Gold Rush: Mine Rescue with...- S6 E8 Double Trouble

Fleebag

Transcript

00:00:02I drank way too much I woke up in the morning what'd you buy it was a 40 acre claim

00:00:07on this

00:00:09episode of mine rescue we're trying to do two plants at the same time it's gonna be crazy the

00:00:17fate of two failing operations on one Alaskan mega claim we all work together look out for each

00:00:24other will rise and fall together depends on the first ever high stakes double rescue come on big

00:00:32boy let's go my mind fire fire it's blowing straight to our camp this really may not happen

00:00:42for any of these guys next year there's still more yeah

00:00:57we're probably 30 40 miles away from the Arctic Circle gold was discovered in this area in 1893

00:01:03over a million ounces of gold come out of this ground that's a lot of stinking gold yeah it is

00:01:12we're here to help across two different mine sites the leaseholders the pod fins they couldn't lose at

00:01:17all last year and then on top of that Fred Dickinson well he's struggling not being able to run as

00:01:23much

00:01:23as he wants and he has royalty he has to pay that's as ambitious as we've ever been winding their

00:01:31way

00:01:31through the central Alaskan tundra Juan and Dave head to their first ever double rescue on 2,000 acres in

00:01:39Boulder Creek with one minor one knows well so I met Fred Dickinson almost six years ago it was one

00:01:48of

00:01:48the first rescues Freddie and I ever did no way hey gentlemen hey guys good to see you I'm Brian

00:01:59hey

00:02:00good to see you man nice to meet you guys Fred good to see you buddy yes sir it has

00:02:05been a minute

00:02:06everything's grown the boys have grown the equipment's grown plants grown I see that the bills have grown oh

00:02:12yeah and you were in Arizona and now you're in Alaska yes sir wow after Freddie and Juan

00:02:19visited us we were in a really good place hey guys welcome six years ago in their first televised

00:02:27rescue Freddie and Juan found the Dickinson family's dreams of gold dying in the desert right

00:02:34now my hobby has to feed my family let's get them some more gold right on let's do it man

00:02:39a little awestruck by what these guys are able to do 1.13 I can't tell you how much we

00:02:48appreciate

00:02:48you guys coming out Freddie and Juan took me from a hobby minor to a professional minor the first couple

00:02:56of years we were making money our decision to move from Arizona to Alaska was about expanding our operation

00:03:03about me and the boys being able to do something that would support all of us I'm not gonna lie

00:03:10we're

00:03:11struggling the ground in Alaska is nothing like the ground in Arizona getting the material to the wash

00:03:17plant getting the material run has become a bit of a logistical nightmare I'm out of my depth I'm not

00:03:24here because this is fun and games for me I enjoy mining but I'm out here to build something for

00:03:30my family

00:03:33what was your goal going into this season going into this season our goal was 200 ounces originally

00:03:39um now I'd be lucky if I can hit 100. so how are you doing this year then 22 ounces

00:03:49so far halfway

00:03:50through the season the people we lease from the Podvins they get a cut which is always painful but they

00:03:56support us and since I've been here every time we break down they're over helping us pulling us out

00:04:01okay well you guys got some gold to show us we don't have any of the gold it's sold to

00:04:06the refinery

00:04:07I went home last year very in debt and at this year we are we're struggling to break even much

00:04:14less

00:04:14pay off last year's debt so I'm uh I'm about a hundred and eighty five thousand dollars upside down

00:04:21I'm gonna go bankrupt here and what we want to do is uh kind of get out there and do

00:04:28a test run with

00:04:28you guys you kind of know the what we do and how we do things you know Dave and I

00:04:32we're gonna kind

00:04:32of sit back and watch you guys and really see what we can do to help you guys out are

00:04:36you guys ready to

00:04:37run some dirt sure yeah let's show us that wash plant let's get it fired up let's go

00:04:43going from their humble little plant Fred's grown he's progressed scaled up but he's got a long ways

00:04:49to go to make it work out here firing it up we're gonna do a four-hour run I love

00:05:05dirt moving it makes

00:05:07all the more fun when there's gold involved Fred's son Josh loads pay into an eight-foot hopper that

00:05:16washes down into a 12-foot shaker deck material is screened through a square hold punch plate and fed

00:05:24down into the sluice runs below where the gold should collect brother Brian in the D9 clears tailings to

00:05:33prevent them backing up a lot of that material is getting stuck on that screen that punch plate

00:05:39the bottleneck there yeah a hundred percent but I think it's about a bucket a minute roughly might be

00:05:44a little less one of the issues they've got the way the materials coming down it's really going down

00:05:54one sluice box about this wide they're really utilizing about 30 to 40 percent of their sluice box

00:06:04look at the size of that we must have somewhere else in the screen where this is coming through

00:06:09yeah that's massive there's no reason that should be in there at all

00:06:17how's the hopper doing buddy is it packed up or are you doing okay yeah it's fine

00:06:22all right 10-4 yeah give her just a little bit more

00:06:29I've ran a lot of gold mines and this one's just a little disorganized how they get their pay out

00:06:36you

00:06:37know how they're delivering their pay how they're dealing with the tailings

00:06:45is that the Hodgins plant we're just down creek from them a little bit yeah literally stones throw

00:06:50away from them the Podmans they're my landlords right now our arrangement is I get the corners and

00:06:58crevices that his larger operation bypasses because they move in straight lines and the river doesn't

00:07:05the truth is is our destinies are tied together we'll rise and fall together landlord the Podvins

00:07:12own the rights to over 2,000 acres Daryl is the guy everybody goes to for help he just goes

00:07:19yeah I'm

00:07:19in the middle of sluicing but that's okay I'll come help you they've been instrumental in kind

00:07:24of helping us mine this creek so I know this year they're having to run two years worth just to

00:07:30try

00:07:31to make enough to get by and you know start building a life for themselves but after the

00:07:36Podvins failed to run last season Fred is under pressure to deliver them a healthy royalty to stay

00:07:43in business we've still got a lot to figure out with this wash plant we are struggling to get

00:07:48enough volume on this ground to be able to go home with money damn it this is not good Brian's

00:08:13D9

00:08:13prevents the wash plant from becoming overwhelmed by tailings it started leaking coolant everywhere

00:08:20so it might have had a cracked head gasket so it's time to take the head off and check everything

00:08:26out

00:08:30we're at the end of the four-hour run so why don't we shut him down and see what we

00:08:34got in the box

00:08:35all right buddy that's your last bucket let's shut her down you can see on the flow on shutdown how

00:08:47much water is on that side how much material yeah just watching it right now on shutdown you can see

00:08:52what it's doing oh yeah well gentlemen why don't you guys clean it all up and let's let's do a

00:08:58gold

00:08:58way okay we'll meet back up with you guys in the morning and see what we got sounds great you

00:09:02good

00:09:02with that yes sir all right I'm hoping that these guys can work some magic we need to figure out

00:09:09how

00:09:09to run more dirt or to run longer let's go take a look at the podvin plant yep let's go

00:09:18located half

00:09:20a mile away the podvin operation is midway through a hundred hour run hey how you doing come on there

00:09:31good to meet you hi I'm Dave how you doing Darryl Darryl what a beautiful plant thank you it's

00:09:38awesome that you guys are here and we can check this thing out and see if you can help them

00:09:42you

00:09:43built this whole thing yeah wow the two boys and I Darryl runs the operation with his partner Levi and

00:09:51two grown sons Matthew and Eric it is designed where we can flip the mare flip the sluice box change

00:09:59directions on the side of the creek there's a lot of thought in this absolutely we had a diesel repair

00:10:04shop in North Dakota in the oil field and we also had a gravel crushing business on the side so

00:10:11we

00:10:11crushed gravel throughout the summers and wrenched year-round and oil kind of took a dive and we were

00:10:17trying to figure out what we were gonna do and we were drinking at the bar one day I drank

00:10:23way too much

00:10:23and went to bed woke up in the morning Levi was like what'd you what'd you spend on PayPal for

00:10:29800

00:10:29bucks no what do you mean she says well you bought something in Alaska for 800 bucks on PayPal what'd

00:10:37you

00:10:37buy I said well let's check it out sure enough it was a 40 acre claim and I was like

00:10:43oh dad called us the

00:10:46next morning and said hey you want to go prospect the gold claim in Alaska and I thought he was

00:10:49out of

00:10:50his mind and we came up here and spent the month up here and found like seven tiny little pieces

00:10:55of

00:10:55gold and been up here ever since ten years later here we are I'm very proud of that wash plant

00:11:02but

00:11:03the fact that we spent our retirement and then some on building it nobody made any money last year you

00:11:08know including the boys it was a killer the hell of a design it's like almost a dredge it's a

00:11:17land red it

00:11:18the dredge on wheels I like it on this rolling land dredge known as a progressive plant pay is fed

00:11:26into

00:11:27an 8-foot hopper and washed into a 40-foot long trommel a spray bar washes the pay down into

