15x28 - Expansion Mode

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic music playing]

[engine whirring]

[man]
Do you reckon he's awake yet?

He's probably awake,
but he's probably
not super enthusiastic

to see us this early,
but he's probably awake.

-All we can do is
ring the doorbell and...
-[man] See what happens.

-Yeah. Okay.
-[man 2] Here we go.

[doorbell ringing]

[man 2] Good morning.

[man 3] Good morning.

[man 2] I just wanted
to try the doorbell.

Good morning.

-Come on in.
-[man] Thanks very much.

After you.

[narrator] On this Gold Rush,

Parker Schnabel tests out
a next level piece
of new equipment...

I just spent $5,40,000.

...decides whether
to make a game-changing
business deal...


that's a million dollars.

...and hunts
for new gold rich land.

Really, we're looking
for old shafts
or piles of tailings.

'Cause there was no
machinery mining up here.

Be ready.

[all exclaiming]

[opening theme music playing]

[narrator] It's 9:00 a.m.

Parker's crew has been working
for two hours...

But he...is just waking up.

I'm not really
a morning person.

I take after my mom.

She's a night owl, as am I.

Usually I just,
um, you know...

peruse the equipment auctions
for a little bit
in the morning.

[man 2]
Anything good on the auction?

[Parker] No.

I putter a little bit
in the morning,

and look at equipment
and look at gold prices.

Any gold price movement
is directly
on to our bottom line.

We try to... We breathe
into the crystal ball
what's going to happen.

I'm not very good at it.

So you know,
with a project this size,

it's like, every $100 swing
in the gold price
is millions of dollars.

[yawns]

I am horrifically bad
at and selling gold
at good prices.

I sold like...
a 1,000 ounces

the day Hamas
attacked Israel...

The morning,

before anybody
knew what had happened.

And gold prices went a lot,
up a lot in the next,
like 10 days.

[narrator] In 2024,
gold prices
hit an all-time high

at over $2,500 an ounce.

We'll probably
go down to the office,
have a coffee.

Let's do it.

[narrator]
Parker's Dominion crew
is spread out over 7500 acres,

stretching six miles long.

It can take half an hour
to travel from one end
of the claim to the other.

[upbeat music playing]

My day is probably
going to be fairly busy,
but I never really start...

...the day, running.

I'm gonna go
to the office first.

Drink some coffee.

What else? We have a fun
new piece of equipment
showing up today.

I have a
business meeting lined up

and I usually do
the rounds of the mine site
at some point...

...just to see
what's going on.

Um...

And Liam's around,
so I'll probably go look

at a piece of ground
that I was
thinking about drilling.

Um...

If I'm doing some exploration
on with him,
that would be good.

Coffee?
We have a big coffee budget.

Only the best.

-This is like maple pecan.
-Ooh.

[Parker] Good morning.

Good morning.

[grunts softly]

So we go from sitting
on a couch
to sitting on a desk.

And I'm a very
fidgety person, so...

A deck of cards is my...

fidgety...tool of choice.

[cameraman]
Can you show us a trick?

I don't have any tricks.

I think one of the most
difficult things that I find

is like, running
a good business with

the film crews on site.

You know, that's a very
weird dynamic, and...

nobody's used to...

that kind of a atmosphere
at a...

At a place they work, right?

[narrator] Since the Gold Rush
began in 2010...

Come on, get out of the way.

...over 200 different
camera crew have filmed
Parker's every move...

[man] Oh, Parker.

Would you like some coffee?

Eggy toast?

There's a camera
in my face every day!

[narrator]
...capturing the highs...

Oh, yeah!

Nothing wrong with
a 400 ounce a week.

[narrator]. ..and lows...

-Parker!
-Get out of my [bleeping] way.

[narrator]. ..in over


For the most part,
we're pretty full access,

but there still is things
where it's like,
okay, this is like...

a very big issue
on the mine site.

The risk of messing up
and your boss
getting mad at you...

...it is one thing,
the risk of messing
up your bag,

your boss getting mad at you

and it all getting broadcast
worldwide on TV,

is a super weird thing

that...is arguably
not very healthy.

[cell phone ringing]

Oh.

Um, speaking of things that
need to happen off camera,

uh, I need you guys
to leave...

while I take this.

