Gold Rush

-How's it going? -Good to see you.

Good to see you, man.

Klondike gold miner Parker Schnabel is a man with a plan.

-Here to build a plant? -Here to build a plant.

And a new toy.

To haul in as much gold as possible

at his Dominion Creek claim,

Parker's ready to unleash his new million-dollar wash plant.

Made it here in one piece, I see.

It looks nice.

This wash plant, it's got a lot more sluice run width,

and so that's what should increase our yardage

and help us get through all of the pay here

at Dominion in the Money Pit that we have to do.

It's a bit of a gamble going with something that's untested

late in the season, but we'll roll those dice.

Two years ago, Parker and expert wash plant maker

Jeff Turnell went on a mission to New Zealand.

With those sluice vents on skids like that,

and them being two separate pieces,

it's gonna move, like, super easy.

To design a cutting-edge plant custom-made for Parker.

Good job, man.

We better get on building a real one.

Parker's new gold-catching machine...

boasts self-leveling skids on the shaker...

and the sluices.

The sluice box is the biggest Parker owns and can handle up

to 250 yards of pay dirt per hour,

25% more than his largest plant now, Big Red,

which means it could deliver an additional $1 million more

the season.

We have a lot of sluicing to do and it's late in the year.

I'd like to build our new plant

because that has four feet wider sluice runs,

a bit bigger than Big Red,

so we're shutting that plant down.

So it'll make a difference for sure.

I'm stoked to put it to work.

We definitely need it.

At the rate we're going, we're not really getting through

ground very fast, so this will help.

I'm hoping we can get it assembled and up in the pit by the end of the week.

So Parker is talking about bringing in the new wash plant

that he had designed and built,

but we're going to be firing up

an unknown plant here to try and finish things out,

which has always given us a little grief in the past.

Up to this point, Parker's relied on wash plant

Sluicifer, now running on his Australia Creek claim,

and Big Red, which is chewing through pay dirt

at his newly acquired Dominion Creek claim.

The new plant has wider sluice runs than Big Red.

It should allow us to run more yardage per hour.

Hopefully this one works as good as it looks on paper.

With only enough resources to run two plants at a time,

Parker's decided to pull Big Red in favor of

the new wash plant.

Right now, the big pressure here at Dominion

is to get this new wash plant set up.

And as soon as it's ready to go,

we're going to shut Big Red down,

pull the conveyors, bring them over here,

and fire this thing up.

Only time will tell if it was the right move or

if we should have stuck with good old Big Red.

So as far as getting the skids under it,

that's the one thing that I'm a little concerned about.

Before dragging the plant to the cut,

Parker and Jeff must lift the shaker frame

and attach its unique metal skids.

We've got to lift up the front of the plant.

I'll bring a loader over and go find some blocking.

Oh, I don't like that.

Hey, Parker?

What?

We're not high enough yet, are we?

I think we'll have to put a couple in here now.

We could probably just do it right in the center,

-but... -Not a big fan of that.

-It's a little bit questionable. - It is.

I know when we lift this other end,

it's going to want to roll.

The 30-ton shaker sits dangerously on

a Jenga tower of wood blocks.

If we had one big crane that could handle the weight of this,

that would work.

We'll just rig the crane up on the other side

so we get the skids lined up, and it'll just pick

and we'll just slide them in.

I'm the wrong person to have around in these circumstances.

I should probably just leave you alone for an hour.

I was thinking the same thing.

Thanks, Jeff.

When you lift, just boom.

It's in the air.

I'm just gonna line things up.

You go down, Jordan.

-Right about there. -Yeah, that's good.

One done, three to go.

-There it is. -Yeah.

One more.

-Perfect. -There you go.

Perfect.

Metal skids attached.

All right, all right.

We got our brand new wash plant heading out to the cut.

Mitch is ready to drag the new plant into

Dominion's money pit.

-All right, take it away. -Here we go.

This thing still has the new wash plant smell to it.

Last thing I want to do is break this wash plant here

before it's ever seen any dirt go through it.

For new names, trying to decide between

Rock Gobbler, Goldy Box, or Goldy Rocks.

I'm hoping for Goldy Box, because every time we shut

that thing down, I want to see a lot of gold.

Steady, steady, steady. A little bit more.

Stop.

There we go.

Plant in place.

Call it good. Put this thing together and get it fired up.

Parker's now one step closer to shutting down Big Red.

-She's level.-And firing up his million-dollar

gold-catching machine.

I still got a long way to go right now to hit

our 1,000 ounce goal.

And I mean, the weather's really changing.

There's no doubt about that.

100 miles away, with winter fast approaching,

the clock is running out on Rick Ness' comeback season.

So far, Rick's brought in just 461 ounces of gold,

less than half of his 1,000-ounce season goal.

We were planning on running Rally Valley with Monster Red by now,

and we're not. So at the moment,

most of my crew's still over keeping the Bench going.

I got Rocky...

To make up for his shortfall, Rick wants to run Rally Valley

pay dirt as soon as possible.

So he's going to pull his crew from the Bench cut

and shut down his other plant, Rocky.

Rocky's been a great plant, but we can only run about

100 yards an hour through that.

And with Monster Red, you know, we can run well over 300.

And I know the best gold we're going to mine all year

is here in Rally Valley.

The whole season's been leading up to the big ending here in Rally Valley.

Firing up Monster Red and putting as much gold

as we can in the box right before the snow flies.

So I need to get the whole team over here,

just let them know what the plan's going to be for the rest of the year.

Come here, good boy.

Yo.

Hi.

So how's everything going up there?

Good.

I can't say the same for down here in Rally Valley.

So we're trucking pay out of there,

but it just ain't going quick enough.

And at this point in the season,

I think it's time to just stop what we're doing on the Bench,

shut down Rocky, and just get everybody in Rally Valley

and focus on getting Monster Red fired up, so...

How long does it take?

We're still days and days away from running.

I don't know, the gold's getting chunkier and chunkier.

That seems to be, like, really rich pay.

I don't necessarily want to stop what

we're doing up there.

I think there's a lot of opportunity up there,

but I know what's in Rally Valley.

Five days, man. That puts us five days behind here.

I don't know. It's just, to me, we've been pushing this off for so long.

Like, when's enough enough?

Well, if this is going to happen,

it's got to be worth our time.

I mean, I want to see 100 ounces by the end of the week.

Can you do that?

All right.

Talk me into it, Buzz.

All right, then you grab the 700.

I'll take the 460.

You got five days, and see how it goes.

Well, that didn't really go how I planned it.

But there's one thing I can't argue with,

and that's the opportunity to keep gold coming in.

So it's over to Buzz, make it worth it.

Get 100 ounces.

If that happens, then, you know,

I can take the five-day hit on Rally Valley.

Sluicing with Rocky,

Foreman Buzz Legault's best week

at the Bench is just 75 ounces.

You know, so far, Rocky's been treating us very well.

We've been running it 12 hours a day.

He's been giving us lots of gold.

Holy .

Okay, let's stop feeding.

That's a gusher, right?

Hey, Rick or Buzz, could you come down