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00:00:00market volatility gold stands out gold just hit a new record $3,500 an ounce and the price of gold
00:00:13has been climbing this is somewhere that economists believe will continue to be a safe haven it is
00:00:18Tony how's it going man good how are you hanging in there yeah you got some of that
00:00:29tiny shiny coming in yes good it has all the makings of a good season Parker hey gold price
00:00:37yeah I don't even like to talk about it or look at it me neither because it should be illegal
00:00:42that's how high it is isn't it well then it like goes down $300 and I'm like what's happening and
00:00:47it's like oh it's still up a thousand yes if you want to beef up your piggy bank well that'll be the
00:00:52year whether I want to say the number or not because I keep saying it and not hitting it but
00:00:57um no we're gonna have to start doing 10,000 a year for for a while now that's a lot of bucks
00:01:03you better get with it bring it on you're going big why do you need to do six six and a half if
00:01:11we do more we do more yeah anyway that has all the makings of a good year as long as the price stays
00:01:17there yeah no it's good to see you I'm glad you're doing well same to you hopefully the wars are behind
00:01:25this right bye bye
00:01:36tony and i've known each other for you know 14 years that's wild like 99 of the time it's great
00:01:45that one percent absolutely sucks and he's like one of the biggest on the planet but 99 of the time is
00:01:51she's wonderful maybe 95 percent
00:01:5916 years ago three-fifths of an ounce which is about 800 a global financial crash
00:02:09caused gold prices to rock it's just gold fever to one thousand dollars an ounce
00:02:16i'm gonna do it sparking let's find it up a modern day gold rush it's alive watch the rocks baby but
00:02:24striking it rich proved harder than imagined that's it we're done now breaking news on wall street with
00:02:33stocks tumbling gold and safe havens they are surging gold prices have more than tripled to an all-time high
00:02:43three thousand five hundred dollars per ounce we're going gold mining boys
00:02:51with just six months to cash in whoa whoa are we here for a shootout
00:02:59top dogs i don't ask questions i give orders are you gonna behave and underdogs i'm just a delivery boy i
00:03:07i don't really give a i just want to get paid collide i got a job offer from parker
00:03:14look out and play dirty should i trust you on this hi yeah to hit the jackpot holy smokes that's a hell
00:03:25of a pant we joke about it being an addiction but it literally is some you made a mess will not survive
00:03:33pick me out somebody to fire get rid of it it sucks man it really sucks others
00:03:41soar to new heights
00:03:48there's nothing like making money of your kids is that and set records i was not expecting that
00:03:54pretty amazing yeah 2043 and a half ounces that's wild you get a pan you get a pan you get a fan genuinely
00:04:06that's insane
00:04:24the yukon north america's last frontier
00:04:29for over a century prospectors have scoured these valleys and creeks for life-changing gold
00:04:41with just a few summer months to make their fortunes
00:04:46the stars are aligned for us the gold price is crazy we've got a ton of ground prepped on dominion and
00:04:54um we're going to be able to stretch our legs and really run and see what it's made out of this is
00:05:00the year that we'll find out
00:05:0530 year old parker schnabel is on the precipice of a career defining season the gold mining prodigy
00:05:13who started out with a crew of two is now a mining mogul with 60 machines and a 40-person crew
00:05:22we've got amazing people and then we have like this crazy gold price and we're dangerously close to
00:05:30things being really good i just want to go to work i just want to wash rocks
00:05:37and you know get sluicy goosey for the tiny shiny that's all i want to do
00:05:45i did not i have not told you how to do your job one time this whole year
00:05:48just 16 years old when he first became a mine boss i'm pretty young and it's tough to
00:05:57you know i never know if i'm doing the right thing or not parker struggled i'm spending the
00:06:02money here and i make the calls to manage his crew if you can't handle it then maybe this isn't the
00:06:08place for you you are making an enemy out of me but as the young miner grew in gold mining you're only
00:06:15as good as the people you have he evolved oh yeah look at that our season starts now i'll stand behind
00:06:26them any day of the week with a vision that spawned a gold mining empire wow that's the biggest clean
00:06:33out we've ever had and delivered more than 115 million dollars in gold this does not stop here
00:06:45i'm losing faith in you guys but last season it's been one fight after the next we're not making
00:06:53money when we're doing it like this it's frustrating i know what we were doing was wrong parker crashed
00:07:00and burned worst cleanup ever i don't like this feeling i don't like being a loser
00:07:12we came up short and it's not going to happen again this winter i have spent all the money i can
00:07:19get my hands on buying equipment and hiring people it's a challenge this is kind of uncharted territory for
00:07:27me so much going on we just have to hammer down focus on washing rocks filling jars and everybody's
00:07:39going to have to step up 40 miles southeast of dawson city lies parker's kingdom an area nearly the size of
00:07:49manhattan his main operation is dominion creek land he's bought where he'll run three wash plants to
00:07:58deliver the bulk of his gold 25 miles northwest he'll send a satellite crew to sulfur creek to hunt for
00:08:07pockets of gold left behind by the old timers running the enormous operation will cost parker a hundred
00:08:16thousand dollars each day but if he's successful he could bring in more than 35 million dollars in gold
00:08:26this year
00:08:29what's happening man how are you guys yo yo doing good how are you not too bad welcome to my map room very
00:08:37nice swear it all happens hey how was your winter it was good i uh was a bum for the most part
00:08:49to execute his master plan parker's counting on his trusted lieutenants mitch blasky and tyson lee
00:08:58we're going to do 10 000 ounces this year
00:08:59like we keep talking about it but we actually have to just do it so we're going to run four plants
00:09:10this year wow trying to run four wash plants it's like we were all over the place last year trying to
00:09:18cover our bases and like we're going to be spread out you know how it is when that happens yeah
00:09:24i know i know that there's going to be a lot of challenges i'm i'm not i don't disagree with you
00:09:31tyson i need you on dominion running the whole operation
00:09:37right so good luck thanks i'll need it
00:09:43i don't know what's going to come out of sulfur and it's going to be a difficult project so i need
00:09:48you to go over there mitch and get that sorted out first
00:09:50we only have a partial season on the water license so we need to get it done in a hurry
00:09:58parker's sulfur water license a permit to pull water from creeks to wash gold expires in just 10
00:10:06weeks after that he can't mine the claim what kind of crew do we have to get this done
00:10:12we've hired a bunch of new people okay one big thing is people who can't do their job we need to
00:10:21fire we want to have the best of the best but you guys are the ones that are going to be able to make
00:10:27this happen or not it's brutal right
00:10:34it's going to be a stressful year for you two yeah
00:10:40i know it's a bit of a daunting task but like i'm excited exhausting yeah
00:10:44no days off you just had six months off
00:10:47yeah thanks for coming back yeah i appreciate having you guys here and i'm looking forward to
00:10:55this season yeah for sure thanks man all right let's do it
00:11:02there's a lot of work to do there's a lot of gold to find
00:11:05now it's up to mitch and tyson to get the job done hopefully
00:11:10the job will get done hopefully it's the two of them that does it is what i mean
00:11:22things are already starting off a little bit different here parker made it very clear that uh
00:11:27you know everybody's got to pull their weight and then some we got no room for air
00:11:33last year mitch was in charge this year it's going to be on my shoulders
00:11:37last year i was managing one wash plant this year going to be managing three so no cups we got to
00:11:45find a ton of gold tyson's first mission is to start pulling in gold on dominion's bridge cut
00:11:57the crew has spent two years mining this spot with mixed results
00:12:02and the gold bearing pay dirt is buried under three feet of solid ice
00:12:32so i'm in the 250. got michael in the 390.
