- 4 hours ago
Maxton Hall The World Between Us – Episode 3
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00:00:00market volatility of gold stands out gold just hit a new record thirty five hundred dollars an
00:00:10ounce and the price of gold has been climbing this is somewhere that economists believe will
00:00:15continue to be a safe haven it is Tony how's it going man how are you hanging in there yeah
00:00:26you got some of that tiny shiny coming in yes good it has all the makings of a good season
00:00:32Parker hey gold price yeah I don't even like to talk about it or look at it me neither because
00:00:37it should be illegal that's how high it is isn't it well then it like goes down three hundred dollars
00:00:42and I'm like what's happening and it's like oh it's still up a thousand yes if you want to beef
00:00:46up your piggy bank well that'll be the year whether I want to say the number or not because I keep
00:00:51saying it and not hitting it but um no we're gonna have to start doing ten thousand a year for
00:00:55for a while now that's a lot of bucks you better get with it bring it on you're going big why do
00:01:02you need to do six six and a half if we do more we do more yeah anyway that's all the makings of a
00:01:09good year long as the price stays there yeah no it's good to see you I'm glad you're doing well
00:01:14same to you hopefully the wars are behind us right
00:01:18bye bye
00:01:24Tony and I've known each other for you know 14 years that's wild like 99 percent of the time
00:01:34it's great that one percent absolutely sucks and he's like one of the biggest on the planet
00:01:39but 99 percent of the time it's just wonderful maybe 95 percent
00:01:4616 years ago three-fifths of an ounce which is about eight hundred dollars a global financial crash
00:01:56caused gold prices to rock it's just gold fever to one thousand dollars an ounce
00:02:03sparking a modern day gold rush it's alive watch the rocks baby but striking it rich proved harder
00:02:13than imagined that's it we're done now breaking news on wall street with stocks tumbling golden
00:02:21safe havens they are surging gold prices have more than tripled to an all-time high three thousand
00:02:29five hundred dollars per ounce we're going gold mining boys hang on
00:02:34with just six months to cash in whoa whoa whoa are we here for a shootout
00:02:42top dogs i don't ask questions i give orders are you gonna behave and underdogs i'm just a delivery
00:02:49boy i don't really give a i just want to get paid collide i got a job offer from parker
00:02:55look out and play dirty can i trust you on this hi yeah to hit the jackpot holy smokes that's a
00:03:06hell of a pant we joke about it being an addiction but it literally is some you made a mess will not
00:03:13survive pick me out somebody to fire yeah it sucks man it really sucks others soar to new heights
00:03:23you guys are killing it there's nothing like making money of your kids is there and set records i was
00:03:32not expecting that did he amazing yeah 2043 and a half ounces that's wild you get a pan you get a pan
00:03:42you get a pan genuinely that's insane
00:04:00the yukon north america's last frontier
00:04:05for over a century prospectors have scoured these valleys and creeks for life-changing gold
00:04:15with just a few summer months to make their fortunes
00:04:20the stars are aligned for us the gold price is crazy we've got a ton of ground prepped on dominion and
00:04:27um we're going to be able to stretch our legs and really run and see what it's made out of
00:04:33this is the year that we'll find out
00:04:3730 year old parker schnabel is on the precipice of a career defining season
00:04:43the gold mining prodigy who started out with a crew of two is now a mining mogul with 60 machines
00:04:51and a 40-person crew we've got amazing people and then we have like this crazy gold price and
00:04:58we're dangerously close to things being really good i just want to go to work i just want to wash rocks
00:05:07and you know get sluicy goosey for the tiny shiny that's all i want to do
00:05:13i did not i have not told you how to do your job one time this whole year just 16 years old when he
00:05:19first became a mine boss i'm pretty young and it's tough to you know i never know if i'm doing the
00:05:26right thing or not parker struggled i'm spending the money here and i make the calls to manage his
00:05:32crew if you can't handle it then maybe this isn't the place for you you are making an enemy out of me
00:05:38but as the young miner grew in gold mining you're only as good as the people you have he evolved
00:05:47oh yeah look at that our season starts now i'll stand behind him any day of the week with a vision
00:05:53that spawned a gold mining empire wow that's the biggest clean out we've ever had and delivered
00:06:00more than 115 million dollars in gold this is not stop here
00:06:09i'm losing faith in you guys but last season it's been one fight after the next we're not making
00:06:16money when we're doing it like this it's frustrating i know what we were doing was wrong
00:06:21parker crashed and burned worst cleanup ever
00:06:25i don't like this feeling i don't like being a loser we came up short and it's not gonna happen
00:06:35again this winter i have spent all the money i can get my hands on buying equipment and hiring people
00:06:44it's a challenge this is kind of uncharted territory for me so much going on we just have to hammer down
00:06:52focus on washing rocks filling jars and everybody's gonna have to step up
00:07:0040 miles southeast of dawson city lies parker's kingdom an area nearly the size of manhattan
00:07:09his main operation is dominion creek land he's bought where he'll run three wash plants to deliver the
00:07:15bulk of his gold 25 miles northwest he'll send a satellite crew to sulfur creek to hunt for pockets
00:07:23of gold left behind by the old timers running the enormous operation will cost parker a hundred thousand
00:07:32dollars each day but if he's successful he could bring in more than 35 million dollars in gold this year
00:07:40what's happening man how are you guys yo yo doing good how are you not too bad welcome to my map room
00:07:50very nice swear it all happens eh how was your winter it was good i uh was a bum for the most part
00:08:01to execute his master plan parker's counting on his trusted lieutenants mitch blasky and tyson lee
00:08:08we're gonna do 10 000 ounces this year
00:08:14like we keep talking about it but we actually have to just do it so we're gonna run four plants this
00:08:21year wow trying to run four wash plants it's like we were all over the place last year trying to
00:08:28cover our bases and like we're gonna be spread out you know how it is when that happens yeah i know i know
00:08:34that there's gonna be a lot of challenges i'm i'm not i don't disagree with you tyson i need you on
00:08:41dominion running a whole operation all right so good luck thanks i'll need it i don't know what's
