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Gold Rush: Mine Rescue with Freddy and Juan - Season 6 - Episode 04: Million-Dollar Mine Mayhem
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00:00:02it's a long climb to the top and we're still just trying to crawl out of the hole that we
00:00:06dug
00:00:08on this episode of mine rescue look at that thing shake side to side
00:00:13it's gonna tear that screen apart young guns gamble it all on a high stakes hunt for gold
00:00:22was that the battle's done here for now no no no but when the crew threatens to walk
00:00:29i can't keep coming out here hemorrhaging time and money lost hope in this thing
00:00:35i hear you freddie and one go above and beyond there's your treasure map whoa
00:00:42coming down to save their future right now i'm the boss our job isn't done until he's 100% running
00:00:51oh look at that fingers crossed that it works
00:00:58yeah that's awesome
00:01:12sure a pretty valley one yeah that's for sure fred
00:01:17they're made a lot of millionaires but at the same time there was a hell of a lot of people
00:01:21trying to get gold
00:01:25southwest montana 60 miles from helena greenhorn mine boss tyler newhall is in his second year of
00:01:33operation
00:01:39how you guys doing
00:01:39good how are you guys good great this is good to see you here
00:01:43nice to meet you so here's your plant huh there she is
00:01:49wow you got some big equipment out here yeah you got some iron on the ground yeah for sure
00:01:53we're buried in iron that could be good or bad
00:01:56how long have you guys worked together oh we've been working together about 10 years now
00:02:00we had a couple of good years in construction and uh it slowed way down and so we dove into
00:02:06mining
00:02:07thinking i could do this and well it's our second season going at it and boy is it more of
00:02:12a challenge than i ever dreamt of
00:02:16tyler and his young team dustin
00:02:21taylor alex yeah it builds the pain and partner shelby run a huge arsenal of machines across their 117 acre
00:02:30claim
00:02:31i feel like we've assembled a five-star team of miners that has gobs of potential out here
00:02:37but i'm struggling to pay my guys and i've got a lot of iron burning fuel the expenses the big
00:02:43chunk you know coming up with
00:02:4520 grand a month is not something most people pull off you better have good gold in the ground to
00:02:51be able to do so
00:02:53but having a child on the way is the biggest pressure and ultimately it comes down to providing for
00:02:58my family you know my guys so that they can keep a house over their heads as well i don't
00:03:03have a choice
00:03:04and so pressures on me tyler first met dustin after a life-changing event forged their friendship
00:03:15i lost my brother in the military and tyler kind of stepped up to be a an emotional
00:03:22big brother to me i more or less followed tyler's ambition to come out and try something new
00:03:30ever since then his mentality and his attitude really gave me a boost to be able to follow tyler
00:03:37in this industry for the past two years dustin has been tyler's right-hand man but so far this season
00:03:46he hasn't been paid i feel like i'd be letting tyler down if i wasn't still standing by his side
00:03:54and
00:03:55actively helping him pursue his dream
00:03:59so you got a background on moving dirt and we're good at moving mass quantities of material
00:04:04we're fishing at it huge difference between construction and gold though
00:04:08so what's your motivation dustin well i believe in tyler and everything that we've been trying to
00:04:14achieve out here and when we first put teeth in the ground and found gold it was immediate rush we've
00:04:20we got that gold fever we've got gold fever that's broke a lot of people yeah but you know i'm
00:04:28keeping
00:04:28high hopes on this this gold mine it's a high risk high reward game and i'm here to party i'm
00:04:33gonna i'm
00:04:34all i got do you own the equipment or i'm in a lot of debt on the equipment yeah there's
00:04:3910 000 a month
00:04:40you know another 6 500 a month another 10 000 a month the rock truck's another 18 000 a month
00:04:46so do you own the plan outright or yeah i'm still paying for that as well okay okay i'm in
00:04:52excess of
00:04:52a million dollars into this entire operation okay so it's serious now it's serious i'm struggling to pay
00:05:00the bills child on the way and we got a big hole to crawl out of here so what's your
00:05:08break even point
00:05:09what do you got to make daily to be able to make this work well two ounces a day would
00:05:13cover our
00:05:14expenses break even we got to do a little better than two ounces a day then you know you can't
00:05:20do
00:05:20all this work for just a break even you got a lot of risk here you got to have a
00:05:24reward as well
00:05:25so do you have any gold we can look at i do get a few pieces in the jar left
00:05:29here it's not much
00:05:31pretty small stuff there ain't a whole lot in there yeah i've been having to sell it it goes from
00:05:36sluice
00:05:36box to someone else's bank account yeah yeah so how did you guys end up finding gold out here i
00:05:41once
00:05:41heard an old timer say go look for gold where the old timers were finding it and pick up where
00:05:47they left
00:05:47off we just saw a virgin ground and we see over the hill here a bunch of tailings we found
00:05:52gold by
00:05:53tipping a couple trees over and putting teeth in the ground so we must be in the right spot but
00:05:57we're at the point where you know machines are sitting expenses are accruing because we can't
00:06:01keep the thing going yeah i guess uh do a test huh see what things look like burning daylight let's
00:06:07get it going yeah let's fire it up honestly i'm worried for tyler because you know it's overwhelming
00:06:13he's got a whole group of friends that followed him out here and he's got a baby on the way
00:06:18but you can
00:06:19tell he's not afraid of hard work you know so that's what it's going to take i'm really hoping
00:06:23that freddie and i can make his dreams viable because from the sounds of it he really needs it
00:06:38first bucket launch i want to start your time fred let's run a four-hour test let's go
00:06:44oh man it's great freddie and juan are finally here we're facing the uncertainty of not being
00:06:49able to put food on the table and i don't want to let my guys down i'm hoping freddie and
00:06:54juan can
00:06:55help me make this thing happen tyler loads pay into the 10-foot hopper which feeds into a shaker deck
00:07:03driven by spinning eccentric weights powered by a hydraulic motor spray bars wash pay down through
00:07:11a punch plate and lower screen where the gold is recovered in a z-shaped sluice essentially we
00:07:20should be on our second load by now and this is too slow operators alex and taylor leased their
00:07:28excavator and rock truck to tyler but like dustin they too haven't been paid this season been out here
00:07:37for two months just don't know if i got it in me for much more of this you know i
00:07:43think tyler's a
00:07:44great guy as much as i want to help him and make his dream come true i can't do it
00:07:49for free
00:07:52i got two kids and a family feed and i got to keep the got to keep the money rolling
00:07:57in i mean we're
00:07:59tens of thousands of dollars in machinery alone and then plus your fuel per day
00:08:04there is gonna be a time where you're gonna have to pull out um and go somewhere else
00:08:11you're good to go princess i'll be back in a minute this isn't a weekend warrior operation here
00:08:18i mean look at the equipment that's sitting here that's no hobby mine sure hobby mine you're out
00:08:24having fun but tyler's guys haven't been paid and when that happens morale goes down so this situation
00:08:31they have everything on the line here
00:08:39looking good so i think you can go just that scoge quicker but i know there's a happy medium
00:08:44great
00:08:49that's a full screen for sure holy
00:08:53i'm curious what that sluice box feels like
00:09:00i'm curious what's going on there's an inch of material on top of the ripples
00:09:12ripples are plugged up yeah they're running pretty heavy there's a lot of material going through that
00:09:18box yeah the excavator bucket used to feed the plant creates surges of pain that block the riffles
00:09:26i know he wants to try to jam as much material as he can through that plant but that's hurting
00:09:30his
00:09:31recovery then you're just throwing gold away yeah the gold can't find a home
00:09:37look at that thing shake side to side yeah you don't need to have tremendous amount of weight like
00:09:42dot and see how the one side's shaking more than the other yeah it's going to tear that screen apart
00:09:46before too long yep we've been fighting the leveling too the level's been a real hard hard objective to get
00:09:54past
00:09:56what was that
00:10:00the plant just shut down one yeah it did
00:10:05quit shaking already hydraulic motor motor
00:10:08yeah just 20 minutes into the first test run tyler's hydraulic motor that powers the eccentric
00:10:17has failed
00:10:19tyler that was 20 minutes didn't make it very long did it no no it didn't
00:10:27bypassing internally i bet summer that is new too it's new just my luck
00:10:38honestly that's just it's really small motor for that big of a weight were those weights on here
00:10:42when you got it no we made them they're a little aggressive tyler's large weights which move the shaker
00:10:49deck are too heavy for the motor that drives them well this is a pretty occurring thing that's happening
00:10:55to us on the daily we can't run more than it seems like three or four hours without this thing
00:11:01breaking
00:11:02if it's not the motor it's the deck if it's not the deck it's something else that we find along
00:11:07the lines
00:11:10one of myself were worried the plant wasn't even going to run four hours because
00:11:14this is violent right yeah we were worried for a reason because uh it did 20 minutes
00:11:19tyler and this crew they're on their last leg we've never been in a spot like this before we're in
00:11:25real trouble
00:11:30coming up let's get this thing fired up fire in the hole it's a joke come this way go easy
00:11:39guys
00:11:41easy it's time to start seeing some gold in the box let's wait up huh