00:12:45coming to work for parker it's uh kind of a dream come true i like the way he runs his outfit his gear
00:12:51is really nice
00:12:52so we got amy here first truckload ice heading out of the cut first of many
00:13:02this is my first time driving a rock truck before they can get to pay dirt tyson's crew needs to shift
00:13:11over 25 000 tons of ice
00:13:24well i think uh realistically how the hell are we going to do all this in a week
00:13:31right now i'd like to be setting up the wash plant and firing it up today but we're a long ways away from
00:13:37that
00:13:46how are things going well man the ice is a lot thicker than we thought eh yeah there's a lot of ice in
00:13:52here and it's really rotten so what's your plan just keep uh building piles trucking off this ice
00:14:00place right okay we have extra trucks in the yard no you got any more people any more iron you can give us
00:14:10i don't know okay thanks dude no worries see ya
00:14:24if by the end of the week i don't have the ice out of this cut and the wash plant going
00:14:39will have failed my first task first week of the season
00:14:44parker just wants the ice out and the wash plant going the long and short of it
00:14:48i don't really want to spend money trucking ice but we really don't have much of an alternative so
00:14:59um we're just gonna have to suck it up we need to get sluicing that's gonna be what makes or breaks the season
00:15:18yeah here we go i can't believe we're sluicing as early as we are
00:15:36we started the season early but we want to keep that up everybody's in their eyes
00:15:4210 miles south at indian river king of the clondine tony beats is already two weeks ahead of his rivals
00:15:51we're giving a and the gold price is in our favor we was losing days for two weeks we got the early bird
00:15:59cut was all taut ground so that was awesome tony's hoping for a quick score from the 13 acre early bird cut
00:16:07if the gold price stays where it is and we lose most of the summer like we did last year
00:16:14darn thing me you're gonna make enough money to set up three generations
00:16:21when there's opportunities there grab it 40 years ago tony and wife minnie left the netherlands
00:16:28to seek their fortune in the yukon all we had was 300 bucks i work 14 hours a day every day
00:16:35from nothing tony grew a 60 million dollar mining dynasty i'm trying to build a future for my kids
00:16:44they gotta take over they're gonna have to run the circles all by themselves
00:16:53piece of i've never ever never ever had that much there before until two years ago
00:17:01there's six seven million in the hole when the business descended into chaos have i ever seen the
00:17:08up then i'm looking at his family fractured he's running it into the ground
00:17:14he told me this cat was gonna be mine oh really yeah feeling a little shafted i shut down a plant
00:17:23you just quit you gotta be kidding me every time i'll tell you one thing i won't give up that easy
00:17:36but the klondike king pulled his family together our kids are really stepping up this year
00:17:42keeping son mike and daughter monica working for him i appreciate everything you're doing to help me
00:17:48anything for family monica but giving eldest son kevin the chance to set up his own operation how's that
00:17:55sound to you that sounds very very nice by the end of last season the more you make the better we like
00:18:02you make the beats had reeled in a record 5 777 ounces worth 14.4 million dollars that's yours a hell of a lot
00:18:14better than last year
00:18:19it is not a time to sit back and enjoy this is a time to get together and get out there in the
00:18:25morning and make things happen you owe that to the next generation people can have money people can
00:18:31have a lot of things but kids and grandkids there's something that if you don't have that you don't have
00:18:38very much
00:18:39tony believes his claims could deliver a jaw-dropping 6 500 ounces this season worth more than 22 million
00:18:52dollars hey guys hello how's it looking well yellow got yellow stuff good thing we started early mike huh
00:19:02yeah when the sun is shining you're better ready to make some hate yeah right especially at this price
00:19:08damn not only is tony already sluicing he's the first to weigh out his gold i can always get more gold
00:19:16i cannot always get this price so let's wait and have a look at it all right ready let's go
00:19:29let's wait and have a look at it at indian river tony beats is gambling on an early season score
00:19:38to cash in on record high gold prices hey ready let's go go he's already sluiced nearly half of the early
00:19:48bird cut 50 60 70 which he's counting on to deliver at least 300 ounces 190 260 290 300 wow 360 390
00:20:06417.456 ain't that a beaut that's pretty amazing in just two weeks the beats have pulled in one and a half
00:20:19million dollars i'd say it's a record for us that justifies as to what the we're doing that's a lot
00:20:25of money right there if we can keep this up we go so how have you planned out this summer
00:20:34of course mike you're gonna be on the hill as usual monica it would be nice if you could oversee
00:20:40in the gold room cleaning the gold sounds good to me but i was thinking you gave kevin a bunch
00:20:47of help getting him going so is there anything you can help us with
00:20:55there is some opportunities out there let's get these two places here going first and then we'll talk
00:20:59not making any promises until i have that in place right i'm okay with that you there you go
00:21:10so all hands on deck we gotta go
00:21:14i'm very interested to see what tony was talking about in terms of other opportunities
00:21:20i think it's really cool that kevin has gone out on his own but michael's been out here since he was
00:21:2912. mike's really chomping the bit to do more things big picture goals i would like my own mind but
00:21:36right now it's not a priority i have a bunch of other i have to get done we'll see
00:21:40like monica they'll be talking about getting started for themselves but right now we're busy other
00:21:48places so they're just gonna have to hang in there for a little bit anyway i never never had that much
00:21:55gold that early a great start to the season
00:22:16100 miles away in keno rick ness yeah that's a big pile of dirt is sitting on a pile of gold
00:22:24at his duncan creek claim i would say there's probably pretty damn close to 400 ounces sitting
00:22:32there and right now that's worth over a million dollars and uh it's ready to go our plants sitting
00:22:36right there the bad news is is we still don't have a water license and we can't touch this
00:22:44blows my mind rick's water license essential to mining still hasn't come through until he gets it
