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00:00Music
00:19I'm not so much of a crazy scientist, I'm just a scientist.
00:23You know, after spending 40 years in academia, teaching chemistry.
00:30So when I retired, I decided to come out here and have a little fun.
00:35Now I'm out here being a gold miner, digging into dirt.
00:39I work in a desert. This is dry mining, totally different.
00:44Prospectors do this at a small level, but very few people have developed it to a mining level.
00:49That's one of the things that we've tried to do.
00:51Ready to run?
00:52I've got to get better recovery.
00:55I've got a lot of debt that I need to pay off.
00:59I had to cash in my retirement and had to borrow $50,000 off of my life insurance for the
01:04kids.
01:04I've got to pay that back somehow.
01:06I'm scared of running out of money.
01:08I'm all in. It's a serious commitment, but I've got to make it better.
01:13So, hopefully, Freddie and Juan can help.
01:18Let's make some gold, guys.
01:20Freddie Dodge.
01:22There's no guarantees in gold, buddy.
01:24And Juan Ibarra.
01:26All right, well, let's do it, huh?
01:28Have mastered the art of getting gold out of the ground.
01:31Look at that.
01:33In the most rugged places on Earth.
01:35I'm feeling a little sick, Freddie.
01:37Right.
01:37Now, they rescue struggling miners.
01:40Ooh.
01:41That's not good.
01:42Who've risked it all to be rich.
01:45Whoa, whoa, whoa, shut it down.
01:47But are about to lose everything.
01:49Eyeballs.
01:50To revive these failing mines, Freddie and Juan engineer the impossible.
01:55Well, I've never heard of an under-sluice before.
01:57Deliver some hard truths.
02:00This material you're digging now is totally worthless.
02:03And track down the gold.
02:05That's what dreams are made of right there.
02:07But if they don't at least double the miners' gold recovery,
02:11they won't take a dime in return.
02:14It's 10 times the amount of gold.
02:16That's awesome.
02:27I'm pretty confident in our abilities, but dry plants really aren't our forte, Freddie.
02:33It's still a similar concept.
02:34You're still using gold's weight to capture it.
02:38You know, gold always wants to go back to the center of the Earth.
02:41We've got to stop at one.
02:43You know, it belongs out of the ground.
02:44And to be nurtured and cherished.
02:47I think gold's home is in my pocket, Juan.
02:52Freddie and Juan head towards an SOS from Mike Robinson on his dry mine,
02:57north of the historic gold district of Wickenburg.
03:02Dry mining became popular here in the late 19th century,
03:06with the invention of the dry blower,
03:09a sluice that uses air instead of water to separate out gold from dirt.
03:15allowing prospectors to mine in arid conditions.
03:21Well, what do you think? Let's go meet the guys?
03:23Go meet them.
03:24Hello, gentlemen.
03:25How's it going?
03:26How you doing?
03:27Mike, I assume.
03:28Hey, Freddie.
03:29How's it going?
03:30Nice to meet you, Juan.
03:31This is Ken.
03:32Ken, nice to meet you, Juan.
03:33Nice to meet you, Ken. Pleasure.
03:35Yeah.
03:36Ken is my right hand man.
03:38That's a nice little setup there.
03:40Yeah.
03:40You guys are in for a real different treat here.
03:42This is dry mining.
03:43So water's a problem.
03:44It's a first, yeah.
03:44Yeah, it's first.
03:45You just have to go with the flow.
03:47So if you got dry dirt, run dry dirt.
03:52Mike Robinson bought these desert claims three years ago.
03:55An inventor, as well as a miner,
03:58he expanded his self-built dry plant last year
04:01and invested in a backhoe
04:03in the hopes of making enough gold to make a living.
04:07I retired about 10 years ago from University of Texas
04:10and bought a home out here.
04:11And so I've got an idea to make a profitable mine.
04:14And I've invested maybe a couple of hundred thousand over the years.
04:17And in doing all of that,
04:19I actually had to borrow another $50,000 out of my life insurance proceeds.
04:24That was designated for my five kids.
04:26So I'm under the gun to kind of get that back in.
04:28Sounds like you actually have quite a bit of money tied up in this
04:30and it's kind of a serious situation for you.
04:33Yes.
04:33In your opinion, what's your biggest problem that you have?
04:36Big problem that we've had this year,
04:37we've had an extremely wet season.
04:39It even snowed eight inches the first of March.
04:42Yeah.
04:42The monsoon season comes in August
04:44and we just have to shut down.
04:45That's not good, I'll tell you that.
04:49Despite its desert location,
04:51this part of Arizona is known for its dramatic weather patterns.
