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Gold Rush Mine Rescue S06E03 (2026)
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00:04Oh, I'm emotionally drained.
00:06As of right now, I'm screwed.
00:08On this episode of Mine Rescue...
00:11Get up here!
00:12...a desperate gold miner finds his dreams of riches slipping away.
00:18We got 0.2 of an ounce.
00:20It's unsustainable to keep going at that rate.
00:23...as his greenhorn family...
00:25In reality, I have no idea what I'm doing.
00:28...struggles to mine.
00:30While he juggles two jobs to survive...
00:33Jared does shift work to help fund this so that we can stay out here.
00:37It's a lot of stress for him.
00:41And the clock is ticking for Freddy and Juan.
00:44The forest fire ripped through here and destroyed everything in its path.
00:47We don't work on hot days because of the risks of fire.
00:50But that is costing us money.
00:53As one of the worst wildfire seasons on record threatens to shut them down.
00:58If we don't get anything back, I don't know what we're going to do.
01:05I'm hopeful that Freddy and Juan can help us.
01:16I may go check with the fire department to see what the fire restrictions are.
01:20Over the past couple years, I guess there's been a massive amount of fires in this area.
01:25See you a little later then.
01:26See you in a bit.
01:28In the dense caribou mountain forests of British Columbia, Freddy and Juan receive a desperate
01:35SOS from the wildfire ravaged Gaynor family mine.
01:40A location that will soon prove to be one of their most challenging to date.
01:51I'm going to meet with Cheryl, Ray, and Jamie.
01:54From the sounds of it, they've been having a little bit of a struggle out here.
01:57They have sunk every last dollar that they have into this operation.
02:00So really, it's kind of sink or swim.
02:05How are you doing?
02:05You must be Jamie.
02:06Hi, I am.
02:07I'm Juan.
02:07Nice to meet you, Juan.
02:08Nice to meet you as well.
02:09Hi, Ray.
02:10Nice to meet you, Ray.
02:11I'm Juan.
02:11I'm Cheryl.
02:12Cheryl.
02:13How are you guys doing?
02:14Oh, good.
02:15Better now.
02:16Better now that you're on site.
02:18So Freddy's not here right now.
02:20He's just a couple hours behind me.
02:21He went to go check with the fire chief to make sure we're okay to do the work we got
02:24to
02:24do here.
02:25Right.
02:25So is this the whole crew?
02:27Ah, my husband, Jared, is missing in action.
02:29He had to go back to work in Alberta so that we could be out here to mine.
02:35But he will be back tomorrow.
02:38Inspired by what they saw on Gold Rush, the Gaynards began their mining
02:43venture 10 years ago.
02:45Jared and I took our kids out camping and we did some prospecting.
02:49We were hooked.
02:51Over the next few years, they ran a series of small operations.
02:55As we've gotten more into it and we got more equipment, we're trying to have a serious go
03:02at it.
03:03But in 2024, an opportunity arose at a larger claim when wildfires drove out the previous
03:10miners.
03:11It was just so devastating to them that they weren't able to come back.
03:15We had heard the old timers were getting about an ounce per 20 yards.
03:20But the gold never materialized.
03:23Since we've been out here, we've seen roughly 0.2 of an ounce.
03:28It's not really adding up.
03:30To pay the bills, Jared and his stepfather, Ray, have been forced to take second jobs,
03:36leaving the mining to his inexperienced family.
03:40I get six days off.
03:41I'll spend two days of that six driving.
03:44And then I get to spend four days of the claim mining.
03:47And then rinse, repeat.
03:50Ultimately, our goal would be to have everybody in the family out here full-time.
03:54But with Jared and Ray having to work this season, the rest of us have to step up and
04:00be more hands-on with helping out at the mine.
04:03In reality, I have no idea what I'm doing.
04:06I'm just trying my best.
04:09Do you have any of the gold that came out of this area?
04:11I do.
04:11I have some gold that we found.
04:13Okay.
04:14Well, it's pretty chunky stuff.
04:16Yeah.
04:16There's some finds in there.
04:17Do you guys have a goal for what you want to be able to produce here?
04:21Yeah.
04:21If we could get half an ounce a day, even 50 ounces, if we could get this season to recover
04:27some costs.
04:28Well, the reality is that you're running out of time to go out there and hit your target.
04:31I want to do a four-hour test run.
04:33Let's get some material through it and see what we got.
04:36Great.
04:36All right.
04:37Let's do it.
