Gold is sitting at a new all-time high,
over $2,600 an ounce.
The recent price is showing no signs of slowing down.
[Silver is doing very well.
Gold prices have been soaring all summer long,
and Tony beets is determined to cash in
and smash his 5,000-ounce gold.
After an explosive three-plant start to the season,
Tony is now down to just one,
and he is 840 ounces short
of his 5,000-ounce target,
With his only thawed pay at Indian river underwater,
Tony's turning to his 85-year-old dredge to bank more gold.
Digging pay with 72 buckets,
its low-cost two-man crew
sluice using an on board trommel
that can deliver 80 ounces of gold a week.
I was hoping you wouldn't find me.
Doctor, coming on.
Last season, Tony called good friend, Greg Mason,
to get his prized behemoth up and running for the first time
in five years.
I'm so excited, I could just piss my pants.
When Greg had to leave early
Tony called upon the only other person
he trusts to operate the dredge.
Tony has never run the dredge.
I don't think he could, honestly,
with Kevin running his own claim
and Greg unavailable until now,
the dredge has sat idle for nearly a year.
Hopefully, we can turn that dinosaur into a gold-making machine.
My god!
To get the dredge running,
Greg first needs to move it into position,
using two winches on the deck
that are anchored to dozers on the shore.
Yes, yes.
Coming up on my winch lines.
Mike coming your way at all, Tony?
It seems to be working.
Okay. I'm gonna come up on the port.
It's coming.
I'm stuck on something, Tony.
Water's not deep enough.
Tony and Greg are trying to maneuver
the 350-ton dredge 300ft closer
to the south edge of its pond,
where his only thawed pay sits underwater.
But it's beached on raised bedrock,
and the on board winch motors
are not powerful enough to pull it free.
Now Tony will use the two d7 anchored dozers
attached to the dredge's cables
to pull it over the bedrock
and then guide it into position
where the gold is.
Everybody seems to be clear, yes.
Yeah. I realize that.
There ain't a thing I can do.
I'm stuck.
Tony is tugging us along right now.
Mike is pulling from the other side.
But Tony's doing most of the work.
Yeah, man, that's working.
It's coming.
Yeah. We're whistling now, Tony.
Coming on with the trommel.
I tried to buck the ladder.
She's dredging.
Tony is sluicing at Indian river
for the first time in six weeks.
Okay. All right. Will do.
It's good to have it back up and running.
So excited I could just piss my pants, you know?
We're coming down to the end here.
We don't have much time, but we're gonna just hit it with everything we got.
The weather's changing, it's getting cold.
It's time we get sluicing.
One hundred miles east,
Rick ness is only days away
from seeing if his biggest gamble ever will pay off.
Rick's crew have spent five weeks and a million dollars
chasing a pay streak from rally valley to Vegas valley.
After weeks of stripping,
we're finally done with overburden.
You know, well, over 100ft of that
finally on the pay, and it feels really good.
For the huge stock pile
of Vegas valley pay ready to go,
Rick just needs to move his monster red plant to the new cut
and start washing dirt by the end of the week
to see if he's hit the jackpot.
I haven't moved monster red in four years.
Some of the guys on my team have never moved a wash plant.
To make it safer and easier on us,
we're gonna completely disassemble this thing.
Well.
Rick has tasked foreman buzz legault
with taking apart monster red.
While the rest of the crew
prepares the road into Vegas valley.
Hey, Kyle, you think this gonna pack in decent?
Yeah, I think it'll be fine.
We spent quite a bit of time in that cut, not sluicing at all.
So we only have a few weeks left.
If we don't produce anything,
yeah, that gold bonus might be out the window.
That's why we named this Vegas valley.
Everything's a big gamble over here.
You know, this should be the last piece that we need
to make this road to the pad.
That's all I'm hoping for.
Watch that big red beast come down that hill.
Let's put it to work.
You guys ready?
Today's we're moving the plant.
I'm excited.
