Hoffman Family Gold

Yee-haw!

The Hoffman family is back.

- Oh! - How you doing?

And they're on the gold.

It has the potential to really make a lot of money.

This season, they got the machines...

It's almost like going to war and this is your tank.

... to get the job done.

Holy crap!

Popping nuggets left and right.

But when Hunter takes his family's future into his own hands...

I'm basically asking you if I can run my own wash plant.

That caught me by surprise how much he doesn't wanna work with me.

Can he deliver the goods to keep the Hoffmans afloat?

Go big or go home, you know?

I think these guys might be a little bit out of their league.

Or will it be a huge distraction

that threatens to bring down their whole operation?

How about when you guys say you're gonna have a 650 over here,

don't do the opposite of that?

Knock it off. Be quiet. Let us handle this piece.

I think we're gonna have to take over this little operation.

The are we doing? Honestly, this is embarrassing.

Start throwing in the back

and start grabbing scraps.

Those valves, throw everything back to quad.

Lay flat.

Everything.

Right now, we're at this point where we need to run.

We're getting everything out of the way,

going through our checklist in our mind.

That's Dakota up in the hopper. He's working on the Sway Bars.

Sluice box is all set. We'll probably check that one more time.

Hydraulic riffles are being built right now.

Electrical, Randy's on that.

So good. It's all good.

Last minute wiring here in the, uh, in the panel.

This is all ready to go.

Generator running and...

let's get this baby turning.

Todd's got a lot of money wrapped up in this.

Build is starting to stack up.

He needs to get some gold in his pocket.

Right now, we're running on fumes.

What's going on, man?

- You got a minute? - Yeah, sure. What now?

So,

basically, Hunter wants to go out on his own.

- He wants to run his own plant. - Yeah.

He wants me to fund it, give him a go-ahead and a blessing on it.

Yeah.

And it caught me by surprise how much he doesn't wanna work with me.

You know, it's like everything I do is wrong right now and it's like...

Todd, if you could financially swing that,

I think it's gonna be good for your relationship and his, too.

I am way out on a limb.

So, it's just scary. The whole thing's very scary.

You could lose your livelihood. You'd lose a lot of money.

But what I don't wanna do is, I don't wanna lose my family.

If we had two plants going,

we have a better chance at hitting our gold.

But if this turned out to be a very bad experience for him,

it's not gonna really help Hunter in any way, shape or form.

You know, being a father is tough 'cause you wanna protect your boys

from the world and even themselves, but...

you know, if you hold them back,

you know, later, they're gonna resent you for it.

You know, you can't keep taking care of me.

You let him do it?

Part of me says no, but,

but most of me says yeah.

He's gonna sink or swim

with this

opportunity.

It's up to him.

All right.

- Thanks, Dad. - Yep.

All right. So, I got something to talk to you about

and it affects everybody.

Hunter came to me and he said he wanted to run his own plant.

Oh, geez!

That's you... What?

Yeah.

Wow!

Hunter, I wanted to give you the floor for a couple seconds

and to just tell them what you're feeling.

Well, this is like our family business.

I'm your oldest son.

Like, I've been doing this since I was ten years old.

You know, this is my tenth season.

So, I've always wanted to run my own plant

and for me, I'm just like,

I wanna be able to have a little bit of say and also, you know, I feel like,

it's like grandpa always says, no guts, no glory.

From what I know about gold mining, growing up and uh,

watching other gold miners and watching, you know, what we've done, I think

we need a second plant.

None of us can afford to go home with a loss and I think we're behind schedule.

Bottom line, it's gonna take two wash plants to get a 1,000 ounces.

We have the best machines. We have the best crew. We're on a good mine.

Why not run two plants?

I'd rather have more fire power than not enough.

So...

You know, I think you're right. I, you know, no guts, no glory, you know,

really.

For us to attain our goal

with one machine, it isn't gonna work.

Hunter,

the Holy Roller, though, has gotta come first. That is our business plan.