[cell phone ringing]

[whispers]

[narrator]
Next to Parker's office...

[cameraman] Nona. Hi.

[narrator]. ..mine manager,
Nona Loveless,
drives Parker's operation.

[cameraman]
Parker, uh, kicked us out.

So we thought we'd come
and check in with you.

I am, well, busy
trying to move buildings

and keep people going,
and we've got to go into town,

and do some books.

That's a typical day.

Oh, my days are never
two the same.

[narrator]
A veteran Klondike miner,

Nona joined Parker's crew
six-years-ago in 2018.

Yeah, the last couple
of years have been...
really crazy with expansion.

Um... It's been good,
but it's also a lot of work

and a lot of organizing,
and, yeah, trying to keep,
I guess, the equipment.

We're getting more equipment.

We're getting more ground.

We're getting more people.

We need more housing.

It just keeps going
and going and going.

[narrator] Nona helps Parker
run one of the biggest
mine sites in the Klondike,

managing over 40 crew
and a fleet of big iron.

The board behind you, there,
that has not even
all of our equipment now.

Um, we're going to be
having three of these
in the near future

because we are growing
exponentially very fast,

and it just tells
the service date.

What needs to be serviced
the hours on the machine.

Mechanics are really good
at keeping it filled in. Um...

We-- We're just growing,
growing, growing, growing.

As the theme is growing
around here.

Are they bothering you?

[Nona]
Well, no, I'm trying to get
some work done, but no,

that's not
what they're doing at all.

We were just--
We were just in there
talking about the company,

and how far we've come,

and thinking
about that stuff makes,

it brings a lot
of memories back.

[Nona] It does, for sure.
Like, it's just crazy hell...
we've gone--

Every time I think
about that stuff,

it makes me
incredibly thankful

that you came here
and have stayed here.

-Honestly.
-Well, I love being here.

It's been good.
It's been a good journey.

Okay, I'm gonna go.

[Nona] Bye.

So now we're just
gonna head over
to the stripping crew.

For the most part,
they're just like,
dealing with things

that nobody else
has time to deal with.

And, um,
see what happens.

[dramatic music playing]

[Parker]
So this is the stripping crew.

They pretty much operate,
like totally autonomously

from the rest
of the mine site.

Three or four of them usually,
but it's my favorite part
of the whole operation.

Maybe other than
the gold room,

so I usually like to check in
with them fairly regularly.

[narrator] Parker's crew
is gunning for a record
$25,000,000 season.

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

Good. This weather's not
doing us any favors, is it?

Definitely not.

After today, pretty much
the whole cut,

other than the center
of it up there,
will be on frost.

[narrator] Wash plant boss,
Tyson Lee,

has worked with Parker
for nine years.

-Yeah. Let's do it.
-All right.

Thanks, man.

You guys are good, Tyson?

-Yeah.
-Okay.

[Tyson] You know,
what you see of Parker,

that's the real him.
That's the real deal.

You know, I definitely
see Parker as a friend.

But there's that, you know,
level of respect
that's there, too,

'cause he is my boss,
and you know,

he does have
hard decisions to make, and...

You know, I respect
those hard decisions.

You know, he's definitely
stepped down to the seat

and kind of stepped
into the office
a little more nowadays,

which is needed 'cause...
there's a lot
of bills to pay, and...

a lot of ground to find,
and you know,

he's always looking
for the next best thing.

I try and put myself
in his shoes a lot.

'Cause, you know,
we're six, seven months apart
in age-wise.

You know, most guys my age,
they worry about do I have
enough money to make my,

you know, $400, $800
vehicle payments
and my $1000 rent

at the end of the month.

Parker, he's got, you know,
millions of dollars of debt,

and you know,
he holds it very well.

[upbeat music playing]

[narrator]
Looking to diversify
his business,

Parker heads to a meeting.

A good friend of mine,
Bruce Schindler, who is a...

I mean, it's kind of
a jack-of-all-trades

when it comes to like
artistry and jewelry making.

Um, he does a lot of things
with mammoth tusks,

and now he's working
with gold.

And we started working
together years ago
on some personal stuff for me,

like he made a gold ashtray
for Chris Doumitt.

Like a five-ounce
gold ash, cigar ashtray.

Um...

And so that kind of set off
a chain of events

that have led to him taking
a bunch of gold from us, um...

last year or the year
before that,

and he just started
making stuff with it.

