1 00:00:08,300 --> 00:00:11,266 [Freddy] You won't get many trick or treaters back in here, Juan. 2 00:00:11,266 --> 00:00:12,767 [Juan] Definitely not. 3 00:00:14,266 --> 00:00:16,266 [Freddy] Yeah, we're gonna have to chainsaw that. 4 00:00:28,166 --> 00:00:29,834 There's more up there, too. 5 00:00:34,767 --> 00:00:36,166 -[Juan] Hey, Freddy. -[Freddy] Yo! 6 00:00:36,166 --> 00:00:37,867 Do you have oil for this thing? 7 00:00:37,867 --> 00:00:39,100 It's not ideal, but... 8 00:00:39,100 --> 00:00:40,567 -It'll do something. -[Freddy]...it'll lubricate it. 9 00:00:44,467 --> 00:00:47,233 -Hopefully all that sugar will keep it, uh-- -[Freddy] Electrolytes. 10 00:00:48,767 --> 00:00:50,767 [Juan] We may have to spend half a day going through 11 00:00:50,834 --> 00:00:53,000 and logging and trying to clean up the road. 12 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:54,867 It's never ideal, it's never easy. 13 00:00:54,867 --> 00:00:58,333 But if it was ideal and easy, everyone would do it, it wouldn't be worth nothing. 14 00:00:59,467 --> 00:01:01,934 They're definitely off the beaten path, Freddy. 15 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,000 -[Freddy] Thanks for cutting all them trees. -[Juan] Yeah, no problem. 16 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,967 So, Fred, you were talking about these guys, what do they got going on up here? 17 00:01:19,967 --> 00:01:23,567 [Freddy] Well, it sounds like these brothers are mining up on a bench. 18 00:01:23,567 --> 00:01:25,767 They're losing quite a bit of their gold. 19 00:01:25,767 --> 00:01:29,467 [Juan] You had mentioned that, uh, earlier on, they were getting some chunky gold. 20 00:01:29,467 --> 00:01:31,433 [Freddy] It sounds like they're struggling. 21 00:01:35,967 --> 00:01:38,367 [narrator] Freddy and Juan are 12 miles deep 22 00:01:38,367 --> 00:01:41,567 into the back country of Northern British Columbia, 23 00:01:41,634 --> 00:01:46,367 fighting their way to a 610-acre site in the Cassiar Region, 24 00:01:46,367 --> 00:01:50,100 where in the 1930s, a miner pulled out 25 00:01:50,100 --> 00:01:55,433 the 52-ounce Turnagain Nugget from nearby Alice Shea Creek. 26 00:01:59,967 --> 00:02:04,667 Today, two brothers face a crisis moment in these historic hills 27 00:02:04,734 --> 00:02:07,767 on their own quest for big gold. 28 00:02:07,834 --> 00:02:10,467 -Well, hopefully this is the right mine, Juan. -[Juan] I hope so. 29 00:02:10,533 --> 00:02:12,166 Hello, how was the drive in? 30 00:02:12,233 --> 00:02:14,567 -[Freddy] Out in the middle of nowhere. -[Les] No trees on the trail? 31 00:02:14,567 --> 00:02:15,867 [Juan] Yeah, a couple trees. 32 00:02:15,867 --> 00:02:17,567 [Freddy] I've been on lots worse roads, but not a whole lot. 33 00:02:17,567 --> 00:02:19,233 -[Juan] Really remote here. -Yeah. 34 00:02:20,500 --> 00:02:22,467 -Nice to meet you, Keith. -[Freddy] Keith. 35 00:02:22,467 --> 00:02:24,266 -Freddy. Les Paradis. -Les. 36 00:02:24,266 --> 00:02:25,367 -Les. -[Freddy] Les and Keith. 37 00:02:25,433 --> 00:02:26,367 Les, Keith. 38 00:02:26,433 --> 00:02:27,567 [Les] Juan. Nice to meet you guys. 39 00:02:27,634 --> 00:02:29,266 [Freddy] Well, it's good to put a face to the names. 40 00:02:29,266 --> 00:02:30,367 -[Keith] Sure is. -Yeah. 41 00:02:30,433 --> 00:02:32,567 How long have you guys been mining this area? 42 00:02:32,567 --> 00:02:35,166 -Been in here, what? 12 years. -12 years total now, yeah. 43 00:02:35,233 --> 00:02:36,166 Okay. 44 00:02:37,066 --> 00:02:38,166 It's an adventure. 45 00:02:38,166 --> 00:02:40,000 [Juan] So, what do you guys do during the winter? 46 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,700 -Work in the oil field. -[Juan] Oh, okay. 47 00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:44,567 -Feast or famine industry. -[Keith] Always. 48 00:02:44,634 --> 00:02:46,266 -Yeah. -Yeah. 49 00:02:46,266 --> 00:02:48,333 -[Les] She can be hit and miss. -[Freddy] Yeah. 50 00:02:49,467 --> 00:02:53,266 [narrator] For the past decade, 47-year-old Keith Paradis 51 00:02:53,333 --> 00:02:57,867 and younger brother Les spent their summers hobby mining for nuggets 52 00:02:57,867 --> 00:03:00,367 when they heard about this remote mine. 53 00:03:01,867 --> 00:03:04,266 So, I'm originally from Bonnyville, Alberta. 54 00:03:04,266 --> 00:03:07,600 21 hours is what it usually takes me to get here from home. 55 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:11,367 Got invited by a local call him The One Arm Bandit, 56 00:03:11,367 --> 00:03:13,767 and he gave us a grand tour. 57 00:03:13,834 --> 00:03:15,834 Bought ourselves a claim and, uh... 58 00:03:15,900 --> 00:03:16,867 ...well, here we are. 59 00:03:16,967 --> 00:03:18,834 [Les] We came out panning out here and, uh, 60 00:03:18,900 --> 00:03:21,000 kinda fell in love with the treasure hunt. 61 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,767 We're finding decent gold, so then it just kinda escalated from there. 62 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:27,867 Growing up you fight and whatever else, 63 00:03:27,867 --> 00:03:30,634 but I guess as we got older, we just, uh, get along well. 64 00:03:33,266 --> 00:03:34,834 [Keith] 65 00:03:36,767 --> 00:03:39,367 Keith's more of the welder out here. 66 00:03:39,433 --> 00:03:41,266 I'm more of the mechanic. 67 00:03:41,266 --> 00:03:43,066 This isn't even the right size wrench. 68 00:03:44,700 --> 00:03:46,467 [Keith] We work well together, especially when you're living 69 00:03:46,533 --> 00:03:48,667 with somebody for four months out in the bush here. 70 00:03:48,667 --> 00:03:50,567 You wanna bring it back a little bit more here? 71 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:53,567 It's a lot simpler just with the two of us. 72 00:03:53,634 --> 00:03:55,934 We gotta work a little harder maybe, but it works for us. 73 00:03:58,266 --> 00:04:00,934 -[Keith] Good. -There, like brand new. 74 00:04:03,166 --> 00:04:06,834 [Les] All of our gold in the beginning was chunkier gold. 75 00:04:06,900 --> 00:04:10,100 By year 3 or 4, we were starting to get profitable out here, 76 00:04:10,100 --> 00:04:13,934 and it was fairly rich, but now the gold is different. 77 00:04:15,100 --> 00:04:18,467 [narrator] With their operation custom-built for chunky gold, 78 00:04:18,467 --> 00:04:21,467 they've failed to turn a profit the past four seasons, 79 00:04:21,533 --> 00:04:24,367 putting them in dire financial risk. 80 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:28,767 Our biggest problem... 81 00:04:28,767 --> 00:04:30,166 ...we're chasing this pay. 82 00:04:30,233 --> 00:04:32,266 No guarantees that we're in the right spot at the moment. 83 00:04:32,266 --> 00:04:33,967 I know there's definitely gold there, 84 00:04:33,967 --> 00:04:36,266 but now we're not seeing much. 85 00:04:37,867 --> 00:04:41,166 [narrator] The brothers dream to strike it rich 86 00:04:41,233 --> 00:04:43,667 and leave their jobs in the oil field. 87 00:04:44,967 --> 00:04:46,266 You're basically just a number, 88 00:04:46,333 --> 00:04:49,066 I think at the last company I worked at, I was number 199. 89 00:04:49,133 --> 00:04:50,367 Right? 90 00:04:50,367 --> 00:04:52,867 Here, I'm number one. 91 00:04:52,867 --> 00:04:55,967 Worst part about the oil patch though, is you're gone all the time. 92 00:04:55,967 --> 00:04:59,967 Typically, you're in some strange town or some camp somewhere, 93 00:04:59,967 --> 00:05:02,100 you know, working 12 hours a day. 94 00:05:02,100 --> 00:05:04,166 You miss the family life, you miss all the kids. 95 00:05:04,166 --> 00:05:06,100 Pretty much everything, right? 96 00:05:06,100 --> 00:05:09,266 Honestly, we can't keep going like this anymore. 97 00:05:09,266 --> 00:05:12,500 It's just, you know, we're just bleeding money essentially. 98 00:05:12,500 --> 00:05:15,667 [Keith] Really hoping that Freddy and Juan can get us straightened out. 99 00:05:15,667 --> 00:05:18,166 If we can't get enough gold this year, 100 00:05:18,233 --> 00:05:22,166 then I don't know where we're going to get the money from to mine next year. 101 00:05:22,166 --> 00:05:23,567 So, how'd you guys do last year? 102 00:05:23,634 --> 00:05:25,567 We actually didn't really mine a whole bunch last year. 103 00:05:25,634 --> 00:05:27,600 We, uh, were having troubles catching that gold, 104 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:28,867 so we ended up just shutting down... 105 00:05:28,867 --> 00:05:30,700 -[Freddy] Okay. -[Les]...and trying to regroup again. 106 00:05:30,700 --> 00:05:32,100 [Les] The gold that we're catching right now, 107 00:05:32,100 --> 00:05:33,834 We're not covering maintenance cost or anything like that, so... 108 00:05:33,900 --> 00:05:35,767 [Freddy] Yeah. Can you show us some of it? 109 00:05:36,867 --> 00:05:38,000 [Keith] This is what we're getting. 110 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:39,867 [Freddy] Yeah, that's pretty coarse. 111 00:05:39,867 --> 00:05:41,600 It's got fines in it, though. 112 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:43,567 Mixed in there. 113 00:05:43,634 --> 00:05:46,700 -Definitely having troubles catching that fine stuff. -[Freddy] Yeah. 114 00:05:46,700 --> 00:05:49,467 Whether it's a sluice problem, or a water problem, or... 115 00:05:49,533 --> 00:05:51,166 -Or not enough in the ground. -[Les] Yeah. 116 00:05:51,166 --> 00:05:53,000 Well, what would you guys need out of this mountain 117 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:54,767 to be able to make this profitable for you? 118 00:05:54,767 --> 00:05:57,066 -Uh, two ounces a day would. -[Freddy] Yeah. 119 00:05:57,133 --> 00:05:58,500 So, you guys trying to set this up so this 120 00:05:58,500 --> 00:05:59,934 is a little more stable for you, huh? 121 00:06:00,066 --> 00:06:03,000 We could turn this into our full-time... 122 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:03,867 [Freddy] Your nest egg. 123 00:06:03,867 --> 00:06:05,700 -Yup. -[Keith]...job and, uh... 124 00:06:05,700 --> 00:06:06,934 ...maybe stay at home during the winter. 