"I never thought it'd come to this." "I lost my team." "Narrator:" "On this "Gold Rush"..." "We're killing ourselves right now trying to run this line with four guys." "and I need it now." "I wouldn't wish this on anybody...even Parker." "Gonna break something." "That's ridiculous." "Shut it down!" "Holy crap!" "right?" "We're on the pay dirt." "[ laughs ] as soon as we can." "This is fuckin' frustrating." "[ banging noise ]" "What the fuck is that?" "I don't know." "Just not how I planned it would work out." "I can't believe what's happened this summer." "My guys are gone." "They're all gone." "you may be watching the Hoffmans And it might be just frickin' today." "[ snake rattles ] Todd came to Oregon with high hopes for a $6 million season." "I want to see a miracle on this mountain." "000 ounces." "The Hoffman crew began mining for nuggets at the High Bar." "Everybody's reputation's on the line on this hill." "with just 138 ounces of gold..." "I feel like such a fool right now." "...he and his crew abandon the High Bar and stake their season on a new mine... the Buckland." "it's right here." "the crew fell apart... hey!" "Knock it off!" "That cut's done." "I'm done." "Narrator: ...and quit." "no." "Dave." "Come on." "Oregon was meant to be a beautiful homecoming." "Todd:" "I can barely breathe." "so..." "Yeah." "[ sighs ] I don't know." "It feels like a weight on my shoulders." "I'm too deep." "I can't quit." "Narrator:" "Todd started the season with a crew of 15." "and faithful friend Thurber." "I don't know what to tell you about this." "this is not how I planned it to go." "Why'd you stay with us?" "You should be..." "you should go home." "I've been through everything with you guys." "man." "let's go out swinging." "Yep." "I know that that's got gold in it." "you know?" "you grab a rock truck." "you know... probably more about the plant than any of us." "Why don't you run the loader there." "go ahead and feed it." "feed the plant." "I'm gonna load out some pay." "And we're just gonna run as much dirt as we can." "The ground is gonna give you what it's gonna give you." "but... it doesn't look real promising." "to be honest with you." "let's go." "Narrator:" "Todd's already close to 3/4 of a million dollars in the hole." "he'll need to mine another 500 ounces of gold... more than twice his total to date." "and wanted to believe in it so bad." "I don't know." "I never thought it'd come to this." "[ sighs deeply ] they still struggled to find any pay worth running." "I'm just scavenging whatever I can." "I'm just trying to find any bit that looks like pay." "I just got to keep the plant running for right now." "Jack:" "We have to stick with it." "We're caught.." "between a rock and a hard place." "We've got a big... nut to crack here." "I just don't know how long it can go on." "Hunter:" "Everything's gone the opposite of how we planned it to go." "uh..." "We could really use some... some good news right now." "but" "Some people say that uh... that rock bottom is at least a solid foundation." "Maybe we can rebuild from here." "everything's running good here." "Sluicifer's running through dirt good." "And the only problem is there's not a lot of gold in there." "Parker Schnabel is halfway through his season." "But he has less than a third of the gold he needs to hit his target." "Schnabel:" "Our last cleanup only had 102 ounces." "Rick really needs to get going down on Indian River." "Rick Ness is working hard to get their second operation up and running." "Focus on this area." "Yeah." "try to clean this all up." "All right." "We'll just keep her going." "Parker gave Rick the chance to run his own operation." "000 ounces 000 ounces down there." "So... man." "Rick's excavated 1.5 million yards of overburden in his struggle to find gold-rich pay dirt." "uh." "trying to ruin my day." "That's a pretty good sign that I'm getting down to the level." "But everything I'm doing right now is leading up to that." "Oh." "yeah." "I know that feeling." "Teeth of the bucket are starting to chatter on some big rocks." "I betcha that's pay dirt." "Yep." "Bingo." "guess what I've found?" "boy." "[ laughs ] [ humming ]" "This is my first pan down at Indian River." "Kinda excited to see what kind of result I can get." "I-I really want to see some gold in this pan." "Make sure you're on the right track." "gold." "Now we're talking." "Woo." "Sweet." "There's a good 10 pieces in there." "a bunch of little colors." "so we're gonna start hauling pay finally." "Woo!" "[ laughs ]" "Narrator:" "The