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Gold Rush Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan Season 6 Episode 8
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TVTranscript
00:00:02I drank way too much.
00:00:04I woke up in the morning.
00:00:05What'd you buy?
00:00:06It was a 40-acre claim.
00:00:08On this episode of Mine Rescue...
00:00:11We're trying to do two plants at the same time.
00:00:14It's going to be crazy.
00:00:15Yee-haw!
00:00:16The fate of two failing operations on one Alaskan megaclaim...
00:00:23We all work together to look out for each other.
00:00:25We'll rise and fall together.
00:00:26Fire depends on the first-ever high-stakes double rescue.
00:00:31Come on, big boy, let's go.
00:00:34I'm losing my mind.
00:00:35Fire! Fire!
00:00:37It's blowing straight through our camp.
00:00:41This really may not happen for any of these guys next year.
00:00:44There's still more.
00:00:46Yeah.
00:00:47Ho, ho, ho, ho.
00:00:57We're probably 30, 40 miles away from the Arctic Circle.
00:01:00Gold was discovered in this area in 1893.
00:01:03Over a million ounces of gold come out of this ground.
00:01:06That's a lot of stinking gold.
00:01:08Yeah, it is.
00:01:12We're here to help across two different mine sites.
00:01:15The leaseholders, the podpins, they didn't sluice at all last year.
00:01:18And then on top of that, Fred Dickinson, well, he's struggling, not being able to run as much as he
00:01:23wants.
00:01:25And he has royalty he has to pay.
00:01:26That's as ambitious as we've ever been.
00:01:30Winding their way through the central Alaskan tundra, Juan and Dave head to their first-ever double rescue on 2
00:01:38,000 acres in Boulder Creek.
00:01:40With one miner, Juan knows well.
00:01:44So I met Fred Dickinson almost six years ago.
00:01:48It was one of the first rescues Freddy and I ever did.
00:01:50No way.
00:01:54Hey, gentlemen.
00:01:55Hey, guys.
00:01:57Good to see you.
00:01:59I'm Brian.
00:01:59Dave.
00:02:00Good to see you, man.
00:02:01Nice to meet you guys.
00:02:03Fred, good to see you, buddy.
00:02:04Yes, sir.
00:02:05It has been a minute.
00:02:06Everything's grown.
00:02:07The boys have grown.
00:02:08The equipment's grown.
00:02:09Plant's grown, I see that.
00:02:11The bills have grown.
00:02:12Oh, yeah.
00:02:13And you were in Arizona and now you're in Alaska.
00:02:15Yes, sir.
00:02:17Wow.
00:02:18After Freddy and Juan visited us, we were in a really good place.
00:02:22Hey, guys.
00:02:24Welcome.
00:02:24Six years ago, in their first televised rescue, Freddy and Juan found the Dickinson family's dreams of gold dying in
00:02:33the desert.
00:02:34Right now, my hobby has to feed my family.
00:02:36Let's get them some more gold.
00:02:37Right on.
00:02:38Let's do it, man.
00:02:39I'm a little awestruck by what these guys are able to do.
00:02:431.13.
00:02:44Woo!
00:02:45That's huge.
00:02:46I can't tell you how much we appreciate you guys coming out.
00:02:50Freddy and Juan took me from a hobby miner to a professional miner.
00:02:54The first couple of years, we were making money.
00:02:58Our decision to move from Arizona to Alaska was about expanding our operation, about me and the boys being able
00:03:06to do something that would support all of us.
00:03:10I'm not going to lie, we're struggling.
00:03:12The ground in Alaska is nothing like the ground in Arizona.
00:03:15Getting the material to the wash plant, getting the material run, has become a bit of a logistical nightmare.
00:03:21I'm out of my depth.
00:03:23I'm not here because this is fun and games for me.
00:03:26I enjoy mining, but I'm out here to build something for my family.
00:03:33What was your goal going into this season?
00:03:35Going into this season, our goal was 200 ounces originally.
00:03:40Now, I'd be lucky if I can hit 100.
00:03:46So how are you doing this year then?
00:03:4822 ounces so far, halfway through the season.
00:03:51The people we lease from, the Podvins, they get a cut, which is always painful, but they support us.
00:03:57And since I've been here, every time we break down, they're overhelping us, pulling us out.
00:04:01Okay.
00:04:03Well, you guys got some gold to show us?
00:04:05We don't have any of the gold.
00:04:06It's sold to the refinery.
00:04:07I went home last year very in debt.
00:04:10And this year, we're struggling to break even, much less pay off last year's debt.
00:04:16So I'm about $185,000 upside down.
00:04:21I'm going to go bankrupt here.
00:04:26And what we want to do is kind of get out there and do a test run with you guys.
00:04:29You kind of know what we do and how we do things.
00:04:31You know, Dave and I, we're going to kind of sit back and watch you guys and really see what
00:04:35we can do to help you guys out.
00:04:36Are you guys ready to run some dirt?
00:04:38Sure.
00:04:38Hell yeah.
00:04:38Yeah, let's do it.
00:04:39Show us that wash plant.
00:04:40Let's get it fired up.
00:04:41Let's go.
00:04:43Going from their humble little plant, Fred's grown.
00:04:46He's progressed, scaled up, but he's got a long ways to go to make it work out here.
00:04:51Fireing it up.
00:05:02We're going to do a four-hour run.
00:05:05I love dirt moving.
00:05:06It makes it all the more fun when there's gold involved.
00:05:11Fred's son, Josh, loads pay into an eight-foot hopper that washes down into a 12-foot shaker deck.
00:05:20Material is screened through a square-holed punch plate and fed down into the sluice runs below, where the gold
00:05:27should collect.
00:05:29Brother Brian, in the D-9, clears tailings to prevent them backing up.
00:05:35A lot of that material is getting stuck on that screen.
00:05:38That punch plate, the bottleneck there.
00:05:40Yeah, 100%.
00:05:41But I think it's about a bucket a minute, roughly.
00:05:44Might be a little less.
00:05:48One of the issues they've got is the way the material's coming down.
00:05:52It's really going down one sluice box about this wide.
00:05:56They're really utilizing about 30% to 40% of their sluice box.
00:06:04Look at the size of that.
00:06:06We must have somewhere else on the screen where this is coming through.
00:06:10Yeah, that's massive.
00:06:13There's no reason that should be in there at all.
00:06:17How's the hopper doing, buddy?
00:06:19Is it packed up, or are you doing okay?
00:06:21Yeah, it's fine.
00:06:23All right, 10-4.
00:06:24Yeah, give her just a little bit more.
00:06:30I've ran a lot of gold mines, and this one's just a little disorganized.
00:06:35How they get their pay out, you know, how they're delivering their pay, how they're dealing with the tailings.
00:06:45Is that the Podman's plant?
00:06:47We're just down creek from them a little bit.
00:06:49Yeah, literally.
00:06:50Stones throw away from them.
00:06:52The Podmans, they're my landlords.
00:06:55Right now, our arrangement is I get the corners and crevices that his larger operation bypasses,
00:07:02because they move in straight lines, because they move in straight lines and the river doesn't.
00:07:05The truth is, is our destinies are tied together.
00:07:08We'll rise and fall together.
00:07:11Landlord, the Podvins, own the rights to over 2,000 acres.
00:07:15Daryl is the guy everybody goes to for help.
00:07:18He just goes, yeah, I'm in the middle of sluicing, but that's okay.
00:07:21I'll come help you.
00:07:23They've been instrumental in kind of helping us mine this creek.
00:07:26So I know this year, they're having to run two years' worth just to try to make enough to get
00:07:31by
00:07:32and, you know, start building a life for themselves.
00:07:35But after the Podvins failed to run last season,
00:07:38Fred is under pressure to deliver them a healthy royalty to stay in business.
00:07:44We've still got a lot to figure out with this wash plant.
00:07:47We are struggling to get enough volume on this ground to be able to go home with money.
00:08:03It's not working.
00:08:07Damn it.
00:08:10This is not good.
00:08:12Brian's D9 prevents the wash plant from becoming overwhelmed by tailings.
00:08:18It started leaking coolant everywhere.
00:08:20So it might have had a cracked head gasket.
00:08:23So it's time to take the head off and check everything out.
00:08:31We're at the end of the four-hour run.
00:08:32So why don't we shut him down and see what we got in the box.