It means we're that much closer to the gold.
So what do you want to do? The tower?
Get the shaker deck unhooked,
set it on the trailer, strap it down, get her out.
Yeah. You guys got the pad ready to go, so why not?
- Yeah. - Let's get moved.
There's a fair amount of work to do here,
but we really don't have a lot of experience moving it, so it's exciting.
Don't fall.
Easy.
At the same time, it's a little scary.
We can't afford to break anything on it.
Strap her down.
All the money is in that shaker box when we pull it off.
So we drop that or damage that,
we're pretty much.
Using his most powerful excavator, the 750,
Rick needs to move the heart of his wash plant,
the ten-ton shaker deck.
Now we're gonna pull the shaker deck off the frame of the plant.
That's the heaviest point of it,
and it's all the way at the top.
This plant's 26ft tall.
When we try to move it, it's very top-heavy.
This is gonna be a heavy lift.
Straight up.
Easy, easy.
I'm just gonna lift it straight up
and swing it over the side.
Hopefully, it'll land on the trailer in one piece.
Kind of go in towards you.
There you go.
Why is it lifting straight?
Is there anything catching?
No, it doesn't look like it.
What the?
We're gonna bend that bar.
Whoa!
Why is it lifting straight?
Is there anything catching?
No, it doesn't look like it.
Pretty important piece here.
It would completely put an end to our season if I this thing up.
What the?
Whoa!
Sake!
Rick ness is struggling to move wash plant monster red
to Vegas valley
and get sluicing by the end of the week.
I'm maxed out.
She's a heavy beast.
It's gonna be fine.
Positive energy, keep positive energy.
That's right.
Let's get this plant moving.
You're back a little bit still.
Forward?
Come on!
- Almost out. - There you go.
- Just swing it. - Yeah.
She's flying perfect now.
And that is what the bottom of the shaker deck looks like.
I think we're good. Let's let's creep her down.
She's down. Yeah!
That was a little stressful, but it's on the trailer now.
We definitely got that trailer maxed out.
Hopefully, this gets down the road to where it's got to go.
Well, Kyle, if you want to run that loader behind him.
Just ride with him, and if it gets away from him, just slow him down.
And then we'll just get it down there and get it unloaded.
- Sound good? - Great.
Let's go.
To keep costs down,
Rick's crew are using their trucks and trailers
to convoy the plant and its parts.
Buzz uses his pickup to pull the ten-ton shaker deck
from rally valley,
a mile-and-a-half, along a treacherous and winding mine road.
Their biggest challenge will be a 300-foot mud track descent.
Down a 35-degree gradient,
where the overloaded trailer
could be easily careen out of control,
ending Rick's season.
To steady the $500,000 cargo...
Better to be safe than sorry.
Kyle will be in a loader behind,
cabled to the trailer,
acting as a safety brake, for the final decline into Vegas valley.
Kyle just control his speed, would ya?
Yep. Will do.
He's halfway down the downhill part.
Seems to be going good.
He's holding back.
The brakes are handling it no problem, so that's a good sign.
Yeah, I got good touch here on him, so...
Perfect. Thank you, Kyle.
Yeah, I think we're good.
Nice job, guys.
Nice and smooth.
We're here.
- That went good. - Yeah.
Easy. Everything held up real well.
Not a problem.
Great. Good job, guys. Yeah! No problem.
Most expensive part of the plant made it here in one piece.
Very excited about that.
We're gonna go get the rest of it.
We just gotta get it back together without wrecking anything,
and we're in business.
Hey, Brennan. Brennan.
I'm about ready to fire up the plant.
Okay, perfect. Sounds good.
Let's get stuff fired up and ready to roll.
Rookie mine boss Kevin beets
has spent five months getting 470 ounces of gold.
Now, with only four weeks left,
he needs to double it
to have any chance of another season.
It's just been a nightmare with downtime this year.
What we need next
is some really, really good gold to catch back up.
