1 00:00:01,103 --> 00:00:02,172 [narrator] Gold mining prodigy... 2 00:00:02,172 --> 00:00:04,689 And that's $3 million right there on the table. 3 00:00:04,689 --> 00:00:08,551 ...Parker Schnabel is searching for his next big score. 4 00:00:09,310 --> 00:00:11,551 -This is wild. -[bleep] yeah. 5 00:00:12,103 --> 00:00:14,758 Deep in the jungles of Brazil. 6 00:00:15,620 --> 00:00:18,793 There's a huge amount of conflict over mining. 7 00:00:18,793 --> 00:00:21,931 The only way to understand is to come here and see it. 8 00:00:21,931 --> 00:00:23,793 That is [bleep] cool. 9 00:00:23,793 --> 00:00:27,000 [Parker] And if there's an opportunity for us to invest, 10 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,793 then I want to look at those opportunities. 11 00:00:29,793 --> 00:00:33,103 -Look, look, that's [bleep] gold. -Look at these bad boys. 12 00:00:33,103 --> 00:00:35,793 I did get fitted for a bulletproof vest, though. 13 00:00:37,310 --> 00:00:38,896 That's a first. 14 00:00:38,896 --> 00:00:41,103 Previously on Parker's Trail. 15 00:00:41,103 --> 00:00:44,896 Billions of dollars worth of gold got found by hand. 16 00:00:44,896 --> 00:00:47,172 [Larissa] That's the Serra Pelada pit. 17 00:00:47,172 --> 00:00:50,000 The lake that's there now makes underground mining 18 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,586 or open pit mining very difficult. 19 00:00:53,620 --> 00:00:55,172 This is the geologist. 20 00:00:55,172 --> 00:00:56,862 [speaking Portuguese] 21 00:00:59,275 --> 00:01:02,000 Two or three million ounces came out of this hole in the '80s. 22 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,172 I'm sure that there's at least half that in the tailings. 23 00:01:05,172 --> 00:01:08,379 It kind of shifts my focus because the tailings 24 00:01:08,379 --> 00:01:11,896 are all stacked nice, neatly in a pile. 25 00:01:11,896 --> 00:01:13,620 In all the years that we've done these trips, 26 00:01:13,620 --> 00:01:16,862 this is probably the opportunity that interests me the most. 27 00:01:25,620 --> 00:01:28,586 I never actually got a chance to actually walk around 28 00:01:28,586 --> 00:01:31,689 where the tailings are and just kind of get a feel 29 00:01:31,689 --> 00:01:32,896 for what's there. 30 00:01:32,896 --> 00:01:36,000 [narrator] On his quest to find Serra Pelada gold... 31 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,103 [Parker] I wish I knew what this place looked like before 32 00:01:38,103 --> 00:01:39,689 all this stuff was stacked here. 33 00:01:40,723 --> 00:01:42,586 [narrator] ... Parker's got a new lead. 34 00:01:42,586 --> 00:01:49,172 The four million tons of tailings left over from the original 1980s gold rush. 35 00:01:49,172 --> 00:01:51,103 I'm just going to go look at what that black stuff is. 36 00:01:51,103 --> 00:01:52,689 They might not want to follow me. 37 00:01:52,689 --> 00:01:54,241 Nobody might want to follow me. 38 00:01:56,931 --> 00:02:02,068 Between 1979 and 1992, miners extracted 39 00:02:02,068 --> 00:02:06,172 the gold-rich hard rock known as ore from the pit 40 00:02:06,172 --> 00:02:09,275 and brought it to the surface where it was broken apart 41 00:02:09,275 --> 00:02:13,482 by hand to release the larger gold nuggets. 42 00:02:13,482 --> 00:02:17,310 But Parker believes a significant amount of fine gold 43 00:02:17,310 --> 00:02:21,551 was left behind in the waste piles known as tailings. 44 00:02:23,586 --> 00:02:25,172 Every night since I've gotten here, 45 00:02:25,172 --> 00:02:28,103 I've gotten to bed thinking they found something like 46 00:02:28,103 --> 00:02:30,827 2.6 million ounces in that hole. 47 00:02:30,827 --> 00:02:32,482 What's still left in the tailings? 48 00:02:33,482 --> 00:02:35,965 I need to figure out an answer to that question. 49 00:02:38,896 --> 00:02:41,586 If that hill dropped off at the level or lower 50 00:02:41,586 --> 00:02:44,172 than that water, that's a mountain of material. 51 00:02:46,067 --> 00:02:49,517 I would imagine the town's built on some of them. 52 00:02:49,517 --> 00:02:52,000 What was their recovery rate back in the day? 53 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,482 Nobody's ever had a proper recovery system in here. 54 00:02:55,482 --> 00:02:56,655 True. 55 00:02:57,586 --> 00:03:00,172 I'm making one really big assumption in all of this. 56 00:03:00,931 --> 00:03:02,655 Their recovery rate was [bleep]. 57 00:03:04,689 --> 00:03:06,448 I don't know if that's true or not. 58 00:03:08,103 --> 00:03:11,379 The money that would have to go into it, probably $200 million. 59 00:03:11,379 --> 00:03:15,344 Revenue that would come out of it would probably be like 800,000 ounces. 60 00:03:16,689 --> 00:03:20,206 One and a half billion dollars, revenue-wise. 61 00:03:20,206 --> 00:03:23,275 So it's a huge project and it would be fun. 62 00:03:23,275 --> 00:03:25,931 Like... I'd enjoy that. 63 00:03:25,931 --> 00:03:27,620 Am I gonna set up in Brazil and live here 64 00:03:27,620 --> 00:03:28,689 for the next 20 years? 65 00:03:29,379 --> 00:03:30,793 I guess I'd probably have to. 66 00:03:33,413 --> 00:03:35,586 The other nice thing about it is 67 00:03:35,586 --> 00:03:38,310 the exploration techniques that we use in the Yukon 68 00:03:38,310 --> 00:03:40,482 are exactly what you'd use here, 69 00:03:40,482 --> 00:03:42,689 except for the analysis side. 70 00:03:42,689 --> 00:03:45,586 Instead of running them through a sluice box, you send them to a lab. 71 00:03:45,586 --> 00:03:48,827 [narrator] To test their worth, Parker needs to collect samples 72 00:03:48,827 --> 00:03:51,172 from the tailings and send them to a lab 73 00:03:51,172 --> 00:03:54,517 where they can be crushed and analyzed to determine 74 00:03:54,517 --> 00:03:56,689 their true gold content. 75 00:03:56,689 --> 00:03:58,000 It's hard to pan in there. 76 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:02,586 I should go somewhere where the water's not so rushing. 77 00:04:02,586 --> 00:04:06,551 For now, all he's got is a basic gold pan. 78 00:04:07,275 --> 00:04:08,482 Turn it to me some. 79 00:04:09,172 --> 00:04:10,206 What? 80 00:04:10,206 --> 00:04:13,103 -That's [bleep] gold. -Oh, yeah. 81 00:04:13,103 --> 00:04:14,896 That's incredible. 82 00:04:14,896 --> 00:04:16,689 Well, that's a good start. 83 00:04:16,689 --> 00:04:19,379 -Any luck? -Yeah, actually a pretty decent pan. 84 00:04:20,689 --> 00:04:24,103 The next step is to figure out what's there. 85 00:04:24,103 --> 00:04:27,275 [narrator] Before Parker can do anything more than a pan, 86 00:04:27,275 --> 00:04:29,896 he needs to approach the landowners. 