"Todd and Jack Hoffman are leading a team of greenhorns into the Alaskan Wilderness." "You're about to lose your house." "Don't lose faith." "They're risking it all to find gold." "Lookit that." "And save their families." "Holy ****." "Get the frig back." "Let's go." "Amen." "they're putting their lives on the line as they race to get mining." "Get back." "Get Back." "(Snap-Screech) falls dangerously ill." "we're screwed." "Their mining machines run out of control." "Somebody's gonna get killed." "And Dorsey goes head to head with Todd." "Don't talk to me that way." "Don't try and intimidate me." "The Hoffmans and their team of miners are readying the claim for their mining machines." "A place to log right here and a couple more logs to place." "Jack and Greg are building the ramp where we're gonna put the shaker." "Hopefully we can get the trommel and the shaker in place today." "That'd be good." "making mining impossible." "The Hoffmans one hundred thousand dollars working capitol won't last the summer." "They have to strike gold." "I'm guessing we're somewhere in the 27 to 32 thousand dollars a month range." "It's basically a thousand bucks a day." "get mining." "You know." "We gotta make some money." "I gotta figure something out Dad." "I'm gonna put a little plan together to get us all going." "looking for gold." "But the machines to extract it sit in pieces across the claim." "but none of them have ever done it on this scale before." "James." "You want to ride with me?" "for some advice from an expert." "Across the creek from the Hoffmans lies the Big Nugget Mine." "a mining legend." "And a very rich man." "James." "You're a valuable man." "Ha ha ha." "Yeah." "Sometimes." "Yeah." "So this is your plant huh." "This is a wash plant just like the Hoffmans plan to build." "It separates tiny particles of gold from thousands of tons of earth and rock." "a trommel and a duplex jig." "First dirt is dropped into the shaker." "The giant sieve shakes away the big boulders." "And allows gold and smaller rock to fall through to the bottom." "a big washing machine." "That breaks down the dirt into even smaller particles that travel down to the duplex jig." "The jig is the final filter in the wash plant." "Under the water lies steel shot." "The jig vibrates the material through the shot so that heavier particles fall to the bottom." "so" "Okay." "When it wiggles the water lifts the dirt up and gives it enough room for the gold to fall down." "is it like loosening up the dirt." "Yeah." "This finely tuned system has taken 10 years for John Schnabel to perfect." "it's complicated." "I hope I can figure this out." "Ha ha ha ha ha ha.." "Getting their wash plant set up right will be the key to making money." "thirty thousand dollars in a shift." "One day." "Wow." "Kinda cool man." "Thanks for showing us around." "No problem." "We got to head off." "Yo." "Good luck Jack." "Okay." "We need it." "I know." "Every miner needs it." "Ha ha ha." "the crew stops off at Porcupine bridge." "what did you guys think of his deal." "Yeah." "Pretty complicated compared to what I thought it'd be." "The problem is gonna be putting everything together." "We got to build things up and get the height." "You don't want to start too high." "Then you got to drive up this ramp to get your stuff out." "We're gonna have to go both ways." "We're gonna have to build up." "And put stuff on a hill and then we're gonna have to dig down in order to get that drop." "It's really actually pretty tricky." "Yeah." "We gotta figure this out man." "A lot of this is gonna be right on your shoulders." "I've never let you down before man." "I'm not gonna do it now." "and the creek from where they'll draw their water." "They'll raise the shaker on to a ramp." "Set the trommel at ground level." "And dig a hole to put the duplex jig in." "and they'll flush gold away." "and material will come to a standstill." "The angles and the water flow have to be just right." "We are going to place the trommel." "The trommel is the centerpiece of the Hoffman's wash plant." "Bring it closer to you so you got more control." "This is a pretty important piece of our processing equipment." "We still got some work yet to do on it." "and untested." "We have no idea if it works." "We just hope it lasts enough for us to get some gold." "and set it right in here on these two logs." "watch the little guys." "you're good." "That's