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00:03This will be our 11th year working together, and we've helped a lot of struggling miners.
00:08But I tell you, there's nobody out there that I would rather work with than Juan Ibarra.
00:14How's it going, buddy?
00:15Good, buddy.
00:15You're looking good.
00:16All right, thanks.
00:17You too.
00:18Tell me what you got going on, man.
00:21Freddie and Juan pull off the impossible in five years of tough rescues across North
00:27America.
00:27There's $2,900 worth of gold in that, man.
00:31They've transformed some of the most broken operations.
00:34Out, out, out, out, we got to go, we got to go.
00:36To get miners back on the gold.
00:39Holy cow.
00:40But not everything makes it to air.
00:42The road just collapsed.
00:44Sometimes the challenges and off-the-cuff moments that aren't featured.
00:48I guess my phone's done.
00:51Revealed just as much about a rescue as the ones that are.
00:54This might be the one that bites us in the hind quarters.
00:57The busted gear.
00:59I hope Freddie and Juan have a plan here.
01:01Sleepless nights.
01:02It's been a long summer.
01:05It's been a long summer.
01:24Lost footage that has changed lives.
01:28Yeah.
01:28Made them from not making a living to making a darn good living.
01:32And fueled the ongoing fight for miners nationwide.
01:36In modern society, we're going to continue to need these precious metals.
01:39Oh, you're talking.
01:50Regardless of the difficulties we've had over the years, it's been really rewarding to
01:54do what we do.
01:55Me and you have watched the show together quite a few times.
01:58Then we're like, what happened to that footage?
02:00What happened to that footage?
02:02There's been a lot of things that we've done that are just amazing and memorable.
02:06Mm-hmm.
02:07But it would be a week-long show.
02:08Yeah.
02:09It would be.
02:10It would be a week.
02:10Yeah.
02:10It would be a soap opera.
02:11Really, when it comes down to it, Freddie, the most underrated pressure that we have on
02:15a rescue is when things behind the scenes go wrong.
02:18And then it puts that much more pressure on you and I and everyone else.
02:26In British Columbia, Freddie and Juan face a never-before-seen fixed gun arrive that threatens
02:33to topple a dire rescue.
02:34How you doing?
02:36Good.
02:36I'm Anthony.
02:37I'm Juan.
02:37Juan, nice to meet you.
02:38Freddie, good to meet you.
02:38The moth mine is in deep trouble.
02:41Mine owner Anthony needs to produce over four ounces of gold a day in order to stay mining.
02:47But he's on the wrong ground.
02:49They are super fine, Juan.
02:51That's not good.
02:52And his plan unfit for duty.
02:55Already that hopper is just terrible, Freddie.
02:57Right now, it's absolutely clogged up.
03:00The plan?
03:01First, Freddie and Juan must secure a new cut.
03:05Yeah, I got some color.
03:06And second, rebuild his broken hopper.
03:10I'm gonna put tubes across in here.
03:12Mm-hmm.
03:12It'll hold a lot of that weight that's in the center here off that belt.
03:15Yeah, it looks nice.
03:18But when it comes time for a second test run...
03:22Firing it up!
03:24Freddie's load bar fix fails.
03:34I think we've got a problem still in there.
03:36That material's getting held up.
03:37It just sticks together.
03:38Let's go have a look at it.
03:41We get a plan together.
03:42Mm-hmm.
03:43And out of the blue, something happens that blows our plan apart.
03:47There's things we have no control over.
03:49So that really stresses you out,
03:51because now you don't control the situation any longer.
03:56That material's real gummy, boy.
03:59Yeah.
03:59It's got the plant slowed way down right now.
04:04At this point, not very good.
04:06We just might have to make some adjustments.
04:07I'm not sure yet.
04:09I hope Freddie and Juan have a plan here.
04:12There's been many times where I've been humbled.
04:14All of a sudden, it gets turned around on me.
04:15I'm like, okay, maybe I didn't know as much as I thought I knew.
04:18But we figure it out on spot, and then we have to improvise.
04:24What do you think about putting a vibrator on it?
04:26We can, absolutely.
04:27We might be able to do it while you're running, too.
04:29Because that material...
04:30It's bad, yeah.
04:31If it was perfectly dry, it'd be a piece of cake.
04:34But right now, you can make mud balls out of it.
04:36Yeah.
04:36Yeah, let's go get it.
04:37Okay, let's do this.
04:39I think that's where, really, we kind of excel,
04:42because we think outside of the box.
04:43Mm-hmm.
04:44And I personally like it when we go to a situation
04:46where we have no idea what the hell we're gonna do,
04:48but we have to figure it out.
04:49On the fly.
04:51I hate running into unknowns,
04:52but you just don't know sometimes
04:54until you actually start running the plant.
04:56So, gotta hurry and get it done.
04:58We'll see what happens.
05:01Freddie and Juan putting a vibrator on the box,
05:04and hopefully they can get that done pretty quick,
05:06because we need to get this test run done.
05:08My son's stressed out.
05:09Hopefully there's gonna be good pay in this test run,
05:11and I'll be able to see that stress go away.
05:14The vibrator will break up the sticky pay
05:16and keep it moving.
05:18Anthony, you feed it,
05:20and then I'll go up and weld,
05:21and then you feed it.