00:22:52he can't mind duncan creek i almost don't even know if i should do this
00:23:00thinking it would make me thinking it would satisfy me it's probably just gonna make me more mad
00:23:13oh that's outrageous amount of gold in one pan
00:23:16i don't even know what the emotion is right now normally i see a pan like that and i hit the roof
00:23:23this is uh that's unbelievable and we can't touch it
00:23:29rick ness i expected growing pains but this is outrageous is a fighter
00:23:46with a small crew of buddies
00:23:48paying them out each season from his haul here's one of those for each of you guys you guys earned
00:23:55it a miner for 13 years what he's had highs that's like an ounce right there everybody
00:24:03yourself and loads no no no i don't know what else to do right now it's getting out of control always
00:24:12on the brink of losing it all that's one last farewell kicking the balls
00:24:17but last season this is it now this is all mine
00:24:21he bought his own ground let's go megas valley here we go
00:24:28hit the jackpot and reeled in 4.5 million dollars in gold that's it i've got some bad news
00:24:38only to be gut punched we've got a big problem with the water license being approved
00:24:43and i can't guarantee you'll have the license next year without the water license you can't mine
00:24:59now rick must find a way to pull a rabbit out of the hat again what's up dudes how about you nice
00:25:07crushes yeah you like those hey good start with nowhere to mine only half rick's crew has made it
00:25:16back for now well you guys have seen it all you've seen the good you've seen the bad you've seen the
00:25:22the opportunity you've seen the setbacks it's a mess right now it's not just us i mean there's a lot
00:25:30of people getting screwed there's no one shutting the door right now saying that you know your water
00:25:34license never coming in it's just tied up so what are we doing here with no water license
00:25:42it's not the only pile of gold out here and that's why you're here we just have to find another one
00:25:47but it's not going to be on this ground
00:25:53and you know what gold prices are a thousand dollars more an ounce than when we left here last
00:25:57year i mean that's insanity this is not the year to quit no we need 1800 ounces this year
00:26:04yeah i know that these things seem down but you know what we are here and and i am going to
00:26:11find us a spot at the end of the day that's what we're going to do but if this water license comes
00:26:17through at any point this summer you bet your ass i want to move us back here i mean you haven't let
00:26:21us down yet all right
00:26:24hopefully rick understands what he's doing here and hopefully like wherever we're going it's going
00:26:31to be good i want to start moving some dirt these guys have stuck with me through a lot and glad to
00:26:37see they're sticking with me through this we will find a place of mine and we're going to make it work
00:26:52all right okay uh chelsea you ready ready kaden you ready yep ready all right then folks screen
00:27:02deck is turning on first time for the season let's go
00:27:05first scoop of pay going in for the season
00:27:21goody 2025 here comes the goal at scribner creek just like his father tony
00:27:31second year mind boss kevin beats is ahead of the pack feels really good to sluice this early
00:27:38especially after last year it's it's nice to see it running
00:27:46so you want to look at some iron do you can we have this one last season with a little help from dad
00:27:53three two one
00:27:59kevin plunged his life savings into his own operation this is a big gamble so me and faith
00:28:04have to make this work that's looking really nice kev so excited but overall i think it's a pretty good
00:28:11day but almost from the get-go i'm trying to help you here and you're talking over me tempers flared
00:28:21it's not fun to work with until foreman brennan ruo took control of the crew
00:28:28you don't want to hear it oh this is the piece squash right now and the cuts
00:28:35yes finally
00:28:39so nice work keep it going
00:28:42helping them score that could be gold beautiful a big payday yay money it's nice to be in the upswing
00:28:50honestly
00:28:54we made the right call of getting away from tony's i'm feeling really good about this year i think
00:29:00we're off to a strong start which is good because we have a big goal this year 2000 ounces
00:29:07figure may as well go double what we did last year aim big and with gold prices being as high
00:29:11as they are if there's any time to have a good big year for gold totals it is this year kevin's
00:29:18mission this year is to double his gold target and cement his place as a mine boss in his own right
00:29:26so our mining plan we left ourselves a p-bank last year that way we have money coming in from day one
00:29:37so day one sluicing this is gonna hopefully continue on well last year i was pretty frustrated
00:29:46out here with how much we're shutting down but brennan he knows what he's doing
00:29:53oh it's nice to have katan back it's always good to have returners who know how things run
00:29:59and you know you can rely on and brennan should be showing up soon
00:30:02oh it feels good to be back in the yukon this feels like my second home
00:30:21howdy stranger how's it going guys not too
00:30:24right on we're wondering where the you're at nice to see you pal
00:30:27so what's up we're starting to wonder we haven't heard from you in a bit so yeah um
00:30:37um
00:30:40i ended up getting a phone call there that i wasn't expecting to get
00:30:45um of another job offer um
00:30:53and uh it was a pretty good job offer so i've leaned towards taking that position
00:31:01who offered you the job well parker ended up calling me there which i was completely
00:31:15not expecting same
00:31:20yeah um really back with parker
00:31:26it was not you know there's just a few things in the offer that really
00:31:29aligned to what my future where i kind of see myself being in some goals
00:31:33that i have set you know what i mean no
00:31:39i wish he at least told us earlier so that we can plan
00:31:43if i had have known a lot sooner i would have said it a lot sooner right
00:31:49uh there's not really much we can offer you to get you back here this year i guess huh
00:31:53i've kind of already agreed to it
00:32:02well thank you for stopping by telling us okay guys you guys have a wicked season we'll see ya
00:32:09see ya
00:32:14well then
00:32:14i'm going to be a little bit more of a project then isn't it it is kind of hard to find someone
00:32:24with brennan's experience that you can rely on if they're good they've got a job maybe we should go
00:32:30poaching too
00:32:50we're down to the last bit of ice here in the bridge pat once we get that out of here
