- 22 hours ago
Gold Rush: Alaska - Season 16 - Episode 09: Playing With Fire
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00:28Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:32There are a lot of wildfires right now.
00:35They've all been lit quite recently by lightning.
00:39There's one that's maybe like three or four miles from our camp,
00:45which is a problem.
00:5130-year-old Parker Schnabel is on a path to a record $35 million season,
00:58but intense wildfires could shut him down at any moment.
01:07Oh, wow. Big fire.
01:11Dude, that is rager, huh?
01:19So right now, the film crew's safety is telling us that we have to get out of the truck.
01:28You can feel the heat?
01:29Yeah.
01:30Really?
01:31I think we got a—we got a bullet for you now.
01:33How come?
01:34Just, we are looking at a wildfire.
01:37I just don't think this is a good idea to be in this situation.
01:41Obviously, you have a job to do, but the fact that we can see it means it's not moving fast
01:44towards us.
01:45If it was moving fast towards us, this would be all black smoke where we're standing.
01:50What's the plan?
01:51Are we going to go—
01:51I'm just going to sulfur.
01:53I'm just going to go check in with the boys.
01:55Like, when you can't see it and all you can see is smoke is when it's really sketchy.
01:59Okay, well, let's carry on then.
02:02Let's go.
02:03Come on.
02:05Over the last week, the Yukon has ignited into an inferno.
02:10Ninety-three wildfires are raging,
02:15covering an area of over 250,000 acres.
02:20With a strong wind, they can travel over 150 miles in a day.
02:26There's one just two miles from Parker's Dominion Creek operation,
02:31and another just one mile from his sulfur creek claim.
02:37Right now, we have three plants running.
02:41Dominion's going good, and things at sulfur, Mitch and Brennan are doing really well.
02:46I really thought they were going to be done at sulfur sooner, but, you know,
02:50one of those situations where I'm glad it's lasted longer because gold's been good.
02:54You know, they've put away some pretty good ounces for the size of pit that they've done.
03:02You know, we're on a mission right now trying to get to this 10,000-ounce target,
03:05and it seems like things might heat up a little bit on us here.
03:09We got some fires burning just down the creek.
03:11They're heading this way, but hopefully we can keep everything motoring along here.
03:17Mitch has been racing to pull out all of the pay before the water license runs out in two weeks.
03:25Any delays caused by an evacuation could mean gold is left behind.
03:32How's it going?
03:33Good, how are you?
03:34Not too bad.
03:35A little smoky.
03:35Did you see the fire on the road?
03:37It is raging.
03:39And you can see, like, the line of fire.
03:41It's pretty impressive.
03:42I don't think it jumps the creek, though, so I think you're fine.
03:45Like, the worst thing that can happen is, like, you know, the road's engulfed in flames.
03:51Okay, I mean, as long as we got a way out.
03:56Yeah.
03:57I mean, as long as those fires don't get too close and cause us any grief,
04:01we should be sluiced and moved out of here by the end of the week.
04:05Let's just talk to Nona real quick.
04:07If that fire, like, I don't think it'll make it across sulfur.
04:11It's very close.
04:13Do you think it'll make it across the valley?
04:15Yeah, there's a lot of trees around it.
04:17But will this stuff burn?
04:19Well, yeah, with the heat like that, anything will burn.
04:27The wind right now is giving it that direction, and it's burnt a lot since this morning.
04:33So we should see if we can get a helicopter if the road's engulfed in flames.
04:40The helicopters are going to be busy with the fires.
04:43I don't know if you're going to get, like, a helicopter that's going to come in every day and do
04:47that.
04:52It'd be nice if there was some rain.
04:54Yeah, we could use that for sure.
04:56This is such a bad time for me to leave.
05:02I'll be gone for, like, five days.
05:05Okay.
05:05I mean, you guys have a good handle on these things.
05:07Like, you'll probably be moved out of here by then.
05:11But we've got all the pay is at the plant right now.
05:14So it's just a matter of getting that sluiced.
05:16Brennan can head down to Ken's and start getting things sorted out there.
05:19We'll get this finished and pack it up and roll it down.
05:21Okay, sweet.
05:22Mitch and his crew need to finish sluicing all the stockpiled pay before the fires reach sulfur
05:29and then move wash plant Roxanne 25 miles to Ken and Stewart's at Indian River
05:36and get running before Parker's return in five days.