87 00:04:29,896 --> 00:04:33,482 [Larissa] I have this document. It has all the official logs 88 00:04:33,482 --> 00:04:35,896 for the mining brief in the cooperative. 89 00:04:36,275 --> 00:04:37,344 Let's go. 90 00:04:40,379 --> 00:04:44,310 After 13 years of mining, the Serra Pelada pit 91 00:04:44,310 --> 00:04:48,068 was shut down by the government in 1992 92 00:04:48,068 --> 00:04:50,000 over safety concerns. 93 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:53,000 40,000 miners from the original rush 94 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,344 then formed a cooperative and acquired mining rights to the land. 95 00:05:01,586 --> 00:05:04,206 [Larissa] I think you should be careful because we really don't know 96 00:05:04,206 --> 00:05:06,413 the people, really don't know the power dynamics here. 97 00:05:06,413 --> 00:05:10,000 Right. If it were simple, it would have been mined by now. 98 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,068 [laughs] Yeah, no, it's very interesting. 99 00:05:13,068 --> 00:05:14,586 You know, with the cooperative, 100 00:05:14,586 --> 00:05:15,758 we just need to go talk to them. 101 00:05:19,379 --> 00:05:22,379 How do you think they're going to behave, Parker? 102 00:05:22,379 --> 00:05:24,827 [Parker] This meeting is gonna be a little difficult because 103 00:05:24,827 --> 00:05:31,275 there's a lot of emotion and history tied up here. 104 00:05:31,275 --> 00:05:33,896 I'm not sure what approach to take. 105 00:05:33,896 --> 00:05:37,275 I think the best way to do it is just to be super simple. 106 00:05:37,275 --> 00:05:39,482 We should say, okay, we would like to take some samples 107 00:05:39,482 --> 00:05:42,103 of the tailings and take them to a lab. 108 00:05:42,103 --> 00:05:44,862 I'll be curious to see what they say to that. 109 00:05:48,172 --> 00:05:50,275 it would be an amazing project. 110 00:05:50,275 --> 00:05:55,586 That desire can't be a part of the decision-making process, though. 111 00:05:55,586 --> 00:05:58,862 If you're in a negotiation and you're not willing to walk away, 112 00:05:59,310 --> 00:06:00,448 you're screwed. 113 00:06:01,896 --> 00:06:03,586 Well, this is it, I guess. 114 00:06:03,586 --> 00:06:07,689 [speaking Portuguese] [in English] They're all directors. 115 00:06:07,689 --> 00:06:10,758 -Parker. -[speaking Portuguese] 116 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,103 [Larissa] He wants us to go inside so then we can talk there. 117 00:06:16,103 --> 00:06:19,103 [narrator] Local miner Leonidas de Oliveira 118 00:06:19,103 --> 00:06:22,000 is one of the directors representing the interests 119 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:26,172 of the co-op, making sure all 40,000 members 120 00:06:26,172 --> 00:06:29,000 get a good deal out of any business arrangement. 121 00:06:36,275 --> 00:06:39,931 He wants to understand why we're having this meeting. 122 00:06:39,931 --> 00:06:42,275 What do you want here, actually? 123 00:06:42,275 --> 00:06:46,310 Serra Pelada has such a rich part of the history here, 124 00:06:46,310 --> 00:06:48,413 and we've traveled all over the world 125 00:06:48,413 --> 00:06:52,620 and been to a lot of areas, and we really try 126 00:06:52,620 --> 00:06:55,931 to understand what's going on in those areas, and, you know, 127 00:06:55,931 --> 00:06:58,034 from a gold miner's perspective. 128 00:07:26,172 --> 00:07:28,482 They already have some assessment that says 129 00:07:28,482 --> 00:07:31,448 it would be worth five trillion dollars. 130 00:07:37,896 --> 00:07:41,275 Like he is asking again the specific interest. 131 00:07:44,103 --> 00:07:47,275 Suddenly it feels like I'm getting put on the spot. 132 00:07:47,275 --> 00:07:49,896 [all laughing] 133 00:07:49,896 --> 00:07:52,379 One part of it that really interests me, 134 00:07:52,379 --> 00:07:53,793 probably interests me the most, 135 00:07:53,793 --> 00:07:57,275 is the tailings from the old pit. 136 00:07:57,275 --> 00:07:59,103 In the next few days, we could take 137 00:07:59,103 --> 00:08:03,413 a couple hundred samples and get them sent to a lab and tested. 138 00:08:03,413 --> 00:08:07,758 And it starts to build a bit of a model of like what's there. 139 00:08:19,172 --> 00:08:22,413 [Parker] It's obvious that there's still a lot of opportunity here, 140 00:08:22,413 --> 00:08:26,862 but a company is only going to pay for what you can prove is there. 141 00:08:35,379 --> 00:08:39,482 A company that's buying them is gonna be very biased 142 00:08:39,482 --> 00:08:42,206 -to say the value is low, right? -Yeah. 143 00:08:42,206 --> 00:08:45,206 Nobody's done anything about what might be in the tailings. 144 00:08:45,206 --> 00:08:48,896 -And right now, the value assigned to it is zero. -Yeah. 145 00:08:48,896 --> 00:08:51,103 Because there's no report done on it. 146 00:08:51,103 --> 00:08:54,655 And that's what a company would pay a lot of money for. 147 00:08:56,068 --> 00:08:59,310 I really think an impartial group studying it 148 00:08:59,310 --> 00:09:04,482 on their behalf and trying to sell it for the best price possible 149 00:09:04,482 --> 00:09:07,206 is going to maximize returns for them. 150 00:09:07,206 --> 00:09:10,172 -Mm-hmm. -We would take a cut of the sale price. 151 00:09:10,172 --> 00:09:13,034 So we want the purchase price to be as big as possible. 152 00:09:14,275 --> 00:09:17,310 [narrator] By proving the gold value of the tailings, 153 00:09:17,310 --> 00:09:21,310 Parker believes he can increase the co-op sale price 154 00:09:21,310 --> 00:09:24,413 in exchange for a cut of the profits. 155 00:09:24,413 --> 00:09:27,793 that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars 156 00:09:27,793 --> 00:09:31,724 without having to mine the tailings himself. 157 00:09:31,724 --> 00:09:33,482 [Parker] Let's make it real simple. 158 00:09:33,482 --> 00:09:37,379 If it does hit, you're the first one in the door 159 00:09:37,379 --> 00:09:40,413 in helping develop what could be 160 00:09:40,413 --> 00:09:41,896 a hugely profitable project. 161 00:09:41,896 --> 00:09:44,379 And I can live very comfortably for the rest of my life, right? 162 00:10:02,896 --> 00:10:04,448 -Perfect. Okay. -[in English] Okay. 163 00:10:06,310 --> 00:10:09,068 [all speaking in Portuguese] 164 00:10:09,068 --> 00:10:11,172 It would be an amazing project. 165 00:10:11,172 --> 00:10:13,724 There's a lot of things going for it. 166 00:10:13,724 --> 00:10:17,793 I'd love to get involved, but that's in the gray area. 167 00:10:17,793 --> 00:10:19,344 It's not black and white. 168 00:10:21,586 --> 00:10:23,586 [Danny] Mega exciting. 169 00:10:23,586 --> 00:10:25,896 They haven't heard something like that before. 