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00:00:02I drank way too much I woke up in the morning what'd you buy it was a 40 acre claim
00:00:07on this
00:00:09episode of mine rescue we're trying to do two plants at the same time it's gonna be crazy
00:00:16the fate of two failing operations on one Alaskan mega claim we all work together look out for each
00:00:24other we'll rise and fall together depends on the first ever high stakes double rescue come on big
00:00:32boy let's go my mind fire fire it's blowing straight to our camp this really may not happen
00:00:42for any of these guys next year there's still more yeah
00:00:57we're probably 30 40 miles away from the Arctic Circle gold was discovered in this area in 1893
00:01:03over a million ounces of gold come out of this ground that's a lot of stinking gold yeah it is
00:01:12we're here to help across two different mine sites the leaseholders the potpins they couldn't lose at
00:01:17all last year and then on top of that Fred Dickinson well he's struggling not being able to run as
00:01:23much
00:01:23as he wants and he has royalty he has to pay that's as ambitious as we've ever been winding their
00:01:31way
00:01:31through the central Alaskan tundra Juan and Dave head to their first ever double rescue on 2,000 acres in
00:01:39Boulder Creek with one minor Juan knows well so I met Fred Dickinson almost six years ago it was one
00:01:48of
00:01:48the first recipes Freddy and I ever did no way hey gentlemen hey guys good to see you I'm Brian
00:01:59hey good to
00:02:00see you man nice to meet you guys Fred good to see you buddy yes sir it has been a
00:02:06minute everything's
00:02:07grown the boys have grown the equipment's grown plants grown I see that the bills have grown oh yeah
00:02:12you were in Arizona and now you're in Alaska yes sir wow after Freddy and Juan visited us we were
00:02:20in a
00:02:20really good place hey guys welcome six years ago in their first televised rescue Freddy and Juan found the
00:02:30Dickinson family's dreams of gold dying in the desert right now my hobby has to feed my family let's get
00:02:42to be able to do it 1.13 I can't tell you how much we appreciate you guys coming out
00:02:49Freddy and Juan took
00:02:51me from a hobby minor to a professional minor the first couple of years we were making money our decision
00:02:58to move from Arizona to Alaska was about expanding our operation about me and the boys being able to do
00:03:06something that would support all of us I'm not gonna lie we're struggling the ground in Alaska is
00:03:13nothing like the ground in Arizona getting the material to the wash plant getting the material run has
00:03:19become a bit of a logistical nightmare I'm out of my depth I'm not here because this is fun and
00:03:25games for
00:03:26me I enjoy mining but I'm out here to build something for my family what was your goal going into
00:03:35this
00:03:35season going into this season our goal was 200 ounces originally now I'd be lucky if I can hit 100
00:03:46so how are you doing this year then 22 ounces so far halfway through the season the people we lease
00:03:52from the Podvins they get a cut which is always painful but they support us and since I've been
00:03:58here every time we break down they're over helping us pulling us out okay well you guys got some gold
00:04:04to
00:04:04show us we don't have any of the gold it's sold to the refinery I went home last year very
00:04:10in debt
00:04:10and at this year we are we're struggling to break even much less pay off last year's debt so I'm
00:04:16about
00:04:17a hundred and eighty five thousand dollars upside down I'm gonna go bankrupt here and what we want
00:04:26to do is kind of get out there and do a test run with you guys you kind of know
00:04:29the what we do and how
00:04:30we do things you know Dave and I we're gonna kind of sit back and watch you guys and really
00:04:34see what
00:04:35we can do to help you guys out are you guys ready to run some dirt sure oh yeah let's
00:04:39show us that
00:04:39wash plant let's get it fired up let's go going from their humble little plant Fred's grown he's
00:04:46progressed scaled up but he's got a long ways to go to make it work out here firing it up
00:05:02we're gonna do a four hour run I love dirt moving it makes all the more fun when there's gold
00:05:09involved
00:05:11Fred's son Josh loads pay into an eight-foot hopper that washes down into a 12-foot shaker deck material
00:05:20is
00:05:21screened through a square hole punch plate and fed down into the sluice runs below where the gold should
00:05:27collect brother Brian in the D9 clears tailings to prevent them backing up a lot of that material
00:05:35getting stuck on that screen that punch plate the bottleneck there yeah 100% but I think it's
00:05:42about a bucket a minute roughly might be a little less one of the issues they've got was the way
00:05:50the
00:05:50materials coming down it's really going down one sluice box about this wide they're really utilizing
00:05:58about 30 to 40 percent of their sluice box look at the size of that we must have somewhere else
00:06:08in
00:06:08the screen where this is coming through yeah that's massive there's no reason that should be in there at
00:06:15all how's the hopper doing buddy is it packed up or are you doing okay yeah it's fine all right
00:06:2310-4
00:06:23yeah give her just a little bit more I've ran a lot of gold mines and this one's just a
00:06:33little
00:06:34disorganized how they get their pay out you know how they're delivering their pay how they're dealing with
00:06:40the tailings is that the podman's plant we're just down creek from them a little bit yeah literally
00:06:50stones throw away from them the podman's they're my landlords right now our arrangement is I get the
00:06:57corners and crevices that his larger operation bypasses because they move in straight lines and
00:07:04the river doesn't the truth is is our destinies are tied together we'll rise and fall together
00:07:11landlord the podvins own the rights to over 2,000 acres Daryl 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 I'll come help you they've been
00:07:23instrumental in kind of helping us mine this creek so I know this year they're having to run two years
00:07:30worth just to try to make enough to get by and you know start building a life for themselves
00:07:35but after the podvins failed to run last season Fred is under pressure to deliver them a healthy
00:07:41royalty to stay in business we've still got a lot to figure out with this wash plan we are struggling
00:07:48to get enough volume on this ground to be able to go home with money
00:08:06damn it this is not good Brian's D9 prevents the wash plant from becoming overwhelmed by tailings it started
00:08:18leaking coolant everywhere so it might have had a cracked head gasket so it's time to take the head
00:08:25off and check everything out we're at the end of the four-hour run so why don't we shut him
00:08:33down and
00:08:34see what we got in the box you can see on the flow on shutdown how much water is on
00:08:48that side how
00:08:49much material yeah just watching it right now on shutdown you can see what it's doing oh yeah well
00:08:54gentlemen why don't you guys clean it all up and let's let's do a goldway okay we'll meet back up
00:08:59with
00:08:59you guys in the morning and see what we got sounds great you good with that yes sir all right
00:09:03I'm hoping
00:09:06that these guys can work some magic we need to figure out how to run more dirt or to run
00:09:11longer
00:09:14let's go take a look at the podvin plant yep let's go located half a mile away the podvin operation
00:09:24is
00:09:24midway through a hundred hour run hey how you doing come on there good to meet you hi I'm Dave
00:09:32how you
00:09:33doing good Darryl Darryl what a beautiful plant thank you it's awesome that you guys are here and
00:09:40we can check this thing out and see if you can help us you built this whole thing yeah wow
00:09:45the two boys
00:09:46and I Darryl runs the operation with his partner Liva and two grown sons Matthew and Eric it is designed