00:32:54that means i can start getting bob ready to sluice three days into his ice moving marathon tyson's under the gun
00:33:07parker's given me and i've taken on more than i've ever taken on working here before
00:33:14can i do it i don't know but am i willing to find out yeah it could have cost him my job
00:33:20a hundred percent but i hope it doesn't
00:33:26if it does i'll be flipping burgers come visit me at the drive-through
00:33:31and yes i will be spitting in them
00:33:36a 25 mile drive northwest i'm down here at sulfur just trying to get this cut opened up
00:33:43this cuts 2 000 feet long they got probably uh big enough to land a small airplane on
00:33:55for a lot of miners this would be their whole season with multiple people working on it and
00:33:59right now i'm down here jumping from the dozer to the excavator back and forth ripping mitch has a
00:34:06two acre strip to mine out in just 10 weeks before parker's water license runs out if he fails
00:34:15he'll be forced to leave gold behind the time frame down here is definitely my biggest concern
00:34:21this water license is getting closer to expire by the minute and yet i'm the only one down here
00:34:37who we got here
00:34:45oh hey man what's up oh much my friend how are you oh busy good to see you pal come on i'll give you one
00:34:57oh just don't let nobody don't tell anybody yeah keep that off their radio
00:35:01what's your plans well parker poached me you sent me up here to come to work with you
00:35:10i'm serious no way man yeah buddy all right he said to me specifically you and mitch work so
00:35:17together i want to get that band back together that's exact words out of his mouth
00:35:21too that's awesome yeah i can't believe you didn't tell me
00:35:27brennan and mitch
00:35:28we're mining buddies on parker's scribner creek claim
00:35:37nice work yeah you too man they became co-foreman that is perfect and a bromance
00:35:44blossomed are we good what a nice feeling
00:35:47brennan hurry up you've had five days to get this done
00:35:52sakes you're in charge or are you not in charge until five years ago when brennan quit
00:35:59after falling out with parker so over this man dude we've moved a lot of dirt and this year let
00:36:07me tell you what we got more than ever i could certainly use some help well that's what i'm here
00:36:12for you can jump in the dozer we just got to rip this edge i'm gonna start throwing everything back
00:36:17okay well i'm excited buddy
00:36:26time to move some dirt
00:36:33dude it's unreal to have you back here christmas came early
00:36:38in all the years i've been gone i've missed working with you every day of it buddy oh you're
00:36:43probably back because you heard we got taco tuesday you did mention you guys got a really
00:36:48good cook so that was a big plus for me oh that looks like parker
00:37:08how's it going hey welcome back thanks pal
00:37:11okay the whole sulfur project is kind of an interesting one because it's really hard to see
00:37:18what is pay and what is waste what you're really looking for is virgin banks or like virgin
00:37:26sections this to me looks like virgin still right so you're forced to pan your way through it and see
00:37:37what's going on this is a totally different type of mine in this see
00:37:44three quarters of a century ago old timers used a dredge to mine sulfur creek pulling out more than 1.2
00:37:53billion dollars in gold but in its wake it left a mystery floating in a self-made pond the dredge traveled
00:38:03its way down the valley sluicing from one side to the other but above the water line the high banks
00:38:11were out of reach so gold was left untouched and where the dredge turned it covered up pockets of
00:38:19gold rich virgin ground with worthless tailings making sulfur a potential treasure trove of hidden gold
00:38:28gold if they can find it it's just going to take some time to figure out like i would be panning
00:38:37pretty constantly perfect sounds good to me okay
00:38:48we got so much water coming through here we got all this material we need to start moving it over
00:38:52we need it dry if we start just working this it's just going to get wetter and wetter we're not dredging
00:39:00so i want to just focus on the ditch here yeah okay i mean i agree with you but i just what about
00:39:06parker you know yeah but i mean if we just start digging in here we're going to be working underwater
00:39:13despite parker's rush to find the gold mitch ignores his orders to pan and decides to dig a ditch
00:39:21to drain the water the first thing we got to do and we're going to do is get rid of this water all right
00:39:34it's going really good i've got the ditch you know all the way to the top end of this cut
00:39:40which was 2 000 feet long and the cut's starting to drain out
00:39:44at sulfur creek mitch has defied parker's orders to hunt for virgin hot spots and is ditching instead
00:39:55parker's plan on coming down today and doing some panning here
00:39:59but we got a lot of material that's still got to be moved here before it's ready to help parker
00:40:03have a look at this and see what he wants to do
00:40:14just hoping to have all this ready by now
00:40:21the are you doing well this is not good what's happening
00:40:31i thought you might need some panning but i take it not right now yeah most important thing just
00:40:39trying to get rid of the water here so we can actually move the dirt we've got a pretty good
00:40:43system down we're just trying to get that corner cleaned out and then we'll be be ready for it
00:40:52there's a lot of work to do here i mean i just got brendan yesterday so
00:40:56there are two options find some virgin ground or else you can leave
00:41:09you know gold can buy a lot of things but it can't buy patience and the higher the prices go uh you
00:41:23know the less of that there seems to be around here parker wants things done in a certain way in
00:41:43order and i get that it's his business it's his company you know i've moved a lot of dirt up here
00:41:47and you know i'm confident in what i'm doing got the ditches down we got the cut green in
00:41:54and you know my opinion that's the right move
00:41:59i just wasted two hours
00:42:03we just need to get panning
00:42:08it's my first week back on the job haven't worked for parker for over five years now
00:42:13and you know he's already pissed off well this is the type of that made me leave the last time
00:42:30a hundred miles east we have to pull the trigger on something otherwise we're gonna miss this whole
00:42:35season still waiting for his water license and desperate for somewhere to mine rick's on his way
00:42:42to prospect new ground at a nearby claim lightning creek you can go to any mine out here and listen
00:42:49to the guy tell you how much gold's on the property but which one's telling the truth not a single one