04:54with short, wet monsoon seasons,
04:58followed by dry, scorching heat,
05:00leaving Mike just four months to mine each year
05:04when it's not too hot for the electronics in the plant
05:07or too wet to run pay through the dry washer.
05:11What's your gold look like?
05:12Yeah, it's real fine.
05:13It's cornmeal and flour.
05:15There's a couple little chunks in there, yeah.
05:16But very, very seldom.
05:17So I don't care what size it is, I just want a lot of it.
05:21Well, what do you think? We run a test, huh?
05:24Let's go to work.
05:26Freddie and Juan conduct a four-hour test
05:29to assess problems and determine fixes.
05:32They then have five days to transform the Robinson's dry mine
05:37before a second test determines success or failure.
05:42Well, these guys are running a dry plant,
05:44and that's a whole different ball game
05:45to what me and Juan have been doing with wet plants.
05:48All right, Miss Kitty, let's go to work.
05:51Forward, ho!
05:53This is a new challenge for us,
05:55so we're really going to have to kind of think outside of the box
05:57and figure out what we can do here to help these guys.
06:00Miss Kitty's my backhoe.
06:03She's a cat, so I named her Miss Kitty.
06:08Getting everything fired up and ready to work out.
06:10So there it is.
06:13I'm hoping for gold for all of this effort.
06:16Well, I look at Mike, I call him a mad scientist just for kicks,
06:20but his mind never stops coming up with stuff,
06:24and we got stuff made, we put it together, and here we are.
06:28Yee-haw, we're running dirt.
06:30We're going to make some gold.
06:33First bucket, Juan.
06:34First bucket.
06:36There we go.
06:37There it is.
06:40Mike's custom dry washers work similar to a wash plant.
06:45Pay dirt is loaded onto a screen, which removes larger rocks.
06:50Four unique vibrating hoppers funnel the pay into four dry sluices.
06:56There, in place of water, a tailor-made air system
07:00blows away the lighter dirt, where heavier gold sinks
07:04and is caught in the riffles.
07:13Look at that, Freddie.
07:14Oh, I know.
07:15Right there.
07:15Almost every bit of that should have gone through that screen.
07:18What we need to do is get a pan.
07:19I'll get a bucket.
07:20Finer pay dirt that should be reaching the sluices is falling off the end of Mike's screen.
07:27To see how much gold he may be losing, Freddie and Juan collect a sample to pan.
07:34We'll see what came off that screen, huh?
07:36See if there's any gold in it.
07:37Yeah.
07:42Getting down into the heavies.
07:44Yeah, I see them.
07:46There's heavies.
07:47You know there's gold.
07:49Hand panning reveals heavier fine black sand or magnetite that often sits alongside gold.
07:56There it is.
07:57There's some gold right there.
07:58Look at that.
07:59There's a couple sizable pieces too, Freddie.
08:00Well, that's gold that can be captured but it never made it to the recovery system.
08:05Six colors, seven colors.
08:08The sample size suggests that Mike may be losing up to 5% of his gold off the back of
08:14the screen.
08:21Hey, Freddie, look at that.
08:23Oh, that's real damp.
08:24Look at that.
08:24It'll almost hold form.
08:26No dust.
08:27Yeah.
08:27No dust.
08:28That's not good.
08:29Wet pay feeds through Mike's dry plant, causing the hopper and sluices to clog up and slows down the entire
08:38plant.
08:41You can see right here it's starting to pile up because how damp it is.
08:45It is.
08:46Yup.
08:47Doesn't like the moisture.
08:49No.
08:51Say a dry washer, it has to be perfectly dry to work right.
08:55Not only is it not feeding as good, but the recovery system is not going to work as good either.
09:01The air can't get through it.
09:03Yeah.
09:03We need to fix that.
09:09Well, I enjoy mining.
09:11You know, it's just fun to get out here and do all this hard work and see a little gold
09:14at the end of the day.
09:15That makes it all worthwhile.
09:17But really, the longer term is for the family.
09:24This is a picture of my five kids.
09:27My son Will is going to come out here and join us the next day or two.
09:29I want to convince him that this is going to be a viable operation.
09:34He's doing part-time stuff, painting houses and other things.
09:38But, you know, it's hit and miss and it's not steady, steady, steady.
09:41Well, the mining maybe would add to his financial stability.
09:46Due to arrive in two days with wife Erin, Will is far from certain this is a gamble they're ready
09:52to take.
09:53So, my dad has basically created this for the family and he wants me to learn this so I could
10:00teach the rest of the family how to do it.
10:02But, you know, there's a little financial uncertainty.
10:06You know, it's a very important thing.
10:08You know, everyone has to eat and survive and pay bills.