125 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:08,000 -[Juan] There you go. -[Freddy] Mmm-hmm. 126 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:09,600 [Juan] We'd love to do a test run, 127 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,166 but before we do the test run, can we take a look at the mine and the plant? 128 00:06:12,166 --> 00:06:13,367 Yeah, for sure. Take you for a tour. 129 00:06:13,367 --> 00:06:15,100 -[Freddy] Let's go look at it. -Sounds like a plan. 130 00:06:15,100 --> 00:06:16,233 [Juan] All right. 131 00:06:17,767 --> 00:06:20,367 -So, there's your wash plant. -This is her. 132 00:06:20,433 --> 00:06:21,767 [Keith] You know, we built that plant from scratch, 133 00:06:21,767 --> 00:06:24,000 and every year, we've been doing modifications to it, 134 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:25,166 trying to make the improvements, 135 00:06:25,166 --> 00:06:27,767 trying to capture as much gold as we can and, uh..., 136 00:06:28,700 --> 00:06:30,266 ...we still haven't been able to figure it out. 137 00:06:30,333 --> 00:06:32,567 One thing in gold mining is when you see people 138 00:06:32,634 --> 00:06:34,667 constantly changing their plant, 139 00:06:34,734 --> 00:06:36,166 a lot of people get it in their heads that 140 00:06:36,166 --> 00:06:38,100 they're losing a tremendous amount of gold. 141 00:06:38,100 --> 00:06:41,467 Usually that's because of lack of gold in the ground. 142 00:06:46,467 --> 00:06:48,567 So, this is your cut you're working in right now? 143 00:06:48,567 --> 00:06:51,567 Yeah, this is the one, uh, we just opened up. 144 00:06:51,634 --> 00:06:53,767 [Freddy] At first glance, this doesn't look good. 145 00:06:53,834 --> 00:06:55,667 The material doesn't look good at all. 146 00:06:55,667 --> 00:06:56,934 Yeah. 147 00:06:58,000 --> 00:06:59,867 So, like, down there where you showed where you were 148 00:06:59,867 --> 00:07:01,867 getting the bigger gold before, 149 00:07:01,867 --> 00:07:05,467 you know, it's probably a side channel beside a glacier. 150 00:07:05,533 --> 00:07:09,600 So, what you might have here is just little pieces here and there 151 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:13,266 -that are left over from that being reworked. -Yeah. 152 00:07:14,266 --> 00:07:16,467 [narrator] If the side channel is exhausted, 153 00:07:16,533 --> 00:07:21,433 the unconcentrated material they're running will not be economically viable. 154 00:07:22,867 --> 00:07:25,266 I'm sure it probably has some gold in it. 155 00:07:25,333 --> 00:07:27,066 But that doesn't look good. 156 00:07:27,133 --> 00:07:28,600 Your upper layers don't, for sure. 157 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:30,634 That's all just glacial till. 158 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:34,367 We've kind of got into, you know, kind of 159 00:07:34,367 --> 00:07:37,667 a different situation here than we're accustomed to. 160 00:07:37,734 --> 00:07:39,667 The ground doesn't look good. 161 00:07:39,734 --> 00:07:41,166 But we won't know till we run it. 162 00:07:42,166 --> 00:07:44,066 -[Juan] Let's run the plant. -Run the plant. 163 00:07:44,066 --> 00:07:45,367 [Juan] Well, we'll get fired up. 164 00:07:51,166 --> 00:07:53,367 Okay, water's headed up the hill. 165 00:07:53,367 --> 00:07:54,433 Coming back up. 166 00:07:55,266 --> 00:07:57,066 [Keith] And the water up the plant. 167 00:08:03,567 --> 00:08:05,834 K, Les, first bucket's going through. 168 00:08:05,900 --> 00:08:07,266 [Les] Copy. 169 00:08:08,567 --> 00:08:12,166 [narrator] Keith feeds their low-grade paydirt into pre-wash. 170 00:08:13,066 --> 00:08:15,767 It enters the twin deck shaker, 171 00:08:15,834 --> 00:08:20,834 where spray bars built out of two-inch pipe clean off the fine material... 172 00:08:22,166 --> 00:08:25,834 ...that drops through the two-inch and half-inch screens. 173 00:08:27,166 --> 00:08:29,634 It then passes through a nugget trap... 174 00:08:31,100 --> 00:08:34,266 ...and into a distribution box... 175 00:08:34,333 --> 00:08:39,433 ...before it hits the trio of two-foot wide, 20-foot long sluice runs. 176 00:08:41,700 --> 00:08:45,667 The bigger rocks come out the end of the shaker into the tailings pile, 177 00:08:45,734 --> 00:08:48,033 which Les clears with his hoe. 178 00:08:49,500 --> 00:08:52,567 We probably, uh, invested about half a million 179 00:08:52,567 --> 00:08:55,467 of our own money, uh, into the property here. 180 00:08:55,467 --> 00:08:57,667 And, uh, the way things are going, you know, 181 00:08:57,667 --> 00:08:59,567 we haven't been able to stay in cost 182 00:08:59,567 --> 00:09:02,467 If we can't, uh, start to capture more gold 183 00:09:02,467 --> 00:09:06,767 and find some better paydirt, you know, we find have to look at selling the property. 184 00:09:06,834 --> 00:09:10,967 This has been a part of my girls growing up, their whole life so far. 185 00:09:10,967 --> 00:09:13,533 It would be heartbreaking to not be able to come up here anymore. 186 00:09:14,700 --> 00:09:16,266 This is my other half, Nikki. 187 00:09:17,166 --> 00:09:19,467 One of us is a gold digger. 188 00:09:19,467 --> 00:09:21,000 You guess which one. 189 00:09:23,100 --> 00:09:26,834 We have two daughters, Cersei, and Seneca, seven and eight years old. 190 00:09:28,367 --> 00:09:32,767 My daughters have been here every summer since they've been born. 191 00:09:32,767 --> 00:09:34,066 [child] Catching gold. 192 00:09:34,066 --> 00:09:35,934 [Les] This actually has gold in it right here. 193 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,567 The gold miner's daughters. 194 00:09:44,700 --> 00:09:46,634 [Freddy] The rocks are coming off dirty. 195 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:50,667 One thing I notice here is, see that back spray bar? 196 00:09:50,667 --> 00:09:51,867 Yeah. 197 00:09:51,867 --> 00:09:54,166 [Freddy] You see how it's putting that water in there? 198 00:09:54,166 --> 00:09:55,667 [Juan] Yeah, it's right all in the center there. 199 00:09:55,734 --> 00:09:58,500 You can kinda see it's kinda leaving a bunch of material on the side. 200 00:09:58,500 --> 00:09:59,667 [Freddy] Yup. 201 00:10:00,867 --> 00:10:02,367 I see he's got those side cannons 202 00:10:02,367 --> 00:10:04,500 -trying to kinda help it down, but... -[Freddy] You know-- 203 00:10:04,500 --> 00:10:05,867 [Juan]...there's a bunch of materials sticking up there. 204 00:10:05,867 --> 00:10:07,033 [Freddy] Yeah. 205 00:10:10,667 --> 00:10:12,367 [Keith] These last, probably four years I guess, 206 00:10:12,367 --> 00:10:16,266 since, uh, we ran out of the bigger gold, it's just costing us more... 207 00:10:16,266 --> 00:10:17,567 ...than what we're getting in returns. 208 00:10:17,567 --> 00:10:20,233 And, uh, right now it's not paying its way. 209 00:10:21,500 --> 00:10:23,066 [Juan] Take a look at that box, Fred. 210 00:10:29,266 --> 00:10:31,066 [Freddy] How do those feel? 211 00:10:31,133 --> 00:10:32,834 [Juan] Wind it over. 212 00:10:32,900 --> 00:10:34,867 The tops are pretty rough too, Fred. 213 00:10:34,867 --> 00:10:36,066 Feel 'em. 214 00:10:44,867 --> 00:10:47,233 Those top nugget ripples are packing up. 215 00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:54,867 [Keith] How's your paydirt looking, need me to come push some more up? 216 00:10:54,867 --> 00:10:56,934 [Les] 217 00:11:01,100 --> 00:11:03,767 [Juan] I'm gonna grab a little bit off the end of the sluice, Fred. 218 00:11:03,767 --> 00:11:05,166 -Take a look at it. -[Freddy] I agree. 219 00:11:05,166 --> 00:11:07,066 Find a place to pan it, huh. 220 00:11:07,133 --> 00:11:09,166 Sounds good, I'll grab a panful. 221 00:11:25,500 --> 00:11:26,533 See what's there, uh. 222 00:11:35,700 --> 00:11:38,100 -[Freddy] I've got some gold in here, Juano. -Yeah? 223 00:11:38,100 --> 00:11:40,066 Really small stuff, yeah, I've got... 224 00:11:40,767 --> 00:11:43,066 ...oh, a half a dozen colors. 225 00:11:43,066 --> 00:11:45,000 -[Juan] Yeah. Yup. -See 'em up in the top here? 226 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:46,667 [Juan] If we found that in half a pan... 227 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:50,100 -[Freddy] Yup. -...there's far more being lost. 228 00:11:50,100 --> 00:11:53,467 [Freddy] We took some samples coming off the end of their sluice runs there, 229 00:11:53,467 --> 00:11:54,867 and we found gold in 'em. 230 00:11:54,867 --> 00:11:57,767 That's enough gold that over time, it can really add up. 231 00:11:57,834 --> 00:12:00,467 So, that's the stuff we wanna help them catch 232 00:12:00,467 --> 00:12:03,834 so they can put that gold back in their pockets, not back in the ground. 233 00:12:03,900 --> 00:12:05,333 Maybe we shut 'em down. 234 00:12:06,667 --> 00:12:09,166 [narrator] With limited pay remaining, 235 00:12:09,166 --> 00:12:12,066 Freddy calls time at the two hour mark. 236 00:12:14,767 --> 00:12:17,066 Shut her down, Keith, last bucket. 237 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:23,266 -Okay, the last bucket's going in. -[Les] Copy. 238 00:12:29,166 --> 00:12:30,967 You know, these guys have been at it a long time 239 00:12:30,967 --> 00:12:33,100 and they're actually both really smart guys, 240 00:12:33,100 --> 00:12:34,700 -they know what they're doing. -[Freddy] They are. 241 00:12:34,700 --> 00:12:38,166 The best bang for their buck's gonna be helping them get on some decent ground. 