"We're in the last chance saloon on this one." "Narrator:" "On this "Gold Rush"..." "There's snow on the mountains." "We don't have time to waste." "Todd:" "Beggars can't be choosers." "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Let's get some gold, Freddy!" "We will not quit." "Here goes nothing." "Oh, yeah!" "It's holding!" "Fingers crossed." "Blaschke:" "That thing is huge!" "It looks like the San Francisco bridge." "I'm not gonna say it's the dumbest thing we've ever done, but..." "Ooh." "This is Big Red." "This is Rick's gold." "That's it?" "Man:" "There's your problem." "Yeah." "I know." "[ truck horn honks ]" "Todd:" "We lost a hell of a lot of money this summer." "Well, pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong." "Narrator: 10,000 feet up, in the Rocky Mountains, the last remnants of the Hoffman crew, together with their heavy equipment, are making their way to Freddy Dodge's new mine." "We've made the journey all the way from Oregon" "through the mountains into Colorado." "And you know what?" "We're in the last chance saloon on this one." "We don't have any other choice." "We've got to make it work." "Narrator:" "Three and a half months ago, Todd led his crew to Oregon, boldly declaring a 5,000-ounce, $6 million goal." "Hey, guys, this is gonna be our promised land." "Narrator:" "After failing on two separate mines..." "That doesn't cut it." "We're hitting a lot more bad spots than good." "...they came out with 206 ounces of gold, worth less than $250,000." "And that was our whole cleanup for 12 guys." "With no gold and no wages, his crew deserted him." "I'm done." "You got to know when to quit." "But Freddy Dodge returned and offered Todd a lifeline." "I've got a plant and some ground that's got gold on it." "And you got heavy equipment." "We come together, we might be able to turn the season around." "Todd is completing the 1,000-mile journey south from the Buckland in Oregon to Fairplay, Colorado, one of the highest mines in the United States, to join forces with Freddy in a last-ditch attempt to save what's left of his season." "Freddy!" "Good to see you, man." "Good to see you, buddy." "You made 'er." "Let's hit 'er man." "I got machines." "You got a plant?" "Plant's in there." "It's a hodgepodge plant, but it's there." "I got a loader, rock truck, and an excavator." "It's good to see this iron here." "Now we can really start digging." "There's the mine, guys." "Todd:" "Holy cow!" "What do you think?" "Jack:" "Yeah, rocks." "Wow." "That's a lot of boulders." "Jack, there's rocks in here bigger than your pickup." "Holy smokes." "they're everywhere." "It's the rockiest deposit I've ever seen." "Is there any pay dirt in between the rocks?" "You've seen the testing we did." "It was good." "Yeah." "How many weeks left we got?" "We probably got five weeks to mine before we're froze out." "You're at 10,500 feet here, Todd." "Winter's coming fast." "and it'll come hard." "Well..." "let's get to work." "Narrator:" "Freddy Dodge has made a deal to mine at Fairplay using his old wash plant." "This is the plant." "Got some new pieces and old pieces all mixed together." "Well, I can see one thing that ain't new... the shaker." "Yeah, the wash plant itself's a bit rough." "It's a little rusty." "A little?" "Rusty plant, red sluice box." "This has got more than just rust." "It's got holes in it." "It's over 20 years old." "It's had a lot of rock across it." "You said it was an old plant." "But I got to be honest with you." "I'm not so sure this is gonna last." "I think it'll work, Todd." "We'll make some gold." "You know what, Freddy?" "Beggars can't be choosers." "The Rusty Red it is." "We ain't gonna get any gold standing here." "Let's start going, huh?" "Narrator:" "Todd and Hunter start stockpiling pay." "Hunter:" "You know, whenever you're starting up a new mine, there's little tweaks and challenges." "And here, all the pay is consistently full of these huge boulders." "Narrator:" "Meanwhile, Freddy supplies water from the holding pond above the mine." "Winter's coming quick." "There's snow on the mountains." "We don't have time to waste." "We got to start filling those ponds now." "Water's headed toward you." "Keep digging." "It's filling up." "Hopefully, by tomorrow morning, the pond will be filled up so we can get water to the wash plant." "We're