00:08:51going to come out of sulfur and it's going to be a difficult project so i need you to go over there
00:08:55mitt and get that sorted out first we only have a partial season on the water license so we need
00:09:01to get it done in a hurry all right parker's sulfur water license a permit to pull water from creeks to
00:09:08wash gold expires in just 10 weeks after that he can't mind the claim so what kind of crew do we have
00:09:15to get this done we've hired a bunch of new people okay one big thing is people who can't do their job we
00:09:24need to fire we want to have the best of the best but you guys are the ones that are going to be able
00:09:29to make this happen or not it's brutal right it's going to be a stressful year for you two yeah
00:09:42i know it's a bit of a daunting task but like i'm excited exhausting yeah no days off you just had six
00:09:48months off yeah thanks for coming back yeah i appreciate having you guys here i'm looking forward
00:09:56to this season yeah for sure thanks man all right let's do it there's a lot of work to do there's a
00:10:03lot of gold to find now it's up to mitch and tyson to get the job done hopefully
00:10:09the job will get done hopefully it's the two of them that does it that's what i mean
00:10:20things are already starting off a little bit different here parker made it very clear that
00:10:24uh you know everybody's got to pull their weight and then some we got no room for air
00:10:30last year mitch was in charge this year it's going to be on my shoulders last year i was managing one
00:10:36wash plant this year going to be managing three so no cups we got to find a ton of gold
00:10:45tyson's first mission is to start pulling in gold on dominion's bridge cut
00:10:52the crew has spent two years mining this spot with mixed results now parker's season rides on it
00:11:00delivering big but there's a problem over winter water flooded the cut and the gold bearing pay dirt
00:11:09is buried under three feet of solid ice
00:11:29i'm in the 250 got michael in the 390
00:11:33coming to work for parker it's uh kind of a dream come true i like the way he runs his outfit his
00:11:40gears really nice we got amy here first truckload ice heading out of the cut first of many this is my
00:11:52first time driving a rock truck before they can get to pay dirt tyson's crew needs to shift over 25 000
00:12:01tons of ice
00:12:11i think realistically how the hell are we going to do all this in a week
00:12:17right now i'd like to be setting up the wash plant and firing it up today but we're a long ways away from
00:12:22that
00:12:31how are things going well man the ice is a lot thicker than we thought eh
00:12:35yeah there's a lot of ice in here no it's really rotten
00:12:39so what's your plan just keep uh building piles trucking off this ice right
00:12:45okay we have extra trucks in the yard no you got any more people any more iron you can give us
00:12:53i don't know okay thanks dude no worries see ya
00:13:06if by the end of the week i don't have the ice out of this cut from the wash plant going
00:13:19will have failed my first task first week of the season
00:13:23parker just wants the ice out from the wash plant going the long and short of it
00:13:27i don't really want to spend money trucking ice but we really don't have much of an alternative so
00:13:38um we're just gonna have to suck it up we need to get sleuthing that's gonna be what makes or breaks the season
00:13:57yeah here we go i can't believe we're sleuthing as early as we are
00:14:11we started the season early but we want to keep that up everybody's in their eyes
00:14:1710 miles south at indian river king of the klondon tony beats is already two weeks ahead of his rivals
00:14:25we're giving a and the gold price is in our favor we've been losing days for two weeks we got the
00:14:31early bird cut was all taught ground so that was awesome tony's hoping for a quick score from the 13
00:14:37acre early bird cut if the gold price stays where it is and we lose most of the summer like we did last
00:14:45year darn thing me you're gonna make enough money to set up three generations
00:14:50when there's opportunities there grab it 40 years ago tony and wife minnie left the netherlands to
00:14:58seek their fortune in the yukon all we have was 300 bucks i work 14 hours a day every day
00:15:06from nothing tony grew a 60 million dollar mining dynasty i'm trying to build a future for my kids
00:15:12they got to take over they're going to have to run the circus all by themselves
00:15:21piece of i've never ever never ever had that much here before until two years ago
00:15:29there's six seven million in the hole when the business descended into chaos
00:15:33if i've ever seen a cup then i'm looking at it his family fractured he's running it into the ground
00:15:39he told me this cat was going to be mine oh really yeah feeling a little shafted
00:15:47i shut down the plant you just quit you got to be kidding me every time
00:15:56i'll tell you what they won't give up that easy
00:16:00but the klondike king pulled his family together our kids are really stepping up this year
00:16:06keeping son mike and daughter monica working for him i appreciate everything you're doing to help
00:16:11me anything for family monica but giving eldest son kevin the chance to set up his own operation
00:16:17how's that sound to you that sounds very very nice by the end of last season the more you make the
00:16:23better we like you make the beats had reeled in a record five thousand seven hundred and seventy seven
00:16:29ounces worth 14.4 million dollars that sure is a hell of a lot other than last year
00:16:39it is not a time to sit back and enjoy this is a time to get together and get out there in the
00:16:44morning and make things happen you owe that to the next generation people can have money people
00:16:50gonna have a lot of things but kids and grandkids there's something that if you don't have that you
00:16:56don't have very much tony believes his claims could deliver a jaw-dropping 6500 ounces this season
00:17:07worth more than 22 million dollars hey guys how's it looking well yellow got yellow stuff good thing we
00:17:17started early mike huh yeah when the sun is shining you better ready to make some hay yeah right especially
00:17:23at this price there you go not only is tony already sluicing he's the first to weigh out his gold i can
00:17:30always get more gold i cannot always get this price so let's wait and have a look at it okay ready let's go
00:17:45let's wait and have a look at it at indian river tony beats is gambling on an early season score
00:17:51to cash in on record high gold prices hey ready let's go go he's already sluiced nearly half of the
00:18:00early bird cut 50 60 70 which he's counting on to deliver at least 300 ounces 90 260 290 300 wow 360 390
00:18:16417 and 56. ain't that a beaut that's pretty amazing in just two weeks the beats have pulled in one and a half
00:18:28million dollars i'd say it's a record for us not just the price as to what the we're doing that's a lot of money