And he just showed up
to give me an update
about what's going on, and...

talk about, um...
Talk about where that's at.

We normally
sell our gold just basically
wholesale to buyers,

and we get charged 1%.

So if we find


like, we lose 50 ounces
to the buyers.

So, you know,
when you start
to do big volumes of gold,

it does start
to become a pretty
big expense, and...

Basically, you want
to sell your product
for as much as you can, right?

[narrator] In the gold room
with Bruce

gold cleaning expert,
Chris Doumitt...

-Hey, youngster.
-Gentlemen.

Bruce.

[Bruce] Glad to be here again.
Thank you.

[narrator] Parker has
given Bruce a 100 ounces
of his Dominion gold

to make a sample
batch of jewelry.

[Bruce] I've made
some pretty fun stuff.

-I'd like to show you
some of it.
-Yeah, that would be great.

[Bruce] Hold your hand out.

And feel this.

That is so cool.

-[Bruce] It's silky, isn't it?
-Yeah

So, you gave me
a 100 ounces of gold.

[Parker] Those are cool.
So you got earrings,
rings, chains.

[Bruce] And I've made
a bunch of pieces
for you and your friends.

I've made some wedding rings
for a few people,
which has been kind of sweet.

I made Doumitt's
cigar ashtray.

Hey, man. Happy birthday.

Oh, my gosh. For me? Thanks.

It's an ashtray.

-Is it real gold?
-It's our gold.

Are you kidding me?

-No.
-[Chris] Holy cow.

Where's your ashtray?

Oh. It's at home.

-[Parker] It's at home.
-Yeah.

Yeah.
It doesn't come back here.

I never put a cigar out in it.

I put the ashes in it.

Dump the ashes out
and clean it.

Put the ashes in it.

[man] There you go.

[Bruce] I can see that being
on a baseball player
at the World Series.

-How do I look?
-[Bruce] And he's up to bat.

I'm, like,
too skinny of a white boy
to have gold jewelry,

-I think.
-[Chris] No, that looks
good on you, Parker.

[Bruce] And the fun thing
about it is it's not just that
it's worth a bunch of money,

but it's,
it's unlike anything else,
any other element on earth.

It is so malleable.

It is so creamy
and high karat.

And it wants
to be manipulated.

[narrator]
Pure gold or 24-karat gold
is naturally soft.

To toughen it up,
jewelers often mix it
with other metals

to create a nine
or 18 karat alloy.

But Bruce has another method
to strengthen Parker's gold.

Do you want to see
how this stuff works,
a little bit?

[Parker] Yes, I'd love to.

[Bruce]
So what we're gonna do,
we're gonna do two things.

One, it's a little bit square,
we want to make it round.

And two,
we're gonna make it longer.
We're gonna squeeze it down.

So let's pull this.

Is this how
you make spaghetti?

[gasps, whispers]
Wouldn't that be cool?

A plate of gold spaghetti.

-Oh, damn, buddy.
-Ooh.

You're much too rich
for my blood.

-Ooh!
-[Bruce laughs]

So this is four.
This is a drop plate.

And the idea is you pull
the gold through a hole.

And then you take it
to the next hole,
it's a little bit smaller.

And what that does is
it squeezes it down,
make it longer.

Here. Let me hold this.

This should be interesting.

That's it. That's it.
That's it.

Yeah, that worked.

Holy cow.

[Bruce]
We just compressed it...

two-tenths of a millimeter.

We made it
a little bit longer--

It's firmer
than it was before.

[Chris]
So as you're working this

because you're putting
all this pressure on it,

it's making it harder.

[Bruce]
It's getting it harder.

So, uh, I need my glasses.

[Chris]
I need my glasses.

[Bruce]
I want to be just like Chris.

Look, they even
look the same.

-[Chris] Yeah
-Oh, my [bleep]!

We're twins.

I'll work on that.

Give me a few more years.

Watch this.

[Chris] Like that
it's spooling itself.
[Bruce] Isn't it?

So now we have the first stage
of making a chain links.

And so now we got to do
is we just take,
take a cut...

On top of this,
they all fall apart
into individual links.

So now we have...
these jump rings--

[Parker] But they're all
the exact same size.

[Bruce] They're all
the exact same size.