170 00:10:25,896 --> 00:10:27,517 [Parker] It's what they need, though. Honestly, 171 00:10:27,517 --> 00:10:29,448 it'll 5x what they get out of it. 172 00:10:30,896 --> 00:10:32,827 [Larissa] They were not used to talk about the tailings. 173 00:10:32,827 --> 00:10:35,620 What Parker is proposing is like, let's start from zero. 174 00:10:35,620 --> 00:10:38,172 Let's do the mineral research as it should be done. 175 00:10:38,172 --> 00:10:40,586 Let's put a price, a correct price, 176 00:10:40,586 --> 00:10:42,413 and then let's go from there. 177 00:10:42,413 --> 00:10:45,068 This is the right way of doing a project. 178 00:10:45,068 --> 00:10:47,931 How many times do we see an opportunity like this? 179 00:10:47,931 --> 00:10:54,827 This is really something that I truly hope that Parker can move forward with. 180 00:10:54,827 --> 00:10:59,793 I do think you've got a lot of quite high-up dudes 181 00:10:59,793 --> 00:11:02,931 there all feeling very positive. 182 00:11:02,931 --> 00:11:04,724 I just, it's the biggest problem 183 00:11:04,724 --> 00:11:07,000 is when you don't have, you know, what did we have, 184 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,586 four out of seven of the directors? 185 00:11:09,586 --> 00:11:13,310 I guess what I'm getting at is, like, we didn't have enough for a decision. 186 00:11:13,310 --> 00:11:15,103 I'm very curious to see what happens. 187 00:11:15,103 --> 00:11:18,551 So am I. This is like dynamite. 188 00:11:29,586 --> 00:11:33,689 The lady here, Donna Maria, is she the loveliest lady 189 00:11:33,689 --> 00:11:36,000 -that you've ever met? -Bom dia. 190 00:11:36,448 --> 00:11:38,862 Morning, Donna Maria. 191 00:11:38,862 --> 00:11:42,034 [narrator] In the gold town of Serra Pelada, 192 00:11:42,034 --> 00:11:44,241 Parker's on a mission to find out 193 00:11:44,241 --> 00:11:48,172 if a multi-billion dollar payday sits in the waste piles 194 00:11:48,172 --> 00:11:51,344 from the original 1980s rush. 195 00:11:51,344 --> 00:11:52,862 Do you want to have some coffee? 196 00:11:52,862 --> 00:11:55,758 But until he gets the go-ahead from the cooperative 197 00:11:55,758 --> 00:11:59,482 that owns the mining rights, he can't test for gold. 198 00:11:59,482 --> 00:12:01,793 Right now, we're just kind of waiting for the co-op to make 199 00:12:01,793 --> 00:12:05,172 a decision on whether we can sample the gold tailings. 200 00:12:05,172 --> 00:12:08,000 [Parker] There could be billions of dollars of gold still in the ground. 201 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,068 You know, it's a huge project. 202 00:12:10,068 --> 00:12:11,862 [Danny] What's the plan for the day, 203 00:12:11,862 --> 00:12:14,965 while the cooperative are having to think about whether or not 204 00:12:14,965 --> 00:12:17,000 we can actually do any of that stuff? 205 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,379 [Larissa] I think we should first just speak with the lab. 206 00:12:19,379 --> 00:12:20,896 Do you have the number? 207 00:12:20,896 --> 00:12:22,172 -This morning? -Yes, I can call them. 208 00:12:22,172 --> 00:12:25,275 So, I mean, we know exactly what they could provide us, 209 00:12:25,275 --> 00:12:28,379 -like the time of the analysis and all that. -Cool. 210 00:12:28,379 --> 00:12:31,172 -What was the name of the guy we met last night? -Jonas. 211 00:12:31,172 --> 00:12:32,379 -Jonas. -Jonas. 212 00:12:32,379 --> 00:12:33,793 -Yeah, Jonas. -Jonas. 213 00:12:33,793 --> 00:12:35,172 He wanted to take us prospecting, I think? 214 00:12:35,172 --> 00:12:36,862 Yeah, I think we wanted to go prospecting. 215 00:12:36,862 --> 00:12:38,379 It's a different area. 216 00:12:38,379 --> 00:12:40,275 I don't know how far away from here it is, 217 00:12:40,275 --> 00:12:43,344 but I think it would be interesting to prospect earlier. 218 00:12:43,344 --> 00:12:45,344 So we could split up and you and I could go with him. 219 00:12:46,758 --> 00:12:50,137 -We can do the prospecting. -I'm jealous. 220 00:12:50,137 --> 00:12:52,758 You guys are off prospecting. I always like prospecting. 221 00:12:52,758 --> 00:12:53,758 It's exciting. 222 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:57,344 You need to go absolutely mental if you see 223 00:12:57,344 --> 00:12:59,034 -a little bit of gold in the pan, all right? -I'll try. 224 00:12:59,034 --> 00:13:00,137 Go full Danny. 225 00:13:01,379 --> 00:13:03,655 I mean, never go full Danny. 226 00:13:04,448 --> 00:13:06,448 I can't. I don't have the energy for that. 227 00:13:06,448 --> 00:13:08,862 Plenty to do. Awesome. 228 00:13:08,862 --> 00:13:11,793 Nice one. Obrigado. Tchau. 229 00:13:11,793 --> 00:13:14,000 Tchau. Obrigada. 230 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:18,482 Danny and Larissa stay behind to wait for a call from the co-op 231 00:13:18,482 --> 00:13:22,241 and line up a lab to test any tailing samples, 232 00:13:22,241 --> 00:13:26,241 while Parker and Diego head three and a half miles north 233 00:13:26,241 --> 00:13:30,103 to prospect in the wilderness surrounding Serra Pelada. 234 00:13:30,103 --> 00:13:33,137 It's hard for me to believe that there's this rich of a hard rock deposit 235 00:13:33,137 --> 00:13:36,586 and not some really good placer around it. 236 00:13:36,586 --> 00:13:38,551 Seven years of doing these trips, 237 00:13:38,551 --> 00:13:41,586 this is by far the richest place that we've ever been. 238 00:13:41,586 --> 00:13:44,965 I think that it's about time to go do some prospecting. 239 00:13:44,965 --> 00:13:48,275 I met this guy, Jonas, and he said he knows some areas here. 240 00:13:48,275 --> 00:13:51,586 Um, so we're going to go get the rust off 241 00:13:51,586 --> 00:13:52,655 the old gold pan there. 242 00:14:02,172 --> 00:14:04,551 [both speaking Portuguese] 243 00:14:07,896 --> 00:14:10,034 Okay, let's go. Tá bom. 244 00:14:10,034 --> 00:14:14,896 [narrator] With so much attention directed at the huge Serra Pelada pit, 245 00:14:14,896 --> 00:14:18,793 Jonas is one of just a few miners looking for gold 246 00:14:18,793 --> 00:14:21,758 in the region's waterways, 247 00:14:21,758 --> 00:14:25,724 where there could be huge untapped placer deposits. 248 00:14:31,379 --> 00:14:32,689 Oh, wow. 249 00:14:37,379 --> 00:14:40,758 He has always been involved in mining because of his family. 250 00:14:40,758 --> 00:14:41,827 [Parker] Right. 251 00:14:43,655 --> 00:14:46,241 [narrator] Over millions of years, hard rock gold 252 00:14:46,241 --> 00:14:51,793 from the Serra Pelada vein erodes into ancient rivers and streams. 253 00:14:51,793 --> 00:14:55,379 This heavy gold settles as slow-moving currents 254 00:14:55,379 --> 00:14:57,344 deposit it on the riverbed. 