00:11:34the 16 by 10

00:11:36foot wide sluice box but after taking a full season off sluicing to build it they now can't afford to

00:11:43shut

00:11:44it down so Dave and one must assess the wash plant without waiting for a gold way once that wash

00:11:51plants

00:11:52running it's gonna stay around we ain't gonna shut down how many yards an hour are you running out of

00:11:57it about 100 120 yards an hour what were you wanting to do out of it 200 yeah we have

00:12:06to run

00:12:06more material I spent way too much money building that wash plant to let it run 100 yards an hour

00:12:12it has to be increased it was expensive girl to build no kidding putting that kind of money out not

00:12:20running all year long last year Daryl's running on empty that's a tough thing to do when you have an

00:12:25operation like this and not only that on the Dickinson's plant there's a couple issues that

00:12:29I'm really worried about this is gonna be a tricky rescue trying to do two plants at the same time

00:12:34it's

00:12:35gonna be a tough few days this is an adventure let's go see coming up I'm very frustrated I mean

00:12:45they did look and they just didn't see that sluice box is absolutely horrible be careful we don't have

00:12:51a hell of a lot of time honestly really don't give two about the sluice box you can feel it

00:13:09build in

00:13:09here in Boulder Creek Alaska Juan and Dave assess the largest of the two operations in their double

00:13:17rescue there's definitely a lot more flow on this side yeah you can feel it the distribution is an

00:13:23issue you can feel the ripple and they're pretty lean yeah it is a little lean you can tell on

00:13:29that

00:13:29side is going to be super lean yeah you know when you can actually see the gravel coming down it

00:13:35doesn't have a chance to settle out in the map we lose his gold out of that box he has

00:13:41an issue up top

00:13:42as well on the hopper I mean that bucket is just about as big as it's the hopper it is

00:13:47it is he's

00:13:49having a periodical go in there and push it so he's got some hard angles in there that are and

00:13:53beating the rocks and then they get it stacked up that's definitely a bottleneck they designed

00:13:59it to do 200 yards an hour and right now he's just barely over 100 what are you typically run

00:14:06before you clean up 100 100 hours I guess what we need to do is figure out what we can

00:14:12do because

00:14:13my concern is if we tackle the big problem of the hopper now we're going to create that problem

00:14:17further downstream in the sluice box right so it's going to be a multiple part fix the one thing that

00:14:22does kind of make me feel a little bit better we'll have Travis and Alex here yeah so you know

00:14:27it'll be probably a balancing act and really I think we're gonna have to divide and conquer as one

00:14:33puzzles through the potential fixes Dave gets to grips with the Podvins pay dirt I'm just checking see

00:14:41if there's much gold down here I'm not finding much there was two tiny little pieces of gold

00:14:55that's pretty lean ground I need a little bit more information you guys getting ready to move to keep

00:15:11the plant loaded with pay in its 100-hour run the plant moves 30 feet further into the cut every

00:15:18two hours

00:15:21it's kind of a unique design it's a progressive plant it basically moves to the material instead

00:15:27of moving the material to it it's as cheap as it gets to be able to process the ground here

00:15:32we go even

00:15:33though the plant's probably one of the nicer plants I've seen that sluice box is a real issue distribution's

00:15:38an issue the hopper's an issue it's gonna be tough you know because we're gonna have to spread our

00:15:42resources over two mine sites my issue is we don't have a hell of a lot of time this might

00:15:49not work

00:15:56this is it good to see you Fred good to see you guys well you guys got some gold to

00:16:05show us from

00:16:05that cleanup we do on the Dickinson mine Fred has the results from yesterday's four-hour test run it's

00:16:13not terrible four hours yeah the little chunkers in there we don't very very clean gold you've got

00:16:19some chunky stuff with quartz and then there's a piece that's just flattened nice little pickers

00:16:25you got several different sources here yeah we think so I think there's at least three but yeah

00:16:30that's my best guess all right well let's pour it out let's see what we got huh to stay on

00:16:35track for

00:16:36their 200 ounce season target this four-hour test needs to give Fred and his boys 1.4 ounces

00:16:450.94 nearly an ounce just shy of an ounce 30,000 bucks roughly yeah for four hours run yeah

00:16:54it's a

00:16:55third short of their goal you know it's been getting us by but getting by is not good enough

00:17:01no no not paying off the debts no we're not paying off the debts that's the challenge you know if

00:17:06this

00:17:06number doesn't come up this may be the end of the line here yeah I mean it could be okay

00:17:11I mean we're

00:17:11we're gonna fight it with everything we've got though yeah no fair enough you know I guess uh you

00:17:16know really when it comes down to it you know we don't have a whole lot of time left in

00:17:19the season

00:17:19I think we're lacking in a couple different things but really it's gonna boil down to what Dave and I

00:17:23can

00:17:24do while the time we have here over two mine sites yeah absolutely and any any help makes a big

00:17:30difference we'll go back and kind of come up with a game plan see what we can't do good with

00:17:34that go

00:17:34figure it out all right here you go here's your gold thank you sir see you guys in a bit

00:17:42that gold way is what we've been getting but it's it's not enough if we keep going the pace we're

00:17:47at

00:17:47we're not even gonna reach half our goal we've got to change something there's quite a bit going on

00:17:54there Dave two big operations on the brink one and Dave break down their task list Brad has a few

00:18:01issues his throughput through the plant is not great I agree if we can get his pay up quicker get

00:18:08it piled up and then I see several things that could be fixed right now we're doing about 45 yards

00:18:13an

00:18:13hour you know and the reality is we've got to come up you know 65 yards an hour is really

00:18:18where he needs

00:18:18to be yeah that screen deck that he has there he's got square holes in it they're a corner to

00:18:24corner almost inch and a half right now we're allowing material this big to go through that

00:18:28screen it's huge which is taking up a lot of room in that sluice box so you're suggesting is round

00:18:33correct yeah we'll cut a whole new plate but do all round holes and make sure they're one inch

00:18:39this eccentric's pretty easy so that thing is spinning right mm-hmm so you add more weight

00:18:46it's gonna make the throw a bigger stroke absolutely what it's gonna do is give us a

00:18:50little more violent of a shake but if we get more material through the plant basically we're gonna be

00:18:55running more material on that side of the sluice so we're gonna have to even that feed out and make

00:19:01it where it distributes equally across the two sluice boxes you good with that I'm good with that what do

00:19:06you think about the Podvins you know the problem with this we're having to do Fred's and the Podvins

00:19:13at the same time so I know they don't want to shut the plant down yeah that's gonna be interesting

00:19:18the

00:19:19biggest issue I saw with the Podvins plant and you saw it too was that sluice box yeah we got

00:19:25that

00:19:25distribution box coming off the bottom pan it comes in so that materials coming down and again hitting this

00:19:30side of the box yep so what I would like to see here is try to get that material equally

00:19:36distributed

00:19:37across the whole box instead of just favoring that one side yeah you have four runs four runs we can

00:19:43get

00:19:43their production up fixing their feeder it was a little bit cumbersome I mean it it was fogging up a

00:19:49little bit fogging up going out the sides yeah that feeder right now it comes in and then actually has

00:19:54a

00:19:54hard angle where that materials coming in and it's getting stopped up and it's not allowing it to go into

00:19:59the

00:19:59trommel maybe cut some angles some plates to be able to divert that material so it's not so drastic

00:20:04so let's go chat with them see what they say okay all right it's good all right

00:20:14well we uh we kind of had a chance to talk about what we wanted to do with you guys

00:20:18okay

00:20:18um one of the issues Dave and I saw is your punch plate yeah on the top you know having

00:20:23those square

00:20:23holes it's a hard edge right so those rocks they get stuck so we'll cut a whole new one put

00:20:28it on

00:20:28there and it's going to be round holes and make sure they're tapered the right way okay Dave came

00:20:32up with the idea we're going to add a little more weight to your eccentric as well yeah I think

00:20:36if

00:20:36we put some more weight you'll get a more violent shake so it should kick those rocks up and you

00:20:42should

00:20:42get more through okay we already have an issue with the distribution box right now it's kind of

00:20:47favoring that one side so we want to eliminate that oh wow so you will have a true distribution that'll

00:20:53actually feed 50 50 to the box okay so you know with those three things that we're talking about

00:21:00the punch plate eccentric weight and the distribution we're probably looking about thirty five hundred

00:21:05dollars material you know it's a little bit of a big nut to crack and I know right now things

00:21:10are kind

00:21:10of tight so what Dave and I kind of came up with is we're willing to give you guys our

00:21:13labor for free

00:21:14I appreciate that that's amazing I wouldn't even hesitate at that so I appreciate that let's do it if you

00:21:19guys are ready to do it if you guys can help us be able to get some of this work

00:21:23done that way we

00:21:23can get all of it done in the time we have absolutely done okay let's do it deal thanks guys

00:21:31those are super critical fixes for us if we can't get that yardage up then we're not going to make