10:11We have kids and I don't want to ever put them at risk.
10:15So, I just don't know.
10:17It's all up in the air and we're trying to decide, you know.
10:26I like this guy, Mike.
10:27I do too.
10:41Well, I got a light on.
10:44It's just pretty hot.
10:46That's not good.
10:49The needle's over here in the red.
10:51Hadn't seen that before.
10:53So, I don't know why it's overheating.
10:54Shut her down.
10:56Just short of the four hour run, the first test grinds to a halt.
11:02I didn't expect this to happen.
11:04It's been a major heating problem.
11:06I got a hole that's broken.
11:08With this down, I can't move dirt.
11:22It's overheating.
11:23I can't move ten feet without it going pssst.
11:25It's really hot.
11:26If you don't mind, I'll take a look at it, yeah.
11:28In 105 degree heat at the Robinson mine, a broken backhoe stalls the first test run.
11:36Well, I don't know whether I got an oil leak or a water leak.
11:39I haven't seen anything on the road.
11:40You have a coolant leak right there on your heating valve.
11:44Really?
11:44Yeah.
11:46Well, I can't work unless I overcome the heating problem, so.
11:50Go ahead and shut it off.
11:53With hours to fix the leak, Freddie and Juan called time on the test, ten minutes short.
12:01Well, guys, get this cleaned up and see you tomorrow.
12:05All right, see you tomorrow.
12:06Yeah.
12:06Thanks, guys.
12:08Mike and Ken, you know, they're both really nice guys.
12:10You can kind of see some of their inexperience just a little bit.
12:13I mean, they have an issue with the backhoe.
12:14But as far as their wash plant, it was a good little run.
12:16I'm really excited to see what this gold way looks like.
12:29How's it going?
12:30How we doing?
12:31Good.
12:31Good to see you again this time.
12:33Yeah.
12:34This is my magnetic separator.
12:36I invented this because everybody's got a black sand problem.
12:39So now we take out most of the black that's magnetic, then I can get it really, really pure.
12:44Okay?
12:45Turn it on, you just pour it in.
12:47Magnetic black sand is a natural byproduct of Mike's dry mine.
12:52His ingenious invention allows him to separate it from the gold, speeding up his cleanup.
12:59So there's the result, black and white.
13:01There it is.
13:02Pretty cool, huh, Juan?
13:04Yeah.
13:04Pretty neat.
13:05I sell it online for $7 a pound.
13:10Separation process complete, Mike turns to traditional hand panning to finish his cleanup.
13:16So that's desert gold.
13:18Beautiful gold.
13:20Do you know the purity of it?
13:22Oh, it's pretty high.
13:24I'd say around $90, $89, $90.
13:27Yep, your gold's pretty good down there, too.
13:29Yep.
13:30Good piece in there.
13:31Mm-hmm.
13:31Ready to dry.
13:36Well, there it is, huh?
13:37You want to pour that out and weigh it for us?
13:39Yeah, let's take a look at that.
13:42A little moment of tooth, Red.
13:43Yep.
13:52Beautiful.
13:53It's pretty gold, boy.
13:55Quarter of an ounce.
13:56Yeah, it's a quarter of an ounce.
13:57.25.
13:58I'd like it to be better, because I got a sun coming out, depending on making maybe a job
14:03out of this.
14:04An eight-hour shift will get Mike up to $1,000 a day.
14:08If he mines a four-month season, it would net him over $100,000.
14:14But with debt totaling $200,000, it's not enough to support his son, Will, and his family.
14:22In your mind, you know, what do you need to see to be able to start paying your investment
14:27back and make this profitable?
14:29Well, I'd like to double it.
14:31Okay.
14:32And really, the slowdown that we saw was wet material coming out.
14:35Well, that's a big problem.
14:37It rained months ago, but it seeps into the soil, and it wets all of the clays, and the
14:41clays stay wet.
14:43Even in dry season, Mike bogs down with wet pay underneath the top layer of dry soil,
14:49slowing down his entire operation.
14:53Well, let's go put our heads together and drop some stuff.
14:57Okay, let's do it.
14:57Sounds like a plan.
14:58See you in a bit, guys.
14:59Thanks.
15:01Don't let the wind blow your gold away.
15:03Mike's got a lot on the line here.
15:05This is a dry plant.
15:06This is out of our element.
15:07So we're going to have to pull something out of our sleeve here to get that gold number
15:10up for him.
15:18What do you think, Juan?
15:20I never would have thought in the middle of the desert we'd have an issue with tamp pay.
15:23Well, there's water though, huh?
15:24It's just underground.
15:26In order for him to be able to mine in the wet season, he's going to have to have a
15:30dryer.