04:42Carrie, I assume.
04:43Freddy.
04:44I appreciate your time this morning.
04:46Okay.
04:46Well, it's super high risk.
04:48If you take a look at the forest, like, you can look at any of the areas around.
04:51Our forest is, like, standing firewood, right?
04:54The 2025 wildfire season is already Canada's second worst on record, with nearly 1,300 fires
05:03having scorched British Columbia alone.
05:0640% of wildfires in B.C. are caused by human error.
05:12So one mistake can risk lives and livelihoods in an instant.
05:17Are there any fire restrictions right now?
05:20Not right now, but when you guys are out, if you're grinding, welding, just know the risks.
05:24Yeah.
05:25Water is your best friend.
05:26Get the trees limbed up as high as you can reach, 10 feet or higher, because if a fire
05:30does come through, it just stays on the ground and it just rages through.
05:33Well, thank you for your time.
05:35Thanks so much for coming by.
05:38Okay.
05:39Well, let's do it.
05:39Back on the Gaynert mine, the first two-hour test run begins.
05:58Ray loads pay dirt into the four-foot hopper that feeds a 10-foot trommel, which washes pay
06:07into an 18-foot sluice box below, where the gold should be recovered.
06:13We can't continue running like this.
06:15It's costing us more money than what we're getting in return.
06:30No!
06:31Everything just plugged up solid.
06:34All the material's stuck in there.
06:36That's not good.
06:39Ray, I have to go in there.
06:45The material gets stuck in the hopper, so they're having to sit up there and wash it
06:49all down manually.
06:50So it's not a very efficient way to run.
06:53The stakes at the Gaynert mine are shared by the entire family.
06:57So we don't know if it's running well or running terrible or what we need to make it better.
07:05Jared's parents, Ray and Cheryl, invested $100,000 of their own money into the operation.
07:12Well, we sold our house in Alberta, came out here.
07:14We spent that money, put it all into the mine, and really haven't got anything out of it yet.
07:18We're old enough to retire now, but we can't retire.
07:22We've got a mortgage now.
07:23Every weekend I get in the summertime, I'm back here.
07:26The rest of the time, I'm at my other job driving trucks.
07:30This is going to be our last chance out here, our last kick at the cat.
07:42Let's take a look inside the drum.
07:50There's not enough water pressure to be able to wash the pay down into the trommel.
07:54Because there's actually holes in the spray bar where it's pushing water out the side.
08:04That sludge, it's way too violent, has way too much water.
08:20I'm going to do a little tanning.
08:21I just want to check the material that they're bringing to the plant.
08:24You know, honestly, it doesn't look that special to me.
08:27But I just want to take a look, see what's in there.
08:33Not even a piece of gold, not even one speck.
08:36I'm worried that the material that he's pulling out isn't really pay.
08:48Holy s**t!
08:49What are we doing?
08:51I don't know.
08:52What are you doing?
09:00We gotta get off!
09:13Shut down on you?
09:14Yeah.
09:15Why don't we just go ahead and call it?
09:16It's been about an hour.
09:18Yeah, we can shut it out.
09:22I think we shut it down right now.
09:23We'll regroup and figure out what we can do.
09:30Let's pull it out.
09:33Right now, I am feeling a little bit disappointed.
09:35Yeah, you bet.
09:38Our test didn't go as smooth as we had hoped.
09:41But I'm still hopeful.
09:43I have to go to my full-time job.
09:46I won't be back here for five days.
09:48And I'm hoping that this could possibly be my full-time job.
09:52But right now, you have to pay the bills.
09:55Miners in general are kind of hopeful and, you know, gambling type.
09:59But sometimes we need to give them tough luck.
10:02Coming into a mine site where everything has an issue, it's frustrating.
10:05There were safety issues, the pay doesn't look great, and honestly, the plant's not running
10:10good either.
10:14Coming up, two or three part-time jobs to pay for your gold mining.
10:17It's unsustainable.
10:19I'm going all in.
10:20It's now or never.
10:21That was a road.
10:22Let's see what lives right here.
10:26Holy moly!
10:36Later that afternoon, at the Gay Nerds Caribou Mine...
10:41We'll see what's going on.
10:42Let's go check it out.
10:43Freddie arrives for the cleanup.
10:46Hello, ladies.
10:47Hello!
10:48The mine crew is now down to Jamie and mother-in-law Cheryl.
10:53This is Freddie.
10:53Freddie, Cheryl, Jamie.