05:41What we're seeing right now is it's not just one fire we got burning.
05:44Everywhere you look here, when the smoke does clear up, there's fires all around us.
05:48All it takes is the wind to change direction.
05:51So not ideal by any means.
05:55I'm hoping that by the time I'm back, they'll have the plant down at Ken and Stewart's
05:58and hope the place hasn't burned to the ground, which not too often do I mean that literally.
06:36The fire can burn whatever they want, the gold on the ground don't care.
06:49So while the gold prices are high, don't sit there and think we got it made.
06:54Just keep on going.
06:56As long as we can keep on sluicing, it doesn't matter.
07:00Don't miss the opportunity.
07:03Despite the fires two miles away, king of the Klondike, Tony Beetz,
07:09is working relentlessly to cash in on red-hot gold prices
07:14and has already banked over $9.5 million in gold, nearly half his season gold.
07:23Right now, we wanted to build some generational wealth mining for gold,
07:27and there has never been a better opportunity than today.
07:37Mike, you got Harold going on the hill by Hester running them old-time failings.
07:43They still have to add to the piggy bank in order to keep it alive, right?
07:51You know, I don't take my time. I get it the f*** on the go, and they grab it while
07:57you can,
07:57because you never know if it's going to last.
08:01We got cousin Mike and Jacob running sluice log.
08:04They have to keep that bland f*** going.
08:07Tony's built a massive stockpile of pay dirt beside his only moneymaker at Indian River, sluice log.
08:15There you have to get a sluice by the end of the week.
08:18Right now, that's paying all the bills.
08:25Tony's mood is go, go, go. He wants us to keep running nonstop.
08:31Operator Eric Morel feeds 250 yards of stockpiled pay an hour through sluice log.
08:40This wash plant has been running 24-7, so it's taking a beating.
08:49That's Tony's way. He knows what he's doing, so...
08:59Oh, s***!
09:09Jacob, you copy Jacob.
09:12Go ahead.
09:13So, wash plant's been smoking. It's shut down.
09:24If you look in this box, some of the wiring is burnt right up.
09:30But as soon as you take the cover off, you can smell it, and it just smelt like it was
09:33trying to light on fire.
09:35But yeah, it makes sense. That motor's always vibrating all day.
09:41So, what do you got?
09:42So, one of the main wires, they just burn like...
09:45The motor's out.
09:46Get that s*** overheated.
09:48Okay.
09:49Rip the s*** off.
09:50At least we got the problem. We got the motor.
09:52Yeah.
09:52Hey, I hope you s*** get it done.
09:57Sluice-a-lot shaker decks vibrate to separate waste dirt from the gold.
10:02A single 40-horsepower drive motor turns the plant's pulley system that shakes the decks.
10:09But its electrical wiring has worn through and caused a fire.
10:14Connor and Jacob need to remove the old 600-pound motor and replace it with a new one.
10:21Then, start the plant up and get back on the gold.
10:28Every hour, Sluice-a-lot is down. It's costing Tony $8,000.
10:36I was very fortunate that we have parts on there, that we have the people to put it on and
10:41everything.
10:42But when the sluice box is down, it's just never quick enough anyway. So, I'll suffer a little longer.
11:01A little poison. I'm ready to get this thing up and landed.
11:18So, how's it going, guys?
11:20Good. Just getting the guard on there.
11:22Fire it up.
11:23You have the s*** thing on the go.
11:25After five hours, Sluice-a-lot is ready to fire up again.
11:40All right, looks like you're new, guys.
11:42Good job.
11:43Yeah.
11:55What the s***?
12:02Did you just stop it?
12:03No.
12:04Not too sure what's happening.
12:14You know what's wrong with it, right?
12:16What's that?
12:17Well, it's running, but it ain't s***ing working.
12:24Tony's only Indian River moneymaker, Sluice-a-lot, has been fitted with a new shaker deck motor.
12:30But the plant has mysteriously ground to a halt.
12:34So, what do you got?
12:35No, this is starting to go too far into electrician's s***ing space.
12:39It's very unlikely we'll be running this tonight, so we're going to get the pump shut up.
12:43We're going to get rid of the people.
12:44Not much you're going to do about it.
12:46Okay.
12:47I mean, $8,000 an hour.
12:49S*** this s***.
12:52Tony has lost $40,000 and counting in gold production.
12:59Hey, well, we're probably going to need an electrician to fix it.
