Bering Sea Gold

Zeke: The clock's ticking on the season.

April 15th is right around the corner.

We're almost outta time. We're on some gold.

But it's not enough.

Emily: There's thousands of ounces of gold just sitting out th

right now, it's about building up as much time

in the sluice box as possible.

That's how you do it.

Zeke: We need to make some changes.

I have a solution that'll double our production --

double sluice, double the gold.

Two sluice boxes, two pump motors,

two people diving.

That's just not gonna work.

Kris: If the kellys are ever gonna be successful,

this is the season.

And I'm not gonna fail.

Right now, we need to kick it in full gear.

If we do half of our job, it'll lead to something bigger.

Man: Get down. Power down. Power down.

We're at the point now where we got to go big or go home.

Sometimes, you got to cut a deal with the devil.

So here he comes.

captions paid for by discovery communications

narrator: 10 miles west of nome, alaska,

ice miners have been given a golden opportunity --

access to virgin ground,

shawn pomrenke's claim 38.

But as the season reaches the halfway mark...

...They're starting to feel the pressure.

On the far eastern edge of the claim at the clark...

Zeke: All this gold is super fine gold.

But there's a lot of it.

Narrator: ...Zeke tenhoff and emily riedel

are trying to make the most of the limited time

they have left.

-Oh, hey, look at that. -Oh.

Narrator: And this most recent cleanup will tell them where they s

zeke: I'm pretty happy. That looks pretty nice.

I know that the operation is on really fantastic gold.

We will do whatever we have to do.

We have to make this work.

Oh. Ooh!

zeke: Pile of gold.

Narrator: Three weeks ago...

I guarantee you will get this thing started.

Hey, don't start the morning off by being a , okay?

...Short on cash to get the operation running,

zeke forged an unlikely partnership.

There's a level of practicality in gold mining.

If you're broke, who are you going to call?

I mean, zeke's not gonna call vernon.

Zeke's not gonna call the kellys.

Are you kidding me? I was zeke's best option.

Narrator: And the two former friends

are looking to lay the groundwork

for a successful enterprise.

Zeke: Oh, yeah. Look at that little pile of gold.

-Yeah. -Whoo!

Narrator: But despite landing on a hot spot

straight out of the gate...

Emily: This sluice box is a mess.

Narrator: ...Lately, things have taken a turn for the worse.

Emily: This is, basically, spraying gold out.

Oh, that's such a sexy streak of gold in there.

Narrator: Now, after losing precious time...

Dude, I'm guessing 7 ounces.

-Oh! -I'm gonna guess --

I'm gonna guess 10.

10 ounces? I'm gonna hold steady at 7.

...They're hoping this cleanup jump-starts

the back half of their season.

Zeke: We're on 1 ounce, 2...

4.

-Oh! -No!

4.97.

Narrator: 5 ounces after 15 hours

of dive time is less than they hope for.

Emily: I wish we'd done better.

Narrator: And the budding partnership

emily: We need to produce more. I mean, we --

we just don't have the time to be doing average.

We need to be doing extraordinarily well.

Zeke: 5 ounces. We're on some gold.

But it's -- it's not enough. We need to be working faster.

We need to be getting more gold.

And I think I have a solution that'll double our production.

We need to hustle our little buns,

get my other sluice going. We can push it.

And with these kinda numbers,

I think that we can get up to 100 ounces.

I think we could do it. I want to put together

an operation that has two divers and two sluice boxes,

two entire complete independent systems

that work together to try to dredge the same target.

And my idea is you would get double the productivity done

in half the time.

Narrator: With two divers working at the same time,

the team can find the gold

and clear out the hole twice as fast,

allowing them to move through the claim more efficiently.

Two sluice boxes, two pump motors,

two people diving.

That's just not gonna work.

Zeke wants to do this double sluice thing.

And it's hard enough to make one

freaking sluice box work.

Considering the fact that, like, time is of the essence,

I think we should bring on another diver.

If we're gonna try to pull off what we want to pull off,

then we need another diver.

I mean, we -- we don't have the help that we need.

Narrator: An additional diver would allow

the clark to increase their dive hours

and work virtually around the clock.

Zeke: At this point, I can't split the cut any more.

I've been working my tail off.

I can't split any of my cut into another entity.

You know, I mean, who knows?

You've been working your tail off because we're understaffed.

Yeah, but if we have any more people,

then the cut's gonna be too small.

But the whole philosophy, the whole premise...

The whole philosophy is that we're not gonna bring any...

We're not gonna bring another entity into the other operation.

Well, this isn't a "you telling me what to do."

-yes, it is. -This is an equal partnership.

So I can have my say.

Emily: A lot of people have come before zeke

with a double sluice box idea.

And it's never worked.

In fact, it's generally ended abysmally.

Let's just go back to the agreement, okay?

Here's how I understand the agreement, emily.

I have an operation, right? This is the operation.

It has gabe. It has sam.

It has me. It has janae.

And it has my equipment.

I needed a little bit more money

to get the operation on the ice.

Emily, you wanted to buy in as a 50/50 partnership

of the operation as it already existed.

You are not buying into this

so that you can then change this as you want it.

I don't know what dream world you live in

in terms of bringing on investors,

but as soon as you bring on somebody

to the board, they have a voice.

-I'm not telling you what to do. -Calm down for a second.

I'm telling you that we need to have a discussion about it.

You need to honor my voice.

-Okay. -And I will honor yours.

I don't think it's her place to try to tell me

how we should devise operations like this.

I'm in charge of the gold

recovery aspect of this operation.

And she's in charge of keeping everything running up top.

I want to get a two-diver operation going.

We'll see how it works. We'll try to get it streamlined.

In another 2 weeks,

we could reassess finishing out the season

with an additional diver.

narrator: Despite objections,

the executive decision has been made.

Okay.

And now, the fate of the clark

lies in the success or failure of the double sluice.

So I think that we could follow the gold right along here.

So I think our new dive hole should be right around here.

Emily: Our days are numbered.

And zeke wants to stop everything

and get another sluice box going?

I'm upset because I see us losing a lot of money.

This is insane.

Half a mile west, the wild ranger.

Hey, jerry, let's move this one first.

Man: Yeah. Trying to get it best lined up right now.

Vernon adkison's on the move,

hoping to find a honey hole that can vault production

to the level he desperately needs.

We're right in the middle of a move taking longer

than needs to take.

If we don't make our goal for this winter,

it's gonna put me in a serious bind come summertime.

I don't even know if I'll be able to get up an operation.

Narrator: After a disappointing campaign in the summer...

-Oh, man. -Oh. No.

Narrator: ...Most of vernon's savings went down the drain.

It's only a quarter of a million dollar robot.

Narrator: This season...

All right, baby!

...The captain took what he had in the bank

to give it one last try.

-9 ounces. -Oh!

Narrator: But despite a hot start...

This is my claim, brad!

It's the worst case of the crud nome's had in about 20 years.

Narrator: ...He's quickly fallen off the pace he's aiming for.

Right now, what we're shooting for is 200 ounces.

We got to get gold.