Okay, you ready?
Coming at you!
[Matt] I love gold mining.
It feels like you're just pulling dollar bills out of the ground.
[Roger] I just decided
to sell my business and go gold mining.
It's tough to toss the rest of your life away
and come out here and bank on gold being a success.
[Juan] I love the fact that there's three generations here,
grandfather, father and a grandkid.
This is their dream.
There's a lot of pressure on us, Freddy.
- [rattling] - Hey!
No way.
Conveyor's shut off.
- [Tristan] Whoa, whoa, shut it down! Shut it down! - [Fred] Hey!
You look a little stressed, Roger.
It's a struggle not to be able to continue
running this thing.
[Fred] We can't do anymore.
Gonna have a third kid
in two weeks and a trailer
isn't gonna cut it.
So, your house is depending on gold.
[Juan] A little nervous about it, Freddy.
- [light explosion] - [man] Ah!
[Fred] But it can't run without us repairing this.
Do you have gold fever?
Something happens in me when I see it. [laughs]
[Juan] It's an ethereal thing to take gold
out of the ground.
What is that?
It's gold.
[suspenseful music playing]
[whirring]
Juan, it's Freddy.
- Aw, shoot! No, really? - [Fred] Yep.
[Juan] That kind of puts us in a tough spot.
Uh, how late are you gonna be, you think?
[Fred speaking through the phone]
All right, all right. Well, I was actually, uh, heading out there right now.
I was expecting to see you,
but it's gonna be kind of tough without you.
I... I'm hoping he shows up as quick as he can
because, uh, right now, with the supply chain issues,
who knows when he's gonna get his part.
You know, it could still be two, or three days.
You know, without Freddy, I kind of feel naked.
I kind of feel I'm not wearing any underwear.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan have received an urgent call from Ahbau Creek
in Canada's legendary Cariboo gold fields
where the multigenerational Adams family are struggling to realize their dream
of a family homestead and mining operation.
[Juan] These guys got a lot on the line. They're out here,
they wanna live of the... of the land that they got
and make, like, their own little homestead.
[narrator] The family's 2,000-acre property lies on Ahbau Creek,
named after a Chinese miner
from the 1860s Cariboo gold rush
who recovered over a million ounces before he died.
If the family can pick up where Ahbau left off,
they could be set for life.
[Juan] Hey, guys.
- [Roger] Hey. - Oh.
- How you doing? - Good.
- How are you doing? - Juan, I'm Roger.
- Roger? Nice to meet you, Roger. - You, too.
- Matt. - Matt?
- Tristan. - Tristan.
- Taylor. - Taylor? There's a lot of you guys.
- Holy smokes! Oh. - Yeah.
- How are you. - How are you doing? [laughs]
- And what's your name? - I'm Kieran.
- [Juan] Kieran? - And I'm the old man.
- [Juan] You're the old man? Nice to meet you, old man. - Wayne.
- [Juan] What's... What... What? - Wayne.
[Juan] Nice to meet you, Wayne.
What's the dog's name?
- Sam. - [Juan] Sam.
- [Taylor] Samson. [laughs] - [Juan] Cute little guy.
Well, the good news is, I'm here.
The bad news is, uh, Freddy's not here yet.
His, uh, truck broke down.
I'm hoping, uh, he'll be back here up the next day.
But I'm here at least, and, uh, we'll see what we can do for you guys.
- Sounds awesome. - Awesome.
So, what happened to your arm, Kieran?
- It's the plant that claimed it. It's, uh-- - [Juan] Oh, yeah?
I thought it was Wayne.
- [laughs] - [Juan] Not Wayne, huh?
That trommel had a break down here,
but as I got it running, it just... just about
karate chopped my hand in half and--
Ah!
So, how long have you guys been running here?
Really, on this site,
last year and just a few days this year.
The last summer, we were probably here two months.
- [Juan] Really? - But we only ran about a full week.
- Really? - [Matt] It broke down and stuff.
So, it was more troubleshooting
- than running. - Okay.
[narrator] In their first season last year,
Roger and Matt came to mine alone.
[Roger speaking]
[narrator] This year, his other three sons
and Dad have joined them.
[Juan] So, you guys been running for about two days this year?
Yeah, sort of two days, really, on the plant only two, three hours
- is what we put in. That's it. - [Juan] Oh, really?
Have they been a good two hours, though?
- No, no, I wouldn't say so. - Not great. [laughs]
The last half hour was good.
- [both laugh] - [man] Yeah.
[narrator] Despite the extra hands,
the family faced constant shut downs this year.
[Roger] Well, we picked up this conveyor,
so that's actually been a little bit of a fight for us,
and I'm sure you guys will hate it as much as we do.
[laughs]
[narrator] If the mine can't turn a profit in the remaining 12 weeks,
the Adams clan will be forced to abandon their dream
of mining and living off the land.
- Have you guys seen any gold yet? - [Roger] We have.
- [Juan] Really? - Uh, yeah, a little bit.
[Matt] This is last, uh, year's.
I don't know how much is there. Maybe 10 ounces?
[Juan] All fairly course, really.
You got some flour gold in there.
So, what got you guys into mining?
I grew up mining little bits
- with my grandfather and my dad. - [Juan] Oh.
[Roger] But never on a commercial type of a mine,
always just hand panning and that kind of thing.
And since then, it's been my dream
to do this for real.
When things got silly with COVID,
it got me thinking again about how much fun
I had with my dad and how much fun
I could have with my own sons
and how valuable it might be to them like it was to me.
I had some gold claims
and I just decided to sell my business and go gold mining.
It might be crazy, but that's what we're doing.
[narrator] Back home in Edmonton,
Roger employed all four of his sons in the family
guttering business, so his decision to sell changed everything.
[Roger] We're not just here spending a little bit money on a gold mine,
we actually moved to this area.
We did buy property, 150 acres, not too far from here.
We're intending to build houses there,
but that's gotta be funded by something.
[Taylor] So, this is, uh,
what we're gonna call home for a little while,
while we build other things.
[Roger] Boys are fully invested in this,
but this is the only job they have until we put gold in the box.
They're trusting me, and so I gotta come up for 'em, you know?
Come up big, hopefully, for 'em.
This is our future right here. It's gotta work.
[narrator] So far, Roger has invested over a million dollars
with a hope that all 13 of his extended family
can live together off this homestead mine.
[Juan] Wow, now I kind of see the picture.
- So it's not just you guys, it's your families as well. - [Taylor] Yeah.
[Matt] Yeah, we really laid it on the line a little bit, like, we...
We're selling everything and moving out here and going gold mining,
so it's all going into this.
Well, what are you guys hoping to be able to recover this year?
Well, we need at least 15 ounces a week.
