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Gold Rush Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan Season 6 Episode 2
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00:01Last year we acquired an 80 acre claim up here on this sinker crick, but it's been pretty catastrophic getting
00:08started.
00:09If you're not mechanically inclined, do not get into the mining operation.
00:13Watch yourself!
00:15On this episode of Mine Rescue...
00:18There's no material.
00:20Multiple problems with what he's putting through there.
00:23The livelihood of a greenhorn miner and his family is on the line.
00:29We got our work cut out for us for sure.
00:31I just want things to be better.
00:34When gold fever strikes again...
00:38When I was a little kid, I saw my dad getting really addicted to the gold.
00:43I need to bury that negative hatchet that's been in my life for so many years.
00:48On the brink of disaster, Freddie digs deep.
00:52This is pure crap for gold.
00:54But he's tested like never before.
00:57Keep going!
01:02I've never been in this situation.
01:04I really don't know what to say right now.
01:15Yee-haw!
01:19Pretty rugged country in here, Wonno.
01:21Yeah, it is.
01:24We definitely aren't getting our trucks in, not without destroying them.
01:29You gotta be pretty committed to make this trip every day, Freddie.
01:32That's not the end of the world, but I think we can see it.
01:36Southwest Idaho.
01:38In the untamed and historically gold-rich foothills of the Owahee Mountains, Freddie and
01:46Juan get an urgent SOS from rookie miner, Brett Allen, who has staked his livelihood on his first plane.
01:55This one's definitely different.
01:57They had an auto body business that they had hard times with.
02:01He's taking what he's got left and throwing it into this gold mine.
02:05But he's quite a greenhorn.
02:07He doesn't really know the gold industry well.
02:09Really, this is kind of a rescue where not only is it a rescue, but we're kind of starting from
02:14ground zero.
02:15Yeah.
02:17This is a great opportunity to help somebody right at the beginning of their gold mining career.
02:22How we doing?
02:23We hope we're at the right mine.
02:25I'm assuming we are.
02:26How you doing?
02:27How's it going?
02:28How's it going?
02:28Welcome to the Allen Mine.
02:30Juan, how was your travels?
02:32We aren't getting our trucks in here, that's for darn sure.
02:35How long have you been mining in here exactly?
02:37Last year we came in, did some testing up in here with some smaller equipment, and we just got running
02:43about three weeks ago.
02:44So, who do you have for crude?
02:47I got my wife, Michelle, and then I got my son, Joshua, and then I got daughter, Chelsea, coming up
02:52here in the next couple of days.
02:56When I was eight, nine years old, my dad bought a claim about six or seven miles from here.
03:04The first time I ever saw the gold show up in the pan, I was addicted.
03:09Man, it's an addiction that you never forget.
03:11When we were kids, it was really a great experience.
03:16As I got older, I saw my dad getting really addicted to the gold.
03:22Growing up, there's some bittersweet moments between Brett's dad and him.
03:28Seeing it starting to take the money away from the family, watching a constant feud between my mother and father
03:35over gold.
03:38Brett's dad mined these mountains in the 80s, but never made it rich.
03:45I said, I'm done with this and didn't want to be a part of it anymore.
03:49So I started the auto body business with my wife, Michelle, back in 2004.
03:55Brett ran the auto body business for 20 years until it fell on hard times, bringing back thoughts of gold.
04:04So the business back home, it just kept draining us dry.
04:08I knew I needed to move on to something different.
04:10And I thought going back to work for somebody else didn't settle good with me.
04:15And so I'm like, okay, why not give it an opportunity?
04:19I do believe Brett has a gold fever, but I try not to mention that to him.
04:25He always dreams big and I like that, but sometimes I have to rope him back down.
04:30Okay, this is what we can do. This is maybe what we can't do.
04:33My dad didn't teach me geology and how all that works.
04:37So I have absolutely no clue.
04:40He wants to not make the same mistakes his dad did.
04:47I need to find a way to bury that negative hatchet that's been in my life for so many years.
04:56What do you have invested in this so far?
04:59So far, we've got about $45,000, $50,000.
05:03Okay.
05:03Have you been able to recover any gold?
