Gold Rush

We've spent a lot of money drilling.

Parker Schnabel...

May not want to follow me.

Whoa.

Is on the hunt for a new claim...

If the gold's not good, it'll break you.

Whoa!

To secure his mining future.

A lot of pressure riding on the back of this little hole.

Push it! Let's go!

Cannot afford the plant to shut down right now.

Rick ness goes deep...

We're looking at at least 60 feet of overburden.

Sometimes you got to bite the bullet and just do it.

To save his season.

Alrighty.

I didn't know that gold mining had a lot to do with plumbing.

And Fred lewis's first season as a mine boss...

Johnny!

Hey, turn off that water.

Turn it off!

Hangs in the balance.

We keep getting kicked, but we keep getting back up.

So, you guys ready?

Captions paid for by discovery communications.

Right now, I'm on my way to Fairbanks.

I really want to start another operation.

After seven years mining in the Yukon,

25-year-old Parker Schnabel is back in Alaska,

Where it all began, on a mission to find new ground.

We've got a really good opportunity on a piece of ground.

That has had a lot of historic mining.

It's for sale.

Guy that owns it wants 3 million dollars for it,

Which is a lot of money, so hopefully,

Everything runs smoothly at the mine site while I'm gone.

To pay for a new claim, for the first time ever,

Parker's left his crew to run his Yukon operation without him.

We've got a good shot at making a lot of money,

And we're gonna need a hell of a war chest built up.

If they can keep that place going,

Then we can get another operation up and rolling.

The only thing we need is ground.

Now, Parker is 13 miles outside of Fairbanks,

On his way to prospect the new, 3-million-dollar claim.

I've asked Liam Ferguson,

Who has a sonic drill, to come up.

Liam is the best in the business.

When it comes to evaluating ground.

Hopefully, it works out.

This property we're looking at about 2 miles long...

This creek, starting up there about a mile.

And goes downstream about another mile.

The smallwood claim is 397 acres of ground,

3 miles downstream from a huge gold vein,

Where a mine called fort Knox.

Has produced over 8 million ounces of gold.

Now, Parker must find out if enough gold has washed down.

From the mother lode to make smallwood worth mining.

Looks like you already been washing rocks!

Yeah, we've got a few done.

He's hired Liam Ferguson to test-drill the ground.

Hey, man. How's your summer been?

Good. Good.

Yeah.

Beating me to the punch.

Yeah, we got a few days head start on you.

We've done a little bit of drilling now.

For the past five days, Liam has been drilling test holes.

With his state-of-the-art sonic drill.

At almost $20,000 a day,

It's already cost Parker nearly $100,000.

Just to see if there's good gold.

How many holes have you drilled?

Probably done about 25 or 30.

Really? Yeah.

So at least now you kind of have.

A bit of an idea on what's going on,

And we can make a plan where to go next.

A lot of fine gold we'd mining, here.

Like dust? Yeah, like flour.

We've seen gold, but it seems to be pretty spotty.

There's definitely gold here, but is there enough?

So far, Liam has sunk five test lines.

That show only patches of gold.

Parker needs at least five good results in a line.

To prove this piece of ground is worth.

The 3-million-dollar price tag.

For the potential that is here, you want to be sure.

You're thinking about jumping downstream, then?

Yeah.

Do you want to show me around?

Yeah. Let's go for a walk.

Sweet. This looks like fun.

How have you been going back and forth this.

When you're walking around?

Swimming across.

Might not want to follow me.

Whoa! Don't go there.

The Fairbanks region has just a lot of gold here,

And there's been a lot of historic mining.

So, fort Knox is 3 miles that way way.

And it's producing 1,000 ounces a day,

And this drainage is coming right off the back of that,

So we know there's gold in the area.

Are there any bears out here?

Haven't seen any.

That's what dozer's here for, right?

Yeah. Appetizer.

Breakfast time.

We didn't find any gold,

But we're probably gonna eat a lot of blueberries.

Perfect. Bought a new blueberry patch.

3 million dollars.

This is the thing about this creek.

It's all sitting on top of mud.

So we should just come down here.

And slam a line in somewhere in here?

Yeah.

This is kind of the zone.

That I would be interested in looking.

So, do you want to aim for this line?

That's that one we walked down.

Yeah.

You could put two, like, right in the middle of this...

Two lines, like, there? Yeah.

Maybe we do, like, five holes a line?

You know, there's a hefty purchase price on this property,

And then we have no infrastructure here, right?

So it needs to be good ground to justify.

A lot of this ground's 100 feet deep,

So it's not cheap mining, right?

That's the kind of ground that, if the gold's not good,

It'll break you, trying to do that.

The next site Parker wants to drill.

Is a quarter-mile downstream.

The rig weighs about 50,000 pounds.

It's pretty rough terrain.

Stop!

Whoa!

You did it on purpose, didn't you?

Well, we found the soft spot.

We should be able to pull it out here pretty quick.

Right here, this.

Keep it revved up.

That's more like it.

It's a lot different than the mining that I'm used to.

You know, we're very good at mining, like,

Exactly 20 feet of ground,

And some of the deeper holes, I think, have been over 90 feet.

So it's a deep, challenging piece of ground,

Both to mine and drill.

Well, we had a late start to the season,

But we're definitely making up for lost time right now.

We've already paid troy his 100-ounce minimum royalty,

So everything from now on is going in our own pockets,

- And that feels great. - - but if we're gonna hit.

Our 1,000-ounce goal, it's time to get serious.

Because of the lock down, rick ness was six weeks late.

To start his mining season, but he's making up ground fast.

With 302 ounces,

He's almost a third of the way to his 1,000 ounce gold.

Now, he's ready to take it to the next level.

What's up, you goons?

Late again?

Hey, what time is it?

You.

Well, first of all, I just want to.

Thank you guys for all the hard work.

You know, things are really coming along good.

We're streamlining,

And we're looking like we know what we doing.

Took a few years.

Hey, fake it till you make it.

We can crank things up, and it's just in time,

Because we're moving on from the cheap cut,

And we're opening up the deep cut.

Wicked, man. Yes, sir.

So that's a whole different ball game for us.

We're moving over at 60 feet overburden, in a lot of places.

That's a lot of junk material to move.

It's gonna be expensive.

Karla, you're gonna have to get in the rock truck.

Yep. I'm just gonna have to kind of.

Throw everybody into the deep cut,

Try to get that stripped down.

See if we can get it all done, you know?

It's doable now. It's just like I said,

Me and you are gonna jump in trucks?

We've got to get the ball rolling,

So whatever we got to do, right?

The reward there is, hopefully,

30 feet of pay underneath that, right?

And good stuff, like, two-ounce-per-100 type stuff.

That's what we tested out at last year.

That's what I'm talking about.

Alright. Let's get after it. Deep cut.

Carl, try to keep your pants on.

I'm gonna try my best.

It's gonna be one of the more aggressive things I've done,