So, that 15 ounces a... a week, it's not an option,
- it's... it's a necessity, then? - Yes.
- [Taylor] Yeah. - [Juan] Okay.
Well, I'd love to start a four-hour test run and we'll go for there.
- [Matt] Let's do it. - [Roger] All right.
[suspenseful music playing]
Let's get this going.
[engine starting]
- [Roger] Oh, great. - [Matt] Press the button.
[engine stalling]
Hold the button.
[engine starting]
[suspenseful music playing]
Well, hey, it all started. That's the best part.
Let's do it.
[narrator] Matt loads pay into the 15-yard feeder.
The first bucket.
[narrator] The 60-foot conveyor provides an even flow of dirt up to the hopper,
where a series of spray bars pre-wash the material
before it's sent into a 20-foot by 4-four trommel...
and then into 22-foot sluice runs
that should trap the gold.
[Taylor] Are you nervous that Freddy's not here?
Are we gonna get gold or are we gonna lose all our money
and have to live in the bush?
[narrator] Under the gun and solo,
Juan has just four hours to assess holes in their operation
and recommend fixes.
[Juan] Already I spotted a few things.
The wheels were running too much material through that box.
You know, if Freddy doesn't get here,
I'm gonna be limited to what... what I can do.
You know, I can fabricate, I can weld, I can fix anything.
But when it comes down
to really kind of reading the washplant,
you know, that's where Freddy really shines.
I just want 'em to run. We'll watch it, observe
and then figure it out, and we'll go from there.
[Juan] Look at this little guy.
- [Fred] Juan! - [Juan] Freddy!
[Juan] How are you doing, buddy?
- [Fred] Sorry, I'm late, man. - [Juan] No worries.
- Good to see you. - You, too.
Well, I'd have liked to have got here before the plant fired up,
but I'm here, so let's watch it run
and see how we can help these guys.
Roger, Freddy made it.
- How's it going, Freddy? - Hi.
I thought you might be later.
[Juan speaking]
- Huge difference. - Yeah.
[Fred] You're right. This side's bulked over
and that side's starving.
[narrator] 70% of the material
rushes down one side of the sluice.
With those riffles already packed,
they're losing gold off the end.
The way those materials spin, you need to slow this down.
We usually watch it run and don't say anything, but it sounds like
you guys need every bit of gold
you can get your hands on.
Our sluice box was packing up a little bit.
So we slowed it down significantly.
They had an electric motor.
They took it off, put a gas motor.
Because originally they were gonna run a generator.
But the kid, one of the brothers just broke his arm
starting the motor up.
[motor revving]
[man] What happened?
No way.
[Wayne] The motor just died on us.
Turn the plant off. Stop it.
[Fred] The motor, quick!
[narrator] With the motor dead,
the plan needs to cut off immediately
or the trommel will clog with material.
[Fred] Shut her down.
[motor stops]
[Juan] Why don't you blow it from the top in?
[blowing]
[Roger] Here, do it again.
You gotta somehow block your face off on there
so it can't... No air can pass your cheeks.
Yeah, I know. It's impossible on this stupid thing.
[Roger] Yeah?
[blowing]
[Fred] Oh, there we go.
- [Taylor] Ready? - [Tristan] Yeah. [laughs]
[Roger] Don't break your arm.
[motor starting]
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Way, way older.
- [laughs] - [Tristan] My dad is probably
the ultimate, uh, optimist,
just blocking out the negatives.
[all laugh]
I would say I'm nervous about it.
You know, I quit my job out in the city,
and, you know, this is kind of a last resort for me right now.
You know, my wife's still back home working
and I...
We don't like to be away from each other at all.
But once we can bring some gold in,
we can, you know, start a home out here.
[Fred] I don't like the look of that.
They've probably got
maybe 12 tons, 15 tons of dirt
just right here.
[narrator] Almost one-tenth of this runs gold-rich pay
has not even gone to the plant.
[rattling]
[Fred] Hey!
- The conveyor's shut off. - [Juan] Shut down.
[narrator] With two full hours left in the test,
the conveyor stops dead.
- [Tristan] Whoa, whoa, whoa! Shut it down, shut it down! - [Fred] Hey!
Don't... Don't start the conveyor.
It's wound up.
[Fred] What happened?
Is there rock in it?
[Taylor] All this stuff that's coming down
and built up under here.
- Yeah, we should've realized-- - [man] The belt's off track,
and now it's jammed in.
[narrator] Forced to shut down after only two hours,
the Adams need to get the conveyor belt back on track to finish
the test run.
I'm thinking loosen it off.
[thudding]
[Fred] Don't pull to hard there,
you're right near the rip.
Where the rip down there guys?
[Taylor] Right here.
[Fred] Now, before we run it anymore, oughta fix that one up.
- [Taylor] It'll catch. - [Fred] Yep.
[Juan] In the condition
that the belt is, we already got a hole in it.
If we keep on running, we run the risk
of losing the $5,000 belt.
So, I honestly think, my opinion,
and I think Freddy agrees with me,
- I think we ought to shut down for the day. - [Fred] Yep.
I wouldn't run it anymore.
[narrator] But the conveyor belt isn't the only issue on the plant.
[Fred] That's not a proper return pulley.
A true tail wheel is a wing pulley.
- [Juan] They call 'em self-cleaning tail pulley. - [Taylor and Fred] Yeah.
If you would've had wing pulley,
it actually would've ejected the material out.
Yep. Like, right now, if you get a rock that falls off,
bounces off the belt
- and they're going to. - [Juan] Which... It happens all the time.
It's gonna go underneath there
and it's gonna get inside of there,
and it's gonna blow holes in the belt all the time.
From watching your plant,
this is gonna be your biggest, uh,
- bottleneck right now. - Yeah.
[Fred] And it's gonna cost you the most amount of money and the most down time.
And it doesn't matter how much gold's in your ground
if your planet's not running.
Well, you look at little stressed, Roger.
Yeah, I'm stressed. Yeah, it's...
It's a struggle not to be able to continue running this thing.
I mean, it's gotta... We gotta prove this everyday.
- [Juan] Yeah. - Right? We gotta get the hours in,
and the only way to make money is to put through the yardage,
- so-- - You're absolutely right.
Well...
Well, let's take a look at the box.
Let's do that.
[Kieran] Obviously, two hours is nothing to be happy about.
Supposed to work eight hours a day
and supposed to be gold mining,
not fixing problems.
Well, we spent...
spent weeks, if not months, building this plant.
Not exactly ideal
that it's breaking down every hour.
So...
You know, we... we put a lot into it.
We really wanna make sure
it's gonna pay off for us.
[Fred] What'd you think, Juan?
[Juan] You know, he's got a lot of problems already, Freddy.
- That... is gonna be probably his biggest downfall. - Yeah.