05:22We can hopscotch.
05:23Okay.
05:27I really appreciate the fact
05:29that even while we're running,
05:30they're in there trying to, you know,
05:31fix little issues,
05:32but I just gotta kind of keep sluicing
05:33to get this four-hour test in.
05:35She's good, Juan.
05:36Good?
05:36She'll hold, yeah.
05:37All right, buddy.
05:38Hey, Freddie.
05:38Yeah?
05:39Can I put some more dirt in?
05:40Yeah.
05:51Normally, we don't work on plants while they're still running,
05:53but this is the last test runner.
05:54We don't have a whole lot of time left,
05:56so we just had to improvise.
06:02There we go.
06:05That's good.
06:07Well, it's working pretty good.
06:08That vibrator's getting that material to fall down.
06:12Really tough material to deal with.
06:14But all is good now.
06:15Last bucket!
06:18What a lot of people don't see
06:19is some of the stress
06:20that you and myself are under.
06:22Most people, if they make a mistake,
06:24only a few people see it.
06:26It's not millions of people, right?
06:27Like, oh, they screwed up that time.
06:33Freddie and Juan, I just want to thank you guys
06:35with your guys' fixes.
06:37Everything that we've been fighting
06:37is now running smoothly.
06:39After the rescue,
06:41Anthony opens up the new ground.
06:44Check that out.
06:45That's a lot of gold.
06:47The big win there is when they were able
06:49to go after that new cut,
06:50and it was huge.
06:51Yeah.
06:52It's unbelievable.
06:53I mean, it's better than anything we could have hoped for.
06:57Unless we have the guys that have been in the industry
06:59that are willing to share their knowledge,
07:00there's not going to be a new generation
07:02that knows what to do.
07:02They need people like you and myself
07:04to go out and give them a hand once in a while.
07:06Yeah.
07:07Well, sometimes we come across minds
07:09that we know they've got these problems,
07:11but it's hard to tell them, you know,
07:13that they didn't build this right,
07:15they didn't do that right.
07:16Yeah.
07:21In Northwest Colorado,
07:23near the Wyoming border,
07:25Freddie and Juan face a tough conversation
07:28with miner Peter Friedman.
07:30Thank you so much.
07:32Nice to meet you, Peter Juan.
07:32Nice to meet you, Peter.
07:33I need your help.
07:34In debt and facing the end of his mining dream,
07:38Greenhorn Peter and his crew of four
07:40run a huge operation with little to no profit.
07:44The thing about Peter was he'd been taking advice
07:47from people he shouldn't have been taking advice from.
07:49Yeah.
07:50Because he was new in the industry
07:51and he spent all kinds of money.
07:54Freddie and Juan pinpoint the flaw
07:56in Peter's poor cleanups.
07:58I think you ought to get a finishing table in here.
08:00I've got a used table.
08:02I'll sell it to you for about half
08:03what a new one goes for.
08:04The gold's real hard to separate.
08:06No table can get it clean, Freddie.
08:08I've tried five different tables.
08:10But I'm 99% sure it'll work.
08:13If it doesn't work, you don't have to buy it.
08:15Deal?
08:16Deal.
08:17I was actually nervous when he said that.
08:19I remember that.
08:20I'm like, hell, maybe mine won't.
08:21I was confident, but...
08:22He might have something different.
08:23I don't know.
08:26But after convincing Peter about the new gold table,
08:30Freddie and Juan head into an even tougher conversation.
08:34So you got a concrete pad to put the finishing table on?
08:37Yeah, I do.
08:37I'll show you where it is.
08:38Because we have to have a concrete pad over here, Peter.
08:42Yeah.
08:43I got bolts already sunk.
08:44Maybe we can, uh...
08:45I know.
08:47It's too small.
08:49It may be solid, but it's way too small.
08:51All right.
08:51Well, you're the expert.
08:54We need a pad that's 12 feet long.
08:57The concrete base is too small
09:00to provide a solid foundation for the new table.
09:03To here.
09:04That long.
09:06And about eight feet wide.
09:07Let's yank it out.
09:09We'll pour a new one.
09:11A plan Peter doesn't like.
09:13Freddie and Juan are here and tearing my up already.
09:18I hope it works out.
09:19A little nervous.
09:21It really comes down to Freddie.
09:22You know, sometimes we need to give him tough love, right?
09:24Mm-hmm.
09:25But we gotta be tactful about it as well.
09:29I was pretty proud of that pad.
09:32He's a cute little guy.
09:34Yep.
09:35Watch your toes.
09:37Right here would be great.
09:38Okay.
09:39We want to spare their feelings.
09:41But, you know, sometimes it does require us to say,
09:44hey, let's do something different.
09:45And that's why you called us.
09:48Concrete trucks here, 1-0.
09:50Nice.
09:58Looks good, guys.
09:59Good job.
09:59Thanks.
10:00Good job.
10:01Good job.
10:02Once the concrete is cured, the team lift the finishing table into place, ready for the final
10:09test run.
10:09Good, Fred.
10:10When the gold comes off that table, it'll be 98% clean.
10:15I'm skeptical.
10:16I've tried every table they make out there, and we haven't had one that would really make a clean product
10:21without losing a lot of gold.
