Gold Rush

In the Klondike:

We're getting pretty desperate for pay dirt.

Parker is forced to roll the dice.

We've got a whole new world...

but it's on an island on the other side of the creek.

But getting to his gold-rich island...

Come on, back up! ..proves tougher than he thought.

Now we're screwed! Then to make matters worse...

From now on, 20%. ..Tony demands a bigger cut of his gold.

I guess that's the Tony way - work more for less.

And at Eureka Creek...

Tony's dredge is dead in the water.

You're trying to revive the dead.

His electrician declares it's all over.

Ooooh, (BLEEP). This is all garbage.

But Tony ignores the risk of disaster...

What the (BLEEP) is going on, James?

You could rip that whole thing apart.

..and flips the switch. (SHOUTS)

..to bring his 75-year-old gold-catching monster back to life.

Everybody stay the hell away from this thing.

At McKinnon Creek...

There's pay gravels right there.

..The Hoffman crew hits a hot pay streak.

What did you find? The best pan I've ever had.

Holy cow. But when they lose two rock trucks...

Something went clunk. ..they have no choice...

Ah, man! ..but to abandon their most lucrative ground.

Come on! That's a fatal blow right there.

Scribner Creek, the Klondike.

Parker Schnabel has 1,402 ounces of gold...

worth over $1.5 million.

But there's only four weeks left to reach his 2,000 ounce goal

and he's out of pay dirt.

Chris Doumitt loads the last of the stockpile

into their wash plant, Big Red.

We're desperate for pay dirt.

We're gonna be shutting down here in a bit.

You know, we're not gonna get 2,000 ounces

if we start doing that. Rick's just gotta get me some pay.

That's all there is to it. Hey, Rick, you got a copy?

Rick? 'Yeah, go ahead, Chris.'

Just giving you a heads up, man.

We're making a long run to the end of the pay pile.

Rick Ness scrapes up any remaining pay dirt in the far cut.

There's not much ground left here.

I figure I can scratch up and build maybe enough pay

to keep the plant going for one more day.

I mean, that's no kind of long-term plan

but it's all I've got to work with right now so I'm doing it.

Hopefully, Parker can come up with a new plan.

But so far, any new ground that Parker has tried to mine

has been frozen solid.

We're gonna need one more chunk after the far cut, huh?

That's the way it's looking.

He's heading out to the far edge of the claim

with foreman Gene Cheeseman to hunt for thawed ground.

There's some ground but it's on an island

on the other side of the creek.

So it's hard to get to, it's the only problem.

Yeah, I understand. But there's some ground over there for sure.

I mean, underneath that berm there's a lot of ground. Yeah.

Well, as skinny as it is with water on both sides of it,

it should be all thawed.

The berm that Parker plans to mine is a small island between two creeks.

He's hoping the water that flows around it

will have drawn the cold out of the overburden,

thawing the pay dirt beneath.

We gotta get pay to the plant

and there's nothing here that's that difficult,

other than getting across the creek. All right, I can take care of that.

Really, to sluice through the end of the season,

we need...like, ten more football fields.

That's a lot of ground.

And we're scrambling to get new ground open

so we're going after the berm.

I figure this has a better chance of being thawed

because of all the water around.

Come on, back up! You (BLEEP)!

But getting through the creek to the island

in an 85-tonne 'dozer isn't easy.

Everything over here is wet and muddy.

And I'm trying hard not to get stuck.

Just like that right there.

.

Now we're screwed!

Hey, Gene? I got the dozer stuck trying to get up on the other side.

Do you need help pulling it up there? Yeah.

Gene to the rescue!

Got to turn this way a little bit!

OK! Just another few feet, turn that way a little bit.

Easy! OK.

Now we're getting somewhere! Right there!

Right on!

When you almost got stuck,

the back of your counterweight was almost underwater.

It's saturated with water and you're getting those sandbars.

I really doubt we can just go back and forth through the creek.

They can't mine the island if they can't get their equipment onto it.

We need a good road to get over there. Yep.

If it's a matter of getting a big culvert, then we can do that.