00:18:34right there if we keep this up we go so how have you planned out this summer mike you're going to be
00:18:43on the hill as usual monica it would be nice if you could oversee in the gold room cleaning the gold
00:18:50sounds good to me but i was thinking you gave kevin a bunch of help getting him going
00:18:56so is there anything you can help us with
00:18:57there's some opportunities out there let's get these two places here going first and then we'll
00:19:05talk not making any promises until i have that in place right i'm okay with that you there you go
00:19:15so all hands on deck we gotta go
00:19:19i'm very interested to see what tony was talking about in terms of other opportunities
00:19:24i think it's really cool that kevin has gone out on his own but michael's been out here since he was
00:19:3212. mike's really chomping the bit to do more things big picture goals i would like my own mind but
00:19:38right now it's not a priority i have a bunch of other i have to get done we'll see
00:19:44like i'm monica they'll be acting about getting started for themselves but right now we're busy other
00:19:49places so they're just going to have to hang in there for a little bit anyway i never never had
00:19:55that much gold that early a great start to the season
00:20:10one hundred miles away in keno rick ness that's a big pile of dirt is sitting on a pile of gold
00:20:22at his duncan creek claim i would say there's probably pretty damn close to 400 ounces sitting
00:20:29there and right now that's worth over a million dollars and uh it's ready to go our plant's sitting
00:20:33right there the bad news is is we still don't have a water license and we can't touch this
00:20:39blows my mind rick's water license essential to mining still hasn't come through until he gets it
00:20:48he can't mine duncan creek i almost don't even know if i should do this
00:20:52thinking it would make me thinking it would satisfy it would probably just make me more mad
00:21:06oh that's outrageous amount of gold in one pan
00:21:10i don't even know what the emotion is right now i normally i see a pan like that and i hit the roof
00:21:15this is uh that's unbelievable and we can't touch it
00:21:30rick ness i don't expect the growing pains but this is outrageous is a fighter
00:21:36with a small crew of buddies paying them out each season from his haul here's one of those reach you
00:21:44guys you guys you guys earned it a miner for 13 years what he's had highs that's like an ounce
00:21:50right there everybody yourselves and loads no no no no i don't know what else to do right now
00:21:58it's getting out of control always on the brink of losing it all that's one last farewell kicking
00:22:03the balls but last season this is it now this is all mine he bought his own ground let's go
00:22:11megas valley here we go hit the jackpot and reeled in 4.5 million dollars in gold that's it i did it
00:22:22i've got some bad news only to be gut punched we've got a big problem with the water license
00:22:27being approved and i can't guarantee you'll have the license next year without the water license you can't
00:22:34mine now rick must find a way to pull a rabbit out of the hat again what's up dudes how much you
00:22:50nice crushes yeah you like those hey good start with nowhere to mine only half rick's crew has made
00:22:57it back for now well you guys have seen it all you've seen the good you've seen the bad you've
00:23:03seen the the opportunity you've seen the setbacks it's a mess right now it's not just us i mean there's
00:23:11a lot of people getting screwed there's no one shutting the door right now saying that you know
00:23:14your water license never coming in it's just tied up so what are we doing here with no water license
00:23:21it's not the only pile of gold out here and that's why you're here we just have to find another one
00:23:27but it's not gonna be on this ground
00:23:32and you know what gold prices are a thousand dollars more an ounce than when we left here
00:23:36last year i mean that's insanity this is not the year to quit no we need 1800 ounces this year
00:23:44yeah i know that things seem down but you know what we are here and and i am going to find us a
00:23:49spot at the end of the day that's what we're going to do but if this water license comes
00:23:53through at any point this summer you bet your ass i want to move us back here i mean you haven't let
00:23:57us down yet all right hopefully rick understands what he's doing here and hopefully like wherever
00:24:06we're going it's going to be good i want to start moving some dirt these guys have stuck with me
00:24:10through a lot and glad to see they're sticking with me through this we will find a place to mine
00:24:14and uh we're gonna make it work okay uh chelsea you ready ready gaiden you ready yep ready all
00:24:34right then folks screen deck is turning on first time for the season let's go
00:24:44first scoop of pay going in for the season
00:24:52good it 2025 here comes the goal at scribner creek just like his father tony second year mind boss kevin
00:25:03beats is ahead of the pack feels really good to lose this early especially after last year
00:25:09it's it's nice to see it running
00:25:14so you want to look at some iron do you can we have this one last season with a little help from dad
00:25:21three two one
00:25:26kevin plunged his life savings into his own operation this is a big gamble so me and faith have to make
00:25:31this work that's looking really nice cap so excited but overall i think it's a pretty good day
00:25:38but almost from the get-go i'm trying to help you here and you're talking over me tempers flared
00:25:44it's not fun to work with until foreman brennan ruo took control of the crew you don't want to hear it
00:25:54oh this is the piece squash right now and the cuts
00:25:59yes finally
00:26:02so nice work keep it going helping them score that's a big old beautiful a big payday
00:26:10yay money it's nice to be in the upswing honestly
00:26:16we made the right call of getting away from tony's i'm feeling really good about this year i think
00:26:21we're off to a strong start which is good because we have a big goal this year 2 000 ounces figure
00:26:28may as well go double what we did last year aim big and with gold prices being as high as they are if
00:26:33there's any time to have a good big year for gold totals it is this year kevin's mission this year
00:26:39is to double his gold target and cement his place as a mine boss in his own right so our mining plan we
00:26:47left ourselves a p-bank last year that way we have money coming in from day one
00:26:55so day one's losing this is gonna hopefully continue on well
00:27:01last year i was pretty frustrated out here with how much we're shutting down but brennan he knows
00:27:08what he's doing it's nice having taken back it's always good to have returners who know how things
00:27:14run and you know you can rely on that brennan should be showing up soon