Bring in as much gold as possible,
Kevin's tasked foreman Brennan ruault with digging out pay dirt,
while the rest of the crew feeds the plant 24/7
kev did a pan for us,
and it looked really good, actually.
So I'm just working my ass off here
to try and keep that stockpile as big as we can down at the plant,
so night shift can run smoothly.
And here's night shift.
To make sure the wash plant runs non-stop,
Kevin's bringing in a hired gun
to help operator hunter canning.
Rick Johnson arrives
with more than a dozen years' mining experience.
- How's it going? - All right.
Ready for your first night on. Night, Rick?
Yeah. Yeah.
- You ready, buddy? - No problem.
I'm sure you guys got it figured,
but, yeah, just keep it running.
Well, don't shut down, 'cause if we're gonna hit 1,000 ounces,
we gotta really run pretty much non-stop.
- You got it. - Okay, so, have a good night.
- Yeah. - I'll see you in the morning.
- I'll keep you on your toes. - Right on.
It's going to be a little bit frantic with how our tailings are.
We really do need a second operator to take the tailings away.
One of the things that I have definitely gotten from Tony
is we really don't let almost anything stop us.
Just got to keep running the dirt through.
It looks like we've got a pretty healthy pay pile
stocked up down there for night shift,
so I'm just gonna finish up
and hit camp for some dinner and go to bed.
No sleep for the wicked until the gold gets sluiced.
Hunter keeps the plant fed with 24 loads of pay an hour.
While Rick operates a second loader to clear tailings.
So far, so good.
I definitely know the importance of not shutting down.
Kevin put me on nights 'cause he trusts me,
and I just want to prove to him
that I can keep the plant running.
We got to make sure we get it all through the wash plant.
In the belly of it,
is the gold that pays all the bills around here.
Are you kidding me?
I got both sides spinning.
Hunter, copy, hunter.
Yeah. What's up?
Yeah, I'm stuck.
Basically, both side wheels are spinning.
Where are you stuck, by the tailings or where you're dumping?
I'm stuck in the fines right now.
All right. Give me one second.
It might be a tow job.
Boy! That's not something I wanted to happen tonight.
If I can't get him out quick enough,
I'm just gonna have to leave him there and try to come back again.
'Cause I can't let this hopper go dry,
and if I end up whitewashing,
then we can potentially lose a lot of gold.
Hunter stocks the hopper with enough pay dirt
to feed Kevin's plant for eight minutes.
If it runs out while she saves Rick's loader,
water pressure in the sluices will increase
blasting gold out of the box.
Right on, hunter. We got a cable in the crew truck.
- I'm gonna bring it over. - All right.
It's definitely a race against time.
Rick's sinking in quicksand,
and I have to get his hopper filled,
so I can go help him and tug him out.
All right, man. I'm on my way. Get ready.
Back, back.
Stop.
You got it all sorted out?
You need help? We gotta hurry.
We'll let you put tension on.
All right. She's tight.
Okay, hunter, let her rip.
Whoa!
It's stuck.
I tried getting him out, but his tires just kept spinning.
The loader operated by Kevin beets' new hire, Rick Johnson,
is stuck in the fine tailings.
Hey, Rick, ready to go again?
I gotta go back to the hopper.
I think we have like one minute here.
Hunter is racing to pull him free
before the plant runs out of pay
and blasts gold out of the sluice box.
Yeah. Hopefully, we get it out this time.
All right. She's good. Start backing up.
Slowly, slowly.
Keep it going. Keep it going.
Okay. Let her rip.
Are you out?
Hell, yeah.
I gotta take this off and get back to the hopper now.
If this won't come off.
I'll take care of all that.
Get back and feed that hopper.
- Don't get stuck again, man. - Yeah.
We didn't have to shut down.
We didn't whitewash. We got it under control.
It's finally almost the end of our shift.
How is everything over there, Rick?
I'm just making sure everything's cool for day shift.