gonna run the wheels off Rusty Red." "Looks good, Todd." "Let's get some gold, Freddy." "Let's do it." "To make as much money as we can this year," "we've gone with a real lean, mean crew." "And that means not having a lot of people around." "Narrator: 3,000 miles north, Parker Schnabel is two-thirds of the way through the season but is less than a third of the way to his 4,000-ounce, $4.8 million goal." "Yeah, now that we've got two operations up and going you know, we're spread pretty thin." "I mean, I need a lot of people up here at Sluicifer." "Rick needs a lot of people down there at Big Red." "And it's tough getting both of those plants fed and sluicing." "Narrator:" "In a bid to hit his goal, Rick has opened up a second operation five miles west, at Indian River, where he hopes to get 1,000 ounces." "This is all virgin ground down here at Indian River that we've got to mine." "So I think it's gonna be pretty good." "Yeah, Big Red's running great right now." "But we've still got a ton of ground to strip to keep going." "Narrator:" "Parker is trying to run two operations  with a crew of just eight and a secret weapon that he's been working on all season." "It's been in the works for over two months now, and it's definitely gonna be a huge money saver, reduce our labor bill and streamline everything." "I'm a little nervous." "It's a lot of..." "lot of money and steel in this thing." "Looks like Sheamus is already here with the truck." "Rick and the boys are here, too." "You made it!" "Christie:" "You said you had a conveyor to haul, Parker." "Well, what the heck, man?" "that thing is huge!" "Yeah." "Sure it's gonna fit down the road?" "I don't know." "That's your department." "Look, I've never hauled anything this long down these roads before." "This'll definitely be one of the bigger loads." "\ Narrator:" "The monster conveyor cost Parker $300,000." "It does the work of three rock trucks and three men." "A single operator in an excavator can send overburden directly out of the cut." "But to do that, the self-propelled conveyor has to be 150 feet, almost half the length of a football field." "Building a ramp here to load the excavator conveyor on the side of the trailer." "We're gonna come up and around, drive it on sideways." "Parker said it weighs about 120,000 pounds." "This is a 100-ton low bed." "So we should be good." "Blaschke:" "It looks like the San Francisco Bridge walking down the middle of the airstrip." "I'm not gonna say it's the dumbest thing we've ever done." "But, uh... it's gonna be right up there." "I love it." "You're looking nervous." "Like, that's a long-ass truck." "And this thing's twice as long as it." "I wonder what Sheamus is thinking right now." ""What the fuck did I just commit to?" [ laughter ]" "The scale of that is quite intimidating." "It is a monster." "Watch out." "We're gonna give it a twist here." "It's so long that any time we make a little movement, you know, it's amplified." "We're moving an inch down here, and we're moving feet at the top end." "That's what we got to be real careful with." "Parker:" "Hoo-hoo!" "Ho, ho." "Holy fuck." "Blaschke:" "Most loads are 14 feet tall." "And you're pushing 40 feet there." "Parker:" "We're 40 by 20 by 150." "Heavy." "It's low to the ground." "Well, we'll just pull it away from the bank." "See if it's sitting on the trailer." "She's plowing a bit." "She is on the ground." "Oh, geez." "Fuck." "No way." "Holy shit." "That ain't good." "The trailer dropped down about four inches since we loaded it on the truck." "We've only pulled it about 20 foot and that looked ugly." "We only got another 25 miles to go." "This is, uh... probably too much of a load." "That's a heavy load there." "Yeah, I'm wondering if I can even make it." "Narrator:" "Parker is attempting to transport his new super conveyor to Scribner." "But it's beached before it even clears the first 20 yards." "[ creaking ]" "Christie:" "Easy!" "Yeah." "That's it." "Christie:" "Parker said it was only 120,000 pounds." "There's no way." "It's got to be double that." "We moved it back 'cause the trailer was too close to the ground." "And it's a lot more stable at the back of the trailer." "We're gonna pull it out here on the flat and see if it's sitting level." "I think Sheamus looks a lot more nervous than he did when he showed up." "Fuck