00:11:59so what i'm doing here i'm grabbing some of the coarse material coming off the end of the screen
00:12:04as you can see here we're losing quite a bit of finding material at the new hole mine in southwest
00:12:12montana juan pans the tailings after a disastrous first test run there's obviously a chance we're
00:12:20going to be losing gold as well so i want to see how much material is in here fine material
00:12:23and kind
00:12:24of get an idea how much we're losing through the screen because we're running too much
00:12:36there's gold in it
00:12:40so if in one pan right now visibly six colors
00:12:46so there's one color that's sizable but there's a bunch of in there that's 100 mesh or smaller
00:12:51that's definitely an issue that we're going to have to address
00:12:59we've seen the issues we've seen but we weren't able to watch it as long as we'd like to right
00:13:05right
00:13:06i think what we ought to do just so we kind of get a good starting baseline is we ought
00:13:10to pull
00:13:10the box and see what's in it kind of gives us a good starting point yeah that sounds great sounds
00:13:14like a plan all right guys thanks okay thank you guys thanks guys
00:13:20i'm gonna wait for tyler i suppose yeah
00:13:24i just don't see the point of hammering more money you know yeah especially if we're not getting paid
00:13:29right we've helped tyler quite a bit with equipment and fuel and labor and we're not seeing a huge return
00:13:37on it so we gotta take a break you know pump the brakes a little bit and see what we
00:13:42can do moving
00:13:43forward for alex and taylor the shaker deck setback is just more evidence that their next payday could
00:13:51still be out of reach i want to go mine i want to go mine my grandfather go mining way
00:13:59back all those
00:14:00years ago in alaska and i i came here with expectation we're going to be running non-stop is there
00:14:08anything
00:14:08in there annie and i got bills to pay i got mouths to feed and we haven't had the gold
00:14:14return that we
00:14:16thought we would it's tough we want to do what's best for the plant but it comes down to it
00:14:21how much
00:14:22is how much heading out yeah i figured while they're working on the wash plant save some money
00:14:30yeah it sucks to see it go but i get it it's pretty devastating i really wanted these guys to
00:14:37make a
00:14:37killer living potentially but no one wants to go long periods of time without a paycheck i get that
00:14:42it's not for everyone but i'm hopeful that alex and taylor will be back out here we're going to make
00:14:47a name for ourselves in this
00:15:02well moment of truth on one let's go away some gold huh yeah freddie and one arrive to weigh the
00:15:07gold from the first 20 minute test run hi shelby nice to meet you how we doing this morning late
00:15:14night up panning gold all night i bet you yeah let's weigh it up huh board in see we got
00:15:26a tenth of an ounce a quarter of an ounce
00:15:35well point four seven one yeah point four seven that's not terrible if we'd have got a four-hour
00:15:41run that'd be six ounces roughly yeah yeah tyler's on track to make a profit but he'd need to run
00:15:49for a
00:15:51full day we know the gold's there wish we could run a little longer yeah us too you know it's
00:15:56kind
00:15:56of a shame it doesn't matter how great your ground is if you can't run if you're broke down more
00:15:59than
00:15:59half the time no we're lucky if we can get four to six hours a week realistically here in order
00:16:06to be
00:16:06able to make it viable we need to run consistently that's going to be the tricky part you know there's
00:16:10so much going on on that plant right now that you know genuinely it's going to need a ton of
00:16:15work
00:16:15a tremendous amount yeah there's your gold we're going to go put our heads together for a minute
00:16:20thanks pretty thanks one you're welcome see you guys in a bit
00:16:25feels like it's take a step forward take three steps back no one's getting paid when the plant's
00:16:30not washing i'm hoping with freddy and juan we'll be able to turn this thing around
00:16:42do you want me to look through the bills yeah we better get to it pretty ugly stack of bills
00:16:50ain't it
00:16:51tyler and shelby have eight weeks left before becoming first time parents i'm kind of scared to
00:16:58open them there's a thirty thousand dollar tax bill there's another seven thousand dollar tax bill
00:17:05there's a ten thousand dollar credit card got lots of bills to pay yeah no it's adding up the excavator
00:17:14the loader the royalties the you know we need to get busy out there yeah we do because these bills
00:17:21aren't going to pay themselves we're not financially stable and we need to get this thing up and running
00:17:29right and now he can решiko has worse this 401k was olarak for master certificate yeah
00:17:30shalby has worked on the mine alongside tyler for the past year we got a baby on the way i'm
00:17:36just
00:17:36going to be here before we know it and i can't really have any more down time and yeah definitely
00:17:44in
00:17:45the hole
00:17:48i think that we get this thing back up and going here in no time hope so my mama didn't
00:17:54raise no quitter
00:17:54Here, I'll tell you.
00:17:57Mm-hmm.
00:18:12That test run was pitiful.
00:18:13The hard thing is we had 20 minutes to watch it run,
00:18:16so we really didn't get a feel for everything that was going on.
00:18:19Now, granted, you know, we got decent gold out of it,
00:18:21but the plant is completely in shambles,
00:18:24and the truth is he's got a million dollars invested into this.
00:18:27He's in the hole on every piece of equipment.
00:18:29Even the plant.
00:18:30This is probably one of the harder rescues we've come into.
00:18:33Biggest issue, obviously, is reliability.
00:18:35You know, there was recovery problems, too.
00:18:37Yeah.
00:18:37With fine, fine gold, it's something that needs to be...
00:18:40Addressed.
00:18:41Exactly.
00:18:42His shaking mechanism.
00:18:43He's got entirely too much weight, offset weight.
00:18:45We've both seen that.
00:18:46Oh, it was shaking sideways.
00:18:48Well, let's go talk to him, huh?
00:18:49All right, let's do it.
00:18:56Hey, guys.
00:18:57You know, obviously, right now, we have a plant that's completely busted, right?
00:19:00And operational.
00:19:01Yeah.
00:19:02You know, one of the big things we want to do is make it reliable.
00:19:05Complete new eccentric system on it.
00:19:07Yeah.
00:19:07We may be able to get that plant where it's running better or have less breakdowns.
00:19:11That would go a long way.
00:19:12So you have two ways of making a screen shake.
00:19:14One with weight, or two with less weight, more RPMs.
00:19:18And that's our plant.
00:19:19Not only is it going to increase the reliability, but it should increase your gold by about 15
00:19:23to 20%.
00:19:24Wow.
00:19:25Plants shouldn't be breaking down that often.
00:19:27One of the things that's causing that is overfeeding.
00:19:31I think, honestly, what you're doing there is you're actually hindering your recovery and
00:19:34your cleaning.
00:19:35Shooting myself in the foot.
00:19:36Yeah.
00:19:37You're losing money out of the pay that's valuable to you.
00:19:39You know, if it means throttling back a little bit, you know, sometimes less is more.
00:19:44Even if we slow you down, we're hoping to get you an ounce an hour.
00:19:47Yeah.
00:19:47So if you run an eight-hour day, hopefully eight ounces.
00:19:50Yeah.
00:19:50I'd love to see an eight-hour day.
00:19:52Next, Freddy and I talked about it, and we would like to try to get you guys a conveyor.
00:19:56To even out the feed rate.
00:19:57Yeah.
00:19:57I like that idea.
00:19:59Another thing we'd like to do is revamp your recovery system and your sluices.
00:20:03Add another sluice box on the end.
00:20:06So, reliability and then also gold recovery.
00:20:09Gold recovery.
00:20:09I think even more important than that is staying ahead of the cut.
00:20:12Yeah.
00:20:13We need to look at the ground, because it's going to change on you.
00:20:16And if gold was everywhere, it wouldn't be worth anything, right?
00:20:19Right now, we have a plant that's down.
00:20:21So, across the board, there's going to be a lot of material here.
00:20:23Well, we were kind of thinking it's going to be roughly $8,000 in material.
00:20:32And then on top of that, we'd like an ounce of gold apiece.
00:20:37That's quite a bit of money.
00:20:41But I like it, whatever it takes.
00:20:43Sounds like a deal.
00:20:44But if we don't get started, it ain't going to happen.
00:20:46So, we'll go start ordering parts.
00:20:48Thanks, guys.
00:20:49You're welcome.
00:20:50Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
00:20:52Here in Freddy and Juan's proposal, there could be light at the end of the tunnel.
00:20:56I think eight ounces in a full day, that's great news.
00:21:01I love it.
00:21:02It's been very overwhelming.
00:21:03It's been stressful.
00:21:05To get the right kind of help when needed means a lot.
00:21:10There's a lot to do here.
00:21:11And on top of that, his guys aren't real happy right now.
00:21:13So, I'm really hoping with what we do here, he'll be able to try to make it right.
00:21:31Here we go.
00:21:33At the Newhall Mine in southwest Montana, work is underway to revive Tyler's operation.
00:21:40I'm really hoping these guys can help us turn this season into a win.
00:21:43To tackle reliability, Freddy and Juan will overhaul the unbalanced shaker system, which causes massive strain on the plant.
00:21:54They will upgrade the drive system by installing a new shaft and bearings.
00:21:59And replace Tyler's homemade setup with smaller precision balanced weights to minimize breakdowns.
00:22:06To aid gold recovery, Freddy and Juan will slow the feed rate to allow the pay to wash for longer.
00:22:14And, add a new 10-foot long box with signature riffles on the end of the existing sluice run.
00:22:21Finally, to increase the feed consistency to the plant in an ambitious mine rescue first, they'll aim to add a
00:22:30conveyor.
00:22:30The only problem, they'll need to find one locally.
00:22:38We got to get the screen deck out of the way and lift it off.
00:22:42As Tyler removes the eccentric shaker deck off the wash plan.
00:22:49Hello?
00:22:49Hey Trav, what are you doing?
00:22:51Juan calls for reinforcements.