You know, I love the fact
that there's three generations here.
Grandfather, father, and the grand kids.
- [Fred] Yep. - They're all here.
[Fred] Four generations, there's a little one
- around here too. - [Juan] Oh, yeah. I mean, think about that.
- You know, and this is their dream. - Exactly. Well,
if it doesn't work
- then they're all gonna have to separate. - Mm-hmm.
There's lot of people that are dependent on this.
- Yup. - Lot of pressure on us, Freddy.
Well, we'll do the best we can.
- We always do. - Let's do it.
Look at this little guy mining.
- Right in here. - Put it in there?
- [Fred] Hey, guys. How's it going? - [Roger] Hey.
- Doing great. - Good morning. Good morning.
[narrator] 40 miles from the mine,
on the banks of the mighty Fraser River,
lies the 150 acre Adams Family Homestead.
- [Fred] Beautiful country in here. - [Roger] It is.
So, what's you game plan for the property here?
We're gonna be homesteading in a way.
- Growing a lot of our own food. - [Fred] Yeah.
[Roger] We're kind of on a delta here
- from the river... - [Fred] Yeah.
- [Roger] ...so the soils are pretty decent. - [Fred] Yeah.
And, uh, little eco-climate kind of thing in here.
You can raise chickens, you can raise cows.
So, you know, a lot of your life
could be self-sufficient right here.
[Roger] Yeah, you bet.
Matt's building his house out here
and hopefully the rest of them
can build on this property too.
Gold mining, hopefully, can fund all of what we're doing here.
I mean, the fact that we can, basically, live off the land,
I think it's an ethereal thing
to take gold out of the ground.
[narrator] But to turn this dream
into a concrete reality,
the family needs to clean up
at least 15 ounces of gold a week.
[Fred] How's it going, guys?
- Good morning. - You panning the oversize?
Yeah, you bet.
[narrator] With chunky material
from the two hour run,
Freddy and Juan get a mini masterclass
- in gold panning... - [child] What's that?
It's a gold pan.
[Juan] Show us how to pan, bud.
[narrator] ...from Curen's two year old son Declan.
[Roger] We have four generations of gold miners here.
And my grandfather was a gold miner as well,
so that makes five.
[Juan] Here we go, buddy.
[Fred] Okay, we're gonna swirl it around
and we're gonna get that gold on the bottom.
Hey, now we're gonna sweep.
Sweep. Sweep.
[Declan] Hmm, I'm gonna get it out.
[Juan] You're gonna get it out?
[Fred] You could tell you got little kids
- 'cause you can understand them. - [Juan] I did.
You know, I speak their language, Freddy.
[Fred] Yup, you speak munchkin.
- [Juan laughing] - [Fred] Okay, now let's bring it back.
Let's look.
Is that a piece of gold right there, buddy?
- Right there, Juan? - It's a rock.
- [Fred] It's a rock. - [man] It's a rock.
Wish I had a little nugget
- or something to throw in there. - [Juan] I know. [chuckles]
Hold on, Freddy. [chuckles]
[Fred] Hang on one second.
- It's not a money. - [Fred] Mm-hmm. Let...
Okay, let's swirl that around.
- Whoa! - [Juan] Is that...
- Whoa, look at that! - [Fred] Look at that.
What is that?
[Declan] That's gold!
- [Fred] You betcha. - [Juan] There you go.
Look at that.
[Fred] Go take it to your dad.
- [Fred chuckling] - It's...
It's gold.
- My goodness. - I found gold.
This right here is why this mine is important to us.
Boo!
Declan, obviously, he's special
and very special to me.
Have to be able to support Declan and my fiancee.
We're banking on this entirely... to...
to be our future.
We ran just about two hours,
so, I would hope we should get
about an ounce out of this.
Doesn't look like enough I would say.
Doesn't look like what we're...
hoping to get.
I think we're gonna come off a bit short here, we'll see, but...
Looks like we're out more than a bit.
Well, I guess, dry her up so we can weight it, huh?
- [Roger] Got a little bit. - [Fred] Yeah.
[Fred] Don't wanna spill it, but...
- That looks grim. - It's horrible.
0.57.
- It's a little over half ounce. - Yeah.
[narrator] The family need to run
ten straight hours a day
to hit their weekly goal.
So far they've barely managed two.
The most important thing, is, uh...
- [Juan] Runtime. - Getting that conveyor
where you aren't shutting down.
It's getting the yards per hour through the plant.
- [Juan] Yes, it's a yardage game. - Yup.
I was hoping we'd see a lot more.
I think this summer is a big make or break type,
uh...
moment 'cause we gotta get gold.
I've been away from my kids, from my family.
I feel like I've missed the whole year
of my daughter's life almost.
I have a house that's half constructed.
Getting electricity here and all that stuff too,
that's... a serious challenge, very expensive.
But, I wanna be able to get it to the point
where I can live in it for this... this winter.
So, they can come join me out here.
- [dog barking] - [Fred] If you can make it happen
- you got something special here. - [Juan] Oh, yeah.
- Just mine up the road, uh, you can't beat that. - Yeah.
You know, you guys are here as a family.
- [Fred] Yeah. - So that's even better.
- [Fred] Mm-hmm. - A family that gets along, so...
Okay? [chuckles]
We've helped a few that didn't get along,
- so well. Fist fights. - [all laughing]
- [Juan] Nice change of pace for us. - [all laughing]
We do really appreciate you guys
coming out to help us, so...
You know, we're not miracle workers,
but, uh...
- But we'll see what we can do. - [Juan] Yeah.
Sounds great.
- Thanks, guys. - Thank you.
[Roger] This is not just me.
This is my family.
This is us creating a life together
as partners and friends
and... and, uh, if it doesn't work,
I don't know where that's gonna leave all of us.
So, I... I really want this to work.
[Fred] Well Juan, that wasn't a very good cleanup.
- They only ran two hours before they broke. - Yeah, I know.
- 0.57 is not enough. - No.
I... I think we need to get in here, Freddy
and really make up a plan for these guys,
because the truth is...
- you know, if anyone needs it, these guys need it. - Yeah.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan have less than five days
to get the Adams Family plant
producing at least 15 ounces of gold a week
to keep their gold-steading dream alive.
[Fred] What do you think? You wanna go to this ice-cream shop
- and we can talk about it? - [Juan] Let's do it.
[bell dings]
- [woman] Hey, how are you? - [Fred] Doin' all right.
Can I get a root beer float, please?
I'll take a large banana milkshake, please.
- [Fred] Thank you very much. - [Juan] Thank you. Appreciate it.
[Fred] Kinda nice to be working at a mine
- where we're only 15 minutes from an ice-cream shop. - [Juan] Yeah, no kidding, man.
