"Last Time On "GoldRush"..." "What are you going for?" "Three." "You're 21 years old man." "I thought you'd go for like, 10,000 ounces." "I'm a real underachieving 21 year old." "That's for sure Todd." "Just know now that we're gonna do 3,000 ounces, and not an ounce more." "I think we should let him bring the gold." "'Cause he wants to work." "Hey, Parker!" "I'd love to bump our goal up to 4,000 ounces." "Fuck it." "Let's do it, man." "What do you say?" "Why not." "Let's go for it." "We got to get this plant to Oregon." "Running out of time." "Shut 'er down." "Whoa." "Let's get out of here." "I'm just headed back, get started for the year." "I want to move that dredge." "That's what I want to do." "I'm gonna go work." "Not here to ruffle any feathers or anything." "Are you gonna let me run the dredge a bit more?" "We could buy gold cheaper than what we're doing right now." "On This "GoldRush"..." "You know, the reality is we're failing." "Whoa." "Gonna be the hardest thing we ever done." "You're losing thousands of dollars a day." "We're not mining." "We're just wasting time." "At some point you gotta cut your losses." "And you gotta move on." "(banging on door)" "We need the decision." "No matter what has to happen down here, I'm getting gold out of Indian River." "You know, there's a lot at stake here for me." "This is personal." "Unless I see something really screwed up." "Whoo" "Rick's the boss." "You're kidding me." "Bang bang bang." "Shut it down!" "We're pulling the plug." "I'm willing to fight anything to keep this going." "We're not in the logging business." "We're supposed to be mining gold." "This is kind of a fuckin' raw deal, man." "To be honest with you" "And I'm trying to put a good face on it, but I'm," "I'm freaked out." "I'm really freaked out." "Narrator:" "One month into the mining season, Todd's massive gamble...moving to Oregon...isn't panning out." "To hit his 5,000 ounce, $6 million goal, the Hoffman crew should have already mined close to 1,000 ounces." "But they've got just 50, worth $60,000." "My wife's back home taking care of four kids." "I've got to be able to show her that this is paying off." "Right now it's not." "You know, we all have families." "We all have bills to pay." "I'm pretty disappointed in the High Bar." "In what it's turned out." "I didn't come to Oregon to wash gravel and not get gold." "We've got to get gold." "Shut it down." "Narrator:" "Last week, Freddy Dodge found a gold-rich streak which Dave and the crew have been mining for the last five days." "Dave, you gotta come straight out." "Narrator:" "Now, it's time to see if Freddy's streak can live up to it's promise and keep Todd's dream alive." "Oh, boy." "That's a half ounce." "A half ounce nugget I just found in this mat." "That's a nice one." "Whoa." "That's more like it." "Oh, another biggie." "We've got two big nuggets." "This could turn out to be a little bit better of a cleanup." "How we looking?" "Well, I got some chunks here." "Yeah." "Nice nuggets." "Yeah." "All right." "Let's weigh it out." "Narrator:" "Their last cleanup was just 12 ounces, worth $14,000." "Are you freaking kidding me?" "I'm gonna wake up the guys." "Why don't you throw your coat on, man, and come on out there." "Okay." "[Knock knock knock knock knock.]" "Hey?" "Meeting right over here." "Trey's trailer." "Okay." "[Knock knock knock knock knock.]" "Meeting at Trey's." "Right now?" "Yep, right now.." "Hey, guys, that ground that Freddy found last week." "64 fricken ounces." "Whoa!" "Whoopee." "We're back in the gold." "But.." "We need to keep that going." "If we even have any kind of remote chance on 5,000, it's gonna take the High Bar into Buckland, okay?" "We got to get the Buckland set up, Dave." "Tell you what." "We've got a hell of a lot of work to do." "So, I need some people." "Why don't you take Sterling and Hunter." "We're gonna be relying on you guys to get pay dirt." "I know it's gonna be a stretch." "It's gonna be the hardest thing we've ever done, trying to run two mines." "But, if we could get 200 ounces a week, 5,000 ounces is within reach." "Yup." "Alright man," "Let's kick some ass." "See if we can pull this off." "Narrator:" "The two claims are very different." "The mountaintop High Bar claim has isolated pockets of gold nuggets." "15 miles east, Buckland is in a valley." "And