Gold Rush

Todd: This season,

We opened up the biggest cut of our lives.

And then we fricking doubled it.

My goal was 2,700 ounces.

And you know what? We hit it.

And now, here we are with two wash plants,

600 yards an hour.

And we're only 300 ounces behind the kid.

If we're gonna beat parker, it'll be now.

It's our turn to win.

Parker: This season, we have been to hell and back.

But despite all the fighting,

We somehow managed to hit our goal.

I mean, we've got 3,000 ounces.

And we're still not done.

I don't know if that's gonna be enough to beat todd.

But we're gambling everything we've got

On whatever is underneath that creek bed.

Narrator: On this season finale of "gold rush"...

Todd: Two plants, 600 yards an hour!

Hey! Juan!

That turbo's red hot!

If we stop, everything will freeze up.

Jack: Our best season ever.

Are we caught on the bank?

Parker: It's our final push of the season.

Oh, ho!

You make my life worthwhile.

The weather is just going to hell.

Parker: There was a little rivalry going this season.

Do you know what hoffman ended up at?

I do.

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Narrator: Dawn at mckinnon creek.

The hoffman crew is ready to start the day shift.

But the yukon winter is about to hit.

Turin: Looks bad.

Everything's froze.

Anyday, water in the wash plant will freeze

And mining will be over for the season.

Just go ahead and turn it on. See what it does.

Turin: The antifreeze will get into the water.

The ice will start to melt.

And it'll help get traction.

Narrator: Their gold haul stands at 2,710 ounces,

Worth nearly $3 million,

Their best season yet.

Hey, kev! Bump the sandster for me.

But 5 months of relentless running

Have taken their toll on man and machine.

Holy

Belt's on its way out all the way down.

Probably about six holes and counting.

To have any chance of beating parker,

They can't afford to stop for repairs.

Turin: I might just run it till it's frozen

And hope we get through that pile.

Narrator: They've stockpiled a mountain of pay dirt

They believe contains $500,000 worth of gold.

But monster red can't sluice it all

Before the yukon winter freezes them out.

We got big jar of gold

In that big-ass pile of dirt right there, right?

I wanna see it in a jar on the scale.

Narrator: To avoid leaving any precious gold in the dirt,

Todd's rented a massive wash plant, fort knox,

From his neighbor, seamus christie.

-Right there? -Perfect!

This is the biggest thing we've ever pulled off,

I'll guarantee you that.

Narrator: To save time,

Todd plans to unload the 75-ton beast in one piece.

What we're gonna do is try to hook that bar

That's out here, hook it around with each bucket.

And hopefully we pull the plant off this way,

Not pull the plant off this way.

Okay. Let's go. Let's pick it up.

Andy, a little -- pull a little more on andy's side!

Have andy push -- pull!

-Yeah, keep coming straight. -Now, andy!

Andy! Only andy!

Todd: Easy.

Way trickier than it looks.

Going straight back.

Go!

Got it off the trailer. Step one.

Yeah, seamus!

Turin: Gonna move the conveyor into place.

And it's just hooking up water and electricity.

And everything's getting real close.

Ho! It's about that far from the other one.

Hold on! Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Narrator: While the crew struggles to get fort knox up and running...

Man: Dave, dave! The sand conveyor stopped.

Turin: Shut the feeder off, kev! Shut the feeder off!

Narrator: ...Kevin has been feeding monster red alone.

Sand conveyer quit!

Hey, look how much sand's in there.

Kevin: Hey! You guys are all over there at the plant!

You cannot let these conveyors stack up.

-What do you want me to do? -Somebody's gotta

Be shoveling this stuff! -Calm down!

-Hey! Who? -Hey.

You want me to stop in between dumping the feeder...

I don't care who shovels it. It's

This is

-Calm down. Hey. -I don't care who shovels it!

-But I can't! -I'm putting a plant together!

What's the point of having another plant

If we can't keep this one running?

Hey, guys, listen.

Let's shut this off until we get that one done...

-What? -'cause he's right.

Todd: We gotta have somebody watch this one.

Let's say this one's down for a shift

While we're all putting that one together.

Every shift you run after that, you're doubling it.

Put her there. Sorry I yelled at ya.

Come on.

The sand built up under this tail wheel and stopped it.

You know, where kevin's feeding it from,

You can't see this part of this conveyor.

Narrator: As soon as they clear monster red's tailings conveyor...

...The entire hoffman crew

Moves over to finish building fort knox.

Try to get this conveyor set

And, hopefully before long, start running that pay pile.

This looks good. -This is

How we're gonna get rid of the million-dollar mountain.

Pretty cool.

Todd, everything's ready to go.

Todd: 600 yards an hour. That's our gold,

And we're not gonna leave here without it.

We got double the trouble now.

Let's help each other out

And get through that fricking pile.

Let's kick parker's ass, okay?

Bring it in and fire it up.

-Yeah! -Yeah!

Narrator: Fort knox is 19 years older than monster red.

But it can run at least as much dirt --

300 yards an hour.

With two of the biggest wash plants in the klondike,

They will instantly double their gold recovery.

Firing up monster red.

The hoffman crew now has a fighting chance

Of running all of their $500,000 pay pile

Before winter forces them to quit...

Tree's going!

And just maybe get more gold than parker schnabel.

Ah, it feels good to be scooping into this side.

Todd: Rock 'n' roll!

Yeah!

We got two plants making gold right now.

Todd: You know what? We're gonna get that gold for the guys.

Might even beat the kid.

¶

Narrator: All season, tony beets has been fighting to get

The 900 ounces of gold he needs to pay for his dredge.

He's produced 609 ounces, worth over $650,000.

But he's still 300 ounces short of his season goal.

One last monster cleanup would prove

That dredging for gold has a future in the klondike.

But frozen water has burst a pipe

On tony's 75-year-old dredge.

Something's wrong with the water filter we built there.

Filter's crucial.

Hey, gene! Might wanna shut it down here.

Soon as I came down there,

There's water pissing everywhere.

Frost pushed the gasket out is what it looked like to me.

Yeah. Looks like a gasket's ripped.

-Yep. -Good warning here.

The winter is definitely on its way.

All righty.

Quick fix here.

We'll get this installed and be back up and running.

It always surprises me in the fall

How quick the cold creeps up, though.

Gene: Dodged a bullet there.

Just a simple gasket that got froze and pushed out.

One thing for sure -- it's gonna get cold.

Winter's coming. So gotta try and dry dock it.

Narrator: If they don't get the dredge out of the water

Before the big freeze, it will be crushed by ice.

Dark in the morning and dark at night.

Well, winter's coming. It's time to park the dredge

And get the crew on winterizing stuff.

Put things away right and be ready to go in the spring.

Now, if you want me to do this right, we need to have the crew.

Whatever.

Narrator: To keep the dredge running,

21-year-old monica takes charge...

Monica: It's not my favorite place.

You have to watch those buckets come up,

Make sure there's no rocks.

Make sure you're actually pulling dirt up.

I don't like it.

...While gene preps the dry dock on his own.

I'm getting pretty irritated with the whole situation.