05:05Yeah. I mean, it's not as much as I would like to see, obviously.
05:08Never is.
05:10In the three weeks, we've gotten about close to five grams.
05:18How many yards have you ran?
05:20Ran 130 yards so far in the last three weeks.
05:24And you've only got five grams?
05:25Yeah.
05:26Yeah.
05:26That's not real great.
05:27No, not at all.
05:30What do you need a day to survive in here?
05:32Well, we're hoping we can survive with about a half ounce a day.
05:38Hopefully, this will rescue us.
05:39A lot of people go gold mining because they want less stress and end up with more stress.
05:44Right.
05:44Yeah.
05:45I think the hardest lesson to learn with running the business and knowing how to shut it down is the
05:50walking around feeling like you failed your family.
05:57So, I don't want to do that again.
05:59I've got to do this right.
06:00This is make or break for us, for sure.
06:02So, we're reaching out to you guys to help us get started on that right foot the first time.
06:07And we won't pull any punches.
06:09Yeah.
06:09If we think there's not enough gold here, then we'll tell you right off.
06:14Yeah.
06:14You know, it's going to be kind of a new one for Freddie and I because typically we come into
06:17a situation where, you know, people have been mining there for years or, you know, at least a couple months,
06:22you know.
06:22So, this is pretty much a fresh startup.
06:24It is.
06:25Well, you want to do a test run.
06:27We want to watch you guys operate your plant.
06:29Right.
06:29Sounds like a plan.
06:31Yeah.
06:31Sounds great.
06:32Well, excellent.
06:32Let's go for it.
06:36That's my son.
06:37Josh.
06:38I'm Josh.
06:39Nice to meet you, Josh.
06:40Nice to meet you.
06:41So, what do you do here, Josh?
06:43That's pretty much the ground guy.
06:44Just watch over and make sure everything's good.
06:46Well, fire it up.
06:47Let's do it.
06:56First bucket line.
06:58The four hour test begins as Brett feeds dirt into his hopper.
07:05Aided by vibration, it drops through grizzly bars, which should sieve out any large rocks and waste material.
07:14The pay is then washed by the spinning 12-foot trommel before running into the six-foot sluice where the
07:22gold is caught.
07:27Look at all the organics on the spray bar.
07:29Yeah.
07:45Trying to get the rocks out of the grizzly with the weeds.
07:49So far, there's been a lot of downtime because he has to keep on jumping out of the excavator to
07:53clear the grizzlies.
07:55Finding it up.
07:56Watch yourself.
07:59Watch yourself.
08:00Watch yourself.
08:04Watch yourself.
08:07Watch yourself.
08:08These tough times recently have made it hard for us to get out of that hole that we're in right
08:13now.
08:14And I just want to see my parents smile more and things to be better.
08:25He's not hopping very hard right now.
08:28Yeah.
08:28I was thinking that, too.
08:31A hopper's vibrator isn't strong enough to shake the pay into the wash plant.
08:38He's got such a small water system here.
08:41It's melting up pretty good.
08:44And when you get thick water, you lose fine gold.
08:48Let's take a look at the box, Dred.
08:55There's no material.
08:59But there's no material going through.
09:02I'm going to look at what he's digging.
09:04Yeah.
09:14Get my granny glasses on.
09:20Right now, the material he's running, it's no wonder he's only got, you know, five grams of gold out of
09:28130 yards.
09:31Because this is pure crap for gold right here.
09:34That slip rock could have been coming over the top of this for years.
09:37Oh, it has been, yeah.
09:38For thousands of years.
09:39The material being processed is mostly soil that slipped down off the mountain side.
09:46What he's doing is he's doing a test for us that really isn't a test.
09:52I mean, I'd go to playground sand and get as much gold as he'll probably get out of this stuff.
09:58Let's end it right now.
10:00Hey, Brent!
10:01Last bucket!
10:09Freddie calls time on the four-hour test after just two hours.
10:18You see anything, Juan O?
10:20Nothing to speak of, no.
10:21Yeah.
10:22I kind of figured.
10:25We got a lot of problems going on.
10:27You know, luckily, you're only three weeks into it.
10:28So, it's not like you've spent a year out here doing the same way, right?