13:04So, we'll call the people that bill them, see what they say, but I'll bet you we'll be down for
13:09a day or two.
13:39I've put a ton of money into this ground down at Lightning Creek and, you know, I've got to get
13:44that money back out of it.
13:45In the mountains above Keno City, far from the fires, Rick Ness has a big decision to make.
13:54For six weeks, he's been working his new Lightning Creek claim.
13:58But the gold has been hard to find, banking him only 29 ounces.
14:05Days ago, he got access to his Vegas Valley claim on Duncan Creek.
14:12At the beginning of the season, we didn't have a water license on Vegas Valley, but now we've got an
14:16extension on that, too.
14:18But I can't just abandon Lightning Creek.
14:20That's a lot of money wrapped up in that, and I know there's gold there.
14:24And I've got to figure out how to get it out.
14:27Rick wants to try to make this profitable.
14:29He bought the land, but at the end of the day, you know, we should all be at Vegas Valley.
14:35There's good gold there, and so far here, it's not turning out the best.
14:41Rick's crew can't comprehend why he doesn't just leave Lightning Creek and move back to Vegas Valley,
14:48where there's a pile of pay dirt with upwards of 400 ounces in it and a cut full of gold
14:55-rich pay.
14:57We need to get down there to Vegas Valley, get that better gold, because this is not having it at
15:02the moment.
15:04You know, this is record-setting gold prices right now, and at this point, we're going to be setting record
15:11gold lows on the nest crew.
15:15The fact of the matter is that I still owe Troy 100 ounces of gold to buy Lightning Creek.
15:25To get the gold he needs, Rick's decided to split his crew.
15:30We've got, you know, several things that need to happen before we can even get going here.
15:33You know, we've got to get a pump in the Vegas Valley, get that dewatering first-hand,
15:37not to mention we've got a bunch of fixes to do on Monster Red yet.
15:40There's a fair amount to be done, but, you know, we just, uh, we just got to buckle down and
15:43get it done.
15:44We need this 700 to work. It's the only way we're going to be able to keep both things going.
15:49The 700 excavator is Rick's only free piece of equipment, and getting it ready is critical to his plan.
15:57Rick wants me to do a little look over on this, make sure it's greased up.
16:01We can see that the tracks never got shoveled at the end of last year, so that's fun.
16:04But, um, yeah, we'll jump up, check fluids, get it fired up.
16:11You know, I've got a lack of people, a lack of machines to do it, but I'm going to have
16:15to
16:15figure something out because, uh, I think this year is the year to go for broke, you know.
16:22There, Rick, you, uh, you got a copy?
16:24Copy, go for it.
16:26Hey, any chance you can come over to 700?
16:29Got a, got a pretty big issue.
16:33Copy that.
16:44What are we dealing with?
16:46So we've got a problem.
16:48This should be coolant.
16:50This should be all you see.
16:51And right now, I've got a mixture of oil and coolant, and that's a big problem.
16:56Basically, if there's a crack in that head gasket, the 700's dead.
17:02The 700's 460 horsepower engine won't fire up.
17:07Ryan suspects the head gasket that provides an airtight seal between the cylinder head
17:13and the engine block has broken, allowing oil and coolant to mix together, causing the engine
17:21to stop working.
17:23With potential damage to the cylinders, the whole engine needs a total rebuild.
17:32Yeah, that mess right there tells me everything.
17:37I mean, I've been worried about getting fuel and food up here because of these wildfires.
17:42I mean, who the hell are we going to get an engine or anything?
17:49Uh, yeah.
17:51I might as well take this out of the picture.
17:53I think so.
17:54Completely, right?
17:55Rick's plans to slowly prep Vegas Valley are already in ruins.
17:59If he takes any more equipment from Lightning Creek, he won't be able to continue mining.
18:07So it kind of puts you in a predicament.
18:09Yeah.
18:10I know you're bringing gold in, but that's not going to hit 1,800 ounces.
18:13Dude, we've seen just the tip of what's in Vegas Valley.
18:16We know what's there.
18:171,800 ounces isn't going to come from Lightning Creek.
18:19It's going to come from Vegas.
18:20And I think we got to get over there and get the going.
18:27I mean, there's a lot of that needs to be done.
18:29And if we got all hands on deck down here, that's not going to get done.
18:33Well, I mean, yeah, I get it.
18:35I get where you're coming from.
18:36I see it.