00:42:53of them so if we're gonna get any answers up there it's gonna be our own rick's mining in the keno
00:42:59mountains has been boom or bust the unpredictable ground almost bankrupted him six years ago until he hit
00:43:08the honey hole at duncan creek we do our own testing and see what we find and we know we can trust that
00:43:15rick's found gold on his duncan creek claim in two spots now he's hoping the pay streak extends to
00:43:24the lightning creek claim eight miles upstream near the gold mother load at mount hinton
00:43:31lightning creek is owned by rick's old landlord troy taylor ah there he is
00:43:42hey guys hey how's it going good to see you good to see you hey try yeah welcome to lightning creek
00:43:50we're ready to hit the ground running get some gold out of the ground six seasons ago our deal is
00:43:5610 percent yep for 100 ounce minimum rick leased duncan creek from landowner troy taylor oh it's nice
00:44:05looking gold there rick then cut a handshake deal to buy the claim thanks rick appreciate that
00:44:12gambling millions of dollars i'm sure you're happy to see that on the promise of a gold bonanza holy
00:44:19this is your last chance it was a rocky ride but finally the deal was done bar one crucial detail
00:44:32i have to trust that that water license is going to come through yeah you're all in yeah all in
00:44:41it was on troy to get the water license for rick but now that it hasn't come through he might have
00:44:48other ground for rick to kick the tires on looks like you've done a little bit of work here a little
00:44:53bit yeah dad and i did some sluice in last september so yeah just you and your dad pretty much yeah just
00:44:59dad and i but what was the gold like i mean is it decent or yeah it was decent the gold is good
00:45:06here we had some good results last fall dad and i did some testing and we're pleased lightning is
00:45:11just like upper duncan in the sense that it's flowing through a canyon hopefully gold has been
00:45:18flushed out of those canyons like upper duncan into this main valley how much overburden is on top of
00:45:23like it's not bad it's just uh so it's about five feet of of muck and sand and right to pay then yeah
00:45:30that's it yeah and i would just take about 15 feet and then we get into another it's kind of like a
00:45:37false bedrock and that's where i would stop for now so the the pay layer was 15 feet yeah that's more
00:45:43than i expected i know that we're not the only ones fighting this water license stuff this year what's
00:45:49the deal with this one here how many more years are on it yeah that's a good question we this is
00:45:53good till 2028 so you got a few more years here and we do and why give us the option i mean it's just you
00:46:01know why aren't you doing it well i feel bad about this whole water license thing so i want to give you a
00:46:11shot here and dad and i can step aside for a year if you want to you want to go here so there's no cost
00:46:20on your royalty yeah there's no uh a lot less risk for us so yeah and they don't sound like a salesman
00:46:27but there is other people that have been calling me over the winter so
00:46:33but i i've been holding on to this for you so i i'm hoping that we can work something out yeah
00:46:39yeah you know but i mean i i can i trust you on this all right yeah but then what six years now
00:46:50together so yeah i think uh i mean i just there's no been no no shortage of surprises out here
00:46:59i can't wait too much longer dad and i are going to keep mining or get somebody else in here so
00:47:04so no i understand that we got the trauma here today so we get some testing done and
00:47:11try to make a decision as quick as we can so let's do it
00:47:18it's definitely getting harder to trust people out here you know gold's at a premium water license
00:47:21are rare as can be the vultures are circling troy he always seems to have the answer when i don't
00:47:29so it's uh you know it's a win-win for troy troy
00:47:44we need this to work out because we need to get somewhere to go mining and we need it quick
00:47:47still waiting for his water license rick ness has to move his operation and is hoping new ground
00:48:03at lightning creek will be worth it we've already done a couple of test holes but i want to do one
00:48:08more here there's a lot of big bullies out of this could be nice stuff troy taylor has already stripped
00:48:17a section down to pay dirt so rick's making spot checks on the stripped ground he'll run two square
00:48:24yards of pay and is looking for at least a gram from the run by the sounds of troy that you know
00:48:30it's looking pretty good here but i have kind of some doubts here but at the same time i i really hope
00:48:36this is going to turn out for us that should be a good enough speed yeah for sure yeah i'll go get
00:48:52the water going okay hey ricky we're ready for you to throw some in if you want i'll give her a shot
00:49:04this bucket's kind of big i'll probably make a mess
00:49:16watching the rocks really nice so hopefully it gives us a good breeding
00:49:25that's the last of dirt that's how we got our tests done here we'll have to clean it up and then
00:49:28uh get the hell out of here and wait see what we got shut her down clean her up yeah man okay let's do it
00:49:38it doesn't have to be hot but it's got to be hot enough for us to buy
00:49:41let's go back at camp the fate of rick season rests on the results of the lightning creek test
00:50:02some nice pickers and the yeah if the gold is good it could be the lifeline he needs
00:50:10what's the ground like down there it's pretty shallow um it seems like only about an average
00:50:16of about five feet overburden maybe a little bit more and then a solid 15 foot thick pale air well that's
00:50:22pretty good that's a really good you know ratio i don't expect it to pay out like vegas valley
00:50:27but but who knows shall we see if it's even worth it we shall weigh some gold all right
00:50:36i don't think i've ever weighed up this small amount of gold but let's get it all in there
00:50:40rick wants at least a gram from his two-yard run
00:50:57and we got 0.525 on there
00:51:04just half what rick was hoping for so was it worth it
00:51:13no
00:51:17and we're gonna be sitting here with our hands out no place to mine
00:51:22we're screwed
00:51:27we had a super fast start to the season we have cleanups and a couple bucks in the bank
00:51:41a hundred miles away tony beats has already banked 1.5 million dollars in gold
00:51:49there's more pressure on mike this year i mean mike has been running paradise hill like it's his but it's
00:51:54not his it's still mine so maybe we'll have to do something with him he wants a piece of the action
00:52:01too once he has the hill up running well then we'll just see what we can pull off