00:22:53I need you to jump in the truck, go grab Alex, and I need you guys to come out to
00:22:58Montana.
00:22:59I have some parts down there with Matt.
00:23:01Can you run down there and grab them?
00:23:03Sounds good.
00:23:04All right, thank you.
00:23:04You're on the road.
00:23:05All right, appreciate it. Bye.
00:23:07Freddy and I didn't expect to come out here and have to rebuild the plant.
00:23:10You know, we tried our best to get everything here in town.
00:23:12We couldn't find the parts that we needed.
00:23:14I was able to get them in Reno.
00:23:15So I'm going to have Travis and Alex jump in the truck and bring them out to us.
00:23:22Yeah, baby.
00:23:24Juan's first task, cut the steel for the new recovery sluice.
00:23:28Basically what we're doing, instead of having to shoot transferring material,
00:23:32that doesn't have a chance to get recovered, any gold.
00:23:35What we're going to do is put a sluice box in there.
00:23:37So that way if there is material that does have gold, they can get caught here.
00:23:42He's in debt over a million dollars here in the operation.
00:23:45And with everything that Tyler's got going on here, between his ground, his wash plant, his recovery system,
00:23:51you know, we got our work cut out for us because he needs help in every aspect of the mining
00:23:55process.
00:24:02Well, what we ought to do is do a little bit of testing on your elevations in your highwall.
00:24:08Kind of have a look at that material and see what lives there.
00:24:11The current cut produces good gold now, but Freddie takes Dustin on a prospect to identify the long-term profit
00:24:20potential.
00:24:21Let's grab some stuff I have in here.
00:24:23And for this, Freddie's brought colored marker flags.
00:24:27We'll pan up the wall, kind of see what our different layers do.
00:24:31Have you tried that before?
00:24:32No, I'm kind of just out here digging willy-nilly.
00:24:36I don't know what I'm looking for or where to look for it.
00:24:39You don't want to be running material that doesn't have gold in it or doesn't have enough.
00:24:44Well, Dustin said he just gets in and digs, which to me that's not a good thing
00:24:49because it costs just as much money to run a rock that isn't accompanied by gold as rocks that are
00:24:55accompanied by gold.
00:24:56You know, the price is the same.
00:24:57The wash plant doesn't care, the track hoe doesn't care, but the pocketbook cares.
00:25:00So, there's a lot more investigating to do here.
00:25:04We'll get in there, take a few pans, and go from there.
00:25:09We're kind of searching a treasure map here.
00:25:11Right now, we want to test those gravels above bedrock.
00:25:15There's bedrock.
00:25:16You got bedrock?
00:25:17Yep.
00:25:18Let's fill that pan.
00:25:23Testing here from bedrock to a foot above.
00:25:26Okay, take that lower, very bottom of it now.
00:25:32Let's see what it looks like.
00:25:46Lots of heavies.
00:25:48There's 21 colors in the pan.
00:25:51Amazing.
00:25:53I know nothing about holding a pan in my hand and being able to pan gold and see gold come
00:25:57out.
00:25:58I know nothing of that nature.
00:26:00We're dirt workers.
00:26:01We move dirt.
00:26:02We have exhausted our expertise.
00:26:05Freddie and Juan have the knowledge, the capability, the tools, and the right mindset to steer us in the right
00:26:13direction.
00:26:14Because I can't keep coming out here and hemorrhaging time and money without some sort of return.
00:26:20Let's put a green flag there, Dustin.
00:26:23Okay.
00:26:24There's enough color there that it shows us, you know, there's going to be decent gold on that layer.
00:26:29Freddie needs to identify any pay streak formations in the cut.
00:26:34He uses colored flags to plot out good, fair, and poor pan results.
00:26:41Now you say we got all this bigger rock here?
00:26:43Yeah.
00:26:44So let's take some of this material.
00:26:48Kind of getting material from different spots in the face.
00:26:51Not all out of one hole.
00:26:54Gives us a more representative picture of the face.
00:26:59You want to pan this one?
00:27:00Sure.
00:27:00I'll give it a shot.
00:27:01Give her help.
00:27:02Treat it like you don't like it.
00:27:04Don't be afraid to get a little violent with it.
00:27:08Okay.
00:27:08Pan some of it off.
00:27:10I'd like to see you finish it, Freddie.
00:27:12Okay.
00:27:14Swipe your pan from you.
00:27:15You always let the water do the work.
00:27:17You make this look easy, Freddie.
00:27:19I'm doing it slow because I'm teaching you four colors, which isn't the greatest.
00:27:25So we're going to put a caution, amber in there.
00:27:29What this means is we need to test more of it.
00:27:31If it had 30 colors in it, there'd be a green flag here and on an amber.
00:27:36Right?
00:27:37Yeah, that makes sense.
00:27:38But it doesn't mean that there isn't 30 colors over in that part of it.
00:27:43Down where we'd have to swim to get to, right?
00:27:46Sure.
00:27:47I got to get going, so keep testing.
00:27:49See what you see.
00:27:50Appreciate it.
00:27:50Thanks, Freddie.
00:27:51You're welcome.
00:27:56What I'd like to see is a lot of green flags in there.
00:28:01One of the worries I have is this valley's been hit pretty hard.
00:28:05There really is good gold here, but these guys really got to get ahead on their ground.
00:28:10My goal is to find somebody that knows this valley because these guys are in a tough financial situation.
00:28:17I need to find where the best pay is on this ground here for Tyler so we know what's there
00:28:22for the future.
00:28:30Tyler, can you grab that in?
00:28:32I want it overhanging about an inch.
00:28:34Perfect.
00:28:36This is going to be the beginning of the new sluice box.
00:28:38So we'll put this up here on edge and then we'll use these magnets to kind of get it in
00:28:41the area we need it to be.
00:28:44At the cut trailer, Juan and Tyler assemble the new 10-foot recovery sluice.
00:28:50I saw that the rest of your crew is gone.
00:28:52It's tough.
00:28:53We're not washing.
00:28:54Not a whole lot for everyone to do.
00:28:55You know, everyone's got to work where they can, when they can.
00:28:58It's difficult.
00:28:59Yeah.
00:29:00You know, I can tell you're kind of a guy that kind of keeps silent about a lot of things,
00:29:04but you're a little stressed out.
00:29:05A little bit.
00:29:06Yeah.
00:29:07The hairs are getting gray.
00:29:09Yeah, I got a lot weighing down on me.
00:29:11Yeah.
00:29:11You know, if we could just keep mining, keep washing, sluice, sluice, sluice.
00:29:16But having to plant down all the time just doesn't cut it.
00:29:20And we've been really struggling.
00:29:21I can see you're overwhelmed.
00:29:24You know, before my business really took off, there was a lot of years that were really super lean.
00:29:29Behind on my mortgage payment, behind on truck payments.
00:29:32You know, it was tough.
00:29:33Oh, yeah.
00:29:34It is, you know, when you've got so many people riding on it, and then you're the guy that they
00:29:38look to.
00:29:39Right.
00:29:39There's no one I can just send an invoice to in gold mining.
00:29:42And it's 100% depending on a working wash plant.
00:29:46Yeah.
00:29:46Everyone wants their money at the end of the day.
00:29:48Having all your buddies work with you is great.
00:29:50You know, at the end of the day, it's what they see, right?
00:29:53Yeah.
00:29:53You know?
00:29:53Oh, yeah.
00:29:54They follow the leader.
00:29:55Oh, yeah.
00:29:55They've got to put your head down and just put your nose to the grindstone and go.
00:29:58You know, it doesn't help to feel sorry for yourself.
00:30:00You know, you just got to, because it's not going to help your situation.
00:30:03If you're the leader, you're working your tail off, they're going to follow you.
00:30:06Mm-hmm.
00:30:06Got a lead by example.
00:30:07Yeah, 100%.
00:30:08Well, let's get back to it, huh?
00:30:13I honestly think Tyler right now is overwhelmed with what's going on financially, his responsibilities,
00:30:19owing people.
00:30:20Hopefully, with what we do, it'll help him get him right on track to be able to get that
00:30:25caught up and run this mine efficiently.
00:30:32Coming up.
00:30:33Oh, my gosh.
00:30:36Let's fire it up, guys.
00:30:38It's go time.
00:30:40Well, let's make some gold, man.
00:30:42Let's do it.
00:30:43All right, .
00:30:44Randy!
00:30:45Shut up!
00:30:47Now I'm out of here.
00:30:49That dream is starting to fade.
00:30:51I'm at my breaking point.
00:31:03We're going to meet up with the claim owners.
00:31:05His name's Dwayne.
00:31:06He's on these claims a long time.
00:31:09He ought to be a wealth of information on this valley.
00:31:12In southwest Montana, Freddie's on the hunt for future ground.
00:31:19Hello.
00:31:19I'm Dwayne.
00:31:20Nice to meet you, sir.
00:31:21How are you, Freddie?
00:31:21Doing all right.
00:31:22Welcome to the Kit Carson Placer, my man.
00:31:25How long have you had this place?
00:31:2718 years now.
00:31:2818?
00:31:28You ought to know quite a bit about it then, huh?
00:31:30Oh, just what we've found out over the years, trial and error, and rumors.
00:31:35Well, you can tell it was a drag line that did all this.
00:31:37Drag line's red.
00:31:38They had a 25-foot cable, and they'd throw it out, and they'd drag it, and throw it out,
00:31:43and drag it until they'd get to bedrock.
00:31:44Then they'd do a clean-out, running through their little wash pile.