is said to have much deeper deposits of fine gold on the bedrock similar to claims in the Klondike." "Dave's first job at the Buckland..." "provide his wash plant a constant supply of water." "Got to start digging some ponds." "Narrator:" "But the annual rainfall in this part of eastern Oregon is just 11 inches per year." "That's not much more than the Arizona desert." "We've never dealt with anything like this." "It's gonna get hotter." "We'll probably have to manage this water better than we ever have before." "It's gonna be on you to make it work, okay?" "You think you can pull it off?" "Yeah." "We'll just have to do it." "We're in a desert." "We've got to figure something out." "Let's get started on these ponds, huh?" "Normally I wouldn't take on a second mine, but I'll tell you what, the High Bar is like a treasure hunt." "So, I'd rather try and fail than not have tried it." "There's a lot riding on Buckland." "We got a chance to salvage the season." "Should I have them follow..." "the first truck follow you?" "Narrator:" "At the Schnabel claim, 21 year old Parker and his crew are also embarking on a new chapter in their mining history." "Let's kick some ass!" "Hey, Rick, it's big day for you, huh bud?" "You ready for this?" "Absolutely." "Been waiting for this." "Narrator:" "Over the last three years, Parker has opened eight cuts at Scribner Creek and is currently mining the Boundary Cut Extension." "Now he plans to start up a second operation three miles southwest on the Indian River." "This is all nice, virgin ground." "And uh, there's some good drill holes in it, so." "Hopefully we can get this down to some gravel and find some pay dirt." "Narrator:" "The second claim is crucial to Parker's 4,000-ounce $4.8 million season goal." "But down here, he won't be calling the shots." "This is gonna to be Rick's show." "As far as I'm concerned, when I'm down here," "Unless I see something really screwed up, Rick's the boss." "This is it." "The big expansion." "There better be some gold in it." "Yeah, no kidding." "So you think you're ready to take this on?" "Oh, yeah." "You got to be, you know, right?" "Last year was a big test, and uh," "I work well..." "I work the best under, under that kind of stress load, so." "Ha ha ha." "I'm up for it." "We're giving you the stress here." "Yeah yeah yeah." "It's awful late in the year to be starting stripping." "Yeah." "No kidding." "All right." "Well, let's get to it." "Yeah." "You betcha." "Ah Brandon, you know what to do." "Get in there and sling that dirt." "You got it." "Rock and roll, Kelly." "Roger that." "So this is kind of my, my first big shot." "It's exciting." "I mean, I look back five years ago, and" "I just can't believe I'm here already, so." "Parker's put a lot of trust in me." "And uh," "I sure as hell ain't gonna let him down." "Narrator:" "Rick's first job..." "Let's do this." "Narrator:" "Strip the vegetation and clear ten feet of overburden." "I think this mild spring really helped us out." "This is 100% thawed all the way to the bedrock." "This should be a home run." "Narrator:" "Pretty soon the dozers clear a large enough area for Rick to start digging gravel." "You know, this last six inches of mud left on top of the gravel that I can't scrape off with a bucket, so it chips up pretty easy with this ripper." "You're kidding me." "Fuckin' shit." "Man, this is all, this is all frozen." "So what's going on here?" "Well, coming up with a whole lot of this." "Frozen gravel." "Fuck." "Yeah." "The amount of work that it takes to clear frozen ground, It ain't fuckin' worth it." "It's not worth the money." "We need to abandon it." "Deal with it next year." "Well, I mean, we're down here now." "I don't wanna abandon it." "I just...all I need is time." "There's got to be thawed ground down here somewhere though.." "Then find it." "If you can't find something thawed that we can actually work with in the next week, then we're pulling the plug." "A week?" "A week." "I'd like more time...." "Find something we can work with, or we're getting the fuck outta here." "It's pretty simple." "Alright." "Fuck." "A week." "Hey, Jason." "Hey." "How's it going?" "Not too bad." "About to ask you that." "Dredge seems to be operating great." "Yeah." "It's never dug better." "Fuck yeah." "Narrator:" "At Eureka Creek, Dredge Master Kevin Beets