- So, Freddy. - What'd you think?
Really there's... There's quite a bit to do here.
And I wanna try to kinda figure out
what our timeline's looking like.
Conveyors, they're a blessing or a curse.
And right now, I think that's their biggest bottleneck.
So let's get the conveyor set up properly.
And that's gonna be a big help, because, one...
It increases production. And then two,
- it's gonna keep their... their production up as well. - That's right.
- Keeps them running. - Yeah.
[Fred] Well, right now, that material
isn't falling far enough in off that conveyor.
So, I think we need to move
the conveyor forward.
If we do that, then we gotta move
- the feeder as well, huh? - Yeah.
[Fred] Well, and then that chute going out.
[Juan] That one side's getting favored with all the material.
[Fred] Yeah, we need to get a v-chute
to go out before it hits the sluice runs.
- So, on this conveyor, Fred, right here... - Mm-hmm.
...know that tail pulley, that's actually what shut us down.
[Fred] Yeah, it's not a true tail pulley.
- It's a head pulley. - No.
So what I was thinking about is, uh, actually designing
a new tail wheel for it.
- Yup, yup. - I'll build it.
- Boy, that would be time consuming. Wow. - It's a lot of work, but...
But I think, really, with they got going on
- that's really what they need. - Yeah.
[narrator] The conveyor loses ten percent of their pay.
Freddy and Juan's fix shift it further over the hopper
and attach an innovative broom wiper
to clean the belt.
To prevent rocks jamming at the base,
they'll switch out the problematic head pulley
with a self-cleaning tail pulley.
The sluices pack up on one side.
Freddy and Juan will install a v-chute
to evenly distribute pay
and ensure they catch gold
across the full width of the riffles.
During their first run,
you know, we ran two hours, so...
With these repairs,
- we oughta be able to have a full run. - Yeah.
So, I like it.
Well, let's finish our ice-cream, and uh...
Let's do it. Sounds great.
I've never really seen you get a banana milkshake, it's usually peanut butter.
- They're out of peanut butter. - Out of peanut butter? Okay.
I was... I was wondering why.
[chuckles]
[Fred] First line of business.
We wanna move your conveyor up hill.
You know there's gold in that pile.
So, instead of that material landing on the ground,
we can get it in the hopper,
so, let's shut the rain off
and you guys have, like, a one acre umbrella.
- Da, that's all we need. - [Fred] Yeah. [chuckles]
- Well... - [Juan] Let's get to work.
- Do it. - All righty. Thanks guys.
[narrator] With a threat of bad weather
Freddy and Juan push forward with their first fix,
moving the conveyor.
[Fred] Let's try that.
- Coming out? - Yeah.
[Juan] We just need to control that conveyor just a little bit.
We're gonna lift it and we wanna scoot it over.
But the problem is, the way they got it rigged,
when they lift it up, it's gonna turn on 'em.
- You want a strap to go around that? - [Fred] Yeah, I do.
[Juan] We're gonna hook up the CFMOTO with the winch.
As we lift, we'll pull it back,
and get it into place where we need it.
[Fred] Tighten her up a bit, Juan.
So everybody watches me.
[Juan] Everyone stay away from the cable, please.
[Fred] The cables over a big friggin' rock.
Okay, you ready?
Me and you.
Comin' up.
[engine buzzing]
[Fred] Okay, Juan.
Let's pull it at one.
[Juan] Keep... keep going.
[Fred] Keep going.
You're getting pretty snug, aren't ya?
[Juan] Yup, we're pretty... pretty tight.
[Fred] Well, that's a handy pile of dirt to have.
- [laughs] - [Juan laughs] That's a good one.
[Fred chuckles]
[Fred] Oh, oh!
Double check.
Perfect.
Done the lifting and moving, yes.
We just have to pull this belt back now.
When we shut down the back of the belt,
scoot it all the way over
so we're gonna try to straighten it out a little bit.
[Fred] Perfect, Juan.
See what it does, my friend.
- [Fred] That's coming. - [Roger] Yeah, it's coming.
[Juan] Little more?
- That works. - [Fred] Beautiful.
- [Fred] Beauty, eh? - Yup.
[Juan] Good job, Wayne.
Ah, the old guy does a little bit, yeah?
[laughs]
[Fred] He's not old. He's only 78.
[Juan] My dad just turned, uh, 69 today.
And my... my son's birthday is tomorrow.
- [Fred] Okay, there you go. - [Juan] Yeah. [chuckles]
[Fred] Awesome.
[Roger] Must be tough to be away from home, eh?
That's... It is. That's the hardest part about it.
Yeah.
I know when we were looking at going gold mining...
You know, obviously the Yukon.
We had an opportunity with some ground up there.
We decided we just can't do it
with our families like that.
- It's just tough. It's too tough. - So...
So that's when we decided to come this direction,
and because it's here,
we can actually live
- and make this home year round. - Yeah.
For sure.
No, you definitely miss out on a lot, though.
[Fred] How busy are you, Roger?
What'd you need?
[Fred] I might have you come up there with me
and help get some measurements to build
kind of a custom wiper for the conveyor.
Pull the tape for me.
[narrator] To keep the belt as clean as possible,
Freddy's custom wiper must be made to measure.
I'm pretty sure the belt's 36,
unless it's in metric.
Oh, you know what?
We got a broken pillar block here.
Oh, your bearings broke?
Yup. That's not good.
That's broke.
Oh, shoot.
This is now bent.
That's what broke the bearing.
[Fred] Yeah, she's freakin' bent good too.
She's bent in three quarters of an inch.
Yeah, that's a big one here.
Right now we've got a broken bearing.
And without that being fixed this conveyor can't run,
'cause it'll tear itself apart.
We need to find out if we can get this bearing.
And it's not gonna be easy.
Easy to fix.
We got a full day's work her at least.
On this top end, for a couple of guys.
- It can't run without us repairing this. - That's right.
It... it can't. Your plant's down right now.
- It's officially down. - Yup.
[Fred] Hey, Juan.
- Hey, Freddy. What's wrong? - Bad news, man.
Bearing at the top has broke.
The top of the conveyor's bent in.
It's just destroyed.
- There's a day and a half work to fix this. - Just that?
That's not a ha-ha deal.
But without that fixed,
- everything else we're doing-- - Means nothing.
- Yeah. Means nothing. - Means nothing.
Well, that changes everything. I... honestly think
maybe the idea of maybe doing
- a tail pulley is kinda out the window now. - It is now.
We'll build some rock plows down lower.
- We can do those. - To keep the rocks from getting into the tail wheel.
Hopefully, Roger can find a bearing, but...
- you know as well as I do... - Yeah.
...if we don't fix that,
- nothing else happens. - We're dead in the water, then.
- Yup. - All right, buddy.