00:08:35All right, buddy, that's your last bucket.
00:08:37Let's shut her down.
00:08:45You can see the flow on shutdown.
00:08:47How much water's on that side, how much material.
00:08:50Just watching it right now on shutdown, you can see what it's doing.
00:08:53Oh, yeah.
00:08:54Well, gentlemen, why don't you guys clean it all up?
00:08:57And let's do a Goldway.
00:08:58Okay.
00:08:59We'll meet back up with you guys in the morning and see what we got.
00:09:01Sounds great.
00:09:02You good with that?
00:09:02Yes, sir.
00:09:03All right.
00:09:05I'm hoping that these guys can work some magic.
00:09:08We need to figure out how to run more dirt or to run longer.
00:09:14Let's go take a look at the Podvin plant.
00:09:17Yep.
00:09:17Let's go.
00:09:20Located half a mile away, the Podvin operation is midway through a hundred-hour run.
00:09:29Hey, how you doing?
00:09:30Good.
00:09:30Come on.
00:09:31Daryl.
00:09:31Good to meet you.
00:09:32Hi.
00:09:32I'm Dave.
00:09:33How you doing?
00:09:34Good.
00:09:34Daryl.
00:09:35Daryl.
00:09:35What a beautiful plant.
00:09:38It's awesome that you guys are here and we can check this thing out and see if you can help
00:09:42them.
00:09:43You built this whole thing?
00:09:44Yeah.
00:09:45Wow.
00:09:46The two boys and I.
00:09:47Daryl runs the operation with his partner, Liva, and two grown sons, Matthew and Eric.
00:09:54It is designed where we can flip the conveyor, flip the sluice box, and change directions on the side of
00:10:00the creek.
00:10:00There's a lot of thought in this thing.
00:10:02Absolutely.
00:10:03We had a diesel repair shop in North Dakota in the oil field.
00:10:07And we also had a gravel crushing business on the side.
00:10:10So we crushed gravel throughout the summers and wrenched year-round.
00:10:14And oil kind of took a dive and we were trying to figure out what we were going to do.
00:10:20And we were drinking at the bar one day.
00:10:22I drank way too much.
00:10:24And I went to bed, woke up in the morning.
00:10:26Liva was like, what did you spend on PayPal for $800?
00:10:31I said, I don't know.
00:10:32What do you mean?
00:10:33She says, well, you bought something in Alaska for $800 on PayPal.
00:10:37What did you buy?
00:10:38I said, well, let's check it out.
00:10:39Sure enough, it was a 40-acre claim.
00:10:43And I was like, holy shit.
00:10:45Dad called us the next morning and said, hey, you want to go prospect a gold claim in Alaska?
00:10:49And I thought he was out of his mind.
00:10:51And we came up here and spent the month up here and found like seven tiny little pieces of gold.
00:10:56And been up here ever since.
00:10:59Ten years later, here we are.
00:11:01I'm very proud of that wash plant.
00:11:02But the fact that we spent our retirement, and then some, on building it, nobody made any money last year,
00:11:08you know, including the boys.
00:11:10It was a killer.
00:11:12It's a hell of a design.
00:11:14It's like almost a dredge.
00:11:16It's a land dredge.
00:11:17It is.
00:11:18It's a dredge on wheels.
00:11:19I like it.
00:11:20On this rolling land dredge, known as a progressive plant, pay is fed into an eight-foot hopper and washed
00:11:29into a 40-foot-long trommel.
00:11:31A spray bar washes the pay down into the 16-by-10-foot-wide sluice box.
00:11:38But after taking a full season off sluicing to build it, they now can't afford to shut it down.
00:11:45So Dave and Juan must assess the wash plant without waiting for a gold way.
00:11:51Once that wash plant's running, it's going to stay running.
00:11:53We ain't going to shut down.
00:11:55How many yards an hour are you running out of it?
00:11:58About 100, 120 yards an hour.
00:12:00What were you wanting to do out of it?
00:12:02200.
00:12:03Yeah?
00:12:04210.
00:12:05We have to run more material.
00:12:07I spent way too much money building that wash plant to let it run 100 yards an hour.
00:12:12It has to be increased.
00:12:14It was an expensive girl to build.
00:12:16No kidding.
00:12:18Putting that kind of money out, not running all year long last year.
00:12:22Daryl's running on empty.
00:12:23That's a tough thing to do when you have an operation like this.
00:12:26And not only that, on the Dickinson's plant, there's a couple issues that I'm really worried about.
00:12:30This is going to be a tricky rescue.
00:12:32Trying to do two plants at the same time.
00:12:35It's going to be a tough few days.
00:12:39This is an adventure.
00:12:40Let's go see.
00:12:42Coming up.
00:12:43I'm very frustrated.
00:12:45I mean, they did walk in.
00:12:46They just didn't see.
00:12:47That sluice box is absolutely horrible.
00:12:49Be careful.
00:12:50We don't have a hell of a lot of time.
00:12:52Slow down.
00:12:53Honestly, really don't give two about the sluice box.
00:13:07You can feel it building here.
00:13:10In Boulder Creek, Alaska, Juan and Dave assess the largest of the two operations in their double rescue.
00:13:18There's definitely a lot more flow on this side.
00:13:21Yeah, you can feel it.
00:13:22The distribution's an issue.
00:13:24You can feel the ripple.
00:13:25And they're pretty lean now.
00:13:27It is a little lean.
00:13:28So you can tell on that side it's going to be super lean.
00:13:31Yeah.
00:13:31You know, when you can actually see the gravels coming down.
00:13:34It doesn't have a chance to settle out in the map.
00:13:37We lose his gold out of that box.
00:13:41He has an issue up top as well on the hopper.
00:13:44I mean, that bucket is just about as big as the hopper.
00:13:47It is.
00:13:48It is.
00:13:48He's having a periodical go in there and push it.
00:13:51So he's got some hard angles in there that are impeding the rock.
00:13:54And then they get it stacked up.
00:13:57That's definitely a bottleneck.
00:13:59They designed it to do 200 yards an hour.
00:14:01And right now, he's just barely over 100.
00:14:10I guess what we need to do is figure out what we can do.
00:14:13Because my concern is, if we tackle the big problem of the hopper,
00:14:16now we're going to create that problem further downstream
00:14:18in the sluice box, right?
00:14:19So it's going to be a multiple part fix.
00:14:21The one thing that does kind of make me feel a little bit better
00:14:25if we have Travis and Alex here.
00:14:26Yeah.
00:14:27So, you know, it'll be probably a balancing act.
00:14:29And really, I think we're going to have to divide and conquer.
00:14:31Yeah.
00:14:32So, you know, it'll be probably a balancing act.
00:14:32As Juan puzzles through the potential fixes,
00:14:36Dave gets to grips with the Podvin's pay dirt.
00:14:39I'm just checking to see if there's much gold down here.
00:14:43I'm not finding much.
00:14:45There was two tiny little pieces of gold.
00:14:55That's pretty lean ground.
00:14:58I need a little bit more information.
00:15:07You guys getting ready to move?
00:15:09Yeah.
00:15:10To keep the plant loaded with pay in its 100-hour run,
00:15:14the plant moves 30 feet further into the cut every two hours.
00:15:20It's kind of a unique design.
00:15:22It's a progressive plant.
00:15:23It basically moves to the material instead of moving the material to it.
00:15:28It's as cheap as it gets to be able to process the ground.
00:15:31Here we go.
00:15:33Even though the plant's probably one of the nicer plants I've seen,
00:15:35that sleuth box is a real issue.
00:15:37Distribution's an issue.
00:15:38The hopper's an issue.
00:15:40It's going to be tough, you know,
00:15:41because we're going to have to spread our resources over two mine sites.
00:15:44My issue is we don't have a hell of a lot of time.
00:15:48This might not work.
00:15:57This is it.
00:15:59Good to see you, Fred.
00:16:00Good to see you.
00:16:01Good to see you guys.
00:16:03Well, you guys got some gold to show us from that cleanup?
00:16:06We do.
00:16:07On the Dickinson mine,
00:16:09Fred has the results from yesterday's four-hour test run.
00:16:13It's not terrible, four hours.
00:16:15Yeah, the little chunkers in there.
00:16:16We don't see those results.
00:16:17Very clean gold.