00:27:22oh it feels good to be back in the yukon this feels like my second home
00:27:30howdy stranger how's it going guys not too
00:27:38right on we're wondering where the you're at nice to see you pal
00:27:44so what's up we're starting to wonder we haven't heard from you in a bit so yeah um
00:27:48um um i ended up getting a phone call there that i wasn't expecting to get
00:28:00um of another job offer
00:28:05and uh it was a pretty good job offer so i've leaned towards taking that position
00:28:19who offered you the job well parker ended up calling me there which i was completely
00:28:25not expecting same
00:28:29yeah um really back with parker
00:28:35it was not you know there's just a few things in the offer that really
00:28:37aligned to what my future where i kind of see myself being in some goals
00:28:41to have set you know what i mean no
00:28:46i wish you at least told us earlier so that we can plan
00:28:50if i had have known a lot sooner i would have said it a lot sooner right
00:28:56there's not really much we can offer you to get you back here this year i guess
00:28:59huh i've kind of already agreed to it
00:29:01well thank you for stopping by telling us okay guys well you guys have a wicked season we'll see
00:29:12you see you
00:29:18well then
00:29:212 000 ounces without the foreman is going to be a bit more of a project then isn't it
00:29:26it is going to hurt to find someone with brennan's experience that you can rely on
00:29:29if they're good they've got a job
00:29:32maybe we should go poaching too
00:29:47we're down to the last bit of ice here in the bridge that once we get that out of here
00:29:55that means i can start getting bob ready to sluice three days into his ice moving marathon tyson's under the gun
00:30:06parker's given me and i've taken on more than i've ever taken on working here before
00:30:12can i do it i don't know but am i willing to find out yeah it could have cost me my job 100
00:30:18but i hope it doesn't
00:30:23if it does i'll be flipping burgers come visit me at the drive-through
00:30:28and yes i will be spitting in them
00:30:29a 25 mile drive northwest i'm down here at sulper just trying to get this cut opened up
00:30:40this cuts 2 000 feet long they got's probably uh big enough to land a small airplane on
00:30:50for a lot of miners this would be their whole season with multiple people working on it and
00:30:54right now i'm down here jumping from the dozer to the excavator back and forth ripping mitch has a
00:31:00two-acre strip to mine out in just 10 weeks before parker's water license runs out if he fails he'll be
00:31:08forced to leave gold behind the time frame down here is definitely my biggest concern this water license
00:31:14is getting closer to expire by the minute and yet i'm the only one down here
00:31:28who we got here
00:31:35oh hey man what's up not much my friend how are you oh busy good to see you pal come on i'll give you
00:31:44one oh just don't let nobody don't tell anybody yeah keep that off the radio
00:31:52what's your plans well parker poached me you sent me up here to come to work with you
00:31:59no way man yeah buddy all right he said to me specifically you and mitch work so good together
00:32:05i want to get that band back together that's exact words out of his mouth dude that's awesome yeah i
00:32:09can't believe you didn't tell me brennan and mitch it's a lot of scoop yeah we're mining buddies
00:32:19on parker's scribner creek claim yeah nice work yeah you too man they became co-foremen that is
00:32:27perfect and a bromance blossomed are we good what a nice feeling
00:32:31brennan hurry up you've had five days to get this done james are you in charge or are you not in
00:32:38charge until five years ago when brennan quit after falling out with parker so over this man
00:32:48dude we've moved a lot of dirt in this year let me tell you what we got more than ever i could
00:32:52certainly use some help that's what i'm here for you can jump in the dozer we just got to rip this edge
00:32:57i'm gonna start throwing everything back okay well i'm excited buddy
00:33:07time to move some dirt
00:33:13dude it's unreal to have you back here christmas came early
00:33:18all the years i've been gone i've missed working with you every day of it buddy oh you're probably
00:33:23back because you heard we got taco tuesday you didn't mention you guys got a really good cook
00:33:28so that was a big plus for me
00:33:36oh that looks like parker
00:33:45how's it going hey welcome back thanks pal
00:33:49okay the whole sulfur project is kind of an interesting one because
00:33:53it's really hard to see what is pay and what is waste what you're really looking for is virgin banks or
00:34:00like virgin um sections this to me looks like virgin still right so you're forced to pan your way
00:34:11through it and see what's going on this is totally different type of mine in this see
00:34:16three quarters of a century ago old timers used a dredge to mine sulfur creek
00:34:24pulling out more than 1.2 billion dollars in gold but in its wake it left a mystery
00:34:31floating in a self-made pond the dredge traveled its way down the valley
00:34:37sluicing from one side to the other but above the water line the high banks were out of reach so gold
00:34:44was left untouched and where the dredge turned it covered up pockets of gold rich virgin ground
00:34:52with worthless tailings making sulfur a potential treasure trove of hidden gold
00:34:58gold if they can find it it's just going to take some time to figure out like i would be panning pretty
00:35:06constantly perfect sounds good to me okay
00:35:16you got so much water coming through here we got all this material we need to start moving it over
00:35:20but we need it dry if we start just working this it's just going to get wetter and wetter
00:35:25we're not dredging so i want to just focus on the ditch here yeah okay i mean i agree with you but i
00:35:32just what about parker you know yeah but i mean if we just start digging in here we're going to be
00:35:37working underwater despite parker's rush to find the gold mitch ignores his orders to pan
00:35:44and decides to dig a ditch to drain the water the first thing we got to do and we're going to do is
00:35:49get rid of this water all right it's going really good i've got the ditch you know all the way to the
00:36:02top end of this cut which was 2 000 feet long and the cut's starting to drain out at sulfur creek mitch
00:36:11has defied parker's orders to hunt for virgin hot spots and is ditching instead parker's plan on
00:36:18coming down today and doing some panning here but we got a lot of material that's still got to be
00:36:22moved here before it's ready to have parker have a look at this and see what he wants to do
00:36:35just hoping to have all this ready by now
00:36:37what the are you doing well this is not good what's happening i thought you might need some panning
00:36:52but i take it not right now yeah most important thing just trying to get rid of the water here
