Yukon Gold

Coming up on Yukon Gold...

Something funky's happened.

Stripping our cut, we're probably into that thing for 40K.

There is sweet Jesus nothing.

This could be an expensive oops.

We got broken bearings.

We've got to shut down the plant.

Do I love this sluice plant? No. Do I regret buying that one? Yes.

OK, we're closed!

See you later. I'm out of here.

Leaving Andy in charge...

It's stressful.

Hey, Andy.

The water is gushing out here.

Let's get sluicing.

Let's go. Let's do it.

6:00 a.m. in 50 Mile Valley...

Look at this fine work.

Nice job, man! Nice Job!

...miner Paul Joseph gets an early start to the day,

leaving his business partner Andy Tai behind.

Andy does the cleanups. He does them in the evenings.

He stays up late, I don't, so he has a real hard time getting out of bed.

That's all.

I used to be just the back-end business guy.

Now I really am taking more of an on-hands role, so it's a grind.

You know, my hands are sore every day,

my back, but it's nothing I can't handle.

Let's get some pay dirt.

-I checked the oil, everything's good. -You did already?

-Yeah, let's get on the hill. -Okay. Cool.

I'm the mine boss, so I just keep the guys going and the equipment going

and make sure that everything's working just like we want.

-Pile up yourself some pay. -Okay.

-I'll get the water going around. -Okay.

Halfway through the mining season,

PJ and Andy have pulled just 200 ounces of gold,

way off pace to reach their 600-ounce goal.

We're trying to keep our season alive here.

If we don't reach our goal, then the viability of the mine

and our future as miners is in question.

It's definitely all on the table.

Adding to the pressure, it's PJ's last day at the mine

before heading home to Kelowna, B.C. to visit his wife and kids.

Leaving the mine isn't always easy,

but family's important, so it's a balancing act.

Andy will be taking over for me...

but he doesn't have the knowledge I have to run the mine, so it's stressful.

Hey, hey! PJ!

Shut her down. We can't even sluice.

Fuck!

The plant's got to get put back together.

The riffles and the mats.

Fuck!

After a late-night cleanup, Andy forgot to put the runs back together.

Where's the mats?

They're there, but it's, like, half put together.

With the crew geared up to sluice, it's a costly delay.

Like, don't fucking just... Oh, my God.

There's no nuts, no nothing.

Where's all the nuts and shit? Here's three.

Bullshit, man.

Another hour we'll have to waste.

If Andy needs to sleep, then I let him sleep,

but you got to do your job and not make mistakes.

Man...

Okay.

-I'll get the pump going again. -Okay.

Good.

Aw, fuck!

PJ's mining partner, Andy, finally arrives on-site.

We were ready to fire up, and there was no mats.

I was going to probably check first thing in the morning but my bad.

Like, do your fucking job.

Don't take it all apart then not put it back together and leave it for a surprise.

I wasn't born around this stuff. Um, I wasn't born on a gold mine.

Of course I'll make mistakes.

With Andy, my patience can run thin,

and I just put it in his hands to learn and figure it out.

See you later. I'm out of here.

PJ heads off on holiday. Now Andy is in charge.

I just have to trust him. It's all it comes down to.

Things have changed a lot here.

-Oh, yeah. -Looks good.

Southeast of Dawson City, on Stowe Creek...

We're just going to scoop up this other shit.

...mining couple Chris St. Jean and Nika Guilbault are on a hot streak.

We got a little more work here to do.

Eight weeks into the 16-week season, they've already broke even,

raking in over 400 ounces of gold.

We've hit more than we had last year at the end of the year,

and we're only halfway through the season. It's a really good feeling.

It gets everybody excited and wanting to get going and make some money.

He'll have this all done in a few hours.

Yeah.

I don't think there's any stopping us. Thousand ounces it is.

Get what we need out of it, and then start hauling pay.

With the ground stripped,

Chris and his crew are ready to move the massive plant to their new cut

and make a play for a thousand ounces of gold.

It's probably a kilometer move or so, so it's a good pull.

Yeah, I'm going to need real wide eyes,

because I can't see those chutes at all, nothing.

It's a wide plant. Like, it's a big, top-heavy thing.

He's going to be in the back. I'll be in the front of you.

Mine hands Lindsay and David will be Chris's eyes on the ground.

Plant has to stay in the center of the road.

What about the bridge, though?

It is the big one.

We're 14.6 wide on the plant and 14.6 wide on the bridge,

so we don't have a lot of room for error.

We got to really watch what we're doing.

All ready to pull. Let's go.

That plant's your whole livelihood.

It's what makes you the money, right? We got to be careful.

Okay.

Lots of room on this side. You're going to be closer over here.

Just scrubbing there. Easy.

You're hitting the ripper on the tire.

Okay, you're clear. Just missing.

Yeah, you're looking good over here.

Hopefully it fits on the bridge.

They reach the makeshift bridge,

the most nerve-racking part of the move.

Slow.

We have to make sure we line up perfect.

Little bit.

If we lose a wheel or track off the side,

that ends the season for us there.

To your... left, Chris.

How much room over there, David?

Watch the tire.

Whoa, whoa. Watch the tire. The tire, the tire.

She's close.

Whoa, whoa. Hold it, Chris...

This way a little bit.

Yup. Yeah, that's good.

David, how's it on your side?

Good.

Just clearing over here.

Yeah, tires are off. That's good.

Yeah, you're golden. Awesome.

By the hair of our chinny-chin-chin.

There you go. We made it to our cut.

Oh, thank God. She's here.

That was all right. We got her.

With the plant safely hauled to his new cut,

Chris can push on towards his thousand-ounce season goal.

Our old goal this year is optimistic, but

if this cut starts producing, it's doable.

Yeah, right on, man.

There she is, yeah.

There we go.

Northwest of Whitehorse,

high up in the Ruby Mountains...

Start idling her up.

Roger that. We're ready. Everything's open.

Fire in the hole!

...it's taken almost half the season,

but prospectors-turned-miners Ed Long and Riley Gibson

are finally sluicing their claim on Rabbit Creek.

-This one looks pretty cool. -Wow! Look at that one, Eddy!

-Oh, yeah, that's... -What is it?

It's a cooked limestone, eh?

Now they're fighting hard to make up for lost time.

Our background is in geology.

There's no doubt that we know how to find gold.

Oh, yeah!

But as a first-season miner,

we want to prove that we can run a successful operation.

-We just can't give up. -No, we can't give up. That's just it.

We try this, we try that. It's like our first piece of tail.

You have to try a lot of things.

Ed's father-in-law, Walter,

has invested almost a million dollars in the operation.

We've done our testing in the area, We know, there's gold there.

We want to follow through with it and prove to him

we can find the gold that we say that's there.

Ed and Riley, they're young, and they need guidance,

so I'm here to see the first gold and to clip them kids' fingernails.

Everything's going to go good.

With the mine under Walter's watch...

- -You stay, Rackla. Stay.

...Ed and Riley have another job to do...

There they are, looking down. Get down.

Find food for camp.

Freezer's getting empty. Time to get at the hunting.

Ed and Riley have their sights set on Dall sheep in the nearby mountains.

They can't see us, they don't smell us.

We're looking better.

This is traditional territory for my First Nation,

Champagne and Aishihik First Nation.

I've been hunting and fishing back here

with my dad and mom since I was a little kid.

It's very important for us to eat off the land.

12 o'clock.

Safety's on, loaded.

Safety's on, loaded.

What the fuck is going on?

For fuck's sake.