1 00:00:01,620 --> 00:00:04,275 [Paul] Twenty-nine-year-old, Parker Schnabel, 2 00:00:04,275 --> 00:00:06,379 is a goldmining prodigy. 3 00:00:06,379 --> 00:00:08,862 I mean, that's $3 million right there on the table. 4 00:00:10,586 --> 00:00:12,172 [Paul] Over the last decade, 5 00:00:13,379 --> 00:00:17,862 he's mined over $120 million of gold. 6 00:00:18,103 --> 00:00:19,000 Whoo! 7 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:20,379 [all cheering] 8 00:00:21,793 --> 00:00:24,172 [Paul] And for the past eight years, 9 00:00:24,172 --> 00:00:26,275 Parker has scoured the Earth. 10 00:00:26,275 --> 00:00:28,931 [Parker] I need to go some place wild and dangerous. 11 00:00:28,931 --> 00:00:30,758 Explore the places that other people don't. 12 00:00:32,931 --> 00:00:36,827 And get back to the basic root of gold mining. 13 00:00:36,827 --> 00:00:40,275 [Paul] On his quest for the next big gold rush. 14 00:00:40,275 --> 00:00:42,689 [Parker] If you can survive and you can hack it, 15 00:00:42,689 --> 00:00:44,310 you'll find piles of gold. 16 00:00:44,310 --> 00:00:47,896 [man] Oh, my! Are you serious? 17 00:00:49,896 --> 00:00:51,517 -[Paul] This season... - [Parker] This is wild. 18 00:00:51,517 --> 00:00:54,344 [Paul] Parker takes on his biggest prospect. 19 00:00:57,620 --> 00:00:59,000 -[gasps] -[crocodiles growling] 20 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,172 [Paul] Heading deep into the jungles of Brazil. 21 00:01:02,172 --> 00:01:06,000 There's a huge amount of conflict over lining in the Amazon. 22 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:07,413 [explosion] 23 00:01:08,689 --> 00:01:12,827 The only way to really understand that is to come here and see it. 24 00:01:12,827 --> 00:01:14,586 [bleep] Cool. 25 00:01:14,586 --> 00:01:16,379 If there's opportunities to invest, 26 00:01:16,379 --> 00:01:18,172 then I want to look at those opportunities. 27 00:01:18,586 --> 00:01:19,655 [man] That's great. 28 00:01:21,103 --> 00:01:24,310 Nothing makes you interested in something like 29 00:01:24,310 --> 00:01:25,724 having a little bit of skin in the game. 30 00:01:25,724 --> 00:01:27,655 There's a car upside down. [bleep] 31 00:01:29,620 --> 00:01:32,275 I did get fitted for a bulletproof vest, though. 32 00:01:32,275 --> 00:01:33,241 [intense music playing] 33 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:35,068 That's a first. 34 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:48,517 Oh, mate. 35 00:01:48,517 --> 00:01:51,241 When's the last time you were in a tiny little old plane? 36 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,103 [Paul] On the eve of his next adventure, 37 00:01:54,103 --> 00:01:56,310 Parker Schnabel and longtime friend 38 00:01:56,310 --> 00:01:58,689 and cameraman, Danny Etheridge, 39 00:01:58,689 --> 00:02:01,586 survey Parker's Dominion Creek claim 40 00:02:01,586 --> 00:02:05,517 in the Klondike gold fields of North America. 41 00:02:05,517 --> 00:02:07,241 -Yeah, man. Let's do it. -[airplane engine starts] 42 00:02:09,827 --> 00:02:11,551 [upbeat music playing] 43 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:19,689 How much of this is yours, then? 44 00:02:20,482 --> 00:02:22,241 Everything the sun touches, 45 00:02:26,103 --> 00:02:28,068 Does it freak you out when you see it from a bit? 46 00:02:28,793 --> 00:02:29,896 [Parker] It's crazy. 47 00:02:32,517 --> 00:02:34,793 [Danny] Aw, imagine if Grandpa John could see this. 48 00:02:34,793 --> 00:02:36,000 [Parker] I know. 49 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,793 [Paul] Gold was discovered in this region in 1896, 50 00:02:41,793 --> 00:02:44,067 triggering a flood of prospectors 51 00:02:44,067 --> 00:02:47,655 who battled Arctic conditions to find their fortunes. 52 00:02:48,620 --> 00:02:50,103 Since the original strike, 53 00:02:50,103 --> 00:02:54,241 more than $40 billion of gold has been discovered. 54 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:03,448 Now, Parker's Dominion claim is some of the last good ground left. 55 00:03:05,517 --> 00:03:09,000 Any time that we've had like, really good ground, it's been really small. 56 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,689 And now we have hundreds of acres. 57 00:03:11,689 --> 00:03:14,896 So, there's a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders. 58 00:03:15,724 --> 00:03:17,068 But at the same time, 59 00:03:17,068 --> 00:03:19,482 I'm not near retirement. 60 00:03:19,482 --> 00:03:22,103 Right. I'm [bleep] 29. 61 00:03:22,103 --> 00:03:25,310 I didn't buy a future. I just bought some time. 62 00:03:25,310 --> 00:03:30,275 I think that the biggest opportunities in mining are outside of North America. 63 00:03:30,275 --> 00:03:33,689 So, I need to start figuring out now what's next. 64 00:03:35,379 --> 00:03:36,344 [Danny] That was awesome. 65 00:03:36,344 --> 00:03:38,586 -[Parker] I love this plane. -[Danny laughs] 66 00:03:39,275 --> 00:03:41,379 -In front. -Ow! 67 00:03:41,379 --> 00:03:43,896 Did you get that on camera? [bleep] 68 00:03:43,896 --> 00:03:45,172 [both laughing] 69 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,000 Mate. You got a house. 70 00:03:51,689 --> 00:03:53,000 [Parker] One thing about the house, 71 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,689 is it makes me realize I don't really need that much room. 72 00:03:55,689 --> 00:03:57,379 I use about 10% of it. 73 00:03:57,896 --> 00:03:59,103 It's pretty nice. 74 00:03:59,103 --> 00:04:01,172 Really nice. 75 00:04:08,517 --> 00:04:10,413 Right, what's happening with Bolivia? 76 00:04:10,413 --> 00:04:12,379 Is that where we're going on the off season this year? 77 00:04:14,103 --> 00:04:16,724 [Danny] Oh, my [bleep] 78 00:04:16,724 --> 00:04:18,000 [Paul] A year ago... 79 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,689 -[Danny] That's good, innit? -Yeah. It's not bad. 80 00:04:20,689 --> 00:04:23,275 [Paul] Parker discovered a gold streak in Bolivia 81 00:04:23,275 --> 00:04:26,275 and partnered with a local miner to explore it. 82 00:04:26,275 --> 00:04:28,793 I'd like to put up $25,000. 83 00:04:28,793 --> 00:04:31,275 If they find lots of gold, then we split it. 84 00:04:31,275 --> 00:04:33,482 [speaking other language] 85 00:04:33,482 --> 00:04:34,689 -[Parker] Perfecto. -[man] Perfect. 86 00:04:35,689 --> 00:04:37,793 -Have you not heard? -[Danny] No. 87 00:04:39,275 --> 00:04:42,068 -[Parker] Like it's all flooded out. -[Danny] Oh, mate. 88 00:04:44,206 --> 00:04:45,275 [bleep] 89 00:04:45,275 --> 00:04:47,586 [Paul] Parker is still invested in the mine, 90 00:04:47,586 --> 00:04:50,586 but extreme flooding and landslides 91 00:04:50,586 --> 00:04:53,586 will put them out of action for months. 92 00:04:53,586 --> 00:04:55,896 [Danny] So, what's the plan? 93 00:04:55,896 --> 00:04:59,655 I've actually been working on options in Brazil. 94 00:05:01,689 --> 00:05:02,689 -Really? -Yeah. 95 00:05:02,689 --> 00:05:03,931 'Cause it's like one of the biggest 96 00:05:03,931 --> 00:05:05,172 gold producing countries in the world. 97 00:05:06,793 --> 00:05:09,000 -[Danny] Brazil. -Brazil's [bleep] wild, right? 98 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:10,172 [Danny] Super wild. 99 00:05:10,172 --> 00:05:11,551 Mate, it's mega dangerous. 100 00:05:12,896 --> 00:05:14,689 [Parker] I've always been interested in Brazil 101 00:05:14,689 --> 00:05:18,379 and, uh, I know that there's a lot of opportunity there. 102 00:05:18,379 --> 00:05:20,965 Get boots on the ground and actually figure out what's going on. 103 00:05:21,172 --> 00:05:22,586 Yeah. 104 00:05:22,586 --> 00:05:25,827 If you're in a safe, well-regulated place, 105 00:05:25,827 --> 00:05:28,275 like those areas have all been mined out. 106 00:05:28,275 --> 00:05:33,310 And so for me, if we're gonna be hunting for the best ground, 107 00:05:33,310 --> 00:05:36,172 that means going where nobody else has gone, right? 108 00:05:38,103 --> 00:05:45,206 [Paul] Eighty tons of gold, worth $5 billion is mined in Brazil each year. 109 00:05:45,206 --> 00:05:49,000 But for Parker to find his next big opportunity, 110 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:53,000 he'll have to brave Wild West like conditions. 111 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:56,172 Where miners fight over the best ground. 112 00:05:56,172 --> 00:05:58,482 And clash with government forces. 113 00:05:58,482 --> 00:05:59,655 [distant explosion] 114 00:06:03,310 --> 00:06:05,413 [Parker] I have my trusty backpack. 115 00:06:05,413 --> 00:06:08,103 Mate, how is that still going? 116 00:06:08,103 --> 00:06:10,517 It's the Terminator of backpacks. 117 00:06:10,517 --> 00:06:12,000 [Parker] What we did in Bolivia, 118 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:14,896 I want to be able to do that again on this trip. 119 00:06:14,896 --> 00:06:17,586 Making some small investments in a bunch of different operations 120 00:06:17,586 --> 00:06:19,275 and getting your foot in the door 121 00:06:19,275 --> 00:06:22,896 on potential future opportunities, right? 122 00:06:22,896 --> 00:06:24,965 [Danny] Have you unpacked since I last saw you? 123 00:06:25,310 --> 00:06:26,586 It's the same stuff. 124 00:06:27,413 --> 00:06:29,034 [chuckles] This is a year old. 125 00:06:29,724 --> 00:06:31,620 No, no. No, it's not. 126 00:06:31,620 --> 00:06:33,517 [both laughing] 127 00:06:33,517 --> 00:06:34,793 [Parker] It's like spread bidding. 128 00:06:34,793 --> 00:06:38,586 Your foot's in the door and if it does hit, 129 00:06:38,586 --> 00:06:40,896 you're the first one in helping develop, 130 00:06:40,896 --> 00:06:43,482 you know, what could be a hugely profitable project. 131 00:06:43,482 --> 00:06:46,896 And so, you might have to do 20 of them before one works, 132 00:06:46,896 --> 00:06:48,689 but the one might pay for the 20. 133 00:06:49,206 --> 00:06:50,413 [suspenseful music playing] 134 00:06:50,413 --> 00:06:52,068 Total gambling. 135 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,758 I think that it's potentially gonna be one of the most dangerous things we've done. 136 00:06:57,586 --> 00:07:00,275 We will see 'cause we're doing it. 137 00:07:01,793 --> 00:07:04,103 [Paul] To find the best gold in Brazil, 138 00:07:04,103 --> 00:07:07,482 Parker will travel nearly two and a half thousand miles 139 00:07:07,896 --> 00:07:09,482 from central Para, 140 00:07:09,482 --> 00:07:13,689 home of one of the world's biggest ever modern gold strikes, 141 00:07:13,689 --> 00:07:16,068 to the state of Mato Grosso, 142 00:07:16,068 --> 00:07:20,379 where nearly a billion dollars of gold is mined each year. 143 00:07:20,379 --> 00:07:24,172 But his first stop, is the city of Porto Velho. 144 00:07:24,172 --> 00:07:27,896 Gateway to the gold fields of the mighty Amazon basin. 145 00:07:29,827 --> 00:07:33,000 Home to the legendary communities of floating dredges 146 00:07:33,413 --> 00:07:35,275 known as fofocas, 147 00:07:35,275 --> 00:07:39,448 that extract up to a billion dollars in gold every year. 148 00:07:51,724 --> 00:07:54,241 [Parker] I have been in a plane for like 25 hours. 149 00:07:55,724 --> 00:07:56,758 Here we are. 150 00:07:58,172 --> 00:08:00,172 [Parker] Our first stop here in Porto Velho 151 00:08:00,172 --> 00:08:04,827 is one of the last big frontier gold field areas in the Amazon. 152 00:08:04,827 --> 00:08:08,689 You know, they have a lot of these, kind of like, home built dredging systems 153 00:08:08,689 --> 00:08:10,482 called fofocas. 154 00:08:10,482 --> 00:08:13,482 I'm always curious about, like, different mining methods 155 00:08:13,482 --> 00:08:16,241 in everywhere we go, every country we go to. 156 00:08:17,413 --> 00:08:18,413 [Danny] Let's go. 157 00:08:18,413 --> 00:08:20,000 [Parker] And so we're gonna go hop on a boat 158 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,344 and go find some of these fofocas. 159 00:08:22,931 --> 00:08:24,344 [bleep] hot. 160 00:08:25,068 --> 00:08:26,482 -[laughs] -[Danny] And humid. 161 00:08:27,896 --> 00:08:30,379 [Paul] Back for his second prospect with Parker, 162 00:08:30,379 --> 00:08:33,586 is Peruvian safety expert and heart surgeon, 163 00:08:33,586 --> 00:08:36,586 Dr. Diego Lizarzaburu. 164 00:08:36,586 --> 00:08:39,482 Diego is just like an unreal guy. 165 00:08:39,482 --> 00:08:42,793 Unreal medic, unreal with security. 