good." "You're good." "Okay." "Come down." "Jack." "We're gonna unhook you and then we'll go get the shaker." "Alright." "The shaker weighs 22 thousand pounds." "but it takes all that it's got." "It's kind of dangerous." "Jack Hoffman almost destroyed the shaker when it was delivered to the camp." "Oh." "Oh no." "Good lord." "so." "Better make sure and not do that anymore." "Jack doesn't want to make the same mistake twice." "Hey Todd." "You're hooked up wrong." "Don't do that." "Don't do what?" "then you go over the top." "so." "Hey." "Don't listen to him." "He gets himself into enough trouble." "Trust me." "and he did those all by himself." "Listen." "I need one guy telling me stuff." "Greg's a rigger." "Todd's not." "Ready?" "Okay." "Keep it low." "Keep it low." "Keep it low." "Come up a little." "it won't get damaged." "See what I mean." "A little dangerous." "to get it on the ramp." "Up up on the ramp." "If you can." "Good." "Bring it up." "Bring it up." "(a lot of straining noises) come my way." "Looking good." "above the trommel." "we can push it round with the 270." "Next." "The beating heart of Todd's mine arrives." "A massive generator that will power the whole wash plant." "000 pounds." "right about here." "It's too heavy for the 400 to lift." "and we can chain off of it." "He wants to anchor the generator to the D6 dozer." "Put that hitch right here." "And drive the loader away." "and it will be at breaking point cause pieces could fly." "Yeah." "Chain can snap." "It's not like cable." "all too well." "there was a near fatal cable snap." "Watch that cable." "(petwang)" "Oh!" "That could have killed somebody." "Hey." "You shaddup." "You don't talk like that." "Let's do it." "Okay." "Let's just drop her here." "(scraping noises)" "(clang)" "Ow!" "but they come up with a new plan." "he thinks that we're gonna go ahead and just put her down on the ground." "Sweet." "Todd gives the generator a health check." "oh." "Thousands of miles on a barge." "It looks okay though." "pump 3." "Here's the trommel and the shaker." "is the duplex jig." "The crew must dig a hole exactly 7 feet deep to put the jig in." "So the gold will flow down the sluice boxes they put in place." "and they'll be throwing money away." "Todd isn't taking any chances with Jack." "our season's pretty much over." "So he's taking control himself." "Yeah." "Okay." "There." "That's good." "That's perfect." "Good job buddy." "Hey." "Heh." "The jig almost completes the wash plant." "All that remains is to link it all together." "as their only mechanic James Harness falls dangerously ill." "(deep coughing) that'll be a disaster." "Todd faces mutiny." "Don't yell at me or I'll punch you right in the friggen face." "You hear me?" "And the forces of nature threaten to destroy the camp." "Get the frig out." "are trying to start a gold mine in the Alaskan wilderness." "Come on." "They're burning through their 100 thousand dollar capital fast." "And the short mining season is slipping away." "Promised these guys we'd be mining a week and a half ago." "And we're not." "they still have heavy engineering to do before they can run dirt." "But the man with the plan is in his trailer." "James you." "You alright bud." "(Coughing)" "I lost my lower back." "Oh no." "James Harness injured his spine 10 years ago in a car accident." "And depends on morphine to cope with the pain." "But today it's not enough." "You can't walk." "I didn't bring my crutches." "Get some rest." "Okay man." "See you now." "It's not just his back that's causing James problems." "He's also suffering from a chest infection." "um" "A lot of bad things going on. (cough cough) healthy." "And ready to go." "He's already saved our bacon several times on this trip." "Aah." "Being he's sick." "It's all." "then to me that would be a disaster." "(cough cough cough)" "Todd calls the doctor." "I am mining way out in Porcupine." "One of my crew members is sick." "we're gonna head in." "dude." "Go go go go go." "the rest of the team must push on." "They're losing $1000 every day they're not mining." "And now have to try and get the shaker assembled without their leader or chief mechanic." "The shaker has to be fitted with perforated punch plates that will only allow smaller rocks and gold to fall into the wash plant." "But the plates don't fit." "is radiused." "We have to bend this to conform to the radius rail." "Ex sheet metal