10:54Hi.
10:55How's it going there?
10:56Great to meet you.
10:57Hi.
10:57Nice to meet you.
10:58Yes.
10:59We're sure glad you're here.
11:00How's the cleanup going?
11:01Going good.
11:02I'm done.
11:03Well, let's get it weighed up.
11:06Well, here we go, Freddie.
11:08Yeah.
11:08Moment of truth.
11:10The Gay Nerds need at least .06 ounces from the test run to hit their half-ounce-per-day
11:17goal.
11:21.02.
11:23Less than a third of what they need per day.
11:26That's pretty sad.
11:29It's sad.
11:30Maybe it's lucky you broke at one hour, because every hour you're running, you're throwing
11:34money away.
11:35Yeah, right.
11:35And we don't want that.
11:36Well, what we want to do is we're going to go back, put our heads together, and come
11:39up with a plan for you guys.
11:40Thanks, Freddie and Juan.
11:41You're welcome.
11:43I'm a little worried now, after seeing the amount of gold.
11:47It's unsustainable to keep going at that rate.
11:49You know, you'd have to get two or three part-time jobs to pay for your gold mining.
11:52It's not good to see that it's costing us more money to get that gold out of the ground than
11:58the pay.
11:58So, I don't have a gold mine budget anymore.
12:00It's gone.
12:06So, what's the deal with the bucket being in the hopper?
12:09The machine broke down.
12:11Mm.
12:11So, we weren't able to finish the test run.
12:13Driving in here, it looked like there's a lot of equipment that might not run.
12:16I don't think any of it runs, Freddie.
12:18So, one of the things I'm really worried about, we've got to get a machine coming out here
12:21because we have to do prospecting because the material they brought to the plant was
12:24absolute garbage.
12:25Okay.
12:26The hopper is another issue, and it should be feeding itself instead of someone up there
12:30babysitting it.
12:31And the sluice is completely inadequate.
12:33It's too narrow.
12:34It needs to be a foot wider.
12:35How'd the spray bar do, Juan?
12:37Not good, Freddie.
12:38There's actually holes in the spray bar where it's actually pushing water out the side of the
12:41trommel.
12:42There's safety issues that I want to address, like the stairs going up.
12:45Yeah.
12:45Okay.
12:46Really, all this is for naught unless we can find some material that's worth throwing.
12:49Exactly right.
12:50That'll be my first goal.
12:51All right.
12:54To transform the mine into a profitable operation, a three-inch water jet will be mounted at the
13:01back of the hopper to break up the pay and drive it into the trommel.
13:06Then, inside the drum, a new spray bar will be added to the existing thread to wash gold-bearing
13:14material into the sluice.
13:16And finally, the sluice box will be widened an extra 12 inches to boost capacity by 50%.
13:24All right.
13:37Hi, dear.
13:39After a 600-mile drive from the oil fields, Jamie's husband, Jared, returns to the mine.
13:45Morning, baby.
13:47Hi, baby.
13:49I missed you.
13:50I missed you.
13:52How's it going?
13:55Um, it's not looking good.
13:58I hope they can help.
14:00I got into gold mining 10 or 11 years ago just because it looked really cool watching gold
14:07rush.
14:08We went out to this old fella's claim on the Fraser River.
14:11First, we had a pan, and we panned it, and my eyes lit up.
14:15Oh, man.
14:16Look at that.
14:17That's when gold fever sunk in.
14:19It's a real thing.
14:20But mining is amazingly expensive, and things are pretty tight.
14:24I can't continue pouring money in every year.
14:28It's now or never.
14:31How are we doing?
14:32How's it going?
14:32Hi, guys.
14:33How are you doing?
14:33Good.
14:34I'm Juan.
14:34Jared.
14:35Nice to meet you, Jared.
14:36Freddie.
14:36Freddie, nice to meet you, Freddie.
14:37Nice to meet you, Jared.
14:38Well, we put our heads together.
14:40You know, we came up with a few ideas for the plant.
14:42One of the first things that we want to do is focus on that hopper.
14:45We're going to put a jet in the back so that material can get fed down into the trommel.
14:48Inside the trommel itself, put a whole new spray bar in there.
14:51Then we want to build a new sluice box.
14:54Okay.
14:54The intention is we're going to actually run a little more material when we have that spray
14:57bar in the back of the hopper.
14:59And in order to do so, we've got to have that wider box.
15:01Okay.
