let's do it, okay?

Psst. That's it, man.

It's over. For today.

Every hour the dredge is down,

Tony's 2,500-ounce
goal slips further away.

The boss man's pissed off.

That's all I know.

You can definitely feel
cold in the air today.

See the seasons
getting close to an end.

That ain't good for us.

But we got a lot
of gold to get yet

before we hit 1,000 ounce gold.

At Duncan creek,
Rick ness is battling

to keep his mining career alive.

I had to make
a lot of sacrifices

to be able to come
up here this year.

A very difficult decision
I had to make was

I had to get rid of
my mother's house

that I inherited
after she passed.

I gotta make that
mean something.

This is a one-and-done shot.

The bench has
given us good gold,

but the gold that we
need to hit our goal

is definitely in the
bottom of rally valley.

Rick's crew is running
pay from the bench cut

through his smallest
wash plant, rocky.

And after six weeks,

he's finally pumped the
water out of rally valley,

and is down to
the cut's best gold.

With only weeks
left in the season,

Rick still needs over


Fall season's been
leading up to this,

a big ending
here in rally valley.

We're gonna crank it up to 11

and shut down rocky
and fire up monster red.

And then, it's everybody
over to rally valley

for the rest of the season.

Hey, Bailey, you got a copy?

Yeah, go ahead, man.

I started to pull a plug, man.

Putting the last bucket
of pay through the rocky

and, we're gonna shut
it down. Clean it up.

Sounds good to me, man.



Rocky's been a great
plant, but we can only run

about a 100 yards
an hour through that.

And, with monster red,
we can run well over 300.

This is the last bucket
going into rocky right now.

I'd say we're just about
ready to fire monster red up.

There's a few things
that gotta be done yet.

We've gotta get a pump moved,

'cause that's the
only pump we have

is to run monster red.

The three of you guys
can just go over to rocky,

unhook that pump,
get it down here,

we'll hook it up to
the existing water line,

and then just drag that
suction line down here.

But I'll just keep
hauling for now

and then when we're all ready,

we'll just jam it on. Okay.



This is the final push.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited
to fire up monster red.

Thanks a lot, buddy.

Yeah, you bet.

I'll go grab the suction line.

Perfect.

Like it.

Right now, I'm installing
the discharge line.

It's gonna go feed, monster red.

This thing looks huge.

We had this same flange on here?

You sure?

Got ten and eight.

What we're missing is
an adapter right here.

The discharge line

is two inches too big
to fit onto the pump.

Without an adapter,

there's no way to run
water to monster red.

What we're missing is
an adapter right here.

Rick, you got a copy?

Yeah, go for Rick.

You got a spare
minute, run down here?

Got a question that I'm
hoping you can answer.

Yeah, I'll be right
there. Hold on.

Appreciate it.

At Duncan creek,

the ness crew
have hit a roadblock.

They're missing
a critical adapter

needed to connect the pump
to monster red's waterline.

What's going on?

Assuming you guys
used to have an adapter.

Me.

Yup. Yeah, we do. Yup.

It's being used, down
in rally valley right now.

. That's an oversight,

and I didn't even
think about that.

And I can't have that
pump go out of service now..

Rally valley will flood,
we're not done there.

Without an adapter,

Rick can't connect
the pump to the plant.

You got anything anywhere else?

We don't have
any other adapters.

That's why I robbed
that off of this one.

So, you're getting
build something, I guess.

Okay.

I bet you can scrummage
up everything we need.

We'll figure out somethin'.

You're just gonna
have to build it in a hurry.

Well, everybody's kinda
down a bit here right now

and the cash cut's
been a bit of an instant up

and instant down.

It's just not looking good, man.

We need some
kind of a hail Mary.


creek, hotspot miner,

Brian mccaughan is out of luck.

Last week, Brian opened
his only thawed ground,

the cash cut, but it's
unexpectedly run dry,

and is almost tapped out.

Pay streak, we lost it.

Maybe it's further up.

We don't know,
but it's down to, like,

not even worth washing.

With winter closing in,

the mccaughans' still need
nearly 200 ounces of gold

to hit their target.

