Bering Sea Gold

Narrator: Late September, nome, alaska.

Sign that the windows are closing

When you got snow on the mountain.

the clock is ticking

On the 2015 summer mining season.

Well, right now, it's emergency mode.

Dad and I have over $1 million

Into this whole setup.

And desperation is setting in.

We haven't really made that much money.

Hope to god we get a lot of gold.

That's kinda what we're here for.

What started as a gentleman's game --

Mr. Gold is about to be mr. Fool's gold.

Is about to become a turf war.

No such thing as a fair fight.

This is gold mining. This is as close

To being modern-day pirates as you can get.

Amen to that.

And the gloves

Are coming off.

I don't know who the he thinks he's attacking,

But I'll break his jaw.

thank you, mr. Gold.

That's what you get when you with the reaper.

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Narrator: On the outskirts of town,

It's nearly judgment day.

The mining season's comin' to an end.

I've been workin' probably 18-hour days.

It's do or die.

The pomrenkes are grinding around the clock

As months of hard labor,

A year of prep, and over a million bucks

All come down to the next 24 hours.

Seems we got 45, 50, in the box right now.

And tomorrow's scheduled

First-ever inland mining cleanup.

Hopefully, this sluice box

Is gonna liven up and make us all rich!

My nerves are completely shot, goin' into the first cleanup

And wonderin' how much gold is in that sluice box.

I just spent money and spent money

And the christine rose crew's gonna be here

And my family's gonna be here also.

I have my doubts about the whole thing

And if there's any gold here or not.

It's been a lot of work to get this thing up and runnin'

And gettin' it to where it needs to be.

Narrator: For father and son, this cleanup

Will also mark a fork in the road.

Shawn wants to take a chance and go to bluff.

I wanted to take a chance and go back inland mining.

I think I got a better chance

Of making gold here than he does down at the bluff.

Narrator: For over a year --

The dozer: $125,000, right off the bat.

Hopefully, I can keep up

And make more gold than what he can spend.

Shawn has supported and funded his dad's bucket-list dream.

But I appreciate you guys all showin' up

For the groundbreaking ceremony here

For our our new inland mining operation.

Yeah. -Narrator: Putting his own

Ambitions for the christine rose on hold.

I wanna go down to the bluff.

Again. -You get 300 ounces,

Then maybe you can go to bluff, maybe.

And again.

You guys can't go to bluff yet.

You gotta help me get the inland going, shawn.

All for the sake of his pops.

Let's get her done.

Hey.

Now --

Getting ready for the bluff trip

That's been put off, put off, put off

Because I've been out here, helpin' dad.

Shawn needs this cleanup to be the end of a promise

And the start of a journey.

Hopefully, the gamble pays off.

The reason I'm putting off going to the bluff is

Because I need the inland mining to be successful

And, otherwise, it's gonna be another year

Of being skinny and not havin' a lot of money.

Inland doesn't start producing gold soon,

We're gonna have to start sellin' equipment.

We got all the overburden off,

Which doesn't have any gold in it.

We got into the first pay layer,

Which has a little bit of gold in it.

And now, we're into the very bottom: Bedrock.

We're at the bottom of the pay.

All the flat rock that's not washed is bedrock.

It's a solid rock.

You can't go any further.

There's no more gold.

Narrator: After hitting the final pay layer.

Hope all this hard work pays off.

This last pan could be a look at the future.

Ho ho ho ho!

Yeah, we're gettin' some gold now.

That's the good stuff, right there.

We need to get it hauled out of here.

Hit the mother lode.

Hopefully, by the end of the day,

We'll have this corner all cleaned out.

This is all about movin' dirt and movin' it efficiently

And keeping control of the grade of dirt

That you're bringing out of the pit.

We need to keep that wash plant runnin',

Tryin' to put as much gold in the box as possible.

Narrator: While the grind is on...

7 miles to the southwest...

On the reaper.

We haven't had a really successful season.

But we're about to.

Narrator: The fightin' kellys are ridin' a hot streak.

I got a tip on this grout.

We're turning our season around

Because we're finally getting our system dialed in.

The rec area is paying off and we're starting

To work together a little bit better 'cause we're seeing gold.

My family's great when you throw money at 'em.

Narrator: This summer --

You sandbar piece of .

After striking out on their big solomon river adventure

Far east of town --

There's no -- on this entire claim.

The kellys managed to pull themselves out of the fire.

Oh, my god!

Bringing in over 29 ounces

From the west beach public mining area.

♪ go-o-o-o-ld ♪

♪ ye-e-s ♪

Now --

A smart person would keep going right to here

And keep making half an ounce an hour

And try to salvage the season, but not us.

Instead of cashing in on their hot spot,

Brad has a new plan.

See that point, that whitish point?

Right there, around that point,

Is where we're going.

Really, that's where we're going.

Head 10 miles west of town

To an unexplored area known as state land.

You're gonna go down, you're gonna say,

"dad, there's so much gold down here.

You gotta check this out."

Plan to go to state land, where does it come from?

Like all my plans, they come from god.

You know, he bestows these thoughts into my head

And I run with it.

Kris: So, we're moving to stage 3

Of our cluster year.

We're gonna call it the hail mary pass.

Everything's a hope and a dream.

We hope to god, when we catch it,

There's something gold in there.

Narrator: The only problem?

The reaper itself,

Not exactly built for a sea cruise.

These 4-foot rollers, man. We just got it put together.

We got an awesome system. I'm not risking it.

We got a 20-horse engine.

You know, we shouldn't be 10 miles from anywhere.

We have, basically, something you use for a fishing boat,

Not a big dredging operation.

Dad hates to go to tomcod because it's too far away

And, now, we're gonna be going -

3 miles past where dad hates to go.

You want to know why?

Because I'm gettin' better at this game,

This ocean-dredging bull ,

And I know that there is gold.

It's that way and it's that way.

You gotta go to the extreme.

Narrator: While the kelly boys battle the waves...

3 miles to the west...

On claim 44.

Oh, my god!

That's what I'm talking about.

Oh, there's little pieces of gold right there.

They're just blowing up, dude.

We're gonna get a huge cleanup, straight up.

Captain zeke tenhoff is wrapping a 7-hour dive on the gold.

Dude, I want to send you down here to dredge it up.

All right.

I'll mop around.

Honestly, the gold I'm seeing on lease 44,

It's damn good.

It's as good as anything I've ever seen, anywhere.

I really wish that I'd made the discovery

Earlier on in the season, with the havilah, 'cause,

Honestly, seeing the gold that I'm seeing out on lease 44 now,

It would've been a 500-ounce season, easy.

Narrator: This summer --

Welcome aboard blue water gold.

All right. Well, I'm glad I could help ya.