damn." "Easy." "Blaschke:" "The truck's definitely up for the challenge but it's a little much for the trailer." "Just the slightest movement's making this thing look like a boat in a storm." "Narrator:" "The super conveyor needs to be balanced exactly on the trailer." "Parker:" "Now we got five and a half over here and five and a half over here." "I'd say we're like 10% there, just 90% more to go." "Eeh, yeah." "I don't know about this." "I think it's going from bad idea to worse." "So what's your comfort level now?" "I'm just not gonna think about it." "We're just gonna go." "Okay." "Good." "Narrator:" "Sheamus' challenge..." "Safely negotiate the 100-ton load over 25 miles of unpaved road to Scribner Creek." "Blaschke:" "Yeah, as the truck's going around the corner, you can really see how much it's making the conveyor twist." "The big thing we're having to watch is just the trees on the side of the road as we're making these corners." "Christie:" "Ooh!" "Easy on those trees, buddy." "You could swing through those." "Blaschke:" "We've taken out a few trees." "We're really lucky, they're pretty small." "But if we hit anything larger, you know, we could really bend the conveyor." "We got a big hill coming up here." "You know, we're over 200,000 pounds." "And this is getting..." "gonna get pretty steep." "Oh, yeah." "She's blowing some smoke." "Man, that's a heavy load." "Oh, he's running out of steam." "That's not good." "Awesome." "Made it to the top of the hill." "They're gonna unload it here." "Christie:" "Whoo!" "[ laughs ]" "Oh, man." "That is awesome." "Whoo, whoo." "Thanks, yeah." "[laughter]" "Dude, that was some nice driving, man." "You made that look easy." "Narrator:" "Parker takes over and drives the super conveyor the remaining three miles into the cut." "Parker:" "Uh." "It's gonna be a bit slow going, boys." "I'll see you in a couple hours." "This conveyor's gonna be great." "Narrator:" "Tony Beets is en route to his 75-year-old dredge." "With two months still to go, Tony is just over 300 ounces short of his 2,000-ounce, $2.4 million target." "But 60 miles south, Dredge Master Kevin is dead in the water." "The bucket line has come off." "Losing the bucket line is a lot like, with conventional mining." "If you lose any sort of means of getting your pay to your plant." "If you can't get the pay into it, it's not worth shit." "Kevin:" "Want to give her a pull?" "You betcha." "Narrator:" "It's down to mechanic Mike Beaudry and his team to get the bucket line back in place." "Tatlow:" "So much mud and sticks and logs underneath the bucket line." "And it carried it up onto the wheel," "Lifted the bucket line off." "And now we're here." "Kevin:" "The boys have had this happen a couple times before." "And they've got her downed but it..." "Getting it back onto its sights." "It's going." "Beaudry:" "There you go... back in action." "Kevin:" "It's getting better." "Ooh." "What the fuck is that all about?" "What was that?" "!" "She's not moving very well." "[ clatter ]" "What the hell's making that noise?" "This ain't good." "Not moving." "Turn it off." "Raising the bucket line." "Mike, can you get around?" "Grab that plate on the other side of the idler." "I am not quite sure what happened here." "We need to get this thing going." "How's that looking?" "There's your problem." "Fuck!" "This ain't good." "[ sighs ]" "The idler wheel." "So fucked." "Definitely could be the final nail in the coffin for the dredge this year." "It sucks." "Narrator:" "At Eureka Creek, Tony Beets' dredge is shut down." "Oh!" "Yeah." "No." "Yeah." "Narrator:" "The idler wheel holds the bucket line in place." "It's composed of a thick housing and lubricated bushings that protect a rotating shaft." "Because the bushings haven't been maintained, a combination of tension and friction have caused the shaft to wear through the bushings, creating fatal damage." "The rest of Tony's season depends on whether a steel fabricator" "can rebuild the 75-year-old idler-wheel mechanism in time." "Kevin:" "We're gonna chain it down, then break the bucket line." "Take that idler off." "There." "That do anything?" "Hit the..." "Maybe I can get it tuned in from this side." "Oh, I got it." "Narrator:" "It's a 2,000-mile, seven-day truck ride just to get the part down to Seattle." "If this doesn't get fixed in time, we're not