金矿的赌注：前进旧矿区 3 Gold Rush: Moving Forward in the Old Mining Area 3

I still believe there's great gold in Alaska waiting to be found, but this place takes a certain person that's willing to risk it all. So much water coming through these canyons all summer long. From the moment we stepped on this property, we have fought water. This is going to be an uphill battle. This is an extreme environment. Dave, you got copy? Got to see it and believe it. This is what nightmares are made out of. Not good. Can't mine underwater. You know, the old timers kept moving north because that's where most of the gold was. You know, we own the ground. We own the claim. And we're on ground that's never been touched before. So we get to be the old timers here on this ground. Already 10 weeks into the mining season, as well as old Dan, the crew also has its 100-yard-an-hour wash plant, the Roach, to help push ahead with Dave's 600-ounce season gold. Hey, guys, meet me over at the equipment. I need to talk to you real quick. We don't have much time here. We're so far behind. Yeah. You guys know, I mean, we've been prospecting for three or four months. Now it's go time, so this is our best opportunity to get a lot of gold. The way I see it, let's run both plants. Yeah. I think if we can run both plants, that's one way to increase our volume. If we go up to 130, 140 yards an hour, we're getting a third more gold. These three guys get old Dan going. But Dave, at 130 tons an hour, that's going to be quite the haul. It's going to be tough. It's going to be a flat-out just grind. I mean, you got to make some quick trips. You've got to keep him loaded. You've got to keep that pay coming, because we're going to be running two wash plants. That's the only way we're going to get over 50 ounces a week. Let's give it a try, man. We'll give it all. You know us. All in. Let's do it. All in. Go. All right. Here we go. Firing up. We're cooking, boys. To feed the roach and old Dan ... That's two. We got two of them going. ... the six-man crew must dig and feed pay three times faster than ever before. Jason digs pay in the peppy cut and builds a pay pile that Andrew collects to supply old Dan. But Andrew must also load Casey, who hauls out to the roach, where Chris feeds the hopper. Get that ... going, Casey! Start hauling some pay! USA! USA! All right, Chris. Whenever you're ready. Let's do it. Put the rocks in the box, mate. Let's go. Let's see if those boys can keep up with us, Chris. You got that right. Yeah, this is going to test the crew, no doubt about it. You run two wash plants, you know, it's double trouble. You got to keep your eyes on this, keep your eyes on that one. We'll see how good a crew we really are right now. We're down for the challenge. Challenge accepted. We're just going to run it until it pukes. Looking good! Looking good! We got two plants running, boys! Whoa! You got a copy, buddy? What's up, buddy? How's that pretty little roach doing over there? Oh, she's eating it up, buddy. She's eating it up. We turning and burning on the old Dan side. Yeah, 10-4, buddy. Hopefully we can all keep up. Swinging a prayer. Let's just do it to it and see what we come out with at the end. Overnight, rain fills creeks and the river around the claim. Come morning, a break in the weather leaves the crew facing the fallout. So here in Alaska, especially where we're at, it's basically a rainforest. And we're down below the river, so we're going to be fighting groundwater. That first pond is where our cut's at. So we got to pump so we can mine. Right now, as you see, it's all underwater. Hey, Jason, we got a problem down here. We're getting some overflows pretty bad. We got to get those pumps going. Oh, we don't want to be running soup. Daily life of a miner. If it's not one problem, it's another. We're running on one prehistoric frickin' pump trying to suck this ---- down. I'm not draining anymore. I need this water to go away. The crew relies on three military surplus six-inch pumps that Dave purchased with the claim. One pump supplies water to the roach, a second to old Dan. But the third that drains the pappy cut has failed overnight, leaving the team's pay swamped with water. I mean, it's so funny. It goes back all through history. Miners fought with water, whether it's a lack of water or too much water. I've had a job where I was genuinely starting pumps three in the morning and running them all day long to be able to dig, but I didn't have this fossil of a pump. I think that rock might be a little younger than this pump. Before mining, I was