worker Jim Thurber is used to working with precision equipment." "But today has to improvise with nothing more than a bulldozer and a backhoe." "This has got to be dead nuts perfect." "They must bend the plates to the exact curve so that they'll fit perfectly on the shaker." "Keep your hand up so I know when." "Keep motioning." "Keep motioning." "With over 40 years combined experience working on construction sites Greg and Thurber have managed to get the first of the plates inch perfect." "They've asked Realtor Jimmy Dorsey to angle grind the edges." "Make sure you're not throwing sparks at somebody else." "Dorsey's ignoring basic safety rules." "See if there's another face shield in there." "For you." "I drive all the day." "Face shield." "Safe guys." "Slow but safe." "Unproductively." "Unprofitable." "Safe." "Alarm bells are ringing for team safety officer James Thurber." "He's my biggest worry." "he's not killed himself." "He's going to do one of us in." "He spots yet another mistake from Dorsey." "it doesn't stop." "you know it's against there." "It can grind through the jacket." "I know." "It's alright though." "I can't use this tool." "Dorsey's attitude forces team foreman Greg to step in." "looking around." "I been walking this same line now for all day long." "There's no justification for this." "Dorse." "It's important to me too." "Then you need to take the information" "I took the information." "I took the information." "You've taken it more than once." "And when it's the same person making the same mistake." "The volume goes up." "And the seriousness goes up." "There's one mistake we've been making which is not getting crap done because you're so focused on safety all the damn time." "you'll eat those words." "I'll show you pictures of people that threw caution to the wind." "Were gonna be there for a second." "Deader than dead." "I'll show you the picture of his own (bleep) intestines coming out of his throat." "dude?" "I just want to get damn things done." "way ahead of you." "I wanted to be mining gold last week too." "at the minimum." "At the minimum." "Somebody's gonna get killed." "I'm broke." "at that point." "James and Todd return from the doctor." "(racking cough)" "It's more serious than they thought." "Did a lot of different tests." "So he said I've got a horrible infection." "And it's most likely pneumonia." "I may have to go in the hospital." "it starts to eat you up." "This is serious stuff." "You can't even be in the sun when you take it." "James is under doctor's orders to lay low for 3 days. (prolonged coughing) just really sick." "I couldn't fix anything right now." "I can barely walk." "the Hoffman's won't have a wash plant." "the whole operation." "and their team of miners have been in camp for four weeks." "But they still haven't got their wash plant working." "and unconnected." "You notice there's no electrical cords going to any of this stuff." "And there's no water going to any of this stuff." "into that machine up there." "And it's supposed to come out the other end as money." "This isn't gonna pay my bills." "It definitely isn't going to take care of my family." "to feed his family." "both he and Todd are driving 30 miles to Haines Airport to pick up their wives and children." "you know." "infrastructure for 'em." "Joy and their kids Ella and Hank to Alaska." "That is her." "That's her." "I'm nervous that she's going to be happy up here." "Honey." "It is ya.?" "So good to see you." "Hi Brad." "I missed you." "Yeah." "I missed you too." "Yeaaaah." "Hee hee hee." "Olivia." "You have a god trip." "I get a big hug." "It's just beautiful." "Everywhere you look." "It's just absolutely beautiful" "It's georgousl." "everywhere you look." "I just can't believe it." "I'm in awe." "You're doing good." "Life here is going to be very different from Oregon." "Do we have an expresso machine?" "No." "I just want to see where our home is." "The next door neighbors are the Dorsey's." "Put me down." "There's beer." "Let's scout." "Wow." "Follow the winnebago man over there." "How are you?" "It's good to see ya." "\" "Good." "The families get their first look at their new homes." "It's nice and cool." "Wow." "I did not expect this." "It's better than I thought it would be." "and beautiful." "And and it's pretty awesome." "the families are finally re-united." "But this is no vacation." "and his daughter Ella gets straight to