18:37But I'm not willing to just abandon Lightning Creek or get gold.
18:41I don't like being that guy.
18:42It's like, hey, you need to do your business like this.
18:44Because obviously, you know what the you're doing.
18:46You've made it this long.
18:47You've done it this far.
18:48But it's like, at some point, I've got to think about at home too, where it's like,
18:52you know, we come up here and it's, if we don't do good here, I fail at home.
18:57Yeah.
18:57So everything rides on kind of your shoulders, honestly.
19:03Dude, we got to make the move.
19:06I, yeah.
19:08I'm not just going to shut down Lightning Creek.
19:10I want to sluice there a bit longer, just a couple more days.
19:12And I just want to see what's going on there.
19:14I want to see if it's going to pay out.
19:15Then we can move to Vegas Valley.
19:16OK.
19:18By sluicing for a couple more days at Lightning Creek,
19:22Rick will discover how good the gold is,
19:25and maybe score enough to pay for the ground outright.
20:05You know, you look at the weather today and the rain coming down, it's really helped us out.
20:10After a night and day of rainfall, the wildfires are out.
20:17Well, it looks like we got about two more scoops of material here and sulfur to go through Roxanne.
20:22And then we're going to get this wash plant shut down, cleaned up, packed up, and on the road down
20:27to Ken's.
20:28And hopefully we got our fire back up here before Parker shows up.
20:33Now, Mitch is racing to finish sluicing sulfur, reclaim the land, then move wash plant Roxanne to Ken and Stewart's
20:42at Indian River.
20:48All right, Mitch, that's it. Last scoop here, Roxanne.
20:52All right then, buddy. I'll come over and we'll shut it down right now.
20:54Yep, sounds good, boss.
21:01Mitch's crew worked quickly to clean out the sluices.
21:07So here at Salford, the last clean up, we've had a lot of gold coming out of this ground, so
21:14it's been a huge success.
21:18Next, they pack down Roxanne and get her ready to travel 25 miles down to Ken and Stewart's.
21:28You ready for this, buddy?
21:29Yeah, man.
21:30It's been a while since you moved to wash plant.
21:32Yeah.
21:32Well, this one's pretty good as far as moving the shaker deck, but the biggest problem here is the sluice
21:38runs.
21:38They're so wide.
21:41So right now, I'm going to send Jack with the shaker deck first.
21:48I'm going to grab the sluice runs and get them down there.
21:50Then we can put everything together.
21:53Roxanne is transported in two loads.
21:56The shaker deck goes first on the back of a low boy.
22:01Mitch holds the oversized sluice runs in a second truck, and Brennan goes ahead in the pilot car.
22:10All right, here we go.
22:12They're going to see us rolling with this one, that's for sure.
22:24You know, you can see just how narrow this is.
22:26And we're already rubbing the trees here with the sluice runs.
22:32So this is the million dollar question here, is if those sluice runs are going to clear that
22:37bridge without having to jack them way up?
22:40I was wondering about that.
22:44So the bridge is going to be one of our big pinch points.
22:47I think it's going to be tight now.
22:49And like, we measured it up.
22:51Looks like we should have a half inch of clearance, but we won't know until we get there.
22:55But we're going to find out here real soon.
22:57The 27 foot wide sluice boxes need to pass across a bridge with a width restriction of just 21 feet.
23:06To get the load across, the outside edges of the sluice runs need to be above the bridge structure.
23:15I'm going to keep creeping it ahead.
23:17Yeah.
23:18But you're going to need to be down here eyeballing it and tell me when to stop if it's going
23:22to get right.
23:23Yeah.
23:23I mean, the worst case scenario here, dude, is we give this thing a try and we get out here
23:27in the middle and we get stuck.
23:28There's no working on it from here.
23:30Yeah, exactly.
23:32Okay, I'm going to do this.
23:34Okay, you guys are going to have to get way back.
23:37The sluice runs have a clearance of just half an inch above the bridge railings.
23:50Keep coming, buddy.
23:55Oh, man, it's almost dragging.
24:06Oh, come on, come on, come on, come on.
24:09Don't snag.
24:19Yeah, that couldn't have been any closer.
24:22You couldn't have put your fingers between where we had, you know, the top of that bridge and the bottom
24:27of these sluice runs here.
24:32There it is.
24:37We've made it into the cut.
24:45There it is.