166 00:08:42,793 --> 00:08:44,413 [Diego] We're really excited to be in Brazil, 167 00:08:44,413 --> 00:08:47,896 but it's always a big responsibility 168 00:08:47,896 --> 00:08:49,413 being in charge of health and safety, 169 00:08:49,413 --> 00:08:53,310 Particularly with Parker. That can be challenging 170 00:08:53,310 --> 00:08:56,482 [Danny] Are you sweating in some unfortunate places already? 171 00:08:57,172 --> 00:08:59,103 -Did you powder? -[Danny] No. 172 00:08:59,103 --> 00:09:00,482 Are you powdered up, Diego? 173 00:09:00,689 --> 00:09:01,724 I am. 174 00:09:01,724 --> 00:09:04,000 But, yeah, I do have missed them. 175 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:08,275 Danny and Parker, a couple of crazy people. 176 00:09:08,275 --> 00:09:09,862 [Diego speaking other language] 177 00:09:09,862 --> 00:09:13,103 -[woman] Hey, guys. -[Paul] Joining Parker's team for the first time, 178 00:09:13,103 --> 00:09:14,827 is Brazilian mining expert, 179 00:09:14,827 --> 00:09:16,275 -I'm Parker. -Parker, it's so... 180 00:09:16,275 --> 00:09:17,724 -...nice to meet you. -[Paul] Larissa Rodrigues. 181 00:09:17,724 --> 00:09:18,586 You too. 182 00:09:18,586 --> 00:09:20,586 [Parker] We brought on Larissa. 183 00:09:20,586 --> 00:09:24,172 A lady that is very in the know on the mining community 184 00:09:24,172 --> 00:09:25,586 and what's going on with that. 185 00:09:25,586 --> 00:09:27,172 -Hey. Nice to meet you. -[Larissa] Nice to meet you. 186 00:09:27,172 --> 00:09:30,000 -Hey, welcome to Brazil, guys. -Thanks so much. 187 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:31,206 Who wants to drive? 188 00:09:31,206 --> 00:09:32,482 -[Diego] Yeah. -Him. 189 00:09:33,517 --> 00:09:36,793 The gold mining area in Brazil tripled in the past 10 years, 190 00:09:36,793 --> 00:09:38,896 so there is a real gold rush happening here. 191 00:09:39,827 --> 00:09:41,896 But anyone looking for investments here, 192 00:09:41,896 --> 00:09:45,689 needs to be really aware of how the industry works 193 00:09:45,689 --> 00:09:47,793 because we have so many different rules. 194 00:09:47,793 --> 00:09:49,689 It can be a little bit challenging. 195 00:09:49,689 --> 00:09:51,896 [Danny] Right, let's do it. The beginning. 196 00:09:52,689 --> 00:09:54,172 [Larissa] Looking for mining sites, 197 00:09:54,172 --> 00:09:56,379 there is a big chance you find illegal mining. 198 00:09:56,379 --> 00:09:58,275 But I know how the market works. 199 00:09:58,275 --> 00:10:01,689 I know who are the players, where the gold is. 200 00:10:01,689 --> 00:10:04,551 So I think it can help Parker navigate a little bit. 201 00:10:05,379 --> 00:10:06,655 [dramatic music playing] 202 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:10,413 [horns honking] 203 00:10:10,413 --> 00:10:11,965 Whoa, you got honked at bro. 204 00:10:12,827 --> 00:10:13,862 Early in the trip. 205 00:10:15,413 --> 00:10:16,724 [Parker] Trying to get to the river, aren't we? 206 00:10:16,724 --> 00:10:21,000 Yes. The gold mining here in this state is concentrated 207 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:24,586 in the mostly river operations on dredges. 208 00:10:24,586 --> 00:10:26,827 I'm guessing that we'll see a mix here of both, 209 00:10:26,827 --> 00:10:29,689 some that are legal and some that are illegal, won't we? 210 00:10:29,689 --> 00:10:31,000 [Larissa] Yeah, we'll see that. 211 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,965 Definitely kind of jumping in the deep end. 212 00:10:35,793 --> 00:10:39,482 -We should probably take the right there. -[Diego] The right? 213 00:10:39,482 --> 00:10:44,275 [Paul] Larissa leads the crew to a harbor on the outskirts of Porto Velho, 214 00:10:44,275 --> 00:10:48,344 where boats take workers to the gold dredges on the Madeira River. 215 00:10:52,896 --> 00:10:54,275 [Larissa] When you look around, 216 00:10:55,793 --> 00:10:57,896 it just looks fine, it's not that dangerous. 217 00:10:57,896 --> 00:11:00,379 But the thing is, it is. 218 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:07,758 We need to get a boat. [chuckles] 219 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:13,758 -What's in those? -[Diego] A small hospital. 220 00:11:14,724 --> 00:11:18,413 [Larissa speaking other language] 221 00:11:18,413 --> 00:11:20,724 [Junio and Larissa speaking] 222 00:11:20,724 --> 00:11:22,931 [Larissa speaking] 223 00:11:22,931 --> 00:11:24,758 [Junio speaking] 224 00:11:33,689 --> 00:11:34,896 Maybe we should just check it out. 225 00:11:34,896 --> 00:11:36,344 [Parker] Yeah, let's get on the water. 226 00:11:37,482 --> 00:11:39,586 The Madeira River really interests me. 227 00:11:39,586 --> 00:11:43,103 There's just thousands and thousands of ounces 228 00:11:43,103 --> 00:11:44,620 of gold coming out of this area. 229 00:11:44,620 --> 00:11:48,896 So it's good to get a lot of information from a lot of different people 230 00:11:48,896 --> 00:11:51,379 and see a lot of different kind of mining styles. 231 00:11:51,379 --> 00:11:53,241 [suspenseful music playing] 232 00:11:55,068 --> 00:11:56,793 [Paul] The gold in the Madeira River 233 00:11:56,793 --> 00:11:59,620 comes from the mineral rich Andes. 234 00:11:59,620 --> 00:12:01,793 Formed millions of years ago. 235 00:12:01,793 --> 00:12:04,689 hot volcanic magma fractured the rock, 236 00:12:04,689 --> 00:12:08,896 creating quartz veins in which gold then crystallized. 237 00:12:08,896 --> 00:12:12,620 Over time, the gold rich veins erode into the river, 238 00:12:12,620 --> 00:12:17,103 where water carries millions of tiny specks of gold downstream, 239 00:12:17,103 --> 00:12:21,896 making the Madeira a 2,000-mile-long golden highway, 240 00:12:21,896 --> 00:12:26,000 where dredges comb the riverbed in search of gold hot spots 241 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,655 that shift and change with the current. 242 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:32,172 Over there, can you see? 243 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:37,241 There's another one there. 244 00:12:39,620 --> 00:12:40,896 [Danny] It's almost burned. 245 00:12:40,896 --> 00:12:43,034 This right there. There. 246 00:12:46,896 --> 00:12:49,103 [Diego speaking other language] 247 00:12:49,103 --> 00:12:50,862 [Junio speaking] 248 00:12:53,103 --> 00:12:55,034 -[Diego speaking] -[Junio speaking] 249 00:12:55,689 --> 00:12:57,379 Wow. 250 00:12:57,379 --> 00:13:00,172 And that's the government, like cracking down on things. 251 00:13:00,172 --> 00:13:01,655 [bleep] 252 00:13:02,275 --> 00:13:04,275 [Paul] In the last 12 months, 253 00:13:04,275 --> 00:13:08,000 legislation has made the area north of Porto Velho 254 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,275 illegal to mine for environmental reasons. 255 00:13:11,275 --> 00:13:15,379 And fofocas have become a target of police raids, 256 00:13:15,379 --> 00:13:18,758 creating a dangerous game of cat and mouse. 257 00:13:22,517 --> 00:13:26,448 I do feel like it's important to see where the gold's coming from. 258 00:13:27,206 --> 00:13:28,551 Legal or illegal. 259 00:13:29,103 --> 00:13:31,275 I don't like illegal mining, 260 00:13:31,275 --> 00:13:34,862 but, uh, I'm not gonna shy away from it. 261 00:13:36,620 --> 00:13:38,241 [Junio speaking] 262 00:13:42,724 --> 00:13:47,103 So, he's saying we need to make contacts with locals before, 263 00:13:47,103 --> 00:13:50,793 so we can get access to the to the dredgers, otherwise 264 00:13:51,275 --> 00:13:54,000 they won't get us onboard. 265 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:55,379 Can you ask him if there's somebody here 266 00:13:55,379 --> 00:13:57,862 that we can talk to about what we're trying to do? 267 00:13:59,379 --> 00:14:01,068 [Diego speaking] 268 00:14:03,172 --> 00:14:04,379 [Junio speaking] 269 00:14:04,379 --> 00:14:05,758 [suspenseful music playing] 270 00:14:07,103 --> 00:14:09,896 [Junio speaking] 271 00:14:09,896 --> 00:14:11,482 [Larissa] We are going to a boat 272 00:14:11,482 --> 00:14:14,000 that is owned by the [speaking other language] 273 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:15,793 who's a well-known miner here. 274 00:14:19,068 --> 00:14:20,172 [Danny] Let's jump on. 275 00:14:24,517 --> 00:14:26,448 [grunting and laughing] 276 00:14:29,103 --> 00:14:32,137 No, I've done it. It's fine. [laughs] 277 00:14:33,793 --> 00:14:35,275 [Parker] All right, let's do this. 278 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:39,275 Diego. 279 00:14:39,275 --> 00:14:41,827 [Paul] Boat driver, Junio's friend, Akara... 280 00:14:41,827 --> 00:14:43,103 Facts. Ow. 281 00:14:43,103 --> 00:14:45,379 -Oh. [chuckles] -[Parker] I'm too tall. 282 00:14:45,379 --> 00:14:47,172 [Paul] ...lives on this houseboat 283 00:14:47,172 --> 00:14:49,137 and mines on the Madeira River. 284 00:14:49,620 --> 00:14:51,172 [Danny] How are you? 285 00:14:51,172 --> 00:14:52,689 -[speaking other language] -[man speaking other language] 286 00:14:52,689 --> 00:14:55,517 [Paul] His friend Giovanni, is also a miner. 287 00:14:55,517 --> 00:14:56,724 -[Parker] Parker. -[Diego] Parker. 288 00:14:56,724 --> 00:14:58,000 -[Diego] Giovanni. -[speaking other language] 289 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,000 [Parker] Does he own some of these dredges? 290 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,000 [Akara speaking] 291 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:03,931 [Parker] Is there a lot of gold found in this area? 292 00:15:03,931 --> 00:15:05,586 -[Akara speaking] -[Larissa] More or less. 293 00:15:05,586 --> 00:15:07,793 [Parker] Like, what's a good day for one of these guys? 294 00:15:07,793 --> 00:15:09,344 [Akara speaking] 295 00:15:11,793 --> 00:15:12,896 Two-thirds of an ounce. 296 00:15:12,896 --> 00:15:15,068 [Akara speaking] 297 00:15:19,689 --> 00:15:21,413 [Larissa] Wow! In a very good day, 298 00:15:21,413 --> 00:15:24,000 one kilo, 700 grams. 299 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:25,689 Hmm, that's not bad. 300 00:15:25,689 --> 00:15:31,275 [Paul] On average, dredges can find $1,300 worth of gold a day. 301 00:15:31,275 --> 00:15:33,517 But on the river's richest hot spots, 302 00:15:33,517 --> 00:15:37,379 that can rise to $100,000. 303 00:15:37,379 --> 00:15:40,931 Can you ask about why we've seen all these like, burned up dredges 304 00:15:40,931 --> 00:15:43,586 and like, what happened to them when the other ones were getting burned down? 305 00:15:43,586 --> 00:15:45,379 [Akara speaking] 306 00:15:50,620 --> 00:15:51,689 How long ago was that? 307 00:15:51,689 --> 00:15:53,965 [Akara speaking] 308 00:15:56,172 --> 00:15:59,310 [Larissa] He's saying, like, when the operations come, 309 00:15:59,310 --> 00:16:01,000 they can see them happening. 310 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:04,103 So, like, the ones that are more smart, 311 00:16:04,103 --> 00:16:07,206 they find their way to hide and to run, literally. 312 00:16:07,206 --> 00:16:11,310 Right. And does it ever get violent when those raids are happening? 313 00:16:11,310 --> 00:16:12,379 [Giovanni speaking] 314 00:16:12,379 --> 00:16:13,517 Bombs. 315 00:16:13,517 --> 00:16:16,551 -Oh, really? [bleep] -[Diego] Yeah. 316 00:16:17,793 --> 00:16:19,137 That seems pretty intense. 317 00:16:20,103 --> 00:16:21,241 Ooh! 318 00:16:22,172 --> 00:16:23,620 [Giovanni speaking] 319 00:16:23,620 --> 00:16:25,896 -[bleep] -[Giovanni speaking] 320 00:16:25,896 --> 00:16:27,620 [explosion] 321 00:16:27,620 --> 00:16:28,689 [intense music playing] 322 00:16:28,689 --> 00:16:29,689 [bleep] 323 00:16:29,689 --> 00:16:32,000 [speaking other language] 324 00:16:32,896 --> 00:16:33,758 [crying] 325 00:16:35,482 --> 00:16:36,896 [crying on phone] 326 00:16:39,931 --> 00:16:41,241 [speaking other language] 327 00:16:45,103 --> 00:16:46,620 [Danny] Is she crying 'cause that's her home? 328 00:16:46,620 --> 00:16:48,275 Yeah, it was her house. Hmm. 329 00:16:50,482 --> 00:16:51,379 [bleep] 330 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:52,965 [Danny] Wow. 331 00:16:54,724 --> 00:16:56,344 [Giovanni speaking] 332 00:16:59,310 --> 00:17:03,724 Giovanni is telling me that he can show us his dredger that was blown up. 333 00:17:03,724 --> 00:17:06,344 -Sure. -[Larissa] We just need to follow him. 334 00:17:08,068 --> 00:17:09,482 [Giovanni speaking] 335 00:17:09,482 --> 00:17:11,378 [Parker] Step on the cross members. 336 00:17:11,378 --> 00:17:14,275 [Larissa] He's showing us where the engine was exploded. 