242 00:12:38,233 --> 00:12:40,166 If we don't go out and look, we don't know. 243 00:12:40,166 --> 00:12:42,433 -[Freddy] Nothing ventured, nothing gained. -[Juan] That's right. 244 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:46,166 [Freddy] I don't know if we can fix it, Juan. 245 00:12:46,166 --> 00:12:47,700 [Juan] My concern is that the mine is so remote. 246 00:12:47,700 --> 00:12:50,166 We're gonna have a hard time getting material in there. 247 00:12:50,166 --> 00:12:53,266 So, what we're gonna have to do is, uh, repurpose what they have onsite 248 00:12:53,266 --> 00:12:55,667 to be able to get this plant catch more gold. 249 00:12:55,734 --> 00:12:58,166 Because what they have right now up there, it's not gonna cut it. 250 00:13:06,667 --> 00:13:09,266 [Freddy] Not seeing much in it, but that doesn't mean anything. 251 00:13:09,266 --> 00:13:12,266 If it's, if it's buried in the carpet, we aren't gonna see it. 252 00:13:12,266 --> 00:13:13,634 [Juan] It's not looking good. 253 00:13:15,266 --> 00:13:17,266 [narrator] In Northern British Columbia 254 00:13:17,266 --> 00:13:20,233 on the Paradis brothers' remote mountain mine, 255 00:13:20,300 --> 00:13:25,233 Freddy and Juan examine the result of the short, two-hour run. 256 00:13:25,300 --> 00:13:26,667 Well, first impressions? 257 00:13:26,734 --> 00:13:28,834 From watching it run, the good news 258 00:13:28,834 --> 00:13:30,667 is we do have a few ideas already, so... 259 00:13:30,667 --> 00:13:32,467 -[Les] Perfect. -[Freddy] Exactly. 260 00:13:32,533 --> 00:13:33,800 -[Les] Every little bit helps. -[Freddy] Yup. 261 00:13:33,867 --> 00:13:37,000 -That's the goal, is catch as much gold as you can. -[Keith] Yup. 262 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,734 Every piece that gets away is a piece that's not in your bank. 263 00:13:39,800 --> 00:13:41,233 -[Les] Yup. -That's correct, yup. 264 00:13:42,667 --> 00:13:46,367 Well, the plant's simple. They've tried this and they've tried that, 265 00:13:46,367 --> 00:13:48,367 and nothing seemed to work for 'em 266 00:13:48,367 --> 00:13:50,567 to catch the gold in the ground. 267 00:13:50,567 --> 00:13:54,000 They've got all coarse gold ripples up top. 268 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,000 They're all spaced the same. 269 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,166 So, sure, they're gonna catch any nuggets that's going through there, 270 00:13:59,166 --> 00:14:03,166 but we wanna catch the gold that's not getting caught now. 271 00:14:03,166 --> 00:14:04,800 And put it in their pockets. 272 00:14:06,100 --> 00:14:08,834 I guess, clean her up, guys, and... 273 00:14:08,834 --> 00:14:09,900 ...we'll watch you do that. 274 00:14:12,100 --> 00:14:13,233 A little dirty. 275 00:14:33,100 --> 00:14:34,166 Definitely some gold in there. 276 00:14:35,834 --> 00:14:37,433 -Get ya? -[Keith] You got me. 277 00:14:38,900 --> 00:14:40,233 [Freddy] Well, we'll leave you at it. 278 00:14:59,734 --> 00:15:00,834 [Juan] Hey, guys. 279 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:03,233 [Freddy] What do you think? 280 00:15:05,567 --> 00:15:08,066 [Les] Well, got her dried up. 281 00:15:11,266 --> 00:15:13,266 Let's see where we're at. 282 00:15:13,266 --> 00:15:15,967 [narrator] To hit their daily goal of two ounces, 283 00:15:16,033 --> 00:15:20,467 this two-hour run needs to deliver .4 of an ounce. 284 00:15:20,467 --> 00:15:21,734 [Les] Closing my eyes. 285 00:15:25,867 --> 00:15:27,066 [Freddy] .20. 286 00:15:33,567 --> 00:15:36,166 -It's a little lean. -It's a little, little horrible. 287 00:15:36,166 --> 00:15:37,734 Yeah. 288 00:15:37,734 --> 00:15:39,266 [Keith] I'm pretty discouraged. 289 00:15:39,266 --> 00:15:42,567 Put a lot of effort into getting that out and not getting a return... 290 00:15:42,634 --> 00:15:43,834 ...it's pretty disheartening. 291 00:15:43,834 --> 00:15:46,233 If gold was everywhere, it wouldn't be worth anything. 292 00:15:46,300 --> 00:15:49,000 -So... -[Keith] Unfortunately, that's not near what we need. 293 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,066 We actually went down and panned some of the tailing coming off your sluice, 294 00:15:52,133 --> 00:15:53,734 -and we did find some gold. -[Freddy] Yeah. 295 00:15:53,734 --> 00:15:57,066 Small stuff, but you're always gonna be losing some gold. 296 00:15:57,133 --> 00:15:58,266 -Mmm-hmm. -[Les and Juan] Yeah. 297 00:15:58,266 --> 00:16:00,567 But the less you lose, the more money's in your pocket. 298 00:16:00,567 --> 00:16:02,000 That's exactly, yeah. 299 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:03,734 We need something to help fund out future here, so... 300 00:16:03,734 --> 00:16:05,333 -[Juan] Yeah, there you go. -[Freddy] Yup. 301 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:10,467 That particular clean up right there isn't viable for you guys, you know? 302 00:16:10,533 --> 00:16:13,000 The equipment, even though it's just two of you. 303 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:14,066 It's really not gonna cut it. 304 00:16:14,133 --> 00:16:15,200 -[Les] Well, exactly, yeah. -[Freddy] Yeah. 305 00:16:17,900 --> 00:16:19,667 [Keith] It's not even enough to, to cover the diesel 306 00:16:19,734 --> 00:16:21,834 that we ran on the generator to process it, so... 307 00:16:23,100 --> 00:16:24,900 You know, things, things need to change. 308 00:16:24,900 --> 00:16:26,333 [Les] If Freddy and Juan can't help, 309 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:28,734 we can't continue on mining where we are like that. 310 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:32,333 We'll have to sell or move on or do something else. 311 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:37,834 [narrator] With the Paradis claim 312 00:16:37,900 --> 00:16:41,000 more than half a day away from the nearest parts store, 313 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:45,967 Freddy and Juan put their backwoods mining ingenuity to the test. 314 00:16:47,467 --> 00:16:52,000 [Freddy] They got a little bit of a scavenger pile here, some pipe, some hose. 315 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:53,967 There's more stuff over here, Fred, let's take a look at this. 316 00:16:56,100 --> 00:16:57,900 -There you go, boss man. -Ah, go ahead. 317 00:16:57,900 --> 00:17:00,800 -[Juan] You know me, I like shopping, Fred. -Are you shopping? 318 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:10,467 There's all kinds of neat stuff in here. 319 00:17:10,467 --> 00:17:11,900 [Juan] All kinds of goodies, Freddy. 320 00:17:16,266 --> 00:17:17,533 [Freddy] It isn't what we want. 321 00:17:18,467 --> 00:17:19,734 But it's what we got. 322 00:17:19,734 --> 00:17:21,734 [Juan] Yeah, unfortunately that's how mining is sometimes. 323 00:17:21,734 --> 00:17:23,467 -[Freddy] Yup. -[Juan] Between everything he's got 324 00:17:23,533 --> 00:17:25,734 and the few things we got, we might be able to make something work, huh. 325 00:17:25,734 --> 00:17:27,233 [Freddy] Yes, Juano. 326 00:17:27,300 --> 00:17:28,734 -[Juan] Well, here we go. -[Freddy] The world's biggest frying pan. 327 00:17:28,734 --> 00:17:29,867 [Juan] Look at that sucker. 328 00:17:29,867 --> 00:17:31,900 [Freddy] You could be an egg-cooking son of a gun. 329 00:17:31,900 --> 00:17:34,266 Just think of the omelette we could make with that thing, Fred. 330 00:17:34,266 --> 00:17:36,467 -Chorizo con Huevos, ooh. -Mmm-hmm. 331 00:17:36,467 --> 00:17:38,166 -Huevos Rancheros. -[Juan] There we go. 332 00:17:38,166 --> 00:17:41,800 [Freddy] Yeah, my Spanish may suck, but I got lots of the foods down. 333 00:17:46,567 --> 00:17:49,066 Yeah, I don't think the frying pan's gonna help us a lot. 334 00:17:49,133 --> 00:17:50,667 You don't realize how far you are, 335 00:17:50,667 --> 00:17:52,233 until you get out into a place like this, 336 00:17:52,300 --> 00:17:54,567 where, you know, really if I gotta go to the hardware store, 337 00:17:54,567 --> 00:17:56,734 it's gonna be a 12-hour roundtrip, 338 00:17:56,734 --> 00:17:58,066 and, uh, that's just not feasible. 339 00:17:58,133 --> 00:17:59,600 We don't have the time to do that, 340 00:17:59,667 --> 00:18:02,066 so we're gonna use as much of the material that they have here on site. 341 00:18:03,900 --> 00:18:06,734 [narrator] Useful salvage material identified, 342 00:18:06,734 --> 00:18:09,667 the next step is a plan. 343 00:18:09,734 --> 00:18:11,967 [Freddy] What do you think, Juan? 344 00:18:12,033 --> 00:18:14,967 [Juan] Well, I'm really thinking we need to focus on that sluice box, Fred. 345 00:18:16,166 --> 00:18:19,233 What do you think? Modify those top Hungarian riffles for sure. 346 00:18:19,300 --> 00:18:20,467 -[Juan] Yeah -[Freddy] They're spaced too narrow. 347 00:18:20,467 --> 00:18:22,266 -You felt them. -Yeah, yeah, I think so. 348 00:18:22,266 --> 00:18:24,567 You know, if we can get in there and actually space 'em a little wider. 349 00:18:24,634 --> 00:18:27,000 -[Freddy] Exactly. -[Juan] That little spray bar they have... 350 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:28,834 -Mmm-hmm. -[Juan]...it's not even hitting the material 351 00:18:28,834 --> 00:18:30,333 up here on the side. 352 00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:32,734 [Freddy] Well, it's spraying, just like you said, Juan, straight down. 353 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:34,734 [Juan] If your stream is not hitting the material, it's not washing it. 354 00:18:34,734 --> 00:18:36,333 [Freddy] It's not getting washed. Yeah. 355 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:38,734 [Juan] But if we don't get 'em on gold, it does nothing for 'em. 356 00:18:38,734 --> 00:18:40,634 [Freddy] We gotta find 'em some more pay. 357 00:18:41,734 --> 00:18:44,467 The rocks are smaller and less gold. 358 00:18:44,467 --> 00:18:48,000 So, we need to find 'em some old deep channel again. 