00:21:37enough gold to cover the season oh Darryl how's it going guys in Boulder Creek Alaska morning the

00:21:57livelihoods of two operations are at stake and one and Dave put an unprecedented second rescue deal on

00:22:05the table you guys are tight crew very well organized we're impressed so as far as efficiency

00:22:11you guys are pretty damn efficient yeah during the test run we did see a few things you know you

00:22:17want

00:22:17to be able to get up to that 200 yard an hour right now you're about what 120 yeah at

00:22:21the top the feed

00:22:22on the hopper is something that we need to address right now the angle that you have is really abrupt

00:22:26what we're gonna do is we're gonna actually make it a little longer so that way as the material hits

00:22:30it's able to push in instead of getting stuck I think that's awesome another thing that Dave and I

00:22:34saw is that you're losing gold that sluice box is a real issue so I was your box that you

00:22:40have now go

00:22:41up there and put dividing walls build a distribution box to be able to distribute that material evenly

00:22:45across the four boxes instead of I can tell Eric don't like it I'm not convinced I don't want to

00:22:51split it I do not want to split that box I mean we clean up top eight feet two guys

00:22:55you can be done in

00:22:56an hour and that thing's back running honestly you know I worked under Freddie for the last 11 years

00:23:02and Freddie's made his career on fine gold you know and hundreds you know thousands and thousands

00:23:08of ounces I don't know what the number the real number is the percentage of what you're losing but

00:23:12I would guesstimate you know probably 10 to 15 percent my concern is even if we go in there and

00:23:18we up your

00:23:19production yeah sure we're gonna catch a little bit more gold but then also we're actually running the

00:23:23risk of losing more gold honestly really don't give two about the sluice box I really want the

00:23:31production up I spend way too much money building that wash plant to let it run 100 yards an hour

00:23:37the fine gold who cares I was the same production keep that going and I'd forget the sluice box is

00:23:46your

00:23:46bank yeah yeah that's where you're making your money and I've had to learn that as we run more

00:23:51material through that box running the way it is I get it you're gonna see an increase in gold yeah

00:23:55but there's gonna be a massive increase in lost gold as well it's 16 feet long you know it it's

00:24:01gonna

00:24:02catch it I really think that sluice box could stay agree to disagree but I'm good with that you know

00:24:10ultimately it's your guys's plan I want you guys you guys to be happy with what we're gonna do and

00:24:15if

00:24:15that's what you guys want you know we'll absolutely do the distribution and work on that hopper I like

00:24:19it that's awesome we're gonna up the production which you're all about I like it you know that

00:24:24being said between the hopper fix and working on the distribution it's probably gonna be about

00:24:303,500 bucks in material and as far as labor we're thinking about an ounce piece you guys are good

00:24:36with

00:24:37it you know that's that's what we can offer do it make it happen if you don't up the production

00:24:44then

00:24:44it cuts in half but but but the deal is but the deal is if we do up the production

00:24:48we get the

00:24:48extra goal sounds great bring it in all right when we decided to build that wash plant thought well

00:25:02we can build this thing in two months no problem we'll build it in two months we'll still have a

00:25:07half

00:25:07a season we'll be all fine it'll pay for itself in a heartbeat yeah no it took it took five

00:25:12months to

00:25:13the day there's five or six of us welding and working on that thing constant every inch of weld on

00:25:20that

00:25:20thing we welded it it's not a little fifty thousand dollar wash plant and everything on that thing is

00:25:28hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of parts you know and now we're to the point where everything's

00:25:33due past due we need to have a successful season here to make this work because we can't keep going

00:25:39we all really are feeling pressure dad definitely feels the pressure we got to find the gold this

00:25:44year the intention was to get 200 yards an hour out of it got better than a half a million

00:25:52bucks

00:25:52invested in this wash plant one whole entire summer not losing it was a lot of pressure that's our baby

00:26:01I

00:26:01mean we spent a lot of money and a lot of downtime and lost money not only is it cash

00:26:06out of pocket

00:26:07to build it but we didn't mind either so we might have lost two million dollars last year and spent

00:26:11to

00:26:12half a million it's tough to let go and let someone else do this that or the other with it

00:26:17but at the

00:26:18same time number guys know what they're doing I trust they're gonna do good work on it

00:26:28set up in the Potvin's yard one begins the first of the fixes for the Dickinson's operation it's

00:26:36going to be difficult because Fred's plant and the Potvin's plant they're two of the bigger plants

00:26:40that we've done on a rescue right now we're cutting out the punch plate this is going to go on

00:26:46Fred's deck

00:26:49larger material slips through the Dickinson's shaker deck and clogs the sluice Juan and Dave will

00:26:57replace the square hold punch plate and add a new one with custom one inch round holes to keep material

00:27:06flowing through the plant they will install a jet into the back of the hopper and add weights to the

00:27:13eccentric shaker system finally to ensure the plant catches gold efficiently one will build a

00:27:22distribution chute to create an even flow of material into the sluice box we're gonna be about

00:27:292,000 holes in this plate so there's gonna be substantial cut time once it's done I'm gonna get

00:27:35it out clean it up get it down there and install it over at the Dickinson's wash plant Travis has

00:27:46it cut loose so it's ready to come out assisted by Travis Fred and Josh make room for one's new

00:27:54punch

00:27:54plate we believed somebody who said oh square holes are better they're not lift up on it a little bit

00:28:04and

00:28:04then drag it out of there it's stuck I don't want to break anything Josh is my oldest and he's

00:28:29a hell

00:28:29of an operator he's a wizard in that excavator he likes to say he's as good as me but I

00:28:34think

00:28:34the jury's still out it's stuck it's not completely off yeah just pop it off just try not hit the

00:28:48spray

00:28:50bars

00:28:50all right

00:28:55oh

00:29:03oh

00:29:04oh

00:29:09oh

00:29:10oh

00:29:10Yep.

00:29:14Thank God that punch plate's gone.

00:29:16that thing.

00:29:18Good riddance.

00:29:19This was a failed experiment.

00:29:21We're glad to move on.

00:29:34Next process of this is getting the heads down onto the studs.

00:29:39In central Alaska, at the Dickinson mine.

00:29:43This is Darryl's crane.

00:29:45This is his service truck.

00:29:48I've used it countless times this season.

00:29:51Budding mechanic, Brian, tries to bring the broken D9 back online

00:29:55with equipment loaned from the Podvin operation.

00:29:59We all work together to look out for each other.

00:30:01The miners, myself, Fred and his guys, other people on the creek.

00:30:05Everyone wants to look out for everyone.

00:30:07We're like a small community.

00:30:09So this is the top.

00:30:11Oh, OK.

00:30:12Looks good.

00:30:14You got the other half, though?

00:30:15Yeah, I got those.

00:30:16Awesome.

00:30:17All right, bud.

00:30:18All right, cool.

00:30:19Once you're done with the truck, bring it back up.

00:30:21All right, I will.

00:30:23Get some.

00:30:24Yep.

00:30:25I'll help Fred and his boys out.

00:30:27He was in Arizona in the sand and the desert and whatnot,

00:30:30so we give him a little guidance here and there.

00:30:34Brian is very mechanical.

00:30:35He's torn into engines, rebuilt engines, rebuilt transmissions.

00:30:40This is his first trip into a large diesel.

00:30:44I was about 14 years old when my dad brought home a car for me and him to work on

00:30:51blown-up engine.

00:30:53Doing this with the boys, with my family, that's beautiful.

00:30:58It's fair to say they've grown up as miners.

00:31:00It's just fun to take things apart and put them all back together in the same order.

00:31:05It's like a very greasy, big Lego.

00:31:08Me and my dad work very well together.

00:31:11We don't really have to say much to understand each other.

00:31:15Right now, there is a little bit of a worry that we financially might not be able to do this

00:31:19next year.

00:31:20I worry about my dad and all the pressure that's on him because he's working his ass off,

00:31:26and he's trying to make this all work, and he's struggling a little bit.

00:31:34Get her running.

00:31:35Yeah.

00:31:36I want to see it blowing smoke tonight.

00:31:37All right.

00:31:42I got to get these two heads on, start torquing it all down,

00:31:47and put it all back together again.

00:31:58A lot of times when you're in an area like this,

00:32:02and you want to figure out where the gold is and where it came from,

00:32:05looking at the archives is helpful.

00:32:08To dig deeper into the lean ground he discovered on the Potman's claim,

00:32:13Dave takes a field trip to the Circle District Museum.

00:32:16I'm looking to gain some clues to how much gold is in Boulder Creek.

00:32:22Central area maps.

00:32:24Let's take a look at these.

00:32:26Ooh, boy, these are old, old maps.

00:32:35Wow.

00:32:37Well, here we are.

00:32:38Here's Central House, Miller House, and here's Boulder Creek.

00:32:44Very, very interesting.

00:32:47The X means gold placer.

00:32:51So this is from geologic reconnaissance math surveyed in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906.

00:33:02And here on Boulder Creek, there's three red Xs.