[Fred] How's it going?
- Going good. - Any luck on that bearing?
No. No. I've...
done some calling around, couldn't find anything.
But something occurred to me.
My neighbors just down the road...
uh, been gold mining here for years
and I know they got a sea can with a lotta stuff in it. And I...
wonder if there's a chance maybe they would have something.
Yeah, let's have a look.
[narrator] Four days left.
Freddy and Roger meet neighbor and old timer Stephen Keen.
This is how I should be set up.
[Fred] There you go, parts room.
[Roger] You bet.
- [sighs] - [narrator] But what they're looking for,
is a needle in a haystack.
- Nope. - [Roger] No?
Nope. That one's three and 7/16ths.
[Fred] We need 2 and 15.
[Fred sighs in frustration]
That one's two and 15.
But, the kicker here is its's...
That's probably one of the best bearings you can get, but it's not gonna fit.
[Fred] That's just too wide.
It's not gonna work, Roger.
I guess we've gotta keep looking,
but this was kind of a long shot.
Thinking you might have it. I'm--
Well, I'm kind of sorry I don't. But...
- [Stephen] Yeah. - [Fred] Well, you got it,
- it's just too good a bearing. It won't fit. - [both laughing]
- [Roger] Well, Stephen, thanks. - [Stephen] Well, yeah.
- Well, you're going to Prince George, I guess. - [Roger] Yeah, I guess so.
Well, before I head back over to the mine,
what can you tell me about
- the area here? - [bolt clanging]
[Stephen] Well... [exhales]
probably, uh...
1860's, I think
Ahbau started here,
and there's a couple
shafts, one's down here by the cabin.
- [Fred] Okay. - And one is...
over on
Roger's land.
[narrator] Ahbau Creek
was mined heavily by the
Chinese during the 1860's Gold Rush.
Known for their efficiency,
Chinese miners were more meticulous than others in the era.
[Stephen] There was around 700 Chinese here.
And if I'm not mistaken, I think Ahbau
- himself died here. - [Fred] Yeah?
And rumor has it, that a lot of
Chinese miners
died in this area.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Local superstition believes
that the ghosts of those dead miners
now haunt these claims
and steal the gold, before the miners can dig it up.
We thought we had what we needed there, but uh,
these bearings are just too big.
[Roger] It's kind of a too good to be true kind of a situation.
I gotta go to town now and...
start searching for the right ones.
[clanging]
[Tristan] Get her, guys.
We got enough problems to fix already,
and now we got this, uh, we got this
broken bearing, so uh...
You know, not ideal, you know,
Freddy and Juan are going to be working round the clock.
[Fred] Don't grab it when it hits the ground. It's hot.
- [bearing thudding] - [Fred yelps]
[Fred] Missed my steel toe by an inch and a half.
[narrator] The fix is critical.
If they run the conveyor with a bent frame,
the $5000 belt will slide to one side,
and shred itself.
To correct it,
Freddy must remove the cog and chain
that attached the motor to the head pulley.
Take off the broken bearing,
- straighten the bent steel frame. - [metallic creaking]
And finally, fit the new bearing.
If Roger can find one.
[Fred] State one down. Let's cut her.
[Fred] Eyeballs!
- [dramatic music playing] - [cutter buzzing]
- [Fred] One piece to go. - [clangs]
[cutter buzzing]
I've seen guys take two days,
to get a bearing off before fighting it, fighting it, fighting it.
[man] Oh yeah, she's loose.
[Fred] Ok. I'm gonna warm this up...
- [man] Yeah. - We'll get some heavy gloves on and she'll come off.
- [machine clanging] - [man] Good.
[Fred] Okay.
[clanging]
[thuds]
[Fred] It's coming.
It's hot, boy.
[thuds]
- [Fred] Got her... - Yup.
One part of the job's done.
[Fred] So what do you think of this gold mining stuff?
I... I...
- [drilling] - ...find myself
- um... - [brush scraping]
...at five o'clock at the end of the day wanting to stay longer.
- So... [chuckling] - [Fred] There you go.
- That means something. - It's a good thing, yeah.
[Fred] There are good days, and there's
bad days, just like anything else.
- Yup. Absolutely. - [Fred] Uh-huh.
You can have a bad day at the job, when you're getting
paid by the hour, and you still get a paycheck, right?
- Yup. - When you have bad days out here,
and your plant's not running,
- you aren't getting a paycheck. - [Taylor] Yeah.
Bad days are real bad,
- but the good days are real good. - That's right.
[narrator] For Taylor, gold means the chance to
pursue his other passion.
[rock music playing]
♪ It's a clear sky ♪
- [continues singing indistinctly] - [Taylor] I sing in the band,
with my brothers. Matt writes all the music,
I just get the pleasure of singing his lyrics. [chuckling]
[rock music playing]
Yeah, you might think gold mining's hard to make money, but it's
real hard to make money being a musician too so... [chuckling]
[Taylor] Trying to get up on our feet, so that we can do
that stuff in the winter time, and gold mining in the summer time.
Um, we haven't talked to too many people about us gold mining and stuff.
- It's a big deal, I guess. So... - [sings]
Yeah. A big change for all of us.
- Are you ready to do more surgery? - Yes sir, let's do it!
[thrilling music playing]
[narrator] For a new bearing to fit correctly,
Freddy and Taylor must
first carefully heat the bent frame to straighten it.
- Yep. Beautiful. - [whirring]
[Fred] It's pretty straight, huh?
Nice.
[Fred] What'd you find?
Got some good news. I think I got the exact
- one this time. - Cool.
[Fred] Oh...
[Roger] Let me go up...
[Fred] Yeah.
[Taylor] Go.
- [Fred] Hm. We're there. [grunting] There. Yes. - [Taylor] Yeah.
[Fred] Hopefully it holds up.
[Roger] Yup. Big improvement.
[Fred] Done.
That head wheel on that conveyor cost a day.
[Fred] So, we're behind a day on the other stuff we wanted to get done.
We'll hit her again in the morning.
[dramatic music playing]
[Fred] Well, Juan truly, we are running out of time here.
You know, we were going to build that tail pulley.
- [Juan] Well now, it's not even a possibility. - No, no.
[Juan] We don't have the time to do it.
[narrator] Just two days remaining,
Freddy and Juan are forced to revise their plan.
I got a full day today to get that distribution box done.
Then I'll start working on the wipers and stuff,
- the rock plows. - [Juan] Yeah.
[thrilling instrumental music playing]
[narrator] But before they can get going on the urgent work for the day...
Hey, guys.
[narrator] ...Freddy and Juan have a new proposition for the family.
[Juan] You know a lot of what we want to do is dependent on the time we have,
that tail pulley's, it's kind of...
was kind of a booger, right?
