- 3 hours ago
Gold Rush Mine Rescue with Freddy and Juan S06E10 Desert Storm
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TVTranscript
00:03it's what you get when you play outside on this episode of mine rescue looks like more rains come
00:10it's all hands on deck to save a veteran run dry mine running a dry plant it's got to be
00:17100 dry
00:18he's losing gold all over the place overrun by monsoon rains it keeps doing this every day
00:26we're in deep trouble but with crew tensions high listen let me handle it anything that he's brought
00:35up here is none of the flattened out stuff that was to drive we really need freddy and one's help
00:41freddy and one must devise new tactics look how hot this is we've never built anything like this
00:46to even the odds fire her up oh look at that that's a beautiful piece they're our final hope
01:07what kind of figures how long we're going to work on a dry plant and now a monsoon's supposed to
01:14be
01:14coming in on us dry mining it's a tough game they're saying we could get three to five inches of
01:21rain
01:23deep in arizona freddy and juan respond to a desperate call for help
01:30at a claim run by a group of military veterans with a great cause
01:38how's it going guys good good good ken larry yeah nice to meet you how are you all larry pleasure
01:44larry freddy here's your mind huh it's the dust bowl there you go yeah dry plant yeah not so much
01:50today though a lot of rain yeah so larry do you own part of the operation then yeah i'm full
01:55-time
01:56mining with them so how long have you guys been mining here for about a year now okay how much
02:00gold have you been able to collect about 10 ounces 10 ounces 10 ounces what's your best day 13 grams
02:05out of how many yards 130 that's not real good we know yeah what's your goal this year 80 ounces
02:12and where are you at right now uh we're not even over an ounce do you have any gold we
02:18can look at
02:18yeah i got some right here yeah it's fine gold we know we lose a lot especially on fine gold
02:25yeah
02:26and there's definitely an acceptable loss but when it comes to dry mining that loss is huge with gold
02:31prices the way they are now every spec counts every time we pan our tailings we find gold
02:37i'm a navy vet i was an operations specialist did two trips to vietnam but gold it always fascinated me
02:48after 10 years in the navy and four decades running a successful business
02:54larry walked away from retirement for one last mission my dream for veterans is that they have a safe place
03:04to integrate back into civilian life to learn new skills i've learned as i did in the military that
03:13teamwork is so important to make his dream real larry poured his retirement fund into this 20-acre claim
03:22the cost to keep the equipment uh the rentals is quite scary we really need freddie and juan's help
03:29now we've borrowed to our limits soon uh it's going to be more on the break it in than the
03:36make it in
03:38you have a group of guys that you're helping out are those the vets you're talking about yes we got
03:42about five veterans the end dream is veterans can come out here and learn heavy equipment operation learn
03:48mining we have to get the gold right first to be able to do that how much do you have
03:52invested in
03:52this operation a little over 120 000 personally and uh 160 000 worth of equipment and loans
04:03that's substantial rentals alone costs us 16 000 a month and our fuel bill is well above eight grand
04:09each month the vets need to pull 24 000 worth of gold each month just to break even so you
04:17got a lot
04:17of people's money on the line yeah not only money but potentially a lot of people's future you know
04:23what do you think before it rains let's do a two-hour test huh sounds good yeah you got people
04:29out here
04:30that have their life savings tied up in this and uh they're trying to help people and help themselves at
04:35the same time but if you go broke in that process you're helping nobody there we are got a nice
04:41little
04:41dry wash plant huh yeah we got a five box plant we can only run about 10 to 15 yards
04:47an hour desert
04:49mining is synonymous with dry washers which rely on a process of air and vibration to separate gold from
04:57the material a dry plant is up to 15 percent less efficient than a wash plant but allows mining
05:05mining in places with little to no water so you guys gonna start hauling pay uh larry basically
05:13runs the whole pit operation well let's run it before the rain hits the forecast for today is
05:19showers and then downpours always rain on the worst possible times every time we try to run the planet
05:26wants to rain let's get running let's go
05:38first bucket line
05:45the noisy little guy
05:48kaden feeds pay onto a five and a half foot vibrating screen
05:54where material drops into five blow boxes which use air and vibration to force tailings out
06:03leaving the heavier gold behind
06:08these the tough situation here see the little dust storm