359 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,467 So, as far as labor, stay, and food and everything else, 360 00:18:51,533 --> 00:18:53,266 I, I think an ounce for the two of us. 361 00:18:53,266 --> 00:18:55,734 An ounce of gold a piece then? 362 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:57,467 I dunno. Why don't we do this, Fred? 363 00:18:57,467 --> 00:18:59,734 I'd feel a heck of a whole lot better 364 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:03,100 charging them an ounce a piece if we can go help them find better ground. 365 00:19:03,100 --> 00:19:04,567 Well... 366 00:19:04,634 --> 00:19:05,734 Let's go chat with these guys, uh. 367 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:07,000 -Let's go from there. -[Freddy] Go from there. 368 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:08,066 [Juan] Sounds good. 369 00:19:09,734 --> 00:19:11,367 [narrator] Freddy and Juan have identified 370 00:19:11,367 --> 00:19:14,000 three key issues with the wash plant. 371 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:17,166 First, water from the back spray bar 372 00:19:17,233 --> 00:19:20,533 doesn't hit all the material they're feeding into the box, 373 00:19:21,166 --> 00:19:23,734 leaving valuable pay on the sides. 374 00:19:25,367 --> 00:19:28,867 Juan will build a new spray bar the width of the box 375 00:19:28,867 --> 00:19:31,533 to wash all paydirt down evenly. 376 00:19:32,734 --> 00:19:37,100 Second, the top riffles are only set up to catch coarse gold 377 00:19:37,100 --> 00:19:38,967 and are spaced too tight. 378 00:19:41,266 --> 00:19:43,967 Juan and Freddy will modify the riffles, 379 00:19:44,033 --> 00:19:47,333 changing the spacing to trap different kinds of gold 380 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:49,333 and prevent them from packing up. 381 00:19:51,834 --> 00:19:55,667 Finally, to adapt the sluices to catch fine gold, 382 00:19:55,734 --> 00:19:59,467 they will cover a secondary nugget trap called a boil box 383 00:19:59,533 --> 00:20:03,166 and fit expanded metal riffles and custom carpets. 384 00:20:05,367 --> 00:20:08,000 But Freddy's biggest challenge will be finding 385 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:11,467 gold-rich ground to run through the plant. 386 00:20:12,166 --> 00:20:13,734 [Freddy] How's it going, guys? 387 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:14,967 -[Les] Good. -[Keith] Good. 388 00:20:16,367 --> 00:20:17,734 The big thing that we're thinking of doing 389 00:20:17,734 --> 00:20:20,000 is actually re-configuring your sluice box, that top one. 390 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:21,667 -Yeah. -[Juan] And, uh, you guys got it 391 00:20:21,734 --> 00:20:23,367 set up pretty good right now, but we're gonna re-configure 392 00:20:23,367 --> 00:20:25,734 your nugget riffles to actually make 'em have different spacing. 393 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:27,367 [Freddy] Right now, everything's the same... 394 00:20:27,367 --> 00:20:28,734 -Yeah. -...all the way down. 395 00:20:28,734 --> 00:20:30,667 -No changes. -Every piece of gold, it's the same environment 396 00:20:30,667 --> 00:20:31,900 all the way down. 397 00:20:31,900 --> 00:20:34,467 We wanna change that up, and by changing the riffle styles, 398 00:20:34,467 --> 00:20:36,367 it'll change the velocities as well. 399 00:20:36,367 --> 00:20:40,367 -Will it? -You've got all the material that's really need here. 400 00:20:40,367 --> 00:20:43,567 Except the under carpets. And we've got some of that carpet with us. 401 00:20:43,567 --> 00:20:45,834 [Juan] You know, there's a lot to be repurposed out here. 402 00:20:45,834 --> 00:20:48,667 And really, you know, the amount of material that we need, 403 00:20:48,667 --> 00:20:50,000 we talked about it, it's probably about 404 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:51,567 $200 of material. It, it's not much. 405 00:20:51,567 --> 00:20:53,233 -[Freddy] The carpets and other little things. -[Juan] 'Cause you have almost 406 00:20:53,300 --> 00:20:54,567 -everything we need. -Yeah. 407 00:20:54,567 --> 00:20:57,734 Two, three hundred bucks in material is all it'll gonna be. 408 00:20:57,734 --> 00:21:01,667 -Oh. -But on top of that, you know, Freddy and I talked about it, 409 00:21:01,734 --> 00:21:03,867 if we don't have any decent pay to go through this plan, 410 00:21:03,867 --> 00:21:05,066 -then it's nothing. -[Freddy] Doesn't matter, yeah. 411 00:21:05,133 --> 00:21:07,000 -[Juan] So... -I can come in, and I'm all fresh, 412 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,000 -I've never seen it before, so everything's new to me... -Yeah. 413 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,567 -[Freddy]...on this property. -That's one thing that we've often talked about, 414 00:21:12,634 --> 00:21:13,567 a fresh set of eyes out here. 415 00:21:13,567 --> 00:21:15,567 So, an ounce a piece at the end of the season, 416 00:21:15,567 --> 00:21:18,166 and roughly three hundred bucks in material. 417 00:21:18,233 --> 00:21:20,166 -Yeah. -Well, that sounds like a good plan to us, so... 418 00:21:20,166 --> 00:21:21,567 -[Freddy] Okay. -[Juan] Perfect, let's do it. 419 00:21:21,634 --> 00:21:22,734 -[Freddy] Okay, well... -I'm good with it. 420 00:21:22,834 --> 00:21:25,166 We'll go start getting material, lined up, rounded up. 421 00:21:25,166 --> 00:21:26,166 -Thanks, Freddy. -Perfect. 422 00:21:26,166 --> 00:21:27,333 Thanks, guys. 423 00:21:29,266 --> 00:21:30,967 Freddy mentioned that that he would, wanted to help 424 00:21:31,033 --> 00:21:33,734 prospect a little bit to find some more paydirt. 425 00:21:33,734 --> 00:21:36,734 So, that's gonna help, uh, immensely. 426 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:39,634 Freddy going prospecting with us could make the biggest difference here. 427 00:21:49,266 --> 00:21:50,934 [Freddy] This is not a nice road at all. 428 00:21:54,100 --> 00:21:56,834 [narrator] In the Cassiar Mountains, Northern B.C... 429 00:21:58,967 --> 00:22:02,066 -[Les] Yeah, so this is No Name Creek here. -[Freddy] Okay. 430 00:22:02,133 --> 00:22:06,166 So, this is coming between Haskin Mountain and kind of the hill we're on. 431 00:22:06,166 --> 00:22:08,834 [narrator] ...Freddy is on a treasure hunt, 432 00:22:08,900 --> 00:22:13,066 scouring the Paradis brothers' 610-acre property 433 00:22:13,133 --> 00:22:15,867 in a do-or-die hunt for good ground. 434 00:22:15,867 --> 00:22:17,567 [Freddy] Well, that's hard to see. 435 00:22:17,634 --> 00:22:19,467 There's a lot of stuff going on in here. 436 00:22:19,467 --> 00:22:21,467 There's been a lot of people in here 437 00:22:21,467 --> 00:22:24,567 over, you know, a hundred and some years. 438 00:22:24,567 --> 00:22:26,467 But you don't know what it means, right? 439 00:22:26,467 --> 00:22:28,467 Did they go in there and did they dig there 440 00:22:28,467 --> 00:22:30,467 and say, "No, not enough gold?" 441 00:22:30,533 --> 00:22:33,967 Did they just quit and decide to stop goldmining? 442 00:22:33,967 --> 00:22:35,166 Who knows? 443 00:22:39,266 --> 00:22:41,634 Almost looks like somebody played around over there. 444 00:22:43,500 --> 00:22:45,266 You wanna look where they did lots of work 445 00:22:45,266 --> 00:22:49,000 because you'd have a gold rush, you'd have thousands of people show up. 446 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,166 They came possibly thousands of miles to get there. 447 00:22:52,166 --> 00:22:54,066 -They'd stake a claim... -[Les] Yeah. 448 00:22:54,066 --> 00:22:56,734 [Freddy]...and then they did all that work to get there, 449 00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:59,834 -so they're gonna dig a hole somewhere. -[Les] Exactly, yeah. 450 00:22:59,900 --> 00:23:02,266 -[Freddy] It's just so hard to read it. -[Les] It is. 451 00:23:02,333 --> 00:23:06,266 Right now, I don't know a hell of a lot more than I knew this morning. 452 00:23:06,333 --> 00:23:08,266 We can come in, we can help a miner, 453 00:23:08,333 --> 00:23:10,367 we can help their plant recover more gold, 454 00:23:10,367 --> 00:23:13,367 but this one's a little tougher situation in here. 455 00:23:16,500 --> 00:23:18,166 Well, let's take a look at what you got. 456 00:23:18,233 --> 00:23:21,266 -[Keith] Okay. We'll see what we got here. -[Juan] Yeah. 457 00:23:21,266 --> 00:23:26,066 [narrator] Gambling that Freddy will find a new gold-rich pay streak... 458 00:23:26,133 --> 00:23:28,567 [Juan] You don't have any more flat bar over there, do you? 459 00:23:28,634 --> 00:23:30,734 [narrator] ...Juan and Keith raid the bone yard 460 00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:32,734 for materials they can repurpose 461 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:34,533 as part of the new riffle system. 462 00:23:35,500 --> 00:23:37,166 [Keith] I've got two of those... 463 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:40,266 They're a little light, but... 464 00:23:40,266 --> 00:23:42,667 ...we're gonna use as much of the material here on site 465 00:23:42,734 --> 00:23:43,834 to get this build done. 466 00:23:46,767 --> 00:23:48,266 We've got some parts. Let's go to work, huh? 467 00:23:48,266 --> 00:23:49,467 [Keith] Let's go put her together! 