00:09:55where we can flip from there flip the sluice box change directions on the side of the creek a lot
00:10:00of thought
00:10:01in this absolutely we had a diesel repair shop in North Dakota in the oil field and we also had
00:10:08a
00:10:08gravel crushing business on the side so we crushed gravel throughout the summers and wrenched year-round
00:10:13and oil kind of took a dive and we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do and
00:10:20we were drinking
00:10:21at the bar one day I drank way too much and went to bed woke up in the morning Liva
00:10:26was like what'd you
00:10:27what'd you spend on PayPal for 800 bucks no what do you mean she says well you bought something in
00:10:34Alaska for 800 bucks on PayPal what'd you buy as well let's check it out sure enough it was a
00:10:4140 acre
00:10:41claim and I was like oh dad called us the next morning that hey you want to go prospect the
00:10:48gold claim in
00:10:48Alaska and I thought he was out of his mind and we came up here and spent the month up
00:10:52here and found
00:10:53like seven tiny little pieces of gold and been up here ever since ten years later here we are I'm
00:11:01very proud of that wash plant but the fact that we spent our retirement and then some on building it
00:11:06nobody made any money last year you know including the boys it was a killer the hell of a design
00:11:14it's
00:11:14like almost a dredge it is the dredge on wheels I like it on this rolling land dredge known as
00:11:24a
00:11:24progressive plant pay is fed into an eight foot hopper and washed into a 40 foot long trommel a spray
00:11:32bar
00:11:33washes the pay down into the 16 by 10 foot wide sluice box but after taking a full season off
00:11:40sluicing to
00:11:41build it they now can't afford to shut it down so Dave and Juan must assess the wash plant without
00:11:48waiting for a gold way once that wash plants running it's gonna stay around we ain't gonna shut down how
00:11:56many yards an hour are you running out of it about 100 120 yards an hour what were you wanting
00:12:01to do out
00:12:02of it 200 we have to run more material I spent way too much money building that wash plant to
00:12:09let it
00:12:09run a hundred yards an hour it has to be increased it was expensive girl to build no kidding putting
00:12:19that kind of money out not running all year long last year Daryl's running on empty that's a tough
00:12:23thing to do when you have an operation like this and not only that on the Dickinson's plan there's a
00:12:28couple issues that I'm really worried about this is gonna be a tricky rescue trying to do two plants
00:12:33at the same time it's gonna be a tough few days this is an adventure let's go see coming up
00:12:43I'm very
00:12:44frustrated I mean they did look and they just didn't see that sluice box is absolutely horrible
00:12:49be careful we don't have a hell of a lot of time slow down honestly really don't give two about
00:12:55the sluice
00:13:07box you can feel it build in here in Boulder Creek Alaska Juan and Dave assessed the largest of the
00:13:15two
00:13:15operations in their double rescue you know there's definitely a lot more flow on this side yeah you
00:13:21can feel it the distribution's an issue feel the ripple and they're pretty lean yeah it is a little
00:13:28lean so you can tell on that side it's gonna be super lean yeah you know we when you can
00:13:32actually see
00:13:33the gravel coming down it doesn't have a chance to settle out in the map we're losing gold out of
00:13:38that
00:13:40box he has an issue up top as well on the hopper I mean that bucket is just about as
00:13:46big as it's the
00:13:46hopper it is it is he's having to periodically go in there and push it so he's got some hard
00:13:52angles
00:13:52in there that are and beating the rock and then they get stacked up that's definitely a bottleneck
00:13:58they designed it to do 200 yards an hour and right now he's just barely over 100.
00:14:10I guess what we need to do is figure out what we can do because my concern is if we
00:14:14tackle the big
00:14:14problem of the hopper now we're going to create that problem further downstream in the sluice box
00:14:19right so it's going to be a multiple part fix the one thing that does kind of make me feel
00:14:24a little
00:14:24bit better about Travis and Alex here yeah so you know it'll be probably a balancing act really I think
00:14:30we're gonna have to divide and conquer as one puzzles through the potential fixes Dave gets to
00:14:37grips with the Podvins pay dirt I'm just checking see if there's much gold down here I'm not finding
00:14:44much there was two tiny little pieces of gold that's pretty lean ground I need a little bit more
00:15:07information you guys getting ready to move to keep the plant loaded with pay in its 100-hour run the
00:15:15plant moves 30 feet further into the cut every two hours it's kind of a unique design that's a
00:15:22progressive plant it basically moves to the material instead of moving the material to it it's as cheap
00:15:29as it gets to be able to process the ground here we go even though the plant's probably one of
00:15:34the
00:15:34nicer plants I've seen that sluice box is a real issue distribution is an issue the hopper is an issue
00:15:39it's gonna be tough you know because we're gonna have to spread our resources over two mine sites my
00:15:45issue is we don't have a hell of a lot of time this might not work this is it good
00:16:00to see Fred good to
00:16:01see you guys well you guys got some gold to show us from that cleanup we do on the Dickinson
00:16:08mine Fred
00:16:09has the results from yesterday's four-hour test run it's not terrible four hours yeah the little
00:16:15chunkers in there we don't very uh very clean gold you've got some chunky stuff with quartz and then
00:16:20there's a piece that's just flattened nice little pickers you got several different sources here yeah
00:16:27we think so I think there's at least three but yeah that's my best guess all right well let's pour
00:16:32it out let's see what we got huh to stay on track for their 200 ounce season target this four
00:16:39-hour
00:16:39test needs to give Fred and his boys 1.4 ounces 0.94 nearly an ounce just shy of an
00:16:49ounce 30,000 bucks
00:16:51roughly yeah for four hours run yeah it's a third short of their goal you know it's been getting us
00:16:59by
00:17:00but getting by is not good enough no you know not paying off the debts no we're not paying off
00:17:04the
00:17:04debts that's the challenge you know if this number doesn't come up this may be the end of the line
00:17:08here yeah I mean it could be okay I mean we're we're gonna fight it with everything we've got though
00:17:14yeah no fair enough you know I guess uh you know really when it comes down to it you know
00:17:18we don't
00:17:18have a whole lot of time left in the season I think we're lacking in a couple different things
00:17:22but really it's gonna boil down to what Dave and I can do while the time we have here over
00:17:25two mine sites
00:17:26yeah absolutely and any any help makes a big difference we'll go back and kind of come up
00:17:31with a game plan see what we can't do good with that go figure it out all right here you
00:17:35go here's
00:17:36your gold thank you sir see you guys in a bit that gold way is what we've been getting but
00:17:44it's it's not
00:17:45enough if we keep going the pace we're at we're not even gonna reach half our goal we've got to
00:17:50change
00:17:51something there's quite a bit going on there Dave two big operations on the brink one and Dave break
00:17:59down their task list Brad has a few issues is throughput through the plant is not great I 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 right
00:18:12now we're doing about 45 yards an hour you know and the reality is we've got to come up you
00:18:16know 65 yards
00:18:17an hour is really where he needs to be yeah that screen deck that he has there he's got square
00:18:23holes
00:18:23in it they're a corner to corner almost inch and a half right now we're allowing material this big to