00:36:58so we can actually move the dirt we got a pretty good system down we're just trying to get that corner
00:37:03cleaned out and then we'll be be ready for it there's a lot of work to do here
00:37:11i mean i just got brandon yesterday so
00:37:19there are two options find some virgin ground or else you can leave
00:37:25you know gold can buy a lot of things but it can't buy patience and the higher the prices go
00:37:49uh you know the less of that there seems to be around here parker wants things done in a
00:37:54certain way and order and i get that it's his business it's his company you know i've moved a
00:37:58lot of dirt up here and you know i'm confident in what i'm doing got the ditches down we got the
00:38:04cut green in and you know my opinion that's the right move i just wasted two hours
00:38:11you just need to get panning
00:38:18it's my first week back on the job haven't worked for parker for over five years now
00:38:22and you know he's already pissed off well this is the type of that made me leave the last time
00:38:35we're gonna have to pull the trigger on something otherwise we're gonna miss this whole season
00:38:43still waiting for his water license and desperate for somewhere to mine rick's on his way to prospect
00:38:49new ground at a nearby claim lightning creek you can go to any mine out here and listen to the guy
00:38:55tell you how much gold's on the property but which one's telling the truth not a single one of them so
00:38:59if we're gonna get any answers up there it's gonna be our own rick's mining in the keno mountains
00:39:05has been boom or bust the unpredictable ground almost bankrupted him six years ago until he hit
00:39:12the honey hole at duncan creek we do our own testing and see what we find and we know we can trust that
00:39:19rick's found gold on his duncan creek claim in two spots now he's hoping the pay streak extends to
00:39:27the lightning creek claim eight miles upstream near the gold mother load at mount hinton
00:39:33lightning creek is owned by rick's old landlord troy taylor ah there he is
00:39:44hey guys hey how's it going good to see you good to see you hey try yeah welcome to lightning creek
00:39:50we're ready to hit the ground running get some gold out of the ground six seasons ago our deal is
00:39:5610 percent yep or 100 ounce minimum rick leased duncan creek from landowner troy taylor that's nice
00:40:04looking gold there rick then cut a handshake deal to buy the claim thanks rick appreciate that gambling
00:40:11millions of dollars i'm sure you're happy to see that on the promise of a gold bonanza holy this is your last
00:40:20chance it was a rocky ride but finally the deal was done bar one crucial detail i have to trust that
00:40:30that water license is going to come through yeah you're all in yeah all in it was on troy to get the
00:40:39water license for rick but now that it hasn't come through he might have other ground for rick to kick the
00:40:45tires on looks like you've done a little bit of work here right a little bit yeah dad and i did some
00:40:50sluice in last september so yeah just you and your dad pretty much yeah just dad and i but what was
00:40:55the gold like i mean is it decent or yeah it was decent the gold is good here we had some good results
00:41:01last fall dad and i did some testing and uh we're pleased lightning is just like upper duncan in the
00:41:06sense that it's flowing through a canyon hopefully gold has been flushed out of those canyons like upper
00:41:12nunkin into this main valley how much overburden is on top of like it's not bad it's just uh so it's
00:41:18about five feet of of muck and sand and great to pay then yeah that's it yeah and i would just take
00:41:24about 15 feet and then we get into another it's kind of like a false bedrock and that's where i would
00:41:29stop for now so the the pay layer was 15 feet yeah that's more than i expected i know that we're not
00:41:36the only ones fighting this water license stuff this year what's the deal with this one here how many more
00:41:40years are on it yeah that's a good question we this is good till 2028 so you got a few more years here
00:41:46and we do and why give us the option i mean it's just you know why aren't you doing it
00:41:56well i feel bad about this whole water license thing so i want to give you a shot
00:42:00here and dad and i can step aside for a year if you want to you want to go here so there's no cost on
00:42:07a royalty yeah there's no uh a lot less risk for us so yeah and they don't sound like a salesman but
00:42:13there is other people that have been calling me over the winter so but and i i've been holding on
00:42:21to this for you so i i'm hoping that we can work something out yeah yeah
00:42:24you know but i mean i i can i trust you on this uh yeah we've been what six years now together so
00:42:36yeah i think yeah i mean i just there's no been no no shortage of surprises out here
00:42:43i can't wait too much longer dad and i we're gonna keep mining or get somebody else in here so
00:42:47no i understand that so we got the trauma here today so we get some testing done and
00:42:53try to make a decision as quick as we can so let's do it
00:42:59it's definitely getting harder to trust people out here you know gold's at a premium water license
00:43:03are rare as can be the vultures are circling troy he always seems to have the answer when i don't
00:43:09so it's uh you know it's a win-win for troy troy
00:43:23we need this to work out because we need to get somewhere to go mining and we need to quit
00:43:32still waiting for his water license
00:43:35rick ness has to move his operation and is hoping new ground at lightning creek will be worth it we've
00:43:43already done a couple of test holes but i want to do one more here there's a lot of big bullies out
00:43:48of this could be nice stuff troy taylor has already stripped a section down to painter so rick's making
00:43:56spot checks on the stripped ground he'll run two square yards of pay and is looking for at least a
00:44:02gram from the run by the sounds of troy that you know it's looking pretty good here but i have
00:44:08kind of some doubts here but at the same time i i really hope this is going to turn out for us
00:44:22that should be a good enough speed yeah for sure yeah i'll go get the water going okay
00:44:26hey ricky we're ready for you to throw some in if you want and i'll give her a shot this bucket's
00:44:36kind of big i'll probably make a mess
00:44:46it's washing the rocks really nice so hopefully it gives us good breeding
00:44:50that's the last of the dirt that's how we got our chest done yeah we'll have to clean it up and
00:44:58then uh get the hell out of here and weigh it see what we got shut her down clean her up yeah man
00:45:04okay let's do it it doesn't have to be hot but it's got to be hot enough for a slice
00:45:18that's cool oh hello hello back at camp the fate of rick season rests on the results of the