00:16:18You've got some chunky stuff with quartz,
00:16:20and then there's a piece that's just flattened.
00:16:24Nice little pickers.
00:16:25You've got several different sources here.
00:16:26Yeah, we think so.
00:16:27I think there's at least three, but that's my best guess.
00:16:31All right.
00:16:31Well, let's pour it out.
00:16:32Let's see what we got, huh?
00:16:35To stay on track for their 200-ounce season target,
00:16:38this four-hour test needs to give Fred and his boys 1.4 ounces.
00:16:450.94, nearly an ounce.
00:16:48Just shy of an ounce.
00:16:503,000 bucks, roughly.
00:16:52Yeah.
00:16:52For four hours running?
00:16:53Yeah.
00:16:55It's a third short of their goal.
00:16:58You know, it's been getting us by,
00:17:00but getting by is not good enough.
00:17:02No, no.
00:17:02We're not paying off the debts.
00:17:03No, we're not paying off the debts.
00:17:04That's the challenge.
00:17:06You know, if this number doesn't come up,
00:17:07this may be the end of the line here.
00:17:09Yeah.
00:17:10I mean, it could be.
00:17:11I mean, we're going to fight it with everything we've got, though.
00:17:14Yeah.
00:17:14Fair enough.
00:17:15You know, I guess, you know, really when it comes down to it,
00:17:18you know, we don't have a whole lot of time left in the season.
00:17:20I think we're lacking in a couple different things,
00:17:22but really it's going to boil down to what Dave and I can do
00:17:24while the time we have here.
00:17:25So we're two mine sites.
00:17:26Yeah, absolutely.
00:17:27And any help makes a big difference.
00:17:30We'll go back and kind of come up with a game plan,
00:17:32see what we can do.
00:17:33All right.
00:17:33You good with that?
00:17:34Let's go figure it out.
00:17:35All right, here you go.
00:17:36Here's your gold.
00:17:37Thank you, sir.
00:17:38This isn't a bet.
00:17:42That gold was what we've been getting, but it's not enough.
00:17:46If we keep going the pace we're at,
00:17:47we're not even going to reach half our goal.
00:17:49We've got to change something.
00:17:52There's quite a bit going on there, Dave.
00:17:55Two big operations on the brink.
00:17:57Juan and Dave break down their task list.
00:18:00Brad has a few issues.
00:18:02His throughput through the plant is not great.
00:18:04I agree.
00:18:05We can get his pay up quicker, get it piled up, and then I see several things that could be
00:18:11fixed.
00:18:12Right now we're doing about 45 yards an hour.
00:18:14Yeah.
00:18:14You know, and the reality is we've got to come up, you know, 65 yards an hour is really where
00:18:18he needs to be.
00:18:18Yeah.
00:18:19That screen deck that he has there, he's got square holes in it.
00:18:24They go corner to corner at almost an inch and a half, right?
00:18:26Yeah.
00:18:26Now we're allowing material this big to go through that screen.
00:18:29It's huge.
00:18:29Which is taking up a lot of room in that sluice box.
00:18:32Yeah.
00:18:32So your suggestion is round, correct?
00:18:34Yeah.
00:18:34We'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.
00:18:41Mm-hmm.
00:18:41So that thing is spinning, right?
00:18:43Mm-hmm.
00:18:44So you add more weight, it's going to make the throw a bigger stroke?
00:18:48Absolutely.
00:18:49What it's going to do is give us a little more violent of a shake.
00:18:51Yeah.
00:18:52But if we get more material through the plant, basically we're going to be running more material on that side
00:18:56of the sluice.
00:18:57So we're going to have to even that feed out and make it where it distributes equally across the two
00:19:02sluice boxes.
00:19:03You good with that?
00:19:04I'm good with that.
00:19:05What do you think about the...
00:19:06The pod vents?
00:19:08You know, the problem with this, we're having to do freds and the pod vents at the same time.
00:19:13So I know they don't want to shut the plant down.
00:19:15Yeah.
00:19:17That's going to be interesting.
00:19:18The biggest issue I saw with the pod vents plant, and you saw it too, was that sluice box.
00:19:23Yeah.
00:19:24We got that distribution box coming off the bottom pan.
00:19:27It comes in so that material's coming down, and again, it's hitting this side of the box.
00:19:31Yep.
00:19:31So what I would like to see here is try to get that material equally distributed across the whole box
00:19:38instead of just favoring that one side.
00:19:40Yeah.
00:19:40You have four runs.
00:19:41Four runs.
00:19:42We can get their production up, fixing their feeder.
00:19:45It was a little bit cumbersome.
00:19:47I mean, it was...
00:19:48Clogging up a little bit.
00:19:50Clogging up, going out the sides.
00:19:51Yeah.
00:19:51That feeder right now, it comes in and then actually has a hard angle where that material's coming in and
00:19:56it's getting stopped up, and it's not allowing it to go into the trommel.
00:19:59Yeah.
00:19:59Maybe cut some angles, some plates to be able to divert that material so it's not so drastic.
00:20:05So let's go chat with them and see what they say.
00:20:06Okay.
00:20:07All right.
00:20:07Sounds good.
00:20:07All right.
00:20:15Well, we kind of had a chance to talk about what we wanted to do with you guys.
00:20:18Okay.
00:20:19One of the issues Dave and I saw is your punch plate.
00:20:22Yeah.
00:20:22On the top.
00:20:23You know, having those square holes, it's a hard edge, right?
00:20:25So those rocks, they get stuck.
00:20:27So we'll cut a whole new one, put it on there, and it's going to be round holes and make
00:20:30sure they're tapered the right way.
00:20:31Okay.
00:20:32Dave came up with the idea we're going to add a little more weight to your eccentric as well.
00:20:35Yeah.
00:20:35Okay.
00:20:35I think if we put some more weight, you'll get a more violent shake, so it should kick those rocks
00:20:41up, and you should get more through.
00:20:44Okay.
00:20:44We already have an issue with the distribution box.
00:20:46Right now, it's kind of favoring that one side.
00:20:49So we want to eliminate that.
00:20:50Oh, wow.
00:20:51Okay.
00:20:51So you will have a true distribution that'll actually feed 50-50 to the box.
00:20:56Okay.
00:20:57So, you know, with those three things that we're talking about, the punch plate, eccentric weight, and the distribution,
00:21:04we're probably looking at about $3,500 in material.
00:21:07You know, it's a little bit of a big nut to crack, and I know right now things are kind
00:21:10of tight,
00:21:10so what Dave and I kind of came up with is we're willing to give you guys our labor for
00:21:14free.
00:21:14I appreciate that.
00:21:15That's amazing.
00:21:16I wouldn't even hesitate at that, so I appreciate that.
00:21:19Okay.
00:21:19Let's do it.
00:21:19If you guys are ready to do it, if you guys can help us be able to get some of
00:21:22this work done,
00:21:23that way we can get all of it done in the time we have.
00:21:25More than happy to.
00:21:26Absolutely done.
00:21:27Okay.
00:21:27Let's do it.
00:21:28Deal.
00:21:28Thanks, guys.
00:21:31Those are super critical fixes for us.
00:21:34If we can't get that yardage up, then we're not going to make enough gold to cover the season.
00:21:52Hey, guys.
00:21:53Hello, Darryl.
00:21:53Hey.
00:21:54How's it going, guys?
00:21:55In Boulder Creek, Alaska.
00:21:57Morning.
00:21:57The livelihoods of two operations are at stake, and Juan and Dave put an unprecedented second rescue deal on the
00:22:05table.
00:22:06You guys are tight crew, very well organized.
00:22:09We're impressed.
00:22:10So as far as efficiency, you guys are pretty damn efficient.
00:22:14Yeah.
00:22:14During the test run, we did see a few things.
00:22:16You know, you want to be able to get up to that 200 yard an hour.
00:22:19Right now you're about, what, 120?
00:22:20Yeah.
00:22:21At the top.
00:22:21The feed on the hopper is something that we need to address.
00:22:24Right now the angle that you have is really abrupt.
00:22:26What we're going to do is we're going to actually make it a little longer, so that way as the
00:22:29material hits, it's able to push in instead of getting stuck.
00:22:32I think that's awesome.
00:22:33Another thing that Dave and I saw is that you're losing gold.
00:22:37That sluice box is a real issue.
00:22:39So how is your box that you have now?