a roughneck. I drilled oil. It was the toughest environment I ever had to work in where my first day on the job, there was still people picking up body parts on the ground because the guy had gotten blown into pieces by on the oil rig the day before. I'll take water over having to see that on a regular. That's a pretty nasty environment. Nate, you got a copy, Nader? We are no longer pumping. Just letting you know. Hey, Jason, you ain't got no flippers. I love you. Now we're talking. Charged with keeping the old equipment running, Kentucky-born mechanic Nathan Clark. Just these older pumps are as hard to get going sometimes, and it's just part of them. I mean, they're a piece of ... We'll give it a little shot of some go-go juice. You know, I've always been a very calm and collected person when it comes to machinery and breakdowns and what we got to do to fix it. Some people are like, oh, crap, oh, crap. You know, it's like, just calm the hell down. I mean, my Lord, it's nature of the beast. It's going to break. Everything breaks. Even rocks break. Everything breaks. Even our hearts break. Some of these older ones, I don't like putting ether in them, but you know what? You know what you got to do right now. Let's go, Casey! Nate to Jason. Over, Nate. Okay, pumps are pumping, buddy. I don't! Until the pump drains the cut, Jason and rookie operator Andrew must scavenge wet pay from the pit edges. So every time Andrew comes in and he's grabbing a bunch of this pay, what he's ending up with is pay that's so wet, it's like a damn soup. Alaska, growling at us, spitting at us with this water issue. Located in America's northernmost rainforests, deep in the Chugach Mountains, Glacier Creek is drenched in over 70 inches of rain every year. Tell you what, the way it looks like around in these parts, dry isn't going to be part of our vocabulary here in Alaska. Hey, Nate, we got a problem down here. Yeah. Here it goes, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate. Sit down! It's running sooth. Chris, hey, bypass. Cut the water. I don't know if we'll be able to do it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worrying. I'm worrying. Five, six, eight, nine, 10. Hold on. She'll catch up, she'll catch up. Deep in the Chugach Mountains, wet pay wreaks havoc with the roach. So right now, the front end is sending us more soupy stuff. If it's soupy, we can't run it fast. It slides up that belt. I mean, it's like potato soup. It can't cause a belt to rip. The roach can process over 100 yards of dry pay an hour, but now the material is wet. It slides back to jam the main conveyor. If uncorrected, this can seize a pulley, tear a belt, or even cause a mechanical burnout. Let it catch up. We can't be running this stuff. We got to run drier material. It's just sliding down the belt. She does not like that at all. Jason, I'm sorry to call you out of the kitchen, sending me some soup. Is right now, are they screening? Are you screening the pond? Yeah. She was about three feet deep. Well, we're going to get somebody to go ahead and fire up the peawater, drop it down. I mean, I'm running right now. Until the pappy cut can be fully drained, Nate calls time on the roach. Kill the pump, kill the pump, kill the pump. All the way down. And the crew runs the rest of its pay pile through old Dan. Hey, Chris, you got a copy, bud? 10-4. To guarantee success in the morning, the pump must be fired up at night. My suggestion is we're going to have to get someone out here to fire up that pump and let it run while everybody's still sleeping. We'll take volunteers or whatever. Hey, guys, I'm volunteers for this 4 a.m. pump fueling. Hey, Jason. Hey, you old knuckleheads don't want to do it, so I guess I will. Attaboy, Andrew. Yeah, we got to do what we got to do. We got to work hard for a few months, and then we can go home and sleep. There's plenty of time to sleep when you're dead. The early light of an Alaskan summer. All right, it's 4 a.m., just woke up. It's just the way it is being a new guy, out of mind sight. Those jobs, just got to do them. The old guys need the beauty sleep, and I'm the young buck that's already beautiful. And it's the way I'm going to prove myself with this team, and we're going to kick ass this year. Started at 4 a.m. That's good. Oh, yeah. Four hours later. Casey, come look at this now. Water levels in the peppy cut expose enough dry pay to restart the roach. Yeah, good job, Andrew. One team, one dream. Maybe the guys will buy me a beer next time we go to a restaurant for saving the season. I'll dig down