00:18:28go through that screen it's huge which is taking up a lot of room in that sluice box so your
00:18:32suggestion
00:18:33is round correct yeah we'll cut a whole new plate but do all round holes and make sure they're one
00:18:37inch
00:18:39this eccentric is pretty easy so that thing is spinning right mm-hmm so you add more weight it's
00:18:46going to make the throat a bigger stroke absolutely what it's going to do is give us a little more
00:18:50violent of a shake yeah but if we get more material through the plant basically we're going to be running
00:18:55more material on that side of the sluice so we're going to have to even that feed out and make
00:19:01it where
00:19:01it distributes equally across the two sluice boxes you good with that I'm good with that what do you think
00:19:06about the the Podvins you know the problem with this we're having to do Fred's and the Podvins at
00:19:13the same time so I know they don't want to shut the plant down yeah that's gonna be interesting the
00:19:19biggest issue I saw with the Podvins plant and you saw it too was that sluice box yeah we got
00:19:25that
00:19:25distribution box coming off the bottom pan it comes in so that material is coming down and again
00:19:30hitting this side of the box yep so what I would like to see here is try to get that
00:19:35material
00:19:35equally distributed across the whole box instead of just favoring that one side yeah you have four
00:19:41runs four runs we can get their production up fixing their feeder it was a little bit cumbersome I
00:19:47mean it it was clogging up a little bit clogging up going out the sides yeah that feeder right now
00:19:52it comes in and then actually has a hard angle where that material is coming in and it's getting
00:19:57stopped up and it's not allowing it to go into the trommel maybe cut some angles some plates to be
00:20:01able to divert that material so it's not so drastic so let's go chat with them see what they say
00:20:06okay
00:20:06all right good all right well we uh we kind of had a chance to talk about what we wanted
00:20:17to do with
00:20:17you guys okay um one of the issues Dave and I saw this is your punch plate yeah on the
00:20:22top you know
00:20:23having those square holes it's a hard edge right so those rocks they get stuck so we'll cut a whole
00:20:27new
00:20:28one put it on there and it's going to be round holes and make sure they're tapered the right way
00:20:31okay Dave came up with the idea we're going to add a little more weight to your eccentric as well
00:20:34yeah I think if we put some more weight you'll get a more violent shake so it should kick those
00:20:41rocks up
00:20:42and you should get more through okay we already have an issue with the distribution box right now
00:20:47it's kind of favoring that one side so we want to eliminate that oh wow so you will have a
00:20:52true
00:20:53distribution that'll actually feed 50 50 to the box okay so you know with those three things that
00:20:59we're talking about the punch plate eccentric weight and the distribution we're probably looking
00:21:04about $3,500 in material you know it's a little bit of a big nut to crack and I know
00:21:09right now things
00:21:10are kind of tight so what Dave and I kind of came up with is we're willing to give you
00:21:13guys our labor for
00:21:14free I appreciate that that's amazing I wouldn't even hesitate at that so I appreciate that let'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 that
00:21:23way we can get all of it done in the time we have absolutely done okay let's do it deal
00:21:28thanks guys
00:21:31those are super critical fixes for us if we can't get that yardage up then we're not going to make
00:21:37enough gold to cover the season
00:22:06you guys are tight crew very well organized we're impressed so as far as efficiency you guys are pretty
00:22:13damn efficient yeah during the test run we did see a few things you know you want to be able
00:22:17to get up to
00:22:17that 200 yard an hour right now you're about what 120 yeah at the top the feed on the hopper
00:22:22is
00:22:23something that we need to address right now the angle that you have is really abrupt what we're
00:22:26going to do is we're going to actually make it a little longer so that way as the material hits
00:22:30it's able to push in instead of getting stuck I think that's awesome another thing that Dave and
00:22:34I saw is that you're losing gold that sluice box is a real issue so I was your box that
00:22:40you have now go
00:22:41up there and put dividing walls build a distribution box to be able to distribute that material evenly across the
00:22:46four boxes instead of I can tell Eric don't like it not convinced I don't want to split it I
00:22:52do not
00:22:52want to split that box I mean we clean up top eight feet two guys you can be done in
00:22:56an hour and that
00:22:57thing's back running honestly you know I worked under Freddie for the last 11 years and Freddie's made his
00:23:03career on fine gold you know and hundreds you know thousands of thousands of ounces I don't know what
00:23:09the number the real number is the percentage of what you're losing but I would guesstimate you know
00:23:14probably 10 to 15 percent my concern is even if we go in there and we up your production yeah
00:23:20sure
00:23:20we're gonna catch a little bit more gold but then also we're actually running the risk of losing more
00:23:27gold honestly really don't give two about the sluice box I really want the production up I spend way
00:23:34too much money building that wash plant to let it run 100 yards an hour the fine gold who cares
00:23:39I was
00:23:40the same production keep that going and I'd forget the sluice box is your bank yeah that's where you're
00:23:49making your money and I've had to learn that as we run more material through that box running the way
00:23:53it
00:23:53is I get it you're gonna see an increase in gold yeah but there's gonna be a massive increase in
00:23:57lost
00:23:58gold as well it's 16 feet long you know it it's gonna catch it I really think that sluice box
00:24:04could
00:24:04stay agree to disagree but I'm good with that you know ultimately it's your guys's plan I want you
00:24:12guys you guys to be happy with what we're gonna do and if that's what you guys want you know
00:24:16we'll
00:24:16absolutely do the distribution and work on that hopper I like it that's awesome we're gonna up the
00:24:21production which you're all about I like it you know that being said between the hopper fix and
00:24:27working on the distribution it's probably gonna be about 3,500 bucks in material and as far as labor
00:24:33we're thinking about an ounce piece you guys are good with it you know that's that's what we can offer
00:24:41do it make it happen aren't they don't up the production then it cuts in half but but but the
00:24:45deal is but the deal is if we do up the production we get the extra gold sounds great all
00:24:56right we
00:24:59decided to build that wash plant thought well we can build this thing in two months no problem we'll
00:25:05build it in two months we'll still have a half a season will be all fine and pay for itself
00:25:09in a
00:25:09heartbeat yeah no it took it took five months to the day there's five or six of us welding and
00:25:16working
00:25:17on that thing constantly every inch of weld on that thing we welded it it's not a little fifty thousand
00:25:25dollar wash plant and everything on that thing is hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of parts you
00:25:31know and now we're to the point where everything's due past due we need to have a successful season here
00:25:37to make this work because we can't keep going we all really are feeling pressure dad definitely feels
00:25:42the pressure we got to find the gold this year the intention was to get 200 yards an hour out
00:25:49of it
00:25:50got better than a half a million bucks invested in this wash plant one whole entire summer not
00:25:55flucing it was a lot of pressure that's our baby I mean we spent a lot of money a lot
00:26:03of downtime and lost
00:26:04money not only is it cash out of pocket to build it but we didn't mine either so we might