06:12that's pay dirt blowing he's losing gold all over the place
06:17we don't get this working a lot better for us everything's at stake we're going to lose the mine
06:24and we're never going to be able to help the other veterans out
06:28i come from a long line of military my grandfather was drafted into vietnam my great grandfather was in
06:37special forces and i was in fort gordon georgia and fort hood texas after leaving the army
06:45kaden teamed up with larry and formed the veteran mining company focused on making a difference
06:52i've lost military friends due to ptsd and what i've seen work is getting a group of guys together
07:00and doing something to give them a sense of purpose once again but if we don't get our plant
07:05functioning a lot better i don't think we're going to be around another month
07:14there's quite a few issues that i'm seeing you know one of them is the feed uh secondary you know
07:20the way it's distributed to the sluices and then three the sluices themselves
07:30another day in the neighborhood
07:32it's good 500 yards away in the pit the crew stockpiled pay led by larry in the 440 excavator
07:44i worked my whole adult life saved money for retirement and once i got creating something for
07:52the veterans i decided to go all in on it
08:10it's a good day in the dirt so every day is a good day in the dirt for them roger
08:21that
08:24i've got about 35 000 invested and that's a significant sum of money for my wife and i
08:32tim moves the freshly dug pay across the pit we can bring veterans on the ground out here and man
08:38i can face my creator and say yep i helped do that but you know an operation like this we've
08:44got our share
08:45problem
08:48i wish i had a nickel for every load that i ran through this thing jim screens material through the
08:54grizzly
08:58i've always liked running equipment i did not anticipate eating quite as much dirt though
09:08next he lays out the painter in hopes of drying it before it's screened
09:14he can't pick up and move it over to the plan roger that once screened tim picks the pay up
09:21again taking
09:22the material to the plant for caden to feed
09:50it doesn't look good at all
10:04the material's just damp enough that as it's rolling in there it's gonna get stuck in those
10:08doors i keep having to get in there with a screwdriver to break it apart
10:15did you not have any other stuff that we flattened out yesterday despite best laid plans
10:23so none of that material that's been flattened out is up here right now no that was all misclassified
10:28what pay has been mixed in and taken to the plant it's all soaked he told me to say i
10:35i just just
10:36let me handle it larry no can you come with me on this one anything that he's brought up here
10:44is
10:44none of the flattened out stuff that was to dry he's got that still stacked all the time you're saying
10:50how this guy's incompetent this guy can't do this this guy because it's eye because it's what i see
10:58today's day
11:03none of this stuff is dry
11:06we don't always see eye to eye we butt heads on a lot of things but i try to take
11:11as much pressure
11:12off as i can i wonder if the front might be a little drier
11:21it's probably still holding that moisture from that monsoon
11:25yeah it's dry here okay i'll start pulling right here you know you would think out here in the
11:29desert we wouldn't have a problem with moisture but with a pile like this that moisture gets locked
11:34inside so uh yeah it's a massive problem right now
11:46why the heck is that thing not shaking
11:55at the dry plant there's another snag
12:02vibrators overheated
12:06the vibrator that clears tailings from the screen keeps cutting out
12:15we're at an hour and 45 right now well let's call it i guess
12:29uh we got rain coming in we got to get the plant cleaned out and we got to get this
12:32pay covered
12:33before it starts pouring down you know looking at the equipment that he has around here it's easily
12:3820 20 000 a month well here don't let me spill that let's keep the gold they haven't made enough
12:46money to be able to really cover even one month of rental my opinion this operation is just days away
12:51from going broke
13:10well how's it going guys good morning good morning after a stormy night at the veteran mining company's
13:17claim in arizona well it was nice earlier than a rainstorm now it looks like more rain's coming
13:24that unpredictability causes us a lot of problems the crew weighs the gold from the abandoned two-hour test
13:33well let's see your gold well that's what we got well that won't pay the bills that's for sure
13:510.02 guys that's not good
13:58you can call it sixty dollars in gold he probably burnt two hundred dollars in fuel in that two
14:02hours yesterday after expenses this way leaves a monthly loss of sixteen thousand dollars
14:13if we don't have better results we're not gonna be around much longer