00:31:48And I understand it was not self-propelled, so they'd have to drag it 25 feet with the steam shoveler.
00:31:53Yep, keep hopscotching your way up the valley.
00:31:55Yeah.
00:31:57In the 1930s, high gold prices see thousands of prospectors flock to the area in the hopes of striking it
00:32:05rich.
00:32:06Huge machines, known as drag lines, tear through the valley,
00:32:11their buckets suspended from a boom by a series of cables.
00:32:15Pulled along the bottom of the pond, riverbed, or pit, they scoop up sediment, hopefully rich in gold.
00:32:26And that time, the fine gold was kind of hard to get to, so they mostly took out the bigger
00:32:33stuff.
00:32:34Luckily, right now, that's good news.
00:32:36Well, you can tell they've done a lot of work in here, that's for sure.
00:32:38Yeah.
00:32:39Running for about two miles.
00:32:40Okay.
00:32:41So on that virgin ground, that's in your bank, right?
00:32:44Right.
00:32:45It could pay off some in the end, I think.
00:32:47Well, we'll do our best while we're here.
00:32:49Thank you for your time, sir.
00:32:51You bet.
00:32:51You have a great day.
00:32:56It was good to talk to Duane.
00:32:58Sounds like there's a lot more ground that hasn't been mined in this valley that they own.
00:33:05That's good for Tyler in the future.
00:33:08We could find something that the drag lines missed, and that should be more profitable,
00:33:13so he can get that money in his pocket now, because he's got a tremendous amount of debt.
00:33:23Let's burn it.
00:33:25This is a gold miner's dream, in a box.
00:33:28It really does save a ton of time.
00:33:30Back on site, Juan cuts the distribution chute, which will carry material into the new sluice.
00:33:38So you getting excited about your little one on its way?
00:33:41I am.
00:33:41Yeah?
00:33:42Little boy or little girl?
00:33:43Little girl.
00:33:44Yeah, little Allie.
00:33:45We can't wait for it to get here.
00:33:47After the plasma jet cuts the half-inch thick steel pieces, Juan and Tyler race to assemble the chute.
00:33:55We'll start tacking things together.
00:33:56As long as it holds, right?
00:33:58That's all that matters.
00:34:00So, you watch?
00:34:01You can run it just like you run 7018.
00:34:03You gotta move a little quicker.
00:34:05All right.
00:34:06If you want to go for it, you're more than welcome to.
00:34:10You know, he's been patching up this plant for the last few years, so you can tell that he knows
00:34:13what he's doing with the welder.
00:34:15This piece that we're building is going to help him catch more gold, so it's good that he's seeing how
00:34:19it's put together,
00:34:19so that way when it comes time to repair, he knows how to do it.
00:34:26How's it looking?
00:34:27It's not as pretty as yours, but it's all right.
00:34:29I think it'll work.
00:34:29Not bad.
00:34:30You're doing good.
00:34:32We'll glue it together.
00:34:39How's it going, Dustin?
00:34:40It's going pretty good.
00:34:41How you doing, Freddie?
00:34:42Doing all right.
00:34:43In the cut, Freddie checks if his flags point to pay.
00:34:48Looks like you've done quite a few pans by the flags in the wall, huh?
00:34:52Yeah, I've been down here for a couple hours.
00:34:54Looking at your wall there, I see all your green flags are where they should be above this bedrock.
00:35:00The exciting thing here is we've got high bedrock here, right?
00:35:03Yeah.
00:35:04And we've got high bedrock over there.
00:35:07So, my thoughts, there might be a channel running right through here.
00:35:10I think pop some of that loose and see what lives under it and some of those cracks.
00:35:15Where the two sections of bedrock meet, a natural gold trap may have formed.
00:35:21We know the water flow is going this way, right?
00:35:23Correct.
00:35:24Down this valley?
00:35:25Yep.
00:35:25So, you know, this riffle, that's a backside.
00:35:28So, if a piece of gold was on here, you know, there's a chance it fell off right here and
00:35:33never found a way out.
00:35:36Sure.
00:35:37So, yeah, just start loading the pan up there out of these cracks.
00:35:41Take these pieces like this, right?
00:35:44So, pop them out.
00:35:46Let's look underneath them and see if we see these rounded gravels underneath there.
00:35:50Oh, yeah.
00:35:51That stream gravel?
00:35:52Yep.
00:35:53So, it got stuck in there.
00:35:54So, if it's stuck in there, you know, there's a chance there's some gold in there.
00:35:59We almost have a pan full here.
00:36:01Let's have a look at it.
00:36:03See what lives in it.
00:36:05This will be a good test.
00:36:06Yeah.
00:36:13I see about six pieces and I don't even pan down yet.
00:36:2252, maybe more.
00:36:24There's a lot of color in that pan.
00:36:26There is.
00:36:29So, if we just found, let's say, 50 colors on a high spot bedrock, what's it like under this water
00:36:36over here in the bedrock?
00:36:37It's usually a deep channel's your best goal.
00:36:40And it's a big if, right?
00:36:41There are some technologies out there that might be able to give us a clue if this is a channel
00:36:48for one and what direction it goes for two.
00:36:50If Freddy's hunch is correct, a gold-rich channel could secure the future for Tyler and his crew.
00:37:01Dan, it's Freddy Dodge.
00:37:02Hey, Freddy, how you doing?
00:37:03Can you bring some of your tools out here?
00:37:05Give us a hand?
00:37:07Yeah, we can do that.
00:37:08Sharpen your pencil and let me know, Dan.
00:37:10I appreciate it.
00:37:11Okay, absolutely.
00:37:12Bye.
00:37:21So, you know, watching Tyler's plant, the plant was constantly surging and that's an issue.
00:37:26So, one of the things that I really wanted to do was to get a consistent feed.
00:37:31I made a few phone calls.
00:37:32I'm going to look at a piece of equipment.
00:37:3530 miles south of the Newhall mine, Juan may have found a fix for Tyler's surging plant.
00:37:41I actually got a hold of a gentleman called Bill Hollow.
00:37:44He said he's got a scrapyard full of new and used equipment, that he had an old feeder here that
00:37:49he thinks it would work for our purpose.
00:37:51You know, it hasn't ran in a few years, so it's a gamble.
00:37:58Bill?
00:37:58How you doing, sir?
00:37:59Hello there, Juan.
00:38:00How are you?
00:38:00Good.
00:38:01Good to see you.
00:38:03So, this is the conveyor with the feeder on there and the hopper.
00:38:05Yes.
00:38:07There's the old girl.
00:38:09Do you know if it runs, Bill?
00:38:11You know, honestly, I do not know that for sure.
00:38:14There's definitely a lot more work here than I anticipated.
00:38:17How quick you get it out there for me?
00:38:19I'll get it up there this afternoon for you.
00:38:20You said 10-year warranty on this, right?
00:38:22Well, you misunderstood the 10.
00:38:24It's 10 feet or 10 minutes, whichever comes first.
00:38:33It's a bit of a gamble, but I'm good with it.
00:38:36Sounds good.
00:38:38Thank you, Bill.
00:38:40To prevent the plant from surging, Juan's conveyor should allow a steady feed and stop Tyler
00:38:47from losing gold.
00:38:50That feeder and that conveyor are in worse condition than I thought they would be, but
00:38:53honestly, I don't have a choice.
00:38:55From the beginning, we planned one of the more ambitious rescues that we were going to
00:38:58do because we thought we were going to have the help.
00:39:00Unfortunately, that didn't work out.
00:39:02You know, Tyler's guys went home.
00:39:04Well, hopefully this new addition to the plant will persuade them back.
00:39:18Well, the survey guys are on their way in.
00:39:20At the Newhall mine in southwest Montana,
00:39:24Freddie's called in geophysicist Daniel Kramer to help locate a gold channel.
00:39:29How's it going, guys?
00:39:31Hey, pretty good.
00:39:32Good to see you again.
00:39:32Good to see you.
00:39:33Yeah, absolutely.
00:39:34What do we got going on?
00:39:36Well, we've got a low spot in bedrock.
00:39:38You can see their cut here.
00:39:39Yep.
00:39:39But I don't know if it's a channel or if it's just a low spot.
00:39:43Yeah, it's a nice trap.
00:39:45Yeah, exactly.
00:39:45So my thoughts are we run a line right here on the downstream side of their cut.
00:39:51That makes sense, yeah.
00:39:52And then three or four upstream.
00:39:54And if there is a channel, you know, we might be able to track it and find it.
00:39:57Connect the dots and we'll probably see it if it's there.
00:40:01Freddie's plan, slowly work up the cut in sections using an electro resistivity machine
00:40:08that measures how easily an electric current passes through the ground.
00:40:12Daniel's technology should identify any contours in the bedrock that might indicate an ancient river channel.
00:40:21Well, grab your gear.
00:40:22Yeah, all right.
00:40:23Get her.
00:40:23Yeah, let's do it.
00:40:25Well, if there is a trending channel in here, the odds are it should be better gold in that.
00:40:31So and better gold means paying off your bills faster.
00:40:35To back up the electrical data, Daniel will also use a seismograph that monitors sound waves.
00:40:43100 feet.
00:40:44You're basically taking sound, inducing it into the ground and seeing how it bounces off of different rocks, different layers.
00:40:50And that's how we then interpret from that.
00:40:52Okay.
00:40:54Go ahead.
00:40:55Yeah.
00:40:56Okay.
00:40:57105.