10:23From day one, he's like, I don't think it's gonna work.
10:25I don't think it's gonna work.
10:26Fix is complete on the plan.
10:28The sluices are running 80 yards an hour now.
10:31Wow, we've never had that kind of run.
10:33And new table up and running.
10:35And it looks like it's accumulating.
10:37Now I see the gold really coming out.
10:39The second test results are weighed.
10:42Well, we're at .23 right now.
10:454-3.
10:466.
10:49.84.
10:49.84 ounces.
10:54That's a hell of a lot better gold than that first test.
10:56A massive 600% increase.
11:00Here's your gold, guys.
11:01Now you're talking some serious money.
11:02Decent, you know.
11:04Sure enough, they went out there.
11:05That's the best gold they've ever seen.
11:07We're coming from a point of love, right?
11:08You know, or from a position that we're genuinely trying to help them.
11:11And so it's kind of a balancing act.
11:14It really is.
11:15A little tough love doesn't always save a miner from themselves.
11:20It's all hands on deck to stop a mini disaster in this unseen moment.
11:25Stop!
11:26Stop!
11:27When Jeff leaves his bag on the track of the excavator.
11:31Jeff starts driving down the road.
11:33I take off running?
11:34Yeah.
11:36Hey!
11:36Hey!
11:36Hey!
11:38You're trying to stop them.
11:39Everyone's trying to honk at them.
11:40Nope.
11:41Keeps on going.
11:46This is what happens when you don't pay attention to your stuff.
11:51Unfortunately, I left my bag sitting on the track.
11:53And, uh, when I jumped in the cab to move it out of the way, um, I forgot.
12:00I guess my phone's done.
12:03My wife won't like that.
12:07There's lunch.
12:08Mm-hmm.
12:09Squish sandwich.
12:10Banana all squished.
12:12Coming up, Freddie reveals never-seen prospecting secrets.
12:17So, Freddie, this is what we've got for maps.
12:19And a few hair-raising twists along the way.
12:22There are ghosts here.
12:24There's strange things happening.
12:26It's actually serious.
12:36We've done a lot of traveling, Juan.
12:38How many miles do you think we've done?
12:40Ooh.
12:40Over 100,000 miles.
12:42At Juan's workshop, Freddie and Juan unpack their favorite unseen moments.
12:47All the way from Alaska, Canada, all the way down to-
12:50The East Coast.
12:51East Coast.
12:51North Carolina.
12:52Arizona.
12:53You know, everything in between.
12:54We've done it all.
12:56Remember that July in British Columbia?
12:58British Columbia, yeah.
12:58I think between our trucks, our trailers, and the film cruise vehicles, I think it was 17 tires.
13:05Yeah, we lost tires almost daily.
13:08Ian, here's your tire back.
13:10You can put it on yourself.
13:11Next time, don't hit rocks, okay?
13:13Thanks for long.
13:14They're going through the same trail as we are.
13:15Right.
13:16There's a lot of challenges.
13:17You know, accidents.
13:18Like you hitting that turkey last year that blew your front windshield out.
13:22Well, you know, yeah.
13:23I'm going into Canada, and all of a sudden, a 20-pound turkey comes through my front windshield.
13:28Lucky it didn't kill you.
13:29Yeah.
13:30Luckily, it didn't.
13:31I know you love turkey, but that's a little bit much, huh?
13:34It was more than I could chew, Fred.
13:35It was way more.
13:38But seriously, some of these mines, there's very, very little room for error to get in and out of.
13:43We've taken our trucks into, really, places we probably shouldn't take them.
13:46But, you know, it's all in the name of trying to help people out.
13:53In 2024, in British Columbia, Freddie and Juan find they need to rescue themselves, saving a mountaintop gold mine.
14:01Hi, guys.
14:02How you doing?
14:03How's it going?
14:03Good to be here.
14:04Miners Travis and son Andrew need help to upgrade their plant to catch fine flood gold.
14:10At this rate, a fast food job would be paying you a lot more.
14:13I appreciate the harsh honesty of things, for sure.
14:21That's tight, Fred.
14:23But in this unseen footage, the route out of the mine proves harder than the rescue itself.
14:30But it's a four-wheel drive, Juan.
14:32It's getting a little muddy.
14:33We've got to hug this side as best we can.
14:35One of the places that I really wish that it was a flying access was Travis.
14:39Yeah, those corners.
14:41Freddie and Juan need to navigate a steep mountain pass with a 600-foot unprotected drop into the Fraser River.
14:49It was raining for a couple days, right?
14:51Mm-hmm.
14:51The road was slick.
14:54Oh, oh, oh!
15:04The road just collapsed, gave way.
15:07Our trailer's ready to go over.
15:09As I'm starting to turn my trailer, that axle caught in there and started pushing that bank out and almost
15:15rolled the trailer.
15:15Yeah, it would have been a mess.
15:17We're to the point where a butterfly lands on that downhill side.
15:21It's going down.
15:23You can see that hitch is twisting.
15:25That's the only thing that's keeping that trailer from going over.
15:28We're going to have to get a piece of equipment up here to try to lift the back end of
15:31that trailer up and get it back on the road.
15:34Unable to get themselves out,
15:36Here comes Travis.
15:37Minor Travis Allen comes to the rescuer's rescue.