337 00:17:15,103 --> 00:17:17,103 [Giovanni speaking] 338 00:17:17,103 --> 00:17:18,758 -[Danny] Oh, yeah. -[Parker] Wow. 339 00:17:19,378 --> 00:17:20,482 [Giovanni speaking] 340 00:17:26,482 --> 00:17:28,586 It's quite the explosion, isn't it? 341 00:17:28,586 --> 00:17:32,068 I mean, that has taken all of that out. 342 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:34,000 Is it scary? 343 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,068 [Giovanni speaking] 344 00:17:42,517 --> 00:17:44,275 [Danny] They go in, they drag you off. 345 00:17:44,275 --> 00:17:45,689 They stick dynamite in your engines 346 00:17:45,689 --> 00:17:46,793 and they blow 'em to smithereens. 347 00:17:46,793 --> 00:17:48,586 I mean, that's pretty full on stuff. 348 00:17:48,586 --> 00:17:50,000 And if we'd have come here two weeks ago, 349 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:51,620 we would have seen them working 350 00:17:51,620 --> 00:17:55,448 rather than seeing them in sort of black, charred, scarred heaps that they are. 351 00:17:57,586 --> 00:17:58,655 [Giovanni speaking other language] 352 00:18:02,310 --> 00:18:04,000 [dramatic music playing] 353 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,931 -[planes whirring] -[Parker] Can you ask him if that's the military? 354 00:18:06,931 --> 00:18:09,103 [Larissa speaking] 355 00:18:09,103 --> 00:18:10,482 [Giovanni speaking] 356 00:18:10,482 --> 00:18:12,689 -[Parker] [bleep] military. What are they doing? -[Larissa] Yeah. 357 00:18:13,379 --> 00:18:14,586 [planes whirring] 358 00:18:14,586 --> 00:18:15,965 [suspenseful music playing] 359 00:18:17,310 --> 00:18:19,275 They're not gonna come and bomb us, are they? 360 00:18:19,275 --> 00:18:20,586 [Diego] Four military planes. 361 00:18:20,586 --> 00:18:21,655 [bleep] 362 00:18:22,724 --> 00:18:24,068 [planes whirring] 363 00:18:32,413 --> 00:18:34,172 [planes whirring] 364 00:18:34,793 --> 00:18:36,172 Four military planes. 365 00:18:36,172 --> 00:18:37,379 [suspenseful music playing] 366 00:18:38,517 --> 00:18:40,689 [Paul] On the hunt for fofocas, 367 00:18:40,689 --> 00:18:44,793 dredge convoys that mine millions of dollars of gold a year. 368 00:18:44,793 --> 00:18:47,000 They're not going to come and bomb us, are they? 369 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:52,758 [Paul] Parker and the team spot military planes fly over a bombed out illegal dredge. 370 00:18:52,758 --> 00:18:54,000 [planes whirring] 371 00:18:56,689 --> 00:18:58,965 [Giovanni speaking] 372 00:19:00,758 --> 00:19:01,862 [planes whirring] 373 00:19:02,275 --> 00:19:04,241 [Giovanni speaking] 374 00:19:07,689 --> 00:19:10,620 Yeah, in operations, they're like just flying low. 375 00:19:10,620 --> 00:19:13,482 [Diego] Helicopters. Usually are helicopters. 376 00:19:13,482 --> 00:19:15,068 [Giovanni speaking] 377 00:19:16,758 --> 00:19:17,965 Right. 378 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,000 [Paul] Despite the daily threats on their livelihoods, 379 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:28,103 Akara and Giovanni did not want to stop mining. 380 00:19:28,103 --> 00:19:31,172 Was his family in mining? How did he end up mining? 381 00:19:31,172 --> 00:19:33,241 [Akara speaking] 382 00:19:39,172 --> 00:19:40,758 So, when he was 15, 383 00:19:40,758 --> 00:19:45,620 there was a chance for him to be working for, um, gold mining and he went 384 00:19:45,620 --> 00:19:48,793 because he thought it was a chance for him to change his life. 385 00:19:48,793 --> 00:19:49,689 -Right. -[Larissa] So. 386 00:19:49,689 --> 00:19:51,827 [Akara speaking] 387 00:20:00,206 --> 00:20:01,965 [Larissa] Hmm. 388 00:20:01,965 --> 00:20:05,689 He is doing mining that's illegal. He knows it's illegal. 389 00:20:05,689 --> 00:20:07,758 But if you grow up in that circumstance 390 00:20:07,758 --> 00:20:12,275 and you have an opportunity to find a way out of that, 391 00:20:13,172 --> 00:20:14,586 like, you're probably not gonna worry about 392 00:20:14,586 --> 00:20:16,793 what side of the law you're on. I get that. 393 00:20:16,793 --> 00:20:19,655 Um, and at the same time, you know, 394 00:20:21,068 --> 00:20:23,172 is it right or wrong? I don't know. 395 00:20:25,896 --> 00:20:28,586 We didn't talk very much about like the actual mining 396 00:20:28,586 --> 00:20:31,137 and how they find areas to go and stuff like that. 397 00:20:32,586 --> 00:20:34,068 [Akara speaking] 398 00:20:35,965 --> 00:20:39,862 He says it's not very good for us like to be around on the river by our own, 399 00:20:39,862 --> 00:20:43,000 but we should find someone else like to take us there. 400 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:43,931 [Parker] All right. 401 00:20:44,965 --> 00:20:47,000 [Paul] To track down the fofocas 402 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,517 and see the gold for themselves, 403 00:20:49,517 --> 00:20:52,862 Parker and the crew need a guide with connections. 404 00:20:54,862 --> 00:20:56,172 [Diego speaking] 405 00:20:57,689 --> 00:21:00,068 [Giovanni and Diego speaking] 406 00:21:00,068 --> 00:21:02,068 -Okay. -[Giovanni speaking] 407 00:21:03,103 --> 00:21:04,000 [Diego] Okay. 408 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:05,896 [Larissa speaking] 409 00:21:05,896 --> 00:21:07,655 [Akara speaking] 410 00:21:11,172 --> 00:21:13,896 [Larissa] He's in charge of miner's union. 411 00:21:13,896 --> 00:21:16,793 And actually, this Fabiano seems to be in a bar. 412 00:21:16,793 --> 00:21:19,413 That it's like the gold miners bars around here. 413 00:21:19,413 --> 00:21:21,620 He can give us directions there. 414 00:21:21,620 --> 00:21:24,379 So we need to get out of here and we need to find Fabiano. 415 00:21:24,379 --> 00:21:25,482 Should we go find our bar? 416 00:21:25,482 --> 00:21:27,379 Yeah. Let's go. Let's move. 417 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,000 [dramatic music playing] 418 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:31,793 [Parker] You know, I would never invest 419 00:21:31,793 --> 00:21:34,172 in any sort of illegal mining operation. 420 00:21:34,172 --> 00:21:36,620 But I do feel like it's important 421 00:21:36,620 --> 00:21:39,000 when you're like looking at a region 422 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,965 and assessing what the potential is and where the gold is, 423 00:21:42,965 --> 00:21:44,448 to see everything. 424 00:21:46,379 --> 00:21:48,689 And if we learned anything in Peru, 425 00:21:48,689 --> 00:21:52,000 it's that we love super dodgy mining bars, right? 426 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:53,655 So, I think we should go there. 427 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,413 [suspenseful music playing] 428 00:22:06,586 --> 00:22:09,862 [Danny] Have you spent a lot of time in, um, miners bars, Larissa? 429 00:22:09,862 --> 00:22:11,068 [Larissa chuckles] No, I haven't. 430 00:22:11,068 --> 00:22:12,896 -[Danny] No? -[Larissa chuckles] No. 431 00:22:12,896 --> 00:22:15,000 -[Danny] We have. -[all laughing] 432 00:22:16,689 --> 00:22:19,172 [Danny] Let's find him, have a drink. 433 00:22:19,172 --> 00:22:21,689 I'm having a minimum of four beers. 434 00:22:21,689 --> 00:22:23,000 So that means that I have to stay sober then 435 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,275 in case some guy wants to come in and beat you up. 436 00:22:26,275 --> 00:22:27,586 [suspenseful music playing] 437 00:22:28,793 --> 00:22:30,827 This is like a residential street. 438 00:22:34,379 --> 00:22:35,931 This cannot be it. 439 00:22:40,413 --> 00:22:41,862 Okay, guys, let's go. 440 00:22:42,758 --> 00:22:44,206 [man] Be careful. 441 00:22:44,206 --> 00:22:46,586 [Danny] [sputters, chuckles] Where are we going? It's just a wall. 442 00:22:48,275 --> 00:22:50,689 I think it might be better if the rest of the crew wait outside. 443 00:22:50,689 --> 00:22:52,586 [Larissa] I can smell barbecue from here, 444 00:22:52,586 --> 00:22:55,965 but it doesn't really look like a bar. 445 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:58,758 -[Danny] Hang on. -[Parker] Is it locked? 446 00:22:58,758 --> 00:23:01,793 -[Larissa] No, it's... -[Danny] Hi. 447 00:23:01,793 --> 00:23:03,172 -[Larissa] What? -[Danny] The weirdest thing, 448 00:23:03,172 --> 00:23:05,103 coming in off the street like that. 449 00:23:05,103 --> 00:23:06,793 [Diego speaking Portuguese] 450 00:23:06,793 --> 00:23:08,758 [man speaking Portuguese] 451 00:23:20,689 --> 00:23:22,689 [Diego] I just asked about Fabiano, 452 00:23:22,689 --> 00:23:25,206 and he told me "I cannot tell you because I don't know you." 453 00:23:25,206 --> 00:23:27,689 Sometimes, he appears. Sometimes, it's hard to get. 454 00:23:27,689 --> 00:23:30,931 [indistinct background chatter] 455 00:23:34,206 --> 00:23:35,896 [Danny] Someone's just arrived. 456 00:23:35,896 --> 00:23:38,000 [Larissa] Yeah, it's him. 457 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,896 I think it's Fabiano over there. Yeah. 458 00:23:39,896 --> 00:23:42,758 This short little guy with the body tat that looks angry? 459 00:23:45,689 --> 00:23:47,448 [men speaking Portuguese] 460 00:23:51,379 --> 00:23:53,103 -[Larissa] Fabiano? -[man] [in sing song tone] Fabiano. 461 00:23:53,103 --> 00:23:56,241 [people speaking Portuguese] 462 00:24:04,310 --> 00:24:06,172 [Parker] Ask him if he can join us for a beer. 463 00:24:06,172 --> 00:24:08,448 [Larissa speaking Portuguese] 464 00:24:11,413 --> 00:24:13,241 [speaking Portuguese] 465 00:24:16,379 --> 00:24:17,965 [Larissa] [in English] He's not really comfortable 466 00:24:17,965 --> 00:24:20,931 because he doesn't know us, and then we showed up, this is a private party. 467 00:24:23,379 --> 00:24:26,344 [men speaking Portuguese] 468 00:24:42,793 --> 00:24:44,965 [Danny] Just checking. Is he cool with the filming pact? 469 00:24:44,965 --> 00:24:46,931 [Larissa speaking Portuguese] 470 00:24:52,206 --> 00:24:54,758 -[Fabiano] No. -[Larissa] [in English] Yeah, it's okay. 471 00:24:54,758 --> 00:24:56,172 He's saying it's okay. 472 00:24:56,172 --> 00:24:58,931 [man speaking Portuguese] 473 00:25:05,586 --> 00:25:08,379 [Parker] From my standpoint, I always want to learn 474 00:25:08,379 --> 00:25:10,862 about areas where people are mining, 475 00:25:10,862 --> 00:25:13,275 understand, like, how they got there, 476 00:25:13,275 --> 00:25:16,379 what they're doing, how much... you know, how much gold they're finding. 477 00:25:16,379 --> 00:25:21,000 Um, sometimes, we've, like, made investments in mining operations. 478 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,172 [in Portuguese] 479 00:25:26,793 --> 00:25:29,241 [Larissa] Yeah. Yeah. Exactly, yeah. 480 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,689 [Parker] Does he, like, own some dredges or... 481 00:25:34,689 --> 00:25:36,482 [speaks Portuguese] [in English] He says, not today. 482 00:25:36,482 --> 00:25:37,586 [in Portuguese] 483 00:25:37,586 --> 00:25:39,172 -[speaks Portuguese] -[in English] He used to have. 484 00:25:39,172 --> 00:25:41,103 What's his... Like, what does he do now? 485 00:25:41,103 --> 00:25:43,379 He says, now, he's being dedicated, like, 486 00:25:43,379 --> 00:25:47,482 to represent the miners here, and together, the miners, 487 00:25:47,482 --> 00:25:51,000 so they can fight for the right to be mining here around. 488 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,793 From what we learned today, it doesn't look like it's, like... 489 00:25:54,793 --> 00:25:57,413 It is a bunch of independent people 490 00:25:57,413 --> 00:26:00,689 that run, operate most of those dredges. 491 00:26:00,689 --> 00:26:03,448 [in Portuguese] 492 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,793 [Parker] How often do they come and blow [bleep] up? 493 00:26:12,793 --> 00:26:16,172 [in Portuguese] 494 00:26:20,413 --> 00:26:22,000 [Danny] Oh, wow. 495 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:23,482 Like... At when... Any given time 496 00:26:23,482 --> 00:26:26,206 before they, like, really crack down on it, how many were they? 497 00:26:26,206 --> 00:26:27,586 [in Portuguese] 498 00:26:32,793 --> 00:26:35,068 So, it went from 5,000 down to 100? 499 00:26:35,068 --> 00:26:36,793 [bleep] 500 00:26:36,793 --> 00:26:38,586 [in Portuguese] 501 00:26:38,586 --> 00:26:42,275 He's saying he's a bit nervous because we're kind of interrogating him. 502 00:26:42,275 --> 00:26:44,379 -I'm just really curious. -Yeah. Yeah. Me, too. 503 00:26:44,379 --> 00:26:46,448 [in Portuguese] 504 00:26:55,620 --> 00:26:58,000 [in English] Like, if you go to a mining site, like to dredge, 505 00:26:58,000 --> 00:26:59,793 everybody will think you're a police guy. 506 00:26:59,793 --> 00:27:01,000 [in Portuguese] 507 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:02,482 [laughter] 508 00:27:20,103 --> 00:27:21,551 [in Portuguese] 509 00:27:26,482 --> 00:27:29,758 [Paul] Parker leaves without a clear commitment from Fabiano 510 00:27:29,758 --> 00:27:32,000 to show him the fofocas. 