is running his father's ancient dredge." "So far this season, he's pulled in a massive 756 ounces of gold worth over $900,000." "Narrator:" "But the dredge is plowing ahead so fast, they can't clear ground quick enough." "And they're dredging directly towards a line of trees." "You know what a pain in the ass it is to deal with trees in the bucket line." "Yeah." "That would be nice." "She's chewing up ground faster than we expected, so." "We're kind of right, racing." "Got to to get enough opened up so we're not dredging it." "Shit." "Narrator:" "To open the new ground, Kevin first needs to get his dozer up and running." "You know what's really fun about picking up where another mechanic left off." "A handful of bolts and I don't know where the fuck those came from." "Not a fuckin' clue." "That might be Tony." "Here comes the hurricane." "You got to be kidding me.." "We need to open up space for the dredge." "And clear a bunch to deal with bringing in the trees." "Narrator:" "Instead of clearing away the brush, Kevin flies to Paradise Hill for a meeting with Minnie." "Leaving deck hand Montana Bailey and assistant Dredge Master Jason Folster to deal with the trees." "Very disappointed that Kevin didn't clear this out for us." "That means we have to fight with this." "It just, it's just a pain in the ass all around." "Basically, gonna have to deal with dead trees and roots and..." "Like right there, for instance." "Fuckin' shit." "Fuck." "Fuck." "Alright, Here comes the garbage." "Big clumps of grass plugs up the trommel, and plugs up the chutes." "We have to deal with it now because it hasn't been taken away for us." "We're not in the logging business." "We're supposed to be mining fuckin' gold." "Fuckin' thing weighs heavier than I do." "Oh shit." "Shit." "Grab my saw." "It's. it's a fuckin' pain to have to deal with this." "We're in the desert." "We need every bit of water we can find." "We cannot allow any of this water to go into the ground." "Narrator:" "After three days dozing at the Buckland, Dave's crew has made good progress with the water recycling system." "Looks pretty sweet." "Liners for our pond." "Hey, Travis." "Hey Dave." "How's it going?" "Good." "Want to take a look at the hole?" "Yeah." "Let's go." "Narrator:" "Dave's plan." "First, line the pond to create a water-tight seal preventing any water seeping into the ground." "Then, using screens, separate into three sections." "Dirty water from the wash plant will run through a muck pond and into the main pond where it is filtered and cleaned." "The water will then run back to the wash plant to be recycled." "How many pieces we got?" "Six total." "So, we'll unroll them down the dike." "We'll pull them across using your crew and our crew, and it should be short work." "Cool." "Can already feel the wind picking up, so we want to be prepared for that." "'Kay." "It can lift the liner or shift it." "We don't want to have that happen." "'Kay." "Let's go." "Let's get this thing in." "Ready?" "Let's go.." "Now we want to try and go a little faster, get a little air." "Whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa." "It's going under." "Whoa ho." "Pull that side up." "Make sure we've got enough that way." "Yo!" "Yo." "We want to have it about as flat as we can get it." "And then the water will push it down solid and tight." "Last one." "First time we've ever lined a pond." "It's working." "It's pretty cool." "We got to keep it low because the wind's coming this way." "We've got to get water in that pond." "What happens, the wind whips underneath that," "That liner lifts up." "We've lost a whole day's work, so." "I got to get this pump going." "Whoa." "Damn damn." "There's a fricken big, old snake in there." "There's a fricken snake in there." "Lookit right here." "Narrator:" "At the Buckland claim, Dave grapples with working in a desert." "See that sucker." "I'm not messing with snakes." "I'm gonna get Trey." "Narrator:" "It's over 30 miles to the nearest hospital, and the Western Rattlesnake is highly venomous." "Did he rattle at you?" "Narrator:" "Trey is the mine safety expert." "Biggest one I've seen." "That's the real deal there." "Holy crap." "He's not happy." "Watch out...get the..." "Back up, back up." "This is serious shit." "Get the camera back." "Oh!" ".." "Geez!" "He is pissed." "Trey?" "You sure you got his head pinned?" "Hopefully, good enough here." "Are you kidding me?" "[ rattling ]" "Good one." "Whew." