"Todd and Jack Hoffman lead a crew of six rookie miners that are risking it all to find gold in Alaska." "we're gonna walk out of here rich men." "worth just $3500 dollars." "We're getting really tight." "We're running out of summer." "We've got to get this gold." "Todd discovers a major design flaw in their operation." "I'm just blowing my gold right friggen down the creek." "Correct." "Tempers flare as the team has to rebuild the wash plant." "Shut the hell up." "We'll be down in a friggen minute." "Todd is forced to take desperate measures." "I need cash." "I need help." "they'll have to close the mine and go home empty handed." "And not finish the friggen job." "the Hoffman's crew continues to run it's wash plant in the hunt for millions of dollars in gold." "I got hundreds of ounces to get this summer." "I don't have time to dink around." "but this is an inexact science." "This is tough." "For 13 weeks the crew has been digging for an estimated 15 million dollars in buried gold." "and duplex jig should extract gold at every stage." "and still haven't struck it rich." "Dammit." "Todd has noticed a problem." "Thurby." "Shut it off." "There's something wrong with his wash plant." "It kind of bunches up right here." "It's not working really good." "It's clogged up." "but can't do it if it's clogging with dirt and stone." "and run it through your machine and you got to somehow catch the gold." "And I think I'm only catching part of it." "and we're gonna make it pay." "One week ago the Hoffmans cleaned out their wash plant for the first time." "000 dollars to cover costs until the end of the season." "That's the total take right here." "They found just $3500 dollars worth of gold." "Jimmy Dorsey fought with Greg." "I was mad." "I was like Dude." "Who are you to try to talk to me like that?" "And Dorsey left the claim for good." "Todd and crew face a harsh reality." "That's it." "we're broke." "000 for running costs." "000 is gone." "and they need help to try and turn their fortunes around." "Hope this is Fred." "a wash plant expert that might be able to help them pull more gold out of the dirt they're running." "uh clean-out." "6000 dollars." "you know." "Basically blowing out most of our money." "I got to make sure we're catching the gold." "Well." "We'll have a look at the plant and see how much gold you're losing." "The wash plant is made up of 3 machines connected by sluice boxes." "and fine." "in the sluice box coming out of the shaker." "How does my dad's nugget trap look to you?" "Not good." "But definitely use this area to catch gold Todd." "Right now it's just a straight chute that material slides down." "is we wanna make a true nugget trap with riffles in it." "Riffles are metal grids used in wash plants." "while dirt is washed up and away." "and as a result may have lost nuggets worth thousands of dollars." "Remember one thing Todd." "Slick plates can't catch gold." "Okay." "should catch gold flakes of half an inch and smaller." "But the riffles here are clogging up with dirt." "The riffles fill up." "They just pack up." "you're losing all your of your gold recovery that's possible in the sluice box." "and out the end of the sluice box." "What you're telling me is basically we're losing most of the gold." "and complete riffles all the way down." "I need more riffles." "Correct." "I can't even believe I got 2 ounces that I got." "I can't either." "Below the duplex jig is the last sluice box." "It's there to catch the finest flour gold." "Well Todd." "This is a major problem right here." "You're trying to use the sluice box to separate fine gold out of heavy elements." "You'll plug this sluice box up." "I'm just blowing my gold right friggen down the creek." "Correct." "and the rest is.." "Hmm." "The rest you're giving it back." "they could have blown over 95 % of their gold down the creek." "Okay." "000 dollars in gold." "money the Hoffmans don't have." "you're losing all your gold." "Yeah." "The crew spent 6 months building the wash plant." "This is not the news they wanted to hear." "It's frustrating." "It really is." "There's a whole different set of problems." "this is another one." "We're missing the gold." "Plain and simple." "Todd faces reality." "We're in good gold country." "If we can make these changes I think we can start making some money." "000 dollar operating budget is long gone." "they have no choice." "and the mining season ends." "if not thousands of ounces and I don't want to send that down the friggen creek." "I'm gonna take as much of the advice as possible from our consultant." "We're gonna put 7 feet of riffle in here." "all the way down." "instead of just trying to keep everything running." "Todd calls the nearest supplier." "this is Todd." "flat bar." "You can cut it right on the spot." "Okay." "The supplier has the materials." "But Todd doesn't know how much it'll end up costing to modify the wash plant." "Or how he'll pay for it." "I'm gonna probably do something like a credit card." "I don't know." "Aw." "We're getting really tight." "Todd and Jack make the costly 500 mile round trip to Canada." "Thanks bud." "I'll take this sheet of that." "and a 2 