468 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:54,367 How wide do you wanna go on this one? 469 00:23:54,367 --> 00:23:55,834 Do you wanna go with a wide one? 470 00:23:56,734 --> 00:23:59,066 [narrator] Salvaged parts back on site, 471 00:23:59,066 --> 00:24:03,934 Juan revamps the riffle system to catch both coarse and fine gold. 472 00:24:04,967 --> 00:24:06,867 [Juan] So we start here, two... 473 00:24:06,867 --> 00:24:08,367 ...on back to three. 474 00:24:08,367 --> 00:24:09,834 Two and a half, two. 475 00:24:09,900 --> 00:24:10,934 Thank you, sir. 476 00:24:19,166 --> 00:24:20,734 These are the spacers. It's real simple. 477 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:21,867 They're just little, uh, 478 00:24:21,867 --> 00:24:23,066 square blocks we put in there, 479 00:24:23,133 --> 00:24:24,867 but we're actually using those to space the riffles, 480 00:24:24,867 --> 00:24:26,567 so that way they're perfectly even 481 00:24:26,634 --> 00:24:28,533 on... on both riffle sets that we build. 482 00:24:30,100 --> 00:24:32,734 And what we're doing, it's... it's not the same exact size. 483 00:24:32,734 --> 00:24:35,066 It varies from four inches all the way down to two. 484 00:24:35,066 --> 00:24:37,133 So there's a bunch of different changes in there. 485 00:24:42,500 --> 00:24:45,567 [narrator] Juan configures each riffle individually, 486 00:24:45,567 --> 00:24:48,567 altering the space and angle to give gold 487 00:24:48,634 --> 00:24:51,333 every opportunity of settling in the mats. 488 00:24:55,166 --> 00:24:57,166 Certain pieces of gold that may not like that change 489 00:24:57,233 --> 00:24:58,734 -may like this one. -Yeah. 490 00:24:58,734 --> 00:25:01,266 Within this riffle, we have probably nine changes... 491 00:25:01,266 --> 00:25:02,734 -...in one riffle. -Yeah. 492 00:25:02,734 --> 00:25:04,166 I figure if I do a good enough job, 493 00:25:04,166 --> 00:25:05,367 maybe Juan will take me with him! 494 00:25:05,367 --> 00:25:06,467 [Juan chuckling] 495 00:25:06,467 --> 00:25:08,166 [Juan] I'd have you any day of the week, Keith. 496 00:25:08,233 --> 00:25:09,233 Pretty damn good. 497 00:25:09,967 --> 00:25:11,166 Ah... 498 00:25:11,166 --> 00:25:13,166 Except I gotta... I gotta compete with that beard 499 00:25:13,166 --> 00:25:14,367 and that beautiful mane of hair. 500 00:25:14,367 --> 00:25:16,734 -I can't do that, bud. -Well... 501 00:25:16,734 --> 00:25:18,000 ...we can't all both have the good looks. 502 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:19,433 [both laughing] 503 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:22,367 [Juan] I'm happy with it. 504 00:25:23,734 --> 00:25:25,367 I'mma see how they fit. 505 00:25:25,367 --> 00:25:26,734 They fall right in, see? 506 00:25:26,734 --> 00:25:28,967 That's way easier than the way we had it before! 507 00:25:28,967 --> 00:25:30,400 [Juan] Well, that looks good! 508 00:25:33,100 --> 00:25:37,367 [narrator] Juan will also weld shut a section called a boil box, 509 00:25:37,367 --> 00:25:40,934 designed to catch nuggets using a punch plate. 510 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,166 He can then fill the rest of the sluice 511 00:25:43,166 --> 00:25:45,867 with fine gold catching riffles. 512 00:25:45,867 --> 00:25:47,233 Definitely a tight fit, huh? 513 00:25:47,967 --> 00:25:49,133 [Keith] Yes! 514 00:25:54,967 --> 00:25:56,667 [Juan] If we can cap that boil box off, 515 00:25:56,734 --> 00:25:58,467 really all we're doing is extending 516 00:25:58,467 --> 00:26:01,266 the cleaning surface that we have for more riffles. 517 00:26:01,266 --> 00:26:03,567 [Keith] Yeah, if we can get that capped off... 518 00:26:03,634 --> 00:26:05,967 That... that opens up the whole boxing. 519 00:26:05,967 --> 00:26:08,166 [Juan] Very good. There we go. 520 00:26:08,233 --> 00:26:09,166 That should do the trick! 521 00:26:09,233 --> 00:26:10,266 [Keith] I think so. 522 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,166 [Juan] How many kids you got, Keith? 523 00:26:15,166 --> 00:26:16,367 [Keith] I got four kids. 524 00:26:16,367 --> 00:26:18,367 Two boys from a previous, and then my two daughters 525 00:26:18,367 --> 00:26:19,500 with uh... with my wife now. 526 00:26:19,500 --> 00:26:20,934 -[Juan] Two boys, two girls, huh? -[Keith] Yeah. 527 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:22,834 [Juan] That's exactly what I got. 528 00:26:22,900 --> 00:26:25,266 -You wanna get 'em a little more involved, though? -[Keith] Oh, yeah. 529 00:26:25,266 --> 00:26:27,066 That would be ideal in the end here. 530 00:26:27,133 --> 00:26:28,667 If we get this thing... 531 00:26:28,734 --> 00:26:30,266 ...set up properly, and get the boys here. 532 00:26:30,266 --> 00:26:31,667 -Helpin' out and... -Yeah. 533 00:26:31,734 --> 00:26:33,567 One's a heavy duty mechanic, one's a truck driver, 534 00:26:33,634 --> 00:26:35,467 -so I mean... -Oh, that's perfect then. Yeah! 535 00:26:35,467 --> 00:26:36,667 -They'll fit right in! -Yeah! 536 00:26:36,734 --> 00:26:37,767 [both laughing] 537 00:26:37,867 --> 00:26:39,333 -That's a... you need that out here! -[Keith] Yes! 538 00:26:40,567 --> 00:26:42,133 Down the road, I know, uh... 539 00:26:43,100 --> 00:26:45,266 Brayden has probably spent more time here than... 540 00:26:45,266 --> 00:26:46,166 ...than his older brother, Taylor. 541 00:26:46,166 --> 00:26:47,467 He really enjoys it. 542 00:26:47,467 --> 00:26:49,467 They both enjoy this place too, and... 543 00:26:49,467 --> 00:26:51,266 I see them both coming back here. 544 00:26:51,333 --> 00:26:52,834 At one point down the road... 545 00:26:52,900 --> 00:26:55,767 ...there's definitely a place where the boys could end up again. 546 00:26:55,767 --> 00:26:57,100 Problem is there's only two guys. 547 00:26:57,100 --> 00:26:58,166 [chuckling] 548 00:26:58,166 --> 00:26:59,734 There's only so much you can do in a season, too. 549 00:26:59,734 --> 00:27:01,567 -Right? So... -[Juan] That's where you need to get your boys involved. 550 00:27:01,634 --> 00:27:03,467 -[Keith] And uh... -You know, your boys are old enough now. They... 551 00:27:03,533 --> 00:27:05,467 -They come out here and give you guys a hand, and... -[Keith] Yup. 552 00:27:05,533 --> 00:27:07,033 [Juan] And kind of make it a family operation. 553 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:09,567 There we are. 554 00:27:09,634 --> 00:27:11,166 Just weld it out. 555 00:27:11,166 --> 00:27:12,734 Nice. That's it! 556 00:27:15,567 --> 00:27:17,367 [Freddy] I wish I could see into the ground. 557 00:27:19,467 --> 00:27:21,533 [narrator] Half a mile from the wash plant... 558 00:27:22,734 --> 00:27:25,166 -So up here's where the ditches are? -[Les] Yeah. 559 00:27:25,233 --> 00:27:27,166 You can really see the ditches from here. 560 00:27:28,166 --> 00:27:30,767 [narrator] Detective Dodge hunts for a gully 561 00:27:30,767 --> 00:27:34,100 where gold may be concentrated. 562 00:27:34,100 --> 00:27:37,266 [Freddy] You said there's like seven miles of ditches on the property, huh? 563 00:27:37,333 --> 00:27:38,600 [Les] Seven miles of hand-dug ditches 564 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:39,867 -is what we've been told. -[Freddy] Holy hell. 565 00:27:39,867 --> 00:27:41,667 Imagine digging through this, these big rocks 566 00:27:41,734 --> 00:27:43,066 -and stuff with a shovel. -[Les chuckling] Man... 567 00:27:45,066 --> 00:27:47,567 [narrator] When old timers didn't have the water needed 568 00:27:47,567 --> 00:27:49,166 to mine gold, 569 00:27:49,166 --> 00:27:50,567 they dug ditches. 570 00:27:50,634 --> 00:27:52,834 Sometimes many miles in a lane 571 00:27:52,900 --> 00:27:55,433 to direct water to where it was needed. 572 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:01,767 Well, the ditches are kind of like an indicator for you, then, up here. 573 00:28:01,767 --> 00:28:05,667 So it adds a good clue that the old-timers found the gold. 574 00:28:05,734 --> 00:28:07,967 They weren't gonna ditch it to where the gold wasn't. 575 00:28:07,967 --> 00:28:09,834 -Definitely. -[Freddy] So follow their ditches. 576 00:28:11,867 --> 00:28:14,000 Well, get the drone up, huh? 577 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:15,333 [Les] Yeah, send her up. 578 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,166 If I wreck it, it'll be the third drone I've crashed. 579 00:28:19,233 --> 00:28:20,533 [chuckling] 580 00:28:22,266 --> 00:28:25,166 [narrator] Following clues left by the old-timers, 581 00:28:25,166 --> 00:28:27,834 Freddy hopes a bird's eye view of the landscape 582 00:28:27,900 --> 00:28:30,533 will identify the channel they were chasing. 583 00:28:32,266 --> 00:28:33,433 There we go. 584 00:28:38,166 --> 00:28:40,166 -So this is the channel across here. -[Les] Right. 585 00:28:40,233 --> 00:28:41,867 There is a channel running straight across. 586 00:28:41,867 --> 00:28:43,867 Okay. And that's this channel right here, then? 587 00:28:43,867 --> 00:28:44,934 -[Les] Right here, yeah. -[Freddy] Okay. 588 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,266 I didn't know this valley was here. 589 00:28:47,266 --> 00:28:50,934 If a glacier had came through here and reconcentrated that material... 590 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,734 ...it might be something really good to look at. 591 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,166 -You can see a big glacier was in here. -[Les] Yup. 592 00:28:56,233 --> 00:28:58,266 [Freddy] That might be something cool. 593 00:28:58,266 --> 00:29:00,367 There is a distinctive channel all the way across 594 00:29:00,433 --> 00:29:03,166 this hill that leads up to a valley over here. 595 00:29:03,166 --> 00:29:04,567 When the ice was in here, 596 00:29:05,367 --> 00:29:07,734 probably had it dammed up on both sides, 597 00:29:07,734 --> 00:29:09,066 looking at it on that drone. 