00:41:01If they need to find the most rich area for gold, then we need to identify this bedrock area where
00:41:07two pieces of bedrock come together and make a channel.
00:41:10A river channel slowly carves its way down a valley over millions of years.
00:41:16As the ground erodes and the channel shifts course, it leaves behind gravel benches which could contain gold at bedrock.
00:41:26All right.
00:41:26You should be at 45.
00:41:2745.
00:41:31Nope.
00:41:31Didn't take.
00:41:32We think it's our sensor?
00:41:33No, you got to swing like grandpa Curtis.
00:41:36All right.
00:41:37Yeah.
00:41:38That was good.
00:41:39We're good.
00:41:41What happens next is I'm going to get all this data.
00:41:43I'm going to go back.
00:41:44I'll create a really nice map that I can give to Freddie and it's going to show bedrock.
00:41:48It's going to show the paleo channel if it exists.
00:41:51And from that he's going to hopefully be able to dig down and really find the gold.
00:41:55Daniel will feed back the results to Freddie within 24 hours.
00:42:01And attaboy.
00:42:02All right.
00:42:02We're all good to go.
00:42:03We can close it up.
00:42:15Still a lot to do.
00:42:16Yeah.
00:42:17And I'm just really concerned, Fred, because when it comes down to it, you know better than
00:42:21I do, it's always really tough to try to make the decision what we have to do on a plant
00:42:25when we only watch it run 20 minutes.
00:42:27So there could be other problems as well.
00:42:28Yeah.
00:42:29After four days on Tyler's mind, Freddie and Juan still have a mountain of work.
00:42:34I know it's going to be tight on time, Fred.
00:42:36Travis and Alex aren't here yet.
00:42:38And we really got to get started on that eccentric rebuild.
00:42:41It's just a matter of, do we have enough time?
00:42:44And on top of that, we've got that conveyor coming in today.
00:42:47I'm worried too.
00:42:48You know, we've got other miners we've got to help.
00:42:50Yeah.
00:42:51You know, I hate it because, you know, I always want to, we want to push the envelope.
00:42:54But if we can get him to do most of the work on that conveyor, get it going, it frees
00:42:59us up to keep on working on what we need to do.
00:43:01I agree with that.
00:43:02We've got to get stuff done and get it done quick.
00:43:10Would you look at this thing, Dustin?
00:43:13Oh, my gosh.
00:43:16Oh, damn.
00:43:20She's a beaut.
00:43:23I feel like this might be the public pieces we've been missing.
00:43:26This is a game changer right here.
00:43:29One mile from the Newhall claim, Tyler and Dustin collect their vintage seven-ton conveyor.
00:43:36What do you think?
00:43:37You want the loader or the hull?
00:43:39First, they must remove it from the truck.
00:43:42Let's do the loader first.
00:43:44Unless you think you can lift it.
00:43:46I bet I could.
00:43:50We're ready when you are.
00:43:51I don't want it to tip.
00:44:00That'll get her.
00:44:01Go ahead.
00:44:06This is a big, big unit.
00:44:12All right.
00:44:13I guess here we go, guys.
00:44:21Nice.
00:44:22Oh, yeah.
00:44:22Nice and straight, Dustin.
00:44:26Oh.
00:44:27Hold on, buddy.
00:44:29Hold on a sec.
00:44:30Watch out on that side.
00:44:31Turn that way a little bit.
00:44:33Here we go.
00:44:34This is the moment of truth, Eric.
00:44:42Yee-haw!
00:44:43Woo-hoo!
00:44:46It's off.
00:44:47And it is in one piece.
00:44:49This is freaking badass.
00:44:51It is.
00:44:52This is cool, man.
00:44:54Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
00:45:02We're going to have to cut this out.
00:45:04And it's not going to be an easy one.
00:45:06Because they welded the heck out of it, for one.
00:45:09And we don't have time for it.
00:45:11But it's got to be done.
00:45:13Back on site, Freddy's hit an unexpected problem.
00:45:17To replace the drive shaft on the eccentric,
00:45:21he has to remove the punch plate and its welding.
00:45:24We're going to throw some fire around here.
00:45:26Get out the air arc and see what we can do.
00:45:31While Freddy cuts through the steel welds.
00:45:36Calling you again, Trav.
00:45:38Juan checks on Travis and Alex,
00:45:41who were due with the new shaft and bearings for the eccentric.
00:45:45Hey, Trav, where are you guys?
00:45:47We're waiting for the parts.
00:45:48Took longer than expected, but we're on the road now.
00:45:51We're stretched really thin right now.
00:45:52We need the parts.
00:45:53We need them yesterday.
00:45:54OK.
00:45:55Yeah, just get out here as quick as you can.
00:45:57Please be careful.
00:45:57All good. See you soon.
00:45:58All right, thanks.
00:46:01That's not good.
00:46:02You know, the guys have been held up.
00:46:03And really, it's not anybody's fault.
00:46:05But we don't have the parts yet.
00:46:07So we're going to keep on plugging away,
00:46:08trying to get the fixes done.
00:46:10Ultimately, we've got to get those parts soon.
00:46:11Because we have other miners to go help.
00:46:13Other mines we've got to fix.
00:46:14And we're getting down to the wire on this one.
00:46:18Ah.
00:46:19Freddie, how are you doing?
00:46:21Wow, I missed the last cut.
00:46:24We've just got to get it out now.
00:46:29Freddie got everything cut out on the punch plate.
00:46:31I'm going to go in there, weld some tabs on there,
00:46:32so I can get that punch plate lifted up and out of the way.
00:46:54It came out OK.
00:46:55You know, it was a little tight in there.
00:46:57But we got her done.
00:46:59Now I just really need Alex and Travis to get here with those parts.
00:47:11News of a conveyor promising fewer plant breakdowns brings Alex and Taylor back for one more crack of the whip.
00:47:19So we need to get to washing.
00:47:24That's the only way we're going to come back out here is because I do like Tyler and I do
00:47:28like Freddie and Juan.
00:47:30Put everybody in a better mood and start fresh with a fresh new plant.
00:47:34I respect Alex and Taylor.
00:47:38You know, it's not easy coming out here and trying to extract the gold out of the ground.
00:47:43Before they can test run the conveyor, Tyler's crew must carefully position it next to the plant.
00:47:51We'll push it up with the excavator.
00:47:54All hands on deck.
00:47:56Try to get this thing into position.
00:48:09There you go. That's working.
00:48:12There you go.
00:48:24There you go.
00:48:30There you go.
00:48:31There you go.
00:48:33Yeah.
00:48:34No, no, no.
00:48:37Tires are just sinking.
00:48:43Try inching a little bit.
00:48:54No.
00:49:03Just driving in.
00:49:05Can I get it back up?
00:49:06I kind of doubt it.
00:49:08Barely see the top six inches of the tire sticking out of the dirt.
00:49:13This is a joke.
00:49:15Is what this is.
00:49:27Let's get it out of here so we can just prepare this a little bit better.
00:49:32Pull it back.
00:49:32In Montana, at the Newhall claim, Tyler's crew grapple with the seven-ton conveyor, which must be moved to the
00:49:40plant, but is stuck in the dirt.
00:49:43What's your plan?
00:49:44Have them pull it back another five or six feet, okay?
00:49:51Hey, Tyler.
00:49:53What if you were to come up here and then chain off the end up here?
00:49:56And then you can walk it back and swing it in.
00:50:00And then when you get it down here, you'll already be hooked up to it.
00:50:03You can set it right exactly where you need it.
00:50:05We'll give her a whirl.
00:50:07Freddie's plan?
00:50:08To take the weight off the wheels.
00:50:10Chain one excavator to the back of the conveyor and another to the front.
00:50:16Then walk it into position.
00:50:18It's always one step forward and two steps back, but this is part of gold mining.
00:50:24It's go time.
00:50:25It's time to turn and burn.
00:50:27With you hooked up here, can you spin it so you're kind of straight?
00:50:30Oh, yeah.
00:50:35Oh, you're good.
00:50:39It's not a work.
00:50:40You ready?
00:50:41Yep.
00:50:41Okay, right now I'm the boss.
00:50:43Yep.
00:50:44Hey, Tyler, you just keep an eye on me and those chains.
00:50:47Okay, let's come this way.
00:50:55Kick that way a little bit with those tracks.
00:50:59Go ahead and keep tracking back.
00:51:01Go easy, guys.
00:51:03Easy!
00:51:06That'll work.
00:51:07Okay, keep coming.
00:51:11Tyler, work your way gently that way at three feet or so.
00:51:17Get off of it.
00:51:19Pull it back.
00:51:20Back.
00:51:21There you go.
00:51:23Keep going.
00:51:28Come up.
00:51:30Is that all you got?
00:51:33Yeah.
00:51:34I got to get it a little closer to get it up there.
00:51:36Okay?
00:51:37Whatever you need to do.
00:51:42Crack in a little.
00:51:45Go!
00:51:47There you go.
00:51:48Yeah!
00:51:49Hey!
00:51:51Let's go!
00:51:53We just got to get it set up here and get it going and see what it does.
00:51:56But I'm damn near 60 years old and I think this is just the same age.
00:52:01Let's see what happens here.
00:52:19What the ?
00:52:21Oh, God.
00:52:23Let me take a look.
00:52:27I don't know how to start this thing.
00:52:29I don't have an instruction manual on this thing, Juan.
00:52:33So, right here.
00:52:35So, this is the emergency stop.
00:52:36This is where it pulls it.
00:52:37It needs to be reset.