footer." "Todd needs expanded steel mesh for the riffles." "Cut to just the right size." "He can't afford any mistakes." "I just screwed up." "It's cut the wrong way." "Gawd." "Stupid." "It's not his fault." "It's my fault." "Now I gotta buy another friggen sheet of this stuff." "Which is not cheap." "The trip just got a whole lot more expensive." "before I walk out of here." "Todd waits nervously to see if his credit card can handle the total." "an ounce will cover it." "Oh no." "Oh." "huh?" "It's a friggen miracle." "With another $1500 dollars on credit the Hoffmans are banking on gold they haven't even dug out of the ground." "today." "You know." "It just seems like every day's like that." "We just keep pouring through money." "Todd calls the crew together." "Three ounces ain't gonna cut it." "We're burning daylight." "We're burning the rest of our summer." "We got to get this gold." "So." "then we should be able to rock and roll again." "Heavenly father." "We thank you for the opportunity to be mining." "Amen." "Let's do it." "The Hoffmans have risked it all to strike it rich in Alaska." "Now they're broke and running on credit." "They need a miracle." "315)\fs28}Up ahead." "Jack gets in too deep on the excavator." "(sharp whistle) hey." "Get out of here." "A new arrival wreaks havoc on the claim." "Nobody's communicating." "Shut the hell up." "We'll be there in a friggen minute." "And Todd is forced to make a gut wrenching decision." "The party's over." "I don't know what else to do." "Todd and Jack Hoffman are back from Whitehorse Canada." "000 dollar operating budget has run out and they've been forced to rely on credit cards to buy the steel needed to improve their wash plant." "We spent out about $1500 dollars in Whitehorse." "We just gotta make it work." "The responsibility to create the parts they need falls to mechanic James Harness." "he's ready for anything." "it's the last line of defense for flies." "They are in the thousands per square foot around here." "man." "You don't like flies?" "You guys look like you're about ready to get married." "to replace the nugget trap in the sluice box below the shaker." "Gold expert Fred Dodge has given them a design to allow them to get up to 90% more gold." "okay." "Yeah." "and gets caught right down in here because of it's weight." "It's heavier." "of course." "they'll lose gold again." "what we want it to." "it's gotta be precise." "Todd and Greg adjust the pitch of the sluice box leaving the trommel." "Here they will add grids of expanded metal." "This type of riffle will catch medium sized gold if they can get the angle right." "We have to have these riffles at a certain degree to work properly." "material goes over your riffles and doesn't get caught." "There is little margin for error." "Which is not much for this big of a sluice box." "then remove the rocks and soil underneath." "and their last chance to catch gold will be lost." "What do you think Greg?" "How's it looking?" "It's alright." "That looks pretty cool." "Pretty good." "Looks really good." "Jack isn't helping on the modifications." "He's dead set on finding gold rich dirt to put in the wash plant once it's back up and running." "I want to get it." "Yeah." "I'm tired of messing around." "Yeah." "I know." "I can see that." "Jack has made the executive decision to break new ground." "We thought we had a really good hole." "But in 3 months we've only made three grand." "Jack and Todd leased a claim from miner Earl Foster." "known as a Glory Hole that could contain huge deposits of gold." "They've been looking for it ever since." "Where did you get your 400 ounces of gold." "Right about in this area." "Right about here." "Jack believes he's now digging above Earl's glory hole." "000 dollars." "Earl didn't have the equipment to dig deep enough to reach even larger deposits." "a 400 excavator capable of going down twice as far as Earl did." "then we're only about 20 feet from hitting really good gold." "totally believe it." "Jack is convinced he is in the right spot." "The ground he is digging now is soft and full of tailings." "The fine material is from an old mining operation." "He may have found Earl's ancient waterfall." "It's just going down real easy." "It's all been dug before." "Jack makes the most of the 400's reach." "He digs down under the tracks of the excavator." "But he doesn't know water from the river is seeping into the hole." "collapse." "Jack can't see the danger." "Jack." "(sharp whistle) does." "Hey hey." "Get outta here." "there's a lot of water there." "You got ten times that amount coming right below your track." "Coming pretty quick." "Okay." "Okay." "I'll get out of here right now." "Todd spots the underlying problem." "His dad's been digging down vertically too quickly." "you know." "Then you gotta" "Get your machine down to this bench and work down and make another bench and work your way down to that bench." "I don't see any benches over here." "I just see him kinda doing his thing." "The crew has an even more immediate concern." "an important visitor is coming to check up on the Hoffmans." "I got a phone call." "Earl's coming." "Earl Foster is the owner