as fast and as deep as the water will let me. I just wish I had a real f***ing excavator. She's hot. So hot. Yeah. Are you s***ing me? Shouldn't overheat. Let her cool. Hey, Casey, how's that pay pile doing over there? They're eating right along, and we're kind of coming up shorthanded. Yeah, she's going to be probably about a 10-minute cool down. It's not getting bigger. It's getting smaller, Jason. We'll have to speed it up on that end. 10-4. I'm very limited with the ability on this excavator. It overheats. Old Rex is not cut out for this. You know, the frustration is just building. We got good ground. And in theory, it should be even better the deeper we go. But because of this old equipment, we can't get down there. We can't do everything that you need to f***ing do for a big mining operation. I mean, I'm definitely not the most athletic of specimens, but I can dig with the best of them. This machine can. What's up, Dave? Hey, how's it coming? You're not running? No, Dave, you know, this excavator, it likes to overheat. If you had a decent excavator, you think you could keep these two plants going? If I had a decent excavator, I could keep these two plants going. Water pumps too, Dave. Yeah. The problem is after COVID, nobody fired back up to produce, and there's no new pumps available. So we're kind of screwed. What if we can't get our hands on some water pumps? I got to find them. Whatever it takes, right? Yeah. All right, buddy. Jason's kind of in a jam. He's got an old machine that can't keep up. I came here with not enough pumps. Need more excavators. You know, I need all these things. When I first got here, I thought we had the machinery to do the job, but we don't. I don't think the pumps that are here are sufficient. But when I started gold mining at Porcupine Creek with the Hoffman, we battled water. That's quite a bit of water. Porcupine Creek was a narrow valley with lots of water, took a lot of pumps. It's a very similar kind of valley. Who said gold mining was easy? Well, I'm going down here. This is my new neighbor. His name's Clay. And I'm just going to get some advice from him. Hopefully, he's got an idea about water. This whole valley is just flooded with water, and I'm not keeping up. So I want to talk to Clay and see if he's having the same problem and see if he has any ideas. Maybe he's got some pumps. I don't know. A month ago, Clay Strickland called in gold recovery experts Freddy Dodge and Juan Ibarra. Well, let's have a look at the wash plant, huh? To turn around his operation. Clay, there's your gold, guys. Make more of it. Take care, guys. Howdy, Dave. Hi, Clay. What brings you downstream? How you doing? Good, good. Came down to talk to you a little bit about we're struggling to get our water out. You know, we've got three six-inch pumps just dewatering and really not keeping up. What are you doing for dewatering? Nothing right now. I don't have any pumps. I'm doing the best I can with what I got. Any ideas on any pumps in town or anybody I can talk to? No, not much. Dang. I've been struggling since day one, 11 years of struggling, yeah. And it's basically like a lake right here that's filled in. The old-timers, they didn't hardly do anything in this valley. How late do you guys stay in here? Do you think I could make it to October? You think? There's been times where it starts getting questionable mid-September. You're kidding me. No. In southern Alaska, winter hits early and hard. North of Glacier Creek, the city of Valdez is the snowiest in the United States, with an average of 25 feet every year. 20 miles away, on the Thompson Pass, the record winter of 1952 to 53 saw a snowfall of 81 feet, taller than the White House. No, it'll start freezing up, and sometimes once things freeze, they don't thaw out in the shade. Dang, that makes it a short season. All right, I'm going to head off. Good luck, Clay. Thanks. I like Clay. He's a good guy. But what really concerned me was he said some years, you got to get out of here in September because of the snow. That really makes it a short season. That's pretty scary. Right now, the pressure's really on. We've got to start handling the water better. That way, Jason can get down to bedrock, and that's where the good pay is. Deep in the rain forests of the Chugach Mountains ... It's alive. ... Jason has reunited with the type of excavator he had last season. Yeah, baby! Man, look at that miner work. I love it. I finally got a decent machine. I got 380 Katie. She's ready for business. I ain't going to be overheating every truckload. To keep both wash plants running, Jason must dig almost 400 buckets of pay every day. Next step, we're going to need pumps, though. We're already starting out wet. It's just not ideal by no means. 