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "Hey, let's get back to work." "Narrator:" "Dave is racing to secure $25,000 worth of pond lining." "All right!" "We got water." "Looks good, Dave." "Uh huh." "Ha ha." "It's a damn nice sight." "Narrator:" "The Hoffman's second operation is one step closer to producing gold." "We've got our pond set up." "We got water coming in." "This is really gonna happen." "Is it gonna take long?" "Narrator:" "Kevin Beets has been pulled from running the dredge for a meeting with his mother, Minnie." "Hey chick." "That, that's okay." "That works too." "Yeah that" "Thanks." "Bye." "What's going on?" "Well." "My payroll is pretty big." "I want to cut hours." "I sat down and did some number crunching." "We're gonna cut hours, and we're cutting them across the claims." "It adds up for me considerably." "You cut where you can." "All right." "So, your Dredge Master is fine." "You have to have someone running the dredge 12 hours." "The deckhands and your people are all gonna lose an hour." "So that would be Montana and Kale, right?" "Yup." "Don't think they're gonna be happy to hear that." "This is not up for discussion, Kevin." "It is what it is." "They're really good guys we have on there now." "They do work fuckin' hard." "Not that, I, I know you don't care." "Well, Kevin..." "You're the boss." "It's your project, right?" "It's your baby." "We're gonna cut hours and.." "You're gonna have do it." "That's right." "Get going, okay?" "Ya." "Bye." "This is gonna suck to have to tell... the deckhands." "No one likes to hear they're getting less money." "It's not really something you want to have to do as a manager." "Just not very fuckin' fun." "Fuckin' bullshit." "Indian River is, is my season." "There's more at stake here for me." "This is a, you know..." "This is personal." "Narrator:" "at Parker's Indian River claim, new mine boss Rick Ness and operator Kelly Fedya are working Sunday in a desperate search for thawed ground." "Can I succeed?" "Can I find thawed pay?" "Can I get gold out of Indian River?" "You know." "It's" "These are all questions uh, that I've thought about, and now I'm getting a chance to find the answer to." "So." "I'm willing to fight anything to keep this going." "No matter what has to happen down here, I'm getting gold out of Indian River." "Come on, baby." "Whoa!" "Shut it down!" "Aw, that's just fuckin' great." "Fuckin' bullshit." "Fuckin' line." "We blew a" "Hydraulic line." "It all runs off one system, so." "We gotta fix it." "Narrator:" "The D-10 hydraulic system is down, and the only person who can fix it is mechanic Mitch." "I hate having to do it, you know.." "We're working 84 hours a week minimum, you know, and these guys..." "very couple of weeks they get a day off, and that's it." "You know." "And then I got to go and ask them to work." "I hate doing it, but" "We got no choice." "We could cap it but I don't want to because that would be half-assing it." "We fix things 100% ass around here." "Not half ass." "Uh, we didn't have all the right fittings to build a whole new hose, so uh," "What I did is spliced this one and uh, put one section of new hose on there, so." "It should be enough to get it back up and running." "Looks good." "No leaks." "Sweet." "Thanks Mitch." "Yup." "Narrator:" "With the hydraulics repaired, Rick can continue his search for thawed gravel." "Now I am getting worried, you know." "We're running out of time, and our back's up against it, and" "I don't think there's any thawed gravel down here at all." "I need thawed ground, man." "Last week we hit some good pockets of gold." "So hopefully this week we've got to put gold in our pocket." "Narrator:" "Up at the Hoffmans High Bar operation, the crew's going all out for the gold." "Last week, they got 64 ounces worth $76,000." "But they're still battling to get their season back on track." "Our last mat pull is probably the best that we've seen so far." "But" "I can't say that we..we've seen the gold that we were promised that we would see." "The overall mood between everybody is just frustration." "The gold at the High Bar is extremely spotty." "We're, we're just not having luck now." "Kevin, is that your last one