10:32You know, we can correct it early on.
10:35You guys get her cleaned up?
10:36We'll meet you in the morning, huh?
10:42You know, I was feeling confident in the beginning, but after the test run today, I'm really nervous about what
10:48Freddie and Juan are going to have to say.
10:50We're going to take this all back and get it washed up and see what comes out of it.
10:56My first impression of this family is they need to get gold because they're in a tough place right now.
11:02Brett's running material that he should not be running, and it's multiple problems with what he's putting through there.
11:10Number one, I don't believe there's very much gold in it.
11:13Number two, it's full of silt, and the sluice is plugged up.
11:18We got our work cut out for us, for sure.
11:20You know, watching him dig some payout and everything else, you can just tell by what he's doing that it's
11:25just an experience.
11:27I'm hoping that Freddie and I can get enough done here because, you know, honestly, from what he tells us,
11:31he's got all his eggs in this basket.
11:34This is his last chance.
11:40You got a second, Brett?
11:42Yep.
11:42Coming up.
11:44See those rounded gravels in the wall?
11:46Perfect material.
11:48Everything you'd look for in a gold mine.
11:51That's amazing.
12:08Well, guys, here it is.
12:10Let's see what we have.
12:12Oh.
12:14Well, let's see what it is.
12:24I knew the gold ray was going to be bad, but honestly, I didn't think it'd be that bad.
12:30That's not even a hundredth of an ounce.
12:34Between $20 and $30 worth of gold.
12:37Well, you need help, that's for sure.
12:38No pulling any punches, but you were making about every mistake out there that you could make.
12:44Okay.
12:45You're a businessman, so a gold mine is a business, you know, you can't let it be emotional.
12:50A full week's mining would cost Brett's operation nearly $1,000 in fuel alone.
12:57But the pay in yesterday's test would mean a loss of over $200 every week.
13:04At the end of the day, it has to be financially feasible.
13:13It's gut-wrenching, standing there with my wife and my son, want to make sure that you've got their backs
13:20and not failing them in chasing a pipe dream.
13:25It makes me feel like that what we're doing is wasting our time, and I don't want to have my
13:33dad go through that.
13:35I'm a little nervous about the whole situation because you can't just learn how to mine overnight.
13:39Brett has a little experience when he was a kid, but that didn't prepare him for where he is right
13:43now.
13:46How's it going, guys?
13:48How's it going?
13:48Hey!
13:49We came up with some ideas.
13:50It's going to be some tough love along the way here showing you some of this stuff that we think
13:55you were doing incorrectly.
13:57Not everything is pay, you know.
13:59Just because you might find traces of gold in it doesn't mean it's pay.
14:02Okay.
14:02One of the big things that we really want to do is teach you to go in there, get all
14:05the overburden off, and then we get down to the pay layer.
14:08Another thing, we watch you outside multiple times with a crowbar cleaning those grizzly bars out, right?
14:14What we want to do is we want to build a set of lifter bars, like grizzlies, but they actually
14:18go underneath and they actually hydraulically lift up.
14:20And they'll push everything out of the grizzlies.
14:22No way.
14:23That's a cool idea.
14:25Fantastic.
14:26And we want to add more shake to your eccentric.
14:29It needs to be, you know, fairly violent all the time.
14:32And we only ran two hours, right?
14:34Your water was almost to the point where you needed to shut down.
14:38Yeah.
14:38So we want to put a silt dam in to make that silt drop out before it gets to your
14:42pump.
14:43That makes a good point there.
14:50To eliminate the organic material and rocks that clog Brett's hopper, one will build a one-of-a-kind hydraulic
14:58rake system to help clear this waste material from the grizzly bars.
15:06To increase vibration on the shaker deck, new weights will be added to the eccentric to boost the flow of
15:14pay.
15:17And a silt dam will be installed to reduce soil, suspended in the water Brett uses to process pay.
15:28And most urgently, Freddie will take Brett on a prospect of the claim to identify better pay.
15:37So we figured up rough numbers.
15:39And it's going to be around $4,000 for the parts, the steel.
15:44That's just the materials, right?
15:47Okay.