511 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,379 -[Parker] Interesting place. Yeah. -[Larissa] Yeah. 512 00:27:37,620 --> 00:27:41,275 [men speaking Portuguese] 513 00:27:44,586 --> 00:27:48,275 [Diego] [in English] Ah. If you wanna see the gold from the fofocas... 514 00:27:48,275 --> 00:27:50,068 No cameras. 515 00:27:50,068 --> 00:27:53,758 Guys, sorry. I'm sorry. I mean, I don't wanna get involved with it. 516 00:27:53,758 --> 00:27:55,862 Like, just be careful. 517 00:27:58,103 --> 00:28:03,413 This is, like, illegal... illegal smuggling, like, they are smuggling gold here. 518 00:28:03,413 --> 00:28:06,000 I'm pretty clear on this. I don't want to get involved with it. 519 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,379 [Parker] Oh, wow. Beautiful looking gold. 520 00:28:10,379 --> 00:28:11,793 I think the gold here is really pure. 521 00:28:11,793 --> 00:28:13,896 Can you ask him what the purity is? 522 00:28:13,896 --> 00:28:17,793 [men speaking Portuguese] 523 00:28:17,793 --> 00:28:21,689 -[in English] Ninety eight percent. -Holy [bleep] That's like... 524 00:28:21,689 --> 00:28:24,586 -Yeah, 12, 13% higher than ours. -[Danny] Oh, wow. 525 00:28:24,586 --> 00:28:26,793 Yeah, you can tell, looking at it. 526 00:28:26,793 --> 00:28:29,379 [man speaking Portuguese] 527 00:28:29,379 --> 00:28:32,379 No, that's okay. That's not what I'm here for. 528 00:28:32,379 --> 00:28:33,758 [Diego] Yeah, let's go. 529 00:28:35,862 --> 00:28:38,068 You know, I think he's gone. I think he's gone. 530 00:28:38,068 --> 00:28:40,000 I'm gonna go back to the car now. 531 00:28:42,379 --> 00:28:44,862 [Paul] Illegal gold from the Madeira River 532 00:28:44,862 --> 00:28:49,103 is estimated to be worth half a billion dollars a year, 533 00:28:49,103 --> 00:28:52,034 with most of it moved on the black market. 534 00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:58,413 I [bleep] myself when he just jumped out of the bushes. 535 00:28:58,413 --> 00:29:02,000 -That scared me, too. -Huh? You got scared? 536 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,758 You're not scared of anything, Diego. What are you talking about? 537 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,586 It feels like everybody that we're interacting with here so far 538 00:29:10,586 --> 00:29:14,000 has been on the wrong side of the law. 539 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:19,103 Tomorrow, hopefully, we can get on one of those fofocas, see what's going on. 540 00:29:19,103 --> 00:29:22,068 But, yes, there's lots of dangers, 541 00:29:22,068 --> 00:29:24,620 and upsetting and provoking people 542 00:29:24,620 --> 00:29:27,551 in an area like this could be catastrophic. 543 00:29:29,482 --> 00:29:31,896 [Parker] So, today was our first day in Porto Velho. 544 00:29:31,896 --> 00:29:35,000 There's a lot of politics. Yeah, there's a lot of illegal mining. 545 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:36,275 They don't think it should be. 546 00:29:36,275 --> 00:29:40,689 But we met a guy named Fabiano, a union leader. 547 00:29:40,689 --> 00:29:45,379 So, I'm hoping we can find one of the fofocas. 548 00:29:45,379 --> 00:29:49,758 I'm looking forward to kind of I'm seeing how deep in the jungle we can get. 549 00:30:00,379 --> 00:30:02,275 [Larissa] I talked with Fabiano. 550 00:30:02,275 --> 00:30:07,172 The good thing is, like, he's going to get access for us to go into the fofocas. 551 00:30:07,172 --> 00:30:08,758 [Danny] That would be great. 552 00:30:10,689 --> 00:30:15,551 [Paul] Local union boss, Fabiano, has agreed to take Parker and his team 553 00:30:15,551 --> 00:30:19,034 to the infamous Madeira River fofocas 554 00:30:19,034 --> 00:30:22,482 to show them how these dredges can find the hot spots 555 00:30:22,482 --> 00:30:26,344 that bring in up to a billion dollars of gold a year. 556 00:30:31,172 --> 00:30:34,068 -[Diego] That's him. That's him, right? -That's him. Yeah, that's him. 557 00:30:36,103 --> 00:30:38,000 It's just a region with a ton of gold, 558 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,172 and mining, at times, on the water can be 559 00:30:41,172 --> 00:30:43,379 very cheap and efficient, like the dredges. 560 00:30:43,379 --> 00:30:45,551 You know, back in the day in the Yukon, 561 00:30:45,551 --> 00:30:47,793 they were incredibly productive and efficient. 562 00:30:47,793 --> 00:30:52,724 And so, it's a good way to kind of start and expand from there. 563 00:30:54,172 --> 00:30:56,620 [people speaking Portuguese] 564 00:30:58,586 --> 00:30:59,689 [Larissa] [in English] Yeah, we're ready. 565 00:30:59,689 --> 00:31:02,206 [people speaking Portuguese] 566 00:31:14,344 --> 00:31:16,482 Diego has a lot of different outfits. 567 00:31:16,482 --> 00:31:18,344 [Larissa chuckles] 568 00:31:18,344 --> 00:31:22,275 [Paul] It's a day's journey to see the current gold hot spot. 569 00:31:22,275 --> 00:31:25,655 And one of the only fofocas still floating 570 00:31:25,655 --> 00:31:29,241 since the government made these waters illegal to mine. 571 00:31:30,689 --> 00:31:32,517 [in Portuguese] 572 00:31:41,448 --> 00:31:43,000 [Diego] [in English] He saw your videos on YouTube, 573 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:47,827 and you seem to have a noble heart and miner blood. 574 00:31:49,275 --> 00:31:50,586 Same to you. 575 00:31:52,275 --> 00:31:56,689 [Paul] Fabiano's family have mined here for over 30 years. 576 00:31:56,689 --> 00:31:58,862 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 577 00:31:58,862 --> 00:32:02,448 Yeah. His father began in the industry with one of those. 578 00:32:12,275 --> 00:32:15,172 [Larissa] The guy we spoke to yesterday at the party, 579 00:32:15,172 --> 00:32:17,655 he has a dredge that was drowned up there. 580 00:32:35,482 --> 00:32:37,241 -[Porter] Did you say that they sunk them? -Yes. 581 00:32:37,241 --> 00:32:38,793 -[Parker] And refloated them. -Yeah. 582 00:32:38,793 --> 00:32:42,586 They saved all of the dredges by sinking them before the police arrived. 583 00:32:42,586 --> 00:32:45,586 [Danny] They live on them, don't they? How do you sink your own house? 584 00:32:45,586 --> 00:32:50,448 I cannot imagine how you take that out of the water. It must be really complex. 585 00:32:50,448 --> 00:32:52,172 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 586 00:32:54,965 --> 00:32:58,965 He wants to show us, like, how they managed to sink the dredges 587 00:32:58,965 --> 00:33:02,551 to run from the police, and then, to pull them out of the water again. 588 00:33:02,551 --> 00:33:03,758 -Yeah. -Let's do it. 589 00:33:03,758 --> 00:33:04,965 Okay. 590 00:33:12,241 --> 00:33:13,655 Is it that one? 591 00:33:18,379 --> 00:33:21,344 [Paul] The dredge was part of a fofoca. 592 00:33:23,896 --> 00:33:26,275 But during a recent military raid, 593 00:33:26,275 --> 00:33:29,275 it was sunk to protect the most expensive part of it, 594 00:33:29,275 --> 00:33:31,655 a 16-Litre pump engine. 595 00:33:44,551 --> 00:33:45,965 Just so you know the rules here... 596 00:33:45,965 --> 00:33:49,275 I mean, you know already, but, like, here, it's all illegal. 597 00:33:49,275 --> 00:33:50,689 So, just be careful. 598 00:33:50,689 --> 00:33:53,482 Like, if you go mining here, you can really get into legal trouble. 599 00:33:53,482 --> 00:33:55,068 But just so you know the rules, right? 600 00:33:55,068 --> 00:33:56,413 Oh, yeah, I'm not. 601 00:33:56,413 --> 00:33:59,103 -[Larissa] [chuckles] Just so you know. -I appreciate that. 602 00:34:05,275 --> 00:34:06,931 [Parker] How long has it been sunk? 603 00:34:11,482 --> 00:34:12,793 [Larissa] One month, more or less. 604 00:34:12,793 --> 00:34:15,068 [Porter] In this one, they were on must have been sunk, too. 605 00:34:15,068 --> 00:34:17,172 [Larissa speaking Portuguese] 606 00:34:19,068 --> 00:34:21,068 Yeah, it was all sunk. Yeah, this one, too. 607 00:34:21,068 --> 00:34:23,241 -That's why it's a bit dirty. -[Danny] Ah. 608 00:34:23,241 --> 00:34:25,172 -[Larissa] All the parts, everything. -Wow. 609 00:34:25,172 --> 00:34:27,241 Yeah. What a [bleep] mess. 610 00:34:27,241 --> 00:34:28,896 [Larissa] Yeah. 611 00:34:28,896 --> 00:34:31,585 You know what is there? Written over there on the wall? 612 00:34:31,585 --> 00:34:32,896 [men speak indistinctly] 613 00:34:32,896 --> 00:34:34,585 [Larissa] Know what it means? 614 00:34:34,585 --> 00:34:36,655 -No. -"Gold rush" in Portuguese. 615 00:34:36,655 --> 00:34:39,688 -Febre du Ouro. Yeah. -[Danny] Oh, yeah, it does. 616 00:34:39,688 --> 00:34:43,275 It was the last scribbling that they made as the ship was going down. 617 00:34:43,275 --> 00:34:46,172 -This is Parker Schnabel's fault. -[Danny laughs] 618 00:34:54,379 --> 00:34:56,000 What's the process here... 619 00:35:03,379 --> 00:35:07,344 Just with a rope, from this dredge, you try to pull the other one out. 620 00:35:07,344 --> 00:35:08,344 [Danny] I see. 621 00:35:10,551 --> 00:35:13,241 [Paul] Every dredge rests on floats. 622 00:35:13,241 --> 00:35:16,758 To sink them quickly, the floats are filled with water. 623 00:35:16,758 --> 00:35:20,551 Using the high-pressure sluice pump to refloat, 624 00:35:20,551 --> 00:35:24,793 a diver attaches ropes under the main structure from two dredges, 625 00:35:24,793 --> 00:35:27,275 one on either side. 626 00:35:27,275 --> 00:35:30,172 Usually, each uses a come-along winch 627 00:35:30,172 --> 00:35:33,344 to hoist the dredge out of the water. 628 00:35:33,344 --> 00:35:37,172 But today, there is just one dredge, and one winch. 629 00:35:37,172 --> 00:35:39,000 [motor revving] 630 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,862 So the owner, Ronaldo, is using his super-powered tugboat 631 00:35:42,862 --> 00:35:44,931 to pull from the other side. 632 00:35:47,793 --> 00:35:49,000 That boat's sick. 633 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:51,551 [Danny] Yeah. Meaty, isn't it? 634 00:35:52,344 --> 00:35:53,793 Look at that thing. 635 00:35:55,172 --> 00:35:59,793 [Paul] Eager to get back on the gold, Ronaldo's divers jump in. 636 00:35:59,793 --> 00:36:02,655 But as it's an illegal operation, 637 00:36:02,655 --> 00:36:05,862 Parker can only watch or he risks going to jail. 638 00:36:12,793 --> 00:36:15,758 So, the diver goes under the water, 639 00:36:15,758 --> 00:36:17,586 ties a couple of ropes around it, 640 00:36:17,586 --> 00:36:21,103 and then, they use that chain that we're seeing over there... 641 00:36:24,172 --> 00:36:26,344 The ratio of gearing in that... 642 00:36:27,068 --> 00:36:28,689 What could you pull with that? 643 00:36:28,689 --> 00:36:29,931 A lot, right? 644 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,862 I don't think you can pull a dredge out of the water. 645 00:36:34,793 --> 00:36:37,551 [Paul] The sunken dredge is full of silt, 646 00:36:37,551 --> 00:36:40,758 and weighs at least 16 tons. 647 00:36:44,068 --> 00:36:47,241 Well, I guess there's two ways to float a boat, right? 648 00:36:47,241 --> 00:36:50,379 Option A, professional boat salvagers 649 00:36:50,379 --> 00:36:53,379 or boat floaters... whatever they're called. 650 00:36:53,379 --> 00:36:57,551 We're on option B, which is just brute force. 651 00:36:58,379 --> 00:36:59,862 It is always impressive, though, 652 00:36:59,862 --> 00:37:04,517 just like people's ability to get creative to solve problems. 653 00:37:10,379 --> 00:37:12,034 [dredge creaking] 654 00:37:16,689 --> 00:37:18,068 [Parker] Wow. 655 00:37:20,103 --> 00:37:22,241 -[thudding nearby] -David and Goliath! 656 00:37:30,034 --> 00:37:31,551 [dredge creaking] 657 00:37:35,482 --> 00:37:37,034 -[thudding nearby] -David and Goliath! 658 00:37:39,793 --> 00:37:42,241 [Paul] In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, 659 00:37:45,275 --> 00:37:47,172 Parker and his crew are on the hunt 660 00:37:47,172 --> 00:37:52,000 for the infamous gold mining fofocas of the Madeira River... 661 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,344 -[Larissa] The rope broke. -[indistinct speech, bleep] 662 00:37:55,586 --> 00:37:58,344 [Paul] ...but can only watch on as miners attempt 663 00:37:58,344 --> 00:38:02,551 to pull a 16-ton illegal gold dredge out of the water. 