15:43Can you get around the axle anywhere?
15:48You want to go ahead? Lift up a little bit.
15:56It was a little tight there for a minute, you know?
15:58Yeah, but without an excavator in that situation, we'd have been in deep, deep trouble.
16:04Mission accomplished.
16:06You came to help you, you ended up helping us.
16:09That's A-OK in my books.
16:15You know, we've got to have our tools.
16:16You know, if we don't have our tools in our truck, it really limits what we can do.
16:19But over the years, there's been several different situations where we couldn't bring our trucks.
16:23We had to make do with what we had.
16:24You know, we make a makeshift service truck out of our little side-by-side.
16:27Still don't have all the tools that you really want or need.
16:30Because at the end of the day, it reduces really what we're able to produce.
16:33Yep.
16:38On our rescue to the remote Alaskan wilderness, Freddie and Juan leave behind their tools of the trade in this
16:46unseen footage.
16:48I know it's a fly-in situation, but what else do we know about it?
16:52I know that there's three guys out here that have been mining and changing their stuff around for quite a
16:57few years.
16:57And I don't think they've made a tremendous amount of money.
17:01But really, all I know is you can't drive there.
17:04How small are these planes, Freddie?
17:06Yeah, they're small planes, Wano.
17:09Me and you will fill one up, that's for damn sure.
17:12Oh, man.
17:13Fred.
17:15Known for brutal winters, temperatures in the Talkeetna Mountains, where the Bush Creek boys work, can drop to minus 46
17:24Fahrenheit.
17:25And vehicle access is often limited to a dangerous ice road during winter months.
17:32It's gonna be the hottest day of the year, they say, Fred.
17:34But a heat wave forecast changes priorities for Juan.
17:38I packed pretty light.
17:40I was gonna take a hood, a hard hat, I was gonna take that fan.
17:44You aren't taking any tools, but gonna take a fan.
17:47I get hot at night when I sleep.
17:50You're serious?
17:51Yeah.
17:51All fan, you Wano.
17:54Yeah, with my hat, here you go.
17:57You didn't even bring spare underwear that time, but you brought your fan.
18:00Here we go.
18:02You know, like I told you, Freddie, I sleep in the nude and I run hot.
18:05So, you know, I had to bring my fan.
18:07That's why I brought my blinders.
18:10All right, Fred, let's load up.
18:13Okay, is this all the gear you got?
18:15That's it.
18:15That's it.
18:15Okay, well, let me load her up and we'll get going here.
18:18Mike, I'm gonna be honest with you, I might have lied about my weight a little bit.
18:21I'm not 185.
18:26No, I expect you a man of honor, right?
18:28You didn't fib about your weight, did you?
18:29I didn't tell you.
18:30Oh, okay.
18:44Got her, Mike.
18:45You got her, buddy.
18:46Great, sir.
18:47You did good.
18:49Hey, I'm ready.
18:50How's it going?
18:51Dennis, I assume, Mike.
18:52Dennis.
18:52Yes.
18:52With limited tools, Freddie and Juan scavenged the site for parts to upgrade the Bush Creek
18:59boys' plant.
19:00We need to put a damper in here.
19:03Okay.
19:04Good call.
19:07Juan, we used some of this old carpet for a damper.
19:10Okay.
19:11What else do we need?
19:11Some screws?
19:12Yeah.
19:13We did a lot of stuff at Bush Creek for not having, you know, the majority of our tools.
19:17Yeah.
19:19Wow.
19:20Wow.
19:204.13.
19:214.13.
19:23That's massive.
19:24At Bush Creek, it was still over 80% increase.
19:27That was.
19:28The tools we took is what you and I could actually fit in the airplane.
19:31It was pretty minimal.
19:32And the fan.
19:33Yeah.
19:33Obviously the fan.
19:35That was an important thing, Fred.
19:36You don't know.
19:50When we go to a new mine site, you know, a lot of times there's so many things going
19:53on that need repair.
19:55It's overwhelming.
19:56Inside Juan's workshop, Freddie and Juan reveal insightful unseen moments and challenges
20:02that give a deeper look at what it takes to save mines.
20:07We actually have to sit there and figure out what's going to give them the best recovery,
20:11you know, best bang for their buck.
20:12So sometimes we go in there and like, hey, we have to concentrate on these things.
20:15I know that's an issue, but we can't deal with it.
20:17We don't have enough time.
20:22In Washington State, Freddie and Juan are up against the clock to revive a mining dream
20:28in steep decline.
20:32Freddie, good morning.
20:33How are you doing?
20:34This is Corey.
20:34This is my partner.
20:35Yeah.
20:36Nice to meet you.
20:37Both Levi and Corey.
20:38They were good.
20:39Tremendous workers.
20:40Hard work.
20:40To be out there breaking rock by hand the way they were doing it.
20:43Crushing it down, then putting it in the truck, taking it down to the hammer mill.
20:47It was a lot of work.
20:49To reduce the time wasted driving the pay to the processing level, Freddie and Juan designed
20:55an impressive pipe system to funnel crushed ore down into the mill.
21:00But first, they need to get the pipe to the site.
21:04You had to build a whole trailer just to get all the material up to the top.