00:52:40You have a pair of pliers?
00:52:44There we go.
00:52:44Actually, right there.
00:52:46There she is.
00:52:46She's reset.
00:52:47Okay.
00:52:48So, she's on stop right now.
00:52:51Let's run.
00:52:52Want to go ahead and hit it?
00:52:55There you go.
00:53:09Sounds good.
00:53:10Sounds really good.
00:53:13Are we clear on the end of the conveyor?
00:53:16Watch out.
00:53:17It's engaged.
00:53:26I like it.
00:53:27This is a bit of an antique, but I like it.
00:53:29You know, the old timers had things figured out.
00:53:32Paint don't matter.
00:53:34Iron looks good, though.
00:53:35Good to see that light at the end of the tunnel and have hope.
00:53:39These old Detroits usually don't skip a beat.
00:53:42Looks good.
00:53:43It's running good.
00:53:59You guys made it.
00:54:01Made it.
00:54:01Right on.
00:54:02Good to see you, buddy.
00:54:03Good to see you, buddy.
00:54:04Good job.
00:54:04Thanks for coming, buddy.
00:54:05Oh, I'm sorry.
00:54:07Just one day to go before the final test run, and Alex and Travis arrive with new parts for the
00:54:14eccentric shaker.
00:54:16You guys got the stuff, huh?
00:54:17Yeah.
00:54:17We got everything you asked for.
00:54:18Oh, man.
00:54:19That shaft looks way big.
00:54:21Hope it's not too big.
00:54:24Dang it.
00:54:26That's not what we wanted.
00:54:30I'm just playing this right one.
00:54:33That's perfect.
00:54:34All right.
00:54:35Well, let's get it unloaded, guys.
00:54:36Perfect.
00:54:36We'll get going.
00:54:37Start putting this thing back together.
00:54:38To stop the plant from breaking down, Juan will upgrade the drive system on the shaker.
00:54:44First, by installing new bearings and a bigger shaft.
00:54:48So now we've got Travis and Alex here.
00:54:50We're going to push like heck.
00:54:51Hopefully, we can get it done and do a test run.
00:55:06Ready?
00:55:06One, two, three.
00:55:11That way?
00:55:14Up.
00:55:14You're going to have to go up?
00:55:15Yeah, up a little.
00:55:16Up a little more?
00:55:17Okay.
00:55:18Watch yourself on that side.
00:55:19Nice.
00:55:39That's all right.
00:55:40We'll call that good.
00:55:42We've got the bearings in.
00:55:43We've got the shaft in.
00:55:44But that's only half the battle.
00:55:46Now we've got to start putting all the weights on it.
00:55:48Got to get the drive system on it.
00:55:50And as you can see, everyone's here helping because reality is tomorrow we have to run.
00:55:59Hey, Tyler.
00:56:01What's going on, Freddie?
00:56:02Well, we've got the results back.
00:56:04Freddie shares the seismic test report with Tyler that may point to higher yields in the
00:56:10future.
00:56:12So there is a channel there.
00:56:14There it is.
00:56:16Whoa!
00:56:17And you can see that channel there, Dustin, that paleo channel.
00:56:22So here's your cut.
00:56:23And you can see how this deep channel goes down and around.
00:56:28And then it's going down.
00:56:30So who knows, there could be another one over here.
00:56:32Usually there's more than one.
00:56:34Usually they're your best gold.
00:56:36Well, guys, we'll get you the information over from this survey, but there's your treasure
00:56:42map for the near future.
00:56:43I like it, Freddie.
00:56:45That's showing us where we need to dig.
00:56:47This is amazing.
00:56:49It's unbelievable here.
00:56:51That's exciting.
00:56:52That's exciting for Tyler because after Juan and myself leave here, he'll have a path
00:56:57to follow.
00:56:57If the gold's good enough, he's got many years in here mining.
00:57:10So this is going to be the eccentric weight right now.
00:57:13Final test run looming.
00:57:15At his cut trailer, Juan works on the new weights for the shaker deck.
00:57:20What we're doing is we're getting this hole as tight as we can for the hub.
00:57:23Then we'll get it welded in.
00:57:24Then we're going to go in here and drill this and tap this so we can add more weight if
00:57:28we need to.
00:57:29In the first test, Tyler's heavy weights broke the motor.
00:57:33To reduce vibration and increase reliability, Juan will replace them with lighter 30 pound
00:57:41weights.
00:57:45Pretty fancy weights there, Juan.
00:57:48Should we go get my old weights for comparison?
00:57:52Yeah, there's nothing wrong with them.
00:57:53Uh-huh.
00:57:53They're just a little too heavy.
00:57:55You built it a little too mean.
00:57:56Oh, yeah.
00:57:57Looks next level, Juan.
00:57:58Well, I don't know about that, but honestly, the weights were just way too heavy for it.
00:58:01We're going to decrease the weights.
00:58:03We're going to make them adjustable as well so we can add more weight to it if we need
00:58:06to.
00:58:06On a screen of that size and everything else, you know, 30 pounds is about what you need,
00:58:10but you got a lot of extra steel there, so you might need more than that.
00:58:18What I'm going to do now is install the eccentric weights, get them aligned where they need to
00:58:22be, and tighten up the collar.
00:58:32There it is.
00:58:34They're tight.
00:58:35And as you can see here, you know, I can easily move this by hand.
00:58:39It's not fighting itself.
00:58:40It's not bound up.
00:58:41It's pretty good.
00:58:42I'm happy with that.
00:58:44Tomorrow, we'll get the screen down to the plant and get it installed.
00:58:46Then we can start finishing up the motor drive so we can run it.
00:59:03Coming around.
00:59:04Just hours to go before the second test, the crew push to install the final fixes.
00:59:11There you go.
00:59:13Tyler and Dustin lift the upgraded shaker deck into place.
00:59:18There you go.
00:59:19You're in.
00:59:20Yeah!
00:59:22Yeah!
00:59:24Same spot.
00:59:26Right up top.
00:59:28New and improved.
00:59:30Ha ha.
00:59:32Tyler, let's pick that up and get it down there.
00:59:35Next up, Freddie and Tyler wrestle the 680-pound sluice run into position.
00:59:42Coming up, Tyler.
00:59:44It's all yours, buddy.
00:59:49That stick's pretty sensitive.
00:59:55Coming down?
00:59:57Very nice.
01:00:03That ought to get her for now.
01:00:07Can you give me a hand real quick?
01:00:09Yes, sir.
01:00:10With the main pieces installed, this is something I haven't done before.
01:00:16Freddie adds a last-minute fix to the shaker deck.
01:00:20We noticed that rocks had material still stuck to them, so we're just gonna hang these in here.
01:00:28So as these rocks come down through here, the screen will be vibrating, these rocks will be vibrating, and they'll
01:00:34go through these chains, and it'll take some of that material off the top.
01:00:39It's the top of those rocks, and, you know, puts more gold in these guys' pockets.
01:00:44It'll pay for itself in no time.
01:00:49Go down here.
01:00:51Finish line in sight.
01:00:53Juan and Travis put the final pieces of the jigsaw in place.
01:00:58So what we got going on is the new drive system.
01:01:01We got a 12.5-inch pulley on this side or shiv, an 8-inch shiv.
01:01:06With this turning at 950 RPM, that's gonna get this turning a little over 1,400 RPM.
01:01:11That's what we want.
01:01:12We want less weight and more RPM so we can get the vibration that we need on the screen without
01:01:16having that force directly on the shaft of the motor.
01:01:18Most of that impact is gonna be on the belt, and that's gonna help this motor last a lot longer.
01:01:24With the small shiv attached to the shaker deck.
01:01:28Watch your eyes.
01:01:30Juan welds the big shiv and the new hydraulic motor to the wash plant's frame.
01:01:37I'm really stressed right now.
01:01:38We have a plant that's still not ready to run, and we're supposed to be running a test run in
01:01:42about an hour.
01:01:44So it's not good right now.
01:01:47Pulley in place, Juan must still fabricate and install a spring-loaded tensioner.
01:01:57When we put load on the screen, it's gonna sag down a little bit, and it'll actually cause this belt
01:02:01to loosen up.
01:02:02To avoid that, we put a tensioner on the bottom of it, so that way when it does start shaking
01:02:07on it, it doesn't lose tension, and it doesn't start slipping on you.
01:02:14There it is.
01:02:16Tensioner's all in, so these springs are pulling up on this, putting tension on the bottom of the belt, so
01:02:21that way when it loosens up, those springs will take up that slop and keep the belt running without slipping.
01:02:29So the plant's ready to go.
01:02:31Motor's in, belts are in, weights are in.
01:02:33We're ready to run.
01:02:36Let's fire it up, guys.
01:02:37Moment of truth.
01:02:38All right.
01:02:38We'll watch you guys.
01:02:40Fire in the hole.
01:02:43This is a make-or-breaker right now.
01:02:47Well, let's make some gold, man.
01:02:48Let's do it.
01:02:49Let's give her help.
01:02:51Still good.
01:02:52Yeah.
01:02:52Decided to see how this belt works.
01:02:54Let's get this thing fired up and see how she does.
01:03:04Well, about to start this test run, see what happens.
01:03:08It's late in the day, so we may not be able to get four hours.
01:03:12It's our last day here.
01:03:14We'll at least try to get a two-hour run and see how it does.
01:03:18First bucket, 01.
01:03:19Yeah.
01:03:22Dustin pushes pay dirt into an automatic feeder.