of this mine." "This is super important for us." "Earl Foster claims to have pulled a half a million dollars out of the ground at Porcupine Creek." "But Earl reckons there's a lot more here." "There's probably 15 million dollars still in the ground on Porcupine property." "he's entitled to twenty percent of any gold the Hoffman's find." "a small little jar of gold." "How you doing?" "Hey." "Earl brings two experienced miners with him." "Hey Fred." "I'm Todd." "Fred Hurt and Paul Bean worked this claim five years ago." "You guys been moving some material." "we're kinda just just getting set up." "It's Earl's first visit to the mine this year." "He wants to see what his twenty percent share is after 3 months of mining." "This is our accumulative amount of gold right now." "I'm not real proud of the amount." "Yeah." "I thought I'd show Earl." "That's what we got." "That represents 3 months." "you're only up about 500 bucks." "so there's not going to be any split." "but uh" "That's half a days work." "You only have 40 days left." "And pretty soon one morning you go out there and all your pumps are frozen.." "and you've messed up." "Aha ha." "It's not a good start to Earl's visit." "As the claim owner he has the right not to renew their lease at the end of the season." "I did not realize what was going on until actually I got down here." "You know I don't know this crew that well." "I might ask them to leave." "You know that's all a possibility." "Legendary mine owner Earl Foster is visiting his claim at Porcupine Creek." "He's just found out how little gold the crew has mined in 3 months." "I don't know this crew that well." "I might ask them to leave." "You know that's all a possibility." "Jack Hoffman can't handle more disappointment." "The operation is running on credit." "And their only chance is to find Earl's old glory hole." "But only Earl knows if Jack is on the gold." "Earl." "Could it possibly be right over here." "Earl claims to have found 400 ounces in the glory hole that Jack is hunting." "that he is sure holds huge deposits of gold." "or to the left." "I got a funny feeling it's just right over here." "I see tailings." "We've moved all these tailings out." "Yeah." "with fine material." "then I found it over here." "Yeah." "He just confirmed my suspicions that I was in the glory hole." "So." "I'm in the right spot." "304)}Next" "Earl takes a look at the Hoffman's wash plant." "And it doesn't take him long to find a problem." "Where does your grizzly bar that they wash off the rocks?" "We're washing only what comes through." "That's no good." "Steel rods called grizzly bars prevent rocks over six inches wide from entering the wash plant." "and any gold that's stuck to them is also thrown away." "What do you think Earl?" "Got some changes to make." "Okay." "The gold sticks to those rocks." "yeah." "you're gonna miss." "The big rocks are taken off." "Wash them at that point." "Yeah." "So you're washing off your rocks." "get it" "When the rocks hit the grizzly they're fairly clean." "The Hoffmans have no more money to invest in the operation." "They cannot afford to find another way to wash the bigger rocks before they are thrown away." "none of the crew has mined before." "and resulting lack of gold has left Earl unhappy." "I thought they were more knowledgeable about the mining industry." "They got a lot of work to do in order to get the equipment tuned up." "skeptical whether they can complete that or not." "without cameras." "uh." "And I don't know what they are." "Out of the meeting comes a major development for the mine." "Earl wants Dakota boy Fred Hurt to become his man on the ground till the end of the season." "in Northern Alaska." "Where Fred claims they found around 600 ounces of gold." "Earl has every reason to trust Fred." "He is somewhat disappointed. kinda keep a little eye on the operation." "but nearly." "but the Hoffmans will soon have a new uninvited miner at Porcupine Creek." "he's gonna be Earl's man." "I'm a little uneasy about having somebody that's not really from our inner core team." "loose lips sink ships." "the crew quickly returns to work." "Todd and Greg fit the large riffles to the sluice box leaving the shaker." "The rock and everything is gonna come running over here." "And these are gonna be our riffles and we're gonna catch our gold right here." "we're gonna extend a piece of plate over Jack's nugget trap." "The new riffles replacing the nugget trap are designed to capture the coarsest gold." "this is the place in the wash plant that should catch them." "Now we have a chance to pay for some costs and hopefully get ahead." "but their fuel supply is dangerously low." "I'd like to get this filled up." "uh." "and that's what I'm doing right now." "they still need to rebuild their grizzly bars." "and their credit cards are all maxed out." "Now we're in trouble." "I may have to go down south and try to borrow some money." "you know." "I got some guns and stuff like that." "winter will shut down the Alaskan mining season." "Todd has no choice but to leave the claim to raise funds." "It takes around a thousand bucks a day give or take to run the mine." "all