the point." "Daddy" "Yeah." "Have you got any gold yet?" "Anything shiny gold when you get it?" "yeah." "I don't have any gold yet." "We haven't ran any." "But we dug some holes." "You see those holes?" "Yeah." "Careful." "Yeah." "What are they doing?" "They have all this giant equipment and they have like a couple barrels." "of tupperware containers and they're like picking through rocks." "What are they doing?" "Look at all that dirt Daddy got." "Come here." "I'll show you what I'm doing." "Okay." "So what we do" "I don't know what's been going on here." "you haven't done any gold mining." "What have you been doing up here." "Vacationing?" "Mommy" "No." "I know." "You've been building this cabin." "I know." "But there ha ha ha." "What are you laughing at?" "This place is funny?" "No." "It's not funny." "I'm not trying I'm pissed off with these guys cause they haven't done anything." "They haven't got anything together." "And I can't do it." "I can't weld." "Well." "You get everybody going." "All the time." "You know" "Is it funny to you." "No." "Not at all." "I can't do this." "What are you smiling at?" "unpaid." "And they're seriously behind schedule." "they're facing financial disaster." "Greg." "We don't need any more talk." "Do we need a commitee?" "I can't live the rest of the summer with what I've got in my bank account." "Neither can I." "We're thinking alike here." "Are we gonna approach Todd with this?" "He's got to step up and lead us." "Hey Todd." "Come here." "Are we mining today?" "No." "We're not." "Why?" "We're gonna have a meeting" "I don't want a meeting." "I want to know why we're not mining?" "Don't yell at me like that or I'll punch you right in the friggen face." "Do you hear me?" "Don't talk to me that way." "Don't try and intimidate me." "Understand me." "Don't try and intimidate." "come hard." "I'm coming hard?" "I want to know why were not mining today?" "There's a lot of reasons." "Some of it's your fault." "Some of it's his fault." "Some of it's my fault." "We're gonna have a meeting and you can air it there." "Everybody will be there." "The pressure is on Todd to get his team mining." "he calls a crisis meeting for the whole crew." "Even James Harness drags himself out of his trailer to make it." "but" "We' re so close to be mining." "We have and we could be running rock." "Okay." "So here's the list." "The shaker hold downs." "You gonna have to do it." "Yup." "Okay." "Greg and Thurber." "If you could help James with the shaker." "Dad." "Finishing the plumbing on the jig and set it in there." "We gotta be rocking and rolling." "Dorsey." "You're gonna be working with me." "or you don't hurt anybody else." "I don't want anybody else to hurt" "Put me on a bus right now." "Okay." "so" "Okay." "Shut your mouth." "Don't interrupt." "That's how we're gonna do it." "I don't care if we got to stay up all night." "We can actually turn equipment on." "Start testing it." "Within 72 hours." "There's a lot riding on Todd's deadline." "We're gonna get it done in 72 hours or I'm walking away." "Cause I have no more money." "Then I'm walking off of here." "I'm going down to town." "I'm gonna get a job." "I'm serious about that." "I will make money this summer." "One way or another." "Todd's promised his crew they can be up and running in 3 days." "In 72 hours this equipment is gonna be running. 72 hours from right now." "There's an amazing amount to do." "and back in the saddle." "Even Dorsey is adjusting to his role as Todd's assistant." "Turn the heat up a little bit." "The mining season is only a few months long." "We gotta be turning some stuff on in 72 hours." "But Todd knows they won't hit their deadline unless they get help." "If you could come up here dude." "Even for a couple friggen days and just" "Hey." "It would be huge for me dude." "Dave Turin." "and knows everything there is to know about mining." "Pick you up." "Feed you some crappy food." "Put you on an air mattress you know." "uh." "Awesome." "Take care." "Bye." "Ooh." "That's huge." "I honestly think I'd screw this up." "Me and my dad would screw this one up royal." "the crew has no time to waste to get the rest of the mine up and running." "Just gonna start digging the water intake over here." "directing water from Porcupine creek to a holding pond that's as close to the wash plant as they can get." "You have to be able to bring in about 1000 gallons a minute." "it