Gold Rush

The king of the Klondike,

Tony Beets, might be losing his crown.

Nearly two months into the season,

every miner in the Klondike is on the gold,

except Tony,

who hasn't mined a single ounce.

To hit his massive 6,000 ounce goal,

four weeks ago, Tony moved his entire operation

from Paradise Hill to Indian River.

Now, he's ready to play some major catch up.

So far, Tony's drained and stripped

his flooded cut,

and now, he wants to be

running gold rich pay

by the end of the week.

Gotta get the shaker deck fixed up,

you know, put together.

Then the next big thing is getting it in place.

It just takes time because you have to get

all these little things done.

It's the little things.

They get you. They always take the most time.

Tony's shaker wash plant has sat idle

for four years

and needs to be reassembled

before he can do any sluicing.

To get back on track, Tony's crew must crane

the seven-ton shaker deck up and swing it carefully

into place on top of the wash plant's frame.

Then, lift and swing the two-ton

spray bars above the shaker.

And finally, bolt its four metal posts into position.

First up, the massive screen deck.

I know.

Yeah, we're good.

Next, the spray bar assembly.

No. No, no, no.

Be very careful next time

you walk underneath the load like that.

Let go of the chain, walk around the load.

Oh, my .

I don't care if someone die

because I just don't wanna have to go jail

because they didn't pay attention

when I told them to get out from underneath there.

It's ready to go.

All we have to do is drag it to place, put a pump in

and we're golden, literally.

Like every year, there's a lot on the line.

You know, that's gold mining, but, you know, this year,

for me, you know, after taking a year off,

there's even more, you know what I mean?

This is a second opportunity for me

to get back where I need to be

and I'm not taking that lightly.

Rick Ness is on a comeback mission

to hit 1,000 ounces

and get his life back on track.

A third of the way through the season,

Rick's working lean and mean,

sluicing stockpile pay from the rally valley

and so far, he's only mined 95 ounces of gold.

A lot of it's, you know, gone towards fuel,

you know, wages and stuff.

I put my camp up on lien for Troy, you know,

and I owe 150 grand to him to get it back.

Plus, you know, I also wanna make some profit this year.

We had a whole year and no gold production.

At the start of the season,

after a year of paying no royalties

to landlord Troy Taylor,

Rick made a desperate move

to secure access to the ground.

I'm hoping, you know, that you can give me

another chance here.

I'm just nervous about whether you can pull it off.

We need somethin' to get your foot back

in the door there.

Is there anything we could work out regarding your camp?

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

- Mmm-hmm. - If you're happy

to have that asset to hold on to.

I think we can make it work.

Now, with over half his gold spent

on running costs,

Rick's down to just 36 ounces

and his first goodwill royalty payment

on the camp is due.

- Hey, Rick. - Hey, Troy. How you doin'?

Pretty good. How are you doing?

Good. You just caught me on my way out.

I guess you probably know why I'm here.

Uh, yeah.

Yeah, I just gotta collect on that lien for your camp.

- Yeah. - Yeah. Are you doing okay?

Like, you getting some gold?

Oh, we're get... We're getting some gold.

It's just, uh, you know, I've been trying

to get more machines here, more people.

- Yeah. - You know, everything costs money.

If you kind of give me the end of the week, you know,

could I give you, say, 50 ounces?

Oh, boy. That's not what I was hopin' for.

Yeah, we can wait a little bit longer and, uh, yeah,

just getting worried, that's all.

I understand. Yeah, I get it, I get it.

Well, I appreciate it.

And yeah, I, uh, by the end of the week,

um, I can stop by. I'll have 50 ounces for you.

- Okay. All right. - Yeah.

- All right. Thanks a lot, Troy. - You bet.

So Rick promised me 50 ounces by the end of the week.

As long as he comes through on that, I'll be fine.

If he doesn't, then we're gonna have some problems.

We've already mined 95 ounces so far this season,

but a lot of that goes to operation costs, you know,

fuel, food, equipment, all of that.

Rick is relying on his small crew

to deliver the rest of Troy's gold by the end of the week.

Or Troy could sell off his camp,

ending his season.

We have to get the 50 ounces by the end of the week.

Troy put a deadline on us.

And so, I think the entire crew

is just feeling a lot of pressure right now.

Uh, we're a little shorthanded,

so everybody just gotta do everything they can

to keep the operation running as efficient as possible.

I'm trying to get everything back

on track with my business.

And I'm trying to be successful, but, you know,

I owe that to my crew as well.

You know, every single one of them is taking a gamble on me.

I don't wanna fail anybody on my crew.

I mean, I want this to be a success for everybody.

What the heck?

Rick, you gotta get down here. Something's burning up.

I have no idea.

It's that.

What the .

Uh, the smoke was coming from right there.

Holy .

Can you tell what it is?

Yeah, I think so.

The belt just walked way too far over this way.

Looks like everything jammed up down there, too.

I'm guessing the belt stopped spinning,

but it just had pulleyed in.

Yeah.

So, it was rubber on rubber burning.

Okay.

It blew the belts.

Oh, yeah. This belt is definitely .

Cut right in half.

Guaranteed... Yup. Oh, yeah.

They're shot.

With no running wash plant

to deliver Troy 50 ounces by the end of the week,

Rick's comeback hangs in the balance.

If we don't have belts on site,

we're gonna be down for three plus days.

You know, that's $20,000, $30,000 worth of lost gold.

I just can't have that.

I'm in a bad spot right now. The plant's down.

I got belts ordered.

I don't know when they're gonna get here.

It's just the belt holding us from running.

You know, I knew I could have that belt on there in ten minutes

so we could be, you know, putting gold in the box,

which is what we need to be doing right now.

I mean, Troy Taylor wants his 50 ounces

by the end of the week. I don't have it.

I'm counting on runnin' to get it... Get his gold.

And here we are at a standstill.

Rick Ness' operation is shut down,

waiting on new drive belts.

With no time to lose, Buzz scours the site

for belts they can repurpose.

There's a bunch of fan belts.

Those are definitely no good.

Oh, it definitely ain't nothing in here.

Maybe...

this old wash plant over by that wash plant.

If we can run over there, have a look at that

and see maybe there's something in there.

This thing is old, knackered.

Freaking trees growing all around it.

Last chance we got.

I see belts.

I don't know what's in here.

A little bit shorter.

Hey, Rick.

You wanna check where those belts go,

see how much adjustment we got on there?

There's a... I found some 120s,

they're a little bit shorter but if we get enough adjustment,

they'll probably work.

Copy that. I'll meet you at the plant.

Hopefully we'll be able to freakin'

make these things work.