664 00:38:04,689 --> 00:38:06,344 [man speaking Portuguese] 665 00:38:06,344 --> 00:38:07,689 [Larissa] Yeah, it's too heavy. 666 00:38:07,689 --> 00:38:10,793 -And there's too much mud inside. -Oh, right. 667 00:38:10,793 --> 00:38:14,448 Ronaldo sunk his dredge to hide it from the authorities. 668 00:38:14,448 --> 00:38:17,896 But now, he must recover it and get back to work. 669 00:38:17,896 --> 00:38:20,793 They say that, sometimes, they do it, like, over and over again, 670 00:38:20,793 --> 00:38:22,275 and the rope breaks all the time. 671 00:38:22,275 --> 00:38:24,896 So, they do it, like, repeatedly until they get it out. 672 00:38:24,896 --> 00:38:27,344 -Wow. -When will they try again? 673 00:38:27,344 --> 00:38:30,379 [man speaking Portuguese] 674 00:38:30,379 --> 00:38:31,655 [Larissa] He doesn't really know. 675 00:38:33,379 --> 00:38:36,137 [Larissa] He doesn't really know, like, it's it's dynamic. 676 00:38:36,137 --> 00:38:38,344 Is there a potential that they get it halfway out, 677 00:38:38,344 --> 00:38:39,793 and then, they have to sink it again? 678 00:38:39,793 --> 00:38:41,586 [Larissa] Ah, yeah, there is a risk. 679 00:38:41,586 --> 00:38:43,862 When they see the police coming, they sink it. 680 00:38:45,344 --> 00:38:48,448 [Paul] When operating, Ronaldo's dredge brought in 681 00:38:48,448 --> 00:38:50,862 up to a $1,000 day. 682 00:38:50,862 --> 00:38:53,689 But with the dredge out of commission for a month, 683 00:38:53,689 --> 00:38:58,034 he and his crew are almost $20,000 down. 684 00:38:59,689 --> 00:39:02,379 [Larissa] Sometimes, when the dredge sinks, they don't have money 685 00:39:02,379 --> 00:39:04,586 to come back and to pull it out. 686 00:39:04,586 --> 00:39:09,379 So, they need to go to other operations to work there as workers, 687 00:39:09,379 --> 00:39:12,655 make money, and then, come back to pull it out. 688 00:39:12,655 --> 00:39:13,758 [Parker] Are more people coming? 689 00:39:15,344 --> 00:39:16,586 [Diego, Larissa] No. 690 00:39:16,586 --> 00:39:18,551 [bleep] 691 00:39:18,551 --> 00:39:21,275 [Danny] So, they spend days, and days, and days, 692 00:39:21,275 --> 00:39:23,655 pulling these things out of the water, 693 00:39:23,655 --> 00:39:25,482 which are all kind of full of mud and broken, 694 00:39:25,482 --> 00:39:26,793 and they have to rebuild them. 695 00:39:26,793 --> 00:39:28,103 And then, there's a very good chance 696 00:39:28,103 --> 00:39:29,689 that just they get to the point where 697 00:39:29,689 --> 00:39:31,068 it's rebuilt and they're ready to go again. 698 00:39:31,068 --> 00:39:34,758 And then, the authorities come in and destroy it all again. 699 00:39:34,758 --> 00:39:38,241 I think it's impressive that they're just carrying on. 700 00:39:40,241 --> 00:39:41,551 [bleep] 701 00:39:42,137 --> 00:39:43,379 [laughter] 702 00:39:43,379 --> 00:39:44,344 [bleep] 703 00:39:52,689 --> 00:39:54,827 [Larissa speaks Portuguese] 704 00:39:55,241 --> 00:39:56,551 [in Portuguese] 705 00:39:57,896 --> 00:40:00,172 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 706 00:40:00,172 --> 00:40:02,689 [Paul] The team head deeper into the Amazon 707 00:40:02,689 --> 00:40:06,689 to the last rumored location of the convoy of gold dredges 708 00:40:06,689 --> 00:40:08,655 that form a fofoca. 709 00:40:12,379 --> 00:40:14,344 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 710 00:40:19,137 --> 00:40:21,379 [Larissa, Fabiano speak Portuguese] 711 00:40:21,379 --> 00:40:24,620 [in English] We are almost there. We are getting close to the place. 712 00:40:30,862 --> 00:40:32,103 [Larissa] Ah, yeah. 713 00:40:33,379 --> 00:40:35,172 There would be so much noise, 714 00:40:35,172 --> 00:40:37,965 it would be difficult for us to be talking. 715 00:40:41,689 --> 00:40:45,482 [Larissa] [sputters] Parker, watch your head. 716 00:40:45,482 --> 00:40:46,862 Could you ask him why... 717 00:40:47,896 --> 00:40:50,482 he's asking Parker to mind his head, 718 00:40:50,482 --> 00:40:52,551 -but he's not asking me. -[Larissa speaking Portuguese] 719 00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,344 [laughter] 720 00:41:03,344 --> 00:41:05,655 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 721 00:41:09,103 --> 00:41:11,482 [Danny] So many dredges, together. 722 00:41:11,482 --> 00:41:13,379 [Parker] That is [bleep] cool. 723 00:41:13,379 --> 00:41:16,172 They are all individual mini dredgers. 724 00:41:16,172 --> 00:41:20,620 But, like, when they find some gold, they all come to the same place. 725 00:41:23,172 --> 00:41:26,000 [Danny] Why are they called fofocas? 726 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:30,172 [Larissa] Actually, "fofocas" is the Portuguese word for gossip. 727 00:41:30,172 --> 00:41:33,034 It's like, people heard there was some gold there 728 00:41:33,034 --> 00:41:35,655 and they were gossiping about it. 729 00:41:35,655 --> 00:41:37,000 That's why they go there. 730 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:38,448 Oh. That's cool. 731 00:41:40,482 --> 00:41:42,000 [Parker] How many dredges were there? 732 00:41:42,689 --> 00:41:44,448 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 733 00:41:49,103 --> 00:41:52,000 [Larissa] He's telling us, like, that yesterday, he saw more dredgers. 734 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,482 And now, there's just a few because they saw helicopters. 735 00:41:55,482 --> 00:41:57,965 -So, they left. And not because... -[Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 736 00:41:57,965 --> 00:41:59,172 Ah. 737 00:41:59,172 --> 00:42:02,000 [Paul] The threat of being bombed by the authorities 738 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:06,344 forced over 30 dredges to abandon this fofoca overnight. 739 00:42:06,689 --> 00:42:07,862 [Parker] Wow. 740 00:42:07,862 --> 00:42:10,448 [Paul] Those brave enough to stay are bringing in 741 00:42:10,448 --> 00:42:13,827 as much gold as possible before the next raid. 742 00:42:26,482 --> 00:42:29,068 [Danny] [bleep] It's such an intense atmosphere, 743 00:42:29,068 --> 00:42:31,758 looking down the side of them all together. Mad! 744 00:42:36,172 --> 00:42:38,827 [Diego] Hey, careful. He has a machete on his hands. 745 00:42:39,275 --> 00:42:40,724 He's saying no to camera. 746 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:43,965 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 747 00:42:46,896 --> 00:42:49,000 [Parker] Slingshot! [bleep] 748 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:50,206 [Diego] He's got a sling. 749 00:42:50,793 --> 00:42:52,551 [Danny] Oh, my [bleep] 750 00:42:52,551 --> 00:42:54,517 -[metallic clang nearby] -Oh, he's firing at us now. 751 00:42:55,379 --> 00:42:57,689 [metallic clanging] 752 00:42:57,689 --> 00:42:59,310 [bleep] 753 00:43:06,379 --> 00:43:07,344 [Diego] He's got a sling. 754 00:43:07,896 --> 00:43:09,034 [bleep] 755 00:43:09,034 --> 00:43:10,241 -[Parker] Slingshot. -[metallic clanging] 756 00:43:10,241 --> 00:43:12,689 -Oh, he's firing at us now. -[Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 757 00:43:12,689 --> 00:43:15,000 [Paul] In the remote Amazon basin... 758 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:16,172 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 759 00:43:16,172 --> 00:43:17,896 [Paul] ... Parker and the team are attempting to board 760 00:43:17,896 --> 00:43:20,551 a flotilla of illegal gold dredges 761 00:43:21,275 --> 00:43:23,448 known as a fofoca. 762 00:43:24,482 --> 00:43:26,206 [Diego] Diego to India. 763 00:43:27,689 --> 00:43:31,758 [Diego] The kid that is on the fofocas has a slingshot, 764 00:43:31,758 --> 00:43:33,103 and he's shooting rocks. 765 00:43:33,103 --> 00:43:34,827 So, be careful, okay? 766 00:43:41,103 --> 00:43:42,862 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 767 00:43:48,793 --> 00:43:50,620 [Diego] We're with him. So, it should be fine. 768 00:43:51,862 --> 00:43:53,827 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 769 00:44:02,103 --> 00:44:03,655 [man speaks Portuguese] 770 00:44:10,482 --> 00:44:12,344 -[Larissa] Yeah. -[Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 771 00:44:20,068 --> 00:44:21,172 [bleep] 772 00:44:21,896 --> 00:44:23,551 [Parker] Watch your head. 773 00:44:23,551 --> 00:44:26,068 -I just smashed it. -[Danny] Oh. Already? [chuckles] 774 00:44:27,172 --> 00:44:28,862 This one's been burned down before. 775 00:44:28,862 --> 00:44:30,275 Yeah. 776 00:44:36,896 --> 00:44:42,241 There are so many things that [bleep] smack, whack, rip your arm off. 777 00:44:43,896 --> 00:44:46,655 Get distracted and you're... you're [bleep] 778 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:52,068 [Parker] The fofocas are just like something straight out of Mad Max. 779 00:44:52,068 --> 00:44:55,068 Like the ingenuity of the different systems here 780 00:44:55,068 --> 00:44:58,275 to make things work out of just a bunch of spare random parts. 781 00:44:58,275 --> 00:45:00,655 I mean, a diff out of a truck? 782 00:45:00,655 --> 00:45:03,103 That's a truck diff under there. 783 00:45:03,862 --> 00:45:05,344 That's [bleep] awesome. 784 00:45:06,551 --> 00:45:10,655 [Paul] These dredges, built from low-cost salvage materials, 785 00:45:10,655 --> 00:45:14,172 are mostly owned by families who live on the level above, 786 00:45:14,172 --> 00:45:19,000 and employ four to five workers to catch the gold. 787 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:20,965 [Parker] Does everybody help everybody out? 788 00:45:20,965 --> 00:45:22,517 [in Portuguese] 789 00:45:26,103 --> 00:45:27,655 [Larissa speaking] 790 00:45:33,689 --> 00:45:36,379 [Paul] In the center of each dredge, a pump, 791 00:45:36,379 --> 00:45:38,862 powered by a diesel truck engine, 792 00:45:39,862 --> 00:45:43,862 attaches to a hose that must be moved constantly 793 00:45:43,862 --> 00:45:46,758 to keep it just above the uneven riverbed. 794 00:45:48,068 --> 00:45:52,896 The hose then sucks up water and gold-rich silt 795 00:45:52,896 --> 00:45:57,551 onto a carpet-lined sluice tray which traps the heavy gold. 796 00:46:01,896 --> 00:46:05,275 [Parker] If he's too high, he's just pulling water 797 00:46:05,275 --> 00:46:07,172 and too low, and it's plugged up. 798 00:46:08,241 --> 00:46:11,827 Is there a certain depth that they're trying to get to? 799 00:46:17,793 --> 00:46:19,172 [Parker] Just like a vacuum cleaner. 800 00:46:19,172 --> 00:46:21,655 If you put your hand over it, it's not sucking at all. 801 00:46:21,655 --> 00:46:22,931 It's just blocked off. 802 00:46:26,275 --> 00:46:28,000 I'll arm-wrestle him. 803 00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:29,896 You know, I'm gonna ask him for an arm wrestle. 804 00:46:29,896 --> 00:46:31,689 I want to know how strong he is. 805 00:46:31,689 --> 00:46:33,827 He must be a [bleep] machine. 806 00:46:38,482 --> 00:46:40,241 [Parker] Look at this set up. 807 00:46:40,241 --> 00:46:43,241 So, he's made, like, a foot control so that he can just, like, 808 00:46:43,241 --> 00:46:45,862 put his foot down and not have to spin the wheel 809 00:46:46,862 --> 00:46:48,793 like those guys over there were doing. 810 00:46:48,793 --> 00:46:50,344 That's [bleep] sick. 811 00:46:52,034 --> 00:46:56,000 Somebody really didn't want to spin that thing by hand. 812 00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:57,655 [Danny] He's, like, 80 years old. 813 00:46:57,655 --> 00:46:59,448 Got a massive right arm. 814 00:46:59,448 --> 00:47:01,344 One day, he'll just be like... 815 00:47:01,655 --> 00:47:02,793 "I'm done." 816 00:47:02,793 --> 00:47:04,413 [laughing] "What have I been doing?" 817 00:47:06,068 --> 00:47:12,172 One impressive thing about this is how much physical work goes into this, 818 00:47:12,172 --> 00:47:16,793 and how, like, really diligent you'd have to be to work on these. 819 00:47:16,793 --> 00:47:20,206 Like, there's a lot of [bleep] here that can kill you. 820 00:47:25,275 --> 00:47:28,000 And what's a normal day's production? 821 00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:29,448 [in Portuguese] 822 00:47:32,896 --> 00:47:35,068 Each one of these, ten grams a day. 823 00:47:36,137 --> 00:47:40,000 [Paul] Ten grams brings in $650 a day, 824 00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:44,000 an annual total of $240,000, 825 00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:48,000 shared between the dredge's owner and four crew. 826 00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:49,827 [in Portuguese] 827 00:47:59,034 --> 00:48:00,724 [Parker] Oh, yeah. 828 00:48:09,689 --> 00:48:13,034 -[Fabiano speaking Portuguese] -[Parker] 7.5? 