01:03:26A belt conveys the evenly spread material up to the wash plant's hopper.
01:03:31A combination of pressurized water and the newly improved shaker
01:03:36wash the gold-rich dirt from the rocks.
01:03:39Fine material is then sent through a series of sluices
01:03:43where newly installed riffles catch the gold Tyler needs
01:03:47to keep his dreams alive.
01:03:52It's time to turn and burn and start seeing some gold in the box here.
01:03:55We're flat broke, and I can't keep contributing my blood, sweat, and tears
01:04:00without seeing some sort of return.
01:04:03That's what it's all about.
01:04:08It's slowing down.
01:04:10It's shaking hard, though.
01:04:11You see the whole plant shaking.
01:04:14Too much speed.
01:04:15Too much speed, you think?
01:04:17Yeah.
01:04:18Then you'll slow down the feed to it.
01:04:19Yeah.
01:04:22You want to go up there and I'll watch the end?
01:04:24Yeah.
01:04:24Yeah.
01:04:26The wash plant is overwhelmed with material,
01:04:30so Juan adjusts the speed of the new conveyor.
01:04:36I think it's barely at an idle.
01:04:40There's still a lot of dirt in there.
01:04:46There's no water in the sprayers.
01:04:50The sprayers are clogged.
01:04:55We'll .
01:04:56Hi .
01:04:57We blew the sex Eastern Dos .
01:05:00Ready.
01:05:01Ready.
01:05:02Ready.
01:05:04Turn it down.
01:05:05Turn it down.
01:05:06No, no, no!
01:05:07Shut it off!
01:05:12Go!
01:05:13Get an ass kicked.
01:05:26I had to turn it off while it split down that pretty hard.
01:05:29We were losing it all.
01:05:31.
01:05:33Don't give up, dude.
01:05:35Holy .
01:05:36It just opened up, split up, and exploded.
01:05:39This is bad.
01:05:42The buildup of material and the burst hose caused by backed up
01:05:47pressure from the clogged spray bars means the second test is
01:05:51over in just 15 minutes.
01:05:55Great.
01:06:02What a joke.
01:06:05I think the biggest issue that we have right now is that we
01:06:07don't have water coming out of the spray nozzles.
01:06:09It's just...
01:06:12Hang on, Tyler.
01:06:13Yeah.
01:06:13I'm out of here.
01:06:20I've lost hope in this thing.
01:06:22I really have.
01:06:23I really have.
01:06:29That's what I tried to do is come out here and help Tyler because I know he's...
01:06:35He's struggling, man.
01:06:36He's struggling, man.
01:06:39Without the promise of gold, Dustin has a tough call to make.
01:06:44I'm in a position where it's like he's got so many bills at home and I can't spend more
01:06:50time out.
01:06:51No, I know how it goes, man.
01:06:53It's...
01:06:53You don't feel bad at all.
01:06:56You just feel like you want to make everyone down?
01:06:59You're not, though.
01:07:00You know, there's a bunch of things that culminated and, you know, unfortunately in mining, that's
01:07:04how it goes.
01:07:05Regardless, man.
01:07:05Thank you for your help.
01:07:06Great working with you.
01:07:07Likewise, man.
01:07:09All right.
01:07:09Later, Dustin.
01:07:11I just need some time to go back home and re-evaluate what I need to do financially to keep
01:07:18myself
01:07:18going.
01:07:19I'm going to do everything I can to come back out here and help Tyler where I can.
01:07:29I hate feeling like we got beat.
01:07:31I know we've worked our ass off here.
01:07:34Yeah.
01:07:34That's no joke.
01:07:36Yeah.
01:07:36The battle's done here for now.
01:07:52This wasn't from lack of trying at all.
01:07:54No.
01:07:55We've worked our butts off this week.
01:07:59In Southwest Montana, the second test at the Newhall mine has ended in catastrophic failure.
01:08:07You know, Freddie, I have a few ideas already for what we've got going on here.
01:08:10I don't want to leave Tyler and his crew, you know, in shambles.
01:08:12Yeah.
01:08:13Up in the air.
01:08:13Yeah.
01:08:14We might ought to split up, divide and conquer this thing.
01:08:17Yeah.
01:08:17I'll stay here.
01:08:18And between Travis and I, we ought to be able to knock it out.
01:08:20And then I'll head to the next mine.
01:08:21All right.
01:08:21Let's go talk to them.
01:08:22Let's do it.
01:08:24Hey, Tyler.
01:08:26You know, at the end of the day, I know both Freddie and I know how important this is to
01:08:30you.
01:08:31And, you know, Freddie and I got another mine we've got to head to, but I'm going to stay
01:08:34here and help you out.
01:08:37What we'll do is we want to build a punch plate from the top all the way down, get rid
01:08:41of
01:08:41those screens.
01:08:42Really, it's choking us up.
01:08:44New hose.
01:08:45Those spray bars on top, we're going to have to work on those as well.
01:08:47And then I'm going to go ahead and throw a new pump on there and we'll get you buttoned
01:08:52up.
01:08:52I appreciate it, Juan.
01:08:53Yeah.
01:08:54Yeah.
01:08:56Thank you, Freddie.
01:08:57You're welcome.
01:08:57Appreciate you guys.
01:09:00In a last ditch effort to save Tyler's mining future, Juan will remove the stepped screens
01:09:07where material is being caught and build a new steeper punch plate to easily filter out
01:09:13larger rocks.
01:09:15Then he'll take the clogged spray bars apart to remove debris and allow consistent water
01:09:21flow and add ball valves so Tyler can clean out future buildup.
01:09:26Finally, Juan will replace the worn out water pipes that feed the plant with brand new ones
01:09:32to ensure the wash plant operates on full power.
01:09:36He's only got 24 hours to get the job done.
01:09:41We got a ton of problems going on and it's not an excuse, but the truth is we watched this
01:09:46plant run for 20 minutes during the first test run and you're trying to make an educated
01:09:50guess on what we need to do.
01:09:52Unfortunately, there was a lot of things that we didn't know about, but I really want to
01:09:56make sure that we leave Tyler in a position where he has a fighting chance.
01:10:16Right now we're cutting everything off the top of the deck.
01:10:19All this screen and all these bars got to come out so we can put the punch plate in.
01:10:23Working on borrowed time, Juan's first job is to take apart the stepped screen on Tyler's
01:10:29shaker deck.
01:10:31What's going on is that material is getting stuck.
01:10:33You can see this rock?
01:10:34If I push it just a little bit, it slides down, but it gets down here.
01:10:38If I do the same thing I try to slide it, it doesn't go anywhere.
01:10:42By taking all this off and putting a punch plate on, we'll be able to eliminate all that.
01:10:53You know, there's definitely a time crunch right now.
01:10:55Honestly, I've got to be on the road tomorrow.
01:10:57There's no question about it.
01:10:58Fortunately, I do have Travis here with me, Alex is here, and so is Tyler.
01:11:03Our job isn't done until he's 100% running, and he's catching gold.
01:11:07We're going to try our best to get that test run done and see what we get.
01:11:11As Travis and Alex pull out the remaining screens, Juan checks in with Tyler, who dismantles
01:11:24the clogged spray bars.
01:11:26Ready to start welding?
01:11:28I've got to clean this up, so...
01:11:30OK.
01:11:32All that coming out of there.
01:11:35Roots and rocks.
01:11:38Unfortunately, when you're mining, you're always going to get stuff in your spray bars.
01:11:41We're going to make them so we can actually clean them up in the future.
01:11:44So we're going to put them all back together, get them welded up.
01:11:46We're going to put valves on the end of them, so that way we can clean them out as well.
01:11:50All it is is a real simple ball valve.
01:11:52You turn it off.
01:11:53It shuts off the water.
01:11:54You open it up.
01:11:55If there's any debris or material inside the spray bar, it'll open up.
01:11:58And it's a full port.
01:12:00It'll let all that stuff come out.
01:12:01Once it's cleared out, you shut it off, and it's ready to go.
01:12:05More grinding.
01:12:08More grinding.
01:12:09Tyler reassembles the spray bars.
01:12:12It'd be nice to retain some of our water.
01:12:15While Alex and Travis replace the hose.
01:12:18Yeah, it looks like if you got it tight enough, hopefully it holds well.
01:12:22And one cuts the new punch plate.
01:12:27We're going to put a punch plate across the whole top.
01:12:29That way the material moves smoothly down the stream the way it should.
01:12:34Yeah, definitely feeling the pressure.
01:12:38You know, I know everyone's tired, but we're going to keep on pushing until we get that test run in,
01:12:43and then I can be tired.
01:12:48All good, John?
01:12:50Huh?
01:12:50Almost.
01:12:54Daylight running out.
01:12:56The crew raced to fit the new punch plates.
01:13:00Of all the people we could have out here, Juan's definitely amongst the top in the world.
01:13:07It's awesome to have them up on the plant.
01:13:09Know that things are happening the right way.
01:13:13What a guy.
01:13:15One more weld.
01:13:17And then we've got to put the spray bar on.
01:13:20Watch your eyes.
01:13:22We could lift that thing up.
01:13:24Let's get it up there and we're ready to fly.
01:13:27As Juan finishes the new plates.
01:13:31We're going to weld this up.
01:13:33Tyler prepares to install the repaired spray bars.
01:13:41Hang that .
01:13:43Good.
01:13:44Watch your eyes.
01:13:47Try to get it as square as we kind of can.
01:13:52It looks great.