But now we're going to have to scrap the whole tail pulley idea.
[Fred] We don't have time to build one.
We'll put multiple rock plows in front of that tail pulley,
so materials coming down that belt, it won't get in there as often.
If we put some kind of wiper system at the top of it,
that material's going to fall in that hopper,
instead of coming down that belt.
Then a V-chute at the end, you guys had about
70% of your material, and 70% of your gold,
going down that left side of that sluice.
We had to slow you guys down during your first run,
but we're hoping that, by being able to distribute it properly,
evenly down the sluice front,
- you might be able to run a little more material. - Awesome.
- Yup. Yup. - [Fred] Probably get another 20 yards an hour out of it.
[Juan] I know Kieran suffered an injury from that gas motor, what we'd like to
do is put an electric motor in there, in place of that gas motor.
- [man] Yeah. - [Juan] So, that being said,
what we're thinking as far as
for the material, we're looking at about $3000 in material.
- [man] Yeah. - [Juan stammering] And then the hard part.
You know, as far as our labor, we... we always hate doing it, but,
we'd like to see an ounce and a half a gold a piece.
Yeah, we really need your guys' help because,
- we gotta get some gold this season. - [Taylor] Yup.
It's gotta be able to make it so there is a next season, right?
- So. - Yeah.
[Juan] And with the wiper and everything, you know that's not really gonna
increase your production, but it's actually gonna
decrease your downtime, as well.
- [Roger] All right. - So it's going to a win-win, all the way around.
When you have a family our size, you know, all that stuff's... that's important.
- Put food on the table. - [Roger] I mean-- That's right.
- Yeah. - If you could eat mosquitoes in there, you guys would
- all weigh 400 pounds. - [Adams laughing] Yeah.
Uh, we trust you guys, we know you're good at what you do, and uh,
- so yeah, we're good to go on that. - [man] That's great.
Another-- Another thing you'll get is, you'll get
you know, what you'll learn from us while we're here.
- [man] Yeah. - And you'll be able to carry that on.
- A bunch of bad jokes, too. - [Fred] Whether it's bad or good.
- [all laughing] - Keep all those. Those are all free.
[all] Yeah.
[Fred] Well, deal then guys.
[Juan] Let's do it.
- Yup. Thank you so much. - Sounds good.
- No problem. - [man] Thank you.
[thrilling instrumental music playing]
[Juan] Perfect.
[narrator] Less than 48 hours left,
it's all hands on deck
to complete essential fixes.
Juan gets started on the critical V-chute.
Freddy and I really don't have a lot of time to get all the repairs done,
there's more here than what we thought.
Even with all the machines that we have and all the equipment,
it's still going to be really tight.
[narrator] While Freddy turns to ingenuity.
I'm going to try to use a broom on the top of that conveyor as a wiper.
[Fred] So, we'll see what it does.
So, here's what I wanna do guys.
[Fred] I wanna drill, uh,
- roughly quarter inch holes here. - Okay.
That way we'll screw that broom in there, right?
Sounds good.
[clangs]
I've got the tough job, 'cause my fingers don't work so good.
[drilling]
Yeah, he might look like he's doing all the work, but uh,
I'm the brains around here.
[chuckling] Yeah.
I'm the older one between the two of us.
- I think I got what, four years on you? - [drilling]
[Kieran] Something like that.
We definitely have a little bit of a competition,
not too much, I mean, he knows who's the boss, so...
[laughing]
[Juan] I got a few welds I gotta finish up, then I gotta put
the slicer in the middle of the- t he V-chute.
And we should be able to get down there and start putting everything together.
[Fred growls] Ugh!
- Ow! Ah! - [clangs]
[Juan speaking]
Got shocked and burned at the same time!
Had some hot slag go down my pants.
[machine clanging]
You have gold fever?
- Somethin' happens in me, when I see it. [chuckling] - [Taylor chuckling]
Definitely.
That's gold fever.
That's gold fever for my own gold.
Yeah. [groans] I'd much rather see gold in my own sluice box,
then somebody else's. [chuckles]
[drilling]
- [machine whirring] - [Juan] Coming up and over.
[narrator] Juan's V-chute, designed to get the family the gold they need,
to fund their homestead,
is ready to be installed.
[Juan] When all the material comes down the chute
on the trommel, it'll actually concentrate in the middle of that V-chute.
Then it'll actually evenly get dispersed
between the two sluice fronts.
We will actually get better gold recovery that way.
- Are we clear on that side? - [Taylor] Yup.
- We're good here. - [Juan] Okay.
[Juan] We're gonna go left, we're gonna go in.
Pull this ground off here.
[clanging]
[Juan] How're we looking over there, guys?
- [Roger] Just a little tight, yeah? - [Juan] Yeah.
[Taylor] If we go in flat, it might go.
- [Roger] Yeah, probably. - That's very close. No way.
[Juan] I don't think it will.
We-- We'll have to cut it.
[Roger] I guess it's just 'cause these are angled a little bit right here.
[Juan] No, that's the only reason it doesn't fit.
- It's on the top. Yeah. - [Juan] Yeah.
Hm.
[producer speaking]
I'm-- I'm correcting my mistake right now.
No.
[all laughing]
[dramatic music playing]
- [Juan] Watch your eyes. - [Kieran] Yup.
[narrator] Final test looming...
[winces]
[Juan] Close. That's close.
- [drilling] - [narrator] ...Juan must make last-minute adjustments,
to the vital V-chute,
to get it to fit.
[Juan] We'll call that good.
[clangs]
[Juan] Lower down.
- [thudding] - [grunts]
[Juan] Ah, much better.
Looks good, but let's--let's hope it works good, huh.
Oh, I-- I'm sure it'll work.
- [Juan] I'm not so sure, and I built this thing. - Oh [laughs]
[all laughing]
I'm super excited to see this V-chute run, and...
[Tristan] This is huge, so is everything else that they've done.
[Roger] I know it's gonna work better.
Let's hope we can get three-four hours, and let's hope we can just
continue running after that like crazy.
[Fred] Hey, Juan-o.
Hey, Freddy, what's going on, buddy?
- Question for ya. - Yup.
I need some springs, compression springs.
We can probably find some in town, but that's...
Three hour round trip.
[Juan] Hm. That's gonna take half the day away.
Let me think about this for a second.
You know, we can just probably...
take these full springs off my R/C car.
- Well, if they're strong enough. - [Juan] If they--
I don't know if it's gonna be-- the car weighs quite a bit.
- My baby, Freddy. - [Fred laughs] I know.
You've got wheelie bars on this one, Juan.
- [Juan] I do. [laughing] - I never paid attention.
- [Fred] You guys and your cars. - I know, I know.
[Fred] Yeah.