255 00:14:59,482 --> 00:15:03,103 Over many years, Jonas has decoded the land 256 00:15:03,103 --> 00:15:06,517 to track down these pockets of placer gold. 257 00:15:12,379 --> 00:15:15,862 [Parker] That's awesome. Good job. 258 00:15:15,862 --> 00:15:21,172 [narrator] 80 grams is worth over $5,000 and could be an indicator 259 00:15:21,172 --> 00:15:24,137 of even bigger deposits beneath the surface. 260 00:15:33,689 --> 00:15:35,724 [in English] Otherwise, we have to walk 10K. 261 00:15:36,172 --> 00:15:37,068 Yeah? 262 00:15:37,068 --> 00:15:38,655 Yeah, yeah. 263 00:15:43,896 --> 00:15:47,000 It's a [bleep] long way down there. 264 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,482 Jonas believes the strength of the falls forces gold deposits 265 00:15:51,482 --> 00:15:57,034 into the pool below, known by miners as a glory hole. 266 00:15:57,034 --> 00:16:00,068 But first, they have to get down there. 267 00:16:00,068 --> 00:16:02,482 -We need to rappel. -Do you have any rope? 268 00:16:02,482 --> 00:16:03,620 Yeah. 269 00:16:03,620 --> 00:16:06,793 Yeah, let's build a system and let's get down there. 270 00:16:06,793 --> 00:16:09,000 I'm positive when I say that you can only be 271 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:10,758 as much prepared as you can actually be. 272 00:16:10,758 --> 00:16:13,103 Like, we brought all the equipment. 273 00:16:13,103 --> 00:16:15,896 We will just need to be prepared to face whatever 274 00:16:15,896 --> 00:16:18,241 challenge pops up in front of us. 275 00:16:19,689 --> 00:16:21,137 What if your rope's not long enough? 276 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:23,965 Like 30 meters. 277 00:16:25,241 --> 00:16:26,896 That is more than 30 meters. 278 00:16:26,896 --> 00:16:28,655 -You think so? -Yeah. 35. 279 00:16:31,655 --> 00:16:32,862 [Parker] One way to find out. 280 00:16:38,655 --> 00:16:40,965 -Okay, you ready? -Eh. 281 00:16:49,172 --> 00:16:50,758 Oh, [bleep]. 282 00:16:51,344 --> 00:16:53,241 Oh, [bleep]. 283 00:16:53,793 --> 00:16:55,137 Rocks are slippery. 284 00:16:57,896 --> 00:17:00,310 What the [bleep] did I do for this [bleep] job? 285 00:17:07,482 --> 00:17:08,723 [bleep] 286 00:17:16,137 --> 00:17:17,550 That was a little sketchy. 287 00:17:22,758 --> 00:17:23,931 Probably not. 288 00:17:28,862 --> 00:17:31,896 I hope there's gold in here because we did something 289 00:17:31,896 --> 00:17:33,000 really crazy right now. 290 00:17:35,275 --> 00:17:36,448 Let's go find some gold. 291 00:17:43,896 --> 00:17:46,206 -I'm gonna try one down here. -Yeah. 292 00:18:04,448 --> 00:18:06,758 No. [in Portuguese] 293 00:18:08,862 --> 00:18:10,862 It's just bedrock and boulders. 294 00:18:18,551 --> 00:18:22,344 [narrator] Jonas believes the force of recent flash floods 295 00:18:22,344 --> 00:18:27,000 has washed the heavy sediment and gold further downstream. 296 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:28,965 -That makes sense. -Yeah. 297 00:18:35,862 --> 00:18:38,448 In town... 298 00:18:38,448 --> 00:18:41,482 ...Larissa has received a call from the co-op. 299 00:18:41,482 --> 00:18:42,965 [speaking Portuguese] 300 00:18:53,482 --> 00:18:56,000 [in English] The guy from the cooperative gave me a call. 301 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,379 -They have a decision? -He wouldn't tell me. 302 00:18:58,379 --> 00:19:01,172 Told if it was possible for us to go there 303 00:19:01,172 --> 00:19:04,172 tomorrow morning so we can have a second talk. 304 00:19:04,172 --> 00:19:05,344 Did he sound happy? 305 00:19:06,482 --> 00:19:08,793 I don't know. When we talk with the cooperative, 306 00:19:08,793 --> 00:19:11,241 it's always hard to tell what they're really thinking. 307 00:19:13,379 --> 00:19:15,965 But we just have to wait for Parker to return. 308 00:19:19,758 --> 00:19:20,655 Oh. 309 00:19:24,379 --> 00:19:26,000 That's good material. 310 00:19:29,068 --> 00:19:31,448 It's good material, different material than usual. 311 00:19:31,448 --> 00:19:34,586 [narrator] A quarter mile downstream from the waterfall... 312 00:19:34,586 --> 00:19:37,206 [Parker] I have to ask him to teach you how to pan. 313 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:39,758 I can't use one of those things. 314 00:19:39,758 --> 00:19:42,275 I mean, I can, but I'm not very good. 315 00:19:42,275 --> 00:19:45,655 Parker, Jonas and Diego have found a spot 316 00:19:45,655 --> 00:19:48,000 with good signifiers of gold. 317 00:20:02,551 --> 00:20:03,551 Oh. 318 00:20:06,068 --> 00:20:08,034 [Parker] Oh, yeah. Well, that's pretty good. 319 00:20:10,896 --> 00:20:13,000 Yeah, it's kind of interesting that there's not a lot of, 320 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:15,068 like, placer mining going on. 321 00:20:15,068 --> 00:20:19,103 It sounds like there's never been any super large-scale placer mining. 322 00:20:19,103 --> 00:20:22,827 And I think these areas have a lot of untapped potential. 323 00:20:23,896 --> 00:20:25,000 I found some gold. 324 00:20:26,275 --> 00:20:29,448 This is cool. My first successful pan. 325 00:20:29,896 --> 00:20:31,137 Am I a gold miner now? 326 00:20:31,137 --> 00:20:32,482 You're hooked. 327 00:20:32,482 --> 00:20:35,275 [Parker] Right now, the decision on whether we can sample 328 00:20:35,275 --> 00:20:39,965 the old tailings, you know, that's like my main focus here. 329 00:20:54,103 --> 00:20:55,551 -Ah! -What? 330 00:20:55,551 --> 00:20:58,620 It doesn't even fit in the hole. [laughs] 331 00:21:00,965 --> 00:21:04,000 -You guys are working hard. -Absolutely not. 332 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,172 Diego threw me off a waterfall. 333 00:21:06,172 --> 00:21:09,068 -Control descent. -You abseiled down a waterfall. 334 00:21:09,068 --> 00:21:10,689 Wicked. 335 00:21:10,689 --> 00:21:13,586 We called the lab, talked to the guy a little bit 336 00:21:13,586 --> 00:21:15,379 about the methodology and about that, 337 00:21:15,379 --> 00:21:17,586 so I have the notes here I can send to you. 338 00:21:17,586 --> 00:21:20,103 We still don't have the authorization from the cooperative, 339 00:21:20,103 --> 00:21:22,344 but they called us and they want to meet tomorrow. 340 00:21:24,275 --> 00:21:27,000 [Danny] Tomorrow morning, we speak to the cooperative 341 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,551 and find out what their decision is. 342 00:21:30,448 --> 00:21:33,241 [Parker] I'm so curious about these tailings. 