21:07So the trailer had to be long enough for the pipe, yet light enough to pull behind an ATV
21:12because we couldn't get our trucks in there.
21:14But as this unseen footage reveals, sometimes it takes everyone on the team to make it happen
21:20on time.
21:21It's great to have Travis and Alex helping us at times.
21:25Without Travis and Alex, I don't think we could do the amount of work that we do.
21:29Hello.
21:30Oh, hey guys.
21:31Happy to see you guys.
21:32Build foreman Travis Stockman and operator Alex Voigt are Freddie and Juan's reliable duo,
21:39called upon when the rescuers need extra muscle.
21:42Right now, I'm cutting out the parts that we're going to use to build the pipe trailer.
21:45We're going to weld these on like this to hold the pipe, strap everything down, hook it up to an
21:50ATV,
21:51and hopefully we'll make it up to the mine site.
22:01One trailer done.
22:02Thanks for your help, buddy.
22:03Of course.
22:04Looks fantastic.
22:07And Travis in the same way.
22:08Travis the same.
22:09A lot of people don't see that.
22:10You know, behind the scenes, he's the guy that's staying there with us late at night,
22:13welding, getting there early in the morning to get things lined up.
22:18Travis actually, before working for us, he was working underground blasting rock.
22:22All the way down, make sure he's in the back of the hole.
22:25And let her rip.
22:30It's a blessing to have guys like that that we know we can rely on.
22:32It is.
22:34This is a steep, sharp turn, Freddie.
22:37This might be the one that bites us in the hindquarters right here.
22:41I'll have to admit, that mine was a pain in the butt to work on.
22:44It really was.
22:45It barely fit a wheelbarrow in there.
22:50Let's pick it up.
22:52Yeah.
22:57Go ahead, Freddie.
23:03After putting that pipe system in, it streamlined that whole operation.
23:06So it was a big improvement.
23:09Probably 50 times the amount of gold you had in the first run.
23:12I mean, that's amazing.
23:14When we hit the ground, a lot of times we hit the ground blind.
23:17Yeah.
23:17You know, we've talked to them over the phone.
23:19Maybe they sent us some pictures.
23:21But until you actually get on the ground, you don't know a lot of the stuff.
23:24And really, I think the challenge is, Fred, you or myself, I'm not scared to go in there and rip
23:28something apart.
23:29You know, it was built by a man.
23:30We can fix it.
23:31But when it comes down to it, can we get the team together and actually get them more gold?
23:35That's right.
23:40In Arizona, Freddie and Juan reunite a fractured crew before their season washes away.
23:47We are so happy you guys came out.
23:49Man.
23:50It's been a struggle since we started.
23:52The monsoon season is here.
23:54We're getting shut down every day just about right now.
23:57There's not a time in the monsoon season where we're not shut down because of lightning.
24:02$800,000 in the hole.
24:04Flash floods have ripped through the desert and decimated their claim.
24:09Last year, the rivers are about flowing.
24:11Everything was gone.
24:14It was catastrophic for us.
24:16Completely at the start of it.
24:18But in this unseen footage, the wash plant fixes have to wait while Freddie and Juan perform a more personal
24:25fix.
24:26With the candidates, they were homesick.
24:28All the time away from family and constantly getting shut down by floods is really tough on them.
24:34So we're making a really big Cajun boil here.
24:37Far from home and team morale low, Freddie comes up with a plan to unite the Kennedy crew.
24:44I've got sausage and shrimp going in here.
24:46And I made the seasoning that I mixed together out of a bunch of different seasonings.
24:50And we'll have one heck of a feast if my seasoning's any good.
24:54That's their food of choice.
24:57You know, it's crawfish and Cajun seasoning and stuff where they're at in Texas.
25:00So I figured, well, let's throw a little time and money at it.
25:04Who would have thought Freddie Dodge, not only a mining guru, fabrication expert, but a chef as well?
25:11Simple chef.
25:12Yeah.
25:12I'm good at this, brisket, ribs.
25:16Ribs.
25:16Damn good at ribs, too.
25:17Yeah.
25:18They're coming, Fred.
25:19Yeah.
25:20Hope you guys are hungry.
25:22I think it was a great move.
25:23Felt more like a family that way.
25:25Everybody gets together over food.
25:26He can bond definitely over food.
25:28Yeah.
25:29Had a great time.
25:30So you were telling me the other day that you loved crawfish boils.
25:34Oh, yeah.
25:34Texas.
25:35Oh, look at that.
25:36See how this Colorado boy does crawfish.
25:39Try this out.
25:40There you go.
25:41Let's throw some more of those on there.
25:43Absolutely.
25:44Definitely smells like I'm closer to home.
25:47You've done a good job.
25:48Oh, yeah.
25:49How's the seasoning?
25:50Perfect.
25:51Well, that seasoning's damn good, man.
25:53Cheers, guys.
25:55Cheers, gentlemen.
25:58Over the years, we've both taken that role of being a therapist.
26:01I've got plenty of issues of my own, so I don't need to be giving out advice.
26:05But sometimes it does help when we've been in a similar situation and we can give them our take on
26:10it.
26:10Exactly.
26:11Hey, this is what we did or this is the situation I had.
26:13A lot of times, the minds we help, they haven't had the opportunity to be at hundreds of minds like
26:19yourself and myself right over time.
