"504.)\fs70} Last time on "Gold Rush" "What are you going for?" "Three." "000 ounces." "I'm a real underachieving 21 year old." "That's for sure Todd." "and not an ounce more." "I think we should let him bring the gold." "'Cause he wants to work." "Parker!" "000 ounces." "man." "What do you say?" "Why not." "Let's go for it." "running out of time." "Shut 'er down." "Whoa." "Let's get out of here." "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." "404.)\fs70} On this "Gold Rush 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." "I'm getting gold out of Indian River." "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." "man." "To be honest with you 575)}I'm freaked out." "I'm really freaked out." "Todd's massive gamble...moving to Oregon...isn't panning out." "000 ounces." "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." "we all have families." "We all have bills to pay." "I'm pretty disappointed in the High Bar." "In what it's turned out." "545)}I didn't come to Oregon to wash gravel and not get gold." "545)}We've got to get gold." "545)}Shut it down." "545)} you gotta come straight out." "it's time to see if Freddy's streak can live up to its promise and keep Todd's dream alive." "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." "another biggie." "We've got two big nuggets." "This could turn out to be a little bit better of a cleanup." "How we looking?" "I got some chunks here." "Yeah." "Nice nuggets." "Yeah." "All right." "Let's weigh it out." "000." "Are you freaking kidding me?" "and come out there." "Okay." "Knock knock knock knock knock." "Hey?" "Meeting right over here." "Trey's trailer." "Okay." "Knock knock knock knock knock." "right now.." "that ground that Freddy found last week." "64 fricken ounces." "Whoa!" "[ laughter ]" "We're back in the gold." "But.." "We need to keep that going. okay?" "Dave." "Tell you what." "We've got a hell of a lot of work to do." "I need some people." "Why don't you take Sterling and Hunter." "We're gonna be relying on you guys to get pay dirt." "trying to run two mines. 000 ounces is within reach." "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." "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." "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." "huh?" "the High Bar is like a treasure hunt." "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?" "21 year old Parker and his crew are also embarking on a new chapter in their mining history." "Let's kick some ass!" "huh bud?" "You ready for this?" "Absolutely." "Been waiting for this." "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." "virgin ground." "so." "Hopefully we can get this down to some gravel and find some pay dirt." "000-ounce $4.8 million season goal." "he won't be calling the shots." "Rick's the boss." "This is it." "The big expansion." "There better be some gold in it." "no kidding." "So you think you're ready to take this on?" "yeah. so." "Ha ha ha." "I'm up for it." "We're giving you the stress here." "Yeah yeah yeah." "545)}It's awful late in the year to be starting stripping." "545)}Yeah." "No kidding." "535)}" "All right." "Let's get to it." "You betcha." "you know what to do." "Get in there and sling that dirt." "You got it." "Kelly." "Roger that." "my first big shot." "so." "Parker's put a lot of trust in me." "And 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 into the bedrock." "This should be a home run." "Narrator:" "Pretty soon the dozers clear a large enough area for Rick to start digging gravel." "this last so it chips up pretty easy with this ripper." "You're kidding me." "Fuckin' shit." "this is all frozen." "So what's going on here?" "coming up with a whole lot of this." "Frozen gravel." "Fuck." "Yeah." "It ain't fuckin' worth it." "It's not worth the money." "We need to abandon it." "Deal with it next year." "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." "then we're pulling the plug." "A week?" "A week." "or we're getting the fuck outta here." "It's pretty simple." "Alright." "Fuck." "A week." "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." "Dredge Master Kevin Beets is running his father's ancient dredge." "000." "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." "so." "We're kind of right." "Racing" "Got to to get enough opened up so we're not dredging it." "Shit." "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 of deal with breaking in the trees." "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's just a pain in the ass all around." "gonna have to deal with dead trees and roots and... for instance." "Fuckin' shit." "Fuck." "Fuck." "Here comes the garbage." "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." "Dave's crew has made good progress with the water recycling system." "Looks pretty sweet." "Liners for our pond." "Travis." "Hey Dave." "How's it going?" "Good." "Want to take a look at the hole?" "Yeah." "Let's go." "line the pond to create a water-tight seal preventing any water seeping into the ground." "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." "we'll unroll them down the dike." "and it should be short work." "Cool." "so we want to be prepared for that." "'Kay." "It can lift the liner or shift it." "We don't want to have happen." "Okay." "Let's go." "Let's get this thing in." "Ready?" "Let's go.." "get a little air." "whoa whoa whoa whoa." "Rick's going under." "Whoa help." "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. so." "I got to get this pump going." "Whoa." "Damn damn." "old snake in there." "There's a fricken snake in there." "Look at right here." "Dave grapples with working in a desert." "See that sucker." "I'm not messing with snakes." "I'm gonna get Trey." "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." "back up." "This is serious shit." "Get the camera back." "Oh!" ".." "Geez!" "He is pissed." "Trey?" "You sure you got his head pinned?" "good enough here." "545)}Are you kidding me?" "[ rattling ]" "Good one." "Whew." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "let's get back to work." "000 worth of pond lining." "All right!" "We got water." "Dave.." "A high five." "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?" "Minnie." "Hey chick." "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." "and we're cutting them across the claims." "It adds up for me considerably." "You cut where you can." "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." "right?" "Yup." "Don't think they're gonna be happy to hear that." "Kevin." "It is what it is." "They're really good guys we have on there now." "They do work fuckin' hard." "I know you don't care. it's your baby." "We're gonna cut hours and.." "You're gonna have do it." "That's right." "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." "is my season." "you know" "This is personal." "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 and now I'm getting chance to find the answer to." "I'm willing to fight anything to keep this going." "I'm getting gold out of Indian River." "baby." "Whoa!" "Shut it down!" "that's just fuckin' great." "545)}Fuckin' bullshit." "545)}" "Fuckin' line." "We blew a 545)}Hydraulic line." "so." "545)}You got to fix it." "and the only person who can fix it is mechanic Mitch." "you know.." "We're working 84 hours a week minimum." "and that's it." "You know." "And then I got to go and ask them to work." "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. so." "It should be enough to get it back up and running." "Looks good." "No leaks." "Sweet." "Thanks Mitch." "Yup." "Rick can continue his search for thawed gravel." "and and" "I don't think there's any thawed gravel down here at all." "man." "Last week we hit some good pockets of gold." "So hopefully this week we've got to put gold in our pocket." "the crew's going all out for the gold." "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 just not having luck now." "is that your last one there? 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." "Coming off the best week so far at the High Bar." "let's hope it lasts." "What have we got?" "Let's see." "Okay." "That doesn't cut it." "What the hell." "This High Bar is supposed to pay big time." "How can we go from 64 to 14.5?" "Todd." "but this one.." "We're hitting a lot more bad spots than good.." "000." "guys." "I really don't." "I'm hoping that it can turn the frick around." "Todd." "That same philosophy?" "The scale doesn't lie." "You're losing thousands of dollars a day." "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?" "Ohh." "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." "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." "you know.." "hold on one second." "Hey Brandon." "You got a copy?" "Hello?" "get over here by me and check this out." "Fuck!" "Good shit." "What you got?" "and it's thawed." "It's a glimmer of hope." "I was pretty depressed this morning thinking that there was just no chance." "that's amazing." "but there could be more." "it's a starting point." "boy." "Beer time." "This potentially saves our season on Indian River." "Back in gravel now." "Jason and deckhand Montana have dealt with everything from trees to boulders." "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' shits 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." "yeah." "too fuckin' bad." "Ohh!" "Gotcha." "Aah." "Good?" "Oh yeah." "Good." "I can but... of earnings that I'm losing." "Yeah." "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." "Montana mostly." "we're cutting his hours by a large chunk." "That's a lot of money." "but.." "deckhand Montana quits." "mom?" "Yeah." "How are you?" "I've had better...years." "I'm doubting...my ability" "On this gold mining stuff right now." "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." "685)}And so I just don't want you to give up." "Maybe we can pray right now." "it seems pretty discouraging right now." "And I ask that you help us" "Amen." "I know it's gonna work out." "it's time for the weekly cleanup." "huh." "and give it a looksy." "Alright." "Let's weigh her up." "Parker needs Scribner Creek 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." "worth almost half a million dollars." "530\)}Next one ought to put us up over 500." "yeah." "Whoo!" "Drive it like you stole it." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "He did." "So I got crazy good news." "Oh 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?" "but" "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." "I found it." "A deal's a deal." "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 if we get it going down Indian River we'll beat last year." "(sighs) Alright." "All right." "Let's do it." "There you go." "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." "man." "Ahh." "Indian river just got green lit." "That means I've got my own operation." "I couldn't be more excited." "We got a lot of work ahead." "Yeah." "I'm ready for it." "here comes Freddy." "Hope he's got some news." "Freddy Dodge arrives with the result of this week's cleanup." "you hungry?" "Dave." "Thank you though." "so." "Not good at all." "What was it." "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 stuff." "Wasn't the same material." "Didn't have gold in it." "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." "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." "we had a bad one obviously." "Freddy told us." "Freddy can tell you." "Who gives a crap who tells you?" "385)} We'd kind of like to hear it from you." "big deal." "push on." "No." "It's time to change." "We need the decision." "and I know it's not working." "we're not getting any gold at all." "and I want what's best for the team." "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." "50." "At least at 50 ounces we could break even." "Okay." "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." "the reality is... we're failing." "Hmph." "That's the part that sucks about being in charge." "327)\fnLucida Calligraphy} Subs by JackT" "It's tough.." "But a deal's a deal." "50 ounces or we're closing it down."