15:47And then, not now, but if you guys get back to the point where you're actually making money as being
15:53successful,
15:53what we would like to see a year from now is announce a piece.
15:57Well, to me, I think it's worth the investment to start off right.
16:00Okay.
16:01We genuinely want to help you guys.
16:03Yeah.
16:03Because, you know, at the end of the day, it is your last chance, right?
16:05You're talking about this is a Hail Mary.
16:07You want to go in there and do the best you can for you and your family.
16:10And we want the same.
16:12Right, right.
16:12Well, we'll get out there.
16:14You guys are good.
16:14Sounds like a plan.
16:16We're so excited to see the outcome of this.
16:19The biggest thing in my past was watching my father gamble too many things.
16:24So we are very concerned about what we're getting engaged into.
16:29But we believe in the long run it's going to be worth it.
16:32I'd like to continue the gold mining as a family.
16:35Obviously, our time is money.
16:37I'm hoping it'll be a good outcome.
16:47Why don't we pull Brett's hopper off and take it up top?
16:50Yeah.
16:51And then get in there and start prospecting.
16:54Freddie and Juan's first task for the day, remove the hopper and transport it 300 feet up out of the
17:02creek.
17:04We're going to put the hopper on that little trailer and we're going to tow it up to where our
17:07trailers and trucks are.
17:08That way we can fabricate everything that we need on it up top.
17:12Tap her up, Brett.
17:16Up a little bit.
17:17A little bit of pressure on there still.
17:19Careful.
17:21Because when that comes out, it's going to want to twist.
17:26Little bit.
17:26A teeny bit.
17:27Up.
17:28Are we clear?
17:30Coming up easy, Juan.
17:35You want a track with it?
17:37Yeah.
17:39Hey.
17:41Hey!
17:44You walking up on me and sneaking me, you little weasel, you.
17:47Yeah, that's what I do.
17:48How's everything going?
17:50Hey, everyone, this is Chelsa.
17:51Juan, Fred's down there cranking away.
17:54There's your brother over there.
17:55What's up, dork?
17:56Look who just showed up.
17:57Hello.
17:58Hello.
17:58What's up, dude?
17:59Hi.
18:00What you doing?
18:01Having fun yet?
18:02Yeah.
18:03Chelsea, bless her heart, she's trying to hustle back home
18:06herself to get ready for her wedding.
18:08That's coming up in a week.
18:10Dad gets to see daughter get married, very excited.
18:15My thoughts on my dad, seeing him go from doing something
18:19he's done for as long as I've been alive, 28 years,
18:22and seeing him do something massively different
18:25is a little concerning.
18:27I've heard him talk about his dad and the experiences
18:32he had growing up.
18:33So it surprised me when he was like,
18:34I'm going to go dig in the dirt.
18:35And I'm like, OK, why?
18:38But I think ultimately it is financial and emotional.
18:42I just hope he's seeing everything properly.
18:52Watch your hands.
18:54Yeah, we're good.
18:56It went all right.
18:57So far, so good.
18:59But we haven't got it out of here yet.
19:02Freddie and Juan must now transport the 1,500-pound load
19:07through the creek and up to six miles of rugged terrain
19:11using only the ATV.
19:15You guys want to go ahead of us and just
19:17kind of follow my pace?
19:18Yeah.
19:18We'll make it happen, guys.
19:19All right.
19:20Let's do it.
19:29There's Wonk Creek crossing.
19:31It's got me concerned down here.
19:40Ah, stupid.
20:01I'll push out the wench.
20:03Off grid on the Idaho claim of greenhorn miner Brett Allen.
20:08Must be found.
20:09Freddie and Juan faced their first challenge,
20:13transporting the hopper uphill to their service trucks.
20:17I'd go up another 10 feet.
20:19That way you're not on a hill.
20:20OK.
20:22So I'm going to be in low gear.
20:24OK.
20:24All right.
20:25Juan, turn your wheels that way a little.
20:28On your call, 1-0, go.
20:31Go ahead.
20:34Go.
20:35There we go.
20:37The rocks and the steepness of the entry and exit
20:40make it a little bit tough with that weight.
20:43It's always nice to have backup.
20:52Holy , Juan.
20:53Made it.