01:13:53Spray bars in place, Alex attaches the ball valves, and all new pipes complete the fixes.
01:14:01It's going to be a riddle monkey.
01:14:05This is it, sir.
01:14:07They're all tight.
01:14:09Ready to go here.
01:14:14Well guys, we all done?
01:14:16Let's try it out.
01:14:17Let's give it a shot, huh?
01:14:19This is probably one of the most ambitious rescues we've done over the years.
01:14:22Tyler definitely needs a win here.
01:14:24So hopefully we're going to see him be successful.
01:14:39It was a lot of work.
01:14:40We got it done in really a short time.
01:14:42But I'm spent, you're spent, Alex is spent, Travis is spent.
01:14:46That's what I mean.
01:14:47Everyone's done.
01:14:48But let's fire it up, man.
01:14:50Let's give her a whirl and see what happens.
01:14:538 p.m.
01:14:54And a full day behind schedule.
01:14:59The crew prepare to run an unprecedented third test.
01:15:10Of course I'm excited.
01:15:12Fingers crossed that it works.
01:15:17It would be great to get to Washington and make some money finally.
01:15:20Get this thing going.
01:15:25First bucket right there.
01:15:26Start the timer.
01:15:31You know, I would love to do a long run, but it's already getting late.
01:15:34So I'm going to do a one hour test and we'll go from there.
01:15:42Oh, look at that.
01:15:43We don't have a water park anymore either.
01:15:46Ha.
01:15:47What a difference having holes in there.
01:15:50You know, honestly, that conveyor that we bought, that looks like it belongs in a museum.
01:15:54It's working perfectly.
01:15:56So I couldn't be happier.
01:16:08It looks good, though.
01:16:11It's running good.
01:16:17People say the American dream has disappeared.
01:16:21But I don't believe it has.
01:16:24We've got freedom.
01:16:25And with that freedom comes the ability to do sweet jobs like working at a gold mine.
01:16:33I'm excited.
01:16:34I'm excited for Tyler.
01:16:35You know, and the possibilities of him being able to, you know, crawl out of the hole that he's in.
01:16:40And I think he's really pleased right now as well.
01:16:42I honestly felt like, you know, after the last test run, that he lost hope.
01:16:47But I'm seeing a new Tyler right now.
01:16:49He's excited.
01:16:51I think he sees some light at the end of the tunnel.
01:16:53And that's what this is about.
01:16:54You know, we wanted to make sure that we took care of him and helped him out to the best
01:16:57of our ability.
01:16:58And now he's running.
01:17:08Hey, Brady.
01:17:09Hey, Wano.
01:17:10How's it going?
01:17:12Plant's back up and running right now.
01:17:13Well, that's good.
01:17:14Oh, yeah.
01:17:15It's working perfectly.
01:17:16The eccentrics are working awesome.
01:17:18We ended up cutting all new punch plate and putting that in.
01:17:21The spray bars that we rebuilt, again, it's doing an amazing job cleaning the material.
01:17:26It's flowing smoothly now.
01:17:28Well, fingers crossed.
01:17:29All right, buddy.
01:17:30Talk to you soon.
01:17:32Thanks, Wano.
01:17:33Bye.
01:17:42Tyler!
01:17:43Yeah.
01:17:45Man, we were really struggling.
01:17:48You don't know how much he missed a smooth running plan.
01:17:56You know, I'm really excited for Tyler.
01:17:58This is hopefully is an indication of his future.
01:18:01Maybe it's going to be a change of pace for him.
01:18:03And it'll be a good thing.
01:18:06He's happy now.
01:18:07It's almost a shame to shut him down.
01:18:11Hey, Tyler.
01:18:12What's up?
01:18:13Come down for a second.
01:18:17I know you probably want to run now that you got it going.
01:18:20Well, I'd really like to try to shut it down here pretty quick.
01:18:23We're almost about an hour.
01:18:25Cool.
01:18:25All right, buddy.
01:18:25Sounds great.
01:18:26Thanks, Wano.
01:18:26Let's do it.
01:18:35That was a great run.
01:18:37From 20 minutes to just over an hour.
01:18:40Not an issue.
01:18:41And it can keep on running.
01:18:42So that's a great run.
01:18:44What do you think, Alex?
01:18:45I love it.
01:18:47That's...
01:18:47Yeah, you guys saved the day.
01:18:49For sure.
01:18:49Well, I don't know about that.
01:18:50Let's see what the gold way does.
01:19:01Well, how's it look?
01:19:03Looks pretty good, Juan.
01:19:04Take a look at that?
01:19:05Yeah.
01:19:06You know, it's kind of a shame that Dustin's not here with us.
01:19:09You know?
01:19:10I know he had his heart and soul into what you guys were doing here.
01:19:12I know everybody put in a hard last couple days.
01:19:15Thank you guys for all of your help.
01:19:16You know, we wanted to make sure that you guys were, you know, had a fighting chance.
01:19:20I appreciate it.
01:19:21Yeah.
01:19:22A lot.
01:19:23Well, got a little tiny scale here.
01:19:26It's not quite as fancy as Fred's, but we'll make it work.
01:19:30Let's weigh it up, huh?
01:19:39We're at .56.
01:19:42Let's get the rest of it in there.
01:19:44You can actually hear it.
01:19:471.23.
01:19:49Nice.
01:19:50Yeah.
01:19:51Call it an ounce and a quarter.
01:19:52That's awesome.
01:19:53Yeah.
01:19:54That's exciting.
01:19:55A full day's run could net Tyler more than 12 ounces and the ability to earn over $230,000
01:20:04a week.
01:20:05Very nice.
01:20:06An amount that would not only pay off his mammoth debt, but also bring in a reliable profit
01:20:13for him and his crew.
01:20:15Very exciting.
01:20:16You know, at the end of the day, you know, that's, that's what you need.
01:20:19You know, you got decent ground here.
01:20:20All you needed was a plant that would actually run.
01:20:22So that's going to be a game changer for you guys.
01:20:24Were you able to see if you caught any gold in that lower sluice?
01:20:27Yeah.
01:20:27Yeah.
01:20:28There was definitely some that made it down that way.
01:20:29Yeah.
01:20:30Well, there will be, you know.
01:20:31Mm-hmm.
01:20:31And that's why we kind of looked at it and we wanted to make that second sluice.
01:20:34Better than losing it.
01:20:35No.
01:20:35Heck yeah.
01:20:36One of the big reasons we wanted it, you guys have a lot on your plate and you got
01:20:40a baby on the way and you know, you got your responsibilities growing by day.
01:20:44Right?
01:20:45So we wanted to make sure we gave you guys the best fighting chance you had.
01:20:49I love it, man.
01:20:49Yeah.
01:20:50So this is a great outcome.
01:20:51Yeah.
01:20:52This is, I'm more than pleased with this one.
01:20:55But before we leave, we have one last thing.
01:20:58You know, you were talking about your plant, calling it always something.
01:21:01That's fitting.
01:21:01Hopefully it's not always something anymore.
01:21:04But either way, you already named it.
01:21:06So you got to put it on her.
01:21:07That's perfect.
01:21:09It's definitely got a, got a home on that plant.
01:21:13Well, there it is, 1.23.
01:21:15I'll give it back to you there.
01:21:16Got another one we got to get to.
01:21:17So Travi and I are going to head that way.
01:21:19But it was a pleasure working with all you guys.
01:21:21Yeah.
01:21:22Tyler.
01:21:22Thank you very much, mom.
01:21:23Shelby.
01:21:24Alex.
01:21:24Thanks again, Tyler.
01:21:25Likewise, Taylor.
01:21:27We'll see you later.
01:21:28See you guys.
01:21:29Yeah, you're welcome.
01:21:30What do you guys think?
01:21:31It's amazing.
01:21:32Continue running.
01:21:33That's a good hour's work, huh?
01:21:35Yeah, it is.
01:21:36We get some good full days of that.
01:21:38I think we'll be in good shape in no time.
01:21:40Yeah.
01:21:40Things are about to change.
01:21:41I'm extremely happy the way that turned out.
01:21:43You know, honestly, it was going to be tough, but it paid off.
01:21:46Because that gold way was amazing.
01:21:48And now we have a plant that runs, and runs reliably.
01:21:51And it's catching gold.
01:21:53So that's huge.
01:21:54You know, and the debt that he has, he actually has a real chance of being able to pay that
01:22:00off.
01:22:01Our work here is done.
01:22:05I think we're going to knock this season out of the park, you know?
01:22:08Seeing Freddy and Juan's fixes here on the wash plant, seeing consistent, you know, reliability and a working shaking screen
01:22:14speaks volumes.
01:22:16No, I cannot believe it, but...
01:22:19Mm-hmm.
01:22:19Yeah, it's working.
01:22:20Super happy.
01:22:25How you doing, Fred?
01:22:27Oh, doing all right.
01:22:28How's it going?
01:22:28You know, that gold weight was amazing.
01:22:30He has the potential to go over nine ounces.
01:22:32It was way worth it.
01:22:34That's exciting for Tyler.
01:22:35You have everything to be proud of.
01:22:37It makes me smile.
01:22:38That's good.
01:22:39Yeah.
01:22:39Well, see you soon.
01:22:42Allie will be here in seven more weeks, so...
01:22:45Mm-hmm.
01:22:45Can't wait to welcome her into this world.
01:22:47She's gonna be right here minding alongside of us.
01:22:50Mm-hmm.
01:23:12And more.
01:23:15And more.
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