00:22:41Go up there and put dividing walls, build a distribution box to be able to distribute that material evenly across
00:22:45the four boxes instead of...
00:22:47I can tell Eric don't like it.
00:22:49I'm not convinced.
00:22:51I don't want to split it.
00:22:52I do not want to split that box.
00:22:53I mean, we clean up top eight feet, two guys, you can be done in an hour and that thing's
00:22:57back running.
00:22:59Honestly, 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 of ounces.
00:23:09I don't know what the number, the real number is, the percentage of what you're losing, but I would guesstimate,
00:23:13you know, probably 10 to 15%.
00:23:16My concern is, even if we go in there and we up your production, yeah, sure, we're going to catch
00:23:21a little bit more gold, but then also we're actually running the risk of losing more gold.
00:23:27Honestly, really don't give two about the sluice box.
00:23:31I really want the production up.
00:23:33I spend way too much money building that wash plant to let it run 100 yards an hour.
00:23:37The fine gold, who cares?
00:23:39I was the same.
00:23:40Production, keep that going.
00:23:42And I'd forget that...
00:23:45The sluice box is your bank.
00:23:47Oh, yeah.
00:23:48That's where you're making your money.
00:23:49And I've had to learn that.
00:23:51As we run more material through that box, running the way it is...
00:23:53I get it.
00:23:54You're going to see an increase in gold, yeah, but there's going to be a massive increase in lost gold
00:23:58as well.
00:23:58It's 16 feet long.
00:24:00You know, it's going to catch it.
00:24:02And I really think that sluice box could stay.
00:24:06Agree to disagree, but...
00:24:09I'm good with that.
00:24:10You know, ultimately, it's your guys' plant.
00:24:12I want you guys to be happy with what we're going to do.
00:24:15And if that's what you guys want, you know, we'll absolutely do the distribution and work on that hopper.
00:24:19I like it.
00:24:20That's awesome.
00:24:20We're going to up the production, which you're all about.
00:24:23I like it.
00:24:23You know, that being said, between the hopper fix and working on the distribution,
00:24:29it's probably going to be about $3,500 in material.
00:24:32And as far as labor, we're thinking about an ounce piece.
00:24:36You guys are good with it.
00:24:37You know, that's what we can offer.
00:24:41Do it. Make it happen.
00:24:42If you don't up the production, then it cuts in half, right?
00:24:45But the deal is, if we do up the production, we get the extra gold.
00:24:49There you go!
00:24:51I don't think that's going to happen.
00:24:54Sounds great.
00:24:55Bring it in.
00:24:56Oh, gosh.
00:24:57All right.
00:24:59When we decided to build that wash plant, I thought, well, we can build this thing in two months.
00:25:03No problem.
00:25:05We'll build it in two months.
00:25:06We'll still have a half a season.
00:25:07It'll be all fine.
00:25:08It'll pay for itself in a heartbeat.
00:25:11Yeah, no, it took five months to the day.
00:25:14There's five or six of us welding and working on that thing constantly.
00:25:19Every inch of weld on that thing, we welded it.
00:25:23It's not a little $50,000 wash plant.
00:25:26And everything on that thing is hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of parts.
00:25:31And now we're to the point where everything's past due.
00:25:35We need to have a successful season here to make this work.
00:25:38Because we can't keep going.
00:25:39We all really are feeling pressure.
00:25:41Dad definitely feels the pressure.
00:25:43We've got to find the gold this year.
00:25:46The intention was to get 200 yards an hour out of it.
00:25:50Got better than a half a million bucks invested in this wash plant.
00:25:54One whole entire summer, not sluicing.
00:25:57It was a lot of pressure.
00:26:01That's our baby.
00:26:01I mean, we spent a lot of money and a lot of downtime and lost money.
00:26:05Not only is it cash out of pocket to build it, but we didn't mine either.
00:26:09So we might have lost $2 million last year and spent the half a million.
00:26:13It's tough to let go and let someone else do this, that or the other with it.
00:26:17But at the same time, them guys know what they're doing.
00:26:20I trust they're going to do good work on it.
00:26:28Set up in the Potvin's yard, Juan begins the first of the fixes for the Dickinson's operation.
00:26:35It's going to be difficult because Fred's plant and the Potvin's plant,
00:26:39they're two of the bigger plants that we've done on a rescue.
00:26:43Right now we're cutting out the punch plate.
00:26:45This is going to go on Fred's deck.
00:26:49Larger material slips through the Dickinson's shaker deck and clogs the sluice.
00:26:55Juan and Dave will replace the square-holed punch plate
00:26:59and add a new one with custom one-inch round holes.
00:27:05To keep material flowing through the plant,
00:27:08they will install a jet into the back of the hopper
00:27:11and add weights to the eccentric shaker system.
00:27:16Finally, to ensure the plant catches gold efficiently, Juan will build a distribution chute
00:27:23to create an even flow of material into the sluice box.
00:27:28We're going to be about 2,000 holes in this plate.
00:27:31So there's going to be substantial cut times.
00:27:34Once it's done, I'm going to get it out, clean it up, get it down there and install it.
00:27:43Over at the Dickinson's wash plant...
00:27:45Travis hasn't cut loose, so it's ready to come out.
00:27:49Assisted by Travis, Fred and Josh make room for Juan's new punch plate.
00:27:57We believed somebody who said, oh, square holes are better.
00:28:00They're not.
00:28:02All right, buddy.
00:28:02Lift up on it a little bit and then drag it out of there.
00:28:17It's stuck.
00:28:20Oh, .
00:28:23I don't want to break anything.
00:28:27Josh is my oldest, and he's a hell of an operator.
00:28:30He's a wizard in that excavator.
00:28:31He likes to say he's as good as me, but I think the jury's still out.
00:28:42It's stuck.
00:28:44It's not completely off.
00:28:46It's stuck.
00:28:46Yeah, just pop it off.
00:28:47Just try not to hit the spray bars.
00:28:50All right.
00:28:55Oh.
00:29:02Oh.
00:29:03Oh.
00:29:11Oh.
00:29:11Oh.
00:29:12Oh.
00:29:12Oh.
00:29:12Oh.
00:29:14Oh.
00:29:15That 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.
00:29:34The next process of this is getting the heads down onto the studs.
00:29:40In central Alaska, at the Dickinson Mine.
00:29:43This is Daryl's crane.
00:29:45This is Daryl's crane.
00:29:46This 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 with equipment loaned
00:29:57from the Pudvin 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, okay.
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.
00:30:19Cool.
00:30:20Once 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 helped 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.
00:30:36He's torn in engines, rebuilt engines, rebuilt transmissions.
00:30:39This 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
00:30:52engine.
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
00:31:20next 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.
00:31:35I want to see you blowing smoke tonight.
00:31:37All right.
00:31:42I got to get these two heads on, start torquing it all down, and put it all back together again.
00:31:58A lot of times when you're in an area like this, and you want to figure out where the gold
00:32:03is and where it came from, looking at the archives is helpful.
00:32:07To dig deeper into the lean ground he discovered on the Potman's claim, Dave takes a field trip to the
00:32:15Circle District Museum.
00:32:16I'm looking to gain some clues to how much gold is in Boulder Creek.
00:32:21Central area maps.
00:32:24Central area maps.
00:32:25Take a look at these.
00:32:26Ooh, boy.
00:32:27These are old, old maps.
00:32:28What's the big role?
00:32:36Wow.
00:32:37Well here we are.
00:32:38Here's Central House, Miller House, and here's Boulder Creek.