380 Katie don't like to get her nails wet if she don't have to. Nothing worse than digging gold out of a pond. You like it there? Yeah, you're good. Actually, it's going to work pretty good. Yeah. Get shaking. Jason, we're shaking over here. Hey, bypass. Turn it all the way on, Chris. Bypass. Got the water. Oh, man. Boy, this is shaking good. Huh? We sure didn't need this, did we? No, Chris, we don't. No, look at all the gold in there. It's all the way down to here. Same thing down at the very, very bottom. I don't like the way this is carrying down. Those are pretty big pieces. Yeah, coal pieces down here. I just hope nothing got washed out at the end. Wet pay causes a rock to jam a belt in the roach, but if the wash plant is shut down with the water supply still running, it risks washing the gold out of the sluice, a gold miner's nightmare. Chris, Taylor, when ---- like that happens, I know your first instinct is to call him. First instinct should be open that. Bypass first thing. Very first thing. Bypass first before I stop the plant? Yes, sir. All right. I'd rather have gold. Whenever I see the belt smoking, I see a plant smoking, my first move is to turn off what's smoking, but, you know, I'll hit the bypass first next time. We make mistakes, there's no doubt about it, but that's okay. That's the best way to learn. If you make a mistake and you learn from that mistake, you won't make that same mistake again. The roach most likely lost some gold out of the box, so Dave and Nate must quickly get the beast back up and running. There's probably a big rock in the back. That's what I'm saying, probably is. Just got to jam the big rock on the back side. Iron up. Go ahead. One right here. I think that's a critter. Yeah, that's it. She caught on the lacing right there. Yeah, sure did. There you go. What happened is, stuff is coming, it's real soupy. It slides up that belt, takes one little rock, even this big. It'll come right down here, skate down, and get caught right here and stop the belt. All it takes is one little rock. Okay, coming on. But when you run dry material, it's never a problem, never. You know, I don't know what's causing the smoke. I don't know if it was a, you know, I thought it was a bearing maybe starting to seize up, but it wasn't. You know, we got away with it this time, but we might not get away with it next time. We don't need no more problems. But the poppy cut now fills up faster than the pump can drain it, leaving the team with yet more wet pay. Hey, Nate, you got a copy, Nader? Yeah, the same stuff, Jason. I can only run about probably 20 yards an hour. Please get on right now. We have no choice right now. We have wet pay, and now we got to slow way down, slower than we ever ran before. The water is creating such a soupy material, and in order for it to climb, he's slowing the plant down to like 20 yards an hour. Well, that's working backwards when you got the roach, you know, we need to be hitting that 80 to 100 yards an hour. Forced to cut the roach production by 80%, the team runs two plants at only 55 yards per hour. There ain't nothing else we can do right now if we get some drier pay. Didn't they say they slowed down to 20 yards an hour? That's what he said he could run at, that's what I heard, I don't know for sure. We can't make money doing that. We can't make money in 20 yards an hour. This day couldn't get any worse, man. Morning at Glacier Creek. Dave, you got a copy? You got to see it and believe it. This is a horrible way to start your morning. The pump that drains the pappy cut failed overnight, leaving Jason's excavator stranded. This is what nightmares are made out of, really, for a miner. I mean, this right here, it's a nightmare cut. From the moment we stepped on this property, we have fault water. Hey Dave, he's on red, that thing won't pump. Yeah, it's just a lot of water in this valley, and I thought we were ahead of it, and then we lose a pump. It's not good. We're kind of in a tough spot right now. Can't mine underwater. Yeah, she's blowing air. Right now, we're just trying to get the pump to prime. Get water to feed back in. We can get this thing to start pumping water out. This is, by far, the most water I have ever had to deal with in mining. It's Alaska, it's the wild like no other, and that's a big statement from a Montana boy. Case, we're turning it on. Okay, go