00:33:07That's interesting.

00:33:08He's got the Xs way at the headwaters of Boulder Creek,

00:33:11and we're mining way down at the bottom of the stream,

00:33:14which is kind of encouraging.

00:33:17The old maps may point to better gold upstream on Boulder Creek.

00:33:23Dave calls a local contact to investigate.

00:33:27Yeah, hi, is this Cody?

00:33:30Hey, Cody, this is David Turn.

00:33:39It's my least favorite place.

00:33:40I try and stay out of that place.

00:33:43Back at the Podvin claim, Juan takes a short break from the cut table to check out the gold room.

00:33:50Our cleaning process is not efficient.

00:33:53That's your table there, huh?

00:33:54That's our little table.

00:33:55So basically, what are you doing?

00:33:56You get your concentrates out of the sluice box.

00:33:58Are you running them through like a long tom?

00:34:01Yeah, a long tom.

00:34:02It just reduces the fines down, then everything gets thrown all over the table.

00:34:06Yeah.

00:34:06We probably average four days.

00:34:08Yeah, four days that you're not doing something else, right?

00:34:10Right.

00:34:11Nothing quick about it.

00:34:12And it looks like Leva really loves it, too.

00:34:17It's not bad, but it's very time consuming.

00:34:22I take care of all the books and make sure all the finances are in line.

00:34:27I'm very calculated.

00:34:29I have spreadsheets for almost every aspect of this operation.

00:34:35The books are not going to balance if we can't get that plant up to 200 yards an hour.

00:34:41Last year, we spent every penny of our retirement.

00:34:45It's very scary to have this large of an investment.

00:34:49Gold is not guaranteed.

00:34:50So there's always the risk factor.

00:34:53There's an old joke.

00:34:54If you want to make a million gold mining, you have to start with two million.

00:34:59Sometimes it feels like that's what we're doing.

00:35:01We're constantly chasing that million dollars.

00:35:07So that's definitely a bottleneck.

00:35:09So, well, let me think about it and see what we can't do here.

00:35:12Awesome.

00:35:13Perfect.

00:35:13Thank you much.

00:35:14Thank you, sir.

00:35:14Appreciate it.

00:35:23Hello.

00:35:23What's going on, Juan?

00:35:25This turned out to be a little more work than what I anticipated.

00:35:28Okay.

00:35:29One of the big issues that we have, right, is the cleanup process.

00:35:32Right now, it takes them four days to do a cleanup.

00:35:34Oh.

00:35:35Yeah, it's pretty bad.

00:35:36Okay.

00:35:37Well, I wanted to see if you had a table, a used table or something that we could get

00:35:40in here to be able to help them out.

00:35:41Well, I'm just going to have to make some calls and see what's going on, Juan.

00:35:46I know you're going to have to have it quick, so.

00:35:48Yeah, you know, we're not looking for a freebie, but they have some money to throw at it.

00:35:52If I can get a hold of one, Juan, I'll make you a heck of a deal on it.

00:35:55Okay.

00:35:56Yeah, if you can make that work, that'll help us out tremendously.

00:35:58Just let me know as soon as you know, and then I'll send somebody that way if we can.

00:36:01You got it.

00:36:02Okay.

00:36:03Sounds good.

00:36:03Well, I'm going to get back to doing dirt work here.

00:36:05All right, buddy.

00:36:06Thanks, Fred.

00:36:07Talk to you soon.

00:36:08Bye for now.

00:36:09Bye.

00:36:10Efficiency is key, and right now they're taking four days to do a cleanup,

00:36:13and that's not acceptable at all.

00:36:14You know, with a good table in here, it should take that from four days to, let's call it four

00:36:19hours.

00:36:25Hey, Juan.

00:36:28Coming over to the top of you, Dave.

00:36:30Next, on the long list of fixes for Dave and Juan is to install the Dickensons' newly cut punch plate.

00:36:41A punch plate is basically a wear item.

00:36:44You don't want to fully weld it.

00:36:46That way you can go in there and cut those welds out, replace the top deck.

00:36:49I like it.

00:36:50That'll work.

00:36:51I like it too.

00:36:52That'll work good, Dave.

00:37:03Let's try it right here, Dave.

00:37:05Yeah.

00:37:06Four more build days left to complete an epic double rescue.

00:37:10It's an early start for Dave and Juan in the Podvins hopper.

00:37:15So right there, Dave, would give us the angle we need.

00:37:18But what we're going to do is we're going to make this a less of an abrupt angle,

00:37:21so the material has a better way of coming into the trommel,

00:37:24so it's not getting stuck on this hard angle.

00:37:28Hay gets trapped on the edges of the hopper, restricting the flow of material through the

00:37:33Podvins plant.

00:37:35Juan and Dave will create a large funnel using three-quarter-inch steel plates,

00:37:41allowing more pay to flow into the trommel.

00:37:44And we don't have a lot of shots at this because three-quarter-inch steel up here is expensive.

00:37:49Oh, yeah.

00:37:50And if we screw one of these up and don't get the cut right, we're kind of screwed.

00:37:56That's to say the least.

00:37:58All right.

00:37:58Okay, got it.

00:37:59Let's do it.

00:38:06Now that I've got the pattern laid out the way I want,

00:38:08I'm going to put the torch on there, and then the torch will do the rest.

00:38:16It allows me to keep on working, getting other things done and built.

00:38:18We haven't had a rescue where we've had to do so much cutting and fabricate so many things at one

00:38:23time.

00:38:23We're burning on the CNC table, now we're going to be cutting with this arm as well.

00:38:27We're pulling everything that we have in our arsenal to get it done in time, and hopefully it's enough.

00:38:46You Cody?

00:38:47Yeah.

00:38:48I'm Dave.

00:38:49Hey, Dave. Good to meet you.

00:38:50Thanks for coming out, and we'll take a look.

00:38:52All right, sounds good.

00:38:52All right, follow me up.

00:38:53Will do.

00:38:54Back on the hunt for better ground on the Podvin's 2,000-acre claim,

00:38:59Dave brings in local dirt detective, Cody Pink.

00:39:03I called in a geologist.

00:39:05The more information I have of what's underneath and the rock composition and how this was all formed,

00:39:12will help me get these guys on better gold.

00:39:17I think to get to better gold concentrations, we need to get as close to the bedrock as we can

00:39:22get,

00:39:22and that's up in the canyon.

00:39:24Both the Dickensons and the Podvins mine the lower reaches of Boulder Creek, where bedrock is far below

00:39:31the surface.

00:39:32Boulder Creek is underexplored.

00:39:36The potential is high.

00:39:39This is the unicorn that everybody's looking for.

00:39:42Did the old timers find it all?

00:39:45Certainly not.

00:39:47This is an adventure.

00:39:49Go upstream and do some prospecting, try to figure out if there's viable gold.

00:39:54Let's go see.

00:39:55All we got to worry about is the bears.

00:40:07We need to go upstream to find better gold.

00:40:10On a mission to rescue two operations in central Alaska.

00:40:15I think we should do a couple of pans here.

00:40:17We're not quite to the bedrock yet, but I believe true bedrock is below us here.

00:40:23Dave Turin and geologist Cody Pink head up Boulder Creek on the hunt for better gold.

00:40:30I'll take one side of the stream, you take the other.

00:40:31Okay.

00:40:39Now that we've gone upstream, I'm hoping to see more color.

00:40:46You find anything in the first pan?

00:40:49Nope.

00:40:52Nothing to get too excited about.

00:40:56We're not at the bedrock interface.

00:40:59So the fact that we're not seeing nuggets of gold in every pan isn't necessarily discouraging.

00:41:08I'm going to have to go further upstream.

00:41:09Okay.

00:41:10Do you want to just hop on back?

00:41:11Yeah.

00:41:16Bedrock forms an impenetrable layer, which should capture heavy gold particles,

00:41:21but not all ground is gold bearing.

00:41:29We've definitely got bedrock coming down to the creek and it looks like there's a little bench

00:41:34right up in there where the slow moving water is.

00:41:36Okay.

00:41:37Let's go investigate that.

00:41:39I love this stuff.

00:41:41Brings me back to the old timers.

00:41:43Comes down to a pan and a man in a creek.

00:41:46I just love it.

00:41:47I absolutely love it.

00:41:54I think I had one piece.

00:41:57One right at the head there?

00:41:59A little bit, way up.

00:42:03Really?

00:42:04Do you see anything in yours?

00:42:06No.

00:42:07Nothing?

00:42:23It's the last piece I got to cut.

00:42:25As Dave scrambles for better ground, Juan cuts to the chase on the Podvin's hopper fix.

00:42:32We were able to get all those plates cut there in a matter of maybe 45 minutes.

00:42:36You know, that would have taken somebody by hand, you know, half a day to cut that.

00:42:40We just got to prep them a little bit and then they're ready to go on to the plant.

00:42:43So it does save a lot of time.

00:42:45These are three quarter inch plates.