00:32:44very very interesting the X means gold placer so this is from geologic
00:32:56reconnaissance math surveyed in 1903 1904 1905 1906 and here on Boulder Creek
00:33:04there's three red X's that's interesting he's got the X's way at the headwaters
00:33:10of Boulder Creek and we're mining way down at the bottom of the stream which is
00:33:15kind of encouraging the old maps may point to better gold upstream on Boulder
00:33:22Creek Dave calls a local contact to investigate yeah hi this Cody hey Cody
00:33:30this is David turn
00:33:39it's my least favorite place I try and stay out of that place back at the podvin claim one takes
00:33:46a
00:33:46short break from the cut table to check out the gold room our cleanup process is not efficient
00:33:52that's your table there huh that's our little table so basically what are you doing you get
00:33:57your concentrates out of the sluice box are you running them through like a long time long time
00:34:02it just reduces the fines down and everything gets thrown all over the table yeah we probably average
00:34:07four days yeah four days that you're not doing something else right right nothing quick about
00:34:12it and it looks like Liva really loves it too bad but it's very time-consuming I take care of
00:34:24all the
00:34:25books and make sure all the finances are in line I'm very calculated I have spreadsheets for almost
00:34:32every aspect of this operation the books are not gonna balance if we can't get that plant up to 200
00:34:39yards an hour last year we spent every penny of our retirement it's very scary to have this large of
00:34:48an
00:34:48investment gold is not guaranteed so there's always the risk factor there's an old joke if you want to
00:34:54make a million gold mining you have to start with two million sometimes it feels like that's what
00:35:01we're doing we're constantly chasing that million dollars that's definitely a bottleneck so well let me
00:35:10think about it and see what we can't do here awesome thank you thank you sir
00:35:22appreciate it
00:35:23hello what's going on Juan this turned out to be a little more work than what I anticipated
00:35:28okay one of the big issues that we have right is the cleanup process right now it takes them four
00:35:33days to do a cleanup oh yeah it's pretty bad okay well I wanted to see if you had a
00:35:38table a used table or
00:35:39something that we could get in here to be able to help them out well I'm just gonna have to
00:35:43make
00:35:44some calls and see what's going on Juan I know you're gonna have to have it quick so yeah you
00:35:48know we're not looking for a freebie but that they have some money to throw at it if I can
00:35:52get a hold of
00:35:53one Juan I'll make you a heck of a deal on it okay yeah if you can make that work
00:35:57that'll help us out
00:35:57tremendously you just let me know as soon as you know and then I'll send somebody that way if we
00:36:01can
00:36:01you got it okay sounds good well I'm gonna get back to doing dirt work here all right buddy thanks
00:36:07red talk to you soon bye for now bye efficiency is key and right now they're taking four days to
00:36:13do a cleanup and that's not acceptable at all you know with a with a good table in here it
00:36:16should
00:36:16take that from four days to let's call it four hours
00:36:25hey one coming over to the top of you Dave next on the long list of fixes for Dave and
00:36:34Juan is to
00:36:35install the Dickinson's newly cut punch plate a punch plate is basically a wear item you don't
00:36:45want to fully weld it that way you can go in there and cut those welds out replace the top
00:36:48deck
00:36:49I like it that'll work I like it too that'll work good Dave
00:37:03let's try it right here Dave yeah four more build days left to complete an epic double rescue it's an
00:37:11early start for Dave and Juan in the Podvins hopper so right there Dave would give us the angle we
00:37:18need
00:37:18but what we're going to do is we're going to make this a less of an abrupt angle so the
00:37:22material has a
00:37:22better way of coming to the trommel so 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 Juan and Dave will create a large funnel using three-quarter inch steel plates allowing more pay to
00:37:42flow into the trommel
00:37:44we don't have a lot of shots at this you know three-quarter inch steel up here is expensive oh
00:37:49yeah and if we screw one of these up and don't get the cut right yeah we're kind of screwed
00:37:55as to say the
00:37:56least all right okay got it let's do it now that I got the pattern laid out the way I
00:38:08want I'm gonna
00:38:09put the torch on there and then the torch will do the rest it allows me to keep on working
00:38:17getting
00:38:17other things done and built we haven't had a rescue where we've had to do so much cut and fabricate
00:38:22so
00:38:22many things at one time we're burning on the CNC table now we're gonna be cutting with this arm as
00:38:26well we're pulling everything that we have in our arsenal to get it done in time and hopefully it's
00:38:46enough you Cody yeah I'm Dave thanks for coming out we'll take a look all right follow me up
00:38:53hold it back on the hunt for better ground on the Podvins 2,000 acre claim Dave brings in local
00:39:01dirt
00:39:01detective Cody Pink I called in a geologist the more information I have of what's underneath and
00:39:09the rock composition and how this was all formed will help me get these guys on better gold I think
00:39:18to get to better gold concentrations we need to get us close to the bedrock yeah and that's up in
00:39:23the
00:39:23canyon both the Dickensons and the Podvins mine the lower reaches of Boulder Creek where bedrock is far
00:39:31below the surface Boulder Creek is underexplored the potential is high this is the unicorn that
00:39:41everybody's looking for did the old-timers find it all certainly not this is an adventure go upstream and
00:39:50do some prospecting try to figure out if there's viable gold let's go see all we got to worry about
00:40:06as the Bears we need to go upstream to find better gold on a mission to rescue two operations in
00:40:13central
00:40:14Alaska I think we should do a couple pans here we're not quite to the bedrock yet but I believe
00:40:21true bedrock
00:40:21is below us here Dave Turin and geologist Cody Pink head up Boulder Creek on the hunt for better gold
00:40:29I'll
00:40:30take one side of the stream you take the other okay now that we've gone upstream I'm hoping to see
00:40:44more
00:40:45color you find anything in the first pan nope nothing to get too excited about we're not at the bedrock
00:40:58interface so the
00:40:59fact that we're not seeing nuggets of gold in every pan isn't necessarily discouraging I'm gonna have to go
00:41:09further upstream okay do you want to just hop on back yeah bedrock forms an impenetrable layer which
00:41:19should capture heavy gold particles but not all ground is gold bearing we've definitely got bedrock
00:41:30coming down to the creek and it looks like there's a little bench right up in there for the slow
00:41:35moving
00:41:35water is okay let's go investigate that I love this stuff brings me back to the old timers comes
00:41:43down to a pan and a man in a creek I just love it I absolutely love it
00:41:54I think I think I had one piece one right at the head there a little bit way up really
00:42:04do you see
00:42:04anything in yours no nothing it's the last I got a cut as Dave scrambles for better ground Juan cuts
00:42:29to
00:42:29the chase on the podvins hopper fix we were able to get all those plates cut there in a matter
00:42:35of maybe
00:42:3545 minutes you know that would have taken somebody by hand you know half a day to cut that we've
00:42:40got to
00:42:41prep them a little bit and then they're ready going to the plant so it does save a lot of
00:42:44time these are
00:42:46three-quarter inch plates this one right here probably weighs 125 130 pounds they're not light but it's the
00:42:53type of material you need for these bigger plants that's definitely 130 pounds podvin steel cut next
00:43:05one moves to the Dickinson's job so we're cutting out the pieces for the distribution box on Fred's
00:43:12plant the chute will rest under the shaker deck to give an even feed of material into the sluices
00:43:22all that material and we're going to concentrate it and then we're going to distribute it where we
00:43:26want it this can be the bottom pan of it we're going to put sides and those two downspouts that'll
00:43:34be the center of both sluices ready to do a little work yes sir all right so what we're going
00:43:40to do is
00:43:40we're going to start welding this out this is going to be your distribution box so what we'll do is
00:43:44we'll
00:43:44get going on it I'll help you uh kind of get started on welding it I don't have anything this
00:43:49fancy
00:43:52you're pushing uphill right about this angle push uphill right slowly you make sure that you get
00:43:58both sides let it get wet and then you travel up there you go move a little quicker
00:44:07it actually it's really cool for me to come in here and see you guys you know from where you
00:44:11guys
00:44:11started with that little plant in Arizona to where you're at now you know you guys got a full-size
00:44:14plant you got more equipment you're actually running some decent yardage and it's got to be fun
00:44:19to be able to be out here with your dad and your brother to work and be able to kind
00:44:22of spend the
00:44:22summer together yeah it's a lot of fun a lot of hard work my first gold claim was when I
00:44:29was 12
00:44:29years old it was Dickinson won are we going to find some gold yeah this season has been really hard