15:01Yeah, and I need to go prospect on this.
15:04Yeah, yeah.
15:04Because everything I see here is tailings.
15:06Yep.
15:08So we're thinking $5,000 in materials.
15:12But the excavators that you have here, none of them are up to par.
15:15We found somebody that had an excavator that we could borrow for a few days.
15:19Okay.
15:19But we have to pay for transport.
15:20And that'll be about $3,000.
15:22Okay.
15:23So all in, it's going to be $8,000.
15:28That's a lot of money, I know.
15:33Uh, I think we can do that.
15:35Well, deal then.
15:36Deal.
15:37Let's do it.
15:37I appreciate it, guys.
15:38Yeah, no worries.
15:39Thanks, Freddie.
15:40You're welcome.
15:40You're very welcome.
15:41Thanks, Juan.
15:42You're very welcome.
15:42Thanks, Freddie.
15:44That was pretty awesome meeting Freddie and Juan.
15:46I was giddy like a school girl.
15:49$8,000 is a pretty big hit, but I don't see I have much of a choice to do it.
15:53If I want to continue, I have to do this.
16:03I wonder if I can figure out why the ignition stopped working all this stuff.
16:08To help get the mine on track.
16:10Am I pulling on it?
16:12Yeah.
16:12That's the one you're pulling on.
16:13Jared's called in his mechanic brother, Sandy, to work on their stricken excavator.
16:19I'm going to be here on the mine helping Jared get some of these machines running as best I can.
16:23Pull that wire again.
16:25With all the time and money that Jared's put into this, I would just really love to see it succeed.
16:31I think that goes to the starter.
16:33Okay.
16:34Go turn the key.
16:36Okay.
16:37Ready?
16:50Hey, thank you guys.
16:52Next, Juan spots a fault with one of the other excavators.
16:57Your pin on your cylinder for your bucket is actually ready to come out.
17:01So the pin itself has this little plate that holds the pin in place.
17:05It's broke off.
17:06So we can knock that pin back where it needs to be and get it on.
17:13It's extremely important that this excavator works correctly.
17:17Without it, there's no mining.
17:19So it's got to be tough for you to work a full week in the oil field
17:23and come out here and work at the mine site, huh?
17:26Yeah.
17:26All that travel, all that time.
17:282,000 kilometers a week and then trying to forget about the stresses out here
17:35so I can focus on my job at work.
17:37And Jamie, you know, the first day that we did a test run, it was kind of cool to see
17:41her that.
17:41She actually just jumped right in there and wanted to be a part of it.
17:43Yeah.
17:44We had up to 300 head of goats at one time.
17:46And that's a lot of work.
17:47And she'd be in there wrestling goats with me holding them down so we can give them injections.
17:51And, yeah, Jamie's always been one to give her.
17:55Yeah.
17:55Once she knows how to do it, she's going to give it 100%.
17:58And she'll probably really excel at it too, I'm sure.
18:00Yeah.
18:01You know, at the end of the day, you know, if you can enjoy your time with your family.
18:04And I think a lot of people would kind of strive to try to do that one day, right?
18:07You're that close to doing it.
18:08Yeah, we are.
18:09You're that close.
18:10Well, let's finish this up, huh?
18:12Yeah, sounds good to me.
18:13Let me try to open this up just a little more.
18:22Popped right in.
18:23There's some good news.
18:24That's good.
18:26Thanks, Juan.
18:33So hose on and then pass you the hose?
18:36Yeah.
18:37Excavator's fixed.
18:38Juan begins work on the wash plant's new water chute.
18:42I cut a hole right here.
18:43We're going to put that jet on the back of the hopper.
18:45And we'll put a diverter plate.
18:46So it was going to wash all that material down into the trommel.
18:53Go towards you a little bit.
18:55Toward us.
18:56Come out of it.
18:56Yeah.
18:57Right there.
19:07So I got the jet all done.
19:09I got the deflector plate on there.
19:10So now when that material piles up, this will push it all into the trommel.
19:14It's going to actually increase their production by a lot because now they'll be able to feed
19:17it instead of having to be up here and washing it down by hand.
19:20This will do it all.
19:21Oh, cool.
19:23We got the job done.
19:24But the reality is Freddie and I still have a lot to do here.
19:37Well, you want to show me where you got that pay?
19:40Here.
19:40They ran on the first test there?
19:42Yeah.
19:42Just up here.
19:43In British Columbia, Freddie starts his gold sleuthing at the mine's old cut.