24:47Over the past eight years, Parker's leased ground at Kennan Stewart's has delivered nearly 7,000 ounces of gold.
24:56This season, he wants at least another 2,000 ounces from the claims.
25:11It's not the greatest grade, and we're paying royalties, but it's a massive block of ground that I don't want
25:18to lose, and, you know, it's very hard to lease ground, particularly not when the price of gold's really good.
25:27So I'm just heading to see Mitch and Brennan and see what they've got going on.
25:37Oh, they have a wash planter on it.
25:40They literally just fired up.
25:42Nice.
25:46Thanks for getting this thing, Dolan.
25:48I appreciate it.
25:49You're sluicing.
25:51Did you guys make this look easy?
25:53At least from my standpoint, it looked easy.
25:56I left, and you were sluicing in one spot, and I came back, and you're sluicing in another.
26:00And yet, Mitch, you're getting a big gold star.
26:02I actually should have Chris pour a big gold star.
26:05I might just do that.
26:18Well, it's, you know, really nice we had Roxanne fired up before Parker got back.
26:22So our next step here is just to try and get this loose as fast as we can, and we're
26:26going to try and turn all that dirt into a big pile of gold.
26:39So today I had to call in James because there is no electrician in town that can handle this kind
26:44of s**t.
26:45If he can't fix it, you pretty much will toast.
26:48On Indian River, Tony's main moneymaker, Slusalat, has been down for four days after the shaker deck motor burnt out
26:57and its replacement failed.
27:01Yeah, Tony can call me once every two years or 12 times in the same month.
27:06It just depends on what they're wrecking that day.
27:10Electrician James MacKrell has worked with mining machinery for over 30 years.
27:17So we fired the new motor on, just like spin slowly, and then it's like, nope.
27:22And it goes into overload fold.
27:23Yeah, 22 overload fold.
27:25Yeah, which is, I think the problem's a soft start.
27:27What we're going to do is we're going to hard start it.
27:29We're going to bypass it.
27:30Okay, cool.
27:31We're going to hard start it.
27:34Slusalat's generator has a soft start system that gradually increases power to the shaker deck's drive motor
27:41to prevent it from being damaged by an electrical overload when it starts.
27:47James believes the generator's soft start safeguard is faulty and is not supplying enough electricity,
27:55so wants to bypass it to deliver the power needed for the motor to fire up.
28:04This option is the, shall we say, the bush fix, and it'll get them up and running again,
28:09and then, you know, Tony can decide if he wants to replace that soft start or keep running this way.
28:15Now let's give her the full deal and see what happens.
28:30I bet you that just went into overload.
28:33The hard start fix fails.
28:36So far, downtime has cost Tony an estimated three quarters of a million dollars in lost production.
28:44Quite a few days without it making money, so it's not good.
28:49All right, let's look for better ways to do this.
28:51Yeah.
29:00The generator's just undersized to hard start this unit without the soft start,
29:05and you know what?
29:07Probably the simplest solution, bring over a bigger generator.
29:11It's four days since Tony Beatt's main moneymaker, Sluice-A-Lot, shut down.
29:18Electrician James has bypassed its soft startup, but still failed to fire up the shaker deck's drive motor.
29:27Oh, if that engine was just slightly bigger, you'd get away with this.
29:31With hard starting it, yeah.
29:33Well, I got bigger engine.
29:35And there's one sitting right here doing eight-inch, and whatever it takes, we'll get it over.
29:39Does the thing have its soft start?
29:41Let's go.
29:42I don't think it does.
29:43We'll find it.
29:43We'll find it.
29:44We'll be back.
29:51Sluice-A-Lot's current generator has a maximum power of 100 kilowatts.
30:05Tony's cat 3406 replacement kicks out four times more power.
30:12Instead of taking it off, we're going to weld the f***ing thing on, because you've got the fuel thing, you've
30:17got everything that's hooked up, so why f*** around?
30:19Weld it back on, take two minutes, drive it over there, stick the wire in the gen set, then we're
30:25rolling.
30:26To prep the five-ton generator, Tony plans to weld it to the front of his 50-year-old pipe
30:33layer and drive the hybrid monster one mile to Sluice-A-Lot.
30:59We've been down for four days, so that's a lot of ounces we're missing, and with the gold price these
31:05days, that's a lot of money.
31:17All right.
31:23Everything's all connected, waiting on a generator, and then we'll make power.
31:29All we have to do when it gets here is just connect that cable into the generator.