20:55Good driving.
20:56Thank you, sir.
20:57I'm going to go back down to the mine.
20:59With the hopper safely delivered.
21:02Yeah, I'm going to get going up here.
21:04Freddie heads back down to the mine site with Brett
21:07to inspect the cut, while Juan jumps into the hopper upgrade
21:11with Josh.
21:12Are you going to be able to help me for the day?
21:14Yeah.
21:14Yeah.
21:15Perfect.
21:15Well, I got a couple of things I need you to do.
21:18I really hope that Freddie comes up with something,
21:20because honestly, without better ground, all this is for naught.
21:26Put the hook on.
21:28OK, that's good.
21:29In the first test run, organic material
21:32and rocks repeatedly block up Brett's hopper.
21:36What we're going to do, Josh,
21:36we're going to cut all the grizzlies out.
21:38We're going to put all new ones in, and then we'll actually
21:39start building the fingers that go in between them
21:41to be able to clear them out.
21:42Yeah.
21:45Juan first cuts out the grizzlies.
21:49OK, your time to shine.
21:56Before Josh smooths the old welds.
22:01Now, let's say we do find some decent ground.
22:03Do you want to stay out here with your dad and run this place?
22:05Yeah.
22:06We are looking for a fresh start from our business.
22:08So yeah, it's just not working for us.
22:11We like to work for ourselves and as a family.
22:14Yeah.
22:14That's really what my dad wants to do.
22:16Although you've got to do a little bit of everything
22:18if you want to mine.
22:19Yeah.
22:19And you guys are teaching those valuable tools to us.
22:22Hopefully you take it to heart and just keep on expanding on
22:24that, because you'll need it.
22:33Before you set a plant up, you always figure your cut out.
22:37Six miles upstream from the mine site, Freddie and Brett work the cut.
22:43The pressure is on to find good ground.
22:46Otherwise, the fixes will count for nothing.
22:50I can tell you came in here and set your plan up and then started digging.
22:53Correct.
22:54A hundred percent.
22:55Another important thing, you spent all that time digging that and sluicing that, right?
22:59That sandy stuff, it's garbage.
23:01We only found maybe two or three colors in the sandy material.
23:04That's nothing.
23:05I know people get excited when they see gold, especially when they're new to mining, and
23:10they don't know that they're throwing away $10 to make 10 cents.
23:15One rule of thumb in modern mining for gold is move it once, sometimes make money.
23:22Move it twice, you may break even.
23:24Move it three times, you go broke fast.
23:28With my dad, I remember it just dig hole after hole after hole.
23:32I never really understood his management and why he did what he did.
23:36Freddie's explaining that to me and the reason why we're doing it.
23:40It would have been nice to have learned that when I was a kid, for sure.
23:43But inexperience is a game killer.
23:47What we want to do is dig as deep as we can.
23:50And once we dig down, then I want to start testing that.
23:54I don't want to be chasing a pipe dream.
23:57So being able to get in and assess and validate that we've got a valuable claim,
24:01that's important to us.
24:06Since 1863, more than 1 million ounces of gold was pulled out of these hills,
24:13worth nearly $5 billion at today's prices.
24:20To have a chance of finding any gold the old timers missed,
24:25Freddie must first dig out the worthless overburn.
24:29The mouse.
24:31That's a lie.
24:33She wants to dig in that dirt.
24:35You can't dig in the dirt.
24:36That's their job.
24:37Hey.
24:38I got her.
24:40You got a second, Brett?
24:42Yep.
24:43You can see there's those three boulders.
24:46You can see those rounded gravels in the wall?
24:48Seeing it, yeah.
24:49That's what we're looking for.
24:51Perfect shingled, compacted material.
24:54Everything you'd look for in a gold mine.
24:57Wow.
24:58That's amazing.
24:59That's what we want to see.
25:00That stuff that's been reworked by the stream system.
25:02Keeps going.
25:03Got it.
25:04It's really good.
25:07Filmed pretty good.
25:09Freddie said, when you see big rocks like that,
25:11they usually assign us some big gold.
25:13I'm really excited.
25:14That's given me my confidence back.
25:32Perfect.
25:34High above the creek.