829 00:48:13,034 --> 00:48:15,172 And that's from 20 hours? 830 00:48:16,482 --> 00:48:17,965 Four hundred and fifty dollars. 831 00:48:18,896 --> 00:48:20,379 [Danny] That's what that is. 832 00:48:20,379 --> 00:48:21,793 [Parker] Hard living. 833 00:48:23,275 --> 00:48:27,172 I kind of think that they just randomly bop around the river 834 00:48:27,172 --> 00:48:31,482 and stick their hose down to the bottom and dredge for a few hours, 835 00:48:31,482 --> 00:48:35,241 and be like, "Oh, yeah, there's gold here so we'll just, like, be here." 836 00:48:35,241 --> 00:48:37,655 And then, somebody else is like, "There's more gold over here." 837 00:48:37,655 --> 00:48:39,034 And so, they go over there. 838 00:48:39,034 --> 00:48:40,965 And then, somebody else is like, "There's more gold over here." 839 00:48:40,965 --> 00:48:42,103 So, they all go over there. 840 00:48:43,137 --> 00:48:44,758 [Paul] The distribution of gold 841 00:48:44,758 --> 00:48:48,275 along the 2000-mile-long Madeira River 842 00:48:48,275 --> 00:48:50,689 is affected by ever changing currents. 843 00:48:50,689 --> 00:48:55,413 So, fofocas must keep moving to locate the best deposits. 844 00:49:00,482 --> 00:49:03,862 [Parker] Um, why don't they use any riffles? 845 00:49:03,862 --> 00:49:07,379 I would use expanded metal in the sluice box if that were me. 846 00:49:07,379 --> 00:49:09,241 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 847 00:49:11,482 --> 00:49:13,000 [Larissa] All right. He's saying that's because 848 00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:16,241 there are no rocks here. It's only gold dust and mud. 849 00:49:17,896 --> 00:49:20,068 [Parker] A lot of people think that gold in a sluice box like, 850 00:49:20,068 --> 00:49:23,344 "Oh, gold's heavy, and it just stops in the sluice box." 851 00:49:23,344 --> 00:49:25,241 That's how this is done. 852 00:49:25,241 --> 00:49:29,275 But the mechanics of a properly set up sluice box 853 00:49:29,275 --> 00:49:34,275 are constantly giving gold an opportunity to drop out out of the slurry, 854 00:49:34,275 --> 00:49:37,103 out of the column is flowing across it, right? 855 00:49:40,241 --> 00:49:44,000 [Paul] Unlike the flat carpets used on these sluices, 856 00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:47,379 in the Yukon, Parker uses metal riffles 857 00:49:47,379 --> 00:49:52,241 to create a vortex within the water and suck down the heavy gold. 858 00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,275 [Parker] Just as a thought exercise, 859 00:49:58,275 --> 00:50:01,689 let's say that the dredges are losing 20% of recoverable gold. 860 00:50:01,689 --> 00:50:05,793 Forty dredges doing three ounces a day is 120 ounces. 861 00:50:05,793 --> 00:50:09,000 Twenty percent of that is 24 ounces. 862 00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:14,551 So, there's almost 50 grand a day that's probably being lost that's recoverable. 863 00:50:14,551 --> 00:50:17,896 With a properly designed sluice box... If somebody wanted to do that, 864 00:50:17,896 --> 00:50:20,344 it would be a very good business. It would make money. 865 00:50:21,965 --> 00:50:24,448 The most frustrating thing about being here is, 866 00:50:25,689 --> 00:50:28,862 if we wanted to make an investment, 867 00:50:28,862 --> 00:50:32,034 this would be a perfect place to do it if it weren't illegal. 868 00:50:33,379 --> 00:50:36,241 You know, right now, I'm like, [bleep] buy a boat. 869 00:50:36,241 --> 00:50:39,689 I can get some, like, welding gear, and some torches, 870 00:50:39,689 --> 00:50:45,068 and a couple of truckloads of expanded metal, and a bunch of carpets, 871 00:50:45,068 --> 00:50:49,172 come out here and just start, uh, 872 00:50:49,172 --> 00:50:51,344 building sluice boxes. 873 00:50:53,068 --> 00:50:55,793 Oh, yeah, that's great. 874 00:50:55,793 --> 00:50:57,103 [Paul] Coming up... 875 00:50:58,655 --> 00:51:01,896 Parker finds his first legal gold. 876 00:51:01,896 --> 00:51:03,827 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 877 00:51:06,586 --> 00:51:08,275 [Danny] Are they happy? Is he happy? 878 00:51:08,275 --> 00:51:09,862 [in Portuguese] 879 00:51:16,172 --> 00:51:18,896 [Danny] It's the guy that was shooting with the slingshot at us. 880 00:51:18,896 --> 00:51:24,000 [Paul] Parker and his team are on one of the last remaining gold fofocas 881 00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:25,413 of the Madeira River... 882 00:51:25,413 --> 00:51:26,931 [in Portuguese] 883 00:51:28,793 --> 00:51:30,275 -[boy speaks Portuguese] -[Danny laughing] 884 00:51:30,275 --> 00:51:32,793 [in English] Yeah, he was doing that. 885 00:51:32,793 --> 00:51:34,137 [Paul] ...where the illegal crew 886 00:51:34,137 --> 00:51:37,931 live under constant threat from government raids. 887 00:51:38,482 --> 00:51:39,827 [Larissa speaks Portuguese] 888 00:51:40,482 --> 00:51:43,586 [boy speaking Portuguese] 889 00:51:45,275 --> 00:51:48,482 -He thought we were from the police. -[Danny laughs] 890 00:51:50,758 --> 00:51:53,103 -[Parker] What's his name? -[Larissa speaks Portuguese] 891 00:51:53,103 --> 00:51:55,379 -[speaks Portuguese, bleeped] -How old is [bleep] 892 00:51:55,379 --> 00:51:56,965 [Larissa, boy speak Portuguese] 893 00:51:58,517 --> 00:52:00,310 -[Larissa] [in English] Fifteen. -Fifteen. 894 00:52:00,896 --> 00:52:02,344 Is his family here? 895 00:52:02,344 --> 00:52:04,275 [boy speaks Portuguese] 896 00:52:07,448 --> 00:52:10,551 [Larissa, boy speak Portuguese] 897 00:52:13,310 --> 00:52:15,896 Ah. [in English] He doesn't have a family here. 898 00:52:15,896 --> 00:52:19,000 He's here only because of the dredger owner. 899 00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:20,758 He's an employee. 900 00:52:21,448 --> 00:52:24,413 [Paul] At 15, he's too young to work, 901 00:52:24,413 --> 00:52:28,517 even if the dredge operations here were fully legal. 902 00:52:28,517 --> 00:52:29,758 Does he like being out here? 903 00:52:29,758 --> 00:52:31,517 [boy speaks Portuguese] 904 00:52:33,310 --> 00:52:35,344 He says, "Yeah. He works here. 905 00:52:35,344 --> 00:52:39,724 He makes some money. He helps his grandmother." And that's it. Yeah. 906 00:52:43,241 --> 00:52:45,310 [Parker] Can you tell him it was really nice to meet him? 907 00:52:45,310 --> 00:52:48,862 [Larissa, boy speaking Portuguese] 908 00:52:48,862 --> 00:52:50,862 [Larissa] [in English] He's very happy to meet you. 909 00:52:52,379 --> 00:52:55,137 He thought he never had a chance, like, to meet you in his life. 910 00:53:01,965 --> 00:53:03,172 So, when we are talking with him, 911 00:53:03,172 --> 00:53:05,172 we are... I mean, we are just, like, making fun, 912 00:53:05,172 --> 00:53:06,620 saying, "Hey, good luck to you. 913 00:53:06,620 --> 00:53:09,206 I mean, maybe, someday, you meet Parker again." 914 00:53:09,206 --> 00:53:11,896 Things like that. But then, when you leave, you know, 915 00:53:11,896 --> 00:53:13,310 it's pretty hard. 916 00:53:14,758 --> 00:53:18,793 At a moment, like, I mean, I can control myself. But then, it's hard. 917 00:53:19,586 --> 00:53:22,034 He's by himself here. He's just a kid. 918 00:53:24,241 --> 00:53:25,379 [Parker speaks Portuguese] 919 00:53:26,068 --> 00:53:27,482 [Danny] Oh, yeah. 920 00:53:30,310 --> 00:53:32,689 He's such a young dude with, like, life ahead of him. 921 00:53:32,689 --> 00:53:36,103 But it feels a bit sad, sort of coming away from this 922 00:53:36,103 --> 00:53:38,241 -and leaving him there, in a way. -[Larissa] Yah. 923 00:53:39,551 --> 00:53:43,206 [Parker] That kid, very sweet boy. He's 15. 924 00:53:43,206 --> 00:53:46,172 You can tell he's been through a lot, but has a very nice soul. 925 00:53:46,172 --> 00:53:48,551 And I feel bad for him. 926 00:53:48,551 --> 00:53:53,206 This is a rough environment for a kid, particularly it being illegal mining. 927 00:53:53,206 --> 00:53:57,448 It makes you think we're, like, extremely lucky to be born where we are 928 00:53:57,448 --> 00:54:00,724 and to the parents we have, right? 929 00:54:02,896 --> 00:54:04,413 But, here, 930 00:54:04,413 --> 00:54:07,758 he's sending money home to his grandma, he has a community with him, 931 00:54:07,758 --> 00:54:09,103 people that care about him. 932 00:54:12,620 --> 00:54:14,793 Where the everyday people are, 933 00:54:14,793 --> 00:54:17,896 we get to see their lives and their struggles. 934 00:54:17,896 --> 00:54:22,241 Mining is just such a fascinating way of looking into that, 935 00:54:22,241 --> 00:54:24,413 and looking into the culture of a country. 936 00:54:26,068 --> 00:54:28,137 I think, now, I'm interested in, like, 937 00:54:28,137 --> 00:54:30,689 where we can have more involvement. 938 00:54:30,689 --> 00:54:33,896 We should try to angle towards some of the more legal stuff, I think. 939 00:54:33,896 --> 00:54:35,103 [Danny] Yeah, definitely. 940 00:54:37,655 --> 00:54:39,034 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 941 00:54:39,620 --> 00:54:41,172 Oh, the storm is coming. 942 00:54:41,172 --> 00:54:45,000 [Paul] Still a full day's journey away from civilization, 943 00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:46,965 the crew must take shelter. 944 00:54:48,137 --> 00:54:49,827 If we wanted to stay the night out here, 945 00:54:49,827 --> 00:54:51,620 is there a place that we can do that? 946 00:54:51,620 --> 00:54:53,620 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 947 00:55:00,482 --> 00:55:01,931 Is it comfortable? 948 00:55:06,379 --> 00:55:08,241 We'll survive without a pool. 949 00:55:11,827 --> 00:55:13,206 [Danny] Oh, mate. 950 00:55:14,620 --> 00:55:16,724 -That is awesome. -That's nice. 951 00:55:16,724 --> 00:55:18,241 [Parker] That's really cool. 952 00:55:19,379 --> 00:55:22,275 [Paul] These traditional live-aboard riverboats 953 00:55:22,275 --> 00:55:24,827 are a common sight on the Madeira River, 954 00:55:24,827 --> 00:55:27,586 offering refuge in the middle of the wilderness. 955 00:55:27,586 --> 00:55:30,586 -[thunder rumbling] -Wow! We got here on the right time. 956 00:55:30,586 --> 00:55:32,310 [indistinct chatter] 957 00:55:32,310 --> 00:55:34,620 [Danny] Okay, check it out. 958 00:55:36,103 --> 00:55:37,172 [Parker] I got it. 959 00:55:37,896 --> 00:55:39,379 Look at this. 960 00:55:39,379 --> 00:55:42,068 Did you have a little look around? 961 00:55:42,068 --> 00:55:46,275 [Parker] I want port on the way out and starboard on the way home, okay? 962 00:55:46,275 --> 00:55:49,758 [Danny] Look at this. My guess is, that's pretty loud. 963 00:55:49,758 --> 00:55:51,758 My guess is that it doesn't work. 964 00:55:53,034 --> 00:55:55,448 -[men exclaim] -[Danny] It does. 965 00:55:56,241 --> 00:55:58,379 [thunder cracks, rumbling] 966 00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:06,034 [Danny] Thirty seconds ago, you could see the other side of the river. 967 00:56:06,965 --> 00:56:08,275 And now, it's dark. 968 00:56:15,137 --> 00:56:16,896 What'd you do with the rum, Dan? 969 00:56:16,896 --> 00:56:19,241 It's just in the side of the bag. 970 00:56:19,241 --> 00:56:22,103 [Parker] [bleep] are you talking about? Which backpack? 971 00:56:22,103 --> 00:56:25,724 [Danny] Right. So, if I go over and it's just sat there in the side pocket... 972 00:56:25,724 --> 00:56:30,000 -It's there. It's there. -[Parker] [laughs] Well, say it's there. 973 00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:32,034 [Danny] [bleep] use your eyes. 974 00:56:32,034 --> 00:56:35,379 [Parker] Do your own. I'm not, I'm not the bartender. 975 00:56:35,379 --> 00:56:37,965 [speaking Portuguese] 976 00:56:46,379 --> 00:56:49,758 [Parker] But... I mean, the problem, for me, with a lot of this kind of stuff, 977 00:56:49,758 --> 00:56:53,965 is that we can't really get that involved because it's illegal, right? 978 00:56:53,965 --> 00:56:55,689 -[Larissa] Yeah. -Like, I want to kind of get, 979 00:56:55,689 --> 00:56:58,655 -like, more in the nitty gritty side of it. -[Larissa] Yeah. I mean... 980 00:56:58,655 --> 00:57:01,413 Can you ask if there's any legal operations around? 981 00:57:01,413 --> 00:57:03,206 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 982 00:57:11,448 --> 00:57:15,275 Yeah. He says, like, in the river, there are some legal areas there 983 00:57:15,275 --> 00:57:16,896 where we could explore a little bit. 984 00:57:16,896 --> 00:57:20,310 The last thing I want to do is end up on the wrong side of the law. Again. 