00:26:09have lost
00:26:10two million dollars last year and spent to half a million it's tough to let go and let someone else
00:26:16do this that or the other with it but at the same time number guys know what they're doing I
00:26:20trust
00:26:21they're gonna do good work on it set up in the podvins yard one begins the first of the fixes
00:26:33for the
00:26:33Dickinson's operation it's gonna be difficult because Fred's plant and the podvins plant they're
00:26:39two of the bigger plants that we've done on a rescue right now we're cutting out the punch plate
00:26:45this is gonna go on Fred's deck larger material slips through the Dickinson's shaker deck and clogs the
00:26:54sluice one and Dave will replace the square hold punch plate and add a new one with custom one inch
00:27:02round holes to keep material flowing through the plant they will install a jet into the back of the
00:27:11hopper and add weights to the eccentric shaker system finally to ensure the plant catches gold
00:27:19efficiently one will build a distribution shoot to create an even flow of material into the sluice box
00:27:28we're gonna be about 2,000 holes in this plate so there's gonna be substantial cut time once it's
00:27:35done I'm gonna get it out clean it up get it down there and install it over at the Dickinson's
00:27:44wash
00:27:44plant Travis hasn't cut loose so it's ready to come out assisted by Travis Fred and Josh make room for
00:27:53one's new punch plate we believed somebody who said oh square holes are better they're not lift up on it
00:28:03a
00:28:03little bit and then drag it out of there it's stuck I don't want to break anything Josh is my
00:28:28oldest
00:28:28and he's a hell of an operator he's a wizard in that excavator he likes to say he's as good
00:28:33as me but I
00:28:34think the jury's still out it's stuck it's not completely off yeah just pop it off just try not to
00:28:48hit
00:28:48the spray bars
00:28:49all right
00:28:55oh
00:29:09oh
00:29:11yeah
00:29:13thank god that punch plate's gone
00:29:18good riddance this was a failed experiment we're glad to move on
00:29:33next process of this is getting the heads down onto the studs in central Alaska at the Dickinson mine
00:29:43this is Darryl's crane this is his service truck I've used it countless times this season budding
00:29:51mechanic Brian tries to bring the broken d9 back online with equipment loaned from the pudvin operation
00:29:58we all work together look out for each other the miners myself Fred and his guys other people on the
00:30:05creek
00:30:05everyone wants to look out for everyone we're like a small community
00:30:08so this is the top
00:30:11yeah okay
00:30:12looks good uh you got the other half though
00:30:15yeah I got those awesome all right bud
00:30:17all right cool once you're done with the truck bring it back up all right I will thank you get
00:30:23some
00:30:23yeah I'll help Fred and his boys out he was in Arizona in the sand in the desert and whatnot
00:30:30so we give him a little guidance here and there
00:30:33Brian Brian is very mechanical these torn in engines rebuilt engines re-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 engine
00:30:53doing this with the boys with my family that's beautiful it's fair to say they've grown up as minors
00:31:00it's just fun to take things apart and put them all back together in the same order it's like a
00:31:06very greasy
00:31:07big Lego me and my dad work very well together we don't really have to say much to understand each
00:31:13other
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 and he's
00:31:26trying
00:31:27to make this all work and he's struggling a little bit
00:31:34get her running yeah I want to see it blowing smoke tonight no I gotta get these two heads on
00:31:45start 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
00:32:04where it came from looking at the archives is helpful to dig deeper into the lean ground he
00:32:11discovered on the potmans claim Dave takes a field trip to the circle district museum I'm looking to
00:32:17gain some clues to how much gold is in Boulder Creek Central area maps take a look at these oh
00:32:26boy
00:32:26these are old old maps Wow well here we are here's Central House Miller House and here's Boulder Creek
00:32:51so this is from geologic reconnaissance map 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 of Boulder Creek and we're
00:33:12mining way down at the bottom of the stream which is kind of encouraging the old maps may point to
00:33:20better gold upstream on Boulder Creek Dave calls a local contact to investigate yeah hi is this Cody hey Cody
00:33:30this is
00:33:31David 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 short
00:33:46break from the cut table to check out the gold room our cleaning process is not efficient that's
00:33:53your table there huh that's our little table so basically what are you doing you get your concentrates
00:33:58out of the sluice box are you running them through like a long time long time it just reduces the
00:34:03fines down and everything gets thrown all over the table yeah we probably average four days yeah four
00:34:09days that you're not doing something else right right nothing quick about it and it looks like
00:34:13I believe it really loves it too it's not bad but it's very time-consuming I take care of all
00:34:24the books and
00:34:25make sure all the finances are in line I'm very calculated I have spreadsheets for almost every
00:34:32aspect of this operation the books are not going to balance if we can't get that plant up to 200
00:34:39yards
00:34:40an hour last year we spent every penny of our retirement it's very scary to have this large of
00:34:48an investment gold is not guaranteed so there's always the risk factor there's an old joke if you
00:34:54want to make 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
00:35:10me think about it and see what we can't do here awesome perfect thank you much thank you thank you
00:35:14sir hello what's going on one this turned out to be a little more work than what I anticipated okay
00:35:28one of the big issues that we have right is the cleanup process right now it takes them four days
00:35:33to do a cleanup oh yeah it's pretty bad okay well I wanted to see if you had a table
00:35:38a 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 some
00:35:44calls and see what's going on one I know you're gonna have to have it quick so yeah you know
00:35:48we're
00:35:48not looking for a freebie but that they have some money to throw at it if I can get a
00:35:53hold of
00:35:53one one 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 just let me know as soon as you know and then I'll send somebody that way if we can
00:36:01you got it okay sounds good well I'm gonna get back to doing dirt work here all right buddy thanks
00:36:06red talk to you soon bye for now bye efficiency is key and right now they're taking four days to
00:36:12do a
00:36:13cleanup and that's not acceptable at all you know with a with a good table in here it should take
00:36:17that from
00:36:17four days to let's call it four hours hey one coming over to the top of you Dave next on
00:36:31the long list of
00:36:32fixes for Dave and one is to install the Dickinson's newly cut punch plate punch plate is basically a
00:36:43wear item you don't want to fully weld it that way you can go in there and cut those welds
00:36:47out replace
00:36:48the top deck I like it that'll work I like it too that'll work good Dave let's try it right
00:37:04here Dave yeah
00:37:05four more build days left to complete an epic double rescue it's an early start for Dave and
00:37:12one in the Podvins hopper so right there Dave would give us the angle we need but what we're gonna
00:37:19do is
00:37:20we're gonna make this a less of an abrupt angle so the material has a better way of coming to
00:37:23the
00:37:24trommel so it's not getting stuck on this hard angle he gets trapped on the edges of the hopper
00:37:30restricting the flow of material through the Podvins plant Juan and Dave will create a large funnel using