00:52:09tony's mining operation is split between two claims indian river where he's already sluicing pay from the early
00:52:18bird cut and 40 miles away paradise hill the core of the family business for over 30 years
00:52:27hey mike d copy mike d copy try to catch you would you please
00:52:34hey mike how are you oh good yourself no complaints
00:52:38last year i was back and forth a bit but this year you won't see very much of me you got lots to do
00:52:46here i know and i got quite a pile going on in the indian too with this gold price that we don't get on
00:52:53it boy i tell you let's get it on the go get down the play door this week that seems a little excessive
00:53:01oh really step up to the plate yeah make some money so i can spend some more how's that don't
00:53:11worry dad i'll help you with that okay anyway mike i uh i can't shoot sit around there like you do i
00:53:17gotta go to work well if you did your job better you'd have more time yeah golf mike i'm leaving see
00:53:23you later catch you later dad yeah love you too my goal do my job well and get the results my dad wants
00:53:36so i'm gonna get as much gold as i can this year because with the prices as they are you're a moron
00:53:43if you don't take advantage of that while tony's based at indian river he's giving mike sole charge
00:53:50of paradise hill entrusting him with a nine-man crew to supersize the super pit more responsibility
00:53:58more authority but i want to focus on stripping before i get sluicing so that i can just when i
00:54:05get sluicing i don't stall over the last three years the beats family has cleared out nearly four
00:54:16four million tons of worthless overburden creating an 18 acre super pit the cut is home to the klondike's
00:54:25fabled white channel pay concentrated gold washed down directly from hard rock deposits
00:54:33so far it's produced over 4 000 ounces of gold worth 15 million dollars this year mike plans to extend
00:54:44the cut by nearly 50 percent opening up eight more acres of ground tony wants the first acre down to pay
00:54:52by the end of the week we're gonna have a whole whack load of stuff opened up so we have a lot of work
00:55:06ahead of us my dad bought six new trucks we're gonna strip strip strip strip strip strip
00:55:17another year of paradise is glad to be back we got brand new rock trucks just hauling overburden from
00:55:23the cut we're trying to expand to get down to the gold bearing paylay a d11 dozer rips and pushes the
00:55:32worthless waste dirt called overburden to two excavators which load it into rock trucks haul it 2 000 feet
00:55:41away and dump it on the waste pile hopefully get sluicing here in paradise soon get that gold coming in
00:56:02overburden to two of us guys guys guys guys we've got a problem we've got a problem the cat truck has flipped the cap of the cat truck has flipped
00:56:11oh i i'm stuck in here
00:56:16you're right on the edge
00:56:26oh
00:56:26i honestly don't want to touch it you're right on the edge
00:56:40at paradise hill a brand new 750 000 rock truck has flipped with driver graham trapped inside the cab
00:56:50hanging on the edge of a 200-foot drop this side is just
00:56:57i wish mike could hurry up because if the bank starts to go this is not the circus i signed up for
00:57:03i still have all my windows you still have all your windows yes
00:57:17the exhaust and hoses are pretty pulled too oh my hood breaking our new truck right away
00:57:25here it's slowly dropping more and more which is a little nerve-wracking
00:57:32uh as long as you get me pulled out of here before i flip okay well you can't get out too big
00:57:41hey mike
00:57:53well what the is he still in there yeah
00:57:55he won't fit through that window you could double its size you wouldn't fit rescue him for
00:58:01sake we're supposed to be in charge kick out the window make him stand on the steering wheel stick
00:58:10his head out of the window kick the thing in that way his eyes and ears and everything be fine
00:58:16good his fat ass out okay you ready graham i guess so
00:58:38holy crap
00:58:46okay you can try climbing up the seat there
00:58:55well
00:59:00feels good to be out but still a little a little shaky yeah glad it didn't go over the edge fully that's
00:59:08wow could be fired could not be depending on the mood hey mike put it on the grass
00:59:17to set the 36 ton truck back on its wheels tony and mike use the 520 horsepower d10 dozer
00:59:26while the 480 excavator holds the box in place to stop it dropping over the edge
00:59:34perfect pull it pull it pull it keep it going keep it going
00:59:47perfect
00:59:48i'm very sorry sony i know and not really thinking anything i do about it because you're on the
00:59:58frost and they're slippery i still feel bad since it's a brand new truck well that doesn't know that
01:00:03this happens to my man i was expecting it to be a little bit more aggravated i flipped one of the
01:00:10new ones there's no use firing people out there's a net because when you fire somebody there's two
01:00:16people that lose i lose an employee he loses his job
01:00:22it's too bad we had to break the window but so it is i guess right yeah i'd be the hood
01:00:28be offended i'll be railing i'll be nobody hurt that's always a big thing yeah for mike
01:00:35it's now a fight to hit pay dirt by the end of the week with one less truck and show tony he can run
01:00:42paradise hill on his own it's enough you want to prove yourself i suggest you get rid of it
01:00:54you get rid of it you get rid of it you get rid of it you get rid of it you get rid of it you get rid of it
01:01:02brennan and i are trying to get as much ground open up down here at sulfur as possible
01:01:07at sulfur creek mitch and brennan have finally drained the cut and exposed what could be their
01:01:14first hidden pay pocket how far did the dredge get over here figure out what's left for us
01:01:22now they're ready for parker to pan hopefully we got something for him to look at old parker
01:01:29likes to see the gold and you know he wants it now like this to me looks virgin
01:01:36i really don't know what to expect
01:01:58i'm just gonna show mitch
01:02:00one pan out of the downstream edge of your ditch holy smoke
01:02:11that's why we're doing this wow and that's pretty exciting
01:02:19find it again yeah hopefully there's more of that
01:02:22that was really good pan now we just need to get a wash plant in here and find out what mines like
01:02:29it pans 25 miles southeast at dominion creek we got the ice out of the bridge cut we got pay stacked up
01:02:41now it's time we get sluicing tyson is on the clock parker wants wash plant bob sluicing by the end of the
01:02:49day i haven't talked to alcaline yet there will be no waiting parker has made that abundantly clear