343 00:21:33,241 --> 00:21:36,689 I really just want to get something going with the co-op. 344 00:21:36,689 --> 00:21:38,482 Hopefully, we'll get some answers soon. 345 00:21:38,482 --> 00:21:39,655 -Probably-- -Behind the back? 346 00:21:40,172 --> 00:21:42,172 -Like that? Like this? -Yeah. 347 00:21:42,172 --> 00:21:43,379 Yeah. 348 00:21:43,379 --> 00:21:47,482 [all exclaiming, laughing] 349 00:21:47,482 --> 00:21:48,448 [exclaims] 350 00:22:02,758 --> 00:22:04,482 Bom dia. 351 00:22:04,482 --> 00:22:07,448 [narrator] In the gold rush town of Serra Pelada, Brazil... 352 00:22:09,034 --> 00:22:11,448 I get that they have to, like, consult a board, 353 00:22:11,448 --> 00:22:14,655 but it's not a complicated thing we're asking for. 354 00:22:14,655 --> 00:22:18,448 It's a free, you know, set of results for your guys' property, right? 355 00:22:19,689 --> 00:22:21,896 I've kind of gotten a little bit obsessed. 356 00:22:21,896 --> 00:22:24,586 If they say yes and the results are good, 357 00:22:24,586 --> 00:22:27,896 we'll go from like 0.5% on the progress bar 358 00:22:27,896 --> 00:22:29,758 to like 1%. 359 00:22:30,379 --> 00:22:32,103 It's a big jump, that's a double. 360 00:22:32,103 --> 00:22:34,620 But I have no idea what's gonna happen in the room. 361 00:22:36,137 --> 00:22:39,862 [narrator] ... Parker is about to find out if he has the green light 362 00:22:39,862 --> 00:22:41,448 from the local mining co-op... 363 00:22:41,448 --> 00:22:46,137 -Bom dia. -...to test for a potential $2 billion payday. 364 00:22:49,103 --> 00:22:53,068 He's saying, as two of the directors are not here, 365 00:22:53,068 --> 00:22:58,482 they still haven't agreed for us to take the samples 366 00:22:58,482 --> 00:23:00,965 from the tailings or for anywhere else. 367 00:23:05,965 --> 00:23:07,724 [Parker] We're just a bit pressed for time. 368 00:23:10,379 --> 00:23:12,724 I was really hoping to be able to do this today. 369 00:23:15,862 --> 00:23:18,551 [Parker] I really do wanna try to make something happen, 370 00:23:18,551 --> 00:23:21,862 but when you're in a corner and feel like you have to have something, 371 00:23:21,862 --> 00:23:24,103 or actually have to have something, 372 00:23:24,103 --> 00:23:26,241 um, you better hope nobody else knows it. 373 00:23:28,689 --> 00:23:32,689 What if we sent the samples in to the lab 374 00:23:32,689 --> 00:23:34,551 under the cooperative's name? 375 00:23:35,896 --> 00:23:40,275 And we're really just not really involved other than 376 00:23:40,275 --> 00:23:42,103 in just collecting them? 377 00:23:42,103 --> 00:23:45,344 The issue then is, will they share the results with us? 378 00:23:45,586 --> 00:23:46,655 Ah, yes. 379 00:23:50,344 --> 00:23:54,758 [both discussing in Portuguese] 380 00:24:02,862 --> 00:24:04,551 -He's saying we can go now. -Okay. 381 00:24:04,551 --> 00:24:06,172 They will be willing to go with us. 382 00:24:06,172 --> 00:24:07,344 Okay, sweet. 383 00:24:11,482 --> 00:24:14,172 -[Danny] Really exciting. -It's never simple, is it? 384 00:24:15,137 --> 00:24:17,068 [bleep] smart, though. Well done. 385 00:24:18,586 --> 00:24:21,448 [Larissa] We are going to go together with the cooperative 386 00:24:21,448 --> 00:24:23,068 in the mining site. 387 00:24:23,068 --> 00:24:26,862 We are going to take some of the tailings, send to the lab under their name. 388 00:24:26,862 --> 00:24:30,172 We are paying for them and helping them out, 389 00:24:30,172 --> 00:24:33,000 so that's why they agreed to it. 390 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,551 [Parker] The people that aren't in the room was my big concern. 391 00:24:35,551 --> 00:24:36,793 If everybody had been in the room, 392 00:24:36,793 --> 00:24:38,862 it probably would have been fine. 393 00:24:38,862 --> 00:24:40,655 We're taking a bit of a risk here in that 394 00:24:40,655 --> 00:24:42,758 we don't get access to the results now, 395 00:24:42,758 --> 00:24:44,275 'cause it won't be our name on the paperwork 396 00:24:44,275 --> 00:24:46,965 with the lab, but a risk worth taking. 397 00:24:46,965 --> 00:24:49,689 I just want to see what's in some rocks. 398 00:24:49,689 --> 00:24:53,103 But I wasn't too stoked on taking no for an answer, 399 00:24:53,103 --> 00:24:56,000 so hopefully this works. 400 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,000 [narrator] With the go-ahead to test the tailings, 401 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,068 Parker is back in one of the only working pieces 402 00:25:03,068 --> 00:25:05,655 of equipment in Serra Pelada... 403 00:25:05,655 --> 00:25:07,137 [Danny] You love a backhoe. 404 00:25:07,137 --> 00:25:08,758 [narrator] ...a rented backhoe. 405 00:25:14,068 --> 00:25:15,724 [bleep] 406 00:25:18,172 --> 00:25:19,310 [Parker on radio] Diego. 407 00:25:20,241 --> 00:25:22,103 Parker. 408 00:25:22,103 --> 00:25:25,206 - [man] We're out of fuel. - [Parker] It's blinking on empty. 409 00:25:25,896 --> 00:25:28,862 We need to go to a gas station. 410 00:25:28,862 --> 00:25:31,758 [Danny] Do you know where there's a gas station in town? 411 00:25:31,758 --> 00:25:34,344 If you go straight, there is a gas station there. 412 00:25:43,241 --> 00:25:46,896 Imagine if you're a Gold Rush fan in this town and you just see Parker Schnabel 413 00:25:46,896 --> 00:25:48,689 driving down your high street. 414 00:25:48,689 --> 00:25:50,275 [Diego] Yeah, running to your gas station. 415 00:25:50,275 --> 00:25:51,862 -Yeah. -Like, "Hi." 416 00:26:06,689 --> 00:26:09,068 Oh, here it comes, the big guns. 417 00:26:09,068 --> 00:26:10,413 -Are you sure? -Yeah. 418 00:26:13,758 --> 00:26:14,931 What's happening? 419 00:26:17,689 --> 00:26:18,862 No? 420 00:26:19,965 --> 00:26:21,862 -[exclaims] -Try it again. 421 00:26:23,896 --> 00:26:25,931 -Should try it again. -You run out of cash, Parker? 422 00:26:29,068 --> 00:26:31,896 -No. -[all laughing] 423 00:26:31,896 --> 00:26:34,758 My credit card doesn't get declined almost anywhere. 424 00:26:36,068 --> 00:26:37,827 -See? -[laughs] 425 00:26:38,689 --> 00:26:42,000 -She wants to take a picture. -[laughs] 426 00:26:46,344 --> 00:26:48,793 What we said in the car happened. 427 00:26:48,793 --> 00:26:50,172 - [Parker] Obrigado. - [Danny] Obrigado. 428 00:26:50,172 --> 00:26:51,724 [Larissa] Obrigada. Tchau. 429 00:26:55,034 --> 00:26:59,000 [narrator] Fueled up, Parker and the team head to the tailings piles 430 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,068 to meet the co-op members. 431 00:27:04,689 --> 00:27:05,758 Oh, yeah. 432 00:27:06,655 --> 00:27:10,172 Nice. No, this is exactly what we're looking for. 433 00:27:10,172 --> 00:27:12,551 -Is all of that tailings? -[man speaks in Portuguese] 434 00:27:12,551 --> 00:27:13,620 [Larissa] Yeah. 435 00:27:14,689 --> 00:27:16,896 [Parker] Sweet. Yeah, no, this is perfect. 