So someday I'm gonna
come back to you and say,

"Hey, I need a machine."
I can't do this by myself.

So I need about $1,50,000
to buy a chain making machine.

[Bruce chuckles]

It actually kind of makes me
want to start making stuff.

Can we take 50 ounces
and make stuff and sell it?

-I like, when
we're making it for ourselves.
-[Parker] Right.

Yeah. We should.

We should be
trying to sell it.

I'll give you all the gold
you can sell.

[Bruce] Uh...

-That sounds amazing.
-Yeah.

[Bruce]
But then once I can move
that 50 ounces of gold,

I'm gonna need
another 50 ounces.

So are you willing
to give me,

say 100 ounces
at a time in the future?

I'll give you 500
if you can take it.

I mean, 500 ounces,

that's a million dollars
worth of gold.

-Yeah.
-And you would
give that to me to work?

Yeah.
I mean, you're not going
to run off with it, are you?

-I don't know where I'd go.
-[Parker laughs]

But that is a lot,

and that makes me feel excited
and a little anxious.



And what that's gonna mean is
I gotta up my marketing.

I gotta up my website.

I'm gonna need
help with my books

'cause I'm not
so great on books.

-Join the club.
Me neither.
-Oh, [bleep]!

Can I...
Can I borrow Nona?

-[Parker] No! No!
-Please. She's amazing.

[Parker]
She has five jobs as it is.

But, you know,
I, I've got stuff to ramp up.

We can scale this up.

I've got to run. I'm sorry.

And you're...
You're welcome here anytime.

-[Bruce] Thank you.
-Yeah. No worries.

-All right.
-[Bruce] See you, Parker.

-You're good?
-[Chris] Good.

-Are you good?
-[man 2] Good.

Okay,.

That was awesome.

That was beyond what I thought
could possibly happen.

And I'm a little stunned.

In fact,
I'm a little intimidated.

I asked for 50 ounces.

He's gonna give me


That's a million dollars!

[Parker] So now
we're just gonna head over
to the wash plant yard,

um, check out our new toy.

A very integral
part of the mine site.

[upbeat music playing]

Right now we're going
to look at my new toys.

I just spent...

one, two, three...

$5,40,000.

I just spent $5,40,000.

These were
$1,80,000 apiece.

New water pumps.

Just this morning...

[man]
Straight off the rack?

[Parker] Brand new.

[engine starts]

Nice.

[narrator] Parker's new pumps

will push up to 7600 gallon
of water per minute
through his wash plants.

So we live and die
by the water pump, right?

Wash plants don't run.

Cuts don't get dewatered.

Um...

It's, uh...very...

bad when you start
having water pump problems.

I love a good water pump.

Zero hours on 'em.

And, um, they're gonna
be the cat's a*s.

I wonder if they put
a used turbo on it.

Did they give us
a full tank of fuel?

Bone dry.

Thanks, guys.

I spend half a million,
you know, they siphoned out--

They siphoned out
the fuel tank.

You know,
don't look too closely
at the things you buy.

You know,
it's just not my problem.

It's okay. We're leaving.

[narrator] Parker's
latest purchases will join
a roster

of 22 water pumps.

But pumps are just
a small part of
the equipment Parker needs

to keep the enormous
operation on the gold.

Over the years,

Parker has built up
an army of monster machines
and a fleet of plants.

Prepping Sluicifer for another
hard season's mining,

mechanic, Alec Kelly.

-[Alec Kelly]
Did you see our new pumps?
-[Parker] Yeah!

-[Parker] They look
really nice.
-Yeah.

[Parker] What is that?

[Alec] That's our new
lawn mower.

-[Parker] Oh, it's a magnet!
-[Alec] Oh yeah.

[Parker] What... [laughs]

Where did this come from?

[Alec] Ordered it.

I figured
we do all this metal work,

we might as well have
a quick way of cleaning it up.

We can just hang it
over the garbage can

and pull up on that little
...far there.

[Parker] This one?

-That's pretty cool.
-[Alec] Isn't it?

I like that.

[instrumental music playing]

[engine whirring]

Alec has come so far,

and it's just an
absolute pleasure
to work around.

And everything he does
is like super clean

and really tidy and organized.

And he has, you know,
all his orders in place.