Now it's time to go home and have a drink.
I hear you.
Hey, guys. How'd it go?
Hey, kev.
You know, just another day at the office.
I got a little buried started spinnin',
she was able to come over, we got back
- I came to the rescue. - Exactly.
Didn't have to shut down at all then?
No, we didn't have to shut down.
Looks like we do.
Rocks have clogged up the pre-wash...
- How you doing? - Okay, thank you.
Forcing Kevin to shut down the plant while hunter digs it out.
Not great at the end of the shift, that's for sure. But...
Whatever needs to be done.
I got this cleaned out.
Let's fire up.
Sounds like Rick and hunter had an eventful night.
Though, it is good that they were able
to deal with it on their own.
So, yeah, I think a good first night.
And here's to many more, I hope.
Klondike legend, Tony beets, is at paradise hill,
making sure youngest son Mike
doesn't leave any gold behind in the super pit.
Time for another day of dredging.
It'll be nice to see what she produces.
Forty miles south,
Tony's dredge should also be on the gold.
Something's wrong here.
Why is it leaning so much?
Crap.
Jeez! She's sunk.
Tony ain't gonna be happy, let's put it that way.
It has to be one of the pontoons leaking or something.
It was banging on some bedrock when we pulled it.
Overnight, one of the dredge's pontoons has filled with water,
causing it to sink on one side.
So water and electricity don't mix.
The other side goes under, there's a lot more stuff that could be damaged.
The generator, other pumps, stuff like that.
I'm looking to see if it's gotten to this side yet.
It hasn't so far.
If the dredge takes on more water,
it will fry the generator,
and put Tony's only running Indian river plant out of action
for the rest of the season.
Michael, do you copy?
Go ahead, Greg.
I think you need to come down here.
The dredge is sinking.
Okay, I'll be over there quick.
Holy!
She sunk.
- I came to work today... - Yeah.
Found it on its side.
- That is not good. - No.
This is not good at all.
I see it's still dropping. It's still sinking.
We got to handle real quick right now.
I'm gonna need some tools, some equipment and bombs.
The 350-ton dredge
floats on two separate 70-foot-long pontoons.
A leak somewhere in the right pontoon
has allowed water to flood in,
listing the dredge to one side.
To right it,
Greg and Mike will install two pumps on the bank
to remove water from the dredge pond,
allowing access to the pontoon's deck thatch.
Then use a smaller pump internally to drain it of water.
Once the pontoon is empty, locate and repair the damage.
Then pump water back into the pond and refloat the dredge
to get back on Indian river gold.
You can drop that one.
This is the biggest pump we have.
It's big and ugly, but it'll move a lot of water.
If it sinks any more, then we're really.
Ruby, do you copy? Ruby?
Yeah. Go ahead.
Jump in the loader for me
and move this pump to the dredge, please.
It's so late in our season right now,
we just don't have time to waste.
That is perfect.
We've got the pump in the place.
Now we just got to hook up the suction hose.
Yeah. You're good there.
We got this pump here.
We use it to feed the plants,
but since the plants are down, we gotta steal it.
Right now, the dredge was our only moneymaker.
So getting an extra pump in will make a difference
between being down for a day or being down for three days.
Should we just try bringing it in with this thing?
- I think so. - Yeah. Okay.
Since Tony's not here, I got to give him a phone call.
He might not be happy with the news,
but we'll do our best to save this thing.
Hey, Tony.
Hey, we got a problem with the dredge.
It's sinking.
One side is under water.
Tony beets' dredge has been dead in the water for 24 hours.
We got the pumps going left and run all night.
The water's down low enough,
so we can start pumping out the pontoons.
Dredge master Greg Mason
is battling to get it back on the gold.
It's just going to be a little bit of cleaning up.
So this was the problem.
Pontoon, the leak in.
She's got to be pumped out.
Get this thing floating again.
Looking good.
The pontoon is drained.
Hey.
