Yukon Gold

Coming up on Yukon Gold...

Daddy's going to work.

I have to get gold to provide for my family.

It doesn't look like you guys are doing that well.

It's just hard with him being away.

Kyle's in town. Not enough gas to get out.

-Oh, fuck! -Should I get somebody else?

I don't have to babysit you.

You know what you need to do, do it.

We have really limited window to start getting some pay through,

and when it rains, it doesn't make it any easier.

-Don't pull your hip out. -Oh, my god.

Northwest of Whitehorse, at Rabbit Creek...

All right...

Bring on the gold!

Whoo! Been a long time coming!

...after weeks of setbacks,

prospectors turned gold miners Ed Long and Riley Gibson

have finally hit their stride.

We're running so much more dirt.

We're not having breakdowns. Everybody's on the same page.

Ah! Big Bertha, I'm back!

All our ducks are slowly lining up, and it looks pretty good right now.

But it's been a steep learning curve,

and the new miners have only got a month left in the season

to prove themselves.

We're definitely feeling pressure. The season's coming to a close rapidly.

We can't go too much harder than we're already going.

We're still rookie miners here.

We're learning lots every day

at how to be more efficient and move that dirt.

I think eventually, we'll turn into seasoned miners.

-Do you know how to close this? -No.

Fucking Jerry.

As they make their final push for gold...

There's a master key here somewhere.

...it's all hands on deck.

Oh, I remember.

Rookie mine hand Trevor is pushing up pay in the D6 dozer.

Nice ride.

Trevor's another mine hand that's also my brother-in-law.

Woo!

We got a lot of family members out here helping out.

We're doing whatever it takes to make this operation a success.

Yeah!

You're an old dog, 44 years old.

A little late to start something new in life,

but better trying than not trying at all.

Hopefully I didn't break anything.

- I'm getting the hang of it. - Ed's wife,

Kristen, is also pitching in.

This is kind of scary.

She's learning to operate the loader,

delivering pay dirt to the plant.

It's definitely important for me to help out any way possible.

We need everybody to work together to keep everything rolling.

Winter's just around the corner,

and we've just got to keep sluicing and find that gold.

But Mother Nature isn't going to make it easy.

Well, we got our moose rain coming,

and it's going to cause us problems.

Moose rain is two weeks of solid rain in August.

That rain is for the moose.

They use that rain to clean up their horns.

My great grandma used to call it "moose rain."

It's been passed down generation to generation.

With her shift over, Kristen heads back to camp.

Up at the camp, it's busy.

Somebody's got to watch the kids.

That's what it's all about, is spending time with the family

and making a living with them.

I wouldn't want to do it any other way.

Ah, Mommy!

-Oh, my god! -Holy shit!

Walking with her boys... Kristen got stuck in a bad spot.

Jesus!

Heavy rains have turned the mud into quicksand.

-Here, I got this! -Okay, keep holding. Grab my shoulder.

-Don't pull your hip out. -We've got it, Kristen.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

This is brutal.

Okay, yeah!

It's coming!

-Oh, my god! -Wow! Holy...

-Wow. -Oh, my god.

- Crazy, man. -Thank you.

Definitely scared...

especially when I wasn't sure if anyone was going to hear me

and I was going down fast.

That's crazy!

That stuff is deadly, boy!

Yeah, you can't get out when you're stuck in that stuff.

You need some help.

Oh, my god!

Now I'm soaking wet and ready to get changed here, get back at it.

It's totally do or die now.

We have really limited window now to start getting some pay through,

and every time it rains, it doesn't make it any easier.

Well, hopefully, she'll be a grand day in the neighborhood.

South of Dawson City, at Indian River...

Good looking stuff. Fuck yeah!

...Big Al McGregor is fighting hard

to make every day of sluicing count in the new camp cut.

She's all pay!

All the gold in the camp cut's been looking pretty good.

New pits are always so exciting, because the hopes are high.

But with just a month left to mine,

he's still 700 ounces short of his thousand-ounce season goal.

I was hoping to get a thousand ounces this year,

but we're getting tight on time,

so we're going to start sluicing 24 hours a day here, hopefully tonight.

Morning, boys!

This late in the game,

starting up a night shift is Al's only shot at hitting his target.

Just sluicing during the day, it doesn't quite cut it.

It just doesn't give you enough sluicing hours.

If you really want to produce some gold, you've got to have a night shift going.

We're going to mount this somewhere, Allen.

-Wake-up call! -Yeah!

Al checks in with ace mechanic Hiro

who's repairing the D9 dozer with mine hands Freddy and Skin.

So I'll get Skin to push pay all day,

and then we can sluice tonight, clean up in the morning.

Oh, what did Kyle say?

He's on his way. I messaged him.

You will be on night shift tonight.

Get your ass up here ASAP.

Yeah! Good!

With summer almost over, good crew is hard to find,

but Al's managed to hire a new mine hand, Kyle.

I've never met the guy.

He's Freddy's nephew, but Hiro says he's all right.

- Good morning, Captain. -Hello, Erik.

Kyle called...

And he's looking for money for fuel

to get to the camp here and he'll call you about 7:30.

Ain't nothing I can do to help him.

Kyle's in town, but not enough gas to get out.

-Oh, fuck sakes. - Fuck.

If Kyle doesn't show up,

Al will have to cancel his first night shift of the season.

We got a month left.

We need sluicing time now. We need hours now.

Hopefully, he'll show up.

Ooh, here we go.

In Dawson City, miner Paul Joseph arrives at the airport

to pick up some special visitors.

My wife and kids, they're coming up to the mine for a couple days.

Feeling pretty good, actually, pretty happy. Exciting day.

Hey, buddy!

Oh, hello!

Big airplane! Big airplane!

Did you go in the big airplane?

It's the first visit to the mine for PJ's wife, Natasha,

and their two young kids, Makaio and Jada.

We've come up to the mine just to see PJ,

just because we hardly ever see him.

- You going to go see a gold mine? -Gold mine.

Yeah?

That drive is brutal.

Natasha's not a big fan of the mining,

so it makes it a bit tougher for me to have her out

because I know she doesn't like it out here.

-Daddy's gold mine! -Dump truck!

-Is that a big dump truck? -Dump truck!

Yeah! Bulldozer!

It's always hard being away from the family.

Okay. Ready?

There's five, six-week periods where I'm up here

and I don't get to see them, so it's pretty difficult.

He's been missing all these summers without us,

and our children are young, and he's missed a lot of... time.

What do you figure? Having fun out here, or what?

It's all right. Kids are having a lot of fun.

-Kids are having fun? -Yeah.

I should grab my vest and coffee, and then I'm going to go at it.

-So when will you be up? -Uh... I'd say two hours. Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, you play here. Daddy's going to work, okay? Bye, honey.

-Bye. -See you in a bit.

Okay.

We've done this for a few years now, and it never gets easier.

I think if Natasha sees gold in the end,

then maybe she'd want to be out here more and be more a part of it.

Down at the mine...

Let's go, Samson. Time to sluice, buddy!

...PJ's partner, Andy Tai, sluices with the boys.

Sluicing!

How you making out?

12 weeks into the 16-week mining season,

they've only pulled in 365 ounces of gold.

Definitely feeling behind.

We need anything over 500 ounces to be profitable at this point.

PJ and Andy have a contract with the owner of the 50 Mile claim...

reach 500 ounces, or there won't be another season.

If we don't reach the 500, it's breach of a contract.

He has the right to basically kick us out of here.

It's not over till it's over. You just keep working.

The goal is to be successful and to move forward