15:31What do you think?
15:31Like a 30-inch tube, Freddy?
15:33Like a trommel drum?
15:35Yeah, maybe a framework, right?
15:38You do your magic with the rollers.
15:41The pipe goes in it.
15:43There'll have to be a feed hopper back here, right?
15:46You've got to fix that backhoe anyway, don't you?
15:48Yeah.
15:48Okay.
15:49You saw that problem coming off the end of the screen.
15:51What I think we do there, Juan, we put, let's say, a piece of square tube.
15:56Okay.
15:57And then we hang some canvas as a dampener.
16:01You know, that's a cheap, easy fix for that.
16:03Well, I like it, Freddy.
16:04Why don't we go chat with Mike and Ken and see what they think?
16:09I'm anxious to hear what the hell they think they can do to that plant.
16:13Yeah.
16:14Well, gentlemen, we've got good news and bad news.
16:16You've seen us taking that bucket sample off your grizzly?
16:19Yes.
16:19When the material was coming off?
16:20Uh-huh.
16:21Well, we just did part of one bucket.
16:24Really, only a pan out of one bucket.
16:26Yeah.
16:26They're small, but they're there.
16:29Oh, I see them.
16:30I see them now, yeah.
16:31Probably lose enough right there to pay for all your fuel.
16:33And then some.
16:36Well, we've got to fix that.
16:38We've got an idea to stop this, and it's simple.
16:41We put a piece of square tube across your grizzly,
16:44and then we hang some canvas as a dampener.
16:48That would really be great.
16:50You know, the other thing that we saw?
16:51Wet material going through the plant.
16:54Your hopper assembly is getting clogged up,
16:56and then on top of that, your sluice box is actually getting stacked up.
16:59You had to slow them down to be able to get that material to go through.
17:01That's a big one.
17:02We want to build a dryer.
17:04Mm-hmm.
17:06Really?
17:07A commercial-type dryer, not a toy.
17:10Your better pay is actually in that wet material.
17:12You'll be able to run that material right into the dryer,
17:14get it dried out, and run it that same day.
17:17Freddie and Juan will build a canvas dampener to stop pay dirt spilling off the back of Mike's screen.
17:24To dry the wet pay clogging a plant and extend Mike's mining season, they'll construct a huge pay dirt dryer.
17:32A steel frame fitted with pitched roller benches will support a 600-pound trommel.
17:39At one end, a hopper will feed pay dirt into the drum.
17:44At the other, a 30-kilowatt heater will blast the pay with hot air.
17:51Get that wet material dry, you're going to increase your gold, that's for sure.
17:55Well, you know, guys, that extend the season, not just to get better pay for one day, but now we're
18:00mining maybe six, eight months rather than three or four.
18:04But in total, it's kind of a big number.
18:06We would like to see material and our labor is seven and a half ounces.
18:11Seven and a half ounces at the end of the season.
18:12At the end of the season.
18:15I know that's a big number, but if we don't double this gold intake, I'm willing to do this for
18:19free.
18:20Yeah, I'm that confident.
18:23I think you got good gold where you're at from your test, but we can add to that.
18:29Well, I want it improved.
18:30I got to prove that for William and Aaron and the family.
18:35We'll do it.
18:36All right.
18:37See you, man.
18:38Thanks, guys.
18:38Right on.
18:40I was shocked at how much gold we were losing.
18:43If I can get the gold increased, both from being able to run more times a year with wet dirt,
18:50drying it out, and then getting better recovery off the screen and everything, I'm really enthused about that.
18:59This may be a game changer for Mike and Ken.
19:01Freddie and I have never built a dryer like this before.
19:03It's going to take every bit of, you know, creativity and drive that we have to be able to pull
19:08something off here to make this work for these guys.
19:10We better get to work, Lon.
19:35Hey, guys. Got your steel here. You ordered.
19:38In central Arizona, Freddie and Juan have called in a local favor.
19:45Some 30-inch pipe, 2-by-6-by-3-sixteenths wall tubing, and some 2-inch straps.
19:54$7,000 worth of custom cut steel to attempt their first ever pay dirt dryer build.
20:03Well, we got the tools we need now.
20:04I'm happy these guys were able to come down and give us a hand and get it all down here
20:08to us, so now the work begins.
20:11Back up a little bit, Vano, so I don't cramp your style coming in.
20:15That's as far as it goes. I got it straight now.
20:20Well, right now we're starting on the framework for the dryer.
20:25We'll start cutting pieces here, get as much cut as we can, and start fabricating it.
20:34The dryer will work similar to a trommel.
20:38Wet pay dirt is fed into one end of the massive cylinder.