That's really look like
we're not gonna make

our 1,500 ounce gold this year.

That's our minimum.

That's what we need.

That added pressure
with Parker wanting

to see us performing.

If we don't get some pay
in, we're gonna be screwed.

Twenty-four-year-old son, Bryce,

trucks in the last
of the cash cut pay.

We're just hauling
the last pay in here,

but we don't really
have another cut to do.

Literally scraping the
bottom of the barrel.

Brian wants to
return to the deep cut,

where he had success
earlier in the season.

But there's a problem.

It's locked in permafrost

beneath 50 feet of overburden.

It really hurts when
you can stare at your pay

and you can't get it
'cause it's frozen solid.

It's like a block of concrete.

So, I have to come
up with a plan,

and the plan is on this trailer.

What do we have here?

What do you think?

What in wtf is this thing?

Well, it's a drum cutter.

They use 'em for ripping rock.

You gonna go through
this frost like nothing.

I'm thinking we can
tunnel under the sides,

somewhere around 20 feet.

What do you think?

I've never seen
anything like this.

By any chance that you've ever
seen this done in the permafrost?

I've never seen nothing
done like this ever.

So, what's this worth?

$150,000.

What?

So, we're gonna need, 75 ounces

to pay this thing off.

I'm anxious as
hell to give it a spin.

I can't think of any
reason it won't work.

The 4000-pound drum cutter

links to an excavator arm

and hooks up to its hydraulics.

Armed with 100
tungsten carbide teeth

attached to a spinning drum,

it can cut through
rock and concrete.

Brian plans to use it

to churn through the
frozen gold-rich pay layer

trapped in the wall of the cut.

He'll then be able to
run the ground up pay

through the trommel.

But Brian hasn't told
everyone about his new toy.

A what machine?

Drum cutter.

A drum cutter?

Okay. Where's the
money coming from, Brian?

- You keep on buying equipment.
- Well...

And you're not
selling equipment.

Now, we have

- this boring machine.
- It's a cutting machine.

You're just taking on more debt

at the end of the season.

And you did this
behind our back.

He gets it. He
knows that we need it.

If we don't do it, we're
shut down by the cold.

This keeps you operating.

Who else has
something like this?

No one's ever
done it in the Yukon.

No one's done it in the Yukon.

So, this is 100% risk.

We have to get it
out while we can.

- It's not funded...
- I get that, Gage, but...

It's an investment.

We are gonna get all of the gold

that's there that
we know is there.

- This year...
- This is what we need.

- You can discuss it with Gage.
- This year,

- we were supposed to be focusing...
- I'm not here to fight

- with you.
- On what, Brian?

My.

This is not over.

We're running with this.

I'm gonna have that thing
hooked up to the machine,

freaking grinding
rock in no time.

Freaking let's go.

For the price, it
looks way smaller

than expected.

There we go.

Okay.

So bring her down.
We'll hook her up.

Fired it up.

It spins.

This thing works unbelievable.

Okay. I'm off to the cut.

Man, I'm so stoked.

This is like your first
day of school right now.

I'm just looking at
that this frozen wall

and I'm coming hard.

I'm gonna tear this up.

Here we go.

Yeah, baby.

She's going.

I'm going dead straight
into solid frozen ground.

This thing is awesome. I'm like.

I'm trying to hold
back my giddiness.

It's really mulched
up to a nice-size.

I believe we'll
be able to run this

right through the plant, frozen,

right now, right through.

Get the rock trucks down
here and start hauling.

I'm gonna run up there and watch

the first few loads go through.

I'm watching for anything

that's not rock, basically.

Any piece of Clay
that might still be

frozen together.

Everything's coming
through a thawed

and clean, like spotless.

Yeah. There's no
big chunks in it at all.

It's beautiful.

So, it's 100% success.

Holy. I'm getting down there.

I'm just hammering
out as much as I can,

'cause this is incredible.

I've never been able to
stay late in the season

like we're gonna be
able to do this year.

Like, this is complete
game changer for us.

Yup.

Fifteen hundred, here we come.

