Bering Sea Gold

Shawn: Work never seems to end.

Got a lot of moving parts.

And they all need to hit for me to build this empire.

You could lose a whole season of mining

from one stupid mistake.

All the water's running out of the pond.

It's leaking out somewhere.

If we don't plug this hole, we're gonna be screwed.

Zeke: I haven't really found my stride.

Team unity is the most important thing out there.

If we can't work together and live together,

everything is gonna fall apart.

Whoa!

Freakin' beautiful.

Emily: Holy

the sluice box is a mess.

Do not argue with me about this.

Kris: I've been in constant competition with my father

about how he thinks I know nothing.

Four years of my life spent on this journey to get here.

I need to see this was all worth it in the end.

I need to be a success.

Brad: If it looks good, we're gonna start here.

If it doesn't, then we'll move another 30 feet closer to vern.

Hey! Oh,

this is my crane, brad.

We're not moving it at all, vern.

I don't give a

shawn: Easy days?

No easy days in my life.

captions paid for by discovery communications

narrator: Nome, alaska,

center of the gold-mining universe

for over a century.

But something new is brewing in the heart of gold country,

a once-in-a-lifetime chance for ice miners

to strike it rich on untapped ground,

as mr. Gold, shawn pomrenke,

opens his own 160-acre virgin claim to the ice-mining fleet.

Well, what are all these gps marks here?

Today, shawn has brought his father, steve,

out for a company board meeting.

I don't actually hear no diving going on right now.

Shawn: We're looking at the biggest year of our lives.

That's what dad's worked his whole life for.

It's what I've worked so hard for.

This coming season's gonna be our biggest season yet.

I want to see what the hell's going on around here.

Let's see who's working, who's not working,

what's going on.

Narrator: While most miners would be content

with one successful project...

Shawn: Whoever gets out there first

...Shawn's trying to build an empire in western alaska.

Perfect, perfect for us.

All right, baby.

With so much on my plate,

I decided to let all these other guys

do my prospecting for me on 38.

I mean, you think about it.

The more people you put out there,

the more chance you have of finding that mother lode.

We're gonna be able to figure out

where to bring the new barge and go mining right off the bat

without having to do any prospecting.

Man: Thing is massive.

Narrator: And setting in motion plans

to build a mega-dredge

that will eventually mine the 160-acre claim.

This is the one tool that I see

that we would need to get that gold out of that ground.

He's also in charge of getting the family's lucrative

inland mine ready for the summer season...

It's been a lot of work to get this thing up and running

and getting it to where it needs to be.

This is the biggest pile of gold I've ever seen.

Narrator: ...While making sure nothing

shawn: Chaos is good, for the most part.

Sometimes I do get spread a little thin,

but I'm doing what I have to do to keep things moving forward.

Steve: I don't understand what I'm looking at here.

Well, this is us, right here.

You got the reapers there,

wild rangers right there, and the clark.

We're just marking their gps points

to kind of put them on a generic map here.

And then we get prospecting point of view

for the big dredge when the big dredge gets put together.

Yeah. Instead of coming out and looking for it,

we'll be outright on top of it.

There ain't no damn way they're gonna get

the whole damn 160 acres

checked out this season, are they?

Steve: Shawn takes on a lot of projects all the time.

He thinks he can make it work. And maybe he can.

But more chance of failure, I think, the bigger you go.

Yeah. We're just not doing any of the manual labor.

I guess.

So long as something actually gets done.

I've been mining with my father

since I been 13, 14 years old.

He's taught me a lot -- a lot of what to do

and a lot of what not to do.

He just wants to keep it small and simple,

where I want to get large.

And we would actually like these guys to make us

a little bit of money on this.

Oh, yeah. We're waiting for some cleanups,

and we'll start tallying it up.

The wild ranger is right here. They've been on.

They're hitting three-quarter ounce an hour.

What are we charging 'em?

20%.

Be nice if they made something,

be a little extra money in our pocket.

We got a little bit of information so far,

but, I mean, in order to get this whole play mapped out,

then we better get some -- see some more action here.

It's in our best interest to keep everybody moving out here,

so let's go get 'em moving.

Narrator: Less than a mile away,

on the far eastern edge of the claim...

Morning, guys. Oh, we got bacon going?

...Miners zeke tenhoff and emily riedel

have already done the impossible...

Well, we didn't float away last night.

That's good. Man: I feel good about that.

I'm feeling pretty good about that.

We're still in the exact same spot.

Narrator: ...Surviving 24 hours of working

and living with each other on the ice.

I thought I heard icebergs grinding together,

but it was just emily practicing her singing.

Zeke: The opportunity to work on claim 38 this winter is huge.

So I need to take on the partnership of emily

to get everything under way.

Working with emily in the past has caused problems.

And it could cause problems again.

But right now, her financial assistance

is what I need to get the operation afloat.

I want to just really pound out some diving today.

Yeah, dude. Put some gold in the box.

That would be nice.

Emily: I have hopes for a prosperous

I mean, I'm supplying half of the funds

to implement the project.

But I'm also -- I'm cautious. I'm hesitant.

There is a lot of emotional angst.

There's a lot of anger. There's a lot of --

there's a lot of problems, still.

All right. All right.

Narrator: For the two former friends

turned reluctant business partners...

I think maybe I should drive the bigger snow machine.

That's cool. If you get it stuck, it'll be your fault.

And I -- I'll enjoy that.

...Old wounds run deep.

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

Yeah! Whoo!

Narrator: But nothing eases the pain quite like gold.

High-five. Yeah!

Narrator: With one good dive on the books

and gold in the box,

the partners are off to a hot start.

Zeke: Dive number two.

Emily: Dude, you're gonna, like, pop down there

and just start seeing gold immediately.

Immediately. That's what I'm planning on.

Immediately.

Now, one more dive should clear this hole

so they can start the search for the next hot spot.

I pretty much put everything into this.

Really banking -- really banking

on making a bunch of money.

I really gambled on myself this year,

basically spent the last of my money

going to the red.

I mean, it's a lot of pressure to put myself under

because if it doesn't work, nobody's gonna make enough money

to make it worth it.

Hey, comm check.

Yeah, I got ya.

Ready to go.

Coming in.

Oh, that's so cold on the forehead.

Good god.

I'm way over to the left of the hole right now.

Man: What's it looking like over there?

There's basically just sand to the south

and a little hillside, big boulders

right where the sand meets that little hillside.

I was seeing gold yesterday.

Really need to get some floats for this tether.

Fire up the pump. Yes, sir.

You want it all the way up?

Full throttle. Okay.

Hey, emily. Crank up the pump motor.

Hey, what are we gonna name this spot?

Oh, you guys will have to think about that.

I'll let you name it.