985 00:57:20,310 --> 00:57:21,758 -[laughter] -[Larissa] Okay. 986 00:57:21,758 --> 00:57:26,103 [Paul] With just 6% of the Madeira River approved for mining, 987 00:57:26,103 --> 00:57:30,241 tomorrow, Fabiano will take the crew over 20 miles 988 00:57:30,241 --> 00:57:32,724 to the nearest legalized zone. 989 00:57:32,724 --> 00:57:34,689 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 990 00:57:36,344 --> 00:57:37,896 [speaks Portuguese] 991 00:57:38,758 --> 00:57:41,000 -[in English] He says, yes. -More than here? 992 00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:42,206 [in Portuguese] 993 00:57:42,206 --> 00:57:44,241 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 994 00:57:44,241 --> 00:57:47,448 Huh. Okay. 995 00:57:47,448 --> 00:57:49,000 -[Larissa] Okay. -Should we get ready for bed? 996 00:57:49,000 --> 00:57:50,068 [Larissa, Diego] Yeah. 997 00:57:50,068 --> 00:57:52,206 -I'm pretty wiped out. -[Larissa] I'm tired. Yeah. 998 00:57:56,241 --> 00:57:57,896 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 999 00:58:02,241 --> 00:58:05,137 [Diego, Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1000 00:58:07,758 --> 00:58:08,793 [Danny] Who is it? 1001 00:58:10,068 --> 00:58:12,586 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1002 00:58:30,310 --> 00:58:32,275 He says there are pirates, like, around here. 1003 00:58:32,275 --> 00:58:34,448 -They can just come. -[Parker] Pirates? 1004 00:58:35,241 --> 00:58:37,551 [dramatic music playing] 1005 00:58:45,620 --> 00:58:47,551 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1006 00:58:48,655 --> 00:58:50,068 [Danny] Who is it? 1007 00:58:50,068 --> 00:58:51,793 [Paul] On a houseboat, 1008 00:58:51,793 --> 00:58:54,862 deep in illegal gold mining territory. 1009 00:58:54,862 --> 00:58:56,310 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1010 00:58:56,310 --> 00:58:57,586 [Paul] Parker and crew... 1011 00:58:57,586 --> 00:58:59,068 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1012 00:58:59,068 --> 00:59:01,689 ...are approached by an unknown boat. 1013 00:59:04,793 --> 00:59:06,379 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1014 00:59:22,862 --> 00:59:26,068 Ah. So, they're, like, just looking for fuel, it seems. 1015 00:59:26,068 --> 00:59:28,655 -Okay. -[Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1016 00:59:32,586 --> 00:59:34,275 Oh, really? 1017 00:59:35,517 --> 00:59:36,517 Do they kill people? 1018 00:59:36,517 --> 00:59:38,931 [Larissa, Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1019 00:59:53,758 --> 00:59:56,448 And I really don't know how how our night is gonna be. 1020 00:59:56,448 --> 01:00:00,000 We're anchored in one side of the river. 1021 01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:03,275 So, if someone was intending to just try 1022 01:00:03,275 --> 01:00:05,862 something bad against us, 1023 01:00:05,862 --> 01:00:08,862 we have no escaping routes right now. 1024 01:00:08,862 --> 01:00:11,689 So, hopefully, nothing is going to happen 1025 01:00:11,689 --> 01:00:15,137 because, I think, there's not much we can do. 1026 01:00:15,137 --> 01:00:18,000 [Danny] All right. Let's get these hammocks out. 1027 01:00:18,000 --> 01:00:20,241 -Is this where we're sleeping? -[Larissa] Yep. 1028 01:00:20,241 --> 01:00:23,931 [Parker] Just let the mosquitoes destroy us? 1029 01:00:26,448 --> 01:00:29,758 [scoffs] My back's gonna be destroyed tomorrow. 1030 01:00:29,758 --> 01:00:31,241 [Fabiano] Good night. Good night. 1031 01:00:31,241 --> 01:00:33,275 Good night. Good night. Thanks, Fabiano. 1032 01:00:33,275 --> 01:00:34,517 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1033 01:00:35,551 --> 01:00:37,448 [Danny] I'm gonna turn this light off. 1034 01:00:37,448 --> 01:00:39,310 I'm gonna be [bleep] electrocuted. 1035 01:00:42,137 --> 01:00:43,827 -[Diego] Good night. -Nighty night. 1036 01:00:43,827 --> 01:00:45,448 I'll leave this live electrical cord 1037 01:00:45,448 --> 01:00:47,758 just attached to the end of your hammock, all right? 1038 01:00:47,758 --> 01:00:50,620 -Thank you, my guy. I appreciate... -[Danny] Yeah. No worries. 1039 01:00:53,724 --> 01:00:57,103 We're sitting in hammocks, floating downriver. 1040 01:00:58,344 --> 01:01:00,241 There's pirates. 1041 01:01:00,241 --> 01:01:02,000 There's the potential for the authorities 1042 01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:05,965 to turn up at any moment and start blowing everything up. 1043 01:01:05,965 --> 01:01:09,000 And that's their lives, 24-7 here. 1044 01:01:10,586 --> 01:01:12,862 [Parker] Yeah, the trip has been a bit of a whirlwind so far. 1045 01:01:12,862 --> 01:01:14,655 A lot of illegal mining. 1046 01:01:14,655 --> 01:01:19,000 We'll see. Hopefully, we can get into some more legal mining areas 1047 01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:22,689 that are a bit more relatable, and something that we can, 1048 01:01:22,689 --> 01:01:24,620 you know, get involved in, 1049 01:01:24,620 --> 01:01:27,896 and really... assess what's going on. 1050 01:01:29,793 --> 01:01:31,310 So, let's see what we find. 1051 01:01:37,000 --> 01:01:38,896 [upbeat music playing] 1052 01:01:46,586 --> 01:01:48,068 [Danny] Fabiano. 1053 01:01:48,655 --> 01:01:50,172 Bom dia. 1054 01:01:50,172 --> 01:01:53,482 -[man speaking] -[Danny] Okay. All right. We've got to get on the move. 1055 01:01:53,482 --> 01:01:54,689 We've got to go. 1056 01:01:55,413 --> 01:01:56,620 Buddy... 1057 01:01:57,793 --> 01:01:58,793 Ready? 1058 01:01:58,793 --> 01:02:01,034 -Fed, watered, ready to go? -[Diego] Yeah. 1059 01:02:01,034 --> 01:02:02,310 Okay, let's get out of here. 1060 01:02:02,310 --> 01:02:04,758 [Parker] I'm ready to stop hitting my head on everything. 1061 01:02:04,758 --> 01:02:06,137 [Danny] It's your fault for being so tall. 1062 01:02:09,482 --> 01:02:11,551 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1063 01:02:14,034 --> 01:02:18,551 [Diego] So, guys, I'm getting a lot of people posting on social media 1064 01:02:18,551 --> 01:02:19,620 that Parker is around. 1065 01:02:19,620 --> 01:02:22,655 So, we actually need to be really careful now. 1066 01:02:22,655 --> 01:02:25,931 Because we're in, you know, in a risky place. 1067 01:02:25,931 --> 01:02:28,551 And if people know we're here, that's even worse for us. 1068 01:02:28,551 --> 01:02:32,965 So, let's try to play it safe and... just pay attention to detail. 1069 01:02:32,965 --> 01:02:36,034 [Paul] If word is spreading that Parker is in the area, 1070 01:02:36,034 --> 01:02:39,241 it could make the crew a target on the river. 1071 01:02:39,241 --> 01:02:40,724 Word's out? 1072 01:02:42,034 --> 01:02:43,586 [Danny] It would appear so. 1073 01:02:47,103 --> 01:02:48,965 [speaking Portuguese] 1074 01:03:03,758 --> 01:03:05,862 -Finally. -[Larissa] Finally. Exactly. 1075 01:03:05,862 --> 01:03:07,655 [Danny] Finally. 1076 01:03:07,655 --> 01:03:10,379 Put you to work where you belong. 1077 01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:13,793 [Paul] According to Fabiano, 1078 01:03:13,793 --> 01:03:17,379 the mega dredges that dominate the legal section of the river 1079 01:03:17,379 --> 01:03:22,517 can each bring in tens of millions of dollars in gold each year. 1080 01:03:22,517 --> 01:03:25,827 Like, obviously, there is sections of the river where it's legal. 1081 01:03:25,827 --> 01:03:30,068 And that warrants a proper investment by the owners 1082 01:03:30,068 --> 01:03:32,103 to have, like, a big, proper legal setup 1083 01:03:32,103 --> 01:03:34,000 that's not going to get blown up by the police, 1084 01:03:34,000 --> 01:03:38,758 and that is obviously much more attractive, 1085 01:03:38,758 --> 01:03:40,965 both from a mining and an investing standpoint. 1086 01:03:55,517 --> 01:03:57,000 [speaks Portuguese] 1087 01:03:57,000 --> 01:03:59,413 -Yeah. -[Diego] That's really strong gasoline. 1088 01:04:02,551 --> 01:04:05,000 [both speak Portuguese] 1089 01:04:06,517 --> 01:04:09,103 Maybe because of the storm yesterday. 1090 01:04:09,103 --> 01:04:10,482 [Diego] We actually need to be careful. 1091 01:04:15,000 --> 01:04:16,034 Got it. 1092 01:04:16,586 --> 01:04:18,310 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1093 01:04:22,827 --> 01:04:26,068 [Paul] With word out that Parker is on the river... 1094 01:04:26,068 --> 01:04:27,965 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1095 01:04:28,965 --> 01:04:31,034 [Paul] ... the team must stay on the move. 1096 01:04:31,034 --> 01:04:33,896 [Larissa] I think we need to be careful because we are surrounded 1097 01:04:33,896 --> 01:04:37,689 by gold smugglers, illegal operations, pirates. 1098 01:04:37,689 --> 01:04:39,896 So, I don't think it's safe for us. 1099 01:04:41,068 --> 01:04:43,586 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1100 01:04:43,586 --> 01:04:45,000 [Parker] It's in neutral. 1101 01:04:47,068 --> 01:04:48,793 [Fabiano speaks Portuguese] 1102 01:04:48,793 --> 01:04:50,655 I thought you didn't know anything about boats. 1103 01:04:50,655 --> 01:04:52,034 [engine sputters, revving] 1104 01:04:53,827 --> 01:04:56,241 -[Fabiano exclaims] -You little fibber, you. 1105 01:04:56,241 --> 01:04:59,655 -[Fabiano speaks Portuguese] -[Larissa] Good hands. 1106 01:05:09,793 --> 01:05:11,379 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1107 01:05:13,724 --> 01:05:16,862 [Larissa] It's one of the biggest dredges that they have here around. 1108 01:05:18,965 --> 01:05:22,137 -[Danny] Oh, wow. -[Parker] It's [bleep] huge. 1109 01:05:22,137 --> 01:05:24,241 [Danny] My God. Look at that, Diego. 1110 01:05:25,172 --> 01:05:28,172 That's [bleep] massive! 1111 01:05:28,172 --> 01:05:31,551 [Paul] Measuring four and a half thousand square feet, 1112 01:05:31,551 --> 01:05:34,862 the Evolution dredge is one of the largest 1113 01:05:34,862 --> 01:05:37,206 mining for gold on the Madeira River. 1114 01:05:37,206 --> 01:05:39,137 "Draga Evolution." 1115 01:05:45,379 --> 01:05:46,413 [Danny] Oh, wow. 1116 01:05:47,896 --> 01:05:50,413 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1117 01:05:50,413 --> 01:05:54,000 [Paul] After two days chasing gold on the Madeira River, 1118 01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:57,965 Fabiano brings Parker to the Evolution dredge. 1119 01:06:02,655 --> 01:06:04,413 [people speaking Portuguese] 1120 01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:14,206 -[Danny] Straight away. [laughs] -Straight away. Yeah. 1121 01:06:14,206 --> 01:06:15,275 Perfect. 1122 01:06:15,275 --> 01:06:16,586 [Paul] This massive operation... 1123 01:06:16,586 --> 01:06:18,379 [Danny] Let's get into it. 1124 01:06:18,379 --> 01:06:23,620 ...will give him the chance to see how much gold can be mined legally on the river. 1125 01:06:25,103 --> 01:06:27,137 [Parker] I've spent millions of dollars on exploration. 1126 01:06:27,137 --> 01:06:31,551 So, I have a pretty good feel for what an opportunity kind of looks like, 1127 01:06:31,551 --> 01:06:36,344 and that there could be, like, an actual, feasible business opportunity here. 1128 01:06:37,206 --> 01:06:38,620 Hey, man, how are you? 1129 01:06:38,620 --> 01:06:41,103 [Paul] Built on an industrial scale, 1130 01:06:41,103 --> 01:06:44,000 the Evolution dredge is a metal construction 1131 01:06:44,000 --> 01:06:47,689 at least five times the size of the illegal dredges. 1132 01:06:49,931 --> 01:06:54,931 It's a 24-7 operation run by a crew of just six. 1133 01:06:56,379 --> 01:06:58,413 [Larissa, man speaking Portuguese] 1134 01:06:58,413 --> 01:06:59,655 [Larissa] [in English] Ah, the engines. 1135 01:06:59,655 --> 01:07:01,206 [Parker] Why do they have two engines? 1136 01:07:01,206 --> 01:07:04,068 [Larissa, man speaking Portuguese] 1137 01:07:09,379 --> 01:07:11,931 [Larissa] [in English] This one is the one that makes the suction. 1138 01:07:11,931 --> 01:07:13,931 [man speaking Portuguese] 1139 01:07:15,517 --> 01:07:17,448 [Larissa, man speak Portuguese] 1140 01:07:17,448 --> 01:07:20,275 [Larissa] [in English] This one rotates this piece... 1141 01:07:20,275 --> 01:07:23,068 -this piece here that they call "the pineapple." -[Parker] Oh, gotcha. 1142 01:07:23,068 --> 01:07:25,344 -[Parker] The pineapple? -[Larissa] They call it "the pineapple." 1143 01:07:25,344 --> 01:07:27,379 -I like that. -[Larissa] It turns the pineapple. Yeah. 1144 01:07:28,793 --> 01:07:31,241 [Paul] The pineapple is a sharp cutter head 1145 01:07:31,241 --> 01:07:34,896 at the end of a 98-foot-long hydraulic crane. 