25:36So right now I'm just test fitting it.
25:38Juan fabricates the rake for his one-of-a-kind hydraulic grizzly system.
25:43This rod's actually going to go towards the bottom of the pan,
25:46and the cylinder's going to be underneath the pan.
25:48So as the cylinder extends, it'll push this rod forward,
25:52push the rakes forward, and get all that material off the hopper.
25:56The hydraulic cylinder will generate 10,000 pounds worth of force
26:01and push clear any waste material blocking up the grizzlies.
26:06All right.
26:06Well, let's clean these up.
26:11You can drill this one out since you're the master driller now.
26:19Yep, that'll work.
26:20All right.
26:21Pull it towards you.
26:27You know, it's tough, though.
26:28You go from a business that you know to a business that you really don't know.
26:31And honestly, I'm not trying to discourage you, but mining's a hard business to be in.
26:35I just want to see this site really work out.
26:38It doesn't have necessarily to do with how hard you work.
26:41You can work your butt off.
26:42Yeah.
26:43But if there's no gold in the ground, it's all for naught, right?
26:45Yeah.
26:46You're wasting your time.
26:47Yeah.
26:47So hopefully Freddy's able to find something decent out there for you guys.
26:52I got the cylinder all done.
26:53Now I'm going to get it mounted, so that's ready to go.
27:04I'm going to go grab a gold pan.
27:06And I want to pan some of this and see if we see any color in it.
27:09Down in the creek, Freddy tests the promising-looking pay he's just uncovered in Brett's cut.
27:16So we're going to take little bits randomly from them throughout the pile.
27:25A moment of truth, guys.
27:27Let's see if we get some color.
27:28I hope so.
27:29I really do.
27:45You see all those rounded rocks?
27:48So these have traveled quite some distance.
27:54At the Allen Mine, Freddy evaluates the freshly uncovered pay.
28:00Two little bitty colors.
28:05This time, you go grab a pan.
28:07Do some random stuff.
28:09All right.
28:10That doesn't mean it's not in that pile, but it's damn sure it wasn't in the pan.
28:16I'd like to have seen 20 colors in that pan, or 30.
28:20Yep.
28:21Chest pan two.
28:27Two colors.
28:31Very small, yeah.
28:32Let's try one more pan.
28:34Michelle?
28:39Okay, well, this pan's pretty heavy.
28:41There you go.
28:42Let's see what we got.
28:42Maybe third pan's a charm, huh?
28:50Nothing.
28:51Nothing.
28:52Nothing in there, Brett.
29:00There's a lot of challenges to mining in a tight valley.
29:04It isn't like we'll have a thousand-acre property here to prospect.
29:07Yeah.
29:07We're basically on a postage stamp.
29:09We don't have time to move your whole plant, assembly, ponds, everything while we're here.
29:14And test some other areas on your ground from, let's say, 30 feet farther over.
29:20So let's just keep our fingers crossed because we have thousands of pans of material sitting
29:26there right now.
29:27Yeah.
29:27So we got a true test we can do.
29:29There should be gold there.
29:31We got rounded rocks.
29:32We got big boulders.
29:33We got all the telltale signs that if there is gold in the deposit, that's where it'd be.
29:40The only thing that's missing is the gold.
29:42Right.
29:43Where's the gold?
29:45I've never been in this situation, you know, with the miners we've helped before.
29:49We dug down to bedrock.
29:51The material looked great, phenomenal, better than I thought it would, actually.
29:56I didn't see much gold.
29:58I thought we'd see a lot more colors and just kind of questions where our future goes going
30:05with mining.
30:06Thinking a big day, tired, and tons of question marks.
30:13They still got enough money to put beans on the table.
30:16They won't soon if this property doesn't pay the bills.
30:19We're on a second test, and what gold's there is what gold's there.
30:24But hopefully, it's more than the gold in those pans.
30:39We got a lot to get done this morning.
30:40I got the grizzlies installed, so we still got to do the hydraulic cylinder underneath.
30:45A critical day for fixes at the Allen claim.
30:49It's all hands on deck to get the plant ready for the second test run.
30:54One time we grind away the paint here, so it gives good contact for the weld he's going
30:58to put on here.