19:49So they mined right in here last year?
19:51Yeah.
19:51I was told they were getting good sized nuggets out of it.
19:54So I thought, well, that sounds good.
19:56But there just wasn't enough.
19:58We got .02, not enough to pay anything.
20:02Something was weird about that.
20:04Mm-hmm.
20:04Yeah.
20:05Don't trust what they've told you unless you really know the people.
20:09Trust what your own eyes tell you.
20:11Okay.
20:11But I can see what you were chasing there.
20:13That red stuff.
20:15Yeah.
20:15A lot of times those surface red layers are red because they are the surface gravel
20:20and they got oxygen to them which allows iron to rust, right?
20:24So usually your surface gravels don't carry much gold.
20:27Okay.
20:28The rest of it's tailings.
20:30That's been stacked up there by somebody that was in here before.
20:35In 1858, discoveries on the Fraser River ignited the Caribou Gold Rush.
20:41Strikes at nearby Williams Creek and Barkerville made fortunes with over 3.8 million ounces,
20:48worth over $12 billion in today's money.
20:52Old-timers say the claim Jared is working produced more than 1,800 ounces of gold in the 90s,
20:59valued today at over $6 million.
21:03One way to tell you're in tailings is there's no rhyme or reason to the rocks.
21:08Virgin material that got laid in there by water, all your flat rocks are laying flat for the most part.
21:15In tailings, everything's just haphazard.
21:17You know, how it was dumped.
21:18It's never been reworked by water, so that's one of the quickest ways to tell.
21:23Let's go look for some virgin ground, huh?
21:25All right.
21:31What I think we need to do is find a little bit of elevated ground and look down and see
21:36what we can see.
21:38This is all tailings.
21:40This is all tailings on this side too.
21:46Let's have a look from this high point.
21:49Well, this isn't a great feeling.
21:51Thought I had something down here.
22:06Well, you can see that gravel face over there?
22:08Yeah.
22:08Well, to me that looks like glacial till.
22:12Glacial till is the debris left behind by a glacier.
22:16Thousands of years ago, millions of tons of ice bulldozed its way through the valley, crushing rocks into fragments and
22:24freeing the gold inside.
22:27As the glacier melted back, the gold was left scattered throughout the ground.
22:33A hypothesis that that hillside right there, you know, it's not really structured with the main hill.
22:39Mm-hmm.
22:39There's a chance that's a glacial moraine.
22:42A moraine is where the glacial till has become piled up to form a ridge where gold is more likely
22:49to be concentrated.
22:50You can see right down below us here, and you've got the road there that could be good.
22:54Who knows?
22:55There's only one way to find out, though.
22:57Freddie's hunch?
22:58An old-timer's road, which cuts through the glacial moraine outcrop, could hold virgin pay.
23:04At one time, there was a lot of gold here, but they gutted this valley.
23:09Maybe there's some pockets of virgin ground onto the road that nobody took the gold out of.
23:13Hopefully, we can do a little bit of potholing and try to figure things out.
23:26Make sure we're not right on the edge.
23:29In the mine's boneyard, Juan and Jamie construct the new 18-foot sluice, which will help them recover more gold.
23:37Kind of push to where you want it, more or less.
23:39Oh, okay.
23:39Then you push in, twist to the right, let go of it, and it locks.
23:43Want to try this one real quick?
23:44The magnets grip the steel like a clamp, keeping it square at 90 degrees.
23:50Is mining something that you really enjoy or that you really want to do?
23:53Yeah, it is.
23:54And when my kids can come out, that's even better.
23:56Wyatt is just about 21, and Morgan is almost 19.
24:00It doesn't seem like you're old enough to have kids that age, so.
24:04So, there's, well, there is a story.
24:06I had Wyatt when I was 20, and then on my 21st birthday, I was diagnosed with relapsing, remitting, multiple
24:12sclerosis.
24:14And I was told if I wanted to have more kids, I needed to do it because the medication I
24:18was about to start could cause complications during my pregnancy.
24:22Yeah, you kind of picked priorities, you wanted to have kids, so you went for it.
24:26Yeah.
24:26I get that.
24:27I would have never known that she had health issues with her motivation and her work ethic.
24:31But, you know, it just shows that she really has the drive and she's committed to doing this mine.
24:36We should probably get back to work then, huh?
24:38Yeah.
24:38All right.
24:46I came here to look at this spot.
