Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue

Everything I've been saving

for the last ten years is in this operation.

So darn hard to separate it from your gold.

There's three families that are completely dependent

on the gold that's going to come off this plant.

This season is kind of a make or break.

Oh, my gosh.

- Oh, man. - Such an idiot.

You almost don't even need to pan

that to know there is gold in it.

- That's pay. That's pay right there. - That is pay.

Don't move.

Little nervous. No gold in this.

That's not good, Fred.

We really can't afford to have bad clean-ups.

There's no guarantees in gold, buddy.

I've done some prospecting in this area of Idaho,

but I've not even been close to this spot back here.

Well, real pretty country back here.

Looks like gold country to me.

Freddy and Juan are in Western Idaho,

seven miles from historic mining town Silver City,

en route to a trio of young guns

who have called in a last ditch plea for mining help.

So we're actually going to go see a buddy of mine, Chris.

I met him about a year ago, Fred,

and worked with him a little bit.

He and his buddy Derek and his brother Matt

are out here trying to make a good go at it.

Last year they didn't do all that well.

Roger that.

And really, all three of the guys and their families

are dependent on the gold for their livelihood.

If we can get them a little more gold in their pocket,

it's going to be a big deal to them.

Well, it's a nice little setup they got down here, Freddy.

It is.

Hey, guys.

- Hey, what's going, Juan? - What's going on, Chris?

- Good to see you, buddy. - Good to see you again.

- How you've been? - Doing excellent.

- Freddy, Chris. Chris, Freddy. - Chris.

- Nice to meet you, Freddy. - Nice to meet you.

- This is my buddy Derek. - Derek, nice to meet you, Derek.

- And his brother, Matt. - Hey, Matt.

How you doing, Matt?

So, Chris, tell me a little bit about everybody's role.

- This is Derek's claims. - Okay.

You know, I worked with him a little bit last year.

We've been mining together and we kind of drug Matt into this.

He's never done it before. So...

Yeah, flying blind.

- Here we go. - Yeah, here we go.

And this is my first week ever mining.

- So I'm green. - Oh, really?

- I'm green. - That's all right.

Yeah. He's learning the ropes.

Yeah. It's been interesting.

With a decade of experience,

mine owner Derek True is all in after investing

his life savings of $125,000 to buy

and equip his own claim, named True Mine.

So to build up this operation, it's taken me about two years.

I built the trommel and then also added

the feed hopper and the other conveyor last year.

It's kind of been trial by error and the gold total

for last season ended up being 27 ounces, not enough.

We have to get 100 ounces this season.

So kind of changed things around.

So added Chris, added Matt, called them up and they wanted

to give it a go and we decided it

would be a good idea to call in Freddy and Juan.

My investment, everything I've been saving

for the last ten years is in this operation and it needs to be successful.

Yeah.

I'm glad, Juan, you guys could come up, because the biggest challenge,

though, when it comes to like cleaning it up is there's like

an amber sand or like a yellowish amber sand moissanite maybe.

It's really hard to get those sands out.

Well, let's see what it is, huh, Fred?

Yeah. I'm curious to see.

You guys living out here when you're mining here?

- Yeah. - Second home.

- We got all our families up here, too. - Oh, really?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Last year, Derek was up here pretty much by himself,

and he's having a little hard time getting...

getting things really dialed in.

This year we're kind of coming together.

So we're going to give it a shot and see

if we can all work together as a team

and if we could really get this dialed in, it could really work.

- Yeah. Really, it's make or break. - Absolutely.

I lost my... my company a little bit ago, and this is my last chance.

I'm so thankful for my brother taking me

under his wing and giving me this opportunity.

I don't want to fail him, so it's going to be

a challenge, but I accept the challenge.

The True crew have pulled in six ounces so far this season.

With 12 weeks left, they must pull in at least

another 95 ounces to turn a profit and keep their families' dreams alive.

Yeah, with the three of us being here, I mean, there is a lot on the line.

It's just the added stress of having two more families, you know.

That's a cool looking plant, guys.

How many yards an hour will it do?

It's running about 23 right now.

You need more yardage.

- You got three families dependent... - Yeah. Three mouths to feed.

Let's run a plan.

Let's run a four-hour test to see how much gold you get.

Sounds good.

Make hay when the sun shines.

Slinging dirt.

All right, let's fire it up.

Send in the water.

The four-hour test will give Freddy and Juan

the chance to assess how the wash plant runs

and highlight any flaws in their setup.

There we go.

First bucket. Here we go.

We only got three hours and 59 minutes left to go, Juan.

Nice.

When pay dirt drops into the hopper,

the conveyor belt feeds it into the small mobile eight-foot trommel

where water jets wash the gold and fine material from the rocks.

Derek's extra long 16-foot sluices

help separate the gold from the heavy mysterious sands,

the main nemesis to the operation.

That's weird.

What's that?

They got water going to the bottom of that belt.

Conveyors aren't designed to run wet.

I see what they're trying to do,

trying to use it to clean that belt off,

but at the same time it may be making him lose gold.

Look at all this material that's already come down.

A river runs through it, Juan.

Yeah, I guess we get a pan and take a look at it,

but there's a lot of stuff in there that should be going through that screen.

- Yeah, I'll go grab a pan. - Okay.

See what's in her, huh, Juan?

Yeah.

Let's hope nothing.

- Do you see any gold in it? - Yep.

One, two, three, four.

Oh, there is a nice piece right there.

A lot of heavy in there.

Yeah.

I don't know what the amber sands are.

So darn hard to separate it from the gold.

Yeah, it's pretty bad, Fred.

This is the first time in nearly 50 years

of panning gold that Freddy has encountered sand this heavy.

Gold is 19 times heavier than water and sinks to the bottom of the pan.

The lighter material is washed away first, then the heavier black sands.

But the amber sands have a weight much closer to gold,

making it extremely difficult to separate.

Being in a gold mine isn't easy,

but anything worth having doesn't always come easy.

Derek has done a lot of hard work

on building this wash plant and getting this equipment going.

And he has a lot of passion in mining like I do,

and it's really been great to see us

pull this together and make it work with Freddy and Juan's help.

Go over to your right a little more, Matt.

I'm not going to lie.

I'm not multitasking very well today.

Yeah, last year was not the best.

It started with a bunch of equipment problems

and keeping the wash plant going with one guy.

Twenty-seven ounces just was not enough gold for the effort put in.

Coming into the start of this new season

with the three of us guys depending on making money,

it has to be better than last year

or else next year, there might not be a next year.

There's three families that are completely dependent

on the gold that's going to come off of this plant.

Yep. Whatever gold's in the sluice box is feeding these guys.

Oh!

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, man.

Such an idiot.

It's going to be okay.

That's not good, Fred.

I forgot to open the rear hatch

and then all of a sudden I'm looking up at the sky.

Hopefully this will work.

So should I pull the PTO and everything out?

Just don't touch anything right now.

- Okay. - That's probably the best thing.

My brother is probably going to kick me off the site.

Hopefully, nothing's permanently damaged.

I forgot to pull the handle.

101, lift the gate.

Well, and then, I pushed... I pushed it to disengage

when it was like and then it was... just too late.

I was straight up.

Gravity took its effect.

Did you put the brake on?

No, I didn't do anything.