20:43A propane heater will dry the dirt as the trommel spins.
20:49Eyeballs.
20:50You know, Freddie and I want to build something from scratch, from the ground up.
20:53So we're going to have to build the frame, we're going to have to build the roller assembly, the drive
20:56assembly, and also the drum, which is a ton of work.
21:03Just outside...
21:04Yeah, there they are.
21:05After a 1,500-mile trip from Louisiana...
21:09Let's walk over there and meet them. I'll introduce you guys.
21:11Mike's son, Will, and daughter-in-law, Aaron, arrive to assist the operation.
21:17I may go right below the edge, you know.
21:20Hey, you guys, I want you to meet my son.
21:22This is Will.
21:23Will, nice to meet you, Juan.
21:25Juan, this is Aaron, Will's wife.
21:27Good to meet you.
21:28And this is Freddie, Freddie Dice.
21:30Will, I heard.
21:30Yes, sir.
21:31Aaron.
21:32Nice to meet you.
21:33You came in to see your future, huh?
21:35Yes, sir.
21:36All right.
21:37He's got a family, a couple of kids by marriage, to take care of, too.
21:40They might be worried about spending a lot of money and maybe spending it foolishly.
21:44But I want to prove to them that it's not a fool's errand.
21:49And I'd like this mine to support his family.
21:52Have you done any mining before?
21:53I came out here, what was that, two years ago?
21:56OK.
21:56We mined for 10 days.
21:58We put an ounce of gold in his pocket and a half an ounce of mine.
22:01We were doing it by hand, just shoveling.
22:03Oh, no kidding.
22:03I said, we need a bigger shovel.
22:06So I went out and got a backhoe, upgraded to a real miner.
22:10Dad wants to support us and our kids to move out of a bad situation, a bad neighborhood.
22:17Moving from job to job, it's a major stressor in our lives with me and Aaron.
22:22And we're trying to see whether it's economical for this to really work out.
22:30Moving out here, I would be leaving, you know, my mom and dad, my grand, my aunts and brothers.
22:38With the kids and everything, it would have to be something that we knew we could depend on.
22:42If you want to come down and give us a hand, man, you're more than welcome to come give us
22:45a hand.
22:45Yeah, I'd love to see what y'all can do.
22:47Have you welded it all?
22:48No.
22:49I have a lot to learn.
22:50We can set it up here and teach you some stuff.
22:52Yes, sir.
22:53I'd appreciate that.
22:54For sure.
22:55If you're going to be here with your dad, you need to start getting some of those skills.
23:02Will's going to have to go on a crash course of skills.
23:06But if he is enthusiastic, learning comes easy.
23:10I've already got them laid out, so I'll have you hold them while I tack them on.
23:15Drafting in Will, Freddie starts on some teardrop years, which will enable Mike to pull the dryer around the claim.
23:25I'd like my dad to succeed here.
23:27He's all heart and all mind, too.
23:30He wanted to set up something good for the family.
23:34He liked coming out here and mining and doing that together.
23:37I think he knows what he's doing, but he did spend his entire retirement to settle here and mine.
23:43So it's very important that he succeeds.
23:45Okay.
23:46This is 60-10.
23:48So the way I'm welding with it, I'm acting like I'm stacking dimes.
23:53Okay.
23:54It's a big deal.
23:56Yeah.
23:58It would be a bad thing if what he worked all his life to gain went wrong.
24:07Give her a try, bud.
24:09There you go.
24:10There you go.
24:11Stack those dimes.
24:15There you go.
24:16You're done.
24:17It may not be pretty, but it's kind of welded.
24:21Get some leathers.
24:22Yes, sir.
24:22And start practicing.
24:24Thanks for showing me.
24:25Appreciate it.
24:26You're welcome.
24:27I was nervous.
24:28You know?
24:29It's like I'm next to Freddy and I'm learning how to weld.
24:33I've never done that before, but it's good experience, good knowledge.
24:37So I got to practice is what he says.
24:40Practice makes perfect.
24:41You got a teaching from a master there.
24:44Yeah.
24:44You got to show me something, all right?
24:45Deal.
24:46Deal.
24:50At the Cut trailer...
24:55Just finished up the roller assemblies.
24:56It's what the new dryer is going to ride on.
24:58That way we can get it onto the frame, get it put in place, and we can set the drum.
25:02Heat-resistant steel rollers will sit on Freddy's steel frame and allow the drying trommel to turn.
25:09I'll be done with these welds in 10 minutes.
25:12Okay, perfect.
25:12What are you going to do?
25:13Back in and grab the frame?
25:15Yeah, I'll just back my truck in right here.