will act as a reservoir for the wash plant." "and pretty soon." "But Jimmy Dorsey is anxious that the plan is dangerously flawed." "but you can see how fast this water flows." "but flood our camp and then wash out the road." "But Jack doesn't seem worried about anything except getting mining." "we're opening up our store." "Jack's got the trench ready to go." "We're gonna release the water." "And hopefully it will come down our trench and fill up our intake pond." "Who knows what could go wrong." "Hey girl." "Who's that." "Hey." "You stay away from the edge." "It's starting to undermine right there." "Back up." "The water is causing structural damage to the pond." "The sides are collapsing." "aren't we." "There it goes." "Oh." "Frig." "Back it up." "and take out the wash plant." "The Hoffman's must make a decision." "Hey dad." "I think we better get this shut off or we're gonna have a big mess on our hands." "You want to stick with it?" "I'll shut it off." "We'll let the water flow tonight." "We're gonna see what the damage is." "we're gonna put Jimmy on pond watch tonight." "we'll be working through the week trying to repair what we just did." "They are taking their biggest gamble yet." "are up to check if the sides of the pond held out." "which is actually pretty rare." "This really does mean we can mine." "The Hoffman's have two more days to get their wash plant up and running." "Todd wants to try the biggest and most dangerous piece of machinery a day ahead of schedule." "Tonight we're gonna try to test out the shaker." "That's a big deal." "I honestly don't know if it's gonna work or not." "and neither does Harness here." "We've put a lot of money and work and energy into that stupid thing." "I'm gonna friggen put a piece of dynamite under it and blow it the frig up." "miners at Porcupine Creek redirected the river to get at the gold in it's bed." "They built a wooden channel called a flume." "and 25 to 40 feet wide." "000 dollars." "4.7 million in today's money." "The Hoffmans and their team of miners are losing 1000 dollars every day they're not mining." "and we're 2 weeks behind." "The pressure's on." "They've allotted two more days to get their machinery working and start making money." "Todd and Jack are on their way to Haines Airport to pick up their trump card from Oregon." "Dave Turin is coming up to try to help and advise us." "not only does he mine." "He is actually willing to step in and help us." "Just glad he's coming." "Hey." "How you doing buddy?" "Well again." "Have a good flight?" "How are ya." "Good." "I got it." "I can't even believe you're here dude." "Welcome." "that's good." "I'm worried about the shaker." "You know we had to modify it." "Yeah." "I want you to kind of look at it before we fire it up." "Yeah." "That is kind of the main thing." "whew!" "It'll happen." "We'll get it together." "but the miners too." "You guys are an inspiration." "guys aren't made to do that." "uh it encouraged me." "So don't hang your heads." "Keep your heads up." "And let's find some gold." "if you can get it going." "Yeah." "I'm impressed." "That's not a bad day at all." "And we had to make it all out of scrap." "But Dave immediately identifies a bunch of changes they need to make to the shaker." "Cut all the excess weight off." "I don't think we need this." "Put a flange in here." "Cut this off." "So that this isn't flopping around." "Run a web down so it's supporting the outside." "you're ready to go." "It's a tall order." "But Greg and Jack begin work on Dave's modifications immediately." "these aren't coming from books." "These are coming from actual experience." "and that's to feed our families by finding gold." "Everyone's overwhelmed with the job at hand." "you're almost to the finish line." "Harness supplies the finishing touches to his trommel." "I gave birth to this baby." "And it hurt." "What happened to your arm?" "Third degree burns from molten metal." "I didn't really collapse to what I got did weld mate together." "theoretical at this point." "It's kind of like a helicopter flying." "You're not supposed to." "But they do." "So I think it's gonna work." "Cause we're all just crazy enough to hope so." "the crew is ready to test the first part of the wash plant a day ahead of the deadline." "We're pushing 72 hours real hard." "We're right on the brink of firing up the shaker." "If this doesn't work as we hope it will." "Big