26:24Team morale back on track.
26:26The rock sheet's working good.
26:28The Kennedys combine for a final push to save their season.
26:33We've never ran that much yardage.
26:35This could be a big game changer here.
26:380.61.
26:400.61.
26:41Wow.
26:41That's awesome.
26:42Worth over $1,000, the Kennedy crew quadruple their gold recovery.
26:48You guys want to be able to pay back your investment.
26:50Yep.
26:50Actually be able to make a little bit of money out here instead of it just being a boys trip.
26:54Right.
26:54And that's going to make it a possibility.
26:55So the combination of the fixes and better ground, they're still plugging along down there.
27:01What it boils down to, Freddie, is we grow to know and appreciate the people that we work with.
27:05We make friends.
27:06You know, we want to do the best we can for them.
27:08So, you know, it definitely gets really personal.
27:10When we're there, we're committed, we want to get it done.
27:13We want, not only do we want to get it done, but we want to see them be successful.
27:16That's right.
27:16And that's why we're there.
27:17We want to truly help.
27:29Almost every place we've visited, there's a bunch of work that we do that never gets shown.
27:33Something that takes two days to fix, you know, makes two minutes of television.
27:37Yeah.
27:37Freddie and Juan return to Mind Rescue's unseen footage.
27:41One of the biggest things that we do that honestly is kind of underrated is prospecting.
27:46Mm-hmm.
27:46You're able to read the ground, see what's going on, and figure out where we need to prospect.
27:55To rescue a pair of Arizona prospectors in a legendary gold region,
28:01Freddie and Juan go into overtime in their hunt for better ground.
28:05What's your goal for this year?
28:06We'd love to be at 50 ounces this year.
28:08This is the goal that we want to be able to run at.
28:11But this year, we've barely done over an ounce.
28:15Really?
28:17To get them back on the gold, Freddie needs to identify the best pay on their 120-acre claim.
28:24So, Freddie, this is what we've got for maps.
28:27And in this unseen footage, we discover the real work can take much longer to get the job done.
28:33So where are we at on here?
28:34Where the dot is.
28:36Okay.
28:36Yep.
28:37That's the famous King Tut Mine right here.
28:40The King Tut Mine sits alongside a string of hard rock mines above Jamie and Christine's claim.
28:48Discovered in the 1930s, the mine produced hundreds of ounces of gold a week.
28:53It definitely had gold.
28:55People were here before.
28:56So, you know, that could go one way or the other.
29:00Yep.
29:00And some of this older stuff can be good.
29:03Some of it can lead you astray because people were trying to sell some of the mines, right?
29:08Right.
29:08So they would amplify how much gold they got or so forth and so on.
29:13So we'll do our own testing and we'll do our own looking.
29:16Okay.
29:17What I think we need to do is find a little bit of elevated ground.
29:20Okay.
29:20Uphill.
29:21All right.
29:22Like towards that King Tut Mine.
29:23Okay.
29:24And look down.
29:25See what we can see.
29:26That sounds great.
29:27The more information we get on an area, especially an area we've never been to before, you know,
29:33that's all the better.
29:34Regardless of what we hear or what we're told, we do our own research and you have to do that.
29:38Exactly right.
29:44Let's walk down here.
29:47See, that's all tailings.
29:49This is all tailings.
29:52This is actually the most important thing.
29:54You can have the best wash plant in the world.
29:57You can have the best operators in the world.
30:00But if you don't have the gold in the ground or if you're digging in the wrong spot, you know,
30:05you ain't gonna make it.
30:06Right.
30:07There's a lot of stress on us because, sure, there's gold in the area so the gold should be there.
30:11But glaciers did a lot of weird things.
30:14Yeah.
30:14Streams moved.
30:15Trying to read tailings from virgin ground.
30:18And that's where a lot of these guys get in trouble too.
30:20Exactly.
30:22Out on the desert draws, Freddy hunts for old timer workings.
30:26There's a few ways we can tell it's tailings.
30:29One, the sides.
30:31And two, do you notice what plant life is missing here?
30:35Joshua's.
30:36Yep.
30:37Everywhere else is those Joshua trees, right?
30:40Right.
30:40Except right here.
30:41All right.
30:42Except where they mined.
30:43There might be gold left in their tailings.
30:45I'm sure there is.
30:47Because, you know, they had crude methods.
30:49They didn't have water.
30:50They were using dry washers.
30:51But at the same time, would you want to run the stuff that somebody else has already run once and
30:56taken half the gold out of?
30:58Or run virgin stuff with all the gold in it?
31:00So that's what we're looking for is virgin material with all the gold in it.
31:05It's just really valuable for me to go out with Freddy and have him teach me these things directly so
31:10I can, you know, be a bigger part of that part of our operation.
31:15It wasn't that we just showed up and boom.
31:17We actually did every step of the process.
31:19Wash plant fixes complete.
31:21Oh, perfect.
31:22Too much.
31:23I like it.
31:24All right.
31:24You like it?
31:25I do.
31:26Freddy weighs the gold from the second test.
31:29Well, there's a half an ounce right there.
31:31Exactly a half an ounce.
31:32There's your gold.
31:33There's still more in there.
31:35Keep going, Freddy.
31:36Keep going.