there?" "Narrator:" "This week they've run an impressive 10,000 yards," "And they're starting an all-important cleanup." "Can't get excited about gold in here until you do the final cleanup." "It's a crap shoot." "Nobody really knows." "We're coming off the best week so far at the High Bar." "Let's hope it, let's hope it lasts." "What have we got?" "Let's see." "Okay." "Oh, God." "That doesn't cut it." "What the hell." "This High Bar is supposed to pay big time." "How can we go rom 64 to 14.5?" "I don't know, Todd." "Lots of gold mines are spotty, but this one.." "We're hitting a lot more bad spots than good.." "Narrator:" "14.5 ounces is worth just $17,000." "I just don't want to give up on it yet, guys." "I really don't." "I'm hoping that it can turn the frick around." "Do you know how many gold miners that's broke, Todd." "That same philosophy?" "The scale doesn't lie." "You're losing thousands of dollars a day." "I can't tell you what to do." "But we can't continue this way." "Well what do you want to do?" "You want to just sit out here and just barbecue...or what?" "I don't know." "We could buy gold cheaper than what we're doing right now." "We're not mining." "We're just wasting time." "I can't make heads or tails of what's going on." "Starting to feel like maybe I made a big mistake." "Right now I want to give up." "I want to pack my crap and go home." "Yeah, I really don't want to give up on this Indian River... cut here." "But it's" "It's really not looking good." "Everything's still frozen." "Narrator:" "Rick's been searching for thawed pay gravel at his new Indian River mine all week to prevent Parker shutting him down." "But he's out of time." "This Indian River cut is not, uh, you know.." "Sorry, hold on one second." "Hey Brandon." "You got a copy?" "Hello?" "Dude, get over here by me and check this out." "Fuck!" "Good shit." "What you got?" "Dude, it's gravel, and it's thawed." "It's a glimmer of hope." "I mean, I was pretty depressed this morning thinking that there was just no chance." "And you know, all of a sudden to push into the thawed river rock, that's amazing." "I mean, it's hard to tell how much thaw there can be here, but" "If there's something, there could be more." "I mean... even if it's not lot, it's a starting point." "Yeah, boy." "Beer time." "This potentially saves our season on Indian River." "Back in gravel now." "Narrator:" "While Dredge Master Kevin has been away, Jason and deckhand Montana have dealt with everything from trees to boulders." "Every two or three swipes we'll come across a big uh, big rock that we have to take care of and" "That kind of slows everything down." "Better grab that very quick." "We've got two big fuckin' pieces of shit coming." "Fuck." "Right now I'm gonna go talk to the dredge crew." "Narrator:" "Kevin Beets faces a tough job." "His mother Minnie has ordered him to cut Montana's pay." "So now I gotta go explain that, yeah." "This is what's happening." "You don't like it, too fuckin' bad." "Ohh!" "Gotcha." "Uh, Aah." "Good?" "Oh yeah." "Good." "You know, our big fuckin' deal is I'm on this thing for 12 hours a day," "You want me to fuck off for an hour, I can but..." "It affects my whole month, you know, of earnings that I'm losing." "Yeah." "That's a lot of..." "Overtime that I've earned, though you know." "Kinda a fuckin' raw deal man." "I figured I'd at least earned the respect of being a valuable employee." "Just kinda harsh man." "I don't know." "Yeah." "Mother-Fuckin' bull-shit." "Well, they're understandably pissed, Montana mostly." "I mean, we're cutting his hours by a large chunk." "That's a lot of money." "I'd be pissed, too, but.." "Narrator:" "After two years on the Beets' crew, deckhand Montana quits." "Oh, you got a minute, mom?" "Yeah." "How are you?" "Oh, I've had better...years." "I'm doubting...my ability" "On this gold mining stuff right now." "And I tell you what is, I'm feeling like a failure." "The only thing that I would be disappointed in you about is if you quit." "But I know you're not a quitter." "And so I just don't want you to give up." "Maybe we can pray right now." "Dear God, it seems pretty discouraging right now." "I just know you've got something good planned for us," "And I ask that you help us" "In Jesus' name, Amen." "I know it's gonna work out." "Narrator:" "At Parker's main