gold In the ground at Indian River could save their season." "just hauling dirt." "And now I'm watching the dirt get hauled up to the pad for my own operation." "That's pretty sweet." "It's been a lot of hard work to get here." "But it's all paying off right now." "Narrator:" "But there will be no gold without a wash plant." "And Big Red is stuck five miles away in Parker's yard." "we're screwed." "We have approximately 60 hours on that run." "And that's been pretty good." "And we made some really good headway." "Narrator:" "Dredge master Kevin Beets is running 130 yards of pay dirt an hour. worth $1.7 million." "Kevin:" "Plane." "that's our plane." "That might be Tony." "Narrator:" "Tony's master plan this year?" "Get a second dredge running alongside this one at Eureka Creek. he's come to check on his money maker." "All right." "Okay." "See you in a bit." "Pretty good." "Jason!" "Shut it down!" "[ clang ]" "Tony's costs are spiraling out of control." "He needs to recover every grain of gold he can from Kevin's operation." "Gold should settle in the first few feet of the sluices. it means the dredge is blowing thousands of dollars worth of gold right off the end." "Yeah?" "Yeah?" "[ whistles ]" "[ whistles ]" "So?" "So?" "So that leaves me with a fuckin' problem to fix." "I guess." "make it fuckin' work?" "All right." "so I'll make it happen." "I'll come up with something that I like and go with it." "sucks for him." "right?" "so we're gonna move Big Red down to Indian River." "but" "We'll get her whipped back into shape." "Narrator:" "Rick Ness is down to pay dirt at his Indian River operation. brought out of retirement to save their season." "[ horn honks ] and now we're damn close to getting sluicing and making some money." "Narrator:" "Parker brings in his semi truck along with a specialized trailer designed to load from the front." "That trailer's about as small as it could be and still do the job." "but I don't care at this point." "We're gonna get it on that trailer and we're gonna get it moved." "but..." "The fuckin' work's just begun. then drag Big Red onto the trailer using a loader and an excavator." "he'll reattach the semi." "[ hose snaps ]" "What the fuck." "I broke something." "I do know what I did wrong." "Fuck me." "Forgot to undo those." "Parker has snapped the high-pressure air hoses that operate the trailer's brakes." "Big Red is going nowhere." "For fuck sake!" "Parker?" "What now?" "!" "What?" "so..." "Just fuck off for a minute." "This is fuckin' frustrating." "it looks like Parker pulled away before he completely disconnected from the trailer." "Pulled out the air lines and the..." "and the electrical." "Nice." "You have a small hose clamp?" "I think I have some." "too?" "right?" "Yeah." "Schnabel:" "There we go." "that'll work." "the air lines are temporarily fixed." "that's enough to get our wash plant moved." "All right." "Let's do this." "We're probably gonna have to rig up to it." "one on each end." "There we go." "All right." "We got this sucker in the air." "It's time to get it on the trailer." "Whoa!" "Easy." "just left a bit." "We got it." "That's it?" "Perfect." "[ grunts ]" "Yeah." "Fits like a glove." "that worked smooth." "Yeah." "we got the plant on the trailer." "Now we just need to chain it down and six miles." "Not too bad." "What's the worst that can happen?" "[ brakes hiss ]" "[ banging noises ]" "What the fuck was that?" "[ brakes hiss ] [ more banging ]" "What the fuck was that?" "old wash plant from his yard to Rick's new Indian River operation." "Are my back tires not spinning?" "But there's a problem with the trailer." "[ air hisses ] but not the rear two." "What the fuckin' shit?" "The brakes aren't releasing." "they're not getting the air they need to release." "which means the high-pressure air is not reaching the brakes." "Parker tries switching the hoses." "[ air hisses ]" "What was that?" "Heard a burst of air back here." "What?" "we got some air coming back here now." "I can hear it." "I just switched them again." "yeah." "Brakes are moving now." "Yeah." "Rick." "Let's get this wash plant to Indian River." "Now let's see what kind of a super trucker I am." "that's a sweet sight here..." "Big Red coming down the road behind me." "heh." "Thing's fuckin' tall." "this is gonna be Rick's show." "And I'm excited about that." "I'm excited for him." "000." "it'll be really good and he can do more." "perfect!" "Made it!" "[Honk Honk]" "Whoo!" "[ laughs ]" "All right." "There you go." "There you go." "You got yourself