00:42:47This one right here probably weighs, I don't know, 125, 130 pounds.

00:42:51They're not light, but it's the type of material you need for these bigger plants.

00:42:55That's definitely 130 pounds.

00:43:08So we're cutting out the pieces for the distribution box on Fred's plant.

00:43:14The chute will rest under the shaker deck to give an even feed of material into the sluices.

00:43:22We're going to get all that material and we're going to concentrate it.

00:43:24And then we're going to distribute it where we want it.

00:43:29This is going to be the bottom pan of it.

00:43:30We're going to put sides and those two downspouts.

00:43:33That'll be the center of both sluices.

00:43:37Ready to do a little work?

00:43:38Yes, sir.

00:43:39All right.

00:43:39So what we're going to do is we're going to start welding this out.

00:43:41This is going to be your distribution box.

00:43:43So what we'll do is we'll get going on it.

00:43:45I'll help you kind of get started on welding it.

00:43:48I don't have anything this fancy.

00:43:52You're pushing uphill.

00:43:54Right about this angle.

00:43:55Push uphill, right?

00:43:56Slowly.

00:43:57You make sure that you get both sides, let it get wet, and you travel up.

00:44:01There you go.

00:44:03Move a little quicker.

00:44:07It actually is really cool for me to come in here and see you guys,

00:44:10you know, from where you guys started with that little plant in Arizona to where you're at now.

00:44:13You know, you guys got a full-size plant.

00:44:15You got more equipment.

00:44:16You're actually running some decent yardage.

00:44:18And it's got to be fun to be able to be out here with your dad and your brother to

00:44:21work

00:44:21and be able to kind of spend the summer together.

00:44:23Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

00:44:25A lot of hard work.

00:44:27My first gold claim was when I was 12 years old.

00:44:29It was Dickinson 1.

00:44:31Are we going to find some gold?

00:44:32Yeah!

00:44:34This season has been really hard out here.

00:44:36It's been really difficult for us, but just trying to push forward.

00:44:41I really want to stay out here doing this.

00:44:44I want to come out here every summer and hopefully have a family and bring them up here too.

00:44:50That's my goal.

00:44:51Find a girl who can move some dirt.

00:44:58All right, let's see it.

00:45:07That's pretty good, man.

00:45:08Oh, this is very useful.

00:45:10I need to know this stuff.

00:45:12You know, you saw how quick that was, right?

00:45:14Yeah.

00:45:14Just little things like that are going to help you along your career.

00:45:17And it sounds like you want to keep on doing this for a while, right?

00:45:19I do.

00:45:24It's awesome to see Josh in there working with Juan, teaching him some different tips

00:45:28and tricks on welding.

00:45:30He looks like he's having fun and learning things.

00:45:32That's always great.

00:45:34Sweet, man.

00:45:36I'm looking forward to seeing this on the plan.

00:45:43Well, I'm not giving up yet.

00:45:46Let's try one more time.

00:45:48Let's do one more where the bedrock dips in.

00:45:51Maybe we can find a trap.

00:45:56Two miles upstream on Boulder Creek, Cody and Dave are yet to find any indications of higher value ground.

00:46:12We're beating a dead horse.

00:46:14We hit it hard.

00:46:15What did we pull?

00:46:16How many pans did we all pull?

00:46:1816, 18 pans today.

00:46:19Yeah.

00:46:20To find two little specks of gold, I'm not really encouraged.

00:46:25And probably what the old timers did.

00:46:27Could be why this was overlooked.

00:46:29I think they did the same thing we did.

00:46:30Yeah.

00:46:30I think they panned it and we're like...

00:46:32Yeah.

00:46:34Dave's research shows gold deposits, but his test on a two-mile stretch of Boulder Creek

00:46:40uncovers no signs of concentrated gold.

00:46:44The guys that are mining here, there's gold in the sluice box, but it's very lean.

00:46:51Yeah.

00:46:51I mean, they're not going to have expectations that if they go up further,

00:46:55they're going to find better gold.

00:46:56Even that information is good information.

00:46:58Yeah.

00:47:04When I set out on this prospecting journey, you know, my goal was to find better gold.

00:47:10Cody thought there was better gold upstream.

00:47:13What we found is there really isn't.

00:47:15So now plan B is to up the production, to get them mining as efficiently as we can.

00:47:23They're on lean ground, but I think they can make money here.

00:47:31Coming up.

00:47:32We got to shut it off or it's going to keep burning.

00:47:35We're getting ready to flare back up over here.

00:47:38This is ice.

00:47:41You're running 110 yards an hour.

00:47:44Won't do it.

00:47:46I've been losing my mind.

00:47:49Whoa.

00:47:50That doesn't look terrible for four hours.

00:47:51Wow.

00:47:52You're awesome.

00:48:05I've got a huge fuel bill to pay.

00:48:07That's almost 28 grand.

00:48:09We owe them fuel right now.

00:48:11They won't deliver until I get caught up.

00:48:13I paid the 90 day past due, but we're still 60 days past due.

00:48:18In the Dickinson's camp, central Alaska, with seven weeks till the end of season,

00:48:24Fred and his boys take stock.

00:48:26Josh, I know you've got your credit card payment due.

00:48:28Is there anything else?

00:48:30Just a regular amount of $250.

00:48:34Okay.

00:48:34Pay my car insurance off.

00:48:37I get them on payment.

00:48:38Keeps it going up.

00:48:40Yeah, we can't pay it off right now, but I can get you the minimum payment.

00:48:44That's most of the next two cleanups is going to fuel.

00:48:46So we're going to have to kind of be snug until we can get those in there.

00:48:52Those boys are making big sacrifices to be out here and to build this as a family.

00:48:58We're miles from the Arctic Circle and hours away from the nearest town.

00:49:02You know, they're 20 and 22 years old.

00:49:05Most people are out with their friends doing fun things.

00:49:08I know it's hard for me to be away from my wife, but I'm in my 50s.

00:49:12I hadn't really considered how difficult this really could be for them.

00:49:25Hey, Fred.

00:49:27Hey, Dave.

00:49:28How are you doing?

00:49:29Doing good, man.

00:49:29How are you?

00:49:30Hey, I wanted to kind of look at your pit.

00:49:32After his pay prospecting mission fails to find higher grade pay,

00:49:37Dave sets his sights on the production side of Fred's operation.

00:49:42This is all overburdened that we flip back to here.

00:49:44Okay.

00:49:46There's some logistical things that I think I can help them with.

00:49:50I took a quick look at his pit.

00:49:52It looks pretty unorganized.

00:49:54You know, they shut down.

00:49:55Oh gosh, we're out of pay.

00:49:57So they go down and dig pay.

00:49:58And then they're like, all right, we got pay.

00:50:00Let's run.

00:50:01So I want to get them more efficient.

00:50:04Let me ask you something.

00:50:06How do you get your pay out of there to your wash plant?

00:50:10So right now, we ride an excavator.

00:50:14It's almost three times.

00:50:16From pay to there, you'd swing it to there, swing it maybe four times?

00:50:21It's four.

00:50:21Yeah, probably four flips.

00:50:23The idea originally was to push it with the dozer.

00:50:25I haven't been able to build a road and run it.

00:50:29Why not right on here?

00:50:30This is really soft.

00:50:32I can make a road here.

00:50:33Just push this out of the way and get you a pretty decent road in here.

00:50:37Down into the cut, you mean?

00:50:38Yeah, to the cut.

00:50:39Oh, wow.

00:50:41I love it.

00:50:42Yeah, that would be good.

00:50:44If you flip pay four times, it's a waste of fuel and it's a waste of, you know, sunshine.

00:50:50If I have a dozer, I think I could get a road to the wash plant that you can continually

00:50:56get pay from

00:50:57and then he's good to go.

00:50:59So give me a day and I think I can get it done.

00:51:02Dave's plan, use a bulldozer to build a road from the wash plant to Fred's cut.

00:51:08This will allow Fred and the boys to push pay seamlessly the 300 yards from cut to plant

00:51:16in one move, eliminating the need for the excavator.

00:51:21But Fred's D9 is still out of commission.

00:51:25Dave's plan's exciting.

00:51:26It's good.

00:51:27I like it.

00:51:27You know, he's got a whole lot more experience than I do.

00:51:29The dozer breaks constantly is really the problem.

00:51:33I think we're on day three or four.

00:51:36I don't even remember right now.

00:51:38How's it going, kid?

00:51:39We've got a leak right on this third gasket.

00:51:43Isn't that one we just replaced?

00:51:44Yeah.

00:51:46Wait, is it leaking from here or is it leaking from here?

00:51:48That one.

00:51:49Oh, shoot.

00:51:51Oh, well, pull it back apart.

00:51:52There's nothing else we can do.

00:51:55It's important that we have this thing.

00:51:56Dave's got a new plan to push pay to the plant with it.

00:51:58But without this dozer, that plan can't happen.