00:37:38three-quarter inch steel plates allowing more pay to flow into the trommel we don't have a lot of shots
00:37:46at this you know three-quarter inch steel up here is expensive oh yeah and if we screw one of
00:37:51these up
00:37:51and don't get the cut right yeah we're kind of screwed that's to say the least all right okay got
00:37:59it let's do it now that I got the pattern laid out the way I want I'm gonna put the
00:38:09torch on there
00:38:09and then the torch will do the rest it allows me to keep on working getting other things done and
00:38:18built we haven't had a rescue where we've had to do so much cutting and fabricate so many things at
00:38:22one time we're burning on the CNC table now we're gonna be cutting with this arm as well we're pulling
00:38:27everything that we have in our arsenal to get it done in time and hopefully it's enough
00:38:46you Cody yeah I'm Dave hey Dave good to meet you thanks for coming out we'll take a look all
00:38:52right
00:38:52follow me up okay back on the hunt for better ground on the Podvins 2,000 acre claim Dave brings
00:39:00in local dirt detective Cody Pink I called in a geologist the more information I have of what's
00:39:08underneath and the rock composition and how this was all formed will help me get these guys on better
00:39:17gold I think to get to better gold concentrations we need to get us close to the bedrock yeah and
00:39:23that's up in the canyon both the Dickensons and the Podvins mine the lower reaches of Boulder Creek
00:39:29where bedrock is far below the surface Boulder Creek is underexplored the potential is high this is the
00:39:40unicorn that everybody's looking for did the old-timers find it all certainly not this is an
00:39:48adventure go upstream and do some prospecting try to figure out if there's viable gold let's go see
00:39:55all we got to worry about is the Bears
00:40:07we need to go upstream to find better gold on a mission to rescue two operations in central Alaska
00:40:14I think we should do a couple of pans here we're not quite to the bedrock yet but I believe
00:40:21true
00:40:21bedrock is below us here Dave Turin and geologist Cody Pink head up Boulder Creek on the hunt for
00:40:29better gold I'll take one side of the stream you take the other okay now that we've gone upstream I'm
00:40:42hoping
00:40:43to see more color you find anything in the first pan nope nothing to get too excited about we're not
00:40:57at
00:40:57the bedrock interface so the fact that we're not seeing nuggets of gold in every pan isn't necessarily
00:41:05discouraging I'm gonna have to go further upstream okay you want to just hop on back yeah
00:41:16bedrock forms an impenetrable layer which should capture heavy gold particles but not all ground
00:41:23is gold bearing we've definitely got bedrock coming down to the creek and it looks like there's a
00:41:33little bench right up in there for the slow-moving water is okay let's go investigate that I love this
00:41:40stuff brings me back to the old timers comes down to a pan and a man in a creek I
00:41:47just love it I
00:41:48absolutely love it I think I had one piece one right at the head there a little bit way up
00:42:02really do you see
00:42:04anything in yours no nothing
00:42:23it's the last piece I got a cut as Dave scrambles for better ground Juan cuts to the chase on
00:42:30the
00:42:30podvins hopper fix we were able to get all those plates cut there in a matter of maybe 45 minutes
00:42:36you
00:42:37know that would have taken somebody by hand you know half a day to cut that we've got to prep
00:42:41them
00:42:41a little bit and then they're ready going to the plant so it does save a lot of time these
00:42:46are three
00:42:46quarter inch plates this one right here probably weighs 125 130 pounds they're not light but it's
00:42:53the type of material you need for these bigger plants that's definitely 130 pounds podvin steel cut
00:43:04next one moves to the Dickinson's job so we're cutting out the pieces for the distribution box on Fred's
00:43:12flat the shoot 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 is going to be the bottom pan of it we're going to put the sides and those
00:43:32two
00:43:33downspouts that'll be the center of both sluices we're going to do a little work yes sir all right
00:43:39so what we're going to do is we're going to start welding this out this is going to be your
00:43:42distribution box so what we'll do is we'll get going on it I'll help you kind of get started on
00:43:47welding it I don't have anything this fancy you're pushing uphill right about this angle push uphill
00:43:56right slowly you make sure that you get both sides let it get wet when you travel up there you
00:44:02go
00:44:03move a little quicker
00:44:07it actually is really cool for me to come in here and see you guys you know from where you
00:44:11guys started
00:44:11with that little plant in Arizona to where you're at now you know you guys got a full-size plant
00:44:15you
00:44:15got more equipment you're actually running some decent yardage and it's got to be fun to be able
00:44:19to be out here with your dad and your brother to work and then be able to kind of spend
00:44:22the summer
00:44:23together yeah it's a lot of fun a lot of hard work my first gold claim was when I was
00:44:2912 years
00:44:29old it was Dickinson one are we gonna find some gold this season has been really hard out here it's
00:44:37been really difficult for us but trying to push forward I really want to stay out here doing this
00:44:43I want it I want to come out here every summer and hopefully have a family and bring them up
00:44:50here
00:44:50too that's my goal find a girl who can move some dirt all 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 gonna 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 at that horse we hit it hard would we pull how many pans did we
00:46:17all pull 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 they panned it and we're like yeah Dave's research shows gold deposits but his test on a
00:46:38two-mile stretch of Boulder Creek uncovers no signs of concentrated gold the guys that are mining here
00:46:46there's gold in the sluice box but it's very lean yeah I mean they're not gonna have expectations that if
00:46:54they go up further they're gonna find better gold even that information is good information yeah
00:47:04when I set out on this prospecting journey you know my goal was to find better gold Cody thought
00:47:11there was better gold upstream uh what we found is there really isn't so now plan B is to up
00:47:18the
00:47:18production to get them mining as efficiently as we can they're on lean ground but I think they can make
00:47:30money here coming up we gotta shut it off or it's gonna keep burning we're getting ready to flare back
00:47:37up over here this divide you're running 110 yards an hour won't do it I've been losing my mind whoa
00:47:49that doesn't look terrible for four hours wow I've got a huge fuel bill to pay that's almost 28 grand
00:48:09we owe them fuel right now they won't deliver until I get caught up I paid the 90-day past
00:48:15due but we're
00:48:16still 60 days past due in the Dickinson's camp central Alaska with seven weeks till the end of season Fred
00:48:24and
00:48:24his boys take stock Josh I know you've got your credit card payment due is there anything else just a
00:48:31regular amount of 250 okay pay my car insurance off I get them on payment keeps it going up yeah
00:48:40we can't
00:48:41pay it off right now but I can get you the minimum payment that's most of the next two cleanups
00:48:45is going
00:48:45to fuel so we're going to have to kind of be snug until we can get those in there those
00:48:53boys are making
00:48:53big sacrifices to be out here and to to build this as a family we're miles from the Arctic Circle
00:49:00and
00:49:00hours away from the nearest town you know they're 20 and 22 years old most people are out with their
00:49:06friends doing fun things I know it's hard for me to be away from my wife but I'm in my
00:49:1150s I hadn't
00:49:13really considered how difficult this really could be for them hey Fred hey Dave how you doing doing