a wash plant." "Rick's Indian River claim..." "Good luck." "...is almost ready to start producing gold." "000 ounces for us up to this date." "So... 000 out of it in the next two months." "Big Red... at Indian River..." "Unreal." "[ horn honks ]" "I'm gonna have to really fill you full here." "I'm gonna fill you up as much as I can get in there." "Narrator:" "Todd Hoffman's crew has mutinied." "Now he's struggling to run the Buckland mine and Thurber." "I'll push you up." "That's enough." "We're gonna break something." "That's ridiculous." "half a mile to the plant." "we're killing ourselves right now trying to run this mine with four guys." "And who knows if this pay even has anything good in it." "Jack:" "I'm gonna be running out of pay here pretty quick." "I don't know if I'm digging up my own ramp that I..." "I'm sitting on." "Whether I'm getting pay or getting dirt." "we're running out of pay up here." "There's not a lot I can do about that right now." "I'm doing the best we can." "you're gonna have to do a little bit better than that." "[ groans ] and I need it now." "this one truck just isn't cutting it." "What's Hunter doing up there?" "He's clearing tailings out..." "Let the tailings pile up." "Who cares?" "Tell Hunter just get in a truck and get his ass down here!" "All right." "Come help haul pay." "We're not getting enough over here." "I'll go get in a truck." "man." "We needed your help back here." "Okay." "I'll do my best." "Go for it." "Take this load." "I think we can keep up with two trucks." "it's definitely gonna help." "We're hauling twice as much now." "I'm having to jump between the loader and the rock truck right now." "I have to watch the wash plant." "I have to do the tailings." "Feels like I'm doing the job of three guys." "and it's pretty ridiculous." "Hunter's running around like a chicken with his head cut off." "But he's doing a real good job." "we have a water leak." "The feeder's blowing water out the back." "Shut it down!" "Holy crap!" "kill the pump!" "I got the water off." "we blew a hose here." "All right." "I'm gonna shut the plant down." "We have a hose that feeds the main conveyor." "It either just blew off or the straps broke." "I don't know which." "Holy cow." "Blew the clamp right off." "Aw." "these are the type that you can't reuse." "go find some clamps." "Let's clamp it back on." "We'll see if it'll hold." "What if I wasn't here at the wash plant?" "I'm half a mile away at the cut." "I..." "I can't..." "He can't watch the whole thing and feed it. then we're not mining at all." "we're not blaming you or blaming anybody." "I am sorry." "I know we're shorthanded." "But we got to keep our eyes on this frickin' plant." "let's just keep it rolling." "Found three brand new heavy duty clamps." "that looks all right." "it is." "Even better." "Yeah." "Let me hold on to it." "good." "Stagger all these." "Okay." "I think we got her." "You's want to fire up?" "You know what?" "Something like that could've just shut us down." "I think we got real lucky on a hose." "This summer's been unbelievable." "very difficult." "I wouldn't wish this on anybody..." "Even Parker." "We gonna rip this old piece of shit off." "Then we're gonna bring in a new one." "Narrator:" "Kevin Beets' dredge has been losing gold down the fine tailing chutes." "as you can see." "Splash!" "Fuckin' done." "metal chutes with a pair of 20-foot sluice boxes containing mats and expanded metal." "This should trap all the gold he's been losing." "Mechanic Mike Beaudry has come to help." "Beaudry:" "Do everything we can on the ground." "and we'll be done." "Then the dredge can go back to work." "500 pounds." "They must be perfectly lined up with the runs on the dredge so water flows evenly all the way to the end." "Kevin." "Kev!" "Don't get too crazy." "pull that end that way." "just wait." "That's not gonna work." "Fuckin' thing looks like It's twisted in the middle." "Which way are you thinking?" "That way?" "It's looking this way..." "It's looking this way." "Tilt it that way?" "It's tilted this way." "That one is or both of them?" "This one." "Just hang on." "[ sighs ]" "This needs to go that way?" "Yeah." "that's okay." "Go get me that come-along." "Pull on that." "slow." "There you go." "There you go." "How about this way?" "Yeah?" "that's better." "I'm not sure how much I trust these cables." "Why?" "'Cause that's a lot of weight." "000 pounds each." "Tighten that other turnbuckle up a little more?" "Yeah." "It's sitting in there quite nice." "but it's all we