question mark." "There's my future." "Sitting on that hill right there." "I- have one nut to put on and" "Okay." "Basically ready." "Harness made sure the generator is working before sending power to the shaker for the first time." "We'll warm up the generator and crank it up." "and see what the damage is." "it's time to test the shaker." "The forces up here are so great that these things can actually just explode out the side and steel flying everywhere." "We're nervous." "Really nervous." "You just have to do a visual to make sure you know where all your people are." "Your employees are." "And you gotta make sure they're off the machines." "Everybody's clear." "You say "All Clear" then you fire stuff up." "You can't ever stress safety enough." "Let's Go!" "(Bang-a-bang-a-bang-a-bang)" "(slowing down)" "(speeds back up)" "Whoa whoa." "Right there." "Lookit." "Hey hey." "(Bang)" "Whoa!" "Bang." "(Machine idling down)" "This equipment can kill somebody and that's the last thing we want to happen." "Take that off." "Dave Turin notices a desperate flaw in the shaker set up and calls everything to an emergency halt." "That shaker was bouncing everywhere." "It could have fallen right off that hill right there." "could have saved our mining season right there." "the shaker began to tear itself off it's base." "A potentially disastrous situation." "That could have been a catastrophe." "You know." "and even though it's mid summer in Alaska the light is fading." "I think we're gonna knock off for the day." "The team has one day to find the solution." "The crew at Porcupine Creek has one day left to get their mining machines up and running." "the shaker began to tear itself off it's base." "If they can't find a quick fix they'll never hit their deadline." "it's moving the rock down the way." "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." "So if this thing wants to throw that down" "You gotta get that base down solid." "and cover it back up with dirt." "Then you're anchoring that thing down." "What do you think James?" "I think it'll work great." "and anchor the shaker to the ground." "But the major earthworks will take time." "The 72 hour deadline is almost up." "I don't know how long it takes to get the deadman in there." "But we gotta get it done quick." "Jack sets about building the anchor." "It's now all that stands in the way of the safe running of the shaker." "Dorsey." "I want you to work with Jack." "I put Dorsey with him and I don't know if that's a deadly combo." "But they're actually getting stuff done so what can I say." "I'm gonna leave them alone until somebody starts screaming." "It's dropping." "It's such a useful half a day here." "I can't believe it." "000 lbs." ""That thing will walk right off the hill." "Said we got to bury a deadman." "Gotta put cables around it." "Latest changes." "Good." "I think it's gonna work." "I'm optimistic." "I really think it's gonna come out okay." "The final day in the deadline is drawing to a close." "The team is ready to test their wash plant for the first time." "I'm nervous about the modifications we made." "But we just gotta." "We gotta get it done." "We gotta test it out." "We gotta get some rock across it." "And see what happens." "We're gonna give it a try." "I think we've checked everything out." "Ready to rock." "Let's do it." "Alright." "Let's do this." "Check the fuse." "James is doing all his checks." "You ready?" "Check." "Fire it up." "This rock is raw." "Working it's way down." "Smooth as molasses." "That's working." "Hurrah !" "Holy crap." "Wahoo." "Woo." "Ha ha ha." "It works good man." "Doesn't that look good?" "That looks great!" "Maybe this'll work man." "Maybe!" "I never had a doubt." "Glad you're here yet?" "Ha ha ha ha" "Geez." "Now we got something worth panning right there." "When we start seeing gold down there in that jig" "I think we'll all be like "Oh my gosh." "We're pulling this off"." "I was ready to walk off." "I was there." "I didn't know what I was doing here." "When this thing turns on it's like Of course I'm supposed to be here." "That's what we came to do." "We got guts guys." "Good day." "We made our 72 hours." "Not a problem." "Everything seems to work good." "and uh" "I think it actually worked better than I dreamed." "We're gonna b e rock and roll." "disgusting" "Amazingly violent thing I've ever seen in my life." "I love it." "294)}Subs by JackT"