436 00:27:16,896 --> 00:27:20,344 My plan right now would be to dig, like, 437 00:27:20,344 --> 00:27:23,275 three or four holes from where the backhoe is that way, 438 00:27:23,275 --> 00:27:26,793 testing depth, and then take a bunch of the other samples 439 00:27:26,793 --> 00:27:30,551 from these walls and some of the rocks down there and whatnot. 440 00:27:32,344 --> 00:27:33,931 That's good? 441 00:27:36,379 --> 00:27:41,103 [narrator] Parker is searching for rocks containing gold, known as ore. 442 00:27:41,103 --> 00:27:44,137 But across the 4 million tons of tailings 443 00:27:44,137 --> 00:27:47,655 from the Serra Pelada pit are unprocessed rocks 444 00:27:47,655 --> 00:27:50,448 that could be rich with gold nuggets, 445 00:27:50,448 --> 00:27:54,241 as well as rocks that have already been broken apart 446 00:27:54,241 --> 00:27:59,275 and the nuggets removed, but might still hold fine gold. 447 00:27:59,275 --> 00:28:02,482 To find where the gold concentration is highest, 448 00:28:02,482 --> 00:28:05,172 Parker will dig in 10 different areas, 449 00:28:05,172 --> 00:28:07,896 collecting 10 samples from each hole, 450 00:28:07,896 --> 00:28:11,689 meticulously labeling the depth and location 451 00:28:11,689 --> 00:28:12,862 of each one. 452 00:28:14,689 --> 00:28:17,000 This looks like a rock full of ore. 453 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,241 -Yeah. -I want a piece of that rock, 454 00:28:20,655 --> 00:28:22,448 but not the whole thing. 455 00:28:22,448 --> 00:28:24,862 -[Diego] I'm going to throw it down. -Oh. 456 00:28:26,482 --> 00:28:29,482 He's got a very different way of behaving 457 00:28:29,482 --> 00:28:31,896 when he's in kind of mine boss mode 458 00:28:31,896 --> 00:28:35,275 to when he's doing Parker's Trail. 459 00:28:35,275 --> 00:28:37,344 Just chuck it down right here. 460 00:28:37,344 --> 00:28:40,103 He quite likes keeping his cards a little bit close to his chest. 461 00:28:40,103 --> 00:28:41,896 You know, that's just how he works. 462 00:28:41,896 --> 00:28:43,793 But, I mean, you can see he's very excited 463 00:28:43,793 --> 00:28:45,724 by the whole kind of prospecting. 464 00:28:46,586 --> 00:28:48,896 [Parker] I don't know anything about geology. 465 00:28:48,896 --> 00:28:50,586 It never seems to have been of use. 466 00:28:50,586 --> 00:28:53,448 I wish now I would have taken some of the geology stuff 467 00:28:53,448 --> 00:28:56,172 a little bit more seriously, but is there gold in it 468 00:28:56,172 --> 00:28:57,896 or is there not gold in it? Can you get a deal done 469 00:28:57,896 --> 00:28:59,068 or can you not get a deal done? 470 00:28:59,068 --> 00:29:00,413 That's all that really matters. 471 00:29:01,586 --> 00:29:02,896 [Diego] Don't go crazy. 472 00:29:02,896 --> 00:29:03,965 Oh, no. 473 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:06,551 Is he... is he okay? 474 00:29:09,965 --> 00:29:11,448 [Parker] [bleep] hard rock. 475 00:29:12,862 --> 00:29:13,758 There we go. 476 00:29:14,689 --> 00:29:15,931 Put this in your bag. 477 00:29:19,965 --> 00:29:21,551 -Having fun? -Yeah. 478 00:29:30,413 --> 00:29:31,724 [Parker] Look at this rock. 479 00:29:32,896 --> 00:29:35,000 -Isn't that like the coolest [bleep] rock ever? -[Danny] Wow. 480 00:29:36,689 --> 00:29:43,448 [narrator] In the waste piles of Brazil's $5.7 billion 1980s gold rush... 481 00:29:45,103 --> 00:29:46,551 Has it got gold in it? 482 00:29:46,551 --> 00:29:48,103 I bet there's gold in that rock. 483 00:29:48,103 --> 00:29:51,517 ...Parker may be on the verge of his biggest ever 484 00:29:51,517 --> 00:29:53,793 -investment opportunity. -You reckon? 485 00:29:53,793 --> 00:29:58,965 If the 1980s miners left unprocessed gold in their tailings, 486 00:29:58,965 --> 00:30:03,172 Parker could be standing on nearly $2 billion 487 00:30:03,172 --> 00:30:05,310 of undiscovered gold. 488 00:30:05,310 --> 00:30:07,827 -How can there not be? Look at it. -Pretty excited, aren't you? 489 00:30:07,827 --> 00:30:09,586 That rock makes me excited. 490 00:30:10,448 --> 00:30:13,689 Now he's collecting samples to send to a lab 491 00:30:13,689 --> 00:30:17,448 to find out if his theory is right. 492 00:30:17,448 --> 00:30:20,241 [Parker] What I'll do is I'll just take a scoop of dirt out of a bucket. 493 00:30:20,241 --> 00:30:22,482 -You'll just shovel into this bag. -Okay. 494 00:30:23,344 --> 00:30:25,655 Um, you just look pretty and do your thing. 495 00:30:25,655 --> 00:30:27,310 -Yeah. -And then each scoop, 496 00:30:27,310 --> 00:30:30,241 you'll just label five, six, seven, eight. 497 00:30:30,241 --> 00:30:32,655 -And then I should probably fill the hole back in. -Okay. 498 00:30:35,137 --> 00:30:40,206 Parker's plan is to bag up 100 samples containing dirt 499 00:30:40,206 --> 00:30:43,931 and rocks discarded from the old pit, 500 00:30:43,931 --> 00:30:48,482 all of which could still contain quantities of fine gold. 501 00:30:49,862 --> 00:30:51,344 Hole number one. 502 00:30:51,344 --> 00:30:55,896 Each scoop of dirt represents a new layer of tailings piled here 503 00:30:55,896 --> 00:30:59,068 during the 13-year-long gold rush. 504 00:30:59,068 --> 00:31:02,827 Each sample we're trying to be deeper and deeper and deeper. 505 00:31:02,827 --> 00:31:04,482 Ooh, that's a good one. 506 00:31:06,827 --> 00:31:12,137 [Parker] It seems hard for me to believe that there wouldn't be at least 30% losses 507 00:31:12,137 --> 00:31:14,620 or something when they were mining in the '80s. 508 00:31:14,620 --> 00:31:17,655 Doesn't help that I'm, like, bad on the controls. 509 00:31:19,172 --> 00:31:21,172 -Oh! -Sorry. 510 00:31:23,482 --> 00:31:28,000 [narrator] While Parker digs, Dani catches up with the co-op members. 511 00:31:29,517 --> 00:31:31,310 [in Portuguese] 512 00:31:41,620 --> 00:31:45,551 -[whooshing] -Oh, you think it was a comet 513 00:31:45,551 --> 00:31:46,827 from outer space? 514 00:31:48,068 --> 00:31:49,827 [reading question in Portuguese] 515 00:31:56,275 --> 00:31:58,517 Oh. [laughs] 516 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:04,931 That's a bag from 1980. 517 00:32:04,931 --> 00:32:07,206 -Looks like... -Yeah, cool. 518 00:32:07,206 --> 00:32:09,103 We're definitely in the right place. 519 00:32:09,103 --> 00:32:11,620 Don't be afraid to take four big scoops out 520 00:32:11,620 --> 00:32:14,482 from the top first and just throw them 521 00:32:14,482 --> 00:32:16,241 on the ground here and get one from 522 00:32:16,241 --> 00:32:17,862 in the middle too, you know what I mean? 523 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,275 That's as deep as that hole's going to get. 524 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,172 [Larissa] I know pretty much everything about mineral research. 