gonna run." "Jack:" "This ground has so much rock in it." "I've never had to fight this many rocks, you know?" "It's amazing." "Narrator:" "The Hoffman crew is digging Colorado pay dirt." "Freddy's plant is ready to run." "All they need now is water." "Oh, crap." "Our water's gone." "In deep crap, Todd." "Ohhhhhhhh." "It should have been full this morning." "Narrator:" "Over the last 15 hours," "Freddy has released 200,000 gallons of water into his new pond." "It's all soaked away." "Must be a hole right down in the bottom." "We're in deep shit if we don't have any water." "What are we gonna do, man?" "I mean, what's our Plan B?" "I've got a big water tank." "We put it right here, next to the sluice box." "We pump out of it up the hill." "And then we pump out of the ponds up the hill back, fresh water to the wash plant." "That's gonna be strange, but I'll tell you what." "It might work." "Narrator:" "Freddy's new plan..." "use his 4,000-gallon tank to catch the water from the sluices." "Then pump it up to an existing pond 100 yards away, where the silt will settle." "He can then recycle the clean water back to Rusty Red." "Freddy heads off on the 85-mile journey to Denver to get the tank." "Todd:" "I've never pumped back into a tank and then out of a tank up to a freshwater pond." "Narrator:" "All Todd has to do is install a pump and pipeline to the pond." "Todd:" "It's gonna be pretty interesting, to say the least." "I'm just hoping that it even works at all." "Go grab all that Lay Flat." "I need to go up the hill." "Dad, you're gonna track over the hose." "Oh, my fuckin' shit." "What are you doing?" "!" "Come this side." "Turn around!" "No!" "You're in the way." "So I can't." "He dragged it up the wrong side." "So it's kind of short." "Let's hook it up." "You got enough slack on the pump?" "No!" "That's what I was trying to tell you." "You know, He doesn't fuckin' listen." "You were right." "[ panting ]" "I'll push it." "[ groans ]" "Okay." "Let's work our way this way." "We'll hook on here, another section, down to the plant." "We got water to the plant." "You okay there, big guy?" "Yeah." "It's just hard to breathe." "[ groans ] This altitude's..." "Go down there, Hunter." "Let's go get another section of it." "[ laughs ]" "That's not..." "That's not how it works, man." "This is really steep, though." "Take it easy." "[ groans ] I'm fat." "And I'm old." "My back hurts." "It's 10,500 feet, man." "The elevation's killing us." "'Course, 3 million cheeseburgers didn't help." "You know what I'm saying?" "That's not gonna reach, dude." "It is." "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Oh, my gosh." "Told you." "That's always been my problem." "My hose is too short." "I give up." "Hunter, I got that 20-foot." "[ sighing ] Aahh." "Okay." "All right." "Let's clamp this thing on." "[ grunting ]" "We got it." "Yeah." "[ laughs ]" "Wasn't the most graceful thing we've ever done together." "But hey, we got it hooked up, huh?" "Yeah, you're welcome." "Sorry for yelling at you." "[ thunder crashes ]" "Narrator:" "Overnight, while Freddy's off collecting his tank in Denver, 3 inches of Rocky Mountain rain hits the claim." "Are you freaking kidding me?" "!" "Just moved the pump up to the top!" "Ugh!" "Can't believe it." "All of a sudden, we got some rain." "And here we go." "We got ourselves a lake." "It's more than full." "It's overflowing." "I guess, you know, sometimes, we try to fix things." "And mother nature does it for us." "What the hell?" "Plumb dry last night, Plumb full this morning, Todd." "Colorado's weird, man." "[ chuckling ] Colorado's weird." "I love it." "You drove all the way to Denver and got the tank." "And, uh, we may not need it." "[ laughs ]" "Let's fire it up." "Parker's finally showing up with his toy." "We've been waiting for this thing all summer." "That thing's huge." "Narrator:" "At Scribner Creek," "Sluicifer is operating with just a two-man crew." "To keep the hungry wash plant fed," "Parker has brought in a new $300,000 piece of equipment, an old 700 excavator with a 150-foot-long conveyor and hopper feeder mounted on top." "Parker:" "Right now, I'm just up beside the creek diversion." "I'm just gonna try using the conveyor for stripping for the first time and see how it likes the mud." "Narrator:" "All season," "Parker's biggest challenge to get