30:59Anything that I can to take stuff off with his hands.
31:03This is the wireless remote control.
31:05When he's in the excavator, he can wirelessly control the grizzlies.
31:09He can open them or close them.
31:10We had to program it, but it's ready to go.
31:17It's really great to work with Juan.
31:19I can take the skills he's showed me onto the site and show my dad as well.
31:23It's something he hasn't known.
31:29That'll work.
31:32On the hopper, he has an eccentric, and that's vibrating the hopper to be able to feed that
31:36material down onto the grizzlies.
31:39Next, Juan turns his attention to the issue of the slow feed rate.
31:45Those are going to be the weights for the eccentric.
31:47Right now, it doesn't have enough vibration, but by adding weight to it, you should be able
31:51to get more vibration out of it.
31:53That's really cool.
31:55The increase in vibration will shake through more pay and allow the material to be processed
32:01in less time.
32:04So, now I'm going to load it on the trailer, get it down to the mine site, get it installed.
32:09Tone the pressure.
32:16Well, Juan, you ready?
32:17Yeah, I'm ready.
32:25Yeah, there's no way we would have been able to do all that work at the mine site.
32:28Oh, no.
32:35We got in.
32:36Now we got to put it together, Freddy.
32:38Yeah, and run.
32:41Okay, good.
32:43A little more, a little more, a little more.
32:46Slowly let her down.
32:49It's crunch time.
32:50You can feel it.
32:51And you're just rushing and hustling and bustling to work together as a team to make it all happen.
32:58All right.
32:59All right.
33:00That looks good.
33:03That's good.
33:04That's exciting.
33:07You ever tried this on your sandwiches?
33:09It's really good.
33:10I heard it's good.
33:15Perfect.
33:19We got the hopper on.
33:21All the springs are in place.
33:22What we're going to do, we're going to put a little bracket down below so we can put the
33:24hydraulic pump in there and the battery.
33:27With the upgraded hopper now reattached.
33:30Let's put a silt dam in here to keep that silt up here where your tailings are.
33:35Time is running out on the day, so Freddy and Brett turn their attention to one last important
33:42bush fix.
33:43We're trying to get you the most gold you can get from this unproven ground.
33:47That really fine gold, when that water gets thick, gold has a hard time falling out of
33:51that.
33:51So when you make water and silt go down, gravity works, right?
33:57Well, the water can go under, the water will go back up, but it'll help that silt continue
34:02diving.
34:03So it'll get rid of a lot of the silt that's suspended in your water.
34:08It'll allow you to run your plant longer.
34:10The longer you run, the more gold you can get, right?
34:14Pound your end down.
34:22Let's grab a tarp.
34:32There we go.
34:34I've got a chain we'll put in the bottom.
34:36If not, this tarp will just float on the surface.
34:39OK.
34:39So it's simple, but it works.
34:44We got all that pay we dug out stacked up here.
34:47Let's just hope there's enough gold in it.
34:49All we can do now is keep our fingers crossed and see what this test does.
34:56Coming up.
34:57We wouldn't have the amount of gold that we've extracted out of the ground had it not been
35:02for what we learned from Freddie and Juan.
35:16We were able to get a few things done for you guys.
35:19In remote Southwest Idaho, the Allen family's plant is ready for the second test run.
35:25Brett, you got your silt dam installed there.
35:28It'll keep your water cleaner longer.
35:29I love the idea.
35:31The silt dam will stop Brett's water becoming too thick to catch any fine gold.
35:37Let's go take a look at the plant.
35:38One of the things that we noticed was you spent 30% of your time playing with the grizzlies,
35:42trying to get them cleaned out.
35:43So we built you a new system that you can remotely operate the grizzlies,
35:47and it pushes all the material out.
35:48Brett can now continuously feed pay without stopping to clear them.
35:54Great idea.
35:55We also did some extra weights on your eccentrics.
35:58The extra vibration of the hopper will increase the flow of pay down into the wash plant.
36:04I like that.
36:05Let's do a two-hour test, huh, guys?
36:06Let's do it.
36:08Let's do it.
36:08Start up.
36:16Oh, yeah.