24:48We can stay to the side there and at least get a trench in here and see what it looks
24:51like.
24:52OK.
24:54On the other side of the claim, Freddie locates a spot to test under an old mining room for virgin
25:00pay.
25:00Maybe they didn't touch it, so let's see what lives right here.
25:04OK.
25:05Hey, Juan, you got a copy?
25:08Go ahead, Freddie.
25:09I see that excavator showed up.
25:11Yeah, 10-4, do you want me to bring it on down to you?
25:13Yeah, if you wouldn't mind.
25:20With the Gaynerts' unreliable excavators, Freddie and Juan truck one in that can dig to almost 30 feet.
25:30What do you think, buddy?
25:31Sweet machine.
25:32Thanks for bringing it down.
25:34Yeah.
25:34This is a huge machine.
25:36That's awesome.
25:37See if I'm tall enough to get in this guy.
25:49My hope here is this was their road when they dug these pits beside us.
25:54This was the only spot I could see that we could have a look at in the time period we're
25:58here.
26:06Well, let's try that level.
26:09OK.
26:25Zero.
26:26Lot of color in it.
26:31It's disappointing.
26:33Yeah.
26:33Really disappointing.
26:49I just had a chat with Freddie.
26:52There might not be ground there, basically.
27:13What I want to do is get some material from down deeper in here and then have a look at
27:18it from a greater depth.
27:20At the Gaynert mine, Freddie rolls the dice on one last option, finding gold at bedrock.
27:28Well, this is definitely virgin material.
27:30I just don't know how much of it's here.
27:38We're down to bedrock here.
27:39Yep.
27:40We took those pans about five to six feet, right?
27:42But now we're down 12 feet or so.
27:44OK.
27:45So let's, I got some in the bucket there.
27:47Let's pan it and see what's in it.
27:51When I pan, I like to take, you know, not just the same spot.
27:55Yeah.
27:55I'll pick around through that material so we get a little bit more scientific test.
28:14Holy moly.
28:17Lots of stuff dreams are made of right there.
28:20I'm absolutely amazed that Freddie was able to find something in here.
28:23I'm hopeful there's a few thousand yards of material there.
28:27This is incredible.
28:29Well, that is what I wanted to see.
28:31We'll run a second test and see what's in it.
28:41How you doing, guys?
28:42Good, how are you guys?
28:43Good.
28:43Doing good.
28:43With 24 hours left before the second test, Juan enlists Jared and brother Sandy to help
28:50with the next fix.
28:51If you guys could help Freddie and I, we need to get that spray bar out of the trommel.
28:54See if we can break it loose here on this end to get it unthreaded.
28:57You good with that?
28:58Yeah.
28:58Awesome.
28:58Thanks, guys.
29:03So the problem with the old spray bar, it was actually pushing water outside of the trommel,
29:07and it really wasn't cleaning the material properly.
29:10With this new one, it's going to allow us to be able to concentrate that water where it needs to
29:13be,
29:13and get that material washed.
29:18Stick that in there.
29:23Nope.
29:24I'm heavier body.
29:25Yeah, get up here.
29:31There you go.
29:34We're putting these pipe nipples on so we can reduce the water flow so we have a nice even flow
29:38across the whole bar to get a good wash.
29:40And I'm using the end of the old spray bar so that way we know that we have the right
29:44thread pitch to be able to screw it back onto the plant and we know it's going to fit.
29:50This is an awesome new spray bar.
29:52Wand did excellent.
29:53You going to start throwing her in?
29:55Yeah, I think so.
29:57Oh, okay.
29:58This is heavy.
29:59Mine's light.
30:00I got the heavy side for sure.
30:02Yeah, I'm sure.
30:03Okay, let's set it down.
30:07We're going to see if this side's heavier.
30:10This side's way easier.
30:11It's the same.
30:20Oh, look at that.
30:21It's tight.
30:22It's like we're professionals or something.
30:30Hi, Freddie.
30:31How's it going?
30:32It's going good.
30:33Right now, you got a little bit of a safety issue here.
30:36Yes, yes.
30:36There's no stair treads in the frameworks on them.
30:38Yeah.
30:38So I was repurposing your old ripples.
30:42We'll tack them in.
30:43Why don't you try that?
30:45You're going to start it.
30:47Click.
30:47And then go.
30:49About an eighth of an inch.
30:50And then you stack your dimes.
30:51Okay?
30:52Okay.
30:53We tack one.
30:54We stack two.
