Gold Rush

Right now, the only thing on my mind is mud.

Everything hinges on us

getting this stripped down ahead before we run out of money.

28-year-old Parker Schnabel

has bet nearly everything he has,

$15 million, on buying a massive new claim at Dominion Creek.

If it delivers,

it'll pay out an 80,000 ounce, $160 million jackpot.

To get on the gold quickly,

he's opening a cut already started by the previous owner.

It's a dangerous one

'cause we had to finish what Dean had started

and I'm not letting that turn into a massive mess

because if you just stop in the middle of mud, you're screwed.

The weather's starting to turn and we're way behind,

and that's a lot of mud to move.

Parker made a huge commitment here

buying this ground at Dominion Creek

which is awesome, this is what we needed,

it's very exciting, but it's also very stressful

because right now, I would not wanna be Parker's checkbook.

It's taking a beating.

Parker's operating on a razor's edge.

To make the deal work, he needs 5,000 ounces this year.

But to do it, he's spending a ton of money

and risks going broke before he can bring in any gold.

What's happening, man?

- I'm stressed out. - I bet.

I'm stressed out. It's a lot of money going out.

We're spending in a day here more than I spent

in the entire first season mining at Big Nugget with my grandpa.

That's insane.

And this cut could break us if we don't just get it done.

So, that's a little scary.

We are way behind on the stripping.

The only hope is by throwing everything we've got at this.

- We'll be here till November. - I'm just moving mud.

If we're not careful.

Got you.

My goal is to keep the two 11s ripping 24-7, all right?

Having two hoes loading as many trucks as we can keep running.

It's gonna be the fastest way to catch us up.

I think three days might catch us up, right?

Well, yeah, as long as the trucks can motor on this stuff.

Well, let's take a stab at this.

Um, I don't know if it's gonna work or not.

- Well, we can give it a try, man. - All right.

- Don't forget your radio. - Yeah.

- Thanks, man. - Yeah.

The claim is half the size of Manhattan.

Parker's first move at Dominion

is to mine the 40-acre money pit

which could deliver 3,000 ounces.

The entire area needs to be stripped down to the pay layer to thaw.

In the first week, they've gotten through 4.5 acres,

but Parker wants to double the pace

and get through the same amount in just three days.

Parker's wanting to get through some more ground faster

and in order to do that, we're taking the trucks

right down to where the CATs are ripping.

You rip that ground up, then you start driving on top of it,

it can be punishment on these trucks.

If it works, it's gonna be awesome.

But if it doesn't, we're gonna have a lot of broken trucks.

So at the moment, we have quite a bit opened up,

but now when the weather starts warming,

we're gonna have to tighten things up a little bit.

Veteran miner Damien Browne

begins ripping the next four acres of overburden

in a D10 dozer.

Parker has given us three days now to get down to gravels.

It's just pretty chaotic around here these days.

But we're getting down.

Driving around up here, like you can see

the mud is covering just frost, right?

In his first year working for Parker,

Kayden Potvin in the 750 excavator

loads the waste dirt into trucks.

They're just sliding around,

spinning all the tires all the time.

Can't really get any traction.

Whoo, I'm sliding.

Yeah, it's getting a little harder for you guys to drive around.

Another Schnabel rookie, Jacob McClure,

trucks the overburden out of the cut to a waste site.

Yeah, I don't know if we're gonna have enough time

to move it all before it melts.

No. Please don't do this to me.

I'm literally gonna my pants if I get stuck here, man.

No!

Don't do this to me!

I thought I heard a weird sound 'cause I can hear...

Yeah, something's.

Jacob! Your skid plate!

Jacob!

There might be something wrong,

I thought I heard a weird sound,

so I'm gonna have to get out and see what's going on.

What the? My skid plate's fallen off.

There should be pins, this one's all bent to.

There should be skid plates covering all of this stuff here.

Hey, Mitch.

Yeah, Jacob, what's up?

I'm dragging my skid plates on the ground here.

All right, man. Hey, I'm just coming back right now.

Copy that. I will pull over.

The last thing we want is a stick to get up in there,

rip out the wiring or the hydraulic lines or anything like that

and make a bunch more work for us.

Mitch and mechanic Bill Horton

must get the truck back into the cut fast

in order to hit Parker's deadline.

This one's bent a little bit.

Out here, we don't have a big press like we would in a shop,

so we gotta make everything.

See if we can bend that into place.

The quick fix? Bend the steel skid plate back into shape

with the bucket of a 750 excavator.

You got it, Mitch.

Perfect.

And look at that. First try.

Pretty close?

- It's bang on. - Nice!

Going in there.

A little bit of dirt for lunch.

We'll take that.

There we go.

There it is. Put some bolts in there and send her back to work.

Here we go. Get this thing back out there.

Sweet.

You know Parker, he's given us three days to move mud,

but problems, we've got lots of them.

I feel like Rick's in a good position.

Everything's kind of set up and just ready to go.

Here, he should be fine.

I feel comfortable leaving at this point.

I just gotta get home. My wife, my child, my job. I just got a lot going on.

- What's up, buddy? - Hey, pal.

Where are you going?

- I gotta go. - All right.

We talked about this.

- It's better to just rip the Band-Aid off. - -Yeah, I know.

- You're good, right? - Yeah. Yeah, I'm good.

- I mean, I'm gonna miss you. - Yeah. Me, too.

But, no, I am good. Yeah.

Thanks for making sure of that.

- I appreciate everything, all right? - -Yeah.

- Get out of here. - I'll talk to you.

Yeah, yeah.

Drive safe.

It sucks he's gotta leave, but he's got good reasons.

He's got a wife and kid to get home to,

but I'm glad he was able to come up for a few weeks just to make sure I was good.

It truly won't be the same without him.

After disappearing for a year,

Rick Ness is on a make-or-break comeback mission.

We got the gold coming in and that's what we need.

I'm all revved up, but there's trust issues all around like,

"Is he okay?" "Is he gonna fail?"

Well, I know the answer to that,

but I still have a lot to prove up here.

To get his season started,

Rick had to sell his late mom's house

and sign over his camp to landowner Troy Taylor as collateral.

Now, he's operating hand-to-mouth,

and needs 20 ounces a week to build cash reserves for more crew and equipment.

We're running the plant, but we're not getting ahead of anything.

We got gold coming in, we got stockpiles.

But, you know, that's not gonna last forever.

1,000 ounce is what I set,

and right now we're sustaining,

but we gotta be looking ahead, man.

That's the truth.

Rick's plan to hit his season target?

First, run two old pay piles to make a quick score.

And then move to gold rich Rally Valley.

Four weeks in, he's delivered 21 ounces of gold worth $42,000.

At the moment, the biggest thing

is just gonna be getting some more crew in here.

It's just Morgan and I.

I'm not getting ahead of the game here,

and that's what I need to be doing.

Rick's looking for more crew right now.

No one else is coming in, so I am feeling a bit of pressure.

I can't do it all on my own.

With Zee gone, Rick's down to just one other crew member.

Gold-mining greenhorn, Morgan Lauren.

It gets so hot.

Morgan's operating an old rented loader.

So, it'll be really nice

if Rick finally gets newer equipment.

If we can get any out here, you know, this works, but, I mean, there's no front cab.

I'm eating dirt this whole time.

The tires are just kicking dirt back up in my face.

What the hell?

This thing. Something is wrong.

Dude, it's leaned over so bad. We got a flat tire.

- Hey, Rick? - Yeah, go for Rick.

I'm gonna have to shut down the plant. The loader's got a flat.

Well, that's it.