00:44:35out here it's been really difficult for us but trying to push forward I really want to stay out here
00:44:43doing this I want to I want to come out here every summer and hopefully have a family and bring
00:44:49them
00:44:49up here too that's my goal find a girl who can move some dirt
00:44:58all right let's see it
00:45:07that's pretty good man oh this is very useful I need to know this stuff you know you saw how
00:45:12quick
00:45:13that work right yeah just little things like that are going to help you along your career it sounds like
00:45:18you want to keep on doing this for a while right I do I really do it's awesome to see
00:45:25Josh in there
00:45:26working with Juan teaching him some different tips and tricks on welding it looks like he's he's having
00:45:31fun and learning things that's always great sweet man I'm looking forward to seeing this on the plan
00:45:43well I'm not giving up yet let's try one more time let's do one more where the bedrock dips in
00:45:51maybe we
00:45:52can find a trap two miles upstream on Boulder Creek Cody and Dave are yet to find any indications of
00:46:04higher value ground we're beating a dead horse we hit it hard would we pull how many pans did we
00:46:17all
00:46:17pull 16 18 pans today yeah to find two little specks of gold I'm not really encouraged and yeah
00:46:25probably what the old-timers did could be why this was overlooked I think they did the same thing we
00:46:30did
00:46:30yeah I think they panned it and we're like yeah Dave's research shows gold deposits but his test on
00:46:38a two-mile stretch of Boulder Creek uncovers no signs of concentrated gold the guys that are mining
00:46:46here there's gold in the sluice box but it's very lean yeah I mean they're not going to have
00:46:53expectations that if they go up further they're going to find better gold even that information is good
00:46:58information yeah when 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 what we found is there really isn't so now plan B is to
00:47:18up the production to get them mining as efficiently as we can they're on lean ground but I think they
00:47:26can
00:47:26make money here coming up we gotta shut it off or it's gonna keep burning we're getting ready to
00:47:36flare back up over here this is ice you're running 110 yards an hour won't do it I've been losing
00:47:47my
00:47:47mind whoa it doesn't look terrible for four hours wow awesome I've got a huge fuel bill to pay that's
00:48:08almost 28 grand we owe them the fuel right now they won't deliver until I get caught up I paid
00:48:14the 90 day
00:48:14past due but we're still 60 days past due in the Dickinson's camp central Alaska with seven weeks
00:48:22till the end of season Fred and his boys take stock Josh I know you've got your credit card payment
00:48:28due
00:48:28is there anything else just a regular amount of 250 okay pay my car insurance off I get them on
00:48:37payment
00:48:37keeps it going up yeah we can't pay it off right now but I can get you the minimum payment
00:48:43that's a
00:48:44most of the next two cleanups is going to fuel so we're gonna set to kind of be snug until
00:48:49we can get
00:48:50those in there those boys are making big sacrifices to be out here and to to build this as a
00:48:57family we're
00:48:59miles from the Arctic Circle and hours away from the nearest town you know they're 20 and 22 years old
00:49:04most people are out with their friends doing fun things I know it's hard for me to be away from
00:49:09my wife but I'm in my 50s I hadn't really considered how difficult this really could be for them
00:49:25hey Fred hey Dave how you doing doing good man how are you hey I wanted to kind of look
00:49:31at your pit
00:49:32after his pay prospecting mission fails to find higher grade pay Dave sets his sights on the
00:49:39production side of Fred's operation this is all overburden that we flip back to here okay there's
00:49:46some logistical things that I think I can help them with I took a quick look at his pit it
00:49:53looks pretty
00:49:53unorganized you know they shut down oh gosh we're out of pay so they go down and dig pay and
00:49:59then they're
00:49:59like all right we got pay let's run so I want to get them more efficient let me ask you
00:50:05something how
00:50:06do you get your pay out of there to your wash plant um so right now we write we write
00:50:12an excavator so we
00:50:14it's almost three times from pay to there you'd swing it to there swing it maybe four times it's
00:50:21four yeah probably four flips the idea originally was to push it with the dozer I haven't been able to
00:50:27build a road and run it why not right on here this is really soft I can make a road
00:50:33here just push
00:50:34this out of the way and get you a pretty decent road in here down into the cut you mean
00:50:38yeah to the
00:50:38cut oh wow I love it yeah that would be good if you flip pay four times it's a waste
00:50:46of fuel and it's a waste of
00:50:49you know sunshine if I have a dozer I think I could get a road to the wash plant that
00:50:55you can continually
00:50:56get pay from and then he's good to go so give me a day and I think I can get
00:51:01it done Dave's plan use
00:51:04a bulldozer to build a road from the wash plant to Fred's cut this will allow Fred and the boys
00:51:11to push
00:51:12pay seamlessly the 300 yards from cut to plant in one move eliminating the need for the excavator but
00:51:22Fred's D9 is still out of commission Dave's plans exciting it's good I like it you know he's got a
00:51:28whole lot more experience than I do the dozer breaks constantly is really the problem I think
00:51:34we're on day three or four I don't even remember right now how's it going kid we've got a leak
00:51:40right on this third gasket is that one we just replaced yeah wait is it leaking from here or is
00:51:47it leaking from here that one oh shoot oh well pull it back apart there's nothing else we can do
00:51:54it's
00:51:55important that we have this thing Dave's got a new plan to push pay to the plant with it but
00:51:59without
00:51:59this dozer that plan can't happen we're gonna do is we're gonna take the crane truck over there get
00:52:10these lifted up where we need them and get them in place dozer's still down Dave helps one transport
00:52:16the finished plates for the Podvins hopper it's all hands on deck we got to get these plates down
00:52:22there to the Podvins we got to get this in
00:52:38the hopper is built originally too sharp so the hopper basically will hang a rock up and then it
00:52:45gets a big mound in there and plugs it so by doing this doesn't allow rocks to hang up in
00:52:51there it's
00:52:51gonna be awesome joining the fight is the Podvins welder Casey Stagnon coming over you guys good
00:53:00coming down we raised it about this high and then it gives them this much more room for material to
00:53:13sit in here this is gonna help keep rocks off the spray bar mom thought of that protecting the spray
00:53:19bars that's awesome because it's something we didn't even think of or no better than I could imagine they
00:53:25should fix the hopper pretty much on her percent job it's great man thank you you got a lot of
00:53:33welding to do buddy a lot of welding to do yeah
00:53:53starting all the cuts on the Podvins distribution shoot it's going to be a v-splitter we're actually
00:53:58going to do four runs there's only two days to go before the final test runs in the race to
00:54:05fix two
00:54:05plants Juan and the crew are hot on the build of the Podvins large 10-foot distribution box right now
00:54:13the way the plants running there's a big chance that they're losing a lot of the fine gold having
00:54:18more even feet across the whole box is gonna help that material enters the 10-foot wide sluice at one
00:54:28point flowing down the edge of the box with no place to settle gold is being lost out the end
00:54:35to cope
00:54:38with the extra material through the plant and to recover more gold Juan is building a distribution
00:54:44box with four down spouts spreading the flow of material across the entire width of the sluice
00:54:52taking on two big bills in the same time that we normally do one build it's hard enough but we're
00:54:58coming out swinging ultimately I know their plants gonna be better for what we're doing to it between the
00:55:03hopper and the distribution it's gonna be a whole other machine fire fire fire fire fire at our camp
00:55:22do they need help come on Xena I got the water truck in the Arctic tundra summer high winds plus
00:55:32dry brush
00:55:33creates a highly flammable mixture apparently there's fire they had to race off right now you
00:55:38know these high winds with a fire it's not good we don't know how big this fire is let me
00:55:47it's my
00:55:48machine we got to snuff this all out yes sir dirt on top got it
00:56:08the patch right there this patch is right there Alex we're getting ready to flare back up over here
00:56:27we got to shut it off or it's gonna keep burning in the Alaska double rescue wildfire breaks out
00:56:35threatening the miners camps when the winds like this I mean if it were to get roaring there'd be
00:56:39no stopping it so they're gonna come with the cat and spread all this dirt on top there to shut
00:56:44the
00:56:44air off so the wind is just firing the members right back up he's gonna take the dozer and push
00:56:50all this dirt right over top so it should smother it okay nice work dude good job this could have
00:57:03been
00:57:03catastrophic it's blowing straight to our camp we could have had a really bad situation so we'll
00:57:09throw dirt over it we should suffocate it good work gentlemen go team absolutely teamwork makes