31:371.25.
31:38Exactly an ounce and a quarter.
31:40Oh, my gosh, you guys.
31:43Holy cow.
31:45With everything we did there with Jamie and Christine, I think it was a little over a 400% increase
31:49in gold there.
31:50It was tremendous.
31:50It made them from not making a living to making the darn good living.
31:54Yeah.
31:54We've talked about it over the years that you've got to treat mining, it's a business venture, and you've got
31:59to treat it as such.
32:00One of the situations that we've ran into over the years is sometimes people get in there and they get
32:05so focused on it.
32:06Total vision.
32:06Yeah.
32:06I've got to do this.
32:07I've got to do that.
32:08Then they overcomplicate the process, and at the end of the day, they end up losing more gold.
32:12And spending so much more money.
32:14Yeah.
32:14I knew a guy, he would sluice 21 hours straight before he'd do a cleanup because he thought it was
32:19lucky.
32:20You remember the Adams family, Freddy?
32:21I do.
32:22The Homestead family.
32:23Great group of guys.
32:24They had the whole family working at the mine site.
32:26They were superstitious, too.
32:32In Canada's caribou gold fields, Freddy and Juan unearth the spirit of the mountain in their search for lost gold.
32:41We have four generations of gold miners here, and my grandfather was a gold miner as well, so that makes
32:46five.
32:47Freddy and Juan's rescue is plagued by a faulty conveyor.
32:52Whoa, whoa, whoa!
32:53Shut it down!
32:53Shut it down!
32:54Hey!
32:55Don't start the conveyor.
32:57It's bound up.
32:57Conveyors that are a blessing or a curse.
33:01But as this unseen footage shows, it wasn't the only thing cursed on the site.
33:07Because our neighbor was saying that there are ghosts here.
33:13They're holding the gold, he's saying.
33:14He's actually serious.
33:16Strange things happening.
33:16Strange things happening in this area.
33:18Huh.
33:19Gold miners have always held deep superstitions about ghosts and spirits.
33:25Strange noises, cave-ins, and shadows in the mines were often blamed on restless souls guarding hidden treasures.
33:34When I was working underground over the years, there was a lot of guys that were really superstitious.
33:39Mm-hmm.
33:39Some of their rituals that they would do and everything else.
33:42He says they'll find a channel, and it's a really good channel.
33:45They've tested it.
33:46It's amazing.
33:47The next day they start mining it, nothing there.
33:49We have to mine the channels we find the day we find them, or else the next day all the
33:54gold's gone.
33:54Are you serious?
33:55Apparently it's because of the ghosts.
33:57The ghosts came and just took it all that night.
34:01Not really superstitious at all, but in the mining industry as a whole, there's a lot.
34:05It's not ghosts though, it's leprechauns.
34:07That's what I believe, those stinking leprechauns.
34:09Those little Irish leprechauns, you know, they're out there stealing gold.
34:15Unfazed by supernatural tales, Freddie gets to work on the cursed conveyor.
34:21It's hot, boy.
34:22But while trekking down a bearing, local miner Stephen Keen doubles down on the ghostly tales.
34:30Rumor has it that a lot of Chinese miners died in this area.
34:34Yeah.
34:35You know, I mean, in 40 years, I mean, you're going to have fatalities, eh?
34:40Yep.
34:40Even if you are only using a pick and shovel, eh?
34:43Well, I better get back over and get to work.
34:46I really appreciate your time, sir.
34:47Well, that's okay.
34:49I'm just waiting for permits anyways.
34:51There you go.
34:52Thanks for helping us out.
34:55Well, let's start the test, huh?
34:57Let's do it.
34:58Conveyor demons banished.
35:00That's working damn good up there, Freddie.
35:02And a second test run complete.
35:04There's some good chunks in there.
35:07The atoms weigh up the gold.
35:101.93.
35:12Hey, that's better.
35:12Almost two ounces.
35:14That's better.
35:15Well, you must have made those ghosts happy.
35:17Yeah, that's good.
35:18Nice.
35:19Coming up.
35:20Oh, throw that away.
35:21That's nothing.
35:22That was a gold nugget.
35:23I'm just joking.
35:25Got to re-mine the whole pile to find that nugget.
35:40Some of the stuff that we've collected over the years.
35:42In Nevada, Juan shares his collection of memorable gold with master prospector, Freddie.
35:50Where's the fine gold from?
35:51That's Colorado right there.
35:52That's about 94%.
35:54Yeah.
35:55And this Yukon stuff here, 82.
35:57You can tell, you know, you look at the color difference, huh?
36:00Yeah.
36:00More silver in it.
36:01Yeah.
36:02Where are these nuggets from, Juan?
36:04That one came from Alaska.
36:06Okay.
36:06That's that Papua New Guinea nugget we traded for a long time ago.
36:10It's weird, you know, looking at all the gold, but you still remember unique pieces.
36:15Yeah, absolutely.
36:16That's beautiful stuff, Juan.
36:17Thank you, Freddie.
36:18You know what the crazy thing is?
36:19You helped capture most of all this.
36:22I hate letting gold get away.
36:31I think a lot of the fun that we have, Fred, is the banter that you and I have between
36:34each other.
36:35Whether it's in person or on the radio.