need." "Just got to sit there and work." "start making gold again." "Here we go." "[ water flowing ]" "I hear water." "And here she comes." "Oh shit." "so that's a good start." "They seem to be working." "I'm happy." "Just got to wait and see how they work out." "Doumitt." "Sluicifer" is a tough word to say." "Mitch." "No problem." "Parker has been mining the Boundary Cut extension." "But the results have been falling short." "it's time to see if things have improved." "I know we've been focused on getting Big Red moved." "Sluicifer's still sluicing away." "this Boundary Cut extension got a little better." "102?" "pretty pathetic." "Parker needs this cleanup to produce over 160 ounces. here's the moment of truth." "it adds up." "It's at 20... 40... 60... 80... 100." "Not much more than that." "106.9." "Oh oh." "So nothing's changed." "man." "But that should be almost double that." "Yeah." "I could've skip across that." "An ounce an hour." "Huh." "Chris?" "285 now." "we got to start upping that." "it really highlights the fact that we need Big Red up and going." "'cause we've got to do over 250 ounces a week for the rest for the season." "We've got to get Big Red sluicing as soon as we can." "understood." "I agree. at this rate..." "Big Red can do these numbers easy." "Rick." "I just need you to get on that." "10-4." "I'm on it." "guys." "this Boundary Cut extension is pretty dog shit." "so... get some gold coming out of Indian River." "Narrator:" "It's 8:00 p.m. but Rick's got other priorities." "I've got Big Red down in my cut." "I'm gonna drag it up to the pad." "I'm gonna be pulling gold out of my own cut." "And it's one hell of a feeling." "I got chills when I said that." "All right." "Fuckin' go time." "baby." "Let's go." "This is the easy part now." "I'm in the flats." "though." "this hill is a... pretty steep angle." "Whew." "Whoo!" "Big Red's on the pad!" "Yes!" "[ grunts ]" "It's another cleanup." "We don't do these every day?" "Yeah." "Narrator:" "Kevin Beets has fitted new sluice extensions to the back end of the dredge. they've shut down for an all important cleanup." "This second tub is gonna keep the gold concentrate separate between the new runs that we added in last week and the rest of the dredge." "So it's gonna give everybody a good idea of what was actually going off the end." "Aw shit." "What's gonna be really interesting is to see how much gold we get out of those back sluice runs." "I don't know." "We're waiting on you." "Kevin needs around 50 ounces a week." "20." "You got 50." "60." "100." "Good." "150." "200." "Perfect." "208. 220." "226.30." "I think that's pretty fuckin' reasonable." "a couple of bucks." "Okay." "both of them." "Okay." "Yeah." "2 ounces." "3 ounces." "4 ounces." "4.26 ounces." "what's the grand total now?" "230.6." "000 a week..." "Money Tony desperately needs to get his second dredge back on track." "that's gonna fuckin' help." "Let's pull the mats." "and we'll see what we got." "Okay." "Let's hope it's good." "Todd's skeleton crew has fed Monster Red for a week." "and I want to go back and see if our hard work paid off." "Narrator:" "But they won't know If they've hit the pay streak until they do the cleanup." "Hey." "What do we got cooking?" "Well..." "Hmm." "break even? they need at least 50 ounces a week... 000 worth of gold." "Nowhere even near." "man." "Just take the thing off." "I got to look." "That's it?" "That's it." "You're friggin' kidding me." "No." "Nope." "[ sighs ] Oh...uh." "I could tell you right now that's barely worth weighing." "That's not good." "2.8." "Yeah." "I don't know what to say." "We've put through a lot of yards." "[ groans ]" "It's not worth all of us there sitting all day running for that little bit of gold." "there's really only two choices... 327)\fnLucida Calligraphy} Subs by JackT" "We keep giving it a shot... or we quit and go home." "I don't know." "That gold does not make it worth it. it's..." "It's done." "It's over." "I'm not happy." "I'm not happy about it." "I got 10 or 12 pieces of heavy equipment at least." "I got my back against the wall." "I don't know if I can keep doing this anymore." "I got a friggin' rainbow coming down into the cut down here." "Narrator:" "On the next "Gold Rush" "I don't even want to hear it." "000 bucks." "Feels like mine right now." "She's rising from the ashes! I'm really not impressed." "wouldn't it?" "It's time to start the next phase." "What the hell's he doing here?" "I am tired of feeling like a frickin' loser." "Hey everybody." "Ready to pull out?"