00:57:15the dream work you got to come together under pressure you got to do it you know we're a team
00:57:19all of us so it has to be that way or you don't make it out here you did a
00:57:23great job Matt you went
00:57:24in there with the excavator you're actually ripping it up getting it all put out good work
00:57:32well that was pretty scary with community help everybody jumping in helping out we got it out
00:57:39good job bud thank you all right we can get a jump for you too getting that water pump yeah
00:57:44we got that
00:57:44put out huh all right a little bit everybody I think oh definitely
00:57:57what's going on a little surprise from Freddie just showed up really brand new table Freddie came
00:58:04through sweet here's the baby wow nice could make life a little bit easier for you definitely no more
00:58:12brushing no more brushing and your gold is at this end you can look at it it's bright and shiny
00:58:17it's nice
00:58:18perfect I'm excited to see it working okay I'm clear good Dave I like it I think it's gonna be
00:58:28a
00:58:28game-changer that's for sure since this thing's very heavy I cut some inch and a half two inch pipe
00:58:35we put it on the ground we're gonna use that as rollers when we get it to roll in you
00:58:42happy with
00:58:42it here absolutely I think it's a good place awesome
00:58:52full throttle after days of blood sweat and oil
00:58:59come on baby you can do it
00:59:04Brian's hard work has paid off
00:59:08good job Brian
00:59:14that D9 is kind of a really important piece of equipment it was definitely crucial to get that
00:59:18up and running Brian knocked it out of the park you know for a 20 year old man to take
00:59:22that on and take
00:59:23it apart himself and put it back together it's impressive feeling pretty good those are warming up so far no
00:59:32leaks
00:59:35nicely done kid thanks nicely done very very pleased couldn't be prouder of Brian pulling this thing apart and
00:59:45putting it back together he did a good job we get Dave behind the controls and we'll be able to
00:59:53see what
00:59:53old girl can do D9 back in action Dave begins his plan to maximize the Dickinson's production so if I
01:00:01get him
01:00:02that road where he could push with the dozer it's way more efficient than flipping his pay once he builds
01:00:08this road and starts ramping it up it's going to be pretty easy for us to just push from where
01:00:13the pay
01:00:13is over to the wash plant it's gonna be a whole lot faster than doing it with this excavator so
01:00:18we're happy about it
01:00:36frozen ground I'm sliding
01:00:53I mean this is ice it's perma-cross and I can't get up on here I just slide off
01:01:09it's his dozer I don't want to break it it's just solid ice and sometimes it's like concrete
01:01:23permafrost permanently frozen ground blocks the path of Dave's new road well good news and bad
01:01:30news okay good news Brian the engine's running good oh good so bad news is that ground's frozen
01:01:39good news and uh I did a couple slides on it oh okay and uh I just don't want to
01:01:48get on that ice and
01:01:50throw a track okay that's what scares me Fred doesn't have a lot of options and it's kind of desperate
01:02:10times there's hundreds hundreds of welds while Dave devises a plan to overcome the ice on the
01:02:18pudvin mine Casey is 11 hours into welding hopper plates with no end in sight this needs to be able
01:02:27to handle the rocks that are falling in plus the excavator touching it this three-quarter inch plate
01:02:32so you're trying to get the weld all the way through if you just put a little bit of weld
01:02:36on
01:02:36the outside it'll snap you know through there I had to go over it 10 15 times there's a lot
01:02:41of welding
01:02:42still gonna be maybe three more passes here I'm just trying to figure out a plan here my dozer keeps
01:02:57slipping on that ice but it's gonna be difficult in the Dickinson's cut Dave puzzles through his
01:03:05permafrost roadblock if you could clean that up pitch it up and back I could probably get it see if
01:03:11we
01:03:11can build a rotor on the ice maybe yeah you want me to try that yeah all right I think
01:03:16we got a plan
01:03:17the problem is in the middle of my road is a big chunk of ice with uh Fred's help on
01:03:24the excavator I
01:03:24think I can maneuver around it let's do it Dave's plan is to use an excavator to reclaim the low
01:03:40area
01:03:40beside the frozen ground using tailings and overburden then build the road around the ice
01:03:54it's very frozen solid mother nature's trying to say uh she's mine I'm gonna politely disagree
01:04:13coming up as Dave and Fred battle the ice one presses ahead with the installation of Fred's new
01:04:22distribution box so we got the splitter chute all built what we're gonna do we already cut that
01:04:28existing chute off we're gonna make this up to that base right there and get it welded in lower that
01:04:34down a little bit Alex that box isn't square you look great on edge there I push down on mine
01:04:43I
01:04:43might be able to get it I wonder if we can suck this in probably not so I've got a
01:04:47full quarter inch
01:04:49to three-eighth gap on the top it's in it's just we got a big-ass gap now terrible losing
01:05:03my mind
01:05:17go get me some mild steel trap from up top a couple scraps so we can cut some of these
01:05:22angles 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 we're gonna have to make some adjustment over here you know it fit
01:05:40really good but I didn't realize that that chute as it went further in it wasn't square so now we're
01:05:46gonna have to make a little bit of a filler piece which is not the end of the world but
01:05:49we'll get it
01:05:50just takes a little longer this is not exactly how we wanted it but it's what we got to do
01:05:59to make
01:05:59it work Travis can you give me more 60-10 you know something we have to do in the field
01:06:06we just have
01:06:07to adapt make a little filler plate but it's just part of it while Juan finishes the distribution chute
01:06:13installed despite a few obstacles this plans coming together Fred and Dave make inroads in the cut it's
01:06:25starting to come together with him flipping overburden if we get that dozer in here I think I can get
01:06:32it
01:06:32down low ground now packed with overburden Dave attempts to push past the ice
01:07:10ice bypass Dave completes his new pay highway
01:07:19so I'm about ready to turn around and start pushing pay
01:07:42it's a lot more organized
01:07:52you got an excavator feeding those are feeding the excavator they're in business
01:08:08all major fixes now complete at the Dickinson's we're just finishing up the splitter Juan turns
01:08:15his attention to the Podvin's larger chute we're actually going to split it four ways the material
01:08:22coming off the bottom of the trommel is going to hit this it'll split twice and then once it comes
01:08:27down
01:08:27each side it'll split again so that way it actually evenly splits to four different parts they'll be able
01:08:35to run more material and they'll be able to lose it more efficiently done I think it's great I'm excited
01:08:41to see it finished up I think it should be awesome coming up final welds made Juan races to get
01:08:50the
01:08:50splitter installed trying to do two plants at the same time with the same amount of time it's really
01:08:56difficult it's been a long build but it's getting there up above welder Casey works on the final
01:09:03beads on the hopper about two days and about 22 hours worth of welding this is the last weld
01:09:16all right that's done they're in it's done good job thanks buddy it should be good you know in that
01:09:28hopper it really should be able to get that material flowing the way they want I agree instead of getting
01:09:32stuck you know it should flow on its own they get up to 200 yards an hour now I think
01:09:37the sluice box is
01:09:38going to accept it oh yeah yeah it looks good I'm happy with it perfect let's flip it on and
01:09:52just
01:09:52see if it everything's working back at the podvin workshop Dave gives a crash course for the new gold
01:09:58table pumps working got a nice bump to it Eric there's your new table do you guys have any cons
01:10:10or
01:10:11something that we could run across this table we've got our tailings off of what we used to do off
01:10:15our
01:10:16old table let's give it a try yeah crazy sure beats painting the table with a fake brush I know
01:10:27right
01:10:29that's impressive that is very impressive so you're just really walking around in circles and
01:10:33adjustment 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 Levi and everyone else to spend more time
01:10:47doing
01:10:47other things around the mine it was really fun to see Daryl Levi and Eric see what that gold table
01:10:55can
01:10:55do and it's kind of a game changer because it takes so much less time to do your cleanups and
01:11:03Daryl
01:11:03gets it because now his time can be better spent doing something else it's down to the wire on both
01:11:13operations and at the Dickinson's wash plant Juan races to build the plumbing system for the new
01:11:21hopper jet all they had for water was this little spray bar so by adding that jet we're gonna introduce
01:11:29more water but also be able to control the feed the team add a new six-inch pipe diverting water
01:11:36from
01:11:37the existing system up to the hopper jet that's the final walls for the tube and move as quick as
01:11:43we
01:11:43can right now we still got miles to go but hopefully we can start a test run soon there's never
01:11:52enough