We're pretty aggressive,
like we stock a lot of parts,

probably more than necessary.

But um... you know,
run time is so important.

You know, if there's
a five percent chance

that something is gonna break

and cause six weeks
of downtime,

it's like you know,

several million dollars
[bleep] up.

[engine whirring]

[clock ticking]

[narrator] Parker checks in
with foreman Mitch Blaschke.

-[Mitch] How's it going?
-[Parker] All good.

[Parker] I was just
talking to Tyson

about what's going on,

having everything on frost
and trying desperately
to sluice.

What... What are our options?

Well, I think the way
the company has always been
the most profitable

is when we can get ahead
of the cut a bit.

You know, getting the mud off
and getting some of the gravel

so we can get ahead
of ourselves a bit.

Well, at the rate
we're going right now,

we're gonna be fighting it out
for our ways here.

[Parker] It's very
different ground,

and I hope that you guys
aren't too frustrated.

-[Mitch] No, not at all.
-[Tyson] No.

[Parker] Okay.
Well, that all
sounds good to me.

Um... I'll leave
you guys to it.

[instrumental music playing]

[Mitch] You know,
so I've worked for Parker

for 11 seasons now.

And... man, yeah, definitely

a lot has changed
in that amount of time.

You know, for somebody
to come up here

that was as young
as Parker was

when he started
and turned this

into one of the biggest
in the Yukon here.

It's very impressive.

You know, one of the things
Parker has always told us,

if one of you guys can swarm
the drone out of the air

with the excavator,

he's like,
"I got a thousand bucks
for you in the office".

So just be aware
when you're flying that drone,

that there's definitely
a bounty on it.

So one of the things
that probably

nobody knows about Parker

and it's something that
I think a lot of the crew
probably does on purpose

is he is very particular
on how things

are stacked in the dishwasher.

If people
don't stack their dishes

in the dishwasher properly
and they're not spaced right

and if they're
too close together,

he will absolutely
come uncorked.

So everybody is,
you know pretty good

about putting
their dishes away.

But I think
every once in a while

you'll see somebody
just go in there

and just like,
throw it in sideways.

And you can just see the smoke
coming out of his ears.

[instrumental music playing]

[Parker] I'm headed
to visit a few cuts.

You can't drive, so we're
gonna take the Sherp.

And then going over
to Sulfur Creek with Liam.

So we will go see what...

we can find.

[instrumental music playing]

[clock ticking]

So I'm just on my way
to visit a few cuts.

But I'm gonna
stop by camp first.

I'm just gonna
pop into the kitchen
and grab my lunch.

You don't need to come.

-[man] I'm gonna.
-You don't need to.

-No, no, but I'm coming.
-I would rather you not.

[dog barking]

[Parker] It's flower season.

[man] Are you the same lunch
every day kind of guy?

[Parker] No.

[man] What do you got today?

[Parker] Breakfast, pork wrap.

-[man] Can I ask you to do
one annoying thing for me?
-[Parker] No.

-[man] Yes.
-[Parker] It's time to go.

[man] No, we have to do
one annoying thing.

[Parker] No. I wanna...
I'm going.

-[man] Look...
-Get in, losers!

[man laughs]

You guys make things
so [bleep] complicated.

Holy [bleep]

It's just so [bleep]
difficult all the time.

[narrator] Over 14 years
of filming,

Parker and Gold Rush
TV producers

have built up a unique
working relationship.

It's very weird 'cause
I've spent my whole adult life

plus some non-adult life
on camera, right?

It's a bit of a
love-hate relationship

with, like filming
and film crew, you know.

And when I first
started the show,
it was just like

this amazing, crazy,
super cool, super fun,

really interesting process,
making a TV show

and having film crew
on a mine site

that I grew up on.

You know, being from a tiny
little town in Alaska,

it was like a group of people
that I would have never

I spent time around
people like that.

Honestly, it was like,
it was amazing.

I was super happy,
felt super lucky

and like was scared to death
of it ending.

And now I'm scared to death
of it never ending.

[instrumental music playing]

[clock ticking]

[narrator] Having bought
at Dominion,

Parker needs to explore
every inch for gold.

You don't need to work
very hard to find a reason
to use the Sherp, you know?

[narrator] To get him
where he needs to go

Parker is hopping
in a brand new toy...

The Sherp.