1146 01:07:36,413 --> 01:07:40,310 When the crane arm is lowered, the pineapple spins, 1147 01:07:40,310 --> 01:07:42,655 churning up the gold-rich riverbed, 1148 01:07:42,655 --> 01:07:46,344 which is sucked up its 18-inch diameter pipe. 1149 01:07:48,896 --> 01:07:51,620 A second pump pulls in clean water 1150 01:07:51,620 --> 01:07:56,379 that mixes with the pay gravel and takes it up to the sluice, 1151 01:07:56,379 --> 01:08:00,827 where heavy gold drops out of the slurry and is caught in the mats. 1152 01:08:13,586 --> 01:08:15,241 [man speaking Portuguese] 1153 01:08:15,862 --> 01:08:17,068 [Larissa speaking] 1154 01:08:18,000 --> 01:08:19,241 [man speaks Portuguese] 1155 01:08:19,241 --> 01:08:20,689 [Larissa speaking] 1156 01:08:21,930 --> 01:08:22,792 [button beeps] 1157 01:08:22,792 --> 01:08:24,274 [machinery whining] 1158 01:08:28,206 --> 01:08:30,136 [Paul] As the engine fires up, 1159 01:08:31,379 --> 01:08:34,241 the suction hose is lowered manually, 1160 01:08:37,274 --> 01:08:42,379 delivering 2,500 gallons of water per minute up to the sluice. 1161 01:08:45,344 --> 01:08:46,862 [man speaking Portuguese] 1162 01:09:00,344 --> 01:09:02,344 [man speaking Portuguese] 1163 01:09:09,241 --> 01:09:10,517 How? 1164 01:09:20,517 --> 01:09:23,136 [Paul] Driven by a 700 horsepower engine, 1165 01:09:23,136 --> 01:09:26,206 the rotating pineapple gives the Evolution 1166 01:09:26,206 --> 01:09:29,068 an edge over the other dredgers. 1167 01:09:29,068 --> 01:09:32,689 Burrowing down into the harder-packed layer of the riverbed, 1168 01:09:32,689 --> 01:09:37,551 it can churn up more material and increase the gold potential. 1169 01:09:37,551 --> 01:09:42,033 This is an industrial level floating dredge. 1170 01:09:42,620 --> 01:09:44,448 Two engines, 1171 01:09:44,448 --> 01:09:48,136 1,500 liters of fuel used every day. 1172 01:09:48,136 --> 01:09:50,274 They run 20 hours a day. 1173 01:09:50,274 --> 01:09:53,792 In the four hours they're, like, resting, they're actually 1174 01:09:53,792 --> 01:09:55,689 taking care of the equipment. 1175 01:09:59,793 --> 01:10:02,137 Finally, we're in a legal mining site, 1176 01:10:02,137 --> 01:10:04,689 but this is like from another planet. 1177 01:10:07,965 --> 01:10:09,931 [man speaking Portuguese] 1178 01:10:18,000 --> 01:10:19,896 [both speaking Portuguese] 1179 01:10:25,793 --> 01:10:28,862 [Paul] At its peak, the Evolution can bring in 1180 01:10:28,862 --> 01:10:32,034 over $32,000 a day. 1181 01:10:32,034 --> 01:10:34,310 The nice thing about dredges from an investing standpoint 1182 01:10:34,310 --> 01:10:36,137 is, they're very simple. 1183 01:10:36,137 --> 01:10:39,000 You know, you're not buying, like, a bunch of excavators, and dozers, 1184 01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:41,586 and pumps, and generators, and wash plants, like... 1185 01:10:41,586 --> 01:10:44,344 Everything is on the ship. 1186 01:10:45,965 --> 01:10:49,448 [Paul] To reach the $10,000,000-a-year potential, 1187 01:10:49,448 --> 01:10:51,827 the crew leave nothing to chance. 1188 01:10:52,862 --> 01:10:54,965 [men speaking Portuguese] 1189 01:10:56,758 --> 01:10:58,896 Probably the most interesting thing about these dredgers 1190 01:10:58,896 --> 01:11:00,551 is they have a testing method where they have 1191 01:11:00,551 --> 01:11:03,689 that tube that comes out from the feed box, 1192 01:11:03,689 --> 01:11:05,862 and it, like, takes off a little bit of the pay, 1193 01:11:05,862 --> 01:11:08,448 and just puts it into a gold pan in a little box next to you. 1194 01:11:08,448 --> 01:11:11,620 And they pan that to test the ground that they're dredging. 1195 01:11:11,620 --> 01:11:14,517 So, you can see what's happening. I quite like that. 1196 01:11:18,965 --> 01:11:24,034 [Paul] Operations manager, Claudinay, checks the first pan of the day. 1197 01:11:39,344 --> 01:11:42,413 [both speaking Portuguese] 1198 01:11:50,000 --> 01:11:51,655 [Larissa speaking English] 1199 01:11:59,724 --> 01:12:03,034 [Paul] To move the 110-foot-long dredger, 1200 01:12:03,724 --> 01:12:05,827 That's it. All shut down. 1201 01:12:05,827 --> 01:12:09,620 [Paul] owner, Aldo, uses a 400 horsepower tugboat 1202 01:12:09,620 --> 01:12:13,655 that pushes the floating gold catching platform from behind. 1203 01:12:13,655 --> 01:12:15,620 [Larissa speaking Portuguese] 1204 01:12:18,482 --> 01:12:21,068 [people speaking Portuguese] 1205 01:12:24,206 --> 01:12:26,310 [Larissa speaking English] 1206 01:12:27,448 --> 01:12:28,517 [Larissa laughs] 1207 01:12:28,517 --> 01:12:31,862 [man speaking Portuguese] 1208 01:12:36,206 --> 01:12:38,000 [Danny laughs] 1209 01:12:38,000 --> 01:12:41,758 [Parker] By far, my favorite part of this whole thing has been the tugboats. 1210 01:12:42,413 --> 01:12:44,862 I love those things. They're sick. 1211 01:12:44,862 --> 01:12:46,310 And I want one. 1212 01:12:49,413 --> 01:12:51,482 [man speaking Portuguese] 1213 01:12:59,758 --> 01:13:02,586 They've got some grunt, these things, don't they? 1214 01:13:02,586 --> 01:13:05,482 That's a wicked noise that makes when you pull that handle. 1215 01:13:20,275 --> 01:13:21,827 [Parker] Let's go find some gold. 1216 01:13:26,103 --> 01:13:28,000 [Paul] On Brazil's Madeira River, 1217 01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:32,551 Parker discovers dredge owner, Aldo, is a Gold Rush fan. 1218 01:13:32,551 --> 01:13:34,482 [men speaking Portuguese] 1219 01:13:39,586 --> 01:13:42,758 He was telling me, like, when we were inside the dredge, 1220 01:13:42,758 --> 01:13:45,862 he really wanted to go to Alaska 1221 01:13:45,862 --> 01:13:47,862 -to know your operation. -[Parker] You should come. 1222 01:13:47,862 --> 01:13:50,862 [Larissa, man speaking Portuguese] 1223 01:13:55,034 --> 01:13:56,344 -[in English] He can visit you? -[Parker] Yeah. 1224 01:13:56,344 --> 01:13:59,000 [man speaking Portuguese] 1225 01:14:05,793 --> 01:14:09,172 Ah. He wants to know if you get along well 1226 01:14:09,172 --> 01:14:12,551 -with Tony... Tony Beets. -That's a big question. 1227 01:14:13,206 --> 01:14:14,344 Sometimes. 1228 01:14:14,344 --> 01:14:16,448 [Larissa, man speak Portuguese] 1229 01:14:16,448 --> 01:14:18,103 [Parker] All right. Where are we going? 1230 01:14:38,482 --> 01:14:42,758 [Paul] Along the golden highway of Brazil's Madeira river, 1231 01:14:42,758 --> 01:14:47,517 Parker Schnabel pushes a 60-ton dredge in the hunt for gold. 1232 01:14:48,896 --> 01:14:51,000 [man speaking Portuguese] 1233 01:14:55,827 --> 01:14:57,482 [in Portuguese] 1234 01:14:57,482 --> 01:14:59,551 [in English] 1235 01:15:03,103 --> 01:15:05,310 [Parker speaking] 1236 01:15:05,931 --> 01:15:08,000 [man speaking Portuguese] 1237 01:15:10,137 --> 01:15:14,206 [Paul] Gold released from the Andes flows into the Madeira river, 1238 01:15:14,206 --> 01:15:19,000 where it's deposited in pockets along its 2,000-mile course. 1239 01:15:19,000 --> 01:15:22,793 Parker must direct the dredge to a spot near the banks 1240 01:15:22,793 --> 01:15:27,068 where the river slows and the heavier gold naturally drops, 1241 01:15:27,068 --> 01:15:29,586 creating the famous hot spots. 1242 01:15:33,931 --> 01:15:36,310 All right, Diego. Drop your pineapple. 1243 01:15:37,965 --> 01:15:40,103 [machinery whining, chuffing] 1244 01:15:41,965 --> 01:15:43,931 Okay. Pineapple going down. 1245 01:15:54,310 --> 01:15:56,000 They've got an interesting setup here, 1246 01:15:56,000 --> 01:15:58,965 where they have a second engine running, 1247 01:15:58,965 --> 01:16:02,275 pumping water down to the pineapple. 1248 01:16:02,275 --> 01:16:05,724 The suction. I like the word, pineapple. 1249 01:16:05,724 --> 01:16:08,172 You can get quite a bit more volume of material. 1250 01:16:08,172 --> 01:16:10,275 At least that's what it seems like so far. 1251 01:16:10,275 --> 01:16:12,275 It's a fair bit different, like, I would say that 1252 01:16:12,275 --> 01:16:15,724 this one definitely costs a lot more to run. They find more gold. 1253 01:16:15,724 --> 01:16:17,965 But it's bigger. It's... 1254 01:16:19,551 --> 01:16:20,965 more comfortable. 1255 01:16:25,482 --> 01:16:28,551 [Paul] After 30 minutes of running, it's time to see 1256 01:16:28,551 --> 01:16:31,827 if Parker has got the crew back on the gold. 1257 01:16:41,551 --> 01:16:43,068 [Danny] Oh, yeah. 1258 01:16:43,758 --> 01:16:45,241 Yeah. 1259 01:16:45,931 --> 01:16:48,517 That's great. That's great. 1260 01:16:52,172 --> 01:16:54,862 -Is that from here? -[man speaking Portuguese] 1261 01:17:02,206 --> 01:17:04,827 [Paul] This much gold in a single pan 1262 01:17:04,827 --> 01:17:09,275 could see them pull in around $10,000 today. 1263 01:17:09,275 --> 01:17:12,758 [men speaking Portuguese] 1264 01:17:17,448 --> 01:17:19,413 [Parker] It seems like these guys are doing quite well 1265 01:17:19,413 --> 01:17:21,000 and got things sorted out. 1266 01:17:21,000 --> 01:17:23,310 And the ground that they're dredging looks quite good. 1267 01:17:23,310 --> 01:17:25,241 [in Portuguese] 1268 01:17:25,241 --> 01:17:28,793 [in English] But it's not something that really interests me 1269 01:17:28,793 --> 01:17:32,413 from, like, an ownership or an equity standpoint. 1270 01:17:32,413 --> 01:17:37,620 One of the big issues for me in countries that I'm not familiar with 1271 01:17:37,620 --> 01:17:40,620 is, what is the regulatory risk? 1272 01:17:40,620 --> 01:17:43,793 If I end up mining in an area that, right now, is legal, 1273 01:17:43,793 --> 01:17:45,724 could it be illegal next year, right? 1274 01:17:45,724 --> 01:17:47,586 I'm usually looking to get involved 1275 01:17:47,586 --> 01:17:50,137 in something that I, like, have something to offer, 1276 01:17:50,137 --> 01:17:52,482 and I don't have anything to offer here, you know. 1277 01:17:52,482 --> 01:17:54,965 These guys are way more experienced than I am. 1278 01:17:54,965 --> 01:17:57,586 -Oh. Nice one. -Nice one, right? 1279 01:17:57,586 --> 01:18:00,000 -It was good. -Yeah, that was good. 1280 01:18:00,000 --> 01:18:03,586 But this was very cool to see, and I think that mining is 1281 01:18:03,586 --> 01:18:06,000 a big part of the country. So... 1282 01:18:07,034 --> 01:18:08,551 I think we're on the right track. 1283 01:18:09,620 --> 01:18:10,793 Yeah. 1284 01:18:11,793 --> 01:18:13,379 Those guys were fun. 1285 01:18:13,379 --> 01:18:15,000 Yeah. Good group. 1286 01:18:15,793 --> 01:18:17,827 And I think, when it comes to gold mining, 1287 01:18:17,827 --> 01:18:20,103 we're in the right place, that's for sure. 1288 01:18:20,103 --> 01:18:22,275 There's a lot happening around here. 1289 01:18:22,275 --> 01:18:25,034 [Danny] It's nice to finally do something legal. 1290 01:18:26,275 --> 01:18:29,310 [speaking Portuguese] 1291 01:18:29,310 --> 01:18:31,103 What do you think about today? 1292 01:18:31,103 --> 01:18:33,482 I loved today. Yeah, it was great. 1293 01:18:34,241 --> 01:18:36,448 [speaking Portuguese] 1294 01:18:37,379 --> 01:18:39,724 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1295 01:18:43,965 --> 01:18:45,827 It's... That goes both ways. 1296 01:18:56,275 --> 01:18:58,068 -[Danny] Huh? -[Diego speaking] 1297 01:18:59,103 --> 01:19:00,103 [Danny] No, it's not. 1298 01:19:02,551 --> 01:19:03,689 [Diego speaking] 1299 01:19:06,448 --> 01:19:07,965 [Fabiano speaking Portuguese] 1300 01:19:07,965 --> 01:19:10,241 Hey, guys... 1301 01:19:10,241 --> 01:19:12,551 -[Diego] Stay away from us. -Oh, [bleep] 1302 01:19:15,344 --> 01:19:17,793 [Danny] Oh, my [bleep] 1303 01:19:17,793 --> 01:19:22,034 [Paul] On this season of Parker's Trail... 1304 01:19:22,034 --> 01:19:24,482 [Parker] What the [bleep] is going on around this place? 1305 01:19:25,413 --> 01:19:26,724 This is wild. 1306 01:19:26,724 --> 01:19:29,896 Billions of dollars worth of gold got found by hand. 1307 01:19:32,758 --> 01:19:35,379 [Danny] He's eyeing you right up, Parker. 1308 01:19:35,379 --> 01:19:36,655 [laughs] 1309 01:19:40,310 --> 01:19:42,482 [people exclaiming] 1310 01:19:44,310 --> 01:19:45,689 [Parker] Look at these bad boys. 1311 01:19:46,551 --> 01:19:47,965 That is awesome. 1312 01:19:50,620 --> 01:19:52,931 That's a lot of gold. It's crazy. 1313 01:19:55,896 --> 01:19:58,413 [Danny] What the [bleep] was that? 1314 01:19:59,655 --> 01:20:01,586 [Diego] There's a car upside down. 1315 01:20:02,862 --> 01:20:06,034 [Parker] I really would love to put some money into something here. 1316 01:20:06,034 --> 01:20:09,241 -[Larissa gasps] -[man speaking Portuguese] 1317 01:20:10,517 --> 01:20:12,000 Well, let's take some microphones off. 1318 01:20:13,517 --> 01:20:15,000 [growling]