At Tony beets
Indian river claim,

the dredge is dead in the water,

leaving him with
just Mike's trommel

on paradise hill,
and sir sluice-a-lot

at the Indian river,
bringing in the gold.

Two days ago,

Tony's attempt to
put the bucket line

back on, failed.

Holy. Look at that anchor chain.

Yeah.

Now...

- Good thing you have that.
- Yeah.

He's bringing in reinforcements.

Tony's plan,

wrap a winch cable
attached to an anchor chain

around the bucket line

and use a d6 dozer to
pick up the bucket line slack.

A chain attached
to a 349 excavator

will then lift the


while Greg repositions
the bucket ladder

from the wheelhouse.

Once everything is lined up,

the excavator will
drop the bucket line

back into place.

It's a game of inches.

Tony needs to
carefully coordinate

the three machines.

Mechanic Brandon
carr is in the d6

while operator Evan Kale
works the 349 excavator.

Ladder down, slowly.

Pulling port winch.

I'm maxed out.

Nice job.

Okay.

Shall we fire this puppy up?

Drumroll.

There it is.

How about bucket line?

I think we're dredging, Greg.

Here we are.

Making gold.

You got that right.

You're a living proof.

You need to come
aboard, take a ride.

A lot of miners have
already gone home

for the season.

They don't bother
with the fight.

Sometimes, you
need that little extra.

At Eureka creek,

Brian mccaughan's
$150,000 gamble is paying off.

Seeing these trucks
come down here

at this time of the season,

watching the pay
go through the plan,

I mean, it's just a feeling
that I've never had before

in my life with such
simple success.

I mean, we're easy staying
for another two weeks.

Brian's new drum cutter

is tearing through
a frozen wall of dirt.

Delivering gold-rich
pay to his trummel.

We're hauling pay
from the drum cutter.

We can really
snipe our rich spots.

So if anything that we send up

is actually really, really good.

We actually prefer
snow at this time of year.

The rain just turns
everything into slop.

Time is not on our side at all.

The rain's coming
down and it's thawing out

any of the frozen material
above where we're grinding.

So it's starting to
drip and slip down

and I have to hit a
certain efficiency with this.

If we dilute our
product too much,

we are basically losing money.

We're washing
material for nothing.

Holy.

The rain is causing
worthless black muck

from above to slide
down the wall of the cut,

diluting the pay.

I gotta call for something

to hold mother
nature back for a bit.

But we're not beat
it, that's for sure,

but we like to tease her.

I gotta make a... Mud protector,

I guess I'd call it.

It kinda be like an
interest to mine shaft

where, you know, we'll
set it against the wall

and we just work right there.

And then if anything,
trickles down

and it won't fall in.

Well, I have a big hook,
I mean, and we just grab

with an excavator, and
move it along the wall.

It needs to be
done quick and dirty

because we need it right away.

She's bolt in.

It's gonna be heavy.

But we're gonna drag
this thing down to the cut.

Place her by the
wall, stand her up,

and start drilling.

Okay, just-just keep an eye
on it, make sure this thing

I don't wanna take a tire out.

Yeah.

Here we go.

Yeah, it's good
there, good there.

Got her stood up?

And start freakin' hammering.

There we go.

A little poke here.

Yeah, buddy.

Looking good, looking good.

There she is.

I'd say this is a
home run for us.

I'm so happy, I'm
just ready to go.

Mud protector in place.

Baby.

Brian can fire up
the drum cutter

and get back on the gold.

Boy, look at that.

What the hell is that about?

My.

Are you me?

My.

Are you me?

At Eureka creek,

Brian mccaughan's
brand new drum cutter

has sprung a leak.

It's full power, there's
nothing spinning.

Holy.

It's his only way of getting pay

this late in the season.

Copy, Wayne.

Wayne here.

Hey, Wayne,

you might wanna come down
and have a look at this thing.

All right. I'm on
my way down there.

Okay.

I'm just kind of in shock.

God.

Stand back and
I'll spin it for you.

That's weird.

But definitely it looks like

it's got an internal
failure of some sort.

Yeah, this is weird.

