Gold Rush

On this "gold rush".

As the price of gold hits an all-time high,

Tony beets hunts for a new monster machine...

Yeah.

That could double his gold haul.

Yee-haw!

Fred Lewis faces the biggest decision of his mining career.

I'll take the burden on this.

If that doesn't pan out, it's on me.

It's always a gamble, man.

Rick ness.

Confronts the unexpected.

And is shaken to his core.

We got a bad accident.

And Parker Schnabel gamble's big on new ground...

Ready to go drilling, spend some more money.

While his crew races to cash in

got all kinds of hitting the fan around here.

And build the ultimate war chest.

- What? - -Holy.

Yeah. No, this is definitely a record-breaker.

Captions paid for by discovery communications.

We'll meet you at gold daughters.

At 3:00 p.M. Today.

Awesome. Thanks. John.

In the gold fields of central Alaska,

26-year-old Parker Schnabel is determined to cash in.

On a 21st century gold rush.

I really want to start another operation.

And get more gold coming in.

Like, gold prices are on a tear right now, too.

The only thing we need is ground.

After striking out on his first prospect,

He's come to Fairbanks

- I'm Parker. - Elora.

Nice to meet you.

To meet one of alaska's biggest private landowners...

- Hello. - Parker Schnabel.

- How's it going? - Good. How are you doing, man?

John reeves.

- Come on in, man. - Ho-ho-ho.

What's bringing you up this part of the country?

I'm actually up here doing some exploration.

Yep.

And somebody recommended I come talk to you.

Good. I'm glad you're here.

Come on over, man.

We're really looking for, like, large blocks of ground,

For, like, pretty big dirt-moving setups.

The bigger, the better, really.

We have several large blocks of mining properties.

That we've kept intact. Okay.

And there's about 10,000 acres of patented land.

And then another 10,000 of state claims.

Holy cow.

I have some that you'd find of interest,

About 3,000 acres.

Wow. I want to do some testing.

Rich, rich creek,

Just north of town a little bit.

So you want to do a little drilling on one of the blocks?

I'd love to.

And the fact that you're drilling.

Shows me you're pretty savvy a gold miner.

Not everybody does that.

It's a big move to come to a new area,

And so I want to make sure that we cross our "t" s.

And dot the "I" s.

And as far as deals go.

I think it's probably time for us to have a chat.

With these guys out of here.

Yeah? Yeah.

- Yeah, let's have it. - Get out of here, Dave.

Adios, dude.

Behind closed doors,

Parker negotiates a deal to test ground and cleary creek,

Another job for drill expert Liam Ferguson.

John seems cool, actually.

He's fine with us going in there and going drilling.

So you've got the truck coming.

To pick the drill up in the morning?

That'll work.

20 miles outside Fairbanks,

The cleary creek claim is historically rich in gold.

Old timers here got 10 ounces per 100 yards of pay dirt,

Seven times what Parker normally gets in the Klondike.

So we're gonna move it out to one of these blocks of ground.

Just north of town, cleary creek,

And see if we can find some gold.

Halfway through the season,

Tony beets is only a third of the way.

To his 3,000-ounce goal.

Now he's on a mission to boost his production.

And make the most of record gold prices.

In the remote Yukon wilderness,

He's got a lead on a mobile wash plant.

That looks like a lot of something.

Yeah, yeah, it definitely does.

This 35-ton trommel was designed and built

30 years ago by a maverick gold miner.

It has a 40-foot drum and runs on wheels,

But it only worked for one season.

Before it was abandoned.

Now tony has struck a $400,000 deal to buy it.

The first issue is getting across the stream.

Without getting wet feet.

Well, it's definitely big.

That's handy.

The trommel is designed to be fed with pay dirt.

Directly from the cut.

It spits the tailings straight out the back.

When it is sluiced everything in range,

It moves along on four giant wheels.

To sluice the next bit of gold-rich pay.

Well, it should.

Should be easier than moving a dredge.

Yeah.

I think so, too.

Back at tony's paradise hill camp...

Yes, I do.

He pulls together a seven-man crew...

And a massive convoy of equipment...

To haul the trommel back over the 100 miles.

Of mountain road and dirt track.

He has to shut down his whole operation until he gets back,

Costing over $60,000 a day.

Youngest son and heavy-load specialist mike.

Leads the charge.

The hardest part of this trip is probably gonna be.

Trying to get across the ferry.

Weight-wise, not an issue at all right now.

- Length-wise, though. - - that might be an issue.

Because I'm give or take 80 to 85 feet long,

And this ferry is only 80 feet long.

If they feel that I'm too long, they won't let me on.

If mike can't fit on the ferry,

The nearest bridge across the mighty Yukon.

Is 175 miles downstream in the wrong direction.

I think the captain wants to talk to me.

I don't know, but I'm not that heavy.

Hopefully, yeah.

We're on the ferry,

But I don't know if they're letting us across.

Now we're on our way.

With the river behind them,

The convoy hits the top of the world highway,

One of the most northerly highways in the world,

Heading for the road head above moose creek.

So what we got out here so far is the lunchroom-slash...

That's also a bedroom in there,

So that's one person to sleep in there.

We got a loader and a d6, the Oshkosh.

We got the Volvo 220 hoe.

We got two trucks.

We got a pipe layer.

We got a fuel tank, and we got a mechanic's truck.

And so it's quite the little operation.

Just to get a little plant out of there.

Hey, Stefan.

Stefan, this is Fred.

Yes.

Hey, brother, you're hitting the side of the wall.

Over here pretty good. It's digging up the excavator.

We got a dent on the back, so just be careful.

Got it.

If I continue at this current pace,

I'd lose every penny I invested.

I need to recoup.

I mean, right now I've recouped nothing.

Fred Lewis and his crew of combat veterans.

Are halfway through the season with less than an ounce of gold.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,

But it's kind of turning into a nightmare.

These guys came here to mine,

So their mindset right now is, where's the gold?

And I've got to have to show them some gold.

Relatively quickly in order to keep them happy.

As the most experienced miner on the crew,

Senior airman kendell madden is the forman.

We're getting later into the season now.

We don't have much gold to show for it,

Which is pretty, pretty sad at this point, you know.

- Hello. - Parker! Can you hear me?

How you doing, buddy?

I can hear you. How are you?

I mean, I'm alive.

But everything else seems to be.

Freakin' about as hard as it could possibly be here.

There's not a lot of gold, and I'm just spending money.

It definitely tries the patience,

Especially when you're first starting out.

And don't have a lot of experience under your belt.

So I was hoping I could run things by you.

And see what you're thinking, because right now.

With this short period of time...

Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to help.

A good use of your time would be trying to do.

As much testing around the site as you can,

Because if you're sluicing stuff that has no gold in it,

You're wasting your time.