00:49:29good man how are you hey I wanted to kind of look at your pit after his paid prospecting mission
00:49:35fails
00:49:35to find higher grade pay Dave sets his sights on the production side of Fred's operation this is
00:49:42all overburden that we flip back to here okay there's some logistical things that I think I can
00:49:49help them with I took a quick look at his pit it looks pretty unorganized you know they shut down
00:49:55oh
00:49:56gosh we're out of pay so they go down and dig pay and then they're like all right we got
00:50:00pay let's run
00:50:01so I want to get them more efficient let me ask you something how do you get your pay out
00:50:07of there to
00:50:07your wash plant um so right now we write we ride an excavator so we it's almost three times from
00:50:16pay to
00:50:17there you'd swing it to there swing it maybe four times it's four yeah probably four flips the idea
00:50:23originally was to push it with the dozer I haven't been able to build a road and run it why
00:50:29not right
00:50:30on here this is really soft I can make a road here just push this out of the way and
00:50:34get you a pretty
00:50:37to the cut you mean yeah to the cut oh wow I love it yeah that would be good if
00:50:44you flip pay four
00:50:45times it's a waste of fuel and it's a waste of you know sunshine if I have a dozer I
00:50:52think I could get
00:50:53a road to the wash plant that you can continually get pay from and then he's good to go so
00:50:59give me a
00:51:00day and I think I can get it done Dave's plan use a bulldozer to build a road from the
00:51:06wash plant to
00:51:07Fred's cut this will allow Fred and the boys to push pay seamlessly the 300 yards from cut to plant
00:51:16in one
00:51:17move eliminating the need for the excavator but Fred's D9 is still out of commission Dave's plan is
00:51:26exciting it's good I like it you know he's got a whole lot more experience than I do the dozer
00:51:30breaks constantly is really the problem I think we're on day three or four I don't even remember
00:51:37right now how's it going kid we've got a leak right on this third gasket is that one we just
00:51:44replaced
00:51:44yeah wait is it leaking from here or is it leaking from here that one oh shoot oh well pull
00:51:51it back
00:51:51apart there's nothing else we can do it's important that we have this thing Dave's got a new plan to
00:51:57push pay to the plant with it but without this dozer that plan can't happen we're gonna do is we're
00:52:09gonna take the crane truck over there get these lifted up where we need them and get them in place
00:52:12those are still down Dave helps one transport the finished plates for the Podvins hopper it's all hands on
00:52:20the deck we got to get these plates down there to the Podvins we got to get this in
00:52:39the hopper is built originally too sharp so the hopper basically will hang a rock up and then it gets
00:52:45a
00:52:45big mound in there and plugs it so by doing this it doesn't allow rocks to hang up in there
00:52:51it's
00:52:51gonna be awesome joining the fight is the Podvins welder Casey Stagno coming over you guys good coming
00:53:00down we raised it about this high and then it gives them this much more room for material to sit
00:53:13in
00:53:13here this is gonna help keep rocks off the spray bar long thought of that protecting the spray bars
00:53:20that's awesome because it's something we didn't even think of they're no better than I could imagine
00:53:25they should fix the hopper pretty much a hundred percent job it's great man thank you you got a lot
00:53:33of welding to do buddy a lot of welding to do yeah
00:53:53starting all the cuts on the Podvins distribution shoot it's gonna be a v-splitter we're actually gonna
00:53:58do four runs there's only two days to go before the final test runs in the race to fix two
00:54:05plants
00:54:06Juan and the crew are hot on the build of the Podvins large 10-foot distribution box right now the
00:54:13way the
00:54:13plants running there's a big chance that they're losing a lot of the fine gold having more even feed
00:54:18across a whole box is gonna help that material enters the 10-foot wide sluice at one point flowing down
00:54:29the edge of the box with no place to settle gold is being lost out the end to cope with
00:54:38the extra
00:54:38material through the plant and to recover more gold one is building a distribution box with four down
00:54:46spouts spreading the flow of material across the entire width of the sluice taking on two big
00:54:53builds in the same time that we normally do one build it's hard enough but we're coming out swinging
00:55:00ultimately I know their plants gonna be better for what we're doing to it between the hopper and the
00:55:04distribution it's gonna be a whole other machine fire fire fire fire fire at our camp do they need
00:55:24help one Zena I got the water truck in the Arctic tundra summer high winds plus dry brush creates a
00:55:34highly flammable mixture apparently there's fire they had to race off right now you know these high
00:55:39winds with a fire it's not good we don't know how big this fire is let me it's my machine
00:55:52we gotta snuff this all out yes sir dirt on top got it
00:56:08the patch right there this patch is right there Alex
00:56:16we're getting ready to flare back up over here
00:56:27we gotta 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 softness so they're gonna come with the cat and spread all this dirt on top there to shut the
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
00:56:50this dirt right over top so it should smother it okay
00:56:59nice work dude good job this could have been catastrophic it's blowing straight to our camp
00:57:06we could have had a really bad situation so we'll throw dirt over it we should suffocate
00:57:11it good work gentlemen team work makes the dream work you got to come together under pressure you
00:57:17got to do it you know we're a team all of us so it has to be that way or
00:57:22you don't make it out here
00:57:22you did a great job man you went in there with the excavator you're actually ripping it up getting it
00:57:27good work nice work boys good job well that was pretty scary with the community help everybody
00:57:36jumping in helping out we got it out good job bud thank you all right you can jump for you
00:57:42too
00:57:42getting that water pump yeah we got that foot out huh all right a little bit everybody I think oh
00:57:57definitely what's going on a little surprise from Freddie just showed up really brand new table
00:58:03Freddie came through sweet here's the baby wow nice could make life a little bit easier for you
00:58:10definitely no more brushing no more brushing and your gold is at this end you can look at it it's
00:58:16bright
00:58:16and shiny it's nice perfect I'm excited to see it working okay I'm clear good Dave I like it I
00:58:27think
00:58:27it's gonna be a game changer that's for sure since this thing's very heavy I cut some inch and a
00:58:34half
00:58:34two inch pipe we put it on the ground we're gonna use that as rollers and we get it to
00:58:38roll it you happy
00:58:42be with it here absolutely I think it's a good place awesome
00:58:45a little throttle after days of blood sweat and oil come on baby you can do it Brian's hard work
00:59:05has paid
00:59:13off that D9 is kind of a really important piece of equipment it was definitely crucial to get that up
00:59:18and running Brian knocked it out of the park you know for a 20 year old man to take that
00:59:22on and take
00:59:23it apart himself and put it back together it's impressive feeling pretty good those are warming up so far
00:59:31no leaks nicely done kid thanks nicely done very very pleased couldn't be prouder of Brian pulling
00:59:44this thing apart and putting it back together he did a good job we get Dave behind the controls and
00:59:52we'll be able to see what old girl can do D9 back in action Dave begins his plan to maximize
00:59:59the
00:59:59Dickinson's production so if I get in that road where he could push with the dozer it's way more
01:00:05efficient than flipping his pay once he builds this road and starts ramping it up it's gonna be