operation, Scribner Creek, it's time for the weekly cleanup." "How's it going Doumitt?" "A few flakes, huh." "Throw it on the scale, and give it a looksy." "Alright." "Let's weigh her up." "Narrator:" "To hit his 4,000-ounce-season goal, Parker needs Scribner Creek to produce over 140 ounces every week." "Around $170,000 worth of gold." "80." "Broke 100." "What did we do last week?" "145" "One" "141.1" "Alright." "Narrator:" "Right on the money." "That's pretty damn consistent." "Yeah." "Narrator:" "It takes Parker's total to 412 ounces, worth almost half a million dollars." "Next one ought to put us up over 500." "I hope so." "Yeah, yeah." "Whoo!" "Drive it like you stole it." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "He did." "So I got crazy good news." "Oh yeah?" "Yeah, man." "I just found thawed gravel at Indian River." "Hmm." "Wow." "Not bad." "Really sweet." "How big of an area do you got that's thawed?" "I don't know how big of an area it is yet, but" "It, it, Hopefully it will be enough to get us started." "It's very easy for us to go from doing real well at one operation up here at Scribner to faltering at two different ones." "So..." "I don't know." "You gave me a deadline to find thawed ground, find some pay, I found it." "A deal's a deal." "What do you think, Chris?" "He's got the ground." "He's found thawed ground." "Let's get that other plant going." "I dunno." "I say go for it." "I know that if we get it going down Indian River we'll beat last year." "(sighs) Alright." "All right." "Let's do it." "Ha ha ha ha" "For real?" "Yeah." "Shit." "Get a wash plant down there and start sluicing it." "I got some stripping to do." "Good luck Rick." "Good luck out there." "I think he's a happy boy." "Oh, I'm stoked, man." "Ahh." "Indian river just got green lit." "That means I've got my own operation." "And uh," "I couldn't be more excited." "We got a lot of work ahead." "I've never been so excited about a lot of work." "But uh," "Yeah." "I'm ready for it." "Hey, here comes Freddy." "Hope he's got some news." "Narrator:" "At the Hoffman camp, Freddy Dodge arrives with the result of this week's cleanup." "Freddy, you hungry?" "No, I don't want anything to eat, Dave." "Thank you though." "Well, I think we all know that it's not good, so." "Not good at all." "What was it?" "Well, it's less than a quarter last week." "14 ounces." "What!" "14 ounces?" "Uh-huh." "That is the same material." "I sent the same exact..." "Wasn't the same material." "Didn't have gold in it." "Keep running material through that plant, but we ain't making a dime." "I have bills." "I have a kid on the way." "We're all losing money." "At some point you got to cut your losses and you gotta move on." "I'm with you." "I don't think the High Bar is where it's at." "We need to say something to Todd." "Well, where's Todd?" "I think he went to his camper." "Well." "Let's go talk." "I'm gonna whoop somebody's ass with a spatula right now." "He's in here?" "Yeah." "He's in here." "Where else would he be?" "Thump thump thump" "Hey." "What?" "Hey." "We want to know what the cleanup was." "Dude, we had a bad one obviously." "Yeah, Freddy told us." "Well, Freddy can tell you." "Who gives a crap who tells you?" "We'd kind of like to hear it from you." "We had a bad one, we had a bad one." "Big deal." "I mean, I think we should push, push on." "No." "It's time to change." "We need the decision." "This ain't working, and I know it's not working." "But if we stop, we're not getting any gold at all." "I'm tired, and I want what's best for the team." "Right now, the best thing for the team is to get our ass off the High Bar and go to the Buckland." "I'm just done." "I'm just done." "Okay." "Okay." "Okay." "What do we need to get on the next cleanup." "to get everybody fricken back on board?" "What is it." "Fifty ounces." "Fifty." "Huh?" "Fifty ounces Todd." "Fifty?" "Not 49, Todd, 50." "At least at 50 ounces we could break even." "Okay." "I'll tell you what, we don't get 50," "I'm gonna close the High Bar." "That's my promise." "That's the way it's got to be." "Dad." "You got a deal." "Deal here." "Agreed" "Aye." "You know, the reality is..." "You know, we're failing." "Hmph." "That's the part that sucks about being in charge." "Subs by JackT" "It's tough.." "But a deal's a deal." "50 ounces or we're closing it down."