36:19Hopefully this test lets them know whether to stay in line or to claim this property
36:24and move out.
36:25I'm hopeful, but I'm a little worried.
36:29Family support for Brett is going to be critical right now.
36:33Two-hour test, huh?
36:34Start a timer.
36:35Let's do it.
36:36Freddie runs a two-hour test to get a like-for-like result to compare with the first run.
36:43First bucket!
36:49See the rake? It's pushing it?
36:51Yeah.
36:52That's cool, man.
36:57This is something we've never tried before, and honestly, I'm really happy the way it's working.
37:03Salt dam's working good.
37:05Water looks a lot cleaner than before.
37:09Okay.
37:10This is looking really good.
37:12Every rock coming off nice and clean.
37:16If all of this turns out very successful, it would mean pretty much everything.
37:22There's two hours, huh?
37:24Yep.
37:24Hey, Brett.
37:25Last bucket.
37:33Good work.
37:36Get it cleaned up, guys, and we'll meet you for a gold way, huh?
37:39Sounds like a winner.
37:40Let's go for it.
37:41See you guys in a bit.
37:42Okay.
37:43Cleanup time.
37:47The Allen's hope of replacing their auto body business with a viable gold mining venture rests on these results.
37:55You said when we first got here, you know, you'd tell us straight up what you think, and that's what
38:00we've done this whole week.
38:01Yeah.
38:03Pour it in there.
38:07We're already above the first cleanup.
38:11.03, .04, .06.
38:16Let's call it $150, $160 worth of gold there for two hours.
38:21With his upgraded plant and better ground, in a 10-hour day, Brett could make just $800.
38:30Still not where it needs to be.
38:31No, it's not.
38:32Right.
38:33Hate to say that, you know?
38:35Yeah.
38:35Only half of what he needs to make this a viable business for himself and his family.
38:43But nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
38:45Your business back home, you know, instead of sitting there crying about it, you're out trying to make a living
38:49still.
38:49Trying to do the best you can for your wife and your kids, you know, and they're supporting you.
38:54Thanks.
38:54You've already got a plant, you've already got pumps, and you have a team with you that can help you
39:01succeed if you find the right ground.
39:02More than anything, you have a team that's willing to stick with you through anything.
39:05Yeah.
39:06So that's a big thing.
39:07Yeah.
39:08That's priceless.
39:09Yeah.
39:10But you should reclaim this property and move out.
39:12Yeah.
39:13So figure out where that next step is.
39:15You got it.
39:16Thanks, guys.
39:16Appreciate it.
39:17Thanks for your time.
39:18Bye.
39:18You got it.
39:22They asked to tell the truth and Juan and myself always do, right?
39:26The reason they got into mining was to hopefully change their future.
39:31But people get gold fever, right?
39:33And gold mining's like any other business.
39:35If you don't know what you're doing, you're not going to make it.
39:38Brett's worked his tail off and his family as well.
39:40So my hat goes off to him because, you know, he's put the work in.
39:43You know, there's a lot of people that wouldn't even try or attempt to do what he's done, and he's
39:47done it.
39:48Granted, you know, it didn't go his way, but honestly, there's no shame in failure.
39:53The shame is not trying at all, and he tried.
39:58It's not what I expected, but it's what I needed to hear.
40:03This family is a lot stronger than people look in and see from the outside.
40:07No matter what hardships come at us, we're able to just move on, get the next thing done.
40:12If I was digging a trench and I came across any of these three, yeah, that would be the treasure.
40:20And I'd throw everything else back.
40:23Thanks, guys.
40:24Yeah, of course.
40:26Love you, Tubbs.
40:27Oh, we too.
40:35So, we came together as a family and realized that if we continued to stay on the mine site we
40:40were on, it wasn't going to be profitable.
40:43and that led us to an opportunity to purchase my dad's old claim back.
40:48It's a really weird experience seeing my own son working a piece of land
40:53that, you know, I had a huge attachment to as a kid.
40:57We've worked 20 days on the new mine site and we've pulled 4.5 ounces out.
41:03So we have income coming in and we will keep building the mine as a business.
41:08What's really cool about this is we're erasing bad memories and making great memories.
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