14:18i wouldn't be discouraged though you guys want to do this to be able to help vets
14:22we love the idea you know i think there uh there could be a possibility here to do that but
14:26i think
14:27it's going to be a whole change of process we'll go put our heads together and yeah try to figure
14:32some stuff out here better days ahead let's do it we'll see you guys back in a bit okay thank
14:38you
14:40we're not going to survive if we keep getting clean outs like this we can't even pay for our fuel
14:44yeah
14:46there's a whole lot riding on this but we're not a group that uh that takes failure lightly
14:52the reality is they're our final hope to uh keep this thing alive well they got a lot of bad
14:59things
14:59going on here the whole operation needs revamped doesn't have near the eccentric in it to get that
15:07material going down right well that dry wash box that screen on a lot of those is actually wore out
15:12holes in them there's a good chance we're losing a lot of that fine gold exactly that material is too
15:17wet
15:17you know especially right now yeah if it's going to be a dry plant you're going to run pay has
15:21to be
15:21dry 100 dry not damp not moist dry so what i'm thinking it's going to require planning but build a
15:29heating pad in order to be able to dry that material you know we're going to have to heat it
15:33from the
15:34inside out it's going to be on a pile and heat rises yeah i think the biggest thing is damp
15:39material
15:39well let's go talk to them let's do it we just got an ancient rain last night well if it
15:46keeps doing
15:46this every day we're in deep trouble from mid-june to september in arizona intense summer heat creates
15:54low pressure that pulls in moist tropical air over the gulf of california creating heavy monsoonal
16:02thunderstorms this year late season heat has brought even heavier rains onto bone dry ground
16:11creating disastrous conditions for dry washing
16:19how's it going guys it's going genuinely there's a lot to do a lot every step of your process needs
16:27help okay yeah the damp materials really got us worried you know because you know you're running a dry
16:32plant it's got to be 100 dry yeah we've been fighting yes we want to build a heating grid to
16:38be
16:38able to store your material yeah it's going to be pretty intricate and basically all the material
16:43that's stacked on top of it's going to get heated from the bottom up it's going to be a
16:46learning experience we've never done it before we want to work on your plant itself on that screen
16:51that eccentric isn't really doing anything underneath there yeah your dry boxes they're actually
16:55torn so we got to work on those as well okay we actually drove by your cut just a minute
17:00ago
17:00and it's underwater right now is there any way we could pump that water out of there yeah we have
17:04a pump for it before it keeps soaking in yeah but uh as far as material roughly eight thousand dollars
17:10and then labor we both decided that we don't want to charge anything for labor yeah appreciate the
17:15military absolutely you know they keep this country where we can go out gold mining yeah so we
17:20appreciate that thank you for your service sure so if you guys are good with it we're good with it
17:26we're good with it my opinion is we're out of options we're all in well deal then yeah bail absolutely
17:33to give this veteran run mine a fighting chance
17:41one will build a unique heating pad to dry wet pay
17:47hot air from a diesel burner will blow into a central manifold then through a network of pipes
17:56while retaining walls hold the material as it dries to increase recovery on the plant custom
18:03adjustable eccentrics will allow more paid to feed through the screen
18:09the blow boxes will be upgraded with new mesh and aluminum back plates to prevent fine gold from being
18:17lost finally freddy will examine their cut to locate the best gold bearing pay
18:29so this is the beginning of the heating grid
18:32one kicks off the fixes with his one-of-a-kind pay dryer
18:42we've never built anything like this so we had to kind of design it on the fly
18:46we're building a manifold heat's going to radiate from tubes up and into the pile of material on top
18:54the idea that we have here it should work but ultimately we don't know until the test run when we
18:59get pay on there to dry it out we'll see how it does
19:10freddy asked us to get the pump set up to get the water out of the pit
19:14usually monsoon season is way earlier in the year so we don't have to really worry about the water issue
19:19of filling the pit as much it's just getting worse and worse this season
19:26down in the cut okay let's do it all right i'm gonna start it caden and larry pump out the
19:34flood water
19:38all our material and the cuts just going to be wet and we can't run that through the plant
19:43the sudden monsoons that come up are just a nightmare
20:02so your cut management you're most important as far as what to dig and what not to dig okay