31:33Is he driving that thing down?
31:34I don't know, if he's the one driving it, it probably won't take too long, so.
31:42After just 30 minutes, Tony's mobilized monster generator arrives at Sluice-A-Lot.
31:54It doesn't matter what it looks, it doesn't matter what it takes, what you improvise, and anything to get back
31:59up and going, right?
32:00They're all hooked up and ready to roll.
32:15Fire up.
32:18Ready?
32:20Ready?
32:32After four days shut down, Tony is back on the gold.
32:43Tony's washing rocks, and he's happy, yeah.
32:45He puts gold in the box, and then he can give it to me, so.
32:50It's all good.
32:51We're back to Sluicing.
32:53Making some money, I suppose.
32:55You can't make up for lost time, but at least we're back running.
32:59That's the most important thing.
33:11We're in for Bailey.
33:12Hey, go ahead, man.
33:13Shut down Lightning Creek.
33:14We'll move it back to Vegas Valley.
33:16Sounds good to me, man.
33:19Yeah, we're just about to send the last load of pay over to Rocky.
33:23Rick made a call saying that we're all going to be done here, and we're going to head down to
33:27Vegas Valley and start hitting our heart down there.
33:32Well, here it is.
33:34We've got the final bucket of dirt from Lightning Creek, and we are officially finished here.
33:43Off to Vegas Valley we go.
33:46Rick Ness is changing gears.
33:49After running a final couple of days pay, he's shutting down his Lightning Creek claim and going all in on
33:56Vegas Valley.
34:02All right, we've got the 460 down here now.
34:06Game plan is we'll be getting the water pump in Vegas Valley.
34:09We'll go through it, make sure it's good to go.
34:11Then we'll get our discharge line ran.
34:13So we've got quite a bit of work to do.
34:17Rick's plan?
34:18Set up a pump to drain the 30 feet of water from the cut while the rest of the team
34:24moves equipment and preps wash plant Monster Red to run a stockpile of pay dirt.
34:38Well, we've got a long ways to go, but we should be spending the rest of the summer here.
34:42So, pump's just about ready.
34:43I think the first step is just getting it in where it fits in.
34:45Get that water, get the out of there.
34:47We'll get on it.
34:48I like it.
34:48Thanks.
34:56What's she doing?
34:56We ready?
35:03We got our 12-inch pump ready to go.
35:06She's a monster.
35:09Just got to get down here around the corner.
35:11I'll get the lines hooked up, and we can start dewatering Vegas Valley.
35:14It's a big step.
35:15It gives us one step closer to the gold that's in Vegas Valley.
35:18We know that gold's good, so we're going to get this done and get it done in a hurry.
35:27That's all shallow.
35:28You're going to have to try to get it in that corner.
35:30Where?
35:31Like, all the way out?
35:32I think we just try to go all the way and see how tough it is.
35:40We've got sections in here that are way deeper than what you think.
35:43Right here, it's probably going to be 30 foot higher than what we have in that corner right there from
35:47ending last season, if not more.
35:49So, we've got to be careful.
35:51The $100,000 pump can move 5,000 gallons a minute and will drain Vegas Valley down to gold-rich
35:59pay in three days.
36:00Yeah, we can go up forward a little bit.
36:03We're good right there.
36:12So, we've got the pump into place.
36:13Now, just bring the intake line down there.
36:16We're going to attach that to the pump.
36:20Throw the suction end in to the water.
36:22Then we'll come back and get the discharge line.
36:25Set that in there.
36:26And after that, we just turn it on and let the water get the out of our hole.
36:36It's at a up angle.
36:38And we're in a spot where we're easily going to bend this thing.
36:42And it's like, I can't throw that end out there first.
36:44I don't know where the it's going to end.
36:47Here, I think if you bring it in and lower it, the two of us can be lifting up.
36:51Kyle can be sticking the bolt in.
36:53You got a pinch bar or anything to get it?
36:54No, but I've got some long bolts.
36:56We'll make it work.
36:56Okay.
37:01To attach the suction hose to the pump, Rick needs to move his 460 excavator dangerously close to the water's
37:09edge.
37:11I don't know what's on a new page.
37:13Is that thing a little heavy for that?
37:19Okay.
37:20All right.
37:20Right there.
37:24Now, if he goes down.
37:31Hey.
37:31Hold on.
37:43He's got it.
37:54All right.