to gold-rich pay dirt has been to remove 20 feet of worthless overburden." "His new super conveyor allows him to remove the overburden twice as fast as a rock truck." "That's pretty nasty stuff." "If it can move mud like this, the conveyor will prove to be pretty versatile." "There it goes." "The advantage here is that, you know," "It's just me out there." "I mean, normally," "If you were trying to move this kind of soup," "you'd have to have somebody full time on the waste site," "two or three trucks and a hoe." "So this is absolutely badass." "I love it." "Come on." "Shit." "Sticks too much." "Shouldn't have thrown that shit in there, I guess." "It does not like this kind of material." "This mud doesn't want to go through." "I'm fuckin' annoyed." "Narrator:" "A couple of hours later, mechanic Mitch takes a look with the man who designed the machine," "Australian gold miner Adrian Hollis." "Blaschke:" "Parker's brought the conveyor out to the cut." "And it's having a few issues." "Oh, yeah, he's got her packed up good." "Narrator:" "Parker fed too much mud too quickly into the hopper feeder." "The wet, sticky mud built up, seeping down into the rollers underneath, causing them to slow down and eventually stop the conveyor." "Parker:" "How's it going?" "Yeah, I didn't get too far before it piled up." "Well, I was..." "Yeah, I did." "I did." "[ chuckling ] Imagine that." "I'm still getting used to things." ""Imagine that." Shut up, Mitch." "Okay." "So are you gonna show me how to use this thing?" "[ laughter ]" "[ laughter ]" "Okay." "Parker:" "Got it." "Adrian's biggest piece of advice to me seems to be to not act like a 22-year-old." "He said, "You just got to take it easy." "Treat the thing for what it is."" "It's 150 feet long." "and that puts a lot of pressure and a lot of leverage out there on both sides, you know." "And you just got to be..." "you got to be gentle with it." "So that's what I intend to do." "Well?" "Narrator:" "With the dredge out of action, the Beets family gathers for one of their most important gold weighs of the season." "So this is, like, dredge down, dredge down?" "Narrator:" "Tony has set himself a goal for the dredge of 2,000 ounces, worth $2.4 million." "We need 324 ounces in order to get to 2,000." "40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90." "I would really have liked it if you would have gotten to your goal." "Oh, I know." "I know." "Me too." "Well, now we've got the people to spare." "I help both these boys, dad." "Are they gonna help me?" "Hell, I'm good to go." "Keep calm and mine on." "Keep calm and mine on." "Monica helped me at the start of the year with a bunch of stripping." "So I guess it's time to return the favor." "She needs that plant moved 'cause she's still got to be out here for a bit." "So that's where I come in." "[ thunder rumbling ]" "Todd:" "See that lightning?" "Freddy:" "Let's get away from this steel." "Narrator:" "In Colorado, the Hoffmans grapple with unpredictable Rocky Mountain weather." "High country storms are vicious." "There's a lot of people killed by lightning." "Okay." "Let's go." "We're gonna shut down for lightning." "Freddy:" "We got lightning coming in hard." "That's scary, man." "Aah!" "Shit." "Get the hell out of here... now." "It's a big day, man." "We're about to shut down Big Red and do our first clean-out here at Indian River." "Narrator:" "This is week one of Rick's new operation." "He pledged to contribute 1,000 ounces from Indian River this season." "Now it's time for their first cleanup." "Ness:" "I'm excited to see what exactly we're getting out of Indian River." "Oh, this is looking really good." "Look at all that gold." "Well, I like staring at it in the sluice box." "But I really want to see it go across the gold table." "So let's get this cleaned up and get it down to Chris." "Yeah, it's a pretty big day." "We just had our full..." "Our first full week of running from both plants." "Big Red's up and going." "Sluicifer's up and going." "How's it going, youngster?" "Good." "How's this look?" "Unh-unh!" "Don't touch." "Unh-unh." "This is...this is Big Red." "This is Rick's gold." "That's not Rick's." "It's still mine." "We got two operations," "Two cleanups and still only half a crew, you know?" "[Laughter] You know." "All right." "Well, Sluicifer," "It needs to be over 100 ounces." "So weigh her up." "Narrator:" "First on the scale, Parker's Scribner Creek operation." "There's, uh, 30... 