25:16We'll lift this up, set it on the ground, then we'll lift the trommel, drum up, get it right on
25:20top.
25:20Clive, I'll be done.
25:21All right.
25:32We're going to find out if our measurements are correct, huh?
25:34Yeah.
25:40That's absolutely perfect.
25:43What are the odds of that?
25:45If you look in between the wheels here, between the wheels and the drum itself,
25:48they're perfectly flat up against the drum over here as well.
25:52And that just tells you that we got our angles right.
25:54I like it.
25:55Yep.
25:57I'm glad to see it coming together.
25:58I'm anxious to see the final result.
26:04All in all, you know, it was a good day, but the plant needs a lot of work.
26:10So, time is of the essence right now.
26:11It's definitely a new challenge for us.
26:17Coming up.
26:19Hey, guys.
26:19You're just going to have to let us roll today.
26:21What's taking so long, Freddy?
26:23Glad I didn't eat any bean burritos last night, so I'm going to be in this soup for a while.
26:41I had a little too much.
26:42Got to take some out.
26:49What I'm doing is I'm selling black sand.
26:52This little box will be seven pounds, and I'll sell it for $21.
26:57Rare metals found in black sand are used in the construction and electronic industries.
27:04Mike can sell up to five gallons a month, bringing in an extra $1,700 a season.
27:11I saw other people doing that, and I thought, yeah, I can do that. It'll make money.
27:16William knows there's some good gold around, but he hasn't seen this level of mining.
27:23Hopefully, Freddy and Juan will help me get that level up to prove that it'll work economically.
27:29We'll see.
27:32Outside.
27:33I just want to show you quickly how to pan.
27:37So I'll get it all on one side.
27:39I'll tap it like this.
27:41Mike's son, Will, gets back to his roots.
27:44I'll start walking it back.
27:46How did you learn how to do this?
27:48When I was a kid with my dad, we went and did a test sample of some soil down in
27:53the riverbed,
27:54right away from the house.
27:55So I've been doing this since I was seven or eight.
27:59Dad has always been interested in mining.
28:02I always liked geology and rocks, and I think it's because of dad.
28:07When I was a kid, my parents got a divorce.
28:12You know, I've always known my dad, and he's a great dad.
28:15But I didn't have the relationship with my dad that I wanted.
28:18And coming out here can give me that.
28:21And also, I could have a new start for my family, which we really need.
28:25Look at that color.
28:26Oh, wow.
28:27Oh, my goodness.
28:28Yeah.
28:29That's a piece of gold right there.
28:30Do you see all that?
28:31Oh, my goodness.
28:34I think this could be a new beginning.
28:36And so hopefully Freddie and Juan help us succeed.
28:39We need to know that it's going to be totally, you know, steady, steady.
28:44You know, something to always fall back on.
28:54On the other side of the claim...
28:56Hey, guys, you're just going to have to let us roll today.
28:59We don't have time for TB.
29:02Freddie and Juan turn and burn.
29:04Just 24 hours left before the final test run.
29:09After this break, do you want to start making it smaller here till what?
29:14Three?
29:14Three tall.
29:15Yeah.
29:16And then we could knock it down if we need to.
29:18Okay.
29:18I'll do it.
29:19Sounds good?
29:19Thanks, man.
29:20All right.
29:22Freddie made a quick sketch and some measurements of what he wanted.
29:25So, really, now it's crunch time.
29:27We've got to get this done today.
29:30Damn, this plate's hot.
29:32Woo!
29:33This may be a game changer for Mike.
29:35We try to make sure that we come up with great solutions to their problems.
29:39If we don't double their gold recovery, it's free.
29:42It just kind of pushes us a little harder to try to help them get more gold.
29:47By the trommel, Freddie inserts thin pieces of steel called lifters that will help separate the wet paydirt inside.
29:56Mind if I watch?
29:57No, it's down wherever you can see, buddy.
29:59Yes, sir.
30:01So, fabricating.
30:02You know, wanting myself mentally pictured what we wanted to build for this situation and got steel and started putting
30:09it together.
30:10So, imagination's most important.
30:12Okay.
30:12So, you just kind of, you figure it out.
30:15You design basically an engineer.
30:17Picture it in your head.
30:18Picture it in your head and then go from there.
30:19Basically, I don't have a lot of experience.
30:22So, it's invaluable to really learn from Freddie and Juan whatever they can share with me so that I can
30:28really learn from all their experience.
30:31Here we go.
30:32I'm gonna knock this son of a gun out.
30:41This is frickin' comfortable.
30:45Ouch.
30:47I'm glad I didn't eat any bean burritos last night, so I'm gonna be in this tube for a while.