37:56All right.
37:58Pump connected.
38:00Rick is one step closer to getting gold from Vegas Valley.
38:06All right.
38:07You want to fire this thing up?
38:07Okay.
38:15What are you going?
38:18Whoa!
38:22Now we've got some water moving.
38:24We are pumping water, boys.
38:28All this water is coming out of Vegas Valley.
38:30Gets that much closer to the gold down there.
38:32Ready to see some.
38:35I'm nervous about Lightning Creek.
38:37Hopefully it's got gold in it.
38:38I've tried.
38:40I'm relieved that we're moving back here.
38:41We've got one last chance here at Vegas Valley.
38:43We've got to treat it like the last chance again.
38:45You know, we've got to November on our extension.
38:47And we're going to...
38:49Scrape it clean.
38:50Get everything we can out of it.
38:51All the gold.
38:52All the gold.
39:03All eyes are on Heather Folster to see if Lightning Creek's last gold way will hit the 100 ounces Rick
39:10needs to pay Troy Taylor.
39:12You want to give that a swirl?
39:14That's the first to the first.
39:15That's a lot of gold.
39:16That's a lot better than it was.
39:18It's another drop in the bucket for our 1,800 ounces.
39:22It might get us to where I could pay Troy.
39:23Hey-oh.
39:34Hey-oh.
39:38Well, Heather got done cleaning up the gold from the last run at Lightning Creek.
39:45He said it actually looks pretty good.
39:46I can definitely tell it was enough to justify staying there for another run.
39:51So, I'm happy about that.
39:54Rick Ness has hit pause on his Lightning Creek claim to pursue Vegas Valley.
40:00But he still needs to see it deliver good gold to prove it's a viable spot.
40:07Based on the run time, he's hoping for at least 50 ounces this week.
40:12Think the ground looked any better?
40:13Lightning Creek on this last run?
40:15Yeah, it definitely seemed like a little bit better than the normal stuff.
40:18Like, less bedrock, more f***ing pay, so...
40:20The boulders are getting a little bigger.
40:22Yeah, yeah.
40:23So, I take it the 700's dead?
40:25The 700, we thought we pinpointed the problem.
40:28We saw it failed, so I think we're in deeper.
40:31We're going to be into a hit or worse.
40:34So, that leaves basically just the 750.
40:48Danny!
40:49Hello.
40:50What's going on?
40:51Ah, you know, all the best stuff.
40:54I've got a bottle of gold, though.
40:57Let's see what we got, man.
40:59Yeah.
41:00Last week, the boulder cut only delivered 22 ounces.
41:05Here we go.
41:09One.
41:11Five.
41:13Twelve.
41:15Twenty.
41:16Thirty.
41:20Fifteen.
41:22Fifty point four.
41:24F*** ya.
41:24Yeah, that's not bad.
41:25Yeah, that's way better than the last...
41:27Yeah.
41:28Both two combined.
41:28F***.
41:29Right.
41:29You're moving the right way.
41:30Yeah.
41:31It's Rick's best gold way of the season, and pushes his total to 80 ounces, but leaves
41:37him 20 ounces short of what he owes Troy Taylor.
41:42Now, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, that's, you know, damn near 150 grand.
41:47So, happy we stayed there, but we're going to be leaving Lightning Creek.
41:50You know, we're leaving it behind for the season.
41:51It's just going to have to happen, right?
41:53Like, for the foreseeable future.
41:54I mean, at least the gold's there, though.
41:56Yeah, you're leaving it on a high note.
41:58Exactly.
41:58We're leaving it with a positive, and, you know, we put some gold towards our total, and
42:01we took a long ways to go, but...
42:03You only need a little bit more to pay off Troy.
42:05Yeah.
42:06But, it's in the pile at Vegas Valley.
42:08We know that.
42:09Yeah, man.
42:10Let's do it.
42:11Awesome.
42:14Well, you know, we got 50 ounces of gold this week.
42:16It's a small dent in the total we're trying to get, 1,800 ounces, but that's why we're
42:20doing what we're going to do, right?
42:21We're putting all of our resources into Vegas Valley, because that's where we know the gold
42:26is.
42:26You know, it sucks to leave Lightning Creek.
42:28We're just getting to learn it, and, you know, we got 50 ounces of gold out of it,
42:32but, you know, that's the name of the game.
42:34You go where the gold is, and the gold's in Vegas Valley this year.