ahead. Firing up. We got it. We're in. Copy that. Ready, big guy? Getting me right over to them tracks. What the heck happened? Pump issues. And we just fired it up too, baby boy. The pump looked fine when I checked it. Must've just had something go wrong. Sorry, buddy. I love Alaska, but right now, I'm just having a hard time seeing its beauty. Tired of water. We can't send wet pay to the damn roach. Should've brought a snorkel. Even with the broken pump back online. Hey, Dave, you got a copy? Nate is still only able to run the roach at just 20 yards an hour. Go ahead. Hey, Dave, can you come over here in just a minute and talk about some stuff? I don't know, you called me. I know. What's up? You know, it's gonna be a struggle to keep things going, you know? You gotta have pumps in the water. There's no ifs and buts about it. So, Dave, why don't we shut old Dan down and free up that pump? We shut old Dan down, and we'll have two pumps to drain the pappy cut. No, I get it. I get it. Is there any way you can get a bigger tank on there? Well, we have a truck over here we're not using at all. It's got a fuel tank on it. It's probably a 200 gallon or something. Yeah. We'll grab it, throw it between the two, and plumb into it. And it should let both of them run off one tank. We can run that 24-7, not worry about it? Can't wait to see the bottom. All right, buddy, thanks. Thanks. Out of gold, came up with two wash plants. So, that's it. Old Dan's shut down. After a decade of service, processing thousands of yards of gold-rich pay dirt, Dave retires the bush-built wash plant, old Dan. You know, it's one of those decisions you gotta make. We shut down old Dan, we get an extra pump to de-water with. We're doing good, man. So, with two six-inch pumps, we should stay ahead of the water. Am I free? Yeah, you're free. Go ahead, slick. So, hopefully, we get down to the bottom, see what's down there. You know, we're fighting a lot of water at this point, and I don't know if this is gonna be enough until we try it. Proof that man evolved from cavemen. Moving the pump from old Dan to the Pepe Cut doubles the drainage. To double it again, Nate plans to run both pumps 24-7, replacing their 30-gallon internal fuel tanks with one single 200-gallon external tank. But for this to work, he must construct a new fueling system. So, what I'm thinking we're gonna do is this fuel cap right here, we can drill four holes into it, then the fuel hose will actually hook to right here. This is gonna help us to get both pumps going, run 24-7. Now, just gotta find all the damn parts. Being so remote, there's a lot more pressure on you. You know, I can't look at it going, Dave, we gotta order this. It's like, no, we gotta make this work. You know, it's a different world out here. And that's what I really enjoy. My daddy was a king of rigging, made all kinds of work. You know, he was a cool-ass old school dude. So, sometimes you just gotta make things work. Sweet mama Jimmy. All right, let's get over there. Get this strapped up. It is, it's cute. Good job. That gonna work? It might look like it looks like something that's made in a meth lab, but you know what? It's gonna work. Two pumps, tank, we're getting down to bedrock, baby. All right, boys, the pumps are gonna work fine. Got the one tank, and we can all sleep at night, letting it run all night long, baby. The two pumps move almost 100,000 gallons of water an hour. So by midday, the pond level drops four feet, and the pay is dry. Definitely feel like Team Tern is making some real progress. If we can keep these bad boys rolling, you'll be able to call me Barney Rubble. I'll be on fricking bedrock in no time. No four in the night, Andrew. No four in the night, buddy. Heck yeah, I owe you a drink now. No, no, no, it's a foot rub. We've discussed this already. Okay. Woo-hoo. Foot should be back up to full speed. Gonna be good. Everything's going well. We're at 100 yards an hour. I'm happy. I'm happy, happy, happy, happy. You know, Alaska is beautiful, but then there's these damn flies. These flies, swarms of biting flies. Flies, more flies than flies. That's what we got. You know what? If we were mining flies, we'd be the richest on the earth. Land on you, your little ass goes up in the air, bam! All of a sudden, there's a chunk out of you. Look at that one. That went right down my throat. I'm sorry. Still running and gunning. Hadn't missed a beat yet, so A-okay. In the Southern Alaskan mountains, the crew goes all guns blazing in a race to hit its weekly target of 50 ounces. Hey, Andrew, Jason, check this out. We're keeping up with Nate and Chris. 