Got a leak. It's
I think you kinda pulled it on some bedrock.
That's it.
It would be nice.
When Tony pulled the dredge off the raised bedrock,
it pulled apart one of the rivets,
locking the metal walls together.
- You're coming out? - Yeah.
Now that we know about it, we can keep an eye on it.
After two days of lost production,
Greg refloats the dredge and fires back up.
You're a funny guy.
Yeah. Yeah. Looks good.
Slow and steady right now.
Definitely a little tight right here.
At Duncan creek,
the ness crew are moving the last parts of wash plant, monster red,
from rally valley to their new cut at Vegas valley.
They made it in one piece.
If we continue to have nothing to come in,
we all just spent our gold bonus on diesel fuel
that went right out the exhaust.
Rick has tasked buzz
with getting the frame into position
so they can rebuild the plant.
Just cutting in here to...
Make sure everything's going smooth.
I already got the spot I told 'em I was supposed to be into.
Yeah, it ain't gonna work.
Buddy, you didn't go far enough.
Look at where those sluice boxes are gonna come out.
Look where that berm is. Like we have got a new spot for the course.
It's got to go that way in under 15, 20ft.
Buzz has put monster red in the wrong place.
Rick doesn't think there's enough room
for the coarse tailings to pile up.
I told him to the edge of that right there,
two weeks ago.
Rick and his foreman's relationship hit rock bottom.
Why the does he not know that he can't sleep on the job?
Hey, buzz!
You're not the senior operator,
you're a guy on this crew.
You're gonna jump in where the you fit in or you're gonna go home.
Do it now before it gets too far.
And tensions between the two remain.
We've got to unhook this water line.
Rick wants the plant moved back about 20-40ft,
so, right now, it's time for us to get to work.
It's frustrating because I did say,
I did make it clear what I wanted.
It's not where it ended up.
Boss.
I shouldn't have to say things twice.
You know, we gotta stay sharp for the end of the season here.
There's not much time left. We got a lot of gold to get.
Frame finally in place,
Rick and his crew can reassemble the plant.
We struggled getting the box out of the plant when we moved it,
so we're gonna use two machines to lift it up there.
750 and the 701 on each side.
And that way we get in there nice and straight.
Running the most expensive machine
and about to lift up
the most expensive part of this mine.
- We ready to go in? - Yep.
You're close.
Looks good.
We have touchdown, buzz. She's done.
It looks really good.
Really, really good.
After two months without gold...
This is what you guys put your bonuses on the line for.
Time to see some gold again.
Rick will soon find out if his Vegas valley gamble will pay off.
We got overburden, we got a whole pile of pay there.
You ready to do it?
Generator's in. Pump's in.
It's time to fire.
Put some dirt in the box.
- Well, good energy. - Let's do it.
Fire up.
It's fired.
Yeah!
Yeah. Vegas valley. Here we go.
It's a hell of a view to see monster red
finally getting pay fed through her.
I mean, this Vegas valley cut's been one hell of a cut,
and it's been a battle the whole way.
This has been a long time coming,
but we finally got there.
Things are looking up.
Now we just gotta hope we got enough weather, enough time
to run the dirt and get the gold.
We've got quite a bit of gold in here.
- I got some in here. - Some good pockets.
Looks pretty good.
Big pile of it there.
After two days of running pay dirt,
the ness crew check monster red sluices.
A first look to see if their million-dollar gamble will pay out.
Hell, yeah!
Look at all that gold right there.
It's just piles of it, that nugget's loose.
You got some more down there.
It's lit up like it's Christmas.
Guys. Nice job.
Lots of gold in that,
and it's definitely well worth,
you know, the month and a half
of hauling just to get to pay.
Yeah! Mat to wash!
Getting this first clean-up from Vegas valley done.
Exciting to see what kind of gold we get out of it.
See mats like that, it's pretty promising.
It's a pretty decent picker.
Everybody put up their gold bonuses for this.
I mean, there it is. It's right there in the box.