525 00:32:29,172 --> 00:32:31,896 Another thing is like to be part of it. 526 00:32:31,896 --> 00:32:33,689 And now I'm part of it. 527 00:32:33,689 --> 00:32:36,482 And this is the moment of truth for us to know 528 00:32:36,482 --> 00:32:40,000 if there is some potential in the tailings or not. 529 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:41,517 So we are very excited. 530 00:32:42,724 --> 00:32:43,896 That's enough. 531 00:32:46,344 --> 00:32:49,068 Okay, back number seven. 532 00:32:51,172 --> 00:32:55,689 [narrator] First hole complete, Parker moves on in search of coarser, 533 00:32:55,689 --> 00:32:58,000 potentially richer material. 534 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,862 [Parker] What I'm trying to figure out, did, like, everything have gold in it? 535 00:33:00,862 --> 00:33:04,551 And get, like, kind of a broad idea of what's going on. 536 00:33:04,551 --> 00:33:07,068 And the only way to do that is to get a, 537 00:33:07,793 --> 00:33:09,586 you know, a profile. 538 00:33:09,586 --> 00:33:11,344 I think we're going in there. 539 00:33:11,344 --> 00:33:13,310 -No. -The next one we do will be behind 540 00:33:13,310 --> 00:33:16,827 this tree down there, which is a lot easier to get into. 541 00:33:21,931 --> 00:33:23,137 There's big rocks in it. 542 00:33:23,137 --> 00:33:25,551 Take some of them every now and then, too. 543 00:33:25,551 --> 00:33:27,655 -In the same bag? -Yeah, like, take that. 544 00:33:30,793 --> 00:33:34,275 So were they, like, hand-picking out stuff to crush 545 00:33:34,275 --> 00:33:36,310 and doing it by, like, visual? 546 00:33:36,310 --> 00:33:37,827 Because, like, why would there be big rock 547 00:33:37,827 --> 00:33:40,034 mixed in with the material that they've crushed? 548 00:33:42,103 --> 00:33:44,655 [narrator] Parker's theory is that the bigger rocks 549 00:33:44,655 --> 00:33:47,655 are from the early days of Serra Pelada, 550 00:33:47,655 --> 00:33:52,310 when large gold nuggets were easily broken away from the veins. 551 00:33:53,931 --> 00:33:55,448 If he's right... 552 00:33:55,448 --> 00:33:59,000 The fine gold inside the leftover rocks 553 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,655 could still be worth a fortune. 554 00:34:04,103 --> 00:34:05,793 If it's going to be super rocky, 555 00:34:05,793 --> 00:34:07,655 -we could just grab some rocks. -Yeah? 556 00:34:08,206 --> 00:34:09,206 Yeah. 557 00:34:11,862 --> 00:34:14,241 Someone is happy. 558 00:34:14,241 --> 00:34:17,655 [Parker] Of all the places I've ever been in the world in the last decade, 559 00:34:17,655 --> 00:34:22,516 this is probably the most interesting prospect I've ever seen. 560 00:34:22,516 --> 00:34:25,275 It would baffle me if there's not a project here. 561 00:34:26,034 --> 00:34:28,000 This will be the last one. 562 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,137 -It's just I can't keep it from caving in. -Okay. 563 00:34:36,896 --> 00:34:39,655 [narrator] As Parker fills in his second test hole... 564 00:34:39,655 --> 00:34:41,793 -[Parker] Yeah. -[woman speaking] 565 00:34:44,724 --> 00:34:47,310 [narrator] ...he receives a call from the film crew. 566 00:34:59,620 --> 00:35:00,482 What? 567 00:35:00,482 --> 00:35:03,586 Some guys just showed up to the hotel. 568 00:35:03,586 --> 00:35:05,379 They've said that the guys we've been working with 569 00:35:05,379 --> 00:35:07,068 don't have any right to this ground. 570 00:35:09,275 --> 00:35:11,758 They're saying that the guys that we've been meeting with, like, 571 00:35:11,758 --> 00:35:14,689 from the co-op, aren't legit. 572 00:35:15,413 --> 00:35:16,344 Yeah. 573 00:35:17,379 --> 00:35:19,413 Oh, [bleep]. 574 00:35:19,413 --> 00:35:23,896 If Parker doesn't have permission from the rightful owners to test this ground... 575 00:35:23,896 --> 00:35:27,206 So I think, before we do anything, we need to go talk to them. 576 00:35:28,310 --> 00:35:31,827 ...it throws the entire tailings project into question. 577 00:35:31,827 --> 00:35:33,344 All right. 578 00:35:33,344 --> 00:35:35,000 We can go back and talk to them. 579 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:36,586 This will be interesting. 580 00:35:36,586 --> 00:35:38,241 -We'll get everybody ready. -All right. 581 00:35:49,551 --> 00:35:51,241 How much water have we got? Let's have a look. 582 00:35:51,241 --> 00:35:55,551 [narrator] Danny is putting his engineering skills to the test. 583 00:35:55,551 --> 00:36:00,103 500 milliliters weighs 1.1 pounds. 584 00:36:00,103 --> 00:36:05,379 The sample bags for the lab must not exceed 10 pounds. 585 00:36:05,379 --> 00:36:08,344 So we need nine of these. That's 10 pounds. 586 00:36:08,344 --> 00:36:12,206 Danny's plan is to bush fix together a balance 587 00:36:12,206 --> 00:36:13,896 to weigh the bags. 588 00:36:13,896 --> 00:36:17,344 We have a bowling knot, 10 pounds. 589 00:36:17,344 --> 00:36:20,172 The pulley, which is going to go there. 590 00:36:20,551 --> 00:36:22,620 [chuckles] Cool. 591 00:36:22,620 --> 00:36:24,896 So the second that lifts off the ground, 592 00:36:24,896 --> 00:36:26,206 you've got 10 pounds. 593 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:29,448 The magic moment. 594 00:36:38,862 --> 00:36:40,551 Perfect. 595 00:36:40,551 --> 00:36:44,275 Means all these samples are going to be pretty much 596 00:36:44,275 --> 00:36:46,034 around 10 pounds. 597 00:36:58,241 --> 00:37:01,172 -They look official. -Yeah, they do. 598 00:37:02,310 --> 00:37:03,551 [Danny] Is that them down there? 599 00:37:03,551 --> 00:37:06,206 [narrator] On the outskirts of Serra Pelada... 600 00:37:06,206 --> 00:37:07,931 [Parker] Do you guys know what's going on? 601 00:37:10,896 --> 00:37:11,896 You heard anything? 602 00:37:13,896 --> 00:37:15,172 They'll go on camera? 603 00:37:15,172 --> 00:37:18,517 ...Parker has been called away from his testing project 604 00:37:18,517 --> 00:37:21,448 to attend an urgent meeting with another group 605 00:37:21,448 --> 00:37:24,137 who claim to be the official representatives 606 00:37:24,137 --> 00:37:26,896 of the Serra Pelada Mining Cooperative. 607 00:37:30,896 --> 00:37:32,448 [Larissa in Portuguese] 608 00:37:38,586 --> 00:37:41,206 Is there somewhere we can go to talk? 609 00:37:41,206 --> 00:37:42,241 [Diego] There's a room we can use here, I think. 610 00:37:42,241 --> 00:37:44,344 -[Larissa] Yeah, we can go in the room. -Yeah. 611 00:37:47,448 --> 00:37:50,310 Seven or eight guys have turned up claiming that they're the real directors 612 00:37:50,310 --> 00:37:54,862 of the cooperative, which creates a lot of complications. 