Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue

Get ready for the violence.

This is absolutely the make it or break it year.

The spray bar broke off 11 seconds in.

Terry's a very sharp businessman.

Sparks will fly.

Very hopeful for the big investment.

He needs to survive

but I know and I'd like to see to stay involved with.

I'm at 50-50 all summer.

Oh, that's an ash heap.

So that's going to be pretty ambitious

for the time we have here.

It definitely seems like

if it's not one thing, it's another.

I'm clogging up down here.

As of right now, it doesn't look good.

You can feel the tension in the air a little bit.

We've pushed ourselves maybe a bit too harsh this time.

We're going down here to a gentleman.

Sounds like he is pretty much

bunked up in a tent out here.

Man, it's got to be tough.

The past two seasons, he hasn't done well at all

on recovering gold.

You know, if he doesn't make it this year,

his gold mining career is probably done.

He's got to really love what he is doing

or really, really believe in what he's doing.

Kind of like us, Juano.

That or he's just plain crazy,

which, very well, could be too.

Freddy and Juan race through Northeast Oregon

on course for a 60-acre placer mine

in the historic mining area of Granite,

twelve miles northwest of Sumpter.

Jasper.

The claim is owned by 53-year-old struggling miner

Chad Marmolejo.

He's called in best friend, Terry

for a final roll of the dice.

- Hey, guys. - Good morning, hi.

- Hey. - Good morning, I'm Chad.

- Nice to meet you, Chad. - Chad, Freddy.

Hi, Freddy, it's a real pleasure.

-What's your name? -Terry.

-Terry. -Yup, good to meet you.

Nice to meet you, Terry.

How long have you been out here running, Chad?

Well, at this spot, here, about ten years.

I had some pans, a little trommel,

and I started there,

and just doing little bits at a time

-evolving into this. - This way you got now, huh?

This is what I have now.

2008, I was a heating and air conditioning contractor.

One-man shop, the housing crashed,

forced my company to fail.

Being that I just became a dad

a few years before that,

I was, like, "Man, what the heck am I going to do now?"

You know, a lot of the places weren't hiring.

Just clicked in my brain,

I was like, "You know, I grew up in Gold Country."

I first started hunting on that very hill,

right there behind me

when I was 11 years old,

and I was like,

"Man, I think I ought to give that a whirl."

So I came up with a shovel and pans

and started finding gold right away.

Pretty much gold fever right then, right out of the gate.

But just as Chad started out

on his dream to mine gold,

life had other ideas.

My mom passed away

and that hit me pretty hard.

I took a one-year break.

It was just too hard to be over here.

So the first year when I got back,

and the wash plant would break down and then,

this year, all gung-ho, again

to get back at it,

but still kept fighting breakdowns.

It's just been

one challenge after another.

I can't keep having horrible season after horrible season

and not face reality

that, either, I'm not meant to do this,

or I'm not capable of doing this.

This is absolutely

the make-it or break-it-year.

How have you done the last few years,

as far as gold recovery?

To be honest, last couple of years were horrible.

-Okay. - Between breakdowns

and the time that I could actually run,

it was very disheartening.

My driving force was that I wanted to

turn it into something that I could provide for my family.

And, when I started out in the beginning, it was very exciting.

I had a 12-ounce season.

That was my best year.

That doesn't even cover the money that I spent

getting over here and the fuel.

Yeah, that's not good.

To keep this dream alive,

Chad called in the cavalry,

best friend and retired businessman, Terry Larimer.

Now, how long have you been up here, Terry?

I just started coming up this spring,

helping him repair stuff

and just trying to help him.

I got to admit, I got a little bite

of the gold fever, maybe.

-Okay. -I was mechanical heating,

air conditioning contractor for 36 years.

- Okay. -Yeah. Sold out back in January

and, actually, retired and looking for an investment.

Terry's promised Chad

a much-needed cash injection

for fuel and equipment.

But first, he needs to be certain

the mine can turn a profit.

And, you know, Terry's not only my best friend

but he's very sharp businessman,

so, he crunches numbers way better than I do,

and I'm very hopeful for the big investment

and that's a make-it or break-it decision.

You know, I haven't made that decision, yet.

That kind of stinks.

You know, for it to be, for my decision

to affect his final decision.

But, you know, I ran a business for 30 years.

I know how business needs to run.

What do you need per day to make a living out here?

We're currently running about 50 yards a week,

getting ounce, ounce and a half.

If we get two and a half ounces a week,

-we're starting to break even. -Yeah.

He knows what he needs to survive,

but, I know what I'd like to see

to stay involved with him.

You know, I think my goal would be

to see him pull five ounces a week.

So we got to double up here.

Yeah, it would definitely make the difference.

Okay.

When we drove up, I saw a camper.

-That's got to be yours, huh? - Yeah.

Are you in that tent?

Yes, I'm in the tent.

-In the little Taj Mahal. - Roughing it a little.

Well, let's fire up a plant,

and, maybe, help him get

where he can go from a tent to a camper.

- Yeah, let's go. -Amen to that.

Here you go.

Let's make some gold.

Get ready for the violence.

-It's a noisy little plant. -Yeah.

Jasper won't be able to take a nap, huh?

I'll start the timer.

Water test, here it goes.

-First bucket. -Press timer.

Fred, that...

-Spray bar just broke down. - It did.

Spray bar broke off 11 seconds in.

Oh, here goes your water bar.

Yeah, it's not what I was expecting to break.

You got a couple of them big zip ties or something?

Hi-tech stuff.

It's embarrassing when I have something

like a waterline break.

It definitely seems like, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Juan's past experience

working for his father's plumbing business

gives them a vital perspective

on the pipework.

He's got a double 90 down here

-and then, got a double 90 up here. - Yeah.

He's got four 90s within about 10 feet.

Every time the water in the pipe hits a 90-degree bend,

and heads off in a new direction,

it loses pressure.

Less water pressure in the wash plant

means gold and clay stay stuck to the rocks.

He's killing his flow right there.

-Probably 20-25% right there. -Mm-hmm.

All right. Let's try this again.

Chad's operation features an unusual set-up.

Terry loads clay-rich pay into the hop.

It passes into a makeshift

vibrating mini screen deck

where the reattached spray bar

washes the first of the gold-bearing material of the rocks.

Grizzly bars screen off anything

bigger than five inches.

Next, the ten-foot trommel washes the material

and screens it down to less than half an inch.

Finally, it passes into the 40-foot sluice box,