20:08at the veteran mining company claim in arizona it'll make or break you the cut is now dry enough
20:17for freddy to examine i want to get in there and look at what they've been pulling out it may
20:22take
20:2210 pounds to find a color but if you find a color it should be decent paint
20:29this stuff right here you can actually see the layers in it
20:32yeah so that's lake bed silt gold doesn't travel in silt beds that stuff won't even
20:39grow potatoes let alone catch gold you're digging it all at one shot right yeah i'm sure you might
20:45think there's gold because that top layer is going to have some gold in it yeah and then you're mixing
20:49it all together all you're doing is watering down your your pay yeah and it costs just as much to
20:55run
20:56that as it does stuff with gold in it yeah let's go have a look at that hole over there
21:01okay
21:09what's your average day then uh with the plant continuously breaking we're sitting at about
21:14two three grams a day not enough
21:20the material is definitely shingled in here so an old river channel probably you know during the ice
21:27ages when this would have been a lot wetter area the rocks tell you a story see how these rocks
21:34are
21:34laid flat when it's in flowing and moving material it's not going to stand up right
21:39millions of years ago powerful rivers cut through the bradshaw mountains washing gold from hard rock
21:47veins into the basin below as the water slows and dries up the heavy gold settles into the gravel left
21:55behind
22:02this is the best looking stuff to me okay by far you know you can tell all this was put
22:09down by a
22:10stream bed so nature's sluice box right yep you got that clay layer on the bottom that wouldn't allow
22:15gold to pass through it clay layers act as false bedrock stopping heavy gold from sinking any deeper
22:23water let's get some of those gravels here and have a look okay
22:35how many people help out here five most of the guys in the navy
22:40my dad was in the navy in world war ii he got to fight kamikazes in the pacific
22:49his ship never got hit though he's on a destroyer yeah awesome there you go
22:57you like it out here in the desert i like being in the middle of nowhere don't have to deal
23:01with people
23:05no there's three colors mine gold there's one there one there one there
23:11a lot of what we've been finding though is that fine stuff yeah there's gold in it i'd say uh
23:18get
23:19in there and get that material okay we can get a bunch of that out get it up here sounds
23:24good to me
23:26so it's one of those situations where if you don't high grade your material
23:29and take the best of the best you go broke
23:40so we got all the pieces cut out for the manifold
23:44at the cut trailer one welds together the manifolds for the heating grid
23:52there's going to be one of these sections on each side so it's going to be a total of 16
23:56feet long
23:56by four feet deep and uh we're going to have three sides of this there will be the center section
24:01where the heat's going to get forced in and then from there it'll distribute across the tubes so it's
24:06just wanting to go
24:15all good
24:27all good
24:28swing that way
24:30at the plant freddie rallies the troops to begin work on the dry plant screen and shaker
24:37boom up
24:42track back
24:47it'll work yep
24:52so i'm going to design and build a whole new setup it's a design that i did years ago on
24:58some of my
24:58own stuff freddie's first mission upgrade the eccentric system for a more violent shake
25:06this is going to be the new shaft so their old one was only half length if everything works out
25:12like
25:12it should on this eccentric it'll uh make that machine work a heck of a lot better
25:23yeah it's not good so uh we got to get the rust off here so it'll go through the bearings
25:29we'll start
25:29at that end i'm going to do a bush lathe here yep okay and then back to you need more
25:36tape
25:36you need more tape easy i'm sorry
25:44sanding off the rust will help ease the shaft through the new bearings
25:56push her on through look at that she's going now that's almost too pretty for our plant
26:03for you out of the military too then or yes sir in the navy 80 to 90. okay aircraft carrier
26:09jet engine
26:10mechanic okay worked the flight deck come from georgia um went in the military at 17. saw the world
26:18but i have always enjoyed prospecting always wanted to prospect out west after retiring in 2003
26:26tim was a hobby prospect when he found the veteran mining company as far as being a vet myself coming
26:34out here has been awesome it's renewed my sense of what we fought for i can't imagine what this could
26:40mean some of our hardest hit combat vets the severe ptsd sufferers it makes your heart slow
26:49like it's a good deal if this mine works out just got to be enough gold here you know we're
26:54looking
26:54forward to get gold in the pan yep well thank you for your help guys i can get her from