01:00:10pretty easy for us to just push from where the pay is over to the wash plant it's gonna be
01:00:16a whole lot
01:00:16faster than doing it with this excavator so we're happy about it frozen ground I'm sliding
01:00:46all over the place I mean this is ice it's permafrost and I can't get up on here I just
01:00:58slide off
01:01:08it'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 news
01:01:30okay good news Brian the engine's running good oh good um so bad news is that ground's frozen
01:01:42and uh I did a couple slides on it oh okay and uh I just don't want to get on
01:01:48that ice and throw a track
01:01:51okay that's what scares me Fred doesn't have a lot of options and it's kind of desperate times
01:02:10there's hundreds hundreds of weld while Dave devises a plan to overcome the ice on the pudvin mine
01:02:19Casey is 11 hours into welding hopper plates with no end in sight this needs to be able to handle
01:02:27the
01:02:27rocks that are falling in plus the excavator touching it it's 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
01:02:43still gonna be maybe three more passes here
01:02:53I'm just trying to figure out a plan here my dozer keeps slipping on that ice but it's gonna be
01:02:59difficult in the Dickinson's cut Dave puzzles through his permafrost roadblock if you could
01:03:07clean that up pitch it up and back I could probably get it see if we can build a road
01:03:12around the ice maybe
01:03:13yeah you want me to try that yeah all right I think we got a plan the problem is in
01:03:19the middle
01:03:19of my road is a big chunk of ice with Fred's help on the excavator I think I can maneuver
01:03:25around it
01:03:35Dave's plan is to use an excavator to reclaim the low area beside the frozen ground using tailings and
01:03:44overburden then build the road around the ice
01:03:57mother nature's trying to say she's mine I'm gonna politely disagree
01:04:14coming 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
01:04:34a little bit Alex that box isn't square you look great on the edge there I push down on mine
01:04:43I might
01:04:43be able to get it I wonder if we can suck this in probably not so I've got a full
01:04:48quarter inch to
01:04:49three-eighths gap on the top it's in it's just we got a big-ass gap now terrible losing my
01:05:03mind
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
01:05:24on the final day of fixes in Boulder Creek one hits a snag on the Dickinson's wash plant just hours
01:05:32out
01:05:33from the second test runs we're gonna have to make some adjustment over here you know it fit really
01:05:40good but I didn't realize that that chute as it went further in it wasn't square so now we're gonna
01:05:46have to make a little bit of a filler piece which is not the end of the world but we'll
01:05:50get it just
01:05:50takes a little longer this is not exactly how we wanted it but it's what we got to do to
01:05:59make it work
01:06:02Travis can you give me more 60-10 you know it's something we have to do in the field we
01:06:06just have
01:06:07to adapt make a little filler plate but it's just part of it while one finishes the distribution shoot
01:06:13installed despite a few obstacles this plans coming together Fred and Dave make inroads in the cut
01:06:25it's starting to come together with him flipping overburden if we get that dozer in here I think I
01:06:32can get it done low ground now packed with overburden Dave attempts to push past the ice
01:07:01it's working
01:07:10ice bypass Dave completes his new pay highway
01:07:19so I'm about ready to turn around and start pushing pay
01:07:27start pushing pay and start giving up to the lost plant so we can start to hook up
01:07:40yeah so it's looking good right now
01:07:50it's a lot more organized you got an excavator feeding those are feeding the excavator they're
01:07:57in 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
01:08:34they'll be able to run more material and they'll be able to sluice it more efficiently
01:08:39done I think it's great I'm excited to see it finished up I think it's gonna be awesome
01:08:45coming up final welds made Juan races to get the splitter installed trying to do two plants at
01:08:54the same time with the same amount of time it's really difficult it's been a long build but it's
01:08:59getting there up above welder Casey works on the final beads on the hopper about two days and about
01:09:0622 hours worth of welding this is the last weld
01:09:23it's done good job thanks buddy it should be good you know in that hopper it really should be able
01:09:29to get that material flowing the way they want I agree instead of getting stuck you know you should
01:09:34flow on its own they get up to 200 yards an hour now I think the sluice box is gonna
01:09:38accept it oh yeah
01:09:39yeah it looks good I'm happy with it
01:09:50perfect let's flip it on and just see if it everything's working back at the podvin workshop
01:09:55Dave gives a crash course for the new gold table pumps working got a nice bump to it
01:10:02hi guys Eric look at that there's your new table do you guys have any cons or something that we
01:10:11could
01:10:11run across this table we've got our tailings off of what we used to do off our old table let's
01:10:17give
01:10:17it a try yeah crazy sure beats painting the table with a thing I know right that's impressive that is
01:10:30very
01:10:30impressive so you're just really walking around in circles and adjusting instead of brushing for
01:10:35three four days maybe an hour oh I am impressed with that a lot more time for Eric and Leva
01:10:45and
01:10:45everyone else to spend more time doing other things around the mine it was really fun to see
01:10:51Daryl Leva and Eric see what that gold table can do and it's kind of a game changer because it
01:10:58takes
01:10:58so much less time to do your cleanups and Daryl gets it because now his time can be better spent
01:11:07doing something else it's down to the wire on both operations and at the Dickinson's wash plant Juan
01:11:18races to build the plumbing system for the new hopper jet all they had for water was this little spray
01:11:26bar
01:11:26so by adding that jet we're gonna introduce more water but also be able to control the feed the team
01:11:33add a new six inch pipe diverting water from the existing system up to the hopper jet that's the
01:11:41final wall for the two to move as quick as we can right now we still got miles to go
01:11:46but hopefully we
01:11:48uh we can start a test run soon there's never enough hours in a day there really isn't Josh you're
01:11:55gonna get burnt a little bit you're gonna be okay though you'll survive yeah right
01:12:05I'm laying out the deflector for the back of the hopper there's gonna deflect the water from going
01:12:10straight out to down and actually hit the pan so that way push the material in as Juan wraps up
01:12:15the
01:12:16water fix come on big boy let's go Dave and Josh install the finishing touches to the shaker system
01:12:23these are the counterweights we're gonna put these on to get more violent shake so that it actually
01:12:31throws the rock up you do not want these to come off trust me all right everybody's working hard now
01:12:41we got Alex and Travis and Juan's up above we've got Brian me Fred's gonna set a pump Juan's just
01:12:49about got the water jet in the back in the feeder that way we can run the test run I
01:12:54think we're very
01:12:55close what this does when the water hits the back of this it'll push it forward it's gonna actually wash
01:13:00down this plate I'm gonna call that good it's done it's in it's all welded in all plumbed in we're
01:13:07ready to go both plants are now finished with daylight fading Juan and Dave must complete two
01:13:16test runs to be sure their fixes are working it's been a long haul you know trying to take on
01:13:23two
01:13:23plants of this size with the same time it's tough we're running out of daylight oh I know his season's
01:13:28getting close to the end yeah well hopefully these fixes are gonna be a big enough improvement for