30:55With Freddie in a tight spot, Juan switches focus to the broken backhoe.
31:02I'm gonna pull this floor pan out and then we're gonna replace the valve.
31:05Nothing worse than having a piece of equipment that's down.
31:07So, that's the valve we're gonna replace right there.
31:09It's actually the hose going to the valve that's been chewed through by pack rats or mice or something.
31:17Probably had a field day here.
31:20There it is.
31:21Now we'll just put the base plate back on and call it good.
31:28Backhoe back in business.
31:31Juan turns to the heating element for the dry blower.
31:34What I'm doing right now is I'm cutting out the pieces that I need to be able to mount the
31:38heating unit.
31:39on the front of the dryers.
31:40I'm hoping that we have enough heat to be able to dry that material.
31:44A 30 kilowatt propane heater will blast the wet pay dirt with 100,000 BTUs of drying power.
31:54We're gonna make it adjustable so we can adjust the pitch on the heater to be able to hit the
31:58material where we want it.
32:01Looks good.
32:03It's ready to go on.
32:12Perfect.
32:14This is adjustable so we need to adjust it.
32:17That's really slick.
32:18What angle do you recommend?
32:20Well, we don't know yet.
32:21We're gonna find out.
32:26Freddy's final fix.
32:28We're gonna put a cloth dampener in here.
32:30We're gonna make it where it's removable.
32:32A cloth dampener that will prevent pay bouncing off the screen.
32:37Are you in your slot?
32:38Yes, it is.
32:39How far out are you sticking, Ken?
32:42Cloth hanging just about right.
32:44Okay.
32:45So is mine.
32:46So as it comes down through, it'll hit that cloth, which will stop it from bouncing.
32:51And then more of it will go through the screen.
32:54I like it.
32:55No way in hell that's bouncing out of there.
32:57Well, thanks guys.
32:59I think it's a really neat idea.
33:01You know, Freddy's got so much experience to have the intuition or the confidence to do something like that.
33:07It's just surprising to me.
33:08And that's why we want it around here.
33:10Quite different than I expected, but I want to see it work now.
33:18Hey, Freddy.
33:19Yes, sir.
33:19I'm gonna spin it.
33:20Back at the dry blower, the trommel is finally ready for a test run.
33:25Watch yourself.
33:33Cooking with gas now, Juan.
33:35I like it.
33:36I'm really happy with what I see right now.
33:39We got it spinning.
33:40The hopper's in.
33:45It's beautiful that you just dream something up like that, cut some steel and weld it together.
33:50It's amazing.
33:52Do the kind of work in the field.
33:53It's really something.
33:58Yeah, we're real adamant to see what the plant can produce.
34:01That's gonna be a decision maker or breaker.
34:04So we're gonna see what Freddy and Juan have done.
34:08The lifters are welded in.
34:10Nice.
34:11So how long do you think it'll take to finish it?
34:14Another four days.
34:15Oh, golly.
34:17I want to see it run.
34:18Hurry up, guys.
34:19Gotta hurry up, Fred.
34:20That's right.
34:20What's taking so long, Freddy?
34:22Yeah.
34:22That's right.
34:25Didn't see anybody else offer to climb in this pipe.
34:27I like them.
34:32Where do you want it, Fred?
34:33As night falls, Juan uses his new electric loader to move the pay dryer closer to the mine.
34:40Inside, the controls are exactly like what it would be on a regular machine.
34:44The only difference is it's electric.
34:46Love it, Juan.
34:48Come on ahead a little bit more.
34:49That'll work.
34:50It's impressive how powerful this thing is.
34:53You know, you think electrical, you think it's gonna be kind of sluggish, it's gonna be doggy.
34:57It's not.
34:58Perfect.
35:13Looks good.
35:15At the Robinson Mine.
35:16Well, you see what we did, right?
35:18So you guys got a little paint on it last night, huh?
35:21Freddy and Juan's custom-built dryer has been given a creative touch overnight.
35:26Dragon breath, right?
35:27Dragon breath.
35:28Dragon breath.
35:29I like it.
35:29I like it, too.
35:30It's ready to roll.
35:31Fire it up.
35:38Before, Mike's pay was too damp for his dry plant, making it slow and inefficient.
35:45All right, Miss Kitty, we're gonna get down and dirty.
35:48Now, the new hot dryer should remove moisture from the pay before it is run through the plant.
35:54We can dry it out to get more gold.
35:57Then we can run twice as many months out of the year.
35:59So hopefully this is gonna work.
36:09All right.
36:10Holy crap.
36:11That's hot.
36:12Frickin' hot, boy.
36:17Drive.