26:59here
27:05we've only got so much time here and uh you know look at the puffy clouds starting to fire back
27:11up in
27:11the sky now the dry plant cannot run material with any moisture in it so i am extremely worried juan
27:18well he's still working on that heater hopefully we can get material on there and knock the moisture out of
27:25it
27:39ready one last push it's the final day of fixes at the veteran mining company's claim
27:46we needed a little more work area so we moved the manifold onto the trailer and with more monsoon
27:53rains on the horizon one tests out the heating grid the heat's going to be introduced right in the center
27:59and then from there it's going to distribute six to the left six to the right and then it'll go
28:04to the next one
28:09see blow through there
28:15it's not really warm the burner generates 5000 bt use of heat it's not transferring properly through the grid
28:23we're not having really good combustion in there we need more draw through that's what i wanted to
28:29check before we got too carried away we're gonna have to put another tube in here we'll do it right
28:35here in the center originally the burner that i had anticipated had a little bit less cfm this one
28:41has more so we need to add more ventilation there isn't enough air flow to fully heat the grid
28:47we're gonna have to mark the center put the tube in get it in weld it but at least we
28:53know now
28:55you know running a dry plant you have to have completely dry material and right now during the
29:00raining season it's almost impossible this is going to be essential for him to keep on running
29:03and i still have a lot to do here what they had before was just some welded pieces on there
29:13that you couldn't adjust anything on at the wash plant freddy installs the new eccentric weights to
29:20the shaker screen now i can make it exactly balanced where there's no vibration so the farther
29:26i move this around the more out of balance it becomes so it'll shake harder the weights can be
29:32adjusted to a shake that best suits the material being run it's going to make the plant more efficient
29:39it's going to clean the material better it'll help out a bunch eccentrics in place the screen
29:46is lifted back into position you good i'm good okay that's a fit there you go
30:05real good fix looks good freddy has one final finishing touch so i just built this damper guys
30:13a tool box liner turned dampener to slow down material there you go so when that material comes
30:22down yeah it's going to help push that material through that screen but it's going to help keep
30:26dust down and help more gold get into your boxes something that costs you know 20 bucks to make
30:36but it'll help save gold every time you run you got a crescent wrench and a hammer i got all
30:44kind of
30:45stuff i don't have a hammer screen fix complete tim and jim set to work upgrading the blow boxes with
30:52200
30:53mesh fabric and aluminum frames not looking good for the home team look like they were all glued in here
31:00the new mesh will help prevent fine gold from being lost don't want to get any on where it doesn't
31:06belong oh no i should have combed my eyelid shut i wouldn't doubt that last one in got that one
31:18done
31:18good job all right a number of years ago i enlisted in the army security agency i had top secret
31:26clearance so
31:27i was able to work for nasa for a little while all of that sort of led me to be
31:32out here to do this
31:34a lifelong interest in prospecting led jim to the veteran mining company my investment is one of labor
31:43i start the day 3 30 in the morning and usually before daylight i try to have the machines grease
31:50sustaining this operation is a challenge different fun different day equipment breaks weather disagrees
31:58with us what i'm getting out of it is the satisfaction of doing something for the veterans long term
32:04by enabling this mind to be a success
32:13this is number two and two
32:17we've relined them put new backing plates on i can't wait to see them full of shiny yep
32:32that's a wrap these are in
32:41you know if we don't have dry pay for this final run we won't be able to run so we
32:44have to use this
32:45by adding this orange tube in the center we should be able to get that extra heat back at the
32:50cut trailer
32:51one adds an extra tube the full length of the grid to improve the airflow and fix the heating issue
32:58let me run it look how hot this is the heat's traveling uh we wanted to make sure we had
33:07enough
33:07airflow so it would burn properly and be able to heat up the grid it's actually working really good now
33:12okay perfect
33:15yeah right now genuinely we're out of time
33:18we'll get the sides on we got to get this down to the to the plant so we get it
33:21set up get it
33:22fired off so we can start drying some pay
33:32yeah it's well built ready to see it go to work
33:40heating grid complete it's put into position ready to dry pay
33:49that's a beautiful piece yeah