A Ukrainian built
four wheel drive,


amphibious beast,

should be able
to explore all his ground.

-Come on in.
-[man] All right.

[engine whirring]

[Parker] So this pit,

this one here,

it's not very big,

but we took all the brush

and whatnot off
of it last year

just to let the sun start
thawing things out.

It looks like it's like
draining really well.

You know, we might get six
to eight feet of fog

off of it and not do
any ripping.

And so it'll be a really
cheap cut to strip.

But the time line
will be really long.

It will take years
to get down to the pay,

but we won't spend
any money doing it.

[engine whirring]

So supposedly it's amphibious.

[man] How deep is the pond
that we're looking at?

[Parker] This one
is very deep.

Like it's probably 30 feet.

With a very soft bank.

[narrator] Parker hasn't put
the Sherp to the test
on water yet.

[Parker] Here we go!

[water splashing]

[man laughing]

Now I know
why we're in the show.

[all laughing]

[Parker] Nice!

So we know it floats

but now we don't know
for how long.

[laughing]

[narrator] With massive
pressure tires,

the Sherp powers
across the pond.

[man] It doesn't go
very fast, does it?

I mean, I don't see
any water coming.

Oh no, I don't. [laughing]

I don't see
any water coming in,

so that's a good sign.

[engine roaring]

[water splashing]

-[engine roaring]
-[laughing]

So we might actually have
a hard time

getting out of the water.

-[man] Okay.
-[Parker] 'Cause that bank
looks really soft over there.

All right. We're close
to the moment of truth here.

-[man] Okay, what's...
-[Parker] I'm just gonna
keep her pinned.

We just gotta hit the beach
and stay moving.

[man] Right.

[Parker] We've got contact.

[grunts] We're getting stuck.

Keep it going. Keep it going.

Push her.

-Oh no!
-[man] We're not lifting.

[engine roaring]

We might be [bleep]

[engine sputtering]

Do you want the good news
or the bad news?

Bad news.

We might be stuck in the pond.

[man] What is the good news?

We have a case of beer.

[man] Nice!

[narrator] A few yards down,
the bank firm's up.

-[engine roaring]
-Come on, baby!

[man] Yeah!

[sighs]

Okay. We only have to
do that one more time.

[giggles]

I thought we might just stay
in the pond for a while.

-[instrumental music playing]
-[engine whirring]

-Should we hit the water
in fifth gear?
-Yeah [bleep].

[Parker] Are you ready?

[bleep]

[water splashing]

[all laughing]

[man1] You got this
[bleep] alright?

[Parker] I think we're okay.

Do you have water in the back?

[woman] No, we're good.

I think that went underwater.

Oh, the camera's wet.

So we went
that far underwater.

[water splashing]

-Beaver Dam.
-Yeah.

[Parker] For real?

[man] Yeah.

[water splashing]

So the last thing
on the list for today

is going over to Sulfur Creek.

And I want to go have a little
walk around

it with Liam who does
all our exploration.

So we will go see
if we can get eaten by a bear.

[engine whirring]

This is Episode one
of Parker's mine site

Nature Documentary
mini-series.

-Ravens are very smart,
-[raven cawing]

if you have food in your truck

and you leave
your window open,

[blows raspberry]
right in they go.

And [blows raspberry] they
[bleep] in your truck.

Not cool. Not the part of
nature that I enjoy.

As you can see behind us,
we have a nice Swallow Hill.

One of my favorite birds.

It's kind of
interesting, actually.

There's quite a bit of
strategy into

where you put your home.

Because if we sit here
long enough,

the ravens will show up.

And the ravens will sit
on top of the bank

and they'll kick
their way down

so that they can reach down

and like, open up the holes
in the top houses

and steal the eggs
out of them.

It's actually
pretty interesting.

It would be great for me
if you stayed here

and filmed the birds,

and I'll go do my thing
without you.

[instrumental music playing]

[clock ticking]

[narrator] Today,
Parker's crew

is sluicing two cuts
on his Dominion Creek claim.

While they catch gold,
Parker heads up

to scout other pieces
of ground

and determine
where to move next.

[engine whirring]

So I'm gonna go find Liam,
who should be by his truck.

Oh yeah, there he is.

[narrator] To help him find
the best gold rich ground

there's just one man
for the job...