598 00:29:09,066 --> 00:29:10,934 And water would've came across this hill 599 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,734 and maybe reconcentrated some of the sluice material up here. 600 00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:17,433 Kind of nature's sluice box up on top of the hill. 601 00:29:18,266 --> 00:29:19,867 [narrator] Freddy's theory? 602 00:29:19,867 --> 00:29:24,266 A glacier laden with nuggets snatched from veins in the mountain 603 00:29:24,266 --> 00:29:26,066 forced its way down the valley. 604 00:29:28,667 --> 00:29:31,734 A second glacier collided with the first, 605 00:29:31,734 --> 00:29:34,066 slowing down, and eventually melting. 606 00:29:36,667 --> 00:29:40,266 The melt water reconcentrated the gold bearing material 607 00:29:40,266 --> 00:29:41,767 into an ancient channel, 608 00:29:41,767 --> 00:29:44,934 which should be a gold-rich pay streak. 609 00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:47,567 Half a mile... 610 00:29:47,567 --> 00:29:49,800 ...from where the Paradis brothers are mining. 611 00:29:56,266 --> 00:29:57,367 [Les] Nice. 612 00:29:57,367 --> 00:29:59,266 [both chuckling] 613 00:29:59,266 --> 00:30:00,533 Still in one piece! 614 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:03,367 [Freddy] Well, I've got one idea. 615 00:30:03,367 --> 00:30:05,867 I'll talk to Juan about it, see what he says and... 616 00:30:05,867 --> 00:30:07,066 ...maybe we'll have a look at it. 617 00:30:07,133 --> 00:30:09,734 Well, we only have a limited amount of time here. 618 00:30:09,734 --> 00:30:11,734 [Les] Looking around with Freddy and having a look at this channel 619 00:30:11,734 --> 00:30:14,367 and seeing him get excited is exciting for me, right? 620 00:30:14,367 --> 00:30:16,767 And uh, you know, it brings the confidence up a little bit 621 00:30:16,767 --> 00:30:19,133 that it might be a really good spot to go prospect. 622 00:30:33,166 --> 00:30:35,333 Get back in here and see what goes on. 623 00:30:37,767 --> 00:30:40,734 [narrator] Only a day before the final test run. 624 00:30:42,667 --> 00:30:45,200 I'll continue prospect and if you wanna keep... 625 00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:46,934 Yeah, I'll keep on working on that plant, yup. 626 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:48,400 [Freddy] Spray bars and all that stuff. 627 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,467 We gotta help 'em with their gold recovery, but... 628 00:30:50,533 --> 00:30:52,300 ...unless they have gold to recover, that means nothing. 629 00:30:52,300 --> 00:30:53,934 Well, I know there's gold here. 630 00:30:53,934 --> 00:30:57,033 -It's just a matter of finding where it's got reconcentrated. -[Juan] Yeah. 631 00:30:57,033 --> 00:30:58,667 -Yeah. -[Freddy] We can get the track going... 632 00:30:58,667 --> 00:31:00,867 -Yeah. -[Freddy] Get in there and punch some holes. 633 00:31:00,867 --> 00:31:03,567 If we can find some color, I'll be happy. 634 00:31:03,634 --> 00:31:05,233 Let's get in there and see what we can't do. 635 00:31:15,867 --> 00:31:17,567 [Les] I'll work my way in there and move some trees 636 00:31:17,567 --> 00:31:19,000 out of the way a little bit. 637 00:31:24,367 --> 00:31:27,634 [narrator] Freddy's narrowed down the hunt for a new pay streak 638 00:31:27,700 --> 00:31:29,934 to an area half a mile up the mountain, 639 00:31:29,934 --> 00:31:33,033 from where the brothers are currently mining. 640 00:31:33,033 --> 00:31:34,834 [Freddy] I like this spot right here. 641 00:31:34,900 --> 00:31:36,834 -Let's do it. Let's see what lives here. -[Les] Okay. 642 00:31:47,066 --> 00:31:49,033 Well, we'll just punch a hole here. 643 00:31:49,667 --> 00:31:51,400 You know, it's a good looking spot. 644 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:53,066 We've got a hill here. 645 00:31:53,066 --> 00:31:57,033 It's a lower area here, so if water did run through here at one time 646 00:31:57,100 --> 00:32:00,834 to reconcentrate material, this is a nice lookin' spot for it. 647 00:32:02,567 --> 00:32:04,033 Definitely got potential, 648 00:32:04,100 --> 00:32:05,934 whether or not it's got gold or not. 649 00:32:07,166 --> 00:32:08,734 We won't know for a bit. 650 00:32:11,567 --> 00:32:14,367 [narrator] Freddy looks for rounded river rocks. 651 00:32:14,367 --> 00:32:16,033 If the water ran through here, 652 00:32:16,100 --> 00:32:20,266 it would've concentrated the gold into a gold-rich pay streak. 653 00:32:21,066 --> 00:32:22,467 [Freddy] It's not good. 654 00:32:22,467 --> 00:32:25,567 This is all just glacial sand. 655 00:32:25,634 --> 00:32:27,066 Right here, I mean, there's probably a little 656 00:32:27,066 --> 00:32:28,734 bit of gold in it, but not very much. 657 00:32:36,934 --> 00:32:39,300 Down about, what? Five, six feet? 658 00:32:39,300 --> 00:32:41,567 We're starting to get into more gravelly stuff. 659 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:50,767 Starting to get into some bigger rocks, huh? 660 00:32:50,767 --> 00:32:52,834 Yeah, that one was pretty well-rounded. 661 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,333 That bucket's looking better, huh? 662 00:33:04,567 --> 00:33:05,834 Probably getting closer here. 663 00:33:09,033 --> 00:33:11,367 That looks like bedrock down there, maybe. 664 00:33:11,367 --> 00:33:14,100 Swing her over to the side here, would you Les? 665 00:33:14,967 --> 00:33:16,233 Have a look at some of it. 666 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:23,333 I like this. 667 00:33:24,934 --> 00:33:26,066 Yeah, it looks like a... 668 00:33:26,066 --> 00:33:28,934 ...a decomposed bedrock there, Les. 669 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:30,634 I'm gonna grab some of this material 670 00:33:30,700 --> 00:33:31,834 in the bucket. 671 00:33:31,900 --> 00:33:33,000 We can go pan it. 672 00:33:38,066 --> 00:33:39,734 Let's see if there's any color in it. 673 00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:56,066 Let's go right here, huh? 674 00:33:56,066 --> 00:33:57,834 -Moment of truth. -[Freddy] Yeah. 675 00:34:03,934 --> 00:34:05,133 Fingers crossed. 676 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:19,367 There's some heavies in it. 677 00:34:19,433 --> 00:34:20,567 That's a good sign. 678 00:34:21,967 --> 00:34:24,867 So we got 13... 679 00:34:24,867 --> 00:34:26,400 ...15 colors. 680 00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:28,266 So that's better than a swift kick in the butt. 681 00:34:28,266 --> 00:34:29,467 That's something, right? 682 00:34:29,533 --> 00:34:30,867 Yeah. 683 00:34:30,867 --> 00:34:31,767 Phenomenal. 684 00:34:31,767 --> 00:34:33,367 [Freddy] It's 30 mesh gold. 685 00:34:33,433 --> 00:34:35,467 It's very catchable, though, that size. 686 00:34:37,867 --> 00:34:39,000 Well... 687 00:34:39,967 --> 00:34:41,567 -That's a good sign, if nothing. -Yup. 688 00:34:41,567 --> 00:34:42,567 I'm happy with it. 689 00:34:42,634 --> 00:34:43,533 -Yeah. -Yeah, me as well. 690 00:34:43,667 --> 00:34:46,634 -Anytime you find gold... -No, that's right. 691 00:34:46,700 --> 00:34:48,567 [Freddy] Found something. Let's do another pan. 692 00:34:48,567 --> 00:34:50,567 [Les] It feels great. Check her out! 693 00:34:57,667 --> 00:34:59,066 The proof's in the pudding, right? 694 00:34:59,066 --> 00:35:01,367 There was gold in every pan. 695 00:35:01,433 --> 00:35:05,266 They've gotten better gold. We can run a second test here. 696 00:35:05,333 --> 00:35:08,033 They've got a lot of material to run in the future. 697 00:35:08,033 --> 00:35:09,066 The hole we're digging, you know, 698 00:35:09,066 --> 00:35:10,767 could potentially be the future of the mine. 699 00:35:10,767 --> 00:35:12,066 We found some color in there. 700 00:35:12,066 --> 00:35:13,500 It's pretty exciting. 701 00:35:18,667 --> 00:35:21,000 -[Keith] Over here, Juan? -[Juan] Yeah, that's perfect. Right there. 702 00:35:23,767 --> 00:35:25,300 [narrator] With one day left, 703 00:35:25,300 --> 00:35:27,734 and a vital new pay streak identified... 704 00:35:28,767 --> 00:35:32,867 Juan and Keith race the sun to finish a critical final fix 705 00:35:32,867 --> 00:35:33,934 to the wash plant. 706 00:35:35,567 --> 00:35:36,767 [Juan] Really, we're running out of time. 707 00:35:36,767 --> 00:35:39,300 So we just gotta keep on working. 708 00:35:39,300 --> 00:35:40,934 We're close, though. We're close. 709 00:35:40,934 --> 00:35:42,033 We gotta get this done. 710 00:35:42,867 --> 00:35:44,567 [Keith] Get one on there. 711 00:35:44,567 --> 00:35:46,000 -[Juan] Backside right here? -[Keith] Yeah. 712 00:35:50,033 --> 00:35:51,266 Close enough. Weld this side. 713 00:35:53,300 --> 00:35:55,567 This is hopefully gonna give us a more even feed... 714 00:35:55,567 --> 00:35:57,266 ...which gives us a better opportunity of catching 715 00:35:57,266 --> 00:35:58,934 some of this fine gold down at the bottom. 716 00:36:00,066 --> 00:36:01,333 Just a tad bit more. 717 00:36:02,767 --> 00:36:04,066 That... 718 00:36:04,066 --> 00:36:05,233 That's good. 719 00:36:09,767 --> 00:36:10,934 [Keith] Is it good? 720 00:36:19,667 --> 00:36:21,200 [Juan] Keith's got this hole all cut out. 721 00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,266 We're ready to get this spray bar up top, 722 00:36:23,333 --> 00:36:24,834 get all lined up and get it welded in. 723 00:36:26,266 --> 00:36:27,433 Thank you, sir. 724 00:36:39,066 --> 00:36:40,367 [Keith] There we are. 725 00:36:40,433 --> 00:36:41,467 [Juan] Right there. 726 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:43,266 That's pretty good. 727 00:36:44,667 --> 00:36:45,934 [Keith] Put your visor up. 728 00:36:57,300 --> 00:36:58,867 [Keith] Yeah, I think we're good, Juan. 729 00:36:58,867 --> 00:37:01,634 From what I'm seeing now, we're gonna water all the way across this box. 730 00:37:01,700 --> 00:37:02,934 So no matter where the dirts hit, 731 00:37:02,934 --> 00:37:06,233 water should be, uh, helping push that dirt out. 732 00:37:08,266 --> 00:37:10,033 Beautiful job! 733 00:37:10,100 --> 00:37:11,233 [Juan] Perfect! 