01:02:56how's it going guys we're ready to run dirt
01:03:06um the hopper's gonna be the main hold up for bob starting the pre-wash hopper feeder yeah
01:03:16this feed chain system this plant can't run without it man it would have been nice if you told me that
01:03:23the feed chain system which drives the wash plant's pre-wash conveyor is broken and the mechanics want
01:03:32to install a new one parker you once bought running today there's no getting around to this right now
01:03:41yeah me let's get at it we got a lot of work to do
01:03:53so mr. justin hey boys mr. bill what's going on we brought a uh rush rush project
01:04:11at dominion creek parker's mechanics are hustling to fix the feed chain system on bob's pre-wash conveyor
01:04:20all right well let's get this thing unloaded and get at it because it ain't going to fix itself
01:04:26the pre-wash conveyor moves pater into the shaker to be washed the motor which turns the conveyor's
01:04:34front drive shaft is connected via a small chain and sprocket but over time the chain tightened pulling
01:04:42the shaft inwards breaking apart the sprocket and bearings to fix this design fault the mechanics will
01:04:51remove the small chain and sprocket fit a new front drive shaft and align the motor so it sends power
01:05:00directly to the shaft
01:05:06chain is up
01:05:10there we go
01:05:11let motor come out of there nice and easy
01:05:16okay we're laughing
01:05:20this is the final fit
01:05:22there we go perfect
01:05:34right so that
01:05:37that is it
01:05:38copy alec
01:05:40go for alec
01:05:43you are ready to roll my friend
01:05:45sweet we'll come grab it
01:05:46wide load coming through
01:06:01well look at this you guys pulled it off
01:06:04what do you say we get bob running
01:06:05keep it coming
01:06:19lift it up a little bit
01:06:22whoa there buddy
01:06:24there it goes
01:06:26you're in
01:06:26you're in
01:06:31beautiful
01:06:34everything's in place
01:06:36okay you guys ready
01:06:38yep yep
01:06:39well here we go
01:06:40let's fire bulb up
01:06:45take your necks on
01:06:48here goes the pre-wash offer
01:06:49the pre-wash conveyor delivers pay dirt to the plant water jets blast the gold and fine dirt off the rocks
01:07:20a shaker deck vibrates a set of screens to separate out the larger rocks
01:07:27while the smaller gold bearing material washes down into two 14 by 10 foot sluices
01:07:34where the riffles and mats catch the gold
01:07:40beautiful sight right there liam first wash plank going on dominion that is a beautiful sight
01:07:46with three days sluice time before the end of the week tyson's on the gold
01:07:53parker's big push for 10 000 ounces is on
01:07:57bob's got a lot of ground to get through this here
01:08:12miners across the yukon are gathering at dawson city for the klondike cluster mining association meeting
01:08:18the kpma warn a glut of unprocessed water licenses is putting livelihoods at risk
01:08:27what a joke desperate to start his season rick is in dawson to meet the klondike placer mining association
01:08:35the local union working with miners with no water licenses
01:08:41my back's against the wall i've been up to my elbows in uh in this you know in this whole water
01:08:46license stuff it sucks man it really sucks the state of the industry is not too great a lot of
01:08:51people in the exact same um bonus me with the water license and all that i'm hoping that the kp make
01:08:56maybe they know when these are going to get approved give me some kind of reason to stick with dunkin
01:09:00creek you know without it i don't know what the hell we're gonna do hey that's somebody i know
01:09:06what's going on buddy how you doing i'm okay how you been i'm all right better than you yeah i've
01:09:12heard what's going on oh man there's a lot of people that are pretty screwed up by it and the thing
01:09:18is the forces that are against the mining have so many tactics to stall things and it's death by delay
01:09:26yeah this is absolutely right right just shoot me in the head don't give me a slow death
01:09:30yeah but let's see what they do in the meeting and then uh why don't i buy you a beer afterwards
01:09:36i appreciate that man all right let's just go in this meeting and see what they say and go from there
01:09:51something's got to give
01:10:00yeah i've had enough of that big waste of time it gets us nowhere it's just a you know like well
01:10:14who's asked do i put my fist up to get some results here and maybe i'll be done who knows who knows at
01:10:20this point probably would have a beer maybe 10. in dawson with no breakthrough on his water license
01:10:28rick's hopes of mining this season best seat in the house hanged by a thread
01:10:33whoa whoa whoa what's up good to see you buddy good to see you
01:10:40you know the last time we were together was um 14 years ago really you think that was the last time
01:10:47i was still young that's a long time ago i remember i was like i think tony beats is like the coolest
01:10:55guy in the world and i want to be like tony thank you thank you that'll be a long time but you know
01:11:02what being good years right yeah every year i have more fun good for you it takes a lot to get me jealous
01:11:09but when i roll by you have so much equipment running yeah so how's rick you having fun
01:11:19no the kp bay has gotten us nowhere basically we can't touch dunking creek oh that's not very
01:11:25good no it's uh kind of a slap in the face do you have that other block of ground lightning creek yeah
01:11:32um well i don't have it it's troy's so it's a lease but he's like a pretty reasonable landlord yes and
01:11:40you know it's not like me yeah i wasn't gonna say that but yeah and you've done like one test or a
01:11:48bunch of tests we did a few tests there not very happy about it but there's a license there for three
01:11:54years that's pretty good but i'm not sure if there's a lot of gold in it but i mean
01:12:02you have one thing going for you and that is like gold price is so good no i hear you but this
01:12:08is uh this is definitely a gamble oh gold price is excellent if you're lucky enough to have a license
01:12:15hurry the up mine the out of it and leave that's it you just got to get out there and wash as many
01:12:22rocks as you can get the over that and make it work rick
01:12:26you're right make some money oh yeah hope it goes well well i've got to run i've got a dog that needs
01:12:39a walk parking with fun um it's great great to see you guys you too for sure there you go hey let's
01:12:45not wait another 14 years huh yeah yeah do it i've known rick for 15 years he was there for all the
01:12:53years where i was just like scared to death of going broke i was scared to death of people taking
01:12:58advantage of me i was scared to death of tony kicking me off the ground this business eats you