-You want to go take
a cruise down Sulfur?
-[Liam] Let's do it.

[narrator] Drill expert
Liam Ferguson.

[Liam] All right.

[Parker] Looks like you've
already been washing rocks?

[Liam] Yeah, we got
a few done.

[narrator] Over the years,
Liam and his million dollar
sonic drill

have prospected ground
for Parker

across Alaska and the Yukon.

[Parker] Dude, you hit a nug!

[narrator] And last season...

Green is good.
Red is bad.

[narrator] . ..he helped
to identify

a potential 80,000 ounce

$200,000,000 price
at Dominion Creek.

[Liam] That's a lot.

Yeah.

[narrator] But Parker's
vast claim

has several remote tributaries
yet to be explored.

[suspenseful music playing]

[man] Parker,
where are we going?

[Parker] We're going to
some little creek

that's about 20 minutes away.

The creek that
the old timers hammered

and nobody's ever
touched it in 100 years

that classic story.

[narrator] When prospecting,
modern gold miners

look for signs
that the old timers

from the 1890s mined
in a location.

An indication there could mean
good gold is still present.

[Liam] So you don't know much
about this creek at all?

[Parker] No.

[narrator] Parker and Liam
first check out Sulfur Creek.

[Parker] There's some sign
of activity.

[water flowing]

[Liam speaking]

[Parker] What's that
joint called?

Who's a woodworker here?

[Liam] That's pretty old.

[man] Well, that's too narrow
to be a shaft.

[Parker] It could have been
a small person sluice box.

My guess would be like
a boom gate for hydraulicing

all the material out.

[narrator] Prospectors first
found gold at Dominion Creek
back in 1896.

Over 130 years,
miners have pulled out

an enormous


At today's gold price,

worth a staggering
$6.2 billion.

But the old timer's
primitive equipment

didn't catch all the gold,

leaving behind lost
treasure in the tailings

or down abandoned mine shafts.

[Parker] Let's go out there
and have a look.

[Liam] But see,
it's super flat in here.

[Parker] Here's a
piece of pipe.

Really we're looking for
old shafts

or piles of tailings.

Because there was no
machinery mining up here

other than where I parked.

So find a pile of rocks,
tell me.

[Liam] Or like slumps.

[Parker] Yeah.

Shafts look like just holes.

[Liam] You hear
someone go, "Ahh"

and then you can't find them.

[Parker] That's what we want.

That's what we're looking for.

[bleep]

There we go!

-We're just gonna stop
for one second.
-[Parker] Why?

So that everyone can catch up
to you for one second.

[Parker] Everyone's here.

-Liam has to go.
-[man] I know.

[man screams]

[Liam] There he goes.

[Parker] I mean, if we'd have
found some shafts

or some tailings pile
or something,

I would have gotten
more excited, but...

Carter, maybe
you should give him
a ride home

and I'll do a few pans.

[man] Okay.

[narrator] With no shafts
or tailings found,

Parker checks
the riverbank for gold.

[Parker] The job
of a gold miner to mine

the best ground
they can possibly find.

And so if you're not looking
for better ground,

then you're not really
doing your job.

Ideally, you would do
a pan on bedrock.

Because I don't know
how high off bedrock
we are here.

And it could be
really good ground

but not find anything
in a face like this, you know?

I think
one of the most interesting

parts of exploration
that I enjoy

is there's been basically
thousands of people

that have looked at every
single one of these creeks

in every single area that
we're looking at still now

in the last 125 years.

One, two bigger pieces.

One, two, three tiny pieces.

Five colors,
and it would take,

like a thousand yards
to make an ounce of gold
of this [bleep].

I wouldn't quite say
the creeks had died, but...

darn close.

[narrator] With so little
gold found,

Parker won't move
his operation here.

[Parker] A true failure.

Someday I'll find out
what that's like.

I'm sure it's coming.

[instrumental music playing]

[clock ticking]

[engine whirring]

I actually had fun today.

It was nice.

You know,
spent some quality time

talking about life and work

and went and looked
at some ground.

It's probably
a little less productive

than a typical day,

but I have you to drag around,

so it's kind of expected.

Well, this is me.

Good night.

-[man] Good night, Parker.
-[man1] Good night.

[Parker] Are you just filming
my super wet a*s right now?