36:20Hike!
36:25It's hot coming out of it.
36:26Down in there, fried eggs.
36:27It's that hot.
36:30I think it's badass.
36:32Let's get your plant fired up, run some dry material through it.
36:36The first run was only three hours and 50 minutes due to a backhoe breakdown.
36:42This time, Will takes over operation from Father Mike.
36:46First bucket.
36:48Let's make some gold.
36:51If this works and we can make money, I think we're gonna do real good out here.
36:57Yeah, baby.
37:00That's what I like to see.
37:03Dry as a bone, huh?
37:07Like sand through an hourglass, Juan?
37:09Yeah.
37:10If we've gone through more yards, we can actually run the trays faster.
37:14So it's really looking good.
37:20Juan!
37:20You've gotta see this!
37:22Perfect!
37:24At the hopper, Frickin' hot water.
37:26Freddy's bushfix dampener keeps the pay dirt from falling off the screen.
37:31It's pretty simple.
37:32Yes, it is.
37:33A piece square tube, a welding blanket, two bungee cords.
37:36Five percent of your gold or more.
37:40Last bucket!
37:42Okay.
37:52I think Dad, he's trying to make sure that there's a safety net.
37:56That's what parents do.
37:56They create safety nets for their kids.
37:58We've really bonded.
37:59He's a good dude.
38:00He's appreciated and loved.
38:05I like that dragon grip.
38:07That really drives it out.
38:08But you don't know how it's gonna go.
38:10So, let's weigh it up and see what we got.
38:18Oh, look. Here they come.
38:19Hey, guys.
38:20Hey!
38:22During our first test run, you guys got a quarter ounce,
38:24and you wanted to double that, right?
38:26Yeah, you know, if you're gonna wish, wish big.
38:28Freddy and Juan's fixes must double the 0.25 ounces from the first test,
38:33or they agreed to waive their $15,000 fee.
38:37Now, Will, would half an ounce be enough for you guys to be down here?
38:40Half an ounce would get us down here.
38:43Yeah?
38:43Yeah, for sure.
38:44Okay.
38:44Half an ounce would mean Mike, Will, and Aaron could earn over $300,000 a year,
38:50enough to pay off Mike's big debts and live on the rest.
38:54Well, proof will be in the pudding. I don't want it.
38:57Oh, my goodness. Look at that.
38:59Zero her out, Fred.
39:02There's double right there. Over double. That's .60.
39:05Are you kidding me?
39:11.75.
39:14The second way brings in a whopping 200% increase.
39:19The Robinson Mine can earn as much as $2,850 a day.
39:24Exactly 3.
39:25Come here, guys. Give me that.
39:26Pretty dang good.
39:27What do you say, Freddy?
39:29Thanks a lot.
39:29That's pretty darn good.
39:30That's good.
39:30That's good gold.
39:32With his season extended to at least eight months, Mike could earn nearly $700,000 a year,
39:39allowing him to pay his debt and provide enough money for Will and Aaron to come in on the business.
39:45I appreciate it.
39:46No problem.
39:47There's no question anymore. We don't have to even, the decision is made.
39:52We're going to be new neighbors, Mike. How do you feel about that?
39:56I'm going to have to buy another camper.
40:00I was totally blown away.
40:02I used to teach chemistry. I'm a lab guy and a lecture guy.
40:06You know, so to do this kind of a change and then it become a reality.
40:11When family like what you're doing and you've convinced them that it's worth their while
40:15and it could be their livelihood to come out here, it gets you right there.
40:20Arizona smile is what they call it.
40:22When you see it in the pan and it's just a gold ring or you see it on your wife's
40:27face.
40:28When your life has changed, that's what you call an Arizona smile.
40:33Well, it's been a tough week for Freddy and I, but we got it done.
40:36The great news is now they got what they need to be able to be successful in the future.
40:40The American West was built because of gold mining and gold.
40:45One thing gold does to people, it inspires them.
40:49We're really happy. Thank you.
40:51Love you baby.
40:52Love you.
40:58Since Freddy and Juan left, we were getting really good dirt.
41:02The last run that we actually did was really high in recovery.
41:07More than a gram of yard.
41:08So we were doing really well.
41:10August is the monsens season.
41:12We're waiting on that now with bated res.
41:15That's when we expect to be using the dryer a lot.
41:18Will and Aaron are excited to come back and planning and working that direction.
41:23You know, we've got the mine. We've got each other and we've got family.
41:26And getting that gold in the ground and having all that fun.
41:29And it was just an experience. It was very important.
41:32The hugest shout out to Freddy and Juan.
41:35This has opened up huge things.
41:37I'm a welder now. It's badass.
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