01:13:04alive if you're not ready for it with rick i could definitely see him
01:13:12losing everything and leaving the goldfields broke but i could also see him building an empire
01:13:20and and i really hope that he's successful i do i cut my teeth out here with parker i've known tony
01:13:27since the day i walked into the klondike and um they've always had good advice and i'd be a foolish
01:13:33not to take it i've got lightning creek as an option right now and we're going to take that option we're
01:13:37going to run with it i'd like to remind all rock truck drivers and the hoe operator working in the
01:13:53cut keep going keep skimming her off strip strip strip strip strip strip after a disastrous start
01:14:00managing tony's paradise hill claim mike beats is racing to get down to pay mike's doing the best
01:14:08with what he's got but we need to move this dirt get to the gold get to the pay our guys are doing
01:14:15real good they're moving a lot of dirt there's some of this like right here this is not very far from
01:14:21the pay it's so many rocks that's usually a good indicator that's good stuff
01:14:28if you want to drive in when i can grab my kubota because it makes its way in
01:14:32yeah let's walk looks like you need it
01:14:39mike do you copy mike yeah go ahead
01:14:42we're down to bay here do you want to come check it out
01:14:46i'll be there in a minute a little bit clay in it but it's got the rocks
01:14:55it'll be a fat chunk huh let's grab a pan
01:15:04now what if i forgot how the pan
01:15:08give me a rock
01:15:13where would you like it right there
01:15:16thank you sir
01:15:36look at that
01:15:36a good pan nice fine stuff as fine as frog hair as they say but that's on the top anyway right
01:15:50but we can just lose that mike hey oh yeah without a question
01:15:53we hit pay in paradise hill the indian sluice lot is doing a good job
01:16:01so everything is looking up everything is looking pretty good
01:16:04okay we are in business perfect
01:16:15we're back hold on before tyson cleared all the ice
01:16:20parker turned the bridge cut into a racetrack
01:16:34just push on the front a little bit come on get in there
01:16:43all right cody get in there cody get in there
01:16:58we're down to foreman
01:17:10we're down to foreman
01:17:12we're down to foreman but i think being as set up as we are now it is doable
01:17:26and well we're gonna dry tony's eldest son kevin has been running his scribner creek mine for a week
01:17:34relying more on operator caden foot
01:17:37this is the earliest i've started sluicing in a season
01:17:41but i feel like it's gonna be a bit of a struggle without brennan
01:17:46he was an all-around great foreman
01:17:48we really gotta as a team come together so we can get as much out as we can
01:18:02hey man got some yellow
01:18:06hi guys hey how's it going pal
01:18:12kevin leases the ground from tony
01:18:14and pays a 10 percent royalty on any gold he finds
01:18:20so your second year on your own how are you feeling about that you're gonna
01:18:25cross it honestly i'm feeling pretty good ready to roll this year you don't have to buy this buy
01:18:32every thing so that's got to make a lot easier start this year it definitely is a lot nicer to
01:18:39hit the ground running what's happening with brennan well we didn't know he would show
01:18:44up and then he finally came and talked to us and told us that he wasn't coming back
01:18:51it would have been nice if you would have let you know that in the winter it would have been nice for
01:18:54sure that's people for you again that's people for you oh yeah so who gives a next that's how it goes next
01:19:01uh day you had a nice early start and have some gold coming out of the ground right away yeah what's
01:19:11your goal my wall is 2000 and we already have a little bit of chunk of gold at the start of the
01:19:16season so that's nice you maybe think we can weigh it up all right are we ready kevin ran his stockpiled
01:19:25pay for one week at scrivener creek 15 20 30 40 50
01:19:3750 57.04
01:19:46two hundred thousand dollars in gold sixty thousand dollars more than the same amount was worth last
01:19:53season and that's how many hours 70 70 hours so it's a little bit less than an ounce now yeah
01:20:00that's still nice oh yeah that's better than zero oh this year cash in so you may as well get with
01:20:07it all right yeah you know okay woman let's get the out of here let's go we have to work so we'll talk
01:20:14to you guys later ladies and gentlemen don't work too hard bye bye hey dog
01:20:20that was a decent go away yeah not too mad it's kind of nice to see this yellow stuff this early
01:20:28in the season i'm sure the folks would be happy for us too but the big thing we're looking for right
01:20:33now is the foreman we'll get hiring and something will show up
01:20:41nice little haul i mean it's a good start it's a couple bucks huh royalty wise
01:20:46royalty wise yeah all right there's nothing like making money of your kids is that
01:20:58what's happening how's it going man going good good been a while since we've done one of these yeah
01:21:07big cat
01:21:11how's it going welcome back yeah thank you it's good having you back and there's a lot to do
01:21:16this year so we need all the help we can get definitely it's the end of the first week of what
01:21:22could be a game-changing season for parker this is the year huh yeah we need to just
01:21:30shove dirt down those wash plants throats huh
01:21:35it's a long road to 10 000.
01:21:39tyson's got bob running right now in the bridge cut
01:21:43it sulfur's drying out a little bit we've got the trucks upstream they're stripping and that's going
01:21:49all right yep are you ready t let's check it out doom it this is mr bob this is your first plant
01:21:57well here we go all eyes are on tyson's first run from the bridge cut last season's payouts were
01:22:05unpredictable parker's looking for at least 100 ounces from three days sluicing 10 20 40 60 80. gonna break 100
01:22:24there we go 100 120
01:22:26125.8
01:22:35nice very nice worth over 440 000
01:22:43looks like it was worth getting that ice off yeah we're on the board yeah
01:22:51that's definitely a good start but we have a long ways to go
01:22:53so i hope everybody's ready to buckle in
01:22:59all right thank you guys thank you do it again next week big cat is back meow
01:23:08this season we're really going to be hopping hopes are high and i think we've got a good shot at making
01:23:14our 10 000 ounces this year i think this year we've got the right recipe you know we've got really good
01:23:21people here it's probably the best chance we'll have at doing the five figures it's gonna be a ball
01:23:27buster of a season for the boys though
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