30:55Stacking dimes means making each weld smooth and round, just like coins in a stack.
31:02We just stacked nine dimes.
31:03Nine.
31:04Okay, this is the last weld right there.
31:07Track those dimes.
31:09Get a little closer.
31:11There you go.
31:13You got it.
31:14Did I?
31:14Yeah.
31:15Thanks, Freddie.
31:16You're welcome.
31:17I feel pretty good.
31:19Freddie said I did okay.
31:20I think this skill is really important to have out here.
31:23If Jared and Ray are gone and we need something welded, then I can do it.
31:36We're making a wider sluice box to give them more area for that gold to fall out so we can
31:41spread that material out wider.
31:42It's going to be a lot more efficient sluice box than the one they have.
31:45With hours remaining on the final day of fixes and the critical sluice unfinished, the Gaynards get a welcome surprise.
31:55Ray's taken the afternoon off to lend a hand.
31:59Ray is incredibly hard working.
32:01He's gone most of the days during the week, but he tries to make up for the week he wasn't
32:05here.
32:05He just goes and goes and goes and goes.
32:08How's it going, guys?
32:09Good.
32:10We're here now.
32:11You guys want to cut some ripples?
32:13We do.
32:14Yep.
32:14So our sluice is 35 and a half.
32:25Right now I'm just getting this fairly close to the pitch we'll have it in the sluice box.
32:31That way when I weld the ears on for these jacks, I can get them straight up and down.
32:38The jacks will make the sluice adjustable for the type of pay they are running.
32:44Well, all finished.
32:45It's looking good.
32:46Let's get her up to the plant.
32:53Right now it's all hands on deck.
32:55We've got to get this thing in, get this test run done, and head on to the next mine.
33:02So I'll ripple this up.
33:03Okay.
33:04So we're going to put it in like shingles.
33:06Sluice builds complete.
33:07Freddie gives a quick tutorial to mechanic brother Sandy on how to configure it.
33:13So now we take our miner's moss.
33:15We don't overlap this stuff.
33:22Okay.
33:22Now grab one of our heavy ripples.
33:25So we'll go right up to the top with that one.
33:42You can start walking that end this way.
33:45We good?
33:46Still all right.
33:47Last task before the test run, the sluice installation.
33:52Oh, we're going under that?
33:53Yeah.
33:54Okay.
33:55Oh, we're golden.
33:57We've learned a ton since Freddie and Juan showed up here.
34:01Words can't express the gratitude I have for those guys right now.
34:06What do you say let's start a test run?
34:09All right.
34:09Let's watch some rocks, guys.
34:10Let's see this run.
34:14Overall, the fixes were great.
34:16And we know we got virgin material here.
34:18We'll just run a second test and see what happens.
34:34What do you think, guys?
34:35Looks like we're ready to run.
34:36So why don't we do a two-hour test run, huh?
34:38Yeah.
34:39I'm excited to see how she runs now.
34:40In British Columbia.
34:42All right.
34:42Let's do it.
34:44It's the moment of truth at the Gaynert Family Mine.
34:48There's a lot at stake here for us with everything.
34:51So I'm hoping with the improvements, the sluice and the spray bar,
34:54that we should improve.
34:55And I'm really excited to see what's in the box after we run.
35:08Good.
35:09Well, let's make some goals.
35:12First bucket.
35:22So far, everything looks great.
35:25Already, it's more material than we were running the first go-around, huh?
35:28Awesome.
35:29Awesome.
35:29Now we're not having to stay up there, hose it all down.
35:32It's washing itself down.
35:35I think this test run's going pretty good so far.
35:38These fixes were awesome.
35:41Above and beyond what I could have ever expected.
35:43But we've all learned a ton with Freddie and Juan here.
35:47Tomorrow's gold way will determine whether or not we stay here.
35:56Sluice is running pretty decent.
35:58Yeah, it's not bad.
35:59By adding this extra wide sluice box, it allows us to run more material.
36:18When you put material into the plant, it's got to go somewhere, right?
36:22But we don't want it building up where it's coming up the sluice box.
36:26So you've got to take care of it.
36:29Sandy's going to get that crack over here where he can take care of the tailing.
36:42Now start turning.
36:49There you go.
36:58Last pocket, Jared.
37:00Yeah, sounds good.
37:14Get my granny glasses on.
37:17Yep, she's got gold in her.
37:19There's definitely some mustard in this box.
37:21Hey, Jamie.
37:22Come have a look, dude.