100 yards an hour, they're running the plant. We're kicking ass right now. That is very, very good to hear. God bless America right there. Well, we've come down to the end of our day. Number's getting closer to the bedrock. Numbers of gold should be going up, so we'll see. After a week operating two wash plants, Team Turin pulls mats from the roach and for the last time ever, from Old Dan. Up in the front end, it's been a struggle. I spent most of the week fighting water and in the high gravels, but each day, we're slowly starting to get a grasp on the water. Well, right now, I don't know if I made the right decision coming here yet. I like the guys I work with, but financially, it might've been not very smart. We'll see. It's a relief we're running just one plant because now we're not having to do double clean outs. I'm good with this. But we gotta get our gold numbers up. Oh, look at that. Bam! Look at that. That's a good sign. Found a nug-nug-nuggy! Here, hold your hand out. Oh, yeah. It's kinda cool. Gold's getting better, getting bigger, so can't wait to see what this weighs out this time around. Oh, yeah. There she is. Hold on, look, look, look. Oh, yeah, there she is. Get out, Dave! Little bit of gold there, guys. Pepito! Oh, yeah. How about that? Every little bit of gold helps. Woo! Oh, look at that. It looks really good. Good to see. I don't care how pretty it looks, we've been burned. Before. Doesn't mean ---- until you get it on a gold table. Next morning, Dave runs the final concentrate over the gold wheel. So I'm determined to get the bedrock because I believe there's a lot of gold at the bottom. There's just so much water. I just gotta get the pumps to do it. The week sucked. It was a rough one. It was a rough one, dude. Hey, guys. Hey, Dave. What's up, Dave? Well, we got a gold weigh. All right. And, uh... Got good news, right? Well, I got news. I don't know, it doesn't look great. You know, we've been here for three weeks now. I think we're overcoming a lot. We're doing, you know, we're getting a lot better. But, I mean, I know that if we're gonna hit our goal, we need 50 ounces a week. We had issues. Problem we're fighting is the water. I need pumps. Yeah. But now, this is the last gold we're ever gonna get from old Dan's wash plant. So, let's weigh it up, see what it is. This is what came out of there in a week. How many yards did we run this week? About 900. About 900? Kills the point. It's one, two, three, four, or 40. We're .4 out of 900. That's not great gold. No, it ain't. Yeah, this is tough. This is going a hell of a long ways. We're not seeing a lot of gold. I'm disappointed. The thing is, I know it's there. It's probably a little deeper, but these guys thinking that they really bring us out here on a wild goose chase? Well, let's see what we did in the roach. How many yards did we run through the roach? About 2,700. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14. Man, that isn't gonna cover it. 14.2. We've gotta keep improving. We've gotta hit over 50 ounces a week from here on out. The week's 18.6 ounces brings the crew's season total to just below a pitiful $72,000. The front end, our job is to keep us in the best gold possible. And that right there shows we're not. The only thing I can see is both plants are putting out the same ounces per 100. It's not a plant issue, because they both come up the same. You're right. That just shows how bad we need to get down closer to bedrock. Not only do we need to dig deep individually and as a team, you need to get us to bedrock. That's where the gold is. We've come to Alaska. There is great ground obtainable. I mean, the type of ground that could be life-changing. This is Alaska. This is where the big leagues go. This is it. This is where Team Turing's future is. All right, guys. Are we all in? All in. Always. One, two, three. All in. Alaska's a tough place to mine, and it takes a solid team. We are constantly being pressed to the limit. It's a difficult place to mine. A lot of water that we have to overcome as we dig deeper. But miners are eternally optimistic. The next cut's gonna be the cut. The next cleanup, we're gonna hit it big. On the next episode. You gotta go, go, go. Mother nature unloads. I gotta go. We're about to lose camp. He's talking about evacuation? Yeah. This could really wipe us out for the whole season. Forcing the team to fight back. Our lives sit just below this. And reach towards their 600-ounce season goal. On it, 30. Good. Come on, big buddy. Woo! Yeah!