Yukon Gold

Coming up on Yukon Gold...

-Is that thunder? -No, no!

911. The river just blew through the banks.

The river rises really fast and it becomes a nightmare.

Samson!

Come talk to me! I can't see fuck all.

I just need some fuck alone time. Like, fuck off away from me.

If he can't prove himself, he's going to look for another job.

I can't do this, buddy.

I'm scared, Kivi. I might have to go back on chemo.

I'm just knackered this morning.

6:00 a.m. on Stowe Creek.

Ugh.

Mining partners Chris St. Jean

and Nika Guilbault get an early start with their crew.

Nika and I, we've hired more experienced help...

Two veterans, Riley and Lindsay.

It's been a real big help.

Then we've got David.

He's brand-new to anything, so we'll see.

It's going to take the right people to get to the thousand ounces.

Before they head to work, rookie David opens a package from home.

I get to sit down for this one.

Yeah, David's got the funniest addiction ever.

The package has just arrived. It's from my mom.

It's maple syrup.

It's better than Christmas time.

19 years old and from Quebec, so maple syrup's a big thing.

I can't even watch this.

And he drinks it straight.

God, David, how do you not have any cavities?

He travelled from Quebec in a pick-up.

He said to himself he was going to mine.

It didn't matter how.

He went to 40 mine sites. 40!

And everybody rejected him and he didn't give up.

God... I don't even know what to say about that, David.

All right, let's head out.

Just one month into the season,

Chris has already scored 250 ounces of gold.

We've had the best start we've ever had, but there's no letting up now.

We can't leave anything behind in the big cut.

So you just want to get in there as fast as you can.

Today it's all hands on deck to make the five-kilometer move

to the final section of the big cut.

Okay, just up, up. And curl the ripper.

Cool...

That's good.

The tracks are all looking good.

Between Riley and Lindsay, you can't ask for a better crew.

It doesn't get any better than this.

You're clear.

With the plant in safe hands...

All right, let's get this cocksucker hooked up.

...Chris enlists young David's help moving his junk feeder off the cut.

This feeder is right in the fucking way.

Two weeks ago, Chris and Nika

bought the $60,000 feeder sight unseen.

So many things wrong with it that it's not operational.

It is a piece of crap.

It's been collecting dust ever since.

I'm pissed off. I don't like getting ripped off.

Stay out of the way if that chain fucking breaks.

I don't want anybody's face getting ripped off.

I'm the new guy.

I am the one that has less experience.

Just stand back where I can see you.

Eventually I want to run a mine,

so I am really thankful to Chris and Nika to give me a chance.

-Whoa. - Are we okay?

I need you to tell me what's going on!

Chris cannot see the feeder from the CAT cabin,

so I'm his eye all around the feeder.

Well? What's going on? Okay?

No, just-- Don't move. I think...

What's that?

We haven't had the greatest luck with the younger generation

helping us out here.

Sometimes I think to myself, "What's he doing?"

Well, talk to me. I can't see fuck all!

Forward.

Fuck sakes!

I need to know what's going on.

We've got a fuck-up now.

A real big fuck-up.

The feeder is jammed up tight against the dozer.

Fuck!

Jesus Christ!

Cock-sucking waste of time now.

I just need some fuck alone time. Fuck off, away from me.

Lindsay, come over here so I can get a hand.

Okay.

Chris is frustrated because we struggled to communicate.

And it's not a good thing.

I need some communication in the CAT.

With David, you have to really mentor him along.

Just try lifting a bit.

You're clear.

It's slow and tedious work.

It's all good.

Good.

Rocks. Block the wheels.

We're done.

Finally.

Okay up there?

Oh yeah. Fine.

It's time to move on.

She's a grind today, I'll tell you.

South of Dawson City, on the road to Indian River...

I busted my balls here for years,

and I pretty well pissed all my money away.

What's the point here after a while? You know what I mean?

We'll get it. We'll make it all worthwhile.

Four weeks into the 16-week gold mining season,

Big Al's on the hunt for a new pit...

I just-- I've got to do something.

...with help from his buddy, geologist Kevin Kivi.

To find gold, I used to rely on my gut quite a bit,

but it seems to be letting me down lately.

That's why Kivi's here. We're using science.

Until Al finds new ground to sluice,

he's not bringing in any gold.

Want me to guide you?

There's not a lot of spare money right now.

Worried about paying the bills.

You've got to watch, because people have gone broke.

That's good.

It's a sad thing, because you could be next.

And we've got water!

Al and Kivi take soil samples from the far edge of the claim...

We fill the hopper about halfway, right across.

...and run them through the mini-sluice to test for gold.

Please, Kivi. Come on, buddy.

We need all the gold we can get.

Ouch. Fuck!

That hurt.

I can't do this, buddy.

-I got it. -I would, but I can't.

Big Al's still recovering from a rare form of blood cancer

that kept him in a wheelchair most of last year.

Health-wise, this season I've been up and down quite a bit.

Tired lots.

But I'm working 12 hours and 14 hours a day.

I'm my own worst enemy, like everybody else out there.

Okay...

We tilt it,

and then we put a block under one side.

To get to the last of the sample,

they've got to hoist the 200-pound steel box on its side.

I can get it. You get out of the way.

Aah!

Holy...

Holy fuck!

That scared the shit out of me. I thought I was going to get it.

I'm still weak. Still... balance is tough.

There goes all our fucking gold.

Yeah.

They've spilled the last of the precious paydirt onto the ground.

Fuck!

Here, let me do that.

Tired of being a fucking cripple.

Okay.

Good, Kivi. Moving forward again.

This is the bottom, the two middles, and one side, eh.

Al and Kivi examine the soil sample for signs of gold.

I'm begging.

Little dirty bastard.

Naw, this one sucks.

The gold is not showing up.

I'm getting a little stressed, because...

time's marching on up here.

Finding a new pit is Al's only hope to salvage his season.

My brain has started to believe I can't,

and I'm fighting it and saying, "Yeah, you can,"

and it's just

not registering.

Let's boogie!

West of Dawson City, in 50 Mile Valley...

Let's just go walk to the end of here.

There's nothing that you can't see from right here that we've done.

...mining partners Andy Tai and Paul Joseph

are under the gun to start sluicing their new cut...

You can see we stripped this whole thing off.

The creek goes like this, there's a pile there at the end.

Yeah. I've known PJ for years.

We're elementary school friends from Whitehorse.

All this stuff is all bottom gravels and bedrock.

PJ is the mine's operations manager.

He understands the basics of stripping the cuts and getting down to the paydirt.

Turbo panned in here, took random pans and was pulling gold in random pans.

Yeah, well, I'll go take a look.

I'm the back-end business guy,

so I want to bring top-quality dirt to the plant.

Our mining strategy this season is

to stage our cuts better than we have in the past

so we're not wasting our time putting garbage through the plant

and burning money.

But a month into the mining season,

they've pulled less than 100 ounces of gold out of the ground.

So sluice, sluice, sluice today,