- I think that'd do it. - Well, let me take 'em off for ya.
You know, Freddy, this-- this little hobby of mine keeps me from drinking.
- So, you're gonna drive me to drinking, buddy. - [Fred] That's right.
Here you go.
[Juan] You think that'll work?
[Fred groans softly]
[Fred] That'll work, Juan.
Now Freddy owes me one.
[upbeat music playing]
[Fred] You ever notice how the young guys don't carry anything?
My pockets are full of stuff.
Rodger's got the heavy piece.
[narrator] Springs in place,
the wiper should keep a constant pressure on the conveyor belt when running.
[Roger] This looks like it's gonna fit.
[Fred] It ought to work good, right?
This is made for sweeping.
So we can get it off where it's falling in this chute,
it's going down your sluice.
[Roger] Holes are a little bit off on my end.
[Fred] Are they?
So whoever drilled those holes in the conveyor,
it's different side to side then.
- You know what I mean? - Could be, yeah.
Oh.
No.
- [Roger] You forgot to account for that plate. - That plate. Yeah.
'Cause I measured this before we put that.
Before we put that plate in there.
[Roger] Gotcha. Right. Frig.
[Fred] Well, we're gonna have to open these holes up.
Tip number-two.
Compress those springs up.
- quite a ways, kind of like I've got in here. - Oh, yeah, yeah.
[Fred] Holy frijoles!
- What do you think? - Looks good.
Yeah, this is great.
- [barking] - Hi, pet dog.
- Hey, Freddy. - How's it going?
- Good. How are you doing? - Doing all right. I got a few minutes.
I wanted to see your homestead.
[narrator] At the end of the fourth day,
Freddy wants to see what the gold will be paying for.
- I always loved stuff like this. - Yeah.
I live out of town. I'm kind of a prepper guy.
You know, make sure I have water and food.
- Yeah. - Back-up generators and stuff like that.
So you got like a 150 acres here you say?
[Roger] Yeah. Basically everything you can see is our property.
- How's it going? - Good, good. Hey, Freddy.
So this is home sweet home? It's a bit tight, huh?
Yeah, I can't complain. I got everything I need in this little thing.
Other than the shower. That'd be nice.
There you go.
Knock-knock.
- Hard on short legged guys. - Yeah.
Come on in.
Well, that's a nice skid shack.
Yeah, just, kind of, a temporary thing, you know.
Hopefully I can, you know, get out of here and build a real house
- for me and my wife. - Yeah.
It's tough to come out and toss the rest of your life away
and come out here and, you know, bank on gold, you know, being a success.
We're really hoping this helps us.
We need the money to survive.
So this is your accommodations.
Yeah. Me, my fiancee, my two-year old son are staying in here for now.
[Fred] Little tight for you but...
Definitely gonna be putting in some extra effort to upgrade out of the camper.
Did you pick the best spot first, Matt?
I guess, I kind of did.
We can't do any more. Honestly, until we get some gold.
And that's just the truth.
Well, literally at pause.
- So the house is dependent on gold. - Totally.
Yeah. So my wife and myself, we're about to have a third kid in two weeks.
And the trailer isn't gonna cut it.
[Fred] I think it's a neat concept.
This is an absolute beautiful spot.
Let's... let's help you get enough gold where you can keep it.
- Make your dreams come true. - Yeah. Sounds good.
Bringing the boys into this, it has been a, you know, just adding a little extra stress.
You just wanna be able to stay here and make a living.
- [Fred] There's probably five yards of material in there. - Yeah.
15,000 pounds of material.
[narrator] 24 hours before the final test,
with the conveyor closer to the hopper,
the feeder must now be moved.
[Fred] We need to go four foot I'd say.
[narrator] But it's jammed full of pay from the aborted first test.
[Juan] Well, right now Freddy, it's too heavy
- to be able to move it. - It is.
There's more material in there than the feeder weighs.
Probably three-fold.
So we probably have to get it all cleaned out,
so that we can move it forward and get it in place.
Yeah. Yeah.
[narrator] The risky solution.
Tristan and Taylor must cut the cylinders that attach the grizzly bars to the feeder.
So Matt can scoop out the dirt with the excavator.
Real slow. Real slow.
Little more power.
Yeah, that's it.
You're ready to lift it?
Let's go.
Yeah.
Whoo!
Somehow I gotta get my bucket in that feeder.
And I am a bit nervous about that.
Because I don't wanna wreck something up even more.
Okay, come.
That's a couple of thousand pounds out right there.
Our first test was real poor. So I hope Freddy can help us
get to see a lot more gold in the box.
I am not playing games out here.
This has gotta work.
[narrator] The final fix on the conveyor, a rock plow.
Designed to protect the tail pulley and prevent it shutting down the plant.
For this eye I'm putting on there,
it's a place for us to tie our chains on.
'Cause this is gonna float on top of that belt.
Hey, Rodger.
Hey, look at that.
Single wrap there.
I like it.
It's an inexpensive fix.
You know, probably a couple of hundred bucks total in it with chain and everything.
Yeah, it's good. It's good.
But conveyors do move material cheaper than any other thing,
right? But they have their drawbacks.
They need their maintenance. They need to be cleaned.
We have really wet material all the time.
It can be a battle. A non-stop battle.
[narrator] Conveyor complete, Freddy must repair the belt.
Any further damage could result
in a costly and catastrophic setback for the operation.
See how that's staying up like that?
It's just gonna hook and hook and hook and hook, you know.
We got millions of pounds of material going up here.
Sooner or later, it's gonna tear itself apart.
We'll put a couple of band-aids on this.
- Got her? - Think so.
Like these up pieces like that, Rodger.
We're just gonna take it and trim it off.
Kinda like when you have a hang nail and you start hooking it on something.
You don't get it trimmed off, pretty soon you're bleeding.
It'll do the same thing to your belt.
[Roger] Good to know.
Looks like they're getting ready to move that thing.
Yeah it's kind of, a screwy situation we have
- 'cause you generator is on that side. - Yeah.
So what we're gonna do is, we're gonna actually push it with the excavator.
Little nervous about it, Freddy.
- Keep me on that skid. - [Fred] Yup, we'll have to go side to side.
[narrator] As the most experienced operator,
Juan takes on the risky job of moving the feeder.
You guys ready?
- Yeah. I think we're good. - Everybody clear. Clear!
Okay. You're my eyes there, Taylor.
Okay. Coming at you.
Yup.
You know, we're kind of, in a tight spot here right now.
- [Fred] Are we sliding that way, though? - Yeah.
Hang on. Other side, Juan-o.
[Juan] This is definitely not the ideal situation right now.
He's got the electric control panel and the hydraulic pack right on the back.
So if I slip, I can take out the control panel
and then we're completely screwed.