734 00:37:12,266 --> 00:37:14,266 I'm happy with that. 735 00:37:14,266 --> 00:37:16,767 We wanna make sure that the sprayers are spraying the same way. 736 00:37:16,767 --> 00:37:18,166 Make sure that that flow of water's 737 00:37:18,233 --> 00:37:20,367 concentrated down that, uh, wash box, 738 00:37:20,367 --> 00:37:22,266 and is pushing that material down to the screen. 739 00:37:22,333 --> 00:37:23,266 [Keith] It looks really good. 740 00:37:23,333 --> 00:37:25,200 -Thanks, Juan! -[Juan] No problem. 741 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:26,934 This rescue is a little different. 742 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:28,667 You know, there were so many things that we had to do. 743 00:37:28,667 --> 00:37:30,367 Uh, we had to do plant repairs, 744 00:37:30,367 --> 00:37:32,300 but then on top of that, we had to help the guys 745 00:37:32,300 --> 00:37:33,834 try to locate some decent ground. 746 00:37:33,900 --> 00:37:35,667 I'm hoping with what Freddy was able to do, 747 00:37:35,667 --> 00:37:37,033 and the changes we made to the plant, 748 00:37:37,100 --> 00:37:38,300 it's really gonna help these guys out. 749 00:37:38,300 --> 00:37:40,467 But we won't know until we actually watch it run. 750 00:37:41,300 --> 00:37:43,300 There's a lot riding on this final test here. 751 00:37:43,300 --> 00:37:45,667 You know, if the numbers aren't there... 752 00:37:45,667 --> 00:37:47,667 ...I'm not sure how me and Les are gonna be able to continue 753 00:37:47,667 --> 00:37:49,133 with where we're sitting at the moment. 754 00:37:55,367 --> 00:37:57,734 [Juan] I just got a frantic radio call from Freddy. 755 00:37:57,734 --> 00:37:59,367 It's a big day at the mine site today, 756 00:37:59,367 --> 00:38:01,467 so he wants to pick out the right outfit to wear. 757 00:38:01,467 --> 00:38:03,934 So I'm gonna give him a hand and see what we can't come up with. 758 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:04,834 Well, what do you think, Juan? 759 00:38:04,900 --> 00:38:06,467 I'm... I'm conflicted. 760 00:38:06,467 --> 00:38:07,734 Let me look at that one, Fred. 761 00:38:07,734 --> 00:38:09,166 Let's get 'em out in the light. 762 00:38:09,166 --> 00:38:10,900 -[Freddy] What about this one? -[Juan] Let me see that. 763 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:14,100 Let's see another one. 764 00:38:15,100 --> 00:38:16,834 All right, that might not be the one. 765 00:38:16,900 --> 00:38:18,100 I don't know. You got one more in there? 766 00:38:18,100 --> 00:38:20,000 -Oh, I got a bunch more, yeah. -[Juan] Yeah. 767 00:38:20,066 --> 00:38:21,467 No, I think this is the one right here, Freddy. 768 00:38:21,467 --> 00:38:22,934 -I like that one. -[Freddy] Is that the one? 769 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:24,333 -This one right here? -It's just gorgeous. Perfect. 770 00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:25,567 -Okay. -[Juan] That's the one to wear. 771 00:38:25,567 --> 00:38:27,166 Okay. What about pants? 772 00:38:27,233 --> 00:38:29,367 Should I wear these jeans or should I wear these jeans? 773 00:38:29,367 --> 00:38:30,834 [Juan] Let me see. Let me look at these. 774 00:38:30,900 --> 00:38:32,033 Those are a bit too clean, I think. 775 00:38:32,033 --> 00:38:33,033 [Juan] No, I'd wear those. 776 00:38:33,033 --> 00:38:34,100 -Those are the ones. -[Freddy] These good? 777 00:38:34,166 --> 00:38:35,367 -[Juan] Those are the ones, yeah. -Okay. 778 00:38:35,367 --> 00:38:36,834 You know, I picked out my shirt this morning, 779 00:38:36,834 --> 00:38:38,667 I pulled all my shirts out and took a look at 'em. 780 00:38:38,667 --> 00:38:40,200 And honestly, the way I picked it out 781 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:41,734 was the one that smelled the best. 782 00:38:41,734 --> 00:38:43,934 -Smelled the best? Yeah. -[chuckling] This one smells all right! 783 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,166 Yeah, the sniff test in the morning! 784 00:38:45,233 --> 00:38:47,100 -This is the one I'm wearing! -Ah! Not today! 785 00:38:47,100 --> 00:38:48,166 [both laughing] 786 00:38:48,233 --> 00:38:49,166 All right, buddy. 787 00:38:49,233 --> 00:38:50,734 -See you, Fred. -Thanks, Juano! 788 00:39:01,567 --> 00:39:02,634 [Freddy] What do you think, guys? 789 00:39:04,166 --> 00:39:06,166 [narrator] Before they do the final run 790 00:39:06,233 --> 00:39:08,066 and test all of their fixes... 791 00:39:08,133 --> 00:39:10,367 So let's have a walkthrough and talk about the riffles 792 00:39:10,367 --> 00:39:12,734 and stuff Juan built. 793 00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,266 [narrator] Freddy takes a closer look at the improvements 794 00:39:15,266 --> 00:39:17,667 Juan has made to the sluice runs. 795 00:39:20,066 --> 00:39:21,467 We can kind of see, 796 00:39:21,467 --> 00:39:22,934 you know, what Juan did here. 797 00:39:24,066 --> 00:39:25,266 We talked about it. 798 00:39:25,266 --> 00:39:28,266 -We decided to put your coarse riffles low. -[Keith] Yeah. 799 00:39:28,266 --> 00:39:30,567 That'll let that material come off of there 800 00:39:30,567 --> 00:39:34,467 and spread more and actually pick up a bit more velocity on the lighter riffles... 801 00:39:34,467 --> 00:39:37,734 -[Keith] Okay. -[Freddy] ...before it hits the coarse riffles. 802 00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:39,834 [Keith] Yeah, get a chance for everything to fan out a little bit, and... 803 00:39:39,834 --> 00:39:42,567 -Yeah. -Instead of being all... all the same exact riffle 804 00:39:42,567 --> 00:39:43,667 like we had on the last ones. 805 00:39:43,667 --> 00:39:45,000 There's... There's quite a few more changes. 806 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:46,800 -[Les] Yeah. -[Juan] More chances for that gold to get caught. 807 00:39:47,834 --> 00:39:49,367 That's gonna stop it from backing up on us. 808 00:39:49,367 --> 00:39:51,467 -Or, it'll at least help it if it's backing up. -[Freddy] It'll help, yeah. 809 00:39:51,467 --> 00:39:52,834 It'll help greatly. 810 00:39:52,834 --> 00:39:54,233 [Les] It won't all back up. 811 00:39:54,300 --> 00:39:56,734 And that one piece of gold that doesn't like the other situations 812 00:39:56,734 --> 00:39:57,800 may like that one. 813 00:39:58,567 --> 00:39:59,800 Especially with the fine gold. 814 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:02,166 [Keith] Having Juan and Freddy out here... 815 00:40:02,233 --> 00:40:03,567 Two great people to get some knowledge from. 816 00:40:03,567 --> 00:40:05,000 You know, they've had a lot of experience 817 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:07,100 in this fine gold recovery, and uh, yeah. 818 00:40:07,100 --> 00:40:08,367 I was able to ask... 819 00:40:08,367 --> 00:40:11,000 ...a lot of questions on things that I've had. 820 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:12,367 You know, been trying to find answers for, 821 00:40:12,367 --> 00:40:14,000 and, uh, they were able to answer those for me. 822 00:40:14,066 --> 00:40:15,100 You guys ready to rock and roll? 823 00:40:15,166 --> 00:40:16,567 -[Les] We're ready to fire it up. -[Keith] Yes, yes. 824 00:40:16,634 --> 00:40:17,834 [Freddy] Let's make some gold. 825 00:40:17,900 --> 00:40:19,667 [Les] This second test here... 826 00:40:19,734 --> 00:40:22,166 A little concerned, um, how it's gonna turn out, you know? 827 00:40:22,166 --> 00:40:25,066 Hoping these changes capture some more of that fine gold, 828 00:40:25,066 --> 00:40:26,266 and if there's no gold in this test, 829 00:40:26,266 --> 00:40:28,567 it's, uh, back to the drawing board again. 830 00:40:28,567 --> 00:40:29,934 See if it's... 831 00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,467 ...viable to continue operations out here. 832 00:40:32,533 --> 00:40:33,734 Let's do it. 833 00:40:35,867 --> 00:40:38,166 [narrator] After a week of making major upgrades 834 00:40:38,166 --> 00:40:39,467 to the wash plant... 835 00:40:40,467 --> 00:40:43,233 ...and a three day prospect for better ground... 836 00:40:44,467 --> 00:40:47,233 ...Freddy and Juan will run a two hour test. 837 00:40:48,567 --> 00:40:49,734 [device powering on] 838 00:40:55,367 --> 00:40:57,900 All right, we got water headed north up the hill! 839 00:40:58,667 --> 00:40:59,734 [Keith] Copy! 840 00:41:01,867 --> 00:41:03,800 Hey Les, they got water at the pump! 841 00:41:09,266 --> 00:41:10,667 [Juan] We're pretty excited about it. 842 00:41:10,734 --> 00:41:12,166 We're gonna go ahead and get the equipment fired up, 843 00:41:12,166 --> 00:41:13,266 and we're gonna start running the plant. 844 00:41:13,266 --> 00:41:14,734 We're gonna get some gold in the box. 845 00:41:27,767 --> 00:41:29,667 Hey Les, first bucket's going in! 846 00:41:30,367 --> 00:41:31,634 First bucket, Fred! 847 00:41:34,567 --> 00:41:36,634 -Start timing it! -[Juan] Nice. 848 00:41:39,166 --> 00:41:40,734 [narrator] Keith and Les Paradis 849 00:41:40,734 --> 00:41:44,266 need this test to deliver over .4 of an ounce 850 00:41:44,266 --> 00:41:47,734 to keep them on track for their two ounce a day target. 851 00:41:47,734 --> 00:41:50,166 [Keith] Well, those few spray bars seem to be doing the trick, Les! 852 00:41:51,100 --> 00:41:53,533 We're getting a nice even feed into those shakers. 853 00:41:56,066 --> 00:41:57,433 [Juan] Yo, those feel better. 854 00:41:58,100 --> 00:41:59,233 A lot better. 