00:52:08What we're going to do is we're going to take the crane truck over there,

00:52:10get these lifted up where we need them, and get them in place.

00:52:13Dozer's still down.

00:52:14Dave helps Juan transport the finished plates for the podvins hopper.

00:52:19It's all hands on deck.

00:52:20We've got to get these plates down there to the podvins.

00:52:23We've got to get this in.

00:52:38The hopper is built originally too sharp.

00:52:42So the hopper basically will hang a rock up and then it gets a big mound in there and plugs

00:52:46it.

00:52:47So by doing this, it doesn't allow rocks to hang up in there.

00:52:51It's going to be awesome.

00:52:53Joining the fight is the podvins welder, Casey Stagno.

00:52:57Coming over, you guys.

00:52:58Good.

00:53:00Coming down.

00:53:06We raised it about this high, and then it gives him this much more room for material to sit in

00:53:13here.

00:53:14This is going to help keep rocks off the spray bar.

00:53:17Juan thought of that, protecting the spray bars.

00:53:20That's awesome, because it's something we didn't even think of.

00:53:24Better than I could imagine.

00:53:25They should fix the hopper pretty much 100%.

00:53:30Looks great, man.

00:53:32You've got a lot of welding to do, buddy.

00:53:34A lot of welding to do.

00:53:36Yep.

00:53:53Starting all the cuts on the podvins distribution chute.

00:53:56It's going to be a V-splitter.

00:53:58We're actually going to do four runs.

00:54:00There's only two days to go before the final test runs.

00:54:04In the race to fix two plants, Juan and the crew are hot on the build of the podvins' large

00:54:1010-foot distribution box.

00:54:12Right now, the way the plant's running, there's a big chance that they're losing a lot of the fine gold.

00:54:17Having more even feed across the whole box is going to help that.

00:54:24Material enters the 10-foot-wide sluice at one point, flowing down the edge of the box.

00:54:31With no place to settle, gold is being lost out the end.

00:54:36To cope with the extra material through the plant and to recover more gold, Juan is building a

00:54:43distribution box with four down spouts, spreading the flow of material across the entire width of

00:54:50the sluice.

00:54:52Taking on two big builds in the same time that we normally do one build is hard enough, but we're

00:54:58coming out swinging.

00:54:59Ultimately, I know their plant's going to be better for what we're doing to it.

00:55:03Between the hopper and the distribution, it's going to be a whole other machine.

00:55:14Fire?

00:55:15Fire?

00:55:16What the ?

00:55:17There's a fire?

00:55:18Fire.

00:55:19Uh-oh.

00:55:20It is fire.

00:55:21At our camp?

00:55:23Do they need help?

00:55:25Come on, Zena.

00:55:26I got the water truck.

00:55:28In the Arctic tundra summer, high winds plus dry brush creates a highly flammable mixture.

00:55:36Apparently, there's a fire they had to race off right now.

00:55:38You know, these high winds with a fire, it's not good.

00:55:41We don't know how big this fire is.

00:55:46Let me.

00:55:47It's my machine.

00:55:52We got to snuff this all out.

00:55:53Yes, sir.

00:55:54Put dirt on top.

00:55:54Got it.

00:56:08The patch right there.

00:56:10This patch is right there.

00:56:13Alex.

00:56:16We're getting ready to flare back up over here.

00:56:25Come on.

00:56:27We got to shut it off or it's going to keep burning.

00:56:30In the Alaska double rescue, wildfire breaks out, threatening the miners' camps.

00:56:36When the wind's like this, I mean, if it were to get roaring, there'd be no stopping it.

00:56:41So they're going to come with the cat and spread all this dirt on top there to shut the air

00:56:44off.

00:56:45Because the wind is just firing the members right back up.

00:56:47Chuck, he's going to take the dozer and push all this dirt right over top.

00:56:52So it should smother it.

00:56:54Okay.

00:56:59Nice work, dude.

00:57:00Good job.

00:57:03This could have been catastrophic.

00:57:04It's blowing straight through our camp.

00:57:06We could have had a really bad situation.

00:57:09So we'll throw dirt over it and we should suffocate it.

00:57:12Good work, gentlemen.

00:57:13Go team.

00:57:14Absolutely.

00:57:14Teamwork makes the dream work.

00:57:15You got to come together under pressure.

00:57:17You got to do it, you know.

00:57:18We're a team, all of us.

00:57:20So it has to be that way or you don't make it out here.

00:57:22You did a great job, Matt.

00:57:23You went in there with the excavator.

00:57:25You're actually ripping it up, getting it all put out.

00:57:27Good work.

00:57:28Appreciate it, Matt.

00:57:29Nice job, man.

00:57:30Nice work, boys.

00:57:31Good job.

00:57:32Well, that was pretty scary.

00:57:34With the community help, everybody jumping in, helping out, we got it out.

00:57:39Good job, bud.

00:57:41All right.

00:57:41We can get a jump for you, too.

00:57:43Getting that water pump.

00:57:44Yeah, we got that foot out, huh?

00:57:45All right.

00:57:46A little bit of everybody, I think.

00:57:47Oh, definitely.

00:57:57What's going on?

00:57:58A little surprise from Freddy just showed up.

00:58:00Really?

00:58:00Oh, brand new table.

00:58:03Freddy came through.

00:58:04Sweet.

00:58:05He did.

00:58:06Here's the baby.

00:58:07Wow, nice.

00:58:08Could make life a little bit easier for you.

00:58:11Definitely.

00:58:11No more brushing?

00:58:12No more brushing.

00:58:14And your gold is at this end.

00:58:15You can look at it.

00:58:16It's bright and shiny.

00:58:17It's nice.

00:58:18Perfect.

00:58:18I'm excited to see it working.

00:58:22OK.

00:58:22I'm clear.

00:58:23All right.

00:58:25OK, Dave.

00:58:26I like it.

00:58:27I think it's going to be a game changer.

00:58:29That's for sure.

00:58:31Since this thing's very heavy, I cut some inch and a half, two inch pipe.

00:58:35We put it on the ground.

00:58:36We're going to use that as rollers to get it to roll in.

00:58:41You happy with it here?

00:58:43Absolutely.

00:58:43Yeah, I think it's a good place.

00:58:44Awesome.

00:58:52Pull the throttle.

00:58:56After days of blood, sweat, and oil.

00:58:59Come on, baby.

00:59:01You can do it.

00:59:04Brian's hard work has paid off.

00:59:08Good job, Brian.

00:59:13That D9 is kind of a really important piece of equipment.

00:59:16It was definitely crucial to get that up and running.

00:59:19Brian knocked it out of the park.

00:59:20You know, for a 20-year-old man to take that on and take it apart himself and put it

00:59:24back

00:59:24together, it's impressive.

00:59:26Feeling pretty good.

00:59:28The dozer's warming up.

00:59:30So far, no leaks.

00:59:35Nicely done, kid.

00:59:37Thanks.

00:59:39Nicely done.

00:59:40Very pleased.

00:59:42Couldn't be prouder of Brian pulling this thing apart and putting it back together.

00:59:46He did a good job.

00:59:50We get Dave behind the controls and we'll be able to see what old girl can do.

00:59:55D9 back in action.

00:59:56Dave begins his plan to maximize the Dickinson's production.

01:00:01So if I get him that road where he can push with the dozer, it's way more efficient than flipping

01:00:06his pay.

01:00:07Once he builds this road and starts ramping it up, it's going to be pretty easy for us

01:00:11to just push from where the pay is over to the wash plant.

01:00:15It's going to be a whole lot faster than doing it with this excavator.

01:00:18So we're happy about it.

01:00:20It's going to be a lot faster than doing it with this excavator.

01:00:37Frozen ground.

01:00:39I'm sliding.

01:00:53I mean, this is ice.

01:00:55It's a perma cross and I can't get up on here.

01:00:58I just slide off.

01:01:09It's his dozer.

01:01:10I don't want to break it.

01:01:13It's just solid ice and sometimes just like concrete.

01:01:22Permafrost, permanently frozen ground blocks the path of Dave's new road.

01:01:28Well, good news and bad news.

01:01:30OK.

01:01:32Good news, Brian, the engine's running good.

01:01:34Oh, good.

01:01:35So the bad news is that ground's frozen.

01:01:43And I did a couple slides on it.

01:01:45Oh, OK.

01:01:46And I just don't want to get on that ice and throw a track.

01:01:51OK.

01:01:51That's what scares me.

01:01:54Fred doesn't have a lot of options and it's kind of desperate times.

01:02:10There's hundreds, hundreds of weld.

01:02:14While Dave devises a plan to overcome the ice, on the Podvin mine, Casey is 11 hours into welding

01:02:22hopper plates with no end in sight.

01:02:26This needs to be able to handle the rocks that are falling in plus the excavator touching it.

01:02:30It's this three quarter inch plate.

01:02:32So you're trying to get the weld all the way through.

01:02:34If you just put a little bit of weld on the outside, it'll snap.