42:46Hi, guys.
42:47Howdy, folks.
42:48Hola.
42:48Hello.
42:54How's Harold making out?
42:56Well, she's still sluicing.
42:57How's it going with the trauma?
42:59Slowly, because every time I seem to take one step forward, I find three other things
43:02I have to fix, so that's three steps back.
43:04So pretty slow, pretty slow?
43:05Yeah.
43:06So how are things here?
43:07We sluiced a bit, but not as much as we like to.
43:11We had some electrical issues, so we had to get an electrician.
43:14We had to wait for that.
43:15We can fix things, but electricity is not our thing, so.
43:18How many days did you really sluice?
43:20So we sluiced two days and two nights.
43:23Yeah, well.
43:23Still not too bad, though.
43:25Yeah, you can't win every day.
43:27No.
43:27Can we weigh it up?
43:29So far, Tony has averaged 330 ounces of gold per week from the Indian River.
43:37Okay, four.
43:38Okay, it's 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120,
43:52120, 120, 120, 120, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100,
44:00100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100,
44:00100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100,
44:00100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100,
44:00100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100,
44:00100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100
44:21And how much time was that, Mike?
44:23Probably around about five days.
44:26That's not very good, is it?
44:28No.
44:30Even though Mike's gold is worth over $100,000,
44:35Tony wants a record-breaking season.
44:38And that means Paradise Hill needs to deliver much bigger hauls.
44:44So then I think Mike just shut the thing off
44:47and concentrated in the trommel.
44:49That's, yeah, I agree.
44:51Then maybe you can start bringing in some real gold.
44:54Ouch.
44:55Well, of course it's going to make a hell of a difference.
44:57No, it does, yeah.
44:57It's like, not rerun tailings.
45:00Yeah.
45:03Concentrate in the trommel.
45:04Set the thing off.
45:06Sounds like a plan, dude.
45:07So when you guys get the out, go back to work.
45:10Okay, bye.
45:11Bye.
45:17Those fires were impressive.
45:18Man, that was crazy.
45:20Yeah.
45:20It came out of nowhere.
45:20And all of a sudden, it's like, man, it's really cloudy this morning.
45:24Oh, it's not clouds.
45:25That's smoke.
45:26It's smoky enough around here, I'd skip my breakfast cigar.
45:31But yeah, and then we had, even with all the fires giving us grief,
45:35we did manage to get the last of us least.
45:37You want to see how you guys finished up?
45:39Let's do it.
45:40Despite battling wildfires, Mitch still managed to wash the last of the gold-rich sulfur pay,
45:47which last week delivered 302 ounces.
45:50That's the last of sulfur?
45:52Yes.
45:53Let's do it.
45:53All right.
45:57We got 50, 100, 150, 200, 221.2.
46:12Nice.
46:13That's a solid, solid end.
46:15Yeah.
46:16Sulfur produced over 1,300 ounces.
46:19Nice.
46:19Quite impressive.
46:20Yeah.
46:21Next up, Parker's Dominion Creek Gold.
46:24First, the Golden Mile Cut, which is averaged 200 ounces a week.
46:2920, 40, 120, 140, 160, 200, 230, 250, 273.15.
46:42Wow.
46:43Amazing.
46:44Sick.
46:45That was a good week.
46:46And then Bob has just been chugging away.
46:49Yeah.
46:49Old faithful.
46:51Bob, in the bridge cut, has averaged 160 ounces a week.
46:5720, 40, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 200, 212, 216.15.
47:10That's a good week.
47:11Super good.
47:13This week we have 710.5.
47:16We broke 700 ounces in one week.
47:20Worth $2.5 million.
47:24So our total for the season is 4,251.7 ounces.
47:30We're definitely on track for our 10,000.
47:33We're in good shape, you guys.
47:35Keep it that way.
47:36I hope you go and make some work.
47:38Let's do it.
47:38Sweet.
47:39Thanks, guys.
47:39You bet.
47:40See you, Dumit.
47:41You're good, Chris?
47:41Yep, I'm good.
47:43See you, dude.
47:45Well, it was so cool to get sulfur done.
47:47Great project there.
47:49Produced a lot of gold.
47:50It was definitely a tricky move there, but Roxanne is down on a whole bunch of ground at Ken's.
47:55Excited to see what it has to produce.
47:56Cheers.
47:57Cheers.
47:57.
48:01Cheers.
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