these different things popped up." "Heading down south." "We gotta to keep us rolling." "to beg for cash." "and send everybody home within a week." "Here." "Todd's mission has a single focus." "He needs to persuade his little sister Alicia to give him thousands of dollars to keep the operation going." "Alicia and her brother might not have the best relationship." "I just don't know if Alicia's gonna lend him anything you know or not." "but I don't know what else to do." "and not finish the friggen job." "we're gonna make it all the way to the end." "the party's over." "Todd Hoffman has left the mine at Porcupine Creek to travel home to Oregon." "(horn) Honk honk." "Honk honk." "He needs to come up with thousands of dollars to keep mining for gold in Alaska." "This is the first time he's seen his wife Shawna and daughter Olivia in six long weeks." "Ooh." "It's great to be here." "I've got a lot of stuff to do though." "at least we got a little bit of time here." "the crew works on the sluice box that comes out of the trommel." "Each of these men has put everything on the line this season." "unless they find a lot of gold soon." "Their only hope now lies in making key modifications." "This is we're where we're gonna catch a lot of our gold." "We got to get this thing back in operation." "their work is in vain." "And they'll be going home at the end of the week." "I can't imagine what I would do if the hope of finding gold has gone." "the crew stays positive." "so I think we're gonna do really well." "All we need to do is get the ground that's got the gold in it and we got it made." "one step at a time." "then I've got to get 20 more feet." "But I can't do anything stupid." "Jack's quest to find the glory hole could be short lived." "The 400 is running on it's last tank of fuel." "I run out of fuel." "But I gotta keep going on this thing because hopefully Todd will come up with the money." "He's asking my daughter." "He didn't treat her the best when they were growing up so.." "She might hold that over him." "I don't know." "Todd Hoffman's big moment has arrived." "He's about to ask his sister Alicia for a lot of money." "Enough to save their mining season." "this is our last chance." "try to weatherize everything and we're basically done." "(Knock knock knock)" "Hey" "Hey." "Ahh." "I think you know why I'm here." "yeah." "Crap." "Crap." "That's all the gold we've gotten." "that" "That's it?" "it's just been for nothing?" "It's all and just say hey you know." "Let's try somewhere else but we're there." "We're on the gold." "it cost a lot more money than I thought to make this happen so we are actually" "It always does." "We need a bridge." "Yeah." "It always does." "or whatever you can give us to push us at least farther." "Todd Todd." "You make me like" "It makes me barf." "is what it is." "234)}Pulling out the sentimental part." "Right." "He's your dad too." "Not just my dad." "but you know what?" "I could.." "I put friggen everything I got in to this thing." "Everything." "you don't need to be grumpy with me." "and everybody's" "Basically looking at me." "And that weight's on my shoulders." "they're my friends too." "catch your dream and then I feel responsible just by being associated with you." "And I don't" "I don't want to be the one who doesn't give them the money to finish off." "I. It's not really your." "It's not your fault." "294)}Whatever." "I need a Kleenex." "I'll be back." "Dear lord." "You're a jerk." "Ah!" "it makes me nervous." "I'll give you my answer." "Okay." "The future of the mine hangs in the balance." "that I can do." "And that's all I can do." "Is just do my best." "Greg Remsburg calls Todd Hoffman to get an update on his attempt to borrow thousands of dollars from his sister." "if we get it or not." "We're getting anxious to go up here." "we're just gonna be rolling." "you know." "It's not up to him." "Greg's not the only one who's nervous." "Their fuel has finally run out." "all mining has come to an abrupt halt." "up the creek without a paddle." "I'm definitely stuck up here." "Uh." "We don't have any money to get home." "to get this far and not be able to just go that much further." "for forty thousand dollars." "now depends on her answer." "Uh." "Listen." "Got something for you." "Twenty five thousand." "Cool." "That's huge." "Yeah." "Here you go." "Don't try to cash it before midnight." "That's awesome." "Give it a good shot." "That's a lot of money." "I really appreciate it." "This money." "Thank you." "he's more than satisfied." "That's 25 days of running." "Ah." "That's gonna do it." "That's gonna do it." "I believe that's gonna do it." "Todd has come through." "which could keep them going to the end of the season. that's awesome." "but they are still one man down ever since Jimmy Dorsey stormed off the mine." "and we're going to the police first." "the Hoffmans are going to need all of the manpower they can get." "Chris Doumitt came to Porcupine Creek for 3 weeks to build Greg's house." "helping clean-out the wash plant." "you know." "Now the Hoffmans want him to stay till Alaska's winter forces them home." "You know." "These guys are investing everything