855 00:42:00,266 --> 00:42:02,634 -Yeah, Juano... looks good. -[Juan] Thanks, buddy. 856 00:42:16,934 --> 00:42:17,834 [Juan] Look at that. 857 00:42:17,900 --> 00:42:19,800 -Perfectly clean. -That's clean! 858 00:42:20,667 --> 00:42:21,667 [Juan] That's clean. 859 00:42:21,734 --> 00:42:23,266 [Freddy] Yeah, you can eat off of it, Juan. 860 00:42:23,266 --> 00:42:24,333 [Juan] It's perfect. 861 00:42:25,066 --> 00:42:26,467 Can't beat that. 862 00:42:45,834 --> 00:42:47,734 -You got more water now. -Do we? 863 00:42:47,734 --> 00:42:49,834 Since you put that spray bar in the back. 864 00:42:49,834 --> 00:42:51,233 [Les] Oh, okay. 865 00:42:51,300 --> 00:42:52,567 [Freddy] You probably have... 866 00:42:52,567 --> 00:42:55,667 ...ten percent more water going through than you had before. 867 00:42:58,066 --> 00:42:59,133 [Les] Looks good. 868 00:43:00,734 --> 00:43:02,934 It's running, and his new spray bars are working good. 869 00:43:02,934 --> 00:43:05,133 It's washing it out nice and even he said, so... 870 00:43:07,367 --> 00:43:09,667 -The bottom riffles are working good. -Yup. 871 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:14,734 [Juan] The plant is running great. 872 00:43:14,734 --> 00:43:16,734 So as long as there's gold in the ground, 873 00:43:16,734 --> 00:43:20,133 I guarantee that this... this cleanup's gonna be better than the last one. 874 00:43:22,266 --> 00:43:24,266 That spot we just went and dug? 875 00:43:24,266 --> 00:43:25,834 -Yeah? -[Freddy] It was prospected. 876 00:43:25,834 --> 00:43:28,467 -It's got gold in it. -[Juan] Yeah? 877 00:43:28,467 --> 00:43:30,467 I'm excited to see what the box looks like, Fred. 878 00:43:30,467 --> 00:43:31,734 Yeah, I am too. 879 00:43:33,066 --> 00:43:36,567 Well, the sluices are running better than they were before. 880 00:43:36,567 --> 00:43:38,467 That's for sure. 881 00:43:38,467 --> 00:43:41,567 Pretty much an apples to apples test here. 882 00:43:41,567 --> 00:43:43,934 Now, uh... now the proof will be in the pudding. 883 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,333 Get the gold on the scale and see what it does. 884 00:43:49,166 --> 00:43:51,233 Hey, Keith. You got a copy? 885 00:43:51,300 --> 00:43:52,667 Go ahead, Freddy. 886 00:43:52,667 --> 00:43:55,533 Yeah, let's make this next bucket your last bucket. 887 00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:57,367 Yeah, you betcha. 888 00:43:57,367 --> 00:43:59,066 I'll grab one more, call it my last one 889 00:43:59,066 --> 00:44:00,467 and uh, we'll turn it off. 890 00:44:13,467 --> 00:44:14,667 Can you see some? 891 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,233 [Keith] I think we got a piece right here. 892 00:44:22,300 --> 00:44:23,333 [Les] Yeah. 893 00:44:25,100 --> 00:44:26,834 [Freddy] Yeah, I got gold here. 894 00:44:26,834 --> 00:44:28,834 [Keith] We know we're getting good action on these riffles right here. 895 00:44:28,834 --> 00:44:30,367 [Juan] Oh, look at that trough, Fred. 896 00:44:30,367 --> 00:44:32,567 -[Freddy] Ah. -[Juan] There's a bunch of fine gold in there. 897 00:44:32,567 --> 00:44:33,667 -[Freddy] Is there? -[Juan] Yup. 898 00:44:33,667 --> 00:44:34,567 -[Freddy] Good. -[Juan] Bunch of fine gold. 899 00:44:34,567 --> 00:44:35,834 [Freddy] You see it in there? 900 00:44:35,900 --> 00:44:37,133 It's in the carpet where 901 00:44:37,133 --> 00:44:38,734 -we want it, too. Yeah. -[Les] It's right in the carpet, yeah. 902 00:44:38,734 --> 00:44:39,834 [Freddy] That's where we want it. 903 00:44:39,834 --> 00:44:41,367 So it definitely looks like a big improvement. 904 00:44:41,367 --> 00:44:43,567 Well, there's only one way to find out, huh? 905 00:44:43,567 --> 00:44:45,367 Get it cleaned up and get it on the scale. 906 00:44:45,367 --> 00:44:46,934 -[Keith] Yup, let's do it. -[Les] That sounds good. 907 00:44:58,467 --> 00:45:00,166 [Freddy] Got her all dried up, huh, guys? 908 00:45:00,233 --> 00:45:01,567 [Juan] Got her all done. 909 00:45:01,567 --> 00:45:05,233 [narrator] Their first test produced .2 of an ounce. 910 00:45:05,300 --> 00:45:07,800 -[Juan] Moment of truth, huh? -[Freddy] Moment of truth, Juano. 911 00:45:10,467 --> 00:45:13,066 [narrator] To hit their two ounce a day target, 912 00:45:13,066 --> 00:45:14,467 and become viable, 913 00:45:14,467 --> 00:45:17,667 the brothers need at least double the first run. 914 00:45:20,734 --> 00:45:22,467 -[Freddy] Well, that looks better. -[Juan] Looks nice. 915 00:45:22,533 --> 00:45:24,367 -[Freddy] Lots fine gold in there. -[Juan] Holy... look at that. 916 00:45:24,367 --> 00:45:26,467 There's a ton of fine gold. 917 00:45:26,533 --> 00:45:28,000 [Keith] We've never seen fines like that before. 918 00:45:28,066 --> 00:45:29,100 Well... that's a good sign! 919 00:45:29,100 --> 00:45:30,266 -[Keith] Yeah, mmm-hmm. -[Les] It is a good sign! 920 00:45:30,266 --> 00:45:31,834 -It's quite impressive. -[Les] Yeah. 921 00:45:31,900 --> 00:45:33,266 -[Juan] Let's weigh it up. -Let's weigh it up! 922 00:45:33,266 --> 00:45:34,333 Yeah, let's do it. 923 00:45:40,500 --> 00:45:41,367 [Freddy] Well... 924 00:45:41,367 --> 00:45:43,734 There's .20 right there, guys. 925 00:45:43,734 --> 00:45:46,133 In there, and we got a lot left in the pan. 926 00:45:55,367 --> 00:45:56,834 .55. 927 00:45:56,900 --> 00:45:57,667 -[Juan] Ahem. -Thanks. 928 00:45:57,667 --> 00:45:59,000 [Juan] That's pretty damn good. 929 00:45:59,066 --> 00:46:00,734 -Over 100 percent? Yeah. -[Freddy] Over 100 percent, guys. 930 00:46:00,734 --> 00:46:02,734 -[Keith] That's a huge improvement. -[Les] Huge improvement! 931 00:46:02,734 --> 00:46:05,367 [narrator] A full ten hour day would produce 932 00:46:05,367 --> 00:46:09,934 2.75 ounces, which could mean the Paradis brothers 933 00:46:09,934 --> 00:46:13,166 turning a profit for the first time in years. 934 00:46:13,166 --> 00:46:15,934 More than enough for a career change 935 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,367 from oil to gold. 936 00:46:18,367 --> 00:46:20,367 Most of that fine gold caught in there is a... 937 00:46:20,367 --> 00:46:21,567 -Yeah, the... -The riffle systems... 938 00:46:21,634 --> 00:46:22,667 -...is the changes. -...we put in there. 939 00:46:22,667 --> 00:46:23,567 -Yeah. -[Les] Well, definitely. 940 00:46:23,567 --> 00:46:25,000 We haven't seen fines like that before. 941 00:46:25,066 --> 00:46:26,834 -It was a... -Well, it's a dang good problem to have, huh? 942 00:46:26,834 --> 00:46:27,734 -15... -[Les] It is! 943 00:46:27,734 --> 00:46:30,333 [all laughing] 944 00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:32,567 [Les] Yeah, catching the fine gold makes a huge difference. 945 00:46:32,634 --> 00:46:34,834 It makes it more viable to be able to do this full time, 946 00:46:34,834 --> 00:46:36,734 and be able to work for ourselves. 947 00:46:36,734 --> 00:46:39,066 Hopefully, be able to take the winters off. 948 00:46:39,066 --> 00:46:40,734 -Can't say thank you enough for the, uh... -[Juan] Oh, no. 949 00:46:40,734 --> 00:46:42,166 -...your advice for changes, so... -[Juan] That's awesome. 950 00:46:42,166 --> 00:46:45,467 Thank you, and honestly, we're extremely excited about that, 951 00:46:45,467 --> 00:46:47,467 because at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding. 952 00:46:47,533 --> 00:46:50,000 -Look at all that fine gold. -[Freddy] Yup, yup. 953 00:46:50,066 --> 00:46:51,166 Well, you definitely didn't disappoint, so... 954 00:46:51,166 --> 00:46:52,467 -Yeah. -[all chuckling] 955 00:46:52,533 --> 00:46:53,934 It's been a pleasure... been a pleasure having you guys. 956 00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:55,367 -We learned a lot from you guys. -My pleasure. 957 00:46:55,367 --> 00:46:56,934 -Pleasure. -Thanks a lot. 958 00:46:57,000 --> 00:46:58,567 -Wish we could spend the whole summer with you guys. -Appreciate it. 959 00:46:58,567 --> 00:46:59,934 -Yeah, ditto. -Thank you. 960 00:46:59,934 --> 00:47:02,266 -Let's load her up and go, huh? -Yeah, let's get on the road. 961 00:47:02,266 --> 00:47:05,233 On the fine gold for sure, we've made a major increase. 962 00:47:06,367 --> 00:47:07,934 Mining this mine better pay. 963 00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:10,734 We're gonna get 'em the most gold in the future. 964 00:47:10,734 --> 00:47:12,467 These guys want to mine full time. 965 00:47:12,533 --> 00:47:15,266 They love it out in the bush, they love it out at their mine. 966 00:47:15,266 --> 00:47:17,367 And they love digging for gold. 967 00:47:17,367 --> 00:47:19,834 -Take care, guys! -[Les] Yeah. 968 00:47:19,834 --> 00:47:21,734 -[Freddy] Great guys to work with, Juan. -[Juan] Oh, man. 969 00:47:22,667 --> 00:47:23,834 It was awesome, Fred. 970 00:47:26,367 --> 00:47:27,834 [Freddy] Well, Juano... 971 00:47:27,834 --> 00:47:29,367 [Juan] On to the next one, Fred. 972 00:47:29,367 --> 00:47:30,533 Let's go. 973 00:47:36,367 --> 00:47:37,734 [Keith] With Freddy and Juan coming out, 974 00:47:37,734 --> 00:47:39,667 and finding some new ground... 975 00:47:39,734 --> 00:47:41,000 ...and with these improvements, 976 00:47:41,066 --> 00:47:43,367 we can bring the family up and spend our summers together 977 00:47:43,367 --> 00:47:46,000 and just enjoy life. 978 00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:48,166 [Les] I just wanna thank Freddy and Juan for everything they've done. 979 00:47:48,166 --> 00:47:49,667 It means the world to me. 980 00:47:49,734 --> 00:47:50,734 It's something we want to keep doing. 981 00:47:50,734 --> 00:47:52,734 We wanna keep working this mine, right? 982 00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:54,667 We... We don't have to shut it down 983 00:47:54,667 --> 00:47:56,567 and be able to continue mining out there.