01:13:32him so he can make up the time fire it up kid we're ready
01:13:50all right we're starting the timer right now take a look at the box oh it's flowing way better
01:14:07I like that vibration I think sped it up plus your water jet not only that now with that punch
01:14:14plate
01:14:14not being square it's not getting hung up plus we're smaller openings they're gonna add more yards per
01:14:20hour yeah they're gonna be rocking and rolling more than they think looks good looks real good I like
01:14:29that slow pretty evenly matched Juan they really are that distribution actually looks pretty darn good
01:14:36with the Dickinson's second test underway Juan and Dave head to fire up the Podvins operation
01:14:46that doesn't look good Dave what's that about I don't know look change the drives down
01:14:55what's going on guys what's happening here we move the motor
01:15:14so you pulled it down pull it down from underneath it put it up on
01:15:18side worried about their drive system the Podvins have pulled the plug on their second test run we
01:15:26had a legit concern that with their fixes up there I really think they're gonna push 200 yards an
01:15:31hour material in that drum on the flip side of that it might work too good for our drive system
01:15:36so
01:15:37someone's got to do the next step get a little more chain wrapped around it traction on the drive
01:15:43sprocket yeah once it's getting more material fed into it and up in that production that was gonna
01:15:49be our next spot you know it's a little tough you know we did a lot of work on this
01:15:54plant we wanted
01:15:54to see it run unfortunately I'm not gonna be able to stay here to watch it run the truth is
01:15:59I have to
01:15:59be another mine and in a couple days so I got to get going there's always a little bit of
01:16:05a worry
01:16:06even with my calculations and everything else and the yardage they're gonna be running in the water flows
01:16:10but until you actually see it run sometimes you don't know you know so I am a little nervous about
01:16:16that but regardless I know what we did here is going to help them tremendously
01:16:26slow down slow down two hours into the test run at the Dickinson mine you're running over 110
01:16:34yards an hour right now won't do it Josh runs double the yardage from the first test
01:16:43all I see is that deck and that deck is empty he's overfeeding it we're running over a hundred
01:16:49yards an hour right now nothing on that desk right now he's doing a bucket every 28 seconds
01:16:57taking it though here we're good settling not down here it's good pick it up pick up the pace man
01:17:04I would run it all right see what she'll take it's crazy they're running out of pay Dave jumps back
01:17:21in
01:17:21the dozer to keep the plant fed from his pay highway that dozer Dave on my dozer pretty awesome
01:17:32more yardage more gold so we're gonna have to kind of feel it out and see it's kind of like
01:17:37going
01:17:38from a v6 to a Ferrari we can do 10 hours of work in five hours that's insanity that doubles
01:17:48our profit
01:17:48this is really fantastic hey Fred hey that's four hours let's shut it down all right let's do it
01:17:58all right Josh last bucket kiddo last bucket
01:18:15there you go yeah there's a little gold in there look at that one they're deep in the mats they're
01:18:21right there there's some big this one out you're on some gold oh yeah contrary to popular belief
01:18:27there is some gold in Boulder Creek looking pretty good you guys it's kind of late now why don't we
01:18:32clean it up in the morning and see what we got let's do a gold way yeah let's do it
01:18:36damn he ran what we
01:18:41normally run in about eight hours in four hours so I couldn't be happier it means a lot it's gonna
01:18:46be good
01:18:59hey everyone good run hey we got the whole crew here everyone's here perfect six days of hardcore
01:19:07effort across two claims the families come together to see the results on the Dickinson's operation oh it's
01:19:15the moment of truth you got the gold I do and it looks pretty substantial dude whoa that doesn't
01:19:21look terrible for four hours no well you know it really looks like you know we're catching a lot
01:19:26of that fine gold but honestly we ran a lot more material during that that test run it was huge
01:19:31yeah
01:19:32closer to 100 yards an hour on average well let's weigh it up huh you know during the first test
01:19:37run
01:19:37we were 0.94 we'll see what this is there's 0.93 1.96 a little over what you did
01:19:48last time there's still
01:19:49a little more yeah a little more oh tap tap tap 2.64 huge increase yeah nearly two and a
01:20:01half times
01:20:012.64 ounces a 180 increase on their first run that is really good that's dang good that's over half
01:20:13an ounce
01:20:13an hour which is what we're looking for right there absolutely you know if this isn't a motivator I
01:20:17don't know what's gonna be you know this should be a motivator to say hey you know what this is
01:20:21what we really can produce let's rock and roll that's a game changer for us we really appreciate
01:20:25oh gosh yeah well you know it's a shame that we weren't able to watch you guys's plant run
01:20:29but when you guys get running please let us know how that goes absolutely I really think it's going to
01:20:34make a huge improvement send us a video let us know how it's going we will do that please
01:20:37we'll do it we'll do it we don't see any reason that ain't gonna no it's screaming material through
01:20:42that thank you so much for yeah everything you've done both you guys likewise thank you
01:20:46appreciate it thanks for the opportunity yeah appreciate you guys yeah here's your gold Fred
01:20:52thank you sir right on nice work thank you everyone you know honestly it was a pleasure working with
01:20:57you guys we better get on the road you guys all hey great working with you likewise thank you hey
01:21:02thank you man this is huge I knew they would increase our production but I had no idea it was
01:21:09going to be that profound when Juan and Dave got here wasn't looking very good for us but seeing this
01:21:16the way that it is and if we can finish this season the way I think we can the boys
01:21:20have a future here
01:21:21on this mine we can keep going and when I get tired of mining I want to be able to
01:21:25turn the keys
01:21:25over to them and say hey you guys just keep doing what you're doing now we can do that honestly
01:21:31I
01:21:31feel like we've got this I'm very excited about the fixes they've made I think it's gonna be
01:21:36absolutely awesome when they brought up the idea of changing the seuss box I wasn't too keen on it
01:21:43hey yeah I'm allowed to be wrong once a year I'm excited for these guys it really does warm the
01:21:50heart because we all work together and that's what it's all about it's community and miners helping each
01:22:04other out hi Juan and Dave this is Darrell we'll see the wind good we sluiced through I don't even
01:22:10know
01:22:10how many acres but we did it in a hurry that wash plants doing over 200 yards an hour exactly
01:22:15how we
01:22:15wanted it to and thank you guys for all your help with it everything on the hopper is phenomenal it's
01:22:22working great Matthew can stuff a full bucket and it just eats it our first thing up was 95 ounces
01:22:29that
01:22:30was the best that we've ever had we just got just over 500 ounces that's huge we're very excited for
01:22:38years to come what that thing's gonna do awesome to have this dream come true
01:22:49hey Juan and Dave Fred Dickinson here just wanted to let you know that we're doing great we're getting
01:22:55to the end of the season as you can see there's snow up on the mountain we're doing pretty well
01:23:00out here
01:23:01a little late in the season but we're gonna keep mining there's our road up to the wash plant there's
01:23:10our cut you can see quite a bit of it's missing now sorry about the noise in the background Brian's
01:23:23ready to run all right thanks again guys we'll see you later
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