We got a long ways to go.
We just started sluicing this stuff.
I mean, everything's gonna be against us.
But that's what we're looking for right there.
And all we got to do is get that dirt
through the plant, and we're gonna have the gold.
And that's all that matters.
- Good morning. - Mornin'.
- How's it going? - It's going.
- How are you? - I'm not bad.
Hi, everybody.
How's it going?
It's the end of a grueling week
of day and night shifts for Kevin and his crew.
We've been able to keep going 24s,
and like if we really want to hit 1,000 ounces,
that is what we're gonna have to keep doing
pretty much till the end of the season.
You still got the beets blood in you, don't ya?
I make it work some how.
Kevin and faith spent $2,000,000 on startup costs,
and still need nearly a million dollars in gold to break even.
We've been running the links... extension bay,
even with the little excitement hunter and Rick had
with the load we've been able to suck,
they managed to keep the plant going, so...
Look at that jar's full to the brim, so...
So obviously, like, we've hit something good.
Hopefully, that's bumped us up.
- Way up somebody's. - Let's go.
To hit their 1,000-ounce goal,
they must hit 133 ounces every week.
Fifty, 60, 100, 130, 150, 180, 190
205.58.
That's awesome.
That's your biggest one yet this year.
It's not quite double, but it does look like
the extension has been paying out.
It's a lot better than what we've been getting previous.
But wait, there's more.
There's more?
- Ooh! What are those? - Nuggets?
The nuggies!
Holy you wanna just pour it out, Brennan?
Ooh!
At 4.14 ounces.
The nuggets tipped their weekly haul to 209.
72 ounces,
worth over half a million dollars.
Bringing their season total to 680 ounces.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Beautiful. I love that. - That's not bad at all.
Doesn't feel too bad to actually hit 1,000 now.
That's what, just over 300 ounces?
We're not out of the woods yet.
We really need to push for these last few weeks.
All right. I wanna find that next couple 100 ounces we need.
- Thank you. - You bet.
Will talk to you guys later.
That's our biggest clean-up yet.
It was nice to see that we were able to pull it out of the link's extension.
Yeah, the nuggies were a nice little addition,
so we're well on our way, but...
Can't rest now. We still got a long way to 1,000 ounces.
- Hi, guys. - Hi.
Nice to see you, Greg.
Yeah. Good to see you.
Where you been?
On the hill with Mike..
Sure. We'll go with that.
Well, that's a little debatable.
For the first time in seven weeks,
the beets family finally has gold coming in at their Indian river claim.
How's things on the hill, Mike?
Good. Running every day.
How about you, Greg?
Well, dredge is up, running and working just fine.
Well, we had a little hiccup.
- Just had a little list. - Like, pit at 2:00 A.M., or...
Half the boat was under water and half was floating.
How's that?
Yeah.
That's right.
To hit their 5,000-ounce target,
the beets still need nearly 1,000 ounces.
Yeah. It'd be nice.
The dredge ran for three days and should deliver 35 ounces.
Let's do it.
Five.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
31.75. That's what she comes out to be.
Putting $83,000 in the bank.
Yeah. Right.
- You ready, Mike? - Yeah.
- [Next up... - Ten.
Mike's paradise hill trommel,
which has been averaging 200 ounces a week.
100, 120
130... 160
172.15.
Worth nearly half a million dollars,
taking the beets' season total to 4,363 ounces.
- Good job, Michael. - Yeah.
Seven 12-hour shifts, it generally does add up.
I'm not making any money sitting here, guys.
Later, guys.
So it's nice to see something out of the dredge.
Anyway, we'll do our best to get these other two plants rolling.
You are here with a lot of people,
and there's not a lot coming out here.
It doesn't spoil, so at some point
that's not the point.
Right now, we're spending a lot of money here.
Time's getting a little shorter, too.
We need to get some revenue.
Okay, okay. I get it. I get it.
Later, missy.
Later, boy.