36:37Those were tough men and women back then, Fred.
36:39Come out here with barely what they had on their backs and provisions in their horse.
36:44They kept provisions in their horse?
36:48I think of it as, like, you can kind of gauge a friend if you're able to talk to them
36:52and just talk crap to them.
36:53And that's what we do.
36:54We constantly just give each other a hard time, but that's, you know, that's who we are.
36:57Yeah.
36:58So what do you think of my new vest this year, Juan?
37:00All right.
37:01It looks a lot like the one last year, Fred.
37:03Oh, no.
37:04No, no, no.
37:05I need that.
37:05It's my good vest.
37:07You tore my Velcro off.
37:11Yeah, I was ready to come off.
37:12Oh, I'm done for the day.
37:13Yeah.
37:14A friend is a fellow who thinks everything is grand.
37:16A friend is one that knows our faults and doesn't give a damn.
37:19That's exactly right.
37:23Just in case I didn't say good morning.
37:25Thank you, sir.
37:25You're welcome.
37:25That's really sweet of you.
37:27Such a sweet guy, Fred.
37:29Thanks.
37:31One of my favorite things that never got shown was up in Valdez with Clay Strickland.
37:41On a mission in the Alaskan outback to help hobby miner Clay Strickland, mischievous friends
37:48Freddie and Juan turned tricksters.
37:51Clay, nice to finally meet you.
37:52Yeah.
37:53With upgrades to his 12-foot trommel and new sluice box, Freddie and Juan transformed Clay's operation.
38:02Look at that.
38:04That's perfect.
38:05It's classified the way it should be.
38:07That's it, man.
38:08That's four hours.
38:15But in this previously unseen footage, while Clay and his daughter Cersei prepare to clean up the gold,
38:22in a moment of mischief, Freddie turns from prospector to prankster.
38:28Remember, I had that nugget from New Guinea that a friend gave me?
38:31Mm-hmm.
38:31And I was just being a smart aleck.
38:33I put it in their little sluice box, because there wasn't any nuggets on their claim.
38:43Hey, Dad.
38:43Yeah.
38:44What's this?
38:45Oh, throw that away.
38:46That's nothing.
38:48She picked it up, his daughter.
38:50She waved it.
38:51She did it, too.
38:52I'm just joking.
38:53That was a gold nugget.
38:54That was a nugget.
38:57Really?
39:00No, I'm sorry.
39:01Are we serious?
39:01Yeah.
39:03No way.
39:04Really?
39:05I'm sorry.
39:06It was a big one, too.
39:07Seriously.
39:08It was a big one.
39:09He told me right away.
39:11I didn't think you were going to do it.
39:14Oh, no.
39:17I honestly didn't think she was going to listen.
39:19But now she's like, oh, yeah?
39:20I'm like, yeah, it's just junk.
39:21She tosses.
39:22I'm like, oh, crap.
39:25Joke backfired.
39:26Joke backfired.
39:29I was doing what I was told, OK?
39:32I shall give it to my father, I father.
39:35Oh, you're talking.
39:40I have to re-mine the whole pile to find that nugget.
39:43Yeah, I kind of felt bad after that.
39:44I'm like, oh, man, we lost it.
39:47That was only like a half ounce.
39:48Yeah, you know, what's a half ounce amongst friends?
39:51$1,500.
39:52No big deal.
39:53Smart, Alec.
39:56With Freddy's nugget firmly back in his pocket,
40:00the results of the second test are weighed.
40:070.61.
40:08Dang, that's a double clip.
40:10Yeah, we got some gold.
40:12For me, one of the most satisfying things on a rescue
40:15is when we do that final gold way.
40:17And we're actually able to see the culmination
40:19of all the work we did, whether it was prospecting
40:21or the work on the plant.
40:23We actually get to see a physical number.
40:25Especially, you know, when you double it for them
40:27or four times, that's the icing on the cake.
40:30Yeah.
40:31That's over twice as much gold in four hours
40:33as you did the first time.
40:34This is a life-changing event here.
40:36You know, with what we saw at the end of that run,
40:38it was dang good.
40:39Mm-hmm.
40:40It was really good.
40:42Take care, guys.
40:43Bye.
40:44Thanks.
40:46You and I have been very fortunate in our careers.
40:48We have.
40:49And the simple fact that we get to go out
40:51and share a little bit of that with other people.
40:52Mm-hmm.
40:53We want to do this 100% free.
40:54That changes my life.
40:58Holy cow.
40:59Our knowledge, our experiences,
41:01help them along their journey.
41:03Let them learn from our mistakes.
41:05I'm glad I didn't eat any bean burritos last night
41:07because I'm going to be in this tube for a while.
41:09My lease is nice and tight back here.
41:12I'm feeling a little sick, Freddie.
41:13Are you?
41:13Yeah.
41:14What makes it exciting is the unknown.
41:17Gotta have some fun along the way.
41:19Right now, more than ever,
41:21there's a ton of money to be made if you're mining gold.
41:23Yep.
41:23What do you say?
41:24Should we head out?
41:24Let's do it, buddy.
41:25Let's do it.
41:27Let's start.
41:28Let's do it!
41:29LA情iku
41:29.
41:30Let's do it.
41:30Let's do it.
41:30We're going to take a moment after the range
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