33:53let's get some tailings bury it keeps it from moving but also it'll kind of insulate it
34:03we could probably cook eggs on that
34:12ready was right on the mark on this in preparation for the second test larry and the vets stockpile high
34:21grade pay for the dryer this pay looks really really good he's a gold guru
34:32we get this material up to the heat pad do our second run on this
34:39it's good to see how much we've improved and how much more gold we have
34:48we've got a lot of high hopes for this thing show us what our future's going to hold up here
34:57all in all it's been a pretty good day hopefully this mine's sustainable so you can't run the
35:04material wet it's got to be dry or it will not recover the gold in the plant time will tell
35:35well this is the last piece of the puzzle
35:37this vibrates to be able to clear out the tailing chute
35:42in western arizona it's a little tiny fix but it's a big deal juan installs one last fix on the
35:49veteran mining company's operation we should be able to run a little longer and uh more importantly
35:55get more gold well there it is we should be able to fire this thing up now let's run
36:07the fixes we're hoping is going to make a huge difference we were right on the edge of make or
36:14break newly upgraded drive plant and bespoke pay dryer at the ready freddie and juan kick off the
36:23second test fire her up oh she's going awesome it's been a long road but i can't wait to see
36:35how much gold we get
36:39well two hour test let's do it
36:46get some of this dry material all right let's get this first bucket in
37:03the green's working good one you guys can see that it's moving now good work fred nice
37:14the eccentric's working perfect the dancer's doing its job and keeping that stuff from bouncing up
37:23pretty warmed up one oh yeah it's good that's hot right that orange is hot too
37:30the plant's running a lot better we got the material classifying through really well
37:39the box is doing really good we put a new vibrator on the discharge chute so it seems to be
37:46working
37:47good now dry paint and a dialed in eccentric material flows cleanly through the plant and into the upgraded
37:57glow boxes
38:05i'm hoping this uh second test run delivers more gold
38:12in the cut larry and the rest of the crew focus on high graded pay
38:18apparently we're getting up to the heater pad looks like this is going to be some good thing
38:30but look how dry this material is now it's a lot drier than we had before
38:36well that's two hours one last bucket
38:52okay
38:53hey larry can you uh head up here to the plant
38:55right through there
39:00everything was smooth down in the pit how to go up here with the plant
39:06That dryer works fantastic and then the top screen runs a heck of a lot better.
39:12Hopefully we'll have a better clean.
39:26Hey guys. Hey. How's it going?
39:28Let's put it on the scale.
39:32Some superfine gold and some a little bit bigger gold, yeah.
39:38Looks better than the first run.
39:44There we go.
39:46.08.
39:47Going from .02 to .08. That's huge.
39:50300% increase.
39:52Running a full day would recover just under $1,600 in gold.
39:58Enough to cover costs and keep the veteran mining dream alive.
40:03At gold price it is right now, it's viable.
40:05You can actually run the mine on that.
40:07And get your buddies out here.
40:08With those numbers, it's sustainable.
40:11You know, I know this is really important to you guys, so please keep us posted.
40:14We're going to give it our best shot.
40:15Well, gentlemen, we better get on the road.
40:17Thank you guys.
40:17Pleasure coming out here and working with you guys.
40:18Thank you very much, Freddie.
40:18Great meeting you guys.
40:19Appreciate everything.
40:21Pleasure.
40:21Likewise.
40:22Thank you, gentlemen.
40:24Thank you, Freddie and Juan.
40:25The improvements you made to help us move forward.
40:29We're not going to give up.
40:31We're going to be here this time next year.
40:34Going from 0.02 to 0.08, it goes from not being viable to now that they have a chance
40:40to run this mine with the vets.
40:41The dryer's working.
40:43They're being able to recover a lot more of the gold.
40:44So, honestly, I couldn't be happier.
40:48I'm more than pleased with that.
40:50Not only, you know, is it a gold mine, it's a good cause, right?
40:54To help these vets be able to come out here and to work and maybe make a dime, you know,
41:01means more than the gold itself.
41:07Having Freddie and Juan out here, you know, they're incredible in what they do.
41:12The plants running absolutely wonderful.
41:15The boxes with new frames and mats and the vibrators that fix the shaker deck.
41:20The efficiency was tremendous.
41:22Where to find the gold, what to look for, was immensely valuable to us.
41:27Freddie and Juan, thank you for your efforts out here.
41:30The knowledge you bestowed on us, and I hope to see you again down the road.
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