they have." "But I think they're pursuing the great American dream that we've lost sight of." "Maybe that's why I'm so excited to be here with them." "Todd calls his new team together." "Should I go get Thurb?" "Yeah." "Get Thurb." "Let's have a big meeting." "Just when it seemed like all the crew's issues were behind them." "and he wants to come up." "Really?" "Yeah." "When's that gonna happen." "I actually think by time I got off the phone he was packing his bags." "Really?" "Dakota Fred is returning to the claim to look after the interests of owner Earl Foster." "Earl." "He wants to see this thing a real success." "they're gonna have to listen a little bit." "I didn't get all this white hair for nothing." "Ha ha ha ha ha ha" "the crew has no say in the matter." "Hey guys." "This is the new member of our team." "Welcome aboard." "They'll have to deal with an outsider for the remainder of the season." "we just have to watch what we do." "We gotta listen to what he says." "Nice little pleasant room in here." "and quietly make suggestions." "He can't just show up and now you're the boss." "It doesn't work that way." "here." "Jack Hoffman has the fuel he needs to fire up the 400 excavator." "Now got more days." "I just hope that it's enough so we can finish off the season." "Jack may have just enough time to get to the bottom of the glory hole." "and we're gonna hit gold." "Right in that hole." "I want to be able to pay everything back." "he'll pay all these guys." "I want then to go home with the biggest jar of gold that they could possibly take." "Todd returns with a vital piece of equipment purchased with his sister's cash." "What do you think?" "Ha ha ha." "This is cool." "An old set of wet grizzly bars that Earl Foster suggested for the shaker." "The last modification needed in the wash plant." "This is a good find." "they're going to roll down here and we'll be able to hit 'em with water." "The crew immediately modifies the new wet grizzly bars." "They remove unwanted parts." "Then install the perforated pipes needed to spray water on the boulders." "and out of these holes is gonna spray the water." "Be kind of like a shower." "Todd wastes no time getting the modified grizzlies into place." "This isn't easy man." "This is tough stuff." "It's the first time everyone has worked together." "I'm really excited." "I am ready to rock and roll." "They have their way of doing things." "And they're used to doing it their way." "I only give my opinion." "site foreman Greg Remsburg is in charge." "and anything could happen." "It could break." "It could fall." "Coming up." "Lifting the grizzly bars takes a steady hand." "Scary." "Very scary." "Todd needs to slot them carefully into brackets where bolts will hold them in place." "Okay hold." "the most important piece of equipment on the claim." "Coming down" "Okay." "Hold it." "Whoa whoa." "Yeah." "Hold on." "You're in one." "Got it." "but the other is jammed." "It's stuck." "Greg." "You want to step in here." "Okay." "A tight fit?" "Yeah." "Really tight." "so the grizzly bar can drop into place." "But it's not budging." "Yup." "What's going on Greg?" "What's happened?" "Greg." "Can I try something Greg." "Experienced miner Fred is getting impatient." "Yes." "and push the thing down in there." "Use the back of your bucket." "Fred suggests using the bucket of the 270 excavator to force the grizzly bars down into place." "Hold it now." "Maybe if you shut the hell up." "I need the boom down." "Ain't nobody's communicating." "Hey Greg." "Shut the hell up." "We'll be there in a friggen minute." "He's not in the lead on this." "And he's yelling stuff." "You don't do that." "Where's the bigger hammer." "Hang on." "Where are you going?" "Hurry up." "Let's go." "Fred goes directly to Todd." "Todd." "Put the back of your bucket on there." "It is not going anywhere." "bang." "you're not gonna like me too much." "294)}I'm gonna bend off those hooks and chains." "No you're not." "If they would make a little direction." "They don't want to listen." "Let them work away at it." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "!" "5 minutes of hitting the bracket doesn't work." "Todd has no option but to go with Dakota Fred's plan." "Coming down." "It's going." "The 270's bucket applies hundreds of pounds of pressure to the grizzly bars." "easy." "The intense downward force could snap off the bracket." "Hold." "Okay." "coming down." "Hup." "Here it is." "Here it is." "Dakota Fred is proved right." "This isn't the last time he'll seize control." "Todd's got his ideas." "I got my ideas." "Sometimes they gotta listen to somebody that's been there and done that." "with the new improved wash plant and Jack on the gold." "We're in the hole." "Now we're rocking and rolling." "Todd's convinced things are looking up for the rookie miners." "You know." "It's cost us obviously more money than we thought." "But hopefully now we're capturing somewhere in the 80 to 90 percent." "And that's where we need to be." "Fire it up." "If it can hold it together we can just run it all the way out till the snow comes and hopefully we'll put some money in our pockets." "294)}Subs by JackT"