Oh, sounds good. I'll just get the pipe right over there.

Than if we put the road across, we can just tie it right in.

All right.

Parker and Gene's plan

is to place three large pipes, or culverts, into the creek.

Then build a new dirt road over the top.

Mechanic Mitch Blaschke brings in the culverts with the 220 loader.

You know, this is really important we get this in here

and get this berm cut opened up here.

We're running low on pay around here

and this is some good-looking ground. Hey!

Sit 'er down there, Mitch!

We got that there in one piece!

Gene adds a third pipe.

Wanna add some insurance, I guess.

Then we'll get the loader and just start packing this stuff down there.

Then Gene and Mitch construct a roadway to the berm island.

Oh, that's going good so far.

Put some more material on top of it, we'll be driving on 'er in no time.

Hey, Mitch. Don't drive out on that yet. OK.

Keep dumping there. OK.

Hi!

What do you think? I think it's working.

Water's going through the pipe? Yep.

Nice job.

We've almost got all the way across the water.

This bucket here should get us all the way across the other side.

After five hours of moving dirt, the road to the island is complete.

Well, we've got a whole new world open to us.

Now Parker and crew can move equipment onto the berm island

and find out if it's the answer to their 2,000 ounce goal.

It's nerve wracking because you're going into a whole new area

and you have no idea what to expect

because we don't have drill holes in this

but it's the only thawed ground that we know of.

So we have no choice but to go after it.

And it needs to pay off good.

West, at McKinnon Creek...

..the Hoffman crew is nearing the end of the season.

With only two thirds of the gold they need

to hit their 1,000 ounce, $1.2 million goal.

Dave Turin is extending the higher cut.

But the pay dirt is showing less and less gold.

This ground isn't the best.

It doesn't have a lot of gold, it turned out. It's marginal.

But right now we have to rely on this, it's all we've got.

I don't know if it's enough to get our 1,000 ounces

but we just gotta keep going.

If we run lots of it, it's gonna help.

So I'm just trying to keep as much dirt going to the plant

as we can get. That frees Todd up to go looking for some better ground.

And that's what he's good at.

Nearby, on the claim, Todd Hoffman and Andy Spinks

are back at some of their most lucrative ground of the season...

the haul road cut. We need another good cut like the haul road cut.

The crew hit a gold-rich pay channel here

that led to one of their best cleanups over...

..earning them 132 ounces,

worth $158,000.

Now Todd's looking to mine the north side of the road.

If that pay channel is under the road and through that cut,

not only will we hit 1,000, we'll go way beyond.

There's only one way to find out. Just open the ground up. Yeah.

Last week...

Todd and Dave were forced to stop stripping ground here...

Hey, Dave, I'm stuck over here too.

..after both 'dozers got stranded in the mud.

This cut's gonna be a lot harder than we thought!

Just trying to 'doze in here is not gonna work.

Let's get all this off with the excavator and tall trucks.

We'll haul out all the dirt, down to gravels,

to our dump site and then we'll push that with the 'dozer.

Yeah. Let's do it.

If the gold-rich pay channel continues north of the road,

they may still make this a 1,000 ounce season.

We gotta push through the night, we gotta keep strippin'!

Dave's at the other cut right now.

He's actually able to keep the plant running.

And I'm looking for higher-grade pay.

We're both just kind of working together,

trying to find the best pay we can.

After a tough night in the cut... This had better work.

..Todd finally sees what he's been looking for.

There's (BLEEP) pay gravels right there.

Todd to Thurber. 'Yeah, go ahead, Todd.'

Hey, I need you to come down here real quick.

What have you got, Todd? This is it right here.

I just hit pay gravel. You see it right here?

Yeah, see it. Can you take a section of that

and pan it real quick? OK.

Right now we spent a lot of time and money to get to this point

so obviously we hope that it pays off.

There's no flippin' way. Oh, my word.

That is over the top - insane amount of gold.

You know, you keep goin', eventually you're gonna win.

This looks like a win. I gotta show Todd.

What did you find? The best pan I've ever had out here. Look at that.

Holy cow! Isn't that nice?

We're onto something good here.