Gold Rush

In the mountains above keno...

Yeah, hey, man, I just left troy's, we got the deal,

We're good to go.

Rick ness has staked his mining future.

On a 2,000 acre claim on lower duncan creek.

Yeah, let's get carl up here. Let's start moving camp.

We've got a ton of work to do, man.

Yeah, buddy. All right. I'll see you soon.

He's five weeks late due to lockdown,

Time he desperately needed to recover from last season.

All my friends from back home didn't come with this year.

That sucks, but I get it,

You know, last year was tough.

And quite honestly, I spent all winter.

Trying to process how last season went.

It was just... It was so out of left field.

I never saw it coming.

Never had such a kick in the ass like that.

I've never lost that hard.

For one of the first times in my life,

I didn't know how to handle it, and I kind of ran,

You know, I really did.

I-I basically hid I tried to hide from it.

And that just made things worse.

That's one thing I focused on this winter.

Is getting back to, you know,

Who I am and how I get things done.

That's why I'm going to stand my ground.

And fight no matter what.

There's a whole lot of redemption waiting for me.

If I didn't think that, I wouldn't be here.

Captions paid for by discovery communications.

Here we go!

In the yukon,

The global pandemic has put parker schnabel.

And his crew over a month behind schedule.

Coal foreman mitch blaschke races to catch up.

Running paydirt through wash plant,

Big red, at the last cut.

- How's it going? - Not bad. How are you?

Not too bad. Just trying to get some pay up.

You're...

Motoring through this.

This stuff out all through here.

Is all pretty good to go.

Nice looking bedrock.

Yeah, this stuff's been going through the plant real nice.

Despite the late start.

This season, parker has the opportunity of a lifetime.

As gold prices skyrocket.

- Thanks, mitch. - Yeah, no problem.

With gold prices, you know, on their way up.

And fuel prices low,

We need to... we need to try to find as many ounces.

As we can.

This year, for me, it's really about.

Trying to build a good war chest.

And get some money in the bank in order to buy new ground.

Parker's leased two claims this year,

But he has to pay royalties.

To find ground he can buy for himself,

He's looking beyond the yukon.

The thing that matters the most is how good the ground is.

Everything else like where in the world you are.

Or all the other stuff is secondary.

It's gonna be a big learning curve.

It's gonna take a lot of exploration.

It's gonna cost a lot of money.

To raise the money he needs.

And make up for the late start,

Parker's taking a massive gamble.

And opening a second mining operation.

So one of the best things that's happened.

So far this year,

While bad things have been going on in the world,

But we got our water license...

So we're gonna dive into it.

- About 175 claims. - Wow.

In 2017, parker did a deal.

With old-time gold miners ken tatlow and stuart schmidt.

To lease nearly 2,000 acres of land on the indian river.

We've got a deal.

But he didn't get the water license.

He needed to run a plant and abandoned the ground.

What do we have to do to get a compliance?

Go through the water license process.

How long does that take?

I don't know, six months.

Now three years on,

He has the license for the promised land,

This virgin ground four miles west of the last cut.

Could hold over 15,000 ounces of gold worth $26 million.

And provide the war chest

Parker needs to make his next big move.

How's it going?

- Hey, parker. - Hi, ken.

81-year-old landlord ken tatlow.

Is already on site and ready to help.

He's been mining in the yukon since 1957,

When he was just 19 years old.

I want to thank you for being up here again.

And experience you've got is just invaluable.

It feels good.

It's really nice to be working with young people.

Otherwise, what we're gonna be doing?

Sitting around bugging my wife.

You don't play golf, do you?

No, I used to, but quit.

You know, that first pit is just the.

On tony's ground, we had ponds, we had bogged ground,

We had a whole lot of stuff to start with.

We don't have any of that now.

Yeah, no. It's always hard to start.

In the middle of nowhere.

Hasn't been mined close in either direction.

So there's no place to put overburden.

Starting from scratch.

On virgin ground this late in the season is a risky move,

But could earn parker millions of dollars.

To do it, he will strip a layer of overburden from an area.

The size of three football fields.

To get down to the gold rich pay dirt beneath.

Then dig a pond, build a pad,

And haul in wash plant sluicifer.

To start sluicing in just two weeks.

The quicker we can get this done, the better.

Yeah, no, I know it's going to be a challenge for you, parker,

But I know that you can pull it off,

So I'm not really worried about it at all.

I'm actually looking forward to it.

- It'll be a good challenge. - Yeah, it will be.

I'm looking forward to it, too.

- All right. - Get some of money back, parker.

Thanks, ken.

Okay, I better get to work.

Almost a quarter of the season already gone,

Parker opens up his second front,

Doubling the size of his operation.

And splitting his crew in half.

There's a huge amount of work to do.

I hope we can get it done.

Ken's wicked to have around. I really like having ken around.

I have a huge amount of respect for him.

Sometimes you just can't beat experience.

I'll be 82 on September the 4th.

Most of the time, I certainly don't feel that old.

We leased parker 2,000 acres.

And by the drilling indicates.

That there's gonna be some pretty good ground here.

And with the price of gold,

I think he's gonna make some serious money here.

Where we at, buddy?

Cover's off.

After a failed season last year,

This is rick's last chance to prove himself as a mine boss.

But five weeks late because of lockdown,

He's only just secured a new claim.

And his first 100-ounce royalty payment.

Is due to claim owner troy taylor in 30 days.

First order of business here is start getting stuff fired up.

Before he can get mining,

He has to move all of his equipment to the new site.

Gentlemen.

- Look at that jalopy. - How's it going?

And as of now, he only has two team members.

- What's up? - How you doing?

- Good, good. - Where's ryan and z?

They're not coming.

No go this year?

Well, z, I pretty much expected that.

Yeah, family.

Just had a baby and the ryan, kind of last minute.

It didn't work out for him either.

Okay, well, so we're doing this.

Less people.

There's only three right now.

Yeah.

You're the lean one where the mean ones.

Okay, let's do it.

Lean and mean.

Well, we're just gonna get all the machines.

Fired up and then we've got a lot of to move.

- You ready? - Yeah, let's get after it.

Well, get out of those old man slippers.

Get some boots on, let's do this.

Yeah. Okay, fair enough.

Well, we've got two and a half people now.

- Size-wise, just size-wise. - Just size-wise.

She makes up for it in character and strength.

Right.

The task ahead,

From his old camp at upper duncan creek,

Rick must now move his trailer shacks, generators,

Water pumps, excavators,

Loaders, and rock trucks.

Along eight miles of winding mountain dirt road.

To his new ground at lower duncan creek.

There's only one man for the job,

Master truck driver, nathan thornington.

- Nathan. - Hey, man, how's it going?