37:23Lots of fine stuff.
37:24Get in there.
37:25Oh, yeah.
37:27There.
37:27A little bit bigger here.
37:29Nice work, Mr. Dodge.
37:31I think this has significantly improved.
37:34That's the biggest piece I see, but all through here is gold.
37:37So yeah, get her cleaned up and we'll meet you in the morning.
37:39All right, see you guys in the morning.
37:40Thanks, guys.
37:41Awesome.
37:43I'm thrilled to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
37:47I'm more excited than I can express with words.
37:58How's it going, guys?
37:59Good.
37:59How are you doing today?
38:00Good.
38:00They're all cleaned up?
38:02Yep.
38:03This is what we ended up with.
38:04Better than what we had in the first.
38:06I guess we'll see.
38:09All the rumor is and the testings have shown that this might be the ground that we've needed
38:14all this time.
38:15I think we've got good ground now.
38:17I think we're going to do well.
38:19During our first test run, it was a .02.
38:21That was for a one-hour run.
38:22Yeah.
38:23So on the final test run, we did two hours.
38:25We would have gotten .04.
38:27Yeah.
38:27Which is still only $100 worth of gold for two hours.
38:30Your gold right now is about half an ounce daily, right?
38:33Yep.
38:33Let's see what we got out of two hours.
38:34Yeah.
38:43.33, third of an ounce.
38:46Almost three times what they need to hit their daily goal.
38:50That's really great, guys.
38:52That's a massive increase.
38:53You know, and the great thing is that now you're actually on decent ground that's actually
38:57virgin instead of going through the tailings that we were doing in the beginning.
39:00Yep.
39:00I mean, with the plant running the way it is, we're able to run a lot more material.
39:04But you've got to keep prospecting because that whole mine's tailings piles, right?
39:08Yeah.
39:09Yeah.
39:09Who knows what's under them?
39:10I'll be able to recognize those tailings a little better now.
39:13Yeah.
39:13Yeah.
39:14Yeah.
39:14You actually have a real possibility of making this work.
39:16Yeah.
39:16We can work with this.
39:18You kind of mentioned to me earlier that eventually this is something that you want
39:21to do as a family, right?
39:22Yeah.
39:23Well, with gold like that, that's no longer a dream.
39:25You know, that actually could be your reality.
39:27Yeah.
39:28That's amazing.
39:29I think if we can keep this up, I won't have to be in panic anymore.
39:33Oh, you still will be.
39:34Yeah, absolutely.
39:35A mechanic at a gold mine.
39:37Yeah.
39:38There's lots of gold in this area, so look around.
39:40Don't run tailings.
39:42Well, thank you very much.
39:43Thanks a lot, you guys.
39:45You're very welcome.
39:46It was amazing to ride around with Fred and learn some stuff.
39:49They're leaving me with hope for my future, so I'm chomping at the bit to get out there
39:53and get the rest of that pile run.
39:55Well, you guys take care.
39:56We've got to hit the road.
39:57Bye.
39:57Good travels, guys.
39:58My confidence has skyrocketed.
40:01I'm able to do things that I wasn't able to do before, so I'm really grateful for that.
40:05Jared really wants us to be kind of a family mind.
40:08Now he has that option.
40:10I really enjoyed working with this family.
40:12They stepped up.
40:14I taught Jared how to spot the difference between tailings and virgin ground.
40:18That's a biggie, because if you run tailings, you go broke.
40:21You know, the sky's the limit for them now.
40:31Hey, Freddie, Juan.
40:32Thank you for this season and everything that you guys taught us.
40:37We ran the rest of that virgin material from under the road the next day.
40:42We ended up with just about an ounce from it.
40:45But I'll be honest, we're not going to go back to the same claim.
40:48With the amount of tailings, it was such a big risk to go after it.
40:53That Ray and I actually bought our own claims.
40:57That's something like 600 acres of our own now.
41:00And with the knowledge I got from Freddie, I'm confident I'll be able to go out there and prospect that.
41:06This season really gave me a taste of stepping up.
41:11And the things that I learned from Freddie, like learning how to weld, stacking dimes.
41:16I'll never forget that.
41:18I'm going to get her to weld up the exhaust on the excavator.
41:21Anything that breaks, if I need any welding done.
41:23The future's looking good.
41:25Confidence is high.
41:26We're not giving up.
41:27Thank you again.
41:28Yeah, thanks, guys.
41:29Thank you, guys.
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