00:45:27lightning creek test some nice pickers in there yeah if the gold is good it could be the lifeline
00:45:34he needs what's the ground like down there it's pretty shallow um seems like only about an average
00:45:41of about five feet overburden maybe a little bit more and then a solid 15-foot stick pale there
00:45:46well that's pretty good that's a really good you know ratio i don't expect it to pay out like
00:45:50vegas valley but but who knows shall we see if it's even worth it we shall weigh some gold all right
00:46:00i don't think i've ever weighed up this small amount of gold but let's get it all in there
00:46:03rick wants at least a gram from his two-yard run
00:46:20oh we got 0.525 on her
00:46:22just half what rick was hoping for so is it worth it
00:46:33no
00:46:37and we're gonna be sitting here with our hands out no place to mind we're screwed
00:46:52we had a super fast start to the season we have cleanups and a couple bucks in the bank
00:46:59a hundred miles away tony beats has already banked 1.5 million dollars in gold
00:47:06there is more pressure on mike this year i mean mike has been running paradise hill like it's his but
00:47:11it's not his it's still mine so maybe we'll have to do something with him he wants a piece of the action
00:47:17too once he has the hill up running well then we'll just see what we can pull off
00:47:24tony's mining operation is split between two claims indian river where he's already
00:47:30sluicing pay from the early bird cut and 40 miles away paradise hill the core of the family business
00:47:38for over 30 years hey mike d copy mike d copy try the kitchen would you please
00:47:47hey mike how are you oh good yourself no complaints
00:47:53last year i was back and forth a bit but this year you won't see very much of me you got lots to do here
00:47:59i know but i got quite a pile going on in the indian too with this gold price if we don't get on it boy i tell you
00:48:05it let's get it on the go get down the play door this week that seems a little excessive oh really
00:48:15step up to the plate yeah make some money so i can spend some more how's that don't worry dad i'll
00:48:21help you with that yeah anyway mike i uh i can't shoot sit around there like you do i gotta go to work
00:48:27well if you did your job there you'd have more time yeah off mike i'm leaving see you later
00:48:32catch you later dad yeah i love you too my goal do my job well and get the results my dad wants
00:48:43so i'm gonna get as much gold as i can this year because with the prices as they are you're a moron
00:48:50if you don't take advantage of that while tony's based at indian river he's giving mike sole charge of
00:48:56paradise hill entrusting him with a nine-man crew to supersize the super pit more responsibility more
00:49:04authority but i want to focus on stripping before i get sluicing so that i can just when i get sluicing
00:49:10i don't stop over the last three years the beats family has cleared out nearly four million tons of
00:49:20worthless overburden creating an 18 acre super pit the cut is home to the klondike's fabled white
00:49:29channel pay concentrated gold washed down directly from hard rock deposits so far it's produced over
00:49:384 000 ounces of gold worth 15 million dollars this year mike plans to extend the cut by nearly 50
00:49:4650 percent opening up eight more acres of ground tony wants the first acre down to pay by the end of the week
00:50:01we're gonna have a whole whack load of stuff opened up so we have a lot of work ahead of us
00:50:08my dad bought six new trucks we're gonna strip strip strip strip strip strip strip
00:50:12another year of paradise glad to be back we got brand new rock trucks just hauling overburden from
00:50:20the cut we're trying to expand to get down to the gold bearing payload a d-11 dozer rips and pushes
00:50:28the worthless waste dirt called overburden to two excavators which load it into rock trucks haul it
00:50:362 000 feet away and dump it on the waste pile hopefully get sluice in here in paradise soon get that gold coming in
00:50:58guys guys guys we got a problem we got a problem the cat truck has flipped the cab of the cat truck has flipped
00:51:02all right i'm stuck in here right on the edge
00:51:17oh i'm stuck in here
00:51:21oh my i honestly don't want to touch it right on the edge at paradise hill a brand new 750
00:51:34000 rock truck has flipped with driver graham trapped inside the cab hanging on the edge of a
00:51:41200-foot drop this side is just i wish mike could hurry up because if the bank starts to go
00:51:48this is not the circus i signed up for
00:51:53i still have all my windows you still have all your windows yes
00:52:04the exhaust and hoses are pretty pulled too oh my hood breaking our new truck right away
00:52:12here it's slowly dropping more and more which is a little nerve-wracking
00:52:15uh as long as you get me pulled out of here before i flip okay well you can't get out too big
00:52:33hey mike
00:52:36well what the is he still in there yeah
00:52:39he won't fit through that window you could double his size he wouldn't fit rescue him for
00:52:44sake we're supposed to be paying charge kick out window make him stand on the steering wheel stick
00:52:53his head out the window kick the man that way his eyes and ears and everything be fine
00:52:58get his fat ass out okay you ready graham i guess so
00:53:17holy crap
00:53:21okay you can try climbing up the seat there
00:53:33well
00:53:37feels good to be out but still a little a little shaky
00:53:41yeah glad it didn't go over the edge fully that's
00:53:45wow could be fired could not be depending on the mood hey mike put it on the grass
00:53:53to set the 36 ton truck back on its wheels tony and mike use the 520 horsepower d10 dozer
00:54:03while the 480 excavator holds the box in place to stop it dropping over the edge
00:54:09perfect pull it pull it pull it keep it going keep it going
00:54:20perfect
00:54:25i'm very sorry tony i know i'm not really thinking anything i do about it because you're on the frost
00:54:31and they're slippery i still feel bad since it's a brand new truck
00:54:34that doesn't matter happens my man i was expecting it to be a little bit more aggravated
00:54:41i flipped one of the new ones there's no use firing people at his neck because when you fire
00:54:46somebody there's two people that lose i lose an employee he loses his job
00:54:52too bad you had to break the window but so it is i guess hey yeah i'd be the hood be fended i'll be
00:54:58railing i'll be nobody hurt that's always a big thing yeah
00:55:03for mike it's now a fight to hit pay dirt by the end of the week with one less truck
00:55:09and show tony he can run paradise hill on his own
00:55:15you want to prove yourself i suggest you get with it
00:55:18brennan and i are trying to get as much ground open up down here at sulfur as possible
00:55:33at sulfur creek mitch and brennan have finally drained the cut
00:55:37and exposed what could be their first hidden pay pocket how far did the dredge get over here