- [Fred] Talk to me. - [Roger] Yup, keep it going.
Looks good.
Keep going more.
Yeah, it's about to slip off, though.
Juan-o!
- Back there still. - Okay.
[narrator] A delicate move with a 100 ton machine.
The feeder must butt right up to the end of the conveyor.
- Going on the other side now? - Yeah.
[narrator] So that the pay lands directly on the belt.
- Slow. Yeah. - Stop.
Well, shoot, guys.
- I'm pleased with it so far. - Me too. One step closer to production.
- Yeah, thanks, Taylor. - It's great.
Got lucky on that one.
First time in our career, we've done that without breaking it.
Well, let's do the test tomorrow.
Let's do it.
[Fred] You know, we've done everything we can here to try to
fix the problems with that conveyor and their feed system.
But until the plant's running, you never know.
I know originally you didn't wanna have an electric motor on there.
You know, specially your son actually breaking his arm.
Really, from a safety standpoint, I think it'd better be with
- back to electric with it. - Absolutely.
[narrator] Electric motors are safer to operate and less likely to injure.
Rodger believes he's found one.
But first, Juan needs to be sure it can power the 20 foot trommel.
So yeah, here's the motor.
10 Horse Power, 180 volts.
Well, that should work for us.
How do you feel about this, Wayne?
You know, being the grandfather out here
with your son, your grand kid and your great-grand kid.
Your great grandson out here, as well.
- No 80-year old man can expect anything better. - Yeah, that's for sure.
This whole project is as much about family as it is about gold mining.
What you guys got going on here is a dream of mine.
You know, I'd love to be able to do something for my family as well, just like this.
Hey, guys. How's it going?
- Who's feeding the plant? - Matt is.
Make sure there's gold in the buckets.
There's no gold, we're gonna blame you, okay?
- Let's start the test. - Let's do it.
- Yup, fire it up. - Yes, sir.
[narrator] In just four hours...
Well, it's running.
[narrator] ...the Adams family will know if Freddy and Juan's fixes
have done enough to keep their homestead mining dream alive.
- [Fred] Well, first bucket on the second test, Juan. - Yeah.
You know, Freddy? We did a lot to this plant. I'm hoping it all runs right.
[Fred] Well, we got the conveyor moved, the feeder moved.
We got a rock plow on there.
[Juan] We got a wiper up front.
Wiper, rebuilt that bearing of assembly up top that blew up.
Those are real pain in the butt.
[Juan] And then we got your V-chute put in. So we should have a good even feed
on both sides of the sluice now.
[narrator] On the first test, Freddy and Juan had to slow the plant down
because the uneven sluice was sending so much material off the end of the run.
That's even. That's good job.
We're gonna almost go off a little more, Fred. Feel that.
- We can go up more. - Up more.
[Fred] Roger, hey!
Go to nine!
[narrator] Faster conveyor speed means more yards through the plant.
Freddy says widen it up!
I like the sound of that.
Means more gold in the box.
I love gold mining because it feels like you're just pulling
dollar bills out of the ground with your bare hands.
That's looking damn good up there, Freddy.
[Fred] Lots falling off.
[Juan] You can see it dropping off right there.
- [Fred] Yeah. - [Juan] Perfect.
[narrator] As part of the Freddy and Juan conveyor masterclass,
they moved it closer.
I'm gonna go look at the rock plow, too.
[narrator] And they protected its tail pulley from getting choked.
[Fred] Perfect. It's running good.
[narrator] To ensure that this time the plant runs for the full four hours.
That wiper, that broom assemble you built, it's a great idea.
[Fred] Check through. $10 broom. Done.
- That's four hours. - That's pretty close to time now.
This should be the last bucket. Let that feeder run out.
I'm proud of what we did here.
Before we did a two hour run, and we couldn't run anymore.
- Now we ran full four hours, flawlessly. - Smooth.
I'm excited.
I'm excited to see how that sluice box looks, Freddy.
Here's some nice...
There's some good chunks in there.
Yeah. It's gonna be good, guys.
Well, we'll see.
Whoa. Look right here.
This looks like it's, like, five times as much as last time.
You know, seeing gold on top, it looks great.
But that's really never an indicator. So we'll see once we clean it up.
[narrator] Five hours later, the family has cleaned the gold from the test run.
[Juan] Well, let's weigh it up, Freddy.
- Well, guys, moment of truth, huh? - Yup.
Here it goes.
Yeah, I don't think there's two ounce there.
Yeah, it doesn't look quite as good as I thought it would be
after looking in the sluice box.
[Fred] Starts point seven.
[narrator] To hit the 15 ounces a week the Adams family need,
this four hour test must deliver at least 1.25 ounces.
Well, guys.
1.93.
- Almost two ounces. - That's better.
- Damn good. - Yeah.
Your first run, you ran two hours. So if you would've ran four hours,
you would've had 1.14. 1.14.
So this four hours, you got 1.93.
- All right. - That's awesome.
- Yeah. - That's really good.
[narrator] Nearly four times the amount of gold from their first test.
You guys need to be about two and a half ounces a day, right?
We nearly got two ounces in a four hour run.
So eight hours is four ounces.
[Juan] Call it four ounces in an eight hour run.
No kidding.
- I'm happy with that. - Heck, yeah. I'm pretty proud of that.
[narrator] Worth over $40,000 a week.
With 12 weeks of the season left,
the family could earn more than half a million dollars.
That's huge for us.
You know, my wife doesn't like me being away from home and get no gold.
So maybe, one day she'll be able to come out here with me.
There's no question that you improved the plant for us and that's great.
Well that'll go a long way to, kind of, get your homestead going, right?
There'll be chickens galore out here.
And to send you off, we wanna make you some home-made pizza and
- give you a little concert. - [Juan] Let's do it. Let's get some pizza.
♪ Way down at the end of the road ♪
♪ There's a small dark trail Where stories unfold ♪
[Roger] I kept telling the boys the ground was good enough,
and now they know it's good enough, you know, we can make it.
It's good news.
[Matt] With the help Freddy and Juan have brought us,
that means I can finish my house. We're just ecstatic. We're so happy.
♪ You've got the fever
♪ Gold, gold
Very happy about everything. And it means, maybe I can get a little bigger van one day.
Or some upgrades.
♪ You see I'm in too deep I got a dream to chase and I can't sleep ♪
[Roger] More than anything on this project,
it's been amazing to work with my boys. Amazing to work with my dad.
And I couldn't be prouder of my sons.
They've accomplished some amazing things in their lives.
And to have them here, working with me, is definitely a dream that I've had.
And that is the dream that's come true for me, today. It really is.
♪ Don't go down to that river unless ♪
♪ You got gold fever
- Phenomenal. Phenomenal. - Awesome.
Damn good.