60... 78.45" "That's it?" "How many hours is that?" "Probably, we had, what, 80?" "Yeah." "So less than an ounce an hour at 200 yards an hour." "It's, like, less than 5 bucks a yard right now." "Oh, man." "Yeah." "It's a long road to 4,000 with this, huh?" "You might have us beat, actually." "For the first time, I kind of hope that you have us beat." "Narrator:" "Rick's wash plant, Big Red, runs half as much pay dirt as Sluicifer." "There you go, youngster." "That's from Indian River?" "See what we got." "Call it out." "Call it out, Rick." "All right." "We got 10... 20... 30... 40, 50..." "60..." "Keep going." "70..." "Keep going." "There's 80." "Oh, yeah!" "You're past it!" "Yeah, buddy." "Ha ha ha." "No way." "90." "94.35" "Ah, yeah!" "Yes!" "Yeah!" "Dude, not a bad first run." "Narrator:" "The combined total of 172 ounces, worth around $200,000, takes Parker to 1,457 ounces, worth $1.7 million." "Yeah, I mean, I'm really happy with what Rick found, you know, that's a really good start." "I mean, the first cleanup is that was as a big telltale of what's gonna happen." "And if Indian River's gonna do, you know, well over an ounce an hour, that run was 2 ounces an hour, then that's great." "Dude, I'm so pumped." "That first cleanup out of Big Red, 94 ounces, man, in only four shifts." "I can't friggin' believe it." "It's incredible." "Um..." "If we keep on that pace, holy shit!" "Indian river's gonna be on a roll." "We lost a hell of a lot of money this summer." "And the comeback starts right here, right now." "Narrator:" "After a week's hard work on their new Fairplay mine, the remnants of the Hoffman crew have the pay dirt and water they need to run Freddy's rusty, old wash plant." "We got quite a few yards of material." "Let's run it and see what it's in it for gold now." "I've never seen this many rocks in my whole life." "There's a lot of rocks here, big boulders." "You think that... you think that feeder'll handle that?" "It's gonna raise hell on it." "Jack, be gentle, please." "It's my only feeder." "[ Todd laughs ]" "It's gonna take it or it's gonna die, Freddy." "There's only one way to find out." "Let's run old rusty." "Rusty Red right here." "All right, let's go!" "[ buzzer ]" "Freddy:" "Here we go!" "Start this old girl." "Oh, yeah!" "It's holding!" "[ laughter ]" "I thought that was gonna bounce out of there." "Run, baby, run." "Rock conveyor!" "Sand screw!" "Hey, dad, give me about a half a bucket..." "Nice and careful." "Okay, got it." "Got pay dirt going in the plant." "Looks like it's pretty rich." "Hunter's feeding Jack." "Jack's feeding the plant." "We're making gold right now." "So far, so good!" "Fingers crossed." "It feels good to be running." "If there's gold here, we're gonna get it." "If there isn't gold here, we're gonna know today." "Narrator:" "After two hours, running 400 yards, it's time to find out if they've got any gold." "We ran with no breakdowns." "Now I want to see what's in that sluice box." "Shut it off." "What the heck?" "Look at that, guys." "[ laughs ]" "I got gold here..." "here." "Seeing gold, boys!" "Four, five, six ounces in here." "Oh, my gosh." "What a boost." "We ran 400 yards." "And we see this much gold, we are definitely in business." "I'll tell you what, I never thought I'd be so happy to see four or five ounces." "This is amazing." "Narrator:" "Todd needs over 500 ounces to clear his debt this season." "At over two ounces an hour, worth around $2,500, he stands a fighting chance of breaking even before the Rocky Mountain snow freezes them out." "Subs by JackT" "That gives us hope, Freddy." "Thank you." "You're a hell of a friend, man." "Ditto." "Let's make all that money back we lost this summer, and kick some ass." "Give 'er heck, Todd." "We're back in business." "On the next "Gold Rush"" "You better get the fuck down here, It's not looking good." "There's nothing to even say about this..." "because of how big a fuckup this is." "The dredge is dead in the water." "Yeah, I promised you your own wash plant." "So here you go." "Put a line on you." "Kevin!" "It's leaking." "Go turn the pump off." "I don't know what we're gonna do." "We need to think a Plan B." "I don't know what Plan B is Todd, but we need more people."