The only thing that
they've got in there manual

was just on how to take
your rotator head's off.

And I definitely know

I do not have the tools
to work on this unit.

I'm just sick to the
stomach right now.

We're done.

Not how we'd like to
end the season, but...

Really?

Yeah.

I'm kinda busy right now.

We're gonna finish
up what we have.

We can get everything washed up

and see where we're at.

At this time of year,

and so now that
wash plant running

is a... is a pretty
spooky thing.

It's not a good feeling.

Rick ness is at a standstill.

After shutting down
wash plant rocky

and moving to rally valley,

he's discovered he's missing
a critical piece of equipment

to fire up monster red

and start bringing in the gold.

You have a few hundred
ounces to get there



Holy.

What's going on?

We need to talk.

I'm getting really concerned.

When I see all this
money being spent

and I don't see gold coming in,

we're running out of time.

At the start of the season...

You're about a year behind
on your payments, so...

Yeah.

Rick made a frantic deal

with landlord, Troy
Taylor, to keep mining.

Is there anything
we could work out

regarding your camp?

I would be willing to sign
that camp over to you guys.

Three months ago, Rick
delivered Troy 50 ounces.

After last year, I'm
always a little bit on edge.

Yeah. Don't worry. I'll
keep the gold coming in.

But since then, hasn't
made another payment.

And still owes him
$400,000 this season.

I know we're
running out of time,

but we're not out of time.

The gold's coming.

And I'll have everything
I need to pay you off.

If it doesn't happen,

we know the consequences, right?

You're gonna lose the
ground, thing's gonna be over.

Well, I'm tired of stories,
I'm tired of excuses.

This is your last chance.

Okay. I'll have it for you
at the end of the season.

Deal's a deal.

Well, I do still owed
Troy a lot of money.

The only way we're gonna
end this season strong

is if we can get monster
red up and running

and get it up and running soon.

Time's ticking.

He says get the go.

I'll figure something
out, I guess.

Actually, probably work.

What I'm looking for
now is a piece of 8-inch

and a piece of 10-inch
pipe that I can weld together.

So we'll need to
make our own adapt or.

In the yard,
mechanic, Ryan Kent,

is scrambling to
come up with a bush fix

to get monster red running.

The 10-inch discharge line

is too big for the 8-inch pump.

Without an adapt or,
monster red is useless.

We'll plasma cut
out this outer ring.

That ring will slide
right over the end of this,

we'll put a bead around it.

That ring should
butt up to this,

we'll put it on, we'll
run a bead around it.

One thing I've learned
from being out here,

it doesn't matter what
it takes, just get it done.

Fam, we've got a adapt or.

All righty, then.

- Yeah, you know...
- Big moment. -Big moment.

It's all on you, Ryan.

Ready?

Once we let off this sling,

there's gonna be a
lot of weight right here.

Big moment.

Do the Wells hold?

Beautiful.

Now we'll see if you built
us a reducer or a sprinkler.

- Driving.
- Yo, she's sucking.

She's sucking.

I can live with a
couple small drips.

What a.

All right. It's rolling.

I hear it.

- Look at that.
- Holy, man.

Beautiful?

It's amazing.

That's a big machine right here.

- Yo.
- What's up, big cheese?

You guys did a great
job getting ready for this.

When we turn this
plant on and, like,

basically we're
gonna one-run at this,

and when we shut it off,
we're gonna have it or not.

It's a pretty pivotal
moment of the season, so.

And I don't wanna keep talking.

I just wanna turn this thing on.

, yeah.

- Let's do it, man.
- Yeah.

It's running.

After two years,
Rick is finally back,

sluicing rally valleys,
nugget-rich pay dirt.

A lot of people will
think I'll be backing off.

I doubted myself that
I'd never come here.

I didn't know.

- It all...
- It was a long shot.

But after it have
been put into work,

I put together a hell of a team,

and were right on
edge of it right now.

All we gotta do
is finish this strong

or you get it.

- We're that close.
- We're that close.

Last one of the season.

At Eureka creek,

the mccaughans
have run out of pay.

We're shutting down the mine.