01:02:37You know, through there I had to go over it 10, 15 times.

01:02:40There's a lot of welding.

01:02:42Still going to be maybe three more passes here.

01:02:52I'm just trying to figure out a plan here.

01:02:56My dozer keeps slipping on that ice, but it's going to be difficult.

01:03:00In the Dickinson's Cut, Dave puzzles through his permafrost roadblock.

01:03:06If you could clean that up, pitch it up and back, I could probably get it.

01:03:11See if we can build a road around the ice, maybe.

01:03:13Yeah.

01:03:13You want me to try that?

01:03:14Yeah.

01:03:15All right, I think we've got a plan.

01:03:17The problem is, in the middle of my road is a big chunk of ice.

01:03:21With Fred's help on the excavator, I think I can maneuver around it.

01:03:27Let's do it.

01:03:35Dave's plan is to use an excavator to reclaim the low area beside the frozen ground,

01:03:42using tailings and overburden, then build the road around the ice.

01:03:54It's very frozen salad.

01:03:57Mother Nature's trying to say she's mine.

01:04:01I'm going to politely disagree.

01:04:13Coming up.

01:04:15As Dave and Fred battle the ice, Juan presses ahead with the installation of Fred's new distribution box.

01:04:24So we've got the splitter chute all built. What we're going to do, we already cut that existing chute off.

01:04:29We're going to make this up to that base right there and get it welded in.

01:04:33Lower that down a little bit, Alex.

01:04:36That box isn't squared.

01:04:39They look right on the edge there.

01:04:41If I push down on mine, I might be able to get it.

01:04:44I wonder if we can suck this in. Probably not.

01:04:47So I've got a full quarter inch to three-eighths gap on the top.

01:04:56It's in. It's just, we've got a big-ass gap now.

01:04:59I'm terrible.

01:05:02I'm losing my mind.

01:05:17Go get me some mild steel trap from up top.

01:05:20A couple of scraps so we can cut some of these angles out, please.

01:05:25On the final day of fixes in Boulder Creek, Juan hits a snag on the Dickinson's wash plant just hours

01:05:32out from the second test runs.

01:05:36We're going to have to make some adjustment over here.

01:05:39You know, it fit really good, but I didn't realize that that chute as it went further in,

01:05:44it wasn't square. So now we're going to have to make a little bit of a filler piece,

01:05:48which is not the end of the world, but we'll get it.

01:05:50It just takes a little longer.

01:05:56This is not exactly how we wanted it, but it's what we got to do to make it work.

01:06:02Travis, can you give me more 60-10?

01:06:05You know, it's something we have to do in the field. We just have to adapt and make a little

01:06:07filler plate, but it's just part of it. While Juan finishes the distribution chute installed...

01:06:16Despite a few obstacles, this plan's coming together.

01:06:19Fred and Dave make inroads in the cut.

01:06:25It's starting to come together with him flipping overburden.

01:06:29If we get that dozer in here, I think I can get it done.

01:06:34Low ground, now packed with overburden, Dave attempts to push past the ice.

01:07:01It's working.

01:07:10Ice bypass, Dave completes his new pay highway.

01:07:19So I'm about ready to turn around and start pushing pay.

01:07:27It's starting to push the pay, it's starting to give it up to the lost plant, so we can start

01:07:32to look up.

01:07:40Yeah, so it's looking good right now.

01:07:50It's a lot more organized. You got an excavator feeding,

01:07:55does are feeding the excavator. They're in business.

01:08:08All major fixes now complete at the Dickensons.

01:08:12We're just finishing up the splitter. Juan turns his attention to the Podvin's larger chute.

01:08:20We're actually going to split it four ways. The material coming off the bottom of the trommel is

01:08:24going to hit this. It'll split twice, and then once it comes down each side, it'll split again. So that

01:08:30way it actually evenly splits to four different parts. They'll be able to run more material, and they'll

01:08:36be able to sluice it more efficiently. Done? I think it's great. I'm excited to see it finished up.

01:08:43I think it's going to be awesome. Coming up!

01:08:47Final welds made, Juan races to get the splitter installed. Trying to do two plants at the same time,

01:08:54with the same amount of time, is really difficult. It's been a long build, but it's getting there.

01:08:59Up above, welder Casey works on the final beads on the hopper. About two days and about 22 hours

01:09:07worth of welding. This is the last weld.

01:09:16All right, that's done. They're in.

01:09:23It's done. Good job. Thanks, buddy. It should be good. You know, in that hopper, it really should be

01:09:29able to get that material flowing the way they want it. I agree. Instead of getting stuck, you know,

01:09:33it should flow on its own. They get up to 200 yards an hour. Now, I think the sluice box

01:09:38is going to accept

01:09:39it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It looks good. I'm happy with it.

01:09:50Perfect. Let's flip it on and just see if everything's working. Back at the Podvin workshop,

01:09:56Dave gives a crash course for the new gold table. Pump's working. Got a nice bump to it.

01:10:02Hi, guys. Hello. Eric. Look at that. There's your new table. Do you guys have any cons or something

01:10:11that we could run across this table? We've got our tailings off of what we used to do,

01:10:15off our old table. Let's give it a try. Yeah.

01:10:23Crazy. Sure beats painting the table with a fake punch. I know, right?

01:10:29That's impressive. That is very impressive. That's impressive. So you're just really walking

01:10:32around in circles and adjusting instead of brushing for three, four days. Maybe an hour. Oh.

01:10:40I am impressed with that. A lot more time for Eric and Leva and everyone else to spend more time

01:10:47doing

01:10:47other things around the mine. Wow. It was really fun to see Daryl, Leva,

01:10:52and Eric see what that gold table can do. And it's kind of a game changer because it takes

01:10:59so much less time to do your cleanups. And Daryl gets it because now his time

01:11:06can be better spent doing something else. It's down to the wire on both operations.

01:11:15And at the Dickinson's wash plant, Juan races to build the plumbing system for the new hopper jet.

01:11:23All they had for water was this little spray bar. So by adding that jet,

01:11:28we're going to introduce more water, but also be able to control the feed.

01:11:32The team add a new six inch pipe, diverting water from the existing system up to the hopper jet.

01:11:40That's the final wall for the tube. We're going to move as quick as we can right now. We've still

01:11:45got miles to go, but hopefully we can start a test run soon.

01:11:51There's never enough hours in a day, and there really isn't.

01:11:55Josh, you're going to get burnt a little bit. You're going to be okay, though. You'll survive.

01:11:58Yeah, right.

01:12:05I'm laying out the deflector for the back of the hopper. This is going to deflect the water from

01:12:10going straight out to down and actually hit the pan so that way you push the material in.

01:12:14As Juan wraps up the water fix...

01:12:17Come on, big boy. Let's go.

01:12:19Dave and Josh install the finishing touches to the shaker system.

01:12:24These are the counterweights. We're going to put these on to get a more violent shake

01:12:29so that it actually throws the rock up.

01:12:36I do not want these to come off, trust me.

01:12:39All right, everybody's working hard now. We've got Alex and Travis and Juan's up above. We've got

01:12:45Brian, me, Fred's going to set a pump. Juan's just about got the water jet in the back in the

01:12:52feeder.

01:12:52That way we can run the test run. I think we're very close.

01:12:55What this does, when the water hits the back of this, it'll push it forward. It's going to

01:12:59actually wash down this plate. We're going to call that good.

01:13:03It's done. It's in. It's all welded in. All plumbed in. We're ready to go.

01:13:10Both plants are now finished. With daylight fading, Juan and Dave must complete two test runs

01:13:17to be sure their fixes are working. It's been a long haul. You know, trying to take on two plants

01:13:23of this size with the same time, it's tough. And we're running out of daylight. Oh, I know.

01:13:27And his season's getting close to the end. Yeah. Well, hopefully these fixes are going to be a big

01:13:32improvement for him so he can make up the time. Fire it up, kid.

01:13:36Fire it up, kid. Perfect.

01:14:06I like that vibration.

01:14:08I think sped it up, plus your water jet.

01:14:11Not only that, now with that punch plate not being square,

01:14:15it's not getting hung up, plus we're smaller openings,

01:14:18they're going to add more yards per hour.

01:14:21Yeah, they're going to be rocking and rolling more than they think.

01:14:26Looks good. Looks real good.

01:14:28I like that flow.

01:14:30Pretty evenly matched, Juan.

01:14:32They really are.

01:14:33That distribution actually looks pretty darn good.

01:14:37With the Dickinson's second test underway,

01:14:41Juan and Dave head to fire up the Podvins operation.

01:14:46That doesn't look good, Dave.

01:14:48What's that about?

01:14:48What are we doing?

01:14:49I don't know.

01:14:50Look.

01:14:51Chain drives down.

01:14:55What's going on, guys?

01:14:56What's happening here?

01:14:58We moved the motor.

01:15:14So you pulled it down?

01:15:16Pulled it down from underneath it, put it up on the side.