00:55:44figure out what's left for us now they're ready for parker to pan
00:55:50hopefully we got something for him to look at
00:55:52but old parker likes to see the gold and you know he wants it now like this to me looks virgin
00:55:59i really don't know what to expect
00:56:12i'm just gonna show mitch
00:56:21one pan out of the downstream edge of your ditch holy smoke
00:56:32that's why we're doing this wow and that's pretty exciting
00:56:36that's why we're trying to find it again yeah hopefully there's more of that
00:56:43that was really good pan you know we just need to get a wash plant in here and
00:56:47find out what mines like it pans
00:56:49we got the ice out of the bridge cut we got pay stacked up now it's time we get sluicing tyson
00:57:01is on the clock parker wants wash plant bob sluicing by the end of the day
00:57:07i haven't talked to alice and leave yet there will be no waiting parker has made that abundantly clear
00:57:13how's it going guys we're ready to run dirt um the hopper's gonna be the main hold up for bob
00:57:27starting the pre-wash hopper feeder yeah this feed chain system this plant can't run without it
00:57:34man it would have been nice if you told me that the feed chain system which drives the wash plant's
00:57:41pre-wash conveyor is broken and the mechanics want to install a new one parker he wants to stop running
00:57:49today there's no getting around to this right now yeah me let's get at it we've got a lot of work to do
00:58:09that's it mr gustin hey boys mr bill what's going on we brought a uh rush rush project
00:58:20at dominion creek parker's mechanics are hustling to fix the feed chain system on bob's pre-wash conveyor
00:58:28all right well let's get this thing unloaded and get at it because it ain't going to fix itself
00:58:32the pre-wash conveyor moves pater into the shaker to be washed the motor which turns the conveyor's front
00:58:41drive shaft is connected via a small chain and sprocket but over time the chain tighten pulling
00:58:49the shaft inwards breaking apart the sprocket and bearings to fix this design fault the mechanics will
00:58:56remove the small chain and sprocket fit a new front drive shaft and align the motor so it sends power
00:59:05directly to the shaft
00:59:06chain is up there we go let motor come out of there nice and easy
00:59:19okay we're laughing
00:59:23this is the final fit
00:59:30there we go perfect
00:59:32right so that that is it copy alec go for alec you are ready to roll my friend sweet we'll come grab it
00:59:52wide load coming to you
00:59:53well look at this you guys pulled it off what do you say we get bob running
01:00:13keep it coming
01:00:16lift it up a little bit
01:00:19whoa there buddy
01:00:20there it goes you're in
01:00:28beautiful
01:00:30everything's in place okay you guys ready yep yep well here we go let's fire bomb up
01:00:40take your necks on here goes the pre-wash offer
01:00:50the pre-wash conveyor delivers pay dirt to the plant water jets blast the gold and fine dirt off the rocks
01:01:10a shaker deck vibrates a shaker deck vibrates a set of screens to separate out the larger rocks
01:01:18while the smaller gold bearing material washes down into two 14 by 10 foot sluices where the riffles
01:01:26and mats catch the gold
01:01:30beautiful sight right there liam first wash plant going on dominion that is a beautiful sight
01:01:36with three days sluice time before the end of the week tyson's on the gold parker's big push for
01:01:4310 000 ounces is on bob's got a lot of ground to get through this here
01:02:00miners across the yukon are gathering at dawson city for the klondike glass or mining association meeting
01:02:05the kpma warned a glut of unprocessed water licenses is putting livelihoods at risk
01:02:13what a joke desperate to start his season rick is in dawson to meet the klondike placer mining
01:02:19association a local union working with miners with no water licenses
01:02:26my back's against the wall i've been up to my elbows in uh in this you know in this whole water
01:02:30license stuff it sucks man it really sucks the state of the industry is not too great a lot of
01:02:34people in the exact same um bonus me with the water license and all that i'm hoping that the kp make
01:02:39maybe they know when these are going to get approved give me some kind of reason to stick with dunking
01:02:43creek you know without it i don't know what the hell we're going to do hey that's somebody i know
01:02:47what's going on buddy how you doing i'm okay how you been i'm all right better than you yeah i've
01:02:54heard what's going on oh man there's a lot of people that are pretty screwed up by it and the
01:02:59thing is the forces that are against the mining have so many tactics to stall things and it's death
01:03:05by delay yeah this is absolutely right right just shoot me in the head don't give me a slow dab
01:03:11yeah but let's see what they do in the meeting and then uh why don't i buy you a beer afterwards
01:03:15i appreciate that all right just go in this meeting and see what they say and go from there
01:03:29something's got to give
01:03:39yeah i've had enough of that big waste of time it gets us nowhere it's just a bull you know like
01:03:50well who's asked do i put my fist up to get some results here and maybe i'll be done who knows who
01:03:55knows at this point probably gonna have a beer maybe 10. in dawson with no breakthrough on his water
01:04:02license rick's hopes of mining this season best seat in the house hanged by a thread whoa whoa whoa
01:04:08what's up good to see you buddy good to see you
01:04:14you know the last time we were together was um 14 years ago really you think that was the
01:04:19last time i was still young that's a long time ago i i remember i was like i think tony beats is like
01:04:27the coolest guy in the world and i want to be like tony thank you thank you that'll be a long time
01:04:33but you know what being good years right yeah every year i have more fun good for you it takes a lot
01:04:39to get me jealous but when i roll by you have so much equipment running yeah so how's rick you having
01:04:48fun no the kp bay has gotten us nowhere basically we can't touch dunking creek oh that's not very good
01:04:55no it's kind of a slap in the face do you have that other block of ground lightning creek yeah um
01:05:02well i don't have it it's troy so it's a lease but he's like a pretty reasonable landlord yes and
01:05:09you know not like me yeah i wasn't gonna say that but yeah and you've done like one test or a bunch
01:05:16of tests we did a few tests there not very happy about it but there's a license there for three years
01:05:21that's pretty good but i'm not sure if there's a lot of gold in it but i mean you have one thing
01:05:29going for you and that is like gold price is so good yeah no i hear you but this is uh this is definitely
01:05:35a gamble gold price is excellent if you're lucky enough to have a license hurry the up mind the out