01:11:52hours in a day there really isn't Josh you're gonna get burnt a little bit you're gonna be
01:11:57okay though he'll survive yeah right I'm laying out the deflector for the back of the hopper there's
01:12:09gonna deflect the water from going straight out to down and actually hit the pan so that way push the
01:12:13material in as one wraps up the water fix come on big boy let's go Dave and Josh install the
01:12:21finishing touches to the shaker system these are the counterweights we're gonna put these on to give
01:12:27more violent shake so that it actually throws the rock up you do not want these to come off trust
01:12:38me
01:12:38all right everybody's working hard now we got Alex and Travis and Juan's up above we've got Brian me
01:12:47Fred's gonna set a pump once just about got the water jet in the back in the feeder that way
01:12:53we
01:12:53can run the test run I think we're very close what this does when the water hits the back of
01:12:58this it'll
01:12:58push it forward it's gonna actually wash down this plate I'm gonna call that good it's done it's in
01:13:05it's all welded in all plumbed in we're ready to go both plants are now finished with daylight fading
01:13:14Juan and Dave must complete two test runs to be sure their fixes are working been a long haul you
01:13:22know
01:13:22trying to take on two plants of this size with the same time it's tough and we're running out of
01:13:27daylight in his season is getting close to the end yeah well hopefully these fixes are gonna be a big
01:13:32enough improvement for him so he can make up the time fire it up kid we ready all right we're
01:13:52starting
01:13:52the timer right now take a look at the bottom oh it's flowing way better I like that vibration I
01:14:09think spend it up plus your water jet not only that now with that punch plate not being square
01:14:15it's not getting hung up plus we're smaller openings they're gonna add more yards per hour yeah they're
01:14:22gonna be rocking and rolling more than they think looks good looks real good I like that flow pretty
01:14:30evenly matched Juan they really are that distribution actually looks pretty darn good with the Dickinson's
01:14:39second test underway Juan and Dave head to fire up the Podvins operation that doesn't look good Dave what's that
01:14:48about I don't know look Jane drives down what's going on guys what's happening here we move the motor
01:15:14so you pulled it down hold it down from underneath it put it up on side worried about their drive
01:15:21system
01:15:21the Podvins have pulled the plug on their second test run we had a legit concern that with their
01:15:28fixes up there I really think they're gonna push 200 yards an hour material in that drum on the flip
01:15:33side of that it might work too good for our drive system so someone's got to do the next step
01:15:38get a
01:15:40little more chain wrapped around it yeah a little more traction on the drive sprocket yeah once it's
01:15:45getting more material fed into it and up in that production that's gonna be our next spot you know
01:15:52it's a little tough you know we did a lot of work on this plant we wanted to see it
01:15:55run unfortunately I'm
01:15:56not gonna be able to stay here to watch it run the truth is I have to be another mine
01:16:00and in a couple
01:16:01days so I got to get going there's always a little bit of a worry even with my calculations
01:16:07and everything else and the yardage they're gonna be running in the water flows but until you actually
01:16:11see it run sometimes you don't know you know so I am a little nervous about that but regardless I
01:16:17know what we did here is gonna help them tremendously slow down slow down two hours into the test run
01:16:31at
01:16:32the Dickinson mine you're running over a hundred and ten yards an hour right now won't do it Josh runs
01:16:39double the yardage from the first test all I see is that second that second he's overfeeding it
01:16:48we're running over a hundred yards an hour right now nothing on that desk right now he's doing a
01:16:54bucket every 28 seconds taking it though here we're good settling out down here it's good pick
01:17:02it up pick up the pace man I would run it all right Josh see what she'll take
01:17:16it's crazy they're running out of pay Dave jumps back in the dozer to keep the plant fed from his
01:17:24pay
01:17:24highway those are Dave on my dozer pretty awesome four yardage four gold so we're gonna have to kind
01:17:35of feel it out and see it's kind of like going from a v6 to a Ferrari we can do
01:17:41ten hours of work in
01:17:42five hours that's insanity that doubles our profit this is really fantastic hey Fred hey that's four
01:17:54hours let's shut it down all right let's do it all right Josh last bucket kiddo last bucket
01:18:03all right shut her down buddy there you go yeah there's a little gold in there look at that one
01:18:20they're deep in the mats they're right there there's some big big check this one out you're on some gold
01:18:24oh yeah contrary to popular belief there is some gold in Boulder Creek it's looking pretty good you guys
01:18:31it's kind of late now why don't we clean it up in the morning and see what we got let's
01:18:35do a gold
01:18:35way yeah let's do it damn he ran what we normally run in about eight hours in four hours so
01:18:44I couldn't
01:18:44be happier it means a lot it's going to be good
01:18:59hey everyone good run hey we got the whole crew here everyone's here perfect six days of hardcore effort across
01:19:08two claims the families come together to see the results on the Dickinson's operation
01:19:14oh it's the moment of truth you got the gold I do and it looks pretty substantial dude whoa that
01:19:21doesn't look terrible for four hours no
01:19:23well you know it really looks like you know we're catching a lot of that fine gold um but honestly
01:19:28we ran a lot more material during that that test run it was huge yeah closer to 100
01:19:33yards an hour on average well let's weigh it up huh you know during the first test run we were
01:19:370.94 let's see what this is
01:19:43there's 0.93
01:19:461.96 a little over what you did last time there's still more yeah
01:19:51a little more oh
01:19:53tap tap tap
01:19:562.64
01:19:58huge increase
01:19:59yeah nearly two and a half times
01:20:012.64 ounces
01:20:04a 180 percent increase on their first run
01:20:10that is really good that's dang good
01:20:12that's over half an ounce an hour which is what we're looking for right there
01:20:15absolutely you 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 that's a game changer for us we really appreciate it
01:20:25oh gosh yeah
01:20:25well 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 let us know how it's going
01:20:36we will do that
01:20:37please
01:20:37we'll do it
01:20:38we'll do it
01:20:38we don't see any reason that ain't gonna
01:20:40no
01:20:41get us screaming material through that
01:20:43thank you so much for
01:20:44yeah
01:20:44everything you've done
01:20:45both you guys
01:20:46likewise thank you
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
01:20:53nice 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
01:20:58thank you guys all
01:20:59hey
01:21:00great working with you
01:21:01likewise
01:21:01thank you
01:21:02hey thank you
01:21:02appreciate it man
01:21:03good seeing you
01:21:04this is huge
01:21:05I knew they would increase our production
01:21:07but I had no idea it was going to be
01:21:10that profound
01:21:11when Juan and Dave got here
01:21:13it wasn't looking very good for us
01:21:14but seeing this the way that it is
01:21:17and if we can finish this
01:21:17you guys
01:21:18just keep doing what you're doing
01:21:20now we can do that
01:21:21honestly
01:21:22I feel like we've got this
01:21:23I'm very excited about the fixes they've made
01:21:26I think it's going to be absolutely awesome
01:21:29when they brought up the idea of changing the seuss box
01:21:32I wasn't too keen on it
01:21:34hey
01:21:35I'm allowed to be wrong once a year
01:21:38I'm excited for these guys
01:21:39it really does warm the heart
01:21:41because we all work together
01:21:42and that's what it's all about
01:21:44it's community
01:21:45and miners
01:21:46helping each other out
01:21:56hi Juan and Dave
01:21:57this is Darrell
01:21:58the season went good
01:21:59we sluiced through
01:22:01I don't even know how many acres
01:22:02but we did it in a hurry
01:22:03that wash plant's doing
01:22:04over 200 yards an hour
01:22:06exactly how we wanted it to
01:22:07and thank you guys for all your help with it
01:22:11everything on the hopper is phenomenal
01:22:12it's working great
01:22:13Matthew can stuff a full bucket in
01:22:16and it just eats it
01:22:18our first thing up was 95 ounces
01:22:21that was the best that we've ever had
01:22:24we just got just over 500 ounces
01:22:27that's huge
01:22:28we're very excited for years to come
01:22:30what that thing's going to do
01:22:31it's awesome
01:22:35it's awesome to have this dream come true
01:22:40hey Juan and Dave
01:22:41Fred Dickinson here
01:22:42just wanted to let you know
01:22:43that we're doing great
01:22:46we're getting to the end of the season
01:22:47as you can see
01:22:49there's snow up on the mountain
01:22:50we're doing pretty well out here
01:22:52a little late in the season
01:22:53but we're going to keep mining
01:22:58there's our road
01:22:59up to the wash plant
01:23:01there's our cut
01:23:02you can see quite a bit of it's missing now
01:23:12sorry about the noise in the background
01:23:13Brian's ready to run
01:23:14all right
01:23:15thanks again guys
01:23:16we'll see you later
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