613 00:37:58,275 --> 00:38:02,965 A for Parker's proposal and B for our filming legalities. 614 00:38:02,965 --> 00:38:07,344 So, we're listening. We have these, we can hear their mics, so... 615 00:38:08,827 --> 00:38:10,310 Do you want to start, or... 616 00:38:10,862 --> 00:38:12,034 I don't know what's going on. 617 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,275 [speaking Portuguese] 618 00:38:26,793 --> 00:38:28,724 [Larissa] He's managing the cooperative right now, 619 00:38:28,724 --> 00:38:31,034 and he heard that we were here, 620 00:38:31,034 --> 00:38:33,586 we were talking with the cooperative. 621 00:38:33,586 --> 00:38:36,241 Currently, the board of directors 622 00:38:36,241 --> 00:38:39,344 are formed by seven directors. 623 00:38:39,344 --> 00:38:40,931 Four of them are here. 624 00:38:40,931 --> 00:38:43,310 The majority of the board is here with us. 625 00:38:46,379 --> 00:38:48,137 When we showed up in Serra Pelada, 626 00:38:48,137 --> 00:38:52,068 Leonidas said exactly that, that there was only 627 00:38:52,068 --> 00:38:53,965 partial representation in the room 628 00:38:53,965 --> 00:38:56,793 -when we were meeting them. He was very clear about that. -Yeah. 629 00:38:56,793 --> 00:38:58,344 He said that he was going to contact, 630 00:38:58,344 --> 00:39:01,103 I'm guessing it was these gentlemen and lady. 631 00:39:01,103 --> 00:39:03,000 Um, did that happen? 632 00:39:13,758 --> 00:39:17,689 [in English] He told us, yes, that Leonidas contacted him, 633 00:39:17,689 --> 00:39:21,034 but Mr. Leonidas was referring to other directors. 634 00:39:21,034 --> 00:39:22,827 Then I said, oh, this is confusing. 635 00:39:38,310 --> 00:39:43,517 One president plus six directors of the management board. 636 00:39:52,931 --> 00:39:55,862 [narrator] Group representative Sandro is claiming 637 00:39:55,862 --> 00:39:59,896 there are two factions within the co-op's management 638 00:39:59,896 --> 00:40:02,724 and that they are currently in dispute. 639 00:40:07,413 --> 00:40:10,034 [Larissa] There is a lot of still legal issues 640 00:40:10,034 --> 00:40:11,896 surrounding the cooperative. 641 00:40:11,896 --> 00:40:14,931 The work that we're doing here could bring troubles 642 00:40:14,931 --> 00:40:17,827 for the cooperative and for us. 643 00:40:17,827 --> 00:40:19,931 Long story short, they believe the ones 644 00:40:19,931 --> 00:40:23,482 we were talking before were not entitled to be directors. 645 00:40:29,137 --> 00:40:32,310 [narrator] Until all legal arguments are settled, 646 00:40:32,310 --> 00:40:35,620 no one has permission to grant mining rights 647 00:40:35,620 --> 00:40:37,137 to a third party. 648 00:40:37,724 --> 00:40:39,586 [in Portuguese] 649 00:40:41,758 --> 00:40:43,137 Yeah, that's too bad. 650 00:40:53,758 --> 00:40:56,379 [Larissa] Most of the people here, they're old guys. 651 00:40:56,379 --> 00:40:58,965 I mean, they're in the 60s, 70s, 80s. 652 00:40:58,965 --> 00:41:01,896 So what they're trying to do here is to fight 653 00:41:01,896 --> 00:41:06,103 for the rights and to see one day the mining operating again. 654 00:41:13,241 --> 00:41:15,448 All their internal issues have to get dealt with 655 00:41:15,448 --> 00:41:17,689 before anybody can do a deal with them, right? 656 00:41:17,689 --> 00:41:19,827 He 100% agrees with you, because, like, 657 00:41:19,827 --> 00:41:22,172 -one thing leads to the other and to the other. -Yeah. 658 00:41:23,689 --> 00:41:25,206 [Parker] Okay. 659 00:41:25,206 --> 00:41:28,000 All right. Well, thank you guys for your time. 660 00:41:31,655 --> 00:41:33,827 [Larissa] I feel a bit let down because we invested a lot 661 00:41:33,827 --> 00:41:35,482 of our time, we invested money. 662 00:41:35,482 --> 00:41:37,655 Now Parker is very curious about the potential 663 00:41:37,655 --> 00:41:39,517 and is very keen to develop a project, 664 00:41:39,517 --> 00:41:42,413 but I think we should be really careful. 665 00:41:42,413 --> 00:41:45,034 We don't know the people who were talking before, 666 00:41:45,034 --> 00:41:47,620 we don't know the people that showed up today, 667 00:41:47,620 --> 00:41:49,482 so who can we trust? 668 00:41:50,931 --> 00:41:53,724 [Parker] Uh, I don't know what I think. 669 00:41:53,724 --> 00:41:59,793 Those are all just unnecessary [bleep] complications. 670 00:42:04,034 --> 00:42:05,103 [groans] 671 00:42:07,724 --> 00:42:11,379 There's obviously so much that's happened 672 00:42:11,379 --> 00:42:13,448 in the background of this, 673 00:42:13,448 --> 00:42:16,931 and there's so much between the lines 674 00:42:16,931 --> 00:42:20,310 that we've been told that I'm sure we could sit in there 675 00:42:20,310 --> 00:42:24,172 for two days and get told the story of the cooperative 676 00:42:24,172 --> 00:42:27,344 and still not have, you know, the whole picture, right? 677 00:42:27,344 --> 00:42:29,965 Um, it kind of baffles me. 678 00:42:29,965 --> 00:42:32,862 I'm just wondering what happens in 10 minutes time 679 00:42:32,862 --> 00:42:35,344 when we have another 10 people banging on the door 680 00:42:35,344 --> 00:42:37,241 and saying that they're the new cooperative. 681 00:42:38,517 --> 00:42:39,655 It's possible. 682 00:42:39,655 --> 00:42:42,344 With this, like, I'm looking at them all now like, 683 00:42:42,344 --> 00:42:44,379 "Are you lying? I don't believe you." 684 00:42:44,379 --> 00:42:46,000 [sighs, bleep] 685 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:47,241 I need a beer. 686 00:42:47,241 --> 00:42:49,344 Yeah, I don't really feel like hanging around here 687 00:42:49,344 --> 00:42:53,448 while the two factions of the co-op do battle. 688 00:42:53,448 --> 00:42:56,344 I don't know that anybody can save that outfit. 689 00:42:59,310 --> 00:43:03,655 [Parker] So I think it's time we pack up and move out. 690 00:43:07,448 --> 00:43:10,551 - [narrator] Next time on Parker's Trail. -It's very wild. 691 00:43:10,551 --> 00:43:13,068 We're very much in the middle of nowhere. 692 00:43:13,068 --> 00:43:15,241 -What the [bleep] is that? -A jaguar. 693 00:43:17,137 --> 00:43:18,275 That is awesome. 694 00:43:19,344 --> 00:43:21,758 It'll be cool to see a big hard rock mine. 695 00:43:21,758 --> 00:43:23,103 Holy [bleep]. 696 00:43:25,275 --> 00:43:27,137 [Parker] That's so cool. 697 00:43:27,137 --> 00:43:29,586 I mean, I'd throw some money at a project with that dude. 698 00:43:29,586 --> 00:43:31,000 [Danny] Parker's in love. 699 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,965 He's literally falling for the hard rock industry.