01:05:42of it and leave that's it you just got to get out there and wash as many rocks as you can
01:05:47get the over that and make it work right you're right make some money oh yeah hope it goes well
01:06:00well i've got to run i've got a dog that needs to walk parking with fun um it's great great to see
01:06:06you guys you too for sure there you go hey let's not wait another 14 years huh yeah yeah do it
01:06:10look i've known rick for 15 years he was there for all the years where i was just like scared to
01:06:16death of going broke i was scared to death of people taking advantage of me i was scared to death of tony
01:06:21kicking me off the ground this business eats you alive if you're not ready for it with rick i could
01:06:29definitely see him losing everything and leaving the gold fields broke but i could also see him building an
01:06:38empire and and i really hope that he's successful i do i cut my teeth out here with parker i've known
01:06:46tony since the day i walked into the klondike and um they've always had good advice and i'd be a foolish
01:06:51not to take it i've got lightning creek as an option right now and we're going to take that option we're
01:06:55going to run with it i'd like to remind all rock truck drivers and the hoe operator working in the
01:07:09cut keep going keep shaming her off strip strip strip strip strip strip after a disastrous start
01:07:16managing tony's paradise hill claim mike beats is racing to get down to pay mike's doing the best with
01:07:23what he's got but we need to move this dirt get to the gold get to the pay our guys are doing real
01:07:29good they're moving a lot of dirt there's some of this like right here this has gone very far from
01:07:34the peg it's so many rocks that's usually a good indicator that's good stuff
01:07:41if you want to drive in i can grab my kubota because it makes its way in yeah let's walk looks like you
01:07:47you need it
01:07:53yeah go ahead we're down to pay here do you want to check it out i'll be there in a minute
01:08:01a little bit clay in it but it's got the rocks
01:08:03it'll be a fat chunk huh let's grab a pan
01:08:14now what if i forgot how the pan will be give me a rock
01:08:18where would you like it right there thank you sir
01:08:34look at that a good pan nice fine stuff yeah it's fine as frog hair as they say but that's on the top
01:08:52anyway right but we can just lose that mike hey oh yeah we're out a question
01:08:58we hit pay in paradise hill the indian sluice lot is doing a good job so everything is looking up
01:09:07everything is looking pretty good be all in business perfect
01:09:18we're back hold on before tyson cleared all the ice parker turned the bridge cut into a racetrack
01:09:28it's just push on the front a little bit come on get in there
01:09:48cody get in there
01:09:58every light on the dash is on you know any good mechanics dude they're gonna kill me if they find
01:10:07out why this happened don't tell anybody
01:10:17we're down to foreman but i think being as set up as we are now it is doable and well we're gonna try
01:10:25tony's eldest son kevin has been running his scribner creek mine for a week relying more on operator
01:10:32caden foot this is the earliest i've started sluicing in a season but i feel like it's gonna
01:10:38be a bit of a struggle without brennan he was an all-around great foreman
01:10:45we really gotta as a team come together so we can get as much out as we can
01:10:55hey and i'm got some yellow
01:10:59hi guys hey how's it going pal how are you not too bad kevin leases the ground from tony
01:11:06and pays a 10 percent royalty on any gold he finds
01:11:12so your second year on your own how are you feeling about that you're gonna cross it honestly i'm feeling
01:11:19pretty good ready to roll this year you don't have to buy this buy every thing right so that's
01:11:25got to make a lot easier to start this year it definitely is a lot nicer to hit the ground running
01:11:30what's happening with brennan well we didn't know he was showing up and then he finally
01:11:35came and talked to us told us that he wasn't coming back it would have been nice if you would
01:11:40have let you know that in the winter it would have been nice for sure that's people for you again
01:11:44ask people for you oh yeah so who gives a next that's how it goes next
01:11:51uh t you had a nice early start and have some gold coming out of the ground right away yeah
01:11:57what's your goal my wall is 2000 and we already have a little bit of chunk of gold
01:12:02at the start of the season so that's nice you maybe think we can weigh it up all right are we ready
01:12:09kevin ran his stockpiled pay for one week at scrivener creek 15 20 30 40 50
01:12:2657.04 200 000 in gold 60 000 more than the same amount was worth last season and that's how many hours
01:12:3870. 70 hours so it's a little bit less than five an ounce now yeah that's still nice oh yeah that's
01:12:45better than zero oh this year cash in so you may as well get with it right yeah you know okay woman
01:12:51let's get the out of here let's go we have to work so we'll talk to you guys later ladies and gentlemen
01:12:57don't work too hard bye bye hey dog that was a decent quote yeah not too mad it's kind of nice to see
01:13:06this yellow stuff this early in the season i'm sure the folks would be happy for us too but the big
01:13:11thing we're looking for right now is the foreman we'll get hiring and something will show up
01:13:16nice little hall i mean it's a good start it's a couple bucks huh royalty-wise royalty-wise yeah
01:13:26all right there's nothing like making money of your kids is that
01:13:35what's happening how's it going man going good good been a while since we've done one of these yeah
01:13:41big cats hey he is back how's it going welcome back yeah thank you it's good having you back and
01:13:51there's a lot to do this year so we need all the help we can get definitely it's the end of the first
01:13:56week of what could be a game-changing season for parker this is the year huh yeah we need to just
01:14:03shove dirt down those wash plants throats huh it's a long road to ten thousand tyson's got bob running
01:14:14right now in the bridge cut sulfur's drying out a little bit we've got the trucks upstream they're
01:14:20stripping and that's going all right yep are you ready t let's check it out doom it this is mr bob this
01:14:28your first plant well here we go all eyes are on tyson's first run from the bridge cut last season's
01:14:35payouts were unpredictable parker's looking for at least 100 ounces from three days sluicing
01:14:4310 20 40 60 80 gonna break 100 there we go 100 120
01:14:58125.8 nice very nice worth over 440 000
01:15:11looks like it was worth getting that ice off yeah we're on the board yeah
01:15:17that's definitely a good start but we have a long ways to go so i hope everybody's ready to buckle in
01:15:22and then all right thank you guys thank you do it again next week the cat is back meow
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