It's gotta come first.

I get it. Like...

Do we have enough equipment you think?

Logistically, it's gonna be super tough.

Everything's gonna be a stretch.

Everything's gonna be a stretch.

So, it's a big gamble. It's a huge, huge risk.

- It's not going to be easy. - No.

I know we're spread thin, but my mind's already made up.

I'm already committed to doing what it takes.

Okay. So, that's it.

We're gonna take a risk on this plant,

and if it becomes where it's, kinda, hurting us,

then, I will pull the plug.

Hunter, can you agree to that?

I will commit to that deal.

All right. Go to town and try to find yourself a plant.

Okay.

I wouldn't be here if we hadn't divided and tried to start our own thing, too.

I'm really appreciative. This entire thing is a gamble

and my dad's sticking his neck out.

All right, guys. Let's go.

So, I hope that, just for everybody's sake, that we succeed.

So, right now, I'm heading into Nome.

I'm gonna go meet with this guy, Nate.

Everybody tells me if I need to find something in town, this is the guy to go to.

I'm gonna try to see, you know, what he has for a wash plant.

But I've been through Nome.

There's a lot of wash plants, but there's not a lot of them

that are worth a damn.

So, we'll see what happens.

- Hunter, man. How are ya? What's going on? Come on in. - Hi.

- Grab a seat. - Thank you.

- Dude, thank you for meeting with me today. - Yeah, no problem.

- So, what's going on? - So...

I convinced my dad to

- invest in me doing my own operation this year. - Okay.

He is giving me the go-ahead to come here, try to find a plant.

You got anything more for me than just a plant?

'Cause I got big, small, I got them all.

I know beggars can't be choosers, isn't it?

I'm in Nome, where everybody is looking for a wash plant.

- Right? So, I just, whatever you have, - Yep.

um, just show me and we'll see if it's something we can make work.

Good.

You know, it's a long shot, but in a perfect world,

you know, Nate will have a wash plant that can do at least 300 yards an hour,

similar to The Holy Roller, so we can double our results.

- That's it right there. - Yep.

So, here she is!

This thing's great.

Yeah, it is.

- Dude... - You think this will do what you need?

Uh, yeah.

This is what I'm talking about.

- This thing is crazy-looking. - Yep.

Looks like a pirate ship.

She's worn, but she's still got a lot of life left in her.

I got the parts you need to make it run this season.

- Wow. - Just gonna be a lot of man hours.

While The Holy Roller is enormous, weighing close to 50,000 pounds,

this wash plant weighs a staggering 80,000 pounds.

Jeez. Now, we're talking.

You know, like, how much gold dig out this thing?

Man, they were in this trommel for six years before we bought this place

and she worked well. She's probably seen 30,000 ounces or more.

This plant's got 30,000 ounces?

At least. At minimum.

- How long has it been sitting here? - 2016.

So, she's been sitting here just gathering rust for a while.

- Damn. You know anything about the motor on it? - Yeah.

- It sat with no, no protection for years so, - Yeah.

fifty-fifty shot she's locked up.

I mean, this entire thing is a huge gamble.

This plant needs a lot of work, but right now, this is the only plant in Nome

that can even handle the kinda yard during the run, so...

I'm gonna have to go for it.

- This is the plant I need, so... - I think so.

I just don't want you to bite off more than you can chew.

It's gonna take a lot to move it.

The fully assembled wash plant is 50 feet long, 18 feet tall and 18 feet wide.

Too large to make it across the bridge in one piece.

So, Hunter will have to cut the plant into three pieces,

the base, the trommel and the hopper.

By separating each section, they estimate this will afford the largest section,

just inches of clearance as it enters the bridge.

I think it's gonna take at least four trucks to get everything out there.

No guts, no glory.

- Good. - This is exactly what I was looking for, so,

- I'm ready to go. - We'll see if we can put a deal together.

- That's good. - Okay.