Wouldn't it be nice to
get more of the drum cut.

Anytime it shut down because
of a breakdown, it sucks.

I just wanna know
if paid for itself.

We'll get it washed up and
we'll figure what's in here.

Investing all of this money

at the end of the season.

Well, I'm a little worried.

We're in too deep
now so let's just

I'm just praying now it
all works out in the end

and we can finish
off in a positive note.

- Hey, Bryce.
- Hello.

At Eureka creek,

it's the final gold
way of the season

for the mccaughans.

Okay. Let's start out
with cash cut, here up.

Here we go. Bryce,
you wanna count?

They still need 182.9 ounces

to hit their 1,500
ounce season target.

First to hit the scale,

the final gold
from the cash cut.

- It hit 90, 100, 120, - 122.1.
- Wow.

Yeah, buddy.

Okay. Our, season
total adding your cash cut

is 1439.10.

Way to go, boys.

It's looking pretty good to me.

Next, the moment of truth.

Did Brian's $150,000 drum cutter

bring in the 60 ounces
from the deep cut they need

to hit their goal?

You hear it?

Let's see what
she weighs out at.

- Gage, you're calling it?
- Sure.

There's 5





And 60 ounces













So the grand total is



Woah.

- You guys made it.
- Yeah.

And we're done.

The mccaughans season gold haul

is worth over $3 million,

and Brian's drum cutter gamble

has already paid for itself.

You pulled a horseshoe
out of your a*s again.

I'm pretty damn happy we
busted our asses this year.

Congratulations, guys,

that was a freakin'
well fought season.

All in all, it's a
fantastic you.

We're gonna find new
ground for next year.

We just got to choose
the right piece of property

with the right owner.

Maybe it's Parker.

We're hopeful. We're happy.

We're ready to go.

Hi, guys.

Hello.

- Hello there.
- Hi, guys.

For the second week in a row,

the beets have three
wash plants running.

Blame the operator.
Operator error.

Yes, you can.

Yeah.

If he runs it off again

and then it's
easy to put it back.

Yes.

To hit their 2,500 ounce gold,

the beets still need
more than 830 ounces.

Trommel, ready?

First up, Mike's
paradise hill trommel.







That's a week.

It's better than
it was last week.

We're doing about just


Still less

than what the
trommel usually pulls in,

but puts $330,000 in the bank.

What about sluice a lot?

A little lighter than
it was last week.

Ready?






Another $330,000.

Ready for dredge?

Okay. Let's do it.





Yeah.

No.

The old girl still produces.

The dredge delivers
nearly $100,000

in just four days.

Bringing their season
total to 2,043 ounces.

Hey.

- Hey there, yeah.
- It's getting crowded in here.

So far this season,

Rick's mined 639 ounces
of his 1,000 ounce gold.

Tough week, not a
whole lot of sluice time.

Had a few days shut down,

but we're finally in the
rally valley so I'm happy.

Well, the bench helped
us, but the big numbers

are coming now, you know.

Let's see what we
got here. Ready?

First up, two days of
running at the bench cut.







Worth over $37,000.

A little below
average for the bench.

This was monster red.

Rally valley, I know is our
best shot to get 1,000 ounces.

If the rally valley's ground

is as good as Rick believes,

monster red should deliver
around 40 ounces of gold

for the day and a half it ran.





It's impressive for
a day and a half.

Yeah.

Really impressive actually.

Two together, that's


- not bad.
- That's working.

Worth over $120,000.

That adds to a total 699.68.

- Nice.
- Nice.

We've got a lot of
gold to get you at

to get 1,000 ounces

'cause I've got a lot
of gold to give to Troy

so that we can a future here.

And I also wanna give
you guys a lot of gold

so you all come back.

It's gonna be a tough
couple of weeks,

but I know we can do it.

- It's crunch time.
- It is.

- Right?
- Right?

Yeah.

That's it.

Thanks, guys.

That much gold is sweet,

but what I'm most interested in,

is that everybody's
spirit is still high

because we got a lot of gold
to kit the next couple weeks.

It's gonna be tough,

but I know they're
all ready for it.