01:15:19Worried about their drive system,

01:15:22the Podvins have pulled the plug on their second test run.

01:15:25We had a legit concern that with their fixes up there,

01:15:29I really think they're going to push 200 yards an hour material

01:15:32in that drum.

01:15:32On the flip side of that, it might work too good for our drive system.

01:15:36So someone's got to do the next step.

01:15:39Get a little more chain wrapped around it.

01:15:41Yeah.

01:15:41A little more traction on the drive sprocket.

01:15:43Yeah.

01:15:44Once it's getting more material fed into it and up in that production,

01:15:48that's going to be our next spot.

01:15:52You know, it's a little tough.

01:15:53You know, we did a lot of work on this plant.

01:15:54We wanted to see it run.

01:15:56Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to stay here to watch it run.

01:15:58The truth is I have to be another mine in a couple of days.

01:16:01So I got to get going.

01:16:04There's always a little bit of a worry, even with my calculations

01:16:07and everything else and the yardage they're going to be running

01:16:09and the water flows.

01:16:10But until you actually see it run, sometimes you don't know.

01:16:14You know, so I am a little nervous about that.

01:16:16But regardless, I know what we did here is going to help them tremendously.

01:16:26Slow down. Slow down.

01:16:29Two hours into the test run at the Dickinson Mine.

01:16:33You're running over 110 yards an hour right now.

01:16:36Won't do it.

01:16:38Josh runs double the yardage from the first test.

01:16:43All I see is that deck, and that deck is empty.

01:16:47He's overfeeding it.

01:16:48We're running over 100 yards an hour right now.

01:16:50There's nothing on that deck right now.

01:16:53He's doing a bucket every 28 seconds.

01:16:57We're taking it, though.

01:16:59Here, we're good.

01:17:00Settling out down here, it's good.

01:17:02Pick it up.

01:17:03Pick up the pace, man.

01:17:04I would.

01:17:06We're on it.

01:17:08All right, Josh.

01:17:09See what you'll take.

01:17:15It's crazy.

01:17:18They're running out of pay.

01:17:20Dave jumps back in the dozer to keep the plant fed from his pay highway.

01:17:25That dozer Dave on my dozer is pretty awesome.

01:17:32More yardage, more golf, so we're going to have to kind of feel it out and see.

01:17:36It's kind of like going from a V6 to a Ferrari.

01:17:40We can do 10 hours of work in five hours.

01:17:44That's insanity.

01:17:47That doubles our profit.

01:17:49This is really fantastic.

01:17:52Hey, Fred.

01:17:53Hey, that's four hours.

01:17:55Let's shut it down.

01:17:56All right, let's do it.

01:17:58All right, Josh.

01:17:59Last bucket, kiddo.

01:18:00Last bucket.

01:18:03All right, shut her down, buddy.

01:18:16There you go.

01:18:17Yeah, there's a little gold in there.

01:18:18Look at that one.

01:18:20They're deep in the mats.

01:18:21They're right there.

01:18:21There's some big pieces.

01:18:22Check this one out.

01:18:24You're on some gold.

01:18:25Oh, yeah.

01:18:26Contrary to popular belief, there is some gold in Boulder Creek.

01:18:29It's looking pretty good, you guys.

01:18:31It's kind of late now.

01:18:32Why don't we clean it up in the morning and see what we got?

01:18:34Let's do a Goldway.

01:18:35Yeah, let's do it.

01:18:38Damn.

01:18:39He ran what we'd normally run in about eight hours in four hours.

01:18:43So I couldn't be happier.

01:18:45It means a lot.

01:18:46It's going to be good.

01:18:59Hey, everyone.

01:19:00Good run.

01:19:01Hey.

01:19:02We got the whole crew here.

01:19:04Everyone's here.

01:19:05Perfect.

01:19:05Six days of hardcore effort across two claims, the families come together to see the results

01:19:12on the Dickensons' operation.

01:19:14Oh, it's the moment of truth.

01:19:17You got the gold?

01:19:18I do.

01:19:18It looks pretty substantial, dude.

01:19:20Whoa.

01:19:21That doesn't look terrible for four hours.

01:19:22No.

01:19:24Well, you know, it really looks like, you know, we're catching a lot of that fine gold.

01:19:27But honestly, we ran a lot more material during that test run.

01:19:31It was huge.

01:19:32Yeah.

01:19:32Closer to 100 yards an hour on average.

01:19:34Well, let's weigh it up.

01:19:35Huh?

01:19:35You know, during the first test run, we were 0.94.

01:19:38Let's see what this is.

01:19:43There's 0.93.

01:19:461.96.

01:19:47A little over what you did last time.

01:19:49There's still more.

01:19:50Yeah.

01:19:51A little more.

01:19:52Oh, .

01:19:53Tap, tap, tap.

01:19:562.64.

01:19:57Huge.

01:19:58Huge increase.

01:19:59That's almost two and a half times?

01:20:00Yeah, nearly two and a half times.

01:20:022.64 ounces.

01:20:04A 180% increase on their first run.

01:20:10That is really good.

01:20:11Dang good.

01:20:12That's over half an ounce an hour, which is what we're looking for right there.

01:20:15Absolutely.

01:20:16You know, if this isn't a motivator, I don't know what's going to be.

01:20:18You know, this should be a motivator to say, hey, you know what, this is what we really can produce.

01:20:22Let's rock and roll.

01:20:23That's a game changer for us.

01:20:24We really appreciate it.

01:20:25Oh, gosh, yeah.

01:20:26Well, you know, it's a shame that we weren't able to watch you guys' plant run.

01:20:29But when you guys get running, please let us know how that goes.

01:20:32Absolutely.

01:20:33I really think it's going to make a huge improvement.

01:20:34Send us a video.

01:20:35Let us know how it's going.

01:20:36We will do that.

01:20:37Please.

01:20:37We'll do it.

01:20:39We don't see any reason that ain't going to be screaming material through that.

01:20:43Thank you so much for everything you've done.

01:20:45Both you guys.

01:20:46Likewise.

01:20:46Appreciate it.

01:20:47Thanks for the opportunity.

01:20:49Yeah.

01:20:49Appreciate you guys.

01:20:50Yeah.

01:20:51Here's your gold, Fred.

01:20:52Thank you, sir.

01:20:53Right on.

01:20:54Nice work.

01:20:54Thank you, everyone.

01:20:55You know, honestly, it was a pleasure working with you guys.

01:20:57We better get on the road.

01:20:59Thank you guys all.

01:20:59Hey, great working with you.

01:21:01Likewise.

01:21:02Hey, thank you.

01:21:02Appreciate it, man.

01:21:03Good seeing you.

01:21:05This is huge.

01:21:06I knew they would increase our production, but I had no idea it was going to be that profound.

01:21:11When Juan and Dave got here, it wasn't looking very good for us, but seeing this the way

01:21:16that it is, and if we can finish this season the way I think we can, the boys have a

01:21:20future

01:21:20here on this mine.

01:21:21We can keep going.

01:21:22And when I get tired of mining, I want to be able to turn the keys over to them and

01:21:26say,

01:21:26hey, you guys, just keep doing what you're doing.

01:21:29Now we can do that.

01:21:30Honestly, I feel like we've got this.

01:21:32I'm very excited about the fixes they've made.

01:21:35I think it's going to be absolutely awesome.

01:21:38When they brought up the idea of changing the sluice box, I wasn't too keen on it.

01:21:43Hey, I'm allowed to be wrong once a year.

01:21:47I'm excited for these guys.

01:21:48It really does warm the heart because we all work together and that's what it's all about.

01:21:53It's community and miners helping each other out.

01:22:05Hi Juan and Dave, this is Darrell.

01:22:07We'll see if the wind good.

01:22:08We sluiced through, I don't even know how many acres, but we did it in a hurry.

01:22:12That wash plant's doing over 200 yards an hour exactly how we wanted it to.

01:22:16And thank you guys for all your help with it.

01:22:20Everything on the hopper is phenomenal.

01:22:22It's working great.

01:22:23Matthew can stuff a full bucket in and it just eats it.

01:22:27Our first thing up was 95 ounces.

01:22:30That was the best that we've ever had.

01:22:33We just got just over 500 ounces.

01:22:36That's huge.

01:22:37We're very excited for years to come what that thing's going to do.

01:22:40It's awesome.

01:22:45It's awesome to have this dream come true.

01:22:49Hey Juan and Dave, Fred Dickinson here.

01:22:51Just wanted to let you know that we're doing great.

01:22:55We're getting to the end of the season.

01:22:57As you can see, there's snow up on the mountain.

01:22:59We're doing pretty well out here.

01:23:01A little late in the season, but we're going to keep mining.

01:23:07There's our road up to the wash plant.

01:23:10There's our cut.

01:23:11You can see quite a bit of it's missing now.

01:23:21Sorry about the noise in the background.

01:23:22Brian's ready to run.

01:23:23All right, thanks again guys.

01:23:25We'll see you later.

01:23:27You

01:23:28You

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